_The beautiful gate._――The learned Lightfoot has brought much deep research to bear on this point, as to the position of this gate and the true meaning of its name; yet he is obliged to announce the dubious result in the expressive words, “_In bivio hic stamus_,” (“_we here stand at a fork of the road_.”) The main difficulty consists in the ambiguous character of the word translated “beautiful,” in Greek, Ὡραιαν, (_horaian_,) which may have the sense of “splendid,” “beautiful,” or, in better keeping with its root, Ὡρα, (_hora_,) “time,” it may be made to mean the “gate of time.” Now, what favors the latter derivation and translation, is the fact that there actually was, as appears from the Rabbinical writings, a gate called Hhuldah, (חולדה) probably derived from חלד (_hheledh_) “age,” “time,” “life,” ――from the Arabic root خلد (_khaladh_) “endure,” “last,” so that it may mean “lasting or permanent.” There were two gates of this name distinguished by the terms _greater_ and _smaller_, both opening into the court of the Gentiles from the great _southern_ porch or colonnade, called the Royal colonnade. Through these, the common way from Jerusalem and from Zion led into the temple, and through these would be the natural entrance of the apostles into it. This great _royal porch_, also, where such vast numbers were passing, and which afforded a convenient shelter from the weather, would be a convenient place for a cripple to post himself in. There was, however, another gate, to which the epithet “_beautiful_” might with eminent justice be applied. This is thus described by Josephus. (Jewish War. book V. chapter 5, section 3.) “Of the gates, nine were overlaid with gold and silver,――* * * but there was one on the outside of the temple, made of Corinthian brass, which far outshone the plated and gilded ones.” This is the gate to which the passage is commonly supposed to refer, and which I have mentioned as the true one in the text, without feeling at all decided on the subject, however; for I certainly do think the testimony favors the gate Huldah, and the primary sense of the word Ὡραια seems to be best consulted by such a construction.