The Temple Ministry and Services at the Time of Jesus

MOUNT OF OLIVES 29
was far otherwise from the east. A turn in the road,
and the city, hitherto entirely hid from view, would
burst upon them suddenly, closely, and to most
marked advantage. It was by this road Jesus made
His triumphal entry from Bethany on the week of
His Passion. 1 Up from the house of dates the
broad, rough road wound round the shoulder of
Olivet. Thither the wondering crowd from Bethany
followed Him, and there the praising multitude from
the city met Him. They had come up that same
Olivet, so familiar to them all. For did it not seem
almost to form part of the city itself, shutting
it off
like a screen from the desert land that descended
beyond to Jordan and the Dead Sea ?
From the Temple Mount to the western base of
Olivet, it was not more than 100 or 200 yards straight
across, though, of course, the distance to the summit
was much greater, say about half a mile.
By the nearest pathway it was only 918
yards from the city gate to the principal
summit. 3 Olivet was always fresh and green, even in
earliest spring or during parched summer the coolest,
the pleasantest, the most sheltered walk about
Jerusalem. For across this road the Temple and
its mountain flung their broad shadows, and luxuriant
foliage spread a leafy canopy overhead. They were
not gardens, in the ordinary Western sense, through
which one passed, far less orchards ;
but something
peculiar to those climes, where Nature everywhere
strews with lavish hand her flowers, and makes her
1
See the glowing description in Stanley s Sinai and Palestine.
9
*By the longer footpath it is 1,310 yards, and by the main camel
road perhaps a little farther. Josephus calculates the distance from
the city evidently to the top of Mount Olivet at l,oio yards, or 5
furlongs. See City qf the Great King, p. 59.