Arch

There is no word in Heb. connoting the architectural arch form. It was known in early Egypt and in the time of Raamses II. If the form was to be learned by the Israelites, it was available in Egypt, but no instance of its use is found in Israelite Pal.

Bibliography Egyptian Architecture 54; S. Giedion, The Beginnings of Architecture (1964), 515.

Article 2

Referred to repeatedly in Eze 40:16 ff, but translation is an error for "porch" or "portico." the Revised Version (British and American) gives in marg, "or, colonnade. The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain." The principle of arch construction was known to the Jews and examples of early Jewish rude arches have been found in Palestine. An arched form need not necessarily be constructed with radiating joints; it can be corbelled as at Mycenae (Treasury of Atreus). This type of construction has been found also in Palestine.