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[207]
As to the holy house itself, which was placed in the midst [of the
inmost court], that most sacred part of the temple, it was ascended to
by twelve steps; and in front its height and its breadth were equal, and
each a hundred cubits, though it was behind forty cubits narrower; for
on its front it had what may be styled shoulders on each side, that passed
twenty cubits further. Its first gate was seventy cubits high, and twenty-five
cubits broad; but this gate had no doors; for it represented the universal
visibility of heaven, and that it cannot be excluded from any place. Its
front was covered with gold all over, and through it the first part of
the house, that was more inward, did all of it appear; which, as it was
very large, so did all the parts about the more inward gate appear to shine
to those that saw them; but then, as the entire house was divided into
two parts within, it was only the first part of it that was open to our
view. Its height extended all along to ninety cubits in height, and its
length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty. But that gate which was
at this end of the first part of the house was, as we have already observed,
all over covered with gold, as was its whole wall about it; it had also
golden vines above it, from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a
man's height. But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the
inner part was lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors
of fifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before these
doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian
curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple,
and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors
without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe;
for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire, by
the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea;
two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance; but
the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation,
the earth producing the one, and the sea the other. This curtain had also
embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that
of the [twelve] signs, representing living creatures.
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