Temple Structure and New Testament
How much of the structure and purpose of the Temple of Yahwah can be seen in the New Testament.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
In a sense this book is simply about one saying of Jesus in the New Testament it is about the saying in John’s gospel “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” and the Jewish response “Forty and six years was this temple in building and wilt thou raise it up in three days?”
But the commentator explains “But he spake of the temple of his body”
All of these words are pregnant and full of deep meaning. The word used by John in the text for temple is naos, usually it would refer to the central house of the temple containing the holy place and the holy of holies. However the fact that they mention the temple was forty six years in the making means the speakers understood the courts were included. It also meant they were referring specifically to Herod’s temple which he began to build in 20 or 19 BC or the 17th years of his reign according to Josephus.
If Jesus was referring to the temple of his body it means Jesus is now the temple. The purpose of the temple and its structure are in Jesus Christ. We now see two temples in the New Testament context one build by Herod one built Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit and the Power of the Most High. We can then expect to find the whole temple structure and purpose reveled in the New Testament.
To do this we will need first to ascertain the history of the temple at that time. This will mean analyzing the structure of the Temple, its functions and tracing them to those elements which they came from. It will then meaning looking at the New Testament with an eye to find, the structure, function and purpose of the Temple in it. My present hypothesis would state that in the New Testament, which is about Jesus Christ and his body the Church, we will find the whole Temple set forth in living array. All elements of the physical building and the Israelites, Levites and Priesthood with their functions in offering sacrifices, singing praises and eating sacrifices and tending the Temple will become fulfilled in one way or another in the New Testament outline of the temple.
Three tasks then we have: To analyze the temple as recorded by those who saw it and secondly to traces the sources which lead to it being built as it was and finally to see how the physical aspects are shown in the New Testament and to see the New Testament temple in all of its glorious array.
The Second Temple Sources
The two main sources we have describing the physical building of the temple are Josephus and Tractate Middot of the Mishnah. Josephus gives us two descriptions. The first is in Jewish Wars book 5 written about 75 AD by this eye witness and the second is in Antiquities written about 95 AD. The description do not agree in every detail. But with the help of the work of archaeologists and comparison with other temple literature of the period his writings are extremely important in understanding what the temple did and looked like in the first century.
Tractate Middot is part of the compilation of the Mishnah. It was compiled over 140 years after the destruction of the Temple by Titus the Roman. It was compiled by Judah ha Nasi in the city of Sepphoris but contains tradition going back to the second temple period. Some scholars, including William Scott Green and Jacob Neusner hold that the Mishnah tell us much more about what the 3rd century redactors were thinking about than what really went on in the first century. They have shown that Rabbinic literature can not be used to create biographies of Rabbi’s as Encylopedia’s are wont to do. However despite their grave reservations it has to be said there are different kinds of Hebrew in the Mishna and there are whole tractates which have very little to do with the 3rd century when it was complied. These parts of the Mishna are written in what is called Archaic Hebrew[1]. There are old Aramaic saying retained in the Mishna from when the Rabbis in Palestine spoke Aramaic. Thus there are layers in the Mishna and the older layers are those usually to do with the Temple and its function. Tractate Middot records the architecture and the size of the temple and is in archaic Hebrew. It neighbour, Tamid, is in a similar Hebrew[2] and covers the details of the daily whole offering or the perpetual offering made every morning and evening in the temple. Rabbinic literature assigns Middot to Eliezer Ben Yaacov and Tamid to Shimon of Mitzpeh. Other strands of this older Hebrew are seen in Tractate Yoma, detailing the practices of Yom Kippor from the days when the Temple were standing.
These tractates can be very useful to us again by comparison with independent first century literature such as Josephus, the New Testament and the relevant Dead Sea Scrolls and Philo. All three of these contain Halakha and ideas which parallel each other and yet come from independent traditions. We have the added benefit of archaeology which has already confirmed much of what Josephus, Middot and the New Testament have described. This being the case no matter how certain the formal results of Neusner and Green appear they result have to be looked at critically in light of the various sources which can confirm the historicity of the others and the work of archaeolgists which can confirm some little details.[3]
We can also gain knowledge of the temple and temple practice from the New Testament which has Jesus and the disciples teaching in the temple at various places such as just out side of the northern gate at the Sheep Pool, inside the eastern wall under Solomon’s Portico, healing people at the Beautiful Gate, being tempted at the Pinnacle. As archeological excavations go on more and more details of the Temple and first century Jerusalem are uncovered. Our key strength is being able to compare the various literary sources with each other and with the archeological finds and being able to see the development of the Temple mount from the time of Solomon on.
In the first century before Christ or contemporary with him we have the record of Philo who refers to the temple in his writings. The temple he would have been dealing with was Herod’s reconstructed temple which was an enlarged temple of Zerubabbel. In the second century BC we have the record of the “Letter of Aristeas” written from Philocrates to Aristeas. We have a description from section 83-92. Then we have the story of the Maccabees which is centered around the fight for the Temple and the deliverance and cleansing of the Temple by the Maccabees in 164 BC, it having been profaned. We can see this in 2 Macabees. Here they weould be dealing with Zerubabels temple. We continue back to around 200 BC and we have the eyewitness testimony of Jesus Ben Sirach especially in chapter 50.
Moving back 200 years more and we come to the record of the prophet Malachi and his criticism of the Temple cult. From the fifth century BC we also have the records of Ezra and Nehemiah. And from 6th century we have the record of the prophets Zechariah and Haggai regarding the building of the second temple.
Pre Second Temple writings
During the Exile we have the vision of Ezekiel regarding a temple after the destruction of the first temple and in this we have some criticisms of first century practice. Ezekiel was a priest and knew Temple practice well. Chapter 40 to 48 of his book cover his vision of a future temple. The prophet Daniel also gives some prophecy regarding the temple it’s profanation and cleansing, Jesus picks up on some of his prophecies.
The First Temple
The life around the first temple is described in the books of King and Chronicles, with 1 Kings 1-9 describing the building of the temple and 1 Chronicles 17 describing David’s conception of the temple and 1 Chronicles 18- 2 Chronicles 8 David’s organization of the Priests and the Levites, and his preparation of the materials to build the Temple, to Solomon’s building of it. We can see in the prophets of the periods many criticisms of the Temple cult and also some meaning of the activities of the Temple cult. The Temple liturgy used the Psalms as part of their worship and many of the Psalms were written by Levites who served in the temple, such as Heman, Jeduthun and Asaph. Here we see a rich store of knowledge on the Temple and its function.
The Tabernacles
The source of information on the Tabernacle is Exodus 24-40 and the book of Leviticus. We can also see how it operated in the wilderness from 1460-1420 BC in Numbers. Among the Patriarchs some of the rituals which took place in the Tabernacle such as sacrifices and calling on the name Yahwah, took place at various places where Yahwah appeared to them, between Bethel and Ai and the Oaks of Mamre. Abraham the first Patriarch took bread and wine with a high from Shalem called Melchizedek. We see this in Genesis 12-28.
Our review of the Literature is by no means exhaustive but shows us just how deeply entrenched the temple service was in the life of the people of Yahwah.
The Purpose of the Temple
The Temple was conceived by David as a replacement home for the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was covered by the mercy seat which was the throne of Yahwah. The tabernacle was then the sources of the conception of a Temple for Yahwah. And whereas in that middle bronze age the Canaanites and many people had large temples of stones for their God’s the God of Israel had had a moving tent. The tabernacles had served Israel for up to 460 years before David conceived of a temple. It had been described by Yahwah to Moses on Mount Sinai after Shavuoth probably around 1460 BC. Both Temple in Jerusalem from 959 BC to 70 AD had been patterned around what was written describing the Tabernacle, the main difference being that in the second temple the ark was not replaced when lost just before the exile, and the form of the house of the covenant or of Yahwah had changed, the cultic practiced of later temple were patterned on the earlier tabernacle.
Timeline of the Temple
1018 BC 30 04 David Captured Jerusalem on July 12th
1018 BC 20 12 David bring ark to Jerusalem under high priest Nathan
985 BC 16 01 Priestly courses began on April 1st
985 BC 06 03 David died and Solomon succeeded him on 7th June
981 BC 02 02 Temple began on 20th April
974 BC 24 07 Temple is completed on the 20th of October Shabbat
961 BC 24 07 Solomons buildings dedicated on 26th September
943 BC 23 04 Jereboam starts the worship calves on 10th July
940 BC 01 01 Temple raided by Shishak II of Egypt
632 BC 15 07 Josiah has s great Passover the Torah is found on Oct 11th
628 BC 01 01 Jeremiah’s first prophecy on 20th March
613 BC 06 08 Niniveh fell to Medes and Babylon on 6th Aug
610 BC 12 01 The end of Assyria on Jan 31st
590 BC 10 10 Jerusalem under siege from Nebuchadnezzar from 21 Dec
588 BC 07 05 The Temple is set on fire on 31 July at priestly rotation
588 BC 10 05 The Temple fire is out on Aug 3rd
578 BC Cyrus the great born on 8th April
551 BC 14 09 Edict of Cyrus on 14th Dec
548 BC 02 012 Foundation of temple laid May 5th
540 BC 16 07 Cyrus captures Babylon without a fight on Oct 16th
520 BC 24 06 Haggai prophecies they should begin the temple on 19 Sep
516 BC 15 04 Temple is complete on 24th June.
Daily Temple Schedules
Levites daily Psalms: 24, 48, 82, 94, 81, 93, 92
Sunday Psalm 24
Hours: the hours are recorded in Mishnah time. The first hour is about 6AM
Morning
Open the heychal or the naos
Job Assignments under the responsibility of the Officer of Lots
To clean the altar of ashes : Take heed that thou touch not the vessel before thou hast sanctified thy hands and thy feet in the laver
To bake cakes (not necessarily decided by lot)
To clear the rest of the ashes and the members not burnt up the day before (priests) To place new wood on the altar
After these they presented themselves at the Chamber of Hewn Stone
The Lots Drawing Session :Each Morning for the following jobs
Come and Cast lots said the officer
To slaughter the lamb
To sprinkle the blood
To clear the inner altar of ashes
To trim the candlestick
To take the following parts of the lamb up the ramp
The head and the right hind leg
The two fore legs
The rump and the left hind leg
The breast and the neck
The two flanks
The inwards
The fine flour
The cakes
The wine
The officer said: Go and see if the time is come for slaughtering
If the time had come the seer would say It is daylight
The officer said: Go and bring a lamb from the chamber of lambs
Some went to the chamber of utensils and brought forth 94 vessels of silver or gold
The lamb drank from a gold cup
The lamb was inspected again as the night before
The one chosen to slaughter it dragged it to the slaughter house
Those chosen to carry members followed
The Inner Altar Cleared the Menorah trimmed
Those selected fro this job carried:
An ash bin
An oil jar (a large golden flagon
Key to thrust into the door
Key to open the door
When the great gate was opened the slaughterer was free to slaughter
[1] Jewish Encyclopedia “Mishna”, Encyclopedia Judaica “Mishna” Danby Mishna, Introduction
[2] See Danby Mishna, “Introduction”
[3] An important example of this is regarding the size of Temple mount. According to the Mishnah Middot it was 500 cubits by 500. However according to Josephus the court of the gentiles was larger than this and was not square. However in the “Introduction” to The Temple, Leen Ritmeyer claims to have found the 500 by 500 square underneath the platform of Herod which extended this original platform. The original platform was extended by Herod into the shape that Josephus describes. Hence we see however late the tractate Middot may have been redacted and however much editing took place this piece of historical information was retained in it.
Open the Avodah:
8:30 AM Slaughter the Tamid daily whole offering of a ewe lamb
9:30 AM offer up the daily whole offering
Levites sing psalms and play melodies as offering is made
One hour later the blood is tossed against the base of the altar in the inner court
Daily Watch:
Priests
Chamber of Abtinas
Chamber of the Flame
Chamber of the Hearth
Keeper of the Key of the Temple Court:
The eldest of the fathers house to sleep with them in his hand each night
Sleeping Arrangement in the Temple
Each young priest is to have a mattress
Use the holy uniforms as pillows
Sleep in their own clothes
If during the night any priest has a pollution:
Go to the passage which leads to the temple building (Birah)
He will find lamp are burning
Go into the chamber of baptism (bathroom) and immerse
Immerse yourself arise and dry yourself
You ma dry yourself by the fire their
Return to your place and sleep until the gates are opened
When they are opened leave the temple.(yfor you are not qualified to minister or
Eat of the holy bread until sunset
If it is locked someone is inside
Whoever desires to clean the Mizbeyach
Arise early
Immerse yourself before the officer over the lots comes
He will come maybe as the cockcrows or a little before or after
He will knock on the door where you are sleeping
He will say: Let him who has immersed himself come and cast lots
You will then cast lots and it will fall to whom it will fall
He will take the key and open the gate and enter the temple court by the Hearth Chamber
Kohenim will follow him carrying two lights torches
Divided into two groups some move west in the colonnade and some east
Come to the bakery and ask Is all well? Thy will reply All is well
Saying 3“
Take heed that thou touch not the vessel (silver firepan) before hold hast sanctified thy hands
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
In a sense this book is simply about one saying of Jesus in the New Testament it is about the saying in John’s gospel “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” and the Jewish response “Forty and six years was this temple in building and wilt thou raise it up in three days?”
But the commentator explains “But he spake of the temple of his body”
All of these words are pregnant and full of deep meaning. The word used by John in the text for temple is naos, usually it would refer to the central house of the temple containing the holy place and the holy of holies. However the fact that they mention the temple was forty six years in the making means the speakers understood the courts were included. It also meant they were referring specifically to Herod’s temple which he began to build in 20 or 19 BC or the 17th years of his reign according to Josephus.
If Jesus was referring to the temple of his body it means Jesus is now the temple. The purpose of the temple and its structure are in Jesus Christ. We now see two temples in the New Testament context one build by Herod one built Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit and the Power of the Most High. We can then expect to find the whole temple structure and purpose reveled in the New Testament.
To do this we will need first to ascertain the history of the temple at that time. This will mean analyzing the structure of the Temple, its functions and tracing them to those elements which they came from. It will then meaning looking at the New Testament with an eye to find, the structure, function and purpose of the Temple in it. My present hypothesis would state that in the New Testament, which is about Jesus Christ and his body the Church, we will find the whole Temple set forth in living array. All elements of the physical building and the Israelites, Levites and Priesthood with their functions in offering sacrifices, singing praises and eating sacrifices and tending the Temple will become fulfilled in one way or another in the New Testament outline of the temple.
Three tasks then we have: To analyze the temple as recorded by those who saw it and secondly to traces the sources which lead to it being built as it was and finally to see how the physical aspects are shown in the New Testament and to see the New Testament temple in all of its glorious array.
The Second Temple Sources
The two main sources we have describing the physical building of the temple are Josephus and Tractate Middot of the Mishnah. Josephus gives us two descriptions. The first is in Jewish Wars book 5 written about 75 AD by this eye witness and the second is in Antiquities written about 95 AD. The description do not agree in every detail. But with the help of the work of archaeologists and comparison with other temple literature of the period his writings are extremely important in understanding what the temple did and looked like in the first century.
Tractate Middot is part of the compilation of the Mishnah. It was compiled over 140 years after the destruction of the Temple by Titus the Roman. It was compiled by Judah ha Nasi in the city of Sepphoris but contains tradition going back to the second temple period. Some scholars, including William Scott Green and Jacob Neusner hold that the Mishnah tell us much more about what the 3rd century redactors were thinking about than what really went on in the first century. They have shown that Rabbinic literature can not be used to create biographies of Rabbi’s as Encylopedia’s are wont to do. However despite their grave reservations it has to be said there are different kinds of Hebrew in the Mishna and there are whole tractates which have very little to do with the 3rd century when it was complied. These parts of the Mishna are written in what is called Archaic Hebrew[1]. There are old Aramaic saying retained in the Mishna from when the Rabbis in Palestine spoke Aramaic. Thus there are layers in the Mishna and the older layers are those usually to do with the Temple and its function. Tractate Middot records the architecture and the size of the temple and is in archaic Hebrew. It neighbour, Tamid, is in a similar Hebrew[2] and covers the details of the daily whole offering or the perpetual offering made every morning and evening in the temple. Rabbinic literature assigns Middot to Eliezer Ben Yaacov and Tamid to Shimon of Mitzpeh. Other strands of this older Hebrew are seen in Tractate Yoma, detailing the practices of Yom Kippor from the days when the Temple were standing.
These tractates can be very useful to us again by comparison with independent first century literature such as Josephus, the New Testament and the relevant Dead Sea Scrolls and Philo. All three of these contain Halakha and ideas which parallel each other and yet come from independent traditions. We have the added benefit of archaeology which has already confirmed much of what Josephus, Middot and the New Testament have described. This being the case no matter how certain the formal results of Neusner and Green appear they result have to be looked at critically in light of the various sources which can confirm the historicity of the others and the work of archaeolgists which can confirm some little details.[3]
We can also gain knowledge of the temple and temple practice from the New Testament which has Jesus and the disciples teaching in the temple at various places such as just out side of the northern gate at the Sheep Pool, inside the eastern wall under Solomon’s Portico, healing people at the Beautiful Gate, being tempted at the Pinnacle. As archeological excavations go on more and more details of the Temple and first century Jerusalem are uncovered. Our key strength is being able to compare the various literary sources with each other and with the archeological finds and being able to see the development of the Temple mount from the time of Solomon on.
In the first century before Christ or contemporary with him we have the record of Philo who refers to the temple in his writings. The temple he would have been dealing with was Herod’s reconstructed temple which was an enlarged temple of Zerubabbel. In the second century BC we have the record of the “Letter of Aristeas” written from Philocrates to Aristeas. We have a description from section 83-92. Then we have the story of the Maccabees which is centered around the fight for the Temple and the deliverance and cleansing of the Temple by the Maccabees in 164 BC, it having been profaned. We can see this in 2 Macabees. Here they weould be dealing with Zerubabels temple. We continue back to around 200 BC and we have the eyewitness testimony of Jesus Ben Sirach especially in chapter 50.
Moving back 200 years more and we come to the record of the prophet Malachi and his criticism of the Temple cult. From the fifth century BC we also have the records of Ezra and Nehemiah. And from 6th century we have the record of the prophets Zechariah and Haggai regarding the building of the second temple.
Pre Second Temple writings
During the Exile we have the vision of Ezekiel regarding a temple after the destruction of the first temple and in this we have some criticisms of first century practice. Ezekiel was a priest and knew Temple practice well. Chapter 40 to 48 of his book cover his vision of a future temple. The prophet Daniel also gives some prophecy regarding the temple it’s profanation and cleansing, Jesus picks up on some of his prophecies.
The First Temple
The life around the first temple is described in the books of King and Chronicles, with 1 Kings 1-9 describing the building of the temple and 1 Chronicles 17 describing David’s conception of the temple and 1 Chronicles 18- 2 Chronicles 8 David’s organization of the Priests and the Levites, and his preparation of the materials to build the Temple, to Solomon’s building of it. We can see in the prophets of the periods many criticisms of the Temple cult and also some meaning of the activities of the Temple cult. The Temple liturgy used the Psalms as part of their worship and many of the Psalms were written by Levites who served in the temple, such as Heman, Jeduthun and Asaph. Here we see a rich store of knowledge on the Temple and its function.
The Tabernacles
The source of information on the Tabernacle is Exodus 24-40 and the book of Leviticus. We can also see how it operated in the wilderness from 1460-1420 BC in Numbers. Among the Patriarchs some of the rituals which took place in the Tabernacle such as sacrifices and calling on the name Yahwah, took place at various places where Yahwah appeared to them, between Bethel and Ai and the Oaks of Mamre. Abraham the first Patriarch took bread and wine with a high from Shalem called Melchizedek. We see this in Genesis 12-28.
Our review of the Literature is by no means exhaustive but shows us just how deeply entrenched the temple service was in the life of the people of Yahwah.
The Purpose of the Temple
The Temple was conceived by David as a replacement home for the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was covered by the mercy seat which was the throne of Yahwah. The tabernacle was then the sources of the conception of a Temple for Yahwah. And whereas in that middle bronze age the Canaanites and many people had large temples of stones for their God’s the God of Israel had had a moving tent. The tabernacles had served Israel for up to 460 years before David conceived of a temple. It had been described by Yahwah to Moses on Mount Sinai after Shavuoth probably around 1460 BC. Both Temple in Jerusalem from 959 BC to 70 AD had been patterned around what was written describing the Tabernacle, the main difference being that in the second temple the ark was not replaced when lost just before the exile, and the form of the house of the covenant or of Yahwah had changed, the cultic practiced of later temple were patterned on the earlier tabernacle.
Timeline of the Temple
1018 BC 30 04 David Captured Jerusalem on July 12th
1018 BC 20 12 David bring ark to Jerusalem under high priest Nathan
985 BC 16 01 Priestly courses began on April 1st
985 BC 06 03 David died and Solomon succeeded him on 7th June
981 BC 02 02 Temple began on 20th April
974 BC 24 07 Temple is completed on the 20th of October Shabbat
961 BC 24 07 Solomons buildings dedicated on 26th September
943 BC 23 04 Jereboam starts the worship calves on 10th July
940 BC 01 01 Temple raided by Shishak II of Egypt
632 BC 15 07 Josiah has s great Passover the Torah is found on Oct 11th
628 BC 01 01 Jeremiah’s first prophecy on 20th March
613 BC 06 08 Niniveh fell to Medes and Babylon on 6th Aug
610 BC 12 01 The end of Assyria on Jan 31st
590 BC 10 10 Jerusalem under siege from Nebuchadnezzar from 21 Dec
588 BC 07 05 The Temple is set on fire on 31 July at priestly rotation
588 BC 10 05 The Temple fire is out on Aug 3rd
578 BC Cyrus the great born on 8th April
551 BC 14 09 Edict of Cyrus on 14th Dec
548 BC 02 012 Foundation of temple laid May 5th
540 BC 16 07 Cyrus captures Babylon without a fight on Oct 16th
520 BC 24 06 Haggai prophecies they should begin the temple on 19 Sep
516 BC 15 04 Temple is complete on 24th June.
Daily Temple Schedules
Levites daily Psalms: 24, 48, 82, 94, 81, 93, 92
Sunday Psalm 24
Hours: the hours are recorded in Mishnah time. The first hour is about 6AM
Morning
Open the heychal or the naos
Job Assignments under the responsibility of the Officer of Lots
To clean the altar of ashes : Take heed that thou touch not the vessel before thou hast sanctified thy hands and thy feet in the laver
To bake cakes (not necessarily decided by lot)
To clear the rest of the ashes and the members not burnt up the day before (priests) To place new wood on the altar
After these they presented themselves at the Chamber of Hewn Stone
The Lots Drawing Session :Each Morning for the following jobs
Come and Cast lots said the officer
To slaughter the lamb
To sprinkle the blood
To clear the inner altar of ashes
To trim the candlestick
To take the following parts of the lamb up the ramp
The head and the right hind leg
The two fore legs
The rump and the left hind leg
The breast and the neck
The two flanks
The inwards
The fine flour
The cakes
The wine
The officer said: Go and see if the time is come for slaughtering
If the time had come the seer would say It is daylight
The officer said: Go and bring a lamb from the chamber of lambs
Some went to the chamber of utensils and brought forth 94 vessels of silver or gold
The lamb drank from a gold cup
The lamb was inspected again as the night before
The one chosen to slaughter it dragged it to the slaughter house
Those chosen to carry members followed
The Inner Altar Cleared the Menorah trimmed
Those selected fro this job carried:
An ash bin
An oil jar (a large golden flagon
Key to thrust into the door
Key to open the door
When the great gate was opened the slaughterer was free to slaughter
[1] Jewish Encyclopedia “Mishna”, Encyclopedia Judaica “Mishna” Danby Mishna, Introduction
[2] See Danby Mishna, “Introduction”
[3] An important example of this is regarding the size of Temple mount. According to the Mishnah Middot it was 500 cubits by 500. However according to Josephus the court of the gentiles was larger than this and was not square. However in the “Introduction” to The Temple, Leen Ritmeyer claims to have found the 500 by 500 square underneath the platform of Herod which extended this original platform. The original platform was extended by Herod into the shape that Josephus describes. Hence we see however late the tractate Middot may have been redacted and however much editing took place this piece of historical information was retained in it.
Open the Avodah:
8:30 AM Slaughter the Tamid daily whole offering of a ewe lamb
9:30 AM offer up the daily whole offering
Levites sing psalms and play melodies as offering is made
One hour later the blood is tossed against the base of the altar in the inner court
Daily Watch:
Priests
Chamber of Abtinas
Chamber of the Flame
Chamber of the Hearth
Keeper of the Key of the Temple Court:
The eldest of the fathers house to sleep with them in his hand each night
Sleeping Arrangement in the Temple
Each young priest is to have a mattress
Use the holy uniforms as pillows
Sleep in their own clothes
If during the night any priest has a pollution:
Go to the passage which leads to the temple building (Birah)
He will find lamp are burning
Go into the chamber of baptism (bathroom) and immerse
Immerse yourself arise and dry yourself
You ma dry yourself by the fire their
Return to your place and sleep until the gates are opened
When they are opened leave the temple.(yfor you are not qualified to minister or
Eat of the holy bread until sunset
If it is locked someone is inside
Whoever desires to clean the Mizbeyach
Arise early
Immerse yourself before the officer over the lots comes
He will come maybe as the cockcrows or a little before or after
He will knock on the door where you are sleeping
He will say: Let him who has immersed himself come and cast lots
You will then cast lots and it will fall to whom it will fall
He will take the key and open the gate and enter the temple court by the Hearth Chamber
Kohenim will follow him carrying two lights torches
Divided into two groups some move west in the colonnade and some east
Come to the bakery and ask Is all well? Thy will reply All is well
Saying 3“
Take heed that thou touch not the vessel (silver firepan) before hold hast sanctified thy hands
posted by Evangelist Edi Nachman Bsc. PGCE @ 5:40 AM
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