871. Wall - Window - Basket

From: Manners and Customs of the Bible By: James M. Freeman

• 1 min. read • grade level: 9

2 Corinthians 11:33³³And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands. (2 Corinthians 11:33). Through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall.

1. The wall of a house is sometimes also a portion of the city wall, and thus windows may be placed in the wall through which access may be had to the region outside of the city. The floor of an upper story sometimes extends beyond the wall, giving an opportunity for a bay window projecting outside the wall. Either of these methods would afford a chance to escape from the city without passing through the gates. Thus the spies escaped from Jericho. See Joshua 2:15¹⁵Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. (Joshua 2:15). David seems to have escaped in a similar manner by the help of Michal. See 1 Samuel 19:12¹²So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped. (1 Samuel 19:12).

2. The basket by which Paul was let down probably resembled the large round shallow baskets which are still used in Damascus and in other parts of the East for various purposes. When Professor Hackett was in Damascus he saw a couple of men come to the top of the wall with a basket full of rubbish, which they emptied over the wall. A friend said to him: “Such a basket the people use here for almost every sort of thing. If they are digging a well and wish to send a man down into it, they put him into such a basket; and that those who aided Paul’s escape should have used a basket for the purpose was entirely natural, according to the present customs of the country. Judging from what is done now, it is the only sort of vehicle of which men would be apt to think under such circumstances” (Illustrations of Scripture, p. 69).

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