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Art. "Temple "). Mr. Ferguson, and after him most English writers, have maintained
that the roof, both of the Tabernacle and of the Temple, was sloping, and not flat. This
view is, to say the least, wholly unsupported by the text of Holy Scripture. Canon
Rawlinson, indeed, speaks of Mr. Ferguson's view as "demonstrated," but, surely,
without weighing the meaning of the word which he has italicized.
(^106) Not as in our Authorized Version, "windows of narrow lights."
(^107) A fuller description of the Temple, and a detailed discussion of the various points in
controversy among writers on the subject, would lead beyond the limit which we must
here assign ourselves.
(^108) Some have imagined that the Most Holy Place was, like the chancel in most
churches, lower than the Holy Place (ten feet). Lundius has drawn the porch to the
height of a gigantic steeple. Many (mostly fanciful) sketch-plans of the Temple have
been drawn; but it would be out of place here to enter into further details.
(^109) Canon Rawlinson has shown that the columns of the Egyptian temples were thicker
than those of Solomon's.
(^110) Other calculations have also been proposed, as by Bahr and Merz
(^111) Probably they were in panels, each having two cherubs and a palm tree.
(^112) Keil supposes that only two of these candlesticks stood before the Most Holy Place,
while the other eight were ranged, four and four, along the side walls, five tables of
shewbread being placed in the interstices behind them, along each of the side walls. In
that case, however, it would not have been easy to go round the tables.
(^113) This we conclude from the circumstance, that otherwise there would have been no
use of a veil, and that we do not read of the High-priest opening the doors on the Day
of Atonement.
(^114) Most writers suppose that these chains were drawn inside to further bar access to the
Most Holy Place. But no mention is made of their existence or removal on the Day of
Atonement. The view we have expressed is that of the Rabbis.
(^115) This was certainly the structure of the altar in the Temple of Herod (comp. Midd. 3.
1.) In general, I must here refer the reader to the description of that Temple in The
Temple, its Ministry and Services at the Time of Jesus Christ, and to my translation of
(^)