Description
11-Design of the Galleries
The Scripture describing the galleries is found in Ezekiel 42:3-6, 9. Please examine picture 8 titled Macro View of the Temple in 04-Temple Principles and Layout of the Temple. It shows an overview of the galleries. They are labeled B3 and C3. We define “gallery” as “a narrow-recessed balcony along an upper floor on the exterior of a building, providing space for an audience.” In 42:3 we learn that they are located between the pavement belonging to the Inner Court and the pavement belonging to the outer court. The 20 cubits wide pavements belonging to the Inner Court are also the separate areas on either side of the House, i.e., the Inner Temple, (41:9-10, 14).
Ezekiel 41:16 corroborates the location of the galleries by stating that they are opposite the thresholds of the side chambers on either side of the House, i.e., Inner Temple. By its use of the phrase “gallery corresponding to gallery in three stories”, we believe 42:3 also indicates that each story has a similar gallery. It also states that there are 3 stories of them as does 41:16. 41:15 states that the galleries extend westward to be located on either side of the Guest House. To see this relationship clearly the sixth picture titled Blowup of the Temple North To South 2nd Floor in 05-Close Ups with Scriptural References, must be examined. So, at this point we believe that have an excellent understanding of where these galleries are located and hence the location of the building on which they are set.
Therefore, in this section of our Schematics, we are basically continuing our discussion of the Zadok Module. At this point we need to mention that within our Schematics section of the Gallery, a full album of pictures of the layouts of every House structure has been furnished to the readers. All of them contain valuable information that ought to read. With regard to the Zadok Module which describes the tan and purple chambers, take them in sequence in order to maintain the continuity of the writing on each picture: ground-level south/north; first floor south/north; second floor south/north; third floor south/north, etc.
Now, returning to the description, each gallery occupies the width of one row of bedrooms (7.5-cubits or 13.125 feet) plus the width of its walkway (2.5-cubits or 4.375-feet) for a total of 10 cubits (17.5 feet). So, the third story has 3 fewer rows of bedrooms than the ground level as shown in the first 6 pictures. Other than the stairs that connect the stories to one another, the stories are structurally isolated from each other as shown in the final 2 pictures which are cross sections of the buildings.
There are 12 pictures in this section of our Schematics, each having its own caption and Logo. Now let’s concentrate on pictures 1, 2 and pictures 9, 10 of this section. Pictures 1 and 2 provide an overview of the first floor or story of galleries that are above the ground floor. Pictures 9 and 10 provide a magnification of their inner walkways and show the cutouts which are the entrances from the chambers (bedrooms) to the galleries. For each gallery there are 10 flights of stairs, each of width 2-cubits (3.5-feet) for a total of 20 cubits and 3 cutouts of width 5-cubits (8.75-feet) for a total of 15 cubits.
A row of seating takes up 65 cubits. Since each chair has the dimensions of our standard House chair the width of which is 1-cubit, each row in the gallery has 65 seats. The sum is 100 cubits which is the E/W length of the purple chambers (Ezekiel 42:8). There are 4 rows of seats per gallery for a total of 260 seats. There are 3 stories of galleries for a total of 780 seats. With the exception of the western-most section which has 4 rows of 10 seats, each section has 4 rows of 11 seats. Each gallery is composed of 6 sections and their stairs and 3 cutouts. This arrangement is true for the first, second, and third stories of the purple chambers.
As we have mentioned, the stairs connect each lower story to the story above it. We believe the final 2 pictures titled Southern Galleries Side View Cut Away and Northern Galleries Side View Cut Away best demonstrate how we understand the stairs conceptually. The stairs are a small module that elevates the roof of the lower story first by 3-cubits (5.25-feet) and then by an additional .75-cubit (15.75 inches). And it also lowers a small area of the floor of the story above by .5-cubit. See picture 45 of our 3-D Gallery where a 1-cubit width can be seen in the ceiling, which is next to the stairs, of the 2.5-cubits walkway of the ground floor bedrooms. The lowering of the floor above by .5-cubit can be seen on careful examination of picture 46. This creates a stairwell of 2 x 2 cubits (L x W, 3.5 x 3.5 feet) and height of 4 to 4.75-cubits (7 to 8.3125-feet) as we will further explain in the paragraph below.
Now examine the seventh picture in this section of our Schematics titled Blowup Western-most Seat Section, Galleries, Southern Chambers for the Sons of Zadok. It is a blowup of one of the western-most seat sections. The fourth row of seats and its aisle are superimposed over the pale blue primary steps. These steps lead up to the stairwell that is colored yellow. Then you see the 2 blue secondary steps that are at a right angle to the primary steps. These lead to the inner walkway that is above the floor below.
If you return to the side view cut aways which are cross sections you can see these 2 steps in the ceilings of the walkways of the chambers (bedrooms) that are below them. The minimum height for that part of the stairwell that is under the aisle step is 4-cubits or 7-feet (see final 2 pictures of this section of our Schematics). The tread of the aisle step is .5-cubit. Otherwise, the height of the main part (colored yellow) of the stairwell is 4.75-cubits (8.3125-feet). Therefore, if any priest is of height 7-feet or more he will need to use the main part of the stairwell. Pictures 44, 45, and 46 in our 3-D Gallery show these relationships in 3 dimensions. Since there are 2 stairwells per cutout, we believe that one will be designated as going up and the other as going down so as to relieve any congestion on the stairs.
It would require several more pages of detailed writing to describe all the specifications on these 12 pictures and the explanations captioned in each picture. It is beyond our scope in these descriptions to do so. Please purchase this section of our Gallery Schematics if you wish to see all the explanations and specifications. However, we believe that we have provided you with an excellent descriptive overview of our design of the galleries as described in 42:3-6, 9. Picture 19 of our 3-D Gallery shows the East Door of the southern purple chambers which satisfies v.9. In addition to pictures 44, 45, and 46, pictures 13, 14, 30, and 35 of our 3-D Gallery also show the galleries of Ezekiel 42:3-6.