(10) The Guards. The Temple was of so much political importance that it had its own guards (guards of the Temple), which were commanded by a strat-ay-gos', or general.
Twenty men were required for opening and shutting the eastern gate (Joseph. Dc Bell. Jud. vi. 5. 3: c. Apion. ii. 9; Antiq. vi. 5. 3; xvii. 2. 2). The general had his own secretary (Antiq. xx. 6. 2; 9. 3), and had to maintain the police in the courts (comp. Acts iv :I and v :24). He ap(12) Overthrow of the Temple. The destruc tion of this beautiful temple and the doom of Jerusalem were foretold on the first Palm Sun day (that is the day of the triumphal entry) from Mt. Olivet (Luke xix :41-44). Within forty years after this prediction of Christ, its destruction was pears to have been of sufficient dignity to be men tioned together with the chief priests. It seems that his Hebrew title was the man of the 1310101 tain of the house.
The priests themselves kept watch on three dif ferent posts, and the Levites on twenty-one posts.
(11) Sacred Vessels. The sacred utensils, the golden table of the shewbread, the book of the law, and the golden candlestick. were displayed in the triumph at Rome. Representations of them are still to be seen sculptured in relief on the triumphal arch of Titus (comp. Fleck's I-Vissen schaftliche Reim, i. 1, plate i.-iv.; and Reland, De spoliis Temphi Hicrosolymitani in areu Titiano, edit. E. A. Schulze, Traject. ad Rh. 1775). The place where the Temple had stood seemed to be a dangerous center for the rebellious population, until, in A. D. 136, the Emperor Hadrian founded a Roman colony, under the name /Elia Capitolina, on the ruins of Jerusalem, and dedicated a tem ple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the ruins of the temple of Jehovah. Henceforth no Jew was per mitted to approach the site of the ancient temple.
terribly fulfilled. Its glory was brief ; for scarcely had the gates been set up when the Roman gen eral, Titus, entered the city and the flames from his torches left scarcely a fragment of its glory and beauty.
(13) Excavations. Recent researches have brought to light the massive substructures of a pant of the south and west wall where he ex tended the courts of the Temple. Beneath the platform of the Temple proper is another frag ment of Jewish art under Roman influence. It is the Gate of Huldah, a passage forty-one feet wide. Four arches divide 4he vestibule into four flat-domed compartments. A vine and foliage ornamentation binds together an otherwise wholly incongruous combination of Roman and Jewish architecture.
The Emperor Julian, it is stated, undertook (A. D. 363) to rebuild the Temple; but after con siderable preparations and much expense, he was compelled to desist by flames which burst forth from the foundations.
(14) Present Structure. A splendid mosque now stands on the site of the Temple. This mosque was erected by the caliph Omar after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Saracens (A..D. 636). It seems that Omar changed a Christian church, that stood on the ground of the Temple, into this mosque, which is called El Aksa, the outer, or northern, because it is the third of the most cele brated mosques, two of which, namely those of Mecca and Medina, are in a more southern lati tude. The best works on the antiquities and his tory of the Jews contain also chapters illustrative of the Temple. Among the Biblical dictionaries, see especially Hastings' Bible Dictionary, 1900, under the subject Temple; see also Edersheim, The Temple; Keil, Bib. Arch.; Payne, Solomon's Temple. C. H. F. B.
Figurative. (t) Did not this temple typify Christ's manhood, as the wonderfully prepared, the curious, pure, and glorious residence of his Godhead, and through which we have access to worship God? ( John ii:io.) (2) Did it not repre sent his person, freely set up to he our Mediator, as the glorious, fixed, and lasting means of our fellowship with God, and of receiving all blessings from him? (Col. i:19; ii :9.) (3) Did it not typify the gospel church, large, glorious, and firmly founded, reared up with lively stones, and cedars of God, with chosen men, and connected to gether with the oracles, ordinances, blood, Spirit, and grace of Christ, and fitted to be the residence of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? (Eph. :20 22.) (4) Did it not also prefigure heaven, as the glorious and fixed residence of the Most High, where he is served by multitudes of angels and men, and honored with endless anthemsof praise? (Ps. xi :4; Rev. vii:t5.) (5) The saints are "temples;" their souls, and even their bodies, are by the blood, Spirit, and grace of Christ, fitted and set apart to the service, and to be the resi dence of God (1 Cor. :16; vi :19; 2 Cor. vi :16). (6) John saw "no temple in heaven," for the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple thereof. In the millennial period, outward pomp and cere mony shall be undervalued, and real fellowship with God alone prized: and in heaven, instituted ordinances shall cease, and the full enjoyment of God be "all, and in all" (Rev. xxi :22).