The duties of priests and Levites in the Temple may be gathered from
Scripture, and will be further explained in the course of our
inquiries. Generally, it may here be stated that on the Levites
devolved the Temple-police, the guard of the gates, and the duty of
keeping everything about the sanctuary clean and bright. But as at
night the priests kept watch about the innermost places of the Temple,
so they also opened and closed all the inner gates, while the Levites
discharged this duty in reference to the outer gates, which led upon
the Temple Mount (or Court of the Gentiles), and to the 'Beautiful
Gate,' which formed the principal entrance into the Court of the
Women. The laws of Levitical cleanness, as explained by the Rabbis,
were most rigidly enforced upon worshippers and priests. If a leper,
or any other who was 'defiled,' had ventured into the sanctuary
itself, or any priest officiated in a state of 'uncleanness,' he
would, if discovered, be dragged out and killed, without form of
process, by 'the rebels' beating.' Minor punishments were awarded to
those guilty of smaller offences of the same kind. The Sabbath-rest
was strictly enforced, so far as consistent with the necessary duties
of the Temple service. But the latter superseded the Sabbath law (Matt
12:5) and defilement on account of death. If the time for offering a
sacrifice was not fixed, so that it might be brought on one day as
well as another, then the service did not supersede either the Sabbath
or defilement on account of death. But where the time was unalterably
fixed, there the higher duty of obedience to a direct command came in
to supersede alike the Sabbath and this one (but only this one) ground
of defilement. The same principle applied to worshippers as well as
priests.
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