Porch

See HOUSE and TEMPLE.\par

Porch.

1. U’lam or ul’am. 1Ch 28:11. Strictly a vestibule, was probably, a sort of veranda chamber, in the works of Solomon, open in front and at the sides, but capable of being enclosed with awnings or curtains..

2. Misderon [ulam]. Jdg 3:23. The porch, Mat 26:71, may have been the passage from the street, into the first court of the house, in which, in eastern houses, is the mastabah, or stone bench, for the porter or persons waiting, and where also, the master of the house often receives visitors and transacts business, or it may have been a corridor, connecting the principal rooms of the house. Mat 16:71.

’uwlam. 1Ch 28:11, of Solomon’s temple, a "vestibule open in front and on the sides". The porch (puloon or proaulion), Mat 26:71, is the passage beneath the housefront from the street to the aule or court inside, open to the sky. This passage or porch was closed next the street by a large folding gate with a small wicket for single persons, kept by a porter (Joh 18:16-17). The "porches" (Joh 5:2) were arches or porticoes opening upon and surrounding the reservoir Solomon’s porch (Joh 10:23) was on the E. side of the temple (Josephus, Ant. 20:9, section 7).

PORCH.—This word is a doublet of ‘portico’ (from Lat. porticus), both originally denoting a covered entrance to a building. When the front of this entrance is supported on pillars, the porch becomes a portico. particus, like the Gr. stoa, was extended to signify a roofed colonnade running round a public building such as a temple, or enclosing an open space, like the cloisters of a mediæval monastery. The most famous of these ‘porches’—a sense in which the word is now obsolete—were the ‘painted porch’—the Porch par excellence—at Athens, and Solomon’s porch at Jerusalem (see below).

In the OT a porch is named chiefly in connexion with the Temple (see below), or with the palace (wh. see) of Solomon. The pillars of the temple of Dagon at Gaza which Samson pulled down, or rather slid from their stone bases, were probably two of those supporting the portico, as ingeniously explained by Macalister, Bible Sidelights, etc., ch. vii. (see House, § 5). The word rendered ‘porch’ in Jdg 3:23 is of quite uncertain meaning and even of doubtful authenticity.

In the NT, in connexion with the trial of Jesus, mention is made of a ‘porch’ or, as RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] , ‘forecourt’ (Mar 14:63), as distinguished from the ‘court’ (Mar 14:66 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) of the high priest’s palace, for which Mat 26:71 (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘porch’) has a word elsewhere rendered ‘gate.’ In both cases the covered gateway leading from the street to the court is probably meant.

Solomon’s porch (Joh 10:23, Act 3:11; Act 5:12) was a covered colonnade or cloister running along the east side of the Temple enclosure (see Temple, § 1 (a), where the triple colonnade of Herod’s temple—the ‘Royal Porch’ of Josephus—is also discussed. For details see ExpT [Note: Expository Times.] , Nov. 1908, p. 68). A similar colonnade enclosed the pool of Bethesda (Joh 5:2).

A. R. S. Kennedy.

pōrch: Chiefly in the Old Testament אוּלם, ’ūlām, used of the temples of Solomon and Ezekiel (see TEMPLE); once miṣd^erōn, a “vestibule,” in Jdg 3:23. In the New Testament, the word occurs in connection with the high priest’s palace (Mat 26:71, pulṓn; Mar 14:68, proaúlion), and as the rendering of στοά, stoá, a “portico,” in Joh 5:2 (pool of Bethesda); and Joh 10:23; Act 3:11; Act 5:12. See PORCH, PORTICO, SOLOMON’S.

When ‘porch’ is a translation of óôïÜ, it denotes a portico (so Act_3:11 RVm_), covered colonnade, or cloister, where people could walk and talk, protected from sun or rain, and where liberty of public speaking and teaching was generally enjoyed. Round the entire area of Herod’s Temple there ran a succession of magnificent porticces built against the enclosing wall. Solomon’s Porch, which adorned the eastern side-hence called also the óôïὰ ἀíáôïëéêÞ (Jos. Ant. XX. ix. 7)-and faced the entrance to the Women’s Court, was a double portico, about 50 ft. wide, formed by three rows of white marble monolithic columns, each about 40 ft. high. It was roofed by cedar beams, richly carved, and its aisles were paved in mosaic fashion with stone (Jos. Ant. XV. xi. 5, BJ_ V. v. 2). Josephus appears to have believed that it had survived from the time of Solomon (Ant. XX. ix. 7, BJ_ V. v. 1), but in all probability its name implied no more than that on the same foundations there had stood a previous structure which partly dated from Solomon’s time. The porch in which Jesus walked on the Feast of Dedication (Joh_10:23), to which the people ran together after witnessing St. Peter’s miracle at the Beautiful Gate (Act_3:11), and which was a rendezvous of the early Church (5:12), was certainly modern. It was in the style of contemporary Hellenistic architecture, and was only less magnificent than the triple colonnade known as the ‘Royal Porch’-óôïὰ âáóéëéêÞ-which ran along the south side of the Temple court.

Literature.-A. Edersheim, LT_4 i. 244 f., ii. 151; A. R. S. Kennedy, ‘Some Problems of Herod’s Temple,’ in ExpT_ XX. [1908-09], art._ ‘Temple’ in EBr_11; B. Kleinschmidt, art._ ‘Temple’ in JE_.

James Strahan.