Читать книгу The Story of Jesus The Christ - Helen Braun Hojt - Страница 7

5

his throne. So to please the Jews he built them a temple, even

more beautiful than the one which Solomon had built for them.

That one had been destroyed when the’ Jews were driven out of

their country, and the one which had been built when they had

returned was now so old that it was falling to pieces.

The temple was not much like our churches, nor was the ser¬

vice like ours. There was one building of two rooms. In the

smaller of these only the High Priest went, and only once a year.

In the other any priest could go.

Around this building were four large open spaces called

courts, separated from each other by walls. The one next the

building was for the priests alone; the next for the Jewish men;

the third for the Jewish women, and the fourth for all who were

not Jews. No one could go farther than the court in which he

belonged. When we speak of people going into the temple, we

mean they went into one of these courts.

The priests were the ministers, who did all the work of the

temple, and, took charge of the services. In those days the peo¬

ple did more than pray to God to forgive their sins. In the tem¬

ple was an altar, or sort of table covered with brass. On this

altar a fire was kept burning day and night. Twice every day a

lamb which had just been killed was burned on this altar, and

while it was burning the people prayed to God, asking him to

forgive their sins, and to destroy the memory of them as the fire

was destroying the lamb. This was called offering a sacrifice.

Another thing the priests did was to offer incense. Incense

was made of sweet spices, and was very fragrant. While it was

burning the people in the courts outside were praying that their

prayers might rise to God as sweet and pure and well pleasing as

the incense.

One day, just about the time that our story begins, the work

of burning the incense fell to the lot of a priest named Zacharias,

6