WATER and FIRE: The Quest of the Cushite Warrior

ADJUA ENTERS THE JEWISH TEMPLE

Now we move into chapter three. Adjua finally reaches the Holy Temple to offer sacrifice for his former sins.

Sitting atop a high hill, the square Holy Temple was buffered from the rest of the city by a mile on all sides. The Temple shone brightly in the morning sunshine, like snow on a mountaintop. It had three terraces. On the lowest terrace, Corinthian bronze columns lined the portico that went round about the granite structure. The bronze columns looked like golden cylinders about the square Temple, and the stairs leading to the front entrance were made of marble that sparkled.[1]

As white-robed priests opened the main gate in the lowest terrace for public entrance, Adjua reached the Temple Mount near the base of the marble stairs. At the Temple Mount, disparate people began mikvah, the ritual washing of feet in a stone basin large enough for ten average-sized men to stand in. After mikvah, the symbolically cleansed group re-donned their sandals and ascended the stairs to the portico.

 With the twelfth group to perform mikvah, Adjua climbed the steps to the portico. He crossed to the main gate called the Beautiful. Through this elegantly arrayed gate, he entered a spacious courtyard—the Courtyard of the Gentiles—where non-Jewish men could make sacrifice at stone altars.

Since today was Shabuoth, the day commemorating the annual date of when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Holy Temple quickly filled to capacity with pilgrims from near and far. Foreign kings with large retinues marveled at the magnificent architecture. Gentiles came to sacrifice animals. Citizens from Jerusalem and surrounding villages came to honor God. The lame, blind, and mentally incapable begged for alms on the portico while, inside, disguised thieves went around the crowd lifting coin pouches from unwary strangers.

Adjua’s sixth sense about thieves and dishonest merchants allowed him to easily spot the pouch-lifters in the crowd and made him wary of the dishonest dealers. Filled with awe at the size of the courtyard and the numerous people from nearly every land, he paused to inhale the incense drifting from black urns that stood along the walls. He spied the stone platforms that supported sacrificial altars scattered throughout the Gentiles’ courtyard. In one corner near the entrance gates, merchants sat in bright-colored tents selling prayer mats and other items. Next to the merchants, nine grave-faced scribes sold scriptures at wooden tables. The scribes copied passages from Hebraic script to papyrus scrolls for customers. Adjua moved his gaze from the scribes to the center of the courtyard where a granite building rose toward the cloudless sky. The building was the Courtyard of the Israelites. But sightseeing was not his intent here, so he went straight to an area in the opposite corner near the entrances where money changers did business.

The money changers sat at little wooden tables with stacks of silver coins. The money changers’ business hinged on a law that foreign coins were not accepted as offerings in the Temple since the Jewish religion forbade any graven image. Roman coins, for instance, were adorned with the heads of the Caesars and were thus forbidden. The money changers enjoyed a thriving commerce changing foreign coins into acceptable Tyrian shekels. To get more than a fair profit, the money changers shamelessly cheated both the poor and wealthy customers.

Adjua shouldered through the noisy customers until he reached a money changer’s table. He tossed a few Egyptian coins onto a balance weight. With threatening eyes, he dared the money changer to practice deceit.

Thus, with a proper sum of Tyrian shekels in exchange for the Egyptian coins, Adjua proceeded through the courtyard. He continued past the Courtyard of the Israelites until he reached a wooden corral packed with calves, sheep, pigeons, doves, and other animals for sale to pilgrims who had brought not their own sacrifices. It seemed to Adjua as though the animals knew their impending lot. They fearfully gave protest in the midst of chattering men with shekels to buy them for eventual sacrifice. He stopped at the corral.