Description
The gateway was the area associated with the entrance into the courtyard of a house or other building.
Translation
EZK 40:0 –EZK 41:0: These chapters contain a detailed and complicated description of a large entrance complex leading into the Temple of Ezekiel’s vision. This complex was made up of nine or ten different rooms or areas, some of them described with more than one term. The narrative description of the entrance complex and of the entire Temple is very difficult to understand without reference to diagrams of some sort. Translators should consider using diagrams of Ezekiel’s Temple similar to those provided in this Handbook (see Jewish Temple).
The meaning of the Hebrew word ’ayil in EZK 40:0 –EZK 41:0 is disputed. Some translations understand it to be a pillar that stands flush with the wall or with the sides of an entranceway; for example, RSV renders it “jambs” (see Doorpost). In this case it would form only part of the entrance but could be understood to stand for the whole entrance.
RSV has rendered the Greek word pulōn as “porch” in MAT 26:71. For speakers of American English, this is misleading. GNT “entrance of the courtyard” is better. Other possibilities are “entryway” and “passageway.”
ACT 12:13: Here Peter knocks on “the door of the pulōn ” and waits outside until it is opened. This was either the door leading from the street into the inner court or else a smaller door built into the main door of the gate, which could be used for entrance without opening the larger main one. NASB “the door of the gate” is accurate but less than clear. Most translations render it “the outer door” or “the outside door.” Some languages may have a single word for this special door; for example, GECL uses a single German word meaning “courtyard-gate”). SPCL “street entrance” may also serve as a model.