can you tell me what the legal age requirement for a jewish boy to be permitted into the temple in biblical times thanks peter angel
First, the “Temple” in first century Jerusalem must be properly defined. Herod’s Temple, to distinguish it from two earlier Jewish temples at the same location, sat upon Mt. Moriah. Herod the Great expanded the surface area of the hill with substantial retaining walls, which either were backfilled or overlaid with massive rock slabs and covered with earth. The result was a somewhat irregular approximate 1,000 foot per side pedestal or Temple Mount. A covered porch ringed the circumference of the Temple Mount, through which rooms one passed into a large courtyard, the Court of the Gentiles. As the name suggests, anyone, even Gentiles could enter this part of the Temple compound. An inner wall separated between the Court of the Gentiles and the Court of the (Jewish) Women; no Gentiles were permitted beyond this inner wall, but any Jew was permitted into the Court of the Women. The Court of the Women contained at least four rooms, including where religious teachers often assembled to give instruction to fellow Jews and where Jesus as a 12-year-old Jewish boy conversed with such persons (Luke 2:46).
Still another division beyond the Court of the Women led to the Court of the (Jewish) Men; any Jewish male was permitted into this area of the Temple compound. Beyond the Court of the Men was the Court of the Priests into which only Jewish priests could go, and where they performed sacrifices. Beyond the Court of the Priests was the Holy Place into which priests entered for attendance to the Table of Shewbread, the Altar of Incense and the Menorah lamp. Beyond the Holy Place was the Holy of Holies or Most Holy Place beyond the veil into which the High Priest alone goes once annually on the Day of Atonement.
Consequently, reference to the Temple in the first century depends upon what specifically one has in mind, respecting the various buildings, rooms and enclosures on the Temple Mount. Everyone irrespective of ethnicity, gender or age could go to the Court of the Gentiles. All Jewish (non-Gentile) persons irrespective of gender or age could go to the Court of the Women. All Jewish men could go to the Court of the Men. All priests could go to the Court of the Priests and the Holy Place. Only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, once a year on the Day of Atonement.
Jesus’ first visit to the Temple was in the arms of his mother when he was a little over one month old (Leviticus 12:2-8; Luke 2:21-24). The next recorded instance of Jesus visiting the Temple was when he was 12-years-old (Luke 2:42). The Jewish Temple was an assortment of public buildings, courtyards and rooms into which persons could go at will except for the specifications already mentioned.
However, if the question actually inquires regarding when a Jewish boy assumed religious responsibility or admission to Jewish rites and duties, reference to the Temple is beside the point. The local synagogue rather than the Temple in Jerusalem was the place of assembly for regular worship since the Jewish return from Babylonian captivity. “By New Testament times a boy of thirteen became a ‘son of the law.’ …Only after age thirteen did the child qualify to become one of the ten men who could constitute a synagogue” (Gowers and Wight).
Works Cited
Gowers, R. and F.M. Wight. The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times. CD-ROM. Chicago: Moody P., 1987.
