635. The Pinnacle of the Temple

Narrator: Chris Genthree
 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 12
Matthew 4:55Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, (Matthew 4:5). Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.
This is commonly supposed to have been the summit of the royal gallery built by Herod within the area of the temple building’s on the edge of the Kedron valley. Josephus says of it: “This cloister deserves to be mentioned better than any other under the sun; for, while the valley was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen if you looked from above into the depth, this farther vastly high elevation of the cloister stood upon that height, insomuch that if any one looked down from the top of the battlements, or down both those altitudes, he would be giddy, while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth” (Antiquities, Book 15, chap. 11, § 5). The extreme distance from the top of the battlement to the bottom of the valley is supposed to have been about seven hundred feet. See also note on Matthew 24:11And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. (Matthew 24:1) (#704).