LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 141 



The four pillars between the holy and most holy places in 

 the Tabernacle gave five openings: these were replaced in the 

 Temple by one opening (central by symmetry), one-fifth of 

 the whole, furnished with doors or doorways ; two-fifths of the 

 front on each side were presumably boarded up (i Kings vi, 

 3.1-34). 



The five pillars on the front giving entrance to the holy 

 place in the Tabernacle from the outside gave six openings ; 

 these were replaced in the temple by two openings, each 

 furnished with doors, which symmetry demanded should 

 be on each side of a central pillar; each of these doorways 

 occupied one-eighth of the front. Had these doors followed 

 exactly the same rule as the other doors leading into the most 

 holy place they would each have been one-sixth of the front ; 

 but the increase of actual frontage over that of the Tabernacle 

 permitted the proportionate width of the doorways to be 

 reduced ; thus though some change was made, the central 

 pillar arrangement which blocked the entrance of the sun's rays 

 apparently remained unaltered. This seems evident from the 

 marginal reading of the A.V., but the R.V. does not make this 

 meaning quite so clear. 



The description of the Temple in Ezek. xli, 2, 3, is rather 

 obscure ; but it would appear probable that the entrance to the 

 holy place was in two parts, " five cubits on the one side, and 

 five cubits on the other side," i.e., two doorways with a central 

 post between them. The entrance to the most holy place was 

 apparently only one opening, as there is no mention of "in the 

 one side " and " on the other side." 



Direction. — The Hebrews were not a maritime nation, and we 

 find little allusion to the use of the heavenly bodies for the 

 purposes of navigation : we may, however, notice two passages 

 (Job xxxviii, 32, R.V.), " Canst thou guide the Bear with her 

 train." (The Arcturus of this passage and of Job ix, 9, in the 

 A.V. is evidently a mistranslation.) The constellation of the 

 Bear was in those days much nearer to the pole than now, and 

 it consequently must have served to point out the then pole 

 star quite as effectively as it now does the present one ; the 

 thought seems to be " are you able to guide that which guides 

 the mariner " ? In Acts xxvii, 20, R.V., " when neither sun nor 

 stars shone upon us for many days," the thought seems to be 

 that the danger was great because the means of guidance was 

 not available ; had it been intended to say that their hiding 

 indicated cloudy bad weather, we should expect to find the 

 moon mentioned also ; but mention of the moon is probably 



