John Chapter 10 verse 23 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 23. - And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. He walked in Solomon's portico - that part of the temple of Herod which the apostles afterwards adopted as the scene of some of their most explicit assertions of the gospel (Acts 3:11; Acts 5:12). It was associated with the grandest events in their national history; for it was reared on the substructions of Solomon's temple, which even to the present day are intact (Robinson's 'Palestine,' 1:289; Palestine Exploration Society's Reports; 'Recovery of Jerusalem,' frontispiece, pp. 17, 226, 309-319). The Lord walked there because it was winter, and wintry weather. This reveals a little touch of the hand of an eye-witness. We need not ask for any more transcendental explanation. The note of time, moreover, implies that two months had elapsed since the Feast of Tabernacles. Wieseler calculates that the Feast of Tabernacles closed on October 19, and the Feast of Dedication began on December 20, and, if so, time is left for a portion of the Galilaean ministry cited in Luke 10. - 13. Ezra 10:9-13 shows that the time referred to was after a period of heavy rain, and may account for Jesus walking in the shelter of the portico.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(23) And Jesus walked in the temple . . .--Better, and Jesus was walking. The scene is remembered and pictured as it took place.In Solomon's porch.--The place is mentioned again in Acts 3:11; Acts 5:12. It was rather a cloister or arcade than what we usually call a porch. It is said to have been on the east of the Temple, and to have been a relic of the original building which had survived all destructions and restorations, and had brought down its founder's name from its founder's time. (Comp. Jos. Ant. xx. 9, ? 7.) It does not seem clear, however, that Josephus calls anything more than the eastern wall by the name of Solomon, and he calls the cloister above it simply the "Eastern cloister." It is more likely that the true position of "Solomon's porch" is to be found in one of the subterranean structures which existed in the time of our Lord, and exist now as they did in the time of Solomon. Caspari would identify the corridor under El-Aksa with "Solomon's porch," and thus connect the place where our Lord walked at this feast with the Holy Church of Zion, and the place of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. (Chron. and Geogr., Introd., Append. ? 22; Eng. Trans., pp. 297-9. Comp. Note on refs. in Acts.) The place as mentioned here is another instance of the writer's remembrance of topographical details connected with the Temple. (Comp. John 8:20.) The fact that it was winter, and the fact that He was walking in this covered cloister or crypt, explain each other.