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of the Women was inclosed with a double wall, with a space between the walls about fifteen feet in width paved with marble. The inner of these two walls was much higher than the one outside. The Court of the Women was paved with marble. In the corners of that court were different structures for the various uses of the temple. It was in this court that the Jews commonly worshipped. Here probably Peter and John with others went up to pray (Acts iii. 1). Here, too, Paul was seized and charged with defiling the temple, by bringing the Gentiles into that holy place (Acts xxi. 26-30).

A high wall on the west side of the Court of the Women divided it from the Court of the Israelites-so called, because all the males of the Jews might advance there. To this court there was an ascent of fifteen steps. These steps were in the form of a half circle. The great gate to which these steps led was called the gate Nicanor; besides this, there were three gates on each side leading from the Court of the Women to the Court of the Gentiles.

'Within the Court of the Israelites was the Court of the Priests, separated by a wall about a foot and a half in height. Within that court was the altar of burnt offering, and the laver standing in front of it. Here the priests performed the daily service of the temple. In this place also were accommodations for the priests, when not engaged in conducting the service of the temple, and for the Levites who conducted the music of the sanctuary.

'The temple properly so called, stood within this court, and surpassed in splendour all the other buildings of the holy city; perhaps in magnificence unequalled in the world. It fronted the east, looking down through the gate Nicanor, and the Beautiful gate, and onwards to the Mount of Olives. From the Mount of Olives on the east, there was a beautiful and commanding view of the whole sacred edifice. It was there that our Saviour sat, when the disciples directed his attention to the goodly stones with which the temple was built (Mark xiii. 1). The entrance into the temple itself was from the Court of the Priests, by an ascent of twelve steps. The porch in front of the temple was 150 feet high, and as many broad. The open space of this porch, through which the temple was entered, was 115 feet high and thirty-seven feet broad, without door of any sort. The appearance of this, built as it was with white marble and decorated with plates of silver, from the Mount of Olives was exceedingly dazzling and splendid.

Josephus says, that on the rising of the sun it reflected sc strong and dazzling an effulgence, that the eye of the spectator was obliged to turn away. To strangers at a distance it appeared like a mountain covered with snow, for where it was not decorated with plates of gold, it was extremely white and glistening. The temple itself was divided into two parts: the one called the Sanctuary, or Holy place, was sixty feet in length, sixty feet in height, and thirty feet in width. In this was the golden candlestick, the table of shew-bread, and the altar of incense. The Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy place, was thirty feet each way. In the first temple this contained the ark of the covenant, and the tables of the law, and over the ark was the Mercy-seat and the cherubim. Into this place no person entered but the high priest, and he but once in the year. These two apartments were separated only by a veil, very costly and curiously wrought. It was this veil which was rent from the top to the bottom when the Saviour died (Matt. xxvii. 51). Around the walls of the temple, properly so called, was a structure three stories high, containing chambers for the use of the officers of the temple. The temple was wholly razed to the ground by the Romans under Titus and Vespasian, and was entirely destroyed, according to the predictions of the Saviour. The site of it was made like a ploughed field. Julian the apostate attempted to rebuild it, but the workmen, according to his own historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, were prevented by balls of fire breaking out from the ground. Its site is now occupied by the Mosque of Omar, one of the most splendid specimens of Saracenic architecture in the world.'

13. Pilate. The Roman governor or procurator of Judea, who sat in judgment on our Lord. After maintaining his dignified position for ten years, he was accused by his subjects of cruelty and injustice, and through the instrumentality of Vitellius was banished by Caligula to Gaul, where he is said to have put an end to his existence by committing suicide, a.d. 41.

The principal acts of Pilate, recorded by Josephus.

1. He removed the army from Cæsarea to Jerusalem to take their winter quarters there, in order to abolish the Jewish laws.'

2. After a powerful appeal made by a deputation of Jews who waited

1 With this compare the story related by Josephus. (Ant. xvi. 7. 1.)

upon him at Cæsarea, 'he commanded the images (Caesar's effigies which were upon the ensigns) to be carried back from Jerusalem.'

3. He undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem from a distance of 200 furlongs,' not at his own expense, but with the sacred money of the Jews, which they called corban.'

4. In consequence of the tumult created by this extravagance, he commanded his soldiers to visit the rebellious Jews with punishment; 'mary of them perished by the stripes they received, and many of them were trodden to death.''

5. To complete the measure of his guilt, he further ordered a great band of horsemen and footmen' to fall upon certain innocent deluded Samaritans at a village named Tirathaba, near Mount Gerizim. 'Some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great many alive; the principal of whom, and also the most potent of those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain.'

His Removal from Office A.D. 36.

'But when this tumult was appeased, the Samaritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, a man who had been consul, and who was now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the murder of those that were killed; for that they did not go to Tirathaba in order to revolt from the Romans, but to escape the violence of Pilate. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome to answer before the emperor to the accusation of the Jews. So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made haste to Rome, and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, which he durst not contradict; but before he could get to Rome Tiberius was dead.' (Vide Jos. Ant. b. xviii. ch. 3, 4; Of the Wars, ii. 9.)

CHAPTER IV.

1. Captain of the Temple.-'The captain of all those priestly and Levitical guards and watches that were kept in the temple' (Lightfoot). The commander of the guard stationed at Antonia, especially during the great feasts, to preserve order and prevent tumults' (Barnes).

Sadducees.-A Jewish sect 2 who rejected all traditions,

The Jews whose blood was shed on this occasion may possibly be those Galilean Jews whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices.' (Luke xiii. 1, 2.)

2It is universally agreed, that while the spirit of prophecy continued there were no religious sects among the Jews, the authority of the

and maintained that 'there was no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit' (Acts xxiii. 8).

They probably took their name from a person named Sadoc, one of the followers of Antigonus Socheus, president of the Jewish Sanhedrim, about B.C. 250.

Socheus rejecting the traditional doctrines of the scribes, maintained that men ought to serve God out of pure love, and not from hope of reward or fear of punishment;' but Sadoc, misinterpreting the doctrines taught by Socheus, led his disciples to believe that the present life was the limit of man's existence, and that they had consequently nothing to fear or to hope for after death. They observed the Mosaic law, on account of the temporal rewards and punishments connected therewith,2 and hoping to join in the conquests and prophets being sufficient to prevent any difference of opinion. The sects which afterwards prevailed among them sprang up gradually, and it is difficult to ascertain the time of their origin with precision. Almost all of them seem to have arisen from the doctrines taught by the scribes after the return from the Babylonian captivity.' (Bishop Tomline.)

Whatever foundation there may be for this account of the origin of the sect, it is certain that in the time of our Saviour the Sadducees denied the resurrection of the dead, and the existence of angels and spirits.' (Bishop Tomline.)

After the banishment of Archelaus, a person named Judas of Galilee stirred up the people to revolt. With this man was associated a zealous Pharisee, named Sadduc. It seems not very improbable to me, that this Sadduc was the very same man of whom the Rabbins speak as the unhappy but undesigning occasion of impiety or infidelity of the Sadducees; nor perhaps had the men the name of Sadducees till this very time, though they were a distinct sect long before, nor do we, that I know of, find the least footsteps of such impiety or infidelity of these Sadducees before this time, the Recognitions assuring us that they began about the days of John the Baptist' (b. i. ch. 54). Note, Whiston's Josephus.

Hyrcanus, the high priest, B.C. 108, went over to the party of the Sadducees, i.e. by embracing their doctrine against the traditions of the elders being added to the written law, and made of equal authority with it, but not their doctrine against the resurrection and a future state; for this cannot be supposed of so good and righteous a man as John Hyrcanus is said to be. It is most probable that at this time the Sadducees had gone no further in the doctrines of that sect than to deny all their unwritten traditions, which the Pharisees were so fond of, for Josephus mentions no other difference at this time between them; neither doth he say that Hyrcanus went over to the Sadducees in any other particular than in the abolishing of all the traditionary constitutions of the Pharisees which our Saviour condemned as well as they.' (Prideaux; Note, Whiston's Josephus.)

2 'Some authors have contended that the Sadducees admitted only the

glory of the expected Messiah (whom they regarded merely as a temporal prince), they looked forward to the time of his appearance with great anxiety.

We are informed by Josephus, 'that the Sadducees were far less numerous than the Pharisees, but that they were, in general, persons of greater opulence and dignity.' As might have been expected, the early Christians became special objects of their hatred.

5. Rulers, and Elders, and Scribes.-Members of the Sanhedrim.

The

6. Annas and Caiaphas.-Caiaphas, it appears, was now high priest, but his father-in-law had been so before. latter is here called by that title, probably to distinguish him from some other Annas.' 2

At first, if not incapacitated by gross misconduct, the high priest maintained his enviable position during life, but at a later period, and especially after Palestine became subject to

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books of Moses, but there seems no ground for that opinion, either in the Scriptures or in any ancient author.' Even Josephus, who was himself a Pharisee, and took every opportunity of reproaching the Sadducees, does not mention that they rejected any part of the Scriptures. (Bishop Tomline.)

Note. The tenets of the Sadducees resembled those of the Epicurean philosophers.'

I Caiaphas was made high priest by Valerius Gratus, predecessor of Pontius Pilate, and was removed from his office by Vitellius, president of Syria after Pilate was sent away out of the province of Judea. Josephus relates this advancement of Caiaphas to the high priesthood in this manner:-"Gratus gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. He having enjoyed the honour not above a year, was succeeded by Joseph, who is also called Caiaphas. After this, Gratus went away from Rome, having been eleven years in Judea, and Pontius Pilate came thither as his successor." Of the removal of Caiaphas from his office, Josephus likewise afterwards informs us, and connects it with a circumstance which fixes the time to a date subsequent to the termination of Pilate's government: "Vitellius," he tells us, "ordered Pilate to repair to Rome, and after that went up himself to Jerusalem, and then gave directions concerning several matters. And having done these things he took away the priesthood from the high priest, Joseph, who is called Caiaphas." (Vide Jos. Ant. lib. xviii. 2. 2; 4. 3.)

That Annas was a person in an eminent station, and possessed an authority co-ordinate with, or next to, the high priest properly so called, may be inferred from St. John's gospel, which, in the history of Christ's crucifixion, relates that the soldiers led him away to Annas first.' (Ch. xviii. 13.) Paley.

2

Archbishop Newcome.