Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Pinnacle of the Temple


The information below helped me to more easily picture the context of this scripture quote.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
Matthew 4:5

"In the second temptation Jesus... saw himself on “the pinnacle of the Temple,” and the temptation was to leap down, and to land at the foot of it unharmed (Luke 4:9-12; Matt. 4:5-7). “The pinnacle of the Temple” may be either of two places. On the south side of the Temple rose the Royal Porch. The outer wall of the Royal Porch rose straight up from the side of the hill on which Jerusalem and the Temple were built. There was a sheer drop of 450 feet to the Kidron valley below, a drop so famous and notorious that Josephus tells us that no one could look down it without being overcome with dizziness (Antiquities 15.11.5).

Edersheim has another suggestion to make. The first great event of the Temple day was the morning sacrifice which had to be made as soon as dawn came. There was a tall tower in the Temple, on the top of which a priest was stationed with a silver trumpet to sound the blast upon it when the first streaks of dawn came across the hills, and so to tell all men that the time of sacrifice had come. At such a time the Temple court would be thronged with expectant worshippers, with their eyes fixed on the priest who waited to give the signal that the dawn had come. If Jesus chose to leap down from the top of that tower at that moment he would indeed have an audience for his miracle of sensation."

(Barclay, William., The Mind of Jesus, HarperSanFrancisco, United States of America, 1960, pg 36)

Request from Donna--I don't know if the readers of this blog prefer the random nature of my posts, or if they would like some postings about aspects of the same topic for a while. I have 15 postings ready relating to some of my ancient Temple information and I thought I'd go with that theme for a while. If you think it would be better or more interesting to mix them up with other topics, will you let me know?

9 comments:

  1. I'm just grateful for whatever you post. This is your blog-do what you feel is best!

    thanks!!!!!

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  2. I would love to see more on the Temple, but totally agree with Mom/Jolene!

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  3. I agree with all of the above. If the topic is temples, I'd love to see it all in a row but I'm happy and grateful for anything you have to share. It's the highlight of my day.

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  4. Temples Temples Temples! I have loved all the topics you have posted on but I can't think of a better topic to explore in depth than Temples! I have a Margaret Barker paper on Temples that you suggested to me open in front of me right now. My deepest gratitude for all you have shared here!

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  5. Either way, just keep posting--the more the better. :)

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  6. I think it would be great to do thematic postings.

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  7. Temples theme is great! Let's hear it!

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