Keys to the Gate Beautiful (Acts 3:1-10)

by Rick Strelan

 In Acts 3:2, it is said that a crippled man used to be placed every day pro.j th.n qu,ran tou/ i`erou/ th.n legome,nhn w`rai,an, which is commonly translated, “at the gate of the Temple called Beautiful”.[1] The same location is mentioned again later in the episode (3:10) when the healed man is identified as the one who used to sit evpi. th/|  w`rai,a| pu,lh|, translated, again commonly, “at the Gate Beautiful”. This name is striking, but attempts by scholars to locate this gate have met with little success or agreement[2]. Scholars have suggested both the upper inner gate, the Nicanor, and the lower outer gate, the Shushan, as candidates for the Beautiful Gate.

There are at least three obstacles in satisfactorily identifying this gate: (1) Extant primary sources do not mention the Beautiful Gate (the Mishnaic tractate Middoth, and Josephus, Ant. 15.410-425. Wars 5.190-221). (2) The manuscript traditions at Acts 3:11 are confused. The majority of textual traditions imply that the Beautiful Gate is in the outer walls of the Temple precincts, thus favoring the Shushan identification. The Western text, however, has the disciples and the healed man pass out through the gate into Solomon’s Porch, indicating that the gate is further inside the Temple[3], and thus supports the Nicanor theory. In addition, it is not clear when Luke understands to. i`ero,n to refer only to the sanctuary itself and when to the whole Temple precincts – if he intends any distinction at all.[4] Also, the gate entering Solomon’s Porch (3:11) had no door (Josephus, Wars 5.5; Middoth 2) and yet Acts 3:2 says the crippled used to be placed at a Temple “door” (qu,ra). (3) Luke’s knowledge of the Temple is problematic. As Haenchen says: “It is by no means certain that we may assume in Luke our own knowledge of the Temple, let alone a better”.[5]

For my purposes, it is not necessary to repeat the arguments in favor of identifying the gate with either Nicanor or Shushan.[6] Suffice it to say with Hengel: “It is hardly possible to arrive at a really satisfying conclusion”.[7] I do not propose to solve the problem, but rather to offer three very similar keys in an effort to unlock the mysteries of this Temple gate. The first key is to read the adjective w`rai,oj not in its aesthetic sense of “beauty”, but according to its common meaning, “ripe”; the second, to locate Acts 3:1-10 as taking place during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth); and the third key is to use the Hallel Psalms, recited during Tabernacles, as a text through which to read the passage.

I. The “Ripe Gate”?

It is clear that the gates of the Temple were known by different names not only in their history but also in their function. This makes sense of the fact that numerous names are given to the Temple gates and doors in the literary sources. For example, in the Mishnah, the eastern gate – often identified as the gate of Acts 3 - is known by seven different names.[8] Mowinckel claims that Temple and processional gates were given symbolic names, noting as an example the “Gate of Righteousness”, referred to in Ps 118:19-20, and claiming that this was so called because it was the gate through which the righteous entered in festive procession.[9] Whether Mowinckel is correct about that particular gate or not, there is no doubt that some gates were named according to what was brought through them: The Gate of the Firstborn, The Gate of Burning, the Water Gate, The Gate of the Offering, to name a few (Middoth 1-2).

In addition, it seems that some Temple gates were only used for activities that related to Temple ritual. For example, in Ezek 46:1 the Lord commands that “the gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the sabbath day it shall be opened and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened”. The passage goes on to command the prince to take a special role and place at the gate and for the priests and people to worship at the gate’s entrance on those holy days (Ezek 46:2-8).

It seems reasonable to suggest, therefore, that the gate through which Peter and John entered on their way into the Temple, and at which the cripple was placed “each day” (Acts 3:2), was given the particular name, “ripe” (w`rai/a), for a particular occasion. I suggest the occasion was a festive one, probably that of Tabernacles. Pentecost appears to have passed (2:43-47) and the next major festival in the Jewish calendar for which it was expected that all male Jews should go to the Temple was Tabernacles.

The adjective w`rai,oj then becomes a key to understanding the function of this gate, if not its location. It is a word that, as Hamm notes, indicates “beauty”, and is used in the Septuagint (and elsewhere) of trees, fruit, speech, vessels, apparel, the messianic king, and other persons.[10] But, as Hamm also notes, it is used very commonly to indicate “ripeness”. Josephus uses it regularly of ripe fruit (Ant 2.83 and 8.153, for example) including the ripe fruit that grew from Aaron’s rod (Ant 4.65). And in wider Greek literature, in addition to indicating ripeness of fruit, it is used to express “the bloom of youth” (Aeschines, Speeches, 1.42), a “beautiful” woman (Aristophanes, Frogs, 293), a woman “of marriageable age” (Herodotus, Hist. 6.122.2), “the summer season” (Demosthenes, Speeches, 9.48), and “harvest” (Pausanias, Graec. Descr. 4.10.7).

The word w`rai,oj is also used of first-fruit festivals, not only in Jewish literature in relation to festivals like Castullus and Tabernacles, but also in Greek festivals. At the Jewish Castullus festival, people brought “vessels filled with every different species of fruit borne by fruit-bearing trees” into the Temple, as required by Deut 26:1-2. These pointed-bottom vessels were called “castulli”, and were used to carry “the fruits of the season” (ta. w`rai/a, Spec. Laws, 2.220). Josephus also knows of the command to bring “the ripe fruits” (ta. w`rai/a) to the Temple in thanksgiving to God for his rescue of Israel from Egypt (Ant 4.241-43). As for wider Greek usage, Plato, for example, writes of the legendary people of Atlantis who used to bring “year by year (kat’ evniauto,n), their seasonable offerings to do sacrifice” (w`rai/a … avpete,loun i`era,, Critias, 116c).

The most detailed alternative reading of this adjective in Acts 3 is that by Hamm who believes that 3:1-10 contains “six signals of symbolic intent” and that the “beautiful gate” is one such signal.[11] He interprets w`rai,oj as “the beauty that comes from being ripe, seasonable”, and then links it with evlehmosu,nh (3:3) which he reads as “mercy”.[12] He suggests then that it is “not unreasonable to ask whether Luke – either using a rare gate-name not otherwise attested or providing the name himself – chose the name precisely for its connotations of ripeness”.[13] The gate, and the healing itself, says Hamm, is a symbol that the time is ripe for the mercy of God.

Hamm’s symbolic interpretation of the adjective - and, indeed, of the whole episode - is helpful and avoids some seemingly unanswerable questions about the gate. Luke himself, indeed, has his characters identify the healing as a sign (shmei/on, 4:16, 22). Hamm believes the episode symbolises the restoration of Israel through the apostles’ ministry.[14] I suggest its concern is rather with the Temple, an institution and building of great interest to Luke.[15] Two important indicators are given within the text for this view. The one is the six-fold use of to. i`ero,n within the ten verses of the episode; the other is Peter’s citing of Ps 118 in Acts 4:11-12 which, I think, is a key offered by the author himself for an interpretation of the healing. The gate, in turn, is called “ripe” because it is linked with a festival closely associated with the Temple, possibly Tabernacles, in which people brought the ripened fruit to the Temple.

 Both Temple and festival were linked with high expectations of God establishing a new order of things under a new authority. As Weitzman puts it, the festivals were used as times to “temporarily reshape the present order of things – to promote new modes of authority, to push outsiders in, to force insiders out, to overturn established hierarchies and values”.[16]

Sukkoth, or The Feast of Tabernacles, was celebrated on the 15^th of Tishri, the seventh month, as a “feast of the Lord” to give thanks for the produce of the land. On the first day of this eight-day festival, pilgrims brought the ripened tree fruit to the Temple. Lev 23:40 commands: “You shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees (LXX karpo.n xu,lou w`rai/on), branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days”.

I suggest that the gate or door through which they entered for that festival “is the one called Ripe” (th.n legome,nhn w`rai/an, Acts 3:2). In other words, the gate is so-named because ripe fruit was carried through it. At the feast, booths, which people erected, were adorned with fruit such as peaches, almonds, pomegranates, and grape clusters suspended from the roofs (Shab 22a; see also Suk 10a). M. Kat.13b allows a shopkeeper on the day before the last day of the feast to “bring out fruit and decorate the markets all round the town in honor of the last day of the feast”.

II. Acts 3:1-10 and The Feast of Tabernacles

According to Deut 16:16, “three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God”, the three occasions being the three major feasts of Passover (Luke 22:1), Pentecost (Acts 2:1) and Tabernacles. Tabernacles was the major festival in the Temple era following Pentecost and was often known simply as “the Feast” (for example 1Kgs 8:2; Ezek 45:25; Neh 8:14; and commonly in the Talmud). Josephus calls it “the holiest and greatest feast” (Ant 8.100).

According to Acts 3:1, Peter and John “were going up into the Temple” (avne,bainon eivj to. i`ero,n) at the ninth hour of prayer. The verb is a “standing formula” for going to Jerusalem and to the Temple especially, but not only, for a feast (compare John 7:8,10,14; 11:55; 12:20).[17] The ninth hour (th.n w[ran ))) th.n evna,thn) probably refers to the daily afternoon sacrifice (tamid) offered in the Temple, as commanded in Ex 29:38-41. Such sacrifices were maintained also throughout the Festivals and, in fact, “the supplies of the sacrifices are more numerous” at Tabernacles (Philo, Spec. Laws I.189). It might refer explicitly to the prayers that preceded the actual afternoon sacrifice (Suk 53a). The Talmud indicates that statutory prayers were to be recited during Tabernacles (Suk 41b), and the performance of such prayers was more obligatory during a festival such as Sukkoth.[18]

A crippled man is being carried to the Temple to beg alms from those entering (3:2). The text emphasises the fact that he has been unable to walk from his birth[19]. He is being carried or lifted (evbasta,zeto) to the Temple late in the afternoon, presumably because it was the high time of festivities when the whole-offering was sacrificed and the crowd was at its peak. If it were festival time, then a beggar had better chances of receiving generous alms at the daily high point of that festival.[20] It is also likely that he was placed there “every day” (kaq’ h`me,ran) of the festival (there were eight days for Tabernacles), and possibly at the same time each day. In any case, the Talmud indicates that the celebrations of Tabernacles went on into the night since they made wicks and kindled lamps “and there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illumined by the light of the place of the water-drawing” (Suk 51a).

The point of the passage obviously is that the man is lame, cannot walk, and so must be carried. The Talmud lists the lame among those who were not “bound to appear” at the Temple during the major festivals (Hag 2a; compare Suk 26a and Ar 2b). The Mishnah specifically states that those “unable to go up by foot” were exempt from temple attendance (Hag 2a), and it argues from Ex 23:14 that “the pilgrim must have use of both feet” (Hag 3a). Thus “going by foot” or “walking” was a significant aspect of pilgrimage to the festivals. In order to participate in a feast, a man had to be able to walk - something the lame man of Acts cannot do.

More broadly, it is known that the lame were banned from performing or participating in certain cult actions.  Lev 21:18 bans a lame priest from approaching the sanctuary, and 2 Sam 5:8 repeats a saying that the “blind and the lame shall not come into the house”. 1QSa 2.5-7 bans the lame among other unclean men from entrance into the assembly. They are also banned from participating in the final battle (1QM 7.4).

In Acts 3:5, the cripple asks for something from Peter and John. Acts of charity (evlehmosu,nh) were expected of pious Jews, especially at festivals (see, for example, John 13:29). At festivals, thank-offerings were obligatory: Those attending “shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed” (Deut 16:16). And further, “every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you” (16:17). In addition, the “sojourners, the fatherless, and the widows” were to be included in the festival (16:14). Therefore, a beggar could especially expect alms from those going to the Temple during a festival such as Tabernacles.

Peter and John are expected to have thank-offerings with them and they are expected to give alms. But they claim to have no “silver or gold”. Dunn thinks that this “representation of apostolic poverty is partly at least a story-telling device”.[21] Others relate the reference to silver and gold to idol-worship, or think it must be understood on the background of 2:44-45, or, as evidence that the apostles’ power has nothing to do with money, a common motif in Acts.[22] However, it is also possible that Peter is saying that he does not have the offering that festival pilgrims were expected to make. Beth Shammai held that the pilgrimage offering must be worth at least two pieces of silver and the festal offering at least one ma’ah of silver. Beth Hillel said that the pilgrimage offering must be worth one ma’ah of silver and the offering two pieces of silver (Hag 2a). If Peter is referring to this offering, then why does he not have the obligatory “silver and gold” as he goes into the Temple?[23]

At the anticipated ideal Feast of Tabernacles, everything in Jerusalem will be holy and there will be no more traders in the Temple (Zech 14:20-21). Significantly, Zechariah 14, was the hafterah read on the first day of Tabernacles (Meg 31a), Does the Peter of Acts 3 believe that such a time and such a celebration of the Feast have arrived? That this might be the case is implied in what he offers the man and in what follows.

Instead of giving him silver and gold, Peter says: “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraios,[24] walk!” (evn tw/| ovna,mti vIhsou/ Cristou/ tou/ Nazwrai,ou, peripa,tei, 3:6[25]). It is tempting to suggest that Luke is playing with the word Nazwrai,oj as a pun on the “ripe” (w`rai,oj) gate. Be that as it may, this exact combination of words is found again in Acts only in this same context (4:10). Otherwise, the term “Jesus the Nazaraios” ( vIhsou/j o` Nazwrai/oj) is used at 2:22; 6:14; 22:8; and 26:9; and “Jesus Christ”( vIhsou/j Cristo,j) is found commonly (for example, 2:38; 3:20; 5:42; 8:12). Given the context and combination of Temple and healing, the identification of Jesus as “Christ” cannot be insignificant. The significance increases if the situation is festal since messianic expectations were often very high at festivals and especially at the Feast of Tabernacles.[26] The Tabernacles haftorah again provides a hint of this as he sees nations coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Tabernacles and to worship “the King, the Lord of Hosts” (Zech 14:16-17).

Peter raises the cripple by grabbing him forcibly (pia,saj) with the right hand (th/j dexia/j ceiro,j, 3:7). Tabernacles was the time for all males to appear before the Lord “according to the power of your hands (kata. du,namin tw/n ceirw/n u`mw/n), according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you” (Deut LXX 16:17). Peter has been given the promised power (du,namij, Acts 1:8) and this is what he has to give to the lame man. The right hand in particular was a symbol of power, of victory, and of protection, all of which are important elements in Tabernacles celebration.[27] According to Suk 55a, Psalms 19, 50, 94, 81, 82, and 92 were recited on consecutive days during the festival, and in these Psalms the strength, might, and glory of God are a common motif.

The man’s feet (ba,seij) and ankles (sfudra,) are strengthened (3:7). The use of ba,seij to indicate “the feet” is unusual and is commonly explained as a technical, medical term, even though it is “not confined to medical books”.[28] It may be simply coincidental, but interesting nevertheless, that ba,seij very commonly - with only one exception – is used in the Septuagint to refer to the bases of the tabernacle and temple, especially the base of the altar. An altar with a damaged base is not valid for service (Suk 49a).

The man leaps up, stands, and walks (3:8). Bruce sees this as a progressive testing of strength on the part of the cripple.[29] I propose an alternative interpretation. The ability to walk now means the man has the right to enter the Temple (and to participate in any festival), which he duly does. Significantly, he goes into the Temple with Peter and John, “walking and leaping and praising God” (peripatw/n kai. a`llo,menoj kai. aivnw/n to.n qeo,n). Haenchen thinks such actions performed in the Temple exhibit “the un-Jewish use of i`ero,n and must be attributed to Luke”.[30] Bruce calls the man’s reaction “indecorous behavior”.[31] Barrett thinks “it was hardly necessary, or indeed desirable, to add peripatw/n kai. a`llo,menoj”.[32] Most scholars understand it as the natural exuberance of one who is healed. But, again, much more can be read from “the curiously repeated descriptions”[33]of the man’s behavior. When each action is examined more closely, it becomes possible to understand how Luke “came to write such a clumsy sentence”.[34]

“Walking” (peripatei/n) is particularly significant in the narrative, since it is mentioned four times in 3:6-9 and again in 3:12, and takes place inside the Temple. I have already noted the significance of walking in pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festivals, and that the lame were excused simply because they were not able to “trample the courts”. More importantly, Tabernacles was the feast at which “all the people” – and not only the priests – “walked around the altar” once every day and seven times on the seventh day of the Feast (Suk 43b). As they walked, they would recite from Ps 118:25: “We beseech You, O Lord, save now; we beseech You, O Lord, make us now to prosper” (Suk 45a).

The man’s second action is “leaping” (a`llo,menoj, 3: 8). Leaping, in the context of the Temple and its festivals, is synonymous with dancing. The Feast of Tabernacles was marked by joyous celebration that followed the afternoon prayer, the evening sacrifice, and the rejoicing at the place of water-drawing (Suk 53a), and central to that celebration was dancing.[35] The Talmud says that at Tabernacles “men of piety and good deeds used to dance before them with lighted torches in their hands, and sing songs and praises”, and Levites “without number” accompanied the songs with many instruments, including the trumpet (Suk 51b). Ginzberg also refers to the people “jumping and skipping like goats” at Tabernacles.[36]

In Acts 3:8, the healed man joins in the dance. That he should do so may well be understood as a sign of the messianic age. Is 35:6 prophesies that when God acts in glory and for Israel’s salvation, “then (to,te) shall the lame man leap like the hart” (a`lei/tai w`j e;lafoj o` cwlo,j). The very healing of the lame man by Peter in the Temple, and possibly at a festival, might have been interpreted by some as a sign of the age-to-come, and this would partly explain the ecstatic reaction of the people (3:10). The fact that the lame now walk (cwloi. peripatou/sin) was understood by Matthew, at least, as a sign that the expected Coming One was present (Matt 11:2-6). It is also evident from Matt 21:14 that the healing of the lame that took place in the Temple, approaching Passover, was a messianic sign. The healing in Acts 3 can be understood similarly given the overall context of Acts 2-3. In these chapters, the Pentecost Spirit is seen as the fulfillment of Joel (2:16), Peter’s preaching is that God has made Jesus “both Lord and Christ” (2:36), and Peter says the appointed Christ can be expected (3:19-21). Peter’s healing of the cripple in the Temple demonstrates the truth of his preaching; it is a sign of the age-to-come.

It is also consistent with festival celebrations that the healed man should “praise God” (aivnw/n to.n qeo,n). The Hallel Psalms 113-118 were sung on each day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the call to praise God heads them (aivnei/te, pai/dej( ku,rion( aivnei/te to. o;noma kuri,ou, Ps 112:1 LXX). Luke uses precisely the same verb (aivnei/n) in 3: 8-9 to describe the action of the healed man.

The Codex Bezae adds that the man went into the Temple “rejoicing” (ceiro,menoj). According to Safrai, the distinguishing feature of Sukkoth was its spirit of rejoicing.[37] This element of joy is highlighted in Jub 16:20-31, a passage claiming that the Feast was first celebrated “on earth” by Abraham. It is called a “festival of joy” (16:20). For seven days, Abraham was “rejoicing with all his heart and with all his soul” (16:24). He named the festival “the festival of the Lord, a joy acceptable to the Most High God” (16:27). Israel is to celebrate the seven days “with joy” (16:29). And the passage concludes: “Abraham took branches of palm trees and the fruit of goodly trees and every day going round the altar with the branches seven times a day in the morning, he praised and gave thanks to his God for all things in joy” (16:31).

For Israel, joy at Tabernacles was an obligation since “the Lord will bless you ... so that you will be altogether joyful” (Deut 16:15). It is the great feast of joy, and the actions of the healed man reflect that joyous and celebratory aspect of that feast. His movements indicate not only that he is healed and that he is happy with the new strength and abilities he has, but that he is now able to “walk”, to celebrate the feast as a true and full Israelite.

The man’s actions of walking, leaping, and praising God were standard behavior at Tabernacles (Suk 51a-b) and are consistent with the festival celebrations that took place in the Temple after the afternoon daily whole-offering sacrifice (T. Suk 4:5).

III. The Hillel Psalms as a Key to Acts 3-4

If the gate was known as the “Ripe Gate”, and if that was so because of its use at Tabernacles, then the Psalms recited at Tabernacles might provide us with extra leverage to turn the key a little further. As already intimated, it is possible to interpret many of the actions in Acts 3-4 in the light of the Hallel Psalms[38]which were sung on all eight days of Tabernacles (Ta’anith 28b; Ar 10a). A reading of Acts 3-4 through the lens of these Hallel Psalms is quite revealing, and I intend to draw attention to some of the possible parallels, some being more significant than others.

 In the first place, Peter and John go up into the Temple via a gate (3:2), as do all pilgrims going to the temple for a festival. In Ps 118:19-20, it is the “gate of the righteous” and the “gate of the Lord” by which the pilgrims enter. The possibility that the Psalm is itself referring to the festival of Tabernacles cannot be ruled out.[39]

More importantly, the expressions “the Name” (to. o;noma), “raises” (forms of evgei,rw), and “the right hand” (dexia,) occur in both the Hallel Psalms and Acts 3:1-4:1-10. The opening Hallel Psalm calls on Israel to “praise the name of the Lord” and sings: “Blessed be the name of the Lord … the name of the Lord is to be praised (113:1-3). The “name” is the source of strength, blessing, and salvation in Ps LXX 113:9, 114:4; 115:4; 117:10,11,12,26, as it is also in Acts 3:6,16; 4:7,10,12,17,18,30. In Acts 3:6, Peter, in the name of Jesus, raised (h;geiren) the lame man from his crippled state. The Hallel psalm praises God who is “the one who raises” (o` evgei,rwn) the poor from the ground (Ps LXX 112:7). Peter raises with “the right hand” (3:7), and the Psalms praise “the right hand of the Lord” which “has lifted me up” (dexia. kuri,ou u[ywse,n me, Ps LXX 117:16).

On being healed or saved from his forty-year lameness, the man in Acts is seen leaping as he goes into the temple. It is an action paralleled in the Hallel where “the mountains skipped (evski,rthsan) like rams and the hills like lambs” at the salvation of Israel from Egypt (Ps LXX 113:4, 6). The healed man enters the Temple because he has been enabled to do so “in the name (evn ovno,mati) of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”. Ps LXX 117:26 pronounces “blessed” the one who enters “in the name of the Lord (evn ovno,mati kuri,ou)”. The people in Acts respond to the healing with wonder and ecstasy (evplh,sqhsan qa,mbouj kai. evksta,sewj, 3:10), a reaction echoed in the Hallel: The Lord has done something which “is wondrous in our eyes” (e;stin qaumasth. evn ovfqalmoi/j h`mw/n( Ps LXX 117:23). In addition, there are a number of expressions in Ps 116:12-19 which are echoed in Acts 3:1-10: “what shall I render…loosed my bonds … call on the name of the Lord … presence of all his people … in the courts of the house of the Lord”.

Peter’s justification for the healing given in Acts 4:8-12 adds legitimacy to reading the healing episode in Acts 3 through the filter of the Hallel Psalms. In his address to the Council, Peter explicitly quotes from one of the Hallel Psalms, 118:22: “The stone that the builder rejected has become the head of the corner”. He then interprets that stone to be Jesus, and goes on to claim that there is “salvation (swthri,a) in no one else” (4:12), a thought that quite clearly echoes the previous verse of the Psalm: “You have become my salvation” (swthri,a, Ps LXX 117:21), and is a prominent theme in the Hallel.

These same Psalms were recited on every day of Tabernacles, the feast at which ripe fruit was brought to the Temple by pilgrims, and at which those pilgrims entered the Temple via the Ripe Gate. For this reason, these Psalms are one possible filter through which the healing of the cripple can be read and interpreted.

IV. Further Signs of a Feast

That the healing episode can be read as occurring during a Feast is also indicated in Acts 3:9,11 which refers to “all the people” (pa/j o` lao,j), and in 3:12 where Peter speaks to “the people” (pro.j to.n lao,n; see also 4:1). In 4:2, the leaders are anxious that Peter and John are teaching “the people” (to.n lao,n). Jervell suggests that pa/j o` lao,j refers to “all of Israel” (“ganz Israel”)[40]and I would agree. It might be remembered that “all of Israel” was expected to attend the feasts (Deut 16:16). In Deut LXX 27:15-26 and Ps LXX 105:48, the phrase pa/j o` lao,j is used in a solemn cult setting as Israel commits itself to the covenant with God. Affirmation of the covenant between God and Israel was an essential purpose of the major feasts. Dunn misses the point of “all the people” and thinks it is “a typical story-teller’s hyperbole”.[41] Barrett also misses the point by suggesting, with others, that it refers to Christians since “the Christians frequented Solomon’s Portico”, and “Luke represents Christians as gathering somewhere within the perimeter of the Temple”.[42] But “the people”[43] are in the Temple because it was the Feast, and in that context, the phrase would refer to Israel. The use of “all the people” and “the people” adds weight to the argument that this was a time of festival.

A significant aspect of Tabernacles is that “most of the special ceremonies are connected with the people’s presence in the Temple”.[44] Safrai says: “The people participated in all the rites of the feast of Tabernacles, and with the exception of the water-libation which was performed by a priest or the high priest, their role in the Temple rites and customs were equal to that of the priests”. As part of the ritual, “all the people participated in the procession around the altar”.[45] The priests and Temple authorities took a back seat at Tabernacles and it was “the people’s festival”. Josephus records an episode illustrative of the “power of the people” at the feast. Alexander, an Hasmonean high priest, was about to offer the sacrifice when “the nation rose upon him and pelted him with citrons ... they reviled him ... as … unworthy of his dignity and of sacrificing” (Ant 13.372). On feast days, it seems that authority over the Temple shifted from the Sadducees and priests to the people.[46] In Acts 3, the dominance of “the people” and the freedom Peter has in speaking suggest that the normal authorities were in the background, and this is the impression given by 4:1-3.

There are further indications of a Feast, probably Tabernacles, detectable from what immediately follows the healing (3:12-26). Peter speaks in Solomon’s Porch, a prominent location in the Temple grounds near a Temple gate. Prophets were known to speak “the word of the Lord” at festivals and in gate areas of the Temple. It was often a word calling for repentance. So, for example, Jeremiah is told: “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word…Amend your ways and your doings” (Jer 7:2-3). Ezra reads the law to Israel at the Water Gate (Neh 8:1-8; compare also1 Esdras 5:47-51 and Josephus, Ant 11.154-155). According to Neh 8:18, Ezra read the law on every day of the festival of Tabernacles. In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus teaches at the Festival of Tabernacles in the Temple (John 7:14, 37). Peter’s address to “the people” in Solomon’s porch is consistent with the behavior of Ezra at Tabernacles, and of Jesus at the same feast since in 4:2 he is accused of “teaching the people”.

So, then, is Solomon’s Porch mentioned (3:11) simply to indicate location? As already noted, the word “temple” is used too often in this episode for it to go unnoticed, and Peter’s citing of Ps 118 also indicates its importance in the narrative. I suggest that the reference to Solomon’s Porch is another pointer to a Tabernacles context since it was commonly thought that the Temple of Solomon was dedicated during that feast. In addition, among the readings set for Tabernacles was 1 Kgs 8, a chapter telling of the Temple’s dedication by Solomon. According to the Talmud (Meg 31a), on the second day of Tabernacles, for haftarah 1Kgs 8:2 was read: “and all the men of Israel assembled unto King Solomon”. On the last day, “and it was so that when Solomon had made an end” (1 Kgs 8:54); and on the next day was read, “And Solomon stood” (1 Kgs 8:22). It seems reasonable, then, to suggest that the reference to Solomon’s Porch in Acts 3:11 is a pointer to Tabernacles.

In the Porch, Peter addresses the people as “men of Israel” (a;ndrej  vIsrahli/tai, 3:12). Such a form of address is consistent with the use of “the people”(o` lao,j). All Israel is meant and probably in a covenantal sense. In addition, according to Acts 3:19, Peter calls on Israel to “repent and turn again, so that your sins may be blotted out”. The Feast of Tabernacles included a renewal ritual that took place on the steps leading to the inner court in the eastern section of the Temple (in which the “Beautiful” Gate is believed to have been located). In that ritual, the priests confessed that Israel’s ancestors had turned their back on the Lord but the present generation would not: “We are the Lord’s and our eyes are turned towards the Lord” (Suk 51b).

When all of these factors are taken cumulatively, the suggestion that Acts 3:1-10 can be understood to be set within the context of a Feast like Tabernacles has substance. If Tabernacles is below the surface of the narrative, then it seems reasonable to see that festival as a key to unlocking the “Beautiful Gate” of Acts 3:2,10.

V. Summary and Conclusions

The adjective w`rai/a used in Acts 3:2,10 as a designation for a gate of the Temple can be understood as “ripe”. I have suggested that “The Ripe Gate”, then, was the gate through which pilgrims entered the Temple bringing ripe fruit with them, probably during the Feast of Tabernacles, as required by Lev 23. The healing of the cripple and his subsequent actions fit well in the context of such a Feast.

The Hallel Psalms serve as a second key to interpreting this episode. These were the psalms sung on each day of the Tabernacles festival. Some central motifs in these psalms are echoed in the Acts narrative. In particular, Ps 118:22, and its reference to the rejected stone, is taken up by Peter in his explanation for the healing. Reading through the filter of the Hallel Psalms enables the reader to see the healing episode in a different light.

Copyright 2001 by Rick Strelan

Studies in Religion, University of Queensland,

Brisbane, Qld 4072 Australia