Note (return) — Replies.

The ascent by fifteen steps of the rabbins is probably equally apocryphal with the quotations from St. Matthew and St. James (ix. p. 376.); for the same reason (Ex. xx. 26.) which forbad the ascending the altar by steps, would apply still more strongly to the supposed "fifteen steps leading from the Atrium Israelis to the court of the women."[4] Although the ground-plans of the temples are well known, their elevations are involved in doubt.