Dictionaries :: Pinnacle

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Pinnacle:

a little wing, (Mat 4:5; Luk 4:9). On the southern side of the temple court was a range of porches or cloisters forming three arcades. At the south-eastern corner the roof of this cloister was some 300 feet above the Kidron valley. The pinnacle, some parapet or wing-like projection, was above this roof, and hence at a great height, probably 350 feet or more above the valley.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Pinnacle:

pin'-a-k'-l (pterugion (Mt 4:5; Lu 4:9, the Revised Version margin "wing")) "The pinnacle of the temple" is named as the place to which the devil took Jesus, and there tempted Him to cast Himself down. It is not known what precise elevated spot is meant, whether a part of the roof of the temple itself, or some high point in the adjacent buildings overlooking the deep ravine. It was more probably the latter.

King James Dictionary

Pinnacle: Anything That Runs Out to a Point.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a PINNACLE of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Matthew 4:5)

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Pinnacle:

denotes

(a) "a little wing" (diminutive of pterux, "a wing");

(b) "anything like a wing, a turret, battlement," of the temple in Jerusalem, Mat 4:5; Luk 4:9 (of the hieron, "the entire precincts," or parts of the main building, as distinct from the naos, "the sanctuary"). This "wing" has been regarded

(1) as the apex of the sanctuary,

(2) the top of Solomon's porch,

(3) the top of the Royal Portico, which Josephus describes as of tremendous height (Antiq. xv. 11.5). It is used in the Sept. of the fins of fishes, e.g., Lev 11:9-12; of the part of a dress, hanging down in the form of a wing, Rth 3:9; 1Sa 24:5.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Pinnacle:

(of the temple) (Matthew 4:5; Luke 4:9). The Greek word ought to be rendered not 'a pinnacle', but 'the pinnacle'. The only part of the temple which answered to the modern sense of pinnacle was the golden spikes erected on the roof to prevent birds from settling there. Perhaps the word means the battlement ordered by law to be added to every roof. (According to Alford it was the roof of Herod's royal portico of the temple, "which overhung the ravine of Kedron from a dizzy height"-600 or 700 feet.‐ED.)