the main fabrick was finished in a much lesser CHAP.III. space. The sanc tuary. But it is next to be known, that by the Temple The several is meant, not only the fabrick or house itself, but parts of the also the courts thereunto belonging. Within the Temple. fabrick itself there were these two parts, the first or outmost was that, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shew-bread, which was called the sanctuary; the second or inmost was that which The holy of is called the holiest of all, which had the golden holies. censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that hád manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy-seat. Now the other priests went always into the first part or tabernacle, accomplishing the daily service of God: but into the second went the high-priest alone, and that but once every year, &c. Heb. ix. 2, 3, 4, &c. As to the courts of the Temple, they were at The court of the first but two, the priests' court, and the people's priests. The people's court was separated from the former The court by a wall of three cubits height, to which the peo- of the people did repair to perform their sacrifices, to say ple. their prayers, and to pay their vows. In the midst of this court did Solomon make a brazen scaffold for the Kings his successors, 2 Chron. vi. 13. In after times this court came to be built round with porches, into which the people retired in rainy weather; whence this court is sometimes denoted by the name of Solomon's porch, John x. Solomon's 23. Acts iii. 11. having the name of Solomon added porch. to it, either to continue his memory, or because the porches here built had some resemblance of that porch which he built before the Temple, 1 PART I. court. The wo men's court. The forementioned court of the people was one entire court in Solomon's days; but afterwards i The men's was divided by a low wall, so that the men stood in the inward part of it, and the women in the outward. This division is thought to have been made in Jehoshaphat's time, of whom we read, that he stood in the house of the Lord, before the new court, 2 Chron. xx. 5. that is, before the women's court. In this stood the poor's treasury, or the alms-box, as may be gathered from the poor widow's casting her two mites into it; on which account this whole court is sometimes denoted by the name of the treasury, John viii. 20. The treasury. The court Lastly, in Herod's Temple there was a fourth of the Gen- Court added before or without the three already tiles. mentioned, namely, for such as were unclean by legal pollutions, and for strangers; whence it was commonly called the court of the Gentiles, being designed chiefly for the use of such Gentiles, or strangers, as were only proselytes of the gate, and not of the covenant, that is, as had bound themselves only to the observation of the precepts of Noah, and not to the observation of the Mosaical Law. This last or outmost court of all was separated from the women's court with a wall of three cubits height, adorned with certain pillars of equal distance, bearing this inscription: Let no alien (or stranger, that is, no one that is not a Jew or circumcised proselyte) enter into the holy place. And to this wall it is, that the Apostle alludes, when he saith, He hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, (that is, between Jews and Gentiles,) making one of twain, Eph. ii. 14, 15. and when he thence infers, that the Gentiles are no more to be esteemed foreigners and strangers, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, ver. 19. To close this discourse in reference to the Temple, it was in this fourth court, or court of the Gentiles, that the Jews permitted to be kept a market of sheep and oxen and doves, and the tables of the money. changers to stand; whereby the Jews shewed the CHAPIII. mean regard they had for the Gentiles, placing them in the same court with their cattle. And therefore out of this part or court of the Temple it was, that our Saviour cast the buyers and sellers; and herein it was that he overthrew the tables of the money-changers; asserting hereby the Temple to that sacred use mentioned by the Prophet, namely, to be an house of prayer for all nations. To the account here given, the reader may add the description of the Temple given by Josephus, b. vi. chap. vi. of the Wars of the Jews. CHAPTER IV. A.D. Of our Saviour's Journeyings from the first Passover after his Baptism and Entrance upon his 30 and 31. public Ministry, to the second Passover. THE passover holy-days (during which our Saviour had by his miracles converted many, and among Of Enon the rest Nicodemus, a ruler or principal person and Salim. among the Jews) being now ended, our Lord, with some of his disciples, withdrew from Jerusalem into another part of Judea, where he continued for some while. At this time John was baptizing in Enon, near to Salim, because there was much water there, John iii. 22, 23. And indeed the name Enon does import the same as a place of springs; but the only mention we have of it in Scripture is here, where it is described to be situated near Salim. And the situation even of this last place is now uncertain, unless it be the same with Shalem, (or Salem), a city of Shechem, men PART I. tioned Gen. xxxiii. 18. or else the same with Shalim, (or Salim,) mentioned 1 Sam. ix. 4. If it be the same with either of these, it lay within (what was called in the times of the New Testament) the province of Samaria. 2. Of Sechem, or Sy char. Our Lord, after he had spent some time in this part of Judea, knowing how the Pharisees had heard that he made and baptized more disciples than John, (though our Lord himself baptized not, but his disciples,) to avoid any ill designs that the Pharisees might be contriving against him, he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee, having also by this time heard, that John the Baptist was cast into prison by Herod. Now JESUS, as he went the straight way from Judea, to Galilee, must needs go through Samaria; where in his way he comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; hard by which town there is a well called Jacob's well, where Jesus, being wearied with his journey, sat down and rested himself, John iv. 1, 2, 3, &c. The description here given by the Evangelist, of Sychar, puts it out of all doubt, that it is the same with Sychem; the difference between the two names proceeding in all probability only from a dialectical or corrupt way of pronunciation. This city is at present called Naplosa, and stands in a narrow valley between mount Gerizim on the south, and Ebal on the north, being built at the foot of the former; upon the top of which the Samaritans, whose chief residence is here at Sychem, have a small temple or place of worship, to which they are still wont to repair at certain seasons, for performance of the rites of their religion. What these rites are, Mr. Maundrell tells us, he could not certainly learn: but that their religion consists in the adoration of a calf, as the Jews give out, seems to have more of spite than of truth in it. Sychar, or, as it is now-a-days called, Naplosa,, *Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 58, 59, &c. is at present in a very mean condition, in compari- CHAP. III. son of what it is represented to have been anciently. It now consists chiefly of two streets, lying parallel under mount Gerizim, but is full of people, and the seat of a Bassa. Mr. Maundrell acquaints us, that setting forwards from Sychem towards Jerusalem, and proceeding in the narrow valley between Gerizim and Ebal, (not above a furlong broad,) he and his companions saw on their right hand, just without the city, a small mosque, said to have been over the sepulchre purchased by Jacob of Emmor, the father of Shechem, and which goes by the name of Joseph's sepulchre, his bones having been here interred, after their transportation out of Egypt, Josh. xxiv. 32. At about one third of an hour, we came, saith Mr. Maundrell, to Jacob's well, famous not only on account of its author, but much more for that memorable conference, which our blessed Saviour here had with the woman of Samaria, John iv. If it should be questioned whether this be the very well, that it is pretended for, or no, seeing it may be suspected to stand too remote from Sychar, for women to come from thence to draw water; it is answered, that probably the city extended farther this way in former times than it does now, as may be conjectured from some pieces of a very thick wall, still to be seen not far from hence. Over the well there stood formerly a large church, erected by that great and devout patroness of the Holy Land, the Empress Helena: but of this the voracity of time, assisted by the hands of the Turks, has left nothing but a few foundations remaining. The well is covered at present with an old stone vault, into which you are let down through a very straight hole, and then removing a broad flat stone, you discover the mouth of the well itself. It is dug in a firm rock, and contains about three yards in diameter, and thirty-five in depth; five of which we found full of water. This confutes a story commonly told to travellers, who 3 Of Jacob's well. |