The Temple in the Days of our Savior Described, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. The North gate foreign Tedi, or Tadde.
ON the Northſide, to which we are now come, there was but one gate (as there was but one on the Eaſt quarter) which was ſituate juſt in the middle of the wall between the Eaſt and Weſt end of it, but how to give it its right name there is ſome diſpute.[a]Miſnajoth in Octave in Midd: C. Lemper. ibid. pag: 13. Some write it foreign Teri with r, which ſignifieth moiſtneſſe or purulency becauſe that they of the Prieſts, whoſe ſeed went from them by night, went through this gate to bath themſelves from that uncleanneſſe. But the reading of old, hath bin ſo reſolvedly foreign with d [b]Talm. Bab. & Aruch.Tedi, or as ſome vowel it[c]Buxt: Talm: Lex. Tadde, that Pisk Toſaphoth ad Middoth goeth about to give its Etymology. He mentioneth a double notation: namely that either it betokens foreign obſcurity and ſhamefac'dneſſe, becauſe of its rare uſe and paſſage, and becauſe the Prieſts that had ſuffered Gonorrhoea by night, went out through it to the Bath with ſome ſhame and dejectedneſſe: Or that the word refers to actors or poets, and he produceth a ſentence in which by its conjunction with another word, it ſeems ſo to ſignifie, for other ſenſe I know not to put upon it. The ſentence is this foreign Tragedians and Poets uſed it before the chiefe of the captivity. But what ſenſe he would make of this Etymology, I do not underſtand. But be the notation of the word what it will, the Talmud ſetteth two diſtinguiſhing markes upon the gate it ſelf, for which it was ſingular from all the reſt of the gates that we have mentioned,[d]Talm. in Mid. per. 2. The firſt is that it had not ſo faire a riſing Gate houſe and chambers above it as the reſt had, but onelyonly ſtones laid flat over it, and the battlement of the wall running upon it and no more. And the other is foreign [e]Ibid. per. 1.That it was not a common and ordinary paſſage in and out, as the other gates were, but onelyonly a paſſage upon occaſion; the uſeleſsneſs whereof we ſhall have occaſion to look at againe ere it be long.
The Mount Moriah did afford ſome ſpace of ground upon this ſide, without the wall and compaſſe of the holy ground, which it did upon none of the ſides beſide; for here was built the large and goodly Tower of Antonia, which we ſhall ſurvey by and by, whereas on every one of the other ſides the incompaſſing wall that cloſed in the holy ground did ſtand neare upon the very pitch and precipice of the hill. So that looking about you as you ſtood out at this gate, this Tower Antonia ſtood on your left hand and ſpoiled your proſpect on that ſide, and you could ſee nothing that way but it. Before you was Mount Sion, and the goodly buildings of the Kings Palace and other houſes; upon the bending toward the Eaſt angle, was the place called Ophel or Ophla, the habitation of the Nethenims, Neh: 3.26. and when Ophla was turned Eaſt, then was there the horſe-gate and water-gate before the Temple.
Thus lay The Mountaine of the Lords houſe, incompaſſed with the City round about, and encloſed with a faire and high wall which ſeparated it from the common ground: On the one ſide of it lay Sion the ſeat of the King, on the other ſide Jeruſalem, the habitation of the people and the Temple, and its ſervice in the middle between, even as the miniſtery is in mediation betwixt God and his people. The wall that encompaſſed it, had eight gates of goodly ſtructure and beauteous fabrick, all of one faſhion, ſave only that the North and Eaſt gates were not topped the one in height, and the other in faſhion as the other were. At all of theſe gates were Porters by day, and at five of them were guards by night, as we ſhall obſerve hereafter: the acceſſe to them on the Eaſt and Weſt was by a great aſcent, but facilitated by ſteps or cauſeys for the peoples eaſe, and for the comming up of the beaſts that were to be ſacrificed, of which there were ſome that came up dayly. On the South ſide the aſcent was not ſo very great, yet it had its riſing in the like manner of acceſſe as had the other. On the North what coming up there was, it was more for the accommodation of the reſidents in the Tower Antonia, then for the entrance into the Temple, the North gate Tedi being of ſo little uſe as hath been ſpoken.
At any of the gates as you paſſed through, the entrance it ſelf, through which you went, was ten cubits wide, twenty cubits high, and twelve cubits over, ſixe of which cubits were without the holy ground, and ſix within: and as you entered in at the Eaſt gate, had you ſeen the ground before any buildings were ſet in it, or any thing done to it, but only the building of this wall, you might have ſeen the hill riſing from the Eaſt to the Weſt, in ſuch an aſcent, that the Weſterne part of it was very many cubits higher then where you ſtood, as we ſhall have occaſion to obſerve as wee paſſe along.
This banke was once well ſtored with buſhes and brambles, Gen: 22.13. and afterward with worſe briers and thorns, the Jebuſites, who had it in poſſeſſion till David purchaſed it for that divine uſe and ſtructure, that we are looking after: Here was then a poore threſhing floore of Ornan the Jebuſite, but afterward the habitation of the God of Jacob: A place and fabrick as ſumptuous and eminent, as it was poſſible for man, and art, and coſt to make it; the glory of the Nation where it was, and the wonder of all the Nations round about it; but in fine, as great a wonder and monument of deſolation and ruine, as ever it had been of beauty and gloriouſneſſe. Before we ſtep further toward the ſurvey of it as it ſtood in glory, we muſt keep yet a while along this wal about which we have been ſo long, and obſerve ſome buildings and beauties that joined and belonged to it, beſides the gates that we have ſurveyed in it already.