Note 25 — THE BRITISH QUARTERLY JANUARY 1871 (continued 3)

In thus provisionally identifying Zion with a hill north of the temple, it may be well to call attention to Josephus's description of the eastern hill. He says it was ἀμφίκυρτος, a word which is sometimes translated 'gibbous' sometimes 'sloping on both sides,' and sometimes 'the shape of a moon when horned.' Liddell and Scott say 'curved on each side, like the moon in its third quarter, gibbous;' but as κύρτος by itself, is simply 'curved or arched,' and each side of the moon is carved as much when it is crescent as when gibbous, we have rendered the term 'crescent-shaped,' being influenced by the fact that the Tyropœon valley and that from Herod's gate would really give a crescent shape to the two eastern hills which in his day were one.