The Temple Service in the Days of our Savior Described, Chapter 17
CHAP. XVII. Certain peculiar parcels of service.
Sect. 1. The King reading the Law.
MOses had commanded, saying[a]Deut. 13.10, 11. At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release in the Feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God, in the place which hee shall choo…e, thou shalt read this Law, before all Israell in their hearing: The circumstances of time, place, and person, for this reading, the Jews do determine thus.[b]Talm. in Sotah. per 7. R. Sol. in Deut. 31. Maym. in Hagigah. per. 1. The reader was to be the King, the place, in the Court of the women, and the time, towards the end of the first holy day in the Feast of Tabernacles weeks. There was then a pulpit of wood set up in the midst of the Court of the women, for thither might women and children come to hear, as they were injoyned, per. 12. which they might not doe into the upper Court: And the King goes up into the Pulpit and sits him down. The Minister of the Congregation foreign takes the Book of the Law and gives it to the chief of the Congregation or Head of the Congregation, foreign.) The chief of the Congregation or Head of the Synagogue (for now they were in a Synagogue model) gives it to the Sagan, the Sagan gives it to the High-priest, and the High-priest to the King. The King stands up to receive it, and standing uttereth a prayer, as every one did that was to read the Law in publique before hee read: and then if he thought good he might sit down and read, but if he read standing, it was thought the more honorable, and so it is recorded that King Agrippa did when he was upon this imployment.
He began to read at the beginning of Deuteronomy, and read to ver. 10. of the 6. Chap. Thence he skipt to the thirteenth verse of the eleventh Chapter, and read to the two and twentieth verse of the same Chapter. There he skipt again to the two and twentieth verse of the fourteenth Chapter, and read to the second verse of the nine and twentieth Chapter. For they thought it was enough if he read those portions onelyonly, that were most pregnant and pertinent for the stirring of them up, to the observing of the commandements, and for the strengthening of their hands in the Law of truth. And the Talmud relates of King Agrippa, that when he was upon this service, and came to read that passage in Deut. 17.15. One from among thy brethren thou shall set King over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother, his eies trickled down with tears, in remembrance that he was not of the seed of the Jewes, so that the people were glad to chear him up, and cried out three times to him, Fear not Agrippa, thou art our brother.
The reading is called, foreign The lection of the King, and it is reckoned by the Jews to be one of those eight things that must undispensably be uttterd in the Hebrew tongue: Those eight things are these. 1. The words of him that presented his first fruits, Deut. 26.5. 2. The words of the woman that pull'd off the shoe. Deut. 25.7, 8, 9. 3. The blessings and the curses. Deut. 27. and 28. The blessing of the Priests. Numb. 6.24, 25, 26. 5. The blessing of the High-Priest on the day of expiation. 6. This lection of the King. 7. The words of the Priests incouraging to battell. Deut. 20.3. 8. The words of the Elders over the beheaded Heifer. Deut. 21.7, 8.
Sect. 2. The Priests burning of the red Cow.
THe Law about burning a red Cow to ashes, and the use of those ashes for the purifying of those that were unclean by the dead, is given and described at large in Numb. 19. and the significancy of that rite and other sprinklings is touched upon Heb. 9.13. The manner of their going about and performing this great businesse (for so it was not unjustly held, because it was for the clensing from the greatest uncleannesse) was exceeding curious, and their circumspection about the matter was so nice and great, that in none of the Ceremonious performances, they shewed more Ceremony then in this.
Not to trace their great curiosities in choosing out a Cow that was exactly fit for this businesse, and how many exceptions and cautions, and scrutinies they had about her, which are nicely discussed in the two first Chapters of the Treatise Parah: Nor to dispute[a]Vid. Iuchas. fol. 13. R. Sol. in Numb. 19. whether this work of burning her, belonged onelyonly to the High-Priest, or whether another might do it as well as he: the managing of that businesse when it came to it, was after this manner.
[b]Talm. in Parah per 3. in Mishueh. & Ioma per. in Gemarah.Seven dayes before a cow was to be burnt, the Priest that was to burn her, was put apart into a chamber of the Temple, which stood in the North-east Angle of the Court of Israel, which was called foreign The house of stone, meaning The house of stone vessels, as we have cleared it, in the survey and description of it: And the reason of this his separation was, that he might be sure to be free for all that time from any pollution by a grave or corps: For since the ashes of this burnt Cow was the great and onelyonly purger from that defilement, it was their choise care and heedfulnesse, that they should be clear from that defilement, that went about the burning of her, or sprinckling her ashes.
When the day of her burning came, the Priest that was to doe it, and they that were to accompany him in that work,[c]Middoth. per. 1. marched out at the East-gate of the mountain of the Temple, which gate was also called Shushan, and went over the valley of Cidron, to mount Olivet, to a pitch of the Kill just over against the Gate where they had come out, and in the face of the Temple:[d]Mayn in Paerah. per. 3. Shekalim. per 4. & Talm. in Parah. ubi supr. All the way over the valley, was a causey made upon double arches, that is, one arch still standing upon two arches, and so levelled on the surface as made a plain and even way all along: And the reason of this great cost and curiosity was, that all the way might be secure against unseen or unknown graves (by which these passengers might have been defiled) the stone Arches not permitting to interre a corps. The like Arches for the like prevention, we have observed in its due place, were all under the Courts of the Temple, and the like archednesse was there on Mount Olivet, under the very place where the Cow was to be burnt, for the same security.
The Elders of the people marched before the Priest and his company all along this causey, to the place of the burning, and there when the Priest came up, they laid their hands upon him, and called upon him to bath himself, for there was a place for that purpose, and so he did. Then was the pile made of wood in and on which shee was to bee burnt; and tying her legs with cords they lay her on, her head lying toward the South, and her face turning to the West: The Priest standing on the East side of her, and his face toward the West, kills her with his right hand, and takes the bloud with the left.
Now it was commanded by the Law, that the sprinkling of her bloud should be directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation seven times. Numb. 19.4. For the answering of which command, the Priest having slain her, and taken her bloud, did sprinkle it so many times towards the Temple, looking directly over the gate Shushan upon the porch of the Temple: the battlements of which gate were for this very purpose made lower then the battlements of any other of the Gates about the Sanctuary; that over it he might see the face of the porch, which through it he could not reach to doe.
Having sprinkled her bloud, he sets his pile of wood a fire, and sets her a burning, and as shee was burning he takes cedar wood and hysop, and scarlet wool, and shews them and saith to the standers by, This is Cedar wood, this is Cedar wood, this is Cedar wood, three times over, and they answer him three times over, well, well, well: so likewise he saith, This is Hysop, this is Hysop, this is Hy op, This is Scarlet wool, this is Scarlet wool, this is Scarlet wool, and they answer him as before, three times to either of them, and then he casts those things into the fire, and they burn all together.
When all was burnt, they took up the ashes, and pounded and sifted them, and one part of them they laid up in some place of Mount Olivet for the sprinkling of the people: Another part was delivered to the four and twentie courses for the sprinkling of the Priests, and a third part was laid up in the Chel or inclosure of the Courts to be kept for a memoriall. Nine of these kine were burnt between the first giving of the Law about this Rite, and the fatall fall and destruction of the Temple. One in the time of Moses, one burnt by Ezra, two by Simeon the just, two by Jochanan [e]Iuchasin fol. 16.the father of Matthias, one by Elioenai the son of Hakkoph, one by Hanameel Hammizri, and one by Ismael the sonne of Fabi; and the Jewes look for a tenth in the dayes of the Messias; Where, by the way, we cannot but observe how their traditions had increased their defilements: for two of these kine served till Ezra's time, which was neare upon a thousand years, and the time after, which was not halfe the space, tooke up seven.
Now whereas the Law enjoined that for the cleansing of the uncleane, these ashes were to be sprinkled by a cleane person, Numb. 19.18. their Tradition straitned it to a person that had never been defiled by a dead corps in all his life; therefore that such persons might be had, there were arches wrought in a rock in Jerusalem after the manner forementioned, and houses built over those arches. And thither, as to a place secure from graves, certaine women with child were brought when they were near the time of their delivery, and there they were brought to bed. And their children were there brought up continually for this very imployment, that they might be ready as they were capable, and as there was occasion, to sprinkle these ashes. Which when any of them went to do, he rode on a seat on Oxens backs, first to the pool of Siloam, where he lighted in the water, (for there he might presume there was no grave to defile him) filled his pitcher, and got up againe, rode to Mount Olivet, besprinkled the party that was to be clensed, and rode in like manner to his Cell againe.
Sect. 3. The tryall of the suspected wife.
THe Law concerning jealousie and about the triall of a wife suspected, given in Numb. 5. was understood and practised by the Jewes according to these constructions and traditions.
[a]Talm. in Sot. per. 1.A man before two witnesses had charged his wife, saying, See thou speake not to such a man; though she did, yet she was still free to her husband: but if shee went with that man into private, and there staid with him such a space, then she was forbidden her husbands company, and he was to bring her to the Sanhedrin that was next to him; and they sent with him and her two schollers of the wise to the great Sanhedrin at Jerusal…m, lest he should lye with her by the way. Being there they terrified her with terrible and dreadfull words, to bring her to confesse her fault. If she confessed that she was defiled, she tore her matrimoniall writing in pieces and departed and so was divorced. But if she stood to justifie her innocency, they brought her through the east gates (saith the Talmud) which are before the doore of the gate of Nicanor. Which Rambam upon the place expoundeth to meane, that they tugged and toyled her up and down the stairs of those east gates, to bring her by wearinesse and faintnesse to confession. If she yet confessed not, but still pleaded innocent, then she was set in the gate of Nicanor, which was the east gate of the Court. And the Priest that was to put her to her tryall, laid hold upon her bosome and rent her clothes open, till he had laid her breasts bare as low as her heart: if she were arayed in white, black was put upon her, her hair was dishevelled to hang about her shoulders, and if she had Rings or Jewels on, they were taken from her, and he tyed a coard about her, over her paps. And whosoever would might come and behold her, unlesse it were her servants. And here the Talmudick observation is not impertinent;[b]Ibid. & Rab Abbuhabh. in menorah. Ner. 1. With what measure one meteth (say they) they measure to him againe. She deckt her selfe to transgresse, but God defiles her deckage; She uncovered her selfe for sinne, God discovers her shame; She stood in the gate to shew her selfe, she is now set in the gate to shew her reproach; She spread a vaile on her head, the Priest layes it under her feet; She platted her hair, the Priest dishevels it; She girded her selfe in a faire girdle, the Priest girdes her with the girdle of affliction; She deckt her face, her face is spit o…; She deckt her eyes, her eyes stare forth; She made signes with her fingers, her nayles are pared; Her thigh first began to transgresse and then her belly, therefore her thigh is first punished, and then her belly, and her whole body escapeth not.
Her offering which was in a Wecker basket the Priest put into her hand according to the injunction of the Law, Numb. 5.15, 18. Then tooke he an earthen pot and put a little water into it out of the Laver, and going within the Temple doore, he took up some dust from under a stone that was left loose for that purpose, (where it lay we have observed in its proper place) and this dust he strewed upon the water. Then denounced he the curse and wrote it in a booke, even those words, Numb. 5.19, 20, 21, 22. If no man hath lien with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncle annesse, &c. But if thou hast gone aside, &c. the Lord make thee a curse, &c. And this water which causeth the curse, shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. And the woman answered Amen, Amen. Then blotted he the curses out of the booke with the bitter water, and gave her the water to drinke. If upon the denouncing of the curses she were so terrified that she durst not drinke the water, but confessed she was defiled, the Priest flung downe the water, and scattered her offering among the ashes; but if she confessed not, and yet would not drinke, they forced her to drinke; and if she were ready to cast it up againe, they got her away that she might not defile the place. The operation of these waters, (say the Rabbins) followed after, though sometimes it appeared not of two or three years, for she bare no children, she was sickly, languished, and died of that death.
Sect. 4. The atoning for a cleansed Leper.
IN[a]Talm. in Middoth per. 2. the North-west corner of the Court of the women, there was a piece of building, which was called foreign the chamber or roome of the Lepers, whither the Leper resorted after his cleansing in the Country, or at his own house. And now I am sensible of a mistake and inadvertency which fell from me in another place, and which I here retract and crave the Readers patience, and that was in that I asserted (in the Notes on John 2.15.) that the Lepers were tryed in this roome by the Priests, and had accesse to the Mountaine of the house, and to the publique service of the Temple. It is true indeed[b]Maym. in Tephil. that the Lepers had accesse to the publique service in those Synagogues that were not in walled Townes, being placed there apart by themselves, so that they came not neare others, but their offering to come into the Temple did fall under a very sharpe penalty as was shewed before, nay they were excluded even out of walled Cities. Their tryall therefore was in the Country, and there they were clensed by the Priest,[c]Id. in Tum. tsor. 11. with variety of ceremony in the businesse: and on the seventh day of their clensing he shaved himselfe againe, for he had done so before, and washed himselfe in water, and then hee might come within Jerusalem. On the eight day he came up into the Mountaine of the house, and brought three Lambs with him, for a burnt offering, sin offering, and trespasse offering,[d]Talm. in Neg. per. 11. and bathed himselfe in that roome in the corner of the Court of the women, that was from hence called the Roome of the Lepers.
[e]Tam. per. 5.When the Migrephah or the bell, (for so let it be called) was rung by those that went into the Temple to burne the incense, the President or chiefe man of the station then serving went and fetched him, and whosoever else had been uncleane and came now for their purifying,[f]Ib & Sot. per. 1. and set them in the gate of Nicanor. [g]Maym. in Mechos. capp. per. 4 & Glos. in SotahBut here two contrary exigents were to be provided for; for neither might the Leper tread on the ground of the Court, because he yet wanted his atonement, nor might the bloud of the trespasse offering which was to be his atonement, be brought out of the Court, and yet it was to be put upon his thumb, great toe, and tip of his ear, Lev. 14.14. A temper therefore for these two repugnancies was this, that he went into the gate as far as possibly he might, so that he trode not within the Court. Thither did the Priest bring the trespasse offering to him, and he stretched out his hands into the Court, and laid them upon him. And when he was slaine, the Priest brought the bloud, himselfe standing within the Court, and the Leper stretched out his neck, and thrust his head within the Virge of the Court, and he put some of the blood upon the tip of his right eare; and likewise he stretched out his hand and his foot within the Virge of the Court, and he put the bloud upon his thumb, and his great toe, and so he was clensed. The clensing of other uncleane persons, as those that had issues, and women after childbirth, was in the same place, and much after the same manner, save that the beblooding of the eare, thumb, and toe, was not used, so that they need not a particular discourse by themselves.
Sect. 5. The manner of bringing and presenting their first fruits.
NOt to insist upon the severall sorts of things out of which the first fruits were to be paid, nor upon the manner of setting them a part for first fruits at their owne homes, of which the Talmud doth debate at large; this being somewhat out of the Virge of our discourse, because so far out of the Virge of the Temple: their custome and ceremony in bringing of them up thither and presenting them there, commeth nearer within our compasse, and that was thus,[a]Talm. in Biccur. per. 3. & Maym. ib. per. 4. All the Cities that belonged to such or such a station, met together at the chiefe City of the station, and there lodged all night in the streets; and the reason of this their gathering thus together, was because they would go together by multitudes, according to what is said, the multitude of people is the Kings honour; and the reason of their lodging in the streets was, lest going into houses they should be defiled. In the morning the President, or chiefe among them, called them up betime with this note, Arise and let us goe up to Sion to the Lord our God, and they set away: Before them there went an Oxe with his hornes gilded, and a Garland or Crowne of Olive branches upon his head: and a pipe playing before them, till they came neare to Jerusalem, and they often rehearsed that saying, I was glad when they said, Let us go up to the house of the Lord, compare Esay 30.29. They travelled not all day when the travelled, but onelyonly two parts of it, because they would not spoile their solemnity with toyling: when they were come neare Jerusalem, they sent in a messenger to give notice of their comming, and they flowred and deckt their baskets, and exposed some of the freshest fruits to fight: upon notice of their comming, the chief men of the Priesthood went out to meet them; and when they were come within the City they rehearsed these words, Our feet shall stand in thy gates O Jerusalem: and all the Tradesmen in their shops stood up as they came by, and saluted them, O our brethren of such a place, you are welcome. The pipe went playing before them, till they came to the Mountaine of the House, and when they came there, every one (foreign) yea, though it were King Agrippa himselfe, (saith the Tradition) was to take his basket upon his shoulder, and so to walke up till he came to the Court; and all the way as they went, they said over the hundred and fiftieth Psalme, Praise ye the Lord, praise God in his Sanctuary, &c.
Being come into the Court the Priests began and sung the thirtieth Psalme, I will extoll thee O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoyce over me.
With his basket on his shoulder, the man begins and sayes, I professe this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come into the Country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us, Deut. 26.3. and then beginning to say, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, &c. he takes downe the basket from his shoulder, and holds it by the edges, and the Priest putting his hands under it, waves it up and downe, and he goes on and sayes, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Aegypt and sojourned there with a few, &c. even to the middle of the tenth verse; and so he sets downe his basket by the side of the Altar, and boweth and goeth forth. They used by their baskets as they brought them, to hang Turtles or Pigeons, which were to be for an offering, and the fruits themselves went to the Priests of the Course that then served; and the party that brought them must lodge in Jerusalem all night after he had presented them, and the next morning he might returne home. They might not offer their first fruits before the feast of Pentecost (compare Act. 2. and Rom. 8.23.) nor after the feast of dedication.
Sect. 6. Their bringing up wood for the Altar.
IT was a singular and a strict command, that the fire of the Altar should never goe out, Lev. 6.13. And as the Jewes observe, that divine providence did comply with the keeping of it in, for they say,(a)Talm. in Avoth per. 5. that raines from heaven never put the fire out, so did the Nation provide for the continually burning of it, by a(b)Maym. in Tam. umos. per. 2 penalty of whipping decreed, agreed against him that should extinguish it, and by a constant supply of wood brought up to the Temple for the maintaining of it. Josephus speaketh of their Xylophoria, or certaine set and solemne times, on which the people brought up wood for this purpose: his words are these.(c)Ioseph. de Bell. lib. 2. cap. 31. foreign. It was a feast of the wood carrying, at which it was the custome for all to bring up wood for the Altar, that it might not want fewell for the fire, which might never go out. The Talmudick Treatise Taanith, reckoneth nine speciall dayes in the yeare used for this solemne imployment, and allotteth the work to nine speciall families of those that are mentioned to have returned out of captivity.(d)Talm. in Taamith per. 4. The wood-carrying times (saith it) for the Priests and the people were nine. On the first of Nisan, the sons of Arah a son of Judah. On the twentieth of Tammuz, the sonnes of David a son of Judah. On the fifth of Ab, the sonnes of Parosh a son of Judah. On the seventh of the same, the sonnes of Jonadab the son of Recab. On the tenth of the same, the sonnes of Senaah a son of Benjamin. On the fifteenth of the same month, the sonnes of Zattu a son of Judah, and with them the Priests and Levites, and whosoever knew not their owne Tribe, &c. On the twentieth of the same month, the sonnes of Paleoth Moab a sonne of Judah. On the twentieth of Elud, the sonnes of Addin a son of Judah. And on the first of Tebeth the sonnes of Parosh came a second time. And on the first of Tebeth there was no station (made by the stationary men) because on that day the Hallel was sung, and there was an additionall offering, and an oblation, or bringing up of wood.
The wood thus brought up to the Temple, it was first laid up in that building in the North-east corner of the Court of the women, which was called foreign (e)Talm. in Middoth. per. 2.The wood roome, where it was searched by those of the Priests linage that had blemishes, and so were uncapable of serving at the Altar, whether it had wormes or no in it, for any wood that had any wormes in it was uncleane and unfit for the Altar fire: that that was found free from worms, & so reputed fit for the Altar, was brought up into another room, called(f)Ib. per. 5. also the wood room, and the room Parbedrin, on the Southside of the Court of Israel, and there it lay neare and ready when there was occasion for its use. That wood that had wormes in it, and so might not touch the Altar, was used either for boyling, baking, or frying of the offerings that were boyled, or baked, or fryed, or for keeping fires for the Priests and Levites in their attendance and guards in cold weather.
FINIS.
End of the text · John Lightfoot, The Temple Service in the Days of our Savior Described (1649)