Solomon’s Porch

SOLOMON’s PORCH (ἡ Στοὰ̀ Σολομῶντος, ἡ Στοὰ̀ (τοῦ) Σολομῶνος). A roofed colonnade of Herod’s Temple (q.v.) in NT Jerusalem.

The “portico of Solomon” (ASVmg.) bordered on the E side of the outer court of the Temple, resting on a massive Herodian retaining wall (still largely visible as the lower courses of the present Temple-area wall) built out over the Kidron Valley. It may have been so named because of a tradition that Solomon had once constructed a similar E wall and cloister (Jos. War V. 5. 1; cf. Antiq., VIII. 3. 9). It was here that Christ walked and talked (John 10:23) and that His disciples seem later regularly to have gathered (Acts 5:12, cf. 3:11).

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