The Temple in the Days of our Savior Described, Chapter 29
CHAP. XXIX. Beth Mokadh. foreign
OUr Survey is to begin at the Northweſt corner of the Court wall, and there we meet with the building called Beth Mokadh, a place of remarkableneſſe for ſeverall particulars.
1. It was a building ſo large that[a]Tamid per. 3. it raught from the Northweſt angle of the wall to the gate below, of the ſame name, and ſo it tooke up a fourth part of the length of that ſide of the Court:[b]Mod. per. 1. Maym. in beth habbechir. per. 5. and it contained foure ſeverall roomes in the foure corners of it; that room which was properly called the roome Mokadh being in the middeſt of them as the Center: And this the treatiſe Middoth utterreth in theſe expreſſions[c]Mid. per. 1. There were foure roomes in Beth Mokadh foreign Like bed chambers opening into a dining-roome: Two of which chambers ſtood within the Court and two without, and markes were ſet within to ſhew where the two grounds parted.
2. The foure roomes in the foure corners of it, were theſe.
[d]Mid. ibid.The Southweſt roome was called foreign The lambe roome, [e]R. Sol. in. 1 Chron. 23.25.becauſe there they lodged the lambes that were appointed for the daily ſacrifice[f]Maym. in Tamid. per. 1. And the roome was never without ſix lambes in it a day together. For no lambe was offered but which had been taken up foure dayes before: and ſo this neceſſitated, that if two of the ſix were taken out to day for the morning and evening ſacrifice, other two muſt be brought in before night: And by this means it was never without ſix in it a whole day together.
2.[g]Mid. ubi ſupra. & Tamid. ubi ſupr. The Southweſt room was the roome of thoſe that prepared the Shewbread, which God had appointed to be ſet before him on the golden table every Sabbath. foreign The Family of Garmu was for this worke.[h]Shekalim. per. 6. Theſe two roomes mentioned ſtood either wholly or ſome part of them within the Court.
3.[i]Mid. ubi ſupr. The Northweſt roome foreign was the place where the Maccabean family laid up the ſtones of the Altar, which the Grecian Kings had defiled [k]Joſ. Ant. lib. 12 cap. 7. 1 Mac. 1 &c.For when Antiochus Epiphanes had made ſuch miſerable havock at Jeruſalem, as that he had laid Religion, Laws, Liberties, Altar, Sacrifice, and all waſt, and had defiled the Altar with abominable ſacrifices, Judas Maccabeus and his brethren getting a little ground of their enemies and of their miſeries, began to purifie and reſtore the Temple: and conſulting what to doe with the Altar ſtones which were prophaned, and which Mattathias their father had therefore pulled down, 1 Mac. 2.25. they laid them up in this roome till a prophet ſhould come that might reſolve what to doe with them. 1 Mac. 4.44. &c.
4.[l]Mid. ubi ſupr. The Northweſt roome was a roome through which they went to a bathing place out of the middle room which was properly called Beth Mokadh, whoſoever had received any nocturnall pollution in their ſleep. Now where this bathing place was it is controverted, whether under ground, or whether on the out ſide of the outmoſt wall: The treatiſe Tamid gives account of it in theſe words:[m]Tamid. per. 1. Doth a nocturnall pollution by Gonorrhaea happen to any of them? he gets out and goes along in the gallery that goeth under the Temple, and candles burne on either ſide, till he came to the bathing place: there was a cloſet and a ſtool: and if he found the doore lockt he knew there was ſome one there, but if open he knew there was no body there: ſo he goes downe and bathes himſelf, wipes himſelfe, warmes himſelf in the cloſet, and comes again and ſits among his brethren.
3. The roome Mokadh which was in the midſt of theſe foure, they being as it were parlors in the foure corners of it, is ſaid to be foreign [n]Maym. in beth habbech. per. 5.built archwiſe: not that the ſurface or upmoſt part of it was like an arch of ſtone without any other roofe, but that being raiſed and roofed like the other buildings about the Court, it was onelyonly in this lower roome made arch wiſe, becauſe there was a paſſage through it out of the chel into the Court. And there were two gates to this roome of paſſage, one towards the Chel, and the other towards the Court, and that into the Court had a wicket in it, through which they commonly went in and out, the great gate ſtanding ſhut: and ſo it is like had that alſo into the Chel. And this paſſage I ſuppoſe is that which Aba Joſe calleth the gate of Jechoniah, of which we made mention before.
4. This roome was called Beth Mokadh, or the place of the burning fire, becauſe a fire was kept here continually, all the cold time of the yeare for the Prieſts, both by day and by night: By day to warme themſelves at when they came from the ſervice, for upon that they attended barefooted and very thin clad: and in the night to keepe them warme as they kept their guard: for in this roome was a guard of the Prieſts as was obſerved before, and this was the chiefeſt guard of all:[o]Tamid. ubi ſupra. Beth Mokadh, (ſaith the Talmud) was a great arched roome, and it was ſet about with ſtone benches: on which the Elders of the houſe of their fathers ſlept, and the keyes of the Court were in their keeping: But the young men of the Prieſt-hood ſlept in their garments on the ground: they ſlept not in the holy garments, but put thoſe off, folded them up and laid them under their heads, and lay in their owne wearing clothes: So that this roome was both a thorough paſſe, and a great hall where was kept a common and a conſtant fire: and the gates on either ſide of the arch being ſhut, it was as a cloſe roome, and as if it had not beene a thorough paſſage at all.
5 In this roome there was a box or cabinet as we may call it, in which were laid up the keyes of the Court, and taken out and in, as the doores were locked or to be unlocked. The Talmud deſcribes it thus:[p]Mid. ubi ſupra. There was a flag of Marble and a ring was faſtned in it, and a chaine, at which the keyes of the Court were hung: when the time of locking the gates came he tooke up the flag by the ring, and tooke the keyes off the ring and locked the gates within, and when he had done he put the keyes on the chaine, and the flag in its place againe: Now this marble flag, which in Hebrew is called foreign A table, on the upper or outſide of it had a ring by which to take it up, and on the inner ſide, a chaine ſo wrought as that the keyes might fitly and readily be hanged on or taken off as there was occaſion: And this box appeareth to have been in the ground, partly becauſe we have mention of ſuch another flag with a ring in it and that lay upon the ground, and duſt was taken from under it for the triall of the ſuſpected wife, and partly becauſe the tradition ſaith foreign That after the Prieſt had laid up the keyes and laid downe the flag, he laid his pillow upon it and there ſlept.
6. If any in their ſleep ſuffered Gonorrhaea, they were to bath as was ſaid before, and the way to the bathing place is expreſſed in theſe words foreign He goeth downe a turning ſtaire caſe that went under the Temple. The word foreign doth generally ſignifie all the body and buildings of the Temple, as the whole ſtood like a ſumptuous and goodly Palace (for ſo the word doth properly ſignifie) and ſo it is uſed 1 Chron. 29.1.19. Therefore it is hard to tell which way this paſſage to the bathing place lay, ſince the word will inlarge it to any part of the Temple. It appeareth that it was ſome vault under ground through which they paſſed; into which vault they went downe by a turning paire of ſtaires, out of the Northweſt roome of Beth Mokadh. And from thence whither they went, whether under the Chel as Rabbi Eliezer conceiveth, or under ſome part of the Court, or mountaine of the houſe, it is but in vaine to ſearch: It ſeemeth the Bath was under ground, and a roome by it with a fire in it to warme themſelves at when they had done bathing.