[Page 243].—Five sabbath-days’ journies.] Pococke (ii. 7.) says, the ancient Jerusalem was four miles in circumference, the modern only two and a half. Hecatæus of Abdera says, the circuit of the ancient city was fifty stadia; about six miles, Jos. c. Ap. ii. 4. Various other estimates may be seen in the Essay on the Topography of Jerusalem, by D’Anville, appended to the second volume of Chateaubriand’s Travels.
[Page 244].—Topography of Jerusalem.] The reader is requested to refer to the map of D’Anville, as the best elucidation of this description of Jerusalem. The valley of Gihon, which our author describes as bordering the whole city on the western side, is not there laid down. The fountain of Gihon is said to have been the same as Siloah; (Reland, 859. Lightfoot on John, v. 2.) this fountain, which was situated near the eastern end of the valley which separates the Upper from the Lower City, (the φάραγξ Τυροποῖων of Josephus) can hardly have given its name to the valley which skirted the city on the western side. According to Maundrell (p. 108) and other travellers, the name of Mount Gihon is given to a place where is a reservoir, on the western side of the city: I suspect that גיחון from גחן alveus, may have been a generic name for a stream, which will account for its being applied to Siloah as well as to the proper Gihon on the opposite side of the city. The chief authority for the topography of Jerusalem is Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 4. combined with various passages in the narrative of the war. Tacit. Hist. v. 11, 12. Reland, 832. seq. Cellarius, lib. iii. 13. p. 329. seq.
[Page 245].—Bezetha] בית חדתה, Καινόπολις, or the New City, was without walls till the time of Agrippa, who began to fortify it, but desisted, fearful of exciting the jealousy of Claudius; the building was afterwards resumed and carried up to the height of twenty cubits, Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 4. 2.
[Page 245].—The city had twelve gates.] The gate of Ephraim and the Corner-gate are not mentioned, Neh. iii. Godwin (Moses and Aaron, p. 73) reckons only nine. The whole subject is involved in great obscurity. Jennings’s Jewish Antiquities, ii. 76. Lightfoot’s Harmony John v. 2. Anc. Universal History, vol. iv. 234. The ordinary population of Jerusalem is estimated by Hecatæus, Jos. c. Apion. ii. 4., at 120,000.
[Page 248].—Analogy of the city to the camp.] “Ad rationem castrorum in deserto, quod a porta Hierosolymæ ad montem ædis intercedebat spatium, id respondebat castris Israelitarum. Quod autem a porta montis ad portam Nicanoris id Levitarum respondebat castris. Et quod spatium erat citra portam atrii castra Dei representabat.” Maimonides de Ædif. Templ. xi.
[Page 251].—The description of the temple, as it existed just before its destruction, will be found in Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 5. c. Ap. ii. 7. The author appears to have most nearly followed Prideaux’s account, Conn. i. 200. See also Calmet, Temple. Lightfoot’s Works, i. 1049. seq.
[Page 252].—The sanctuary, comprising the holy and holy of holies, was called emphatically the house, Luke xi. 51. by Josephus ναὸς. Ern. Op. Phil. et Crit. p. 350.
[Page 253].—Chel.] The enclosure ֫חל which is here spoken of is mentioned by the Rabbinical writers, and from them introduced by Prideaux into his ichnography of the temple. See too Lightfoot, i. 1089.
[Page 254].—Of the multitude of persons from all countries of the dispersion who came up to Jerusalem at the Passover, see Acts ii. 9. Ἡν τῶν Ιουδαίων φύλη ἐις πᾶσαν πόλιν ἤδη παρεληλύθει, καὶ τόπον ὀυκ ἔστι ραδίως εὑρεῖν τῆς οἰκουμένης, ὁς ὁυ παραδεδεκται τοῦτο τὸ φῦλον, μηδ’ ἐπικρατεῖται ὑπ’ ἀυτοῦ. Strabo ap. Jos. Ant. xiv. 7.
[Page 256].—The law enjoins that the Passover shall be killed, בין הערבים Exod. xii. 6. between the evenings, an expression which by comparison with Num. xxviii. 4. where the same phrase is used of the time of the evening sacrifice, (three P. M. according to Josephus, Ant. xiv. 4. 3.) appears clearly to have meant generally the latter part of the day. It has been much disputed what the evenings here mentioned are. The Greeks divided the decline of day into two evenings, one answering to what we call afternoon; the other, the time about sunset. The Jewish writers also distinguish between מנחה גדולה, the great evening, beginning half an hour after mid-day; and קטנה the lesser evening, beginning in the middle of the tenth hour or half past three P. M. Fascic. Hist. and Phil. Sacr. vi. 426. It appears from Josephus, (Bell. Jud. vi. 9.) that the paschal lambs were killed between the ninth and the eleventh hour, i. e. from three o’clock till five. In Deut. xvi. 6. the command is to sacrifice the passover at sunset; and hence the Karaite Jews, who reject all Rabbinical traditions, kill it at twilight, and eat it after dark. See Jennings’s Jew. Ant. ii. 181. Lightfoot’s Works, i. 955. Ikenii. Diss. ix-xii. Of the ceremonies used in killing the paschal lamb, see Lightfoot, i. 957. and the Tract Pesachim, in Surenhus. Mischn. T. ii. 134. seq.