PINNACLE . This word has been adopted by our EV [Note: English Version.] from the Vulgate of Matthew 4:5 ( pinnaculum ) to indicate the spot within the Temple enclosure from which the devil tempted our Lord to cast Himself down. The precise nature and location of ‘ the pinnacle of the temple’ (Mt. l.c. , Luke 4:9 [both RV [Note: Revised Version.] ]), however, are nowhere indicated. The context and the use of the word usually employed for the whole complex of buildings as opposed to that which denotes the Temple proper (see plan in art. Temple, § 12 ) rather favour the view that the ‘pinnacle’ is to be sought in the neighbourhood of the S.E. corner, where the royal ‘porch’ met that of Solomon. Here, as Josephus informs us and the excavations corroborate his testimony a spectator looking down into the valley of the Kidron ‘would turn giddy, while his sight could not reach down so such an abyss’ ( Ant. XV. xi. 5). Many authorities, on the contrary, favour some part of the roof of the Temple building itself.
A. R. S. Kennedy.