caused the gates to be opened and shut, and
prevented any one from crossing the enclosure with a stick in his
hand, or with dusty shoes, or when carrying parcels, or to shorten his
path.[6] They were especially scrupulous in watching that no one
entered within the inner gates in a state of legal impurity. The
women had an entirely separate court.

[Footnote 1: The temple and its enclosure doubtless occupied the site
of the mosque of Omar and the _haram_, or Sacred Court, which
surrounds the mosque. The foundation of the haram is, in some parts,
especially at the place where the Jews go to weep, the exact base of
the temple of Herod.]

[Footnote 2: Luke ii. 46, and following; Mishnah, _Sanhedrim_, x. 2.]

[Footnote 3: Suet., _Aug._ 93.]

[Footnote 4: Philo, _Legatio ad Caium_, Sec. 31; Jos., _B.J._, V. v. 2,
VI. ii. 4; _Acts_ xxi. 28.]

[Footnote 5: Considerable traces of this tower are still seen in the
northern part of the haram.]

[Footnote 6: Mishnah, _Berakoth_, ix. 5; Talm. of Babyl., _Jebamoth_,
6 _b_; Mark xi. 16.]

It was in the temple that Jesus passed his days, whilst he remained at
Jerusalem. The period of the feasts brought an extraordinary concourse
of people into the city. Associated in parties of ten to twenty
persons, the pilgrims invaded everywhere, and lived in that disordered
state in which Orientals delight.[1] Jesus was lost in the crowd, and
his poor Galileans grouped around him were of small account. He
probably felt that he was in a hostile world which would receive him
only with disdain. Everything he saw set him against it. The temple,
like much-frequented places of devotion in general, offered a not very
edifying spectacle. The accessories of worship entailed a number of
repulsive details, especially of mercantile operations, in consequence
of which real shops were established within the sacred enclosure.
There were sold beasts for the sacrifices; there were tables for the
exchange of money; at times it seemed like a bazaar. The inferior
officers of the temple fulfilled their functions doubtless with the
irreligious vulgarity of the sacristans of all ages. This profane and
heedless air in the handling of holy things wounded the religious
sentiment of Jesus, which was at times carried even to a scrupulous
excess.[2] He said that they had made the house of prayer into a den
of thieves. One day, it is even said, that, carried away by his anger,
he scourged the vendors with a "scourge of