Pinnacle

In the account of our Lord’s temptation (Mat 4:5), it is stated that the devil took him to Jerusalem, ’and set him on a pinnacle of the temple.’ The part of the temple denoted by this term has been much questioned by different commentators, and the only certain conclusion seems to be that it cannot be understood in the sense usually attached to the word, i.e. the point of a spiral ornament. Grotius, Hammond, Doddridge, and others, take it in the sense of balustrade or pinnated battlement. But it is now more generally supposed to denote what was called the king’s portico, which is mentioned by Josephus (Antiq. xv. 11. 5), and is the same which is called in Scripture ’Solomon’s porch.’

Literally a wing; probably some part of the battlements on the outer wall of the temple, perhaps of Solomon’s porch, accessible by stairs, Mat 4:5-6 . Josephus describes a gallery constructed by Herod to overhang the deep valley of the Kidron, and says that the beholder on looking down from it would become dizzy. See TEMPTATION.\par

Pinnacle. (of the Temple). Mat 4:5; Luk 4:9. The Greek word ought to be rendered not "a pinnacle", but "the pinnacle". The only part of the Temple, which answered to the modern sense of pinnacle was the golden spikes erected on the roof, to prevent birds from settling there. Perhaps, the word means the battlement ordered by law to be added to every roof. (According to Alford, it was the roof of Herod’s royal portico of the Temple, "which overhung the ravine of Kedron from a dizzy height" -- 600 or 700 feet. -- Editor).

Mat 4:5, "the pinnacle of the temple," the summit of the southern portico, rising 400 cubits above the valley of Jehoshaphat (Josephus Ant. 15:11, section 5, 20:9, section 7). Tregelles translated Dan 9:27, "upon the wing (kenaph) of abominations shall be that which causeth desolation," namely, an idol set up on a wing or pinnacle of the temple by antichrist, who covenants with the restored Jews for the last of the 70 weeks of years (Joh 5:43) and breaks the covenant in the midst of the week, causing the daily sacrifices to cease. The pinnacle of the temple restored may be the scene of Satan’s tempting Israel by antichrist as it was of his tempting Jesus. James the Lord’s brother was precipitated from the pinnacle (Eusebius II E. 2:23).

The word πτερύγιον has the article, and refers to some elevated part of the temple that is now unknown. Mat 4:5; Luk 4:9.

PINNACLE occurs only in Mat 4:5 || Luk 4:9. The word (πτερύγιον) so rendered means ‘a little wing,’ and refers to some lofty point about the Temple, from which Jesus is said to have been invited by the tempter to cast Himself down. The word used for ‘temple’ in both passages (ἱερόν) denotes the whole enclosure, and not merely the Temple building proper (ναός). The ‘pinnacle ‘may therefore be sought for anywhere within the Temple precincts. It is evident, from the use of the phrase ‘the pinnacle of the temple,’ that there was a definite point well known by this name when the Evangelists wrote; but now we are in some uncertainty as to where it was situated. Some understand the apex of the roof of the Temple building to be meant. Others suggest the roof of Solomon’s Porch, on the east side of the Temple area. But if ‘the pinnacle’ was not the summit of the Temple proper, the most likely position for it is the battlement of the Royal Portico, which ran from east to west across the south end of the enclosure, on the precipitous edge of a deep valley. Josephus (Ant. xv. xi. 5) says of this portico: ‘While the valley was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen if you looked from above into the depth, this further vastly high elevation of the cloister stood upon that height, insomuch that if any one looked down from the top of the battlements, or down both these altitudes, he would be giddy, while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth.’ By ‘both these altitudes,’ it need hardly be said, Josephus means the height of the precipice plus the height of the portico which crowned it. As the top of the portico, according to Josephus, was 100 feet above the pavement, the drop from this elevation to the bottom of the Kidron Valley would be about 300 feet; and if ‘the pinnacle,’ as some suppose, was a turret or spire at the eastern end, marking the south-east corner of the enclosure, then its height would have to be added to this vertical distance.

The Church historian Hegesippus (a.d. 160), as quoted by Eusebius (Historia Ecclesiastica ii. 23), gives an account of the death of James the Lord’s brother, who, he says, was cast down by the Jews from the pinnacle of the Temple (ναός—the Temple proper). If this statement were reliable, it would be decisive in favour of the first supposition mentioned above; but the accuracy of the whole story is doubtful, and it may be questioned whether Hegesippus, writing nearly a century after the destruction of the Temple, knew any better than we do where ‘the pinnacle’ really was. There is still, therefore, a choice of views. On the one hand, the apex of the Temple proper would undoubtedly be the loftiest point of the whole group of buildings. On the other hand, the battlement of the Royal Portico would afford the deepest and sheerest fall, and, on the whole, it is most probable that ‘the pinnacle’ was situated here.

James Patrick.

PINNACLE.—This word has been adopted by our EV [Note: English Version.] from the Vulgate of Mat 4:5 (pinnaculum) to indicate the spot within the Temple enclosure from which the devil tempted our Lord to cast Himself down. The precise nature and location of ‘the pinnacle of the temple’ (Mt. l.c., Luk 4:9 [both RV [Note: Revised Version.] ]), however, are nowhere indicated. The context and the use of the word usually employed for the whole complex of buildings as opposed to that which denotes the Temple proper (see plan in art. Temple, § 12) rather favour the view that the ‘pinnacle’ is to be sought in the neighbourhood of the S.E. corner, where the royal ‘porch’ met that of Solomon. Here, as Josephus informs us—and the excavations corroborate his testimony—a spectator looking down into the valley of the Kidron ‘would turn giddy, while his sight could not reach down so such an abyss’ (Ant. XV. xi. 5). Many authorities, on the contrary, favour some part of the roof of the Temple building itself.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

pin´a-k’l (πτερύγιον, pterúgion (Mat 4:5; Luk 4:9, the Revised Version margin “wing”)): “The pinnacle of the temple” is named as the place to which the devil took Jesus, and there tempted Him to cast Himself down. It is not known what precise elevated spot is meant, whether a part of the roof of the temple itself, or some high point in the adjacent buildings overlooking the deep ravine. It was more probably the latter.