Bible Dictionary

DOORKEEPER

Temple & Tabernacle • Both

Doorkeepers guarded the entrances of cities and the temple. Levitical doorkeepers opened and closed the temple gates, protected sacred areas and vessels, and received offerings; the New Testament also mentions household doorkeepers.

Definition

A doorkeeper guards an entrance, whether at a city, temple, royal household, private house, or sheepfold. Temple doorkeepers were a Levitical order responsible for opening and closing gates, preventing the unclean from entering, caring for sacred vessels, and receiving offerings.

Biblical Usage

The Old Testament mentions keepers of city gates and temple thresholds. Later Levitical doorkeepers served in rotation and held an honorable place among temple servants. Psalm 84 uses the image of standing at God’s threshold in humility. The New Testament mentions doorkeepers at a private house, the high priest’s house, and a sheepfold.

Historical Background

The same Hebrew term could describe a doorkeeper or gatekeeper, and English versions sometimes use porter. Levitical doorkeepers lived in chambers around the temple and came from their villages for weekly service. Their office ranked with that of the singers after the priests and Levites.

Historical Bible Dictionaries

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)

dor'-kep-er (sho`er): The gates of an oriental city and of the temple courts so closely resembled the door of a house that the same Hebrew word was used for doorkeeper and gatekeeper. It is often translated by the less definite word "porter". In the preexilic writings (2Sa 18:26; 2Ki 7:10,11) reference is made to porters at the gates of the cities Mahanaim and Samaria. In these early writings there is also mention of a small number of "keepers of the threshold" of the temple, whose duties included the gathering of money from the people for temple purposes, and the care of the sacred vessels (2Ki 12:9; 22:4; 23:4). They held an honorable position (2Ki 25:18), and occupied chambers in the temple (Jer 35:4). The same term is used to describe officers in the household of the king of Persia (Es 2:21; 6:2).Differing from these "keepers of the threshold" in some respects are the doorkeepers or porters mentioned in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. These formed a numerous sacred order (1Ch 9:22; 23:5) from the time of David. Their duties and the words describing them in two passages, "keepers of the thresholds" (1Ch 9:19) and "porters of the thresholds" (2Ch 23:4), connect them in some measure with the "keeper of the threshold" referred to above. They guarded the gates of the house of Yahweh (1Ch 9:23), closing and opening them at the proper times (1Ch 9:27) and preventing the unclean from entering the sacred enclosure (2Ch 23:19); they had charge of the sacred vessels and of the free-will offerings (2Ch 31:14), and dwelt in the chambers about the temple (1Ch 9:27). They were Levites, and came in from the Levitical villages every seventh day for service in their turn (1Ch 9:25). Their office was honorable, ranking with the singers, after the priests and Levites (Ezr 2:42; 1Ch 15:18).In Ps 84:10, "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God," the word is not used in its technical sense. the Revised Version, margin gives "stand (the King James Version margin "sit") at the threshold," to an eastern mind a situation of deep humility (compare title of the Ps and 1Ch 9:19).In the New Testament the order of temple doorkeepers is not referred to. But a doorkeeper (thuroros) is mentioned in connection with a private house (Mr 13:34), with the high priest's house (Joh 18:16,17), and with sheep-folds (Joh 10:3), a maid serving as doorkeeper in some cases (Ac 12:13).George Rice Hovey

Back to Dictionary Search