Beautiful gate and Solomon's portico

Patrick Rietveld

In the Biblical Facts tool there is a picture of Herod's temple (Logos infographics) which shows the different gates. I am reading Acts 3 and try to locate the events that happen. However, if we have to follow the picture, it means that this crippled man is inside the big temple complex, but just outside the inner complex. After being healed he enters it (vs 8). But then in verse 11 all these people come to them at Solomon's Portico, which is outside that inner complex according to that picture. But the text doesn't say that they went out again. Does it mean it is implied or that the location of the beautifull gate is wrong on the picture? Just wondering if there are more pictures in Logos that show different possibilities.

Does anyone know that?

Graham Criddle

Does it mean it is implied or that the location of the beautifull gate is wrong on the picture?

Some comments from a couple of commentaries

When the service of prayer and worship was over, Peter and John, together with the man who had been cured of his lameness, came out from the inner area of the temple to the outer court, probably going back through the Beautiful Gate, and made their way to the east side of the outer court, along which Solomon’s Colonnade ran

F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (The New International Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), 80.

11 Solomon’s Colonnade was a covered portico that ran the entire length of the eastern portion of the outer court of the temple known as the Court of the Gentiles.27 Jesus had taught there (Jn. 10:23), and it soon became a favoured place for all the Jerusalem Christians to meet together (Acts 5:12). The most natural way to read Luke’s narrative is to suppose that the crippled man was seated at the Shushan Gate in the eastern wall of the temple, opening into the outer court (cf. v. 2 note). When he was healed, he went immediately with the apostles into that court (v. 8, taking eis to hieron to mean ‘into the temple complex’) where the crowd came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade.28 If, however, the Beautiful Gate was the Nicanor Gate, the beggar may have gone with Peter and John into the inner courts for the time of prayer (v. 8, taking eis to hieron, to mean ‘into the inner precincts of the temple’), before returning to Solomon’s Colonnade (v. 11).

David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles (The Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 172.

In terms of pictures there are a number of the Temple available depending on your resources.

You could try a media search for Herod's Temple. In Logos 6 try: