Solomon's Porch

Solomon's Porch was a covered colonnade on the eastern side of the Jerusalem temple enclosure, supported by double rows of white marble columns forty feet high. Though the name connects it to the first temple, Josephus states it was a remnant of the original Solomonic structure that Herod incorporated into his rebuilt temple platform. It served as a public gathering place and teaching space where the portico opened onto the Court of the Gentiles.

All three Synoptic references to Solomon's Porch are in the Gospel of John and Acts: Jesus walked and taught there during the Feast of Dedication (John 10:23); after the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, Peter and John were seized there and addressed the crowd (Acts 3:11); and the early Jerusalem church regularly gathered in Solomon's Porch (Acts 5:12). Its association with both Jesus's teaching and the earliest apostolic proclamation made it a symbolic center of the transition from temple to church.