THE WOMEN'S COURT, JERUSALEM

'The Women's Court' by William Hole

A painting by William Hole showing Mary, mother of Jesus, in the Court of the Women.

Hole tried to use authentic detail in his biblical paintings - such as the fifteen semicircular steps leading from the Women's Court into the Court of the Israelites, thence through the Nicanor Gate to the Court of the Priests in which stood the Altar of Sacrifice - notice the flames through the upper doorway.

All Jews, male and female, were permitted to enter the Court of the Women, but it was primarily for women who came to the Temple to fulfil their religious duties - as Mary the mother of Jesus did:

'When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord'. (Luke 2:22)

Women could not go past this point into the Court of Israelites, which was open only to men. Segregation of men and women during worship is the immemorial custom in the Middle East.

In the Women's Court were the money-chests, each one labelled, that received the offerings of the people who came to worship. In the angles of the Women's Court were chambers in which wine and oil were stored, and in which lepers and Nazarites performed their rites.

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