Door
The examples of the concrete use of , door, are all found in Acts, and may be treated under three heads: (1) house doors, (2) prison doors, (3) Temple doors. The first two occur in the narratives of miraculous events.
1. In Act 5:9 the feet of them that buried Ananias are said to be , nigh at hand, if not actually heard by those within. More vivid still is the instance of Act 12:13, where one required to knock at, or beat, the door, to make oneself heard within. (The presence of a knocker for the purpose is not to be inferred, for Jewish doors at least.) (cf. Eze 40:11 [Septuagint ]) is best understood as a door abutting on the street or lane, which gave the entry to a covered passage communicating with the court of the house, in which the living rooms were situated (see Gate). Rhoda stood in this passage, hearing, but seeing not (besides, it was night), the Apostle Peter, who was without, and being in command of the way so long as the door, not the gate, remained locked or barred. (Eze 40:16) implies door, which is rightly not expressed in Revised Version . For modern usage see Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs, 1898, p. 95.
2. With one exception (Act 12:6) the doors of prisons are found in the plural (Act 5:19; Act 5:23; Act 16:26-27). The indications afforded by the narrative of Acts are too meagre to enable us to reconstruct the form of these places of detention, either in Jerusalem or at Philippi. Security seems to have been given by guards, chains, and stocks rather than by any peculiar strength of door. Of necessity the bolt or bar was attached to the outside, of cell doors at least. For the situation at Philippi, see Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, 1895, p. 220f.
3. In Act 3:2 the Beautiful Gate of the Temple (cf Act 3:10) is described by the word for door, which Revised Version brings out. As in the private house, so here, the door forms part of the gate, the latter being in reality a portal. This particular gate of the Temple is now believed to be the Corinthian Gate, which is identical with the Nicanor Gate, on the east side of the Temple precincts. Its doors, and other parts, were of Corinthian brass (or bronze), probably solid, being shut with difficulty by twenty men (Josephus, Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) VI. v. 3; cf. Ant. xv. xi. 5, Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) II. xvii. 3, V. v. 3, c. Ap. ii. 10). They seem to have been double doors (Encyclopaedia Biblica , article Temple), standing at the entrance to the portal. Compare, for Babylonian Temples, PSBA [Note: SBA Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.] , 1912, p. 90ff. For the Beautiful Gate of the Temple see the full and illuminating account by A. R. S. Kennedy in Expository Times xx. [1908-09] 270f.; also article Temple.
We read (Act 21:30) that the people laid hold on St. Paul, and dragged him out of the Temple, and straightway the doors were shut. Farrar (Life and Work of St. Paul, 1897, p. 532) locates this turmoil at the Beautiful Gate, but, considering the number of doors that gave access to the Temple precincts, there are other possibilities.
In Rev 21:25 we can picture the gates as provided with doors, although these were not in use.
The metaphorical use of in Acts, Epistles, etc., may be briefly noted. In this sense the word appears without the definite article, Act 14:27 being no exception: a door of faith (Revised Version ). In St. Pauls Epistles mention is made of a great door and effectual (1Co 16:9), a door being opened (2Co 2:12), a door for the word (Col 4:3), all with the notion of opportunity and facility. The idea of the nearness of judgment is brought out by Jam 5:9 (cf. Mat 24:33): The judge standeth before the doors, where Revised Version replaces the singular of Authorized Version by the plural, following the Greek.
In Rev 3:7-8 a door is set or given, (note peculiar verbal form), i.e. a door already opened, which none can shut (see Key), and in Rev 4:1 a door is already opened in the heavens at the moment the vision commences. In contrast to this is the closed door of Rev 3:20, a passage in which is concentrated great wealth of meaning.
W. Cruickshank.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
door
In John, 10, Our Lord, explaining the parable of the sheepfold, calls Himself “the door” through which the true shepherds must pass. The meaning is that teachers of religion must have a mission from Him. This is the interpretation given by Saint John Chrysostom, Father Rickaby, Father Lagrange, and other commentators. Others, with Saint Augustine , think that Our Lord refers to the sheep rather than to the shepherds in these verses; He would affirm that to be saved one must come under His influence. Archbishop MacRory holds that He compares himself to a door with reference both to the sheep and to the shepherds; “I am the door of the sheep. All others are thieves and robbers. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved: and he shall go in, and go out, and shall find pastures” (John, 10:7-9).
In Christian art, the door is is an emblem of
Saint Anne
New Catholic Dictionary
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Door
(usually , da’leth, strictly the valve or part that swings on the hinges; while, pe’thach, designates the entrance or door-way; , sha’ar, is rather a gate; Gr. ). From a comparison of various passages of Scripture, we learn that anciently doors were suspended and moved by means of pivots of wood, which projected from the ends of the two folds, both above and below. The upper pivots, which were the longest, were inserted in sockets sufficiently large to receive them in the lintel; the lower ones were secured in a corresponding manner in the threshold. The pivots or axles are called , pothoth’; the sockets in which they are inserted, tsarim’, (Pro 26:14). Doors were fastened by a lock (Son 5:5), or by a bar (Jdg 16:3; Job 38:10). Those made of iron and brass were not used except as a security to the gates of fortified places or repositories of valuables (Isa 45:2-3). The lock was nothing more than a wooden slide attached to one of the folds, which entered into a hole in the door-post, and was secured there by teeth cut into it, or catches. Two strings passed through an orifice leading to the external side of the door. A man going out, by the aid of one of these strings moved the slide into its place in the post, where it was so fastened among the teeth, or catches, as not to be drawn back. The one coming in, who wished to unlock, had a wooden key, sufficiently large, and crooked, like a sickle. It was called miphtach’ (Jdg 3:25). He thrust the key through the orifice of the door, or key-hole, lifted up the slide so as to extricate it from the catches, and, taking hold of the other string, drew it back, and thus entered. Keys were not made of metal, except for the rich and powerful, and these were sometimes adorned with an ivory handle. A key of this kind, in the days of the Hebrew monarchs, was assigned to the steward of the royal palace as a mark of his office, and he carried it on his shoulder (Isa 22:22). The key-hole was sometimes so large as to admit a person’s finger through it, and enable him to lift the slide; in that case he stood in no absolute need of a key to enter (Son 5:4). SEE KEY.
Among the ancient Egyptians doors were frequently stained so as to-imitate foreign wood. They were either of one or two valves, turning on pins of metal, and were secured within by bars and bolts. Some of the bronze pins have been discovered in the tombs of Thebes and two of them, after Wilkinson, are figured below (2, 3). They were fastened to the wood with nails of the same metal. SEE HINGE.
The stone lintels and floor behind the threshold of the tombs and temples still exhibit the holes in which the pins turned, as well as those of the bolts and bars, and the recess for receiving the opening valves. The folding doors had bolts in the center, sometimes above as well as below; a bar was placed across from one wall to the other, and in many cases they were secured by wooden locks passing over the center (above cut, fig. 4) at the junction of the two folds. “It is difficult (remarks Sir J.G. Wilkinson) to say if these last were opened by a key, or merely slided backward and forward like a bolt; but if they were really locks, they were probably upon the principle of those now used in Egypt, which are of wood, and opened by a key furnished with several pins answering to a smaller number that fall down into the hollow movable tongue, into which the key is introduced when they open or fasten the lock.” SEE LOCK.
For greater security, they are also occasionally sealed with a mass of clay. This was also a custom of the ancient Egyptians, as appears from Herodotus (ii. 121), from tombs actually so closed at Thebes, and from the sculptures, as in the first cut above, fig. 3, where the door is thus closed and sealed. To this custom there is an allusion in Job. SEE CLAY. At a later period, when iron came into general use, keys were made of that metal, of the shape shown in the above cut, fig. 4. Of the kind thus indicated were probably the lock and key which fastened the summer-parlor of king Eglon (Jdg 3:23; Jdg 3:25). In this case Ehud locked the door and took away the key; but when the servants became alarmed they easily opened it with another key, which suggests that the lock, as in ancient Egypt or the modern East, was nothing more than a peculiarly constructed open bolt of wood, which the wooden or metal key was adapted to raise and thrust back. The forms of the Egyptian doors may be seen from the cuts. (See Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. abridgm. 1:7-23.) The chief entrance to houses was through a pyramidal pylon on a projecting porch of columns, whose capitals were often ornamented with ribbons. Over the doorway was sometimes a brief hieroglyphical legend (Wathen, page 101). This last circumstance reminds one of the writing on their doors recommended to the Israelites, as noticed below. A comparison of the ancient Egyptian doors with those now used in the. East will probably suggest no incorrect notion of the provision among the ancient Hebrews in this respect. A sort of intermediate idea arising from this comparison will be found to furnish very satisfactory illustrations of most of the passages of Scripture which relate to the subject. (See Lane’s Mod. Eg. 1:9, 18.) Doors are generally unpainted throughout Western Asia and in Egypt. In the interior of houses it is not unusual to see curtains instead of doors, especially in summer. This helps to keep the apartment cool, and also enables servants to enter without noise. This custom originated in the use of tents. Accordingly we find that all the entrances of the tabernacle had curtains, although the framework was of wood (Exo 26:31-33; Exo 26:36-37); and even in the Temple a curtain or “vail” formed the separation between the holy and the most holy place. SEE HOUSE. The word “door,” in reference to a tent, expresses the opening made by dispensing with the cloths in front of the tent, which is then supported only by the hinder and middle poles (Gen 18:2; Burchardt, Notes on Bed. 1:42).
Among the figurative allusions to doors, it may be mentioned that, in Hos 2:15, the valley of Achor is called “a door of hope,” because there, immediately after the execution of Achan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Fear not, neither be dismayed;” and from that time Joshua carried on his conquests with uninterrupted success. Paul, in 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3, uses the symbol of a door opened, to signify the free exercise and propagation of the Gospel. Our Lord applies the term to himself, “I am the door” (Joh 10:9). The “door opened in heaven” signifies the beginning of a new kind of government (Rev 4:1); and in general the opening of anything is said when it may act suitably to its quality; the shutting of anything is the stopping of its use. SEE GATE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Door
DOOR (, cf. , doorkeeper, porter).The word door is frequently found in the Gospels, sometimes in the literal, often in the figurative sense.
1. We need, first, to get clearly in mind the meaning of the term in Oriental usage. By door is usually meant the outside or entrance doorway, but often the door in distinction from the doorway, the frame of wood, stone, or metal that closes the doorway. The outside of the Oriental house has little ornament or architectural attractiveness of any kind. The door, however, and the projecting window above it, are exceptions to this rule. The doors, windows, and doorways are often highly ornamented (Isa 54:12, Rev 21:21), enriched with arabesques, and, if to-day it be the house of a Moslem, the door will have sentences from the Koran inscribed upon it (cf. Deu 6:9). The doors are usually of hard wood, studded with nails, or sometimes covered with sheet-iron. They are often very heavy. They invariably open inwards, and are furnished on the inside with strong bars and bolts. They have usually wooden locks, which are worked by wooden keys of such size that they could make formidable clubs (Isa 22:22, cf. Land and Book, i. 493). There is an opening in the door for the insertion of the hand and the introduction of the key from the outside, the lock being reached only from the inside. On entering the door there is usually a vestibule, where, in daytime, the doorkeeper is found, and where the master often receives the casual visitor (cf. Gen 19:13; Gen 23:10; Gen 34:30 and Job 29:7).
The doors leading into the rooms or chambers that open upon the court are not usually supplied with locks or bolts; a curtain, as a rule, being all that separates one of these chambers from the court, the idea being that all is private and secure within the outer gate (cf. Deu 24:10, Act 10:17; Act 12:13).
The doorway consists of three parts: the threshold or sill (sometimes used for door), the two side-posts, and the lintel (Exo 12:7 f.). The doors of ancient Egypt, and probably of contemporary nations, swung upon vertical pintles which projected from the top and bottom of the door into sockets in the lintel and threshold respectively. The commonest form of door had the pintle in the middle of the width, so that, as it opened, a way was afforded on each side of it for ingress or egress.
Occasionally we find that the chamber, or private room, had its own door and fastenings. In Mat 6:6, When thou hast shut thy door, the word used means not only closed, but fastened itgiving the idea of complete privacy. See art. Closet. In Mat 25:10, the door was shut, it is clearly the outside or entrance-door that is meant. When this one outer door was shut, all communication with the outside world was cut off. Then nothing but persistent knocking at this door, and loud entreaty, would succeed in securing even a hearing. In this case the appeal was made to the bridegroom himself, who, to this day, is considered in the East sovereign of the occasion.
2. When Jesus said, I am the door (Joh 10:9), He clearly meant to exclude every other form or means of mediation. But through Him there is an unhindered entering into and going out of the fold (cf. Num 27:17).
3. When it is said that Joseph, a rich man of Arimathaea, begged the body of Jesus, laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock, and rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb (Mat 27:60, Mar 16:3), we have a reference to a unique kind of door. The great roll-stone is often mentioned in the Talmud, but only in describing interments of the dead (Keim). It was clearly designed to protect the dead bodies and the other contents of the tomb from robbers, petty thieves, and birds and beasts of prey. One large tomb is now shown half a mile north of Jerusalem, which has a huge circular stone, like a great millstone on edge, cut from the solid rock, together with the channel in which it revolves. There are signs that it was originally furnished with a secret fastening, doubtless to protect the contentsspices, costly linen, jewellery, etc., against plunder. The Tomb of Mariamne, recently uncovered south of the city, and the so-called Tomb of Lazarus at Bethany, likewise have doors with similar roll-stones (cf. art. Tomb). See also artt. Court, House.
Geo. B. Eager.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Door
dor: Most commonly the rendering of Hebrew pethah, doorway, deleth, door proper (the two distinguished in Gen 19:6), or of Greek , thura, which represents both meanings. The door proper was usually of wood, frequently sheeted with metal, sometimes of one slab of stone, as shown in excavations in the Hauran. It turned on pivots (the hinges of Pro 26:14) working in sockets above and below, and was provided with a bolt (2Sa 13:17) or with lock and key (Jdg 3:23). The doorway was enclosed by the stone threshold (1Ki 14:17), the two doorposts on either side, and the lintel above (Exo 12:7). Doors were frequently two-leaved, and folding ones are mentioned in connection with the temple (1Ki 6:34). Where door is used in connectio with city gates (Neh 3:1) it refers to the door proper which swings on its hinges as distinguished from the whole structure. The custom of fastening to the doorposts small cases containing a parchment inscribed with the words of Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-21 had its origin in the command there given. See also GATE; HOUSE.
Figurative: (1) Christ is the door into the gospel ministry (Joh 10:1, Joh 10:2, Joh 10:7); ministers must receive their authority from Him, and exercise it in His spirit. (2) ‘Through faith in Him also both shepherds and sheep enter into the kingdom of God (Joh 10:9), and find all their spiritual needs supplied.’ (3) The figure in Rev 3:20 is expressive of Christ’s patient, persistent and affectionate appeal to men. (4) Elsewhere also of opportunity (Mat 25:10; Act 14:27; 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Rev 3:8). (5) Of freedom and power (Col 4:3). See also ACHOR; SHEPHERD.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Door
Besides the common use of the door as the means of entrance into a house, and of enclosing those within when shut, it is used in scripture symbolically for the way of entrance into blessing. The Lord said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Salvation is only by Him. He also said that as the true Shepherd He entered into the sheepfold by the door, that is, though Son of God, He entered as obedient by God’s appointed means, being circumcised, presented in the temple, and baptised. Joh 10:1-9. God opened ‘the door of faith’ to the Gentiles by Paul and Barnabas. Act 14:27. Opportunities for service are called opened doors. 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3; Rev 3:8.
When the church is represented as in a Laodicean state the Lord is outside knocking for admission at the door of the assembly, so that the individual may hear, with a promise of blessing to those who open to Him. Rev 3:20.
Doors in the East are usually made of wood; but in the deserted cities of Bashan doors are found cut out of stone, with a projection top and bottom which served as pivots on which the door turned.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Door
Posts of, sprinkled with the blood of the paschal lamb
Exo 12:22
The law to be written on
Deu 11:20
Hinges for
Pro 26:14
Made of gold
1Ki 7:50
Doors of the temple made of two leaves, cherubim and flowers carved upon, covered with gold
1Ki 6:31-35
Figurative:
– Door of hope
Hos 2:15
– Door of opportunity
1Co 16:9; Rev 3:8
– Closed door
Mat 25:10; Luk 13:25; Rev 3:7
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
DOOR
Door is that which closes the Light. The opening of any thing, is said, when it may act suitably to its quality.
The shutting of anything is the stopping of its use. Therefore St. Paul, in 1Co 16:9, 2Co 2:12, Col 4:3, uses the symbol of a door opened, to signify the free exercise and propagation of the Gospel. Thus in Pindar,f1 “to open the gates of songs,” is to begin to sing freely. And in Euripides,f2 ” the gates of hell opened,” signify death ready to seize upon a man, and to exert its power. And thus in the Ottoman empire at this day, when a call or new levy of Janissaries is made, it is said to be “the opening of a door for Janissaries;”f3 an expression very much like that in Act 14:27, “of God’s having opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.”
F1 Olym. Od. 6.
F2 Hippol. ver. 56.
F3 See Sir Paul Rycaut’s History of the Turks for the year 1668.
Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary
Door
“a door, gate” (Eng., “door” is connected), is used (a) literally, e.g., Mat 6:6; Mat 27:60; (b) metaphorically, of Christ, Joh 10:7, Joh 10:9; of faith, by acceptance of the Gospel, Act 14:27; of “openings” for preaching and teaching the Word of God, 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3; Rev 3:8; of “entrance” into the Kingdom of God, Mat 25:10; Luk 13:24-25; of Christ’s “entrance” into a repentant believer’s heart, Rev 3:20; of the nearness of Christ’s second advent, Mat 24:33; Mar 13:29; cp. Jam 5:9; of “access” to behold visions relative to the purposes of God, Rev 4:1.
Note: For the phrase “that kept the door,” thuroros, Joh 18:16-17 (“porter” in Mar 13:34; Joh 10:3), see PORTER.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Door
Gen 4:7 (b) Living animals which were available and acceptable for sin offerings were to be found everywhere and Cain needed only to step out of his own door to find a satisfactory sacrifice that would have met his needs.
Exo 12:23 (a) This door is a symbol of the soul of a man. By faith the individual is to take his place under the precious Blood of CHRIST, applying it to his own heart by faith and acknowledging to GOD that he is taking refuge under the shed Blood of JESUS CHRIST, the Lamb of GOD.
Exo 21:6 (b) This is typical of consecration. The believer now is to devote his ears to hearing only the Word of GOD and the truth of GOD. (See also Deu 15:17; Psa 40:6 (Margin).
Psa 78:23 (b) Here is a type of the wonderful way in which GOD poured out rich blessings on Israel from His heavenly storehouse.
Pro 26:14 (a) This indicates the fruitless, worthless life of the lazy man.
Eze 47:1 (b) The Lord JESUS is the door, and the river represents the Holy Spirit. CHRIST JESUS gives the Spirit as recorded in Joh 7:37-39.
Mic 7:5 (a) This indicates a comparison of one’s lips to a pair of doors which should be closed on certain occasions.
Mat 6:6 (b) The expression here refers to the shutting out of one’s thoughts all useless things when in prayer.
Mat 25:10 (b) This solemn warning is to inform us in plain language that the opportunity to be saved has been ended. The door of mercy has been closed. Those on the outside are lost forever. (See also Luk 13:25).
Luk 11:7 (b) The thought seems to be that the unseen GOD in Heaven hears the cry and the supplication of His child who desires to be useful in helping others.
Joh 10:1 (a) Entrance to Heaven can be obtained only by and through the Lord JESUS CHRIST. There is no other way to enter Heaven. No other person can have anything whatever to do with the saving of the soul. Only CHRIST can make us fit to go to Heaven, and then take us there. (See also vss. Joh 10:2, Joh 10:7, Joh 10:9).
Act 14:27 (a) This represents the opportunity and the privilege of hearing the Word of GOD and of being saved through the Gospel of the grace of GOD.
1Co 16:9 (a) By this figure Paul expresses the opportunity and privilege of preaching the Gospel in other places. (See also 2Co 2:12; Rev 3:8).
Col 4:3 (b) This is a description of liberty of thought and freedom of speech, a quick mind, a retentive memory, and ability to speak well for the Lord GOD makes the opportunity for ministry.
Jam 5:9 (b) Here is indicated he immediate presence of GOD, the Judge, when we are dealing with one another.
Rev 3:20 (a) The word here describes the entrance to the heart as though the heart were a house and the owner of it must make it possible for the Lord to enter and abide there. Also refers to GOD’s desire to enter into the church to rule and reign there.