PASTOPHORIA. This Word is originally Greek. ‘Tis derived from Pastos or Pastus, which signifies one of those great Veils of several Colours, which was at the Gates of Temples, especially in Egypt. The Priests that had the Care of lifting up or drawing this Veil, were called Pastophori, and the Apartments near the Temple where they lodged were called Pastophoria1. The most ancient Greek Interpreters of Scripture, writing in Egypt, have often made use of the Word Pastophoria, to signify the Apartments that were along the Courts of the Temple. Instead of which St. Jerome uses the Word Thalanis taken from Symmachus, or Gazophylacia taken from Aquila. In the Temple of Jerusalem there were two Courts, surrounded with Galleries, and all round about were several Lodging-Rooms for the Priests, and to lay up Wood, Wine, Oyl, Salt, Meal, Spices, Vestments, valuable Vessels, and Provisions necessary for the Sacrifices, Lamps, Incense, as also for the Support and Maintenance of the Priests. The Word Pastophoria is not found in the Latin Text of the Scripture, only in the first Book of Maccabees iv. 38. 57. But it is often met with in the Septuagint, and answers to the Hebrew2 Lishca, Sochen, Miselah, and Salechet. It is mentioned also in the first Book of Esdras, vii. 59. ix. 1.
Clemens Alexandrinus3 describing the Temples of the Egyptians, says, that after having pass’d through magnificent Courts, you are conducted to a Temple, which is at the farther end of these Courts, and then a Pastophorus gravely lifts up the Veil which is at the Door, to shew you the Deity within, which is nothing but a Dog or a Cat, or some other Animal. These Pastophori carried also the Shrine or the Niche of these ridiculous Divinities, Amos v. 26. Acts vii. 43.when they were carried in Procession. Apuleius4 speaks of the Pastophori that carried the Syrian Goddess. Such also were those idolatrous Israelites, who in the Desart carried the Niche of the God Moloch. The Word Pastophorium has pass’d from the Pagans to the Christians. They have given the Name of the Pastophorion to the Apartments that were joining to the great Churches5. Let the Church be oblong, turned towards the East, having Apartments (pastophorias) on the two Sides, and let it be something of the Form of a Ship.
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