b1.A discussion by David Bayliss on generation
http://www.dabhand.org/Word%20Studies/Generation.htm
b2. Herod's Temple had a "most startling appearance, more like a modern skyscraper than any known building of antiquity," according to A.H.M. Jones in his The Herods of Judaea (Oxford 1938). He goes on,
No expense was spared in the materials of the structure or in its decoration. It was built after the manner of many Syrian temples-Baalbek is a striking example which still survives-of huge blocks of stone; Josephus gives as typical dimensions of a single block 45 by 6 by 5 cubits. The stone employed was a brilliant white marble; Josephus compares the general aspect of the building seen at a distance to a mountain covered with snow. The east front of the Holy Place was plated with gold which reflected the rays of the rising sun with dazzling splendour. The great folding doors of the Holy Place were likewise plated with gold, and across them was drawn a magnificent embroidered veil whose four colours typified the four elements. Over the doorway hung a giant golden vine-replacing that which Aristobulus had given to Pompey-whose clusters were as large as men. The temple stood in the middle of a complex of courts. To the east of it lay the great altar of sacrifice, a cubical edifice 15 cubits each way, built, according to the prescriptions of the Law, of unhewn stone, and approached by a ramp-steps were forbidden. The temple and the altar were enclosed by a low balustrade a cubit high. The space enclosed by this balustrade was known as the Court of the Priests, and no layman might enter it except in order to sacrifice. This Court of the Priests lay within the Court of Israel, to which male Israelites alone had access, and adjoining the Court of Israel on the east on a slightly lower level was the smaller Court of the Women, beyond which Israelite women might not penetrate. These two courts were surrounded by walls 25 cubits high, pierced at intervals by gates, three on the north and on the south of the Court of Israel, one on the north and one on the south of the Court of the Women, one in the centre of the party wall between the courts, and one larger and more magnificent than the rest in the east wall of the Court of the Women. The gates took the form of towers, projecting inwards into the courts. The intervals between them along the inner sides of the boundary wall were colonnades, off which opened a series of chambers, store-rooms for the material needed for sacrifice, a bakehouse for the shewbread, treasuries, administrative offices, and so forth; in one of these the Sanhedrin held its sessions. The whole block of buildings hitherto described stood on a raised platform. From the gates one descended by flights of five steps to a broad walk, 10 cubits wide, which surrounded the whole complex except on the west or back side, and from this walk a continuous range of fourteen steps led down to ground level. At the foot of the steps ran a boundary wall, pierced at intervals with doors and set with stone pillars bearing inscriptions in Greek and Latin, proclaiming the penalty of death to any gentile who should venture to pass beyond it.
For these buildings, being of a less sacrosanct character, Herod was able to adopt a more orthodox architectural style. The colonnades seem to have been built in the regular classical orders, the gates probably followed the normal form of a classical propylaea; Josephus expatiates [writes in detail] on the exhedrae [hall] which flanked the entranceway and the huge columns which carried their inner architraves. But it was upon the outer court, to which gentiles were admitted, that Herod lavished his magnificence. The sacred enclosure proper stood in the middle of a yet larger enclosure. Before Herod began his operations this enclosure had been roughly square, measuring 200 yards each way. Herod almost doubled its area, extend ing it southwards till it assumed an oblong shape. This work was enormously expensive, since it involved building out huge substructures on the sloping southern front of the temple hill. The final result was most impressive, the temple platform standing out with sheer outer walls on its south, east, and west sides. All round the enlarged outer core Herod built huge colonnades. The west, north, and east colonnades were double; the columns were 25 cubits high. Along the south side, on the extreme edge of the platform which he had constructed, he built the yet more magnificent Royal Colonnade. It had three aisles and four ranges of columns, the fourth range being engaged with the back wall. The lateral aisles were 30 feet wide and 50 feet high; the central aisle was half as wide again and double the height The shafts of the columns were throughout monoliths of white marble, 5 feet in diameter and 40 in height: the capitals were in the Corinthian order. The ceilings were in cedar wood, coffered and richly carved and covered with gold leaf.
Herod had surpassed the mythical glories of Solomon. An incident in the latter part of his reign was to show how grateful his people were to him for his great achievement.
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