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COURT ( áὐëÞ , translation ‘court’ in Rev_11:2, ‘sheepfold’ or ‘fold’ in Joh_10:1; Joh_10:16, and ‘palace’ [ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘court’] in Mat_26:3; Mat_26:69 etc.).* [Note: ‘In kings’ courts’ of Luk_7:25 represents ἑí ôï ͂ éò âêóéëõïéò [only occurrence of this Gr. word in NT].] —The ‘court’ is an essential part of the typical Oriental house. The Eastern house represented on the monuments of Egypt and Assyria is much like that now found, and doubtless found in the time of Christ, in Palestine. It is built around an open square called ‘the court,’ into which each room opens, seldom one room into another. Sometimes the house has more than one ‘court,’ if the wealth or the official station of the owner warrants it.
In the richer private and public houses the ‘court’ is fitted up with great magnificence. In Damascus we find several courts connected with a single house, in some cases of rare richness and beauty. The houses of two or more storeys have chambers on each floor opening on to a common balcony running round the inside of the court, with a staircase in a corner of the court open to the sky. This type of ‘court’ is usually paved with marble or flagging, and has a well or fountain in the centre (2Sa_17:18), with orange and lemon trees and other shrubs around it. Some of them are planted with choice tropical trees, and the walls, verandahs, staircases, etc., are covered and adorned with creepers and vines of untold varieties.
In Mat_26:69 it is said that ‘Peter sat without, ἐí ôῇ áὐëῇ ,’ i.e. in the ‘court’ of the high priest’s house (Mat_26:58). It was during the trial of Jesus; and ‘without’ is used in contrast with an implied ‘within’—the interior of the audience-room in which Jesus was appearing before the authorities. Peter was not allowed into this room, but was out in the open air of the ‘court’; and this was ‘beneath’ (Mar_14:66), i.e. on a somewhat lower level than the audience-chamber.
The ‘court of the Gentiles,’ which was ‘without the temple’ (Rev_11:2), was on the lowest level or terrace of the Holy Mountain, and separated from the ‘Sanctuary’ or ‘Mountain of the House’ by a stone wall four or five feet high, called ‘the Soreg.’ All Gentiles were warned to remain outside of this sacred enclosure under penalty of death (cf. Act_21:28-29; Act_24:11; Act_26:21). See also artt. Door, House.
Geo. B. Eager.