<strong>GATE, THE BEAUTIFUL</strong> (<span class="greek">ἡ ̔Ωράια πύλη</span> or <span class="greek">θύρα</span>, <span class="gknumber">G2598</span>, <em>the beautiful gate</em>, or <em>door</em>). A gate in Herod’s Temple, q.v.<br /><br />

Whereas the “<span class="auto-link">[[Beautiful Gate]]</span>” of the NT Temple is known only from <bibleref ref="Acts.3.1-Acts.3.26">Acts 3</bibleref>, the phrase prob. refers to that entrance way, famous for its imported Corinthian bronze doors, which was the only E gate from the surrounding <span class="auto-link">[[Court of the Gentiles]]</span> into the Court of the Women (Jos. War. V. 5. 3). It was once identified with the single E gate that led from the Kidron Valley, through the outer wall and “<span class="auto-link">[[Solomon's Porch|Solomon’s Porch]]</span>,” into the Court of the Gentiles—a fact that may account for the name of the later entrance way, now itself sealed up, that was built over it and called “Porta Aurea” (<span class="greek">Ωράια</span>), the “Golden Gate.”<br /><br />

After Pentecost, a man lame from his mother’s womb, was laid daily at the Beautiful Gate to ask for alms, and was miraculously healed by Peter and John in the name of <span class="auto-link">[[Jesus Christ]]</span> (<bibleref ref="Acts.3.2">Acts 3:2</bibleref>, <bibleref ref="Acts.3.10">10</bibleref>).

<h2>Bibliography</h2>

J. Simons, <em>Jerusalem in the OT</em> (1952), 371; A. Parrot, <em>The Temple of Jerusalem</em> (1957), 85-88.<br /><br />

<h2>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)</h2>

(he horaia pule tou hierou):<br /><br />

This gate of Herod’s temple is mentioned in the narrative of the healing of the lame man by Peter and John in <bibleref ref="Acts.3.2">Ac 3:2</bibleref>,<bibleref ref="Acts.3.10">10</bibleref>. Little dispute exists as to the identification of the <span class="auto-link">[[Beautiful Gate]]</span> with the splendid "gate of Nicanor" of the Mishna (Mid., i.4), and "Corinthian Gate" of Josephus (BJ, V, v, 3), but authorities are divided as to whether this gate was situated at the entrance to the women’s court on the East, or was the gate reached by 15 steps, dividing that court from the court of the men. The balance of recent opinion inclines strongly to the former view (compare Kennedy, "Problems of <span class="auto-link">[[Herod's Temple|Herod’s Temple]]</span>," The Expositor Times, XX, 170); others take the opposite view (Waterhouse, in Sacred Sites of the Gospels, 110), or leave the question open (thus G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, II, 212). See <em>TEMPLE, HEROD</em>’s.<br /><br />

The gate itself was of unusual size and splendor. It received the name "Nicanor" from its being the work, or having been constructed at the expense, of an Alexandrian Jew of this name. Lately an ossuary was discovered on Mt. Olivet bearing the Greek inscription: "The bones of Nicanor the Alexandrian, who made the doors."<br /><br />

Its other name, "Corinthian," refers to the costly material of which it was constructed-- Corinthian bronze. Josephus gives many interesting particulars about this gate, which, he tells us, greatly excelled in workmanship and value all the others (BJ, V, v, 3). These were plated with gold and silver, but this still more richly and thickly. It was larger than the other gates; was 50 cubits in height (the others 40); its weight was so great that it took 20 men to move it (BJ, VI, vi, 3). Its massiveness and magnificence, therefore, well earned for it the name "Beautiful."<br /><br />

W. Shaw Caldecott<br /><br />

The Beautiful Gate