House

HOUSE

Is often put for dwelling, residence; and hence the temple, and even the tabernacle, are called the house of God.The universal mode of building houses in the East, is in the form of a hollow square, with an open court or yard in the center; which is thus entirely shut in by the walls of the house around it. Into this court all the windows open, there being usually no windows towards the street. Some houses of large size require several courts, and these usually communicate with each other. These courts are commonly paved; and in many large houses parts of them are planted with shrubs and trees, Psa 84:3 128:3; they have also, when possible, a fountain in them, often with a jet d’ eau, 2Sa 17:18 . It is customary in many houses to extend an awning over the whole court in hot weather; and the people of the house then spend much of the day in the open air, and indeed often receive visits there. In Aleppo, at least, there is often on the south side of the court an alcove in the wall of the house, furnished with divans or sofas, for reclining and enjoying the fresh air in the hot seasons.In the middle of the front of each house is usually an arched passage, leading into the court-not directly, lest the court should be exposed to view from the street, but by turning to one side. The outer door of this passage was, in large houses, guarded by a porter, Mal 12:13 . The entrance into the house is either from this passage or from the court itself.The following extracts from Dr. Shaw will interest the reader, and at the same time serve to illustrate many passages of Scripture. He remarks, “the general method of building, both in Barbary and the Levant, seems to have continued the same from the earliest ages, without the least alteration or improvement. Large doors, spacious chambers, marble pavements, cloistered courts, with fountains sometimes playing in the midst, are certainly conveniences very well adapted to the circumstances of these climates, where the summer heats are generally so intense. The jealously likewise of these people is less apt to be alarmed, while all the windows open into their respective courts, if we except a latticed window or balcony which sometimes looks into the streets”, 2Ki 9:30 .”The streets of eastern cities, the better to shade them from the sun, are usually narrow, with sometimes a range of shops on each side. If from these we enter into one of the principal houses, we shall first pass through a porch or gateway with benches on each side, there the master of the family receives visits and dispatches business; few persons, not even the nearest relations, having a further admission, except upon extraordinary occasions. From hence we are received into the court, or quadrangle, which, lying open to the weather, is, according to the ability of the owner, paved with marble, or such materials as will immediately carry off the water into the common sewers. When many people are to be admitted, as upon the celebration of marriage, the circumcising of a child, or occasions of the like nature, the company is rarely or never received into one of the chambers. The court is the usual place of their reception, which is strewed accordingly with mats and carpets for their more commodious entertainment. Hence it is probable that the place where our Savior and the apostles were frequently accustomed to give their instructions, was in the area, or quadrangle, of one of this kind of houses. In the summer season, and upon all occasions when a large company is to be received, this court is commonly sheltered from the heat or inclemency of the weather by a veil or awning, which, being expanded upon ropes from one side of the parapet wall to the other, may be folded or unfolded at pleasure. The psalmist seems to allude either to the tents of the Bedaween, or to some covering of this kind, in that beautiful expression, of spreading out the heavens like a curtain, Psa 140:2 . The court is for the most part surrounded with a cloister or colonnade; over which, when the house has two or three stories, there is a gallery erected, of the same dimensions with the cloister, having a balustrade, or else a piece of carved or latticed work going round about it to prevent people from falling from it into the court. From the cloister and galleries we are conducted into large spacious chambers, of the same length with the court, but seldom or never communicating with one another. One of them frequently serves a whole family; particularly when a father indulges his married children to live with him; or when several person join in the rent of the same house. From whence it is, that the cities of these countries, which in general are much inferior in bigness to those of Europe, yet are so exceedingly populous, that great numbers op people are always swept away by the plague, or any other contagious distemper.”The chambers of the rich were often hung with velvet or damask tapestry, Gen 1:6 ; the upper part adorned with fretwork and stucco; and the ceilings with wainscot or mosaic work or fragrant wood, sometimes richly painted, Jer 22:14 . The floors were of wood or of painted tiles, or marbles; and were usually spread with carpets. Around the walls were mattresses or low sofas, instead of chairs. The beds were often at one end of the chamber, on a gallery several feet above the floor, with steps and a low balustrade,2Ki 1:4,16 . The stairs were usually in a corner of the court, beside the gateway, Mat 24:17 .”The top of the house,” says Dr. Shaw, “which is always flat, is covered with a strong plaster of terrace; from whence, in the Frank language, it has attained the name of the terrace. It is usually surrounded by two walls; the outermost whereof is partly built over the street, partly makes the partition with the contiguous houses, being frequently so low that one may easily climb over it. The other, which I call the parapet wall, hangs immediately over the court, being always breast high; we render it the ‘battlements,’ Deu 22:8 . Instead of this parapet wall, some terraces are guarded in the same manner the galleries are, with balustrades only, or latticed work; in which fashion probably, as the name seems to import, was the net, or ‘lattice,’ as we render it, that Ahaziah, 2Ki 1:2, might be carelessly leaning over, when he fell down from thence into the court. For upon these terraces several office of the family, are performed; such as the drying of linen and flax, Jos 2:6, the preparing of figs and raisins; here likewise they enjoy the cool, refreshing breezes of the evening; converse with one another, 1Sa 9:25 2Sa 11:2 ; and offer up their devotions, 2Ki 23:12 Jer 19:13 Mal 10:9 . In the feast of Tabernacles booths were erected upon them, Neh 8:16 . When one of these cities is built upon level ground, we can pass from one end of it to the other, along the tops of the houses, without coming down into the street.””Such, in general, is the manner and contrivance of the eastern houses. And if it may be presumed that our Savior, at the healing of the paralytic, was preaching in a house of this fashion, we preaching in a house of this fashion, we may, by attending only to the structure of it, give no small light to one circumstance of that history, which has given great offence to some unbelievers. Among other pretended difficulties and absurdities relating to this fact, it has been urged that the uncovering or breaking up on the roof, Mar 2:4, or the letting a person down through it, Luk 5:19, suppose that the crowd being so great around Jesus in the court below, that those who brought the sick man could not come near him, they went upon the flat roof, and removing a part of the awning, let the sick man down in his mattress over the parapet, quite at the feet of Jesus.”Dr. Shaw proceeds to describe a sort of addition to many oriental houses, which corresponds probably to the upper chambers often mentioned time the Bible. He says, “To most of these houses there is a smaller one annexed, which sometimes rises one story higher than the house; at other times it consists of one or two rooms only and a terrace; while others that are built, as they frequently are, over the porch or gateway, have (if have not) all the conveniences that belong to the house, properly so called. There is a door of communication from them into the gallery of the house, kept open or shut at the discretion of the master of the family; besides another door, which opens immediately from a privy stairs down into the porch, without giving the least disturbance to the house. These smaller houses are known by the name alee, or oleah, and in them strangers are usually lodged and entertained; and thither likewise the men are wont to retire, from the hurry and noise of their families, to be more at leisure for meditation or devotion, Mat 6:6 ; besides the use they are at other times put to, in serving for wardrobes and magazines.”This then, or something like this, we may suppose to have been the ali’yah or upper chamber of the Hebrews. Such was the “little chamber upon the wall,” which the Shunammite had built for Elisha, 2Ki 4:10 ; the “summer parlor” of Eglon, Jdg 3:20 ; and the “chamber over the gate,” where David retired to weep, 2Sa 18:33 ; and perhaps in the New Testament the “upper chamber” where Tabitha was laid out, Mal 9:37, and whence Eutychus fell from the window of the third loft into the court, Mal 20:9 .The flat roof of oriental houses often afford a place of retirement and meditation; here Samuel communed with Saul, 1Sa 9:25 ; and from /1Sa 9:26, they would seem also to have slept there, as is still common in the East, 2Sa 11:2 Dan 4:30 . Mr. Wood says, “It has ever been a custom with them,” the Arabs in the East, “equally connected with health and pleasure, to pass the nights in summer upon the house-tops, which for this very purpose are made flat, and divided from each other by walls. We found this way of sleeping extremely agreeable; as we thereby enjoyed the cool air, above the reach of gnats and vapors, without any other covering than the canopy of heaven, which unavoidably presents itself in different pleasing forms, upon every interruption of rest, when silence and solitude strongly dispose the mid to contemplation, Mal 10:9 . The roof of an ancient house was the best and often the only place, from which to get a view of the region around; hence the resort to it in times of peril, Isa 15:3 22:1. In many cases roofs were coated with hardened earth, through which, when cracked or soaked through by rain, the water dripped, Pro 27:15 ; and in which, when neglected, the grass grows in spring, but soon withers after the rains have ceased, Psa 129:6,7 Isa 37:27 .”The common material for building the best oriental houses is stone. Brick is also used. But the houses of the people in the East in general are very bad constructions, consisting of mud walls, reeds, and rushes; whence they become apt illustrations of the fragility of human life, Job 4:19 ; and as mud, pebbles, and slime, or at best unburnt bricks are used informing the walls, the expression, “digging through houses,” Job 24:16 Mat 6:19 24:14, is easily accounted for; as is the behavior of Ezekiel, Eze 12:5, who dug through such a wall in the sight of the people; whereby, as may be imagined, he did little injury to his house; notwithstanding which, the symbol was very expressive to the beholders. So also the striking illustration in Eze 13:10-16 . On the sites of many ancient cities of Syria and Babylonia only the ruins of public edifices disappeared ages ago. Travellers near the Ganges and the Nile speak of multitudes of huts on the sandy banks of those rivers being swept away in a night by sudden freshets, leaving not a trace behind. This may illustrate our Savior’s parable, in Mat 7:24-27 . See TENT.

Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

House

In this article the references in the NT to the structure and appointments of a house will be collected together, and a description of a house in apostolic times will be given, with illustrations from the present writers observations in his Eastern travels. For house in the sense of those who inhabit the building, and of descendants, see Family.

1. Foundations and materials.-Great attention was paid to the foundations; they were if possible of stone, even if the walls were of mud. The foundations (the apostles and prophets) and the cornerstone (Christ) are the principal elements in the spiritual house (Eph 2:20). The importance of the foundations of the wall of the holy city is illustrated in Rev 21:14 ff. by their being adorned with precious stones. It thus happens in the present day that in the ordinary Eastern house the foundations often cost as much as all the rest of the building put together. In places where stone is plentiful all houses are built of that material; otherwise only the very rich mens houses are of stone and all others are built of sun-dried bricks (sometimes of kiln-dried bricks, which are more expensive), or even of mud set in layers, each layer being left to dry hard before the next layer is placed on the top of it. The sun-dried bricks are made simply of clay with which chopped straw is mixed (Exo 5:7), and are set to dry in the sun for a few days before they are wanted for the building. Thus brick-making and house-building go on together on the same ground. The perishable nature of the material explains why, with the exception of the royal palaces, which were built of stone, nearly all Nineveh has completely vanished. If Layards rather doubtful theory is correct (Nineveh and its Remains, London, 1849, vol. ii. p. 236ff.), that vast city of three days journey [round the walls] (Jon 3:3) occupied the large area between the fortresses, which alone remain to this day, and was some 75 miles in circumference; but of the buildings in the centre of the area there is not a trace. The same thing also explains the references to digging through houses in Mat 6:19; Mat 24:43, Luk 12:39; this is quite an easy thing to do.

2. The roof (; sometimes , Mat 8:8, Luk 7:6).-This is flat, made of mud laid on beams of wood, crossed by laths, and covered with matting. It is used in summer as a sleeping-place, and by day (especially in the evening) as a sitting-room, or often as a promenade, for roofs of adjacent houses in the villages are frequently joined together. It is possible sometimes to walk from one end of the village to the other without descending the ladders or staircases to the courtyards and streets. Hence in time of persecution the fugitive would do well to flee along the roofs rather than fall a prey to the enemy in the streets (Mat 24:17, Mar 13:15, Luk 17:31). So St. Peter goes to the roof to pray (Act 10:9). The roof is a favourite place for village gossip; this is the proclamation on the housetops of Mat 10:27, Luk 12:3. The nature of the material of the roof explains how easy it was to dig through it (Mar 2:4, ; cf. Gal 4:15) in order to let the paralytic down; the mention of tiles in || Luk 5:19 is merely a paraphrase adopted by St. Luke for the comprehension of his more Western readers-or at least of readers less acquainted with the customs of Palestine than those of St. Mark (W. M. Ramsay, Was Christ born at Bethlehem?, 1898, p. 57f.).

3. The windows ().-In the East these now usually look into the courtyard, not into the street, as privacy is of the greatest importance. Such was probably the case in Act 20:9, where Eutychus, sitting in a window, falls from the third story ( ); as Eastern houses are usually of two stories (for the kitchen see below), we must here have an exception to the general rule. It is not common for windows to be in the outside wall of a town; yet this must have been the case in Act 9:25, 2Co 11:33, where St. Paul is let down through the town wall and escapes, in both cases from Damascus, for both passages seem to refer to the same incident (cf. also Rahab, Jos 2:15). Except in the better houses, no glass is used in the windows; oiled cotton or paper serves instead of glass in the winter, being removed in the summer. Glass (other than that used for mirrors) is mentioned in the NT only in Rev 4:6; Rev 15:2; Rev 21:18; Rev 21:21; its costliness in ancient times, as in the modern East, is seen by its being coupled with gold in Job 28:17 Revised Version .

4. The house-gate.-The door or gate itself is (Mar 2:2, Joh 18:16, figuratively in Rev 3:20), but is the gateway or entry of a house, especially if large, as well as of a city (Mat 26:71, Luk 16:20, Act 10:17; Act 12:13 f.; in the last passage the full expression door of the gate ( ) is used, but in Act 12:14 includes , for it is opened by Rhoda; cf. articles Door and Gate). For a house-gate is not ordinarily used; it is the gate of a city, and so of a public building like the Temple or a prison (Act 3:10; Act 12:10, but Act 3:2 has ). The house-gate was naturally kept locked in troublous times, as in Act 10:17; Act 12:13-16, and was guarded by a porter (Mar 13:34, ) or a portress (Joh 18:16, ; cf. Mar 14:69, Act 12:13 f.), just as the figurative sheepfold in Joh 10:3 is guarded by the porter, probably the Holy Spirit (H. B. Swete, The Holy Spirit in the NT, 1909, p. 146). The entry () is either the same as, or else leads into, the fore-court () of Mar 14:68, where || Mat 26:71 has . Outside the gate of the great houses the beggars sit (Luk 16:20, Lazarus), as they did at the gate of the Temple (Act 3:2; Act 3:10). Inside the gate, perhaps in the fore-court, were the water-pots for washing (Joh 2:6); evidently not in the guest-room.

5. The courtyard ().-This occupied the centre of the house (Mat 26:69, Mar 14:54; Mar 14:66). We read of a charcoal fire in it-a brazier in the open air (Mar 14:54; Mar 14:67, Luk 22:55 f., Joh 18:18; Joh 18:25), in the middle (Luk 22:55). On this courtyard the rooms opened; our Lord inside was visible to Peter in the court (Luk 22:61). The rooms, in places where there is little cold weather, might be entirely open to the court, as may be seen at the present day, e.g. at Mosul; or, in colder places, might open on the court with doors and windows, with or without a covered gallery.

6. The kitchen.-The kitchen itself is not mentioned in the NT, though the oven (Mat 6:30) and kitchen utensils (Mar 7:4) are referred to. Yet in all but the richer houses it is the most commonly used part of the house, and the family ordinarily live in it; in some Eastern countries it is emphatically called the house as opposed to the rooms. The oven is a hole in the floor; the fire, of dried manure, is kindled at the bottom; and the sides are made of hardened clay, to which the flaps of dough adhere until they are baked and ready to be hooked out as bread. Other food is cooked over the fire in pots. As there is no chimney (in our sense of the word), the kitchen must necessarily be of one story only, to allow of a hole in the roof for the escape of the smoke.

7. The rooms.-(a) There is not in the East, in the ordinary houses, the distinction usually found in the West between bedrooms and sitting-rooms. The latter are turned into bedrooms by spreading the bedclothes on the floor. Thus the bed-chamber (, Act 12:20) of which Blastus was guardian would be unusual except in a great house such as that of Herod.

(b) Most houses, even of the comparatively poor, have a fairly large room or rooms, often, but not always, on the first floor, to entertain guests who come unexpectedly, for Eastern hospitality is great (see Home). Hence we read that the upper room ( or or or ) of Mar 14:14 f., Luk 22:11 f. was large, and it is expressly called a guest-chamber, , i.e. a place where the guests unpack their baggage; it may be doubted if in Luk 2:7 is rightly rendered inn, for this in Luk 10:34 is called . Probably the was a guest-chamber in a house where Joseph expected to lodge, but it is a word elastic in meaning (see A. Plummer, St. Luke 2 [International Critical Commentary , 1898], 54). The upper room of the Last Supper was very probably the place where the Ten and the rest were assembled on Easter Day, and if so must have been somewhat large, though the word used (, Luk 24:33 Revised Version ; cf. Luk 24:9) suggests crowding, just as the compounds , in Act 12:12; Act 19:25 suggest a large assembly. In Acts the word used for such an upper room is , Act 1:13; Act 9:37; Act 9:39 (Dorcas) Act 20:8 (at Troas). The room mentioned in Act 1:13 must have been large, for it held 120 people; and it was perhaps the same as the coenaculum of Mar 14:14 f., for it is called the upper room (Revised Version ). It has been suggested that as different words are used, the rooms must have been different; yet this would not account for St. Lukes using in his Gospel, and always in Acts. It was no doubt in such a guest-chamber on the first floor that Jesus healed the paralytic, for it was under the roof. (With this arrangement for an upper room we may compare the ordinary provision in a caravanserai of a room or rooms over the gateway for the guests, while the stables are below, and round the courtyard.) Such an upper room is probably the in Phm 1:22, Act 28:23 -a lodging in a private house. In response to St. Pauls request, Philemon would doubtless offer his own guestroom. When the Apostle arrived in Rome he probably at first lodged, guarded by soldiers, in the guest-room of a friend, though afterwards he hired a private house (, Act 28:30). For the use of these guest-rooms as the first Christian churches, see Family.

(c) Besides the above rooms we read in the NT of a (better ) and an . The latter is a barn or granary (Mat 3:12; Mat 6:26; Mat 13:30, Luk 3:17; Luk 12:18; Luk 12:24). The former is properly a store-chamber (Luk 12:24), and is usually used in that sense in the Septuagint (Deu 28:8, etc.). All Eastern houses have such chambers, and for security they are usually placed so as not to have an outside wall, but to open off the kitchen. Hence any inner chamber used for living in came to be so called (Mat 6:6; Mat 24:26, Luk 12:3). The Latin translations of vary greatly (Plummer, St. Luke2, 318).

8. Paving of the rooms.-This is very seldom of wood (except in Solomons Temple, 1Ki 6:15; 1Ki 6:30, where the wood was overlaid with gold), but, even on the upper floors, of beaten mud, sometimes of a sort of cement. In rich houses pavements of stone or marble were used; thus the Gabbatha () of Joh 19:13 was probably a hall paved with stone.

9. Furniture of the rooms.-Very little is said of this in the NT; and, in truth, Eastern houses need little furniture. Carpets (with straw mats under them to protect them from the mud floor), mattresses, and bedclothes are practically the only necessaries. When we read in the NT the various words for a bed as used for sleeping in- (Mat 9:2, Luk 5:18), (Luk 5:19; Luk 5:24; the same as , Luk 5:18), (Mar 2:4; Mar 6:55, Joh 5:8)-only mattresses and bedclothes are meant. The man who rises in the morning takes up his bed, and, rolling it up in an outer cover, places it against the wall, where it serves as a cushion in the day-time. The same is probably true of in Mar 7:30, Luk 17:34, Rev 2:22, where either sense is possible; and of the in Act 5:15 (inferior Manuscripts substitute for the former word), where the sick are laid in the streets. On the other hand, the low couches (, triclinia, [the last not in the NT] used for meals are clearly articles of furniture in Mar 4:21; Mar 7:4 (here a Western addition, but it may be genuine), Luk 8:16; for a lamp may be put under them (cf. , Joh 2:6). On these couches the people reclined; hence is to sit at meat (Mat 9:10, etc.), and the guests are (Mat 22:10). It seems doubtful if bedsteads are ever mentioned in the NT; see, further, article Bed, Couch. The candlestick or lamp-stand () mentioned in the above passages is also a piece of furniture, set in the middle of the room to hold the light. Chairs and tables are not much used by non-westernized Orientals to this day; but sometimes a low stand is placed on the floor to hold food at meals, though more often the meats are placed on a tablecloth on the ground. Thus table in the Bible does not usually denote an article of furniture, except in the case of the money-changers in Mat 21:12, Mar 11:15, Joh 2:15, where a house is not being spoken of. The throne (), of a king is mentioned in Act 12:21, and figuratively the of God and the of angels or men (Mat 19:28, Rev 20:4, etc.) are spoken of; but ordinary people sat, as they still sit in the true East, on the ground, of on cushions, though chairs or seats () were not unknown (Mat 21:12, Mar 11:15).

Literature.-C. Warren in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ii. 431, article House (especially for the OT); A. J. Maclean and W. H. Browne, The Catholicos of the East and his People, London, 1892; A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, do. 1849, especially pt. i. ch. vi. and vii., pt. ii. ch. ii.

A. J. Maclean.

Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

House

(, ba’yith, which is used with much latitude, and in the construct form , beyth, Anglicized Beth, [q.v.] enters into the composition of many proper names; Gr. , or some derivative of it), a dwelling in general, whether literally, as house, tent, palace, citadel, tomb, derivatively as tabernacle, temple, heaven, or metaphorically as family. SEE PALACE.

I. History and Sources of Comparison. Although, in Oriental language, every tent (see Gesen. Thes. p. 32) may be regarded as a house (Harmer, Obs. 1, 194), yet the distinction between the permanent dwelling-house and the tent must have taken rise from the moment of the division of mankind into dwellers in tents and builders of cities, i.e. of permanent habitations (Gen 4:17; Gen 4:20; Isa 38:2). The agricultural and pastoral forms of life are described in Scripture as of equally ancient origin. Cain was a husbandman, and Abel a keeper of sheep. The former is a settled, the latter an unsettled mode of life. Hence we find that Cain, when the murder of his brother constrained him to wander abroad, built a town in the land where he settled. At the same time, doubtless, those who followed the same mode of life as Abel, dwelt in tents, capable of being taken from one place to another, when the want of fresh pastures constrained those removals which are so frequent among people of pastoral habits. We are not required to suppose that Cain’s town was more than a collection of huts. SEE CITY.

Our information respecting the abodes of men in the ages before the Deluge is however, too scanty to afford much ground for notice. The enterprise at Babel, to say nothing of Egypt, shows that the constructive arts had made considerable progress during that obscure but interesting period; for we are bound in reason to conclude that the arts possessed by man in the ages immediately following the Deluge existed before that great catastrophe. SEE ANTEDILUVIANS.

The observations offered under ARCHITECTURE will preclude the expectation of finding among this Eastern people that accomplished style of building which Vitruvius requires, or that refined taste by which the Greeks and Romans excited the admiration of foreign nations. The tents in which the Arabs now dwell are in all probability the same as those in which the Hebrew patriarchs spent their lives. It is not likely that what the Hebrews observed in Egypt, during their long sojourn in that country, had in this respect any direct influence upon their own subsequent practice in Palestine. SEE TENT.

Nevertheless, the information which may be derived from the figures of houses and parts of houses in the Egyptian tombs is not to be overlooked or slighted. We have in them the only representations of ancient houses in that part of the world which now exist; and however different may have been the state architecture of Egypt and Palestine, we have every reason to conclude that there was considerable resemblance in the private dwellings of these neighboring countries. The few representations of buildings on the Assyrian monuments may likewise be of some assistance in completing our ideas of Hebrew dwellings. The Hebrews did not become dwellers in cities till the sojourn in Egypt and after the conquest of Canaan (Genesis 47, 3; Exo 12:7; Heb 11:9), while the Canaanites, as well as the Assyrians, were from an earlier period builders and inhabitants of cities, and it was into the houses and cities built by the former that the Hebrews entered to take possession after the conquest (Gen 10:11; Gen 10:19; Gen 19:1; Gen 23:10; Gen 34:20; Num 11:27; Deu 6:10-11). The private dwellings of the Assyrians and Babylonians have altogether perished, but the solid material of the houses of Syria, east of the Jordan, may perhaps have preserved entire specimens of the ancient dwellings, even of the original inhabitants of that region (Porter, Damascus, 2:195, 196; C. C. Graham in Camb. Essays, 1859, p. 160, etc.; comp. Buckingham Arab Tribes, p. 171,172).

II. Materials and general Character. There is no reason to suppose that many houses in’ Palestine were constructed with wood. A great part of that country was always very poor in timber, and some parts of it had scarcely any wood at all. But of stone there was no want, and it was consequently much used in the building of houses. The law of Moses respecting leprosy in houses (Lev 14:33-40) seems to prove this, as the characteristics there enumerated could only occur in the case of stone walls. Still, when the Hebrews intended to build a house in the most splendid style and in accordance with the taste of the age, as much wood as possible was used. Houses in the East were frequently built of burnt or merely dried clay bricks, which were not very durable (Job 4:19; Mat 7:26). Such were very liable to the attacks of burglars (Job 24:16; Mat 6:19; Mat 24:16. See Hackett’s Illust. of Script. p. 94). The better class of houses were built of stone, the palaces of squared stone (1Ki 7:9; Isa 9:10), and some were of marble (1Ch 29:2). Lime or gypsum (probably with ashes or chopped straw) was used for mortar (Isa 33:12; Jer 43:9); perhaps also asphaltum (Gen 11:3). A plastering or whitewashing is often mentioned (Lev 14:41-42; Eze 13:10; Mat 23:27); a wash of colored lime was chosen for palaces (Jer 22:14). The beams consisted chiefly of the wood of the sycamore from its extreme durability (Isa 9:10); the acacia and the palm were employed for columns and transverse beams, and the cypress for flooring-planks (1Ki 6:15; 2Ch 3:5).

The fir, the olive-tree, and cedars were greatly esteemed (1Ki 7:2; Jer 22:14); but the most precious of all was the almug-tree: this wood seems to have been brought through Arabia from India (1Ki 10:11-12). Wood was used in the construction of doors and gates, of the folds and lattices of windows, of the flat roofs, and of the wainscoting with which the walls were ornamented. Beams were inlaid in the walls to which the wainscoting was fastened by nails to render it more secure (Ezr 6:4). Houses finished in this manner were called ceiled houses and ceiled chambers (Jer 22:14; Hag 1:4). The lower part of the walls was adorned with rich hangings of velvet or damask dyed of the liveliest colors, suspended on hooks, and taken down at pleasure (Est 1:6). The upper part of the walls was adorned with figures in stucco, with gold, silver, gems, and ivory; hence the expressions ivory houses, ivory palaces, and chambers ornamented with ivory (1Ki 22:39; 2Ch 3:6; Psa 45:8; Amo 3:15). Metals were also employed to some extent, as lead, iron, and copper are mentioned among building materials; but especially gold and silver for various kinds of solid, plated, and inlaid work (Exo 36:34; Exo 36:38).

The ceiling, generally of wainscot, was- painted with great art. In the days of Jeremiah these chambers were ceiled with costly and fragrant wood, and painted with the richest colors (Jer 22:14). (See each of these parts and materials in their alphabetical place.) The splendor and magnificence of an edifice seems to have been estimated in a measure by the size of the square stones of which it was constructed (1Ki 7:9-12). In some cases these were of brilliant and variegated hues (1Ch 29:2). The foundation stone, which was probably placed at the corner, and thence called the corner stone, was an object of peculiar regard, and was selected with great care from among the others (Psa 118:22; Isa 28:16; Mat 21:42; Act 4:11; 1Pe 2:6). The square stones in buildings, as far as we can ascertain from the ruins which yet remain, were held together, not by mortar or cement of any kind, except a very small quantity indeed might have been used, but by cramp ions. Walls in some cases appear to have been covered with a composition of chalk and gypsum (Deu 27:2; comp. Dan 5:5; Act 23:3. See Chardin’s Voyages, ed. Langles, vol. 4). The tiles dried in the sun were at first united by mud placed between them, afterwards by lime mixed with sand to form mortar. The latter was used with burnt tiles (Lev 14:41-42; Jer 43:9). For the external decoration of large buildings marble columns were employed (Son 5:15). The Persians also took great delight in marble. To this not only the ruins of Persepolis testify, but the Book of Esther, where mention is made of white, red, and black marble, and likewise of veined marble. The Scriptural allusions to houses receive no illustration from the recently discovered monuments of the Mesopotamian mounds, as no private houses, either of Assyria or Babylonia, have been preserved; owing doubtless to their having been constructed of perishable mud walls, at most enclosed only with thin slabs of alabaster (Layard’s Nineveh, 2, 214). SEE TEMPLE.

The Hebrews at a very ancient date, like the Orientals, had not only summer and winter rooms (Jeremiah 36, 22; see Chardin. 4:119), but palaces (Jdg 3:20; 1Ki 7:2-6; Amo 3:15). The houses, or palaces so called, made for summer residence, were very spacious. The lower stories were frequently under ground. The front of these buildings faced the north, so as to secure the advantage of the breezes, which in summer blow from that direction. They were supplied with a current of fresh air by means of ventilators, which consisted of perforations made through the upper part of the northern wall, of considerable diameter externally, but diminishing in size as they approached the inside of the wall. SEE DWELLING.

Houses for jewels and armor were built and furnished under the kings (2Ki 20:13). The draught-house (; latrinae) was doubtless a public latrine, such as exists in modern Eastern cities (2Ki 10:27; Russell, 1, 34).

Leprosy in the house was probably a nitrous efflorescence on the walls, which was injurious to the salubrity of the house, and whose removal was therefore strictly enjoined by the law (Lev 14:34; Lev 14:55; Kitto, Phys. Geogr. of Pal. p. 112).

III. Details of Hebrew Dwellings. In inferring the plan and arrangement of ancient Jewish or Oriental houses, as alluded to in Scripture, from existing dwellings in Syria, Egypt, and the East in general, allowance must be made for the difference in climate between Egypt, Persia, and Palestine, a cause from which would proceed differences in certain cases of material and construction, as well as of domestic arrangement.

1. The houses of the rural poor in Egypt, as well as in most parts of Syria, Arabia, and Persia, are for the most part mere huts of mud, or sun burnt bricks. In some parts of Palestine and Arabia stone is used, and in certain districts caves in the rock are used as dwellings (Amo 5:11; Bartlett, Walks, p. 117). SEE CAVE. The houses are usually of one story only, viz. the ground floor, and sometimes contain only one apartment. Sometimes a small court for the cattle is attached; and in some cases the cattle are housed in the same building, or the people live on a raised platform, and the cattle round them on the ground (1Sa 28:24; Irby and Mangles, p. 70; Jolliffe, Letters, 1, 43; Buckingham, Arab Tribes, p. 170; Burckhardt, Travels, 2, 119). In Lower Egypt the oxen occupy the width of the chamber farthest from the entrance: it is built of brick or mud, about four feet high, and the top is often used as a sleeping place in winter. The windows are small apertures high up in the walls, sometimes grated with wood (Burckhardt, Travels, 1, 241; 2:101, 119, 301, 329; Lane, Mod. Egyptians, 1, 44). The roofs are commonly, but not always, flat, and are usually formed of a plaster of mud and straw laid upon boughs or rafters; and upon the flat roofs, tents or booths of boughs or rushes are often raised to be mused as sleeping-places in summer (Irby and Mangles, p. 71; Niebuhr, Descr. p. 49, 53; Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 112; Nineveh, 1. 176; Burckhardt, Syria, p. 280; Travels, 1, 190; Van Egmont, 2:32; Malan, Magdala and Bethany, p. 15). To this description the houses of ancient Egypt, and also of Assyria, as represented in the monuments, in great measure correspond (Layard Mon. of Nin. p. 2, p. 49,50; Wilkinson, Ancient Eg.1, 13; Martiineau, East. Life, 1, 19, 97). In the towns the houses of the inferior kind do not differ much from the above description, but they are sometimes of more than one story, and the roof terraces are more carefully constructed. In Palestine they are often of stone (Jolliffe, 1, 26). In the inferior kinds of Oriental dwellings, such as are met with in villages and very small towns, there is no central court, but there is generally a shaded platform in front. The village cabins and abodes of the peasantry are, of course, of a still inferior description; and, being the abodes of people who live much in the open air, will not bear comparison with the houses of the same class in Northern Europe, where the cottage is the home of the owner. (See Jahn, Bibl. Archaeol. translated by Prof. Upham, pt. 1, ch. 2.)

2. The difference between the poorest houses and those of the class next above them is greater than between these and the houses of the first rank. The prevailing plan of Eastern houses of this class presents, as was the case in ancient Egypt, a front of wall, whose blank and mean appearance is usually relieved only by the door and a few latticed and projecting windows (Views in Syria, 2, 25). The privacy of Oriental domestic habits would render our plan of throwing the front of the house towards the street most repulsive. The doorway or door bears an inscription from the Koran as the ancient Egyptian houses lad inscriptions over their doors, and as the Israelites were directed to write sentences from the Law over their gates. SEE MEZUZAH.

Over the door is usually the kiosk (sometimes projecting like a bay-window), or screened balcony, probably the summer parlor in which Ehud smote the king of Moab (Jdg 3:20), and the chamber on the wall, which the Shunammite prepared for the prophet (2Ki 4:10). Besides this, there may be a small latticed window or two high up in the wall, giving light and air to upper chambers, which, except in times of public celebrations, is usually closed (2Ki 9:30; Shaw, Travels, p. 207; Lane, Mod. Eg. 1, 27). The entrance is usually guarded within from sight by a wall or some arrangement of the passages. In the passage is a stone seat for the porter and other servants (Lane, Mod. Eg.1 32; Chardin, Voy. 4, 111). SEE DOOR.

The buildings which form the house front towards an inner square or court. Small houses have one of these courts, but superior houses have two, and first-rate houses three, communicating with each other; for the Orientals dislike ascending stairs or steps. It is only when the building-ground is confined by nature or by fortifications that they build high houses, but, from the loftiness of the rooms, buildings of one story are often as high as houses of three stories among ourselves. If there are three or more courts, all except the outer one are much alike in size and appearance; but the outer one, being devoted to the more public life of the occupant, and to his intercourse with society, is materially different from all the others. If there are more than two, the second is devoted chiefly to the use of the master, who is there attended only by-his eunuchs, children, and females, and sees only such persons as he calls from the third or interior court, in which they reside. In the history of Esther, she incurs danger by going from her interior court to that of the king, to invite him to visit her part of the palace; but she would not, on any account have gone to the outermost court, in which the king held his public audiences. Some of the finest houses in the East are to be found at Damascus, where in some of them are seven such courts. When there are only two courts, the innermost is the harem, in which the women and children live, and which is the true domicile of the master, to which he withdraws when the claims of business, of society, and of friends have been satisfied, and where no man but himself ever enters, or could be induced to enter, even by strong persuasions (Burckhardt, Travels, 1, 188; Van Egmont, 2 246, 253; Shaw, p. 207; Porter, Damascus, 1, 34, 37, 60; Chardin, Voyages, 6, 6; Lane, Modern Eg. 1 179, 207). See below.

Entering at the street door, the above-named passage, usually sloping downwards, conducts to the outer court; the opening from the passage to this, as before observed, is not opposite the gate of entrance, but by a side turn, to preclude any view from the street into the court when the gate is opened. This open court corresponds to the Romali impluvium, and is often paved with marble. Into this the principal apartments look, and are either open to it in front, or are entered from it by doors. An awning is sometimes drawn over the court and the floor strewed with carpets on festive occasions (Shaw, p. 208). Around part, if not the whole, of the court is a veranda, often nine or ten feet deep, over which, when there is more than one floor, runs a second gallery of like depth, with a balustrade (Shaw, p. 208). The stairs to the upper apartments or to the roof are often shaded by vines or creeping-plants, and the courts, especially the inner ones planted with trees. The court has often a well or tank in it (Psa 128:3; 2Sa 17:18; Russell, Aleppo, 1, 24, 32; Wilkinson, 1, 6, 8; Lane; Mod. Eg. 1, 32; Views in Syria, 1, 56). SEE COURT.

On entering the outer court through this passage we find opposite to us the public room, in which the master receives and gives audience to his friends and clients. This is entirely open in front, and, being richly fitted up, has a splendid appearance when the first view of it is obtained. A refreshing coolness is sometimes given to this apartment by a fountain throwing up a jet of water in front of it. This is’ the , or guest-chamber, of Luk 22:11; not necessarily an , or upper chamber, as in Luk 22:12. A large portion of the other side of the court is occupied with a frontage of lattice-work filled with colored glass, belonging to a room as large as the guest-chamber, and which in winter is used for the same purpose or serves as the apartment of any visitor of distinction, who cannot, of course, be admitted into the interior parts of the house. The other apartments in this outer court are comparatively small, and are used for the accommodation of visitors, retainers, and servants. SEE GUEST- CHAMBER.

In the better class of houses in modern Egypt, the above ground-floor room is generally the apartment for male visitors, called mandarah, having a portion of the floor sunk below the rest, called durka’ah. This is often paved with marble or colored tiles, and has in the center a fountain. The rest of the floor is a raised platform called liwan, with a mattress and cushions at the back on each of the three sides. This seat or sofa is called diwan. Every person, on entrance, takes off his shoes on the durka’ah before stepping on the liwan (Exo 3:5; Jos 5:15; Luk 7:38). The ceilings over the 2 and durka’ah are often richly paneled and ornamented (Jer 22:14). SEE DIVAN.

Bearing in mind that the reception-room is raised above the level of the court (Chardin, 4:118: Views in Samaria, 1, 56), we may, in explaining the circumstances of the miracle of the paralytic (Mar 2:3; Luk 5:18), suppose,

1. either that our Lord was standing under the veranda, and the people in front in the court. The bearers of the sick man ascended the stairs to the roof of the house, and, taking off a portion of the boarded covering of the veranda, or removing the awning over the impluvium, , ill the former case let down the bed through the veranda roof, or in the latter, down by Unay of the roof, , and deposited it before the Savior (Shaw, p. 212).

2. Another explanation presents itself in considering the room where the company were assembled as the , and the roof opened for the bed to be the true roof of the house (Crench, Miracles, p. 199 Lane, Modern Eg. 1, 39).

3. And one still more simple is found in regarding the house as one of the rude dwellings now to be seen near the Sea of Galilee, a mere room ten or twelve feet high, and as many or more square, with no opening except the door. The roof, used as a sleeping-place, is reached by a ladder from the outside, and the bearers of the paralytic, unable to approach the door, would thus have ascended the roof, and, having uncovered it (), let him down into the room where our Lord was (Malan, 1. c.). See below.

Besides the mandarah some houses in Cairo have an apartment called mak’ad, open in front to the court, with two or more arches, and a railing; and a pillar to-support the wall above (Lane, 1, 38). It was in a chamber of this kind, probably one of the largest size to be found in a palace, that our Lord was arraigned before the high-priest at the time when the denial of him by Peter took place. He turned and looked on Peter as he stood by the fire in tile court (Luk 22:56; Luk 22:61; Joh 18:24), while he himself was in the hall of judgment, the mak’ad. Such was the porch of judgment built by Solomon (1Ki 7:7), which finds a parallel in the golden alcove of Mohammed Uzbek (Ibn Batuta, Travels, p. 76, ed. Lee). SEE PRAETORIUM. The circumstance of Samson’s pulling down the house by means of the pillars, may be explained by the fact of the company being assembled on tiers of balconies above each other, supported by central pillars on the basement; when these were pulled down, the whole of the upper floors would fall also (Jdg 16:26; see Shaw, p. 211). SEE PILLAR.

When there is no second floor, but more than one court, the women’s apartments (Arabic harem or hamran, secluded or prohibited, with which maybe compared the Hebrew Armon, , Stanley, S. and P. App. 82), are usually in the second court; otherwise they form a separate building within the general enclosure, or are above on the first floor (Views in Syria, 1, 56). The entrance to the harem, as observed above, is crossed by no one but the master of the house and the domestics belonging to the female establishment. Though this remark would not apply in the same degree to Jewish habits, the privacy of the women’s apartments may possibly be indicated by the inner chamber (, ; cubiculum), resorted to as a hiding-place (1Ki 20:30; 1Ki 22:25; see Jdg 15:1). Solomon, in his marriage with a foreigner, introduced also foreign usage in this respect, which was carried further in subsequent times (1Ki 7:8; 2Ki 24:15). The harem, of the Persian monarch ( ; ; domus feminarum) is noticed in the book of Esther (Est 2:3) SEE WOMAN.

Sometimes the diwan is raised sufficiently to allow of cellars underneath for stores of all kinds (, Mat 24:26; Russell, 1, 32). This basement is occupied by various offices, stores of corn and fuel, places for the water-jars to stand in, places for grinding corn, baths, kitchens, etc. In Turkish Arabia most of the houses have underground cellars or vaults, to which the inhabitants retreat during the midday heat of summer, and there – enjoy a refreshing coolness. We do not discover any notice of this usage in Scripture. But at Acre the substructions of very ancient houses were some years ago discovered, having such cellars, which were very probably subservient to this use. In the rest of the year, these cellars, or serdaubs, as they are called, are abandoned to the bats, which swarm in them in scarcely credible numbers (Isa 2:20).

The kitchens are always in this inner court, as the cooking is performed by women; and the ladies of the family superintend or actually assist in the process. The kitchen, open in front, is on the same side as the entrance from the outer court; and the top of it forms a terrace, which affords a communication between the first floor of both courts by a private door, seldom used but by the master of the house and attendant eunuchs. There are usually no fireplaces except in the kitchen, the furniture of which consists of a sort of raised platform of brick, with receptacles in it for fire, answering to the boiling-places (; ; culinae of Ezekiel (Eze 46:23; see Lane, 1, 41; Gesenius, Thes. p. 249). In these different compartments the various dishes of an Eastern feast may be at once prepared at charcoal fires. This place being wholly open in front, the half-tame doves, which have their nests in the trees of the court, often visit it, in the absence of the servants, in search of crumbs, etc. As they sometimes blacken themselves, this perhaps explains the obscure passage in Psa 68:13, Though ye have lien among the pots [but Gesenius renders sheepfolds], ye shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, etc.

Besides the mandarah, there is sometimes a second room, either on the ground or the upper floor, called ka’ah, fitted with diwans, and at the corners of these rooms portions taken off and enclosed form retiring rooms (Lane, 1, 21; Russell, 1, 31, 33). While speaking of the interior of the house we may observe, that on the diwan, the corner is the place of honor, which is never quitted by the master of the house in receiving strangers (Russell, 1, 27; Malan, Tyre and Sidon, p. 38). When there is an upper story, the ka’ah forms the most important apartment, and thus probably answers to the , which was often the guest-chamber (Luk 22:12; Act 1:13; Act 9:37; Act 20:8; Burckhardt, Travels, 1, 154). The windows of the upper rooms often project one or two feet, and form a kiosk or latticed chamber, the ceilings of which are elaborately ornamented (Lane, 1, 27; Russell, 1, 102; Burckhardt, Trat. 1, 190). Such may have been the chamber in the wall (, , conaculum, Gesen. p. 1030) made, or rather set apart for Elisha by the Shunammite woman (2Ki 4:10-11). So, also, the summer parlor of Eglon (Jdg 3:20; Jdg 3:23; but see Wilkinson, 1, 11), the loft of the widow of Zarephath (1Ki 17:19). The lattice (, , cancelli) through which Ahaziah fell perhaps belonged to an upper chamber of this kind (2Ki 1:2), as also the third loft () from which Eutychus fell (Act 20:9; compare Jer 22:13). SEE UPPER ROOM.

The inner court is entered by a passage and door similar to those on the street, and usually situated at one of the innermost corners of the outer court. The inner court is generally much larger than the former. It is for the most part paved, excepting a portion in the middle, which is planted with trees (usually two) and shrubs, with a basin of water in the midst. That the Jews had the like arrangement of trees in the courts of their houses, and that the birds nested in them, appears from Psa 84:2-3. They had also the basin of water in the inner court or harem, and among them it was used for bathing as is shown by David’s discovering Bathsheba bathing as he walked on the roof of his palace. The arrangement of the inner court is very similar to that of the outer, but the whole is more open and airy. The buildings usually occupy two sides of the square, of which the one opposite the entrance contains the principal apartments. They are upon what we should call the first floor, and open into a wide gallery or veranda which in good houses is nine or ten feet deep, and covered by a wooden penthouse supported by a row. of wooden columns. This terrace or gallery is furnished with a strong wooden balustrade, and is usually paved with squared stones, or else floored with boards. In the center of the principal front is the usual open drawing room, on which the best art of the Eastern decorator is expended. Much of one of the sides of the court front- is usually occupied by the large sitting room, with the latticed front covered with colored glass, similar to that in the outer court. The other rooms, of smaller size, are the more private apartments of the mansion.

No ancient houses had chimneys. The word so translated in Hos 13:3, means a hole through which the smoke escaped; and this existed only in the lower class of dwellings, where raw wood was employed for fuel or cooking, and where there was an opening immediately over the hearth to let out the smoke. In the better sort of houses the rooms were warmed in winter by charcoal in braziers (Jeremiah 36, 22; Mar 14:54; Joh 18:18), as is still the practice (Russell, 1; 21; Lane, 1, 41; Chardin, 4:120), or a fire of wood might be kindled in the open court of the house (Luk 22:55). SEE FIRE. There are usually (no doors to the sitting or drawing rooms of Eastern houses: they are closed by curtains, at least in summer, the opening and shutting of doors being odious to most Orientals. The same seems to have been the case among the Hebrews, as far as we may judge from the curtains which served instead of doors to the tabernacle, and which separated the inner and outer chambers of the Temple. The outer doors are closed with a wooden lock (Lane, 1, 42; Chardin, 4:123; Russell, 1, 21). SEE LOCK; SEE CURTAIN.

The windows had no glass; they were only latticed, and thus gave free passage to the air and admitted light, while birds and bats were excluded. In winter the cold air was kept out by veils over the windows, or by shutters with holes in them sufficient to admit light (1Ki 7:17; Son 2:9). The apertures of the windows in Egyptian and Eastern houses generally are small, in order to exclude heat (Wilkinson, Anc e.g. 2, 124). They are closed with folding valves, secured with a bolt or bar. The windows often project considerably beyond the lower part of the building, so as to overhang the street. The windows of the courts within also project (Jowett, Christian Res. p. 66, 67). The lattice is generally kept closed, but can be opened at pleasure, and is opened on great public occasions (Lane, Mod. Egypt. 1, 27). Those within can look through the lattices, without opening them or being seen themselves; and in some rooms, especially the large upper room, there are several: windows. From the allusions in Scripture we gather, that while there was usually but one window in each room, in which invariably there was a lattice (Jdg 5:28, where a window is in Heb. the window; Jos 2:15; 2Sa 6:16, in Hebrews the window; 2Ki 9:30, do.; Act 20:9, do.), there were sometimes several windows (2Ki 13:17). The room here spoken of was probably such an upper room as Robinson describes above with many windows (Res. 3, 417). Daniel’s room had several windows, and his lattices were opened when his enemies found him in prayer (Dan 6:10). The projecting nature of the window, and the fact that a divan, or raised seat, encircles the interior of each, so that usually persons sitting in the window are seated close to the aperture, easily explains how Ahaziah may have fallen through the lattice of his upper chamber, and Eutychus from his window-seat, especially if the lattices were open at the time (2Ki 1:2; Act 20:9). SEE WINDOW. There are usually no special bedrooms in Eastern houses, and thus the room in which Ishbosheth was murdered was probably an ordinary room with a diwan, on which he was sleeping during the heat of the day (2Sa 4:5-6; Lane, 1, 41). SEE BEDCHAMBER.

The stairs to the upper apartments are in Syria usually in a corner of the court (Robinson, 3:302). When there is no upper story the lower rooms are usually loftier. In Persia they are open from top to bottom, and only divided from the court by a low partition (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. 1, 10; Chardin, 4:119; Burckhardt, Travels, 1, 18, 19; Views in Syria, 1, 6). This flight of stone steps conducts to the gallery, from which a plainer stair leads to the housetop. If the house be large, there are two or three sets of steps to the different sides of the quadrangle, but seldom more than one flight from the terrace to the house-top of any one court. There is, however, a separate stair from the outer court to the roof, and it is usually near the entrance. This will bring to mind the case of the paralytic, noticed above, whose friends, finding they could not get access to Jesus through the people who crowded the court of the house in which he was preaching, took him up to the roof, and let him down in his bed through the tiling to the place where Jesus stood (Luk 5:17-26). If the house in which our Lord then was had more than one court, he and the auditors were certainly in the outer one; and it is reasonable to conclude that he stood in the veranda addressing the crowd below. The men bearing the paralytic, therefore, perhaps went up the steps near the door; and finding they could not even then get near the person of Jesus, the gallery being also crowded, continued their course to the roof of the house, and, removing the boards over the covering of the gallery, at the place where Jesus stood, lowered the sick man to his feet. But if they could not get access to the steps near the door, as is likely, from the door being much crowded, their alternative was to take him to the roof of the next house, and there hoist him over the parapet to the roof of the house which they desired to enter. (See Strong’s Harm. and Expos. of the Gospels, p. 64.) SEE STAIRS.

The roof of the house is, of course, flat. It is formed by layers of branches, twigs, matting, and earth, laid over the rafters, and trodden down; after which it is covered with a compost that acquires considerable hardness when dry. Such roofs would not, however, endure the heavy and continuous rains of our climate; and in those parts of Asia where the climate is more than usually moist, a stone roller is usually kept on every root, and after a shower a great part of the population is engaged in drawing these rollers over the roofs. It is now very common, in countries where timber is scarce, to have domed roofs; but in that case the flat roof, which is indispensable to Eastern habits, is obtained by filling up the hollow intervals between the several domes, so as to form a flat surface at the top. These flat roofs are often alluded to in Scripture, and the allusions show that they were made to serve the same uses as at present. In fine weather the inhabitants resorted much to them to breathe the fresh air, to enjoy a fine prospect, or to witness any event that occurred in the neighborhood (2Sa 11:2; Isa 22:1; Mat 24:17; Mar 13:15). The dry air of the summer atmosphere enabled them, without injury to health, to enjoy the bracing coolness of the night-air by sleeping on the housetops; and in order to have the benefit of the air and prospect in the daytime, without inconvenience from the sun, sheds, booths, and tents were sometimes erected on the housetops (2Sa 16:22). SEE HOUSETOP.

The roofs of the houses are well protected by walls and parapets. Towards the street and neighboring houses is a high wall, and towards the interior courtyard usually a parapet or wooden rail.; Battlements of this kind, for the prevention of accidents, are strictly enjoined in the law (Deu 22:8); and the form of the battlements of Egyptian houses suggest some interesting analogies, if we consider how recently the Israelites had quitted Egypt when that law was delivered. SEE BATTLEMENT.

In the East, where the climate allows the people to spend so much of their time out of doors, the articles of furniture and the domestic utensils have always been few and simple. SEE BED; SEE LAMP; SEE POTTERY; SEE SEAT; SEE TABLE. The rooms, however, although comparatively vacant of movables, are far from having a naked or unfurnished appearance. This is owing to the high degree of ornament given to the walls and ceilings. The walls are broken up into various recesses, and the ceiling into compartments. The ceiling, if of wood and flat, is of curious and complicated joinery; or, if vaulted, is wrought into numerous coves and enriched with fretwork in stucco; and the walls are adorned with arabesques, mosaics, mirrors, painting, and gold, which, as set off by the marble-like whiteness of the stucco, has a truly brilliant and rich effect. There is much in this to remind one of such descriptions of splendid interiors as that in Isa 54:11-12.Smith; Kitto; Fairbairn. SEE CEILING.

IV. Metaphori: ally. The word house has some figurative applications in Scripture. Heaven- is considered as the house of God (Joh 14:2): In my Father’s house are many mansions. Here is an evident allusion to the Temple (q.v.), with its many rooms, which is emphatically styled in the Old Testament the House of the Lord. The grave is the house appointed for all the living (Job 30:23; Isa 14:18). House is taken for the body (2Co 5:1): If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved; if our bodies were taken to pieces by death. The comparison of the body to a house is used by Mr. Harmer to explain the similes, Ecclesiastes 12 :and is illustrated by a passage in Plautus (Mostell. 1, 2). The Church of God is his house (1Ti 3:15): How thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, that is, the Church of the living God. In the same sense, Moses was faithful in all the house of God as a servant, but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we (Christians). But this sense may include that of household, persons composing the attendants or retainers to a prince, etc. This intimate reference of house or dwelling to the adherents, intimates, or partisans of the householder, is probably the foundation of the simile used by the apostle Peter (1Pe 2:5): Ye (Christians), as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house. Gen 43:16 : Joseph said to the ruler of his house; i.e. to the manager of his domestic concerns. Isa 36:3 : Eliakim, who was over the house, or household; i.e. his steward. Gen 30:30 : When shall I provide for mine own house also? i.e. get wealth to provide for my family (see 1Ti 5:8). Gen 7:1 : Enter thou and all thy house (family) into the ark. Exo 1:21 : And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses; i.e. he prospered their families. So also in 1Sa 2:35; 2Sa 7:27; 1Ki 11:38. Thus the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house (Gen 12:17). What is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? (2Sa 7:18). So Joseph (Luk 1:27; Luk 2:4) was of the house of David, but more especially he was of his royal lineage, or family; and, as we conceive, in the direct line or eldest branch of the family, so that he was next of kin to the throne, if the government had still continued in possession of the descendants of David (see also 1Ti 5:8). 2Sa 7:11 : Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee a house; i.e. he will give thee offspring, who may receive and may preserve the royal dignity. Psa 49:12 : Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever; i.e. that their posterity shall always flourish. Calmet; Wemyss. SEE HOUSEHOLD.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

House

Till their sojourn in Egypt the Hebrews dwelt in tents. They then for the first time inhabited cities (Gen. 47:3; Ex. 12:7; Heb. 11:9). From the earliest times the Assyrians and the Canaanites were builders of cities. The Hebrews after the Conquest took possession of the captured cities, and See m to have followed the methods of building that had been pursued by the Canaanites. Reference is made to the stone (1 Kings 7:9; Isa. 9:10) and marble (1 Chr. 29:2) used in building, and to the internal wood-work of the houses (1 Kings 6:15; 7:2; 10:11, 12; 2 Chr. 3:5; Jer. 22:14). “Ceiled houses” were such as had beams inlaid in the walls to which wainscotting was fastened (Ezra 6:4; Jer. 22:14; Hag. 1:4). “Ivory houses” had the upper parts of the walls adorned with figures in stucco with gold and ivory (1 Kings 22:39; 2 Chr. 3:6; Ps. 45:8).

The roofs of the dwelling-houses were flat, and are often alluded to in Scripture (2 Sam. 11:2; Isa. 22:1; Matt. 24:17). Sometimes tents or booths were erected on them (2 Sam. 16:22). They were protected by parapets or low walls (Deut. 22:8). On the house-tops grass sometimes grew (Prov. 19:13; 27:15; Ps. 129:6, 7). They were used, not only as places of recreation in the evening, but also sometimes as sleeping-places at night (1 Sam. 9:25, 26; 2 Sam. 11:2; 16:22; Dan. 4:29; Job 27:18; Prov. 21:9), and as places of devotion (Jer. 32:29; 19:13).

Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary

House

Known to man as early at least as Cain; the tent not until Jabal, the fifth in descent from Cain (Gen 4:7; Gen 4:17; Gen 4:20). The rude wigwam and the natural cave were the abodes of those who, being scattered abroad, subsequently degenerated from the primitive civilization implied in the elaborate structure of Babel (Gen 11:3; Gen 11:31). It was from a land of houses that Abram, at God’s call, became a dweller in tents (Gen 12:1; Heb 11:9). At times he still lived in a house (Gen 17:27); so also Isaac (Gen 27:15), and Jacob (Gen 33:15). In Egypt the Israelites resumed a fixed life in permanent houses, and must have learned architectural skill in that land of stately edifices. After their wilderness sojourn in tents they entered into possession of the Canaanite goodly cities. The parts of the eastern house are:

(1) The porch; not referred to in the Old Testament save in the temple and Solomon’s palace (1Ki 7:6-7; 2Ch 15:8; Eze 40:7; Eze 40:16); in Egypt (from whence he derived it) often it consisted of a double row of pillars; in Jdg 3:23 the Hebrew word (the front hall) is different. The porch of the high priest’s palace (Mat 26:71; puloon, which is translated “gate” in Act 10:17; Act 12:14; Act 14:13; Rev 21:12) means simply “the gate.” The five porches of Bethesda (Joh 5:2) were cloisters or a colonnade for the use of the sick.

(2) The court is the chief feature of every eastern house. The passage into it is so contrived that the court cannot be seen from the street outside. An awning from one wall to the opposite shelters from the heat; this is the image, Psa 104:2, “who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.” At the side of the court opposite the entrance was the:

(3) guest chamber (Luk 22:11-12), Hebrew lishkah, from laashak, “to recline”; where Samuel received his guests (1Sa 9:22). Often open in front, and supported by a pillar; on the ground floor, but raised above the level. A low divan goes round it, used for sitting or reclining by day, and for placing beds on by night. In the court the palm and olive were planted, from whence the psalmist writes, “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God”; an olive tree in a house would be a strange image to us, but suggestive to an eastern of a home with refreshing shade and air. So Psa 92:13, “those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” Contrast the picture of Edom’s desolation, “thorns in the palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses … a court for owls” (Isa 34:13).

(4) The stairs. Outside the house, so that Ehud could readily escape after slaying Eglon (Jdg 3:23), and the bearers of the paralytic, unable to get to the door, could easily mount by the outside stairs to the roof, and, breaking an opening in it, let him down in the midst of the room where Jesus was (Mar 2:4). The Israelite captains placed Jehu upon their garments on the top of the stairs, as the most public place, and from them proclaimed “Jehu is king” (2Ki 9:13).

(5) The roof is often of a material which could easily be broken up, as it was by the paralytic’s friends: sticks, thorn bushes (bellan), with mortar, and marl or earth. A stone roller is kept on the top to harden the flat roof that rain may not enter. Amusement, business, conversation (1Sa 9:25), and worship (Act 10:9) are carried on here, especially in the evening, as a pleasant and cool retreat (2Sa 11:2) from the narrow filthy streets of an eastern town. Translated 1Sa 9:26, “about daybreak Samuel called (from below, within the house, up) to Saul upon the top (or roof) of the house (where Saul was sleeping upon the balcony, compare 2Ki 4:10), Rise up,” etc. On the flat roof it was that Rahab spread the flax to dry, hiding the spies (Jos 2:6).

Here, in national calamities, the people retired to bewail their state (Isa 15:3; Jer 48:38); here in times of danger they watched the foe advancing (Isa 22:1, “thou art wholly gone up to the housetops”), or the bearer of tidings approaching (2Sa 18:24; 2Sa 18:33). On the top of the upper chamber, as the highest point of the house, the kings of Judah made idolatrous altars to the sun and heavenly hosts (2Ki 23:12; Jer 19:13; Jer 32:29). Retributively in kind, as they burnt incense to Baal the god of fire, the Chaldeans should burn the houses, the scene of his worship, with fire (Zep 1:5). On the top of the house the tent was spread for Absalom’s incestuous act with his father’s concubines, to show the breach with David was irreparable (2Sa 16:21-22).

On the housetop publicly the disciples should proclaim what Jesus privately taught them (Mat 10:27; Luk 12:3). Here Peter in prayer saw the vision (Act 10:9). From the balustraded vast roof of Dagon’s temple the 3,000 Philistines witnessed Samson’s feats (Jdg 16:27). By pulling down the two central pillars on which in front the roof rested, he pulled down the whole edifice. Here the people erected their booths for the feast of tabernacles (Neh 8:16). The partly earth materials gave soil for grass to spring in rain, speedily about to wither, because of the shallowness of soil, under the sun’s heat like the sinner’s evanescent prosperity (2Ki 19:26; Psa 129:6).

Though pleasant in the cool evening and night, at other times the housetop would be anything but pleasant; so “it is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop (though there exposed to wind, rain, heat, and cold) than with a brawling woman in a wide house” (a house of community, i.e. shared with her) (Pro 21:9).

(6) The “inner chamber.” 1Ki 20:30; 1Ki 22:25 should be translated (fleeing) “from chamber to chamber.” The “guest chamber” was often the uppermost room (Greek huperoon, Hebrew aliyeh), a loft upon the roof (Act 1:13; Act 9:37; Act 20:8-9), the pleasantest room in the house. Eutychus from “the third loft” fell down into the court. Little chambers surround the courtyard, piled upon one another, the half roof of the lower forming a walking terrace of the higher, to which the ascent is by a ladder or flight of steps.

Such “a little chamber” the Shunammite woman made (built) “on the wall” of the house for Elisha (2Ki 4:10, compare 1Ki 17:19). Ahaziah fell down from such an “upper chamber” with a projecting latticed window (2Ki 1:2). The “summer house” was generally the upper room, the “winter house” was the lower room of the same house (Jer 36:22; Amo 3:15); or if both were on the same floor the “summer house” was the outer, the “winter house” the inner apartment. An upper room was generally over gateways (2Sa 18:33). Poetically, “God layeth the beams of His upper chambers (Hebrew) in the waters, whence “He watereth the hills” (Psa 104:3; Psa 104:13).

(7) Fireplaces are seldom in the houses; but fire pans in winter heated the apartment. Jer 36:22 translated he stove (a brazen vessel, with charcoal) was burning before him.” Chimneys were few (Hos 13:3), simple orifices in the wall, both admitting the light and emitting the smoke. Kitchens are first mentioned in Eze 46:23-24. A fire was sometimes burned in the open court (Luk 22:55-56; Luk 22:61); Peter warmed himself at such a fire, when Jesus on His trial in the large hall, open in front to the court, with arches and a pillar to support the wall above, “turned and looked” on him. Cellars often were made under the ground floor for storage, “secret chambers” (Mat 24:20). Sometimes the granary was “in the midst of the house” (2Sa 4:6).

(8) The cisterns cut in the limestone rock are a leading feature in the houses at Jerusalem, varying from 4 ft. to 30 ft. in width, 8 inches to 30 inches length, 12 inches to 20 inches depth. Almost every house has one, and some as many as four. The rain water is conducted from the roofs into them. Hence the inhabitants within Jerusalem never suffered from want of water in the longest sieges, whereas the besiegers have often suffered. So Neh 9:25, “cisterns hewn” margin, compare 2Ki 18:31; 2Ch 26:10 margin,” Uzziah cut out many cisterns.” Israel’s forsaking God for earthly trusts is called a “forsaking of the fountain of living waters” for “broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13). Pro 5:15, “drink waters out of thine own cistern,” means, enjoy thine own wife’s love, seek none else. So the heavenly spouse is called “a fountain sealed” (Son 4:12).

(9) The foundation was an object of great care. “Great stones” were brought for that of the temple. Often they dug down to the rock and by arches (though not mentioned in Scripture, Eze 40:16 should be translated “porches”) built up to the surface. Metaphorically, man’s foundation is in the dust (Job 4:10). The wise man digs down to the rock (Luk 6:48), hearing and doing Christ’s savings. Christ is the only foundation (1Co 3:11, etc.). The apostles become “foundations” only by identification with Him, confessing and building themselves, and others on Him (Eph 2:20). Simon became the “rock” by identifying himself with Him; but when he identified himself with “Satan” in his dislike of the cross, Jesus called him so (Mat 16:16-19; Mat 16:22-23).

(10) The windows were small and latticed, in the sense of glass. Metaphorically the eyes, looking out from the eyelids which open and shut like the casement of a window (Ecc 12:3). Christ “looketh forth at the windows … showing Himself through the lattice,” the types and prophecies were lattice glimpses of Him to the Old Testament congregation (Son 2:9; Joh 8:56). The legal “wall of partition” was only removed by Christ’s death (Heb 10:20). Even still He shows Himself only to faith, through the windows of His word and the lattice of ordinances and sacraments (Joh 14:21), not full vision (1Co 13:12); an incentive to our looking for His coming in person (Isa 33:17).

(11) The walls being often of mud can be easily dug through by a robber (Job 4:19; Job 24:16; Job 15:28). When deserted they soon become “heaps.” So hopes of peace with God which rest on no scriptural promises are like walls built with “untempered mortar” (tapheel) (Eze 13:10-16). The mortar with which the leper’s house was to be re-plastered is appropriately (as leprosy would mostly appear among the poor) called “mud mortar” (aaphaar) (Lev 14:42). In many houses the cattle are in a lower part of the same dwelling (Gen 24:32; 1Sa 28:24 Luk 2:7). Drafted or beveled stones with a rustic boss are not, as was supposed, peculiar to Jewish architecture; but stones of enormous length (as in the Haram wall, and in the base of the tower of David) compared to their height generally are. Roman work on the contrary has often the height greater than the length.

Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary

HOUSE

Israels conquest of Canaan under Joshua led to a new way of life for the Israelite people. One feature of this new way of life was a change in their domestic accommodation. Instead of being a wandering people who lived in tents and other temporary shelters, they were now a settled people who lived in houses (cf. Num 24:5; see TENT).

The Israelites built some of these houses themselves, but others they took over from the Canaanites. Often the houses were grouped together in villages or towns, where a surrounding wall protected them against attack. Farmers went out of the town and farmed their fields during the day, and returned to the safety of their homes at night (Jdg 9:42-45; 1Sa 6:18; 1Ch 27:25).

The Israelite house

An ancient Israelite house was usually rectangular in plan, two storeyed, made of either stones or bricks, and covered on the inside walls with plaster (Lev 14:40-42; cf. Exo 5:7). The house had to be built on a solid foundation, and the whole structure was held together by being built into huge stones at the corners of the building (Isa 28:16; Mat 7:24-27; Mat 21:42; see CORNERSTONE).

Outside the house, steps led up to the roof, which was a flat area used as a place to relax, sleep, pray and worship (Jer 32:29; Mar 2:4; Mar 13:15; Act 10:9). A railing or low wall around the edge of the roof prevented people from accidentally falling off (Deu 22:8).

Inside the larger houses was a central courtyard where women did much of the cooking, washing and other household work. Water pots, jars and household utensils were usually kept in this courtyard (Isa 44:16; Jer 25:10; Eze 24:3-5; Mar 7:4; Luk 22:55). People stored their family food and valuable possessions in the house, along with their farm tools and, at times, food for their animals (Jdg 19:21). Windows were usually covered with lattice for security (Song of Son 2:9).

The upper floor of a house may have consisted of one large room or may have been divided into several smaller rooms. This upper floor was used for sleeping, for accommodating guests, or for holding large gatherings (Luk 22:12; Act 1:12; Act 20:8). In most houses furniture was simple, consisting only of those articles that were necessary (2Ki 4:10). The houses of the rich, by contrast, were furnished lavishly (Amo 3:15; Amo 6:4-6).

Making good use of the house

Gods people are expected to use their houses, as they should use all things, for the glory of God (Col 3:17). The house should, above all, be a home, where children and adults can live together in a healthy and enjoyable family life (1Ti 3:4; 1Ti 3:12; 1Ti 5:14; see FAMILY).

But Christians must not use their houses solely for their own benefit. Their houses should be places where other Christians can enjoy fellowship (Act 2:46; Act 16:15; Act 16:34; Act 21:8) and perhaps have regular meetings (Rom 16:5; 1Co 16:19; Col 4:15). They should use their houses to practise hospitality at all times not just in entertaining friends, but in providing generous help and friendship to the lonely, the poor and the needy (Isa 58:7; Mat 25:35; Heb 13:2; see HOSPITALITY).

Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

House

HOUSE , .The word house is used in the Gospels, in accordance with ancient Hebrew usage, in a twofold sense, as referring either to the dwelling, or to the family living in it. Thus we have (1) the house of Israel (Mat 10:6), the house of David (Luk 1:27), etc.; (2) built his house upon a rock (Mat 7:24), the house of the ruler (Mar 5:38), etc.

The house, as a building, plays no such part in Oriental as in Western life and civilization. Climatic conditions in the East permit people to live much in the open. Accordingly we find artisans and merchants plying their trades in the street, or in open shops looking out on the street. Then the domestic life of the Oriental requires little beyond a sheltered place for sleeping and a quiet place for eating. The ordinary house of the ancient Hebrew, we may be sure, was much like that found in Palestine to-dayit could hardly be cruder, or more primitive. As to Hebrew architecture, of either OT or NT times, the Bible has little to say. Architecture proper can hardly be said to have arisen among the Hebrews before the time of the kings, say, about b.c. 1000. Then, it would seem, it differed little from that of the Phnicians, Assyrians, and Egyptians. The style of the house would naturally be determined largely by the location, the materials at hand, and the purpose to be served. Palestine, as known to history, has had few great forests, and little timber of any kind suited for building. (Solomon had to import materials for palace and temple, 1Ki 5:18). Houses built in the plains were usually constructed of mud, clay, or sun-dried bricks (cf. Job 4:19). Houses of clay, or those built of sun-dried bricks, could be easily broken intoa fact that gives point to our Lords allusion in the Sermon on the Mount, when He would dissuade from laying up treasures where thieves break through and steal (Mat 6:19), where it is literally dig through ((Revised Version margin) ). Great care needed to be taken with the foundations. In a limestone country like Palestine, if one dig deep enough, he finds almost anywhere a stratum of solid rock. It is still true that the wise man builds his house upon the rock (Mat 7:24). It is common there now to dig down to the rock and lay the foundation of even the house of clay upon it. Mat 7:25 It was founded, might well be rendered, It was foundationed upon the rock, if we had such a word in English. St. Luke (Luk 6:48) says, dug, and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock.

In the mountainous regions limestone rock was the building material chiefly used, as it was abundant, easily quarried, and readily worked. The house of stone was, probably, modelled after, or developed from, the cave. The nature of the country invited to this. First the natural cave would be used, and, as there was demand, artificially enlarged. Then, occasionally, in some inviting place, a cave would be hewn out of the rock, de novo. Finally, a wall would be built in front for protection, or privacy, and so the cave would be converted into a sheltered dwelling. Henceforth it would serve as a model for detached stone houses. As a matter of fact, in the ancient village of Siloam are found all these kinds of houses, and they illustrate this process of development. (See Jewish Encyc. art. House). Bricks were sometimes used even in the mountain regions, though counted inferior to hewn stone (2Sa 12:31). Many stone houses were unpretentious and rude, being built of rough, unhewn stones; but some, then as now, were built of hewn stones, with vaulted stone roofs, e.g. the palaces of the rich, or of the ruling class (cf. the house of the ruler, Mar 5:38, the high priests house, Luk 22:54). Sometimes space for walking was left around the dome, but often all the space between the dome and the battlement (Deu 22:8) would be filled in, so as to give the much-desired flat roofthe favourite resort of the Oriental in the cool of the evening (2Sa 11:2), and an inviting sleeping-place in summer (1Sa 9:25). Such a house will often have a hut of branches, or of vine-covered trellis-work, on the roof (cf. 2Sa 16:22, Neh 8:16), and sometimes a more substantial room, where guests of honour are lodged (1Ki 17:19, 2Ki 4:10). For summer parlour, cf. Jdg 3:20, (Revised Version margin) has rightly upper chamber of cooling. (See Mar 14:15, and cf. upper room elsewhere). From the roof one could easily see what was going on in the street, or on a neighbouring housetop (cf. 1Sa 9:25); indeed, could even step from roof to roof, and thus walk the whole length of a street, as the present writer once did in Damascus (cf. Mar 13:15; Josephus Ant. xiii. 140 [ed. Niese]).

The humbler house of the plain was very simple, having usually only one apartment, which some times sheltered both man and beast. The walls were sometimes smeared with clay (Lev 14:41), sometimes plastered (Eze 13:10, Deu 27:4). The roof was made, no doubt, as that of the common Arab house is made to-day, by laying rough beams about three feet apart, then laying reeds or brushwood close and thick across, covering it with something like the thickly matted thorn-bush called bellan, and then spreading over the whole, first a coat of thick mortar, and then one of marl or earth, and rolling it. Such roofs would require frequent repairing and rolling to keep out the rain, and, if neglected, would get so soaked with the tropical rains that they would cave in. In this way whole villages have had to be abandoned, and their houses left desolate. It was probably one of the simplest of such roofs that was broken up (Mar 2:4) when the paralytie was let down from the housetop at Capernaum into the presence of Jesus to be healed. The whole affair would seem to have been the extemporaneous device of plain peasants, accustomed to open their roofs and let down grain, straw, and other articles, as they still do in that country (Thomson, Land and Book, ii. 6ff.). The furniture of such a house would be very simple,a few mats, or pallets, spread on the ground floor for sleeping on at night, then rolled up and put aside in the day; latterly a divan set against the wall on one side, a small table, a few rude chairs, a niche in the wall for the primitive little lamp, unless it was of a sort to hang from a rafter, and a few large jugs for grain, water, wine, or oil.

The palace of the rich would differ from such a house, of course, in having more rooms, and richer and more varied furniture. The numerous rooms, often preferably arranged in a suite on the ground floor around one or more open courts, were often built in storeys. Fine woods, olive, cedar, etc., were used for the doors and windows, and the floors were sometimes made of wood, but often of cement or stone, or even of rich mosaics; while the walls in rare instances were inlaid with ivory and beaten gold (cf. Amo 5:11, 1Ki 22:39; 1Ki 6:18; 1Ki 6:20).

The Graeco-Roman architecture of the Hellenistic period did not exert any very marked or lasting influence upon the architecture of Palestine, partly because of the Jewish antipathy to the Hellenizing tendency, and partly because it was confined to the larger buildings, such as palaces, baths, theatres, temples, etc. See, further, Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , art. House.

Literature.The Heb. Archaeologies of Keil, Benzinger, Nowack; Edersheim, Jewish Social Life; Tristram, Eastern Customs in Bible Lands; Mackie, Bible Manners, etc.

Geo. B. Eager.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels

House

HOUSE.The history of human habitation in Palestine goes back to the undated spaces of the palolithic or early stone age (see especially the important chapter on Prehistoric Archology in Vincent, Canaan daprs lexploration rcente, 1907, pp. 373 ff.). The excavations and discoveries, of the last few years in particular, have introduced us to the pre-historic inhabitants whom the Semitic invaders, loosely termed Canaanites or Amorites, found in occupation of the country somewhere in the third millennium before our era (circa b.c. 2500). The men of this early race were still in the neolithic stage of civilization, their only implements being of polished flint, bone, and wood. They lived for the most part in the natural limestone caves in which Palestine abounds. In the historical period such underground caves (for descriptions and diagrams of some of the more celebrated, see Schumacher, Across the Jordan, 135146; Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in Palestine, 204270) were used by the Hebrews as places of refuge in times of national danger (Jdg 6:2, 1Sa 13:6) and religious persecution (2Ma 6:11, Heb 11:38). But it is not with these, or with the tents in which the patriarchs and their descendants lived before the conquest of Canaan, that this article has to deal, but with the houses of clay and stone which were built and occupied after that epoch.

1. Materials.The most primitive of all the houses for which man has been indebted to his own inventiveness is that formed of a few leafy boughs from the primeval forest, represented in Hebrew history to this day by the booths of OT (see Booth). Of more permanent habitations, the earliest of which traces have been discovered are probably the mud huts, whose foundations were found by Mr. Macalister in the lowest stratum at Gezer, and which are regarded by him as the work of the cave-dwellers of the later stone age (PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1904, 110). Clay in the form of bricks, either sun-dried or, less frequently, baked in a kiln (see Brick), and stone (Lev 14:40 ff., Isa 9:10 etc.), have been in all ages the building materials of the successive inhabitants of Palestine. Even in districts where stone was available the more tractable material was often preferred. Houses built of crude brick are the houses of clay, the unsubstantial nature of which is emphasized in Job 4:19 f., and whose walls a thief or another could easily dig through (Eze 12:5, Mat 6:19 f.).

The excavations have shown that there is no uniformity, even at a given epoch, in the size of bricks, which are both rectangular and square in shape. The largest, apparently, have been found at Taanach, roughly 21 inches by 153/4, and 43/4 inches in thickness. At Gezer a common size is a square brick 15 inches in the side and 7 inches thick (PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1902, 319). In the Mishna the standard size is a square brick 9 inches each way (Erubin, i. 3).

The stone used for house building varied from common field stones and larger, roughly shaped, quarry stones to the carefully dressed wrought stone (gzith, 1Ki 5:17 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) or hewn-stone, according to measure, sawed with saws (7:9), such as was used by Solomon in his building operations. Similarly rubble, wrought stone, and brick are named in the Mishna as the building materials of the time (Baba bathra, i. 1). For mortar clay was the usual material, although the use of bitumen [wh. see] (Gen 11:3 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] , EV [Note: English Version.] slime) was not unknown. Wood as a building material was employed mainly for roofing, and to a less extent for internal decoration (see below).

2. General plan of Hebrew houses.The recent excavations at Gezer and elsewhere have shown that the simplest type of house in Palestine has scarcely altered in any respect for four thousand years. Indeed, its construction is so simple that the possibility of change is reduced to a minimum. In a Syrian village of to-day the typical abode of the fellah consists of a walled enclosure, within which is a small court closed at the farther end by a house of a single room. This is frequently divided into two parts, one level with the entrance, assigned at night to the domestic animals, cows, ass, etc.; the other, about 18 in. higher, occupied by the peasant and his family. A somewhat better class of house consists of two or three rooms, of which the largest is the family living and sleeping room, a second is assigned to the cattle, while a third serves as general store-room (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] closet).

The Canaanite houses, which the Hebrews inherited (Deu 6:10) and copied, are now known to have been arranged on similar lines (see the diagram of a typical Canaanite house in Gezer, restored by Mr. Macalister in his Bible Sidelights from Gezer [1906], fig. 25). As in all Eastern domestic architecture, the rooms were built on one or more sides of an open court (2Sa 17:18, Jer 32:2 etc.). These rooms were of small dimensions, 12 to 15 feet square as a rule, with which may be compared the legal definition of large and small rooms in the late period of the Mishna. The former was held to measure 15 ft. by 12, with a height, following the model of the Temple (1Ki 6:2 ff.), equal to half the sum of the length and breadth, namely, 131/2 ft.; a small room measured 12ft. by 9, with a height of 101/2 ft. (Baba bathra, vi. 4).

Should occasion arise, through the marriage of a son or otherwise, to enlarge the house, this was done by building one or more additional rooms on another side of the court. In the case of a man of wealth (1Sa 9:1 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ), the house would consist of two or even more courts, in which case the rooms about the inner court (Est 4:11) were appropriated to the women of the family. The court, further, often contained a cistern to catch and retain the precious supply of water that fell in the rainy season (2Sa 17:18). For the question of an upper storey see 4.

3. Foundation and dedication rites.In building a house, the first step was to dig out the space required for the foundation (cf. Mat 7:24 ff.), after which came the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone, the corner stone of sure foundation of Isa 28:16 (see, further, Corner-Stone). The day of the foundation (2Ch 8:16), as we learn from the poetic figure of Job 38:6 ff., was, as it is at the present day, one of great rejoicing (cf. Ezr 3:11).

With the exception of a passage to be cited presently, the OT is silent regarding a foundation rite on which a lurid light has been cast by the latest excavations in Palestine. It is now certain that the Canaanites, and the Hebrews after them, were wont to consecrate the foundation of a new building by a human sacrifice. The precise details of the rite are still uncertain, but there is already ample evidence to show that, down even to the latter half of the Hebrew monarchy (PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1903, 224), it was a frequent practice to bury infants, whether alive or after previous sacrifice is still doubtful, in large jars generally under the ends of walls,that is, at the corners of houses or chambers or just under the door jambs (ibid. 306). At Megiddo was found the skeleton of a girl of about fifteen years, who had clearly been built alive into the foundation of a fortress; at Taanach was found one of ten years of age; and skeletons of adults have also been discovered.

An interesting development of this rite of foundation sacrifice can be traced from the fifteenth century b.c. onwards. With the jar containing the body of the victim there were at first deposited other jars containing jugs, howls, and a lamp, perhaps also food, as in ordinary burials. Gradually, it would seem, lamps and bowls came to be buried alone, as substitutes and symbols of the human victim, most frequently a lamp within a bowl, with another bowl as covering. Full details of this curious rite cannot be given here, but no other theory so plausible has yet been suggested to explain these lamp and bowl deposits (see Macalisters reports in PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , from 1903esp. p. 306 ff. with illustrationsonwards, also his Bible Sidelights, 165 ff.; Vincent, Canaan, 50 f., 192, 198ff.). The only reference to foundation sacrifice in OT is the case of Hiel the Bethelite, who sacrificed his two sonsfor that such is the true interpretation can now scarcely be doubtedhis firstborn at the re-founding of Jericho, and his youngest at the completion and dedication of the walls and gates (1Ki 16:34 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).

Here by anticipation may be taken the rite of the formal dedication of a private house, which is attested by Deu 20:5, although the references in Hebrew literature to the actual ceremony are confined to sacred and public buildings (Lev 8:10 ff., 1Ki 8:1 ff., 1Ki 8:10 ff., Ezr 6:16 f., Neh 3:1; Neh 12:27, 1Ma 4:52 ff.). It is not improbable that some of the human victims above alluded to may have been offered in connexion with the dedication or restoration of important buildings (cf. 1Ki 16:34 above).

On the whole subject it may be said, in conclusion, that, judging from the ideas and practice of the Bedouin when a new tent or house of hair is set up, we ought to seek the explanation of the rite of foundation sacrificea practice which obtains among many races widely separated in space and timein the desire to propitiate the spirit whose abode is supposed to be disturbed by the new foundation (cf. Trumbull, Threshold Covenant, 46 ff.), rather than in the wish to secure the spirit of the victim as the tutelary genius of the new building. This ancient custom still survives in the sacrifice of a sheep or other animal, which is indispensable to the safe occupation of a new house in Moslem lands, and even to the successful inauguration of a public work, such as a railway, oras the other day in Damascusof an electric lighting installation. In the words of an Arab sheik: Every house must have its deathman, woman, child, or animal (Curitiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day).

4. Details of construction, walls and floor.The walls of Canaanite and Hebrew houses were for the most part, as we have seen, of crude brick or stone. At Tell el-Hesy (Lachish), for example, we find at one period house walls of dark-brown clay with little straw; at another, walls of reddish-yellow clay, full of straw (Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities, 44). At Gezer Mr. Macalister found a wall that was remarkable for being built in alternate courses of red and white bricks, the red course being four inches in height, the white five inches (PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1903, 216). As a rule, however, the Gezer house walls consisted of common field stones, among which dressed stoneseven at corners and door postsare of the rarest possible occurrence. The joints are wide and irregular, and filled with mud packed in the widest places with smaller stones (ibid. 215). The explanation of this simple architecture is that in early times each man built his own house, expert builders (Psa 118:22) or masons (see Arts and Crafts, 3) being employed only on royal residences, city walls, and other buildings of importance. Hence squared and dressed stones are mentioned in OT only in connexion with such works (1Ki 5:17; 1Ki 7:9) and the houses of the wealthy (Amo 5:11, Isa 9:10). In the Gezer houses of the post-exilic period, however, the stones are well dressed and squared, often as well shaped as a modern brick (PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1904, 124, with photograph, 125). Between these two extremes are found walls of rubble, and quarry stones of various sizes, roughly trimmed with a hammer. Mud was universally used as mortar.

In ordinary cases the thickness of the outside walls varied from 18 to 24 inches; that of partition walls, on the other hand, did not exceed 9 to 12 inches (ib. 118). In NT times the thickness varied somewhat with the materials employed (see Baba bathra, i. 1). It is doubtful if the common view is correct, which finds in certain passages, especially Psa 118:22 and its NT citations, a reference to a corner stone on the topmost course of masonry (see Corner). In most cases the reference is to the foundation stone at the corner of two walls, as explained above.

The inside walls of stone houses received a plaister (EV [Note: English Version.] ) of clay (Lev 14:41 ff., AV [Note: Authorized Version.] dust, RV [Note: Revised Version.] mortar), or, in the better houses, of lime or gypsum (Dan 5:5). The untempered mortar of Eze 13:11; Eze 22:28 was some sort of whitewash applied to the outside walls, as is attested for NT times (Mat 23:27, Act 23:3 thou whited wall). In the houses of the wealthy, as in the Temple, it was customary to line the walls with cypress (2Ch 3:5, EV [Note: English Version.] fir), cedar, and other valuable woods (1Ki 6:15; 1Ki 6:18; 1Ki 7:7). The cieled houses of EV [Note: English Version.] (Jer 22:14, Hag 1:4 etc.) are houses panelled with wood in this way (Cieled). The acme of elegance was represented by cedar panels inlaid with ivory, such as earned for Ahabs pleasure kiosk the name of the ivory house (1Ki 22:39) and incurred the denunciation of Amos (Amo 3:15). We also hear of the panelled cielings of the successive Temples (1Ki 6:15, 2Ma 1:16 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).

The floors of the houses were in all periods made of hard beaten clay, the permanence of which to this day has proved to the excavators a precious indication of the successive occupations of the buried cities of Palestine. Public buildings have been found paved with slabs of stone. The better sort of private houses were no doubt, like the Temple (1Ki 6:15), floored with cypress and other woods.

The presence of vaults or cellars, in the larger houses at least, is shown by Luk 11:33 RV [Note: Revised Version.] . The excavations also show that when a wholly or partly ruined town was rebuilt, the houses of the older stratum were frequently retained as underground store-rooms of the new houses on the higher level. The reference in 1Ch 27:27-28 to wine and oil cellars (EV [Note: English Version.] ) is to stores of these commodities, rather than to the places where the latter were kept.

5. The roof.The ancient houses of Canaan, like their modern representatives, had flat roofs, supported by stout wooden beams laid from wall to wall. Across these were laid smaller rafters (Son 1:17), then brushwood, reeds, and the like, above which was a layer of earth several inches thick, while on the top of all came a thick plaster of clay or of clay and lime. It was such a roofing (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] tiling, RV [Note: Revised Version.] tiles, Luk 5:19) that the friends of the paralytic broke up in order to lower him into the room below (Mar 2:4). The wood for the roof-beams was furnished mostly by the common sycamore, cypress (Son 1:17) and cedar (1Ki 6:9) being reserved for the homes of the wealthy. Hence the point of Isaiahs contrast between the humble houses of crude brick, roofed with sycamore, and the stately edifices of hewn stone roofed with cedar (Isa 9:10).

It was, and is, difficult to keep such a roof watertight in the rainy season, as Pro 27:15 shows. In several houses at Gezer a primitive drain of jars was found for carrying the water from the leaking roof (Ecc 10:18 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) through the floor to the foundations beneath (PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1904, 14, with illust.). In the Mishna there is mention of at least two kinds of spout or gutter (2Sa 5:8 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , but the sense here is doubtful) for conveying the rain water from the roof to the cistern. Evidence has accumulated in recent years showing that even in the smallest houses it was usual to have the beams of the roof supported by a row of wooden posts, generally three in number, resting on stone bases, from 1 foot 6 inches to 2 feet in diameter (PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1904, 115, with photo.). The same method was adopted for the roofs of large public buildings (see Bliss, Mound of Many Cities, 91 f., with plan), and Mr. Macalister has ingeniously explained Samsons feat at the temple of Dagon, by supposing that he slid two of the massive wooden pillars (Jdg 16:29 f.) supporting the portico from their stone supports, thus causing its collapse (Bible Sidelights, 136 ff. with illust.).

The roof was required by law to be surrounded by a battlement, or rather a parapet, as a protection against accident (Deu 22:8). Access to the roof was apparently obtained, as at the present day, by an outside stair leading from the court. Our EV [Note: English Version.] finds winding stairs in the Temple (1Ki 6:8), and some sort of inner stair or ladder is required by the reference to the secret trapdoor in 2Ma 1:16. The roof or housetop was put to many uses, domestic (Jos 2:6) and other. It was used, in particular, for recreation (2Sa 11:2) and for sleeping (1Sa 9:25 f.), also for prayer and meditation (Act 10:9), lamentation (Isa 15:3, Jer 48:38), and even for idolatrous worship (Jer 19:13, Zep 1:5). For these and other purposes a tent (2Sa 16:22) or a booth (Neh 8:16) might be provided, or a permanent roof-chamber might be erected. Such were the chamber with walls (2Ki 4:10 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ) erected for Elisha, the summer parlour (Jdg 3:20, lit. as RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] upper chamber of cooling) of Eglon, and the loft (RV [Note: Revised Version.] chamber) of 1Ki 17:19.

Otherwise the houses of Palestine were, as a rule, of one storey. Exceptions were confined to the houses of the great, and to crowded cities like Jerusalem and Samaria. Ahaziahs upper chamber in the latter city (2Ki 1:2) may well have been a room in the second storey of the royal palace, where was evidently the window from which Jezebel was thrown (2Ki 9:33). The same may be said of the upper room in which the Last Supper was held (Mar 14:15||; cf. Act 1:13). It was a Greek city, however, in which Eutychus fell from a window in the third story (Act 20:9 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).

6. The door and its parts.The door consisted of four distinct parts: the door proper, the threshold, the lintel (Exo 12:7 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), and the two doorposts. The first of these was of wood, and was hung upon projecting pivots of wood, the hinges of Pro 26:14, which turned in corresponding sockets in the threshold and lintel respectively. Like the Egyptians and Babylonians, the Hebrews probably cased the pivots and sockets of heavy doors with bronze; those of the Temple doors were sheathed in gold (1Ki 7:50). In the Hauran, doors of a single slab of stone with stone pivots are still found in situ. Folding doors are mentioned only in connexion with the Temple (1Ki 6:34).

The threshold (Jdg 19:27, 1Ki 14:17 etc.) or sill must have been invariably of stone. Among the Hebrews, as among so many other peoples of antiquity, a special sanctity attached to the threshold (see Trumbull, The Threshold Covenant, passim). The doorposts or jambs were square posts of wood (1Ki 7:5, Eze 41:21) or of stone. The command of Deu 6:9; Deu 11:20 gave rise to the practice, still observed in all Jewish houses, of enclosing a piece of parchment containing the words of Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-21 in a small case of metal or wood, which is nailed to the doorpost, hence its modern name mezuzah (doorpost).

Doors were locked (Jdg 3:23 f.) by an arrangement similar to that still in use in Syria (see the illust. in Hastings DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] li. 836). This consists of a short upright piece of wood, fastened on the inside of the door, through which a square wooden bolt (Son 5:5, Neh 3:3 RV [Note: Revised Version.] , for AV [Note: Authorized Version.] lock) passes at right angles into a socket in the jamb of the door. When the bolt is shot by the hand, three to six small iron pins drop from the upright into holes in the bolt, which is hollow at this part. The latter cannot now be drawn back without the proper key. This is a flat piece of woodstraight or bent as the case may beinto the upper surface of which pins have been fixed corresponding exactly in number and position to the holes in the bolt. The person wishing to enter the house puts in his hand by the hole of the door (Son 5:4), and inserts the key into the hollow part of the bolt in such a way that the pins of the key will displace those in the holes of the bolt, which is then easily withdrawn from the socket and the door is open.

In the larger houses it was customary to have a man (Mar 13:34) or a woman (2Sa 4:6 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] , Joh 18:17) to act as a doorkeeper or porter. In the palaces of royalty this was a military duty (1Ki 14:27) and an office of distinction (Est 2:21; Est 6:2).

7. Lighting and heating.The ancient Hebrew houses must have been very imperfectly lighted. Indeed, it is almost certain that, in the poorer houses at least, the only light available was admitted through the doorway (cf. Sir 42:11 [Heb. text], Let there be no casement where thy daughter dwells), in any case, such windows as did exist were placed high up in the walls, at least six feet from the ground, according to the Mishna. We have no certain monumental evidence as to the size and construction of the windows of Hebrew houses (but see for a probable stone window-frame, 20 inches high, Bliss and Macalister, Excavs. in Palest. 143 and pl. 73). They may, however, safely be assumed to have been much smaller than those to which we are accustomed, although the commonest variety, the challn, was large enough to allow a man to pass out (Jos 2:15, 1Sa 19:12) or in (Joe 2:9). Another variety (arubbah) was evidently smaller, since it is used also to designate the holes of a dovecot (Isa 60:8 EV [Note: English Version.] windows). These and other terms are rendered in our versions by window, lattice, and casement (Pro 7:6 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] lattice). None of these, of course, was filled with glass. Like the windows of Egyptian houses, they were doubtless closed with wood or lattice-work, which could be opened when necessary (2Ki 13:17). An obscure expression in 1Ki 6:4 is rendered by RV [Note: Revised Version.] , windows of fixed lattice-work. During the hours of darkness, light was supplied by the small oil lamp which was kept continually burning (see Lamp).

Most of the houses excavated show a depression of varying dimensions in the floor, either in the centre or in a corner, which, from the obvious traces of fire, was clearly the family hearth (Isa 30:14). Wood was the chief fuel (see Coal), supplemented by withered vegetation of all sorts (Mat 6:30), and probably, as at the present day, by dried cow and camel dung (Eze 4:15). The pungent smoke, which was trying to the eyes (Pro 10:26), escaped by the door or by the window, for the chimney of Hos 13:3 is properly window or casement (arubbah, see above). In the cold season the upper classes warmed their rooms by means of a brasier (Jer 36:22 f. RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), or fire-pan (Zec 12:6 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).

8. Furniture of the house.This in early times was of the simplest description. Even at the present day the fellahin sit and sleep mostly on mats and mattresses spread upon the floor. So the Hebrew will once have slept, wrapped in his simlah or cloak as his only covering (Exo 22:27), while his household gear will have consisted mainly of the necessary utensils for the preparation of food, to which the following section is devoted. Under the monarchy, however, when a certain great woman of Shunem proposed to furnish a little chamber over the wall for Elisha, she named a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick (2Ki 4:10), and we know otherwise that while the poor man slept on a simple mat of straw or rushes in the single room that served as living and sleeping room, the well-to-do had not only beds but bedchambers (2Sa 4:7, 2Ki 11:2, Jdt 16:19 etc.). The former consisted of a framework of wood, on which were laid cushions (Amo 3:12 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), carpets and striped cloths (Pro 7:16 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). We bear also of the beds head (Gen 47:31) or curved end, as figured by Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp. i. 416, fig. 191 (where note the steps for going up to the bed; cf. 1Ki 1:4). Bolsters have rightly disappeared from RV [Note: Revised Version.] , which renders otherwise (see 1Sa 19:13; 1Sa 26:7 etc.); the pillow also from Gen 28:11; Gen 28:18 and Mar 4:38 (RV [Note: Revised Version.] here, cushion), and where it is retained, as 1Sa 19:13, the sense is doubtful. Reference may be made to the richly appointed bed of Holofernes, with its gorgeous mosquito curtain (Jdt 10:21; Jdt 13:9).

The bed often served as a couch by day (Eze 23:41, Amo 3:12 RV [Note: Revised Version.] see also Meals, 3), and it is sometimes uncertain which is the more suitable rendering. In Est 1:6, for example, RV [Note: Revised Version.] rightly substitutes couches for beds in the description of the magnificent divans of gold and silver in the palace of Ahasuerus (cf. Est 7:8). The wealthy and luxurious contemporaries of Amos had their beds and couches inlaid with ivory (Amo 6:4), and furnished, according to RV [Note: Revised Version.] , with silken cushions (Amo 3:12 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).

As regards the stool above referred to, and the seats of the Hebrews generally, it must suffice to state that the seats of the contemporary Egyptians (for illustt. see Wilkinson, op. cit. i. 408 ff.) and Assyrians were of two main varieties, namely, stools and chairs. The former were constructed either with a square frame or after the shape of our camp-stools; the latter with a straight or rounded back only, or with a back and arms. The Hebrew word for Elishas stool is always applied elsewhere to the seats of persons of distinction and the thrones of kings; it must therefore have been a chair rather than a stool, although the latter is its usual meaning in the Mishna (Krengel, Das Hausgert in der Mishnah, 10 f.a mine of information regarding the furniture, native and foreign, to be found in Jewish houses in later times). Footstools were also in use (2Ch 9:18 and oft., especially in metaphors).

The tables were chiefly of wood, and, like those of the Egyptians (Wilkinson, op. cit. i. 417 f. with illustt.), were round, square, or oblong, as the Mishna attests. They were relatively much smaller and lower than ours (see, further, Meals, 4).

The fourth article in Elishas room was a candlestick, really a lampstand, for which see Lamp. It would extend this article beyond due limits to discuss even a selection from the many other articles of furniture, apart from those reserved for the closing section, which are named in Biblical and post-Biblical literature, or which have been brought to light in surprising abundance by the recent excavations. Mention can he made only of articles of toilet, such as the molten mirror of Job 37:18 (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] looking-glass), the paint-pot (2Ki 9:30), pins and needles, of which many specimens in bone, bronze, and silver have been found; of the distaff, spindle, and loom (see Spinning and Weaving), for the manufacture of the family garments, and the chest for holding them; and finally, of the childrens cradle (Krengel, op. cit. 26), and their toys of clay and bone.

9. Utensils connected with food.Conspicuous among the earthen vessels (2Sa 17:28) of every household was the water-jar or pitcher (kad)the barrel of 1Ki 18:33, Amer. RV [Note: Revised Version.] jarin which water was fetched from the village well (Gen 24:15, Mar 14:13, and oft.). From this smaller jar, carried on head or shoulder, the water was emptied into the larger waterpots of Joh 2:6. Large jars were also required for the household provisions of wheat and barleyone variety in NT times was large enough to hold a man. Others held the store of olives and other fruits. The cruse was a smaller jar with one or two handles, used for carrying water on a journey (1Sa 26:11 f., 1Ki 19:6), also for holding oil (1Ki 17:12). (See, further, art. Pottery, and the elaborate studies, with illustrations, of the thousands of potters vessels which the excavations have brought to light, in the great work of Bliss and Macalister entitled Excavations in Palestine, 18981900, pp. 71141, with plates 2055; also Vincents Canaan daprs lexploration rcente, 1907, pp. 296360, with the illustrations there and throughout the book).

The bucket of Num 24:7, Isa 40:15 was a water-skin, probably adapted, as at the present day, for drawing water by having two pieces of wood inserted crosswise at the mouth. The main use of skins among the Hebrews, however, was to hold the wine and other fermented liquors. The misleading rendering bottles is retained in RV [Note: Revised Version.] except where the context requires the true rendering skins or wine-skins (Jos 9:4; Jos 9:13, Mat 9:17). For another use of skins see Milk. After the water-skins, says Doughty, a pair of mill-stones is the most necessary husbandry in an Arabian household, and so it was among the Hebrews, as may be seen in the article Mill.

No house was complete without a supply of baskets of various sizes and shapes for the bread (Exo 29:23) and the fruit (Deu 26:2), and even in early times for the serving of meat (Jdg 6:19). Among the vessels of wood of Lev 15:12 was the indispensable wooden howl, which served as a kneading-trough (Exo 12:34), and various other bowls, such as the lordly dish of the nomad Jael (Jdg 5:25) and the bowl of Gideon (Jdg 6:38), although the howls were mostly of earthenware (see Bowl).

As regards the actual preparation of food, apart from the oven (for which see Bread), our attention is drawn chiefly to the various members of the pot family, so to say. Four of these are named together in 1Sa 2:14, the kiyyr, the dd, the qallachath, and the prr, rendered respectively the pan, the kettle, the caldron, and the pot. Elsewhere these terms are rendered with small attempt at consistency; while a fifth, the most frequently named of all, the sr, is the flesh-pot of Exo 3:16, the great pot of 2Ki 4:38, and the caldron of Jer 1:13. In what respect these differed it is impossible to say. The sr was evidently of large size and made of bronze (1Ki 7:45), while the prr was small and of earthenware, hence ben-Siras question: What fellowship hath the [earthen] pot with the [bronze] caldron? (Sir 13:2, Heb. text). The kiyyr, again, was wide and shallow, rather than narrow and deep. Numerous illustrations of cooking-pots from OT times may be seen in the recent works above referred to. The only cooking utensils known to be of iron are the baking-pan (Lev 2:5 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), probably a shallow iron plate (see Eze 4:3), and the frying-pan (Lev 2:7). A knife, originally of flint (Jos 5:2) and later of bronze, was required for cutting up the meat to be cooked (Gen 22:6; Gen 22:10, Jdg 19:29), and a fork for lifting it from the pot (1Sa 2:13 EV [Note: English Version.] fleshhook [wh. see]).

In the collection of pottery figured in Bliss and Macalisters work one must seek the counterparts of the various dishes, mostly wide, deep howls, in which we read of food being served, such as the dish from which the sluggard is too lazy to withdraw his hand (Pro 19:24 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), and the chargers of Num 7:13, though here they are of silver (see, further, Meals, 5). In the same work the student will find an almost endless variety of cups, some for drawing the cup of cold water from the large water-jars, others for wineflagons, jugs, and juglets. The material of all of these will have ascended from the coarsest earthenware to bronze (Lev 6:28), and from bronze to silver (Num 7:13, Jdt 12:1) and gold (1Ki 10:21, Est 1:7), according to the rank and wealth of their owners and the purposes for which they were designed.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

House

The word house, in Scripture, means somewhat more than the mere residence of a family; indeed, it hath various significations. Heaven is called the house of God, “an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” The grave is called “the house appointed for all living.” (Job 30:23) The church is called “the house of the living God.” Ye also, saith Peter, speaking to the faithful, “are built up a spiritual house.” (1Pe 2:5; Heb 3:6) But in a more general way, a family is called an house, such as the house of the Rechabites, (Jer 35:2) the house of David, (Zec 13:1) But amidst all these, and more to the like import, that undoubtedly is the highest and the best sense of the word which considers the Lord Jesus Christ himself as the High Priest and Head of his body the church, and the bodies of his people the temple of his indwelling residence by his Spirit. And the conscious sense of his presence, in upholding, acting upon, comforting, refreshing, stengthening, and witnessing to the soul, and for the Lord in the soul, these are among the most blessed evidences in the enjoyment of the household of faith. Here, in the fullest sense of the expression, the church, and every individual believer forming a part in that church, may and is called the house of the living God. “Lo! I come, said JEHOVAH, and I will dwell in the midst of thee;” (Zec 2:11) and this scriptural sense of the word may serve to shew why it was the patriarchs, and holy men of old, were so anxious concerning their households and brailles. Thus the faithful Abraham, after that the Lord had revealed himself unto him in vision, and said, “Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward;” the patriarch felt a boldness to ask of God concerning his household. Abram said, “Lord God! what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of ray house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” (Gen 15:1-2) meaning, that he was not born of his bowels, but Damascus born, probably a black. Now as it is well known, that every black slave when freed by his master, was always after known by the name of “the child” of the house, (for so the phrase steward of my house means,) it is likely, that Abram felt some jealousy concerning this freed slave being his heir. And the very name Eliezer was not a little in countenancing this idea, which signified the help of my God. But I leave the reader to his own views of this subject, only remarking farther, that the Lord’s gracious answer concerning Isaac seems a confirmation, that it was in this, or some such like sense, the house or family was regarded. See Gen 15:4-6.

Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures

House

hous (, bayth; , okos, in classical Greek generally an estate, , oika, , okema (literally, habitation), in Act 12:1, prison):

I.Cave Dwellings

II.Stone-Built and Mud/Brick-Built Houses

1.Details of Plan and Construction

(1)Corner-Stone

(2)Floor

(3)Gutter

(4)Door

(5)Hinge

(6)Lock and Key

(7)Threshold

(8)Hearth

(9)Window

(10)Roof

2.Houses of More than One Story

(1)Upper Chambers and Stairs

(2)Palaces and Castles

3.Internal Appearance

III.Other Meanings

Literature

I. Cave Dwellings

The earliest permanent habitations of the prehistoric inhabitants of Palestine were the natural caves which abound throughout the country. As the people increased and grouped themselves into communities, these abodes were supplemented by systems of artificial caves which, in some cases, developed into extensive burrowings of many adjoining compartments, having in each system several entrances. These entrances were usually cut through the roof down a few steps, or simply dropped to the floor from the rock surface. The sinking was shallow and the headroom low but sufficient for the undersized troglodites who were the occupiers.

II. Stone-Built and Mud/Brick-Built Houses

There are many references to the use of caves as dwellings in the Old Testament. Lot dwelt with his two daughters in cave (Gen 19:30). Elijah, fleeing from Jezebel, lodged in a cave (1Ki 19:9). The natural successor to the cave was the stone-built hut, and just as the loose field-bowlders and the stones, quarried from the caves, served their first and most vital uses in the building of defense walls, so did they later become material for the first hut. Caves, during the rainy season, were faulty dwellings, as at the time when protection was most needed, they were being flooded through the surface openings which formed their entrances. The rudest cell built of rough stones in mud and covered a with roof of brushwood and mud was at first sufficient. More elaborate plans of several apartments, entering from what may be called a living-room, followed as a matter of course, and these, huddled together, constituted the homes of the people. Mud-brick buildings (Job 4:19) of similar plan occur, and to protect this friable material from the weather, the walls were sometimes covered with a casing of stone slabs, as at Lachish. (See Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities.) Generally speaking, this rude type of building prevailed, although, in some of the larger buildings, square dressed and jointed stones were used. There is little or no sign of improvement until the period of the Hellenistic influence, and even then the improvement was slight, so far as the homes of the common people were concerned.

1. Details of Plan and Construction

One should observe an isometric sketch and plan showing construction of a typical small house from Gezer. The house is protected and approached from the street by an open court, on one side of which is a covered way. The doors enter into a living-room from which the two very small inner private rooms, bedchambers, are reached. Builders varied the plan to suit requirements, but in the main, this plan may be taken as typical. When members of a family married, extra accommodation was required. Additions were made as well as could be arranged on the cramped site, and in consequence, plans often became such a meaningless jumble that it is impossible to identify the respective limits of adjoining houses. The forecourt was absorbed and crushed out of existence, so that in many of the plans recovered the arrangement is lost.

(1) Corner-Stone

Corner-stone (, pinnah, Isa 28:16; Jer 51:26; , lthos akrogoniaos, 1Pe 2:6). – In the construction of rude boulder walls, more especially on a sloping site, as can be seen today in the highlands of Scotland and Wales, a large projecting boulder was built into the lower angle-course. It tied together the return angles and was one of the few bond-stones used in the building. This most necessary support claimed chief importance and as such assumed a figurative meaning frequently used (Isa 28:16; 1Pe 2:6; see CORNER-STONE). The importance given to the laying of a sure foundation is further emphasized by the dedication rites in common practice, evidence of which has been found on various sites in Palestine (see Excavations of Gezer). The discovery of human remains placed diagonally below the foundations of the returning angle of the house gives proof of the exercise of dedication rites both before and after the Conquest. Hiel sacrificed his firstborn to the foundations of Jericho and his youngest son to the gates thereof (1Ki 16:34). But this was in a great cause compared with a similar sacrifice to a private dwelling. The latter manifests a respect scarcely borne out by the miserable nature of the houses so dedicated. At the same time, it gives proof of the frequent collapse of structures which the winter rains made inevitable and at which superstition trembled. The fear of pending disaster to the man who failed to make his sacrifice is recorded in Deu 20:5 : What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle. See illustration, p. 550.

(2) Floor

Floor (, karka). – When houses were built on the rock outcrop, the floor was roughly leveled on the rock surface, but it is more common to find floors of beaten clay similar to the native floor of the present day. Stone slabs were sparingly used, and only appear in the houses of the great. It is unlikely that wood was much used as a flooring to houses, although Solomon used it for his temple floor (1Ki 6:15).

(3) Gutter

Gutter (, cinnor). – The gutter in 2Sa 5:8 the King James Version is obviously difficult to associate with the gutter of a house, except in so far as it may have a similar meaning to the water duct or water course (Revised Version (British and American)) leading to the private cistern, which formed part of the plan. Remains of open channels for this purpose have been found of rough stones set in clay, sometimes leading through a silt pit into the cistern.

(4) Door

Door (, deleth, , pethah; , thura). – Doorways were simple, square, entering openings in the wall with a stone or wood lintel (mashkoph, Exo 12:22, Exo 12:23; ‘ayl, 1Ki 6:31) and a stone threshold raised slightly above the floor. It is easy to imagine the earliest wooden door as a simple movable boarded cover with back bars, fixed vertically by a movable bar slipped into sockets in the stone jambs. Doorposts (saph, Eze 41:16) appear to have been in use, but, until locks were introduced, it is difficult to imagine a reason for them. Posts, when introduced, were probably let into the stone at top and bottom, and, unlike our present door frame, had no head-piece. When no wood was used, the stone jambs of the opening constituted the doorposts. To the present day the post retains its function as commanded in Deu 6:9; Deu 11:20, and in it is fitted a small case containing a parchment on which is written the exhortation to obedience.

(5) Hinge

Hinge (, poth, 1Ki 7:50; , cr, Pro 26:14). – Specimens of sill and head sockets of stone have been discovered which suggest the use of the pivot hinge, the elongated swinging stile of the door being let into the sockets at top and bottom. A more advanced form of construction was necessary to this type of door than in the previous instance, and some little skill was required to brace it so that it would hold together. The construction of doors and windows is an interesting question, as it is in these two details that the joinery craft first claimed development. There is no indication, however, of anything of the nature of advancement, and it seems probable that there was none.

(6) Lock and Key

Lock and key (lock, manul, Neh 3:3; Son 5:5; key, maphteah, Jdg 3:25; figurative. Isa 22:22; , kles, Mat 16:19, etc.). – In later Hellenic times a sort of primitive lock and key appeared, similar to the Arabic type. See Excavations of Gezer, I, 197, and illustration in article KEY.

(7) Threshold

Threshold (, saph, 1Ki 14:17; Eze 40:6; , miphtan, 1Sa 5:4, 1Sa 5:5; Eze 9:3, etc.). – Next to the corner-stone, the threshold was specially sacred, and in many instances foundation-sacrifices have been found buried under the threshold. In later times, when the Hebrews became weaned of this unholy practice, the rite remained with the substitution of a lamp enclosed between two bowls as a symbol of the life. See GEZER.

(8) Hearth

Hearth (, ‘ah, Jer 36:22, Jer 36:23, the Revised Version (British and American) brazier; , kiyyor). – The references in the Old Testament and the frequent discovery of hearths make it clear that so much provision for heating had been made. It is unlikely, however, that chimneys were provided. The smoke from the wood or charcoal fuel was allowed to find its way through the door and windows and the many interstices occurring in workmanship of the worst possible description. The chimney referred to (Hos 13:3) is a doubtful translation. The fire in the brazier (Jer 36:22 the Revised Version (British and American)) which burned before the king of Judah in his winter house was probably of charcoal. The modern natives, during the cold season, huddle around and warm their hands at a tiny glow in much the same way as their ancient predecessors. The use of cow and camel dung for baking-oven (tannur) fires appears to have continued from the earliest time to the present day (Eze 4:15). See also HEARTH.

(9) Window

Window (, thurs, Act 20:9; 2Co 11:33). – It would appear that windows were often simple openings in the wall which were furnished with some method of closing, which, it may be conjectured, was somewhat the same as the primitive door previously mentioned. The window of the ark (hallon, Gen 8:6), the references in Gen 26:8; Jos 2:15, and the window from which Jezebel looked (2Ki 9:30), were presumably of the casement class. Ahaziah fell through a lattice (sebhakhah) in the same palace, and the same word is used for the networks (1Ki 7:41) covering the bowls of the capitals, and in Son 2:9, through the lattice (harakkm). It would appear, therefore, that some variety of treatment existed, and that the simple window opening with casement and the opening filled in with a lattice or grill were distinct. Windows were small, and, according to the Mishna, were kept not less than 6 ft. from floor to sill. The lattice was open, without glass filling, and in this connection there is the interesting figurative reference in Isa 54:12 the King James Version, windows of agates, translated in the Revised Version (British and American) pinnacles of rubies. Heaven is spoken of as having windows (‘arubbah) for rain (Gen 7:11; Gen 8:2; 2Ki 7:2, etc.).

(10) Roof

Roof (, gagh; , stege). – These were flat. Compare The beams of our house are cedars, and our rafters are firs (Son 1:17). To get over the difficulty of the larger spans, a common practice was to introduce a main beam (, kurah) carried on the walls and strengthened by one or more intermediate posts let into stone sockets laid on the floor. Smaller timbers as joists (rafters, raht) were spaced out and covered in turn with brushwood; the final covering, being of mud mixed with chopped straw, was beaten and rolled. A tiny stone roller is found on every modern native roof, and is used to roll the mud into greater solidity every year on the advent of the first rains. Similar rollers have been found among the ancient remains throughout the country; see Excavations of Gezer, I, 190; PEFS, Warren’s letters, 46. They let him down through the tiles (, keramos) with his couch into the midst before Jesus (Luk 5:19) refers to the breaking through of a roof similar to this. The roof (housetop, gagh; , doma) was an important part of every house and was subjected to many uses. It was used for worship (2Ki 23:12; Jer 19:13; Jer 32:29; Zep 1:5; Act 10:9). Absalom spread his tent on the top of the house (2Sa 16:22). In the Feast of the Tabernacles temporary booths (sukkah) were erected on the housetops. The people, as is their habit today, gathered together on the roof as a common meeting-place on high days and holidays (Jdg 16:27). The wild wranglings which can be heard in any modern native village, resulting in vile accusations and exposure of family secrets hurled from the housetops of the conflicting parties, illustrate the passage, And what ye have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops (Luk 12:3).

2. Houses of More than One Story

(1) Upper Chambers and Stairs

It is certain that there were upper chambers (alyah; , huperoon, Act 9:37, etc.) to some of the houses. Ahaziah was fatally injured by falling from the window of his palace, and a somewhat similar fate befell his mother, Jezebel (2Ki 1:2; 2Ki 9:33). The escape of the spies from the house on the wall at Jericho (Jos 2:15) and that of Paul from Damascus (2Co 11:33) give substantial evidence of window openings at a considerable height. Elijah carried the son of the widow of Zarephath up into the chamber. The Last Supper was held in an upper chamber (Mar 14:15). Some sort of stairs (, maalah) of stone or wood must have existed, and the lack of the remains of stone steps suggests that they were wood steps, probably in the form of ladders.

(2) Palaces and Castles

Palaces and castles (‘armon, brah, hekhal; , aule, , parembole). – These were part of every city and were more elaborate in plan, raised in all probability to some considerable height. The Canaanite castle discovered by Macalister at Gezer shows a building of enormously thick walls and small rooms. Reisner has unearthed Ahab’s palace at Samaria, revealing a plan of considerable area. Solomon’s palace is detailed in 1 Ki 7 (see TEMPLE). In this class may also be included the megalithic fortified residences with the beehive guard towers of an earlier date, described by Dr. Mackenzie (PEF, I) .

3. Internal Appearance

Walls were plastered (Lev 14:43, Lev 14:18), and small fragments of painted (Jer 22:14) plaster discovered from time to time show that some attempt at mural decoration was made, usually in the form of crudely painted line ornament. Walls were recessed here and there into various forms of cupboards (which see) at various levels. The smaller cuttings in the wall were probably for lamps, and in the larger and deeper recesses bedmats may have been kept and garments stored.

III. Other Meanings

The word has often the sense of household, and this term is frequently substituted in the Revised Version (British and American) for house of the King James Version (e.g. Exo 12:3; 2Ki 7:11; 2Ki 10:5; 2Ki 15:5; Isa 36:3; 1Co 1:11; 1Ti 5:14); in certain cases for phrases with house the Revised Version (British and American) has at home. (Acts 12:46; Act 5:42). See HOUSE OF GOD; HOUSEHOLD.

Literature

Macalister, Excavations at Gezer; PEFS; Sellin, Excavations at Taanach; Schumacher, Excavations at Tell Mutesellim; Bliss, Mound of Many Cities; articles in Dictionaries and Encyclopedias.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

House

House

Houses are often mentioned in Scripture, several important passages of which cannot be well understood without a clearer notion of the houses in which the Hebrews dwelt, than can be realized by such comparisons as we naturally make with those in which we ourselves live. But things so different afford no grounds for instructive comparison. We must therefore bring together such facts as can be collected from the Scripture and from ancient writers, with such details from modern travelers and our own observations, as may tend to illustrate these statements; for there is every reason to conclude that little substantial difference exists between the ancient houses and those which are at this day found in south-western Asia.

Our information respecting the abodes of men in the ages before the Deluge is, however, too scanty to afford much ground for notice.

We may, therefore, pass over this early period, and proceed at once to the later times in which the Hebrews flourished.

The observations offered under Architecture will preclude the expectation of finding among this Eastern people an accomplished style of building. The reason of this is plain. Their ancestors had roved through the country as nomad shepherds, dwelling in tents; and if ever they built huts they were of so light a fabric as easily to be taken down when a change of station became necessary. In this mode of life solidity in the structure of any dwelling was by no means required; much less were regular arrangement and the other requisites of a well-ordered dwelling matters of consideration. Under such circumstances as these, no improvement in the habitation takes place. The tents in which the Arabs now dwell are in all probability the same as those in which the Hebrew patriarchs spent their lives.

On entering Palestine, the Israelites occupied the dwellings of the dispossessed inhabitants; and for a long time no new buildings would be needed. The generation which began to build new houses must have been born and bred in the country, and would naturally erect buildings like those which already existed in the land. Their mode of building was therefore that of the Canaanites whom they had dispossessed. Of their style of building we are not required to form any exalted notions. In all the history of the conquest of the country by the Israelites, there is no account of any large or conspicuous building being taken or destroyed by them. It would seem also as if there had been no temples; for we read not that any were destroyed by the conquerors; and the command that the monuments of idolatry should be overthrown, specifies only altars, groves, and high placeswhich seems to lead to the same conclusion; since, if there had been temples existing in the land of Canaan, they would doubtless have been included. It is also manifest from the history that the towns which the Hebrews found in Palestine were mostly small, and that the largest were distinguished rather by their number than by the size or magnificence of their buildings.

It is impossible to say to what extent Solomon’s improvements in state architecture operated to the advancement of domestic architecture. He built different palaces, and it is reasonable to conclude that his nobles and great officers followed more or less the models which these palaces presented. In the East, however, the domestic architecture of the bulk of the people is little affected by the improvements in state buildings. Men go on building from age to age as their forefathers built; and in all probability the houses which we now see in Palestine are such as those in which the Jews, and the Canaanites before them, dweltthe mosques, the Christian churches, and the monasteries being the only new features in the scene.

There is no reason to suppose that many houses in Palestine were constructed with wood. A great part of that country was always very poor in timber, and the middle part of it had scarcely any wood at all. But of stone there was no want; and it was consequently much used in the building of houses. Having premised this, the principal building materials mentioned in Scripture may be enumerated with reference to their place in the three kingdoms of nature.

I. Vegetable Substances:

1. Shittim, or the timber of the acacia tree, which grows abundantly in the valleys of Arabia Petra, and was therefore employed in the construction of the tabernacle. Not being, however, a tree of Palestine, the wood was not subsequently used in building.

2. The wood of the sycamore fig-tree, mentioned in Isa 9:10, as a building timber in more common use than cedar, or perhaps than any other wood known in Palestine.

3. Cedar. As this was a wood imported from Lebanon, it would only be used in the higher class of buildings.

4. Algum, which, being imported from the Eastern seas, must have been valued at a high price. It was used by Solomon for pillars for his own palace, and for the temple (1Ki 10:11-12).

5. Cypress-wood. Boards of this were used for the floor of the Temple, which may suggest the use to which it was ordinarily applied (1Ki 6:15; 2Ch 3:5).

Particular accounts of all these woods, and of the trees which afforded them, may be seen under the respective words.

II. Mineral Substances:

1. Marble. We find the court of the king of Persia’s palace covered with marble of various colors (Est 1:6). David is recorded to have possessed abundance of marble (1Ch 29:2; comp. Son 5:15), and it was used by Solomon for his palace, as well as for the Temple.

2. Porphyry and Granite are supposed to be ‘the glistering stones, and stones of divers colors’ named in 1Ch 29:2. If so, the mountains of Arabia Petra furnished the nearest source of supply, as these stones do not exist in Palestine or Lebanon.

3. Bricks. Bricks hardened by fire were employed in the construction of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:3), and the hard bondage of the Israelites in Egypt consisted in the manufacture of sun dried bricks (Exo 5:7; Exo 5:10-13). This important building-material has been noticed under another head [BRICKS]; and it only remains to remark that no subsequent notice of bricks as being used by the Hebrews occurs after they had entered Palestine. Yet, judging from existing analogies, it is more than probable that bricks were to a considerable extent employed in their buildings.

3. Chalk and Gypsum. That the Hebrews were acquainted with these materials appears from Deu 27:2; and from Dan 5:5; Act 23:3, it further appears that walls were covered with them.

4. Mortar, a cement made of lime, ashes, and chopped straw, or of gypsum and chopped straw. This is probably meant in Jer 43:9; Eze 13:10-11; Eze 22:28.

5. Asphaltum, or Bitumen, which is mentioned as being used for a cement by the builders of Babel. This must have been in the want of lime-mortar, the country being a stoneless plain. But the Israelites, who had no lack of the usual cements, did not employ bitumen [ASPHALTUM].

6. The metals also must be, to a certain extent, regarded as building materials: lead, iron, and copper are mentioned; and even silver and gold were used in combination with wood, for various kinds of solid, plated, and inlaid work (Exo 36:34; Exo 36:38).

III. Animal Substances:

Such substances can be but in a small degree applicable to building. Ivory houses are mentioned in 1Ki 22:39; Amo 3:14; most likely from certain parts of the wood-work, probably about the doors and windows, being inlaid with this valuable substance. Solomon obtained ivory in great quantities from Tyre (1Ki 10:22; 2Ch 9:21). [IVORY].

In describing the houses of ancient Palestine, there is no way of arriving at distinct notions but by taking the texts of Scripture and illustrating them by the existing houses of those parts of Western Asia which have been the least exposed to the changes of time, and in which the manners of ancient days have been the best preserved. Writers on the subject have seen this, and have brought together the descriptions of travelers bearing on the subject; but these descriptions have generally been applied with very little judgment, from the want of that distinct knowledge of the matter which only actual observation can give. Travelers have seldom been students of Scripture, and students of Scripture have seldom been travelers. The present writer, having resided for a considerable time in Turkish Arabia, where the type of Scriptural usages has been better preserved than in Egypt, or even in Palestine itself, is enabled to speak on this matter with somewhat more precision. Of four houses in which he there resided, two were first-rate, and two were second-rate. One of the latter has always seemed to him to suggest a more satisfactory idea of a Scriptural house than any of the others, or than any that he ever saw in other Eastern countries. That one has therefore formed the basis of all his ideas on this subject; and where it seemed to fail, the others have usually supplied the illustration he required. This course he has found so beneficial that he will endeavor to impart a clear view of the subject to the reader by giving a general notion of the house referred to, explaining any points in which the others differed from it, and producing the passages of Scripture which seem to be illustrated in the process.

Egyptian House

We may premise that the houses present little more than a dead wall to the street. The privacy of Oriental domestic habits would render our plan of throwing the front of the houses towards the street most repulsive. On coming to a house, one finds a lofty wall, which would be blank but for the low door of entrance [GATES]; over which is usually the kiosk, or latticed window (sometimes projecting like the huge bay windows of Elizabethan houses), or screened balcony of the ‘summer parlor.’ Besides this, there may be a small latticed window or two high up the wall, giving light and air to upper chambers. This seems, from the engraving (fig. 223), to have been the character of the fronts of ancient Egyptian houses.

The buildings which form the house front towards an inner square or court. Small houses have one of these courts, but superior houses have two, and first-rate houses three, communicating with each other; for the Orientals dislike ascending stairs or steps, and prefer to gain room rather by the extent than height of their habitations. It is only when the building-ground is confined by nature or by fortifications, that they build high houses. Not one out of four houses we ourselves inhabited had more than one story: but, from the loftiness of the rooms, they were as high as houses of three stories among ourselves. If there are three or more courts, all except the outer one are much alike in size and appearance; but the outer one, being devoted to the more public life of the occupant, and to his intercourse with society, is materially different from all the others. If there are more than two, the second is devoted chiefly to the use of the master, who is there attended only by his eunuchs, children, and females, and sees only such persons as he calls from the third or interior court in which they reside. In the history of Esther, she incurs danger by going from her interior court to that of the king, to invite him to visit her part of the palace; but she would not on any account have gone to the outermost court, in which the king held his public audiences. When there are only two courts, the innermost is the harem, in which the women and children live, and which is the true domicile of the master, to which he withdraws when the claims of business, of society, and of friends have been satisfied, and where no man but himself ever enters, or could be induced to enter, even by strong persuasions.

Public Room

Entering at the street-door, a passage, usually sloping downward, conducts to the outer court; the opening from the passage to this is not opposite the gate of entrance, but by a side turn, to preclude any view from the street into the court when the gate is opened. On entering the outer court through this passage, we find opposite to us the public room, in which the master receives and gives audience to his friends and clients. This is entirely open in front, and, being richly fitted up, has a splendid appearance when the first view of it is obtained. A refreshing coolness is sometimes given to this apartment by a fountain throwing up a jet of water in front of it. Some idea of the apartment may be formed from the annexed cut (fig. 224). This is the ‘guest-chamber’ of Luk 22:11. A large portion of the other side of the court is occupied with a frontage of lattice-work filled with colored glass, belonging to a room as large as the guest-chamber, and which in winter is used for the same purpose, or serves as the apartment of any visitor of distinction, who cannot of course be admitted into the interior parts of the house. The other apartments in this outer court are comparatively small, and are used for the accommodation of visitors, retainers, and servants. These various apartments are usually upon what we should call the first floor, or at least upon an elevated terrace. The ground-floor is in that case occupied by various store-rooms and servants’ offices. In all cases the upper floor, containing the principal rooms, is fronted by a gallery or terrace, protected from the sun by a sort of penthouse roof supported by pillars of wood.

House pillars

In houses having but one court, the reception-room is on the ground-floor, and the domestic establishment in the upper part of the house. This arrangement is shown in the annexed figure (fig. 225), which is also interesting from its showing the use of the ‘pillars’ so often mentioned in Scripture, particularly ‘the pillars on which the house stood, and by which it was borne up’ (Jdg 16:29).

The kiosk, which has been mentioned above as fronting the street, over the gateway, is connected with one of the larger rooms already described, or forms a separate apartment, which is the summer parlor of Scripture. Here, in the heat of the afternoon, the master lounges or dozes listlessly, refreshed by the air which circulates between the openings of the lattice-work; and here he can, if he pleases, notice unobserved what passes in the street. In this we are to seek the summer parlor in which Ehud smote the king of Moab (Jdg 3:20), and the ‘chamber on the wall,’ which the Shunamite prepared for the prophet (2Ki 4:10). The projecting construction over the reception chamber in fig. 225 is, like the kiosk, towards the street as a summer parlor; but there it belongs to the women’s apartments, and looks into the court, and not the street.

Inner Court

It is now time to proceed to the inner court, which we enter by a passage and door similar to those by which we entered from the street. This passage and door are usually at one of the innermost corners of the outer court. Here a much more extended prospect opens to us, the inner court being generally much larger than the former. The annexed cut (fig. 226) will convey some notion of it; but being a Persian house, it somewhat differs from that which we have more particularly in view. It is lower, the principal apartments standing upon a terrace or bank of earth, and not upon a basement story of offices; and it also wants the veranda or covered gallery in front, which we find in Syro-Arabian houses. The court is for the most part paved, excepting a portion in the middle, which is planted with trees (usually two) and shrubs, with a basin of water in the midst. In our Arabian house the two trees were palm-trees, in which a number of wild doves built their nests. In the second cut (fig. 223), showing an ancient Egyptian house, we see the same arrangement: two palm-trees growing in the court extend their tops above, and, as it were, out of the housea curious effect frequently noticed in the towns of South-western Asia. That the Jews had the like arrangement of trees in the courts of their houses, and that the birds nested in them, appears from Psa 84:2-3. They had also the basin of water in the inner court, or harem; and among them it was used for bathing, as is shown by David’s discovering Bathsheba bathing as he walked on the roof of his palace. This use of the reservoir has now been superseded by the establishment of public warm baths in every town, and in private mansions. Cold bathing has all but ceased in Western Asia.

The arrangement of the inner court is very similar to that of the outer; but the whole is more open and airy. The buildings usually occupy two sides of the square, of which the one opposite the entrance contains the principal apartments. They are upon what we should call the first floor, and open into a wide gallery or veranda, which in good houses is nine or ten feet deep, and covered by a wooden penthouse supported by a row of wooden columns. This terrace, or gallery, is furnished with a strong wooden balustrade, and is usually paved with squared stones, or else floored with boards. In the center of the principal front is the usual open drawing-room, on which the best art of the Eastern decorator is expended. Much of one of the sides of the court front is usually occupied by the large sitting-room, with the latticed front covered with colored glass, similar to that in the outer court. The other rooms, of smaller size, are the more private apartments of the mansion. There are usually no doors to the sitting or drawing-rooms of Eastern houses: they are closed by curtains, at least in summer, the opening and shutting of doors being odious to most Orientals. The same seems to have been the case among the Hebrews, as far as we may judge from the curtains which served instead of doors to the tabernacle, and which separated the inner and outer chambers of the temple. The curtained entrances to our Westminster courts of law supply a familiar example of the same practice.

These observations apply to the principal story. The basement is occupied by various offices, stores of corn and fuel, places for the water-jars to stand in, places for grinding corn, baths, kitchens, etc. The kitchens are always in this inner court, as the cooking is performed by women, and the ladies of the family superintend or actually assist in the process. The kitchen, open in front, is on the same side as the entrance from the outer court; and the top of it forms a terrace, which affords a communication between the first floor of both courts by a private door, seldom used but by the master of the house and attendant eunuchs.

The kitchen is surrounded by a bank of brickwork, on the top of which are the fireplaces formed in compartments, and separated by little walls of fire-brick or tile. In these different compartments the various dishes of an Eastern feast may be at once prepared at charcoal fires. This place being wholly open in front, the half-tame doves, which have their nests in the trees of the court, often visit it, in the absence of the servants, in search of crumbs, etc. As they sometimes blacken themselves, this perhaps explains the obscure passage in Psa 68:13, ‘Though ye have lien among the pots, ye shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver,’ etc. In Turkish Arabia most of the houses have underground cellars or vaults, to which the inhabitants retreat during the mid-day heat of summer, and there enjoy a refreshing coolness. In the rest of the year these cellars, or serdaubs, as they are called, are abandoned to the bats, which swarm in them in scarcely credible numbers (Isa 2:20).

From the court a flight of stone steps, usually at the corner, conducts to the gallery, from which a plainer stair leads to the house-top. If the house be large, there are two or three sets of steps to the different sides of the quadrangle, but seldom more than one flight from the terrace to the housetop of any one court. There is, however, a separate stair from the outer court to the roof, and it is usually near the entrance. This will bring to mind the case of the paralytic, whose friends, finding they could not get access to Jesus through the people who crowded the court of the house in which he was preaching, took him up to the roof, and let him down in his bed through the tiling, to the place where Jesus stood (Luk 5:17-26). If the house in which our Lord then was had more than one court, he and the auditors were certainly in the outer one; and it is reasonable to conclude that he stood in the veranda addressing the crowd below. The men bearing the paralytic therefore perhaps went up the steps near the door; and finding they could not even then get near the person of Jesus, the gallery being also crowded, continued their course to the roof of the house, and removing the boards over the covering of the gallery, at the place where Jesus stood, lowered the sick man to his feet. But if they could not get access to the steps near the door, as is likely, from the door being much crowded, their alternative was to take him to the roof of the next house, and there hoist him over the parapet to the roof of the house which they desired to enter.

Latticed Windows

The roof of the house is, of course, flat. It is formed by layers of branches, twigs, matting, and earth, laid over the rafters and trodden down; after which it is covered with a compost which acquire considerable hardness when dry. Such roofs would not, however, endure the heavy and continuous rains of our climate; and in those parts of Asia where the climate is more than usually moist, a stone roller is usually kept on every roof, and after a shower a great part of the population is engaged in drawing these rollers over the roofs. It is now very common, in countries where timber is scarce, to have domed roofs; but in that case the flat roof, which is indispensable to Eastern habits, is obtained by filling up the hollow intervals between the several domes, so as to form a flat surface at the top. These flat roofs are often alluded to in Scripture; and the allusions show that they were made to serve the same uses as at present. In fine weather the inhabitants resorted much to them to breathe the fresh air, to enjoy a fine prospect, or to witness any event that occurred in the neighborhood (2Sa 11:2; Isa 22:1; Mat 24:17; Mar 13:15). The dryness of the summer atmosphere enabled them, without injury to health, to enjoy the bracing coolness of the night-air by sleeping on the house-tops; and in order to have the benefit of the air and prospect in the daytime, without inconvenience from the sun, sheds, booths, and tents, were sometimes erected on the house-tops (2Sa 16:22).

The roofs of the houses are well protected by walls and parapets. Towards the street and neighboring houses is a high wall; and towards the interior court-yard usually a parapet or wooden rail. ‘Battlements’ of this kind, for the prevention of accidents, are strictly enjoined in the Law (Deu 22:8); and the form of the battlements of the Egyptian houses, as shown in the annexed engravings, suggest some interesting analogies, when we consider how recently the Israelites had quitted Egypt when that law was delivered.

Battlement

Of the inferior kinds of Oriental dwellings, such as are met with in villages and very small towns, the subjoined is not an unfavorable specimen. In these there is no central court, but there is generally a yard attached, either on one side or at the rear. The shaded platform in front is such as is usually seen attached to coffeehouses, which is, in fact, the character of the house represented in fig. 229. Here the customers sit and smoke their pipes, and sip their coffee. The village cabins and abodes of the peasantry are, of course, of a still inferior description; and, being the abodes of people who live much in the open air, will not bear comparison with the houses of the same class in Northern Europe, where the cottage is the home of the owner.

No ancient houses had chimneys. The word so translated in Hos 13:3, means a hole through which the smoke escaped; and this existed only in the lower class of dwellings, where raw wood was employed for fuel or cooking, and where there was an opening immediately over the hearth to let out the smoke. In the better sort of houses the rooms were warmed in winter by charcoal in braziers, as is still the practice (Jer 36:22; Mar 14:54; Joh 18:18).

The windows had no glass. They were only latticed, and thus gave free passage to the air and admitted light, while birds and bats were excluded. In winter the cold air was kept out by veils over the windows, or by shutters with holes in them sufficient to admit light (1Ki 7:17; Son 2:9).

Coffee House

In the East, where the climate allows the people to spend so much of their time out of doors, the articles of furniture and the domestic utensils have always been few and simple. They are in this work noticed under separate heads [BEDS; LAMP; POTTER]. The rooms, however, although comparatively vacant of moveables, are far from having a naked or unfurnished appearance. This is owing to the high ornament given to the walls and ceilings. The walls are broken up into various recesses, and the ceiling into compartments. The ceiling, if of wood and flat, is of curious and complicated joinery; or, if vaulted, is wrought into numerous coves, and enriched with fret-work in stucco; and the walls are adorned with arabesques, mosaics, mirrors, painting, and gold; which, as set off by the marble-like whiteness of the stucco, has a truly brilliant and rich effect. There is much in this to remind one of such descriptions of splendid interiors as that in Isa 54:11-12.

Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature

House

There are but few things mentioned in scripture that throw light upon the construction of the houses in the East. Of modern eastern houses it may be said the backs of the houses are in the street. There is a door, with perhaps a lattice over it, and one or two lattices high up, with all the rest a blank wall. A house may be watched all day, and not a soul be seen, unless some one comes to the door, though all going on in the street may be seen from the lattices. The door opens into a porch or passage, which leads into an open court, but so arranged that no one can see into the court when the door is opened. The court is large, sometimes open to the sky, in which visitors are received and business transacted: some have two courts, or even three. Often there is a fountain and trees in the court. Around the court are entrances to more private rooms, where meals are served and to chambers where the inmates repose. The ‘parlour’ where Samuel entertained Saul would be one of such rooms.

Stairs in the corner of the court lead to upper private rooms; and often there are stairs outside the house that lead to the roof. These enabled the sick man to be carried to the roof in Mar 2:4, when entrance could not be obtained by the door. The roof is often made of sticks, thorn bushes, mortar and earth; which often have to be rolled to consolidate the structure after rain. A hole could easily be broken through such a roof to let down the paralytic. Other roofs were more substantial, with a parapet round them for safety. On such roofs persons retired for private conversation and for prayer, 1Sa 9:25; Act 10:9; and in the evening for coolness. 2Sa 11:2.

The Lord speaks of the disciples publishing on the housetop what He had told them privately. Mat 10:27; Luk 12:3. This mode of proclamation may often be seen in the East when the public crier calls out from the housetop the information he has to make known.

Houses were mostly built of stone, that being plentiful and wood comparatively scarce. In Bashan there are still numbers of ancient houses, solidly built of stone, some with the ancient stone doors still on their hinges, or rather pivots, many of the houses having no inhabitant. Temporary houses and those for the poor were often built of mud, which could easily be dug through by a thief, and which left to themselves soon became a heap of rubbish. Job 4:19; Job 15:28; Job 24:16; Mat 24:43. Cattle were often kept in some part of the house, as they are to this day, for safety. 1Sa 28:24.

Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary

House

Built of:

– Stone

Lev 14:40-45; Isa 9:10; Amo 5:11

– Brick

Gen 11:3; Exo 1:11-14; Isa 9:10

– Wood

Son 1:17; Isa 9:10

Built into city walls

Jos 2:15

Used for worship

Act 1:13-14; Act 12:12; Rom 16:5; 1Co 16:19; Col 4:15; Phm 1:2

»A man’s castle«

Deu 24:10-11

Architecture of:

– Foundations of stone

b General references

1Ki 5:17; 1Ki 7:9; Ezr 6:3; Jer 51:26

b Figurative

Psa 87:1; Isa 28:16; Isa 48:13; Rom 15:20; 1Co 3:11; Eph 2:20; 1Ti 6:19; Heb 6:1; Rev 21:14

– Corner stone

b General references

Job 38:6; Psa 144:12

b Figurative

Psa 118:22; Isa 28:16; Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6

– Porches

Jdg 3:23; 1Ki 7:6-7

– Court

Est 1:5

– Summer apartment

Jdg 3:20; Amo 3:15; 1Ki 17:19

– Inner chamber

1Ki 22:25

– Chambers

Gen 43:30; 2Sa 18:33; 2Ki 1:2; 2Ki 4:10; Act 1:13; Act 9:37; Act 20:8

– Guest chamber

Mar 14:14

– Pillars

Pro 9:1

– With courts

Neh 8:16

– Lattice

Jdg 5:28

– Windows

Jdg 5:28; Pro 7:6

– Ceiled and plastered

Dan 5:5

– Hinges

Pro 26:14

– Roofs:

b Flat

Jos 2:6; Jdg 16:27; 1Sa 9:25; 2Sa 11:2; 2Sa 16:22; Isa 15:3; Isa 22:1; Mat 24:17; Luk 12:3

b Battlements required in Mosaic law

Deu 22:8

b Prayer on

Act 10:9

b Altars on

2Ki 23:12; Jer 19:13; Jer 32:29; Zep 1:5

b Booths on

Neh 8:16

b Used as place to sleep

Jos 2:8; Act 10:9

b Used as dwelling place

Pro 21:9; Pro 25:24

– Painted

Jer 22:14; Eze 8:10; Eze 8:12

– Chimneys of

Hos 13:3

– Texts of scripture on doorposts of

Deu 6:9

– Laws regarding sale of

Lev 25:29-33; Neh 5:3

– Dedicated

Deu 20:5; Psa 30:1-12

Figurative

2Sa 7:18; Psa 23:6; Psa 36:8; Joh 14:2; 2Co 5:1; 1Ti 3:15; Heb 3:2

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

House

House. See Dwelling.

Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible

House

House. The houses of the rural poor in Egypt, as well as in most parts of Syria, Arabia and Persia, are generally mere huts of mud or sunburnt bricks. In some parts of Palestine and Arabia, stone is used, and, in certain districts, caves in the rocks are used as dwellings. Amo 5:11. The houses are usually of one story only, namely, the ground floor, and often contain only one apartment.

Sometimes, a small court for the cattle is attached; and, in some cases, the cattle are housed in the same building, or they live in a raised platform, and, the cattle round them on the ground. 1Sa 28:24. The windows are small apertures high up in the walls, sometimes grated with wood. The roofs are commonly, but not always flat, and are usually formed of a plaster of mud and straw laid upon boughs or rafters; and upon the flat roofs, tents or “booths” of boughs or rushes are often raised, to be used as sleeping-places in summer.

The difference between the poorest houses, and those of the class next above them, is greater than between these and the houses of the first rank. The prevailing plan of eastern houses of this class presents, as was the case in ancient Egypt, a front of wall, whose blank and mean appearance, is usually relieved only by the door and a few latticed and projecting windows. Within this, is a court or courts with apartments opening into them. Over the door is a projecting window with a lattice more or less elaborately wrought, which, except in times of public celebrations, is usually closed. 2Ki 9:30.

An awning is sometimes drawn over the court, and the floor is strewed with carpets on festive occasions. The stairs to the upper apartments are, in Syria, usually in a corner of the court. Around part, if not the whole, of the court is a veranda, often nine or ten feet deep, over which, when there is more than one floor, runs a second gallery of like depth, with a balustrade. When there is no second floor, but more than one court, the women’s apartments — hareems, harem or haram — are usually in the second court; otherwise, they form a separate building within the general enclosure, or are above on the first floor.

When there is an upper story, the ka’ah forms the most important apartment, and thus, probably, answers to the “upper room,” which was often the guest-chamber. Luk 22:12; Act 1:13; Act 9:37; Act 20:8. The windows of the upper rooms often project one or two feet, and form a kiosk or latticed chamber. Such may have been “the chamber in the wall.” 2Ki 4:10-11. The “lattice,” through which Ahasiah fell, perhaps belonged to an upper chamber of this kind, 2Ki 1:2, as also the “third loft,” from which Eutychus fell. Act 20:9. Compare Jer 22:13.

Paul preached in such a room on account of its superior rise and retired position. The outer circle in an audience in such a room sat upon a dais, or upon cushions elevated so as to be as high as the window-sill. From such a position, Eutychus could easily fall. There are usually no special bed-rooms in eastern houses. The outer doors are closed with a wooden lock, but, in some cases, the apartments are divided from each other by curtains only. There are no chimneys, but fire is made, when required, with charcoal in a chafing-dish; or a fire of wood might be made in the open court of the house. Luk 22:65.

Some houses in Cairo have an apartment open in front to the court with two or more arches and a railing, and a pillar to support the wall above. It was in a chamber of this size to be found in a palace, that our Lord was being arraigned, before the high priest, at the time when the denial of him, by St. Peter, took place. He “turned and looked” on Peter as he stood by the fire in the court, Luk 22:56; Luk 22:61; Joh 18:24, whilst he himself was in the “hall of judgment.”

In no point do Oriental domestic habits differ more from European than in the use of the roof. Its flat surface is made useful for various household purposes, such as drying corn, hanging up linen, and preparing figs and raisins. The roofs are used as places of recreation in the evening, and, often, as sleeping-places at night. 1Sa 9:25-26; 2Sa 11:2; 2Sa 16:22; Job 27:18; Pro 21:9; Dan 4:29. They were also used as places for devotion and even idolatrous worship. 2Ki 23:12; Jer 19:13; Jer 32:29; Zep 1:6; Act 10:9.

At the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, booths were erected by the Jews, on the top of their houses. Protection of the roof by parapets was enjoined by the law. Deu 22:8. Special apartments were devoted in larger houses to winter and summer uses. Jer 36:22; Amo 3:15. The ivory house of Ahab was probably a palace largely ornamented with inlaid ivory. The circumstance of Samson’s pulling down the house by means of the pillars may be explained by the fact of the company being assembled on tiers of balconies above each other, supported by central pillars on the basement; when these were pulled down, the whole of the upper floors would fall also. Jdg 16:26.

Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary

HOUSE

To build an house, is, in the Hebrew style, to settle a family: to make one prosper. So in Exo 1:21, “he built them houses,” signifies that they flourished and prospered. The same phrase occurs in 1Sa 2:35; 2Sa 7:2; 1Ki 11:38. And so in Euripides,f1 “Wisdom is immoveable, and keeps together a house,”- an expression found in Solomon, Pro 9:1, to the very same purpose. And therefore, in the symbolical language, houses, palaces, and sons mutually explain each other.

Thus, according to the Persian and Egyptian Interpreters, ch. cxlviii.: “If a king dreams that he orders a new palace to be built for his habitation and it be finished, it denotes that he shall beget a son and heir:” children, or rather sons, being the settlement of a house or family.

F1 Eurip. Basch. 389.

Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary

House

denotes (a) “a house, a dwelling,” e.g., Mat 9:6-7; Mat 11:8; it is used of the Tabernacle, as the House of God, Mat 12:4, and the Temple similarly, e.g., Mat 21:13; Luk 11:51, AV, “temple,” RV, “sanctuary;” Joh 2:16-17; called by the Lord “your house” in Mat 23:38; Luk 13:35 (some take this as the city of Jerusalem); metaphorically of Israel as God’s house, Heb 3:2, Heb 3:5, where “his house” is not Moses’, but God’s; of believers, similarly, Heb 3:6, where Christ is spoken of as “over God’s House” (the word “own” is rightly omitted in the RV); Heb 10:21; 1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 4:17; of the body, Mat 12:44; Luk 11:24; (b) by metonymy, of the members of a household or family, e.g., Luk 10:5; Act 7:10; Act 11:14; 1Ti 3:4-5, 1Ti 3:12; 2Ti 1:16; 2Ti 4:19, RV (AV, “household”); Tit 1:11 (plural); of a local church, 1Ti 3:15; of the descendants of Jacob (Israel) and David, e.g., Mat 10:6; Luk 1:27, Luk 1:33; Act 2:36; Act 7:42. See HOME, A, No. 1. Note (1), HOUSEHOLD.

is akin to No. 1, and used much in the same way; in Attic law oikos denoted the whole estate, oikia stood for the dwelling only; this distinction was largely lost in later Greek. In the NT it denotes (a) “a house, a dwelling,” e.g., Mat 2:11; Mat 5:15; Mat 7:24-27; 2Ti 2:20; 2Jo 1:10; it is not used of the Tabernacle or the Temple, as in the case of No. 1; (b) metaphorically, the heavenly abode, spoken of by the Lord as “My Father’s house,” Joh 14:2, the eternal dwelling place of believers; the body as the dwelling place of the soul, 2Co 5:1; similarly the resurrection body of believers (id.); property, e.g., Mar 12:40; by metonymy, the inhabitants of a house, a household, e.g., Mat 12:25; Joh 4:53; 1Co 16:15. See HOUSEHOLD.

denotes “with all the house,” Act 16:34, i.e., “the household.”

Notes: (1) In 2Co 5:2, oiketerion, “a habitation” (see RV) is translated “house” in the AV, of the resurrection body (cp. oikia in the preceding verse; see above). (2) In 1Ti 5:13, “from house to house” is, lit., “the houses.” (3) For “in every house,” Act 5:42 (cp. Act 2:46), see HOME. (4) For “them which are of the house,” 1Co 1:11, AV, see HOUSEHOLD.

Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words

House

Deu 7:8 (a) This is a reference to the nation of Egypt. (See also Deu 8:14).

Deu 25:10 (a) The type here is used to describe a family or the line of generation. (See also Rth 4:12; Jdg 8:35; Jdg 9:6; Jdg 10:9; 1Sa 3:14; 2Sa 3:1). In quite a number of places throughout the Scriptures the word “house” is used as a reference to a family in various generations, or to a nation.

Isa 66:1 (b) This is a type of the building which the Lord expects each believer to construct in his life for the glory of GOD and the blessing of men. This house must have a right foundation, JESUS CHRIST:

– a heating plant to keep the heart and soul on fire for GOD;

– a kitchen so that the food may be prepared for the soul;

– a library for the education and instruction of the mind;

– a music room to keep the heart singing;

– a parlor for hospitality;

– a bedroom for rest;

– a bath room for cleansing;

– an attic for storage;

and also the light of the Word and the water of the Spirit.

Mat 7:26 (a) Refers to the kind of life one builds for eternity. If he builds on CHRIST, his life will stand the tests of time and eternity. If he builds on character, morals, tradition or false religions, it will be destroyed under the storm of GOD’s wrath.

2Co 5:1 (a) This refers to the physical body in which we live.

1Ti 3:15 (a) This is a name applied to the entire church of GOD composed of all believers.

2Ti 2:20 (b) This type refers to the church of GOD in which there are some who are very valuable, and other people who do not seem to be so important. In every home there are beautiful vases, and other valuable vessels in the parlor. They are expensive, attractive, and receive much attention from the visitors. In the kitchen of the same home there are the skillet, the tea kettle, the baking pans, and other such inferior vessels. They are just as essential, or more so, than those in the parlor. We could keep house without those in the parlor, but we would not get along very well without those in the kitchen. Our Lord is telling us that if we purge ourselves from the sins that are mentioned in the early part of this chapter, the entangling with the world, the attractiveness of sins, the mishandling of the Word of GOD, profane babbling, and false teachings, then we shall be vessels unto honor. Some of us will serve in the kitchen, and others in the parlor.

Heb 3:5-6 (b) In verse 5 the type represents the nation of Israel. In verse 6 it represents the church of GOD, of which the Lord JESUS is the head.

Fuente: Wilson’s Dictionary of Bible Types