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Bible Dictionaries
Street
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or Street. The streets of a modern Oriental town present a great contrast to those with which we are familiar, being generally narrow, tortuous and gloomy, even in the best towns. Their character is mainly fixed by the climate and the style of architecture, the narrowness being due to the extreme heat, and the gloominess being due to the circumstance of the windows looking, for the most part, into the inner court.
The street called "Straight," in Damascus, Acts 9:11, was an exception to the rule of narrowness: it was a noble thoroughfare, one hundred feet wide; divided, in the Roman age, by colonnades into three avenues, the central one for foot passengers, the side passages for vehicles and horsemen going in different directions.
The shops and warehouses were probably collected together into bazaars, in ancient times, as in modern times. Jeremiah 37:21. That streets occasionally had names appears from Jeremiah 37:21; Acts 9:11. That they were generally unpaved may be inferred from the notices of the pavement laid by Herod the Great at Antioch, and by Herod Agrippa II at Jerusalem. Hence, pavement forms one of the peculiar features of the ideal Jerusalem. Tobit 13:17; Revelation 21:21. Each street and bazaar in a modern town is locked up at night; the same custom appears to have prevailed in ancient times. Song of Solomon 3:3.
These files are public domain.
Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Street'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/s/street.html. 1901.
