292 



PROF. ARCHIBALD R. S. KENNEDY, M.A., D.D., ON 



The original jambs of the Triple Gate were 400 cubits from the 

 same angle, and 200 from the S.E. angle. On the west side 

 of the Haram, we have Barclay's gate at 271 feet, or 185 

 cubits, from the S.W. angle, and the historic gateway at Wilson's 

 arch at 586 feet, or 400 cubits, from the same point. 



These measurements, I venture to think, speak for themselves. 

 The cubit of Herod's builders was a cubit of 17*6 inches (447 

 millimetres). 



There is evidence, moreover, that this same cubit was in use 

 at a much earlier period. In excavating the earliest part of the 

 south wall of the city, Dr. Bliss came upon some " most beauti- 

 fully-set work " in the " remains of three courses, each 

 23-J inches high." This is exactly 8 handbreadths of a 17*6 

 cubit. Again, the sill of the ancient Valley Gate measured 

 8 feet 10 inches, otherwise 6 cubits {Excavations at Jerusalem, 

 pp. 30, 19). These two monuments of the Hebrew monarchy, 

 possibly even of Solomon's reign, therefore, show the earlier use 

 of the Herodian cubit. The real length of the Siloam aqueduct 

 by the same cubit works out at 1,194, as compared with the 

 round 1,200 cubits of the inscription. 



The following table shows the scale of the Hebrew measures 

 on this valuation of the cubit : — 



Digit 



1 









'733 inches. 



Palm 



4 



1 







2-93 „ 



Span 



12 



3 



1 





8-8 



Cubit 



24 



6 



2 



1 



17-6 



Keed 



144 



36 



12 



6 



1 105-6 „ 



As to the origin of this cubit there can hardly be any doubt. 

 It is the early Egyptian cubit of practically the same length 

 which seems to have been displaced in Egypt itself by the 

 longer, or " royal," cubit of seven handbreadths (20"63 inches). 



Granted that the available evidence up to this point has 

 revealed only one cubit of six handbreadths, in use from the 

 monarchy to the first century A.D., is there evidence of another 

 cubit — larger or smaller, as the case may be — in use alongside 

 of it ? First of all the later Jewish doctors and some modern 

 writers speak of a cubit of five handbreadths, but, as it seems, 

 on insufficient evidence. On the other hand, every previous 

 writer on this subject, myself included, has told us of the cubit 

 of seven handbreadths — the above-mentioned Egyptian " royal" 

 cubit — introduced to us by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel xl, 5, 

 xliii, 13). 



Well, I have already ventured on one metrological heresy in 



