Such was the court of the Gentiles, accessible to all visitors. A barrier, only three cubits high, prevented profane intruders from penetrating into the enclosure reserved for the Israelites, which was contained within that of the Gentiles. M. de Vogüé thinks that this low wall of separation, on the southern side, must have corresponded to the boundary of the outer enclosure of the ancient temple of Solomon.
The enclosure reserved for the Israelites included the women’s court and the men’s court, or that of Israel. From the Gentiles’ court access was obtained to the women’s court by a flight of fourteen steps. This court had, at its four angles, square chambers which served for the stores of the Temple, for the ablutions and other pious exercises; there was also the Treasury chamber, in which the specie was kept which was coined for the exclusive use of the temple. Between these chambers rose porticoes. On the inner side, the women’s court was separated from the court of Israel by a series of buildings which opened on the court of Israel, and the entrance into this court was by three gates, each provided with porches and five steps. The principal gate, celebrated under the name of the Gate of Nicanor, on account of its fine architectural proportions and the richness of its construction, was a folding gate of Corinthian bronze: twenty men were needed to open and shut it; before it was a semicircular flight of fifteen steps.
The court of Israel, reserved for the men who had accomplished certain acts of purification, was 11 cubits broad. The chambers which surrounded it on three sides were used as appendages to Divine worship; their façade was provided with porches. Each of them was consecrated to a special service: the skins of victims were salted and washed in them, musical instruments, salt, the perpetual fire, and wood were kept in them; the hall in which the Sanhedrim held its sessions was one of them.
A step one cubit broad, which the priests alone might cross, separated the court of Israel from the court of the priests, and, in the middle of this court, the temple properly so called and the altar of burnt offerings stood. “The altar of burnt offerings was formed of three stages of rough-hewn stone, each stage a cubit less on all sides than that beneath it; the base formed a square of 32 cubits; the total height was 15 cubits high; the ascent was by an incline situated on the south, 30 cubits long; two smaller staircases led to the intermediate platform. On the upper surface the sacrificial fire burnt, and at the four corners were horns on which the blood was sprinkled and libations of wine and water were poured. A conduit situated at the southern corner of the altar received these liquids, and carried them off into the subterranean drains, and thence into the valley of Kedron.”[83] At the north of the altar of burnt offerings six rows of iron rings were seen fixed to the ground in order to fasten the animals to them; there were also eight small columns to which the victims were suspended that they might be cut to pieces and flayed, and eight tables upon which the flesh was placed.
Fig. 175.—The Altar of Burnt-offerings (Restoration).
The temple properly so-called, which stood 22 cubits to the west of the altar of burnt offerings, was built on a terrace six cubits high, mounted by a flight of twelve steps. There was thus a difference of 27½ ft. between the level of the temple platform and the court of the Gentiles. As for the architectural arrangement of the building, it was similar to that of Solomon. The anterior pylon was 100 cubits high and 20 deep; at each extremity there were chambers in which the sacred knives were kept, which were used for slaying the victims. The Holy Place or Hekal, and the Holy of Holies or Debir, only separated by a veil, were both 60 cubits high, 30 broad, and together 65 cubits long measured from outside. “A series of thirty chambers and three stories was attached to the sanctuary, as in the ancient temple, for a length of 15 cubits, measured without, and this gave to the sanctuary outside the appearance of a basilica. The whole edifice was roofed with terraces, on which gilded points were fixed to drive away the birds.”[84]
The Jewish Temple was one of the grandest architectural works that the genius of the ancients produced. The successive enclosures raised one above the other, and crowned by the gigantic pylons of the sanctuary, built of white marble, were the result of an inspiration of genius that has never been realised except in this instance, and all antiquity had but one voice to proclaim its imposing majesty. “When the rays of the rising sun struck upon the metal plates which covered the doors and roof of the sanctuary, when they illuminated the gilding on the façade, and the gigantic golden vine which spread its tendrils over the white marble of the pronaos, the spectator’s eyes were dazzled, and he was forced to turn them away, and the stranger who perceived the temple in the distance thought he saw a mountain covered with glittering snow.”[85]