where called Ephrain and Ephron,[1038] which lay a little less than
twenty miles northerly from Jerusalem. Equally uncertain is the duration
of our Lord's abode there. When He emerged again into public notice, it
was to enter upon His solemn march toward Jerusalem and the cross.

NOTES TO CHAPTER 28.

1. Origin of the Feast of Dedication.--Concerning the second temple,
known as the Temple of Zerubbabel, the author has written elsewhere: "Of
the later history of this temple the biblical record gives but few
details; but from other sources we learn of its vicissitudes. In
connection with the Maccabean persecution the House of the Lord was
profaned. A Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, captured Jerusalem (168 to
165 B.C.) and perpetrated blasphemous outrage against the religion of
the people. He plundered the temple and carried away its golden
candlestick, its golden altar of incense, its table of shewbread, and
even tore down the sacred veils, which were of fine linen and scarlet.
His malignity was carried so far that he purposely desecrated the altar
of sacrifice by offering swine thereon, and erected a heathen altar
within the sacred enclosure. Not content with the violation of the
temple, this wicked monarch had altars erected in the towns, and ordered
the offering of unclean beasts upon them. The rite of circumcision was
forbidden on pain of death, and the worship of Jehovah was declared a
crime. As a result of this persecution many of the Jews apostatized, and
declared that they belonged to the Medes and Persians--the nations from
whose dominion they had been delivered by the power of God.... Then in
the year 163 B.C. the House was rededicated; and the occasion was
remembered in annual festival thereafter under the name of the Feast of
Dedication."--_The House of the Lord_, pp. 51-53. According to Josephus
(Ant. xii, 7:7) the festival came to be known as The Lights; and
brilliant illumination both of the temple and of dwellings, was a
feature of the celebration. Traditional accounts say that eight days had
been set as the duration of the feast, in commemoration of a legendary
miracle by which the consecrated oil in the only jar found intact, and
bearing the unbroken seal of the high priest, had been made to serve for
temple purposes through eight days, which time was required for the
ceremonial preparation of a new supply.

2. Solomon's Porch.--This name had been applied to the eastern colonnade
or row of porticoe