^VW\vv ■■Mi -xi r^m^.f a ■ 'C y|L\ \\\H\ * *j ‘"‘. ills * ^ * >5pi? WFJFT f7m P?‘ii' 1 S 9m l$x AIM ot ft* Wwotyrifltf PRINCETON, N. J. % ~ Diviiion \ , o 1 (2 . Section F ^ 7 Shelf. Number _ _ _ _ _ ■m ■ . r 4 Pa ■ ^ b, * %*■... m :, • . ■ 1 y BEAUTIFUL LAND PALESTINE, Historical, Geographical and Pictorial DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED AS IT WAS AND AS IT NOW IS, ALONG THE LINES OF OUR SAVIOUR’S JOURNEYS. / BY JOHN FULTON, D. D., LL.D. INTRODUCTION BY THE Rt. Rev. HENRY C. POTTER, D. D., LL.D., Bishop of New York. ILLUSTRATED BY FIFTEEN MAPS AND CHARTS, OVER THREE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS, AND A GRAND PANORAMA OF JERUSALEM. NKW YORK: T. WHITTAKER, 2 & 3 Bible House. COPYRIGHTED BY JOHN FULTON. 1891. (Pc HERE are few Christians who do not sometimes wish to visit Palestine, and to many it is the dream of years. Every year thousands of pilgrims flock to the Holy Places ; but to very few is the pilgrimage as profitable as it might be. They hurry to Jerusalem, follow their guide with “Baedeker” or “Murray” in their hands, spend a few days of confused running about from one spot to another, and make excursions in different direc¬ tions. They try to see everything, and yet really see nothing as it should he seen, that is, with the eye of the mind, as well as with that of the body. The end is, that they leave the Holy Land in a few weeks with little more than the recollection of some striking scenery and the after glow of a few delightful emotions. A visit to the Holy Land ought to be of more perma¬ nent value than that. To many millions of Christian people who can never visit Palestine, the scenes of sacred history are as vague and misty and unreal as the scenes of some fairy tale. VI INTRODUCTION. Even preachers of the Gospel seldom have any clear visions of the scenes of Christ’s wonderful life and works. Few of them could give a plain and satisfactory account of the topography of Jerusalem to an intelligent Bible Class, and not one in ten thousand, if he were set down at the Joppa Gate, would be able to find his way without assist¬ ance to any of the famous spots of the Holy City. Very few indeed could give a simple account of our Lord’s journeyings and the sacred scenes through which He passed. The consequence is that the most vivid of all stories, the story of Jesus, is told in a lifeless and unreal way. The pulpit is full of sentiment and learned exposi¬ tions of doctrine ; but these are not the Gospel. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” according to St. Mark, is the simple story of the Life and Teaching of Jesus. To tell that story is the true work of the Christian preacher ; to make it live again before the eyes and sound with freshness in the ears of men in after ages is his best achievement. Unless he sees it vividly, he cannot tell it vividly; if it is dim to him, it must be dimmer still to his hearers. So, the story of the Gospel loses interest. The Bible is honored in an abstract sort of way, but it is not read; and because “there is no vision ,” the people are prepared to fall an easy prey to the attacks of those who deny the truth of the Gospel story. Now, it would be possible for travelers to the Holy Land to make much more out of their journey than they generally do. A journey to Palestine ought to include a delightful course of preparation and a careful retrospection after the actual pilgrimage. When planning the route, as every traveler does nowadays, he should ask himself such questions as these: “When I come to Joppa, what am I to see there? What am I to remember ? What notable historical events took place there ? What celebrated per¬ sons appear in its history ? What scriptural characters are mentioned in connection with it ? What is the nature of the country in its neighborhood ? How is it situated with respect to other points of interest ? When I start from Joppa to the next stopping place (say Jerusalem) how many roads are there to choose from? What points of interest lie along each of them ? Which shall I take, and why ?” It is easy to see that a traveler who had made such studies as this would enjoy a double pleasure when he came to Joppa and would bring away with him many times as much food for happy recollection as the inconsiderate traveler who makes a six- weeks’ rush through the Holy Land. The few wreeks which are usually given to a “trip to Palestine” are not enough to satisfy one who desires to know the country as it is connected with the Saviour’s life ; for it may seem strange, but it is true, that there is not a single part of Palestine that is not connected with the life of Jesus. Most travelers visit only a small part of the “Beautiful Land” of that Beautiful and Divine Life, and their recollections are seldom satisfactory, because they are so incomplete. An ideal way to visit the Holy Land from end to end would be to follow the lines of our Saviour’s journeys so as to connect every part of it with Him; to stop at every place which He certainly did visit ; to recall what He did and said there ; and to study the country round about it, so as to be able to imagine something of what He must have remembered and of what He must have foreseen when He was there. INTRODUCTION. Vll In a very pleasant way Palestine may be visited without leaving home. Some years ago a minister of the Gospel asked himself, “ What do I really know about Jeru¬ salem ? I am constantly talking of the great events which occurred there, but if I were set down in one of its streets, what should I really know about the place?” It was mortifying to him to think how little his book knowledge would be really worth in such a case ; and yet his book knowledge ought to be worth something practical, since he was constantly using it in what ought to be the most practical sort of way. The end was that he set about studying the subject with all the books he could lay his hands on, but he found hardly any that was just what he required. The great work of Robinson was too extensive for his elementary purpose. The invaluable work of Dr. Thomson (which would be twice as valuable if it were cut down to half the size and systematically re¬ arranged) he found too erratic and discursive. Barclay’s “City of the Great King” was too restricted in its scope. “Picturesque Palestine,” magnificent as it is, and absolutely faultless in its wealth of illustration, was useless as a handbook or directory. One of the most helpful things he found was Dr. Hurlbut’s “Biblical Geography, ’’but that, again, was too meager. The most practically useful was “Baedeker” and “Baedeker” is not delightful reading ! Precisely what he wanted for his purpose he could find nowhere in any one book. Nevertheless, using each and all to the best advantage, he had the happiness to find after a while that he need no longer be afraid to be set down at the gate of Jerusalem without a guide to tell him where to go, since the whole city, and every famous place within it and around it, are now as plain to his mind’s eye as New York, or Philadelphia, or Chicago, or St. Louis, or New Orleans; indeed, he would not now hesitate to undertake a journey along the lines of our Saviour’s journeys without a guide. He believes that any person of ordinary intelligence can, with much less labor, do as much. He thinks that every preacher of the Gospel ought to be able to do as much, and that every Bible class teacher ought to be able to do nearly as much. He is satisfied from his own experience that every Christian man who does any part of it will find some part of the Gospel story lit up before his mind’s eye with a new and wondrous light. It is to assist the pastor, the faithful teacher, and the plain but earnest Christian to appreciate the Gospel story in its sublime reality of place and circumstance that this book has been written. In the first chapter the traveler lands at Joppa and is initiated in the sights and sounds of oriental cities, the devious ways of their narrow streets, their bazaars, their dogs, donkeys and camels. The long history of Joppa is sketched from the most an¬ cient times down to the present. Its scriptural associations are recalled. The tradi¬ tional “House of Simon the Tanner” is visited. Thus the method of a profitable jour¬ ney to the Holy Land is practically traced from the beginning ; and for those who can¬ not visit it in person the cunning hand of the engraver is employed in numerous illustra¬ tions. From Joppa to Jerusalem there are two roads, and both are traced ; but first a rapid sketch of the physical features of the whole country is given with Major Bonder’s admirable map to aid the eye. • The road by the Pass of Betli-horon is, of course, the vm INTRODUCTION. most interesting, and the three stirring battles of that famous pass are described. Here, as elsewhere, the writer has made free use of the best work of competent authors, introducing Dean Stanley’s magnificent account of the first battle of Beth-horon. In the third chapter, the traveler passes by Jerusalem to begin his real journey at the birth-place of Jesus in Bethlehem. Near by is the Tomb of Rachel, with its tender memories reaching back to patriarchal times. “ The well of Bethlehem ” for whose cooling waters David longed when his native town was in the hands of his enemies, still exists, and not far off are the fields of Boaz in which Ruth, the Rose of Moab, gleaned. In “the Shepherd’s Plain” the songs of angels once broke on the stillness of the “won¬ derful night ” on which, within that town, the Prince of Peace was born. The whole place teems with history and strange tradition, much of which is told before the route of the Flight into Egypt is followed by the way of Hebron and Beersheba. The Flight occupies the fourth chapter ; the fifth is given to the first part of the Return from Egypt by “another way,” that is, by the Plains of Pliilistia and Sharon to Mount Carmel. This chapter overflows with local recollections of the Philistines, of Samson, of David, of Elijah, and closes with Dean Stanley’s grand description of the slaying of the prophets of Baal and the rising of the tempest in the cloud “like unto a man’s hand.” The sixth chapter crosses the plain of many battles — Esdraelon ; and the names of Barak and Deborah — of Hazor, Sisera, and Jael — of Gideon, and Zeba and Zal- munna — of Saul and Jonathan — of the Witch of En-Dor — of King Josiah and Pliaraoh-Neeho — and in later times, of Napoleon Bonaparte, rise in succession in the history of that bloody plain. Beyond lies the early home of Jesus — Nazareth — hidden from the turmoil of the world by its surrounding hills, yet enjoying from their crests a grand view of the land in all directions. The seventh chapter follows the line of the Journey to Jerusalem which was made by the Holy Family down the sunken Ghor of the Jordan, and affords an opportunity to describe the natural formation of that wonderful chasm and of its termination in the Dead Sea. As the route lies along the eastern side of the Jordan, through Petrsea, the district of Decapolis, the land of Gilead, it recalls many a thrilling story, such as that of Jephtha and his ill-fated daughter. The place of crossing, which is usually assumed to have been Bethabara, lies just below the spot where Moses took his last look at the Promised Land which he was not to enter. In the eighth chapter the further route of this journey is followed from Gilgal to Jericho, “the City of Palm Trees,” with its varied and picturesque history, its Fountain of Elisha, its neighboring Mount Quarantania (the traditional “Mount of the Tempta¬ tion”), and thence by Khan Hadrur (the Inn of the Good Samaritan), past Ain Hod (the ancient En-Shemesh), through Bethany, over the Mount of Olives and along the valley of Jehoshaphat to the east gate of the Holy City. The ninth chapter is given to the history of Jerusalem, and the tenth to its topog¬ raphy, a most interesting subject, and including not only much that is picturesque but the evidence of marvelous engineering, as well in the immense water supply which could never fail in the longest siege, as in the military works which so long baffled the power of Rome. INTRODUCTION. IX The second opening of the Gospel Story is at the coming of John the Baptist preach¬ ing in the Wilderness of Judea, to which, accordingly, the eleventh chapter is given. The description of the dreary wilderness and of the Essene ascetics of that time is fol¬ lowed by an account of its famous places, such as Solomon’s Pools, the green defile of Urtas, the royal stronghold of Herodium, the villages of Elam and Tekoah, the Cave of Adullam, the lovely site of En-gedi, and the fortress of Masada, where the last remnant of the Jewish patriots chose rather to perish than submit to an inevitable fate. After His baptism by John and His subsequent temptation in this dreary wilderness, Jesus returned into Galilee, and the twelfth chapter tells of Cana and the marriage there and of the visit to Capernaum. It describes the province of Galilee and the rich plain of Gennesareth, and takes the reader round the lake to visit every spot along its shores. This is one of the most interesting parts of the whole work, full of historical reminiscence, abundant in illustration of incidents in the life of Christ, and casting some light on several critical difficulties. On His return to Galilee after His First Passover our Saviour did not take the Jordan route, but went through Northern Judea, Samaria and the Plain of Esdraelon. To the first part of this journey the thirteenth chapter is devoted. It recalls Anathoth, and the priestly city of Nob with its terrible tragedy ; Gibeah of Saul with the slaughter of Agag by Samuel, the parting of Saul and the offended prophet, and the woeful story of Rizpali; Rainah; Michmashand Ai with its battle and destruction; the faithful march of Sennacherib along the same route ; Beeroth ; Bethel with its long and sacred history ; Timnath, the home and last resting-place of Joshua; and Shiloh, the ancient and renowned. The fourteenth chapter enters Samaria and gives the history of the people called Samaritans. It describes the Shechem of the patriarchs, and the marvelous fertility of the plain in which is Jacob’s Well ; the towering heights of Ebal and Gerizim and the solemn service in which the host of Israel assembled under Joshua on the mountain sides and in the plain between, to recount the blessings and curses of the law. The history of Shechem (the modern city of Nablous)is given, and with it, that of the now small and perishing sect of the Samaritans ; and with a rapid view of the city of Samaria, its history and traditions, the chapter closes. The next journey of our Saviour which is traced is that which He made when “He departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.” Here the story of Phoenicia and its great cities comes in : Akka, the modern Acre, Tyre and Sidon, each extending from the furthest bounds of history through the Israelitish period, the Roman period, the period of the Crusades, and then sinking into ruin, from which they are at last slowly emerging. It was toward the close of His ministry, in fact just before its close, that our Savior made the journey into “the coasts of Caesarea Philippi” which is followed in the sixteenth chapter. Here the line of famous towns is traced which extended from Caper¬ naum to Laish or Dan along the reedy Lake Huleh, the “Waters of Merom.” Among these towns are Edrei, Hazor and Harosheth in the neighborhood of the last great battle in Joshua’s conquest. North of these are Kedesli, Beth-rehob, Abel and Ijon, all with romantic histories, but none like that of Laish, where the peaceable Phoenicians were X INTRODUCTION. slaughtered by the Danites and the golden calf was set up by the kings of Israel. All along this route the lofty peak of Mount Hermon dominates the scene. At its foot is Caesarea, not far from which, and probably somewhere among the rocks of Hermon, our Lord’s Transfiguration took place, and it was'there that He addressed to Peter the words, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock will I build my Church.” In tracing these journeys of our Lord every part of the Holy Land is visited; Judea in the first five chapters and again in the eighth, eleventh and thirteenth ; Samaria in the fifth and fourteenth; Galilee in the sixth, twelfth and fifteenth ; the region beyond Jordan in the seventh and sixteenth ; Phoenicia in the sixteenth ; ancient Jerusalem in the ninth and tenth. Modern Jerusalem is described with maps and abundant illustrations in the last two chapters, the seventeenth being devoted to Jerusalem without the walls, and the eighteenth to Jerusalem within the walls. It is believed that any student who will give a few hours’ study to these two chapters would find it easy to make his way to any spot in Jerusalem and its vicinity. The illustrations have been gathered from all available sources, and the more freely as this book cannot come into competition with any other book on Palestine. It has its special purpose, and it is intended to supplant no other. If this book shall be studied, the author believes that every book he has used will be all the more likely to be read and appreciated. Among the chief of them are “Baedeker,” of course, “Picturesque Palestine,” Robinson’s “Biblical Researches,” Thomson’s “The Land and the Book,” Stanley’s “Palestine,” Geikie’s “Holy Land,” and all the works of Roberts, Bartlett, Conder, Tristram, and the Palestine Exploration Fund. To mention other works in detail would be only to swell a list of names which would be useless to the reader. For a few illustrations not obtainable elsewhere, acknowledgments are specially due to an English work entitled “Those Holy Fields.” The author’s aim has been to condense and apply to his immediate purpose whatever he could find that was available in the works of nearly a hundred different authors and scattered through twice as many volumes, not many of which are at the command of the ordinary student. If he has succeeded in presenting one of the most attractive of subjects clearly and simply, he has done all that he has had in view. He makes no claim to originality except in the plan of his work (which he believes to be entirely new) and in the arrangement, on that plan, of some part of the superabundant material. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. JOPPA. The Mountains of Judea. A dangerous coast. Its people and commerce. Out¬ lying villages. The History of Joppa. Its interesting features. Places of Resort. Festivities, Hospitalities. Modern Joppa . 25 CHAPTER II. FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. Physical Divisions of Palestine. The Maritime Plains. Coast line. The Moun¬ tainous Region. Its Physical features. The Valleys of the Rivers. Its Dense Ancient Population. Routes to Bethlehem and the Cities. Its Historical importance. Great Battles fought . 62 CHAPTER III. BETHLEHEM. Its Antiquity. Biblical History. Description of Bethlehem. The Well and For¬ tifications. The Nativity. The Journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth. Their Poverty. The Inn. Legends. Herod. The Wise Men. Their Gifts. Astrology. Modern Bethlehem. Population. Industries . 104 CHAPTER IV. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. Hebron, the Oldest City of the World. The Hittites. Cave of Machpelah. The Patriarchs. Rabbinical Tales. A Priestly City and a City of Refuge. Modern Hebron. Its Trade, streets, shops, and inhabitants. Beersheba. Historical association with many Old Testament characters. The sojourn in Egypt . 136 CHAPTER V. THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. Herod’s Death. The Route to Nazareth. Through Philistia. The Philistine Con¬ federacy. Their Conquests and Spread. Their History. Present Condition. Gath. Vale of Elah. The Cave of Adullam. The Plain of Sharon. At Caesarea. Carmel. El-Maharrakah. Cave of the School of the Prophets. Route and Places Described . 158 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. Plain of Esdraelon. Its Mountain Boundaries. Harosheth. Megiddo. Taanach. The Kishon. Napoleon on the Plain. Gilboa. Endor. Biblical History and Characters. Hill of Moreh. Shunem. Nain. Mt. Tabor. Physical attractions of Nazareth. TheNazarene. Modern Nazareth. The Childhood of Jesus. Legends of the Infancy . 187 CHAPTER VII. FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. Evangelists Silent concerning the Childhood of Christ. St. Luke’s Incident. Jew¬ ish Theories of Human Maturity. The Passover Journey. Songs. Different Routes. Crossing of the Jordan. The Ghor. Flora and Fauna of the Valley. Mt. Gilead. Shibboleth. Decapolis. Gadara. Shiloh. Pella. Mahanaim. Geresa. Peniel. Beth-nimrah. Why called Bethabara. Its Historical In¬ terest. Mount Nebo. The View of Moses. Cities of the Plains. Sacredness of the Jordan . 221 CHAPTER VIII.* FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. The Crossing of the Jordan. The Twelve Stones. Gilgal. Historical Events. Kasr-Hajla. Jericho. Its importance. Mount Ouarantania. Its Caves. Ain-Duk. The Brook Cherith. Robbers on the Road. Wady-el-Hod. Ain- el-Hod. Bethany. Bethpage. Lepers. Mary and Martha. Mountains and Valleys around Jerusalem. Its View from the East. Entering Jerusalem. 254 CHAPTER IX. ANCIENT JERUSALEM— PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL. Object of Chapter. Early History. Taken by David. Geographical Position and Political Advantages. The Kedron. Hinnom and Tyropeon Valleys. Divisions of the Ancient City. The Tabernacle. Solomon’s Temple. Tem¬ ple of Zerubbabel. Temple of Herod. History of Jerusalem. Siege of Titus. Its Destruction. Restored under Constantine. Invention of the Cross by Helena. The Moslems. The Crusaders. The Turks . 287 CHAPTER X. ANCIENT JERUSALEM— THE GATES, WALLS, ETC. The Walls of Ancient Jerusalem. Impossible to be Traced. Question of the North Wall. The Towers. Antonia Described by Josephus. Hippicus and Phasaelus. David. Gates. The Fountain Gate. The Dung Gate. The Gate of the Valley. Water Supply. Solomon’s Pools. High Level Aqueduct. Upper Pool of Gihon. Lower Pool of Gihon. Pool of Siloam. Northern Pool. Spring of the Virgin. Job’s Well. Pools within the City. Pool of Hezekiah. Bethesda. Uncertainties of the Topography of Jerusalem . 315 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. The Passover. Jesus missed by his Parents. The Temple Schools. The Rabbis. Jesus among the Doctors. The Sects of Judea. The Wilderness of Judea. Christian Hermits. Herodium. Valley of Urtas. Etam. Tekoah. Wady Khureitun. St. Chariton. Cave of Adullam. Engedi. Masada. Closing Tragedy of the Jewish War . 343 CHAPTER XII. BETHABARA. CANA. THE SEA OF GALILEE. Message of John. Baptism of Christ. The Gospel of Jesus. The Disciples. Cana. Visit to Capernaum. Tell Hum. Ain-Mudawarah. Ain-et-Tin. Bethsaida of Galilee. Sabbath Superstitions. Giscala. Magdala. Tiberias. Detested by Jews. Its Ancient Splendor. Taken by Romans and Moslems. Modern Tiberias. Kerak. Bethsaida Julias. The Five Thousand. Plain of Batihah. Gergesa. Gamala. Aphek. Hippos. Associations of the Sea of Galilee with the Saviour . 373 CHAPTER XIII. FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. First Passover of the Ministry. Return to Galilee through Samaria. Anathoth. Nob. Gibeah of Saul. Rimmon. Ophra. Ai. Battle of Ai. Advance of Sennacherib on Jerusalem. Ataroth-adar. Beeroth. Bethel. The Home of the Patriarchs. The Samaritans. Modern Beitin. Gophna. Shiloh. Le- bonah. Valuable Discoveries . 412 CHAPTER XIV. SAMARIA. Relative Position of the Towns of Samaria. Beauty of the District. Patriarchal Times. Division of the Kingdom. Tirzah. Samaria. Its Situation and Strength. Sieges. Captivity. Origin of the Samaritans. Mount Moriah. Legends. Nablous. Jesus at Sychar. The City of Samaria. Tomb of John the Prophet. Ruins of Samaria. Plain of Dothan . 441 CHAPTER XV. TOWNS OF GALILEE, TYRE AND SIDON. Retrospective. Galilee. Kabul. Fertility of the Province. Its Agricultural Products and Manufactures. Sepphoris the Capital. The Castle Beautiful. Jotopata. Its Siege and Fall. Accho the Port of Galilee. The Bay of Acre. Haifa. The Kishon. The Belus. Modern Acre. The Ladder of Tyre. Ras-el Ain. The Syro-Phoenician Woman. Tyre. Immense and Varied Commerce. Its Decline. Christianity in Tyre. Visit of St. Paul. The Cru¬ sades. Desertion of Tyre. Present Condition. The Sidonian Confederacy. Destroyed by the Persians. Mediaeval History. Modern Saida . 478 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. FROM DECAPOLIS TO CvESAREA PHILIPPI. The Cities of Decapolis. Ephphatha. Routes to Caesarea. From Bethsaida Julias. From Capernaum. Probable Route taken. Description of the Country. Lake Huleh. Tell-Khureibeh. Hazor. Tell Hareh. Kedesh. Bethrehob. Laish. Dan. Sources of the Jordan. From Dan to Beersheba. Mt. Hermon. View from its Summit. Caesarea Philippi, Situation. Dean Stanley’s Description. The Transfiguration . 518 CHAPTER XVII. THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. Ruins of All Ages. Interesting Excursions from the Upper Pool of Gihon to Jacob’s Well. Road to Neby Samwil. Down the Kidron Valley. Around the Walls. The Valleys. The Gates. The Mountains. The Adjoining Vil¬ lages. The Churches, etc . 543 CHAPTER XVIII. MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. Divisions of the City. The Gates and Streets. The Jewish Quarter. The Habits, Superstitions and Religious Customs. The American Quarter. The Monas¬ teries and Churches. The English Quarter. The Palace and Christ Church. The Mohammedan Quarter. The Stations, Bazaars and Churches. The Christian Quarter. Latin Patriarchate. Greek Patriarchate. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Mosque of Omar. Throne of Solomon and its Legends. The Huldah Gate. Conclusions . 598 CHAPTER I JOPPA. The Approach to Joppa — Mountains of Judea — The City Seen from the Sea — A Dangerous Coast — The Basin and its Entrance — The Landing — A Ride through the Bazaar of Joppa — Houses — Lattice Windows — Dirt and Darkness — Porters — Water-Carriers — Donkeys — Camels— Dogs — Shops and Market Stalls — Oriental Trading — Costumes — Tattooing — Latin, Greek and Armen- ian Hospices — A Noble Retort — Orchard Gardens of the Suburb — Fruits — Irrigation — Cactus Hedges — The Plain of Sharon — Prospects of Improvement— German-American Colony — The German Temple — Israelitish Alliance — Fellahin Villages— History of Joppa — Andromeda and Perseus — Remains of the Monster — Joppa Under David and the Kings — The Goddess Derketo — Zerubbabel — Jonah — Our Saviour’s Mention of Jonah — The Maccabees— Joppa under Pompey, Herod, Archelauo — Joppa in the New Testament — Tabitha — Simon the Tanner — Destruction of Joppa — It Becomes a Nest of Pirates — A Christian See— Conquered by the Arabs — Joppa during the Crusades — Modern Joppa — Sacked by the Arabs and Mamelukes — Occupied by Bonaparte— Fortified by the British — Originally called Yapho — Meaning of the Name — Poetry — Present Population and Commerce — Objects of Interest — House of Tabitha — House of Simon the Tanner— A Mohammedan Tradition — Scripture Illustrations — City Gates — Places of Resort; Of Meeting; Of Consultation; Of Preaching; Of Contract; Of Treaty; Of Hospitality; Of Judgment; Of Execution; Of Observation — The Gates a Pride to the Citizens — Streets and Clefts — Lattice Windows — Parapets — Pottery; its Fragility — Dogs; Silent in the day; Their Noise at Night — Song-Birds — Chaffering in Trade — Tattooing — Gardens Enclosed — Watered Gardens — Trees by the Streams — Watering with the Foot — Fruit Trees — Fruitfulness — The Sea — A Song of the Sea — No More Sea! T IS fortunate for us that the day on which we are to have our first sight of the Beautiful Land is bright and clear, because we wish to lose no impression which rightly belongs to our approach to the scene of so many sacred events. As the steamer plows its way through the smooth waters of the Mediterra¬ nean, our eyes are fixed upon the east; at length a pale blue line, deepening in color as we near it, rises over the horizon, and our hearts throb with pleasure and expectancy when we are told that the blue line is the outline of the mountains of Judea. Soon, below the line of the distant hills, a bold rock looms before us in the dis¬ tance, like a huge fortification. That is Jaffa, the Joppa of the Bible. In 2? z6 JOPPA a little while we see the dark green of the orange groves to the northward; by and by we discern the waving tops of palm trees; then the many colored flags of the consulates, fluttering on their flag-staffs; and below, northward and southward, stretches the long line of yellow beach which is characteristic of the coast. A fleet of flat-bottomed boats is putting out to meet us, and very soon we are deafened with the loud, harsh, guttural cries and counter-cries of the boatmen by whose assistance we are to get ashore. It is no trifling matter to get ashore at Joppa m the best of weather; and in bad weather it is quite impossible.. It is a dangerous coast, and JOPPA FROM THE SEA there is no harbor worthy of the name. What is called the harbor of Joppa is only a small basin formed by natural rocks, partly visible and partly under water. There are three places at which an entrance to this basin might be made by small vessels. One to the north is broad, but dangerous on account of sand banks. To the south another, called the Moon-pool, is probably the opening through which the rafts of Hiram, King of Tyre, were towed into the inner basin, but it has long been practically closed by sand and silt. The only available entrance is on the northwest, where there is a passage of not more than a hundred feet in width, through which, however, only row-boats and small craft can pass. Through that George Plnlijt J. Son • ; ' ■ ■ ' ' JOPPA. 29 passage our landing must be made with the help of those flat-bottomed cobles with which our steamer is surrounded as she comes to anchor half a mile from the basin. Again we have reason to be glad that we are favored with fine weather. If it were a stormy day, the steamer would not stop here at all, but would go on to her next port at Haifa, near Mount Carmel; and if the rough weather continued, we might be taken on to Beirut and be compelled to enter the Beautiful Land far to the north and not at the south. The coast of Joppa is not only dangerous, but treacher¬ ous; storms blow up with in¬ credible rapidity, and when T) the wind drives from the > west, any unfortunate sailing 0 * d vessel that may chance to be ^ caught in it is in imminent danger of being swept upon the rocks. From the most ancient times we read of wrecks at Joppa; and not many years ago the remains of an ancient galley were dug up in some excavations on the shore. As Dr. Geikie says, Phoenician, Egyptian, Syrian, Roman, Crusading and modern fleets have all paid tribute to the angry waters of the coast of Joppa. The packet steamers are com¬ paratively safe, but in rough weather they can never be sure of landing passengers at Joppa. To-day, luckily for us, the breeze is light and the water smooth. It will be well to lose no time in getting ashore, for it would take but a little while to change the aspect of the scene, and a rough landing would be 30 JOPPA. disagreeable. There are sharks to be found in these blue waves, and if our boat should upset, we might be deprived of a dry death, and yet not die the death of drowning. Let us go ashore, then. Three or four of us can take one of the boats at a cost of five francs for the party, or we can separate and go in different boats for a trifle less. Do which we will, we climb down the ladder and take our seats; the boatmen pull away until they reach the narrow inlet of the basin; then, waiting for the swell of an in-rolling wave, they give one tremendous pull, and we are safe in smooth water. So far well; but your tale of fresh experiences is not yet told. From the steamer you have reached the boat; with your boat you have reached the harbor; but you have yet to reach the shore. The boats can¬ not reach it on account of the shallowness of the water; therefore resign yourself to the inevitable; throw yourself confidently, if not cheerfully, into the arms of that bare-legged, piratical-looking fellow in the water. There will be not a particle of sentiment in his embrace, and not a bit of gener¬ ous gallantry in his attentions, which will cost you two or three sous. He will be useful to you, nevertheless, for in a few minutes he will bear you to the steps of the landing; he will set your feet thereon; perchance he will then give you an unexpected hoist which will be more helpful than gentle; and in this unromantic way you will enter the Beautiful Land of many a sacred dream. Standing on those steps, with hoarse voices screaming around you in a language of which you know nothing but the always intelligible cry of “Backsheesh!” and with your baggage already on the way to a prosaic and annoying custom-house, you will hardly be likely to indulge in the poetic musings you have often anticipated. It will not be worth while to attempt the impossible. Postpone your reflections to a more favorable moment, and, as the day is fine, take a stroll through Joppa, or Jaffa , as you will soon find yourself calling it. If you are wise, you will hire a donkey for the excursion, and when you make your start you will very soon discover that there are no streets in Joppa; only narrow lanes, or alleys, or wynds, all of which are as dirty as they are narrow, and some of which are nearly as dark as they are dirty. The houses are built of tufa stone., and where you would expect to see the inhabitants looking from the windows, you will perceive that there are no windows. The windows of oriental houses do 1 SHOPS AT JAFFA - • V ' > : : - • 1 l"i \ , ■ ■ ■ ■ - _ ■ •m , I - ' . JOPPA. 33 not open on the street, but on the inner court, except sometimes in the upper stories, which project so far as almost to meet above your head. There you will see small lattice windows through which, unseen by you, JOPPA FROM WITHIN, LOOKING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST. the women of the house, like the mother of Sisera, can look on what passes below. There is no such thing as a sidewalk, nothing whatever of the nature of a pavement. The road is one general accumulation of filth, through which, if you had not hired a donkey, you would find it difficult to pick your way. One wonders sometimes to read of the ancient cities and build' ings which are found by scientific excavators, buried many feet under cities and buildings of a later date; but the wonder grows less if we may suppose 34 JOPPA. that the same filthy habits prevailed in ancient times as now prevail at Joppa. People who throw all the refuse of their dwellings into the streets before their doors, might be expected in process of time to bury their houses under the accumulated rubbish. But you will not go through, or even into, the wynds and lanes of Joppa. Fortunately there is one, though there is only one, irregular thor¬ oughfare, which leads from the north end of the quay where you landed, into the small bazaar, and, further on, into the Arabian bazaar. It is not a thoroughfare for wheeled vehicles; there are no wheeled vehicles in Joppa. Baggage, goods and merchandise are carried by brawny porters, whose strength and sleight of handling their loads are marvelous. No weight seems to be too great for them. Their only tool is a rope of camel’s hair, with which they tie together whatever is to be carried; and often the burden is much greater in size and weight than the bearer. Six or eight porters will carry a hogshead of sugar with apparent ease; and when the porter is once under weight, he has all the rights of the road. In this thor¬ oughfare of Joppa, which is narrow enough in some places, if you should chance to meet a porter, you will do well to get out of his way; he will be at no pains to get out of yours. Besides porters, you are very sure to meet water-carriers, bearing skins full of water to be delivered to the inhabi¬ tants. These are the only water-works, or rather, the water-workers, of Joppa. Donkeys you will be sure to meet, as they are driven along with loads of merchandise and provisions out of all proportion to the size of the poor, patient, sturdy little beasts. The camels will impress you with a feeling of pity. A camel is not a happy creature; everything about him tells you that of all the brute creation which man has subjected to his service, the camel is the least contented with the state of life into which he has been called. In Palestine, at least, there is little reason why the camel should be satisfied with his hard fate. He is often mercilessly treated, hard- worked, under-fed, and being never cleaned, he almost invariably becomes a victim of a burning and devouring mange. Generally speaking, he is not a pleasant object to look at; and the unlovely are not apt to awaken much sympathy. Yet, though you cannot help him, you cannot help pitying him, as he goes by with that helplessly resentful look of unmerited suffer¬ ing. You will probably have less pity for the dogs, which you will meet at CAMP OF IBRAHIM PASHA .. 4 . * - . M ■ ' , • - . • . i ' ■* ‘1 ■ ■ - . a ■ j r *■ - ~ ' * : . JOPPA. 37 every step. They, too, are vile, mangy, repulsive brutes, silent enough in the daytime, but at night snarling and snapping at you if you disturb or approach them as they prowl in the street. They will not bite you; but they are an ever-present offence to the eye. You would wonder that the inhabitants endure them if you did not know how useful these living nuisances are in removing a thousand other more deadly nuisances from these filthy streets. The dogs are the only scavengers; and that they can live in such numbers on the offal, shows how invaluable they must be in devouring, and thus removing, many festering causes of sickness and death. These dogs belong to nobody in particular; and they are thorough demo¬ crats in this respect, that they will allow no canine aristocracy to live near them. No one can safely keep a pet dog, for the moment the unfortunate pet should set his paws outside of his home, the whole dog mob of the city would surround and destroy him. As we pass the bazaar we shall not fail to observe the many shops, booths and stalls in which business is transacted. A Syrian shop is very little like an English shop or an American store. The houses, as I have said, are built of stone; but not as European and American houses are built. The walls are of immense thickness, as if intended to endure for¬ ever. Hardly any wood is used in any part of them, and the ordinary shop is simply a huge arch or opening cut out of the solid wall, with more or less space, quite beyond the passenger’s sight, in the rear. Facing the street, sits the cross-legged merchant, ready to spend hours in haggling with customers over the price of his wares. At the East, time is of no par¬ ticular consequence to buyer or seller; and if a bargain were to be con¬ cluded without chaffering, the seller would feel that he had asked too little, while the buyer would be persuaded that he had foolishly paid too much. How many kinds of huckster’s stalls we find in this bazaar of Joppa! Al¬ most anything answers the purpose. A bench will do; a shawl hung up for an awning makes a perfectly satisfactory tent or booth, under which the merchant sits on the ground. At the opening of one shop we see song¬ birds for sale; hard by is a cafe for the refreshment of passengers; here is a rude smithy with a blacksmith plying his hammer; there a cobbler stitch¬ ing away at shoes which are already worn out of all conceivable shape; yonder we must pass a carpenter whose work and implements send our 38 JOPPA. thoughts swiftly to another workshop where a certain Youth grew up s‘in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Here is a pottery shop with its light, brittle vessels of clay for sale at prices which would be incredibly cheap, if the ware were not so fragile as to be constantly break¬ ing, and therefore, in the course of a year, costing a good deal to the fami¬ lies which are obliged to use it. Near by a saddler is conducting an animated process of bargaining with an Arab for a highly orna¬ mented saddle on which the Bed¬ ouin imprudently casts longing and admiring glances. Those injudi¬ cious glances are likely to cost him as much as the value of the saddle. Such is trade in Syria. Altogether the shops and stalls Syrian dogs. for the sale of provisions seem much the more numerous. All around and along the sides of the bazaar are milk-stalls, bread-shops, fish-stalls, sausage shops and a rare display of all manner of fruits and vegetables. The people we meet are as various, and, to our unaccustomed eyes, as curious, as other sights of this queer city. Besides Europeans and Ameri¬ cans, who are commonly called Franks, we meet dark complexioned Lev¬ antines, wearing the European dress, stately Arabs and Turks, with turbans and flowing robes, European and Asiatic Jews and negroes, wearing the red fez with blue cotton jackets and trousers. Women of all classes go closely veiled. We shall get used to these strange figures very soon, no doubt; just at first they are somewhat bewildering. But what is this? A woman without a veil, and therefore a Christian, with rings on her arms and fin¬ gers, and her faced tattooed! It is an uncanny sight; one wonders how a woman could think to add to her attractions by such hideous ornamenta¬ tion; and yet we know that the practice of tattooing the face and the body has been common at the East from very early times. There is little to detain us in the city proper; there is much to draw us to the country beyond. For our lodging while we stay, we may betake COURT OF TURKISH HOUSE SEk2$ -mm ' ' v . V ‘ . - - * . V f v. \ . ' , ' . jm > ' ■ t ' ] — ‘ - - ** - . 4 x . r , ; 1 - JOPPA. 4i ourselves to the Latin Hospice, where three priests and four monks of the Roman Catholic Church are ready to receive us with Italian hospitality, 01 to the magnificent convent of the Greek Church, from the terraces ol which we shall have a grand view of the city, the sea and the coast. Not less attractive is the Armenian Convent, where Bonaparte received a noble rebuke from a gallant and conscientious man. In 1799 the cells of the convent had been occupied by plague-stricken French soldiers, and before evacuating the city Bonaparte suggested to the surgeon Desgenettes that he had better quietly administer a heavy dose of opium to the sick and wounded soldiers who could not conveniently be taken away, and might be massacred by the Turks. To this cold-blooded proposal to anticipate Turkish massacre by Christian assassination Desgenettes replied, “Sir, it is my business to cure men, not to kill them!” There are other places where, for a moderate compensation, we might find very good accommodations; but the ideal thing would be to get pos¬ session, as Dr. Thompson did, of one of the dwellings which are buried in a wilderness of lovely gardens and orchards all around Joppa. So en- chantingly beautiful do these gardens and orchards appear that they remind one of the fabled gardens of the famed Hesperides. The soil is light and sandy, but it is made fruitful by irrigation, and irrigation is a matter of extreme facility throughout that region. By digging but a few few feet wells are found with an abundance of water, which is raised by means of water-wheels and is conveyed in trenches to the gardens. The land is divided into plots, called biarahs, and separated from each other by tall hedges of cactus, which are so thick and so perfectly defended by the rude thorns and prickles of the plant as to be perfectly impenetrable to man or beast. Hardly any fruits fail to grow here. The orange, unknown to the ancient world, here attains perfection, and so do the lemon, the pomegranate, the mulberry, the peach, the apricot, the almond and the citron. The banana and the sugar cane thrive, but are not much culti¬ vated. Vegetables have only to be sown or planted to return large crops, but the variety found in the market is not great. The water-melon grows in such enormous quantities as to be sold for next to nothing. This bright and beautiful oasis extends for miles on the landward side of Joppa; and in the opinion of competent persons, it might be made to cover the 42 JOPPA. whole Plain of Sharon, which has a soil of the same sort, and has the same facilities for irrigation. Over that entire plain, as soon as the rain falls, ON THE COAST NEAR JOPPA. rich and luxuriant vegetation clothes Jthe earth, and only dies down when the sun has dried up the moisture. With little trouble it might again be BAZAAR AT JAFFA, JOPPA. 45 made to “rejoice and blossom as a rose.” No doubt that dreary plain was once as fruitful as the orchard gardens of Joppa, and when one thinks of the loveliness and fruitfulness of that “garden of God,” remembering that much of Palestine was once as lovely and as fruitful, he can realize the longing and delight with which the grapes of Esh-col were greeted as a message and pledge of welcome from the “delightsome lands ‘flowing with milk and honey’ ” to the fugitive slaves of the Egyptians. Tokens are not altogether lacking that the Holy Land is destined once again to be a rich, a fruitful, and a beautiful land. The Jew has never yet abandoned the dream of its restoration, and Christian nations look with interest and sympathy upon every effort to redeem it from its present state of desolation. While the hand of the Turk rests upon it, progress will continue to be slow; but there are signs of progress even now. Some years ago a railway was projected from Joppa to Jerusalem. It has not been built, and may not be built for years to come; but it will surely be built some time, and when it is, the Plain of Sharon will begin to be too valuable to be left untilled. If no one else sees its advantages, our own good Brother Jonathan will see them, and if he can get an “option" on the Plain of Sharon, he will sell it out in small lots to settlers and speculators, as he has already sold millions of acres in the far west. It is curious that as early as 1866 a German-American colony was established quite near to the Latin Hospice. It numbered originally some forty families; but it did not prosper, and hardly a trace of it remains. In 1868 another colony of Germans from Wurtemburg was established a little further out from the city, and numbers at this time some three hundred souls. It is called the colony of the German Temple, and belongs to a sect of Christians who believe it to be the duty of all Christians to settle in Palestine. Their village, which they call Sarona, is about two miles from Joppa, and is both a thriving and an attractive settlement. On the south-east of the town Dr. Geikie says that “a settlement of the Universal Israelitish Alliance has been able to obtain a tract of seven hundred and eighty acres, one-third of which, before unclaimed, they have turned into fruitful fields and gardens. Their vineyards, and those of others, skirt the orchards on the south, the vines trailing low over the sand, but yielding large and delicious grapes.” All along the shore, to the south 46 JOPPA. of Joppa, a compulsory settlement of Egyptian peasants, or Fellahin, was made under Ibrahim Pasha. There the unhappy creatures were left stranded, and there they are still living most wretchedly. War has left many sad marks in every part of Palestine; and not far from the Fellahin villages, the spot is still shown where Napoleon Bonaparte ordered nearly three thousand Turkish soldiers to be slaughtered in cold blood, because he could not conveniently take them with him to Egypt. But we are getting into the history of Joppa; we may as well take a hasty glance at it in chronological order. Pliny and Pomponius Mela both tell us that Joppa, according to the prevalent traditions of antiquity, is more ancient than the flood; but it can hardly be the flood of the Bible to which these historians refer. The Bible story of Jonah is connected with the far more ancient legend of Andromeda, which I may tell as follows: Once upon a time there was a king of the ^Ethiopians, whose name was Cepheus. The name of his wife •was Joppa. These two had a daughter, a lovely maid, who grew up in such extraordinary beauty as to cause her mother to boast that her daughter Andromeda was fairer than the Nereids themselves. At this boast the nymphs of the sea were highly incensed, and sought revenge for the insult. At their request Poseidon, god of the sea, sent a flood upon the land, and a monstrous beast withal, by whom the people were de¬ voured. In their distress Cepheus and the ^Ethiopians sought counsel from the gods, and the oracle of Ammon declared that the land could be delivered from the monster and the flood only on condition that Androm¬ eda should be chained to a rock beside the shore and left there as a victim to the deadly beast. Cepheus was driven by the people to give up his child to that sad fate, and Pliny says that marks of the chain upon the rocks were still shown in his time. But before the monster could devour his hapless prey, he was slain by Perseus, and Andromeda became the wife of her deliverer. When she died, a place among the stars was given her, and she may yet be seen shining among the hosts of heaven. Long ages afterward, in the time of Pompey, the skeleton of a huge monster was discovered near Joppa, and was removed by Marcus Scaurus to Rome. It was found to measure no less than forty feet in length, and its backbone was eighteen inches in diameter. By the Romans, this huge creature was JOPPA. 47 supposed to be the monster of the myth of Andromeda. By Christians, it was thought to be the whale of the book of Jonah. Authentic history gives no account of the founding of Joppa. At the time of the Israelitish conquest, it was already in existence, and it was given by Joshua to the tribe of Dan. The original inhabitants worshiped a goddess of the name of Keto or Derketo, who was half fish, half woman. In the time of David, Joppa had become the port of Jerusalem, and it was to that port that Hiram, King of Tyre, sent his floats of timber for the building of the temple (2 Chron. ii: 16). Five hundred years later, cedars of Lebanon were brought in the same way and to the same place for the use of Zerubabel in building that second temple, which the presence of the Christ was to make more glorious than its glorious prede¬ cessor (Ezra iii: 7). Just when it was that Jonah set out from Joppa on his journey to Nineveh, or by what route he expected to reach his destination, or what the “ship of Tarshish” was in which he sailed, or what manner of whale it was that swallowed him, is not historically known. We must leave such questions to the commentators; but our Saviour is reported to have said that a sign like that of the prophet Jonah was the only sign which should be given to the people of his own time: “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nine- vah shall rise up in judgment against the men of this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.” (Matt, xii: 40, 41.) Joppa is famous in the history of the Maccabees. Judas Maccabeus captured it, burned the port and shipping, and signally avenged the death of two hundred Jews, who had been treacherously destroyed. Jonathan and Simon Maccabeus also took Joppa; but they fortified it, placed a gar¬ rison there, and reopened the port. Pompey made Joppa a free city of Rome. Caesar restored it to the Jews. Herod the Great occupied it, and his possession of it was con¬ firmed to him by the Emperor Augustus. After the death of Herod, it was given to Archelaus; but it was taken from him ten years later, and from that time remained under the authority of the Roman governor of the province. 48 JOPPA. We hear repeatedly of Joppa in the New Testament. The gentle and charitable Tabitha (or Dorcas) had her home, so the tradition runs, in one of the garden-orchards in the neighborhood; it was there that St. Peter raised her to life after her real or supposed death (Acts ix: 36-43); and it was from the house of Tabitha that the same Apostle went and “tarried many days with one Simon, a tan¬ ner.” (Acts ix: 43). There, in the house of Simon, the great Apostle had his famous vision, three times repeated, of a sheet let down from heaven, containing all manner of beasts, clean and unclean. When, in his vision, he was thrice bidden to arise, to kill, and to eat, he thrice refused, on the ground that he had never eaten anything common or unclean, and received for answer the admonition, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou com¬ mon or unclean.” Arising from his vision, Peter found messengers from the Centurion Cornelius, and then, under the instruction of the Spirit, he interpreted his dream to mean that he must not refuse to bear the gospel of Christ to the Gentile who had sent for him. (Acts x: 1-20). This famous occurrence took place eleven years after the resurrection of our Saviour, so that it took a long time for even the immediate Apostles of Christ to under¬ stand that He had come to save the world, and not merely the nation of the Jews. At the time of the Jewish insurrection, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, Joppa C0IN 0F J0PPA- was taken and sacked. Subsequently it was rebuilt and became a nest of pirates, whom Vespasian destroyed. When the town was captured the pirates took to their ships, but a west wind drove them back upon the A WATER SELLER. JOPPA. 49 shore, and those of them whom the waves spared were mercilessly cut down by the Roman soldiers. Again Joppa rose from its ashes and became the see of a Christian bishop; but again it fell in the Arab invasion of 636, and it was held by the Arabs until the Crusades. In 1099 it was abandoned by the Arabs and occupied by Christians; and, in spite of many attacks, it remained a Chris- ian city till 1187. In that year it was captured by Malek-el-Adel, brother of Saladin, who destroyed it in the following year. In 1191 it was occu¬ pied and its walls were rebuilt by Richard Coeur de Lion, who had his quarters in one of the garden-orchards of the suburbs. In the following year, after Richard had departed, it was besieged by Saladin, but Richard came to its relief and raised the siege. Five years later, however, it was taken again by Malek-el-Adel and it is said that 30,000 Christians were put to the sword. From that time its fortunes varied until 1267 when it was completely devastated. In the centuries which followed we hear nothing of Joppa, but it gradually rose again into some importance, and its import¬ ance brought its usual misfortunes. In 1722 it was sacked by the Arabs; in 1775 by the Mamelukes; and in 1799 it was occupied by Bonaparte, whose behavior, we have seen, was not more Christian than that of previ¬ ous conquerors. The city was afterward fortified by the English, and the fortifications were extended by the Turks, who still hold it. The forti¬ fications have fallen into decay, but the gates of the city are novelties to the traveller, and are sure to attract his attention. Surely a troublous history has been that of Joppa. Its name, Yapho , which is variously interpreted to signify Bemity and Tower of Delight , sug¬ gested no prophecy of its many misfortunes. As Dr. Thompson says, “the mere name is a romance;” but its history is a romance of many tragedies. An unknown poet sings of it: Oldest of cities! Sidon of the North, And Kirjath-Arba of the rocky South, And Egypt’s Zoan cannot equal thee. Andromeda and Perseus, if the lay Of classic fable speak the truth, were here, Monarchs of Palestine, and kings of Tyre, And the brave Maccabee have all been here. And Cestius, with his Roman plunderers, 50 JOPPA. And Saladin, and Baldwin, and the host Of fierce crusaders from the British North, Once shook their swords above thee, and thy blood Flowed down like water to thine ancient sea. At the present time Joppa has a population of something over 13,000 souls, of whom 10,000 are Mohammedans, 1,500 are Christians of the Greek Church, 700 are Armenians, 350 are Latins, that is, members of the Roman Catholic Church, and the rest are Jews, Germans and other Protestant and oriental Christians. It has a considerable trade with Egypt, Syria and Constantinople. Its exports are chiefly soap, sesame, wheat and oranges. Within the past few years silk culture has been introduced into the plain of Sharon. The principal source of the wealth of Joppa is derived from the annual passage of pilgrims through the town to visit the holy places, which are objects of veneration not only to Jews and Christians but also to Mohammedans. There are not many objects of special interest in Joppa. The con¬ vents already mentioned are well worth a visit. The principal mosque of the city is a striking building. Several places claim the distinction of hav¬ ing been the site of the house of Tabitha. Perhaps one which is situated about three-quarters of a mile to the east of the town is the least improba¬ ble; but that the site of a private dwelling should still be ascertainable after so many ages, so many sieges and so many complete destructions of the city, is hardly possible. The same might be said of the house of Simon the Tanner. The Latin Hospice claims to stand on the site of Simon’s house; but Mr. Guerin and other high authorities hold that its true site is near by an obscure mosque called the Mosque of the Bastion. It is situ¬ ated near the Moon Pool, to the south of the city, and is “by the sea side,” according to the description in the Acts of the Apostles (x:6). It adds something to the probability that there are now some small tanyards near by. Some years ago Capt. Guillemot discovered near the mosque some of the columns and capitals of a church which formerly stood on the spot where the mosque now stands and which was dedicated to St. Peter. The house, which is called the House of Simon, is comparatively modern, but it is held in much veneration by the Mohammedans, who have a tradition that the Lord Isa (Jesus) while tarrying here, asked God for food, and that imme- JOPPA diately a table was let down from heaven with the food He had desired. We have no reason to suppose that our Saviour was ever in Joppa; and the Mohammedan tradition is evidently a mere variation of the vision of St. Peter. In the court of this house there is a hg tree, and a well. The doorway is simply an opening in the wall, without any wood-work what- HEDGE OF CACTUS. ever. The roof is flat, and of course surrounded with a parapet made of hollow earthenware pipes, inclined downward, so as to allow a free circula¬ tion of air and at the same time permit the occupants of the roof to look down on what is going on below without themselves being seen. From the roof of Simon’s house there is a fine view of the Moon Pool and the sea beyond. We have not been long in the Beautiful Land, and yet what we have seen casts a gleam of light over many passages of Holy Scriptures. Let us spend a little time in looking over some of those passages. A city gate is a new thing to us; but the cities of the Bible were walled cities with gates. Even the villages had gates for entrance, as they had walls for defence. The passage through the wall to which the gate 52 JOPPA. gave access was a cool place in the heat of summer, and around the gate there was generally an open space, as there still is at the principal gate of Jerusalem, where a sort of market was held. The narrow lanes and wynds which we have seen in Joppa are exactly like the streets of all ancient towns of Palestine, and the people must have been glad to escape from them into the pure air of the open space at the gate. So it naturally came about that when many of the. people were to be gathered together, the gate was the usual place of meeting; and we read of the kings of Judah and Israel going out to the gate of Samaria and sitting there, each in his royal robes, to hear the words of the prophets (i Kings xxii: io). The gate was the customary resort of the elders of the city for consultation, and Job in his adversity recalls that when he had formerly gone to his place at the gate the young men had regarded him with reverence, the aged had stood up out of respect for him, the nobles had held their peace, and even princes had been silent (Job xxix: 7-9). For preaching and all sorts of publication the gate of the city was the usual place; indeed there was no other, unless some part of a street chanced to be unusually wide; so that again and again Solomon in the Proverbs speaks of Wisdom crying at the openings of the gates (Prov. 1: 21), and at the entry of the city (Prov. viii: 3). If witnesses were required to testify to a transaction they could be found at the gate, and therefore contracts were made there. When Boaz desired to meet the near kinsman of Ruth, who had not fulfilled his duty as a kinsman, he went to the gate and met him there, and then in the presence of wit¬ nesses he made the contract for his own marriage with Ruth (Ruth iv: 1, 2). So, too, when Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah of the children of Heth for the place of a burying ground, the sale was confirmed to him in the presence of all that went in at the gate of the city (Gen. xxiii: 17,18). Even treaties between tribes were made there, as in the case of the treach¬ erous treaty recorded in the thirty-fourth chapter of Genesis. The gate, moreover, was the place where the hospitality of the inhabitants was offered to strangers, as when Lot sat in the gate of Sodom and offered hospitality to the two angels (Gen. xix: 1). At the gate likewise sat the judges of the city to administer public justice, as the language of the commandment implies, “Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates through- JOPPA. 53 out thy tribes, and they shait judge the people with judgment” (Deut- xvi: 1 8.) Israel was often and sorely punished because the poor in the gate were turned aside from their right by unjust judges, and the prophet Amos could promise no relief until the people should “hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate” (Amos v: 12, 15). The gate was also the place of execution, where the guilty were to be stoned to death (Deut. xxi: 23, 24). In time of war the gate was thronged with those who wished to have the earliest reports. Eli was sitting at the gate when he received the fatal news that his sons were slain and that the ark of God was taken (1 Sam. iv: 18). At the gate David awaited the result of Joab’s battle with the rebellious Absalom (2 Sam. xviii: 24); from a part of the wall near to the gate the watchman saw the messengers approaching, and when he heard that his son was dead, he went up to a chamber over the gate and wept (2 Sam. xviii: 33). In ancient eastern cities there were few public buildings; in many of them none at all; so that the gates of the city were a special object of pride. Beautiful gates were the glory of the citi¬ zens. Isaiah used significant as well as poetical language when he said, “Thou shait call thy walls Salvation and thy gates Praise” (Isa. ix: 18). To cast contempt upon the gates of a city was to put all the citizens to shame, as Samson did when he carried off the gates of Gaza (Judges xvi: 3). It was a joy to the city when its gates were opened to receive a returning conqueror, and the psalmist uses language which would go straight to the hearts of his hearers when he says, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in” (Psalm xxiv: 7). Through the gate of the city we come into the streets; but, as we have seen in Joppa, the word street does not mean such streets as we are accus¬ tomed to see in European and American cities. In Hebrew the word shuk really means a cleft, and there are clefts in the rock at Joppa to which the name of street could by no means be properly applied. Such dark places are the natural abodes of vice, and to such places Solomon refers in Pro¬ verbs vii: 8. But we must remember always that the streets of the Bible generally mean lanes of not more than a few feet in width, where it is often a matter of difficulty for camels or other beasts of burden to pass each 54 JOPPA other. “When wisdom cries aloud in the streets” (Prov. i: 20), it must be at some place where the position of the houses leaves a greater space than elsewhere. We have observed the lattice windows, which can be used as outlooks over the streets, which they frequently overhang. So they were used by the wise man who looked into the street through his casement (Prov. vii: 6); and long before the time of Solomon we read that the mother of Sisera looked out at a window and cried through the lattice, “Why is his chariot so long in corning? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?” (Judges v: 28). At the house of Simon the Tanner we have seen that the flat roof is surrounded with a parapet, as flat roofs ought to be. But among the Israelites it was not optional to build parapets; it was imperatively required HOUSE OF SIMON THE TANNER — EXTERIOR. by the law: “When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house if any man fall from thence” (Deut. xxii: 8). In the hot nights of summer the roof is the most agreeable sleeping place about the small, close houses of the East. In the day-time, too, it is frequented for many purposes, so that the wisdom, as well as the humanity, of the law of Moses is apparent. JOPPA. 55 We have noticed the pottery and mentioned its extreme fragility. It is, indeed, so extremely frail as to be broken by the slightest jar, and often merely in setting it down upon the ground. The least violence would break it into innumerable fragments; and, therefore, when the psalmist says of the heathen that God will break them in pieces, like a potter’s vessel (Psalms, ii: 9), he predicts their sudden and irremediable destruction. But if the eastern pottery is bad, it is at least cheap, and there was no great hardship in the Mosaic law, that a vessel into which any (ceremonially) unclean thing had fallen, was forthwith to be broken in pieces (Lev. xi: 33). A people like Israel was more likely to obey such a command than to com¬ ply with any rigorous directions for the cleansing of polluted vessels. Fragments of broken pottery may still have a certain utility, as for taking a coal of fire from the hearth in an age and country where the convenience of friction matches was unknown; and larger fragments might even be used like saucers, for lifting water to the mouth to drink. When the prophet would suggest utter destruction, without a remnant of any kind whatever, he says: "He shall break it as the breaking of the potter’s vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare; so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit” (Isa. xxx: 14). The potter’s work is one of great dexterity. With a mass of clay in his hands, he sets his wheel revolving, and as the wheel turns, he moulds the clay into the required shape, so that the plastic material seems to obey his very thought. The image of the potter fash¬ ioning the clay is often used in Holy Scriptures, as in Isaiah, lxiv: 8: "But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we are all the work of Thy hand.” This figure of speech has been pushed to great extremes in controversy; but God’s government is never to be asserted in such a way as to set aside the divine fatherhood, to which the prophet here refers as belonging to the very conception of divine gov¬ ernment. We have noticed the innumerable dogs which do the work of scav¬ engers at Joppa, and we have observed that in the day hours they make no noise. The prophet Isaiah (Ivi: 10) compares the unfaithful prophets of Israel to lazy dogs: "His watchmen are all blind; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.” 56 JOPPA. But if the dogs are silent during the day, they make amply up for it in the hours of the night, which they make hideous with their yelping, barking and howling. The psalmist compares his cruel enemies to dogs that “return at evening. They make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city; they belch with their mouth. Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied” (Psa. lix: 6, 15). Cowardly as they are in daylight, they are dangerous at night; so David says: “Dogs have compassed me! Save my darling from the power of the dog” (Psa. xxii: 16,20). After sunset the dogs need no provocation to raise their voices; the sound of every footstep sets them off in a fresh outbreak of vociferous noise. It was a striking figure, therefore, which the Lord used when He declared to Moses that in the night which should strike terror into the hearts of the Egypt¬ ians, “not a dog should move his tongue against any of the children of Israel, against man or beast” (Exod. xi: 7). The birds for sale in the bazaar may remind us of the love of orien¬ tals for feathered songsters, wild and tame. The bride in the Canticles (ii : 12) when speaking of the joyful coming of her beloved, as though he had brought the spring tide with him, says: “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.” The Lord, reasoning with Job and showing the weakness of man, asks him: “Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?” (Job xli: 1, 5). Doubtless the poor birds exposed for sale in the time of Jere' miah, as they are now, were not too carefully kept while awaiting a JOPPA. 57 purchaser; and the unclean cage furnishes a biting simile to the indignant prophet: “As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit” (Jer. v: 27). The birds seem generally to have been taken with snares, not robbed from the parent nest; and the snaring of birds is a familiar fig¬ ure in the Old Testament. Thus Solomon says: “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any birds.” (Prov. i: 17). The chaffering and cheapening which attends every sale in an oriental bazaar, is just as Solomon observed thousands of years ago; the seller ask¬ ing many times the value of his wares, and extolling their excellence in the loftiest and most solemn phrases, while the buyer declares that they are worth absolutely nothing; and each boasting afterward of his success in overreaching the other. The whole course of the transaction is pithily put in the observation of the wise man: “It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.” (Prov. xx: 14). We can hardly do more than just notice a remark, that one of the most touching of our Saviour’s sayings may have had its immediate sug¬ gestion in the passing by of a porter bearing one of the enormous loads under which Eastern porters often stagger. If it were so, these words would be doubly significant: “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!” (Matt, xi: 28.) The woman whom we met with her face tattooed recalls to us the love of that unpleasant sort of ornamentation which existed in ancient times. Moses forbade it to be practiced by the Israelites (Lev. xix:28) but it seems that sacred marks were permitted to be made on the hands and forehead (Exod. xiii:9). In the Revelation of St. John we read of the seal¬ ing of the servants of God in their foreheads (Rev. vii : 3), which certainly implies some sort of visible marking. But by far the most striking pas¬ sage which borrows its poetic language from this practice is in the proph¬ ecy of Isaiah where God says to Zion, “Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” (Isa. xlix: i5> l6)- The beautiful gardens of the suburb of Joppa, each surrounded with its inpenetrable hedge of prickly pear, remind us of the figure in which the Beloved one of the Song of Songs proclaims his joy in the thought that his bride is altogether his own. “A garden enclosed,” he says, “is my 58 JOPPA. sister, my spouse!” (Cant. iv:i2). It is a beautiful simile; it is as chaste as it is beautiful; and the rest of the same chapter abounds in references to springs, walls, fountains, gardens and the manifold fruits of orchards, such as would occur only to a poet to whom gardens were familiar. The fruitfulness and beauty of the gardens' of Joppa is due to constant irriga¬ tion, without which the light sandy soil would be sterile. The water is conveyed to them, as we have seen, in trenches, and then in smaller streams to every part of the soil. Water is the life of the garden, for the soil seems to need nothing but water to made it bloom with flowers and abound with fruit. How appropriate, then, is the promise of Jeremiah and Isaiah, “Their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sor¬ row any more at all!” (Jer. xxxi: 12; Isa. lviii : 1 1). The Psalmist likens the righteous man to “a tree planted by the rivers of water” bearing its fruit in due season, and never parched with drought (Psa. 1:3); but if we adopt the translation of the Westminster Version which says streams in¬ stead of rivers , the image is more striking. It refers to the fruit tree of the irrigated orchard to which the water is brought in streams as it is needed, which is always protected from drought, and the fruitfulness of which is like that of trees in the biarahs of Joppa. There every tree re¬ ceives the moisture it requires; a human providence cares for it as the divine providence watches over and cares for the course of all human events. Men often act in self-will, and, as they think, wholly of them¬ selves; but in that they are mistaken. God guides their doing more than they themselves do. Even of kings Solomon says, and in the gardens of Joppa we can realize the meaning of the figure, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord as the streams of water; He turneth it whithersoever He will” (Prov. xxi: 1). No part of a garden dependent on irrigation can be neglected, the water must be made to reach it all, and where the larger streamlets are not sufficient to reach the plants, smaller channels are made through the sand with the foot of the laborer, so that all parts of the. garden may be supplied. It is to this method of irrigation that reference is made in Deuteronomy where it is said that “in Egypt thou sowedst thy seeds and wateredst with thy foot, as a garden of herbs” (Deut. xi:io). In the greater part of Palestine no such irrigation was required. The importance of fruit trees at the East is very great; fruit, indeed. JOPPA, 59 forms no small part of the food of the people. For trees that bear no fruit there is little care or admiration; “every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and used for firewood” (Matt, iii : io; Luke iii : 9). Trees are known and judged by their fruits; as our Saviour says: “men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles” (Matt, vii: 15-20). The Christian life is a fruitful life; Jesus says, “Herein is my Father glorified, THE VISION OF PETER AT JOPPA. — ACTS X. that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John xv:8); and the fruit of the Christian life, which St. Paul calls “the fruit of the Spirit” (or more properly, the “fruit of the tight"), is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. v:22, 23). What must heaven be — the paradise, or garden, of God — where all the living trees are full of fruits like these! Looking down from gardens of Joppa to the westward, we cannot but 6o JOPPA. think of the profound impression which the “great and wide sea,” with its wealth of strange inhabitants, and with the ships sailing on its treacherous surface, made upon the ancient Hebrews (Psa. civ: 25, 26). The Israelites were not sailors, and the wonders of the deep impressed them with an awful admiration. It was among their sublime thoughts of the greatness of God that he has set to the sea his decree so that its waters may not pass his commandment (Prov. viir.29); that he gathereth its waters in an heap (Psa. xxxiii:7); and that, when storms arise, he stilleth the noise of their waves, as he stills the madness of the people (Psa. lxv.7). “The waves of the sea are mighty,” says the Psalmist, “and rage horribly; but yet the Lord who dwelleth on high is mightier” (Psa. xciii:4, Prayer Book Version). In the one hundred and seventh psalm we have a hymn of the storm. Psalm cvii: 23-31 They that go down to the sea in ships, That are occupied in business on the great waters, These men see the works of the Lord; They behold his wonders in the deep! For He commandeth the stormy winds to rise; He lifteth up the waves, They mount up to the heavens; They go down again to the depths; Their soul is melted with the trouble, They reel to and fro; They stagger like a drunken man; They are at their wits’ end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, And He delivereth them out of their distress. He maketh the storm a calm, So that the waves thereof are still, Then are they glad because of the quiet, And so He bringeth them unto the haven where they would be. Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, And for his wonderful works among the children of men! The aspect of the sea wh'en tossed in a tempest and the triumphant, but peaceful rolling of the waves in times of calm furnished the prophet JOPPA. 6r with symbols of the lives of the wicked and the righteous. “The wicked,” he said, “are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt” (Isa. lvii: 20). And in another place he says, “Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been like a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea!” (Isa. xlviii: 18). 1 To St. John in the lonely island of Patmos, where many of the visions of his apocalypse were perhaps suggested by the storms which raged during an eruption of a volcanic islet not far off, the sea was an object of dread. In the end of all the world’s commotions he figures the all-pervading peace by the sublime phrase that there shall be “no more sea!” (Rev. xxi: 1). “No more sea, except the sea of glass, like unto crystal, before the throne of God!” (Rev. iv:6). I A single morning spent in Joppa furnishes many illustrations of Holy Scripture. In our journeys through Holy Land it will not be necessary to apply what falls under our observation in quite so much detail. The ex¬ amples just given are chiefly meant to show how much one may gather out of Holy Scripture with no other assistance than that of a good concordance.. CHAPTER II. FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. Physical Divisions of Palestine — First Section, The Maritime Plains — Coast of Tyre and Sidon — Ladder of Tyre— From the Ladder to Mount Carmel — The Plain of Sharon — The Plain of Philistia — Sec¬ ond Section, The Mountainous Region — Its Physical Character — Third Section, The Jordan Val¬ ley — Sources of the Jordan at Banias — Fall of the River — The Ghor — The Dead Sea — Mountains of Sodom — Fourth Section, The Mountains of Bashan — The Hauran— Gilead — Heshbon — Moab ■ — Roads from Jaffa to Jerusalem — The Road by Ramleh — Arimathaea — Tower of Ramleh — Vaults — View from the Tower — El Kobab — Gezer — Latrun— Emmaus — Karyet el-Enab, Kirjath-jearim — Bethshemesh — Khurbet Erma — Kastal — Kulonieh— Second Road; by Lydda — Yazur — Beit Dejan — Ono — Rentiyeh — Jehud — Dense Population in Ancient Times — Lydda — Neballat — Hadid — The Hittites — St. Peter at Lydda — Church of St. George — Gimzo — Beth-horon, the Lower — Beth-horon, the Upper — Valley of Ajalon — Battle of Beth-horon — Second Battle of Beth-horon — Third Battle of Beth-horon — Gibeon — Flelkath-hazzurim— Duel at the Pool of Gibeon — Death of Joab — Solomon’s Choice — Neby Samwil — Mizpeh — Eben-ezer — God Save the King — King Richard at Mount Joy — Samuel’s Birth-place, Home and Place of Burial — Samuel’s Tomb — Valley of Gihon — Valley of Rephaim or Perazim — Valley of Roses — House of Simeon — Deir Mar Elyas — Rachel’s Tomb. THE leading purpose of this book is to illustrate the beautiful life of our Saviour by describing the places in the beautiful land of Pal¬ estine which He made sacred by his presence and ministry, the natural point at which to begin our survey would be Bethlehem, the place of His nativity. At Bethle¬ hem, therefore, we shall make our real beginning; but it would hardly be possible to follow our Saviour’s steps intelligently or satisfactorily with¬ out at least some general conception of the physical characteristics of the country in which He lived and journeyed. It will be well, therefore, at this point, to take a glance at the admirable map of Captain Conder, and then to examine the ancient and modern roads which lead from Joppa to Bethlehem, before we proceed to follow the course of our Saviour’s pil¬ grimage from Bethlehem to the Mount of the Ascension. 62 Itonfts PHYSICAL MAP of the HOLY LAME) English. Miles KENATH^m N AZARETH o, Crocodile R -2*30- ^ A S A- - '90. 4- . 3076] if7 E hf §^Oo/c,^rt7UlA L^lii Ss&® ■%- 2600 /-Vin/irtyA . T Jk T Clark C.R Co&dev. K£. I M I * ■ 1 • - ’ ' * ■ ; - * 1 • • ■ * , „ > - • v * - -;:jS 5 : ■ • .? ! * i ■ * ► ' - • ■■ '• ■■ > FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 65 It takes nothing more than a glance at Captain Conder's map to dis¬ cover that the Holy Land is naturally divided by its physical features into four sections, running generally north and south. The first section includes the coast of Tyre and Sidon, a narrow strip of low land lying along the shore of the Mediterranean, and widening to "1 the southward. It is not continuous, but is broken at three points into four divisions. Beyond Tyre, at the north, the first division is so narrow as not to appear at all, and about fifteen miles to the south of Tyre, it is cut off by a bold spur of the mountains, called the Ladder of Tyre , pro¬ jecting into the sea. The second division of the plain opens to a width of three or four miles, and extends from the Ladder of Tyre to Mount Carmel. A third division, nowhere wider than seven or eight miles, and extending from the foot of Carmel to a range of hills somewhat south of Joppa, is called the Plain of Sharon. The last division, which extends thirty-two miles southward, and varies in width from nine to sixteen miles, is the Plain of Philistia, or the Land of the Philistines. Beyond it, to the south, lies the wilderness of Shur. The second section of the Holy Land is the mountainous region lying between the maritime plain and the Jordan. It is a branch of the Lebanon range, and is of an average height of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet, though some peaks are higher, and many are lower. The range is broken by the Plain of Esdraelon, extending from the base of Mount Carmel to within a mile or two of the Jordan, with the Nazareth hills and Mount Tabor to the north, and the Hills of Samaria and Mount Gilboa to the south. Just beyond the northern limit of this plain is Nazareth. The water-shed of the moun¬ tain region drains westward into the Mediterranean, and eastward into the Jordan. As the map shows, the mountains are extremely irregular; the streams, too, are peculiar. Sir C. Warren, writing of the Plain of Philistia, says; “Philistia consists of an undulating plain, from 50 to 100 feet above the level of the sea. To the east of this the hills commence, not the hill country, but a series of low spurs and undulating ground, cul¬ minating in hogs’ backs, running nearly north and south, and rising in places to 1,200 feet above the ocean. To the east of these there is a steep descent of 500 feet or so, and to the east of these declivities, again the hill country commences. In two or three miles we rise to altitudes of 1,700 to 1 66 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 2,000 feet — the backbone of the country being at an elevation of 2,400 to 3,000 feet. In the hill country the spurs, not more than a mile or so apart, are often separated by narrow ravines 1,500 to 2,000 feet deep, at the bot¬ tom of which, in the rainy season, rapid torrents roll. Follow them into SOURCE OF THE JORDON AT BANIAS. the plain and see what becomes of them . The fact is, the bulk of the water reaches the ocean underground; on arising to the plain, it forms marshes and pools, and quietly sinks away, while the bed of the stream itself, in the plain, is merely a narrow ditch, some six feet wide and four feet deep. You may leave the water at the commencement of the wady mouth, ride over the plain without seeing any of it, and meet it again well- KEHAK Oran- or Alt. 163 „ . ? < i> f if SKETCH MAP OF THE DEAD SEA. 68 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. ing out of the ground close to the sea shore, forming wide lagoons there. . . Now, if proper precautions were taken, were the people industrious, and the country cultivated and clothed again with trees, the water flowing in the ravines might be conducted over the plains in the early summer months, and induce the rich soil to yield a second crop.” The fact here mentioned by Sir C. Warren, that the mountain torrents of Palestine reach the ocean underground, explains why water can always be found in the Plain of Sharon and the Plain of Philistia by digging only a few feet below the surface. The third section of the Holy Land is the Jordan Valley, which begins at the sources of the Jordan, in the neighborhood of Banias, the ancient Csesarea Philippi. The principal source is curious. It is not a spring, as that word is commonly understood; the water simply gushes from under accumulated stones near the mouth of a cave, and flows at once in a good sized stream, not over, but from under, a mill-dam, with no visible source beyond. Between Banias and Lake Huleh or the Waters of Merom, the Jordan descends nearly 1,100 feet toward sea level, since Ba¬ nias is i, 080 and Lake Huleh is only seven feet above the level of the sea. At Lake Huleh the valley is four miles broad, and the surface of the lake is about four miles in length, but marshes, covered with the most exten¬ sive growth of papyrus which is known to exist anywhere, stretch for miles to the north of the lake. Between Lake Huleh and the Sea of Galilee the river plunges through a narrow gorge and rushes for nine out of eleven miles as a foaming torrent to the southern lake. Entering the Sea of Galilee on the north, the Jordan leaves it at the southern end, and thence descends to the Dead Sea, a distance of sixty-five miles as the crow flies, but the winding channel of the river is two hundred miles in length. Its course is always rapid, since the fall is very great, at some points not less than forty feet to the mile. Between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea the Ghor , or sunken valley of the Jordan, lies on both sides of the river, but is nowhere wide. Where the Plain of Esdraelon joins it, it is about eight miles wide. Twenty-five miles below the Sea of Galilee it is contracted to a width of two miles. Again it spreads to eight miles, and at the widest it forms the Plain of Jordan, properly so called, with an ex¬ treme width of fourteen miles. FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM 69 The Dead Sea lies nearly 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterra¬ nean, so that in its course from Banias the Jordan falls nearly 2,500 feet. The Dead Sea, as we now call it, is called in Scripture the Salt Sea, and the Sea of Arabah, that is, the Sea of the Plain (Deut. iii : 1 7). By the Arabs it is called Bahr Lut, or Lot’s Sea. As its surface is 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and as it is in some places 1,300 feet deep, its bottom is just about as much below sea level as Jerusalem is above it. On both sides it is surrounded by steep mountains. It has no outlet to the ocean; and indeed if any communication with the ocean SOUTH END OF THE DEAD SEA. existed, the water from the ocean would flow into the Dead Sea, and would flood what is now the Valley of the Jordan. Lying so low, and being on all sides surrounded with mountains, the heat is tropical and evaporation is rapid. As in other inland lakes having no outlet to the sea, the water is intensely salt, three pounds of it yielding one pound of solid salts. Much 70 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. of this salt, however, is derived from the gradual washing down of great hills of rock salt, three hundred feet high, called Jebel Usdum , or the Mountain of Sodom, which lie at the south end of the Dead Sea, and cover an area of seven miles by three. From the bitumen which is still found on the shores and occasionally floating on the surface, the Dead Sea was sometimes called Lake Asphaltites. A large mine of bitumen exists at Hashbeya, at the head of the Jordan. There was a time, long before the * earliest records of history, when the Dead Sea was 1,400 feet higher than it is now. The whole Jordan Valley was then one great fresh-water lake, and was probably connected with a chain of lakes in eastern Africa. The process by which its level has been changed has left marks which are easily read and understood by the geologist. The fourth (and last) section of the Holy Land is the mountain range and plateau lying beyond Jordan and spreading out to the eastward. It is a prolongation of the Anti-Lebanon range. From Hermon to the river Jabbok lies Bashan, including the Hauran, afterward called Auranitis, beyond which lay Bozra or Bostra. Joining Bashan and extending some twenty-five miles southward to Heshbon, lay Gilead, and beyond Heshbon, still to the south, lay the land of Moab. In the partition of the land among the tribes, Bashan, speaking roughly, fell to the lot of Manasseh; Gilead, from the southern line of the Sea of Galilee to the northern line of the Dead Sea, was apportioned to Gad; Moab to the River Arnon was the possession of Reuben; while the rest of Moab continued to belong to the original inhabitants. The eastern part of the Holy Land is of the greatest interest. Its condition of fertility is in striking contrast with the compara¬ tive desolation of the hill country on the western side of Jordan, and, there can be no doubt that nearly the whole land was once as delightsome and prolific as the country east of the Jordan still is. It is the wanton havoc of war, and especially the ruthless destruction of trees, that have produced the barrenness which is now so bleak and repulsive in the hill country west of the Jordan. In this connection the following extract from Canon Tristram will be read with interest. “No one” (he says) “can fairly judge of Israel’s heritage who has not seen thejuxuriant exuberance of Gilead, as well as the hard rocks of Judea, which can only yield their abundance to reward constant toil and care. To END OF THE ss o so H X D W > O vj M > I \ * FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 73 compare the two is to contrast nakedness and luxuriance. Yet the present state of Gilead is just what western Palestine was in the days of Abraham. Subsequently the Canaanites must have extensively cleared it. Even before the Conquest, and while the slopes and terraces were clad with olive groves, the amount of ram-fall was not affected. The terraces have crum¬ bled away; wars and neglect have destroyed the groves until it would be difficult to find any two neighboring districts more strangely contrasted than the east and west of Jordan. Put this is simply caused by the greater RAMLEH. amount of rain-fall on the east side, attracted by the forests, which have perished off the opposite hills. The area of drainage is about the same on each side. The ravines or wadys are numerous; but few of the streams are perennial on the west — all are so on the east. Every stream draining from Moab and Gilead is filled with fishes and fresh-water shells. I never found living fresh-water shells but in two streams on the west side. In other words, the brooks are now but winter torrents.” After the cursory survey of the physical features of Palestine, we may next examine the roads which lead from Joppa to Bethlehem. 74 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. Over the road which is customarily taken by modern travelers two omnibuses run daily to and from Jerusalem. The journey occupies eleven or twelve hours, and the fare is only two dollars. Bethlehem, of course, is about five miles further, and there is no omnibus from Jerusalem to Beth¬ lehem. Along the way are places of considerable interest, though they are by no means so majestic or romantic as those through which the traveler passes on the ancient road, which is to the north of the other, and at no point more distant from it than about six miles. We shall describe the modern road first. A ride of a little more than three hours (thirteen miles), nearly in a straight line to the southwest of Joppa, brings us into full view of the Tower of Rami eh, the most prominent object in the Plain of Sharon, Ramleh has not been identified with any place mentioned in Scripture. There is in¬ deed a mediaeval tradition that it is the ancient Ramathaim or Arimathcea , the home of the “honorable counsellor” who refused to take part in the “counsel and deed” of the murderers of Christ, and whose new tomb, near the wall of Jerusalem, was used as the sepulcher of the crucified Redeemer. St. Jerome says that Arimathaea was not far from Diospolis or Lydda, and Ramleh is only about four miles south of Lydda; but Rentiyeh , which is seven miles north of Lydda, would answer that description nearly as well, and the name Rentiyeh is more likely then Ramleh to have been derived from the ancient Ramathaim. The name of Ramleh appears to be of purely Arabic origin, since the Arabic word ramleh signifies sand, and Ramleh is situated in a sandy plain. There is no account of the place more ancient than the date of Arab occupation, and the Arabian historians tell us that it was founded by Suleiman, son of the Khalif Abd el Melik, early in the eighth century. Certain it is that Ramleh was a great and prosperous city before the date of the Crusades. It was probably as large as Jerusalem, or larger, and was surrounded by a wall with four principal gates and eight smaller gates. It was provided with an extensive system of water conduits and subterranean reservoirs. Christians lived at Ram¬ leh,, and had no less than four churches; but they had no bishop until the time of the Crusades, when a Bishopric of Lydda and Ramleh was estab¬ lished. After experiencing various fortunes during the Crusades, Ramleh had a long period of prosperity, but at length fell into comparative decay. FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 77 It has now about 3,000 inhabitants, of whom one-third are Christians of the Greek Church. The climate is mild and salubrious, and is at once more agreeable than that of Jerusalem and more healthy than that of Joppa. Like Joppa, it is surrounded with extensive and luxuriant orchards. The olive, the fig tree, the carob and the sycamore abound, but the palm tree, though it adds to the beauty of the landscape, does not bear fruit. The land is amazingly fertile and the fields devoted to agriculture are sur¬ rounded with dense hedges of gigantic cactus, in which a multitude of birds make their nests. The approach to Ramleh is lovely, but a nearer view reveals less at¬ tractive features. Its lanes (for they can hardly be called streets), are ter¬ ribly crooked and are infested by an unlimited number of curs, which are hairless with mange. Here and there, too, are heaps of gray ashes de¬ posited from the soap factories, which have been in operation for many centuries. When the wind blows, the air is filled with fine particles of the pungent alkaline ash, which causes a general inflammation of the eyes of the inhabitants. It is believed that one-half of the male inhabitants of Ram¬ leh are either totally blind or have some chronic disease of the eyes. The women, however, are more rigidly secluded and more closely veiled than in any other town in Palestine, and are consequently less affected with the prevalent malady. On the east side of the town is the principal mosque, once the Chris¬ tian Church of St. John, a large building one hundred and fifty feet long, by seventy feet broad. The interior consists of a nave and two aisles, with the principal and side apses, and with seven bays of clustered columns. Captain Conder pronounces this old Christian sanctuary, now perverted to Mohammedan worship, to be “the finest and best preserved church” he has seen in Palestine. The most striking object in Ramleh is its famous White lower, so called from its bright color. By Christians it is also called “the Tower of the Forty Martyrs,” and by Mohammedans “the Tower of the Forty Champions.” It doubtless once belonged to a Christian church, long since destroyed, though there are reasons for believing that it must have been constructed by Arab workmen from the designs of a European aichitect. The mosque which once stood by the tower probably replaced a Christian 7S FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. church of earlier date, and was surrounded by an enclosure of six hundred paces in circumference. Under the area thus formerly enclosed there are immense vaults, one of which is one hundred and fifty feet long, by forty THE TOWER OF RAMLEH. wide and twenty-five deep. Its roof is supported by nine square columns. Christian tradition makes this vault the burying-place of Christian martyrs; according to Mohammedan tradition it is the sepulcher of forty Moslem heroes. It seems hardly likely that such a vault should have been made for such a purpose, but as it was not apparently meant for a cistern, and could hardly have been intended for a store-house, the original purpose of its construction is quite obscure. The tower is twenty-five feet square at . |j ! ’ 1 . 1 . •N ■ / 1 ' ■ ' - ■im n UK - • • i. " U - - ^ « vj| FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 81 the base and rises to a height of about one hundred feet. It is ascended by a winding stair of one hundred and twenty-six steps, and the view from the top is the finest in all that part of the country. In the near foreground are the orchards, gardens and fertile fields of Ramleh. To the north and south stretches the Plain of Sharon. On the east are the mountains of Judea, with their ruggedness all softened in the distance. On the west the horizon is bounded by the silvery line of the Mediterranean. In all direc¬ tions are towns or villages of more or less interest, and afar off, on a clear day, can be seen the height of Neby Samwil, which looks down upon Jeru¬ salem. By common consent the evening is the best time for this view, and Dr. Thomson, in “The Land and the Book”, gives the following extract from his journal: “The view from the top of the tower is inexpressibly grand. The whole Plain of Sharon, from the mountains of Judea and Samaria to the sea, and from the foot of Carmel to the sandy deserts of Philistia, lies spread out like an illuminated map. Beautiful as vast, and diversified as beautiful, the eye is fascinated, and the imagination enchanted, especially when the last rays of the setting sun light up the white villages, which sit or hang upon the many-shaped declivities of the mountains. Then the lengthening shadows retreat over the plain and ascend the hillsides, while all below fades out of view under the misty and mellow haze of summer’s ' twilight. The weary reapers return from their toil, the flocks come peace¬ fully to their folds, and the solemn hush of Nature shutting up her mani¬ fold works and retiring to rest, all conspire to soothe the troubled heart into sympathetic repose. At such an hour I saw it once and again, and often lingered until the stars looked out from the deep sky, and the breezes of evening shed soft dews on the feverish land. What a paradise was here when Solomon reigned in Jerusalem, and sung of the ‘roses of Sharon !’ ” Leaving Ramleh and following the direct road to Jerusalem, we come in two hours to El-Kobab (commonly pronounced Lobab), which is men¬ tioned in the Talmud, but not in Scripture; and about two miles southwest from El Kobab, is Tell Jezer, which has been positively ascertained to be the ancient Gezer, a city of the Canaanites whose king was overthrown and its inhabitants exterminated by Joshua (Josh. x:33). Gezer, with its sub¬ urbs, was allotted to the Levites, of the family of Kohath (Josh. xxi:2i), 82 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. but other Canaanites took possession of it and held it down to the time of Solomon. They probably paid tribute to Israel, but they seemed to have re¬ belled, for Gezer was taken by Pharaoh and burned to the ground, and its site was given to his daughter, who had become Solomon’s wife. The city was immediately rebuilt by Solomon (i Kings ix: 13), and its name does not again occur in the history of Israel until after the captivity. In the time of the Maccabees it was a place of importance. Its ruins are extensive, and all around it are quarries of basaltic rock and many rock tombs. About three miles further along the road from El Kobab to Jeru¬ salem is Latrun, a village of no consequence except on account of the tra¬ dition connected with it. Its name is supposed to be derived from the Latin latro , a thief, and situated as it is in a moun¬ tainous district, it may in ancient times have been infested by robbers. Hence arose the mediaeval legend that Latrun was the home of the penitent thief, and perhaps of both the thieves who \ were crucified with Jesus. Near at hand is another place which tradition has identified with a sacred spot in Christian history; for, half a mile to the northwest of La¬ trun, is Amwas, one of the places for which has been claimed the honor of being the Emmaus where the Saviour, on the evening of his resurrection, made himself known to two of his disciples in the breaking of bread (Luke xxiv: 13-35). The objection to Amwas as the Emmaus of the Gospel is its distance from Jerusalem; for while the distance of Emmaus from Jerusalem FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 83 is said by St. Luke to have been sixty furlongs (Luke xxiv:i3), the dis¬ tance from Amwas is nearer one hundred and sixty. It has been suggested that the true reading of St. Luke may be one hundred and sixty instead of sixty, and also that there may have been a mountain path which would greatly shorten the journey between the two places; but it cannot be said that either of these suggestions is entirely satisfactory. Other places to be mentioned hereafter may be much more probably identified with the sacred spot where the risen Saviour expounded to the two wandering disciples “all the scriptures concerning Himself” (Luke xxiv:2 7). Amwas, however, is noteworthy on other accounts. It is mentioned as early as the times of the Maccabees (1 Macc. iii : 40), and after the time of Christ it received the name of Nicopolis (the City of Victory), in honor of the Roman triumphs. During the Christian period it was the see of a bishop. It has no antiqui¬ ties of importance except the ruins of a church belonging to the fourth century. Proceeding along the road to Jerusalem, after passing a well called Bir Eyub or Job’s Well, and a convent called Deir Eyub, or Job’s Monas¬ tery, we come at length to Karyet-el-Enab , the City of Grapes. Until recently this was believed, almost beyond all doubt, to be the ancient Kirj ath-j earim, the City of Forests, one of the four cities of the Gibeon- ites, and known at a still earlier period as Kirjath-Baal, the City of Baal (Josh, ix: 17; xviii: 14). Kirj ath-j earim was emphatically a “high place,” being 2,360 feet above the level of the sea, and to its eminence doubtless was due the fact that it was one of the sanctuaries of Baal. Probably the reputation of sanctity continued to cling to it after the Israelitish conquest, and hence the request, made by the men of Bethshemesh to the men of Kir- jath-jearim, to relieve them of the ark of the Lord, which had brought them so grievous a misfortune. The ark of the covenant had been taken by the Philistines from the Israelites. One after another of the cities of Philistia had been visited with plagues, until the lords of the Philistines set the ark upon a cart, to which two milch kine were yoked, and the kine took the straight road to Bethshemesh. There the Levites received the ark with due solemnity, but the people were guilty of an act of profane curi¬ osity, for which they were visited with a fearful plague. Then they said: “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall lie 84 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. go up from us?” And they sent messengers to the men of Kirjath-jearim, saying: “The Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up to you. And the men of Kirjath-jearim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill” (i Sam. vi: vii; i), where it remained for twenty years. Dr. Robinson has no doubt that Karyet-el-Enab is the true site of the ancient Kirjath-jearim; but Captain Conder, following a previous suggestion, con¬ cludes that the true site is at Khurbet Erma, on the line between Beth- shemesh and Rachel’s tomb, near Bethlehem. Dr. Robinson is also of the AMWAS. opinion that Karyet-el-Enab was afterward called Emmaus, and that it is the Emmaus of St. Luke. In point of distance it has certainly the advan¬ tage of Amwas, but there is another site yet to be mentioned, which, even in this respect, has the advantage of Karyet. The modern village of Karyet-el-Enab has one of the most perfect Christian ruins in all Palestine. It is an ancient church, formerly called the Church of the Prophet Jeremiah, on account of a mistaken belief that this place was identical with Anathoth , the prophet’s birthplace. This church has fared worse at the hands of the Arabs than most other sacred Christian edifices, since the custom of the Moslems has been to turn churches into mosques, while the Church of the Prophet Jeremiah was FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 85 turned into a stable. It is now in the hands of the Latins, and will well repay a visit from the traveler. Resuming the journey from Karyet, we come first to Kastal , which is of no interest except in its name, which shows it to have been a camp or fortress ( castellum ) of the Romans, and then to Kulonieh, formerly the site of a Roman colony ( colonici ), but which is of no further interest, except that it, too, has been supposed to be the Emmaus of St. Luke. Kulonieh, however, is as much too near to Jerusalem as Amwas is too far off. From Kulonieh to Jerusalem the distance is only about four miles, and the road has no point of Biblical importance. To reach Bethlehem, we have but to keep the broad road until we come to the Jaffa Gate, on the west side of the Holy City, and then to turn southward. As the more ancient route from Joppa to Bethlehem will bring us to the same point, we may now turn back and start again from Joppa along that route. When we have again reached Jerusalem, we can examine the road thence to Bethlehem. Starting again from Joppa toward Ludd, which is the first point of interest on our present route, we take the same road as to Ramleh for nearly four miles, until we come to the small Arab village of Yazur. There the modern road through Ramleh to Jerusalem branches a little more to the south, while Ludd lies almost directly to the southwest. A ride of two miles further brings us to Beit Dejan, a name which carries our thoughts back to the times of the conquest of Canaan, more than thirty- three centuries ago, and even to the time of Abraham (Gen. xxi: 32, 34; xxvi: 1, 8), three hundred years earlier; for Beit Dejan is the modern Arabic form of Beth-Dcigon, the House of Dagon, and through all those ages this place has retained the name it received when it was a seat of the worship of the false god of the Philistines. Besides the name, there is nothing to arrest our attention at Beit Dejan, and we keep on our way through a richly cultivated country. In half an hour we see the White Tower of Ramleh, about four miles to the south. To the- north, at a dis¬ tance of something more than five miles, is Kefr Anna, the village of Auna (or Ana) no doubt, the ancient Ono (1 Chron. viii: 12), which at one time gave its name to the plain through which we are now journeying (Neh. vi: 2). Three miles northwest of Kefr Auna is Rentiyeh, which has been already mentioned as a conjectured site of Arimathsea. Between Kefr 86 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. Auna and Rentiyeh, though not in a direct line, is El-Yahudiveh, which Dr. Robinson supposes to be the Jehud of the Tribe of Dan (Josh, xix: 45). As we pass through this region and observe the numerous vil¬ lages, we are prepared to understand how densely it was populated in ancient times. The surveyors of the Palestine Fund have sometimes dis¬ covered the remains of as many as three ancient towns within the space of two square miles; and the unlimited fertility of the plain, which is pro- CHRIST AT EMMAUS. LUKE XXIV: 28. ‘'And they drew nigh unto the village , and He made as though He would have gone further." duced by a rude system of irrigation, shows it to be capable of maintaining an enormous population. Through olive trees and rich gardens we approach Ludd (or Lydda) which is surrounded with fruitfulness on every side except the east, where the Judean hills rise close behind it. Ludd was one of the first cities built by the Israelites in the Promised FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 87 Land (1 Chron. viii:i2). It was then called Loci, and is frequently men, tioned in connection with Ono, Hadid and Neb all at. Ono, as we have already seen, is a little over five miles north of Ludd. Neballat survives under the name of Beit Nebala, about three miles northeast of Ludd; and Hadid about two and a half miles due east, under the name of El Haditka. Hadid furnishes another illustration of the tenacity with which names cling to places in the East; for Hadid was undoubtedly a city of the mysterious Hittite Empire, and its name comes from that of the children of Heth , who were a powerful people when Abraham was a wandering stranger in the Land of Promise. The name of Lod occurs several times in the Old Tes¬ tament, but it is more famous in New Testament history as the Lydda to which St. Peter “came down” from the mountainous region of Jerusalem on the occasion of his visitation of the churches. Among “the saints which were at Lydda” he found a paralytic man called Eneas, whom he healed in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts ix 132-35); and it was while he was at Lydda that the disciples in Joppa sent for him to comfort them in their affliction at the death of their beloved Dorcas. “As Lydda was nigh to Joppa,” they thought he would not refuse to go to them. The apostle did not disappoint them. He quickly went the eleven miles which lay between the two cities and gave the mourners an undreamed-of consolation when he presented Dorcas alive to the “saints and widows” to whom she was en¬ deared by her charity (Acts ix: 36-42). Twenty years afterward another apostle, St. Paul, may have passed through Lydda when he was sent as a “prisoner of the Lord” to Caesarea by the sea (Acts xxiii: 1 7 — 3 5) > and only six years later, while the people of Lydda were nearly all absent at Jerusa¬ lem, celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, their city was ruthlessly burned to ashes by Cestius Gallus (A. D. 66). For a long time Lydda struggled for existence with little success, but it seems never to have recovered its former prosperity until it was rebuilt, perhaps in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, under the new name of Diospolis, the City of Jupiter. I nder that heathen name it flourished; the Christian community increased; and at the great Council of Nicsea (A.D. 325)> a bishop of Lydda , /Etius L\ dden- sis, was present. In the fifth century a famous church council was lu Id in Lydda itself. In the lists of councils the name fluctuates between Lydda and Diospolis, but eventually the ancient name resumed the place 88 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. usurped by its heathen rival. We need not trace the later history of Ludd through the era of the Crusades and afterward. Suffice it to say that its vicissitudes were almost as numerous and as tragic as those of Joppa. At the present time, enclosed as it is with gardens and almost buried in palms, and with a large well close to its chief entrance, Ludd is beauti¬ ful from a distance; but, like Ramleh, it is disappointing on a nearer approach. Its population is only about 1,500, and the contrast of its present squalor with the prosperity it has often be¬ fore experienced is strikingly presented to the eye of the spectator by the remains of splendid buildings in the midst of miserable hovels. The aspect of the inhabi¬ tants is painfully displeasing, from the extraordinary num¬ ber of persons who are af¬ fected with loathsome dis¬ eases of the eye, caused by heaps of ashes, which have produced the same maladies as at Ramleh. It is a com¬ mon saying that at Ludd every man has either but one eye or none at all. The only attraction at Ludd, apart from its historical associations, is the Church of St. George of Cappadocia, the patron saint of England, who is revered by all churches, but of whom hardly anything is certainly known. It is said that he was born at Lydda, and that, after his martyr¬ dom at Nicomedia, his head was brought to his native place and deposited under the altar of the church which bears his name. The edifice has been many times destroyed, and as often rebuilt. It is now in possession of the FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 89 Greeks, and under the altar is an ancient crypt which is said to have con¬ tained the tomb of St. George. The eastern part of the building is used as a church , the western part as a mosque, and the Mohammedans have a curious oral tradition of a prophecy of Mohammed, that, at the end of the world, the Lord Isa (Jesus) is to slay Antichrist at the gate of Lydda. Evidently this is a Moslem version of the legend of St. George and the Dragon. Leaving Ludd through a rich meadow, we continue our way through olive groves and cactus hedges and approach the ascent of the Judean hills. In an hour we come to the village of Jimzu , the Gimzo of the Old Testament (2 Chron. xxviii:i8). From that point we rise by a rugged road, with aline of hills on either side, which gradually approach each other until they form almost a ravine. In a few hours we come to the village of Beit Ur (el tahta ) or the (Lower) Beth-Horon , at the lower end of the famous pass of Beth-Horon, the scene of the most splendid victory recorded in the history of Israel. From the Lower Beth-Horon, which is 1,500 feet above sea-level, to Beit Ur (cl ' f oka) or the (Upper) Beth-Horon at the further end of the pass, the road is certainly steep, since it rises 600 feet in three miles, but it cannot be called precipitous. Still less is it a ravine, for it runs along the ridge of a hogback or watershed with a wady (or valley) on either hand. On leaving the Lower Beit-Ur there is first a slight descent, and then a rise of about three miles to Beit-Ur the Upper. Even in Palestine, this road is exceptionally difficult. In places it has steps cut in the rock> showing that at a former time it was artificially improved; but most of it is partly over sheets of rock, smooth and flat as paving stones, partly over the upturned edges of the limestone strata, and everywhere the road is strewn with the loose rectangular blocks of stone which are characteristic of the country. It is a bad road at best for the ordinary traveler; for an army in confusion a worse road could hardly be imagined. From the Upper Beit-Ur we perceive a deep valley, five miles wide, and beyond it, still to the southeast, the towering height of El Jib , the re¬ nowned fortress of Gibeon. In order to clearly understand Dean Stanley s eloquent account of the battle of Beth-Horon it will be necessary to re¬ member that an army fleeing from the valley before Gibeon, through the pass of Beth-Horon, would have first to climb the steep slope of the valley 90 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM in order to enter the pass at its upper end, and then would have to run down the pass in order to reach its exit at the lower end. One other feature still requires to be described in order to complete¬ ness. Between the modern and the ancient roads from Joppa to Jerusa¬ lem, as far as Amwas on the former and Umm Rush on the other, lies a KULONIEH AND WADY ES-SUMPT. valley sloping gradually upward toward the east, and somewhat broken by hills. It is now called Meri Ibn Omar; and throughout its whole extent only one small village preserves the famous name by which it was known in the days of Joshua. The village, three miles northeast of Latrun, is Yalo; the ancient name of the valley was Ajalon. We are now prepared to recall the history of the battle of Beth- Horon, which has been called, without exaggeration, the most important battle in sacred history. The Israelites had crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land. Their camp had been pitched at Gilgal, not far from the Jordan, and there the headquarters of Joshua were kept for a considerable time. The fall of Jericho, quickly followed by the destruc- FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 9i tion of Ai, struck terror into the hearts of the men of Gibeon, who resolved to obtain a league with the invaders. Their messengers presented them¬ selves before Joshua in worn garments and with other signs of travel from a distant country, and pretending that their land was far off, asked the alliance of Joshua and Israel. Without making inquiry, Joshua covenanted with the Gibeonites that their lives should be spared, and the elders of Israel bound themselves by an oath to observe the treaty. The treaty having been made, Joshua was chagrined to learn that these new allies occupied no distant region, but had their abode within one day’s forced march from his own camp. Notwithstanding the false pretence under which his alliance had been obtained, he would not break the oath by which he and the elders of Israel had bound themselves; but he decided that the treaty must be construed strictly according to the letter of its terms. He therefore promised to spare the lives of the Gibeonites, and to protect them, but he declared that they should be hewers of wood and drawers of water to the congregation of Israel and the house of God forever. The defection of the Gibeonites from the side of the other inhabitants of the land was a severe blow to the enemies of Israel; for Gibeon was at the head of a league which included not only their own city and its terri¬ tory, but also Kirjath-jearim, of which we have already spoken, Beeroth, of which we shall hear later on and in another connection, and also Chephira, the modern village of Kefir, two miles west of Yalo. Therefore the neigh¬ boring kings, having heard of the covenant between Israel and the Gibeon¬ ites, entered into a confederacy to destroy Gibeon. Then the Gibeonites appealed to Joshua to come to their assistance. Here we may begin our extract from Dean Stanley. “This summons” (he says) “was as urgent as words can describe. It was a struggle for life and death for which his aid was demanded — not only for Gibeon, but for the Israelites. They had hitherto only encountered the outskirts of the Canaanitish tribes. Now they were to meet the whole force of the hills of southern Palestine. ‘The King of Jerusalem, the King of Hebron, the King of Jarmuth, the King of Lachish, the King of Eglon’ two of them the rulers of the chief cities of the whole country — ‘gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and camped 92 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. before Gideon; and the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, “Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly and save us and help us; for all the kings of the Amorites, that dwell in the mountains, are gathered together against us’” (Josh. ix:i-6). “Not a moment was to be lost. As in the battle of Marathon, every¬ thing depended on the suddenness of the blow which should break in pieces the hostile confederation. On the former occasion of Joshua’s visit to Gibeon, it had been a three day’s journey from Gilgal, as according to the slow pace of eastern armies and caravans, it well might be. But now, by a forced march, ‘Joshua came unto them suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night.’ When the sun rose behind him, he was already in the open ground at the foot of the heights of Gibeon, where the kings were encamped. As often before and after, so now, ‘not a man could stand before’ the awe and the panic of the sud¬ den sound of that terrible shout — the sudden appearance of that undaunted host, who came with the assurance not ‘to fear nor to be dismayed — but to be strong and of a good courage, for the Lord had delivered their enemies into their hands’ (Josh, x: 8, 25). They fled down the western pass, and ‘the Lord discomfited them before Israel, < Q Q >- and slew them with great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-Horon’ (Josh, x: 10). This was the first stage of the flight — in the long ascent which I have described, from Gibeon up to Beth-Horon the Upper. ‘And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down of Beth- Horon, that the Lord cast great stones from Heaven upon them unto FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 93 Azekah’ (Josh, x: 1 1). This was the second stage of the flight. The fugitives had outstripped the pursuers, they had crossed the high ridge of Beth-Horon the Upper; they were in full flight down the descent to Beth- Horon the Nether; when, as afterward in the flight of Barak against Sisera, one of the fearful tempests, which, from time to time, sweep over the hills of Palestine, burst upon the disordered army, and ‘there were more which died with hailstones than they whom the Children of Israel slew with the sword” (Josh, x: 11). “It is at this point that ‘the Book of Jasher’ presents us with that sublime picture, which, however variously it always has been and per¬ haps always will be interpreted, we may here take as we find it there expressed. On the summit of the pass — looking far down the deep descent of all the westward valleys, with the broad green vale of Ajalon unfolding in the distance into the open plain, with the yet wider expanse of the Mediterranean Sea beyond — stood the Israelite chief. Below him was rushing down in wild confusion the Amorite host. Around him were ‘all his people of war and all his mighty men of valor.’ Behind him were the hills which hid Gibeon — the now rescued Gibeon— from his sight. But the sun stood high above those hills — ‘in the midst of Heaven;’ for the day had now far advanced since he had emerged from his night march through the passes of Ai, and in front, over the western vale of Ajalon, was the faint figure of the crescent moon, visible above the hailstorm, which was fast driving up from the sea in the valleys below. Was the enemy to escape in safety, or was the speed with which Joshua had ‘come quickly and saved and helped’ his defenceless allies, to be still rewarded before the close of that day, by a signal and decisive victory ? “Doubtless, with outstretched hand and spear, ‘the hand that he drew not back, when he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed the inhabitants of Ai,’ “then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon. And thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon." And the sun stood still and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged them¬ selves upon their enemies.” 94 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM “So ended the second stage of the flight. The third is less distinct, from a variation in the text of the narrative. But following what seems the most probable reading, the pursuit still continued; ‘and the Lord smote them to Azekah and unto Makkedah, and these five kings fled and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.’ But Joshua halted not when he was told; the same speed was still required, the victory was not yet won. ‘Roll great stones,” he said, ‘upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them, and stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities; for CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE, LYDDA. the Lord hath delivered them into your hands.’ We know not precisely the position of Makkedah, but it must have been probably at the point where the mountains sink into the plain, that this last struggle took place; and thither at last to the camp at Makkedah ‘all the people of Israel returned in peace; none moved his tongue against any of the people of Israel.’ There was enacted, as it would seem, the last act of the same eventful day; the five kings were brought out and slain, and hanged on five FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 95 trees until the evening, when at last that memorable sun went down. ‘It came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua com¬ manded, and they took them down from off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave’s mouth. . . . And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain’ (Josh, x: 22-28). And then fol¬ lowed the rapid succession of victory and extermination which swept the whole of southern Palestine into the hands of Israel. The possession of every place, sacred for them and for all future ages, from the Plain of Esdraelon to the southern desert — Shechem, Shiloh, Gibeon, Bethlehem, Hebron — was, with the one exception of Jerusalem, involved in the issue of that conflict. ‘And all those kings and their land did Joshua take at one time , because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp to Gilgal’ ” (Josh, x: 42,43). The fame of Beth-Horon does not end with this marvelous victory. It was at this same pass that the heroic Judas Maccabeus gained one of his first successes, against the Syrian oppressors under whose yoke his country had fallen. In comparison with the triumph of Joshua it was a small affair, but it was the beginning of a wonderful career and a great deliverance. In this case the advancing enemy, while on the march to attack Judas, was caught between the two Beth-Horons. Even so, the handful of men with Judas hesitated to attack so formidable an army; but Judas bade them remember that “the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host.” Inspired by his address they rushed down upon the Syrians and drove them back in wild disorder. From the “going down of Beth-Horon” to the plain they pursued their routed enemy, slaying eight hundred of them, “and the residue fled into the land of the Philis¬ tines” (1 Macc. iii; 13-24). Like a spark from an expiring brand, a third Jewish victory at Beth- Horon preceded the extinction of the national existence of Israel. When the Roman general Cestius had finished the cowardly destruction of Lydda, already mentioned, he, too, marched against Jerusalem, through the pass of Beth-Horon, and encamped before Gibeon. Seized with ungovernable fury, the Jews forgot even the sanctity of their Sabbath and 96 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. hastened to meet their invader. Bursting upon the Roman camp they made their way clean through it, and the Romans fled down the pass, while their cavalry defended the rear. Once in the pass the cavalry was at fearful disadvantage, and the Roman loss was heavy; but night came on, and there was no Joshua at hand to obtain a lengthening of the day. The main body of the enemy escaped; and the insane divisions of the Jews soon made their victory, such as it was, of no effect. Five miles beyond Beit-Ur, as we have said, is El Jib , beyond all doubt whatever the ancient Gibeon. The plain in which it stands is all seamed with streamlets, or at least with water courses, which ultimately drain into the Mediter¬ ranean Sea, and not eastward to the Jor¬ dan. The ancient fortress has disappeared ; o the city has shrunk to a poor village. In § a cave hollowed out under a cliff is a i h copious spring which fills one deep reser- M voir on the spot and another below the vil- asi ^ lage. This lower reservoir is undoubtedly 2 the “poof of Gibeon” beside whose waters p a bloody conflict once took place. It was after the death of Saul and David’s corona¬ tion at Hebron. Abner had proclaimed Saul’s son Ish-bosheth king, and, as it seems, he made some appointment with Joab, the follower of David, to meet at the pool of Gibeon. The two parties “sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side;” and after what conference we know not, twelve men of either party rose and fought a mortal duel in which all the champions were slain. A fierce battle ensued, ending in a victory for Joab. In honor of that days’ battle “the place was called Helkath-hazzurim (the field of the Mighty) which is in Gibeon” (2 Sam. ii: 12-18). Not far from that same spot Joab afterward committed his cowardly assassination of Amasa, whom David had sent forth to quell the revolt of Sheba (2 Sam. xx; 1 - 1 3). Soon after that cow- FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 97 I ardly murder the tabernacle of God was removed either from Kirjath- jearim or from Nob, (i Chron, xvi: 39), to a “high place” near by Gibeon, and on the death of David, who had never forgiven the crimes of Joab, that doomed old man, knowing that the hour of vengeance had come, fled to the tabernacle and was put to death while he held the very horns of the altar (1 Kings ii; 28, 29). j The reign of Solomon was inaugurated with a magnificent religious celebration at the tabernacle near Gibeon. It was a fit spot for such a ser¬ vice. If we may suppose the “high place” to have been the hill-top within a mile of the fortress of Gibeon, and now known as Ncby Samwil , in honor of the Prophet Samuel, then no such spot in all his kingdom could I have been found for the purposes of that act of devotion in behalf of him- ^ self and his kingdom. It is 3,006 feet above sea-level, and towers above all other hills in its vicinity. From the top of a Moslem minaret, which ( now stands on its summit, is the most extensive view in Western Palestine. “At our feet,” says Dr. Tristram, “are deep, rugged valleys, partially cov¬ ered with scrub, and olive groves contrasting with the white limestone ridges. Beyond are Beeroth and Ophrah, the rock Rimmon, and Ramah of Benjamin. Over the nearer ridges we look far away, beyond the Jordan Valley, which lies far too deep to be seen, on to the dark outlines of the ranges of Gilead and Moab. With the glass we can detect the fortress of Kerak, Jebel Shihan (Sihon), the highest point in Moab, and the distant mountains of Jebel. Turning to the south, over the bare foreground of grey hills we see the mosques and domes of Jerusalem apparently sunk in a valley. Northward we detect Mount Gerizim and the shoulder of Car¬ mel; to the westward push forth from beneath the wide Plains of Sharon and Philistia, sometimes green with corn, sometimes bare and red fallow, and dark patches which tell of olive-groves, while white spots gleam in the sunshine — the roofs of Lydda, of Ramleh, or some other olive and orange girt village. Beyond these a ribbon of yellow sand marks the line between the green plain and the blue sea. That white green-encircled knoll at the edge of the sand is Jaffa, and the sail of a lateen-rigged vessel here and there dots the sea. If this be not Mizpeh, i. e., the ‘watch-tower of Ben¬ jamin, I know not where else we can find it, although the name be lost under a mediaeval tradition, and that again supplanted by a Moslem one.” 98 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. At the tabernacle, which stood on this magnificent platform, with the heavens for its appropriate dome, Solomon offered his oblation of a thou¬ sand burnt offerings and sought counsel from God concerning the work before him. The youthful prince was richly blessed. “In Gibeon God ap¬ peared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.” Awed perhaps by the spectacle on which he had gazed, the king was moved with humility. He asked only for “an understanding heart to judge the people;” and God gave him what he asked and many rich bless¬ ings which he had not asked (i Kings, iii: i — 1 5). “This glimpse of Gibeon in all the splendor of its greatest prosperity — the smoke of the thousand animals rising from the venerable altar on the commanding height of ‘the great high place’ — the clang of ‘trumpets and cymbals and musical instru¬ ments of God’ (1 Chron. XVK42) resounding through the valleys far and near — is virtually the last we hear of it. In a few years the temple of God at Jerusalem was completed, and the tabernacle was taken down and re¬ moved.” That is indeed “the last we hear” of Gibeon, unless Gibeon is to be understood to include the adjacent height of Neby Samwil. If that is understood, and if Neby Samwil can also be identified with the ancient Mizpeh, then we have more to hear of it. On the former point we need only say that no other place in the vicinity of Gibeon can be so properly called its “great high place” as the crest of Neby Samwil; and on the latter point, without entering into one of the most difficult questions in biblical geography, we may be content to know that Dr. Robinson and Van de Velde are satisfied that Neby Samwil is Mizpeh. Dr. Tristram, as we have above seen, says, “if this be not Mizpeh, I know not where else we can find it.” During the twenty years that “the ark of God abode at Kirjath-jearim, the Israelites forsook the idolatries into which they had fallen,” and at the invitation of Samuel, the prophet, they assembled at Mizpeh to renew their homage to the Lord. Samuel did not hesitate to promise that if they did so sincerely they should be delivered out of the hands of their enemies. While they were engaged in their solemn devotions, the lords of the Philis¬ tines came against them with their army, but, as in the first battle of Beth- Horon, a sudden storm of hail burst upon them and beat them back; the Is- FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 99 raelites took courage and fell upon their enemies and routed them. Then it was that Samuel raised a stone of victory and called it Eben-ezer , the Stone of Help, saying, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us !” (i Sam. vii; i-i 2). It was at Mizpeh again that all Israel assembled to choose a king, and there that the gallant but unhappy Saul, who “was higher than any of the AJALON, LOOKING TOWARD THE MEDITERRANEAN. people from the shoulders upward,” was hailed as the leader of his people, and the heights of Mizpeh rang again and again with the new cry, “God save the king!” Then the aged Samuel laid aside his duties as the judge of Israel, going no more on his judicial circuit to Bethel, Gilgal and Miz¬ peh (1 Sam. vii : 16). Except that the men of Mizpeh faithfully did their part in the rebuild¬ ing of Jerusalem after the captivity (Neh. iii : 7), and that Judas Maccabeus encamped there on the eve of his rescue of the Holy City from the Syrians, we have no further notice of Mizpeh by that name; but it was a place be¬ loved long ages afterward by the crusaders, who called it Mount Joy, because there they first came in sight of Jerusalem. There it was that the English Richard of the Lion Heart had his only sight of the Sacred City. His troops were encamped in the Valley of Ajalon. A well near Yalo is still called Bir-el-Khebir , the Hero’s Well. Richard alone went 100 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. up to Mount Joy, but standing with his face toward Jerusalem, he hid his eyes behind his shield and cried, “Ah, Lord God, I pray that I may never see thy Holy City, if so be that I may not rescue it from the hands of thine enemies!” Tradition makes Neby Samwil the birth-place, the home and the place of burial of the Prophet Samuel. The crusaders held it to be the CAPTURE OF THE FIVE KINGS AFTER THE BATTLE OF BETH-HORON. (JOSH. X: 16-27.) ancient Shiloh and built a church there over “Samuel’s Tomb.” The vil¬ lage is poor. Its few inhabited dwellings are partly hewn in the rock, but there are remains of ancient buildings of great solidity. From Neby Samwil we descend by the ancient Roman road, and strike the road from Kulonieh, on the west side of Jerusalem. As our present destination is not Jerusalem, but Bethlehem, we continue our jour¬ ney southward through the Valley of Gibeon. Leaving the city behind, our FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. IOI course turns slightly to the west and leads us into the Valley of Rephaim , which the authorized version renders as the Valley of Giants (Josh. xv:8; xviii: 16). There (2 Sam. v: 18-22; xxiii: 13), David won two victories against the Philistines, of so signal a character as to cause the name of the valley to be changed to that of Perazim (Divisions). This name clung to it and was so proverbial as a symbol of utter rout that the prophet Isaiah uses it to describe the desolation and destruction of the whole earth: “Jehovah shall rise up as at Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the Valley of Gibeon.” (Isa. xxviii:2i). The plain is now tolerably cultivated. It sinks somewhat to the west toward the Wady-el Werd, or the Valley of Roses; and as we proceed, we pass some spots which tradition connects with sacred incidents and Script¬ ure characters, such as a ruin on the right, called Katamon , which is said to have been the house of Simeon (Luke ii : 2 5), and the well of the Wise Men, where the Magi are said to have caught sight of the Star again after leaving Herod. At the end of the plain we pass the residence of the Greek Patriarch and ascend a hill, on the summit of which, three miles from Jeru¬ salem, is Deir Mar Elyas, or the Convent of St. Elijah. It was founded in early Christian times by a bishop of the name of Elias, and tradition soon connected the place with the prophet Elijah. The mark of the prophet’s foot is still shown in the rock! On the path from the main road to the monastery there is a well from which the Holy Family is said to have drank. Little more than a mile beyond Deir Mar Elyas, while we are still something less than a mile from Bethlehem, we come to a monument of undoubted antiquity. It is Rachel’s Tomb. Bethlehem is so ancient a city that no record of its origin survives. It was a city in the days of the patriarchs; it was not far from Bethlehem, on the way to Jerusalem, that Jacob buried the wife of his first choice, the beautiful Rachel. “Rachel died,” we are told in the simple language of Scripture, “and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave; that is a pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day” (Gen. xxxv: 19, 20). From this passage we may infer that the original Canaanitish name of Bethlehem was Ephrath (or Ephratah ), and that the name of Bethlehem, the House of Bread, was still of recent 102 FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. date in the time of Jacob. The present name, Beit Lahm, signifies House of Flesh. It is not to be supposed that the pillar or monument of stones which Jacob raised in honor of Rachel would remain unmoved forever, but there is every reason to believe that the veneration of the Jews for so ancient a monument of their race would cause them, from time to time, to renew or replace it when it fell into decay. As the centuries went on, and the associations of race became traditions of religion, the tomb of Rachel would be more and more visited and venerated; and the strength of national and religious sentiment would be too great ever to allow its site to be forgiven. Traditions of place are preserved at the East with great care, and there is little doubt that what is now known as Rachel’s Tomb is either at or very near the spot on which Jacob reared his pillar of com¬ memoration. Throughout the Christian era there has been no difference in the tradition of Jews, Christians and Mahommedans, by all of whom Rachel’s tomb is sacredly revered. The present building, of course, is not the tower or mound of stones with which Jacob marked the spot. It cannot date further back than the twelfth century. It is a square build¬ ing of rough stones, the walls of which are about twenty-three feet in length, and about twenty feet high, with a dome at one end, which rises above the flat roof of the rest of the edifice. Originally there seem to have been arches in each wall. All over the walls are seen the names of pilgrims who have wished to leave a record of their visit to the spot. There is but one difficulty connected with the place of Rachel’s Tomb, namely, that it is said (i Sam. x: 2), to have been in “the border of Benjamin,” which would require it to be at some distance to the north of Jerusalem, instead of nearly five miles to the south. On the other hand Jacob says, “when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath; and I buried her in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem” (Gen. xlviii: 7). Dr. Thomson explains the apparent discrepancy as fol- BETH HORON. FROM JOPPA TO BETHLEHEM. 103 I lows: “It seems to me that instead of running northward, and thereby throwing a large part of the site of Jerusalem into the tribe of Judah instead of Benjamin, the boundary line appears to have made a deep bend southward, so as to include Rachel’s Tomb, which Samuel says was ‘in the border of Benjamin.’ The border, it is true, must have returned sharply from the tomb to the northwest, forming a kind of loop made for the special purpose of including the sepulcher within the tribe of Benja¬ min. Nor is it difficult to understand and appreciate the motive which led to this unique curve in the boundary. The Benjaminites would naturally desire to possess the spot where the father of their tribe was born, as the soul of his mother was departing, and whose solitary sepul¬ cher commemorates the affecting incidents of that sad calamity.” It is touching to remember that, though Jacob piously did honor to the wife for whom he had waited fourteen years, he was not buried by her side. In the near prospect of death his heart turned tenderly to the blear- eyed Leah (Gen. xxix: 17), whom he had not desired for his wife, and to whom he had perhaps not shown too much love in the early years of their marriage. When the time came for the aged patriarch to be gathered to his fathers, it was not by the side of Rachel that he chose to be laid. His charge to his sons was solemn and affecting. “Bury me,” he said, “with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field, of Ephron, the Hittite, for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah” (Gen. xlix: 29-31). Even in those days of polygamy something in human nature testified to the true nature of marriage, which is the exclusive union of one man with one woman “according to God’s holy ordinance” at the creation; and though Jacob had had Rachel to wife as well as Leah, yet at the last his heart turned to the wife of his youth. t \ \ I \ \ \ CHAPTER III. BETHLEHEM. Bethlehem — Antiquity — History — Jonathan, the Levite — The Idyl of Ruth and Naomi— Description of Bethlehem — A Graceful Legend — Boaz — Obed — Jesse — David — The Habitation of Chimham — Joab — Abishai — Asahel — Twenty-third Psalm — The Well of Bethlehem — Fortified by Rehoboam — Captivity — The Nativity — Migdal Eder — Journey of the Blessed Virgin and Joseph from Naz¬ areth — Their Genealogy — Their Poverty — The Inn — Cave of the Nativity — Cave of St. Jerome — Legends of the Nativity — The Circumcision — The Holy Name — The Purification — Simeon and Anna— Nunc Dimittis— The Epiphany — Herod the Idumean — His Cruelties — The Wise Men— Traditions Concerning Them — Their Gifts — The Star in the East — Astrology- -Kepler’s Investi¬ gation — Slaughter of the Innocents — Rachel Weeping — Modern Bethlehem — Population — Industries — Costumes — Church of St. Mary — Cave and Shrine of the Nativity, ANY place on earth ought to be sacred to the hearts of all men, place is Bethlehem. From that little town of Judah has gone forth a power which has affected the whole course of the world's history, and which is destined to affect the course and his¬ tory of all worlds in the uni¬ verse, so long as time endures. It was in that little town that “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” assumed the veil of our humanity. It was Syrian carpenter making a" plough. in Bethlehem that He was born Whom prophets had foretold, and at whose coming choirs of angels sang aloud for joy, Jesus, the Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Saviour of mankind. Bethlehem, as we have before said, is a city so ancient that history contains no record of its origin. Of its history before and during the patriarchal period, we know nothing. After the conquest of Canaan, it is 104 THE GATE OF BETHLEHEM. ■ ' ■ 1 * BETHLEHEM. 107 first mentioned in connection with a sad story of human weakness and its consequences. Bethlehem was not a city of the priests, but it is certain that, after the conquest, some priests, or at least, Levites, made their home there. The northern tribes, though always more prone to idolatrous rites than Judah and Benjamin, cherished a high regard for the priestly tribe of Levi. So it came to pass, in the days when there was no king in Israel, and when every man did what was right in his own eyes, that a man named Micah eagerly secured the services of a Levite of Bethlehem, to serve as a priest in his house and conduct his idolatrous worship (Judges xvii). Thus, Jonathan, a Levite of Bethlehem, became the priest of the tribe of Dan, and his descendants after him retained the same office until the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and the people were carried into cap¬ tivity (Judges xviii: 30). But for that sin of Jonathan, the Levite, the idolatry of Dan might not have become fixed and inveterate; and perhaps the ruin of a kingdom might have been averted. The seeds of evil, once sown, are apt to bring forth evil harvests after many days. The next notice of Bethlehem that we find in Holy Scripture is in the beautiful idyl of the Book of Ruth. In the age to which that lovely story belongs, Bethlehem was much the same as it is now. Things change slowly in eastern lands ; cities hardly change at all ; and besides, the physical situation of Bethlehem would make any great change impossible. Then, as now, it was situated on a sort of triangular wedge of high rock, opening from the highlands of the west to the plains toward the east, and consist¬ ing of two continuous hills, of which the western is the higher. On the north and south the sides of the hills are exceedingly steep, but the lower hill slopes eastward to the plain. Then, as now, the sides of the hills were terraced, so as to give place for orchards of olive trees and other fruits; and hanging gardens, as they might be called, yielded a rich increase to laborious cultivation. In the plains beneath, and especially to the east¬ ward, were fields of grain and rich pasturage for flocks. From the town on the summit of the hills could be seen the valley which declines toward the shores of the Dead Sea, and beyond the sea rose the gloomy hills of Moab, purple in the distance. In a fearful time there came a famine over all that portion of the land; the orchards cast their fruit; the fields yielded BETHLEHEM FROM THE EAST. behind them unprovided for and unprotected. Naomi heard that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread, and she resolved to go back to her native home. She did not ask nor expect her sons’ wives to go with her. She hoped that they might find in Moab other husbands, and a future happier than the past had been. But the two young women 10S BETHLEHEM. a scanty harvest; the poor suffered for bread; and Elimelech, with his wife Naomi, was driven by want to leave his native home in Bethlehem, and to seek a livelihood beyond the Salt Sea in the land of Moab. There they dwelt until the sons of Elimelech had grown up and had married maidens of Moab; and then the father and his two sons died, leaving three widows BETHLEHEM. 109 chose rather to go with her. Naomi must have been a good mother to have won such love from her sons’ wives. But as they went — three widows on foot, and with small possessions among the three — Orpah was per¬ suaded to return. She kissed Naomi and went back, while Ruth refused her mother’s urgent entreaty in words which art has wedded to the strains of an immortal melody. She said: “Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.” There was nothing more to say between those two, for Ruth’s purpose was as immovable as a fixed star, and “when Naomi saw that she was stead¬ fastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her;” and so they came, God guiding them, to Bethlehem, the house of Bread. They were still in straits for the means of living. The inheritance of Elimelech and his sons had fallen to a distant kinsman; and by the law of Moses and the custom of the time it was his duty to take Ruth to wife. Naomi sup¬ posed the wealthy Boaz to be her next kinsman, and sent Ruth gleaning in his fields, doubtless to the eastward of the Bethlehem hills. Boaz bade his reapers treat the stranger maiden kindly, and told them to allow her to glean after them among the sheaves, and even to let handfuls fall for her to gather. Ruth herself he told to abide with his maidens, and at their modest meals he gave her of the parched corn and vinegar which was served out for the rest. At last the harvest home was followed by the winnowing of the grain in the threshing floor, and by Naomi’s counsel Ruth’s claim was made known, in a truly oriental fashion, to her kinsman Boaz. But he was not her nearest kinsman, as she had supposed, and could not be her husband unless the nearer kinsman would renounce his right; so he met the nearest kinsman at the gate of Bethlehem, the matter was publicly arranged with the consent of all parties, and Ruth, the Rose of Moab (for Ruth is near akin to our English word Rose), became the wife of the good-hearted but rather elderly man who had been kind to her in her poverty. Children blessed their union. It was not long before the women of Bethlehem said, “There is a child born to Naomi;” “and they called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of David,” 1 10 BETHLEHEM Thus the Moabitish maiden became the mother of many kings, and what is more than that, an ancestress of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Perhaps this graceful legend of Bethlehem may be associated with the name of Ruth: A fair maiden was blamed with wrong, for which cause she was condemned to be burned; and as the fire began to burn about her RUTH I — “0RPAH KISSED HER MOTHER-IN-LAW, BUT RUTH CLAVE UNTO HER.” she made her prayer to our Lord, that, as truly as she was not guilty, He would by His merciful grace help her and make it known to all men. And when she had thus said, she entered into the fire; and immediately the fire was extinguished; and the fagots that were burning became red rose bushes, and those that were not kindled became white rose bushes, full of roses. And these were the first rose trees and roses, white or red, that ever man saw INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH AT BETHLEHEM. i >3 It is altogether likely that Ruth may have held Jesse the father of David, in her arms, as Naomi held his grandfather Obed; and if Boaz had no other children, then the father of David would inherit some considerable portion of the fields of Boaz in which Ruth went gleaning among the reapers. But if we are to believe the Talmud story that Ibzan, the Beth- lehemite, who judged Israel for seven years after Jephthah, and who had thirty sons and thirty daughters (Judges xii), was none other than Boaz, the husband of Ruth, the portion of Jesse could not be a large one. Jesse ap¬ pears, however, to have been a man of some substance, or he would hardly have been numbered among the elders of Bethlehem (Sam. xvi: 1-5). Be¬ sides, David seems to have given some land in the vicinity of Bethlehem to Chimham, the son of Barzillai, which was afterward known as “the Habit¬ ation of Chimham” (2 Sam. xix:37, 38; Jer. xli : 1 7), and if he did, it was probably a part of his inheritance from Jesse. Moreover, Jesse is always mentioned with a certain marked respect, as if descent from him were a distinction. David is constantly spoken of as “the son of Jesse,” and even the Saviour is called the “Root of Jesse,” and “a Rod out of the stock of Jesse” (Isa. xi: 1-10). When the spirit of the Lord had deserted the unhappy Saul, the prophet Samuel was sent to Bethlehem to anoint a king for Israel. At a sacrificial feast, at which the elders were present, and to which Jesse, was particularly invited, seven of his sons were successively rejected; but when David, the youngest of all, was brought in, the prophet beheld in him the “man after God’s own heart”, who should reign over God’s people (1 Sam. xvi). Still, the lad, though designated to so high an office, continued to keep his father’s flock in the Plains of Bethlehem, tending his teeming ewes, perhaps, in the same fields where the shepherds long afterward heard the glad tidings of the birth of David’s greater Son, the Christ (1 Sam. xvii:i5; Psa. lxxviii:7o, 71). When he became a member of Saul’s household, he still returned to share in the family feasts of his father’s house (1 Sam. xx:6) and some of his bravest companions and fel¬ low soldiers, of later times, were Bethlehemites, as the three brothers, Joab, and Abishai, and the unfortunate Asahel, “light of foot as a wild roe,” whom they buried “in the sepulcher of his father, which was at Bethlehem” (2 Sam. ii : 18, 32). When David had become a war-worn outlaw under BETHLEHEM. 1 14 the persecution of Saul, and had at last succeeded to the throne of a king¬ dom, which was overrun by its enemies, he seems often to have recalled the peaceful days and simple pleasures of his early years. The psalms are full of references to the occupations of his youth, and the twenty-third psalm, which has given hope and comfort to many thousands of hearts, is a pastoral lyric of the flock and the wilderness. When he was in hiding near the cave of Adullum, Bethlehem was occupied by the Philistines; and one day, suffering from thirst, he incautiously said in the hearing of three of his mighty men, “Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” Forthwith, the three heroes made their way to Bethlehem, braved the hostile garrison, drew water from the well beside the gate, and brought it to their chief. But David would not drink the water which might have cost brave men’s lives. He said, “Far be it from me, Lord, that I should do this! Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?” The “well of David” is still at Bethlehem. Wells are precious things in that dry land; they are seldom forgotten, never destroyed, except by enemies in war. There are two wells which claim the honor of David’s name, but the claim of one of them is much stronger than that of the other. Dr. Geikie, after saying that there are five shafts sunk into the rock (although he himself saw only three), adds that “the largest of the three openings proved to be twenty-six feet deep, but it is partly filled with stones, so that the original depth cannot be known. Between two and three feet of water stood in the bottom; but the other openings, which were about twelve feet, were dry. The water in the first pit was fresh and good, like that of a spring, and it is probable that it flows from one, though most of the water seems to find some escape through the rocks. In David’s time it may have risen much higher in the shaft. Situated in the only spot where ‘a gate’ could have been built — the north end of the town, which alone joins the country without an inter¬ vening valley — this well seems fairly entitled to be regarded as that from which the precious draught was brought to the shepherd king. It is, by the way, the only spring in Bethlehem, the town depending entirely on cisterns.” From the time of his accession to the throne, we do not hear that David ever visited the city of his birth; but he may nevertheless have been BETHLEHEM RUTH II : 5 — “then said boaz, whose damsel is this?” tified it and so made it liable to military attack (2 Chron. xi:6). Many of its inhabitants must have been carried into captivity at Babylon, since we read that not less than one hundred and twenty-three Bethlehemites, by which we are to understand heads of families, returned from captivity with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii: 21). Yet Bethlehem, though not famous, was not forgotten; it was a city of prophecy. It was not great in the history there frequently. The distance of Bethlehem from Hebron, where he had his first capital, is only twelve miles, as the crow flies; and from Zion, his later capital, it is only five. We may therefore easily suppose, that he visited the home of his youth, though no incident which called him there may have been of sufficient importance to be recorded by the sacred his¬ torian. For a long time Bethlehem had the happiness of places that have no history. For centuries we hear nothing of it whatever. Rehoboam for- BETHLEHEM. 1 16 of Israel, but it was to be illustrious among the cities of the world. So said the prophet Micah: “But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah v:2‘). At a little distance from Bethlehem is Migdal Eder, “the Tower of Eder” (Gen. xxxv:2i), or “the tower of the flock” (Mic. iv : 8 ; v:2), from which the shepherds watched for enemies by whom their flocks might be assailed. Its place is now occupied by a neglected chapel, called “the Angel to the Shepherds." It consists only of a rude crypt or cave in a grove of olive trees; but why it should be so neglected is difficult to guess, since by unvarying tradition it is the spot at which the shepherds on the Plain of Bethlehem heard the angelic proclamation of the good tidings of the birth of Christ. It is needless to enlarge upon that story, or to mar the sublime simplicity of the gospel of St. Luke by adding to his words: “There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. “And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Saviour which is Christ, the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, prais¬ ing God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men. “And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came in haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning the child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pon¬ dered them in her heart. “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things which they had heard and seen.” (Luke ii: 8-20). During the governorship of Cyrenius (or more properly, of Quirinus) over the province of Syria, Joseph and the Blessed Virgin had been aHH ipM# IBP WOMEN OF BETHLEHEM 1 1 8 BETHLEHEM. w ffi w h-l a H W required by an edict of the Emperor Augustus Caesar, to go to the place to which, by descent, they belonged, to be enrolled in a general census. Nazareth was within the limits of that province, and it may have been a concession or courtesy which required persons belonging by birth or descent to the kingdom of Herod to be enrolled in his dominions. Be that as it may, toward the middle of winter the holy pair went down from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a distance of eighty miles, to the city of their forefathers. Joseph was undoubtedly of the line of David, and both the genealogies of our Lord, which are given in the Gospels, are genealogies of Joseph. That Mary also was of the royal race is clearly implied in every part of the New Testament (Luke i: 32; Acts ii: 30; xiii: 22; Rom. i. : 3). S Thus Mary and Joseph were at least distantly o related, and -it has been conjectured that they may have been cousins, so that the genealogy of Joseph may really be the genealogy of Mary ^ likewise. The sacred care with which the Jews have always kept the record of their genealogies has not only been of interest, but has been of great historical value. During the discussion of a bill for the removal of the civil disabilities of the Jews in England, a member of parliament spoke of the Jewish people as lying under the curse invoked by Christ’s murderers, who said, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Not long afterward a Jew living in London publicly affirmed, and offered to prove, that that curse could not rightly fall upon him or his fam¬ ily, as his genealogy showed that his forefathers had been settled in Spain, generations before the birth of our Lord. The documents are said to have been actually produced, and to have satisfied com¬ petent persons that the claim founded upon them was well sustained. Within a year past, a Jew of New York, resenting the social ostracism of his people, has asserted in the public pi ess that he can trace his descent in a direct line to King David and also to Aaron, the brother of Moses. BETHLEHEM. 1 19 It may well be then, that Joseph, knowing that the child to be born was of the line of David, and cherishing the hope that he might prove to be the long expected Messiah, chose to be enrolled at Bethlehem where the Mes¬ siah was to be born, rather than at Nazareth. It may or may not be that Joseph was a poor man. Nothing on that subject appears in the record. That he was a carpenter by trade proves very little, since all Jews taught their children trades. The probability is that he was a man in ordinary circumstances; certainly not wealthy, but not in abject poverty. If, however, he was even of the poorest of his class, that would in no way militate against his royal descent. The grand¬ son of Moses was almost a vagabond; and at this day it is not uncommon at the East to see mendicants and paupers wearing the green turban, which proclaims them to be descendants of Mahomet. Indeed, when we think of the number of descendants any man may have after ten or twelve generations, it is quite certain that a correct list of them, carefully kept for a few centuries, would include persons in all ranks of life. This, perhaps, is one reason why, at the East, where genealogies are sacredly preserved, there are hardly any class distinctions. The rich and the poor meet together with none of the feeling of disparity which the inequalities of wealth create in western nations ; and although the pacha of to-day may be a person to be feared or courted because of the power he possesses, the humblest suitor who comes before him has no feeling of personal inferiority to the man who chances for the time to hold that power. Humbly enough, nevertheless, we may be sure, Joseph and Mary approached the city of their fathers; and when they came there, they dis¬ covered that the khan or caravanserai, which St. Luke calls “the inn,” was already full of guests. The inn, at best, would be a poor place of abode. It would simply be a square building of one story, consisting of little rooms, or cells, surrounding a court-yard, in which the cattle were sheltered. These rooms, or cells, would be entirely closed on three sides, and entirely open on the side facing the court. The flooring would be raised some¬ what above the court, but they would be quite unfurnished, and absolutely without privacy. Their occupants would be left without attendance; they must draw their own water and prepare their own provisions, and might rest on such mats or carpets as they brought with them. 120 BETHLEHEM. Even such poor entertainment was denied the parents of Christ; “there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke ii:7). It is not unusual, in many parts of Palestine, for caves to be used as stables; indeed, there are khans which are simply caves; and nothing is more common than for fam¬ ilies to occupy a room or rooms immediately adjoining a stable. In some such cave-stable, according to the universal tradition of Christendom, Joseph and Mary were obliged to take refuge. St. Justin, the martyr, who was born at Shechem, and was one of the earliest of Christian fathers, says that Jesus was born in a cave at Bethlehem; and the saintly Jerome, moved by a deep spirit of piety, spent many years of his long life of learned usefulness (from A. D. 386 to 420), at Bethlehem and in a cave near that of the Nativity. Plow long Joseph and Mary tarried at Bethle¬ hem before the Holy Child was born, we do not know; but it was in the silent, wonderful night of which St. Luke writes, that the Son of God came to visit us, in great humility. If the record of St. Luke is brief and simple, not such are the stories with which popular imagination soon decked the wondrous tale. The apocryphal gospels are full of strange marvels. They tell us that the cave of Christ’s birth was a cave within a cave, and was so dark that no ray of light ever reached it; but that when the Blessed Virgin entered, it was forthwith filled with a clear, bright light that made all things visible. They tell, too, that when Christ was born, His body shone with soft light, as of the rising sun; and there are stories of the homage paid Him by the dumb beasts that were there, the ox and the ass kneeling before Him. One of these early tales it may be worth while to give entire. It is as follows: “It chanced, as Mary and Joseph were going up toward Bethlehem, that the time came when Jesus should be born; and Mary said to Joseph, ‘Take me down from the ass,’ and he took her down and said to her, ‘Where shall I take thee, for there is no inn here?’ Then he found a cave near the grave of Rachel, the wife of the Patriarch Jacob, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and light never entered the cave, but it was always filled with darkness. And the sun was then just going down. Into this cave he led her, and left his two sons beside her, and went out toward Bethlehem to seek help. But when Mary entered the cave it was pres- BETHLEHEM. 1 2 1 ently filled with light, and beams, as if from the sun, shone around; and so it continued, day and night, while she remained there. In this cave the Child was born, and the angels were round Him at His birth, and wor¬ shiped the New Born, and said, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, and good-will to men.’ “Meanwhile, Joseph was wandering about, seeking help; and when he looked up to heaven, he saw that the pole of the heavens stood still, and the birds of the air stopped in the midst of their flight, and the sky was darkened. And looking on the earth he saw a dish full of food prepared, INTERIOR OF A KHAN. and workmen resting round it, with their hands on the dish, to eat; and those who were stretching out their hands did not take any food; and those who were lifting their hands to their mouths did not do so; but the faces of all were turned upward. And he saw sheep which were being driven along, and the sheep stood still; and the shepherd lifted his hand to strike them, but his hand remained uplifted. And he came to a spring, and saw the goats with their mouths touching the water; but they did not drink; they were under a spell; for all things at that moment were turned from their course.” (Protevangelium C. 17-20). Long ages afterward, devout imagination loved to dream that physical 122 BETHLEHEM. nature recognized the time of Christ’s birth every year. Thus Shakespeare says: “Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes, Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike; No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm; So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.” On Christmas eve, in the olden time, it was believed that for an hour the bees awoke from their winter sleep and hummed their hymn of praise; that the cattle at midnight knelt in their stalls; and that the sheep in their folds formed a procession in honor of the birth of Christ. These pretty fancies were unfounded, but at least they were poetical, and they were cer¬ tainly devout. Only tender hearts, musing that such things ought to be, could have come to dream that they must be, and so at last to believe that they actually happened. And yet the simple story of St. Luke is more majestic than all these pretty dreams. On the eighth day after his birth, the young child was circumcised ac¬ cording to the law of Moses. St. Luke is content to mention the fact without comment, and we need not dwell upon it further than to say that by his circumcision he was acknowledged to have been “made under the law,” as the apostle says (Gal. iv:4). Although the ritual law of Moses was all worn out and ready to vanish away forever, it was still God’s ordi¬ nance; and, until the appointed time should come, it was not to be disre¬ garded, but obeyed .As Christ Himself said afterward, he did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it with a new and larger spirit; and to his disciples He said, “The scribes and pharisees (still) sit in Moses’ seat; all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do.” (Matt, xxiii. 2, 3). From his very birth He was content in all things to be an ex¬ ample of humble obedience to lawful ordinances. It was at his circumcision that, according to the usual custom of the time, he received the name which he was to wear and to adorn throughout his earthly life. It was then that “his name was called Jesus, which was so called of the angel before He was conceived in the womb” (Luke ii : 2 1). Jesus is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Hoshea, which means Salvation , BETHLEHEM 123 or of Joshua , which signifies Whose salvation is Jehovah. It was a common name in Old Testament, and it was hardly less common in the time of Christ. Josephus alone mentions no less than twelve persons of that name, and we find it several times in the New Testament. The full name of the robber who was preferred to the Saviour (Matt, xxvii: 16) was probably Jesus Barabbas; in Luke iii : 29 we find the same name in the form of THE ANGEL AND THE SHEPHERDS. (LUKE Ii: 8-I4.) Jose; in Acts xiii : 6, we read of a Jew called Bar-Jes7is, and in Col. iv: n, of Jesus Justus. In Acts vii 145, and Heb. iv : 8, the Joshua of the Old Testament is mentioned by the Greek equivalent, Jesus. By its historical association with the victorious commander, Joshua, Jesus was a fit name to be borne by the Saviour of the world; and probably it was none the less fit, because it was too common to attract attention. To many millions of men it has come to be the sweetest and most precious of all names, giving 124 BETHLEHEM. strength to the weary, hope to the faint-hearted, and faith to the faltering. It is the name by which men and women have lived lives of holy heroism, and which countless thousands have fondly breathed with their last breath. So it will be while time shall last, and in the world to come it will still be the alpha and the omega, the first and last and tenderest of all the names in heaven. After the circumcision the parents of Jesus still tarried at Bethlehem; and on the fortieth day after His birth, the Blessed Virgin went, according to the law, to celebrate her purification. The Holy Child took no conscious part in that sacred ceremony, so we need not here dwell upon the scene of its performance. The offering of a woman after child-birth was required to be a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a turtle dove or a pigeon for a sin offering, but those who were not wealthy might bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons and not a lamb (Lev. xii: 1-8). A money offering was also required when the child was the first-born of his mother (Num. xviii: 16). Joseph and Mary brought the offering of the poor (Luke ii : 22-24). We shall not here describe the Temple to which they went, and there was no protracted ceremony which requires description. But an incident occurred as they were entering the Temple which cannot be omitted. As they passed into the courts of the sanctuary, they were met by an old man of Jerusalem, called Simeon, who was gifted with unusual spiritual privileges. Holy and devout in life, he was one of those who waited for the coming of the Christ; and in some way not known to us, it had been revealed to him that he should not die until he had seen Christ. Moved by a spiritual in¬ tuition he entered the Temple just as Joseph and Mary had arrived, and instantly the old man knew that he was in the presence of his Lord. Tak¬ ing the young Child in his arms, he exclaimed (Luke ii: 29-32): “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which Thou has prepared before the face of all people; A Light to lighten the gentiles, and the Glory of thy people Israel. ” Having seen the Saviour, Simeon sang his Nunc dimittis with a glad and thankful heart; and we perceive that, even under the law, he had a heart prepared for a Saviour of the whole world, when we find him prais¬ ing God, not only for the coming glory of Israel, but also for a light that BETHLEHEM was to lighten the gentiles. Simeon shared the spirit of the prophet who had said, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isa. ix: 2). But the prophetic eye of Simeon saw, more¬ over, that the light of Christ should be made to shine through darkness and many sorrows; he foretold that through him there should befalling, as well as rising again, to many in Israel; and with pitying sympathy, we may THE NATIVITY. (LUKE II : I 5_ 20. ) not doubt, he warned the Virgin Mother of the sword that should pierce her heart also (Luke ii: 35). Hardly had his words of prophecy been uttered when another aged saint came in with confirmation of their truth (Luke ii: 36-38). Anna, too, was a prophetess, and we may suppose that Simeon and Anna accompanied Joseph and Mary to their humble sacrifice. Once more, having performed their duty as faithful Israelites, they 126 BETHLEHEM. retraced their steps to Bethlehem, passing on their way the Tomb of Rachel. It was now almost six weeks since the birth of Jesus, but how much longer they remained in Bethlehem we have no means of learning. We know, however, that before two years, and possibly much sooner, they were compelled to leave, perhaps forever, the little town which thenceforth for them, and for mankind at large, had become the holiest city of the world. While these events were happening, Jerusalem was groaning under the cruel and capricious hand of Herod. That monarch was not even an Israelite, though he was descended from Esau, through his father, Anti¬ pater, who was an Idumean, and from Ishmael, through his mother, Cypros, who was an Arabian. When the Sanhedrin had boldly told him that he could not be the rightful sovereign of Israel, his reply had been to put the offending elders to the sword. Herod was a Greek in life, an oriental in revenge, a Roman in allegiance and policy. His rule was maintained only by the authority of Rome, and his personal safety was secured only by the presence of his mercenary guards. In a conspiracy, not long before the birth of Christ, thousands of the Pharisees had been ruthlessly slaugh¬ tered, and the streets of Jerusalem had run with blood. Old, savage, sus¬ picious, Herod well knew that the advent of a rightful heir of David would be hailed with joy by the Jews. No one knew better than the crafty Idumean that, under the guise of outward submission, there lay a seething mass of outraged nationality, and bitter hatred of himself. We may conceive the tumult of excitement which would be raised both in the people and in Herod by the sudden arrival in Jerusalem of “Wise Men,” or Magian astrologers, from the East, saying that they had seen the star of a King of the Jews, and had come to pay their homage to him. From what part of the further East these mysterious persons came is not known. They may have been Parsees — that is, Persian followers of Zoroaster — or they may have come from Babylon, where astrology was a sacred profession, without which no important public business could be undertaken. At Babylon the Magians were divided into recognized classes (Dan. ii: 2; iv: 7), under a chief who was known as the Rab-Mag (Jer. xxxix:3). That the Wise Men of St. Mathew’s Gospel came from Babylon, however, is a mere conjecture, like other beautiful and fanci- BETHLEHEM 127 ful conjectures and traditions which have been gathered in great num¬ bers round their story. The prophet Isaiah said of the Messiah, “The gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising;” therefore it has been supposed that these Wise Men were persons of royal dignity in their own lands; and the gifts which they brought to offer to the new-born King of Israel have been supposed ADORATION OF THE WISE MEN. (MATT. lit I-I2.) to be the presents which the Psalmist said should be brought by the Kings of Tarshish and the Isles of Sheba and Seba (Psa. lxxii: 10). An early tradition counted no less than twelve of these royal Wise Men, but in later centuries the number was reduced to three, whose names, extraction and personal appearance the Venerable Bede has told with much particularity. Melchior, according to Bede, was an aged man of the race of Shem, with gray hair and a flowing white beard; Caspar, of the 128 BETHLEHEM. race of Ham, was a ruddy and beardless youth; Balthasar, a son of Japhet, was of middle age, noble in bearing and swarthy of countenance. In their persons, therefore, these three represented all the descendants of Noah and all the ages of human life. Their gifts were symbolic of the dignity of him whom they approached. Melchior gave gold as if in tribute to a a king; Caspar offered incense to the Son of God; Balthasar brought myrrh for the burial of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. Such fancies are harmless and poetic; but there is something repulsive in the realistic delusion which exhibits, on a gilded shrine of the Cathedral of Cologne, three skulls set in jewels, and calls them the skulls of “the Three Kings.” From very early times it was believed that the position of the stars at the moment of a man’s birth affected the whole course of his life, and so gave a prediction of the fortunes that should attend him. This belief was by no means confined to the heathen; the Jews also shared it; the Talmud says, “The planets give wisdom and riches; the life and portion of children hang not on righteousness, but on their star.” The study of astrology was so esteemed as to become peculiarly the study of the rabbis; “the calcula¬ tion of the stars,” says Pirke Aboth , “is the joy of the rabbi.” The same superstition lingered long in Christendom. Even our own Shakespeare al¬ ludes to it in comparatively recent times. Thus: “When beggars die there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” — Jul. Ccesar., 11:2. And again: — “Comets portending chance of time and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, And with them scourge the bad revolting stars That have consented unto Henry’s death.’’ — Henry VI, 1:1. The prophecies of the Messiah were often connected with the mention of stars and heavenly light, as in the sublime prediction of Balaam, “I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh; there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; out of Jacob shall come He that is to have dominion” (Num. xxiv: 17-19). By the rabbis it was said that when the Christ should appear a star should rise in the east, shining in great brightness, and having seven other stars fighting BETHLEHEM. 129 against it on every side. One hundred and thirty years after Christ an un¬ fortunate imposter who professed to be Christ, took to himself the name of Bar-Cochba, or Son of a Star; so closely was the idea of starry influences and revelations connected with the Messianic hopes of the Jews. Moreover, there are good reasons for believing that about that very time of our Saviour’s birth, there actually were conjunctions of the planets which were so unusual and so remarkable, that they must have attracted great attention among all astrologers. Archdeacon Farrar says: “On December 27th, 1603, there occurred a conjunction of the two largest superior planets, Saturn and Jupiter, in the zodiacal line of the fishes, in the watery trigon. In the following spring they were joined in the fiery trigon by Mars, and in September, 1604, there appeared in the foot of Ophiuchus, and between Mars and Saturn, a new star of the first magnitude, which, after shining for a whole year, gradually waned in March, 1606, and finally disappeared. Brunowski, the pupil of Kepler, who first noticed it, describes it as spark¬ ling with an interchange of colors, like a diamond, and as not being in any way nebulous or offering any analogy to a comet. These remarkable phe¬ nomena attracted the attention of the great Kepler, who, from his acquaint¬ ance with astrology, knew the immense importance which such a conjunction would have had in the eyes of the Magi, and wished to discover whether any such conjunction had taken place about the period of our Lord’s birth. Now, there is a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in^the same trigon about every twenty years; -but in every two hundred years they pass into another trigon, and are not conjoined in the same trigon again (after passing through the entire zodiac) till after the lapse of 794 years, 4 months and 19 days. By calculating backward, Kepler discovered that the same conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, in Pisces, had happened no less than three times in the year of Rome 747, and that the planet Mars had joined them in the spring of 748; and the general fact that there was such a com¬ bination at this period has been verified by a number of independent inves¬ tigators, and does not seem to admit of a denial. “The appearance and disappearance of new stars is a phenomenon by no means so rare as to admit of any possible doubt. We should have strong and strange confirmation of our main fact in St. Matthew’s narrative, if any reliance could be placed on the assertion that, in the astronomical 130 BETHLEHEM tables of the Chinese, a record has been preserved that a new star did appear at this very epoch.” At the East such a phenomenon would surely receive a Messianic in¬ terpretation, for at the East, as we learn from Tacitus and Suetonius, there existed an ancient and immovable conviction that a new empire was fated to arise, having its beginning in Judea, and ultimately destined to over- even from the northern kingdom £ (Amos v: 4, 5 ; viii: 14). The latter his- g tory of Beersheba is unimportant; its name is not to be found in the New Testament; and yet, it can never be uninteresting to the Christian, not only because of its early associations, but for the certainty that it must have been a station in the journey of the Infant Saviour to Egypt. The wells of Abraham and Isaac, or two of them, at least, are there, though their walls are of comparatively modern construction. Dr. Robin¬ son says; “The larger well is twelve and a half feet in diameter, and forty- four and a half feet to the surface of the water, sixteen feet of which, at the bottom, is excavated out of the solid rock. The other well lies fifty- five rods west-southwest, and is five feet in diameter and forty-two feet deep, The water in both is sweet and pure, and in great abundance. Both wells are surrounded with drinking-troughs of stone, for camels and flocks, such as were doubtless used of old for the flocks which fed on the adjacent hills. The curb-stones are deeply worn by the friction of the ropes in drawing up water by the hand.” 154 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT Beyond Beersheba we need not attempt to trace the footsteps of the fugitives. Two days’ march through the wilderness of Shur would bring them to the “river of Egypt” (Num. xxxiv: 5). Thence they may have gone to Migdol, “the Tower” which, for a long time, was the frontier for¬ tress of Egypt; and thence, perhaps, to Tanis or Zoan, where God had done “marvelous things” by the hand of Moses, His servant (Psalm Ixxviii: 12). The place where the Holy Family hid itself in Egypt is altogether un¬ known; but wherever it may have been, Joseph would have little difficulty in finding helpful friends. The gifts of the Wise Men had provided the “gold,” which would be required for their journey. Perhaps it may have sufficed for their maintenance also, but if not, Egypt was full of Jews. The Jewish race had been greatly favored by Alexander the Great at his conquest of Egypt, and the result had been a large immigration of Jews into that country. In social rank Alexander had put them on a level with his own Macedonians; and al¬ though they were afterward deprived of that distinction, and even became odious to the other in¬ habitants, they continued to prosper, and to form a large and important element of the population. It was in Egypt that the Greek version of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, was made, by learned rabbis, probably in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The Jews of Alexandria were under ihe control of an ethnarch, or governor, of their own race; and among themselves they formed guilds or unions of workmen belonging to different trades and occupations, each of which was bound to care for THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 155 Jewish craftsmen of the same trade. Through one of these guilds Joseph, as a carpenter, would find no difficulty in obtaining employment until the time came for him to return home. In the opinion of some, the sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt was extremely short; while, according to others, it may have lasted for two or three years. We can therefore form no idea of the impressions received by the Child Jesus in the land of the heathen. If He was yet an infant in arms at the time of the flight, and if the return took place within a few months, no impressions then received could in any way affect the mental development of so young a child; but if He was nearly two years old at the time of the flight, and if the death of Herod did not take place for two more years, then it is quite conceivable that many things which He heard and saw may have made a deep and lasting impression upon Him; and what would be even more significant, the Blessed Virgin and Joseph, under whose instructions and influence He was to grow up, would probably be much affected and influenced by what they saw and heard during a prolonged residence in Egypt. All this, however, is a matter of mere con¬ jecture, and it would be useless to enlarge upon it. Where the Script¬ ures are silent we may be content to follow the example of the sacred writers. What we do know is that while the parents of Jesus were hiding Him from the murderous hand of Herod, Herod himself was drawing to the close of a long and cruel life. Archdeacon Farrar’s account of Herod’s end is so impressive that it may as well be given entire. Lie says: “It must have been very shortly after the murder of the Innocents that Herod died. Only five days before his death he had made a frantic attempt at suicide, and had ordered the death of his eldest son Antipater. His deathbed was accompanied by circumstances of peculiar horror, and it has been asserted that he died of a loathsome disease which is hardly mentioned in history, except in the case of men who have been rendered infamous by an atrocity of persecuting zeal. On his bed of intolerable an¬ guish, in that splendid and luxurious palace which he had built for himself under the palms of Jericho, swollen with disease and scorched by thirst — ulcerated externally and glowing inwardly with ‘a soft, slow fire’ — sur¬ rounded by plotting sons and plundering slaves, detesting all and detested i56 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. by all — longing for death as a release from his tortures, yet dreading it as the beginning of worse terrors — stung by remorse, yet still unslaked with murder — a horror to all around him, yet in his guilty conscience a worse terror to himself— devoured by the premature corruption of an anticipated grave— eaten of worms as though visibly smitten by the finger of God’s HAGAR AND ISHMAEL DISMISSED. (GEN. XXI! I4). wrath, after seventy years of successful villainy — the wretched old man whom men had called ‘the Great’, lay, in savage frenzy, awaiting his last hour. As he knew that none would shed one tear for him, he determined that they should shed many for themselves, and issued an order that, under pain of death, the principal families in the kingdom and chiefs of the tribes should come to Jericho. They came, and then, shutting them in the Hippodrome, he secretly commanded his sister Salome that at the moment of his death they should all be massacred. And so, choking as it THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 157 were with blood, devising massacres in his very delirium, the soul of Herod passed forth into the night. In purple robes, with crown and scepter and precious stones, the corpse was placed upon its splendid bier and was ac¬ companied with military pomp and burning incense to its grave in the Herodium, not far from the place where Christ was born.” CHAPTER V. THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. Accession of Archelaus — His Barbarity — Herod Antipas Rules in Galilee — The Route to Nazareth Through Philistia — Origin of the Philistines — They Give Name to Palestine — Their Confederacy — Conquests of Joshua — Chariots and Giants of the Philistines — Border Warfare — Samson — Spread of the Philistines Northward — Gaza— Present Condition — History — Death of Samson — Alexander — Napoleon— Ibrahim Pasha — Ashkelon— Derketo, the Philistine Venus— Her Daughter Semiramis — Birthplace of Herod the Great — Later History — Ashdod, the Azotus of the New Testament — Baptism of the Eunuch — Gath— Birthplace of Goliath — Vale of Elah — David’s Sling — Cave of Adullam — Beth Dagon — The Ark of God in Philistia — Its Return to Israel — Beelzebub — Samson and the Foxes — The Plain of Sharon — The Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley — Caesarea, the Seaport of Herod — Home of Philip, the Deacon — Visited by St. Paul — Death of Herod Agrippa — Paul before Felix — The Appeal to Caesar-^Origen and Procopius at Caesarea — Carmel, the Well-Wooded Park— Its Trees and Flowers — Its Present Desolation— An Ancient Sanctuary -Visited by Pythagoras— The Mysterious Sacrifice of Vespasian — Monks of Carmel— Convent of Mar Elyas — View from the Convent — Cave and Garden of Elijah — El Ma- harrakah — Slaughter of the Priests of Baal — The Cloud Like a Man's Hand and the Coming of the Storm — Elijah’s Fiery Vengeance — The Mildness of Christ — Elisha — The Child of the Shune- mite— Cave of the School of the Prophets. E news of Herod’s death would soon spread into Egypt. The report of it reached Joseph by an angelic commu nication, aud he immediately set out on his return, with the intention, as it ap¬ pears, of going back to Bethlehem. Eastern people do not readily change their abode; and having been obliged to leave Nazareth on account of the enroll¬ ment at Bethlehem, it is probable that Joseph had there found sufficient em¬ ployment to warrant his settling perma¬ nently in the city of his forefathers. If so, he would naturally think of returning to Bethlehem, rather than to Nazareth, which was eighty miles further off. But when he reached the border of Judea, he heard news which alarmed him, The tiger, Herod, had been succeeded by a true cub of his own breed. In his will he had assigned the kingdom of Judea to his 158 FOUNTAIN OF MARY AT NAZARETH. PROMONTORY OF CARMEL, LOOKING (HAIFA ON THE SHORE.) THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 161 son Archelaus, who had celebrated his accession, even before his father’s will had been ratified at Rome, by the massacre of some three thousand of his unhappy subjects in the very temple itself. That such a monster would forget or fail to follow up the suspicions which had been aroused in his father’s mind, on the announcement by the Wise Men of the birth of a true king of the Jews, was not to be expected; but Antipas, a less bloody son of the same father, now reigned in Galilee; and Joseph thought it pru¬ dent to turn aside from his contemplated route and to go to his old home at Nazareth. His course would now lie, not through Hebron, but through the plains of Philistia and Sharon, which line the sea shore of the Holy Land, and thence over the hills into the Plain of Esdraelon, to the north of which was Nazareth. Little, if any of our Saviour’s life was spent in the plains which border the Mediterranean Sea. Once indeed, we know that He “came into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon” (Matt., xv:2i; Mark vii:24), but we do not know that He ever visited the Plain of Philistia or the Plain of Sharon in the whole course of His ministry. The only time when he must almost certainly have passed through those most interesting parts of the Beautiful Land was in the return of the Holy Family from Egypt to Nazareth. No view of Palestine could be considered satisfactory which should omit these cele¬ brated plains. We shall, therefore, here take a rapid glance at them from south to north, before proceeding to trace the more certain footsteps of the Saviour as recorded in the Gospels. Passing the southern border, the Holy Family would enter the Plain of Philistia. The name of the Philistines signifies foreigners , and shows that the people who bore it were not the original inhabitants of Canaan, nor even of Philistia. They are said (Amos ix: 7) to have come from Caphtor, that is, in all probability, from Crete, though there are strong reasons for believing that they must have been settled for some time in Egypt, before they conquered the Avim, who formerly inhabited the villages of Philistia (Deut. ii: 23). It is singular indeed that these foreigners, who never occu¬ pied more than a small part of the country, should have given the name of Palestine to the whole of it. Such remnants of their language as have been preserved show them to have been of the race of Shem. 1 hey were 162 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. a brave and warlike people, skilled in the use of war chariots, with which the Israelites were unable to contend (Judg. i: 19). They were also devoted to commerce. Of their political constitution we know nothing; but it appears that they formed a confederacy of five districts, each having a capital town. The five cities of the Philistines were Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron, besides which they had a sacred city or per¬ haps only a temple, called Beth-Dagon, or the House of Dagon (Josh, xv : 41). In the time of Abraham, Abimelech, their king, had his residence at Gerar, in the extreme south of Philistia (Gen.xx: 2; xxi: 32; xxvi: 1, 26). At the time of the Exodus they had become so powerful that it was out of the question for the undisciplined multitude that had gone up out of Egypt to cope with them (Exod. xiii: 17). For ages an irreconcilable feud continued between the Philistines and the Israelites, with varying fortunes to either party. At the outset it seemed that Israel was to have a speedy triumph, for under Joshua, Ekron, Ashdod and Gaza were taken (Josh, xv 145). The success, however, was only temporary, and soon afterward the Philistines were again in possession of all their cities. In the mountains the Israelites were generally successful, but on descending to the plains, they were beaten by the chariots of gigantic enemies, for giants were still to be found at Gath, Ashdod and Gaza (Josh. xi:2 2). So the Israelites held possession of the “hill countiy,” and also the line of lower hills bordering on the plain, while the Philistines held the low land, and sometimes pressed Israel far within the hill country. During the period of the Judges a continual border war was carried on, with intervals of comparative peace, but with frequent outbursts of fury. In the life of Samson the Philistines had the upper hand (Judg. xiii: 1; xv: 11); and their crowning triumph, in capturing the ark of God, hastened the death of the judge and prophet, Eli (1 Sam. iv: 17, 18). In the latter part of the reign of Saul they had pushed their advantage to the utmost, and it was after a defeat by the Philistines, on Mount Gilboa, the very center of Israel, that Saul fell upon his own sword. Under David the Philistines were at last reduced; but they continued to be troublesome even into the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii: 8). Of the five cities of the Philistines the most southerly is Gaza, now Ghuzzeh or Ghazza. It is on the summit of a hill, half a mile from the THE RETURN FROM EGYPT 165 sea, the hill being about two miles in circumference, and having evidently been once wholly enclosed by fortifications. At a distance it has an imposing appearance. It is a place of considerable wealth, derived from traffic with caravans; but the inhabitants live in the meanest and most sordid way. Notwithstanding its population of fifteen or twenty thous- DEATH OF SAMSON. (JUDGES XVIi 30). and, Gaza is emphatically a place of ruins. The existing houses have been built of the ruins of previous structures. The roofs of squalid hovels are supported by fragments of beautifully sculptured capitals piled one upon the other. Marble and granite columns in every degree of preservation are found in all quarters of the city, and in the cemetery the artist employed in making drawings for Roberts’ magnificent work, found a superb Corinthian capital of the purest classical taste. Gaza is early mentioned in Ploly Scripture (Gen. x: 19). It is famous 164 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. in the history of Samson, who, in contempt of the inhabitants, carried off the gates of the town and deposited them on a hill before Hebron (Judg. xvi: 3). In Gaza, the Hebrew Hercules met his fate with more than clas¬ sic heroism. Blind, and set up for mockery by his captors in the temple of their god, Samson prayed for strength to come to him just once more, and then, as he drew together the great pillars of the temple, in which the multitude of his enemies was assembled, he cried: “Let me die with the Philistines!” The pillars yielded; the temple fell; the heroic Samson died; but “the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life” (Judg. xvi: 21-30). To recount the history of Gaza would almost require a rehearsal of the history of Israel, for it is mentioned in nearly every book of the Old Testament, and once in the New. To the great conquerors of the East it has been the key to Egypt. Warriors of Babylon, Chaldea, Persia, have occupied it. Alexander besieged it for five months, and when he took it, stained the luster of his conquest by a merciless slaughter of the inhabitants. In the crusades it fell alter¬ nately under Moslem and Christian rule. Almost within the present cen¬ tury, Napoleon occupied it; and in 1840, Gaza saw the Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha sullenly retire from Syria, at the order of the great powers of Europe. Ashkelon, or Ascalon, now Askalan , overlooks the sea. It can never have had a natural port; the roadstead is open to every wind that blows, except from the east; but the remains of a great mole, in the form of a horse-shoe, which once afforded shelter for shipping, are still visible. The waves dash over the ruins of stately buildings all along the shore, proving the incorrectness of Volney’s theory, that the sea has receded from the ancient site of Ashkelon. It was a great city in ancient times, and was famous for the worship of Derketo, a Philistine Venus, to whom fish were sacred, and in whose honor fish-tanks were built and religiously guarded. Her daughter was worshiped under the name of Semiramis and Astarte. Ashkelon was the scene of one of the exploits of Samson, and for ages it was regarded by the Israelites as one of the most hateful and formidable of the cities of Philistia. When Saul and his sons were defeated, David, in his beautiful elegy, exclaimed: “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest THE RETURN FROM EGYPT 165 the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph!” Ashkelon has the doubtful honor of having been the birth-place of Herod, who took from it his sur¬ name of Ascalonites, and did much to beautify and adorn his native city. He built in it fountains and baths, which he surrounded with colonnades and extensive gardens. It is possible, too, that he may have been the builder of a magnificent temple, the remains of which, together with its entire ground plan and many marble columns of the Corinthian order, ASCALON. were uncovered, in the construction of some military works, by Ibrahim Pasha, during the present century. In the wars with the Romans, the Jews in vain endeavored to take possession of Ashkelon, which seems then to have been a sort of independent republic under Roman protection. The citizens long continued to be uncompromising enemies of Christianity. During the crusades, it was alternately occupied by Christians and Mos¬ lems, but was entirely dismantled by Saladin. It owed its restoration to Richard Coeur de Lion, who rebuilt the fortress, though the jealousy of other Christian leaders prevented the completion of his work. Since 1270, Ashkelon has been left in ruins, as prophet after prophet predicted that it should be (Amos i: 8; Zeph. ii: 4; Zech. ix: 5). It has become literally a desolation. THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 1 66 Ashdod, now Esdud , was perhaps the head of the Philistine confed¬ eracy, as we learn that the ark of God, when captured from the Israelites, was first taken to (Ashdod i Sam. v: i). The ark was placed as a trophy in the temple of Dagon (i Sam. v: 2), a god, half man and half fish, of whom marbles of Nineveh show both the form and the name, so that this deity appears certainly to have been borrowed and imported from Assyria or Babylonia, though probably at second-hand from the Phoenicians. At the distribution of the Promised Land among the tribes, Ashdod was assigned to Judah; but the gift was of small advantage, since Ashdod was never conquered until the time of King Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi: 6). Even Uzziah's conquest was not permanent; and it was not until fifty years after his death that Ashdod was finally subjugated by the Assyrians. In the New Testament, Ashdod is mentioned under the name of Azotus, where Philip “was found” after baptizing the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts viii: 38). It is now described as a large but wretched village, surrounded with orchards and gardens of wonderful fertility. The site of the original Ashdod is buried under drifts of sand, overgrown with cactus, as Dr. Thomson thinks the present Esdud is surely destined to be. He describes the inhabitants as boorish and uncivil in their intercourse with strangers. Of Gath the very site is now unknown, though different travelers con¬ fidently express contradictory opinions concerning it. Perhaps the more probable opinion, is that which locates it at Tell es Safiyeh, a huge white limestone rock rising from the plain, and gleaming in the sunshine, as it did centuries ago in the time of the crusades, when King Fulke of Anjou built a castle upon its summit and called it Blanche Garde, the White Fortress. It will always be memorable as the birthplace of Goliath, the Philistine champion, whom David, when a lad, slew with a stone out of a sling. Goliath was one of the last of the gigantic race which had struck terror into the Israelites on their first approach to the Land of Promise. He is said to have been nine feet in height, and the head of his spear was some thirteen pounds in weight. The Philistines were encamped on the slope of a hill, on one side of a wady or valley, through which a torrent rushed in the winter season. The valley was then called the Vale of Elah, from the terebinths which grew there. It is now called Wady es Sunt, or the Vale of Acacias. The army of Saul was encamped on another hill THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 167 opposite. Day after day Goliath, as the champion of the Philistines, came forth and challenged any man of Israel to fight with him, and so decide the contest of the two armies. No one dared accept the gage of battle until David, the shepherd lad from Bethlehem, offered to do battle for his God, his country, and his king. Armed only with a sling and a PHILIP AND THE ETHIOPIAN. (ACTS VIII : 36). few stones from the brook, he came forward toward the giant. Then fol¬ lowed a truly Homeric interchange of taunts and insults between the champions. But David was not so ill armed as Goliath thought. The sling in the hands of an expert is a tremendous weapon. Slingers were imported by the Romans in after ages from the Balearic Islands, and in many a battle they did dreadful execution. David was a youth of extra¬ ordinary strength, and expert in the use of the sling; and no doubt his plan had been well considered before he entered the field. Straight at i68 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. the forehead of the giant flew a stone from David’s sling, crashing into the huge skull; the giant fell prone upon the ground, stunned if not dead; and David, running swiftly up, drew Goliath’s own sword and struck off his head before his friends had time to rush down to the rescue. Then, amazed and terrified at the discomfiture of their champion, and wholly unprepared for any other battle, the Philistines dispersed and fled. From a literary point of view, as well as for its historical interest, this story, as we find it in the Bible (i Sam. xvii: 1-54) is one of the most striking in the Old Testament. The jealousy of Saul against his own deliverer was greater than the enmity of the Philistines themselves, and the time came when David was glad to escape from Israel altogether, and to take refuge with the Philis¬ tines in Gath. His friendly intentions, however, were naturally suspected; so he feigned madness, which at the East, is regarded with a kindly, though superstitious, reverence. Still, even in his assumed character, he did not feel safe, and from Gath, he went to the Cave of Adullam, not far off, “where every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him” (1 Sam. xxii:2). He was soon at the head of a strong body of men. Again, however, in sheer despair at the relentless pursuit of Saul, David went to Gath with six hundred followers, and was treated with confidence and hospitality (1 Sam. xxvii: 1, 2). Ekron, one of the five famous cities of the Philistines, is now an insig¬ nificant village, called Akir. Of its history in Biblical times we know very little, and it has no later history whatever. The only incident of import¬ ance concerning it is connected with the capture of the Ark of the Cove¬ nant by the Philistines (1 Sam. vi). When the ark was first taken, it was sent to Ashdod and thence to Beth-Dagon, or the Temple of Dagon. Next day the idol of Dagon was found on its face before the ark. Being set up again, it was found on the morrow morning broken and mutilated, so that only “the stump,” or fishy part, of Dagon was left. Besides this portent, the people were afflicted with so strange and horrible a disease, that they were glad to be rid of the ark, and sent it to Ashdod. The peo¬ ple of Ashdod fared no better, and sent the ark to Ekron; but the ark brought the same calamity to Ekron. A great assembly of the Philistines CAVE OF THE SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS . r ■ _• it : r ■ . - ' . - - ■ . V . . ' I ■ - - * * - * ■ ■ . THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 171 consulted the priests and diviners concerning the plague, and were told to return the ark of God to the Israelites, and to send a trespass offering to the God of Israel whom they had offended by capturing the ark. But in order to be sure that the ark was really the cause of their troubles, diviners bade the Philistines “make a new cart and take two milch kine, on which there had no yoke been laid, and to tie the kine to the cart and bring their calves home from them.” Then they were to lay their trespass offering on CAESAREA. the cart behind the ark, and let the kine go. If, instead of following their calves, the kine took the way to the place of the ark in Israel, it would be manifest that it was not chance, but the hand of the God of Israel, that had smitten them. All was done according to the direction of the priests and diviners, and the kine instantly took “the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh,” and went along the highway, “lowing as they went.” The lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Bethshemesh, and there the Levites received the ark and offered sacrifice to the Lord. But the men of Bethshemesh committed a great sacrilege by looking into the ark, and they, too, were smitten, so that many of them died. They there- 172 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. fore implored the men of Kirjath-jearim to come and take the ark; and at Kirjath-jearim it rested for twenty years. The god of Ekron was Beelzebub, the god of flies, and was perhaps worshipped for his fancied protection against the swarms of flies which the filthy habits of the people brought upon them. In much the same way St. Patrick is now honored by the Irish people for banishing from their island all snakes, and frogs, and toads, and noxious reptiles. Beit Dejan, an inconsiderable village somewhat less than six miles southeast of Joppa, may, perhaps, be the Beth-Dagon or House of Dagon mentioned in Scripture; but it is at lest ten miles to the north of Ekron, while the Beth-Dagon of the Bible seems to have been in the near vicinity of Ekron. It is possible, however, that this village may be the ancient Beth-Dagon, and at least the name suffices to prove that the Philistines were at one time permanently established in the Plain of Sharon. The neighborhood of Akir is still fertile, and its fields wave with rich harvests of grain, as the whole plain of Philistia once did. If the Holy Family returned through that plain in the time of harvest, Joseph would be sure to show the Child Jesus how easy it would be for Samson to set fire to the shocks of grain, by his cunning device of tying fire-brands to the tails of foxes, or more probably jackals, which abound in that region, and letting the frightened beasts loose from the hills upon the plain. In the dry season the fire would spread with great rapidity, and the Philistines would find themselves assailed by an enemy against whom they could make no defence. To this day the dread of fire in the harvest fields is a constant cause of alarm to the inhabitants of that country. The whole plain and the adjacent upland country, passed by the Holy Family, had been the scene of the exploits of Samson, and of some of the exploits and sufferings of their great ancestor David, and the scenes of those events would not be unnoticed or unnamed in their discourse. But at length they would pass a low range of hills, and find themselves in the Plain of Sharon. Dean Stanley says: “The corn-fields of Philistia melt into a plain less level and less fertile, though still strongly marked off from the mountain wall of Ephraim, as that of Philistia is from the hills of Judah and Dan. This is Sharon. It is interspersed with corn-fields, and thinly studded with THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 173 trees, the remnants, apparently, of a great forest, which existed here down to the second century. Eastward, the hills of Ephraim look down upon it — the huge, rounded ranges of Ebal and Gerizim towering above the rest; and at their feet, the wooded cone, on the summit of which stood Samaria. But its chief fame then, as now, was for its excellence as a pasture land. Its wide undulations are sprinkled with Bedouin tents and vast flocks of sheep, the true successors of ‘the herds which were fed in Sharon,’ in David’s reign under ‘Shitrai, the Sharonite,’ and of the folds of flocks, which Isaiah foretold in Sharon as the mark of the restored Israel. Probably this very fact, then as now, rendered it insecure, and therefore unfrequented, by the Israelites of the mountain country above; at any rate, during the whole period of the Old Dispensation, no one his¬ torical name or event is attached to this district.” Entering this peaceful plain, the Holy Family would soon arrive at Ramleh, if Ramleh was then in existence, or certainly at the place where Ramleh now stands. Thence their route would lead them through many a fertile field, to the gardens and orchards of Lydda; and as they jour¬ neyed onward through a land which bloomed with never-failing flowers of every hue, they would surely remember the famous exclamation of the royal Lover in the Song of Songs: “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley” (Cant, ii: 1). It is a curious thing that, while the flowers so named cannot now be identified, it is quite certain that the one was not a rose, and that the other was not a lily! The rose is found nowhere in Pales¬ tine, except on the lofty Hermon. It is nowhere mentioned in the canoni¬ cal scriptures, though we read of it in the apocrypha (Eccles. xxiv: 14; xxxix: 13-18). The Hebrew word translated “rose” in the Canticles is believed to have been really the narcissus, which abounds in the Plain of Sharon, and is highly esteemed by the inhabitants. That guess, for, after all, it is nothing more than a guess, is probably correct; but there is a good deal of question about the lily. Since we read of “the lily among thorns,” we have an intimation of its not infrequent surroundings; since its bloom is compared with the lips of the beloved (Cant, v: 13), we may suppose its color to have been red; and since our Saviour made the lily the text of one of his most lovely discourses (Matt, vi: 28; Luke xii: 27), we may under¬ stand that the flower in question, whatever it may have been, was a com- 174 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. mon flower in Galilee. These particulars, however, are not sufficient to identify the lily of the Bible, though they do justify a rejection of some guesses at its identity. Thus, Dr. Thomson’s supposition, that it is a variety of marsh-mal¬ low, which grows into a bush full of flowers, and is often found among thorns, is set aside by the fact that the colors of the flow¬ ers are purple and white, not red. It also negatives Captain Conder’s selection of the blue iris; and it would cause us to re¬ ject Dean Stanley’s mention of the yellow water lily of Lake Huleh (the Waters of Merom), if the Dean did not himself set it aside. On the whole, perhaps the most probable conjecture is that which iden¬ tifies the lily with the scarlet anemone, though we must not forget that the old Hebrew word, shushan , which is rendered by lily in our version, is now commonly employed by the Arabs to designate any bright-colored flower. Journeying through the flower-bespangled plain, the travelers would either enter or pass by a city, which was then in the full flush of youthful prosperity. It had always been one of Herod’s ambitions to establish a seaport on the coast of his dominions, to which nature had denied a safe harbor. The port of Joppa was not capable of improvement in that age, PLAN OF RUINS OF CjESAREA-ON-SEA. THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 175 since the absence of explosives made it impossible to remove the reefs, which surround the basin and impede the entrance of shipping. Herod was therefore obliged to look elsewhere. At length, his choice fell upon a spot about thirty-five miles north of Joppa, and about twenty-two miles south of Mount Carmel. It was an obscure place, then known as Strato’s Tower, where he erected his beautiful maritime city. The harbor was constructed with enormous labor and expense, since the materials were of immense weight and were brought from a distance. To protect the ship¬ ping from the prevailing south winds, he made a breakwater of vast stones fifty feet in length, eighteen in breadth and nine in thickness, which he let down into the water to a depth of twenty fathoms. This prodigious cir¬ cular mole was two hundred feet wide, and upon it were erected several large towers, the greatest of which was named from Drusus, the son-in- law of Caesar. The entrance to Herod’s harbor was on the north, and the whole basin was enclosed with a quay for merchandise. All along the nearly circular haven were edifices of polished stone, and a temple, visible from a great distance at sea, answered the purpose of a light-house. In compliment to Augustus, the city was called Caesarea. Like the mole, it was built in the most solid and costly manner, even the underground cel¬ lars having more elaborate workmanship than many conspicuous edifices in other cities. The drainage and sewerage were perfect; and after twelve years from the inception of the work, Herod had the satisfaction of know¬ ing that he was the founder of the most beautiful commercial city in the East. But it was distinctly not a Jewish city. Though on Israelitish soil, its inhabitants were mostly heathens, and for their delectation, as well as for the ornamentation of Caesarea, Herod built a theater, and also a magnificent amphitheater, conveniently situated so as to command a prospect of the sea, and of such dimensions as to accommodate a vast concourse of spectators. The security of the harborage and the salubrity of the place, soon brought to Caesarea a large, enterprising and wealthy population; and as the seat of Roman government, it had all the advan¬ tages of a provincial capital. In the New Testament we have frequent mention of Caesarea. When Philip, the deacon, “was found’’ at Azotus, we are told that he went on preaching to Caesarea (Acts viir.qo); and there, it seems, he must have 1 76 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. made his permanent abode. At all events he was settled there a quarter of a century later, at the time of Paul’s return from his third missionary journey, keeping his own house, and living with his four gifted daughters (Acts xxi:8, 9), Caesarea was the scene of the first gentile baptism, for it was there that the Centurion Cornelius lived, and it was to Caesarea that Peter went by angelic command, under the injunction thenceforward to deem no human soul “common or unclean.” While he was yet preaching to them the message of the gospel, we are told that the “Holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word;” whereupon Peter saw that it would be absurd to refuse baptism to men on whom the power of the Spirit had fallen even before baptism (Acts x:24, 44-48). It was about four years after the baptism of the first gentile converts that Herod Agrippa died in the proud city of his grandfather. He had ordered magnificent games to be celebrated in the theater, in honor of the emperor, and attended them in person, gorgeously apparelled, in robes of silver cloth. As he appeared in the theater, the sun shone full upon him, and the sheen of his robes glittered in the eyes of the multitude. It had become the fashion to hail the Roman emperors as gods, while yet alive; and the magnificence of Herod prompted the crowd to pay him a like honor. Therefore, when he made an oration, the people gave a great shout, crying, “It is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Herod permitted the blasphemous homage, and in a few hours his mortality was proved by one of the most horrible and disgusting of deaths (Acts xii 120-23), Paul landed at the port of Caesarea on his return from his second mis¬ sionary journey; he tarried there for some time on his return from his third missionary journey; and not long afterward he was brought back to the same place as a prisoner from Jerusalem (Acts xxiii: 23-33). There he re¬ mained a prisoner for two years (Acts xxiv:2 7), at the beginning of which he delivered his famous oration before the Roman governor. Felix trembled at the apostle’s announcement of coming judgment, but was content to dis¬ miss him to a more convenient season, and at last left him in chains (Acts xxiv). It was toward the close of his imprisonment that Paul made his great defense in the presence of the governor Festus, who had succeeded Felix, of the young King Agrippa, son of the unhappy Herod Agrippa of whom we have just spoken, and also of the young queen Berenice (Acts THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 1 77 xxvi: 1-29). King Agrippa was “almost persuaded to be a Christian” by the earnest eloquence of Paul, and the verdict was that nothing but Paul’s own appeal to Caesar prevented him from being set at liberty (Acts xvi:32). Thus, by what seemed to be an error of judgment, but what Paul himself doubtless believed to be a clear guidance of divine providence, the apostle was sent as the “prisoner of the Lord,” to preach the gospel at Rome also, and leaving Caesarea for the last time, he sailed to Rome. Long ages afterward Caesarea was the home of the Christian historian Eusebius; it was the scene of some of the labors of the illustrious Origen; and it was the birthplace of Procopius. It was still a place of importance during the crusades. It is now utterly desolate; only fragments of the vast works of Herod remain; the ruins of the city have been used as quarries for the buildings of other towns; only the name of Caesarea now lingers in the modern name of Kaisariyeh , which is still given to the site of the beautiful city of Herod the Great. A few short miles northward of Caesarea the Holy Family would come in sight of Mount Carmel, sacred in the history of Israel and in the esti¬ mation of mankind. The name of Carmel signifies the Park , or the Well Wooded Place , and both designations are appropriate. Carmel is more like a vast rolling park than a mountain range. It extends from the prom¬ ontory, where it seems to push itself into the sea, and where its elevation is only five hundred and sixty feet above the Mediterranean, for twelve miles, in a southeasterly direction, to a village called Esjia, where the height is seventeen hundred and forty feet. The highest peak, however, is about a mile and a half south of Esfia, and rises to something over eight¬ een hundred feet. At its southeastern end the mountain breaks down ab¬ ruptly into the hills of Samaria. The seaward side of the range descends in gradual slopes to the Plain of Sharon; but on the other side it falls pre¬ cipitously to the banks of the river Kishon. The rock is limestone, inter¬ mixed with flint; and, as is not unusual in limestone formations, it abounds in caves, many of which are of considerable length and extremely tortuous. Carmel is thickly covered with a heavy growth of various trees and shrubs, and is richly decked with\ flowers. Dean Stanley says that the shrubberies of Carmel are thicker than in any other part of Central Pales¬ tine. Other travelers speak of its inpenetrable brushwood of oaks and t 178 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. ■evergreens, it's rocky dells and deep jungles of copse, its profusion of holly¬ hocks, jasmines, flowering creepers, and all the flowers of that part of the Holy Land. Indeed, Van de Velde says that he had seen not one flower in Galilee or in the plains along the coast that he did not find on Carmel, fragrant and lovely as of old; and Martineau describes the whole mountain side, at the time of his visit, as being clothed with blossoms and flowering shrubs and fragrant herbs. Well might the Hebrew prophet speak of “the excellency of Carmel and Sharon” in the same sentence, since both were alike lovely (Isa. xxxv:2), and very beautifully does the Beloved, in the Song of Songs, compare the head of his bride to the rich and perfumed foliage of leafy Carmel (Cant. vii. 5). It is supposed from Jeremiah iv:26, that Carmel was once thickly inhabited, and St. Jerome says that in his time the sides of the mountain were covered with vines and olives. If it ever was so, it is not so now; the fruitful place has indeed become a wil¬ derness. Jackals make the night vocal, if not musical, with their plaintive cry; the howl of the hyena is likewise heard; panthers are not entirely un¬ known; and it is4 said that the monks of Carmel, searching for medicinal herbs, discover huge serpents lurking in the thickets. Carmel has been sacred even to the heathen. An ancient altar of Jehovah existed on one of its “high places” before the worship of Baal had been introduced into Israel (1 Kings xviii: 30). There was an ancient custom among the people of resorting thither on Sabbath days and new moon festivals (2 Kings iv: 23). It is probable, therefore, that the place had some character of sanctity even before it came into the possession of Israel. In later times its fame spread far beyond the limits of Palestine. Pythagoras visited it, and so did his biographer, Iamblichus. coin of caisAREA under nero. Tacitus tells amysterious story of a visit made to Carmel by Vespasian. The mighty Roman found there neither image nor temple; only an altar and worship; and on his consulting the god of Carmel by sacrifice concerning weighty matters, which he was then secretly meditating, the priest Basilides, after in¬ specting the victims, cried aloud, “What hast thou in mind, Vespas¬ ian? Thou art laying the foundations of a mighty edifice!” In the PROMONTORY OF CARMEL, LOOKING SOUTHWEST. Edward I was enrolled as a member of the Order of Carmel. The Car¬ melite monks have had many misfortunes. Again and again their monas¬ tery has been destroyed. That which gave shelter to the wounded French soldiers in 1799 was razed to the ground in 1821, during the Greek revolt; and the convent, which now stands on the promontory fronting the sea, is the work of one poor monk, who begged the means for its erection, and who laid the first stone of the structure in 1828. In all respects the THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 179 Christian era Carmel has been sacred indeed. In the first ages an¬ chorites resorted thither, and made their abode among the many caves. About the year 400 John, of Jerusalem, established the monastic order of Carmelites, and one of its greatest generals was Simon Stoke, of Kent in England, whose remains lie buried on the mountain where he spent nearly twenty years of his life. Among the many illustrious pilgrims to Mount Carmel, St. Louis of France is numbered, and the English i8o THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. Convent of Mar Elyas, as it is popularly called, though really dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, is the most beautiful in Palestine. It is built in the modern Italian style, with sixty windows on the front, with walls massive as those of a fortress, and the rear wall covered with fine slabs of porce¬ lain. The view from its terraced gardens is superb. To the north lies St. Jean d’Acre, looking so near in the clear atmosphere as almost to be touched with the hand. On the east and northeast are the mountains of Galilee, with their irregular outlines and of different altitudes, studded with villages and towns. On the south is the magnificent promontory of Athlit, with its gigantic ruins. The whole view is unspeakably grand and * impressive, even apart from the venerable associations, which connect it with the two great prophets Elijah and Elisha. Within the convent, which has always been called the Convent of Elijah ( Deir Mar Elyas), as Carmel itself is called the Mountain of Elijah ( Jebel Mar Elyas'), is shown a cave under the altar, which is said to be the veritable cave in which Elijah found a refuge from his persecutors. Not far off is a place called the Garden of Elijah, where, as elsewhere on Carmel, are found hollow stones, called by geologists geodes. When broken they are found to contain crystallized quartz or chalcedony. There is a curious tradition that they are melons, peaches, apples, and other fruit, petrified by Elijah in punishment of an offence against hospi¬ tality to which he was subjected. Miss Rogers, one of the writers of Picturesque Palestine , who lived for many years in that neighborhood, gives the legend as she received it from a peasant on the spot. This is the story: “In the days of Mar Elyas (Elijah) a certain man possessed a large garden in this valley. His fruit trees flourished exceedingly, and his water melons were renowned for their size and flavor. One day Elijah passed by this garden and saw its owner gathering melons, and there was a great heap of them on the ground; and Elijah said, ‘O friend, give me of the fruit of your garden; out of your abundance a little fruit to quench my thirst!’ And the man answered, ‘ O, my lord, this is not fruit that you see; these are but heaps of stones.’ And Elijah replied, ‘Be it so!’ And immediately all the fruit of the garden, the gathered and the ungath¬ ered, was turned to stone!” Many such stories, Miss Rogers says, are told in Palestine of punishment inflicted on the inhospitable. This for THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 181 instance: Once when Abraham was on a journey, he passed by a great heap of rock-salt, and asked its owners to give him a handful. They replied, “Alas, this is not salt; it is only rock in the likeness of salt.’’ And Abraham said, “Be it so even as ye have said!” And immediately the salt became tasteless rock, and to this day it is called “the salt that lost its savor.” From the Convent of Mar Elyas, which is five hundred and fifty-six ELIJAH DESTROYING THE PRIESTS OF BAAL. (i KINGS XVIII : 40). feet above the sea, the central ridge of Carmel extends in solitude, unbroken by a single dwelling, to Esfia, where the height is seventeen hundred and forty-two feet. Three and a half miles distant is El Maharrakah , the traditional place of the contest of Elijah, with four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred “prophets of the groves,” that is, prophets of Asharoth or Astarte (i Kings xviii). “The tradition,” says 182 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. Dean Stanley, “is unusually trustworthy. It is one of the very few, per¬ haps the only case, in which the recollection of an alleged event has been actually retained in the native Arabic nomenclature. Many names of towns have been so preserved, but here is no town, only a shapeless ruin, yet the spot has a name, ‘El Maharrakah,’ the ‘Burning,’ or the ‘Sacrifice.’ The Druses, some of whom inhabit the neighboring villages, come here to perform a yearly sacrifice, and, though it is possible that this practice may have originated the name, yet it is more probable that the practice itself arose from some earlier tradition attached to the spot. But be the tra¬ dition good or bad, the localities adapt themselves to the event in almost every particular. There on the highest point of the mountain, may well have stood on its sacred ‘high place,’ the altar of the Lord, which Jezebel had cast down. Close beneath, on a wide upland sweep, under the shade of ancient olives and round a well of water, said to be perennial, and which may, therefore, have escaped the general drought, and have been able to furnish water for the trenches round the 'altar — must have been ranged on one side the king and people, with the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and Astarte, and on the other side, the solitary and com¬ manding figure of the prophet of the Lord. Lull before them opened the whole Plain of Esdraelon, with Tabor and kindred ranges in the distance; on the rising ground at the opening of the valley, the city of Jezreel, with Ahab’s palace and Jezebel’s temple distinctly visible; in the near fore¬ ground, immediately under the base of the mountain, was clearly seen the winding stream of the Kishon, working its way through the narrow pass of the hills into the Bay of Acre. Such a scene, with such recollections of the past, with such sights of the present, was indeed a fitting theater for a conflict more momentous than any which their ancestors had fought in the plain below. This is not the place to enlarge upon the intense solemnity and significance of that conflict, which lasted on the mountain height from morning till noon, from noon till the time of the evening sac¬ rifice. It ended at last in the level plain below, where Elijah ‘brought’ the defeated prophets ‘down’ the steep sides of the mountain ‘to the tor¬ rent of Kishon, and slew them there.’ The closing scene remains. From the slaughter by the side of the Kishon, the king ‘went up’ at Elijah’s bid¬ ding, once again to the peaceful glades of Carmel, to join in the sacrificial THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. *83 feast. And Elijah, too, ascended to ‘the top of the mountain,’ and there, with his face upon the earth, remained wrapt in prayer, whilst his servant mounted to the highest point of all, whence there is a wide view of the Mediterranean Sea, over the western shoulder of the ridge. The sun was now gone down, but the cloudless sky was lit up with the long bright glow which succeeds an eastern sunset. Seven times the servant climbed and looked, and seven times there was nothing; the sky was still clear, the sea was still calm. At last, out of the far horizon, there rose a little cloud — the first that had for days and months passed across the heavens — and it grew in the deepening shades of evening, and at last the whole sky was overcast, and the forests of Carmel shook in the welcome sound of those mighty winds, which in eastern regions precede a coming tempest. Each from his separate height, the king and the prophet descended. And the king mounted his chariot at the foot of the mountain, lest the long hoped- for rain should swell the torrent of the Kishon, as in the days when it swept away the host of Sisera; and ‘the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah,’ and he girt his mantle about his loins, and, amidst the rushing storm with which the night closed in, he ‘ran before the chariot,’ as the Bedouins of his native Gilead still run, with inexhaustible strength, to the entrance of Jezreel, distant, though still visible, from the scene of his triumph.” Carmel was probably the scene of another fiery triumph of Elijah. Ahaziah, the son and successor of Ahab, had learned nothing from the evil fortunes of his magnificent father and his wicked mother, but was wholly given to idolatry. Meeting with an accident by which he was disabled, he sent to consult the oracle of Beelzebub at Ekron, but his messengers were met by a strange, wild figure, which commanded them to turn back. When the king demanded why they had returned without performing their errand, they replied that a man met them and said, “Go, turn again to the king that sent you and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up. Thou shalt surely die.” When the king learned that the prophet of evil who had met his messengers was a man with flow¬ ing hair and beard, girt with a leathern girdle round his loins, he forthwith 1 84 THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. knew it to be Elijah the Tishbite, and sent fifty men to apprehend him. With feigned courtesy, the captain of the company addressed the prophet as he sat on the top of the mount: “Thou man of God,” he said, “the king hath bidden thee come down;” to which was given the fearful answer, “If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy company.” So the fifty men perished, and another fifty after them; but when the captain of the third prayed humbly for forgiveness, the Lord bade Elijah go to the king. The prophet went and stood before the king, but only to repeat the words of doom that had already been pro¬ nounced to the king’s messengers. This was the last interview of the prophet of Carmel with the house of Ahab, which had so stubbornly refused to be reformed. Elijah represented the sure vengeance of a violated law; but his spirit was far other than the spirit of the gospel. Ages later, when Christ’s disciples were offended by the churlish rudeness of some villagers of Samaria, they looked upward, it may be, to the heights of Carmel, ris¬ ing before them in the distance, and recalling the destruction of Elijah’s foes, two of them asked their Master, “Wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elijah did?” But their Master turned upon them and rebuked them, saying solemnly and ten¬ derly, “Ye know what manner of spirit ye are of; the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke ix : 5 1—56) ; as if He had said, “Ye are mistaking and confounding the different standpoints of the Old and New Covenants; taking your stand on the old — that of an avenging righteousness, when you should rejoice to take it on the New — that of a forgiving love” (Trench on the Miracles). If Elijah was a prophet of vengeance and retribution, Elisha was a minister of mercy, doing good continually; and one of the most charming stories of his life belongs to Carmel (2 Kings iv 18-37). “ft fell on a day,” we are told, that Elisha passed to Shunem in the Plain of Esdraelont and was hospitably entertained by a good woman there. She reverenced the prophet’s holiness, and provided for him a little chamber on the wall with modest comforts which should be at his disposal always. The prophet was in favor with the king, and “it fell on a day” that he sent his servant to inquire of his kind hostess whether he should use his influence at court in her behalf. She wisely thought it best to remain among her THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 185 own people, and then the prophet promised her the boon of motherhood, for until then she was childless. The promised child was born, and grew for years; and then again “it fell on a day” that in the field among the reapers, he cried to his father, “My head! my head!” The father had him carried to his mother, but the child was sick unto death, and at noontide, on his mother’s knees, he died. There was no help now, unless through the prophet; so she laid the boy in the prophet’s chamber, on the prophet’s ELISHA AND THE SHUNEMITE’S SON. (2 KINGS IV. 8-37.) bed, and hastened to Mount Carmel, where the prophet was. While he was still far off he saw her coming and sent his servant to ask, “Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?” But she had naught to say to the servant; she hasted to the prophet, cast herself before him, embraced his feet, and moaned out her complaint. The gentle prophet bade his servant go with her at once and lay his prophet’s staff THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. 1 86 upon the child; but the Shunemite refused to go with Gehazi. “As the Lord liveth,” she said, “and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.” So the prophet himself went with the Shunemite, and came into her house, and entered his chamber where the dead child was, and closed the door, and prayed, and stretched himself seven times upon the lad, and at length the child’s eyes opened. And Elisha called his servant Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunemite.” So he called her. And when she came in, he said, “Take up thy son!” Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son and went out. If Jesus and the Blessed Virgin and Joseph really did pass Mount Carmel on their way from Egypt to Nazareth, and there is every reason to suppose they must have done so, this delightful story would not fail to be remembered at the scene where it took place. At the foot of Carmel is a cave called the School of the Prophets, where young men are said to have been trained to the prophetic ministry. Centuries ago it was ten¬ anted by a company of Carmelites and a little chapel was built close by; but the monks were massacred by the Mahommedans, who took possession of it and have held it ever since. It is greatly reverenced both by Mos¬ lems and by Christians, and it is specially resorted to by mothers who desire to pray for their young children. At or near the Grotto of the School of the Prophets, there is a tradition that the young Child Jesus and his Virgin Mother rested for a night when journeying home from Egypt to Nazareth. CHAPTER VI. THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. Plain of Esdraelon — Origin of the Name — Its Mountain Boundaries — Harosheth — Megiddo — Taanach — Tyranny of Jabin — Battle of the Kishon — Defeat and Death of Sisera — Song of Deborah and Ba¬ rak — The French in Esdraelon — Battle of El Fuleh — Victory of Gideon over the Midianites — Battle of Gilboa — Endor— Death of Saul and Jonathan — Battle of Megiddo — Death of King Josiah — Armageddon — En Gannim — The Ten Lepers — Mount Gilboa — Jezreel — Residence of Ahab — Death of Ahaziah — Revolt of Jehu — Death of Jezebel — Hill of Moreh — Shunem — Nain — Raising of the Widow’s Son — Mount Tabor — Approach to Nazareth — Description of Nazareth — Fountain of the Virgin — Church of St. Gabriel — Kitchen of the Virgin — Table of Christ — Holy House of Loretto — Hill of the Precipitation — Character of the Nazarenes — View from the Hill of Nazareth — Modern Nazareth — The Childhood of Jesus — A Story from Luther — Sabbath Occupa¬ tions — Education — Legends of the Infancy — Wordsworth’s Sonnet to the Virgin. SHALL suppose the Holy Family to have taken the road which runs just south of Carmel, at Jokneam , now called Tell Keimum , about twelve miles from the cape where the mountain juts into the sea. From the crest of the ridge, would see before them the great battle¬ field of Palestine, the Plain of Esdraelon. Esdraelon is the Graecized form of the Hebrew Jezreel; for, just as the whole land has taken its name of Palestine from the Philistines, who inhabited only a part of it, so the Plain of Esdraelon has taken its name from the little valley of Jezreel which lies to the north of Mount Gilboa, and runs to the Jordan Valley. There are several points from which a noble view of this beautiful Plain of Esdraelon can be had, and one of these is the southeastern summit of the Carmel ridge, near Jokneam. 1 he plain is surrounded by hills and mountains. From Cape Carmel extends the ridge of Mount Carmel for twelve miles to the southwest; thence in the same 187 GIRL OF NAZARETH. 1 88 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. general direction run the hills of Manasseh; on the south are the hills of Samaria; at the southeast rise the mountains of Gilboa; on the east is the hill of Moreh; which English writers commonly, but incorrectly, call Little Hermon; on the northeast is Mount Tabor; on the north lie the hills of Nazareth. Westward the plain is drained by the river or torrent of Kishon, which runs close by the foot of Carmel, into the Bay of Acre, where the Plain of Esdraelon opens into the maritime plain called the Plain of Akka; and on the east there are two wadys or valleys, besides the valley of Jezreel, through which the water flows into the Jordan. If we suppose the Holy Family to have caught their first view of the Plain of Esdraelon from the neighborhood of Jokneam, then, about four miles to the northwest, at a place now called El-Harathiyeh , was the site of Harosheth of the Gentiles; a few miles to the southeast was the city of Megiddo , which has been identified by Dr. Robinson with Lejjun, and by Captain Conder with Mujedda\ yet a little further to the southeast, was Taanach , still known by the name of Taanuk\ and almost at their feet flowed the Kishon, whose waters had run red with Canaanitish blood on that famous day when Deborah rose up as a mother in Israel, and Barak smote the host of Sisera with a mighty slaughter. From his stronghold, Harosheth, Jabin, the Canaanitish king, controlled the Plain of Esdraelon, which was occupied by the tribe of Issachar, and by the opening of the Kishon, he had easy access to his capital at Hazor, whence he could oppress the tribes of Asher, Zebulon and Naphtali, which lay beyond the plain. The hand of Jabin was heavy on Israel. The fields of Esdraelon were forsaken; the highways were unused; the traveler made his way from place to place by solitary by-paths (Judg. v:6); the fortunes of that por¬ tion of the country were low indeed, when Deborah sent a ringing mes¬ sage to Barak, calling him to the deliverance of his people. First taking her promise to go with him, Barak called the men of Zebulun and Naph¬ tali to follow him, and went up to the broad summit of Mount Tabor with ten thousand men at his feet (Judg. iv). This little army was an ill match for the host of Sisera, the general of Jabin’s host, who marched quickly with his whole force, and with not less than nine hundred of those chariots of iron which had always been the terror of the Israelites, to a position between Megiddo and Taanach, having the Kishon in his front. THE PLAIN OF ESDRAEI ON AND NAZARETH. 190 On Mount Tabor, however, Barak was safe, since the chariots of Sisera were powerless against him there. But the battle must be fought in the plain below, and Deborah gave the signal for the onset. Barak marched boldly down from Tabor and across the plain, and as he attacked Sisera’s right flank, Josephus says a tremendous storm of rain and hail came on, and beat full in the faces of the enemy. The ground became all sodden with the falling water, embarrassing the horses of the Canaanites; the chariots stuck fast in the mire; the heathen host was thrown into complete confusion. Blinded by the hail, they were forced back and broke into retreat. The stars in their courses were fighting against Sisera. “The horse hoofs were broken by the prancings of the mighty ones.” The tor¬ rent of Kishon was swollen by the flood; the direct road to Harosheth was flooded. The Gentiles were caught in a cul de sac , hemmed in by the rushing torrent of the Kishon, and with Barak’s gallant ten thousand pressing their rear. The defeat was overwhelming. Sisera himself escaped on foot from the scene of carnage, and fled across the plain and northward to the oak of Zaanaim, in the low land near Kedeshnaphtali. There he sought the solitary tent of Heber, a Kenite Bedouin, between whom and himself there was hospitality. The bond of Arab hospitality did not serve to save him. The nail of Jael, the wife of Heber, sank into his brain as he lay fast asleep and weary after that bloody day. “At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down; at her feet he bowed, he fell, where he bowed, there he fell down dead.” In Harosheth, the mother of Sisera impatiently awaited the coming of the son she was nevermore to see. She looked out of her lattice dreaming of victory. “Why is his chariot so long in coming?” she asked; “why tarry the wheels of his chariot? Have they not sped? Have they not divided the spoil?” No, they had not sped. Deborah and Barak were even then meditating the song which has made their names immortal, and its closing words of triumph over Sisera were these: “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord!” After that signal victory, “the land had rest forty years.” (Judg. v: 31). “History often repeats itself. Three thousand two hundred years had passed and gone,” says Canon Tristram, “when that plain saw a similar battle between hosts almost as unequal in numbers, if not in equipment, with an identical result. Little more than four miles to the northwest, we NAZARETH P§1 BgHRj BaiMS ■mm CMM HI mMtm i THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH 193 may detect a mound in the plain on the direct road to Nazareth, covered with ruins, and on the other side of it a small swamp, sometimes lake, the resort of wild fowl, where flocks of the stilted plover daintily step. The mound, with a few huts behind it clustered round a well, is known as El Fiileh, the Bean, and marks the site of the crusading castle of Faba, an DEATH OF SISERA. (JUDGES IV: 22). important garrison of the Knights Templar, the foundations of which are still plainly visible. Round this spot, in the beginning of April, 1799, the Turks had collected a vast army — Mamelukes from Egypt, Janissaries from Damascus, regulars from Aleppo, with the whole Mohammedan popu¬ lation of Syria, and countless hordes of Arab cavalry, which even outnum¬ bered the foot levies, from the whole east of Jordan and Northern Arabia — for the purpose of forcing Napoleon to raise the siege of Acre, then held by the aid of Sir Sydney Smith. The Turkish general was in the same 194 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. position as Sisera. He was compelled to camp in the plain, or at least to hold his cavalry there for the sake of water. The little handful of French held, like Barak, the hill country of the north; Junot held Mount Tabor and Nazareth; other detachments held Cana of Galilee and Safed, while Murat, with one thousand men, held the bridge across the Jordan, to inter¬ cept the enemy’s communications. Kleber held the supreme command, and, mustering all his troops at Nazareth, marched as far as Fuleh to the attack. Here he was assailed by fifteen thousand cavalry, and as many infantry. Forming in squares, the French were soon behind ramparts of dead men and horses, till, after they had held their ground for six hours, Napoleon, who had been working his way with the besieging army from before Acre, by the edge of the southern hills, came suddenly down from Taanach and Megiddo, and, by his dashing charges, decided the fate of the day. The Turkish cavalry was driven into the swamps of the head waters of the Kishon, in which Sisera’s chariots had stuck fast, and they then fled toward Mount Tabor and the Jordan, by the route that Sisera’s fugitives must have followed toward Harosheth; but finding Murat holding the bridge, endeavored to ford the swollen Jordan, in which numbers perished, and the army, ‘countless as the sands of the sea,’ was utterly dispersed.” (Piet. Pal. i: 270). The next great triumph of the chosen people, in the Plain of Esdrae- lon, was that of Gideon against the Midianites, in which Israel was to learn that the Lord can save by many or by few, as is best pleasing to Him. The Midianitish tribes of the eastern side of Jordan had long made incursions into the Plain of Esdraelon, and had so established themselves that when the Israelites had raised and reaped their harvests, these marauders came and carried off the fruits of their toil. It was a just reward of the unfaithfulness of Israel, for their land had been polluted with idols, and the altars of Baal were reared on the high places of Israel. Even on the lot of Gideon’s own inheritance stood an altar of the false god, which at God’s command he tore down, and to him was committed the high task of rescuing the Israelites from the Midianites. Over and over again, knowing the peril of his undertaking, Gideon asked from God a sign that it was verily God who called him, and the sign was given him as he asked for it. At length, with two and thirty thousand men, Gideon CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION, NAZARETH V . - f ■ . - ) ■ • I ■ a -• - 4 * I * <• - THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 197 encamped upon the northern slope of Mount Gilboa; the Midianites and Amalekites, with their chiefs, Oreb, the Raven, and Zeeb, the Wolf, and under their greatest chiefs, Zeba and Zalmunna, encamped beside the hill of Moreh, in the valley. These warriors and the “children of the east,” by whom they were accompanied, “lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand of the sea for multitude.” In spite of the disparity of numbers, Gideon gave the JENIN, THE ANCIENT EN-GANNIM. word for every man who was afraid to turn and leave the host of Israel, and two and twenty thousand cowards took him at his word. Then, by command of God, the remainder marched down to the spring of Jezreel, and there the eager, thirsty throng rushed to the water in unsoldierly dis¬ order, threw themselves upon their faces, and drank like dogs. Only three hundred men showed the cool self-poise of resolute warriors, drink¬ ing at their leisure, and by these three hundred Israel conquered. In the dead of night, Gideon himself approached the camp of the enemy and made a personal reconnaissance. Then returning to his chosen three hun- 198 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. dred, he armed them with trumpets, and lamps concealed in earthen pitchers. In three divisions the three hundred fell upon the camp of Midian, at different points, blowing their trumpets, breaking their pitchers, waving their flaming lamps, and shouting out their battle cry, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” The Midianites were completely surprised; they supposed themselves to be surrounded by the army of Israel; in the darkness and confusion, they turned their swords against each other, and presently betook themselves to flight. All Israel joined in hot pursuit, the Midianites were routed out of every place they had occupied, and the land again had rest. Israel was afterward to see a sadder sight on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines had gathered strength, and leaving their own plain by the sea, had pressed the God-forsaken Saul back through the Plain of Esdraelon. Their tents were pitched at Shunem; Saul’s camp was at Mount Gilboa. But Saul’s hope and energy were gone. He knew that God had left him. Samuel was dead, and he had no prophet of God to consult. The hapless king then sought out a witch with a familiar spirit. She was found at En-Dor, a village situated on the other side of little Hermon, about eight miles from Saul’s camp, and reputed to be the place where Sisera had per¬ ished (Psa. lxxxiii: 9, 10). Thither, in disguise, Saul went by night, and at his desire the woman called the shade of Samuel to meet the king who had so often disobeyed his counsels. “Why,” the prophet asked, “Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?” Saul, with his face bowed to the ground, mournfully answered, “I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore have I called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.” And then he heard his doom sternly and solemnly pronounced: “To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” At this announcement of irre¬ trievable defeat and death, Saul seems to have fainted. He was worn out with anxiety; all day he had eaten nothing; now all hope was taken from him. His followers compelled him to eat what was perhaps his last meal, and immediately that night they went away. Next day the prophet’s saying was fulfilled. Saul’s sons died before THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 199 him in the battle; he himself was wounded by the archers of the Philis¬ tines. One last disgrace he would not brook; he would not die by the hands of his uncircumcised enemies. He besought his armor-bearer to kill him, but the armor-bearer would not slay the Lord’s anointed. Then Saul fell upon his own sword, and his faithful armor-bearer fell likewise THE DEATH OF SAUL. ( I SAM. XXXI : 1-6). upon his sword, and died with him. On the following day the bodies of Saul and his sons, and among them that of David’s beloved friend, Jonathan, were found by the Philistines. Saul’s armor was sent as a trophy to the temple of Ashtaroth. His body and the bodies of his sons were gibbetted outside the walls of Beth-shan (afterward Scythopolis, now Beisan) in the Plain of Jezreel; but that disgrace the brave men of Mount Gilead could not bear. They went to Beth-shan, took down the mutilated bodies and gave them honorable sepulture. Then it was that David’s gen- 200 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. erous muse inspired the tender strains of his lament for Saul and Jonathan. “The beauty of Israel,’’ he sang, “is slain upon the high places, 0 ye mount¬ ains of Gilboa! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashke- lon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death their were not divided. Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with scarlet, who put on orna¬ ments of gold upon your apparel. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been to me; thy love was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!" Another terrible defeat befell Israel in the Plain of Esdraelon, and its scene was that of the former great victory of Barak over Sisera. Pharaoh Necho, King of Egypt, in his march against Assyria, had come along the coast through the Plains of Philistia and Sharon, and had rounded the Cape of Carmel, when the good King Josiah unadvisedly attacked him. Pharaoh had no wish to make war on Josiah, though he had taken leave to march through his dominions; but Josiah forced a battle at Megiddo, and, hoping to meet Pharaoh hand to hand in the contest, he disguised himself and entered the fray. He was mortally wounded by an arrow, at a place called Hadad Rimmon, and lived only till he reached Jerusalem, where he died, the most lamented of the kings of Judah. From the blow received in that fatal battle his kingdom never rallied; and erelong it fell, a helpless prey, into the hands of the Assyrians (2 Kings xxiii: 29, 30; 2 Chron. xxxv: 20-24). Besides the battles of the Plain of Esdraelon, another great battle, which was fought near by, remains to be spoken of elsewhere; but pro¬ phetic commentators have imagined that a greater battle than all these is yet to be fought on that historic field. For “ Armageddon ’ (Rev. xvi: 16) is nothing else than “the field of Megiddo" which has already been a place of so much slaughter. It is rash to undertake to tell the meaning of unfulfilled prophecies; no prophecy is of private interpretation; and the Galilean writer of the Apocalypse, accustomed to behold that scene of bloodshed, might very naturally use its name, in a figurative way, to designate the place of any mighty contest, temporal or spiritual. THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH 201 It is well worth while to visit in imagination, the conspicuous places of the Plain of Esdraelon; for beyond a doubt, they were familiar to our Sav¬ iour’s eye throughout his early years, and it is certain that He not only saw all of them, but visited some of them in the course of his ministry. En-Gan- nim , for example (the modern Jenin), He must often have passed through, since it is on the straight road into, or out of Samaria, and it was either at or near En-Gannim that He healed the ten lepers, of whom but one returned DEATH OF JEZEBEL. (2 KINGS IX: 30-37.) Item' dsmm WfWm Ivmm 3 'll m Ff gg| 'mm w; 'W W: to tell his gratitude (Luke xvii: 11-20). Its name signifies the Spring or Fountain of Gardens, and indicates its former beauty and fertility. It stands on the slope which descends to the Plain of Esdraelon, from the hills of Samaria, and its full perennial spring supplies abundant water for the irrigation of its fields and gardens. It belonged to the tribe of Issachar, but was given, as a Levitical city, to the family of Gershom. In history it 202 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. is somewhat doubtfully recognized as the place where Ahaziah, King of Judah, was wounded to death by Jehu. He fled, we are told (2 Kings ix: 27, 28), by the way of Beth-Gan, or the House of the Garden (which some commentators suppose to have been En-Gannim), and reached Megiddo, where he died. En-Gannim is now a town of some twenty-five hundred inhabitants, who are all said to be fanatical, rude and rebellious Moslems, with the exception of a few families of Christians of the Greek Church. The bare and barren mountain ridge of Gilboa has been thought, idly and foolishly, to be blighted by the poetical apostrophe of David, in his lament for Jonathan: “Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings; for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil !” Physical nature is not blighted by the curses of poets or prophets. Poetry is imaginative and figurative. Prophecy is spiritual, and its fulfillment is spiritual; it is not fulfilled in physical abor¬ tions or desolations, except so far as spiritual facts accomplish physical results. It is the curse of the sluggard that thorns and thistles flourish in the field he will not till; that they produce no better harvest is the conse¬ quence of his neglect; but the fields themselves are not cursed, and the hand of the diligent. can soon bring them again into fruitfulness. But no culture will make bare rock fruitful. Mount Gilboa is naturally barren; but it has not been made so by the curse of David. The dew falls and the rain descends upon it as on all the land still. No part of the land is phy¬ sically cursed. The elements of physical fruitfulness are still there. The former and the latter rain fall in their season. The soil is rich and ready to bring forth seed for the sower and bread for the eater. All that is needed is a good government to make property secure, and ordinary dili¬ gence to use the great physical advantages which are everywhere present. The Plain of Esdraelon, for example, might become one universal garden. Travelers are struck with its extreme fertility. The gigantic thistles, the luxuriant herbage, and the exuberant crops produced on the few cultivated spots, show what the rest might be, with proper culture. So rich was it in ancient times that the tribe of Issachar was willing to submit to pay con¬ tinual tribute to the fierce marauders of the desert, rather than abandon its pleasant land. “He saw that rest was good, and the land that it was THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 203 pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute, couching down, like a strong ass under two burdens” (Gen. xlix: T4> T5)- What the plain was then it is still, so far as the gifts of nature are concerned. But now, as then, it is exposed to the incursions of ma- RUINS OF JEZREEL. rauders, and now, as then, there is no strong government to protect the tiller of the ground. In time, it seems to be as certain as that time goes on, that this plain will bear more abundantly that ever; but Mount Gilboa will always be barren, as it always has been, and the curse of David’s song will not have caused its barrenness. 204 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. But a little way from the northwestern end of Mount Gilboa, and not far from the spring of Jezreel, where the thirsty soldiers of Gideon had thrown themselves on their faces to drink, was established, many years afterward, at Jezreel, the splendid capital of the magnificent Ahab, which rivaled, though it did not supplant, the original capital at Samaria. It was in all respects superbly situated, surrounded with fertile plains, which ex¬ tended from the Jordan on the east, to the Mediterranean on the west, and from En-Gannim on the south, to Nazareth on the north. In the time of war it had been proved to be so strongly defensible as to have interposed a barrier to the progress of the conquest of the land by Joshua (Josh, xvii: 1 6). Ahab was a man of great magnificence, not by any means incor. rigidly bad, but * misled by ambition and seduced by the unscrupulous savagery of his heathen wife Jezebel. The gardens surrounding his palace were of great extent and beauty, and it was for the sake of completing or enlarging them that Jezebel committed the atrocious crime of putting Naboth to death, under a perjured accusation (i Kings xxi:i-i6). A grove sacred to Baal was served by a staff of idolatrous priests (i Kings XVP33; 2 Kings x:ii), and high above all was the watch tower, from which the whole plain could be seen (2 Kings ix: 17). Jezreel, in the time of Ahab, was a place of great luxury and magnificence. It had a winter palace and a summer palace, one of which was called “the palace of ivory” (1 Kings xxii:39), and mansions so magnificent as to be called “houses of ivory” (Amos iii : 1 5). But the day of vengeance was at hand, though Ahab’s penitence secured a respite. At the indignant rebuke and the fearful doom pronounced against him by Elijah, the terror-stricken king “rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly” (1 Kings XXE27); and because he humbled himself, retribution was delayed. When he fell in battle at Ramoth Gilead beyond the Jordan, his son Ahaziah followed in his evil ways, and did not repent. It was he who sent to consult Beelzebub at the Philistine temple in Ekron, and whose death Elijah foretold. He was followed by Joram, an unworthy son of an unworthy father, and then came Jehu, the Avenger. Joram had been wounded in battle with Hazael, King of Syria, and had gone to his palace at Jezreel to recover his health, when Jehu was anointed, by a messenger of Elijah, to punish the evil house of Ahab, and to found a new dynasty in THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 205 the kingdom of Israel. At Samaria he raised the standard of revolt and was proclaimed king so suddenly that, before the news could be carried to Jezreel, Jehu himself was there. From the height of the watch tower the watchman spied an armed force approaching Jezreel. Messenger after messenger was sent to inquire whether the strangers came on an errand of peace, but Jehu detained them and marched swiftly on. At length, by the RAISING OF THE WIDOW’S SON AT NAIN. (LUKE VII : I I — I 5 . ) furious driving of the chariots, Joram perceived that it was Jehu who ap¬ proached, and at once, with his guest, Ahaziah, King of Judah, went out to meet the enemy. He asked, “Is it peace, Jehu?” and tor answer was told that there could be no peace so long as his mother lived. Joram, hearing this answer, turned and fled, and an arrow from Jehu’s bow killed him. King Ahaziah also fled, either by the “garden house” or by the way of En- Gannim, where he, too, was mortally wounded, and died at Megiddo. 206 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. Meanwhile Jezebel was preparing to meet Jehu. She was a woman of un¬ daunted courage, aud met her foeman with scorn. While he had been slaughtering Joram and Ahaziah, she had caused her tirewomen to paint her face and adorn her head, and when he entered Jezreel, she looked out at a window and taunted him with the fate of another traitor, Zimri, who had murdered his sovereign. “Had Zimri peace,” she asked, “who slew his master?” Jehu made no reply. “Cast her down,” he called to some of her servants, who stood near the queen. They cast her down; the horses trod her under foot; and so they left her dead in the street. When they returned to bury her, they found that her carcass had been eaten by the dogs of Jezreel, thus fulfilling to the letter the prophecy of Elijah, that dogs should eat the flesh of that cruel queen in “the portion of Jezreel.” (2 Kings ix). Of all the splendor of Ahab’s city of royal pleasure, noth¬ ing now remains except a rude village called Zerin, heaps of ruins which bear witness of its former greatness, and a tower which is used by trav¬ elers as a khan. A little to the north of Jezreel is the Hill of Moreh , now called Jebel Duhy , and commonly called Little Hermon , through a misunderstanding of two passages in the Psalms (Psa. xlii : 6 : cxxxiii: 12). At the foot of Little Hermon was Shunem , now Solane, on the northeast En-Dor , and, nestling on the northwest slope, was the little city of Nain , “the Fair l' sacred for¬ ever to all Christians, and still known by the same name which is justified by its lovely situation, though it is now only a squalid village. Here we may anticipate, by thirty years, the one event which makes Nain so sacredly illustrious. The Holy Child, whose footsteps we are tracing, had become a man, had begun His ministry, and, journeying from Capernaum, He came to Nain, followed by His chosen companions. As He approached the city gate, He met a numerous and sorrowful pro¬ cession. A young man was being carried to his grave beyond the gate. The wailing cries of the mourning women might well be, and perhaps they were, more sincerely uttered than they usually were on such occasions, for the dead man “was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.” To be childless was held to be the saddest fate that could befall a woman of Israel; it was even thought to be a special punishment of sin; so that this widow was more desolate than mothers in our time might be, even in such THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 207 a loss. Her grief had moved the hearts of many of her neighbors, for “much people followed the bier.” When the Saviour saw her, He, too, was moved with compassion, and perhaps He thought of what the gentle prophet, Elisha, had done, on the other side of that same mountain, for his kind hostess of Shunem. So, He came and touched the bier, a most unusual act, for according to the Jewish law, to touch the bier of a dead MOUNT TABOR. body was to be defiled. To Jesus there was no defilement, for He meant to change the bed of death into a chariot of deathless triumph. At His touch, the bearers of the dead stood still, and then Jesus simply said: “Young man,. I say unto thee, Arise!” And he that was dead sat up and began to speak, and Jesus delivered him to his mother. This was the first of those marvelous “signs” by which our Saviour declared Himself to be “the Resurrection and the Life. About ten miles north of Little Hermon is Mount Tabor, now called 208 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. Jcbel et Tur , or. Mountain of Purity, which the Hebrew poets delighted to compare with the noble head of Carmel, at the other end of the plain. Thus Jeremiah (xlvi: i8)puts this striking language into the mouth of God Him¬ self: “As I live, saith the King, Whose Name is the Lord of Hosts, surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel is by the sea, so shall He come!” Dean Stanley, speaking of these two mountains, gives a fine description of Tabor. He says: “Two mountains, the glory of the tribe of Issachar, stand out among the bare and rugged hills of Palestine, and even among those of their own immediate neighborhood, remarkable for the verdure which climbs — a rare sight in eastern scenery — to their very sum¬ mits. One of these is Tabor. This strange and beautiful mountain is distinguished alike in form and in character, from all around it. As seen, where it is usually first seen by the traveler, from the north¬ west of the plain, it towers like a dome — as seen from the east, like a long arched mound — over the monotonous undulations of the surrounding hills, from which it stands completely isolated, except by a narrow neck of rising ground, uniting it to the mountain range of Galilee. It is not what Europeans would call a wooded hill, because its trees stand all apart from each other. But it is so thickly studded with them as to rise from the plain like a mass of verdure. Its sides much resemble the scattered glades on the outskirts of the New Forest. Its summit — a broken oblong— is an alternation of shade and greensward, that seems made for a national fes¬ tivity; broad and varied, and commanding wide views of the plain, from end to end.” Mount Tabor has been supposed to be the scene of our Lord’s transfiguration, but we shall hereafter see that the true place of that event was far distant. The mountain, however, appears to have been regarded as a sacred place for many ages, and it is probably “the moun¬ tain” (Deut. xxxiii: 19), to which, in early ages, Issachar and Zebulon were to assemble to offer sacrifices. Be that as it may, to the beholder of the Plain of Esdraelon, the three most prominent objects must always have been Carmel on the east, Tabor on the northwest, and in the distance beyond Tabor, the snowy peak of Hermon gleaming from afar. All the places which have been named would be visible to the Holy Family from Jokneam, and when they had descended to the plain, and turned toward the hills which bound the Plain of Esdraelon on the north. THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 209 almost in the center of that chain they would perceive a cleft in the lime¬ stone, forming the entrance to a little valley. The view before them then would be precisely what the traveler has before him now, and we may let the pen of Archdeacon Farrar draw the scene. He says: “As the traveler leaves the plain, he will ride up a steep and narrow pathway, broidered with grass and flowers, through scenery which is neither colossal nor over¬ whelming, but infinitely beautiful and picturesque. Beneath him, on the right hand side, the vale will gradually widen until it becomes about a quarter of a mile in breadth. The basin of the valley is divided by hedges RUINS ON SUMMIT OF MT. TABOR. of cactus, into little fields and gardens, which, about the fall of the spring rains, wear an aspect of indescribable calm, and glow with a tint of the richest green. Beside the narrow pathway, at no great distance apart from each other, are two wells, and the women who draw water there are more beautiful, and the ruddy shepherd boys who sit or play by the well- sides, in their gay-colored oriental costume, are a happier, bolder, brighter- looking race than the traveler will have seen elsewhere. Gradually the valley opens into a little natural amphitheater of hills, supposed by some to be the crater of an extinct volcano; and there, clinging to the hollows of a 210 ^HE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. hill, which rises to the height of some five hundred feet above it, lie, ‘like a handful of pearls in a goblet of emerald,’ the flat roofs and narrow streets of a little eastern town. There is a small church; the massive buildings of a convent; the tall minaret of a mosque; a clear, abundant fountain; houses of white stone, and gardens scattered among them, umbrageous with figs and olives, and rich with the white and scarlet blossoms of orange and pomegranate. In spring, at least, everything about the place looks indescribably bright and soft; doves murmur in the trees; the hoopoe flits about in ceaseless activity; the bright blue roller-bird, the commonest and loveliest bird of Palestine, flashes like a living sapphire over fields which are enameled with innumerable flowers. And that little town is En Naz- iroh , Nazareth , where the Son of God, the Saviour of Mankind, spent nearly thirty years of His mortal life. It was, in fact, His home, His native village, for all but three or four years of His life on earth; the vil¬ lage which lent its then ignominious name to the scornful title written upon His cross; the village from which He did not disdain to draw His appella¬ tion when He spake in vision to the persecuting Saul. And along the nar¬ row mountain path which I have described, His feet must often have trod, for it is the only approach by which, in returning northward from Jerusa¬ lem, He could have reached the home of His infancy, youth and manhood.” The “little natural amphitheater,” of which Archdeacon Farrar here speaks, must be somewhat more distinctly described. It is really encom¬ passed by fifteen gently rounded hills, which, as Dr. Richardson says, seem to have met to form an inclosure for this peaceful basin, rising around it like the edge of a shell, to guard it from intrusion. It is a rich and beau¬ tiful field, in the midst of the surrounding hills. Nazareth stands on the slope of one of these hills on the northwest. If we should approach it from the south to-day, we should see in front of us and on the right side a small mosque; and behind that the Latin Monastery and Church of the Annunciation, with its tall campanile or belfry. The Latin Quarter, how¬ ever, would be on our left, and the Mahometan Quarter would be beyond the monastery on the right. The Greek Quarter lies further up the hill, behind the other two. The principal mosque is in the center of the Mahometan Quarter. At the extreme left (the northwest angle), of the Latin Quarter, half-way up the hill, is the Maronite Church. At the THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 211 extreme right of the Greek Quarter are the church and school of the Greek Christians, and the residence of their Bishop. Behind all, and above all, is the English Protestant Orphan House, where orphan children of Nazareth and its vicinity are reared and educated for the sake of Him, who was once a child in the streets of Nazareth. None of these is of any historical importance; but if we should pass to the right of the Greek Bishop’s house and walk on for, say, three or four minutes, we should find ourselves at a spot, where undoubtedly the Blessed Virgin and her Son stood many hundreds of times. That is the Fountain of the Virgin. To this spot the women of Nazareth resort for water, as they undoubtedly did when Jesus was a child. In his “Travels” Dr. Clarke says, that if there be a spot throughout the Holy Land that was undoubtedly honored by the presence of the Virgin Mother, we may con¬ sider this to have been the place; because the situation of so copious a spring is not liable to be changed, and because the custom of repairing thither to draw water has been continued among the female inhabitants of Nazareth from the earliest period of its history. The path which leads to it has been trodden by the feet of countless generations, and in its imme¬ diate vicinity is the gayest and busiest scene of the ancient town. The water of the Virgin’s Spring bursts out of the ground within the Church of the Annunciation, and as the church itself is underground, the water is led past the high altar to a well which is kept full for the use of pilgrims, and thence, by a conduit, to an arched recess below the church on the hillside. There the stream flows in spouts, through the wall, into a square trough of stone, at which a dozen persons can stand side by side, and the overflow makes a pool immediately beneath, where the women wash their linen, and even their children; “standing in the water, ankle deep, with their baggy trousers tucked between their knees, while others coming for water are continually passing and repassing with their jars on their heads.” Over the source of the spring, and not far above the Fountain of the Virgin, is the Greek Church and Monastery, dedicated to Gabriel, the Angel of the Annunciation, who was sent of God to announce to the young Virgin that she should bear a Son, who should be called the Son of the Highest, and whose human name she should call Jesus (Luke 1:26-31). Of course, there is not a particle of historical evidence that the Angelic 212 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. Annunciation took place at or near any particular spot. The fact of the Annunciation is all that Holy Scripture has recorded for our learning. Of the place of its occurrence we know nothing more than that it was at Nazareth; and we have absolutely no grounds on which to rear a rational conjecture concerning it. The Greeks maintain that it took place near the Fountain of the Virgin, and the Latin monks as positively assert that it was in a cave under their church. The exact spot is pointed out, marked with the inscription, Hie Verbum Caro Factum est ; “Here the Word became flesh!” We need spend no time in considering these legendary localities of which there are more than enough at Nazareth. We will not linger in an old cistern called “the Kitchen of the Virgin,” nor in “Joseph’s workshop,” nor beside the Mens a Christa , or “Table of Christ,” a huge block of hard chalk on which our Saviour is said to have dined with his disciples; and certainly we need not discuss the strange story of the Holy House of Lo- retto, though it may be worth while to tell at least what that story is. It is affirmed, then, that on the ioth day of May, A.D. 1291, when the house formerly occupied by the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth, was in danger of being desecrated by the Mohammedans, it was lifted bodily from its foun¬ dations and was borne, by the hands of angels, through the air to Tersato, near Fiume, in Dalmatia. It was subsequently carried in the same way to Loretto, where it now stands. It was not until 1471, that the church de¬ clared this marvelous story to be historically true, and it is needless to say that, though Protestants refuse to believe it, the Holy House of Mary at Loretto is still frequented by many devout Roman Catholic pilgrims, Besides the Fountain of the Virgin, there is only one spot in or near Nazareth of any special importance, in connection with the gospel history, namely, that which has come to be customarily called the Hill of the Pre¬ cipitation. It will be remembered (Luke iv: 16-29), that when our Saviour began to preach in the synagogue at Nazareth, his fellow townsmen were grievously offended because he intimated that prophets need not expect to be honored in their own country, and that the blessing of prophecy, re¬ jected at home, finds acceptance abroad, as when Elijah was sent to a heathen woman of Sarepta, and Elisha healed the leprosy, not of a son of Israel, but of Naaman, the Syrian. So furious were his hearers at these THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 213 intimations, that they “rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city were built, that they might cast Him down headlong.” “From these words,” says Stanley, “most readers imagine a town built on the summit of a mountain, from which summit the intended precipitation was to take place. This, however, is not the situation of Nazareth, and yet the true position is strictly in accordance with the narrative. Nazareth is built upon a mountain, but on the side, not on the top of it; and the brow of the mountain is not below the city, MiAIARlTMf (EN’NASIRA). j. After ToMer with Addilio its by Huber. '"m Ir g 'Zzmw Cuvc .tC.-u.fci ofiUf 'll •?/, y/v/iMv taj tsc C- T foilisjuap 0? Josvjilo X- Cason no rrc of the.ZaCCrt'Monxxstuy 2 • ChurVc of tlut JinnunciiOioro 3..Jhvttstxi7if Qwjrclu 4, J'rotcstanl' Yin sanctt/i, 3. Stjiool vf Pro testa iif. Mission, V. Ifoitsd of Oie Prvt<*Gtazit M isnon ary JIubcr 7 • • Nimtiay of Vue. FreruJL 6’ uruTrs 8, 'Jlfausa, ChrCsti) 0. House ofVicJilufU, 30. House of Turkish . (knxmoi* 21. llosquA Jd!. JJospitciL of D?VaHait> 1 It? '"ni'imww VStSmcTLMbsqitb house UfJlifL. but above it. There is a cliff about thirty or forty feet high, in the face of the limestone rock, not far from the Maronite Convent already mentioned, which would perfectly correspond with the account of the incident as given by St. Luke, and which is, in all probability, the true scene of the at¬ tempted precipitation.” Standing in imagination on the spot of that scene of murderous excitement, one must needs marvel at the quietude of Christ, and at the triumph of peace over the tumult of his enemies. While the crowd swayed to and fro and sought to hurry Him along to the intended place of murder, He was so calm and peaceful that they lost sight of Him altogether; and then “passing through the midst of them, He went His I” way! 214 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. There is little reason to wonder at the general disrepute of Nazareth in the time of our Saviour. It was not merely classed with other parts of Galilee on account of a rude provincial dialect, or the uncultivated manners of a peasant population. It was despised even by other Galileeans; it was a Galileean who asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ (John 1:46). In the life of Jesus we have more than one incident which goes to prove the hostility of the Nazarenes at least to Him. They ex¬ pelled Him twice from their city (Luke iv: 16-29; Matt, xiii 156-58); once they sought to take his life; they were so unbelieving that He could' do no miracles among them (Matt, xiii : 58), and at last, He was compelled to quit the home of His childhood and His youth, and to take up His abode in Capernaum (Matt, iv: 13) A people so unruly and violent in their treat¬ ment of One who had dwelt for many years among them, was, in all proba¬ bility, characterized by general rudeness and brutality of behaviour, and hence the proverb, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” It would be unjust to one of the most sacred of all the places on earth, if we were not to mention the grand scene which opens to the view from the summit of the hill of Nazareth. Perhaps one of the very best descrip¬ tions of it, given by any traveler, is that of Dr. Robinson. He says: “I walked out alone to the top of the hill over Nazareth, where stands the neglected Wely of Neby Ishma’il. Here, quite unexpectedly, a glorious prospect opened on the view. The air was perfectly clear and serene, and I shall never forget the impression I received as the enchanting panorama burst suddenly upon me. There lay the magnificent Plain of Esdraelon, or at least all its western part; on the left was seen the round top of Tabor over the intervening hills, with portions of the Little Hermon and Gilboa, and the opposite mountains of Samaria, from Zerin (Jezreel) westward to « _ ' the lower hills, extending toward Carmel. Then came the long line of Carmel itself, with the Convent of Elias on its northern end, and Haifa on the shore at its feet. “In the west lay the Mediterranean, gleaming in the morning sun; seen first, far in the south, on the left of Carmel; then interrupted by that mountain; and again appearing on its right, so as to include the whole Bay of Akka, and the coast stretching far north to a point north ten degrees west. Akka (Acre) was not visible, being hidden by the intervening hills. THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH 215 Below, on the north, was spread out another of the beautiful plains of Northern Palestine, called El Buttauf; it runs from east to west, and its waters are drained off westward through a narrower valley to the Kishon at the base of Carmel. “On the southern border of this plain the eye rested on a large village, near the foot of an isolated hill, with a ruined castle on the top; this was THE ANNUNCIATION. (LUKE I: 26-38). Seffurieh, the ancient Sepphoris, or Diocsesarea. Beyond the Plain of Buttauf, long ridges running from east to west rise, one higher than another, until the Mountains of Safed overtop them all, on which that place is seen, ‘a city set upon a hill.’ Farther toward the right is a sea of hills and mountains, backed by the higher ones beyond the Lake of Tiberias, and in the northeast by the majestic Hermon, with its icy crown. “Seating myself in the shade of the wely, I remained for some hours 2l6 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. upon this spot, lost in the contemplation of the wide prospect, and of the events connected with the scenes around. In the village below, the Saviour of the world had passed His childhood; and, although we have few particulars of His life during those early years, yet there are certain fea¬ tures of nature which meet our eyes now, just as they once met His. He must often have visited the fountain near which we had pitched our tent; His feet must frequently have wandered over the adjacent hills; and His eyes, doubtless, have gazed upon the splendid prospect from this very spot. “Here the Prince of Peace looked down upon the great plain, where the din of battles so oft had rolled, and the garments of the warrior been dyed in blood; and he looked out, too, upon that sea, over which the swift ships were to bear the tidings of his salvation to nations, and to continents then unknown. How has the moral aspect of things been changed! Bat¬ tles and bloodshed have, indeed, not ceased to desolate this unhappy country, and gross darkness now covers the people; but from this region a light went forth, which has enlightened the world and unveiled new climes; and now, the rays of that light begin to be reflected back from distant isles and continents, to illuminate anew the darkened land where it first sprung up.” Returning into Nazareth and observing that it is not more than a quarter of a mile in length, we conclude that, even supposing it to have extended in ancient times further up the hill than it now does, it can never have been much larger than now, nor can it have had a much larger popu¬ lation. At present the number of inhabitants is about six thousand, of whom about 1,000 are Latins, 2,000 are Mahometans, and the rest are Greeks. Excepting the comparatively broad market-place, which extends in a kind of an elbow, almost through the city, the streets are only from six to ten feet in width; they are roughly paved, and have a gutter or sewer, which is said to be seldom clean, running through the middle. The houses, like that of the “wise man” (Matt, xii: 24, 25; Luke vi: 48), are all founded on the rock. However deep the builder may be obliged to dig to reach it, no other foundation than the virgin rock contents the Nazarene. The shops, as usual at the East, are small and low, and the merchant sits cross- legged within or at the door. In like manner the craftsmen ply their sev¬ eral trades, always seated, if it be possible, either at their doors or in the THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH 217 street. Most of the old-fashioned tools are still in use; but in carpenters’ shops the modern innovation of a work bench has been introduced, so that the carpenter stands at his work, instead of sitting with his plank on his lap, as it is possible that Joseph the carpenter did nineteen hundred years ago. The dwellings are as elsewhere at the East, and are not cumbered with much furniture. Without are sunshine, and birds, and vines upon the HILL OF THE PRECIPITATION, NAZARETH. walls; within, along the walls are ranged the family utensils, and water jars, and the mats or quilts which serve as shelves by day and as beds at night. From the low roof hangs a lamp, and somewhere at hand is a stool on which the tray, bearing the family meal, is set. This is the only dining table; and when dinner is over, and the hands have been washed with water poured over them into a basin by one of the children, the 218 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. remains of the simple meal of rice and meat, and fresh or stewed fruits, are quickly borne away. If we would conceive the daily life of the Child Jesus of Nazareth, of which the evangelists have told us so little, we must conceive it to have been led in some such lowly, flat-roofed cottage of Nazareth, and in some such simple way as this. “It is written,” says Luther, “that a pious and godly bishop used often to pray that God would reveal to him what Jesus had done in his youth. And once he had a dream, in which he seemed to see a carpenter working at his craft, and beside him was a little boy gath¬ ering up the chips. Then there entered a maiden clad in green, and called them to their meal, and set porridge before them. All this time the bishop looked on from behind the door, not wishing to be seen; but the little lad saw him, and said: ‘Why does the man stand there? Is he not to eat with us?’ And then the bishop was frightened, and he awoke from his dream.” Whether this be a fable or a true story,” says Luther, “I believe that Christ, when He was a child and a boy, looked and behaved like other children, in fashion like a man, yet without sin.” On the Sabbath day, the Holy Family would doubtless wend their way through the narrow streets into the broader market-place, where on other days the children sat and played, or sang, and piped, and danced with each other (Matt, xi: 1 6, 17). On the Holy Day, all would be comparatively still, and the more devout among the people would resort to the synagogue, which, in all probability, then stood, as it still does, beside the market, and almost in the center of the town. We know nothing of its architecture, and it is beyond our purpose to describe the forms and customs of syna¬ gogue worship; but it was there that for thirty years of His life, while He was growing in wisdom and in stature (Luke ii: 52) that Jesus worshiped every Sabbath day. There, or near by, He attended the school of the synagogue, without which a Jewish town was held to be accursed. Josephus boasts of the zeal for education, which his people exhibited. “We interest ourselves,” he says, “more about the education of our children than about anything else . If you ask a Jew any question concerning his law, he can explain it to you more readily than he can tell his own name. We learn it from the beginning of intelligence; it is graven, as it were, upon our souls.” THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. 219 No credence whatever is to be given to the stories of the infancy and youth of Christ, which are narrated in the Apocryphal Gospels, They are destitute of all authority; they are mostly trivial; some of them are merely tales of oriental magic; some of them are clearly profane. The best of them is undoubtedly this: “In the month of Adar, Jesus assembled the boys (of Nazareth) as if He were their king. They strewed their garments on the ground, and He sat upon them. Then they put upon His head a crown, wreathed of flowers, and stood in order before Him, on His right FOUNTAIN OF MARY AT NAZARETH. hand and on His left, like courtiers waiting on a king. And whoever passed by, the boys took him by force, and cried: ‘Come hither and worship the King, and then proceed on thy way.’ ” Very different from this innocent story, which might conceivably be true of any lad who was popular among his playmates, is the magical tale of his putting different garments into one and the same dyeing vat, and then withdrawing them dyed severally of different colors, as He chose that they should be; or that of His making birds of clay, with His companions, and then, at a word, causing them to fly off alive. Utterly repulsive and pernicious is that of His striking His <220 THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND NAZARETH. playmates dead, with a curse, when they offended Him, and thereby incur¬ ring such general hatred, that His was mother compelled to keep Him at home. Unspeakably more simple and sublime is the silence of the four evan¬ gelists, who tell us merely the name of the retired and lovely place of Christ’s youth, and there leave Him in the hands of the appointed and holy pair, to whom He was “subject” (Luke ii: 51). To them, more than to all others, He owed whatever education He received; and we may not doubt that Mary, who had pondered in her heart (Luke ii: 19) so many marvelous and sacred things concerning Him, was His best teacher. There is no superstition in calling her, as the angel did, the “Blessed” Virgin; nor can we find fitter words to clothe our thoughts concerning her, than those of the stanch Protestant poet, William Wordsworth, in his famous sonnet: “Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrossed With the least shade or thought to sin allied; Woman! above all women glorified; Our tainted nature’s solitary boast; Purer than foam on central ocean toss’d; Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon, Before her wane begins, on heav’n’s blue coast; Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, Not unforgiven, the suppliant knee might bend, As to a visible Power, in whom did blend All that was mix’d and reconciled in thee Of mother’s love with maiden purity, Of high with low, celestial with terrene!” In quietness and peace; in home love and devout associations; in the least frequented of the towns of Galilee; amid the loveliest scenes of nature, which supplied Him afterward with themes for many a parable; in full view of historic places, where the brave had battled, where the might¬ iest had fallen, and the awful messages of prophets had been borne from hill to hill, and from vale to vale; leading a life of innocence and industry, and winning favor from both God and man; so were the childhood and youth of Jesus passed — we know nothing more concerning it. When the blossom was full-blown and ready to bear its predestined fruit, then “the Life was manifested.” Until then it bloomed in silence and seclusion, hid¬ den on the hillside of Nazareth. CHAPTER VII. FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. Silence of the Evangelists concerning the Childhood of Christ — One Incident Preserved by St. Luke — Jewish Theories of Human Maturity — Educational Value of the Passover Journey — Songs of the Pilgrimage — Routes from Nazareth to Jerusalem — Crossings of the Jordan — The Jordan — The Ghor — Descent of the Jordan by Lieutenant Lynch — Flora and Fauna — Mount Gilead — View From Its Highest Peaks— Jacob and Laban — Sihon and Og — Tribes of Reuben and Gad — Their Pastoral Life — Their Hospitality to Saul — Saul’s Sons and David — Birthplace of Elijah — Story of Jephthah — Battle with the Ephraimites — Shibboleth — Death of Jephthah — Decapolis — Gadara — Cure of the Demonicas— Jabesh — Slaughter of the Benjamites — Seizure of the Maidens at Shiloh — Recovery of Saul’s Body from the Philistines — Pella, the Refuge of the Christians at the Siege of Jerusalem — Mahanaim — Gerasa, a Perfect Roman City — Peniel — Succoth — The Plain of Jor¬ dan — Beth-nimrah — Why Called Bethabara — The Crossing of Israel Under Joshua — The Cross¬ ing of Elijah — The Place of John’s Baptism — Pisgah — Nebo — The View of Moses — Cities of the Plain — How Destroyed — Death and Burial of Moses — Sacredness of Jordan — Bathing of the Pil¬ grims. W E MAY indulge our fancy to an unlimited extent in picturing to ourselves the daily course and the probable circumstances of the child¬ hood of our Saviour; but it is remarka¬ ble how lightly, not to say carelessly, the evangelists have passed over that interesting period of His life. St. Matthew gives a rigidly cir¬ cumstantial account of the Annuncia¬ tion, incarnation and nativity of Jesus, tells of the murder of the Holy Inno¬ cents, relates in a few lines the bare fact of the flight into Egypt and of a rapid in the jordan. the return to Nazareth, and then, without a word concerning the divine Child, he passes over nearly thirty rich and fruitful years, to the time when John the Baptist “came preaching in the wilderness.” St. Mark begins his story with these words: “The beginning of the 221 222 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.' John did baptize in the wilderness.” Not one word of the birth, the childhood or the youth of Christ! St. Mark’s first mention of the Saviour is when he tells of the coming of Jesus to John’s baptism at thirty years of age. St. John, too, wholly overlooks our Saviour’s early days on earth, and never hints that they were of the least significance. “In the beginning was the Word,” he says; then he tells Who and and What the Word was, and that It was made flesh and dwelt among us; and then, like St. Mark, he passes over everything else until the time when “a man was sent from God whose name was John.” St. Luke has saved for us a single incident of all those hidden years. “When the moon is in crescent,” says Dr. Farrar, “a few bright points are visible through the telescope upon its unilluminated part; those bright points are mountain peaks, so lofty that they catch the sunlight. One such point of splendor and majesty is revealed to us in the otherwise unknown region of Christ’s youthful years ! That is His journey to Jerusalem at twelve years of age.” It was the opinion of some of the Jewish rabbis that, before the age of twelve, children have only an animal life; that about that age they begin to have spiritual natures; and that if they live virtuously until the age of twenty, they then become possessed of reasonable souls. Whether or not this curious doctrine prevailed extensively, it is certain that the age of twelve years brought many privileges to the Jewish boy. He was no longer regarded or treated as a mere child; it was no longer in his father’s power to sell him as a slave; he was allowed to wear the phylacteries of a grown man; he was publicly presented by his father in the synagogue as a true son of Israel; but, above all, it was at once his duty and his happy privilege to join one of the companies of pilgrims which went every year to celebrate the passover at the Holy City. Our Saviour was “made under the law,” and one object of St. Luke in recording this solitary inci¬ dent in the child-life of Jesus may have been to show how early He began to set an example of obedience to the law to which He had submitted. But there may have been another reason for the record of this one V 0m '-{I . P5 BM ' "I II 'Vr-llli^i'll'l! '’I? r I1' 1 i'l ^ftsiy,|7Aii,ii L ' • V K i r'M ,? imidbv *,n ;|1 i ill fl1 'fell i/'l VM/.t'yJ i'i|ff|V|ll|(i|li'i MI rifiiiiiiSE ipB !!' iSm FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA 225: event. These yearly journeys were not made for pleasure only, nor only for the purpose of religious observance. To all, perhaps, but certainly to the young, they were of surpassing educational value; and this particular journey will appear to be ot very great importance in the life of Christ, if we consider it as the only fact in the education of Jesus which has been made known to us. It would be difficult to over-estimate the value ol such a journey in forming the mind, and warming the heart of a young Israelite. Through- REMAINS OF GADARA (UM-KEIS). out the year, it was sure to be the one event to which his memory looked back, and his imagination forward. When the spring-time came, and the family preparations had been made, the elders of the house would think, with mingled smiles and tears, of friends with whom their early journeys had been made, and they would talk of incidents that then befell, when life was young and hopes were yet unblighted. But to the young such thoughts v/ere yet far off, and it would be with swelling hearts that they would set their faces toward Jerusalem. Every day they would pass by the scene of some event famous in the history of Israel, and from day to 226 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. day they would compute their progress to the Holy City. The elasticity of youth would make no reckoning of weariness or hardship, when they knew that they were nearing Zion; and when, after days of travel, they at length stood on the crest of one of the surrounding hills, and saw the glorious fabric of the temple rising in its majesty on Mount Moriah, we may conceive the joy with which the young Jew would exclaim, “Jerusalem! Jerusalem!” No one would then think of weariness or hardship; not the young Jew, certainly, when he joined in singing the old song of the Pil¬ grim Psalmist, which was even then ever so many centuries old: I-was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the House of the Lord. Our feet shall stand in thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself. For thither the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, to testify unto Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. For there is the seat of Judgment, even the seat of the house of David. O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces. For thy brethren and companions’ sakes I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the House of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good! After that there would be days of rest and quiet, spent in the Holy City and its neighborhood, in daily visits to the Temple, and in the celebration of the Passover, which was, of course, the central purpose of their pilgrimage. The solemn grandeur of the vested priests, attended by their train of surpliced Levites, at the offering of the daily sacrifice, while the full procession of singing men proudly led the way, chanting the psalms of David; the majestic fabric of the Holy Temple; its broad courts, its lofty pinnacles, its smoking altars; its thronging multitudes of eager wor¬ shippers; how solemn an impression must these sights and sounds have made upon the minds of peasants, whose only glimpses of the beautiful in art and the magnificent in worship were enjoyed during these visits to the shrine of God! And when the last tones of the High Priest’s chanted blessing died away on the last day of this delightful sojourn of the pilgrims from afar, surely the feelings of a pious young Israelite, might well be voiced in the regretful tenderness of the eighty-fourth psalm; O, how amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of Hosts! Blessed are they that dwell in Thy House; they will alway be praising Thee. FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. 227 One day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the House of my God, than to dwell in tents of ungodliness. And, when standing once again, upon the hill-top, whence he took his last, long, lingering look at the City of God, his latest utterance must have been in words like these: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning! If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of mv mouth; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth! What, though in after years, the young Jew journeyed in distant lands, and heard the old faith of his fathers sneered at, the cos¬ mogony of Moses scouted, his chro¬ nology derided, the grand ceremonies of his worship ridi¬ culed, the Psalms of David parodied, the predictions of the prophets cold¬ ly disproved? Nay suppose the worst; suppose his own mind to have be¬ come unsettled, so that he himself, came to believe RIVER BIRDS OF THE Jordan. but little of the faith in which he had been reared. Still, in every best hour of his life, the heart would speak the language of his youth. Elis brain might go wrong a thousand times; but whenever his heart bounded in gladness or sank down in gloom, it must have turned to those scenes of his earlier and better years, where all the music of his life received its key. Then, very often, we may well believe, the wrong head would yield to the enlightened heart, for it is with the heart after all, and above all, that a man 228 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. believeth unto righteousness; and then again, one of the pilgrim songs would come back to him: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh even from the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth. But in thinking of the purpose of the yearly journey to Jerusalem, we have almost lost sight of its beginning. Returning, then, to Nazareth, we may ask by what route the pilgrim band would journey to the Holy City? The shortest road, of course, would lie straight across the Plain of Es • draelon to En-Gannim, and thence through Samaria and Judea to Jerusa¬ lem; but it is very doubtful whether this route was ever taken by pilgrims. There was deadly hatred, and not merely dislike, between the Jews and the Samaritans in our Lord's time; and, although travel through the province of Samaria was not forbidden to the Jews, yet the sight of thousands of pilgrims marching to the ceremonies of a rival religion, would be likely to excite angry, and even murderous feelings in the Samaritans. Not much more than fifty years after the journey we are now seeking to trace, a band of pilgrims from Galilee, which did attempt to pass through Samaria, was slaughtered at En-Gannim by the infuriated Samaritans. This would hardly have happened, if it had been customary for the Galilean pilgrims to take that road to Jerusalem; but such an innovation would be sure to be fiercely resented. For these reasons, the route through Samaria does not seem likely to have been taken on this occasion. Another route across the Plain of Esdraelon to Jokneam, and thence along the Plain of Sharon to Antipatris or Lydda, would bring them to a high road to Jerusalem; but, unless for some particular reason, so circuitous a route would hardly be chosen. The most natural and easy road would consequently be to the river Jordan, traveling on the other side of the river, until they had passed the southern boundary of Samaria, and then continuing their journey on either side until they came to the Plain of Jordan, properly so-called, when they would turn westward by Jericho to Jerusalem. This route, therefore, we may assume to have been taken. But at what point would they reach and cross over the Jordan? The nearest and most direct way, would be to go down from their native hills, into the Plain of Esdraelon, and march southward past the little town of Shunem, and the site of royal Jezreel, and the spring of Harod, where FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA 229 Gideon’s thirsty warriors lapped the water like dogs; thence, with Mount Gilboa on their right, through the Plain of Jezreel and the city of Beth- shean, where 'the bodies of Saul and his sons were gibbeted by the Philis¬ tines, and so, at last, to the Jordan. It is possible that this may actually have been their route; but we do not know that at that particular place, and at that time of the year, when the Jordan was swollen with the melted snow from Mount Lebanon, they would find any means of crossing the river. There was no perma¬ nent ford there, and it is doubtful whether there was any ferry by which they might cross the stream. We know of only three places where there was a passage over the Ghor, or sunken plain and river of Jordan. One of these was about six miles south of the Sea of Galilee, not far from the Hieromax, now called the Yarmuk, one of the eastern tributaries of the Jordan. If the pilgrims took the road on the north of Mount Tabor, to that place, where an old Sara¬ cenic bridge still marks the ancient crossing, they would find them¬ selves among historic scenes. It was there, in all probability, that David crossed to invade Syria (2 Sam. x: 17); there that the gallant caravan of Naaman would cross in his journey to Samaria, when the little captive maid, out of the land of Israel, had told him where he might be healed EAGLE AND CONIES. 230 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. of his leprosy; perhaps it was somewhere near the same spot that “he dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child” (2 Kings v: 14); and perhaps it was at this same ford that the terror-stricken army of Ben-hadad, King of Syria, sought to escape in its panic flight from Samaria (2 Kings vii: 15). Somewhere between Bethshean and the river Jabbok, there was a great ford of the Jordan at Beth-barah, the House of Passage , or Hoitse of the Ford , where the men of Ephraim gathered to intercept the fugitive Midianites, after Gideon’s victory (Judg. vii: 24), where the Ephraimites were afterward slaughtered, as we shall presently hear, by their country¬ men of Mount Gilead (Judg. xii: 6) and where Judas Maccabeus crossed from the sack of Ephron (1 Macc. v: 52). We must not, however, con¬ found this Beth-barah with Bethabara, where John the Baptist came preaching repentance, and baptizing men for the remission of sins (John i: 28). Bethabara appears to have been easily accessible from Judea, and must, therefore, in all probability, have been much further south than Beth-barah, perhaps at the lowest ford of the Jordan, near Jericho. A little south of the Sea of Galilee, the Saviour probably caught His first glance of the “narrow stream” of Jordan, a river so small, that from its source at Banias, to its entrance into the Dead Sea, it makes but one hundred and four miles of actual distance; which is not navigable; which has been only an obstruction, and in no way a help, to commerce; on the banks of which no city of importance ever stood; and which is yet, per¬ haps, the most famous of all the rivers of the earth. Geologically speak¬ ing, the narrow valley through which it runs, and which, in many places, is a gorge, rather than a valley, is simply a great rent or rift in the earth’s surface, caused by the subsidence of a part of the earth’s crust toward the center. As we have said before, the Dead Sea, into which it flows, at one time extended much further north than it does now. Half-way between its present northern shore and the Sea of Galilee, and four hundred feet above its present level, its former beach is still to be seen, and the earth is there so impregnated with salt as to make vegetation impossible; about two hundred feet lower, a second beach is found, marking another later level; and still, a hundred feet above the river, a third beach marks a third FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA 231 stage in the subsidence of the Dead Sea. At the bottom of the Ghor, the river has worn for itself two channels, the older being flat and compara¬ tively broad, and the more recent, which lies within the older, being about 100 feet in width, and enclosed between banks, or bluffs, of clayey soil, about fifty feet high. On each side of the lower channel, vegetation is dense and rank; elsewhere, except at occasional oases, the Jordan Valley is jephtha’s return, (judges xi : 34). barren. Hardly any of it can ever have been cultivated. On the eastern side of Lake Huleh (The Waters of Merom), Dr-. Robinson found the land tilled down to the borders of the lake; and large crops of wheat, maize, barley, sesame and rice rewarded the labor of the husbandman. Horses, sheep and cattle fattened on the rich pastures; and herds of black buffa¬ loes, doubtless descended from the “fat Bulls of Bashan,” wallowed m the mire of the marshes. Lower down, there were only occasional patches of 232 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. grain, and the people who had sown them, lived at a distance from their v fields. From the Sea of Galilee downward to the Plain of Jordan, the river, as Dean Stanley says, is the river of a desert. Within the narrow range of its own bed, it produces a rank mass of vegetation, which makes only a more striking contrast with the desolation beyond. This is caused by the depression of the valley, averaging 1,000 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. The waters of the river cannot escape to fertilize the surrounding land, and the tropical heat, while it calls out into extraordi¬ nary luxuriance whatever vegetation the water does touch, parches and withers up every particle of verdure that appears beyond its reach. The fall of the Jordan is so rapid as to entitle it to its name of Jor¬ dan, which signifies the Descender. Its scenery is often beautiful, but seldom, grand. Only once, so far as we know, have boats floated on its waters from the sea of Galilee to the mouth, and Lieutenant Lynch eloquently describes that expedition: “The boats (he says) had little need to propel them, for the current carried us along at the rate of from four to six knots an hour; the river from its eccentric course, scarcely permitting a correct sketch of its topo¬ graphy to be taken. It turned and twisted north, south, east and west, turning in the short space of half an hour, to every quarter of the com¬ pass . . . .For hours, in their swift descent, the boats floated down in silence, the silence of the wilderness. Flere and there were spots of solemn beauty. The numerous birds sang with a music strange and manifold; the willow branches floated from the trees like tresses, and creeping mosses and clambering weeds, with a multitude of white and silvery little flowers, looked out from among them; and the cliff swallow wheeled over the falls, or went at his own wild will, darting through the arched vistas, shadowed and shaped by the meeting foliage on the banks; and above all, yet attuned to all, was the music of the river, gushing with a sound like that of shawms and cymbals. . . . “The stream sometimes washed the bases of the sandy hills, and at other times meandered between low banks, generally fringed with trees and fragrant with blossoms. Some points presented views exceedingly picturesque — the mad rushing of a mountain torrent, the song and sight of birds, the overhanging foliage, glimpses of the mountains far over the A BIT OF THE JORDAN BY MOONLIGHT. we passed his lair, a wild boar started with a savage grunt and dashed into the thicket, but for some moments we tracked his pathway by the bending canes and the crashing sound of broken branches. “The birds were numerous, and at times, when we issued from the silence and shadow of a narrow and verdure-tinted part of the stream, into an open bend where the rapids rattled, and the light burst in, and the FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. 233 plain, and here and there a gurgling rivulet pouring its tribute of crystal water into the low and muddy Jordan. The western shore was peculiar from the high limestone hills, while the left or eastern, bank was low and fringed with tamarisk and willow, and occasionally a thicket of lofty cane and tangled masses of shrubs and creeping plants, giving it the character of a jungle. At one place we saw the fresh marks of a tiger (leopard) on the low clayey margin where he had come to drink. At another time, as 234 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. birds sang their wild-wood song, it was, to use a simile of Mr. Bedlow, like a sudden transition from the cold, dull-lighted hall, where the gentle¬ men hang their hats, into the white and golden saloon where the music rings and the dance goes on. The hawk upon the topmost branch of a blighted tree moved not at our approach, and the veritable nightingale ceased not her song, for she made day into night in her covert among the leaves; and the bulbul, whose sacred haunts we disturbed when the cur¬ rent swept us among the overhanging boughs, but chirruped her surprise, calmly winged her flight to another sprig, and continued her interrupted melodies. ‘‘Our course down the stream was with varied rapidity. At times we were going at from three to four knots an hour, and again we would be swept and hurried away, dashing and whirling onward with the furious speed of a torrent. At such moments there was excitement, for we knew not but that the next turn of the steam would plunge us down some fearful cata¬ ract, or dash us on the sharp rocks which might lurk beneath the surface. Many islands — some fairy-like and covered with a luxuriant vegetation, others mere sandbanks and sedimentary deposits— intercepted the course of the river, but were beautiful features in the monotony of the shores. The regular and almost unvaried scene, of high banks and alluvial deposit and sand-hills on the one hand, and the low shore, covered to the water’s edge with tamarisk, the willow and the thick, high cane, would have been fatiguing, but for the frequent occurrence of sand banks and verdant islands. High up on the sand-bluffs, the cliff-swallow chattered from her nest in the hollow, or darted about in the bright sunshine in pursuit of the gnat and the water-fly.’’ Such as Lieutenant Lynch here describes the Jordan to be, such it was in the time of Christ. Along the banks are thickets of tamarisk, acacia, silver poplar, willow, terebinth, cedar, laurestinus, arbutus, oleander, pistachio and many other trees, with which vegetation, and tall reeds, ris¬ ing and waving in the breeze to a height of ten or twelve feet. The birds are numerous and vocal; many of the song-birds of England being heard on the banks of the Jordan. There are flocks of cranes and wild ducks; in some spots sparrows are present in countless numbers; but the more strik¬ ing feathered inhabitants of the valley are the nightingale, the bulbul, the FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA 235 beautiful wur-wur, or bee-eater, the turtle dove, in great abundance, the cliff-swallow, and, back from the valley, flocks of partridges, from which a city, Beth-Hogla, the House (or Haunt) of the Partridge, once took its name. In the rank and reedy jungles, the lion’s roar was formerly heard; even in the time of the Crusades the king of beasts was still to be found there; but it is now extinct, though its bones are still sometimes discovered. The DEATH OF AHAB. (i KINGS XXII: 34). bear, too, has disappeared. Of all the animals which are dangerous to man, only the leopard and the wild boar remain. Of smaller creatures, the most curious, is the jerboa, a miniature kangaroo in appearance, with a body only six or seven inches long, and with a merely rudimentary fore¬ foot. By way of compensation, its hind legs are as long as its body, and with the aid of these, and a tail longer, it makes prodigious springs or leaps, and seems almost to fly at the approach of danger. It is a pretty crea- 236 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. ture, with soft fur and large wide-opened eyes, and inhabits extensive burrows in the ground. There are said to be not less than twenty-three species of mice and other small rodents in the Jordan Valley, and among them is one curious creature, not larger than the common mouse, but covered on the back with prickles, like the hedgehog or the porcupine. Distinguished among the lesser animals of this region, by mention in Scrip¬ ture, is the coney, which is found chiefly on the east side of the Dead Sea. It lives gregariously in natural clefts of the rocks, and anatomically, this little animal, which is about the size of a common rabbit, is said by natu¬ ralists to belong to a genus, midway between the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros! It is exceedingly shy and difficult to catch. The coneys are “but a feeble folk," and “little upon the earth," but they are “exceeding wise," and when startled, they find a “refuge in the rocks" (Prov. xxx:24, 26; Psa. civ: 18). It is a curions thing, that the Israelites were forbidden to eat the flesh of the coney, on the ground that it chews the cud, but does not divide the hoof (Deut. xiv:7), whereas, the fact is, that the coney does not chew the cud. The Hebrews, who were not naturalists, were deceived by the peculiar motion made by the coney in chewing its food, which is exactly like the motion of the jaws made by ruminating animals. The wild creatures which have their habitations on the banks of the Jordan are frequently driven out by the “swelling” of the river, when the stream is filled by the melted snows from Lebanon. But this is not what is meant by the prophet Jeremiah, when he says (ch. xlix: 19; 1-44) : “Behold he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habi¬ tation of the strong." In these passages, the Revised Version, properly translates the word “swelling" by pride; and the prophet is borrowing the image of a lion “coming up from his thicket,” and “forsaking his covert'” (Jer. iv : 7 ; xxv.38), to attack the sheep in the pastures of the higher lands. The thick jungle by the river side, where the lion made his lair, was the “pride” or “glory" of the Jordan, which the Authorized Version improperly translates “the swelling of Jordan.” After crossing the Jordan, the pilgrims would march southward, with the river on their right and Mount Gilead on the left. The name, “Mount Gilead,” like the name, “Mount Lebanon,” does not properly designate a single peak, but a mountainous region. The word signifies a hard or FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. 237 rocky country, nothing more; and though one peak, about half a dozen miles south of the Jabbok, has been more particularly called by the name of Mount Gilead, yet the same designation properly applies to a large scope of mountainous territory, extending from the Hieromaxon the north, to the Valley of Heshbon on the south, that is to say, very nearly from the southern line of the Sea of Galilee, to the northern line of the Dead Sea. Its western boundary is, of course, the Jor¬ dan; but its eastern limit can be only in¬ definitely said to be where the mountains of Gilead melt away into the plateau of Arabia. The average height of Mount Gilead is about 3,000 feet; but from the Ghor, which aver¬ ages about 1,000 feet below sea-level, Gil¬ ead appears much higher. From a dis¬ tance, it seems bleak and barren; but on ascending it, the summit is found to W 3 M r HH 2 o w O X H a M >— 1 O X a > 2 in X a TJ X M c/i M 2 H M O be a rich and picturesque table land, “tossed about in wild confusion of undulating downs, clothed with rich grass throughout, and in the northern parts, with magnificent forests of sycamore, beech, terebinth, ilex, and enormous fig-trees.” From a point somewhat north of the Jabbok, Mr. Palmer says “is the finest view that I ever saw in any part of the world.” From that point are distinctly visible Lebanon, the Sea of Galilee, Esdraelon in its full extent, Carmel, the Mediter¬ ranean, and the whole range of Judah and Ephraim. “This view,” 238 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. says Dean Stanley, “must have been the very prospect which presented itself to the eyes, first of Abraham, and then of Jacob, as they descended from these summits, on their way from Mesopotamia; it must have been substantially the same as that which was unfolded before the eyes of Balaam and Moses; and it is, in all probability, the view which furnished the framework of the vision of ‘all the kingdoms of the world,’ which was revealed in a moment of time to Him Who was driven up from the valley below, to these mountains, at the opening of His public ministry.” Somewhere in Mount Gilead, but at a spot which cannot now be iden¬ tified, Jacob took his last farewell of his crafty father-in-law, Laban, and the parting was made an occasion for one of those word-plays, in which the orientals delight, and of which there are not a few to be found in the pages of Holy Writ. According to the custom of their time, Laban and Jacob reared a heap of stones, in witness of their covenant of amity, and called it Mizpah, or the watch-tower, for Laban said: “The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent, one from another.” Then, referring to the heap, and playing on the old name of the country, he said; “This Gal (the Hebrew for heap), is Ed (witness) between me and thee this day; therefore was the name of it called Galeed.” In the time of Moses, the southern part of Gilead was held by Sihon, King of the Amorites; the northern by Og„ King of Bashan; and their domains were probably separated by the river Jabbok. After the defeat of these two kings, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, which had “a very great multitude of cattle,” were attracted by the rich pastures of Gilead, its copious streams of water, and its forests of trees, and chose to have their portion on that side of Jordan. The other tribes went on over Jordan to a region which now, at least, is far less desirable Rich in their flocks and herds, the two tribes continued much the same mode of life as they had lived before. Reuben became more and more like the wild tribes of the desert. His men were few, for the English version has added to the bles¬ sing of the patriarch, a “not” which is found in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew. He continued to dwell among the sheepfolds and the bleat- ings of the flocks; and he was barely able to maintain his tribal integrity among his brethren. Gad became a marauder, like his Arab neighbors, fast becoming a victim of plunder, and himself plundering at last (Gen. FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA 239 xlix: 19). But, if these two tribes had the faults and weakness of their Arab kinsmen and neighbors, they had also their grand virtue of hospi¬ tality. In their tents, the fugitive found always a refuge. In Gilead, the sons of the ill-fated Saul took shelter when they sought to re-establish the rule of their royal house (2 Sam. ii: 8). There, too, in his turn, David found sanctuary when he was forced to flee from the unnatural rebellion DEATH OF ABSALOM. (2 SAM. XVIII: 6-7). of Absalom (2 Sam. ii: 8) and the men of Gilead hospitably brought him all manner of supplies; “for they said, ‘The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, and in the wilderness.”’ There, shortly afterward, the great battle was fought, in which Absalom met his death under one of the mighty “oaks of Bashan;” and his army was so scattered, that, in poetic language, the wood is said to have “devoured more people than the sword devoured.” By some one of the refugees, who sought hospitality in 240 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. Gilead, and perhaps by David himself, the forty-second Psalm was writ¬ ten; for even in the pleasant land of Gilead, the exile longed for the home which was ever in his heart, and ever before his eyes. Nor can we forget that Elijah, the Tishbite, was a man of Gilead (i Kings xvii: i) and per¬ haps it was the rough, wild life of his native mountains that fostered the brave independence, which made kings’ threats powerless to daunt him. Perhaps, too, it was the rough clothing of the herdsman, and the unkempt hair and beard of the Arab border, that made Elijah so obnoxious to the cruel but dainty Jezebel, as well as his maintaining of the cause of the true God. A courtier-like prelate might possibly have won Jezebel’s good graces; but the “lord of hair” from Mount Gilead, could only repel her and arouse her hatred. We have more than one sad story to tell of Mount Gilead, but one sadder than all the rest. Jephthah, Judge of Israel, was a Gileadite, son of a man named Gilead and a foreign concubine. Driven after his father’s death, from all share in the inheritance, he betook himself to the desert, and there waged the wars of a free-booter, as was then deemed to be proper for a gallant man. His fame as a warrior was soon reported to his kinsmen of Mount Gilead, and when war arose between them and the Ammonites, they sent an embassy to ask him to become their chieftain. Jephthah readily consented, but on condition that if he were victorious, he should then be judge over his people. To this condition they agreed. Jephthah showed the utmost skill in so negotiating with the Ammonites as to gain time for sufficient preparation. “Be content” he said by his ambassadors tcrthe Ammonites, “Be content with the land that Chemosh thy god, giveth thee to possess.” There was still a good deal of innocent heathenism in Jephthah’s religious views, since he seems to have thought that Chemosh was the god of Ammon, in much the same sense Jehovah was the God of Israel. Nevertheless, he was thoroughly sincere and devout; and when he marched against the Ammonites, he made a solemn vow unto Jehovah, that if Jehovah granted victory to his arms, then whatsoever should first come forth out of his house to meet him when he returned in peace from battle, should be offered up to God for a burnt offering. His victory was speedy and complete, and he returned in peace and joy to his house in Mizpeh. The old Greeks had a saying, “Call no FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. 241 man happy till he dies;” and the fate of Jephthah illustrates the saying. At his home in Mizpeh he had an only child, a daughter; and, “beside her he had neither son nor daughter.” As he drew near to his dwelling this daughter came bounding to meet him, dancing with her maidens and playing on her timbrel. This, then, was the offering he had vowed to pay as the price of victory, and the boldest warrior of the desert dared not break that vow. “Ah, my daughter, ah, my daughter,” he cried as he rent his robe, “thou hast brought me very low. I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot go backX' The answer of his child was worthy RUINS OF GERASH. of herself and of her sire. “My father,” she said, “if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath pro¬ ceeded out of thy mouth, forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon”. One boon only she craved, and that was that she might go away with her com¬ panions on the hills and through the woods of Gilead, and bewail the loss of a joyous motherhood, which every Israelitish maiden cherished as her dearest hope. She went, and she returned; and what then happened no 242 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. man knows. For ages no one doubted that the maiden was slaughtered, and her body burned to ashes in fulfilment of her father’s vow. Of late some commentators have conceived that a life of celibate seclusion was the fate imposed upon her; but the truth cannot be ascertained. Either way it was a cruel and horrible mistake. If the poor half-heathen Jephthah, who had drunk in heathenism with his persecuted mother’s milk, had only known the law which he intended to obey, he would have known that when an Israelite devoted himself or his child to God, he might redeem himself or his child on payment of certain shekels (Lev. xxvii: 1-8); and then the world would never have been thrilled with this sad story. Happily, no doubt, for him, Jephthah was not allowed much time for the indulgence of his grief. The men of Ephraim, on the western side of Jordan, who had refused to join in war against the Ammonites, now chal¬ lenged his right to go to war without their consent, and boldly invaded Gilead to punish him. Jephthah answered with great moderation, but when they forced a battle, he defeated them, and when they broke in flight, he sent to occupy the only ford (probably Beth-barah) by which they could return into their own country. As the fugitives approached the ford, they were asked if they were Ephraimites, and if they said they were not, the men of Gilead bade them pronounce the word Shibboleth , which means a stream or an ear of corn. This word the Ephraimites invariably pronounced Sibboleth , for they “could not frame to pronounce it aright;” and being thus easily detected, they were put to death. After this second victory, Jephthah held his dearly purchased judgeship just six years. “Then died Jephthah, the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.” As the pilgrims, on their way to the passover, passed down the Ghor, every part of Mount Gilead would be sure to recall sacred and tragic histori¬ cal recollections. Most of the cities forming the famous confederacy of De- capolis, were in that locality, though its boundaries, apparently, extended from Damascus on the north, to the Jabbok on the south. The “ten cities” are commonly reckoned as follows: Scythopolis (Bethshean), Hip¬ pos, Gadara, Pella, Philadelphia (or Rabbath Ammon), Gerasa, Dion, Banatha, Damascus and Raphana; but some writers omit Damascus and FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA 243 insert in place of it Abila, the capital of the tetrarchy of Abilene. Few of these ten cities fall within our present scope, but some of them, and others not counted among them, deserve attention. Gadara is mentioned only incidentally in Holy Scripture, where we read of our Lord's subsequent visit to “the country of the Gadarenes” (Mark v: 1 ; Luke viii : 26). It is now called Um-Keis , and is situated on a steep hill, three miles south of the Hieromax, and about nine or ten miles BAPTISM OF JESUS. (MARK 1 1 9— II.) from the Jordan. At the foot of the hill, and on the banks of the Hiero¬ max, were celebrated hot springs and baths, which are mentioned by Jose¬ phus. In the time of the Roman domination, Gadara was one of the most strongly fortified cities of the country. The remains are still imposing. “Their most remarkable feature,” says Dr. Tristram, “is a perfect Roman street, more than half a mile long, with the ruts worn by the chariot wheels; 244 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. colonnades on either side, of which the columns are lying prostrate, though many bases are standing; and massive crypt-like cells in a long row, ap¬ parently a market or bazaar.” There is also a fine amphitheater, and a very perfect theater. T o the east of Gadara, is a field of tombs. Several acres are strewn with stone coffins, and their lids; and the whole district is perforated with caves of sepulture, which are now used for dwellings or temporary shelter by the tribes which visit that neighborhood for a part of the year. Gadara was destined to be the scene of one of our Lord s most wonderful miracles, which is recorded by all three of the synoptic evangel¬ ists (Matt, viii : 28—34 ; Mark v:i-2i; Luke viii:26-4o). When Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee into Gadaritis , the “country of the Gada- renes,” which at that time was understood to extend to the Sea of Galilee, the demoniacs met Him at a short distance from the steep shore; they had come from the field of tombs, where they made their abode, wearing no clothes, and having no other dwelling; and when the demons were cast out and entered into the swine, then the unclean beasts ran violently down the steep declivity which Jesus had just ascended. Nothing could fit more accurately into the topographical features of the locality, than the circum¬ stances described in connection with this miracle, provided that the locality is understood to be the part of Gadaritis extending to the Sea of Galilee, and not the city of Gadara itself. About sixteen miles southward from Gadara was Jabesh Gilead, the scene of one of those wild massacres, which occurred when there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. A fearful offense had been committed by the men of Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin, which so horrified the other tribes that, with one consent, they assembled and marched into the territory of Benjamin, demanding that the offenders should be given up to condign punishment. The Benjamites refused to surrender their fellow-tribesmen, and then, after two days of bloody defeat, the Israelites, by a stratagem, took and destroyed Gibeah. Their vengeance was terrible, for they left none of the tribe of Benjamin alive, except six hundred men who succeeded in making their escape. Moreover, they made a solemn oath, that they would not give their daugh¬ ters to those men to enable them to reconstitute their families. But when they came to reflect, they began to bewail the almost complete extirpation FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. 245 of one of the twelve tribes of Israel; and in their dread of that loss, they would now have been willing to give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites, if their oath had not made it impossible. They inquired, therefore, whether there were none of the Israelites who had not taken part in the war on Benjamin, and Ending that the men of Jabesh Gilead had kept out of the war, they sent and put to death, every soul of the in¬ habitants of that town, except four hundred unmarried women, whom they gave to the Benjamites to be their wives. The remaining two hundred Benjamites were provided for, by carrying off two hundred maidens from the yearly dance of the women of Shiloh. The name of Jabesh still survives in the Wady Yabes, a glen with a perennial stream flowing through it to the Jordan, which it enters a little south of Beth-shean. The town is on a hill directly opposite to Bethshean, on which it looks down, and when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard that the bodies of Saul and his sons had been dishonored in the town which stood fairly under their eyes, “the valiant men of the city rose up in the night, and took the bodies, and came to Gilead, and burned them there; and they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.” At Jabesh, therefore, Saul rested after all his many years of error, and unsettled intellect; and, although the remains were afterward removed to the sepulcher of Kish, in Zelah (2 Sam. xxi: 12-14), yet no Hebrew pilgrim could ever pass that spot without gentle thoughts of the unhappy king. About six miles northwest of Jabesh, is Pella , a city of the Decapolis, which is not mentioned in Scripture, but which is memorable in Christian history. When Jerusalem was about to be besieged by Titus, the Chris¬ tian inhabitants remembered our Lord’s warning, and the whole Christian community fled to Pella, where they abode in undisturbed safety. The place is now entirely deserted, but its ruins are extensive, and there re¬ mains a splendid fountain, with two columns near it, standing upright still. Mahanaim , or “the hosts,” cannot be identified with perfect satisfac¬ tion, but Dr. Tristram, thinks it must have been at a place still called Mahneh , where there is a fine fountain and an open pool, and traces of buildings all grass-grown, and now buried beneath the soil. It received its name of Mahanaim from Jacob, when he was returning into Canaan, in 246 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. honor of God's hosts of angels, that met him in the way, after his separation from Laban (Gen. xxxii: 1, 2). Mahanaim subsequently became a place of importance. It was here that Abner crowned Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, King of Israel, when David was crowned King of Judah at Hebron; here Ishbosheth reigned for two years (2 Sam. ii : 8 — 10) ; and here, at last, he was murdered (2 Sam. iv:5~7). It was to Mahanaim that David fled at the time of Absalom’s rebellion, and not far from Mahanaim, the decisive battle was fought, in which Absalom lost his , usurped throne and his life. It was at the gate of Mahanaim, that David sat waiting for news of the event of that battle; and, it was to a chamber over the gate of Mahanaim, that he went weeping and saying, “O, my son, Absalom! My son, my son, Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” Except as one of Solomon’s commissariat districts, Mahanaim does not again appear in history. A little to the south of the supposed site of Mahanaim, is the city of Gerasa , now called J crash. At the time of Christ it was one of the most important cities of Decapolis. In the Jewish war, it was taken and burnt by order of Vespasian, but was restored to great splendor under the An- tonines. Of its early history we know nothing; nor do we know anything of its abandonment. It seems never to have been occupied by the Sara¬ cens. It remains precisely as the Romans left it. Dr. Tristram says, it is probably the most perfect Roman city left above ground. His description of it will, therefore, be interesting. “It occupies both banks of a little stream in the center of a wide open valley. The paved roads, both north and south, are unbroken, skirted with tombs and monuments, pagan and Christian. The walls are, in places, of the original height, inclosing a square of about a mile, with the little stream, buried in oleanders, running through the center, and many a street bridge over it. The streets remain — the principal one having a double row of columns a mile in length, richly carved, fronting temple and palace in rapid succession. The side streets cross at right angles. For a thousand years it has been a silent wilderness, yet all can be traced. Even the sockets of the gates still remain in the arches of the gateways, and the water still runs in the channel to flood the circus for mock sea-fights. Temple, theater, triumphal arch, forum, baths, Christian cathedral, are all here in every variety of later Roman architect- FROM NAZARETH TO EETHABARA. 247 ure. Yet this was but a distant provincial city, standing almost in the Arabian desert, and almost without a history.” Somewhere between Mahanaim and the river Jabbok, was Peniel , or Penuel , “the Face of God,” so called by Jacob, after he had wrestled all night with the angel, who gave him the name of Israel; “because,” the patriarch said, “I have seen God, face to face!” Its exact locality cannot PLAIN OF THE JORDAN. be ascertained, though it was a fortified place in the time of the Judges (Judg. viii: 8-17). When the pilgrims approached the Jabbok, on their way southward, they would be in the neighborhood of Succoth, a place of which no recog¬ nized vestige remains. There Jacob must have sojourned for a time, after leaving Peniel, since he built him a house there, and made permanent booths for his cattle (Gen. xxxiii: 17). After the great victory of Gideon over the Midianites, when he and his brave three hundred were “faint, yet pursuing” Zeba and Zalmunna, the men of Succoth refused to give them 248 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. bread, lest Gideon might not, after all, capture his fleeing foes. Submit¬ ting to this inhospitality, Gideon promised to chastise the men of Succoth when he should return, and accordingly, when he did return with the heads of the Midianitish princes, he took the seventy-seven elders, or sheiks, of Succoth, and “taught them” a sharp lesson with thorns and briars of the wilderness (Judg. viii: 4-16). On the western side of Jordan, there was another Succoth, which Dr. Robinson identifies with SakiU, a ruin about ten miles west of the river; but while this locality would suit the story of Gideon, it is apparently too far north for the Succoth of Jacob, besides which, the Succoth of Jacob appears to have been on the eastern side of Jordan. Wherever the true site may have been, Solomon placed his brass foundries for casting the metal work of the temple, “in the district of Jor¬ dan, in the fat or soft ground between Succoth and Zarthan” (1 Kings vii: 46) or “between Succoth and Zeredatha” (2 Chron. iv: 17). The site of Zarthan or Zeredatha is wholly unknown. So, at length, passing on their left the city of Aroer, the scene of Jephthah’s victory over the Amorites, the pilgrims would come into the Plain of Jordan , and would soon find themselves at Beth-nimrah , the House of the Leopard , now called Beit-nimrim , the House of Leop¬ ards. The Septuagint, as Dr. Tristram remarks, renders Beth-nimrah by Beth-abra , the House of the Ford, probably because, at the time when the Septuagint translation was made, the leopards had disappeared before the advance of population, and the ford at Beth-nimrah had come to be known and recognized as the principal passage for travelers to Gil¬ ead and Galilee. Somewhere near this spot, it must have been that the host of Israel crossed over into the Promised Land. The whole people were encamped in the Plain of Jordan. In the sultry groves of Abel-shit - tim, “the Marshes of the Acacia," which spread out along the plain, they had been seduced by the Moabites into the licentious rites of Baal-Peor, and had been sorely punished for their sin (Numb, xxv: 1-9). At length, from the upper part of the plain, the priests advanced boldly into the bed of the stream, bearing the ark of God; then, we are told, the waters from above were arrested in their flow, and when the waters below had flowed on into the Dead Sea, the countless multitude of Israel was able to cross over dry-shod, into the land that was, thenceforth, to be their own (Josh. FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. 249 iii: 14-17). Centuries later, it must have been close to this spot, that the prophet Elijah’, on the last day of his earthly life, smote the waters of Jor¬ dan with his mantle, and made a way for himself and Elisha, to the borders of his native Gilead, where he was to be taken up into heaven by a whirl¬ wind in the sight of his faithful follower (2 Kings ii: 1-11); and it must have been near the same historic spot that Jesus was baptized by His great forerunner, the Baptist (Matt, iii: 13; Mark i : 9 ; Luke iii: 21). Beth- nimrah exactly corresponds with the incidental descriptions of the place where John baptized, as we find them in the gospels. It is “beyond Jor¬ dan” (John 1:28); it is accessible to “Jerusalem and all Judea” (Matt, iii: 5; Mark 1:5); and the mention of St. Matthew of “the region round about Jordan,” in all probability, signifies the Plain of Jordan, the great Oasis of Jericho. Looking southeast from Beth-nimrah, which we may now assume to be the Bethabara of the evangelist, St. John, the pilgrims would behold the mountains of Moab rising gloomily before them — the Pisga/i, whence Moses was permitted to view the Promised Land. Pisgah, like Gilead and Lebanon, does not designate a particular peak, but a mountain range of which the “head” or loftiest crest is Mount Nebo. It was to the top of Nebo, which the Arabs call Jcbel Mebbeh , that Moses, the man of God, was sent to die; and before he died God permitted him to behold a wide pros¬ pect of the land to whose borders he had led the fugitive slaves of the Egyptians. “The Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and the land of Judah unto the utmost sea, and the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the City of Palm-trees, unto Zoar (Deut. xxxiv: 1-3). The view from the summit of Mount Nebo corresponds with this statement. Lrom the same spot the traveler can now descry the mountains of Gilead stretching northward to Bashan, while on their eastern part they slope gradually to the far-off Arabian Plain, waving with corn and grass, without a house, a tree, or a bush, but with the black tents of the Arabs dotted far and near, and visible through the glass. The eastern side of the Dead Sea, of course is not visible, but through a break in the middle, Engedi, is seen, still green in the distance. Behind it on the southwest, appears the ridge of Hebron as far as Bethlehem and Jerusalem, with the Church of 250 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. the Ascension seated on the summit of the Mount of Olives. To the northwest is Gerizim, with the Plain of Esdraelon lying peacefully beyond, and yet further in the same direction is the ridge of Carmel. O11 the right of Carmel appears the summit of Mount Tabor with Gilboa and Little Hermon lying near by, while beyond all, rises the snow-capped Hermon; and then the eye, sweeping down the Ghor, rests, at last, on Jericho, just beyond the ford. As Moses looked between the Jordan and the eminence on which he stood, he saw beneath him the little city of Zoar, to which Lot escaped from Sodom (Gen. xix: 17-22). The cities of the plain, which were destroyed for their iniquities, are commonly supposed to have been situated within the boundaries of what is now the Dead Sea, and their destruction is supposed to have been accomplished by some tremendous geological convulsion, by means of which the Dead Sea came into existence. There is no ground whatever for such an opinion. It is not sustained by the language of Scripture; and there is nothing to sustain it in the geological formation of the Dead Sea, which has come into existence in the same way as other similar salt lakes in the interior of Africa. It is possible that no extraordinary catas¬ trophe would be required to produce the events described in Genesis. The whole neighborhood abounds in sulphur; from the sea itself masses of bitumen are thrown up, and, during the earthquake of 1837, whole islands of that substance were detached, and floated on the surface. Given an abundance of the combustibles, and it would require only “fire from heaven,” that is to say, a lightning storm, to destroy the cities of the plain. Dr. Tristram gives many scriptural reasons why it is impossible to believe that these unfortunate cities could have occupied the present place of the Dead Sea, and why it is extremely probable that they did stand in the Plain of Jordan. Lrom the summit of Mount Nebo the brave old ruler of Israel looked down over the Land of Promise. He was a hundred and twenty years old, but his eye was not dim, and his natural force was not abated. Again he received the assurance that God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob should be kept, though he himself was not to see its fulfilment; and then “Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, ac¬ cording to the word of the Lord; and He buried him in a valley in the land FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA 251 of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.” Now, we are following the steps of One “like unto Moses,” who was passing over that ground of horrible destruction that He might bring salva¬ tion to all the earth. Turning from the unknown burying place of the giver of the law, He was about to cross the Jordan on his way to fulfill an obliga tion of the law; but high above the temple of the law, which denounced BLUFFS OF THE JORDAN GHOR. death against the disobedient, rose before Him the appointed place of his sublime ascension, as a witness that death does not utterly destroy, and that a world, which, by the law of Moses could not live, is by a mightier than Moses gloriously redeemed unto eternal life. The incomparable sacredness of Jordan over all other rivers in the world dates, not from the scenes of carnage which its banks have witnessed, but from the baptism of the Saviour in its waters. 1 he Church of England happily accepts that sentiment, but gives it a far wider application, by say- 252 FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. ing that, by His baptism in the river Jordan, Jesus “sanctified the element of water to the mystical washing away of sin;" that is to say, that He conse¬ crated the whole element of water forever, and wherever found, to be used in the initiatory sacrament of his Church, which promises remission of sins to those who rightly come to it. Nevertheless, the very water of the Jordan itself has always been especially, and even superstitiously, venerated. In the time of Constantine it was considered a great privilege to be baptized in Jordan, or with water brought from Jordan. In the sixth century marble steps were built leading down to the place where Christ was believed to have been baptized, and many pilgrims there went down into the river wear¬ ing a white robe which they were to wear only once again, as their burial shroud. Shipmasters carried away with them bottles of water with which they sprinkled their vessels before making their homeward voyage. At this present time, on every Easter Monday, thousands of pilgrims are escorted by guards of Turkish troops to bathe at a lower ford, about two miles above the Dead Sea; and as the Easter of the Greeks falls on a different day from that of the Latins, there is no particular rivalry between these sects; indeed, they bathe at different places, the Greeks at a spot called Kasr el Yehudi , and the Latins at another spot called Makta . The crowd, how¬ ever, is always a motley one, and “the streets of Jerusalem are for the time, deserted to see the caravans set out; women in long white dresses and veils, men in flowing robes and turbans, covering the space outside the walls and slopes and hollows of the valley of Jehosaphat, to see the start. The pro¬ cession streams from the gate, and pours along the camel track toward Bethany and the Jordan — some on foot, others on horse-back, or on asses, mules or camels. Some companies travel with tents and provisions, to make everything comfortable on the journey. Here, a woman on horse-back, with a child on each arm, is to be seen; there, in a pannier on one side of a mule, is a woman, in the other, on the opposite side, is a man; or a dromedary, with a great frame across its hump, bears a family with all its coverlets and utensils. The Russian pilgrims, men, women and priests, if it be the Greek Easter, are afoot in heavy boots, fur caps, and clothing more fitted for Archangel than for the Jordan Valley. Midway comes a body of Turk¬ ish horse, with drawn swords, clearing the way for the governor; then pil¬ grims again. Drawn from every land, they have travelled thousands of FROM NAZARETH TO BETHABARA. 253 miles in the belief that to seethe Holy Places, and to bathe in the Jordan, will tell on their eternal happiness.” At night the pilgrims camp at Er Riha, the modern Jericho, and long before the next day breaks, they are up and on their way, by torch-light, to the banks of Jordan. As the sun is rising over the eastern mountains, the foremost pilgrims reach the sacred river. “Before long, the high bank above the trees and reeds, is crowded with horses and mules, camels and asses, in terrible confusion; old, young, men, women and children, of many nationalities, all pressing together in seemingly inextricable disorder. Some strip themselves naked, but most of them plunge in clad in a white gown, which is to serve hereafter as a shroud, consecrated by its present use. Families bathe together, the father immersing the infant and other children, that they may not need to make the pilgrimage in later life. Most of them keep near the shore, but some strike boldly out into the current. In little more than two hours, the banks are once more deserted, the pilgrims re-mounting their motley army of beasts, with the same grave quiet as they had shown on leaving them for a time; and before noon, they are back again at their encampment.’’ (Geikie, H. L.) CHAPTER VIII. FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. The Crossing of Israel Over Jordan — The Twelve Stones— Gilgal — Historical Events — Beth-hoglah — Kasr-Hajla — Jericho Destroyed — Rebuilt — Elijah — Spring of Elisha— Capture of King Zedekiah — Pompey at Jericho — Cleopatra Acquires It— Adorned by Herod — Destroyed in an Insurrection — Rebuilt by Archelaus — Jesus at Jericho —His Ancestress, Rahab — Healing of the Blind — Zac. chaeus — Later History — Fertility of the Plain — Cultivation of Sugar-Cane — Mount Quarantania — Its Caves — Ain Duk — Present Condition of the Plain— Apples of Sodom — Er Riha — Wady Kelt— The Brook Cherith— Robbers between Jericho and Jerusalem — A Recent Incident — Inn of the Good Samaritan— Wady el-Hod — Ainel-Hod — En-shemesh — Bethany — Bethphage — The Palm — Lepers — Mary and Martha — Tomb of Lazarus — Castle of Lazarus — Mountains and Valleys Round about Jerusalem — Mount of Offence — Hill of the Prophets — Mount of Olives — Viri Galilaei -Hill of Evil Counsel — Scopus— First View of Jerusalem from the East — Entering Jerusalem. EAVING the Ghor behind them, the 1 Holy Family and the band of pilgrims with whom they were in company, would pass through the ford of Betha- bara, and turn westward, toward the Holy City. Before them lay the Plain of Jericho. On their left, but not far off, was a place of renown in the annals Israel. When the host of Israel had marched through the empty bed of the Jordan, ER-RIHA THE MODERN JERICHO. Joshua commanded one man of each of the twelve tribes, to take out of the channel of the river, where the priest’s feet had stood firm, twelve stones which were to be carried to the place of their encampment that night (Josh, iv: 1-3). Those twelve stones were accordingly set up at Gilgal (Josh iv.19). Until very recently, the site of Gilgal was unknown, but it is now identified at Tell Jiljalia, a mound over the ancient town, and Birket Jiljalia , a pond belonging to it. Captain Conder supposes that the twelve stones taken out of Jordan, were set up as a sort of miniature Stonehenge. This may, or may not, be true, but nothing of the kind is now to be found, and indeed, stones which could be carried on the shoulders of single men, o a > > z H > Z > H W H !> O c z ■H o H ffi •W H W g *-d H > H HH O Z EHBS W&WMmki ' §g|®e8»' '■'■ * W>1§sl8v 5V sV T • *** l ... . mm ipfeiKSft©' ,x -4i . . . ; " - .- . . * * , j.lp 5m‘ .^gg* jgf ix Hp •^r >>>> FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. 257 The name Jiljalia, the Arabic equivalent for Gilgal, still lingers in Palestine. There is one in the Plain of Sharon, about thirteen miles north of Lydda, which is probably the Gilgal of Josh xii: 23; another still further north; a third, which is half-way between Tibneh and Shiloh, seems to be the Gilgal above Bethel, so often mentioned in connection with the prophet ARABS IN THE PLAIN OF JORDAN. Elijah. A fourth Gilgal, which has not been identified, was in “the Plains of Moreh” (Dent, xi: 30). It was at none of these, however, but at Gilgal in the Jordan plain, about four miles southwest from the probable place of passage over the river, that Joshua kept his headquarters, after the taking of Jericho and Ai (Joshua ix:6; x:6, 15, 43; xiv:6). At this Gilgal, the tabernacle was set up, and there it remained until it was removed to Shiloh (Josh, xviii: 1). At the same Gilgal, Samuel made his yearly circuit as judge of Israel (1 Sam. vii : 1 6) ; and there, after Saul’s victory over the Ammonites, the new sovereign’s authority was universally acknowledged, and his reign was 258 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. solemnly inaugurated with great rejoicing (1 Sam. xi: 14, 15). Gilgal seems to have retained the character of a religious center or sanctuary after the time of Joshua; and, early in the days of the judges, an “angel” — perhaps a prophet — of the Lord, was sent thence, to rebuke the people for making leagues with the heathen inhabitants of the land (Judg. ii: 1). Later on, its situation and importance were such, that it was deemed to be the proper place for the people of Judah to meet King David, when he re¬ turned from Mahanaim, after the death of Absalom (2 Sam. xix: 15). But the inhabitants of Gilgal at last fell into such idolatry as to be denounced by the prophets ITosea and Amos, for making their city a chief place of idolatrous worship (Hosea iv: 15; ix 115; xii:n; Amos iv:4; v : 5). A little to the south of Gilgal, Beth- Ho gl oh , the Haunt of Partridges , stood on the boundary line which separated the tribe of Benjamin from that of Judah (Josh. xv:6; xviii: 19). It is still known by the name of Ain-hajla or the Fountain of Hoglah , from the finest spring to be found in the whole Ghor. The sparkling stream which gushes forth from it pro¬ duces verdure wherever it flows, and if used for irrigation, it would cause fertility around it like the spring at En-Gannim. But it is not used, and the surrounding land, with the exception of a small natural oasis, is a barren waste. A couple of miles or less further to the south there was, until within a few years a ruin called Kasr Hajla , or the Tower of Hoglah, which was all that remained of an old monastery. It is probable that this ruin was a place of prayer of monks of the order of St. Basil, who wisely or unwisely, had fled from the turmoil of the world, more than fifteen hun¬ dred years ago, and whose successors continued, until the sixteenth century, to offer hospitality to pilgrims. For three hundred years it was deserted, but in 1882 the stones of the old ruin were removed to make room for a new monastery at the same spot. Five miles to the northwest of Gilgal, four hundred feet above the Jordan, near the base of a rugged, precipitous and forbidding mountain, and at the foot of a great mound of ruinous debris , a noble spring gushes from the rock, pouring its water into an old basin, about forty feet long by twenty-five feet broad, and built of hewn stones. The mound of ruins is all that now remains of the ancient Canaanitish city of Jericho, the City of Palm trees (Deut. xxxiv: 3; Judg. i: 16), the first walled town taken by the FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM 259 Israelites on the western side of Jordan. It was strongly fortified; but since the Israelites were able to march round it seven times in a single day (Josh. vi:4), it can have been of no great size. It is first mentioned in connection with the visit to it of the spies who were entertained by Rahab, and who made a covenant with her, that, when the city should be taken, she and her kindred should be spared (Josh, ii: 1-22). In the pursuit of RAHAB SAVING THE SPIES. (JOSH. Hi: 1 5). the spies after their escape, the fugitives probably hid themselves, as they well might, in the cave-pierced sides of the gloomy mountain near at hand. By a special miracle Jericho was taken; the inhabitants were put to the sword, and the whole town was levelled with the ground (Josh, vi: 1-21). There is not the least reason to suppose that the house of Rahab, which was built upon the city wall, was spared in the general destruction, but that trivial circumstance did not prevent the very house itself from being 26o FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. shown in the Middle ages, as its site is still shown to travelers of our own time. After the destruction of Jericho, Joshua laid this curse upon the man who should rebuild it, that its foundation should be laid in his first-born and its gates set up in his youngest son, or, in other words, that his children should perish (Josh, vi: 26). It is doubtful, however, whether Joshua meant to forbid the building of dwellings on the former site of Jericho. Possibly he meant only to forbid the building of a fortified city; but certain it is that Jericho was ultimately rebuilt, though the curse of Joshua is said to have been fulfilled in the family of Hiel (1 Kings xvi: 34). When restored, it became a place of importance, and either in the city, or in its immediate vicinity, was established one of the schools of the prophets (2 Kings ii: 5, 7). It was frequently visited by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. It was from Jericho that Elijah set out with his faithful pupil on that last stage of his earthly journey, which was to take him back to his native Gilead, there to be delivered from the heavy burden he had been called to bear (2 Kings ii *.4-6). Dr. Tristram has no doubt that the great spring of Jericho, which is now called by the Arabs Ain es Sultan , or the Sultans Spring , but by Eu¬ ropeans, the Spring of Elisha, is “beyond question, identical with the fountain whose bitter waters were healed by the prophet Elisha” (2 Kings ii: 19-22). He considers, that in its former brackish state, which it shared with many other springs of that neighborhood, its waters, though disagree- ble to the taste and unfit for drinking, were not inimical to vegetation, and especially not so to the palm, which rejoices in saline ground. Be that as it may, the water or Elisha’s spring is now sweet and wholesome, though certainly not cool, its temperature being 84 degrees Fahrenheit. It cannot have been far from that spring, since it was in the Plain of Jericho, that the luckless King Zedekiah was captured by the Chal¬ deans, after the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxv:5). Jericho shared in the misfortunes of that time of desolation. When it was restored we do not know; but after the captivity, three hundred and forty-five heads of houses returned to their old home (Neh. vii 136), and the men of Jericho took part in rebuilding Jerusalem (Neh. iii : 2) . From that time on, Jericho was one of the principal cities of the Jews. For a single night, the great Pompey encamped beside it, and Antony gave it, KHAN HADRUR, THE INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM 263 with its fruitful plain, as a royal gift of Cleopatra. It was then especially renowned for its gardens of balsam, which Dr. Hooker supposes to have been the zcikkuni , a tropical plant which still flourishes there, and yields an oil famous for its healing qualities. Herod farmed, and at length pur¬ chased, Jericho from Cleopatra, and when it had been sacked by his Ro¬ man allies, he magnificently rebuilt and fortified it. Jericho was not his PLAIN OF JERICHO. capital, but his winter residence, and there he died. It was in an amphi¬ theater of his own construction, that Salome publicly announced the death of the unlamented tyrant. Not long after his death, the splendid city of Herod was taken and burned, by a rebellious slave called Simon; but it was again rebuilt by Archelaus, with a beauty which it had perhaps not before had. Certainly, the plain had never before had such advantages as Archelaus gave it, for he built aqueducts from a village called Neaera, to irrigate the lands, and he made extensive plantations of palms, so that Jericho again became a “City of Palm Trees.” Its streets appear to have 264 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. been broad enough to allow the growth of sycamores for shade (Luke xix:4), and all its arrangements may be presumed to have been in the magnificent and sumptuous fashion which was characteristic of Herodian cities. In all probability, the beautiful Jericho of Archelaus, was the first city, worthy of the name, that the Child Jesus ever saw. Independently of its beauty and novelty, it must have been most interesting to Him from the circumstance that Rahab, whose name is so prominently connected with its early history, had become the wife of Salmon (who was possibly one of the spies whose lives she had saved), and the mother of Boaz, the hus¬ band of Ruth (Matt. 1 : 5). Rahab, the Canaanite, therefore, as well as Ruth, the Moabitess, was an ancestress of Jesus Christ. Not only on the occasion of his first journey to Jerusalem, but, as it seems, often afterward, Jesus visited the new old city of Palm Trees. At Jericho, He gave sight to two, or perhaps it may have been three, blind men (Matt. xx:3o; Mark x:46; Luke xviii: 35); at Jericho He was entertained at the house of Zac- cheus, the chief publican, or superintendent of customs, in that district, who had climbed one of the sycamores which lined the way, in order to see Jesus pass by; and it was in the road between Jerusalem and Jericho that He chose to lay the scene of his lovely parable of the Good Samaritan. After the time of Christ, Jericho was destroyed by Vespasian, but it was again rebuilt, and still existed in the time of St. Jerome. Origen found there a version of the Old Testament Scriptures and other valuable manu¬ scripts. It was the see of a bishop, who was dependent on the See of Jerusalem; and bishops of Jericho took part in several church councils of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. After awhile the city fell into decay, and has never again been rebuilt. The city of Herod had been somewhat to the south of the ancient city of the Canaanites, and if there was a city of Jericho in the time of the Crusades, it must have been more than a mile further to the southwest, at the site of the present Er Riha, where there is a large square castle, or redoubt, which must have been built in that period, and which is foolishly supposed to occupy the former site of the house of Zaccheus. In the time of the Crusades the Plain of Jericho was immensely productive; it was assigned to the Knights Templars of Jerusa¬ lem, and was considered to be worth 125,000 of yearly revenue. This was FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM 265 an enormous sum in that age, and was chiefly derived from the culture of sugar cane, for it is a curious fact that, before America was discovered, sorghum cane was successfully cultivated at Jericho. Not far from the great spring of Elisha are the remains of an old sugar mill, formerly used by the Templars. It is called Tawahin es Sukkar, but the aqueducts are broken down, and the building has become a mere shelter for cattle. The rugged mountain which rises behind the Fountain of Elisha and the THE FALL OF JERICHO. (JOSH. VI : 20). site of ancient Jericho is Mount Quarantania, or the Mountain of the Forty Days , now called Jehel Karantel. It is the reputed scene of the Tempta¬ tion of Christ. The tradition which connects that awful event of the Saviour’s life with Mount Quarantania may be more ancient than the time of the Crusades, but it had been well said by one who is not too prone to credit ecclesiastical traditions, that, rising, as it does, naked and arid, like a 266 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. mountain of malediction, imagination sees in it a fit place to be the haunt of evil influences — a place where, in the language of the prophets, “the owls dwell and the satyrs dance.” There for forty days was Jesus with the wild beasts and in the chosen home of the vulture; driven thither of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil; and yet guarded by angels, so that the beasts were powerless to hurt Him. Perhaps in the daytime, or in the solemn season of His nightly watchings, he looked down from the grim crest of Quarantania, upon the winding stream of the Jordan, as the sons of the prophets had long before looked down from the same spot, when the world worn prophet of Carmel was passing over to the scene of his deliver¬ ance (2 Kings ii: 7, 15). So steep and dangerous are the precipitous sides of Jebel Karantel that persons liable to dizziness are warned not to attempt to ascend them, and in all cases a guide is considered as necessary as in climbing the Alps. Even Dr. Thomson did not care to try that difficult ascent; and on one occasion, when he might have done so, the caves which abound on the mountain side were occupied by robbers, so that no one could venture to approach. Canon Tristram, happily, did visit them with a party of travelers, and his account of those curious caves is extremely interesting. He says: “On the eastern side are some forty habitable caves and chapels; and probably there is a much larger number on the south face, in the gorge of the Kelt. These caves have all been approached by staircases and paths hewn out of the face of the rock; but time and water have worn away many of these, and left the upper caverns, in some cases, wholly inacces¬ sible. The lowest range ol caves is close to the slopping debris , and they are still tenanted by the Arabs, who use them for sheep-folds and donkey- stables, and sometimes, as we discovered, for corn and straw depots. The next tier is easily reached; and generally every spring a few devout Abyssinian Christians are in the habit of coming and remaining here for forty days, to keep their Lent on the spot where they suppose our Lord to have fasted and been tempted. “This tier is easy accessible to any one with a steady head. The way to it is by a niche hollowed in the side of the precipice. The ground floor of these cells, if the expression may apply to such aerial dwellings, appears FIELD OF BETHANY. - . - ■ * \ . . ' ■ ' ■' J?8 feet to the right. These tubs are neatly concealed in the rock, and quite out of the reach of any attack.” In the third chamber, which was reached with difficulty, through “a small hole scooped out of the native rock, were three consecutive chambers, with a well-arched front of fine, dressed stone, and various arched door- PALM TREES. FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. 269 • to have been a series of chambers, with recesses hollowed for beds and for cup-boards. There are four of these apartments, opening into each other, the natural caverns having been artificially enlarged. Below is a well-plastered reservoir or tank, to which the water has formerly been con¬ veyed through cement-lined stone tubs, from the waterfall, several hundred 2yo FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. ways and windows looking east, all lined with frescoes, of which the faces alone had been chipped out by the Moslem iconoclasts. The center room was evidently a chapel, covered with Byzantine paintings of saints, and had an apse in the east front, with a small lancet window. The dome of the apse was filled by a fresco of our Lord, with a Greek inscription over it.” Canon Tristram, and his party, climbed, with the aid of a rope, through another hole in the rock, “and, with a short exercise of the chimney-sweep’s art,” found themselves “in a third tier of cells, similar to the lower ones, and covered with the undisturbed dust of ages. Behind the chapel was a dark cave, with an entrance eighteen inches high, full of human bones and skulls, with dust several inches deep. We were in the burial-place of the anchorites. The skeletons were laid east and west, awaiting the resurrec¬ tion.” Still higher did the party climb, only to find similar cells, chapels and caverns strewn with human bones and skulls. There were some inscrip¬ tions, but they were of no historical value. Thus it appears that for ages and ages, the scene of Christ’s tempta¬ tion, which one might suppose would be avoided by those who wished to avoid temptation, was chosen as a permanent home by successive genera¬ tions of men, who were devout in their purpose, however mistaken in the means by which they sought to attain to sanctity. If they had read the writings of St. Jerome they might have learned from his experience, as they doubtless did from their own, that solitude affords no refuge from temptation to sin. From some sins there is no escape save in flight; but to flee into the desert is to Tush into the very presence and company of the enemy. The Plain of Jericho is now almost entirely barren. Besides the spring of Elisha, there is another spring of equal magnitude, about two miles fur¬ ther up. It is called Ain Duk , and is probably at the site of the ancient fortress of Docus . If used for purposes of irrigation, the water from these two springs might suffice to make a large part of the plain as prolific as ever. There is hardly anything which might not be successfully cultivated there. The palm, the balsam, the sugar cane, have, at different times, en¬ riched the district, but, like the sycamores of the time of Christ, they have wholly disappeared. Cotton is believed to have been cultivated in ancient FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. 271 times. With proper irrigation, nearly every species of grain would grow luxuriantly, and Indian corn is said to yield two crops in a single sea¬ son. Yet the plain is desolate, with the exception of a few gardens, and patches of wheat and tobacco, which the inhabitants raise for their own consumption. For fruits, they are content with the large clusters of grapes which grow over their huts. Wherever water reaches the soil, an abnn- JOSHUA AND THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD’S HOST. (JOSH. V: 1 3— 1 5. ) dance of luxuriant vegetation shows the wealth that waits only for industry to bring it forth. Perhaps the most characteristic growth of the Plain of Jericho is now the apple of Sodom, as it is called, a woody shrub, growing to a height of three or four feet, with broad leaves which are woolly on the under side. The fruit resembles the apple, and is first yellow and then red. It is said to be nauseous beyond description, and, when fully ripe, it contains, within its beautiful rind, nothing but dry seeds and a dusty pow- 272 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. der. From this fruit, which grows extensively on the shores of the Dead Sea, poets have borrowed the simile of “Dead Sea fruits that tempt the eye, But turn to ashes on the lips.” The modern village, if it can be called so, of Er Riha preserves the name of the ancient Jericho, but is more than a mile from the ancient site. It is nothing more than a collection of wretched hovels, inhabited by peo- pie of the most wretched sort, whom some travelers believe to be really of gypsy stock. They are among the rudest and most degrad¬ ed of the inhabitants of Pal¬ estine, and are addicted to o vices of the most disgusting ^ character. From Jericho to Jerusa- < lem, is only a distance of some ^ thirteen miles, yet the road is d one continual ascent, since Q j| Jerusalem is 3,600 feet higher < than Jericho. About two ° miles east of Jericho, the pil- ~ grims would come to one of w the wildest and most roman¬ ce tic scenes in all the Holy Land. It is now called Wady Kelt, a gloomy mountain gorge 500 feet high, cut by the torrent through the solid rock, and with sides so precipitously perpen¬ dicular, that only the coney and the ibex can attempt to scale them. At the bottom of this frightful chasm, is a stream less than fifty feet in width, on which the sun shines but a few minutes in the day, with beds of reeds and rushes, and with oleanders fringing its sides. Above and beyond the gorge are chalk hills, rising in fantastic shapes, but utterly bare of trees and herbage. Within the two frowning cliffs, which gloomily confront each other, are caves and caverns, now wholly inaccessible, but once inhabited FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. 275 by Christian monks, who thought to find God where no man might safely find them; and between these upright walls of nature’s masonry, ravens,, eagles and vultures sail in undisturbed security. This place of unimagina¬ ble solitude and grandeur, is thought, by Dr. Robinson and others, to be the Brook (or torrent) of Cherith, where Elijah hid himself during the great drought which he foretold to King Ahab (1 Kings xvii: i-S). There ASCENT OF ELIJAH. (2 KINGS III 9— II.) he might well feel secure from the pursuit of his enemies, and there the Lord commanded the ravens to feed him day by day. If the word trans¬ lated ravens can, as it is said, be properly translated Arabs , the providence which watched over the prophet in his time of danger was surely none the less; for the Arabs of that district are as wild as ravens, and much more dangerous. In modern, as in ancient times, the road between Jerusalem and Jericho is haunted by robbers. Now, as then, the traveler is entirely likely to “fall 276 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. among thieves.” Mr. Henry A. Harper, the amusing author of “Walks in Palestine,” tells how he came near suffering from a misunderstanding of one of these freebooters of the desert. The Turkish government has been obliged to give to a certain sheikh, living not far from Bethany, the official right, for a consideration, “to protect” travelers in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, which is very much the same as a right to exact moderate black¬ mail. Mr. Harper, having made the proper arrangements, as he supposed, one day went quietly sketching, and was unpleasantly interrupted by the ping! of a rifle shot in uncomfortable proximity to his person. Presently, the man who had coolly shot at him, came to his feet wth the amplest apologies. He had simply seen a stranger, apparently without “protection,” and with the true Arab instinct, had tried to kill him for such plunder as the murder might bring. When he discovered that the stranger was really under the protection of the sheikh, he was horrified at the crime he had come near committing! Such is Arab morality. The poor traveler who “fell among thieves” not many miles from the same spot, was, perhaps, beset by the lineal ancestors of the Arab of Mr. Harper’s adventure, who, it is proper to to say, afterward acted as escort, and proved to be a very good one, to the man at whom he had so instinctively taken a shot. Six or seven miles, through a rough and uninteresting country, would bring the travelers to the half-way resting-place between Jerusalem and Jericho. It is now called Ha drier Khan, and consists of some ruins situated on a knoll in a wild but dreary region. The ruins are not very ancient, but the tenacity with which the orientals cling to old customs and old places, as well as its position midway between Jerusalem and Jericho, makes it very likely that here was the inn which our Lord had in mind in the para¬ ble of the good Samaritan. It has now no host, and furnishes no enter¬ tainment for man or beast; but at that time, this half-way house must have been a halting place of sufficient importance to be kept up for the regular entertainment of travelers. Indeed, it is altogether probable, that our Saviour Himself, not only in His first pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but often afterward, must have rested at this very spot or near it. Both as a Child and on that last journey to a Passover at which He Himself was to be the victim of the Sacrifice, it can do no harm to suppose that He took His rest at Hadrur Kahn. FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM 2 77 After two hours more of travel through a country of no particular interest, but always rising higher and higher above the plain they had left behind, the pilgrims would pass through a valley called Wady cl Hod , where Shimei cursed and cast stones at David when fleeing from Absalom ; and on the western slope of the valley they would ascend to a spring which is called Ain el Hod , but which Christians call the Apostles Spring , because the apostles must often have visited it with their Master. It is THE BLIND MEN AT JERICHO, (MATT. XX: 30.) supposed to be En-shemesh, or the “ Sun Spring," mentioned in Josh, xv: 7 A little beyond the spring they would reach a plateau whence they could look back upon their track from the Jordan. There the mountains of Moab and Gilead would be plainly visible against the eastern sky, above the Plain of Jordan and Jericho; and far below the height of the spot on which they stood, the peak of Quarantania would be seen, softened in the 278 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. distance. On the west they would behold the Mount of Olives rising beyond a narrow valley, and about a mile below its summit, at the foot of an intervening ridge or swelling of the mount, they would see before them, at a distance of one third of a mile, the village of Bethany , the House of Dates, or perhaps more Sorrow. Not far from Bethany, probably to the east of it, but in a spot which cannot now be as¬ certained, they would also see the village of Bcth-phage , the House of(unripe) Figs. The hump or secondary ridge beside which Bethany is situated, intercepts the view of the crest of Olivet from the village, but from the plateau of El Hod the whole of the little valley and of the mountain beyond is entirely visible. Tradition has it that it was to the plateau of El Hod that Martha went to meet Jesus after the death of her brother Lazarus; and with the confidence of perfect certainty, though there can be no possible certainty in the case, the very spot of that meeting is still shown to the traveler. Nothing whatever is said of Bethany in the Old Testament. Its whole interest consists in this, that our Saviour had there something more nearly like a home than He ever had elsewhere after He left the home of his childhood at Nazareth, and that it was the scene of his most famous miracle, the raising of Lazarus. If its name signified the House of Dates, the palm tree must have been cultivated there, but it has now disappeared. The palm is a tree of the desert and the valley, not of the mountains; but because of its rarity, the cultivation of a few palms in a mountain district would be quite likely to attract attention and to give the name of the tree or its fruit to the place where they grew. That some palms did grow at Bethany in our Saviour’s time we know, since at His entry into Jerusalem, on the first day of the week of His passion, the people took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet Him, crying “Hosanna to the Son of properly called the House of FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. 279 David” (John xii: 13), an incident from which that day in the Christian calendar takes its name of Palm Sunday. If Bethany signifies the Elouse of Sorrow, or the House of Poverty, a good reason for that name may well be found in the fact that lepers, the most sorrowfully hopeless, and gener¬ ally the poorest and most forlorn, of all human beings, were allowed to dwell there (Matt, xxvi: 6; Mark xiv: 3). From a distance Bethany, lying as it does, below the reddish-brown slope of the Mount of Olives, is said, by enthusiastic travelers, to present a picture of perfect retirement and repose, of calm seclusion and peace; but a nearer approach brings a less pleasing view. It is a woody hollow with gardens or orchards planted with fruit-trees, olives, fig-trees, almonds, pomegranates and carobs, but the village itself is a wretched and ruinous hamlet of forty flat-roofed mud hovels. The inhabitants are a rough and squalid people whose chief occupation is to beg from travelers, and who know how to be as impudent as they are importunate. The name of Bethany has passed away, and is now replaced by El Azariy eh, or, as Dean Stan¬ ley spells it, El Lazariyeh , a name which is evidently de¬ rived from that of Lazarus, who lived and died, and was raised from the dead in that place. The house in which he lived with his sisters Martha and Mary is shown to this day, but it is absolutely certain that no such house can have existed for eighteen centuries. His tomb also is shown, but it is equally certain that it cannot be the tomb mentioned in the Gospel. St. John says that Martha went to meet Jesus, and then returned and brought her sister Mary to meet Him, when he “was not yet come into the town.” The narrative gives it APPLES OF SODOM. 280 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. clearly to be understood that they went directly to the tomb without entering the town; and besides, the Jews never made their tombs within the precincts of their towns. In the vicinity of Bethany there are cave- tombs which might be closed with a great stone, and which would answer perfectly to the account of the tomb from which Lazarus was raised. But the place which is now shown as the tomb of Lazarus is within the vil¬ lage. It is an under¬ ground chamber twelve feet square, to which there is a descent of twenty-six steps, and within the chamber a vault where the body of Lazarus is said to have been laid. In such a place, the people could not have stood around as they are said to have done; and to conform to the circumstances of that place, the language of the narrative must have been considerably different from that which St. John ARAB ROBBERS ON THE JERICHO ROAD. USeS. The truth is that for the localities assigned to the house of Lazarus, to the tomb of Lazarus, and to the house of Simon the Leper, which is also shown, there is not a particle of authority or probability. They are mere guesses; and there is just as little reason for the name given to an old tower which is the most conspicuous object of El Azariyeh, and which is called the Castle of Lazarus. The tower is probably much older than the time of the Crusaders, but what its purpose or its history may have been is wholly unknown. The true interest of Bethany consists, not in those special FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. 281 featu es, but in the fact that somewhere near them Jesus spent many days and seme of the last nights of His earthly life, that He uttered here some of the loveliest of his lessons — among them the parable of the Good Samaritan, and that there He wrought the last, the most renowned and the most impressive of all his wonderful works. Whether the human mind of the Child Jesus had any prevision of those future events and associations, as He descended from the plateau of THE GOOD SAMARITAN. (LUKE X! 3 1— 37. ) El Hod, and passed through the village of Bethany, it is useless to inquire, but one would fain hope that it did not. At that moment all hearts would be beating high at the thought that in a few minutes they would be in full view of the Holy City, and that within an hour their feet would stand within its gates. We need not suppose that the human mind of the Child Jesus was burdened with a foresight of the dreadful tragedy, in which, twenty 282 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM years later, and in that royal city of his earthly forefathers, He was Him¬ self to be the victim. If He had then foreseen all that, His would hardly have been a human childhood. But His childhood was as real as H is humanity. Like other children, even He must grow in knowledge and experience, as in stature; and as God mercifully veils from us in early life the trials and sufferings which lie before us, so we may believe, though with all reverent reserve, that the childhood of Jesus was allowed the untroubled serenity and hopeful joy which prop¬ erly belongs to childhood. To Him, therefore, as to other -boys in the pil¬ grim company, we may suppose that the moment when He was about to look for the first time upon Jerusalem would be a moment of intense and glad expectancy. With quickened step the pilgrims would walk down to Bethany, and passing through it they would skirt the secondary hill on which it stood and take the road which winds around the southern face of the Mount of Olives. On their left, as they walked west¬ ward, they would have the Mount of Offence , “that approbrious hill,” as Mil- ton calls it, on which the idolatrous temples of King Solomon are supposed to have been reared, and which is really the most southerly of four crests or elevations of the continuous range of Olivet. On their right the pilgrims would have the second of these ele¬ vations, which is called the Hill of the Prophets. North of that hill is the Mount of Olives proper, which is now called by the Arabs Jebel et Tur, but by Christians the Mount of Ascension, On its summit stands the Church of the Ascension, enclosing a chapel which is said to mark the spot from which our Saviour “was taken up” (Actsi: 2). Beyond the Mount of the Ascension is another, and still higher elevation, called Viri Galilaei, from a tradition that it was there that the angel said to the disciples “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up into heavens?” (Acts i: 11). These FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM 283 four crests of the Mount of Olives rise on the east of Jerusalem; but beyond the city the height sweeps around to the west, and there, facing the north¬ ern wall, rises Mount Scopus, where Titus and his legions encamped for the great siege which ended in the utter destruction of the Holy City, as Jesus had foretold. Closely fronting the city on the south, but separated from it by an inter¬ vening ravine, is the Hill of Evil Counsel , so called because of a tradition that on that hill the High Priest Caiaphashad a country house where he and the elders of the people “took counsel to¬ gether to put Jesus to death” (John xi: 47-53). On its sum¬ mit stands a soli¬ tary tree which is a landmark to travel¬ ers approaching Je¬ rusalem from the south ; and, at the foot of the ill- omened hill lies the P otte r ’s Field , bought with the price of Christ's blood, which the murderers of Christ thought it not lawful to put into the treasury when the traitor Judas, in despairing remorse, cast it down at their feet (Matt. xN:vii: 3-10). Thus, on three sides at least, do the mountains “stand round about Jerusalem;” on the north, Scopus; on the east, the heights of Olivet; on the south, the Hill of Evil MEETING OF JESUS WITH MARY AND MARTHA. 284 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM Counsel. On the southwest, too, there are hills, but of no great height. Between the city and its mountainous environment run two deep ravines; that on the north and east being the Valley of Jehoshaphat, otherwise called the Valley of the Brook Kedron; and that on the west and south being called the Valley of Hinnom. The modern name of the former is Wady Sitti Mariam, ox the Valley of our Lady Mary; the modern name of the latter is Wady er Rababi, and these two ravines, running together, make the deep gorge which divides the Mount of Offence from the Hill of Evil Counsel. Within, and almost surrounded by these valleys, rises Jerusalem, itself of mountainous height, though not so high as the Mount of Olives. The plateau upon which the Temple stood is 2441 feet above sea-level, while the Mount of the Ascension is 196 feet, and Viri Galilaei is 282 feet higher. It was not the mountains which stood round about it, which made the situation of Jerusalem so strong against attack, but the deep gorges of the Kedron and of Hinnom, from which the sides of the city rose in steeps surmounted by lofty walls and towers. In looking at pictures, and especi¬ ally at photographs, of Jerusalem it must be remembered that they invari¬ ably fail to show the steepness of these gorges, and so to impress us with the immense strength of the defensive position of Jerusalem in times when the use of artillery was unknown. Travelers approaching Jerusalem, as they usually do, from the west, seldom feel greatly impressed by the aspect of the city. The general feeling is simply expressed by the remark of one, “I am strangely affected, but greatly disappointed!” Lieutenant Lynch, however, was astonished at the magnificence of his first view of Jerusalem; but that was because, unlike the great majority of travelers, he approached it from the Jordan, by the Jericho road through Bethany, and had his first view from the same spot from which Jesus first looked down upon Jerusalem. “No human being,” says Dean Stanley, “could be disappointed who first saw Jerusalem from the east. The beauty consists in this, that you can then burst at once on the two great ravines which cut the city off from the sur¬ rounding table-land, and that then you only have a complete view of the Mosque of Omar. The other buildings of Jerusalem which emerge from the mass of gray ruin and white stones are few, and for the most part unattractive. The white mass of the American Convent on the south, and FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM 285 the dome of the Mosque of David — the Castle, with Herod’s Tower on the southwest corner — the two domes, black and white, which surmount the Holy Sepulcher and the Basilica of Constantine — the green corn-field which covers the ruins of the Palace of the Knights of St. John — the long yellow mass of the Latin Convent at the northwest corner, and the gray tower of the Mosque of the Dervishes on the traditional site of the Palace of Herod Antipas in the northeast corner — these are the only objects TOMB OF LAZARUS, BETHANY. which break from various points the sloping or level lines of the city of the Crusaders and Saracens. But none of these is sufficient to elevate its character. What, however, these fail to effect, is in one instant effected by a glance at the Mosque of Omar. From whatever point that graceful dome, with its beautiful precinct emerges to view, it at once dignifies the whole city. And when, from Olivet, or from the Governor’s house, or from the northeast wall, you see the platform on which it stands, it is a scene hardly to be surpassed. A dome graceful as that of St. Peter’s, though, of course, on a far smaller scale, rising from an elaborately finished circu- 286 FROM JORDAN TO JERUSALEM. lar edifice — this edifice raised on a square marble platform rising on the highest ridge of a green slope, which descends from it north, south and east to the walls surrounding the whole enclosure — platform and enclosure diversified by lesser domes and fountains, by cypresses, and olives, and planes, and palms — the whole as secluded and quiet as the interior of some college or cathedral garden — only enlivened by the white figures of veiled women stealing like ghosts up and down the green slope, or by the turbaned heads bowed low in the various niches for prayer — this is the Mosque of Omar, the Haram-es-Sherif, “the Noble Sanctuary,” the second most sacred place in the Mohammedan world — that is, the next after Mecca; the second most beautiful mosque — that is, the next after Cor¬ dova.” On the same platform where the Mosque of Omar now stands, there, when our Saviour first gazed upon the same scene, stood the beautiful Temple of Elerod. Where the followers of Mahomet now frequent the platform of the Haram, there were then to be seen thousands of the sons of Israel thronging to the great Feast of the Passover. The temple then gave solemnity and grandeur to a city not in itself impressive, as the Mosque of Omar does now. Filled with the sentiment of sacred adoration and thankfulness, the pilgrims, after their march from Jericho, would gently descend the side of Olivet amid the gathering "shades of evening. Leaving the wooded hillside with the groves of olives, and myrtle trees, and pines, and palms and fig trees with which this great park of Jerusalem was then covered, they would go down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Then, proceeding a little way northward, they would come to an enclosed garden called Gethsemane; and turning sharply to the left, they would cross the Kedron which then flowed with water, and which, since the planting of trees upon the bare hills around, has again begun to flow. At length they would ascend the steep side of Mount Moriah, and passing where the gate called Bab Sitti Mariam , or the gate of our Lady Mary, also called St. Stephen’s Gate, now is, they would enter the Holy City. As they entered, they would have on their left hand the Pool of Bethesda. The narrow and winding street they would first thread is now called the Via Dolorosa, the Street of Woe — the first street of Jerusalem — and per¬ haps the last— that the feet of Jesus of Nazareth ever trod. CHAPTER IX. ANCIENT JERUSALEM— PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL. Object of the Chapter— Derivation of the Name of Jerusalem— Early History — Taken by David from the Jebusites — Geographical Position and Political Advantages — Kedron Valley — Hinnom Val¬ ley — The Tyropeon Valley — Divisions of the Ancient City — Citadel of Zion — Acra — Millo and Silla Moriah — Ophel — Bezetha — Structure of the Tabernacle— Its History — Solomon’s Temple — Temple of Zerubbabel — Temple of Herod — History of Jerusalem — Siege of Titus — Destruction of the City — Aelia Capitolina — Restoration under Constantine — Invention of the Cross by Helena — Taken by the Moslems — The Crusaders — The Turks. THE object of the present study of Jerusalem is not to discuss antiquarian questions nor any questions, but in a general and broad way to gain such a knowledge of the natural features of the place, and of the growth and formation of the city, as will enable us satisfacto¬ rily to imagine in our minds, the scene of our Saviour’s passion, as it was when He visited and suffered in it, and, also, as it is in our own time. A well-instructed student of the Scriptures ought to have these things so clearly impressed upon his mind, that if he should ever find himself at Jerusalem, he would be able, without a guide, to go to any noted historical place of which the situation is certainly known. It has been proved by more than one expe¬ rience, that so much is possible; and although the reader of this book may not accomplish quite so much, he may expect to accomplish the most im¬ portant parts of it. As our purpose is of this practical sort, we shall spend no time or space on matters of mere conjecture. In cases of doubt, the more probable opinion of the most recent and approved writers will be given, with a mere mention of the fact that other opinions are held. We shall not, then, discuss the question of the derivation of the name of Jerusalem, concerning which, there is no certainty. Neither shall we in¬ quire whether Jerusalem is the ancient Salem of which Melchizedek was king (Gen. xiv: 18), nor whether that Salem was in the Plain of Jezreel, as St. Jerome declares that it was. Jerusalem evidently cannot be the Salem to which Jacob came, since that Salem was “a city of Shechem.” , 287 288 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. The place is first mentioned under the name of “the Jebusite,” with the explanation that “the same is Jerusalem” (Josh. xv:8). In the book of Judges it is called “Jebus, which is Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusites” (Judg. xix: io, 11). It was so strongly fortified that, though the Israelites .were successful in subduing the Canaanites of other mountain districts, the city of the Jebusites remained unconquered for centuries afterward. Not until the time of David did it fall permanently into the hands of the Israel¬ ites. It is true, that we read in Judg. i : 8, that the Israelites “fought against it, and took it and smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire;” but this, as Josephus explains, refers only to the lower city of which we shall hear presently, and not to the upper city, which was forti¬ fied both by nature and by art. The city of the Jebusites, properly so- called, was not taken at that time; and when David attempted to besiege it, the inhabitants were so confident of their security, that they showed their scorn of the besieging force, by manning their battlements with the lame and the blind. There- AfLc/ sketch plan of the site of Jerusalem, upon, as Josephus affirms, David was greatly enraged, and proclaimed to his army, that whoever should first scale the heights of the fortress, and kill a Jebusite, should be cap¬ tain of the host. The brave men of the army made a simultaneous assault, and Joab gained the promised reward. The city was taken, and so be¬ came the City of David, B. C. 1046. We may here take a rapid glance at the position of the capital of David, relatively to the land of Israel in general, and the country immedi¬ ately surrounding it. Relatively to the rest of Palestine, Jerusalem is in the midst of the mountainous table land which extends from the southern boundary of the Plain of Esdraelon southward to Hebron, and from the Ghor of the Jordan westward to the lower hills, sometimes called the Shephela, which form the eastern boundary of the Maritime Plain. Though Jerusalem was not the center of the land, it was considerably more central than David’s first capital at Hebron, and it lay as far north as he could go, without leaving the boundaries of his ancestral tribe of Judah. In addition to this advan- ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 289 tage, and the natural strength of its position, Jerusalem lay beyond the usual track of the armies of Assyria and Egypt, when these two nations were at war with each other. We have already seen that when Pharaoh Necho invaded Assyria, by way of the Plains of Philistia and Sharon, he was unable to understand what objection could be made to his line of march, by a king who reigned, as Josiah did, at Jerusalem. The natural features of the place, if once fixed in the memory, will make other descriptions easy of comprehension. Therefore, those features must be clearly stated. We have seen that along the north of Jerusalem, and at some distance south of Mount Scopus, there runs a comparatively shallow valley. At the northeast angle of the city, the valley turns to the south, and runs along the western foot of the Mount of Olives, close to the east side of the city, rapidly deepening as it goes to the south. This is the Kedron Valley, or the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Along the western side of Jerusalem runs another valley, of no great depth, which is often called the Valley of Gihon. At the southwest of the city, this valley turns sharply to the east, in front of the Hill of Evil Coun¬ sel, deepening as it goes eastward to join the Valley of Jehoshaphat, in the deep gorge which divides the Hill of Evil Counsel from the Mount of Offence. This valley, or rather ravine, is the Valley of Hinnom. By the Valleys of Gihon, Hinnom and the Kedron, Jerusalem is en¬ closed for three-fourths of its circumference. There is a third, and lesser, but notable ravine, which runs from the junction of the Valleys of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom, in a direction slightly west of north, so as to separate the southern part of the site of Jerusalem into two hills. This third ravine is called the Tyropeon Valley, or the Valley of the Cheesemakers. The hill lying on the west of it is Mount Zion, the original city of the Jebusites, and later the city of David; the other is Mount Moriah, and is believed to be the spot on which Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice (Gen. xxii:2). It is important to observe the suddenness of the descent of the two principal ravines. From their several start-points, to their junction on the southeast of the city, a distance of about a mile and a quarter only, there is a fall of more than six hundred feet. Thus, to quote from a graphic 290 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. description, “while on the north there is no material difference between the general level of the country, outside the walls, and that of the higher parts of the city, on the other three sides, so steep is the fall of the ravines, so trench-like their character, and so close do they keep to the promontory, at whose feet they run, as to leave on the beholder almost the impression of the ditch at the foot of a fortress, rather than of valleys formed by nature.” Between the two spurs which are separated by the Tyropeon Valley, the depression is not so great, though it is quite certain that by the accumulation of rubbish and ruins, this valley, or ravine, is now much shal¬ lower than it was in ancient times. Two other depressions, which may, perhaps, originally have been deep enough to be called ravines, remain to be mentioned. About midway of the western hill, the Tyropeon Valley throws out a subordinate valley westward, thus separating it into two hills; and another similar subordinate valley runs, or certainly did formerly run, east and west, on the northern part of the eastern hill. Observing these natural divisions, we are now prepared to distinguish the southern part of the western hill as the Citadel of Zion, also called the Upper City, and the northern part as the Acra, or the Lower City. The central part of the eastern is Mount Moriah, the site of the Temple; the hill on the north of it is Bezetha; and the southern end of Mount Moriah is called Ophel. Of all these hills, the Citadel of Zion is considerably the highest. Its greatest elevation is 2,535 feet above sea level; the highest point of Acra, is 2,482; of Bezetha, 2,487; of the Temple area, 2,432; and of Ophel, 2,350; so that the general appearance of the surface is that of a slope downward, from the southwest hill to Bezetha and Mount Moriah on the north and east, with a steeper slope to Ophel on the southeast. From the summit of Zion to the Pool of Siloam at the feet of Ophel, the fall is 410 feet. To speak of these divisions of Jerusalem in a little more detail, we may say of Mount Zion , that it is undoubtedly the original city of the Jebusites, which became the city of David, and afterward the Upper City, or the upper market of Josephus. Here David built his palace, and here, for a thousand years, not only the kings of Judah, but the foreign rul¬ ers, who held possession of Jerusalem, resided. Here, too, was the sepul- ANCIENT JERUSALEM 291 cher of David and of fourteen of his successors. As Zion was the first, so it was the last part of Jerusalem, which owned the rule of Israel. After all the rest had fallen before the battering rams of Titus — after even the for¬ tress of the Temple had been stormed — the last remnant of the Jews, cross¬ ing the bridges which then led from the Temple over the Tyropeon Valley to the Upper City, there renewed the conflict in the ancient keep of their THE OFFERING OF ISAAC. (GEN. XII : 10-12). kings, and perished under the last banner of Israel that was ever raised in Jerusalem. Though we are able to tell with entire satisfaction, which of the divi¬ sions of Jerusalem is Mount Zion, it is less easy to ascertain its original boundaries, that is to say, the lines of its defensive works. Even that, how¬ ever, may be done approximately. The City of David included the whole of Mount Zion, and therefore a large part of the hill which lies without the pr 292 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. modern wall on the south. On the east of the Tyropeon Valley, which has been filled up by the ruins of many devastations to a depth of 120 feet be¬ tween Zion and Moriah, must then have lain between two inaccessible steeps, and the frowning precipice on its western side, was the eastern boundary of David’s city. On the north, the lesser valley thrown out west¬ ward from the Tyropeon was of considerable depth, and, although it has now become entirely filled up, it was then the northern boundary of Zion. Where that valley once ran, is now the Muristan, a wide, vacant space within the city, beginning not more than 300 paces from the Jaffa Gate. In the Middle ages it was the site of the Hospice of the Knights of St. John, and of the Convent of St. Mary. It is now merely an arable field, but some travelers stoutly maintain, while others as stoutly deny, that the beginning of the western branch of the Tyropeon can be distinctly seen at the Jaffa Gate, where the old tower of Herod, the lower courses of which, are undoubtedly of the date of Solomon, is founded on a scarped rock, which rises forty feet above the bottom of the ditch, and marks the north¬ western boundary of the City of David. Having thus ascertained the limits of the City of David, we can have no doubt of the general position of Akra, or the Lower City. It lay to the north of the branch of the Tyropeon, by which it was separated from the Upper City of David. On its eastern side, Josephus says, it was in like manner separated from the Temple Mount by a broad valley ; but, in order to connect the city with the Temple, the Asmonean princes leveled the summit of Akra, and filled up the intervening valley. The Akra, then, must have included the greater part of the Christian Quarter, lying north of the Jaffa Gate, and, therefore, must almost certainly have included the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is the reason why it seems to be impossible to accept the traditional scenes of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as satisfactory, since it is absolutely certain that they lay without the wall of Jerusalem. Two names frequently occur in connection with ancient Jerusalem — Millo and Silla. The former is mentioned when David took the city from the Jebusites (2 Sam. v:9), and it was one of the great works of Solomon (1 Kings ix: 15). Hezekiah, too, “repaired Millo in the City of David” {2 Chron. xxxii: 5); and in Millo King Joash was murdered (2 Kings ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 293 xii: 20). Yet we do not know what Millo was. The most satisfactory explanation, in Dr. Tristram’s opinion, is that it was the ancient fortress or keep of Mount Zion, and that the name is a survival of Canaanitish times. Of Silla, which is named once in connection with Millo (2 Kings xii: 20),. nothing whatever is known. Several viaducts or bridges spanned the Tyropeon from Zion to; Mount Moriah. Remains of two of these, known respectively as Robin¬ son’s Arch and Wilson’s Arch, have been discovered toward the south of the present Haram enclosure. But the present enclosure itself has no such appearance as it had before the time of Solomon. Then it was a distinct and separate hill, with the deep ravine of the Tyropeon dividing it from Mount Zion. Nowit is rather the cen¬ ter and highest portion of the eastern ridge. Then, too, it had a mound of rock rising in the center of the ridge, with a narrow platform on its crest. This was the old threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebu- site, which David pur¬ chased of him for an altar place when the pestilence provoked by his sin had been stayed (2 Sam. xxiv: 10-25). It was around this cen¬ tral rock that Solomon plan of the temple area. afterward raised a vast platform, supported by massive piers and arches, tier above tier, and also by walls of stupendous masonry, for the great courts of his magnificent Temple. The interstices were filled in with stones and earth so that the whole platform was made solid; and the substructure was utilized for tanks and reservoirs and drains. The central rock is now 294 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. called the Sakhra, and the immense platform wall of the Haram Area, as it is now called, enables us to identify the general positions of the sacred buildings of Solomon, and the extent of Moriah on its northern side. It was separated from Bezetha by a valley now filled up; at the eastern end of this valley, and therefore at the northeast of Moriah, was the deep reservoir called the Pool of Bethesda; and at the northwest angle was the Tower of Antonia, the military key to the Temple-fortress. Mount Moriah is almost beyond question the scene of Abraham’s offering of Isaac, his son; but the immediate cause of the selection of that spot for the site of the Temple was its consecration to the purposes of sacrifice after the staying of the pestilence in the time of David (i Chron. xxi: 14-27)0 That the summit of the Mount was then occupied as a thresh¬ ing-floor proves that it had not yet been included within the city. The name of Ophcl was applied to the low shoulder projecting from Mount Moriah toward the south. It extends to the Pool of Siloam at the junction of the Tyropeon and the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and ter¬ minates in a cliff which forms the apex of a long triangle and overhangs the pool. The whole of it now lies without the city walls, just south of the ITaram enclosure, and is terraced for gardens, as the descent southward is very steep. In the time of Solomon, however, or soon afterward, Ophel must have been enclosed within the city, as we read that King Jotham “on the wall of Ophel built much” (2 Chron. xxvii: 3), and between the time of Solomon and Jotham it is not likely that there could have been any great extension of the city. Afterward Manasseh enlarged the city and “compassed about Ophel, and raised it to a very great height” (2 Chron. xxxiii: 14). Nehemiah also included it in the city as it was rebuilt after the captivity, and assigned it as the residence of the Nethi- nims, or servants of the Temple (Neh. iii : 2 7). The eastern wall of Ophel has actually been discovered at a depth of seventy feet beneath the pres¬ ent surface, so vast has been the accumulation of rubbish in the many successive destructions of the sacred city. The ancient wall of Ophel is thus ascertained to have been a continuation, but at an oblique angle, of the eastern wall of the Temple platform. Sir C. Warren, who discovered this wall, suggests that Ophel may have been the site of King Solomon’s palace; but we need not enter into such matters of antiquarian research. ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 295 The latest addition to Jerusalem, that of Bezetha , is not mentioned in Holy Scripture at all, but it is precisely described by Josephus, who says that as the population increased, the inhabitants gradually crept beyond the walls, and the quarter north of the Temple was so advanced that it be¬ came necessary to take in the fourth hill of Bezetha, that is, Nezu Town. It is separated from the fortress of Antonia, which stood at the northwest angle of the Temple platform, "by a deep trench excavated in the solid rock, so as to strengthen Anto¬ nia and render it less accessible. According to Josephus, Bezetha was the highest of all the hills, and alone overshadowed the Temple on the north, x T • • , W its position cannot, 01 H > course, be mistaken. “ • ^ It is a broad irregular jg ridge forming part of £ the Mohammedan quarter of modern Je¬ rusalem. It is separ¬ ated from Moriah by the fosse and the great pool of Bethesda. It is important to remember that though Bezetha was thickly inhabited, it was not surrounded by a wall until eight years after the crucifixion of our Savior, when Herod Agrippa fortified it and included it within the walls of the city. If it had been a part of the more ancient city, the traditionary site of the Holy Sepulcher would have been absolutely impossible, as that site lay far within the third wall. 1 he importance of Jerusalem to Israel and the world is due less to the fact that it was the seat of Israelitish royalty than to the fact that it be came the seat of the chosen Temple of God. Some description of the 296 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. Temple, and of the Tabernacle which preceded it, will therefore be in or¬ der here. The Temple was intended to replace the Tabernacle which Moses had used in the wilderness; and with all its magnificence, its structure and measurements were a close copy of the light and fragile tent which was first devoted to the most sacred mysteries of the Mosaic religion. The Tabernacle was erected by Moses in the Desert of*Sinai immediately after the promulgation of the law. It stood within an enclosure of curtains forming a double square, fifty cubits, or seventy-five feet, in width, by one hundred cubits, or one hundred and fifty feet, in length. The curtains were five cubits, or seven and a half feet high, and were supported by pillars of brass at intervals of five cubits, to which they were attached by hooks of silver. On the eastern end of the enclosure was an entrance twenty cubits wide, which was closed by curtains of fine linen wrought with needle work and of gorgeous colors. Within this area and toward the west of it stood the Tabernacle. It was a tent thirty cubits long by ten wide, according to the account of Josephus, which corresponds with the account of the Bible (Exod. xxvi : 15- 26), if we allow for the width of the corner posts. The Holy of Holies was a cubical chamber at the end of the Tabernacle, ten cubits square and ten cubits high. It contained the Mercy Seat, sur¬ mounted by the Cherubim, and the Ark of the Covenant, in which were the Tables of the Law. Into these chambers not even the priest was allowed to enter except on extraordinary occasions. In front of the Holy of Holies was an outer chamber, called the Holy Place. It was ten cubits long by ten cubits wide and ten cubits high, and was appropriated to the use of the priests. In this outer chamber were placed the Golden Candlestick on one side, on the other the table of Shew Bread, and between them the Altar of Incense. The roof of the Tabernacle was formed of several sets of curtains, for the construction of which exceedingly minute directions were given by Moses (Exod, xxvi). From Sinai to the Holy Land this Tabernacle was removed by the Israelites as they marched from place to place, and while the Canaanites remained unconquered, it continued to be removed as occasion required ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 297 Finally, it rested at Shiloh, “the place which God had chosen” (Josh, ix: 27; xviii: 1), and there it remained during the whole of the period of the Judges. It was the gathering point for the heads of the fathers of the tribes (Josh, xix: 51), for councils of peace and war (Josh, xxii: 12; Judg. xxi: 12); and for annual solemn dances in which the women of Shiloh were conspicuous (Judg. xxi: 21). There the religion of Israel fell into gradual THE CARRYING AWAY INTO CAPTIVITY. (2 CHRON. XXXVII IQ-20). degradation and the conduct of the priests was sometimes shamelessly profligate. “The high places,” too, had a strange attraction for the people, and altars were set up in many parts of the country. Still the Tabernacle held its repute as the House of God and the Temple of God in distinction from all lesser sanctuaries (i Sam. i: 9, 24; iii: 3, 15). It was perhaps not a misfortune that, when the worship of Jehovah was degenerating into a condition little better than the idolatrous worship cl 298 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. the heathen, the Ark of God was taken in battle by the Philistines. It was eventually recovered, as we have seen in a former chapter, but it was not restored to the Tabernacle. For a time it was settled, under King Saul, at Nob, a city whose site has not been ascertained, but which has been plausibly supposed to be the northernmost crest of the ridge of Olivet, north of the Viri Galilaei, and east of Scopus. In some way the Tabernacle came to be set up at Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi: 39; 1 Kings iii: 4), and when Jerusalem was captured and a new Tabernacle was erected there, containing the Ark of the Covenant (2 Sam. vi: 17), the ancient Taber¬ nacle still continued to be the place of sacrifice, while the new was a place of worship in songs and psalms under the direction of Asaph (1 Chron. xvi: 4, 37, 39; xxi: 29). This divided worship continued throughout the reign of David, and the sanctity of both places was acknowledged by Solomon at his accession (1 Kings iii: 15; 2 Chron. i: 3). It was the great glory of the reign of Solomon that he was permitted to unite the sanctity and the ceremonies of the two tabernacles in the Temple of Jerusalem. On the summit of Mount Moriah a platform was cleared, and within an area corresponding with the outer court of the Tabernacle, a building was erected, of proportions closely resembling those of the Tabernacle, though the dimensions were much greater. The ground plan of the Temple measured eighty cubits by forty, and the height was thirty cubits, not a large building certainly, nor very imposing, if this were all that is known about it. But we are told (2 Chron. iii: 4) that the height perhaps only of the porch, was one hundred and twenty cubits, or one hundred and eighty feet, which is an enormous height for any building, and yet such a porch would be out of all proportion to a building of only forty-five feet high. But we are further told (2 Chron. iii: 9) that Solomon overlaid the upper chambers with gold, and elsewhere we read (2 Kings xxiii: 12) of altars on the top of the zipper chambers. It is evident, then, that above the lower temple there must have been a superstructure, and both Josephus and the Talmud make the same assertion, adding that the superstructure was of equal height with the lower building. Thus the height of the Temple as seen from without would be, not thirty, but sixty cubits, or ninety feet. Such an edifice with its facade of one hundred and eighty feet would be a noble and impressive piece of architecture. We ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 299 need not further detail its special features, since the Temple of Solomon was burned down by the army of Nebuchadnezzar at the time of the captivity (2 Chron. xxxvi: 19). The Temple of Zerubbabel, built after the captivity, was probably of the same length as the Temple of Solomon, and it was of the same height of sixty cubits, but it was wider by twenty cubits, having a width of sixty cubits (Ezra vi: 3). This Temple stood until the time of Herod, and was by him repaired and adorned, rather than rebuilt. Of the Temple of Herod, as it was properly called, we can learn nothing from the New Testament, but the Talmud and the writings of Josephus furnish us with all the information we require. Herod greatly enlarged the area within which the temple stood, so as to make it a great square of six hundred feet on each side. The Tem¬ ple area thus became the principal defence of the city on the east. On that side there were no gates or openings, and being situ¬ ated on a sort of rocky brow, it was at all subsequent times considered impregnable from the eastward. The north side, too, where not covered by the fortress Antonia, became partof the defenses of the city, and was likewise without gates. On the south side, which was enclosed by the wall of Ophel, there were double gates nearly in the center. On the west there were four gateways. In the time of Solomon, and until the area was enlarged by Herod, the ascent to the temple from the western valley seems to have been by an external flight of stairs (Neh. xii: 37; 1 Kings x: 5); but when the temple came to be fortified, a bridge and causeway were built over the Tyropeon Valley to connect the Temple area with the upper city of Zion. 'The Temple of Herod was similar, if not identical, in arrangement and dimensions, to that of Zerubbabel, but he surrounded the Temple Area with cloisters or porches which, from an architectural point of view, were 300 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. most magnificent. Before his time, it is probable that there was a porch, called Solomon’s porch, on the eastern side; but on the other three sides, Herod’s addition was exclusively his own. On the west, north and east sides, the cloisters were composed of double rows of Corinthian pillars, 25 cubits, or 37 feet in height, with flat roofs resting against the outer walls of the Temple Area. These, however, were incomparably inferior to the royal porch which overhung the southern wall. Outwardly, that is to say, on the southern side, this magnificent portico was closed by the wall; in¬ wardly, on the side nearest the Temple, it was open. From east to west it extended 600 feet, in three broad aisles, divided by rows of lofty col¬ umns, the middle aisle being 45 feet wide, and the other two aisles being 30 feet wide. To the porches surrounding the Temple Area, gentiles were admitted, but at a little distance within, was a marble fence or screen, four or five feet high, beautifully ornamented with carving, and bearing inscrip¬ tions in Greek and Latin, which forbade any gentile to pass within its boundaries. A short distance within this screen, was a flight of steps leading up to a platform or terrace, fifteen cubits above the level of the floor of the southern cloister. Still a little further within, a flight of five or six steps led up to the sacred inclosure of the Temple itself, which was called Chel; and the eastern part of this inner inclosure, was the Court of the Women, the dimensions of which are variously estimated. The glory of the inner courts of the Temple, was their gateways, and especially the eastern gate of the Court of the Women. It was strongly fortified, and richly ornamented with carving and gilding, and had apart¬ ments over it, so as to resemble the Gopura of an Indian temple, more than any other other architectural structure. This was in all probability “The Beautiful Gate” mentioned in the New Testament (Acts iii: 2). On the west of the Women’s Court, and on a still higher level, was the Court of Israel, and within that again was the Court of the Priests, sur¬ rounded with a portico, and having the Great Altar standing in the midst in front of the Temple. Within this last inclosure, west of the Great Altar of Burnt Offering, and on a level yet loftier, stood the Temple itself, of the same dimensions as that of Zerubbabel, but far more elaborately orna¬ mented. It was fronted on the east by a magnificent facade, behind ANCIENT JERUSALEM 301 which was the Holy Place, and at the extreme west was the Holy of Holies. It seems to be idle to attempt to ascertain with any exactness the details of this wonderful structure; but, whatever they may have been, “it may safely be asserted, that the triple Temple of Jerusalem — the Lower Court, standing on its magnificent terraces — the Inner Court, standing in the center of this — and the Temple itself rising out of this group and THE RETURN FROM CAPTIVITY. (EZRA 111:64,65.) crowning the whole — must have formed, when combined with the beauty of its situation, one of the most splendid architectural combinations of the ancient world.” To resume the history of Jerusalem: — Under Rehoboam, the hot-headed son of Solomon, not only was the kingdom of Israel separated from the kingdom of Judah, by a schism which was never healed, but Jerusalem itself was speedily desolated by the hand 302 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. of a foreign invader. In the year 973 B. C. Shishak, King of Egypt “came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the Lord’s House, and the treasures of the King’s House; he took all” (2 Chron. xii : 9>* In the reign of Amaziah, who rashly challenged Jehoash, King of Is¬ rael to battle, a great defeat of the southern kingdom was followed by the surrender of Jerusalem to the victorious Jehoash. The southern wall, to the extent of six hundred feet, was dismantled, in order to keep the city at the mercy of its powerful neighbor, and so Jehoash returned to Samaria with the plunder of Temple and palace, and with hostages from Amaziah (2 Kings xiv:8-i5). In the reign of Uzziah, the fortifications of the city had been restored, and were strengthened by towers (2 Chron. xxvi:9); Jotham “built much,” as we have already seen, on the wall of Ophel (2 Chron. xxvii:3); Hezekiah improved the water-supply by aqueducts from the upper pool of Gihon (2 Chron. xxxii: 30); Manasseh immensely increased the circuit of the walls. By these successive improvements, Je¬ rusalem was enabled to hold out against Nebuchadnezzar during a siege of eighteen months, at the end of which, it was captured and sacked. Most of the inhabitants were put to the sword without distinction of age or sex, and those who escaped from slaughter were carried captives to Baby¬ lon. The Temple was plundered and burnt, and the wall of the city was broken down (2 Kings xxv; 2 Chron. xxxvi; Jer. xxxix). The restoration of the Temple, by the original command of Cyrus the Great, is the subject of the first part of the Book of Ezra. It was be gun in 536 B. C., but was almost immediately suspended by order of Ar- taxerxes on account of the alleged rebellious character of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. At length, by a new decree of Darius, the work was resumed, and in the year 519 B. C., it was completed, to the great delight of the Jews (Ezra i : 7). The first six chapters of Nehemiah give an account of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in troublous times, and of its completion, B. C. 445. Thenceforward the Jews were loyal subjects of the Persian monarchs, and an apocryphal story is told to the effect that when Alexan¬ der the Great was advancing against the Persians, he went to Jerusalem with the intention of capturing it. On his approach, however, Jaddua, ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 303 who was High Priest at that time, went forth to meet the Macedonian, clad in the vestments of his office, and attended by a train of priests and Levites. In Jaddua, the story runs, Alexander recognized a figure which had appeared to him in a dream bidding him go forth and conquer; there¬ fore he at once saluted the High Priest, and left the city in peace. At the distribution of Alexander’s empire, among his generals, Judah was claimed by Ptolemy, who marched upon Jerusalem, and surprising the garrison by an attack on the Sabbath day, captured the city, B. C., 320. As usual, the Temple and the city were plundered, and Ptolemy carried many thousands of the inhabitants to his capital of Alexandria, where he granted them many privileges; and gave them a rank second only to that of his own Macedonians. In his subsequent wars with Syria, Jerusalem was sin¬ gularly spared, and in .302, B. C., its possession was confirmed to Egypt. Suo it remained in peaceful sub¬ jection to the Gre¬ cian kingdom of the Ptolemies for 100 years, and when wars broke out between Syria and Egypt, Jerusalem, for a time, escaped the horrors of war. In 21 1, B. C., however, Ptolemy Philopator was guilty of a sacrilege which he had cause to repent. He entered the sanctuary of the Temple, but there encountered a vision, before which he fled in terror. To his resentment of the fright which he then experienced, is attributed his subsequent barbarous treatment of the Jewish inhabitants of Alexandria. At length, the tide of war turned so that Jerusalem submitted to Anti- FAC-SIM ILE OF GREEK INSCRIPTION ON ONE OF THE OBELISKS EXISTING IN THE TIME OF OUR LORD, DISCOVERED BY M. GANNEAU. Translation: “No alien to pass within the balustrade around the Temple and the inclosure. Whoever shall be caught (so doing) must blame himself for the death that will follow.” 304 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. ochus, and for some time the city was treated with clemency and kindness by its Syrian ruler. On his accession to the throne, Seleucus was dis¬ posed to take a harsher course. He sent his treasurer to carry off the sacred vessels and treasures of the Temple; but, like Philapator, the un¬ happy treasurer encountered a vision in the Temple, before which he, too, fled, leaving his commission unperformed. Under Antiochus Epiphanes, a serious attempt was made to turn the Jews from their ancient religion to another which should be more in accordance with Gentile customs. Mene- laus, a semi-pagan priest, was appointed High Priest, and the work of re¬ formation was begun, with every prospect of success; but a report of the king’s death reaching Jerusalem, in the year 169, the people rose in a mass and drove Menelaus out of the city. This insurrection was severely pun¬ ished. Two years later, Jerusalem was plundered and dismantled, the Temple was again profaned, the sacrifices were discontinued, and the statue of Jupiter Olympius was set up in the Holy Place. These intolerable enormities- were the cause of the heroic struggle of the Maccabees. Gaining victory after victory over the Syrians, they were able, in four years, that is, in B. C., 163, to restore the Temple; but the cita¬ del of Zion was still held by the enemy, and was not finally surrendered for twenty-one years. The Maccabean princes fortified the Temple with a strength it had never before had, making their own residence in the tower of Baris, which was afterward called Antonia, and which stood at the northwest angle of the Temple area. For another hundred years Jerusalem remained undisturbed, until dis¬ sensions among the Maccabees brought Roman intervention. Then Pom- pey advanced upon it, took it, put 12,000 of the people to the sword in the courts of the Temple, and yet left the sacred vessels, and the treasures of the Temple, undisturbed, B. C. 63. The avaricious Crassus, twelve years later, was less cruel to the people, but plundered the Temple thor¬ oughly of all its treasures. In 43> B. C., began the golden age of Jerusalem, as a city of strength and splendor, since in that year began the Herodian improvements, under Antipater, father of Herod the Great. But internal discords led to an in¬ tervention of the Parthians, B. C. 40, and in 37 Herod, with the aid of the Romans, captured the city, after a gallant defence. The Jews held out to ANCIENT JERUSALEM 305 the uttermost, retiring from point to point, until the last defenders were subdued in the Tower of Baris. Herod immediately set about a complete re-fortification and embellishment of Jerusalem. The fortifications were greatly improved. Baris was re-built in greater strength than before, and was called Antonia. On the west of the city, south of the present Jaffa Gate, was built the citadel, with its three Towers of Hippicus, Phasaelus REBUILDING OF THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. (NEH. IV: l6). and Mariamne, of which (probably), the first remains under the name of the Tower of David. He erected a town hall, and, also, according to cus¬ tom, a theater. Near the citadel he had his own palace and his gardens. Needless to say that his greatest work of all, was the restoration of the Temple, as already described. Pliny writes of Jerusalem of that time, that it was “by far the most magnificent of the cities of the Orient, and not merely of Judea.” 3°6 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. After the death of Christ, Agrippa I. erected a wall, commonly called the Third Wall, which enclosed the whole of the northern suburb of Bezetha within the city. This wall is said to have been extremely strong, being built of huge stones, and being defended by no less than ninety towers. The strongest of these was Psephinus at the northwest angle; which is said to have been ioo feet in height. Agrippa did not complete his wall for fear of incurring the displeasure of the Emperor Claudius. It was finished by the Jews in a less substantial manner than that in which it had been begun. Its very course is now unknown. The time of ruin which Jesus foretold came on in A. D. 70, when Jerusalem was once again “compassed about with armies,” and after a siege the horrors of which have never been surpassed, it was utterly destroyed. The following brief but excellent account of the siege of Jerusalem is taken from Baedeker: — “Ever since the land had become a Roman province, a storm had begun to brood in the political atmosphere, for the Jews were quite as much swayed by national pride as the Romans. The country was more¬ over disquieted by roving marauders ( sicarii ), and several of the Roman governors were guilty of grave acts of oppression, as for instance, Gessius Florus, who appropriated the treasures of the Temple. At this time there were two antagonistic parties at Jerusalem: the fanatical zealots under Eleazer, who advocated revolt against the Romans, and a more moderate party under the High Priest Ananias. Florus, in his undiscriminating rage, having caused many unoffending Jews to be put to death, a fearful insurrection broke out in the city. Herod Agrippa II. and his sister Berenice endeavored to pacify the insurgents and to act as mediators, but were obliged to seek refuge in flight. The Zealots had already gained possession of the Temple precincts, and the Castle of Antonia was now also occupied by them. A wild struggle now ensued between the two Jewish parties, and the stronger faction of the Zealots succeeded in wresting the upper part of the city from their opponents, and even in capturing the Castle of Herod, which was garrisoned by 3,000 men. The victors treated the captive Romans and their own countrymen with equal barbarity. Cestius Gallus, an incompetent general, now besieged the city, ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 30/ but when he had almost achieved success, he gave up the siege and with¬ drew toward the north, to Gibeon. His camp was then attacked by the Jews and his army dispersed. This victory so elated the Jews that they imagined they could now entirely shake off the Roman yoke. The newly constituted council of Jerusalem, com¬ posed of Zealots, accordingly proceeded to organize an insurrection throughout the whole of Palestine. The Romans, however, now fully alive to the serious¬ ness of the danger, despatched their able general, Vespasian, with 60,000 men to Palestine. This army first quelled the insurrection in Galilee (A.D.67). Mean¬ while, the conflicts within J erusalem itself continued. Bands of robbers took pos¬ session of the Temple, and when be¬ sieged by Ananias, summoned to their aid the Idumeans (Edomites), the ancient hereditary enemies of the Jews. To these auxiliaries the gates were thrown open, and with their aid, the moderate party, with Ananias, its leader, was anni¬ hilated. The adherents of that party were proscribed, and no fewer than 12,000 persons of noble family are said to have perished on this occasion. The Zealots committed frightful excesses, and made common cause with the robbers, while the Idumeans, having sated them¬ selves with plunder, quitted Jerusalem. It was not until Vespasian had conquered a good part of Palestine, that he advanced upon Jerusalem; but events at Rome compelled him to entrust the continuation of the campaign to his son Titus. When the latter approached Jerusalem, there were no fewer than four parties within its walls. The Zealots, under John of Giscala, occupied the Castle of An- A STREET IN JERUSALEM. 3°8 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. tonia and the Court of the Gentiles, while the robber party, under Simon of Gerasa, held the upper part of the city; Eleazer’s party were in possession of the Court of Israel and the inner Temple; and lastly, the moderate party was also established in the upper part of the city. Titus marched from Egypt with two legions, each of about 6,000 men; three legions were already on the spot; and to these he added another legion and numerous auxiliaries. Thus, at the beginning of April, A.D. 70, six legions were as¬ sembled in the environs of Jerusalem. While reconnoitering the position of the place, Titus narrowly escaped being cut off from his army. He then posted the main body of his forces to the north and northwest of the city, while one legion occupied the Mount of Olives. The Jews attempted a sally against the latter, but were driven back by Titus, who hastened to its aid. In the course of the conflicts which still continued within the city, John of Giscala succeeded in driving Eleazer from the inner precincts of the Temple, but he was still opposed by the robber party under Simon. On April 23d, the besieging engines were brought up to the west wall of the new town (perhaps near the present Jaffa Gate). The Jews defended themselves bravely, but on the 7th of May, the Romans effected an en¬ trance into the new town. Five days later Titus endeavored to storm the second wall, but was repulsed. Three days afterward he succeeded in taking it, and then he caused the whole north side of the wall to be demolished. He now sent Josephus, who was in his camp, to summon the Jews to surrender, but in vain. A famine soon set in. and those of the besieged who endeavored to escape from it and from the barbarities of Simon, were crucified by the Romans. The besiegers next began to erect walls of attack, but the Jews partially succeeded in destroying them. Titus then caused the city wall, which was 33 stadia in length, to be surrounded by a wall of 39 stadia in length. Thus the city was completely surrounded; the severity of the famine was greatly aggravated; and the bodies of the dead were thrown over the wall of the besieged. Again the battering rams were brought into requisition, and at length, on the night of July 5th, the castle was stormed. A fierce contest took place around the gates of the Temple, which the Jews continued to hold with the utmost tenacity. By degrees the colonnades of the Temple were burned down; yet every foot was stub- ANCIENT JERUSALEM 309 bornly contested. At last, on the 10th of August, a Roman soldier, con¬ trary, it is said, to the command of Titus, cast a firebrand into the Tem¬ ple; the sacred edifice was burned to the ground; and those who escaped the flames were cut down by the swords of the Romans. A body of Zealots, however, contrived to force their way to the upper part of the city. While the lower part of the city was actually in flames, negotiations BUILDING OF THE SECOND TEMPLE. (EZRA III.) were again opened for a surrender, but in vain. The upper part resisted stubbornly, and it was not until the 7th of September that it was burned down. Jerusalem was now a heap of ruins. Those of the surviving citi¬ zens who had fought against the Romans were put to death, the rest were sold as slaves. On his return to Rome Titus celebrated a magnificent triumph together with his father Vespasian, and John of Giscala was led as captive in the triumphal show. The noble arch of Titus at Rome was 310 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. erected to commemorate this victory, which forever destroyed the political importance of Jerusalem. Thus the City of David, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, and Herod, was reduced to utter ruin. The inhabitants were literally extirpated. The whole wall, except on the western side, was demolished. Only three of all the towers were left standing. To prevent the re-occupation of the place by Jews, Caesar’s famous Tenth Legion was alone left as a garrison over the ruins. So it remained, peaceful with the peace of the desert, until A. D. 1 3 1, when Hadrian ordered it to be rebuilt. Simultaneously occurred the great rebellion of the pretended Messiah, Bar-Cochebas, which was utterly suppressed in 135. From that year some historians have thought we ought to date the final dispersion of the Jews from their own land, so ruthlessly unsparing was the hand which drove them out. In Jerusalem a Roman colony was established, and within its limits no Jew was allowed to enter. On Mount Moriah a Temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected, and the new city was called Aelia Capitolina, a name which it continued to bear for centuries. It was so called even by a Christian Council held in 536, and so even Mahommedans called it until after the Crusades, when they gave it the name of El Khuds , or the Holy. In less than two hundred years from the foundation of the new city of Aelia Capitolina on the site of ancient Jerusalem, the Roman Empire had become Christian, and m3 2 6 the Empress Helena, mother of Constan¬ tine, visited, in her eightieth year, the holy places of the Christian religion. So extensive were her works of piety in the building of churches and con- vents, that when the origin of any building, that can be at all referred to that time is unknown, the monkish historians invariably fall back upon the Empress Helena as its foundress. Nine years after the visit of Helena, the Emperor Constantine founded the Church of the Holy Sepul¬ cher on the site of a Temple of Venus, which tradition pointed out as the place of Christ’s burial. There, too, was discovered the True Cross. Three crosses were found at the same spot, two of which were at once understood to be those of the thieves who were crucified with our Lord. To distin¬ guish the True Cross of Christ from the crosses of the thieves was perfectly simple. A number of sick people were brought to the place, and made to touch the three crosses successively. In every instance it was found that, I'lmiimiift imi'iiiiimi DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY ROMANS 31 I 3 12 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. when they touched two of the three crosses, they remained unrelieved, but that when they touched the third, they were forthwith healed of whatso¬ ever disease they had. The conclusion was irresistible, that the healing cross was indeed, the Cross of Christ. Naturally, many persons wished to have a fragment of the wood of the True Cross, and the wish was granted to such an extent, that the wood thus given away must have been many times as great as the original quantity contained in the cross itself. This, however, was easily explained by the patriarch of Jerusalem, who affirmed, that the wood of the True Cross was like that of the burning bush, and was riot at all diminished by the fragments which were taken from it. Like the widow’s barrel of meal, it was not wasted, but day by was found to be of the same proportions as it was when first it was dis¬ covered. The apostate Emperor Julian repealed the law which prohibited the Jews from entering Jerusalem, and rather to spite the Christians than to gratify the Jews, he gave orders for the Temple to be rebuilt. The work was accordingly begun, but by the death of Julian in 362, it came to an abrupt conclusion, and again the Jews were excluded from the city of their fathers. Throughout the fifth century and for centuries afterward, Jerusa¬ lem was thronged by a never ceasing stream of pilgrims from all parts of the Christian world, and the Bishop of Jerusalem, or rather of Aelia Capi- olina, for so he was called, was promoted to the ecclesiastical rank of a Patriarch of equal degree with the Patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople and Antioch. In 527 Justinian built a magnificent Church of the Virgin on Mount Moriah, and many convents and hospices for the entertainment of pilgrims to the Holy City. In 614, a great disaster befell. The Persians defeated the forces of the Emperor Heraclius, and took possession of Jerusalem. There was a merciless slaughter of the inhabitants, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to¬ gether with the notables of the city and the True Cross, were carried off. The next year, however, peace was made by the contending parties; the prisoners were released, and the Emperor Heraclius himself insisted on bearing back the Cross on his own shoulders to the place whence it had been taken. In 636 the Khalif Omar attacked Jerusalem, and after a stubborn re- ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 313 sistance, it surrendered in the following year. The cross fell before the crescent, and the beautiful Church of Justinian was converted into the Mosque of Omar which still crowns the Holy Mount of Moriah. During the following centuries the Christian pilgrims who thronged the Holy Places, which were now in possession of the infidels, were subjected to continual insults and to the degrading payment of a poll-tax of so much per head. The indignation through- out all Christendom smouldered for ages until the time came for it to break out in the romantic episode of the Crusades. In 960 the sovereignty of the Holy Land was trans¬ ferred from the Khalifs of Bagdad to the Fatim- ite Khalifs of Egypt; but in 1073, the Turkomans, having seized the eastern Khalifate, took possess¬ ion of the Holy Land likewise. The cruelties of these barbarians to Christian pilgrims ex¬ ceeded all bounds, and the first Crusade began; but before Godfrey de Bouillon appeared before the walls of Jerusalem, the Egyptian Khalifs had resumed possession. It was with them, there¬ fore, that Godfrey had to contend. The siege lasted forty days, and on the 15th of July, 1099, the Christians entered Jerusalem. Their conduct was little worthy of the followers of Jesus Christ, for they put to the sword all the inhabitants of the city, sparing neither old men, women nor infants at the breast. Godfrey was elected King of Jerusalem. The Mosque of Omar was again turned into a Christian church, and was made the Cathedral of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Thenceforward, for 88 years, the Holy City was, in name, at least, a Christian city. TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF TITUS AT ROME. 314 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. In 1 187 the great Saladin recaptured Jerusalem from the Christians. In 1192 he was threatened with a siege by the English Richard Cceur de Lion, and Saladin fortified it strongly; but in 1219 it was wholly disman¬ tled by Sultan Melek el Moaddin of Damascus. In 1229 it was delivered to the Emperor, Frederick II., on condition that it should not again be fortified. Ten years later, however, fortifications were begun, contrary to the stipulation; and this breach of good faith was severely punished. The Emir David, of Kerek, advanced upon it and seized it, cast down the works which had already been erected, and strangled the inhabitants. In 1243 it was again surrendered, this time unconditionally, to the Christians, and the fortifications were again resumed, but only to fall shortly into Moslem hands. At length, after so many vicissitudes, Jerusalem came under the dominion of the Turkish sovereign, Selim I., and the present fortifications are the work of Suleyman, the Magnificent. According to an inscription which appears over the Jaffa Gate, they were erected in 1542. From that time almost without intermission, Jerusalem has remained under Turkish rule. In 1832 it fell, without a siege, into the hand of Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt. Two years later, an insurrection broke out, and the city was seized by the insurgents, but on the approach of Ibrahim Pasha the gates were thrown open and the insurrection was speedily put down. In 1841 Mehemet Ali was deprived of his Syrian do¬ minions by command of the Great Powers of Europe, and Jerusalem re¬ verted to the Turks, in whose possession it still remains. CHAPTER X. ANCIENT JERUSALEM— THE WALLS, TOWERS, GATES AND WATER- SUPPLY. The Walls of Ancient Jerusalem — Impossible to be Traced — Question of the North Wall as Affecting the Place of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection— The Towers — Antonia Described by Jose¬ phus — Hippicus and Phasaelus — The so-called Tower of David — Gates — The Fountain Gate — The Dung Gate — The Gate of the Valley — Water Supply— Solomon’s Pools — High Level Aque¬ duct — Upper Pool of Gihon — Lower Pool of Gihon — Pool of Siloam — Northern Pool — Spring of the Virgin — Job’s Well— Pools within the City — Pool of Hezekiah — Bethesda — Uncertainties of the Topography of Jerusalem. 'HE rapid sketch of the history, given in the previous chapter, of Jerusalem has been purposely inserted before any attempt to give an account' of the ancient walls of Jerusalem, because, after so many destructions and rebuildings, the reader will perceive how impossible it must be to speak of that subject with any confidence. In fact, the highest and best informed authorities differ from each other in the most important particulars. It is altogether beyond our pur¬ pose to investigate the antiquarian questions involved in that discussion. In general terms, then, we may be content to say, that the first wall included the Upper City of Zion, and probably extended much to the south of the present wall, which leaves a large part of the hill outside of the modern city. That it ex¬ tended on the east along the border of the deep Tyropeon ravine, may also be assumed as certain. Its course on the west probably coincided with the present wall. Of its north¬ ern line, we have already, in the preceding chapter, smd all that need be said. Of the later fortifications nothing what- 3*5 316 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. ever is certain, except that the second wall included at least the Acra or Lower City, and the Temple Area, and probably the lower ridge of Ophel. Concerning the northern line of the second wall, the controversy is espec¬ ially bitter, because it involves the correctness of the traditional site of the sepulcher of our Saviour. We know that He was crucified outside the wall of the city, and that He was laid in a new tomb near by, which was also, of course, outside the wall. But the traditional site is within the present wall; in fact, it is in the heart of the town. The question, therefore, is whether the wall, at the time of Christ, did or did not, include that spot within the city. Roman Catholics and Oriental Christians think it did not; but the weight of evidence and argument is in favor of the belief, that the wall, at that time, did include the spot, and there, fore, that it cannot be the true place of our Saviour’s death, burial and resurrection. The third wall of Agrippa took in also, not only the hill of Bezetha, but a large space further north, and lying, of course, north of the second wall. Its precise course cannot now be accurately traced. Of the towers of Jerusalem we know little more than of the walls. Only two can be identified with reasonable certainty. At the extreme west of the north wall of the Temple area, and, of course, without the area, was a tower originally called Baris. It was the part, of all the defenses of the city, which held out longest against Herod and the Romans, B. C. 37. Herod re-fortified it, and, to prevent attack from the direction of Bezetha, Josephus says that he deepened the valley between the Temple Mount and the New City. The new fort was called Antonia , and it is thus described by Josephus: “Now as to the Tower of Antonia; it was situated at the corner of two cloisters of the court of the Temple, that on the west and that on the north. It was erected upon a rock of fifty cubits in height, and was on a great precipice. It was the work of Herod, wherein he demonstrated his natural magnanimity. In the first place, the rock itself was covered over with smooth pieces of stone, from the foundation upward, and that not only for ornament, but that, if any one should try to scale it he might find no resting-place for his feet. Next to this, and before you came to the Tower itself, was a wall three cubits high; and within that wall all the space of the Tower of Antonia itself was built upon to the height of forty cubits. The inward parts had the extent and. ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 3IF form of a palace, being divided into rooms with all kinds of conveniences, such as courts and places for bathing. By its magnificence, it seemed to be a palace; but its entire structure was that of a tower, and it had four distinct towers at its four corners. Three of these were titty cubits high, but that at the southeast corner was seventy cubits high, and from thence the whole Temple might be viewed. Where Antonia joined with the clois¬ ters of the Temple, there were passages leading to both, so that the soldiers CITADEL OF JERUSALEM. of the Roman legion, which always occupied Antonia, as a guard, could enter the cloisters and prevent any disorder among the people.” On the site of Antonia now stands the Turkish Infantry Barracks. Just below the Jaffa Gate is the Citadel of Jerusalem. It is an irregu¬ lar group of five square towers, originally surrounded by a moat, part of which is still preserved. The substructure of the masonry consists of large blocks of stone, some of which are ten feet in length, and rises to a height 313 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. of 39 feet from the bottom of the moat. The position of the citadel cor¬ responds with that of the Tower of Hippicus (and Phasaelus), as described by Josephus, and one of its towers was early called, by the Crusaders, the Tower of David. It was probably built by Herod, whose palaces and gardens were to the south of it; and, at the destruction of Jerusalem, by Titus, this tower alone may have been left standing as a fortress for the Tenth Legion, which was left at the ruins. The Tower of David is thus described by Col. Wilson: “The Tower of David appears to be the oldest portion of the citadel, and its dimensions and mode of construction agree well with those of the Tower Phasaelus, as described by Josephus. The substructure consists of a solid masonry escarp, rising from the bottom of the ditch, at an angle of about forty-five degrees, with a pathway round the top. Above this the tower rises in a solid mass, for a height of 29 feet, and then comes the superstructure. The escarp retains to some extent its original appearance, but time and hard treatment have worn away much of the finer work, and the repairs have been executed in the usual slovenly manner of the Turks. The old work, where it can be seen, is equal, if not superior to the best specimens of masonry in the far-famed Temple Plat¬ form ; the faces of the stones are dressed with an astonishing degree of fine¬ ness, and the whole, when perfect, must have presented a smooth surface difficult to escalade, and from the solidity of the mass, unassailable to the battering-ram. The superstructure contains several chambers and a cis¬ tern for the collection of rain-water. In one of the rooms a mihrab marks the place where, according to Moslem tradition, David composed the Psalms, and another chamber is pointed out as the reception room of the same king. The Tower of David was the last place to hold out when Jeru¬ salem was captured by the Crusaders; and when the city walls were de¬ stroyed by the Moslems in the thirteenth century, it was for some reason — probably its solidity — spared, to come down to our time as a fine ex¬ ample of mural masonry of the Jews.” It is interesting to know that on the land once occupied by the palace and gardens of Herod on the east and southeast of the Tower of Hippicus here now stands an hospital, an English church and parsonage, a school, and the residence of an English bishop. Since it is impossible to trace the course of the walls of Jerusalem, it POOL OF HEZEKIAH — ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 321 must be equally impossible to locate the twenty-three gates which are mentioned in Holy Scripture. In his account of the rebuilding Nehemiah names no less than nine gates in their order, and mentions two more afterward. The Fountain Gate was doubtless on the south, near the Pool of Siloam. The Gate of the Valley, before the Dragon Well (Neh. ii: 13) m was opposite the Pool of Gihon at the northwest end of Zion, “probably,” says Dr. Tristram, “a little north of the present Jaffa Gate.” The Dung Gate is placed by tradition at the southeast of the City of David. A more interesting subject is that of the water supply of Jerusalem, the importance of which to a city which was destined to undergo so many protracted sieges, cannot be over-estimated. The care taken to provide an unfailing supply was very great, and it is to the explorations made in investigating this part of the topography of the city that the old Jerusalem of David and Solomon has been laid bare to modern research. We may here in the main safely follow the account of Dr. Tristram. The Roman historian, Tacitus, speaks of Jerusalem as a fountain of never-failing waters, and as mountains hollowed beneath the surface into cisterns. That description is correct. The supply of water was three¬ fold: from springs, tanks and aqueducts. The chief reservoirs were under Mount Moriah, into which, to this day, the lower of the three aque¬ ducts from Solomon’s Pools still conveys a never-failing stream. They are estimated to have had a united capacity of 10,000,000 gallons, and one of them singly must have contained 2,000,000 gallons. But before proceed¬ ing further, we must look at these famous pools. About four miles to the southwest of Bethlehem is Burak , otherwise called Solomon’s Pools. Near by is a castle, or rather a large square building with corner towers, and dating in its present form from the seventeenth century. It was erected for protection against the Arabs, and is still garrisoned by a few Turkish soldiers. Less than two hundred paces to the west of the castle is a small door which leads to the Sealed Spring to which reference is made, perhaps, in Cant, iv: 12, where the bridegroom says of the bride: “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” This spring is doubly enclosed and sealed with solid rock. Through the door in the hillside we enter a vaulted chamber, and to the right of it is a smaller chamber, at the end of 322 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. which the spring bubbles forth. The beautifully clear water is collected in a basin from which it is conducted by a channel to the first of the “pools.” The pools are situated in a small valley lying at the back of the castle; and sloping toward the east. The first and highest of them is bounded on the west side by the road which leads from Jerusalem to Hebron. This pool is 127 yards long; at the upper or west end it is 76 yards wide; at the lower end it is 79 yards wide. The second pool is 53 yards east of the first, and is about 19 feet lower. It is 141 yards long, by 53 yards wide at the upper end, and 83 yards at the lower end. The third pool is 52 yards east of the middle pool, and its level is 19 feet lower. Its length is 194 yards, by 49 yards wide at the upper end, and 69 yards at the lower. The depth of the upper pool is 25 feet; of the middle pool, 39 feet; of the lower pool, 50 feet. It will be seen from the measurements, that the lower pool is large enough to float the largest ship now in existence on the ocean. All three are mainly hewn out of the solid rock, though they are partly lined with masonry, and the inner walls are supported by buttresses. The lowest pool was always emptied first, and was filled again from the middle pool, which, in like manner, was filled from the upper. They were fed from the sealed fountain and several other springs in the neighborhood, the water from which, together with the surface water, was carefully con¬ ducted to the pools. From these pools a bountiful supply was furnished by means of pipes and aqueducts to Bethlehem and Hebron as well as Jerusa¬ lem. To Jerusalem it was conducted by solidly built aqueducts at three dif¬ ferent levels, the lowest of which was so completely concealed from detec¬ tion that if the highest, or even the second, was discovered and cut off by an invading enemy, the third would still secure an ample supply. To this day the water flows in the lower aqueducts, and reaches Jerusalem under the Mosque of Omar, flowing into the same reservoirs, now much out of repair, which existed under the Temple. Whether these pools and the aqueducts which connect them with Jerusalem, were really the work of King Solomon, is a matter of dispute. Strange to say, they are attributed to Pontius Pilate. It is beyond dispute that Pilate brought upon himself the execrations of the Jews by taking from the Temple Treasury the money required for the building, or, at least, the repair and renewal of extensive ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 323 water-works for the city; but it seems to be incredible that he should have excavated those pools themselves without some mention being made of so immense a work. Prior to the time of Christ, there is no person¬ age in Jewish history to whom the construction of the pools can be as¬ cribed with so much inherent probability, as the great King Solomon. The rabbis of the Mishna are explicit in declaring that he made gardens at Etham, which is near by the pools, and conveyed the waters thence to Jerusalem; and the writer of Ecclesiastes probably alludes to the same fact in these words: “I made me gardens and orchards, and T planted trees of all kinds of fruits; I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees” (Eccl. ii: 5, 6). Perhaps the “high-level” aque- dect which brought water at so high a level as to deliver it to the lofty streets of Mount Zion was as great a work as the pools and aqueducts of Sol¬ omon. “South of Solomon’s Pools,’’ says Dr. Geikie, “in a glen called Wady Byar, a flight of rockhewn steps leads down to a chamber sixty feet below the ground at its upper end, and seventy at its lower. From this a tunnel, from five to twenty-five feet high, stretches up the valley? away from Jerusalem, ending at a natural cleft in the rocks from which water freely comes. From the lower end, a similar tunnel runs for nearly five miles through hard lime¬ stone, reaching day, at last, on the under side of a great dam of masonry which crosses the whole valley. Shafts, sixty to seventy feet deep, have been sunk in the rock, in the course of this long excavation, to facilitate the work; the dam being intended, as it seems, to keep back the surface water till it soaked down to the channel opened for it beneath. About three furlongs below the dam, the channel which, for this space, runs above TOWER OF HIPPICUS. 324 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. ground, enters another tunnel a third of a mile in length, and a hundred and fifteen feet beneath the surface, and in some parts fourteen feet high. A masonry channel then winds round the hill, and, sinking below the ground again, crosses the valley, at the head of which lie the pools of Solo¬ mon, and running along the side of the Valley of Urtas till it flowed an¬ ciently into a great tank near Jerusalem. From this the water was carried by means of an inverted siphon two miles long, over the valley in which is Rachel’s Tomb. This part of the work is alone an extraordinary illustra¬ tion of the skill of the ancient engineers who contrived it. The tube for the water is fifteen inches in diameter, the joints, which seem to have been ground or turned, being connected by an exceedingly hard cement, and set on a frame of blocks of stone bedded in the rubble masonry all round to a thickness of three feet. Unfortunately we cannot trace the last sec¬ tion, which has been so completely destroyed that it is not known where the aqueduct finally entered Jerusalem. One fact, however, and that an astonishing one, has been discovered, namely, that it delivered water at a point twenty feet higher than the sill of the Joppa Gate, for it seems be¬ yond question to have been the source from which the bronze statues in Herod’s palace gardens, spoken of by Josephus, as pouring water into the fountains, obtained their supply; and the palace stood on the top of Mount Zion. The glory of this great aqueduct seems to have been due to the genius of Herod, and, it must therefore, in the days of our Lord, have been one of the recent wonders of his reign. Or was it, in part, at least, due to Pontius Pilate? though his aqueduct may more probably have been on an even greater scale, traces of which have recently been discovered, and by which water was brought from Hebron.” The following pools or reservoirs still exist at Jerusalem : the Birket Mamilla , the Birket es Sultan, the Birket Sitti Mariam, the Pool of Silo- am, and a pool near the Tombs of the Kings; these are without the walls. Within the walls there are also the Pool of Hezekiah and the Pool of Bethesda. The Birket Mamilla, commonly called the Upper Pool of Gihon is situated near the Jaffa Gate, a little to the south of the road from Jaffa. If the Birket Mamilla is indeed the Upper Pool of Gihon, then it is the scene of the anointing of King Solomon, as we read in i Kings i 138-39, ANCIENT JERUSALEM. that “Zadoc, the priest, and Nathan, the prophet, caused Solomon to ride upon King David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. And Zadoc, the priest, took an horn of oil out of the Tabernacle and anointed Solomon.” At a later time the prophet Isaiah went forth to meet Ahaz “at the end of TOWER OF DAVID. the conduit of the Upper Pool in the highway of the fuller’s field (Isa. vii: 3); and it was at the same place that Rabshakeh stood when he delivered the insulting message of his master, the King of Assyria (2 Kings xviii: 17). We read also that King Hezekiah “stopped the upper water-course (that is, the outflow of the water) of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the 326 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. west side of the City of David” (2 Chron. xxxii: 30). The Birket Mamilla is undoubtedly the Serpent Pool mentioned by Josephus, a name which he may have derived from the Dragon Well of Jeremiah, which seems to have been on the west side of Jerusalem, and was probably the same (Neh. ii: 13). The Birket Mamilla is three hundred and fifteen feet long by two hundred and eight feet wide, and its average depth is nineteen feet. Its estimated capacity is 8,000,000 gallons; but there is a large accumulation of rubbish at the bottom, so that its actual capacity is considerably less. It collects the surface drainage of the upper part of the Valley of Hinnom, and is not as well situated as it might be for that purpose, but the actual situation was necessary in order to obtain a level sufficiently high to send water to the Pool of Hezekiah and to the Citadel. It is now entirely sur¬ rounded by a Mahometan cemetery. The Birket es Sultan , or the Sultan s Pool , is also called the Lower Pool of Gihon, It lies lower down the Valley of Hinnom, so low, indeed, that its water could only be serviceable for purposes of irrigation. Its capacity was much greater than that of the Upper Pool, amounting to 19,000,000 gallons. It was formed by throwing a dam or causeway across the valley, and closing the upper end by a slight embankment; the sides being formed by the natural rock. Isaiah mentions this reservoir, saying, “Ye gathered together the waters of the Lower Pool” (Isa. xxii:9). Imme¬ diately above this pool the aqueduct from Solomon’s Pools crosses the Valley of Hinnom, and a road which is probably ancient, passes over the causeway. The Lower Pool of Gihon is now dry. The Pools, or more properly, the Pool of Siloam, is situated below the end of Ophel, at the junction of the Tyropeon Valley with the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The Upper Pool is probably the Shiloah mentioned by the prophet Isaiah (viii : 6), whose waters “went softly,” that is, secretly, by a covered or hidden way, and were refused by the people. Nehemiah records that “the wall of the Pool of Shiloah, by the King’s garden,” was built (or rebuilt) by Shallum (Neh. iii: 15). There is little doubt that the pool thus described is the same which still bears the same name; and there is no doubt whatever that it is the very pool to which our Savior sent the man who had been born blind to wash and recover his sight (John iv : 7— 1 1 ). ANCIENT JERUSALEM 327 The tradition is unbroken and consistent. Siloam is frequently mentioned by Josephus, by the Christian Fathers and by a long line of travelers. At one time a Christian church was built over the pool, but it has gone so completely to ruin that only the rubbish remains. The appearance of Siloam is in no way attractive. The crumbling walls and fallen columns LOWER POOL OF GIHON. give it an appearance of desolation which Dr. Thomson says is extreme, even in that land of ruins. The descent to the pool is as rough as to the bottom of a quarry. The basin is a parallelogram 53 feet long by 18 wide, and its original depth must have been about twenty feet. The water of this pool is derived from the Spring of the Virgin, which is about 1,700 feet further up the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and is brought down to Siloam through a tunnel or underground aqueduct which will presently be described. St. Jerome was the first to give an account of the irregular flow of its 328 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. waters, which corresponds to some extent with a similar irregularity in the flow of the spring from which they come. A little to the east of the main pool is a lesser basin, now completely dry, into which the water of the upper pool formerly flowed. Near it grows an ancient mulberry tree sup¬ ported by props of stone; and this is said to be the place where the prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder in the presence of King Manasseh, The streamlet from the upper pool flows past the lower, and loses itself in the garden below. “We are quite certain,” says Dr. Tristram, “that the spot is the same as that of the ancient Shiloh and the Pool of Siloam. The name has come down to us unchanged in the langauge of the country. An old traveler, four hundred years ago, describes this bath as surrounded by walls and buttresses like a cloister, and the arches supported by marble pillars, the remains of which have been mentioned. But this is now gone. The present pool is a ruin with no moss or ivy to make it romantic; its sides falling in; its pillars broken; its stairs a fragment; its walls giving way; the edge of every stone worn round or sharp by time; in some parts mere debris ; once Siloam, now, like the city which overhung it, a heap; though around its edges wild flowers, and, among other plants, the caper- tree, grow luxuriantly.” Besides the caper, or hyssop of Scripture — the plant which brightens many an otherwise arid spot and hangs in dark green tufts from the walls of Jerusalem — the sides of the inner pool are almost clothed with the fronds of the maidenhair fern, that most beautiful ornament of every well and pool in Palestine. To the left of the main road leading northward from Jerusalem, and a little beyond the Tombs of the Kings, are the remains of another exten¬ sive pool, now nearly filled with soil washed down by the rains. It is admirably situated for collecting the surface drainage of the upper branches of the Kedron Valley, and may probably have been in ancient times the largest of all the pools in the neighborhood. Its history is unknown, and the conduit by which its water was conveyed to the city has never been discovered. On the eastern side of Ophel, fronting the Mount of Offence, and directly south of the Haram enclosure, is Ain Sitti Mariam, the Spring of the Virgin, which must not be confounded with Birket Sitti Mariam, Solomon’s pools. \ ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 33i a small pool of the same name outside and a little to the north of St. Stephen’s Gate. The source of the spring is believed to be beneath the Temple vaults, whence the stream of living water is conducted by a peculiar outlet or channel to Ain Sitti Mariam. The flow of the Virgin’s Spring is intermittent. When Dr. Robinson and his companion Dr. Smith were exploring there Dr. Smith “was standing on the lower step near the water with one foot on the step and the other on a loose stone lying in the basin. All at once he perceived the water coming into his shoe, and supposing the stone had rolled, he withdrew his foot to the step, which, however, was also now covered with water,” “This” says Dr. Robinson, “instantly excited our curiosity, and we now per¬ ceived the water rapidly bubbling up from under the lower step. In less than five minutes it had risen in the basin nearly or quite a foot, and we could hear it gurgling off through the interior passage. In ten minutes more it had ceased to flow, and the water in the basin was reduced to its former level. Thrusting my staff in under the lower step whence the water appeared to come, I found that there was a large hollow space, but a further examination could not be made without removing the steps.” The intermittent and remittent flow of springs is readily accounted for by the Arabs, who attribute it to the agency of genie or demons. A foun¬ tain which is haunted by one of these superhuman creatures, they say, flows peacefully so long as he sleeps, but as soon as he awakes, it stops. Dr. Robinson compares this account of the irregular flow of Ain Sitti Mariam with the account given of the angel who “went down, at a certain season, into the pool (of Bethesda) and troubled the water” (John v: 4); and for various 'reasons he thinks it worth while to consider whether Ain Sitti Mariam may not be the true Pool of Bethesda, instead of the pool which now goes by that name. He himself has no further opinion on the subject; and the general opinion seems to be that the question is not deserving of serious consideration. The intermissions in the flow of the water of Ain Sitti Mariam are not entirely capricious, but have a certain regularity. In the rainy season, the water flows from three to five times daily ; in summer, twice; in autumn, only once. This is explained as follows: In the rock from which the flow comes, there is supposed to be a deep natural reservoir, fed by numerous rivulets, 332 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. or springs, and having only a narrow outlet, which begins a little above the bottom of the reservoir, and then rises to a higher point before descending to the Virgin’s Spring. As soon as the water in the reservoir has risen to the height of the bend in the outlet, it will, of course, begin to flow through it, and it will continue to flow, on the siphon principle, until it has sunk in the reservoir to the point where the outlet begins. The demon in the case is a well-known law of nature. There is reason to believe. that the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem were able to cut off the outlet from the inner source of the spring, and that in time of war they were thus enabled, at once, to deprive besiegers of the use of the fountains without the walls. The overflow of Ain Sitti Mariam passes to the Pool of Siloam, through an underground tunnel, which several travelers have actually explored, notably Dr. Robinson, Dr. Smith, Captain Warren and Herr Tobler. The passage is of rude construction, and of varying height. At the Siloam end, it is sixteen feet high, and, midway between the openings, it sinks to only two feet high; but, as the bottom is covered with a calcareous silt, two feet thick, and so hardened at the top as to support a man’s weight, the passage, as it was made, must have been a minimum height of four feet. Curiously enough, the tunnel is not straight, but has several windings, and a number of small chambers where the workmen, finding that they were going in a wrong direction, must have turned back and resumed their work from a different point. In 1880, a discovery was made about 20 feet above the exit of the water into the pool, of an inscription, in archaic Hebrew, re¬ cording the completion of the tunnel. This inscription, which is almost perfect, has been thus translated by Professor Sayce: “Behold the exca¬ vation! Now, this has been the history of the excavation: While the workmen were still lifting up the axe, each toward his neighbor, and while three cubits still remained to be cut through, each heard the voice of the other, who called to his neighbor, since there was an excess in the rock on the right hand, and on the left; and on the day of the excavation the workmen struck, each to meet his neighbor, axe against axe, and then flowed the waters from the spring to the pool for 1,200 cubits, and .... of a cubit was the height of the rock over the heads of the workmen.” In this inscription no names are given, nor any other data bearing directly on the date of the work, which can, therefore, be only approximately judged ANCIENT JERUSALEM. from the form of the Hebrew characters. These are of the most ancient form. They cannot be later than the time of Hezekiah, and they may date from the age of Solomon. They furnish a specimen of the most ancient Hebrew writing, in the general form of the Phoenician alphabet, known to learned men from the Moabite Stone and a few legends on seals. But the form of this alphabet is even older than that of the Moabite Stone, and so, POOL OF SILOAM. Dr. Tristram refers the inscription to a period probably as early as that of Solomon. The Arabs call the Virgin’s Spring Ain Umm ed Derej, or the Eoun- tain of Steps, for the reason that, in order to reach it, one must descend a flight of twenty-seven steps, each of which is ten inches high, and the de¬ cline is steep. The water is not palatable; Dr. Robinson says it is, at once, 334 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. sweet and brackish, but the peculiar taste is less pronounced when the flow of water is full. It is likely that the taste is partly due to drainage water, which flows into the inner source, and there mingles with the water of the spring. Besides, the inhabitants of the village of Silwan, or Siloam, who dwell on the opposite side of the narrow valley, at the foot of the Mount of Offence, seem to be at pains to pollute the spring. When Captain War¬ ren was passing through the tunnel, he found bits of cabbags stalks floating by him, and, in fact, he says, “the Virgin’s Fount is used as a sort of scullery for the Silwan village, the refuse thrown there being carried off down the passage each time the water rises.” Of the water, Dr. Thomson says: “I never liked it, either in summer or in winter, always thinking that its smell was suggestive of the bath. I have little doubt that it is mingled with the water used for Moslem ablutions and bathings, in the Mosques of Omar and El Aksa, directly above the fountain. Besides, I have rarely visited it without finding women from the village of Kefr Silwan standing in it, and sometimes washing clothes upon its lower steps, as they do at the Pool of Siloam. Altogether it is a deplorable place; but, although the inhabitants of Silwan depend entirely upon it, the inhabitants (of Jerusalem do not make much use of it.” If Milton had known more of the topography of the Holy City, as it now is, he might have hesitated to speak so poetically of the subterranean stream from Ain Sitti Mariam as “The brook that flowed Fast by the Oracle of God.” But it was not always what it is now. There was a time when not only the abundance, but the purity of the water of Jerusalem was carefully attended to, and then such pollutions as are now witnessed were unknown. This very tunnel is, perhaps, more than once referred to by the sweet sing¬ ers of Israel. “There is a (perennial) river” sings the Psalmist, “the streams (or flowings) whereof, make glad the City of God, the Holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Most High.” “All my springs are in thee,” says another ode. At the Feast of Tabernacles, a golden vessel was filled at the Pool of Siloam, and was carried up to the Temple; and the rabbis say, that “He who has not seen the joy of the water-drawing has never seen joy in his life,” so great was the rejoicing at the time of this simple JERUSALEM. SHEWING THE VARIOUS THEORIES AS TO THE WALLS> | st OR OLD WA LI _ — — — — . 2".° WALL - - - - 3SP ACRIPPA’S WALL . . □ 90 CALLED TOMBS OF. the KINGS 336 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. ceremony. Isaiah doubtless alludes to it, when he says, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Just below the junction of the Hinnom and Kedron Valleys, and six hundred yards below the Pool of Siloam, is a well called Bir Eyoub, or Job’s Well, but how the name can have originated is hard to guess, since it has no connection, whatever, with the patriarch Job. The shaft of the well is sunk for 125 feet through the solid rock, and Sir C. Warren has discovered a hidden channel underground, by which water was brought to Job’s Well from the Pool of Siloam. Below the well there must have been another channel; for Sir C. Warren, on opening a spring 500 feet further down the valley, suddenly, at a depth of twelve feet, rolled away a stone which concealed a staircase, twenty-five feet deep, leading to a pas¬ sage which runs both north and south. The object of so extensive a sys¬ tem of water-courses, undoubtedly was to secure to the city an abundance of water, while leaving no supply for besiegers around the walls. Thus, as the historian says, Jerusalem was emphatically “a city full of water within, but very thirsty without.” At present there is no connection between the Pool of Siloam and Job’s Well, as is proved by the fact, that the water is pure and sweet, having no likeness to that of Siloam and the Virgin’s Fount. The quantity of water in Job’s Well varies greatly in height, sel¬ dom drying up altogether, and sometimes overflowing and gushing out like a mill-stream. Dr. Thomson says that he has seen the whole valley alive with people, bathing in the overflowing water, and indulging in every spe¬ cies of hilarity. Whether Job’s Well or the Virgin’s Fount is the Fullers Spring, En- Rogcl , mentioned (Josh. xv:y) as the boundary line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, has been much disputed. Positive opinions are ex¬ pressed by competent judges on both sides. It is certainly against Job’s Well that the Fuller s Spring was a spring (En) and not a well (Bir); for Job’s Well is a well and not a spring. Since the sixteenth century, Job’s Well has been called by the Frank Christians, the Spring of Nehemiah, from a Jewish tradition that the sa¬ cred fire of the Temple was concealed there during the captivity, until it was recovered by Nehemiah, the leader of the returned exiles. Within the walls of Jerusalem there are two great pools, namely, the ANCIENT JERUSALEM. 337 Pool of Hezekiah and Birket Israel, the traditional Pool of Bethesda. The Pool of Hezekiah is situated at a little distance, somewhat north of east, from the Jaffa Gate, and southwest from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, midway between the two. It is supplied from the Birket Ma- milla, by an underground passage so constructed, as to admit of some regulation of the flow of water. It is a remarkable work, being nearly two hundred and fifty feet in length from north to south, and there is good reason to believe, that it originally extended some sixty feet further toward the north. Its average width is about one hundred and forty feet; its depth is from twelve to fifteen feet. If it were cleansed and kept with de¬ cency, it would be a blessing to the inhabitants. As it is, it is an abomi¬ nation. The water is utterly unfit for culinary purposes, and, indeed, the name given by the Arabs to the pool is Birket el Harnmam , or Pool of the Bath , otherwise more fully, Birket Harnmam el- Batrak , the Pool of the Bath of the Patriarch, because its waters are chiefly used for filling another reservoir called Harnmam el Batrak , or the Patriarch’s Bath, not many yards to the east. It seems to be generally conceded, that this pool is rightly named from King Hezekiah. In 2 Chron, xxxii: 2-4). we read that “when Heze¬ kiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city; and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, AVhy should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?’” We also read (verse 30) that “this same Hezekiah stopped the upper water-course of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the City of David;” and in 2 Kings xx: 20, we read that “Hezekiah made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city.” Taking these pas¬ sages together, there seems to be little, if any, reason to doubt that this pool, which is within the city, and which draws its water from the Upper Pool of Gihon on the west side of Jerusalem, is the very work of Heze¬ kiah remaining to this day. It is also, in all probability, the Pool Amyg- dalon, of which Josephus says, that it was situated near the monument of the. High Priest John. 338 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. Outside of the Temple Area, and at the east end of its northern wall, is a pool, or rather, since it rarely now contains water, there was once a pool, extending for three hundred and sixty feet east and west along the wall. It is one hundred and thirty feet wide, and at present, seventy feet deep to the rubbish with which the bottom has been filled. It is called by the Arabs Birket Isr ail, or the Pool of Israel, and it is the traditional Pool of Bethesda. The explorations made in connection with this impor¬ tant work have satisfactorily proved that the Temple area was originally an isolated crag of no great extent, and that along its northern side ran a ravine which separated Mount Moriah from what was afterward Bezetha. The so-called Pool of Bethesda is formed, in part, of that ravine, and it may have been part of a more extensive fosse extending all along the north¬ ern end of the Temple Mount. At the southwest corner it has a system of vaults extending one hundred and thirty-four feet under the modern houses of the city, so that the extreme length of the whole pool is about five hundred feet. Roman Catholic tradition maintains that this is Bethesda, because it likewise asserts that St. Stephen’s Gate, which is directly east of the northern corner of the pool, is the ancient sheep-gate, but neither of those traditions is of any value, and Birket Israil can hardly have been an inter¬ mitting fountain like the Bethesda of the Gospels; which was periodically “troubled” by an angel (Johnv: 1-16). The true Bethesda is supposed by some to be a well called Hammam esh-Shifa , or the Healing Bath, which is still extolled for its sanative qualities, and is situated outside of the Haram enclosure or Temple area, and nearly west of the Mosque of Omar. But as it is not a spring, and therefore not intermittent, it does not correspond to the Bethesda of the New Testament very much better than Birket Israil. After this brief, but carefully studied, account of Ancient Jerusalem given in this and the previous chapter, it is discouraging to be obliged to confess that only the broader outlines of the sketch can be affirmed to be certainly accurate. Dr. Thomson amusingly suggests the thought of what would happen if the topography of Jerusalem and its environs could be submitted to a conclave composed of devout padres, learned authors, and intelligent professors from England and America. He declares that ANCIENT JERUSALEM 339 they “would scarcely agree upon a single point;” and then he continues: “It is my own impression that no ingenuity or research can recon¬ struct this city as our Saviour saw it, or as Josephus describes it. No man knows the line of the eastern and southeastern portions of the first wall, or where the second began, or how it ran after it began, or where the third wall commenced, or one foot of its circuit afterward; and of necessity the POOL OF BETHESDA. locations of castles, towers, corners, gates, pools, sepulchres, etc., etc., de¬ pending upon supposed starting-points and directions, are merely hypo¬ thetical. One hypothesis may have more probability than another, but all must share the uncertainty which hangs over the data assumed by the theorizers. “Leaving speculations and their results to take care ol themselves, may we not find some points and boundaries about which there can be no reasonable doubt ? 340 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. “Certainly there are such outlines, strongly drawn and ineffaceable, which make it absolutely certain that we have the Holy City, with all its interesting localities, before us. For example, this mount on which our cottage stands is Olivet, without a doubt; the deep valley at its base is the channel of the Kedron; that broad ravine that joins it from the west at the Well of Job is the Valley of Hinnom, which is prolonged northward and then westward under the ordinary name of the Valley of Gihon. The rocky region lying in between the valleys is the platform of ancient Jerusalem — the whole of it. Within these limits there was nothing else, and beyond them the city never extended. Thus I understand the lan¬ guage of Josephus when he is speaking of Jerusalem, one and entire. “We may go a step further in generalizing, and with considerable con¬ fidence. The platform of Jerusalem is divided into two nearly equal parts by a valley which commences northwest of the Damascus Gate, shallow and broad at first, but deepening rapidly in its course down along the Temple area, until it unites with the Kedron near' the Pool of Siloam. The city therefore was built upon two ridges, with a valley between them; and these grand landmarks are perfectly distinct to this day. The eastern ridge is Mount Moriah, on which stood the Temple; the western is Zion; so-called; and the valley between them is that of the Tyropeon or Cheesemongers. These ridges are nearly parallel with each ^ other, but that of Zion is everywhere the highest of the two; that is, the part of it without the present south wall is much higher than Ophel, which is over against it; the Temple area is lower than that part of Zion which is west of it, and the northwest corner of the city overlooks the whole of the ridge on which the Temple stood. This accords with the express and repeated assertions of Josephus — who, however never uses the word Zion —that the hill which sustained the Upper Market Place, of the Upper City, was much the highest of all. The houses built down the western slopes of Zion everywhere face those on the western side of the opposite ridge, and the corresponding rows of houses meet in the intervening valley, just as Josephus represents them to have done in his day. The historian wrote his description with an eye to Titus and the Roman army; and I cannot doubt that, up to our present point of generalization, we have laid down the outlines of Jerusalem as they saw and conquered it. ANCIENT JERUSALEM 34i “If we now proceed from generalities to particulars, we encounter obscurity and perplexing difficulties at every turn; and these thicken around us just in proportion as we descend to details more and more minute. For example, perhaps all the planographists of the Holy City agree that the lower part of the interior valley is that of the Cheese- NORTH END OF HARAM AREA. mongers; but higher up, where, under the name of Tyropeon, it must define the supposed position of a certain tower, the course of this valley is very earnestly contested. And thus, too, nearly all agree that the bioad ridge south of the Jaffa Gate is Mount Zion; but some maintain that it terminates there at the Tower of David, while others believe that it con¬ tinued up northward to the Castle of Goliath, and even beyond it. Some 342 ANCIENT JERUSALEM. others assume that the Tyropeon commences at the Tower of David, and descends first eastward and then to the southeast, under the Temple area and down to Siloam, and that traces of such a valley can still be seen. Other eyes absolutely fail to discover it, and their owners say that the rain from heaven and the theodolite of the engineer obstinately refuse to acknowledge any such valley. Some place Acra north of Jaffa Gate, and others northwest of the Temple area. But we need not extend the list of conflicting theories any further, for it includes nearly every rod of the entire city — the line of every wall, the position of every castle, the name of every pool, the place of every gate, the site of every scene, etc. On most of these questions I have my own opinion, but to state and defend them would be a most wearisome business, and as useless as it would be endless.” CHAPTER XI. THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. The Crowds Departing from the Passover — Jesus Missed by His Parents — The Temple Schools — The Rabbis — Jesus Among the Doctors — The Question of Mary — The Significant Reply — Return to Nazareth — Youth of the Baptist — Condition of the Jewish Mind at that Time — Sects — Herodians — Pharisees — The Essenes — Their Discipline and Mode of Life — The Wilderness of Judea- Meaning of Jeshimon — Description of the Wilderness — John’s Retirement into the Wilderness — Christian Hermits — Lauras and Monasteries — Monastery of St. Saba — His Life — The Frank Mountain of Herodium — Valley of Urtas — Etam — Tekoah— The Wise Woman— Birthplace of Amos — Ambusii of the Maccabees — Wady Khureitun — St. Chariton — Cave of Adullam — Engedi — The Fountain of Engedi — The Grotto — Masada — Closing Tragedy of the Jewish War. is a great temptation to linger in Jerusalem, endeavoring to realize the sacred employments of the Child Jesus during the celebration of His first passover, to trace the order of the services of the Temple in which He would doubtless be engaged, and to gather from history and tradition the names of the distinguished per¬ sons He may have seen, or with whom. He may actually have come in con¬ tact. These things he beyond the scope of this work, which pretends, to illustrate the beautiful life of Christ only in its relations to the Beautiful Land in which He wore the veil of our humanity. Therefore, a single incident which has been preserved for us in the gospels can alone be recorded here. The days of religious occupation were over. The pilgrims had par¬ taken of the passover with all prescribed formalities, and at length set out on their return to Nazareth, retracing their steps backward along the route we have already described. To escape the great heat of the day, they would probably set out at night, and they would not be alone. A whole 343 344 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. caravan of pilgrims would be crowding the road at the same time, scatter¬ ing to their dwellings in Northern Judea, Gilead and Galilee. At difficult and narrow parts of the way, the confusion would be bewildering. Camels, asses and pilgrims on foot would be thronged together, not without danger sometimes of the weak being trampled under foot by the crowd. As they advanced, and the branching roads were taken by one party after another, the press would become less confusing and less dangerous, but all would be glad to reach their first halting-place, at or beyond Khan Hadrur, the Inn of the Good Samaritan. Families which had become separated in the confusion, would expect to be reunited at the appointed place of rest; but Joseph and Mary were distressed to find that Jesus was nowhere in the company, either of themselves or of their friends. He had been clean lost sight of; they had such perfect confidence in His discretion, that they seem not to have inquired about Him until they finished the first stage of their journey. Failing to find Him, and having no reason to suppose that He had gone beyond the place appointed for their first encampment, they returned in great anxiety to Jerusalem, where they arrived in the afternoon or evening of the second day. At their lodging-place in the Holy City, they did not find Jesus, and on the third day they set out to seek Him in the courts of the Temple. There they found Him in one of the Temple schools, adjoining the Court of the Gentiles, where it was customary for the rabbis to instruct the people, and especially the youths of Israel. These schools are a char¬ acteristic institution of the times. The rabbi sat on a high seat or dais, surrounded by his pupils, who were seated on the ground, studying the law and asking questions of the rabbi. Their teacher answered, not out of his own thought, but according to rabbinical tradition, which had become as sacred as the law itself. The students were not all children by any means. The school of a celebrated rabbi was sure to be thronged by eager hear¬ ers, and even by other rabbis who desired to hear their illustrious brother, and were glad to join in the questioning and answering which were the principal exercises. In the school in which Jesus was found it is likely that many rabbis would be present, because many of them would be in the city attending the Passover, and the schools would afford their best oppor¬ tunity of associating with each other. “The gentle Hillel, the Looser,” says THE WILDERNESS OE JUDEA. 345 Dr. Geikie, “ was perhaps then alive, and may possibly have been among them. The harsh and strict Shammai, the Binder, his old rival, had been long dead. Hellel’s son, Rabban Simeon, and even his greater grandson, Gamaliel, the future teacher of St. Paul, may have been of the number, though Gamaliel, like Jesus, would then be only a boy. Hannan or Annas, son of Seth, had just been appointed High Priest, but did not likely see JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. (LUKE II! 46.) Him, as a boy, Whom he was afterward to crucify. Apart from the bit¬ ter hostility between the priests and the rabbis, he would be too busy with his monopoly of doves for the Temple, to care for the discussions of the schools; for he owned the dove-shops on Mount Olivet, and sold doves for a piece of gold, though the law had chosen them as offerings suited for the poorest.’’ None of these learned men knew or dreamed who He was Whom they were questioning and answering; but the rabbis, in general, cherished 346 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. an extraordinary reverence for the sayings of children. They were accus¬ tomed to say that “the Word of God, out of the mouths of children, is to be received as from the mouth of the Sanhedrin, or of Moses, or of the Blessed God Himself;” and yet we are told that anything like forwardness in boys was specially distasteful to them. We may understand, then, that the unrecorded speech of Jesus, with the rabbis, in the Temple school, struck them at once by its modesty and its wisdom. There are good reasons for believing that, in the school of Nazareth, He had learned the Hebrew tongue, which was already obsolete, and it is entirely possible that His. course of learning, in the Jewish sense of the word, had been liberal. Certain it is that He was well read in the Scriptures, and, Child as He still was, He had so digested their contents as to have attracted and pleased the rabbis with whom he was that day conversing. He was wiser than His teachers, but his wisdom charmed, and did not offend them. Here, then, Joseph and Mary found Jesus, and Mary was the first to address Him. “My Son,” she said, “why hast thou thus treated us? Be¬ hold thy father and I have been seeking Thee in great anxiety.” It was in answer to this address that the first recorded words of Jesus Christ were spoken: “Why was it that ye sought Me?" he asked, as though they ought to have had no doubt where they would find Him. “Did ye not know that /must be about my Father’s business?” We may suppose that Jesus laid a peculiar emphasis upon the pronouns of these two sentences. Mary and Joseph knew many things which in the home in Nazareth had been silently ignored, and had, perhaps, been practically forgotten. Jesus was now fast growing out of childhood. By the custom of His nation He had recently been recognized as a man. It was no longer right that the solemn and marvellous facts of His birth should be disregarded. He desired to recall those facts to their remembrance, and at the same time to intimate His own knowledge of them. So He asked, “Did ye not know that / must be about my Father’s business?” One would suppose that these words would have pierced them like a sword; but the force of habit is so strong, and the Child had ever been so submissive to them that they did not understand the gentle intimation, and the still gentler warning He had conveyed to them. We are told that “they understood not the saying which He spake unto them.” “Strange and mournful commentary,” says Archdeacon Far- THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 347 rar, “on the first recorded words of the youthful Saviour, spoken to those who were nearest and deaiest to Him on earth! Strange, but mournfully pathetic of all his life: ‘He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.’ ” But though no one, not even the Blessed Virgin, knew or received Him for what He was, He had come to know Himself, to understand why He was thus sojourning in the world that He had made, and He declined nothing belonging to his mission. After this single intimation of his sense of a peculiar and divine relation to the Father of all men, He was still content to fulfill the duty of a child to his earthly parents. In all sweet¬ ness of simplicity and childlike obedience, He resumed his habitual sub¬ missiveness. “He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was 348 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. subject unto them.” There in the cottage home on the hill-side of Naza¬ reth, He dwelt in silence and obscurity for eighteen peaceful years, con¬ cerning which, we know absolutely nothing. During those years another child was growing up to manhood in a priestly family at Hebron or Juttah, near the southern boundary of the Holy Land. John was six months older than Jesus, and although we know nothing of his childhood or his youth, we do know from the whole course of his later history what must have been the bent of his spiritual develop¬ ment. At the time of his birth Israel had ceased to be an independent nation. Its throne was occupied by an Idumean vassal of Rome. Some of the people had submitted in good faith to the conqueror, and saw no hope in the future otherwise than by cultivating the favor of the Herods. These Herodians were naturally honored and employed by the reigning family, but by the mass of their own people they were regarded as traitors to God and to Israel. In the excess of helpless loyalty the body of the people admired and praised the sect of the Pharisees which practiced, or pretended, a minuteness in their observance of the national law far surpassing the earlier traditions of their race. Some there were, who cherished the hope of a successful rebellion, but they were chiefly to be found among the law¬ less and dangerous classes of the provinces, and among the poor who had little to lose except their lives, and who, to do them justice, seem to have valued their lives but lightly. There were others to whom the state of their country seemed to be utterly hopeless, and who looked for nothing larger than their own personal salvation through a rigor of legal observance which surpassed that of the Pharisees themselves. The Essenes, as they were called, in their anxiety to escape every occasion of ceremonial un¬ cleanness, forsook the ordinary habitations of men, and either singly, or more frequently in colonies, betook themselves to the wilderness of Judea. There, in caves of the earth, or in rude habitations reared for their use, they dwelt apart, and though the colonists did not invariably renounce marriage, even their family lives were thoroughly ascetic. Solitary anchor¬ ites lived on the scanty herbs of the hill-side, and secured themselves against defilement, even from nature, by bathing twice and thrice a day. The colonists lived under strict rules, and were extremely and punctiliously regular in their times of bathing and changing their apparel. Throughout THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 349 the day they labored in the field, caring for their cattle and bees, and so providing for their own maintenance while avoiding the necessity of trad¬ ing with others. Coined money they would hardly touch, because it bore an image, in violation, as they thought, of the Second Commandment. They admitted no uninitiated person to their company, lest he might bring defilement upon them. Their novices were not accounted clean until after “HIS NAME IS JOHN.” (LUKE i: 63.) a three years’ probation, during which they were required to practice all the austerities of the initiated. The Sabbath, of course, was strictly ob¬ served, and the Scriptures were constantly studied. That these men were sincerely devout there can be no questin, and there is no doubt that their lives were more than negatively virtuous. At then: admission to the sect, they promised “that they would honor God, that they would be right¬ eous toward men, doing no wrong to any man; that they would hate evil 350 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. and do good; that they would be faithful to all men, and especially to those in authority; that they would speak the truth and expose falsehood and that they would be honest men, neither committing direct theft nor taking unrighteous gain.” Their property was held in common; slavery was for¬ bidden among them; they took no oaths except the oath of their initiation; they abjured and abhorred war; and they renounced animal food because the law said, “Thou shalt not kill.” They did not seek to enrich their com¬ munities by means of trade, and did not trade at all, except so far as was necessary to supply their frugal wants, and that they did by exchange, not by money purchase or sale. The weakness of the Essenes consisted in this, that they considered the moral and the ceremonial law to be equally important, so that the least failure to obey a ceremonial requirement seemed to them to be as grave a fault as to commit a crime. Outside of their daily labor their lives were one long continued series of monotonous obser¬ vances, in which they outdid the most rigorous of the Pharisees. The Essenes were scattered through the eastern part of the Wilder¬ ness of Judea , which was properly called Jeshimon — The Solitude. In Holy Scripture the word wilderness does not always mean a desert. In our English version it stands as the representative of no less than five different Hebrew words, and often signifies a pastoral plain over which the migratory shepherds were wont to lead their flocks from place to place, so that they might always be in “pastures new.” It was in such “pastures of the wilderness” that the patriarchs spent their lives, and in the same pas¬ tures the Arabs now feed their flocks. But no such signification can be applied to the gloomy and dreary region of Jeshimon, the Solitude of Judea. It extends southward from Jericho along the western side of the Dead Sea, with an average width of from fifteen to twenty-five miles, and just beyond its western boundary lie Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. It is full of white, steep, rugged ridges, which are seamed with the courses of innumerable winter torrents and between many of them lie broad, flat valleys of soft, white marl, strewn with flints and having a pebbly torrent- bed in the middle. There are no trees; hardly a shrub is to be seen. The valleys are like the dry basin of a former sea, scoured by the rains and washed down in places to the hard foundation of metamorphic lime¬ stone which underlies the district and forms precipices 2,000 feet high*, THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 351 overhanging the shores of the Dead Sea. Such, in substance, is the description of Captain Conder, taking his view of the wilderness nine miles south of Bethlehem. Thirty miles south of Captain Conder’s point of view Dr. Tristram gives a similar account. He says: “For two hours the ascent was rocky and slippery, and generally we had to lead our horses till we entered upon JOHN PREACHING IN THE WILDERNESS. (MATT. Ill: I.) the South Wilderness of Judea. Our course lay northwest, and for another hour nothing could surpass the mountain range in repulsive deso¬ lation. Rocks there were, great and small, stones loose and sharp, but no other existing thing. Occasionally, in the deep depression of a small ravine, a few plants of salsola or retem struggled up, but this was all; and we only saw one rockchat and two desert larks. Almost sudden was the transition to the upland wilderness, the ‘Negeb’ or South Country — a 352 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA series of rolling hills clad with scanty herbage here and there, especially on their northern faces .... Nothing can be barer than the South Country of Judah. It is neither grand, desolate, nor wild, but utter barrenness — not a tree nor a shrub, but scant stunted herbage, covered with myriads of white snail of five or six species, which afford abundant sustenance to the thousands of birds which inhabit it. It is the very country for camel MAR SABA. browsing, quite unlike any we had hitherto traversed, but sometimes reminding one of the best parts of the Sahara.” It is needless to say that this dreary wilderness, with the exception of a few spots, has never been cultivated. As Dr. Tristram elsewhere says, it seems to have been always destitute of trees, and except an old fort here and there, scarcely any traces of former permanent habitations can be CONVENT OF MAR SABA, iiijl mSwStsskSi I && timm mm r. • • V!” ■ mmm '■ v^. t * \ , - O * w I THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 355 found. Its wadys, or valleys, for the most part have only occasional and scanty supplies of water running eastward to the Dead Sea, and near its shore cutting to amazing depths through the soft limestone. The general slope of the country is downward toward the sea, where it breaks off in precipitous crags beetling above the waters below. Here and there, how¬ ever, at the mouths of the wadys and ravines, are little embayed spots of THE IBEX. surpassing fertility, where towns have formerly stood. Their climate is tropical, as the surface of the sea is depressed 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, making the temperature extremely warm; so that the products of these spots, animal and vegetable, are for the most part entirely different from the indigenous forms of life in the rest of the country. When John the Baptist grew to manhood, he seems to have had no tendency to unite with any of the sects into which his countrymen and 356 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. fellow-religionists had divided themselves. For the self-interested and truckling Herodians he could have no respect, but for the poor Jews whose necessities had compelled them to take office under the existing govern¬ ment, he had more pity than reprobation. With the wild and lawless agitators who avowed their desire for a rebellion, and whose professed patriotism was often the cloak of an actual life of robbery, it was impossi¬ ble that he should sympathize. From the Essenes of the wilderness, he had perhaps learned to hate war, and to pity the fate even of the Roman soldier, but he had not been attracted by the superstitious and excessive ceremonialism of the anchorites. He felt that the regeneration of Israel, if it could be brought about at all, as he believed it could and would, must be first and chiefly, if not exclusively, an inward regeneration, exhibited in thorough amendment of the outward conduct. The ceremonialism of the Essenes, who had separated from mankind, could produce no such refor¬ mation. The pretended devotion of the Pharisees, which was as thoroughly formal as that of the Essenes without one particle of their inward and self- denying piety, could bring nothing better than spiritual dry-rot upon their disciples. When he grew up to manhood, he felt like so many other great spiritual leaders of the orient, that he must retire into the solitude of the wilderness, and there meditate upon the word of God he had been ap¬ pointed to deliver to the men of his generation. Into the wilderness, there¬ fore, he went, clad in the simple and coarse garments of the Bedouin, his clothing being made of camel’s hair, and his loins girded with a belt of sheepskin. He required no dainties. His food was of the coarsest. Lo¬ custs and wild honey, with a drink of water from some brook or spring, were the sole fare of the predestined prophet. Plow long he dwelt in the wilderness we do not know; but the scene of a life so self-denying and lofty, and of meditations so austere and so sublime, is well worthy of examination. Over a part of it, then, we may quickly glance. The route we have already traced from Jericho to Jerusalem is really within the Judean Wilderness; and if we leave Jerusalem by the way of the Kedron Valley, journeying over a different road toward the southeast, we come, in something more than three hours, to one of the most pictur¬ esque of all the many monasteries of Palestine, the Convent of Mar Saba. All along the Kedron Valley may be seen hermits’ caves or cells, such as THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA 357 we have already observed in the gorge of the Brook Cherith. These, or some of them, may have been the dwellings of Essenes in the time of our Saviour, and may have been afterward occupied by Christian monks. When the hermit life came to be organized, the monks began to make their cells close to each other, and to live in communities called “lauras” in which, while the hermits allowed themselves some of the advantages of human companionship, every individual hermit was free to lead his own life in his MONKS OF MAR SABA. own way. In that respect the lauras differed from monasteries where the monks formed an organized society under the rule of one common Superior. The Monastery of St. Saba marks the gradual change of the laura to a monastery or cenobium. It is composed of a cluster of rock-hewn cells opening into each other, both laterally and perpendicularly, like swallows’ nests. The cells are constructed upon one side of the Kedron Valley, where the walls or sides of the gorge rise fronting each other in precipices 358 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA ■of hundreds of feet in height. “A well built road, guarded by a strong stone fence, leads one high up the west side of the chasm, and brings the monastery in sight. Its lofty, massive towers are seen clinging to the almost plumb-line sides of bare rocks rising wildly above, and sinking be¬ neath into frightful depths, with great walls of rock, hundreds of feet up and down, forming the other side of the wady, and furnishing the only view presented to the monks on the eastern side. Fearful loneliness and desolation reign around. You seek in vain for a blade or leaf of green to RUINS OF TEKOAH. relieve the baiienness of the shattered and weather-beaten rocks. In summer, the heat reflected from the naked precipices is almost unendura¬ ble, and in winter the rams stream in torrents from the heights, checked by no soil or herbage. In front of the convent are five immense buttresses supporting the ledge on which the monastery stands, and over the giddy height of the chasm the monks have put out frail balconies which seem hardly strong enough to sustain the weight of a human body. The entrance to the convent is from above, of course, where the approach is guarded by a strong tower. Ladies and Arabs are not admitted, but men JEBEL FUREIDIS (FRANK MOUNTAIN.) where they may cook his provisions. The view from the terrace on a moonlit night is said to be almost fearfully impressive, and by daylight it is touching to see how the monks have availed themselves of every inch of space for the making of terraces and miniature gardens. The sun beats so fiercely from the opposite precipice, that the figs ripen much earlier here than at Jerusalem, and there is a solitary palm-tree which the monks regard with peculiar veneration, as they believe it to have been planted by their founder, St. Saba. St. Saba was a nobleman of Cappadocia, born in A.D. 439. While still a child, he was taken to Alexandria in Egypt, and was there edu¬ cated in a monastery. So much was he fascinated by the monastic life THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 359 bringing proper introductions are entertained with humble hospitality. It must be confessed that there are drawbacks to its enjoyment. Once admitted to the tower, the traveler descends about fifty steps to a second entrance; thence, by another stairway to a paved court; and thence again, by a third descent, to the guest-chamber, where he will find divans for his accommodation. If he occupies one of them, he will not sleep alone; as they are generally infested with vermin. The monks will furnish him with bread and wine, and if he is attended by servants, he will find a kitchen .360 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. that at fifteen. years of age he refused to quit it, renounced his inheritance, and at eighteen years of age, went to Jerusalem with the purpose of adopt¬ ing the life of a monk. For that purpose he applied for admission to Euthymius, the abbot of a monastery, but was rejected on account of his youth. Returning to Egypt, he was urged by his parents to abandon his project, but told them that “no man having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” At forty-five he betook him¬ self to the Kedron Valley, and there, with Euthymius, he began to found the laura which still bears his name, and organized it as a monastery under the rule of St. Basil. In the stormy years that followed, he was a resolute maintainer of orthodoxy against the monophysite heresy, and he died in the odor of sanctity at ninety years of age. Since his death, his monastery has continued to exist, though it has been repeat¬ edly plundered by invaders and marauders. Even in the present century, it has been twice pillaged, first in 1832, and again in 1834. In 1840, it was restored, and enlarged by the Russian government. It is now a favorite resort of pilgrims returning to Jerusalem from the Jordan. It is a singular survival of a mode of life which has been followed by men of strong religious tendencies, not only under Christian training, but so far back as the days of John the Baptist and before. From Solomon’s Pools there runs in a southeasterly direction to the Dead Sea a wady which, near the pools, is called Wady Khureitun, and near the sea, is called Wady Td amir ah. In this wady are several places of interest — Urtas , or Etham , Tequa or Tekoa , Mugharat or Khureitun , and the traditional Cave of Adullam. A mile north of Wady Khureitun, four INTERIOR OF THE CAVE OF ADULLAM. - ,jrr- THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 361 miles southwest of Bethlehem, is Herodium, the modern Jebcl Ferdis , com¬ monly called Frank Mountain. We shall begin with Herodium. It was at this spot that Herod defeated the party of Antigonus, and erected a fortress of great magnificence. The natural hill rises six hun¬ dred feet above the plain below, and it is said that Herod raised it still higher. It now presents the appearance of a huge cone, from which the top has been cut off. On the summit, and within the walls of the fortress Herod provided for himself a mag¬ nificent palace. The only way of access to the level of the fortress, was by a superb stairway of hewn stone. At the foot of the hill were palaces for Herod and his friends, and the surrounding plain was laid out > in a beautiful town, built in the Ro- » o man style and ornamented with o gardens. From the beauty of these h gardens, watered by means of aque- w ducts, the remains of which are still o to be seen, Herodium took the name ~ of Paradise , which still survives in the modern name of El Ferdis (or Fureidis'). Its other name of the Frank Mountain , is derived from a spurious tradition, that the Frankish Crusaders held possession of this castle for forty years after Jerusalem had been wrested from them. The view from Frank Mountain is exceedingly interesting. All around, it is true, are but bare and wild uplands, without a tree to relieve the deadness of the scene; but to the eastward lies the Salt Sea far below, and beyond that rise the mountains of Moab, while to the northwest lies Bethlehem on its mountain seat, with the Shepherd’s Plain lying between. On that “wonderful night” when the angels’ song was raised above the humble shepherds, and “glory shone around” the heavenly messengers who announced the coming of the Prince of Peace, it is probable that lights 362 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. were gleaming far too brightly in the halls of Herod, for the revelers to think of looking out into the night where heaven was greeting earth with new light and with songs of joy. In Wady Khureitun, and only a mile and a quarter below the Pools of Solomon, is the Valley of Urtas , doubtless the ancient Etam, of which some ruins still remain. Etam was fortified by Rehoboam, but the valley is more interesting as the site of the famous gardens of King Solomon, and because it is believed to have been part of the patrimony of his father David. Many evidences of former wealth, refinement and luxury have been ex¬ humed at Urtas, notably some superb marble baths, built in the Jewish fashion, but richly carved in the style of the Egyptians. They probably belonged to Solomon’s summer-house, but they may have been restored by Herod, as the capitals of some of the pillars are ornamented with the lotus leaf and show the style of sculpture that is found at Petra. It is interesting to know that the Valley of Urtas is again blooming with vege¬ tation under the care of a colony of Christian Israelites who supply the market of Jerusalem with fresh vegetables. Five miles south of Etam, and covering several acres of the summit of a long and gently sloping hill, which, at its highest point, is 2,397 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, are the ruins of Tekiia, the ancient Tekoa (or Tekoali). They consist of great mounds of rubbish, among which there are remains of houses of Hebrew construction, built of square stones which are partly beveled. The most conspicuous object is the wreck of a square tower or fortress. The remains of a Greek church formerly belonging to a Greek monastery, can also be traced and a font of limestone so fine as to resemble marble, is still there. Tekoa can hardly ever have been a walled town, and although Rehoboam is said (2 Chron. xi: 6) to have built it for defense, the defense probably con¬ sisted of the tower or fortress of which, or rather of some similar but later structure, the wreck still exists. The surrounding country is barren in the extreme and must always have been so, though it affords a scanty pasture to the flocks of some rude and ill-conditioned Arabs who also cultivate a few scanty patches of grain. From its lofty situation Tekoa was prob¬ ably a signal place for the Tribe of Benjamin, as we read in the Prophet sycamore fruit” when “the Lord took him as he followed the flock and said, Go prophesy unto my people Israel” (vir.14). The rugged style of the shepherd-prophet corresponds with his early training and the wild scenes in which his youth was spent. It was to Tekoa that the three surviving brothers of Judas Maccabeus, after his death, fled from the Syrian general, Bacchides, in battle with whom he had fallen (Macc. ix:33). John was soon afterward cut off by a force of Ammonites, from the east of Jordan, and his fate was terribly avenged by Simeon and Jonathan. Learning that the Ammonite leader was making a great marriage with the daughter of one of the neighboring princes, and that the bridal train was proceeding on its way from Medeba, then “they remembered John, their brother, and went up and hid them- THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 363 Jeremiah: “Oh! ye children of Benjamin, blow the trumpet in Tekoa, for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction” (Jer. vi: 1). Tekoa is mentioned in sacred history as the birth-place of the wise woman whom Joab employed to induce King David to recall his son Absalom, when that rash and unhappy prince had fled after the murder of his brother Amnon. The story, as told in 2 Sam. xiv, is extremely inter¬ esting and is thoroughly oriental in every feature. Tekoa is still more famous as the birth-place of the prophet Amos. He was “among the herd- men of Tekoa” (Amos i: 1), and was himself “a herdman and gatherer of BROOK OF EN-GEDI. S64 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA selves under the covert of the mountain. While they lay in ambush, they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, there was much ado.” The princely retinue approached, “and the bridegroom came forth, and his friends and brethren, to meet them with drums, and instruments of music, and many weapons.” The hour of joyful greeting to the Ammonites was the hour of vengeance to the Maccabees. While the merry meeting was going on, Jonathan and his companions leaped from their hiding-place and made such slaughter that “many fell down dead, and the remnant fled into the moun¬ tain, and they took all their spoils. Thus was the mar¬ riage turned into mourning, and the noise of melody into lamentation. So, when they had avenged, fully, the blood of their brother, they turned again” (i Macc. ix:34‘42-) The Wady Khureitun runs in a southeasterly di¬ rection from the Valley of Urtas to the Dead Sea. It takes its name from St. Chariton, a hermit of great sanctity, who established a laura in that wady, and died A. D. 410. About five miles from Urtas, and midway between the Frank Mountain and Tekoa, are the village of Khureitun and the traditional Cave of Adullam , to which, when persecuted by Saul, David resorted, and gathered a troop of about four hundred outlaws (1 Sam. xxii:i, 2). It was while there that he called out, with longing, “Oh that one would give me of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate” (1 Chron. xi:i7). At the village EN-GEDI FROM THE SOUTH. THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 365 of Khureitun, the wady narrows to a deep and precipitous gorge, which is rather a chasm than a wady. On the north side is the spring of Khureitun. Near the crest of the northern side, is the ruin of a tower, once square, and above and below the tower, clinging to the side of the gorge, and over¬ hanging its precipitous steep, are the hovels of the village. The cave lies below, and the approach to it is by a narrow ledge, obstructed by fallen SAUL AND DAVID IN THE CAVE OF EN-GEDI. (i SAM. XXIV: 4.) rocks. One of the entrances leads by a short passage to a vast chamber 1 10 feet long, by 30 wide and 30 or 40 high; from which other passages lead to other chambers of smaller dimensions. The passages are so numerous, and so intricate in their windings, as to form a natural labyrinth which has never been fully explored, and which it is not safe for the traveler to enter without a guide. It is hazardous to make any extensive explora¬ tion, even with one, unless he take the precaution to mark his course by 366 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. unwinding a string, or thread, as he goes. Under the feet the ground gives a hollow sound, showing that there are other caves underneath. Some of these are reached by descending passages, but it is not probable that all of them are known. The passages are of different dimensions, some being sufficiently wide and lofty for convenience, and others so low that the ex¬ plorer is obliged to stoop, or even to crawl on his hands and knees. The whole cave, or combination of caves, is haunted by innumerable bats, so that the visitor is obliged to carry his light in a strong lantern, or it would immediately be extinguished by the frightened creatures which fly wildly against him at every step. In summer the cave is infested by thousands of scorpions, also. On account of these pests, some writers believe that the cave could never have been habitable, and that it cannot, therefore, be the cave m which David took refuge, with four hundred men. On topo¬ graphical grounds, other writers are of the same opinion. Dr. Tristram declares that there is “no authority” for the tradition which identifies the Cave of Khureitun with the Cave of Adullam. The latter he holds to have been west of Bethlehem, on the frontier of Philistia, in the Valley of Elah, and at, or near, the modern Ed el Miyeh , a village situated in the low hills between Bethlehem and Gath, with an abundance of water, and with many habitable caves in its vicinity. On the other hand, Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, of the Palestine Exploration Fund, considers the Caves of Khureitun to be “admirably adapted for the stronghold of an outlaw.” In this opinion Dr. Thomson concurs. He considers, moreover, that there is “no good reason to disturb the tradition” that the Cave of Khureitun is the Cave of Adullam, though he admits that the city of Adullam was undoubtedly situated in the Plain of Philistia. On the western shore of the Dead Sea, and twenty-three miles from its northern end, is a spot of beauty which was once the seat of one of the most ancient cities of the world — Engedi, now Ain Jidi , the Spring of the Kid. A semi-circular recess has been scooped out of the mountains of the wilderness to the extent of about a mile and a half each way, and this oasis is occupied with acacias, tamarisks and jujube thorn-bushes. The “clusters of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi” (Cant, i: 14) are all withered and gone, with the exception of a few straggling plants on the verge of extinction. Its most ancient name of Edazezon- Tamar t “ The THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA 367 Pruning of the Palin' (2 Chron. xx: 2) and the poetical allusion to the vine imply a former condition of culture which has long since ceased to exist; but in its prime the little Plain of Engedi was a fruitful spot, and the slope of the mountain behind it was covered with terraced gardens of which vestiges still remain. The cause of all this beauty and fruitfulness was the spring from which the town took its name, and the stream from which may still be seen bounding and skipping like a kid from rock to rock in tiny cataracts until it reaches the plain. Below these falls, and in the MASADA. center of the plain, a group of ruins stands, but although they are the remains of buildings erected with large square blocks of stone, it is now impossible to trace their outline. Engedi, first called Hazezon Tamar, is as ancient as ancient Hebron. It was a city when Abraham was a stranger in the Promised Land, and hard by it the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, with their allies, attacked the host of Chedorlaomer as it was returning victorious from the South 368 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. Country, laden with spoils, and was descending to the Dead Sea by the precipitous path which is still used by the Arabs in coming from the lofty table-land of the Wilderness (Gen. xiv.7). It was in the caves of the precipice of Engedi that David hid when “Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek him upon the rocks of the wild-goats” (1 Sam. xxiv: 2). It was in one of those caves that he cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe which he afterward showed to Saul himself in proof that he might have slain his persecutor (1 Sam. xxiv: 1 - 1 5). It was up those same steeps that the forces of Ammon and Moab clambered on their way to attack Judah in the reign of Jehoshaphat, and it was not far from there that they were discomfited by the interposition of God (2 Chron. xx). The fountain of Engedi gushes from under the rock at a temperature of 80 deg. Fahrenheit. Fresh-water crabs, some small shell-fish and a species of small black snail are found in its basin. Traffic still passes by it, as droves of asses laden with salt are driven by Arabs from the south shore of the Dead Sea to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. “North of the fountain” says Dr. Geikie, “is found the source of the spring seen in the vale below; a very delight for its rich luxuriance of all kinds of foliage. In long past ages, a spot like this, utilized as it would be, must have been thought a very paradise in such surroundings. Could it be that this delightful nook, concealed within almost impenetrable jungle, was known to David when he hid in this neighborhood?” Sir C. Warner thus describes the hidden grotto of Engedi: — “A fairy grotto of vast size under a trickling waterfall, with a great flat ledge of rock overhanging it, dripping with stalactites and draped with maiden-hair fern. Its luxuriance was wonderful. We gathered many tresses of its fronds a yard long, and yet the species is identical with our own. The sides of the cliff, as well as the edges of the grotto, were clothed with great fig-trees, hanging about and springing forth in every direction, covered with luxuriant foliage, and just now budding into fruit. Mingled with these were bushes of retem , with its lovely branches of pendant pink blossoms waving their sweet perfume all around. To reach the grotto, we had to force our way through an almost impenetrable canebrake, with bam¬ boos from twenty to thirty feet long, and close together. No pen can give THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. 369 an adequate description of the beauties of this hidden grotto, which sur¬ passes all that Claude Lorraine ever dreamt.” Half-way between Engedi and the southern end of the Dead Sea, a tremendous rock-cliff, which has been fairly called an inland Gibraltar, overhangs the sea. This is Masada. It is not mentioned in Holy Scripture, and yet it is famous in Jewish history, as it is the last bloody scene of the Jewish struggle with Rome. It was first occupied as a fortress by the Maccabees, and was afterward strengthened and made impregnable by Herod. The account of it given by Josephus is, doubtless, exaggerated, GATE AT MASADA. but of the strength of its position and fortifications there can be no doubt. On the eastern side, fronting the sea, and also on the north and south, storms and escalade Were out of the question from the natural conforma¬ tion of the cliffs. It was only on the west side, that an attack could be rationally attempted, and there Herod erected walls of enormous height and thickness, and at the narrowest point a tower which might alone have been deemed impregnable. Besides these works, he caused an immense cistern to be hewn out of the solid rock, and so provided for a plentiful supply of water. He also laid in an enormous store of arms and imple- 370 THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA. ments of war, and built a palace for his own occupation in case of neces¬ sity. Sometime before the siege of Jerusalem, Eleazer, with the band of robbers whom Josephus calls Siccarii, gained possession of Masada by a stratagem, and, after Jerusalem was destroyed, the last act of the great tragedy was enacted at the fortress by the Dead Sea. Flavius Silva besieged Masada, and in order to reduce the place by famine, he built works around it which can be traced to this day. When famine had suffi¬ ciently reduced the strength of the besieged, and an immense causeway had been erected on the west side, Flavius proceeded to batter the wall, and succeeded in making a breach; but the Jews immediately erected an inner work of heavy timbers, and filled the intervening space with earth. This the Romans set on fire; but on the following morning, when they were about to enter through the breach, they saw Herod’s palace in flames, and there appeared to be not a living human being in the place. At length one old woman and five children emerged from a vault, and told a tale which made even the Roman soldiers shudder. Finding further resistance impossible, the starved and defeated but unconquered Jews, had resolved not to be taken alive. With one consent they decreed their own death. Gathering together all their treasures in Herod’s palace, they committed them to the flames. Then they “embraced their wives, took their children in their arms, gave them the longest parting kisses,” and plunged their daggers, each into the hearts of his own wife and little ones. Next, they chose ten men by lot to be the executioners of all the rest, and one by one they laid their necks down on the fatal block. When all had been dis¬ patched except the ten, one of the ten was chosen as the executioner of the other nine, and having finished his atrocious task, he fell bravely on his own sword. 1 hus nine hundred and sixty men, women and children per¬ ished. Only two women and five children, who were overlooked, survived to tell a tale unmatched elsewhere in history. Canon Tristram describes the platform of the stronghold to Masada, as being isolated by tremendous chasms on all sides, of oblong shape and widest at the southern end. Its length is about 1,800 feet, and its width from east to west about 600 feet. Its height above the level of the Dead Sea, Dr. Tristram found to be 2,200 feet, though a more general computa- THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA 37i tion makes it from 1,200 to 1,500 feet. “In the center of the plateau stands an isolated building. It measures eighteen yards from north to south, and sixteen from east to west. The west porch is five yards square, the nave ten and a half yards, with a semicircular apsis, and a circular arched light at each end. It is all very neatly plastered with fine cement, fiat pebbles, and DEAD SEA NEAR MASADA. fragments of pottery in mosaic patterns. Did we not know that Masada has no history after its capture by Silva, this chapel would certainly be set down as a Crusading ruin.” Toward the south end of the plateau are ruins which may perhaps indicate the site of Herod’s palace, though they do not, assuredly, correspond with the exagerated description of Josephus. Beyond them on the south, the platform ends in a tremendous chasm. CHAPTER XII. BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. The Message of John — The Baptism of Christ — The Gospel of Jesus — Visit to John after the Tempta¬ tion — John’s Loyal Humility — Andrew, Peter and Nathanael — The Marriage at Cana — Kanet el- Jelil — Gath-Hepher, the Birth Place of Jonah — Kefr Kenna, the Traditional Cana — The Water Jars Preserved — Brothers of Jesus — Visit to Capernaum — Sea of Galilee — Gennesareth — Its Ex¬ tent and Fertility — Called Capernaum by Josephus — A Critical Difficulty Resolved— Site of Ca¬ pernaum — Tell Hum — Origin of the Name — Ain Mudawarah — Khan Minyeh — Canon Tristram on the Rival Sites — Wadvs of Gennesareth — Ain et-Tin — Bethsaida of Galilee — Ruins at Tell Hum — Chorazin — Safed — Sabbath Superstitions — Giscala — Magdala — Wady Hammam— Ain el- Barideh — Dalmanutha — Dalhamia — Springs of Hammath — Tiberias -Founded by Herod Anti' pas partly on an Ancient Cemetery — Detested by the Jews — Not Visited by Jesus — Its Ancient Splendor — Fortified by Josephus — Captured by the Romans — Naval Battle of Tarichoea — Seat of the Great Sanhedrim — Composition of the Mishna — St. Jerome — Taken by the Moslems — Modern Tiberias Described — Its Countless Fleas — Kerak — Bethsaida Julias— Feeding of the Five Thous¬ and — A Critical Difficulty Removed — Plain of Batihah — Gergesa — Gamala— Aphek — Hippos — Southern Shore of the Lake — What a Railway Would Do — Associations of the Lake with the Saviour. OHN THE BAPTIST was not only the great¬ est of the prophets; he was the chosen fore¬ runner of Him of Whom “all the prophets bear witness.” Yet he was a prophet of that inexorable law which, St. Paul says, declares all men to be lying under sen¬ tence of death. The Baptist proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand; but to him the coming of God’s kingdom meant the coming of a day of vengeance, when the axe was to be laid at the root fountain at cana. of the trees, and all dead trees, with all their worthless branches, were to be utterly consumed. His cry was, “Flee from the wrath to come!” Most, appropriate to such a message, was the scene of the Baptist’s labors. He made his first appearance in the lonely and desolate Wilder¬ ness of Judea, which only a few scattered cells and villages of ascetic Essenes 372 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 373; appeared to claim as a portion of the habitable earth. It lay along the Sea of Salt, in which no living creature moves, and which the common in¬ stinct of mankind has called the Dead Sea. Under the waters of that sea,, or near its shore, was the former site of the doomed cities of the plain, the scene of a tremendous tragedy of fiery vengeance. On the northern END OF THE TEMPTATION. (MATT. IV! 10.) boundary of the desert was Jericho, a city built in defiance of a solemn curse, and behind it towered a mountain haunted by evil beasts and spirits, the Mount of the Temptation, which, even in its outward aspect, is so gloomy and forbidding as to have been called a mountain of malediction. Such was the theater of nature in which the Baptist preached the last word that the law had for mankind. At the last, as from the first, that word was, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die!” No part of God’s Word ever contradicts another, however different it 374 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. may seem; and when Jesus came to preach the same Kingdom of God which John preached, He did not contradict the message of the Baptist. In the most emphatic way He set the seal of His approval to the message that the Baptist had delivered: for He, Himself, though He was innocent of all sin, went down from Nazareth to Bethabara, and was baptized with WITNESS OF JOHN TO JESUS. (JOHN 1:29.) John’s baptism of repentance. Jesus had joined Himself to all humanity, and all the miseries which sin has brought upon our race. In the Gospel, as under the law, repentance is the first and indispensable condition of de¬ liverance from sin and its consequences; and, therefore, He submitted to a baptism of repentance, for which He had no personal need, as though He wished to join Himself with men and make their very sins His own that He might also make them partakers of His grace. It was after this amaz¬ ing proof of His humility, and as He rose from the baptismal waters of the Jordan, that “the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of 376 BETHABARA. CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” So true is it, even of the Son of God, that “he who humbleth himself shall be exalted!” Every extraordinary manifestation of grace is intended to be applied in some great work or in some great necessity; and therefore the divine recognition of the Sonship of Christ was immediately followed by His mysterious and awful temptation. While the voice of the Spirit was yet sounding in His ear Jesus was “led,” according to St. Matthew, or “driven,” according to St. Luke, by the same “Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.” There in the gloomy heights of Quarantania, He remained for forty days among the wild beasts, fasting from food, as if to try the utmost depths of human weakness, before His struggle with the enemy of man. Emerging from that struggle, fainting yet victorious, “angels came and ministered unto Him.” His body was refreshed; his soul was strengthened by victory and hope for the tempted world which He had come to save; and Jesus rose up in the consciousness of His divine power to do the work which lay before Him. That work was to preach the same kingdom of God which John had preached, and yet how differently. John preached a kingdom of law and retribution, which it is; but Christ preached it as a kingdom of love and benediction, which it is still more. The law had cried, “The soul that sinneth it shall die;” Christ said in more gentle tones, “The gift of God is eternal life.” The issue of the law had been condemnation. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was a proclamation of grace. Jesus was now to tell men that the kingdom of God is in them and among them, as well as over and above them, however little they may recognize it; that the spiritual things of God have their beginnings in things which are natural; and that God’s indwelling power controls, and His spirit sanctifies, all lawful human societies and operations. The desert was no place for the proclamation of such a Gos¬ pel. Where nature was most joyous, where men were most numerous, and where their occupations were most varied, there was the appropriate place for Christ’s Gospel to be preached; and without an hour’s delay He rose and marched with swift steps to the field of much the larger part of all His ministry. BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE 377 Before He went, or rather, perhaps, as He went, Tie paused a little while beside the Jordan where John was still baptizing, and therefor two short days he tarried with, or near, the priestly prophet, who should see His face on earth no more (John i: 29-36). John, too, had seen and heard the testimony of the Spirit to the Sonship of Christ. His generous soul had felt no touch of envy at the sight. He rejoiced to know that One was to come after him whose shoes’ latchet he was not worthy to un¬ loose. He was the first of men to bear “record that this is the Son of God.’’ He was glad to send his own disciples to the greater Master, and the first of Christ’s disciples was given Him by John. Look¬ ing upon Jesus as He walked, he said to two of his followers, “Behold the Lamb of God!” and the two left John to fol¬ low Jesus. One of them was Andrew, who soon brought his own brother Simon to Jesus. Thus the little company of Christ s disciples was begun. The next day, when about to set out to his work in Galilee, Jesus found Philip also, and said to him, “Follow thou me.” One disciple invariably calls another; and as Andrew had brought Simon a HH C r w w w • a 5 o o w z z M C/3 > w a 378 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE to Jesus, so Philip brought Nathanael, “an Israelite indeed.” We know nothing further of Nathanael than that the place of his abode was in Cana of Galilee, and that he was one of the witnesses of Christ’s resurrection (John xxi: i— 1 4). It is conjectured, indeed, that Nathanael was only his personal name, and that his surname was Bartholomew, “the son of Tal- CALLING OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES. (MATT. IV: I8-I9.) mai,” as Simon’s surname was Bar-Jona, “the son of Jona.” If the con¬ jecture is correct, then Nathanael was one of the twelve; but of this there is no certainty. He may have been one of that great multitude of Israel¬ ites indeed, who are called to no official station in the kingdom of God, but who are among its chiefest ornaments. However that may be, it is probable that he now returned to his native village of Cana in the com¬ pany of Jesus. BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 379 On the third day (John ii: i, 3) they were already there, and the quickness of their march showed the alacrity with which our Lord set forth to do His Father’s business. The first work of His ministry was meant to mark with signal approbation that most sacred of all human ties which is created by the bond of marriage. At the wedding of a humble pair He “adorned and beautified the holy estate of matrimony, ’ and glorified it by a marvellous work of superhuman power. It is pitiful to think how blind many of the followers of Christ have been, and still are* to the lesson thus taught by their Master in the first act of His ministry. Not one word nor any single act of all His life is at variance with that lesson. Jesus taught self-control; He never taught asceticism. He insisted on chastity; He never taught that mar¬ riage is less chaste or less pleasing to God than celibacy. From the begin¬ ning “God has set the solitary to live in familes,” and the family is made by marriage. The family, and not the individual, is the true unit of society. So God has ordained; and the Son of God, when He began to preach the kingdom of God, began by recognizing and exalting that domain of God’s kingdom of the family which is estab¬ lished by every lawful marriage. Of Cana, the scene of Christ’s first miracle, there is little to be told. Dr. Robinson thinks it must have been a village situated seven miles due north of Nazareth, and still called Kanet el-Jelil, the Arab equivalent of “Cana of Galilee.” The traditional site of Cana, however, is considerably nearer to Nazareth. Ascending the hill, which rises behind the Virgin’s Well, we reach its summit in little more than ten minutes. Descend¬ ing into the valley beyond and going northward, after half an hour of easy walking we come in sight of the birth-place of the prophet Jonah, El Meshed , 380 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. the ancient Gath-Hepher (2 Kings xiv: 25); and about a mile to the north¬ west of El-Meshed is the spring of Kenna. A little beyond the spring is the village itself, Kefr Kenna , an ordinary hamlet of six hundred inhabitants, half of whom are Mahometans and half Greek Christians. The Greek church contains an earthen jar which is said to be one of those in which the water was turned into wine. All six of them are reported by another story to have been taken to France in the time of the Crusades, and one HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC AT CAPERNAUM. (MATT. IX:i-8.) of them is still preserved in the Muse d’Angers. We may disregard these pretended relics; but if Kefr Kenna is indeed the Cana of the Gos¬ pel, and so the weight of authority seems to decide, then the spring is an object of deep and sacred interest, as the source from which the water was drawn for the first of those signs of divine power by which Jesus “mani¬ fested forth His glory.” BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE 381 The life ol Jesus at Nazareth was ended; His greater life had been introduced by the miracle at Cana, and after that event He “went down,” with His mother, His brethren and His disciples, on a short visit to Caper¬ naum. Joseph is no longer mentioned; sometime during the eighteen years which had elapsed since the first visit of Jesus to Jerusalem that good man had been taken to his rest. Who are meant by the “brethren” of Jesus we need not here inquire. Some com¬ mentators and all the theologians of the Roman and oriental churches maintain that they were not brothers but cousins of Jesus, and this has been the uniform tra¬ dition of Christendom. On the other hand it must be confessed that there is nothing in Holy Scripture to intimate that they were not brothers in the usual sense of the word, children of Joseph and Mary. Be that as it may, it would seem that these brethren of Jesus were at first pleased at the power He had exhibited, and were perhaps not displeased at the dis¬ tinction it reflected on themselves, since they choose to be among the companions of His visit to Capernaum. With the accuracy of one who was familiar with the scene, St. John rightly says that He “went down” from Cana to Capernaum. The way is one long descent, for, while Cana lay among the hills of Nazareth, Caper¬ naum was seven hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean. The road had few points of interest until it came to what is now called Kurun Hattin , or the Horns of Hattin , the traditional Mount of the Beatitudes. Dr. Robinson describes this spot as being “merely a low ridge, some thirty or forty feet high, and not ten minutes walk in length from east to west. At its eastern end is an elevated point or horn, perhaps sixty feet above the plain; and at the western end another not so high; these give to the ridge at a distance the appearance of a saddle, whence the name Kurun ET-TIN. 382 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE, Hattin — Elorns of Hattin. On reaching the top it is found that the ridge lies along the very border of the great southern plain where this latter sinks off at once by a precipitous offset to the lower Plain of Hattin, four hundred feet below.” In the lower Plain is the village of Hattin, and toward the north and northeast a second offset, similar to the former, makes the descent to the level of the lake. The Kurun Hattin is held by the Latins to be the Mount of Beati¬ tudes, where the Saviour delivered his Sermon on the Mount to the multi¬ tude standing in the adjacent plain. There is nothing in Holy Scripture, to indicate the geographical situation of the Mount of the Beatitudes; and there is nothing in the form or surroundings of Kurun Hattin to make the tradition inherently inadmissible. The objection to it is, that it is found among the Latins only; not among the Greeks; and that even among the Latins, the first mention of the place in connection with the Sermon on the Mount, is by Brocardus about A. D. 1283. Previous writers, both Greek and Latin, had supposed Kurun Hattin to be the place where our Lord fed the five thousand. That tradition is inherently improbable, and dates only from the fourth century; but it has at least the support of the Greeks as well as of the Latins, and it is nine hundred years earlier than the tradition which makes the same place the scene of the Sermon on the Mount. From the Horns of Hattin, the travelers had a full view of the beauti¬ ful lake extending thirteen miles from north to south, and seven at its greatest width from east to west, lyre-like in form, and, therefore, in ancient times called Chinnereth , the Lyre , though it is also known as the Lake of Gennesareth , the Lake of Capernaum , the Sea of Tiberias , and the Sea of Galilee. So far did it surpass all other waters known to Israel, that the rabbis used to say God had made seven seas in the Land of Israel, but had chosen Chinnereth for Himself. The scenery of the Sea of Galilee is not grand; it is only peaceful and joyous, and, therefore, most appropri¬ ate for the proclamation of a gospel of peace and joy. It has no high mountains, and with two exceptions, no rugged crags or gloomy precipices. On the further side, indeed, barren hills of black basalt rise over a fringe of oleanders which bloom gaily for a quarter of a mile back from the shell- strewn border of the lake, and behind those rocks are pastoral wilds where Jesus often sought retirement from the crowds that thronged about Him. BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 3S5 Northward, the shore is broken by graceful bays of exquisite beauty; but it is on the western side that the paradise of Galilee was to be seen, for there was Gennesareth, that is to say, Ganne Sarim, the Garden of Princes, now called El Ghuweir. This celebrated plain lies about midway between Tiberias and the entrance of the Jordan into the lake. It is only two and a half miles in length from north to south, and not more than a RAISING OF JAIRUS’ DAUGHTER. (MATT. IX:25.) mile in depth, but in the time of Christ it was the richest spot in Palestine. It was watered by five streams from the neighboring hills, and the sun warmed it into tropical fertility. “Its soil,” says Josephus, “is so fruitful, that every sort of tree can grow upon it, and the inhabitants have planted an amazing variety. Walnuts, which require a cold air, fig-trees, which require an air more temperate, and palms, which require a hot climate, 386 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. flourish luxuriantly beside each other. One might say that this place is a triumph of nature, since it compels plants that are naturally aliens to each other to grow side by side. The seasons, also, seem to maintain a gener¬ ous rivalry; for the plain not only nourishes fruits of different climes, but the soil yields them at the most various times of the year; grapes and figs ripen continuously for ten months; and other fruits come in delightful con¬ fusion all the year round.” This lovely plain enjoys the only romantic scenery of the coast, for at its southern end are the limestone crags of Arbela, in whose lofty caverns robbers and Jewish patriots once took refuge, where the eagles only now built their nests. The Plain of Gennesareth, Josephus says, was called by its inhabit¬ ants, Capernaum, a simple explanation of the fact, that the site of Caper¬ naum is not positively known. If Josephus is right, and there is no good reason why he should not be, Capernaum was the name of the district, and not of a particular spot in the district. Gennesareth, as its name implies, was a plain of “gardens,” and, therefore, must have been closely cultivated and thickly inhabited. It had a synagogue, in which our Lord frequently taught (John vi: 59; Mark i: 21; Lukeiv: 33-38); and this syna¬ gogue had been built by the centurion of a detachment of Roman soldiers, which appears to have been quartered in the place (Luke vii : 1-8 ; Matt, viii: 8). It has been well observed, that the building of a synagogue by a foreigner, and not by the inhabitants, would go far to show, that Caper¬ naum was not at that time a place of wealth or commercial importance; but the same circumstance would be perfectly natural in a district densely populated by humble gardeners. Such a district having a synagogue, a garrison and a station for the collection of customs (Matt, ix: 9; xvii: 24; Mark ii: 14; Luke v:2j), might properly be called a “city,” as Capernaum undoubtedly was (Matt, ix: 1 ; Mark i: 33), and situated as it probably was, on “the way of the sea,” that is, on the great road from Damascus to the South, the custom house at Capernaum may have been maintained for the levying of duties on the caravans of merchandise passing to Galilee and Judea, as well as on the fish and other commerce of the lake. Even the local traffic would be by no means contemptible; for 'in the time of Christ “the waters of the lake were ploughed by 4,000 vessels of every description, from the war-vessel of the Romans to the rough fisher-boats St. Mark (vi 153) says, that on a certain occasion, Jesus and His disciples “came into the land (Plain) of Gennesareth,” while St. John (vr.24) says, that the people who came to seek Him immediately afterward found Him at Capernaum. It is true that Jesus might have gone from the one place to the other, before the people found Him; but it seems to be unnecessary to devise so clumsy an explanation, when no explanation is necessary, if the Gennesareth of St. Mark, and the Capernaum of St. John signify the same place. Volumes, however, have been written concerning the site of Caper¬ naum, and three spots have been particularly singled out, as indicating the true place where the Lord’s “own city” stood. Strange to say, that which BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 387 of Bethsaida, and the gilded pinnaces from Herod’s palace” at Tiberias. The statement of Josephus, that Capernaum was the name given by its inhabitants, to the Plain of Gennesareth, is remarkably confirmed by an apparent discrepancy between two of the evangelists, which would almost imply a contradiction if Capernaum lay beyond the Plain of Gennesareth. ET-TABIGAH. 388 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. is most generally approved, is not in the Plain of Gennesareth at all, but about two miles to the north of it; and it must be confessed, that the remains at Tell Hum are more like those of a “city” than the ruins at Ain Mudawarah , which lie within the plain, or of Khan Minyeh , which lie on its northern border. This fact, however, proves nothing, unless it goes to prove that Tell Hum cannot be Capernaum. The name Tell Hum presents a greater difficulty, since it is very prob¬ ably a remnant of Capernaum, different as it sounds to English ears. Capernaum is simply Caphar Nahum , the town of Nahum. Its Arabic equivalent would be Kefr-n Hum; and when the town ( kefr ) became a heap (tell) of ruins, Kefr-n Hum would be easily replaced by Tell ri Hum, and finally by Tell Hum. Supposing this to be the fact, still it does not prove that the Capernaum which is now represented by the ruins at Tell Hum, is the Capernaum of the gospels. In the time of Hadrian, long after the time of Christ, the Jews were permitted to return to their own land. In Galilee they were much more numerous than in the rest of the country, and the Capernaum of that period might easily take the ancient name without standing in the neighboring Plain of Gennesareth. One of the very best and briefest statements of the case between Ain Mudawarah , Khan Minyeh , and Tell Hum (and incidentally, also of the position of Bethsaida), is that given as follows by Dr. Tristram: “The soil of the plain is wonderfully rich. It is a wilderness — not, as in the days of Josephus, an earthly paradise; but it is a strikingly beauti¬ ful one. Wild flowers spring up everywhere. Tulips, anemones, and irises, carpet the ground. The various streams are lined with deep borders of oleanders, waving with their rosy tufts of bloom, one sheet of pink. Thick tangles of thorn-tree every here and there choke the straggling corn- patches, festooned with wreaths of gorgeous purple convolvulus. The plain is almost a parallelogram, shut in on the north and south sides by steep cliffs, nearly a thousand feet high, broken here and there into ter¬ races, but nowhere easily to be climbed. On the west side, the hills recede not quite so precipitously, and streams of black basalt boulders encroach on the plain. The shore line is gently embayed, and the beach is pearly white — one mass of triturated fresh-water shells — and edged by a fringe of the exquisitely lovely oleanders. BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE 3S9 At the northwest and southwest angles, tremendous ravines open upon the plain. That to the south, Wady Hamam , where the cliffs rise perpen¬ dicularly twelve hundred feet, is the ravine of the robber caves, already mentioned, with its tiers of cavern chambers. The glen to the northwest, the Wady Amud , is scarcely less striking, and in some places, from its narrowness, is even more imposing. Both are the homes of thousands of griffon vultures, which rejoice in the deserted caverns and solitude. Between these two, a third wady, Rubudiyeh , opens in a wider valley. From each of these perennial streams run to the lake,. NORTH SHORE, NEAR TELL-HUM. fertilizing the whole plain; and in ancient times aqueducts conveyed the water to every part. A little way to the south of the middle valley, a copious spring bursts forth into an ancient circular fountain, about thirty yards in diameter, Ain Mudawarah , from which a little stream runs right across the plain to the lake. This I formerly believed to be the Round Fountain of Capernaum, described by Josephus. But it has since been shown, by the researches of 390 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. Sir C. Wilson, that the larger and similar Fountain of Et Tabighah, to the north of the plain, had its waters conducted by an aqueduct, round the pro¬ jecting headland which forms its northeastern angle, right into the plain, and, therefore, the description of Josephus will apply equally to it. No doubt there are difficulties connected with the site of Capernaum, which¬ ever of the three localities claimed for it we accept; but, after the recent surveys, I am not prepared to maintain the site of Mudawarah. In the plain itself, there are no other ruins of importance till we reach the northeast angle; and if Capernaum were, as all writers describe it, in the plain, it must have been either here or at Mudawarah. The ruins at this point are few. There is a large ruined Saracenic khan, some chambers of which are still used as cattle sheds. It was known seven hundred years ago as a halting-place on the road from Damascus, and is called Khan Minyeh. A few yards lower down, nearer the shore, is A in et-Tin , “the fountain of the fig-tree,” bursting copiously from the rocks, and sending forth a supply of sweet water under the shade of three fine fig-trees, whence its name. The little stream, after a course of about thirty yards, forms a small luxuriant marsh, skirted with oleanders, and choked with waving tufts of the beautiful tall papyrus of Egypt. The ruins, the second claimant for Capernaum , are to the west of it, forming a series of mounds, but no fragments of columns or carvings have been found. On the hill above are some more distinct ruins and tombs, and just above the khan, the aqueduct from Ain Tabighah winds round the cliff, and is now used as a horse-path. The spot loses none of its interest from the disputed identification. Whatever it be, many times must our Redeemer have trodden the path by that fountain; and often the walls below, and the cliffs above it, re-echoed the voice of Him who spake as never man spake. Passing north, we leave Gennesareth’s Plain round the edge of a bluff which descends to the water’s edge, wholly interrupting any passage by the shore, and having no beach. Descending immediately, the path leads close * to the beach, and at little more than a mile stands Ain Tabighah, usually agreed on as Bethsaida , “ The House of Fish," and still the chief fishing sta¬ tion on the lake, the few naked fishermen casting hand-nets into the shal¬ low waters, one boat being used to supply the Tiberias market. A few hundred yards behind, on the hill, is the great Round Fountain before BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE 39i alluded to, and supposed, by Sir C. Wilson, to be the Fountain of Caper¬ naum, of Josephus. It is the largest spring in Galilee — half the size of that of the Jordan, at Caesarea Philippi. It was formerly raised by a strong octagonal reservoir, some twenty feet above its source, and thence conveyed RUINS AT TELL-HUM. to the plain by an aqueduct. Neglect has long since suffered the great reservoir to be broken through, as well as the aqueduct, of which, here and there, piers maybe seen. There are four other fountains, all slightly brack¬ ish and warm. These, sending up a cloud of steam in the still atmos¬ phere, produce a luxuriant semi-tropical oasis around them, but are other¬ wise wasted, save that a portion of the water is collected in an aqueduct 392 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE to turn a corn-mill, the only one in working order of five, and the solitary inhabited dwelling of Bethsaida. The white beach gently shelves, and is admirably adapted, with its little curved bay, for fishing-boats. The an¬ chorage is good, and is partly protected by submerged rows of stones, though there does not appear to have been any break-water. Rocks, how¬ ever, project more than fifty yards out at the southwest, forming a sort of protection. The sand has just the gentle slope fitted for the fishermen running up their boats and beaching them. Here we may safely fix the scene of the miraculous draught of fishes and the subsequent call of Peter and Andrew, James and John (Luke v: i - 1 1 ) . Bethsaida was coupled, in the woe denounced by our Lord, with its sister cities Chorazin and Capernaum; and now, not only in the desolation of their sites, but in the very dispute about their identity, we see it has been “more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon” in the day of their earthly judgment than for these cities. Their names are preserved, their sites are unquestioned, but here the names are gone, and even the sites are disputed (Matt, xi: 21-24). This Bethsaida, the birth-place of Andrew, Peter and Philip, is called Bethsaida of Galilee to distinguish it from the other Bethsaida, north of the lake, on the east side of Jordan, Bethsaida Julias. Proceeding northward about a mile and a half, we come upon a little low promontory running out into the lake, covered with sculptured ruins and known as Tell Hum , the third and, I am now inclined to believe, the rightful claimant for the site of ancient Capernaum. The most conspicu¬ ous ruin is at the water’s edge, called the White Synagogue, built of hard white limestone, while the district round is strewn with blocks of black basalt. It is now partly buried, and is nearly level with the surface, the capitals and colums having been for the most part carried away or burnt for lime. The excavations of the Palestine Exploration Fund have, how¬ ever, shown many of the pedestals in their original position and many capitals buried in the rubbish. There can be no doubt, from the form and plan of the building, that it is a Jewish synagogue. The outside of the synagogue of Tell Hum was decorated with pilas¬ ters, and attached to its eastern side is a later addition, a rectangular building with three entrances on the north and one on the east, but with- BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE 393 out a doorway to connect the two buildings. But the most interesting relic here is a large block, once a lintel, with the pot of manna sculptured on it. If this be Capernaum, then this must beyond doubt, be the syna¬ gogue built by the Roman centurion (Luke vii: 4, 5), and it was within its walls that our Lord uttered the discourse in John, Chap, vi, and perhaps, pointing to the pot of manna carved over the door, proclaimed, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the Wilderness and are dead.” It is possible, from the Corinthian and Ionic mouldings, that this place is a later erection of the time of the Emperor Hadrian, and that the name Tell Hum, or “hill of Hum,” was applied to it when it took the SAFED. place of the earlier Kefr Nahum, or Capernaum, “the village of Hum.” I he remains of the latter building are probably those of the church which we are told was built at Capernaum, and is described, about the year A. D. 600, as a basilica enclosing the house of Peter. Round the synagogue and stretching for half a mile from the shore, the area is covered with the ruined walls of private houses and the traces of a main street. Beyond these are some remarkable tombs above and 394 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. below ground. There are no traces of a harbor, and it could never have been a convenient spot for fishing-boats. But at least it seems tolerably certain that whether this be the Capernaum of our Lord’s time or not, it is the Capernaum of the Jews when, under Hadrian, they were permitted to return to their land. Its distance from the Round Fountain and from the Plain of Gennesareth seems the obstacle to a decisive admission of its being the city of the Gospels.” Two and a half miles north of Tell Hum, and two miles back from the lake, are the ruins of Chorazin, now called Kerazeh , situated partly in a narrow wady of the same name and partly on an eminence 700 feet above the lake. The surrounding country is pathless and utterly desolate. The ground is covered with millions of black boulders over which a horse can hardly make his way, and which presents the appearance of having been poured down in a tremendous rain of rocks and stones. How or why a city could ever have existed or flourished in such a situation it is diffi¬ cult to imagine. Yet Chorazin must once have been a place of importance. Its ruins are as extensive as those of Tell Hum, and they are in a fair state of preservation. Though they have been unoccupied since the fourth century, the walls of many of the dwellings are still standing. They are two feet thick, and some of them are fully six feet high, built of blocks of basalt, with windows a foot high, by six or seven inches wide. The roofs, which seem to have been flat, were supported by columns. The houses vary in size, the smallest being simply tiny stone boxes, and the largest being about thirty feet square and divided into four chambers. Here, too, are the remains of a large synagogue, and beside a tree in the middle of the ancient town, is a spring. Such as Kerazeh is now, Chorazin must have been in the time of Christ. In such places He carried an His labors, and in such dwellings He took his rest. No wonder that, under the clear sky of the Holy Land, He preferred to spend His night in the open air! About eight miles northwest of Tell Hum and towering high above the intervening hills, so as to be visible from nearly all parts of the Sea of Galilee, stands Safed. It is not mentioned by name in the Scriptures, but it is believed to have been referred to by our Saviour as the “City set upon an hill,” which “cannot be hid” (Matt, v: 14). Though the name of Safat occurs in the Talmud of Jerusalem, it cannot be proved by any direct evi- BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 395 denceto have been built so early as the time of Christ; and yet it seems to be improbable that a military position so strong as that of Safed should have been overlooked or unoccupied. At the present time it is the place of all others in that region, which would be most readily thought of to point the Saviour’s illustration. Certain it is that Safed was a place of strength VIEW FROM CASTLE OF SAFED. in the time of the Crusades, ana that Saladin had great difficulty in reduc¬ ing it. In 1250 it was destroyed by the Sultan of Damascus, but it was afterward restored by the Templars. In 1266 the garrison surrendered to Bibars, by whom the survivors were massacred. Safed then became the capital of a province. In 1759 it was destroyed by an earthquake. In 1799 it was occupied by the French. It is now a sacred place of the Jews who believe that when the Messiah comes, he will rise from the Lake of Gennesareth, and establish His throne at Safed. Safed, therefore, is one of the four great Jewish sanctuaries, the other three being at Jerusalem, Heb- 396 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. ron and Tiberias. It is occupied by a Jewish colony founded not later than the sixteenth century. It is also the seat of a celebrated school of rabbinical learning, and besides the schools which were originally taught by famous Spanish rabbis, it once had eighteen synagogues. Half of the present population of Safed, amounting to about 5,000 souls, are Jews. They are punctilious sticklers for the law; and Dr. Thomson says that “their social institutions and manners comprise a grotesque mingling of filth and finery, Pharasaic self-righteousness and Saducean license. A Jew on the Sabbath Day, “must not carry even so much as a pocket handker¬ chief, except within the walls of the city. If there are no walls, it follows, according to their logic, that he must not carry it at all. To avoid this difficulty here in Safed, they resorted to what they called Eruv. Poles were set up at the ends of the streets, and strings stretched from one to the other. Those strings represented a wall, and a conscientious Jew could carry his handkerchief anywhere within their limits. I was once amused by a devout Israelite who was walking with me, on his Sabbath, toward a grove of olive trees where my tent was pitched. When we came to the end of the street the string was gone, and so he supposed he was at liberty to go on without reference to what was in his pocket, because he had passed the wall. A profane and most quarrelsome Jew once handed me his watch to wind just after sunset on Friday evening. It was then his Sabbath and he could not work.” This punctilious gentleman had evidently forgotten that the man-servant, and the maid-servant and the cattle, and the stranger were equally prohibited from work on the Sabbath day, so far as it depended upon Israelites; but it was among just such supersti¬ tious punctilios that our Lord came preaching the gospel of liberty. How hard it must have been we can never imagine; and how sacrilegiously de¬ structive it must have seemed to the people who heard Him it is impossi¬ ble for us to conceive. On the first of January, 1837, Safed was again destroyed by an earth¬ quake. The city then contained 9,000 souls, and was built on the side of the mountain. As one tier of houses fell, it rolled on the tier below, crush¬ ing all beneath. Nearly 5,000 persons were killed. Most of the Jews now at Safed are Polish immigrants under Austrian protection, and almost all of them are beggars. Among the Sephardim ( i . e., the Spanish-Portu- guese Jews), polygamy is still practiced. BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 397 Six miles northwest of Safed is El Jish , the ancient Giscala, seated on a cone-shaped hill. It was the last place in Galilee which surrendered to the Romans under Titus, and according to St. Jerome, it was the home of the parents of St. Paul, before they emigrated to Tarsus. In the great earthquake which was so disastrous to Safed, El Jish was completely destroyed. Not a house was left standing, and a congregation of one hun¬ dred and thirty-five persons, which happened at the moment to be gath- MAGDALA. ered in the church, was buried in the ruins. Only the priest escaped, being saved by a projection of the arch over the altar. Returning to the Plain of Gennesareth, we find its southwestern border closed by steep cliffs, and, beside the shore is a wretched collection of hovels called Mejdel, which is all that remains of Magdala; the town of Mary, the Magdalene. “Through its connection with her whom the long opinion of the Church identified with the penitent sinner,” says Dean 39§ BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. Stanley, “the name of that ancient tower (Migdol) has been incorporated into all the languages of Europe. A large solitary thorn-tree stands beside it. The situation, otherwise unmarked, is dignified by the high limestone rock which overhangs it on the southwest, perforated with caves, recalling, by a curious though doubtless unintentional coincidence, the scene of Correggio’s celebrated picture.” With the exception of this miserable hamlet, where there is such abject degradation, that the children play stark naked in the street, there is not an inhabited spot in El Ghu- weir, the once crowded Plain of Gennesareth. The huts are built of mud and stone, without windows. The inhabitants are unspeakably filthy. The ground is overrun with tropical weeds which show the richness of the soil, while the flowering oleanders seem to protest against the desolation into which that once pleasant plain has been suffered to fall. From the rocks behind Mejdel is perhaps the very finest view of the Plain and Lake of Gennesareth. The wady which rises up behind Mejdel is the Wady Hammam , the Valley of Doves, famous in Jewish history. Its upright walls are 1,000 feet in height. On the southern edge of the ravine are the ruins of Irbid, once the great Jewish town of Arbela, as appears from the remains of a magnifi¬ cent synagogue. On the northern side are many small caves in which not only doves or pigeons but eagles, ravens and vultures make their abode. In the time of Herod, these caves were the resort of great numbers of Jewish Zealots, who, in that unapproachable stronghold, defied their enemies. Herod, then a young man, marched against them, and was very nearly defeated; but, driving the insurgents to their dens, he let down his soldiers in iron cages, drew out the wretched enthusiasts with hooks, and hurled them to the foot of the precipice. Some of them were smoked out of their retreat by fires of straw kindled at the mouths of the caves, and wildly leaped out of their own accord. The triumph of Herod was com¬ plete. The Zealots were exterminated, and the only human beings who have since dwelt in those caves, have been peaceful monks. About a mile to the south of Magdala, a narrow glen breaks down from the west, and at its mouth, near to the lake, are some cultivated fields and gardens, with several copious fountains, and the ruins of a village surrounded by heavy ancient walls. This place is called Ain-el-Barideh BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 399 the Cold Fountain. It is believed to be the Dalmanutha of the Gospel of St. Mark. The only reason to be given for this identification is, that while St. Matthew (xv: 39) says that Jesus “came into the border of Mag- dala,” St. Mark (viii: 10) says, that He “came into the parts of Dalma¬ nutha.” The two places are so near to each other, that it would be perfectly natural to adopt either of these descriptions of the district lying between them; and there is no other place near Magdala of which the same could be said. Dr. Robinson, however, identifies Dalmanutha with Dalhamia or Dalmaniia on the Jarmuk, which flows into the Jordan a t little south of the Sea of Galilee. Four miles north of the exit of the Jordan from the Sea of Galilee are hot springs, four in number, which have been famous for thousands of years. Their water is excessively bitter and salt, and has a strong smell of sulphur. Its temperature is about 144 degrees Fahrenheit. - These springs are believed to be medicinal, and are said to afford relief in cases of rheumatism and other maladies. In the time of Joshua they were probably surrounded by a walled town, Hammatli , ( the Baths), which was one of the “fenced cities” given by Joshua to the tribe of Naphtali (Josh, xix: 35). The city of Hammath probably lay to the south of the springs, as the outlines of ruins of great antiquity can still be traced there, though similar remains, found among ruins of a later date to the north of the springs, indicate that the Herodian city which afterward occupied that site stood, probably, at least, on the site of another city of greater antiquity and possibly of equal splendor. In the time of Josephus Hammath was called Ammaus or Emmaus. At the present time the water from the springs is collected into one channel and conducted to covered baths which are not more than fifty years old. The reservoir is arched over, and the water is allowed to cool until its temperature is sufficiently reduced for bathing. Somewhat to the north of Hammath, and perhaps including a part of it, was built the city of Tiberias. It was founded by Herod Antipas, A. D. 20, and was finished A. D. 27; that is to say, it was begun when our Saviour was about twenty-four years of age, and was finished when He was about thirty-one. It is one of the incidental evidences of the historical charac¬ ter of the Gospels that they do 'not represent our Lord as having ever 400 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. entered the splendid city which Herod had named in honor of the Emperor Tiberias. If the Gospels were of the date of the second and third centuries, as certain critics would have us believe, the writers would hardly have remembered, and probably would not have known the reason why our Saviour, who visited so many other places on the shores of that lake, would not visit the new-built capital of Herod. Such a reason, how¬ ever, did exist. Jewish burying places were always outside their cities, never within them, because the very soil of a cemetery was held to be polluted. It may be that the ancient burying place of Hammath was out¬ side of its northern limit; at all events, part of Tiberias was built on the ground of a former cemetery, and on that account the new* city was an abomination to the Israelites. The prejudice against it was so strong that Herod had the greatest difficulty in inducing people to live in it. Stran¬ gers were brought from a distance. Persons of rank were enticed by promises of royal favor. To poorer people Herod made a present of desirable dwellings on the sole condition that they should accept and live in them. Even slaves were brought there and set at liberty in all other respects except that they were required to remain in Tiberias. . “These measures were necessary,” says Josephus, “because many sepulchers had to be taken away to make room for the city, contrary to the ancient Jewish laws which pronounce the inhabitants of such a place to be unclean for seven days.” To have visited Tiberias would have needlessly subjected our Lord to the imputation of being a contemner of the law and a partisan of Herod not only in this sacrilege, but also in idolatry. For Tiberias, built on a polluted site inhabited by a mixed population of Gentiles and renegades, was also adorned with buildings which devout Jews regarded as essentially idolatrous. Herod was an Italian by educa¬ tion and preference. His tastes and habits were those of Rome. He delighted in the splendid architecture and magnificent amusements to which he had been accustomed; and when he founded Tiberias and desig¬ nated it as the capital of Galilee, he erected a palace ornamented with figures of animals, “contrary” as Josephus says, “to the law of our coun¬ trymen.” It was in vain that Herod built in his new capital the finest syna¬ gogue in Galilee. To say nothing of the unclean soil on which it stood, it was surrounded with Gentile and heathen objects which would alone BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 401 have sufficed to make it odious. Beside it were Roman gates and Grecian colonnades, which, like the squares of the city and the palace of Herod, were adorned with heathen statues; and not far off was an amphitheater for the celebration of games which, to the Jewish mind, were inseparably con¬ nected with idolatry. Apart from these tokens of infidelity to the religion of Israel, the life of the luxurious monarch and his sycophant court would SEA OF GALILEE FROM ABOVE TIBERIAS. be offensive to all morality, and even decency; for it was probably in the birth-day revels of his palace of Tiberias, when surrounded by “his lords, high captains and chief estates of Galilee,” that the daughter of Herodias danced before him and received as her reward “the head of John the Baptist in a charger.” A hundred years after the time of Christ these things would be forgotten, and a writer of that age would have been almost certain to lay the scene of some part of the Saviour’s Galilean ministry in Herod’s splendid capital of Tiberias. It is one of the numer¬ ous incidental evidences that the evangelists lived in the times and scenes 402 BETHBARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. of which they wrote that only one of them even mentions the great and beautiful city into which Jesus did not enter. St. John (vi: i) merely says that the Sea of Galilee had come to be called the Sea of Tiberias, and that on one occasion (vi: 23) certain “boats from Tiberias” went to a place where Jesus had been. Only in these two connections is Tiberias named in the New Testament. It is singular indeed that a city which, in its foundation, was regarded by the Jews with absolute abhorrence, should have become one of their four sacred places. The fact is doubtless due to the establishment there of the Great Sanhedrim, after the destruction of Jerusalem. During the Jewish war, Josephus, who was commander-in-chief of the national forces in Galilee, fortified Tiberias; but on the approach of Vespasian, the in¬ habitants voluntarily surrendered, and Vespasian awarded their submission by allowing them to remain undisturbed. The Romans established their headquarters near the baths. From that point they undertook the reduc¬ tion of Tarichaea, and defeated the Jews in a naval battle on the placid waters of the lake. After the war, Galilee, which had been comparatively undisturbed, and Tiberias in particular, which had not suffered at all, be¬ came the chief seat of the Jewish nation. The Sanhedrim, which had been transferred from Jerusalem to Sepphoris, was again transferred to Tiberias; and there the school of the Talmud flourished. It was in Tiberias that the famous rabbi Judah Hak-Kadosh published the ancient traditional law called the Mishna. Christianity, too, made progress at Tiberias, and it was there that St. Jerome learned the Hebrew tongue. Bishops of Tiberias are mentioned in the fifth century. In 637, when the place fell under the Arabs, the bishopric disappeared. During the Crusades it was re-established under the Archbishop of Nazareth as Metropolitan. Tiberias long re¬ mained under Christian rule; but, after the battle of Hattin, the Countess of Tripoli was compelled to surrender the castle to the Moslems, and in their hands it has ever since remained. For about two miles and a quarter northward from the baths, there lies along the shore an undulating plain, between the water and the steep hills on the west. Tubariyeh lies at the northern end of this plain, so that the ancient Tiberias must have occupied all, or nearly all, of the interven¬ ing space. It probably did not, however, cover the ground of the present BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 403 Tubariyeh. The walls of the modern town were built during the last cen¬ tury. They are now dilapidated. On the south the town is entirely un¬ enclosed. The spacious old castle is deserted, except by a mongrel sort of military police. There is a Greek church in the possession of the Latins. It dates from the time of the Crusades, but was remodeled in 1869. It is dedicated to St. Peter, in honor of the miraculous draught of fishes which is said to have taken place in its vicinity (John xxi:6-n), but which could not have occurred there. The synagogue is on the shore of the lake. It is a vaulted building, unquestionably of great age, supported by columns, and has the appearance of a Greek temple. The Jews of the TIBERIAS. town have none of the learning for which their predecessors were once cele¬ brated, and the most observable thing about them is their large black hats. The steep hill behind the town is full of caves, some of which are 100 feet long. Many of them are plastered and have other unmistakable evidences of former occupation, as habitations of men. Their present occupants are wild beasts, such as jackals, hyenas and foxes. A few palm trees still bear witness to the former fertility of the soil, but even they are degenerate, and bear no comparison with the palms of Egypt, either in size or in beauty. In the great earthquake of 1837, in which Safed was almost ruined, the 404 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. whole town of Tubariyeh was lowered toward the south, and the mole or pier, reaching out into the lake, was actually bent and almost shrivelled. Tubariyeh is the only town remaining on the shores of the Lake of Tiberias. It has a population of about 3,000, one-half of whom are Jews, many of them immigrants from Poland. It is a wretched and filthy place. Lying, as it does, nearly 700 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, its climate is very warm, and the hills rising behind it on the west, to a height of 1,000 feet, shut off the free circulation of the air by which its excessive heat might be modified. Dr. Thomson says that when he was encamped near the baths the thermometer stood at 100 degrees about midnight. In summer the place is exceedingly unhealthy, severe forms of ague prevail¬ ing throughout that season. It is infested with vermin, and swarms with mosquitoes of enormous size. To Dr. Geikie, the fleas were the greatest torment. That learned gentleman, who has courageously addressed him¬ self to so many difficult problems, says: ‘‘How they all get a living I can¬ not conjecture!” Dr. Thomson, after saying that no town in Syria is so filthy as Tiberias, exclaims, “What can induce human beings to live in such a place ?” At the extreme south of the lake, and on the right side of the Jordan at its place of exit, is a small peninsula now called Kerak. It is the Tarichaea of Josephus, and, probably, the still more ancient Rakkath of Joshua, which is mentioned in connection with Hammath (Josh, xix: 35). It was once almost or quite an island, connected with the mainland by a long Roman bridge, which is now a causeway, and under arches of which, in spring-time, the water of the Jordan still flows. Tarichaea is not men¬ tioned in Scripture, but it was a place of undoubted importance. The soil is full of fragments of pottery and mosaic tiles, for the manufacture of which the town was celebrated. In the Jewish war, Tarichaea was strongly fortified by Josephus, and its isolation from the mainland was completed by a ditch which was partly artificial. It made a stout defence, but was taken and destroyed by Titus. It was there that Josephus collected two hundred and fifty ships to attack Tiberias, and not far off that the great naval battle was fought, to which we have already referred. As Tarichaea is the only harbor on the whole lake, it must have been an important place of refuge for ships overtaken in a storm. Nevertheless, Dr. Thomson BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 405 says, that he has seen the lake “lashed into fury for thirty consecutive hours, bya tempest that would have wrecked such a fleet as that of Josephus, had it been exposed to its violence; and the waves ran high — high enough to have filled or ‘covered the ship,’ as Matthew has it (Matt, viii: 24).” We have now glanced at all the notable places on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. We shall next look at the comparatively few places FEEDING OF THE MULTITUDES. (JOHN VI : I — 1 4. ) of interest on the northern and eastern sides, beginning where the Jordan enters the lake. 1 wo miles back from the shore, and in the dead level of a rich allu¬ vial plain, through which the turbid and muddy waters of the Jordan roll rapidly to the lake, once stood a small village called Bcthsaida. It was enlarged and adorned by Philip the Tetrarch, who gave to it the name of Bethsaida Julias, in honor of the daughter of the emperor. The mound 406 BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. of its remains, Et Tell , marks the spot near which our Saviour fed the five thousand. Bethsaida Julias must be carefully distinguished from Beth¬ saida on the western shore; for until the existence of two places of the same name on opposite sides of the lake had been ascertained, the story of that miracle furnished one of the knottiest difficulties of the gospels. St. Luke (ix: 10-17) says, that the scene of the transaction was a desert place "belonging to the city called Bethsaida.” St. Mark (vi: 31-53) says, that after it had occurred, our Saviour “constrained his disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side before Him unto Bethsaida.” As they were crossing the lake, a great storm arose, and when they had given themselves up for lost, Jesus came walking on the water and stilled the waves. Then, according to St. Mark, and also St. Matthew (xiv: 15-34), “when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesareth.” St. John says (vi:5-2i), that “they went over the sea toward Capernaum,” and that after the stilling of the tempest, “immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” Comparing these accounts, it appears that whereas, according to St. Luke, the event of the miracle took place in the neighborhood of Bethsaida , according to St. Mark, He sent them from the scene of the Miracle to Bethsaida. According to St. John the disciples landed at Capernaum, the place for which they had sailed; and, according to St. Matthew and St. Mark, they came to “the land of Gennesareth.” If we remember that, besides Bethsaida Julias on the northeast of the lake, there was another Bethsaida, the home of Peter, Andrew and Philip (John i: 44), and that this second Bethsaida was in “the land of Gennesa¬ reth” (or Capernaum), there is here no contradiction whatever. Unless we do remember it, there is, to say the least, an inexplicable discrepancy. We may also observe that these accounts, taken concurrently, go to show that in the language of the Evangelists, Capernaum is the equivalent of Gennesareth. Regarded as a plain it was Gennesareth; regarded as a town or city, it was Capernaum; but the phrase “Land of Gennesareth” may have been loosely used to designate the district lying north and south of the plain, as well as the plain itself. Thus every difficulty disappears, and it also appears, that the geographical language of the Evangelists is identical with that of Josephus, a writer of their own time. Had the gospel been written a century later, as some critics think, they would BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE 407 probably not have applied the word Capernaum to the district of Genne- sareth, To the southeast of Et Tell lies the Plain of Batihah, in some part of which, or in the heights to the eastward, the miracle of the feeding of the THE LAST APPEARANCE OF JESUS TO HIS DISCIPLES AT THE SEA OF GALILEE. (john xxi: 1-4. ) five thousand took place; and in the lower part of the plain are ruins to which the Arabs give the name of Mesadiyeh. These ruins have been supposed to be those of Bethsaida, and are so marked in some maps. About one-third of the way from the north of the lake, a wady called IVady Semakh breaks through the cliffs, and on its southern side are the ruins of Gergesa , now called Khersa. As this is probably the “country of the Gergesenes” in which St. Matthew places the scene of the destruc¬ tion of the swine (Matt, viii : 28), while St. Mark (v: 1) and St. Luke (viii 126) 408. BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. call it the “country of the Gadarines,” it is well to observe that either name might be appropriate, if the district of Gadaritis at that time included the smaller town of Gergesa. In the near neighborhood, there are several spots which would correspond with the accounts of the Evangelists. Mr. Macgregor remarks, that between Wady Semakh and Wady Fik (about three miles below) “there are at least four distinct localities, where every feature in the Scripture account of this incident may be found m combina¬ tion. Above them are rocks with caves in them, very suitable for tombs, and, further down there is ample space for tombs, built on sloping ground _ a form of sepulture far more prevalent in Scripture times, than we are apt to suppose. A verdant sward is here, with bulbous roots on which swine might feed; and on this I observed what is an unusual sight, a very large herd of oxen, horses, camels, sheep and goats, all feeding together.” Within a mile of Khersa is a spot which seems particularly well to corre¬ spond with the circumstances of the miracle. At that place, says Sir C. Wilson, “the hills, which everywhere else on the eastern side are recessed from half to three quarters of a mile from the water’s edge, approach within forty feet of it. They do not terminate abruptly, but there is a steep, even slope, which we would identify with the ‘steep place’ down which the herd of swine ‘ran violently into the sea,’ and so were choked.” Three miles below Gergesa, as we have said, is Wady Fik , and a little way up the wady, on the crest of the precipice which encloses it, is Kulat el Hiisii , the ancient Gamala , which made a terrible resistance to Vespa¬ sian, and inflicted immense loss on its besiegers before it could be captured by the Romans. At the head of the wady is the town of Fik , the ancient Aphek , where Benhadad, of Assyria, was completely overthrown by King Ahab (iKings xx: 26-34). Between Wady Fik and the outlet of the Jordan are remains of several towns and villages, notably of Es Semakh , which is supposed to be the ancient Hippos , a place of such importance as to have been reckoned as one of the cities of Decapolis, and to have given the name of Hippene to the district lying about it. “I have spent a few days,” says Dr. Thomson, “encamped on the beach below this village, and had ample time to explore the southern shore of the lake, as well as the out-go of the Jordan. In the banks above the beach are innumerable nests of the wurwar, the beautiful green and blue bee-eater. The beach is covered I BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 409 with pebbles of flint, jasper, chalcedony and agate, and several varie¬ ties of fresh-water shells. But, though situated close to the beautiful Sea of Galilee, and with scenery around it in many respects the most interest¬ ing in this world, nothing would tempt one to live in the miserable hamlet of Es Semakh.” Thus we have viewed the shores of the once lovely Lake of Chinnereth; and desolate as they now are, it would take but little to restore them to prosperity. A railway, which could be easily built from Tiberias south¬ ward along the Jordan Valley to Beisan (Bethshean), and thence across the Plain of Esdraelon to Acre, would at once make the Sea of Galilee the center of a profitable commerce, and its shores would soon again bloom under the hand of the husbandman and vine¬ dresser. When the heavy hand of the “unspeak¬ able Turk” is removed, it will be only a question of time — there is no question of the certainty of the event — that all parts of Palestine will be once more opened to the uses of civilized life. Already the improvement has begun, for even the Turk cannot wholly resist the forces of the age. But the beginning is still small. When the “fullness of time” shall come, no man living can foresee the new beauty in which the Beautiful Land shall again be clothed. But if no such time were ever to come, the shores of Lake Tiberias would still be forever sacred to mankind in its memories of Jesus. That lake was chosen of God Himself, and honored above all seas of the earth, in a sense which the rabbis little dreamed. The men, the fields, the valleys round it, are immortalized by their association with the Saviour. There were the vineyards, on the hill slopes, round which their lord planted a hedge, and in which he built a watch-tower, and dug a wine-press (Matt, xxi: 33). There were the sunny hills, on which the old wine had grown, REMAINS OF ROMAN BRIDGE AT SEMAKH. 4io BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. and the new was growing, for which the house-holder would take care to provide the new leather bottles (Luke v.37). The Plain of Gennesareth was the enameled meadow, on which, in spring, ten thousand lilies were robed in more than the glory of Solomon (Luke xii : 27-28), and where, in winter, the grass was cast into the oven (Matt. vi:3o). It was on such pastures as those around, that the shepherd left the ninety-and-nine sheep to seek, in the mountains, the one that was lost, and bring it back, when found, on his shoulders rejoicing (Luke xv:4). The ravens that have neither storehouse nor barn (Luke xii: 24), daily sailed over from the cliffs of Arbela, to seek their food on the shore of the lake and from the same cliffs, from time to time, flew forth the hawks, to make the terrified hen gather her chickens under her wings (Matt: xxiii: 37). The orchards were there in which the fig-tree grew, on which the dresser of the vineyard in three years, found no fruit (Luke xiii: 7), and in which the grain of mustard seed grew into so great a tree that the fowls of the air lodged in its branches (Luke xiii: 19). Across the lake rose the hills of Gaulonitus, which the idly- busy rabbis watched for signs of the weather. A murky red, seen above them in the morning, was a text for these sky-prophets to predict “foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowering” (Matt. xvi:3), and it was when the sun sank, red and glowing, behind the hill in the west, that the solemn gossips, returning from their many prayers in the synagogue, made sure that it would be “fair weather to-morrow” (Matt. xvi:2). It was when the sea-cloud was seen driving over the hill-tops from Ptolemais and Car¬ mel, that neighbors warned each other that a shower was coming (Luke xii: 54), and the clouds sailing north, toward Safed and Hermon, were the accepted earnest of coming heat (Luke xii: 55). The daily business of Cap¬ ernaum, itself, supplied many of the illustrations so frequently introduced into the discourses of Jesus. He might see in the bazaar of the town, or in the street, the rich traveling merchant, who exchanged a heavy load of Babylonian carpets for the one lustrous pearl (Matt, xiii : 46) that had, perhaps, found its way to the lake from distant Ceylon. Fishermen, and publicans, and dressers of vineyards passed and re-passed each moment. Over in Julias, the favorite town of the Tetrarch Philip; below, in Tiberias, at the court of Antipas, lived the magnates, who delighted to be called “gracious lords,” and walked in silk robes (Luke xxii:25). The young - BETHABARA, CANA, THE SEA OF GALILEE. 41 1 Salome lived in the one town; her mother, Herodias, in the other; and the intercourse between the two courts could not have escaped the all-observ¬ ing eye of Jesus, as he moved about Capernaum. On the occasion of our Saviour’s first visit to Capernaum in company with his mother and his brethren, all these events and instructions and observations were still to come. As a general studies the field of future campaigns, so, perhaps, Jesus gazed on the scenes of by far the greater part of the ministry upon which He was entering. But He took no more than a glance at it. “He continued there not many days.” Either return¬ ing to Nazareth, or going directly down the Jordan Valley, He set His face toward Jerusalem to attend the first Passover of the period of His ministry. > CHAPTER XIII. FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. First Passover of the Ministry — Return to Galilee, through Samaria — Anathoth, the Home of Abiathar — Nob — Slaughter of the Priests by Doeg — Grass on the House-tops — Gibeah of Saul— Rejection of Saul — Death of Agag — Parting of Samuel and Saul — A Cruel Retribution — Rizpah— Ramah, the Birth Place and Burial Place of Samuel— Wady Suweinit — Geba — Michmash — Rimmon — Ophra, the “City of Ephraim” — Ai — Its Name Strangely Preserved — First Battle of Ai — Destruc¬ tion of Ai — Battle of Michmash — Advance of Shennacheric on Jerusalem — His Route Described by Isaiah— Prophecy of the Messiah— Ataroth-Adar — Beeroth, a Halting Place for Caravans— Supposed to be the Place where Jesus was Missed by His Parents — Bethel — Altar of Abraham— Separation from Lot— View of the Patriarchs — Vision of Job — His Altar at Bethel — Bethel, a National Sanctuary — Place of a Tabernacle — Made a Sanctuary of Idolatry by Jeroboam — School of the Prophets — A Royal Residence — The Samaritans — Devastation of Josiah — Modern Beitin — Gophna — Shiloh — Discovered by Dr. Robinson — A Skilful Scientific Exploration — Lebonah— The Tabernacle at Shiloh— Samuel — Eli — Loss of the Ark — Tabernacle Removed to Nob — Sub¬ sequent Desolation of Shiloh — Advantages as a Sanctuary — Present Appearance — Akrabbim. HETHER our Lord returned to Nazareth, after His visit to Capernaum, we do not know. We next hear of His visit to Jerusalem to celebrate the first Passover of His ministry. It was at this time that He cleansed the Temple of the hucksters who pro- fained it with their sordid presence (John ii: 13-17). When He was asked to prove the authority by which He undertook such a work, He made that mysterious answer which His disciples remembered after His resurrection: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!” Yet He did not utterly refuse to show some signs of His power, though He certainly did use reserve in proclaiming His mission (John ii 123-25). His chief recorded discourse was with Nicodemus, who came to Him by night (John iii); and when it began to be noised abroad that His disciples were baptizing more converts than John the Baptist, He immediately left Judea and returned into Galilee, not wiehmg, we may suppose, that there should be even the appearance of a rivalry be¬ tween Himself and His great forerunner (John ivn-3). “Then,” says St. John (verse 4), “He must needs go through Samaria.” 412 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA, 4i3 The necessity, however, was not of a physical or geographical character, since, as we have seen, the usual way from Judea to Galilee was by the Jordan Ghor. The necessity was of a spiritual sort. Jesus had now set out on His personal mission, and from the first He wished it to be under¬ stood that His was no narrow or exclusive gospel. It was intended for all mankind, and in no more striking manner could He proclaim that fact than CHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE. ( JOHN II : 1 5.) by bearing its glad tidings to those outcasts of Israel, the despised Samari¬ tans. More than one soul among those heretics was hungering and thirst¬ ing for a spiritual food and drink which He alone could supply; and to reach those souls, Jesus “must needs go through Samaria.” It is the line of that journey that we are now to follow. In all the wanderings of the Saviour’s footsteps there is none more full of local interest and historical 414 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. romance than that which led from Jerusalem to the “city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph” (John iv.5). We shall not, of course, confine our observations to the comparatively few places of importance through which He actually passed, but rather take a bird’s-eye view of the country on either side of the main road, noting the spots of which the Saviour Himself could hardly help thinking as He came near to each of them. On his right, as He left Jerusalem was Anathoth , now called Anata> three miles northeast of the Mount of Olives. In the earlier days of Israel Anathoth was a priestly city (Josh, xxi: 18). It was the home of the priest Abiathar who conspired to put Adonijah on the throne instead of Solomon, and whom Solomon, while sparing his life for the sake of his priestly office, banished from the sanctuary with the stern command, “Get thee to Anathoth unto thine own fields. Thou art worthy of death, but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of God before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.” Anathoth was long occupied by the priests of Israel. After the building of the Temple it would be one of the most convenient and desirable of all the towns belonging to those who were appointed to minister in the sanctuary. More than three hundred years after the time of Solomon, Jeremiah, the prophetic poet of Israel, was one “of the priests that were in Anathoth” (Jer. i: 1). At some spot in that same plain, or perhaps, as Dr. Robinson thinks, somewhere upon the ridge of the Mount of Olives, northeast of the city, but certainly at least within sight of Jerusalem, once stood another priestly city called Nob, where the tabernacle stood for a time during its wander¬ ings, before a home was provided for the ark in the Temple of Solomon (1 Sam. xxi: 1). It was there that Ahimelech the priest gave some of the “hallowed bread” of the tabernacle to David in his necessity when fleeing before the face of Saul. Unhappily the gift was observed by Doeg, an Edomitish servant of Saul, who reported it to his master. Filled wit fury, Saul summoned Ahimelech and his assistant priests before him, and charged them with treason. The brave priest denied the treason, but spoke manfully for David as the most faithful of Saul’s subjects. The infuriated King was inexorable. “Thou shalt die, Ahimelech,” he said. GIBEAH FROM MICHMASH. FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. 40 “thou and all thy father’s house.” Even at the King’s command the executioners refused to lift their hands against the Lord’s priests; but Doeg, the Edomitish spy, fulfilled that office. “On that day he slew four score and five persons that did wear a linen ephod; and Nob, the city of priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, chil¬ dren and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.” Only one man of all the priestly line escaped, Abiathar, a son of the faithful Ahimelech, the same Abiathar whom Solomon afterward deposed from his sacred office and banished to “his own fields”at Anathoth. The site of Nob has not been ascertained. The present Anata is a poor village with only about a dozen small dwelling houses, though the cultivated fields, and fig-trees, and olive-trees are perhaps a remnant of the culture of the priests who once dwelt there; and the remains of walls and solid old foundations tell of a prosperity that has long since passed away. On the flat roofs of the houses now occupied the wild grass grows, reminding one of the Psalmist’s malediction: “Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion! Let them be as the grass upon the house-tops, Which withereth afore it groweth up: Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, Nor he that bindeth the sheaves his bosom!” (Psa. cxxix: 5-7.) The first city which our Saviour would pass on this journey was Gibeah of Saul , also called Gibeah of Benjamin , situated on what is now a dreary and desolate hill called Tuleil el Ful, the Hill of Beans. It is of conical shape, and roughly terraced, but its sides are bare and treeless, and its top is covered with ruins which are hardly more than a confused heap of stones. On this rough hill, then doubtless cultivated from base to summit, was enacted the horrid tragedy of the Levite and his concubine related in Judges xix and xx; and there, about a hundred years later was the dwelling place of Saul, the first king of Israel (1 Sam. x: 26). The simple manners of the time are illustrated by the circumstance that, when his subjects on the other side of the Jordan sent to tell their king how they were threatened with subjugation or mutilation by the Ammonites, the mes¬ sengers found Saul coming “after the herd out of the field” (1 Sam. xi: 5). Again and again throughout the checquered story of that unhappy monarch 4 1 8 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. we read of Gibeah, and it was not far from Gibeah that he had his last interview with the aged prophet Samuel, by whom he had been anointed to his kingly office. It was in vain that Saul pleaded for pardon; the prophet refused to grant him absolution. “Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord”, said Samuel, “and the Lord hath rejected thee.” At Saul’s urgent entreaty, he yielded only so far as to refrain from dishonoring the king before his subjects, and therefore accompanied Saul to his camp at Gilgal. But he exacted a price for his complaisance. One of Saul’s offences had been that he had spared the life of Agag, king of the Amale- kites, whom he had taken prisoner in battle. “Then,” said Samuel, “bring hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him delicately; and Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past!” And Samuel said, “As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.” Then the king and the prophet parted to meet no more in life, though the voice of Samuel was once again to reach the king’s ear from the grave with words of doom and irretrievable defeat. “Samuel went up to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.” Yet the stern minister of God grieved for the goodly kinglike man who had thrown his crown away. “Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul.” (i Sam. xv.) After Saul’s death, his home at Gibeah was the scene of a fearful re¬ tribution. In some hour of outrage, he had put to death some of the Gibeonites, descendants of the men who had secured a league of amity and protection from Joshua. On David’s accession they demanded vengeance. They would have no recompense for their wrong. They refused to take either silver or gold from the treasury of their enemy. They insisted that the violation of their treaty with Israel should be atoned by the law of retaliation, and that seven of Saul’s surviving sons should be taken and hanged in Gibeah. David yielded to their demand, stipulating, however, that the sons of his friend Jonathan should not be sacrificed. The deed was done; and of the sons of Saul seven “fell all together; they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the days of barley har¬ vest.” Then followed one of the saddest scenes in history, when the mother FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. 419 of two of the hapless victims, “Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of heaven to rest upon them by day, nor beasts of the field by night.” The woeful spectacle of the mother, lying on sackcloth day after day and night after night, guarding the bodies of her gibbetted sons, might well move THE REJECTION OF SAUL. (i. SAM. XV: I3-23.) the hearts of the beholders. David did not war against the dead, and when he heard of it, he went and took the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the place where friendly hands had laid them; and with the bones of Saul and Jonathan they took the bones of them that had been hanged, and honorably buried all together in the sepulcher of Saul's father Kish (2 Sam. xxi: i — 1 4). In these stories of Gibeah, how strangely does the 420 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. hardness of the law contrast with the gentleness of the gospel of Christ! Though Samuel was a prophet, he had never learned to say, “Go, and sin no more!” And though David was a law-abiding king, he had not learned that there is any nobler law than that which says, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, life for life!’ A little way beyond Gibeah of Saul is the modern village of Er Ram , inhabited by about fifteen families. It is the ancient Ramah (i Kings xv : 17), which was a border fortress between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Er Ram would be more important if we could be assured that it is on the site of Ramathaim-Zophim , the birthplace and home and final rest¬ ing place of the prophet Samuel (1 Sam. i: 1), but as no less than seven other modern towns and villages are put forward with more or less proba¬ bility for that honor, we need not pause to investigate their respective claims. On the whole, however, there is as much to be said in favor of Er Ram as of any other. If we turn aside from the main road and proceed northeast through Er Ram, we come in less than three miles to the edge of a deep wady, called Wady Suweinit, which is really the western end of the Wady Kelt, or Brook Cherith, of which we have already heard in the neighborhood of Jericho. Though the Wady Suweinit is not so grandly terrible as the Wady Kelt, it is precipitously steep, and on its very brink is Jeba, the ancient Geba , picturesquely seated on the summit of a terraced hill, oppo¬ site to a village on the other side, the name of which is Mukmas , the ancient Michmash. Geba is often confounded with Gibeah. It is famous as the scene of Jonathan’s exploit against the Philistines (1 Sam. xiii 13). “From its summit,” says Dean Stanley, “is seen northward the white, chalky height of Rummon , ‘the cliff Rimmon overhanging the Jordan ‘wilderness’ where the remnant of the Benjamites maintained themselves in the general ruin of their tribe (Judg. xx: 47). Further still, the dark conical hill of Tayibeh, with its village perched aloft, like those of the Appenines, the probable representative of the Ophrah of Benjamin (Josh, xviii: 23), and in later times the ‘city called Ephraim ' to which our Lord retired, ‘near to the wilderness,’ after the raising of Lazarus” (John xi: 54). Between Mukmas and Rummon is a ruin so complete that its name Et Tell , The Heap or Afo?md, peculiar as it is, is yet entirely appropriate. FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA 421 The word Tell is common enough in Syria, but it is usually accompanied with some more specific designation, as Tell Hum, Tell Asur, Tell Yusef, signifying the Heap or Mound of Hum, Asur, Yusef. In this case, it is used simply with the article, Et Tell, The Heap. One would think that so peculiar a use of the word must imply some peculiarity of the place as its cause, and, so the fact would seem to be. There was a city taken by Joshua which he completely desolated, and made “a heap forever” (Josh. RAMAH. viii: 28). The word tell is here used, and, as it is of rare occurrence in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is reasonable to suppose, that there was some special propriety in its use on this occasion. So there seems to have been, for the name of the city which Joshua destroyed was Ai, or more generally, Hai, or Haiath , which also signifies The Heap or The Mound. The language of Joshua seems to have been a sort of grim play upon words, as if he had said, “You called your city Hai, The Heap , but I will make it a tell forever. As the situation of Et-Tell perfectly corresponds with the scriptural accounts of Ai, it would seem as if Joshua’s new name had stuck to it for thousands of years, though Ai has never since reappeared in history. We may now describe the two great battles which made this district 422 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. illustrious in the annals of Israel. The first was that which ended in the destruction of Ai. Joshua had led Israel to the western side of Jordan and had encamped at Gilgal. Jericho had fallen, and Jericho was the key to the interior coun¬ try. From that city to the upland regions, above Jerusalem, the ancient pass seems to have been by the Wady Kelt and the Wady Suweinit. That way was now clear; and the scouts reported that a force of two or three thousand men would be sufficient for the capture of Ai. They had not sufficiently considered the advantage of position which the inhabitants of Ai had over an enemy advancing up hill to the attack; and in the event, the Israelitish force, though its loss was small, was driven headlong down the pass toward Jericho, in “the Wilderness” of Jordan (Josh, vii *.2-5). The second assault was better planned. During the night Joshua sent a heavy force high up into the wady north of Ai, and soon afterward posted a smaller force on the west, and then advanced as before to a feigned assault. The king of Ai, expecting a second victory, and not suspecting an ambush, rushed down upon the assailants in front, and when they fled as before toward Jordan, he followed in hot pursuit. Then the ambushed forces fell upon the defenceless city, and set it on fire. At the sight of the rising smoke, which was the appointed signal, the pretended fugitives turned upon their pursuers, who were now attacked in front and rear, and cut them to pieces. So Ai became Et-Tell, “a heap forever” (Josh. viii:i-22). Of the great battle of Michmash, in the immediate vicinity of the site of Ai, we may here give the glowing account of Dean Stanley: “The next time that the Pass of Ai appears is in a situation of events almost exactly reversed. The lowest depression which the Israelite state ever reached before the Captivity, was in the disastrous period during the first struggles of the monarchy, when the Philistines, after the great victory over the sons of Eli, became the virtual masters of the country; and not content with defending their own rich plain, ascended the passes from the west (1 Sam. xiii : 5), and pitched in the heart of the mountains of Benja¬ min, in Michmash ‘eastward from Beth-aven.’ Before the face of this ter¬ rible visitation, the people fled in all directions. Some even took refuge beyond the Jordan. Most were sheltered in those hiding-places which all parts of Palestine, but especially the broken ridges of this neighborhood, FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. 423 abundantly afford. The rocks are perforated in every direction, with ‘caves,’ and ‘holes,’ and ‘pits’ (1 Sam. xiii:6; xiv:n), crevices and fissures sunk deep in the rocky soil, such as those in which the Israelites are de¬ scribed as concealing themselves. The name of Michmash (‘hidden treas¬ ure,’ Deut. xxxii:34), seems to be derived from this natural peculiarity. Saul himself remained on the verge of his kingdom, in the Vale of Jordan, at Gilgal. East, and west, and north, through the three valleys which radiate CAPTURE OF AI. ( GEN. VIII.) from the uplands of Michmash — to Ophrah, on the north, through the Pass of Beth-Horon, on the west, and down ‘the ravine of the hyenas,’ ‘toward the Wilderness of the Jordan, on the east,’ — the spoilers went forth out of the camp of the Philistines (1 Sam. xiii 117, 18). At last the spirit of the people revived. On top of one of those coni- 424 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. cal hills which have been remarked as characteristic of the Benjamite ter¬ ritory, in his native Gibeah, Saul ventured to entrench himself with Samuel and Ahiah (i Sam. xiii: 1 6 ; xiv: 2, 18); where Jonathan had already been at the time when his father was driven from his previous post at Michmash by the Philistine inroad (1 Sam. xiii: 16). From this point to the enemy's camp was about three miles, and between them lay the deep gorge of the Wady Suweinit, here called the passage of Mich¬ mash, which is described as running between two jagged points, or “teeth of the cliff,” as the Hebrew idiom expressly calls them; the one called the “Shining” (Bozez), probably from some such appearance in the chalky cliff; the other, “the Thorn” (Seneh), probably from some solitary acacia on its top (1 Sam. xiv: 4). Immediately above, the garrison of the Philis¬ tines would seem to have been situated. It was up the steep sides of this ravine that Jonathan and his armour-bearer made their adventurous approach, and, aided by the sudden panic, and by the simultaneous ter¬ ror of the shock of an earthquake, the two heroes succeeded in dispersing the whole host. From every quarter the Hebrews took advantage of their enemies. From the top of Gibeah, the watchman saw, and the King and the High-priest heard, the signs of the wild confusion. In the camp of the Philistines the Israelite deserters turned against them. From the Mount¬ ains of Ephraim on the north, the Israelites, who had hid themselves, ‘fol¬ lowed hard after them in the battle.’ ‘So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over to Beth-aven” (that is, Bethel). It passed over to the central ridge of Palestine; it passed through the forest now destroyed where, from the droppings of the wild honey on the ground, the fainting warrior refreshed his parched lips; it passed over to the other side, from the eastern pass of Michmash to the western pass of Ajalon, through which they fled into their plains; ‘and the people smote the Philistines!’ Then Saul ‘went up’ again into his native hills, ‘and the Philistines went to their own place’ (1 Sam. xiv: 46); and from that day till the fatal route of Gilboa, Israel was secure (1 Sam. xiv: 4-46).“ 1 It is impossible to leave this most interesting district of the Promised Land without referring to the poetical description by the prophet Isaiah of the advance through it of the invading army of Sennacherib in the reign of Hezekiah, three hundred and fifty years after the death of Saul. FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA 425 With a truly dramatic rapidity of movement the prophet describes the progress of the invader through most of the places mentioned and others of which no vestige now remains. “He is come to Ai; he is passed to Migron. At Michmash he deposits his baggage; They cross the pass; Geba is their night-station. Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul has fled; RUINS OF BETHEL. Cry aloud with thy voice, O daughter of Gallim; Cause it to be heard unto Laish! Alas, poor Anathoth! Madmenah is escaped, the dwellers in Gebim take to flight. As yet for that day he halts at Nob. He shakes his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, The hill of Jerusalem!’’ (Isa. x: 28-32.) In these stirring verses the progress of Sennacherib is clearly told. Marching past Ai, he comes to Migron, not the Migron belonging to Gibeah of Saul (1 Sam. xiv: 2), but some “precipice” on the great wady. At Michmash he leaves his superfluous baggage which it would be difficult to transport further, and then, after crossing the wady, rests for the night at 426 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. Geba. Next day he passes Ramah and Gibeah, from which the terrified inhabitants have fled; Gallim and Laish (of which we know nothing) fall before him; Anathoth suffers pitiably, while the inhabitants of Madmenah and Gebim (of whom also we know nothing) have had the foresight to remove their treasures; and so, on the second day, he halts at Nob, whence he looks upon the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem, and shakes against her his hand of threatening. Thus far God permits him to come, but no further. Before the hand of God Sennacherib is no more than the bough of a forest tree, and “Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror, He shall cut down the thickest of the forest with iron, Yea, and Lebanon shall fall mightily.” (Isa. x:33, 34.) In spite of all invasions, and all manner of calamities, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between His feet; for “There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots; And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, And faithfulness the girdle of His reins. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea!” (Isa. xi:i, 2, 5, 9). It is not possible that the Son of David, in Whom all these promises were to have their fulfilment, should pass through the very place where the events which occasioned this majestic prophecy occurred, without thinking both of it and of them ! Returning to the road from Jerusalem to Samaria, we find, on the left, about two miles north of Er-Ram, a ruin called Khirbet el Atara, with two old pools, answering to the ancient Ataroth-Addar (Josh. xvi:5); and two miles further on, after skirting the Wady Suweinit, which begins there, we come to Bireh, the ancient Beeroth. Beeroth, as we have seen, was one of the four cities of the Gibeonites (Josh. ix:i7). It appears, however, that its Hivite inhabitants, possibly fretting under the yoke to which they had submitted, abandoned their city. FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. 427 Thenceforward, Beeroth belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (2 Sam. iv.2), and the cowardly assassins of Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth, were Benjamites, of Beeroth. No further historical incident is recorded in connection with Beeroth, but the spot has been made exceedingly interesting by a tradition which is altogether improbable, though it may conceivably be true. Beeroth took its name from its abundant water which made it a suita¬ ble place for camping, and it has long been the night station for caravans Jacob’s vision, (gen. xxviii: 10-22.) going northward from Jerusalem. Hence the tradition that it was at that place that the parents of Jesus, at the close of their first day’s jour¬ ney from His first Passover, at twelve years of age, “sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance, and, when they found Him not, turned back again to Jerusalem seeking Him” (Luke ii : 44, 45). We have already seen Uiat the passage of Jewish caravans through Samaria, especially from the 428 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. celebration of Jewish feasts, would be so offensive to the Samaritans as probably to lead to disturbance, and even bloodshed. For that reason it is exceedingly unlikely that the parents of Jesus would return to their home at Nazareth, by that route. Still it is possible that they may have done so; and a mediaeval tradition, founded, perhaps, on a still earlier belief, was emphasized by the erection of a magnificent church and hospice by English Knights Templar, in memory of the supposed event. The ruins of the church, consisting of three apses and the north wall, still remain, and be¬ side them is the wely, or sanctuary, of a Mohammedan saint. At the pres¬ ent time, Bireh is a flourishing village with about eight hundred inhabi¬ tants, who drive a profitable traffic with the caravans which frequently occupy the village khan and the broad camping-ground beside a noble fountain and an old mosque. Two miles and a half beyond Bireh is a spot hallowed in all Christian and Jewish memories, Bethel , the House of God, more anciently called Luz, and now Beitin (Gen. xxviii: 19). Its sanctity extended to the time when Abraham “journeyed through the land,” and first received at Sichem the promise that the whole land should be the inheritance of his posterity. At Sichem he built an altar; but near by Bethel, “with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east,” he built another “altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah” (Gen. xii:6-8). It was to Bethel, and not to Sichem, that he went again to offer sacrifice on his return out of Egypt, and it was then and there that he and his kinsman Lot took their view of the sur¬ rounding country in preparation for a friendly separation (Gen. xiii). There had been strife among the herdmen of their respective flocks, and Abraham was a man of peace. “Let there be no strife, I pray thee,” he said, “between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or, if thou depart to the right hand I will go to the left.” Then, we are told, that “Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld,” and made the choice which ended so fearfully. The spot of that fateful view is precisely indicated. It must have been a lofty eminence; and yet it was not Bethel, strictly speaking, but a height having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east (Gen. xii: 8, xiii -.3). “This precision,” says Dean Stanley, “is the more to be noticed because it makes the whole dif- FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. 429 ference in the truth and vividness of the remarkable scene which follows. Immediately east of the low grey hills, on which the Canaanitish Luz and the Jewish Bethel afterward stood, rises a conspicuous hill, its topmost summit resting, as it were, on the rocky slopes below, and distinguished from them by the olive grove which clusters over its broad surface above. From this height, thus offering a natural base for the patriarchal altar, and a fitting shade for the patriarchal tent, Abraham and Lot must be con¬ ceived as taking the wide survey of the country ‘on the right hand and on the left,’ such as can be enjoyed from no other point in the neighborhood. To the east there rises in the foreground the jagged range of the hills above Jericho; in the distance the dark wall of Moab; between them lies the wide Valley of the Jordan — its course marked by the tract of forest in which its rushing stream is enveloped; and down to this valley a long and deep ra¬ vine, now, as always, the main line of communication by which it is ap¬ proached from the central hills of Palestine — a ravine rich with vine, olive and fig, winding its way through ancient reservoirs and sepulchres, remains, of a civilization now extinct, but in the times of the patriarchs not yet begun. To the south and the west the view commanded the bleak hills of Judea, varied by the heights crowned with what were afterward the cities of Benjamin, and overhanging what, in a later day, was to be Jerusalem, and, in the far distance, the southern range on whose slope is Hebron. Northward are the hills which divide Judea from the rich plains of Samaria. This is the view which was to Abraham what Pisgah was afterward to his great descendant. This was to the lords of Palestine, then almost free before them, where to choose, what in Grecian legends is represented under the figure of the Choice of Hercules; in the fables of Islam under the story of the prophet turning back from Damascus. ‘And Lot lifted up his eyes,’ toward the right, ‘and beheld all the ‘circle’ of Jordan, and it was well watered everywhere. . . .even as a garden of the Lord, like unto Egypt.’ He saw not, indeed, the tropical fertility and copious streams along its source. But he knew of its fame, as of the Garden of Eden, as of the valley of the Nile; no crust of salt, no volcanic convulsions had as yet blasted its verdure, or touched the secure civilization of the early Phoeni¬ cian settlements which had struck root within its deep abyss. ‘Then Lot 430 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. chose him all the ‘circle’ of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed east; and they separated themselves one from the other. . . .and Lot dwelt in the cities of the ‘circle’ of the Jordan, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And the Lord said unto Abraham after that Lot had separated from him, ‘Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee I will give it and to thy seed forever. . . .and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.’ Those 'bleak hills were indeed to be the site of cities whose names would be held in honor after the very ruins of the seats of a corrupt civilization in the gar¬ den of the Jordan would have been swept away; that dreary view, unfolded then in its primeval desolation before the eyes of the now solitary Patri¬ arch, would be indeed peopled with a mighty nation through many genera¬ tions, with mighty recollections ‘like the dust of the earth in number, forever. Along the same beaten track, which for thousands of years has led from the south to the north of Palestine, came the wandering steps of the solitary fugitive Jacob, when he fled from the anger of his defrauded and justly indignant brother. He did not know the country as Abraham had known it, and in the Plain of Bethel, he laid him down to rest with the bare ground for his couch, a stone for his pillow, and the starry sky of the "east for his canopy. It was there that he dreamed of the ladder (which was more than the illusion of a dream), with its foot set upon the earth, and its top reaching to the utmost heaven, and the angels of God ascend¬ ing and descending on it. In that vision he learned that all his unbrotherly fraud had been worse than wasted, since it was of God’s purpose, and not through his own craft, that the main line of his father’s posterity was to be continued through him. Starting from his sleep, he said, “ ‘Surely God is in this place, and I knew it not!’ And he said, ‘How awful is this place! This it none other but the House of God (Beth-El) and this is the gate of heaven.’ And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. top of it; and he called the name of that place Beth-El; but the name of that city was Luz at the first” (Gen. xxviii: 10-19). Thither again came Jacob in the days of his prosperity, and built an altar to the God who had kept promise with him since the night of his vision; and from that time onward, Beth-El was a sanctuary of the children of Israel (Gen. xxxv: 1-7). In the language of their sacred books its name is used in such a way, that our translators have wavered between the SHILOH. ITebrew word Bethel as a proper name, and its English equivalent, the House of God. After they had taken possession of the land, the people in their distress went to seek counsel of the Lord at the “House of God,” that is, at Bethel; for it appears that, for a time, at least, the ark of the cove¬ nant, with the consecrated altars of burnt offering and of incense, were kept at Bethel under the charge of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (Judg. xx : 18, 26-28, 31 ; XXU2-4). There, also, at a later time, the priestly judge 432 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. and prophet, Samuel, held one of his yearly circuits for the administration of justice (i Sam. vii: 16). On the division of the kingdom of Israel from that of Judah, Jeroboam desecrated the sanctuary of Bethel by making it a sanctuary of idolatry (i Kings xii:2S, 29, 33), though not without a brave protest from a prophet of God, who went thither from Judah to deliver his perilous message (1 Kings xiii: 1-4). Yet there were still worshipers and even prophets of the true God left in the sacred city (1 Kings xiii: 11); and when Elijah visited Bethel, he found there a school of the sons of the prophets (2 Kings ii : 2, 3). Under Jehu, the calf-worship of Jeroboam was renewed (2 Kings x: 29), and under his great-grandson, Bethel became both a royal city and a royal sanctuary (Amos vii: 13). It then attained its highest splendor as a residence of the kings of Israel, who had both a summer palace and a winter palace there. There, too, the nobles had their “houses of ivory," with sumptuous furniture and equipage, leading luxurious and self-indulgent lives, and maintaining a magnificent, but idolatrous worship (Amos iii: 15;. v: 21, 22; vi: 4-6). With the Assyrian invasion all these things came to an end; “the Lord removed Israel out of His sight;’’ the unfaithful people were carried away into captivity, and their land was repeopled by alien tribes from Babylon and elsewhere (2 Kings xvii: 23, 24). Strange to say, it was then and by those strangers that the worship of Jehovah was restored at Bethel. When they came into the country, they found it so forsaken and desolate, that the wild beasts had invaded it, and some of the strangers were destroyed. Attributing this misfortune to the anger of “the God of the land,” they appealed to the King of Assyria who sent one of the cap¬ tive priests to Bethel to “teach them the manner of the God of the land.” The priests “taught them how they should fear Jehovah;” and they fol¬ lowed his instructions; but their worship of Jehovah did not exclude that of their own tribal gods, and their mixed ritual continued (though not at Bethel) down to the time of the writing of the Second Book of the Kings (2 Kings xvii: 24-34). During the reign of the good King Josiah every vestige of idolatry at Bethel was swept clean away. The altar and “high place” of Jero¬ boam, which had been suffered to stand, were cast down and polluted by burning upon them dead men’s bones from the neighboring tombs. As FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA 433 he looked around, Josiah saw one sepulcher bearing an inscription, and asked whose sepulcher it was. On being told that it was the tomb of the prophet who had bravely borne a message of denunciation to Jeroboam, foretelling the vengeance which Josiah himself had just executed, he said, “Let him alone; let no man move his bones!” So that monument and the bones of the brave prophet they let alone; and with them they left in X— - / M**"'" A® DEATH OF ELI. (i. SAM. IV: l8.1 peace the bones of that other prophet whose white lie, “told out of a kindly and hospitable impulse, had betrayed the faithful prophet to his death, and caused him to be known in history as ‘the disobedient prophet’ ” (2 Kings xxiii: 15-20; comp. 1 Kings xiii : 1 — 10). From that time on, the sanctuary of Bethel was lorsaken, and the city ceased to be a place of importance, but it still existed in the time of Vespasian, since it was captured by him on his march from Tiberias to Jerusalem. In the New Testament it is not 434 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. mentioned, though it must have been passed by our Saviour on the journey we are now tracing. In later history it is unknown. Its very site, of which, however, there is no question, is a recent discovery of rhe mission¬ ary Nicolaye (1836). Beitin stands on a hill, and consists of miserable hovels inhabited by four hundred wretched people. It has the ruins of a tower with some ancient substructions. Near it are the remains of a church. In the val¬ ley to the west is a large reservoir five hundred feet long by three hundred and fifty wide, enclosed by solid masonry. The village looks down upon the valley to the east where Abraham pitched his tent and Jacob laid him down to sleep with a stone for his pillow. The following observations of Dr. Flackett will be found interesting: “The sojourn of Abraham and Lot with their flocks and herds in this region (Gen. xiii: 1) implies that it was very fertile and well suited to their pastoral occupations. The writer can testify that it maintains still its , ancient character in this respect. The cattle which he saw there sur¬ passed in number and size any that he saw at any one time in any other place. Springs abound: and a little to the west, toward Jufna , the Roman Gophna, was a little flooded meadow, which as late as the 28th of April, was almost large enough to be called a lake. On the hill-top just east of Bethel, where Abraham and Lot agreed to separate from each other, the eye catches a sight which is quite startling: we see not only the course of the Jordan stretching north and south, readily traced by the wav¬ ing line of verdure along its banks, but its waters broken and foaming as they roll over some of the many cascades, almost cataracts, for which the river is remarkable. It is interesting to be reminded that sepulchers are found at the present day in the rocky heights around Bethel. Stanley also speaks of ‘the excavations’ which the traveler sees in approaching this place, in which the dead of so many past generations have been buried. It was from such recesses, no doubt, that King Josiah, in his zeal for the worship of Jehovah, dug up the bones of the old idolaters who had lived at Bethel, which he burned on the altar of the golden calf in order by this act of pollution to mark his abhorrence of such idolatry, and to render the place infamous forever. There is nothing very remarkable in the situation or scenery of Bethel to impress the observer; and the hold which it FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA 435 acquired on the religious veneration of the Hebrews presupposes some such antecedent history as that related of the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis.” If we should take the road to the northwest from Beitin, and follow it for three miles we should come to Jifna (or Jufna ), the Gophna of Josephus, and a ride of twelve miles now would bring us to Tibneh , which, without doubt, is the ancient Timnath-serah, the home and last resting-place of the great leader whose name was to be borne by a greater Leader still. REMAINS OF A SYNAGOGUE AT SHILOH. For Tibneh was the inheritance of Joshua, whose name in the Greek form is Jesus. In the division of the conquered land of Canaan, Joshua was the last man to whom an inheritance was given. We read that “when they had made an end of dividing the land for inheritance, the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua, the son of Nun, among them. Yet his portion was that which he had desired. “According to the word of the Lord they gave him the city which he asked, even I imnath-serah in Mount 436 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. Ephraim; and he builded a city and dwelt there” (Josh, xix: 49, 50). It has been a matter of wonder that the great chief who might have had his choice among the best lands of Palestine, should have chosen so wildly rocky and secluded a spot. But it is not perhaps so strange after all. Joshua had fulfilled an arduous task, and his public life was at an end. For the evening of his days he might well desire seclusion, and if his inheritance was modest and remote from the great thoroughfares, he and his heirs would be the less exposed to envy, and the less danger there would be of future disturbance. Joshua had the wisdom of Agur, whose prayer was, ‘‘Give me neither poverty nor riches;” and he was tried as perhaps Agur was not; for when “all the land was before him,” he asked and received the rough and rugged, and almost barren hills of Timnath- serah. “And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua, the son of Nun, died, being an hundred and ten years old; and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah” (Josh, xxiv: 29, 30). In the vicinity of Tibneh are many rock-cut tombs, and one of them is believed by Captain Conder to be the tomb of Israel’s great leader, the faithful and victorious Joshua. Captain Conder says it “is certainly the most striking monument in the country, and strongly recommends itself to the mind as an authentic site. That it is the sepulcher of a man of distinction is manifest from the great number of lamp-niches which cover the walls of the porch; there are over two hundred arranged in vertical rows, giving the appearance of an ornamental pattern, and all smoke-blackened. Here, then, if we accept the site, is the resting-place of the great leader, the stout soldier, the fierce invader, who first brought Israel into the Promised Land.” The number of tombs in the neighborhood shows that Tibneh has, for some reason, been a favorite place of burial; and when it is remembered, that all orien¬ tals have a strong and even" superstitious desire to be buried near the tombs of saints and heroes, it might be expected that in the vicinity of Joshua’s tomb many of his countrymen would choose their future places of repose. Except its association with Joshua, Tibneh is one of the few places in Palestine which have no history. In the Roman period, it was on the high road from Jerusalem to Antipatris and Caesarea, and it may therefore have been visited by St. Paul. At present, its tombs and an FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA 437 ancient oak, which is believed to be the oldest and largest in all Palestine, are its only objects of interest. Returning to Beitin, and continuing along the direct road to Samaria, after proceeding about ten miles northward, we have on our left Jiljalia , the Gilgal from which Elijah “went down” to Bethel (2 Kings ii : 2). But where is the ancient and renowned sanctuary of Shiloh? Until SEIZURE OF THE MAIDENS AT SHILOH. (JUDGES XXI.) Dr. Robinson followed the exact words of Scripture in his investigations, that question could not be answered as it is now answered to the perfect satisfaction of the learned. In the book of Judges (ch. xxiiiq), Shiloh is said to be “on the north side of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.” Follow¬ ing this indication, Dr. Robinson, a few hours after leaving Beitin, turned aside to the “east of the highway,” and continuing northward he found 438 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. Seilun , the situation of which perfectly corresponds with the Biblical indi¬ cations of the situation of Shiloh, and the name of which is clearly the ancient name in a more modern form. But as if to make his assurance of the identity of Seilun with Shiloh doubly sure, he was fortunate enough in the same excursion to find El-Lebbun , the Lebonah of which he was in search, north of Seilun and somewhat to the left of the highway. Rarely has patient and intelligent investigation been more happily or more com¬ pletely rewarded. During the period of the Conquest, the Tabernacle of God was kept at Gilgal by the Jordan. It was thence removed to Shiloh (Josh, xviii: i), and there it remained, with the exception of a space during which it ap¬ pears to have been at Bethel (Judg. xx: 26-28), until the consecration of Solomon’s Temple. It was at Shiloh that the annual feasts of the Mosaic law were celebrated, and it was during the festivities of one of them that the remnant of the Benjamites, with the approval of their fellow Israelites, rushed in and carried off wives from among the maidens who were dancing in- the plain (Judg. xxi: 19-23). It was to Shiloh that the pious Elkanah went yearly to offer sacrifice; it was there that his wife Hannah prayed in bitterness of spirit and received from the priest Eli the assurance that her prayer had been answered; and it was there that she left her son to be brought up in the House of the Lord (1 Sam. i). It was at Shiloh, too, that the sons of Eli disgraced their calling and profaned the sanctuary by their wickedness (1 Sam. ii: 12); and it was from Shiloh that they took the Ark of God as a talisman of victory into battle with the Philistines (1 Sam. iv.4-5). When he heard that the Ark of God was taken by the Philistines, Eli died, and the rule of Samuel as priest and judge of Israel began (1 Sam. iv: 18). The ark never returned to Shiloh. The shrine was forsaken (Psa. xxvii:6o) and the priestly sacrifices were offered now at Mizpah (iSam.vii:9), now at Ramah (1 Sam. ix:i2,x: 13), and again at Gilgal (1 Sam. x:8, xi: 15). The Tabernacle itself was removed and for a time rested at Nob (1 Sam. xxi: 1-6). At length the ark and the altar were brought together in the Temple of Solomon; but the glory of Shiloh was departed, and so low was that once favored shrine abased that the prophet Jeremiah makes it a terrible illustration of the unsparing justice of God. “Go ye now,” says the prophet, “unto my place which was in Shiloh, FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. 439 where I set my name at the first, and see what I did for the wickedness of my people Israel” (Jer. vii : 1 2). “For the purposes to which Shiloh was devoted,” says Dr. Hackett, “it was not unwisely chosen. It was secluded, and therefore favorable to acts of worship and religious study, in which the youth of scholars and devotees, like Samuel, was to be spent. Yearly festivals were celebrated there, and brought together assemblages which would need the supplies of water and pasturage so easily obtained in such a place. Terraces are still visible on the sides of the rocky hills, which show that every foot and inch of the soil once teemed with verdure and fertility. The ceremonies of such occasions consisted largely of processions and dances, and the place afforded ample scope for such movements. The surrounding hills served as an amphitheater, whence the spectators could look, and have the entire scene under their eyes. The position, too, in times of sudden danger, ad¬ mitted of an easy defense, as it was a hill itself, and the neighboring hills could be turned into bulwarks. To its other advantages we should add that of its central position for the Hebrews on the west of the Jordan. ‘It was equi-distant,’ says Tristram, ‘from north and south, and easily accessible to the trans-Jordanic tribes.’ An air of oppressive stillness hangs now over all the scene, and adds force to the reflection that truly the ‘oracles’ so long consulted there ‘are dumb’ they had fulfilled their pur¬ pose, and given place to ‘a more sure word of prophecy.’ ” Of the immediate features of Shiloh, Dr. Hackett, who has visited the spot, says: “The contour of the region indicates very clearly where the ancient town must have stood. A tell, or moderate hill, rises from an un¬ even plain, surrounded by other higher hills, except a narrow valley on the south, which hill would naturally be chosen as the principal site of the town. The Tabernacle may have been pitched on this eminence, where it would be a conspicuous object on every side. The ruins found there at present are very inconsiderable. They consist chiefly of the remains of a com¬ paratively modern village, with which some large stones and fragments of columns are intermixed, evidently from much earlier times. Near a ruined mosque flourishes an immense oak, or terebinth tree, the branches of which the winds of centuries have swayed. Just beyond the precincts of the hill stands a dilapidated edifice, which combines some of the archi- 440 FROM JERUSALEM TO THE BORDER OF SAMARIA. tectural properties of a fortress and a church. At the distance of about fifteen minutes from the main site is a fountain, which is approached through a narrow dale. Its water is abundant, and according to a prac¬ tice very common in the East, flows first into a pool or well, and thence into a larger reservoir, from which flocks and herds are watered. This fountain, which would be so natural a resort for a festal party, may have been the place where the ‘daughters of Shiloh’ were dancing, when they were surprised and borne off by their captors. In this vicinity are rock-hewn sepulchres, in which the bodies of some of the unfortunate house of Eli may have been laid to rest. There was a Jewish tradition that Eli and his sons were buried there.” After passing, and perhaps visiting, many of these sacred scenes) Jesus and His disciples would come into a more and more inviting country, and at the distance of twenty-five miles in a direct line from Jerusalem, but much longer by the way they had to come, they would at length reach Akrabbim , the Scorpion Hills , on the border of Samaria. CHAPTER XIV. SAMARIA. Various Uses of the Name Samaria — Relative Position of Ebal, Gerizim, Shechem, Plain El-Makhna„ Jacob’s Well, Sychar, Salim — Beauty of the District— Abraham and Lot — Jacob’s Parcel of Ground, Well and Altar — Murder of the Shechemites — Charge of Moses— Obeyed by Joshua — Joshua’s Farewell — Abimelech — Jotham’s Fable — -Coronation of Rehoboam — Division of the Kingdom — Tirzah — Samaria — Its Situation and Strength — Sieges — Captivity — Origin of the Sam¬ aritans — Their Mixed Religion — Rejected by Zerubbabel — Influx of Renegade Jews — Temple on Mount Gerizim — Samaria Called Sebaste, in Honor of Augustus— Jewish Hatred of Samaritans — Traditions of Mount Gerizim — The True Mount Moriah — The True Salim — Legends — Neapolis a Christian See — Destruction by Justinian — Subsequent Fortunes of the Samaritans — The Samari¬ tan Community at Nablous — A Samaritan Passover — Nablous Described — Jesus at Sychar — Sychar Probably a Suburb ot Neapolis — Jacob’s Well— The City Samaria — Beheading of the Baptist — Tomb of the Baptist — Church of St. John — Ruins of Samaria — Plain of Dothan. AMARIA was the name given by Omri, King of Israel, to the city which he built for a royal residence, and the name of the city was frequently applied to the kingdom of which Samaria be¬ came the capital. After the captivity of the Ten Tribes, the Cuthite immi¬ grants, who were brought into the de¬ populated country, were called Samari¬ tans, and the district which they occu¬ pied was called Samaria. Finally, in church of st. john, samaria. the time of Christ, Samaria was the name of a Roman province, which covered, substantially, the country of the Samaritans. Through all these changes the city of Samaria was the geographical, and generally, also, the political, center of the kingdom, dis¬ trict or province which bore its name. As Samaria was not built until fifty years after the separation of the kingdom of Israel from that of Judah, it is not one of the most ancient cities of Palestine. In the Memoirs of the Patriachs, Shechem is the only 441 442 SAMARIA. city in that vicinity of which we have any account. Shechem, and not Samaria, was the first capital of the kingdom of Israel, and in our times, under its modern name of Nablous (or Nabulus ), it is a prosperous town, while Samaria, now Sebastiyeh , is a comparatively unimportant village. From the plain-like table-land, midway between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, rise two mountain heights boldly confronting each other on the north and the south, and separated from each other at their nearest point by a narrow glen three-quarters of a mile in length and only about one hundred yards in width. The northern mountain is Jebel Sulemiyeh , the Mount Ebal of the Bible; the mountain facing it is Jebel Et-Tor, the Biblical Mount Gerizim. The height of Mount Ebal is 3,032 feet, and the height of Mount Gerizim is 2,836 feet above sea level. In the sheltered glen between them, and nearly nineteen hundred feet above sea level, lay Shechem, peacefully secluded in its mountain nest. At the eastern end, the glen quickly widens and sinks gently to the level of a plain, called the Plain of El-Makhna , which is undoubtedly the “place of Sichem” mentioned in patriarchal history (Gen. xii:6). On a little knoll, close by the foot of Mount Gerizim, not quite 1,200 yards in a southeasterly direction from Nablous, is Bir Yakub— -Jacob' s Well. It is on the direct road from Jerusalem to Galilee, and there is no doubt that it is indeed the well which was dug by the patriarch, and beside which our Saviour sat down to rest. There is more doubt about the “city of Samaria, called Sychar” (John iv: 5), at which the well is said to have been. The name of Sychar seems certainly to have been preserved in that of the village of Asker , which is situated at the foot of Mount Ebal, nearly 1,500 yards due east of Nablous; but Jacob’s Well is on the opposite side of the plain from Asker, and about 1,300 yards distant from it, and it is unlikely that the Samaritan woman would go so far for water in a district in which water is so abundant. It is entirely probable, however, that in the innumerable wars which have swept that region, the Sychar of the gospel has been swept away, and that some of its inhabitants, when they rebuilt it, not on the same spot, but still not far from it, may have cherished the memory of their former home, by giv¬ ing the old name to the new village. Nearly midway between Jacob’s Well and Asker is a tomb, evidently SAMARIA. 443 by no means ancient, which is pointed out as the tomb of the patriarch Joseph; and in the Plain of Makhna, a little more than three miles south of Nablous, is Salim , which may very possibly be the former dwelling of “Melchizedek, King of Salem.” the “priest of the most High God,” who “brought forth bread and wine” to Abraham, and blessed him, and received tithes from him (Gen. xiv: 18-20). Salim is also one of several places which have been supposed to be referred to in the gospel, where we read MELCHIZEDEK BLESSING ABRAHAM. (GEN. XIVIlS-IQ.) that “John baptized in Aenon, near to Salim, because there was much water there” (John iii: 23). Westward from Nablous the land sinks irregularly away toward the Mediterranean, here swelling into hills, and there falling to a lower level as it nears the sea; until it ends beyond the hills of Ephraim in the Plain of Sharon. About six miles to the northwest of Nablous, where the general 444 SAMARIA. level of the land is lower than that of the Plain of Makhna, there is a broad and wide basin encircled with hills. From the center of this basin an oblong hill, with steep sides and a long flat top, rises to a height of 1,540 feet. On the summit of that central hill once stood the city of Samaria. After this brief description of the relative position of these places, which a glance at the map will make still clearer, we may proceed to the facts and events which have made that narrow region so profoundly inter¬ esting to the Christian and the, student. To begin with Shechem and its neighborhood, the district surrounding it has always been a “delightsome land,” so far as it has lain in nature to make it so. From Isaiah we hear of the thickness of the forests of Samaria, the beauty of its flowers, the fatness of its valleys and the strength of its wine (Isa. ix: 18; xxviii: 1). Josephus says that in his time the hills and valleys of Samaria were extremely fruitful, well-watered, and refreshed with copious rains. In the autumn, an immense number of trees, both wild and cultivated, were laden with all varieties of fruits; and, by reason of the abundance and excellence of the grass, the cattle yielded greater quantities of milk than in less favored regions. These were “the blessings of Joseph” awarded to him by the testament of his dying father (Gen. xlix: 26); and then, as now, they were both rich and beautiful. An enthusiastic observer expatiates on the clumps of lofty walnut trees, and the thick groves of almond, pomegranate, olive, pear and plum trees, which adorn the outskirts of Nablous and run toward the opening of the valley. In summer time, the woods are melodious with the songs of birds. The familiar note of the black-bird, the glorious song of the lark high in the heavens, and the chirping of innumerable finches delight the ear, as the variety of color delights the eye. Brooks of clear mountain water, fringed with cyclamens, dwarf tulips and red anemones, splash and murmur on their way to the unseen Jordan. The traveler repeats and justifies the saying of Mohammed that “the land of Syria is beloved of Allah beyond all other lands; in Syria, the district that he most loves is the district of Jerusalem, and in all the district of Jerusalem the place in which he most delights, is the mountain of Nablous!” In such a scene, even the barren sterility of the mountain sides sets off the luxuriant fertility of the plain. “There is nothing finer in all Palestine,” says Dr. Clarke, “than a view of SAMARIA. 445 Nabulus from the heights around it. As the traveler descends toward it from the hills, it appears luxuriantly embosomed in the most delightful and fragrant bowers, half concealed by rich gardens and by stately trees col¬ lected into groves, all around the bold and beautiful valley in which it stands." “The whole valley,” says Dr. Robinson, “was filled with gardens of vegetables, and orchards of all kinds of fruits, watered by fountains, which burst forth in various parts and flow westward in refreshing streams. It came upon us suddenly like a scene of fairy enchantment. We saw Jacob’s well. nothing to compare with it in all Palestine. Here, beneath the shadow of an immense mulberry tree, by the side of a purling rill, we pitched our tent for the remainder of the day and the night. . . . We rose early, awakened by the songs of nightingales and other birds, of which the gardens around us were full. The awful gorge of the Leontes is grand and bold beyond description; the hills of Lebanon, over against Sidon, are magnificent and sublime; the valley of the hill of Naphtali is rich in wild oak forest and brushwood; those of Asher, the Wady Kara, for example, 446 SAMARIA. present a beautiful combination of wood and mountain stream, with all its magnificence of undisturbed originality. . . . Carmel with its wilder¬ ness of timber, trees and shrubs, of plants and bushes, still answers to its ancient reputation for magnificence. But the Vale of Shechem differs from them all. “There is no wilderness here,” says Van de Velde, “there are no wild thickets, yet there is always verdure, always shade, not of the oak, the terebinth, and the carob-tree, but of the olive-grove, so soft in color, so picturesque in form, that, for its sake, we can willingly dis¬ pense with all other wood. There is a singularity about the Vale of Shechem, and that is the peculiar coloring which objects assume in it. You know that wherever there is water, the air becomes charged with watery particles, and that distant objects beheld through that medium seem to be enveloped in a pale blue or gray mist, such as contributes not a little to give a charm to the landscape. But it is precisely those atmos¬ pheric tints that we miss so much in Palestine. Fiery tints are to be seen both in the morning and the evening, and glittering violet or purple colored hues where the light falls next to the long, deep shadows; but there is an absence of coloring, and of that charming dusky hue, in which objects assume such softly blended forms, and in which, also, the transition in color from the foreground to the furthest distance, loses the hardness of outline peculiar to the perfect transparency of an Eastern sky. It is other¬ wise in the Vale of Shechem, at least, in the morning and the evening. Here the exhalations remain, hovering among the branches and leaves of the olive-trees, and hence that lovely bluish haze. The valley is far from broad, not exceeding in some places a few hundred feet. This you find generally inclosed on all sides; here, likewise, the vapors are con¬ densed. And so you advance under the shade of the foliage, along the living waters, and charmed by the melody of a host of singing birds — for they, too, know where to find their best quarters — while the perspective fades away and is lost in the damp, vapory atmosphere. Apart entirely from the historic interest of the place, such are the natural attractions of this favorite resort of the patriarch of old, such the beauty of the scenery, and the indescribable air of tranquility and repose which hangs over the scene, that the traveler, anxious as he may be to hasten forward in his journey, feels that he would gladly linger, and could pass here days and weeks without impatience.” SAMARIA 447 Into this wilderness of beauty the patriarchs Abraham and Lot came wandering with their flocks and herds, and in “the place of Sichem” was the first spot of all the Promised Land in which the Father of the Faith¬ ful built an altar “unto the Lord who had appeared unto him” (Gen. xii: 6-8). When Jacob returned from Padanaram, he, too, ‘‘came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, and pitched his tent before the city” (Gen. xxxiii: 18). This Shalem can hardly refer to the Salim which is now in the Plain of Makhnah; since a better translation of the original Hebrew would be that “Jacob came safe to city of Shechem.” However that may be, Jacob tarried long in that place. He bought there the only spot in all the land of Canaan that he ever owned, the same “parcel of a field which he gave to his son Joseph (Gen. xxxiii: 18, 19), and in which the children of Israel buried Joseph (Josh. xxiv:32). In that same parcel of ground 448 SAMARIA. to avoid trouble with the owners of the numerous springs around it, Jacob dug a well for the use of his flocks and herds; and then, on his own land, near his own well, and beside his own tent, he reared his household altar, El- Elohe- Israel (Gen. xxxiii: 20). There for many a year the patriarch dwelt in peace, while all his sons, except Benjamin, the youngest, grew to manhood around him. In the time of Jacob, Shechem, though it is called “city” can have been no more than a village inhabited by a settlement of those Hivites of whom so little is known. Whether it took its name from Shechem, the son of Hamor, or whether the man took his name from the city, we do not know. Either way Shechem was an appropriate name for a town situated on the shoulder, or saddle, or ridge of the tableland which from that height drains westward to the Mediterranean and eastward to the Jordan. The Shechemites appear to have been a simple and kindly people; and although one of their number was guilty of a deadly outrage to the family of Jacob, he and they were ready to make all possible reparation. Of the crafty treason by which the sons of Jacob were enabled to assassinate the Shechemites and plunder their town, the aged patriarch told only the truth when he said, “Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. With their assembly mine honor, be not thou united” (Gen. xxxiv; xlix: 6, 7). Before his death Moses solemnly charged the children of Israel that as soon as they had entered the Promised Land they should march to the very heart of it, and perform a sublime act of national worship. “When the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal” (Deut. xi: 29). They were to take great stones and cover them with plaster, and in the plaster, which, when dry, would be as hard as the stones themselves, they were to write all the words of the divine law. They were also to build an altar and to offer burnt offer¬ ings and peace offerings (Deut. xxvii: 2-8). Immediately after the destruc¬ tion of Ai Joshua performed this sacred duty to the letter. In the pres¬ ence of the children of Israel, their elders, their officers, their judges, and even of the women and the little ones, he read the law aloud and pro¬ claimed the blessings and the curses which should light upon the faithful SAMARIA 449 and the disobedient respectively. In the narrow glen between the two great mountains the ark and the altar of God were placed in full view of the people, who were ranged, line above line, along the steep sides of the hills, and eastward in the widening vale — a natural theater in which the voice of one man might be heard by hundreds of thousands. So, while ' the priests stood round about the altar, and the smoke of burnt offering, and peace offering, and incense floated heavenward. Joshua pronounced SUPPOSED TOMB OF JOSEPH. from Mount Gerizim the blessings which should come upon the faithful; and at every benediction all the people cried Amen! Then, with like fidel¬ ity, he spake from Mount Ebal the curses that should blight the disobe¬ dient: and again with one voice, echoing from mount to mount, the people answered, Amen! Thus were the heathen notified that Israel had come to take possession of the land that God had promised to the patriarchs; and at the same time Israel was advertised of the terms on which that 450 SAMARIA. good land could remain to them “a possession forever” (Josh, viii: 30-35). Once again Joshua assembled the tribes of Israel to meet him “before God" at Shechem. His work was done; the land was theirs; for his own portion he had been content to take the quiet and secluded crags of Timnath-serah ; he would soon be resting there “on the north side of the hill of Gaash." But before he left them to the good and evil which the future hid from him and them, he gathered them together and recounted all that God had done for them. Once more he “set them a statute and an ordinance at Shechem.’’ By the sanctuary of Jehovah, which, on at least one occasion, stood on Mount Gerizim, he raised another stone for a memorial witness that he had done his part between God and them. Under the “great oak” near by, he bade them farewell; and “so Joshua let the people depart every man unto his own inheritance” (Josh. xxiv). In the time of .the Judges, Shechem was a place of disquiet and of crime. Abimelech, the slave-born son of Gideon, contrived to seduce the Shechemites, among whom his mother had been born, to make him king over them. With their aid, he put to death all the other sons of Gideon, except young Jotham, who escaped; and so for a while Abimelech reigned at Shechem. It was then that Jotham made his appearance in the heights of Mount Gerizim, above the city, and spoke the bitter fable of the trees that “on a time went forth to anoint a king over them.” His illustrations were all nigh at hand; the olive with its fatness, the fig tree with its sweet¬ ness, the vine with its “wine which cheereth God and man,” and the bramble bush, that light and fruitless dweller of the waste — which dries up like stubble and like stubble can be kindled into sudden flame which as suddenly dies down — nothing could more aptly have typified the vain man whom the Shechemites had chosen for king. The short reign of Abimelech was full of trouble for himself and the abettors of his crime. Their hands were soon turned against each other, and before his own death, Abimelech, the bram¬ ble, had razed Shechem to the ground and sown its site with salt. But Shechem sprang again from its ashes. It was the place appointed for the coronation of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. Then, and for the last time, “all Israel” came together at Shechem. Under the leadership of of Jeroboam, they presented to the king their dignified demand fora re¬ dress of grievances; and when they heard his threatening and insulting SAMARIA. 453 answer, echoed and re-echoed their fierce shout, “To your tents, O Israel!” That day the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were rent asunder, and the curses of Ebal began to fall (i Kings xii : i - 2 1 ) . Thenceforward, Shechem almost disappears from history. In the northern kingdom, of which it was the first capital, it was soon supplanted by Samaria. At the Captivity its people shared the fate of the rest of Israel. Its subsequent inhabitants were imported foreigners, not distinguished from the rest of the “Samari¬ tans,” whom the Jews abhorred. Omri, King of Israel, spent the first years of his reign at a pleasaunce, or, as the Orientals would call it, a para¬ dise, at Tirzah, a place of such beauty that the author of the Canticles compares his bride to it. “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah!” (Cant. vi:4). After six years spent at Tirzah, Omri set about build¬ ing a new residence for his court. He bought from its owner, Shemer, the hill which, from his name, was called in Hebrew, Shomeron, a name which became, in Chaldee, Shemrin, and in Greek, Samaria (1 Kings xvi:2i, 22). But, to use the illustration of Dean Stanley, as if Windsor were to take the place of London, or Versailles that of Paris, Samaria presently supplanted Shechem as the capital of the kingdom. It was in every way as well situated. Its site was as beautiful, the surrounding country was as fertile; and, in addition to these advantages, its position, in a military point of view, was incomparably stronger. Shechem, with the heights of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim on either side of it, was utterly 454 SAMARIA. «>j4j indefensible, while Samaria, with its almost precipitous sides rising sheer out of the plain, was inexpugnable in an age in which artillery was un¬ known. It was well supplied with water from natural springs, and in suc¬ cessive sieges it defied the assaults of its enemies longer than Jerusalem was ever able to hold out in like circumstances. Its only danger lay in the im¬ possibility of obtaining supplies in case of a close investment by a numer¬ ous army. When first besieged by the Syrian king, Benhadad, it was able not only to defend itself, but to repulse the enemy. In a second siege by the same king it suffered incredible hardships through famine, until the enemy fled panic-stricken, on a false alarm of a night attack by fresh troops which were supposed to have come to the relief of the city (2 Kings vii;viii). The situation of the city, during a siege, is well described by Van de Velde: “As the mountains around the hills of Shemer” (he says) “are higher than that hill itself, the enemy must have been able to discover, clearly, the condition of the besieged Samaria. The inhabitants, whether they turned their eyes upward or downward, to the surrounding hills, or into the valley, must have seen all full of enemies. The mountains and the adjacent circle of hills were so densely occupied by the enemy, that not a man could pass through to bring provisions to the beleaguered city. The Syrians on the hills must have been able, from where they stood, plainly to see the famishing inhabitants.” In 721 B. C. Samaria was taken by Shalmanezer, King of Assyria, but not until after a siege of three years (2 Kings xviii:9-io), and then the in¬ habitants were carried away into captivity. With the fall of Samaria the kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. The blessings of Mount Gerizim had been despised and misused; the curses of Mount Ebal were reaped in a harvest of desolation. Soon after the fall of the kingdom of Israel begins the history of the strange people who are known in history as the Samaritans, and a handful of whom still exists. The Israelites were swept clean out of their former territories. Absolutely none were left. The country would have reverted into the condition of a wilderness if a new population had not been sent into it by Esarhaddon (Ezra iv:2-io). The Assyrian king “brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of SAMARIA 455 the children of Israel, and they possessed the cities of Samaria and dwelt therein” (2 Kings xvii:24). These strangers were idolaters, of course, and in common with most idolaters they believed in gods having peculiar powers over particular nations and districts. Suffering considerably from the wild beasts with which the desolated country had begun to be infested and supposing themselves to be obnoxious to the God of the land, they appealed to Esarhaddon, and a priest of the captivity was sent to ‘‘teach them the manner of the God of the land” (2 Kings xvii: 25-32). For a NABLOUS. time the worship of Jehovah was mingled with idolatry ; but at length the Sam¬ aritans became entirely monotheistic and as scrupulous in their observance of the law as the Jews themselves. On the return of the Judean captives from Babylon, the Samaritans were naturally regarded by them as strang¬ ers and foreigners; and when they asked permission to join with the Jews in rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, their offers were disdainfully re- 456 SAMARIA. jected (Ezra iv: i). The scorn of Zerubbabel was returned with hatred, and the Samaritans, who might at least have been admitted as proselytes, became formidable and vexatious enemies. Their first temple or taberna¬ cle had been at Bethel; they now built a temple at Mount Gerizim, and after a time Manasseh, a lineal descendant of the priestly line of Aaron, became their chief priest. Many things contributed to the upbuilding of the Samaritan people and their religion, such as the rejection at Jerusalem of the priests who could not prove their priestly lineage (Neh. vii 160-65), and the contumely heaped upon the “mixed multitude” in whose veins the blood of the patriarchs had been mingled with a baser fluid (Neh. xiii: 1-3). To these unfortunates Samaria gave a cordial welcome and full credit to their genealogical pretensions. Discontented Jews always found a hospit¬ able asylum in Samaria; and in time, by intermarriage with Jewish outcasts and renegades, the whole body of the Samaritan people must have come to be of Israelitish blood. By and by a belief sprang up among them that they, and not the Jews, were the true representatives of Israel, and that the temple on Mount Gerizim, not the temple on Mount Moriah, was the one place which God had chosen for His sanctuary. They maintained GATE OF NABLOUS. the law in its purity, holding and observing the books of the Penta¬ teuch only, and they accused the Jews of adulterating the truth by admit¬ ting to their canon many other books which the purer Samaritans rejected and anathematized. Thus, from generation to generation, the feud grew in its intensity of bitterness. At the first opportunity, John Hyrcanus destroyed the temple on Gerizim and leveled Samaria to the ground, and this act of hostility was never forgiven. After its destruction by Hyrca¬ nus, Samaria was rebuilt by the Roman general Gabinius. The Emperor Augustus gave it to Herod, by whom it was splendidly restored and forti¬ fied, and by whom also it was called Sebaste (the Greek for Augusta) in honor of his patron. A large colony of soldiers and peasants was estab- SAMARIA 457 lished there, much to the satisfaction, and equally to the profit of the inhabitants. Rejoicing in their own prosperity, and confident in the strong protection they enjoyed, the Samaritans took every opportunity to vex the people who still treated them with unutterable scorn. In every way they endeavored to disturb the rival worship of the Jews. Ihey observed the signal fires upon the mountain tops, the flaming telegraph by which the SUMMIT OF MOUNT GER1ZIM. announcement of the rising of the paschal moon was flashed from Jeru¬ salem to the brethren of the dispersion at Babylon, and they lit false fires to deceive the Babylonish Jews. Within the life time of our Lord (A. D. io) they were accused of defiling the temple at Jerusalem itself. The submissive alliance of Samaria was assured to foreign invaders whom the Jews abhorred. Thus the Samaritans espoused the cause, and enjoyed the patronage of Herod and the Romans, while the Jews were bitterly implacable, and were conse¬ quently kept down with an iron hand. Nothing could exceed the hatred 458 SAMARIA. of the Jews for the Samaritans. In comparison with the sayings of the Rabbis, the language of Jesus, the son of Sirach, is mild: “There be two manner of nations which my heart abhorreth, and the third is no nation; they that sit on the mountain of Samaria, and they that dwell among the Philistines, and that foolish people that dwelleth in Sichem” (Ecclus. i : 26, 27). The feeling of the Jews of our Lord’s time was well expressed in the logic of the taunt, “Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil!” “No Israelite could lawfully eat even a mouthful of food that had been touched by a Samaritan, for, to do so was as it he ate the flesh of swine.” No Samaritan was allowed to become a proselyte, nor could he have any part in the resurrection of the dead. A Jew might be friendly with a heathen, but never with a Samaritan, and all bargains made with one were invalid. The testimony of a Samaritan could not be taken in a Jewish court, and to receive one into one’s house would bring down the curse of God. It had even become a subject of warm controversy how far a Jew might use the food or fruit grown on Samaritan soil. What grows on trees or in fields was reckoned clean, but it was doubtful respecting flour or wine. A Samaritan egg as the hen laid it, could not be unclean, but what of a boiled egg? Yet interest and convenience strove, by subtle casuistry, to invent excuses for what intercourse was unavoidable. The country of the Cuthites was clean, so that a Jew might, without scruple, gather and eat its produce. The waters of Samaria were clean, so that a Jew might drink them or wash in them. Their dwellings were clean, so that he might enter them and eat or lodge in them. Their roads were clean, so that the dust of them did not defile a Jew’s feet. The Rabbis even went so far in their contradictory utterances, as to say that the victuals of the Cuthites were allowed, if none of their wine or vinegar were mixed with them, and even their unleavened bread was to be reckoned fit for use at the Pass- over. Opinions thus wavered, but, as a rule, harsher feelings prevailed. The assertion by the Samaritans of a peculiar sanctity in the seat of their temple at Mount Gerizim was not by any means destitute of founda¬ tion. Old traditions, antedating the time when the tabernacle of God stood there in the life-time of Joshua, clung around that ancient sanctuary, and cling around it still. To this day there are some among the learned who believe that Mount Gerizim, and not the eastern hill of Jerusalem, is SAMARIA. 459 the Mount Moriah on which Abraham was bidden to offer up his son Isaac, which the aged patriarch himself called Jehovah-jireh, and which the writer calls ‘‘the Mount of the Lord’’ (Gen. xxii: 1-14). It was also believed, and it is still by some believed, to have been the meeting place of Abraham with Melchizedek, King of Salim, to whom Abraham paid tithes, and after whose “order” the Messiah was to be “a priest forever.’’ Dean Stanley, for instance, believed that the residence of that mysterious king was where the town of Salim now stands (Gen. xiv: 17-20). If a writer like Dean Stanley, aftercareful investigation, and on purely critical grounds, could declare his belief in the traditions, to the Samaritans they must RUINS ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT GERIZIM. have seemed indisputable. But the legendary traditions of the Samari¬ tans went far beyond the region of critical probability. They represented Gerizim as the paradise in which Adam was made of the dust of its soil. To this day their descendants show the spot on which he built his first altar, and also the spot where Seth raised his altar to God. Moreover Gerizim was Ararat, the mountain on which the ark of Noah rested after the flood; it was the one pure spot on all the earth which the waters of the deluge did not cover, and which the corpses of the dead did not defile. There was the place where Noah and his family came forth from the ark, and every Samaritan could show the seven steps of the altar on which he offered a sacrifice. Not only was the place of Abraham’s altar Jehovah- 460 SAMARIA. jireh known to them; Gerizim was the true Bethel, and they knew the broad stone on which the head of Jacob rested when he saw the vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven. The stones which Joshua set up with the law written upon them were still there; there Moses had person¬ ally hidden the sacred vessels of the sanctuary; and it was there that the Messiah should appear. To this day the small colony of that peculiar people maintains its worship at the ancient shrine, though their temple has long since been swept away. Samaria was early reached by Christianity (Acts viii: 5). It became a Christian see and to this day a Greek Bishop takes title from Sebaste or Sebastiyeh. The “New City” of Shechem, Neapolis (now Nab- lous) did not take kindly to the new religion; and therefore, particularly in the sixth century after Christ, it came into frequent conflict with the power of the then Christian empire. The Neapolitan Samaritans perse¬ cuted the Christians and destroyed their churches; in 529 they put the bishop to death; and at the same time they were so mad as to make Julian, one of their leaders, king over them. The Emperor Justinian sent an army against them. Many of the insurgents were slaughtered; many fled to Persia; many submitted and embraced Christianity. Their synagogues were destroyed. They were completely crushed. In the history of the Crusades they are not even mentioned. In the twelfth century they are said to have had only about a thousand adherents at Nablous and a few at Ascalon, Caesarea and Damascus. More recently they are known to have had small communities at Damascus and Cairo; but these have disap¬ peared. They are now to be found only at Nablous, and there they are reduced to about fifty families, who occupy a separate district of the town in which their forefathers once ruled. But yet the line of their priesthood survives; their worship is main¬ tained; the law of Moses is read among them every Sabbath day. How punctiliously they perform the rites of their religion is strikingly illustrated in the account given of their celebration of the Passover by the accom¬ plished writer of the description of Nablous in Baedeker’s “Palestine and Syria.” He says: “The ascent of Mount Gerizim is best made from the west corner of the town, and through the valley ascending thence toward the south, in which rises the copious spring Ras el Ain. A steep climb of SAMARIA. 461 twenty-five minutes, brings us to a lofty plain, where we turn to the left and soon reach the spot where the Samaritans pitch tents at the feast of the Passover. Thence to the summit is a walk of ten minutes more. “On the Greek Palm Sunday of 1869 the writer had an opportunity of witnessing this interesting festival. Seven days before it the whole of the Samaritan community had repaired hither and encamped in this basin, where everything wore a gay, holiday aspect. In the tent of the high priest, where we partook of ^ coffee, his wife was £ > busied in preparing the 5 ‘bitter herbs,’ which she o mixed with unleavened g dough. Toward sunset o we proceeded to the > scene of the sacrifice, a R > little nearer the top of ^ the mount. On a care- § > fully-tended fire of twigs 2 stood large cauldrons filled with water, and a few paces higher up there was another fire in a deep pit, also carefully supplied with fuel. To the right of the first fire, within a space enclosed by stones, stood twelve men in white surplices and turbans, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, with their faces turned toward the summit of the mount, and chanting passages from Scripture and prayers in a monotonous tone. On a block of stone in front of them stood a young priest, silently joining in the prayers of the twelve. Around the fire were ranged a number of white-robed men and boys, holding seven 462 SAMARIA. white lambs, and behind them stood a throng of women and children. As soon as the last rays of the sun had ceased to gild the Mediterra¬ nean, the high priest pronounced a blessing three times, and in a loud voice repeated the passage: — ‘And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening’ (Exod. xii:6). Thereupon the slaugh¬ terers, who had already tested the sharpness of their knives with the tips of their tongues, instantly cut the throats of the lambs, while loudly recit¬ ing a form of prayer. The twelve now approached the place of sacrifice, reading aloud the above chapter of Exodus. When they came to the verse which requires the blood to be struck ‘on the two side-posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses’, the fathers dipped their forefingers in the warm blood and drew a line with it, from the forehead to the tip of the nose, on their children’s faces. Meanwhile the chanting continued until a straw platter with the bitter herbs was placed before the high priest, who handed to each comer his portion. The men reverently kissed the priest’s hand and showed the same mark of respect to the elders of the community. They then embraced and kissed each other, expressing mutual wishes for the success of the festival. As the slaughterers were not permitted to leave their posts, the priest thrust their portions into their mouths, and after the men and boys had all partaken, the remainder was distributed among the women. In order to facilitate the removal of the wool hot water was poured over the victims, and as soon as this process was completed, each lamb was hung by the hind-legs on a piece of wood resting on the shoulders of two youths, in which position the entrails were removed. The animals were then scrupulously examined, great care being taken lest they should be polluted by the too near approach of strangers. “One of the lambs was pronounced by the high priest to be affected with a blemish, whereupon it was immediately thrown into the fire, to which were also consigned the wool, the entrails, and the right fore-legs of the other victims. The lambs were now rubbed with salt, hung on long poles and carried to the pit containing the second fire. At a certain pas¬ sage in the prayers they were suddenly thrown in; bundles of twigs were then speedily placed over the mouth of the pit, and the opening closed with pieces of turf. I / SAMARIA. 463 “The twelve surpliced men now returned to their enclosure and read on unremittingly till midnight. The pit was then opened, and the roasted lambs were taken out, and carried in new straw-baskets to the enclosure, where they were eaten in haste by the men, in a crouching attitude, and with staves in their left hands. The white-robed men, in profound silence CYLINDER INCLOSING THE TRANSLATION OF THE INSCRIPTION SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. ON THE CYLINDER. thus eating the Passover, presented a peculiarly solemn and impressive scene. At length the hour arrived for the morning prayer of four hours’ duration, whereupon we quitted the place.” In order to complete our survey of this most interesting district, we may here very greatly condense the vivid description of Nablous, given by 464 SAMARIA. Miss Rogers in “Picturesque Palestine,” and Dr. Geikie’s equally vivid account of Ebal and Gerizim. With Miss Rogers for our guide, we take the road from Jacob’s Well in a northwesterly direction, skirting the base of Gerizim. “From Jacob’s Well the road takes a northwesterly direction, skirting the base of Gerizim. On the right is the pasture-land of Jacob, yielding abundant harvests of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, sesamum, cotton, and tobacco, and a wealth of wild flowers on every uncultivated patch of ground. A spur of Gerizim runs northward as if to meet a corresponding but less developed spur advancing southward from Ebal, the twin mountain opposite; the point of their near¬ est approach is the true entrance to the Valley of Shechem. As we follow the path around the northern extremity of Gerizim, the whole length of the valley comes suddenly into sight, with its terraced hillsides, its running streams, and olive-groves and orchards above which the mosques and minarets and white house-tops of Nablus appear, rather more than half a mile distant.” We pass the spring of Defneh (Daphne) and then the new barracks,, to build which many of the stones of the ruins around Jacob’s Well were carried away. Here the valley seems to widen again, for the steep slope of Gerizim is broken by a deep wady which forms a vast natural amphi¬ theatre. Immediately opposite there is a corresponding ravine reaching almost to the summit of Ebal. It has been conjectured by several writers, that it was here that Joshua, after having taken possession of the Promised Land, assembled the tribes of Israel; and it would be difficult to find a more appropriate spot for the celebration of the solemn ceremonies described in Deut. xxvii and Josh, viii: 30-35. The Ark of the Covenant is lost, and the children of Israel are scat¬ tered. Instead of the ark, we see in the valley a few Bedouin tents and camels, and Arab laborers at work in the fields and orchards; instead of the tribes of Israel, we see detachments of Turkish soldiers hurrying toward the new barracks. We hasten onward, with Gerizim on our left and Ebal a little farther off on our right, but they are gradually approaching each other. We cross and recross winding streams and artificial watercourses in gardens and cultivated fields, then pass through picturesque olive-groves where the way- SAMARIA. 465 sides are in many places brightened with wild flowers and patches of self-sown barley. In a few minutes we enter the eastern gate of Nablus. Nablus is a contraction and corruption of “Flavia Neapolis,” as the city was called when it was almost rebuilt by Titus Flavius Vespasian. The town, which is almost three-quarters of a mile long, is built in the narrowest part of the valley, where it is only one hundred yards wide. It is said that there are eight springs of water in and about Nablus, each having its special name. The water is conveyed to mosques, public build¬ ings and private houses. Many of the streets have channels of clear water TWO PAGES OF THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. running through them. After being thus utilized, the streams on the west¬ ern side of the city are allowed to unite and form a stream which turns several mills and flows toward the Mediterranean; those on the eastern side irrigate the gardens, and then, with a rather abrupt fall, flow toward the Jordan. There are no very ancient buildings in Nablus, and scarcely anything remains to remind us of the “New City” of Flavius but the mutilated ves¬ tige of its name. The Crusaders, however, have left several memorials of their influence here. We at once recognize their work in the facade of the 466 SAMARIA. principal mosque, which was originally a church dedicated to St. John. It is at the eastern end of the city, and is called Jamia el Kebir (the Great Mosque). From this point we enter the bazaars, which are better built and kept in better order than those of Jerusalem. There are small arcades devoted to the sale of tobacco; others are filled with the odors of lemons, oranges, citrons and shaddocks. The long, narrow bazaar, where dried fruits, olives, rice, cheese and butter are sold, leads to another Christian church of the twelfth century, now converted into a mosque called Jamia el Nisr, the Mosque of the Eagle. Making a detour through a street almost blocked up with camels, we pass into the principal bazaar, the finest arcade in Pales¬ tine. Here the European goods are displayed, such as Manchester cottons, Sheffield cutlery, Bohemian glasses for narghilehs, and trinkets of all kinds from Marseilles. But the brightest shops are those in which Damascus and Aleppo silks, embroidered jackets, and crimson tarbushes appear, with stores of Turkish pipes and amber rosaries from Stamboul, and glass bracelets from Hebron. An opening in this arcade leads into the khan on the north side of the city, the Khan of the Merchants (Khan Tujjar). It consists of an extensive square space enclosed by a two-storied range of buildings. A stone stairway leads to the terraced roof, from whence there is an interesting view in every direction. The chief trade of Nablus is in wool, cotton, olive oil, and soap of excellent quality, and goat-skins in great numbers are converted into khirbehs for carrying water. Sometimes the floor of this khan may be seen half covered with the inflated skins laid out for seasoning. Returning to the arcade, we pursue our way westward through narrow bazaars, where smiths, carpenters, weavers, tailors, and shoemakers may be seen at work; then turning southward, we traverse tortuous lanes and gloomy streets, arched at intervals and built over in many places, till we reach a passage which leads us out of the town just opposite to the terraced gardens on the slopes of Gerizim, where flourish all ‘the precious fruits brought forth by the sun’ (Deut. xxxiii: 14). Oranges, lemons, figs, apricots, pomegranates, mulberries, walnuts, grapes, and almonds follow each other in due season, and hedges of cactus afford the cooling fruit commonly called the prickly pear. On one of these garden terraces Jotham, perhaps, stood when he cried, ‘Hearken unto me, ye men SAMARIA. 467 of Shechem,’ and spoke his parable of the fruit-trees and of the bramble, with olive, fig-trees, and vines around him, and thorns and brambles overgrowing the landmarks (Judges ix: 7-2 1). From a certain point in these gardens, turning toward the northwest, we see the outline of the western heights of Ebal, and in the foreground, the tall square tower (remarkably like the White Tower of Ramleh) which adjoins the Mosque El Khadra, the Green Mosque, another appropriated church of the Cru¬ saders. In the front of this tower, a slab is fixed, on which there is a Samaritan inscription. The Samaritans state that they once had a syna¬ gogue on this spot, which is popularly known as the Mukam Hizn Yakub, that is, ‘the Place of the Mourning of Jacob,’ for, according to local tradi¬ tion, it was here that Jacob stood when the coat of his beloved son Joseph was brought to him, and where, believing him to be dead, ‘he mourned for him many days.’ But the chief interest of Nablus is centered in a little group of irregularly built houses, clustered closely together in the south¬ west quarter, the most crowded part of the city. Here we find the last remnant of the once powerful Samaritan commu¬ nity. In 1874 they numbered one hundred and thirty-five individuals, of whom twenty-eight were married couples, ten were widows advanced in years, forty-nine were unmarried men and young boys, and twenty were young girls, many of whom were already promised in marriage. Since this date, the numbers have decreased. Several marriages have, however, taken place. Their only synagogue now is a small unadorned building, the approach to which is a crooked, uncovered, steep stone stairway leading to an open court, where a lemon-tree grows near to an arched doorway, through which no one is allowed to enter until he has ‘put off his shoes.’ The nave is lighted by a circular aperture in the vaulted roof, as is also the northeast transept through which we enter. On the southeast side, which is in the direction of the ‘Holy Place’ on Gerizim, there is a veiled recess to which the priests alone have access. The veil which is commonly used consists of a large square curtain of white damask linen, ornamented very skillfully with applique work, apparently of the six¬ teenth century, though the Samaritans regard it as much older; pieces of red, purple, and green linen cut into various forms are sewn on it so as to form a complete and harmonious design. 468 SAMARIA. Within the veil are preserved with jealous care, among other literary treasures, three very ancient copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch, one of which is said to have been written by Abishua, the great-grandson of Aaron. This celebrated roll of the law, which is probably of the third century of our era, is preserved in a cylindrical silver gilt case, opening as a triptych does on two sets of hinges. The outside of the case is embossed and in some parts engraved. On one of the divisions there is a represen¬ tation of the Tabernacle of the Wilderness with the Ark of the Covenant, altars, candlesticks, trum¬ pets, and various sacri¬ ficial implements, with explanatory inscriptions. The two other divisions of the cylinder are orna¬ mented with conventional designs in repouss work. This case is said by experts to be Venetian work of the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The Samaritans regard it as much older. The roll itself is composed of pre¬ pared goat-skins twenty-five inches high and about fifteen feet wide; they are neatly joined together, but in many places have been torn and rather clumsily repaired with parchment of various qualities. This much-prized volume is exhibited to the congregation once a year by the priest and his assistant, the ministering priest. The ceremony takes place on their only fast day, the Day of Atonement, and then the people, young and old, are permitted to kiss that part of the roll on which the Aaronic blessings are inscribed; the consequence is that the blessings are by degrees disappear¬ ing. A crimson satin cover, on which Samaritan inscriptions are embroid¬ ered in gold thread, envelopes the treasure. During the feast of unleavened bread, the Samaritans, when it is pos¬ sible for them to do so, close their houses in the city and live in tents pitched in the form of a half -circle on a sheltered plateau at some distance below the summit of Mount Gerizim (Jebel et Tur). Sometimes they go there a few SAMARIA. 469 days earlier, but more frequently they only remain on the mountain for two days, to celebrate the sacrifice of the Passover, and to partake of it during the intervening night.” Under the guidance of Dr. Geikie, we make the ascent of Mount Ger- izim on horseback. “The ascent of Gerizim is made on horseback, but a good part of the way is so steep that it seems wonderful that the beasts can keep their footing among the loose stones. Passing up behind the town you come very soon to a magnificent fountain, the water of which is led eastward by an open water course. At this copious source some women are drawing for their households, others are washing their unsavory linen; men are enjoying their ablutions, and boys are playing in the water. Gardens climb the hill on the left of the track, beautiful with every fruit tree that grows in Palestine; at some places grain is springing up vigor¬ ously on terraces raised upon slopes so steep that it seems impossible for their walls to stand. Vines, olives and figs fill stray nooks; but the part of the hill up which our horses have to toil is too stony for cultivation. At several places there are bold cliffs which seem to overhang the town, sev¬ eral of them forming natural pulpits, from any one of which Jotham may have delivered his famous parable, the earliest of which we know (Judg. ix: 7)- After a weary climb we reached the top of the mountain, but we have a long way to ride before we arrive at the farther end. The narrow pla¬ teau, now sloping upward, now undulating, now consisting of rough shelves of rock, is partly ploughed for grain, partly sown; stone walls separated some of the patches, and a terraced road at one point stretched for a good distance The spot where the Samaritans still sacrifice seven Paschal lambs is very near the east end of the ridge, close to the true peak of Gerizim. A pit, or “tannur,” in which the lambs are roasted, is all that appears of last year’s solemnity. Beyond this to the east, the highest part of the mountain is crowned with the ruins of a castle and a church; a Greek cross remaining over one of the gateways of the former. It dates from the early age of the Greek emperors, having been built apparently by Justinian, or at a yet earlier period. The church has been quite leveled with the ground, but some courses of the castle walls are still standing. A rock is pointed out — merely a sloping shelf of limestone — on which 470 SAMARIA. Joshua is said to have reared the Tabernacle; and a little rock-sunk trench is dignified as the scene of Abraham’s sacrifice. Joshua as we know, wrote the whole law on stones which he set up on Ebal (Deut. xxvii: 2-8); coating them with the almost imperishable cement of the country, and * writing on it, either with paint or with an iron style or pen, while it was soft. Such a mode of preserving writing was common in antiquity, and in so dry a climate would last almost forever. The Samaritans believe that ‘the twelve stones' thus inscribed are still in existence on the top of Mount Gerizim, but Sir Charles Wilson and Major Anderson excavated the large masses of rudely hewn stone supposed to be those of Joshua, and found them to be little better than mere natural slabs. The natural amphitheater formed by the receding of Mounts Ebal and Gerizim at the same point in the valley below, is wonderfully suited to such an incident as that of reading the law to the Hebrews, at the great assembly of a nation after the taking of Ai by Joshua (Deut. xxvii: 12: Josh, viii: 34). No sight could well have been grander than this singular spectacle; the Levites in their white robes, guarding the sacred ark on the gentle rise — the Shechem, or shoulder, which parts the waters flowing to the Dead Sea from those running toward the Mediterranean — and 'all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges,’ in two vast compa¬ nies, lining the sides of the two mountains, tribe by tribe, in ascending ranks, from the valley to the utmost height; the glorious sky over them as the only fitting roof of such a temple. That all the assembled myriads could easily hear the words of the Levites admits of no question, for the air of Palestine is so clear and dry that the voice can be heard at distances much greater than the residents of other countries would suppose. Sir Charles Wilson tells us, for example, that the Arab workmen on the top of Gerizim often conversed without effort with men passing along the valley beneath. The view from the top of Mount Gerizim is of amazing extent and interest — the bare and desolate: slopes of Ebal, watered only by rain from cisterns on the successive terraces that have been raised with much labor on its sides, since all the springs run through the strata to the north side of the mountain; the cactus gardens on the lower terraces; the corn ris¬ ing on many of those higher up, but the great bare mass of the hill swell- SAMARIA 4/1 ing to the sky above; the valley below, with its gardens and orchards, the mosque at Joseph’s Tomb, the Well of Samaria, and just outside on the plain, the village of Sychar — a poor hamlet on the rocky slope of Ebal, which swells up in slow waves behind it; the glorious Plain of Makhnah — ‘the Encampment’ — with its fields of rich brown tilth; stray villages on its low undulations; clumps of olives behind them; and on the other side, to the east, a long succession of round-topped hills, cultivated in terraces where- JOSEPH SOLD BY HIS BRETHREN. (GEN. XXVII : 23-28. ) ever there is a shelf for soil; while the distant landscape is sprinkled with olives, their gray intermixed with the green of the cornfields. On the west we could see Joppa, thirty-six miles off, at the sea; to the east, the chasm of the Jordan, eighteen miles distant; while at our feet, as if to bring us back from poetry to prose, the poles of the telegraph from Joppa / > 472 SAMARIA. stood up in their barrenness along the valley, running past Jacob’s Well, and then south to Jerusalem and Egypt, and east to Gilead. The view from Ebal, however, is even finer. On the north you see Safed, “the city set on a hill” (Matt, v: 14), and the snowy head of Mount Hermon, with “Thirza,” once the capital of the northern kingdom, famed for its beauty (Cant, vi 14; 1 Kings: 17; xv:2i, 33; xvi:S), shining out on a very steep hill a little way beyond the plain; on the west, Joppa and Ramleh, and the sea; on the south, the hills over Bethel; and on the east, the great plain of the Hauran, beyond the Jordan. A striking ruin on the summit of the mountain gives romance even to the Hill of Curses. The enclosure is over ninety feet square, and the walls are no less than twenty feet thick, strongly built of selected unhewn stones, without mortar, with the remains of chambers ten feet square inside. Within the building, however, is a cistern, and round it are the heaps of stones and ruins. Exca¬ vation has thrown no light on the history of the structure. It is too small for a church, for there is only a space fifty feet square inside the amazing walls, and there is no trace of any plaster or cement, such as is associated with the incident of the great stones which Joshua set up, or with any altar that he may have raised on the mountain. Strange to say, some peasant had carried his plough up to the top of the mountain, and had raised a fine crop of lentils, perhaps in the hope that, at such a height, they might escape the greedy eyes of the Turkish officials.” It is well worth while to have given a special study to this most inter¬ esting region, because it is one of the few places in the Holy Land in which we may be quite sure that we are standing on the very ground which was once trod by the Saviour’s feet, that we are gazing on the scenes on which He looked, and that we are recollecting some of the ten thousand things of which He must have thought. Jesus did not only pass through Samaria; He remained for two days among the simple, kindly, hospitable folk who heard Him so gladly (John iv:4o, 43); and when He left Samaria, He contrasted the honor He had there received with the indifference of his own countrymen (John iv : 44). Nablous, too, is well worthy of study, not only on account of its his¬ torical interest and the strange people of whom the last remnant seems to be slowly dying out there, but because, in the opinion of many competent SAMARIA. 473- persons, and certainly in the opinion of the present writer, Nablous is the Sychar of the Gospel. Unless the village of Asker formerly stood much nearer to Jacob’s Well than it does now, It seems to be incredible that the woman who went to that well to draw water should needlessly have gone so far for so homely a purpose. True, the modern Nablous is more dis¬ tant from the well than Asker, but at that time it is probable that the town stretched much further down into the valley; and, even now, the barracks of Nablous are considerably nearer than Asker to the well. In short, the conjecture seems to be something more than reasonable, that Sychar may have been the name given to the outlying suburbs of the main city, and that poor little Asker is only a remnant of extensive sub¬ urbs which once stretched far down into the valley and along the base-lines of the two lofty hills. Certainly, the language of the Gospel implies that Sychar was a populous town, and not merely a village; and we have no knowledge of any other such town near Jacob’s Well except Shechem. It therefore seems to be almost certain, that it was in Shechem that Jesus tarried preaching to Samaritans for those two memorable days. The Christian tradition of the site of Jacob’s Well dates back to the fourth century. Early in the fifth century a church had been erected there, but by the time of the Crusaders it had disappeared. Its ruins, and the stones cast into it by travelers for the purpose of hearing the splash of the water far beneath the opening, have probably much more than half filled up the well. In 1697, it is recorded to have been 105 feet deep, and to have had fifteen feet of water. In 1838, it still had a depth of 105 feet, but it was found to be dry. In the following year, with the same depth, it held ten to twelve feet of water. In 1840, the Rev. Andrew Bonar, who accidentally dropped his Bible into the well, heard the book ‘‘plunging into the water far below.” Strangely enough, the book was recovered three years later; and then, as in 1866 and in 1877, the depth of the well was found to be only seventy-five feet. By what means thirty feet of depth was filled up in the four years between 1839 and 1843, is not known. In 1866 Capt. Anderson, of the Royal Engineers, made a descent of the well with some danger and even suffering, for he fainted while descending, and found himself lying at the bottom, with the opening above him looking like a star. Nevertheless, he succeeded in making the observations which 474 SAMARIA. were the object of his difficult investigation. He states that the mouth of the well is “just wide enough to allow the body of a man to pass through with his arms uplifted. The narrow neck, which is about four feet long, resembling the neck of a bottle, opens out into the well itself, which is cylindrical and about seven feet six inches in diameter. The mouth of the upper part of the well is built of masonry, and the well appears to have been sunk through a mixture of alluvial soil and limestone fragments, till a compact bed of limestone was reached, having horizontal strata which could be easily worked. The interior of the well presents the appearance of being lined with rough masonry.” The reason why the patriarch should have undertaken so great and difficult a work as the sink¬ ing of this well, when there were magnificent springs gushing from the sides and roots of Mount Gerizim, must have been the jealousy with which the right of property in springs and wells is guarded in the East. At any moment his flocks and herds might have been deprived of water by the owners of the neighboring springs, who would not willingly see a customary use of their property growing into a sort of right in the user. To avoid all such difficulties and the cause which might lead to them, it was doubtless prudent in Jacob to dig a cistern on the parcel of ground which he had acquired by purchase, and from which, at the depth it originally had, he could expect to find a never failing supply of water for his flocks and herds. Above and around the well, as it is now, there is nothing of import¬ ance, except the stones of the chapel which was built there in the fifth century. The mouth of the well is covered with great stones with an orifice large enough for the leathern bottles of the peasants to pass through it. From the well the ground slopes up to the fragments of the broken wall, and the visitor must let himself down as best he can to reach the orifice. It was beside this ancient cistern, that our Saviour, weary with his long march, sat down to rest. It was high noon; it could not have been morning or evening, for then the well would have been surrounded with girls and women coming to draw water for their families. At that unusual hour came one woman alone, perhaps because other women, had they been there, would have cruelly taunted her with the disreputable life she had led. The Stranger knew her, though she did not know Him, and asked SAMARIA. 475 her to give Him water to drink. The woman was astonished, and well she might be; for the Man was a Jew, and the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. Besides, it was contrary to Eastern etiquette for a rabbi to address a woman not of his own family. The Talmud goes so far as to SENDING OUT THE TWELVE. (MARK VI: 8.) say that no rabbi “is to speak with a woman in a public place, or to take any notice of her, even if she be his wife.” Perhaps this poor woman was not accustomed to be courteously addressed either by men or by women. At all events, she answered him with evident surprise. “My lord,” she said, “how is it that thou, thou who art a Jew, askest drink of me, a Samaritan woman.” Into the wonderful discourse which followed we may not enter in this work. That is the loftier theme of preachers and commentators; but be¬ fore it was closed, the woman had found reason to cry out “My lord, I per- 4/6 SAMARIA. ceive that thou art a prophet!” and before the two days of His sojourn in that town among the hated Samaritans, were over, both she and they had learned to “know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world!” Then, after those two days of refreshment, thinking of the fields which He saw whitening for the harvest of the gospel, of the living water which, unknown to them, He had been showering on their souls, and then again of the few laborers who were willing to reap that harvest of redeemed souls, Jesus went on His way from the fair vale of Shechem, past Samaria, then in all the pride of its Herodian magnificence, now a mere village with many ruins. On a terrace which ran round the summit of the hill was then a stately colonnade 1,000 yards in length, with pillars which (including base and capital) must have been twenty or twenty-five feet high, now all bro¬ ken, and many of them buried in the ground. On the western end, on an artificial terrace which is now used as a threshing-floor, then stood the temple which the obsequious Herod reared to Augustus. Five centuries later a magnificent basilica was built on that same mountain to the honor of the Traveler who then saw Herod’s temple. When that noble Christian edifice had fallen, the Crusaders of the twelfth century raised on the same spot another church bearing the name of John the Bap¬ tist, who was thought, as early as the fourth century, to have been buried here. That Church of St. John is also now a ruin with its apse rising above the steep brink of the hill of Sebastiyeh. Its broken walls enclose a court in the midst of which there is a modern dome over a deep-sunk crypt where, beneath a stone slab, are said to have been laid the bodies of the Baptist, the faithful Obadiah (i Kings xviii:3-i6), and the prophet Eli¬ sha. On the north of the church are the ruins of another great building with massive square towers, probably remains of the palace of a bishop during the Crusades, or of a commandery of the Knights of St. John. Except perhaps, the pillars of the colonnade which are yet standing, no work of man’s hand that is now seen at Sebastiyeh could be seen from the road when Jesus passed Sebaste on His way through Samaria to Galilee. Beyond Sebaste He went through a country which was then extremely fertile and populous, but not famous in history, until He came to the plain SAMARIA. 477 of Dothan, where a pit is still shown in which Joseph is said to have been put by his conspiring brethren. All around that spot the flocks and herds of Jacob roamed and grazed, and over the same road which we are tracing came the Midianitish merchantmen from beyond Jordan bearing their spicery to Egypt. Now “the wild gazelle” finds pasture there. Four miles beyond that plain, on the further side of the hills which swell between it and the Plain of Esdraelon, was En Gannim. Passing through the city of fresh springs and fertile gardens, and across the plain of many battles, Jesus and His little company would soon arrive at Nazareth, and thence the way was short to little Cana. CHAPTER XV. TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. Retrospective— Galilee— Origin of the Name— Kabul— Fertility of the Province— Its Agricultural Products and Manufactures— Sepphoris, the Capital— The Home of the Virgin Mary— Seat of the Sanhedrim — A Christian Bishopric — The Castle Beautiful of the Crusaders — Remains of a Basilica — Jotopata — Its Siege and Fall — Capture of Josephus by Vespasian — Accho, the Port of Galilee — The Bay of Acre— Haifa — Wrecks along the Coast— The Mouth of the Kishon — The Belus — Fertility of the Plain— History of Acre— Modern Acre — The Plain Northward— The Ladder of Tyre — Its Three Promontories— Ras el-Ain — The Syro-Phoenician Woman — Tyre — Origin of the Name— Extent of the Island City — Palaetyrus — The Sidonian People — Tyre Forti¬ fied in the Time of Joshua — Solomon and King Hiram — Alliance with Ahab — Immense and Varied Commerce— Besieged by Nebuchadnezzar — Decline — Partial Independence under Egypt, Syria and Rome — Extent in the Time of Pliny — Christianity in Tyre — Visit of St. Paul — The Crusades — Tomb of Barbarossa — Desertion of Tyre — Complete Desolation — Present Condition — Tomb of Hiram — The Litany — Zarephath — Sidon — The Sidonian Confederacy — Destruction by the Persians— Christianity in Sidon— St. Paul — Mediaeval History. — Modern Saida. N FOLLOWING the steps of our Saviour to this early part of His ministry, indeed only to its opening, we have already gone over most of the Holy Land. Landing at Joppa, we have surveyed both the ancient and the modern road to Jerusalem and the famous scenes of sacred history near which they pass. We have visited Bethlehem. We have traced the flight into Egypt by Hebron and Beer- sheba, and the return through the Plain of Philistia. On their way to the Passover at Jerusalem, we have journeyed with the Holy Family from the Jordan to Jericho and Jerusalem. We have sought the solitary Wilderness of Judea where the Baptist meditated and the Saviour overcame the tempter. We have at last taken the highway which leads from Jerusalem to the border of Samaria. Thus we have left no part of Jiidect unnoticed which has any direct connection with the Life of Christ. 478 SUPPOSED TOMB OF KING HIRAM. TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 4/9 In like manner, we have traced one part of the journey of the Holy Family from Egypt through the maritime Plain of Sharon, and in the last chapter we have surveyed the only remaining part of the province ol Samaria which is mentioned in the New Testament. In following the probable path taken to Jerusalem at the first Pass- over of the Child Jesus we have gone down the Ghor of the Jordan, noting, as we went, that part of the Holy Land which lies beyond the sacred river. Thus we have at least glanced at the Province of Perea and the district of Decapolis. In Galilee we have viewed the Plain of Esdraelon; we have visited RUINS OF THE BASILICA AT SEFURIYEH. Nazareth, and Cana, and Capernaum; and in going round the Sea of Tiberias we have seen not only its Galilean shore, but its eastern shore in the Province of Iturea. In order, therefore, to complete our survey of the Beautiful Land, we have yet to take a rapid view of the rest of Galilee and of some of the places which our Saviour could hardly miss when He went into “all the cities and villages” of that province. Beyond the borders of the Promised Land, we must not omit to see “the coasts of Tyre and Sidon,” and “the towns of Caesarea Philippi,” into which He went at the very close of his ministry. Then, after ascending the “high mountain” of His transfigura¬ tion, we may descend as He did, to take our last look at the Beautiful 480 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. Land near by the Holy City and the unknown place whence He was “taken up.” The name of Galilee which was given to the northern province of the Holy Land, was probably applied at first to the circle (Heb. galil ) of the country which King Solomon gave with its twenty towns to Hiram, King of Tyre, in recognition or recompense of the large supplies of money and material which the Tyrian monarch furnished for the building of the Tem¬ ple. When he came to see them, Hiram was by no means gratified at the present he had received, and asked King Solomon, “What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.” The name was one of contemptuous disgust. One of the towns in the district was Cabul (Josh, xix: 27) ; and as that word in the Phenician language signifies dirty or displeasing , the disappointed monarch gave the name of that town to the entire district which had been ceded to him. Kabul still exists under the same name, and is situated about eight or nine miles east of Acre. Naturally, the opprobrious name bestowed by King Hiram would not be used by the Israelites or the inhabi¬ tants of the district, who would prefer to call it Galil; and when the tribes of Israel were carried into captivity, and the Galileans swarmed into the desolate and empty land, the name of their original home was extended to the whole of Northern Palestine. By way of further distinction, Northern Palestine was called Galilee of the Gentiles (Isa. ix: 1; Matt, iv: 15), and with good reason, since the majority of the Galileans were not Israelites. In the time of the Maccabees, it seems that the Israelites in Galilee were few and feeble in comparison with the Gentiles, among whom they lived (1 Macc. v: 1, 2, 14, 15); and Strabo describes the population as consisting in his time of Syrians, Phenicians and Arabs. It is certain, however, that in the time of Christ, the Israelites largely outnumbered the Gentiles of any single race, and it is probable that they had many proselytes to their religion among their heathen neighbors. Galilee was one of the most lovely and delightful portions of Pales¬ tine. Josephus declares that it was densely populated by a hardy and war¬ like people, and that its rich and fertile soil responded so readily and generously to the labor of the husbandman, as to attract all who cared to engage in agriculture. Every acre not under tilth or pasturage, was ver- ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN ST. JEAN D*ACRE. TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 483 dant with the foliage of trees. The cities were numerous, and the least of the villages had a population of 15,000 souls. A considerable subtraction might be made from what Josephus says, and yet leave Galilee a populous and prosperous country. Its hills were crowned with woods. Its upland slopes were the rich grazing ground of cattle. Its valleys teemed with all the grains, and fruits, and flowers that a prolific soil could yield under the rays of a Syrian sun. The rabbis never wearied of extolling Galilee. For sixteen miles around Sepphoris, its capital, they said that the land of REMAINS OF “CASTLE BEAUTIFUL” AT SEFURIYEH. Galilee literally flowed with milk and honey, and they maintained that its fruits were actually sweeter than fruits of the same species in any other place. Tacitus particularly praised the palms which grew in the most favored districts. Thus Galilee in all respects fulfilled the promise of Moses, that the lot of Naphtali should be “full with the blessings of Jehovah” (Deut. xxxiii:23); and even in our own day, Renan describes it as “a country clothed with verdure, full of shade and pleasantness — the true country of the Canticles and of the Songs of the Well-Beloved.” 484 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. The products of Galilee were largely, but by no means exclusively, agricultural. The wheat fields brought forth some thirty, some sixty and some an hundred fold. Every season saw the presses bursting with new wine. The product of the olive groves was so abundant that when Joto- pata was besieged by the Romans, the citizens were able to defend them¬ selves by pouring streams of boiling oil on their assailants. But there were many other remunerative industries. The waters of the Sea of Galilee teemed with fish for which there was a ready market even so far south as at Jerusalem. In the town of Magdala there are said to have been no less than three hundred shops for the sale of doves from the rocks and woods around. In the same neighborhood there were plantations of indigo, and the art of dyeing was practiced extensively and profitably. In the central district there were manufactories of pottery; and the weaving of linen and woolen cloths was one of the chief industries of the whole province. In short, Galilee was the manufacturing region of the Holy Land. It was also a commercial region. It found a market for its products in the ports of Akka, Tyre and Sidon, and along its highways the costly stuffs, the jew¬ els, the spices and the grain from the lands lying to the eastward of Jordan were carried to the sea-board. Such was the province into which our Saviour went preaching the Gospel, and in which He spent by far the longest part of His ministry. His was no religion for the speculative re¬ cluse; nor was it meant to be a pompous ceremonial religion. It was pre¬ eminently a religion of life, and He went with it among men who were fully occupied with all forms of human activity. In our Saviour’s time the capital city of Galilee was Sepphoris , also called Dioccesarea , the modern Sefuriyeh, which is perhaps identical with the more ancient Kitron (Judg. i:3o). According to tradition, Sepphoris was the home of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the blessed Virgin; and it was at Sepphoris, we are told, that the mother of Jesus spent her childhood and received the angelic annunciation. The tradition is late but not by any means incredible. It is hardly possible that our Saviour should not have visited Sepphoris, since it was only about five miles from Naza¬ reth. As it is plainly in sight of the hill which rises north of Nazareth, He must at least have seen it hundreds of times, and whether the Cana of the Gospel is the modern Kefr Kenna or Kanet el-Jelil, our Lord must have TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 485 been very near to the walls of Sepphoris every time he went to the place of his first miracle. From the midst of a plain surrounded with hills a single hill rises to a height of several hundred feet, and on its southern slope, that is to say on the side toward Nazareth, is the crescent-shaped town of Sefuriyeh. At that time it had been restored and adorned by Herod Antipas and was the greatest city of Galilee, outranking Tiberias itself. It had no natural supply of water, the nearest spring being over a mile distant in the plain to the south, but the remains of an aqueduct and a huge reservoir show the immense labor and expense at which this defect was remedied. The lines of the reservoir have been traced to a length of 520 feet, with a varying width of from 8 to 20 feet and a depth of from 8 to 15 feet, and when full it must have held more than 1,000,000 cubic feet of water. After the de¬ struction of Jerusalem, the great Sanhedrim was transferred to Sepphoris, which thus for a time became the center of Jewish nationality and religion. In consequence of a revolt of the Jewish inhabitants, it was sacked by the Romans, A. D. 339. Sepphoris was the residence of the Bishop of Pales- tina Secunda, and in the sixth century a basilica was erected on the spot where the Virgin is said to have received the angelic salutation. Still later the city was occupied by the Crusaders, and many a gallant Chris¬ tian army has assembled in the plain below. On the summit of the hill 486 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. they built the fortress which they proudly called “the Castle Beautiful,” and around that hill they gathered their forces for the fatal battle of Kurn Hattin in which the Christians were completely routed by Saladin. The principal apse, and the apse of the north aisle of the basilica, remain to mark the spot where Mary dwelt, and the ruins of the castle show that it was strong as well as beautiful. If the Crusaders had fought there, where they would have had an undoubted advantage of position, Guy de Lusig- nan, and not the Saracen, might have been master of Palestine. The history of the fatal battle of Hattin, as it is called, is admirably given by Dr. Robinson. With considerable abbreviation the story runs as follows: It was on the fifth of July, 1187, that the last decisive battle was fought between the flower of the Christian chivalry on the one side, with the King of Jerusalem at their head, and on the other the immense power of the Mohammedans, commanded by Saladin in person. The usurpation of the crown of Jerusalem by the weak-minded and irresolute Guy de Lusignan, had embittered Count Raymond of Tripolis, and many other Christian barons; and Raymond, who was now lord of Tiberias and Galilee, had entered into negotiations with Saladin, and had actually received aid from him. Yet a general truce was concluded with the Sultan, and the Christians were enjoying the prospect of tranquility, when suddenly Raynald of Chatillon, in open violation of the truce, plundered a caravan of Moslem merchants passing between Arabia and Damascus, laid his prisoners in chains, and refused to release them on Saladin’s demand. The enraged Sultan made a solemn vow of vengeance, and swore that he would yet kill Raynald with his own hand. Hosts of Moslem warriors were quickly summoned from Mesopotamia, Egypt and Arabia; and the Christian princes were compelled to lay aside their per¬ sonal strifes to meet the unexpected danger. The Christian forces came together from all sides to Sefuriyeh; Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, Raymond from Tiberias, Raynald from Kerak, barons and knights from Neapolis (Nablous), Cae¬ sarea, Sidon and Antioch, the King himself from Jerusalem, the bishops of Ptolemais and Lydda bringing with them the “True Cross.” The army numbered two thousand knights with their esquires, eight thousand heavy ' . . - I . _ . . - TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 489 armed foot-soldiers, and a large body of light-armed troops and archers. For five weeks the Christians waited at the fountain of Sefuriyeh; and at length the hosts of Saladin broke like a flood upon the land. They advanced on the northern end of the lake to Tiberias. Detach¬ ments penetrated to the neighborhood of Nazareth, Jezreel and Mount Gilboa, wasting the land with fire and sword and devastating Mount THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. (MATT. V.) Tabor. Tiberias was attacked and the town fell, the wife of Count Ray¬ mond being compelled to retire into the citadel. Saladin encamped on the heights north of Tiberias, in the hope of drawing the Christians on to attack him in that position. On the third day of July, the Christian leaders held a council of war. At first the general voice was in favor of an instant march against Saladin, so as to relieve Tiberias without delay. Count Raymond, however, 490 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. though he might have been expected to be more impatient than the rest, urged that they should remain at Sefuriyeh, where they had water and other resources in abundance, and might reasonably hope for victory if Saladin should make the attack. If they abandoned their present position, he said, and marched toward Tiberias, they would expose themselves to constant assaults from the Saracen army in a region without water, where, exhausted and harrassed on every side, they might soon find that their retreat had been cut off. To this wise advice all in the council agreed, with the single exception of the rash and insolent master of the Templars. The council broke up at midnight, but hardly had the barons laid them down to rest when the trumpets sounded and heralds went through the camp giving the call to arms. The master of the Templars, after the council, had sought the king’s tent, and had overwhelmed him with reproaches for listening to the council of a traitor like Raymond. The fickle king had yielded to the Templar’s urgency. It was in vain that the barons now sought to expostulate; he refused to listen, and the march toward Tiberias was begun. This movement of the Christians was precisely what Saladin desired; because, if he could only draw them from Sefuriyeh and bring on a general battle, he had every reason to feel confident of victory. When his scouts reported that the Christians were in motion, he immediately despatched light troops to hang upon their flanks and rear, while he proceeded to dis¬ pose his main army on the high ground above the lake, between Tiberias and Hattin. On the afternoon of the fourth, the Christians reached the open ground around the village of el-Lubiyeh, where they received a violent onslaught of the Saracens. They were exhausted with the torrid heat and parched with thirst, but had not a drop of water to relieve them. Their strength began to fail. They found themselves scarcely able to repel the incessant assaults of the enemy. Fear and dismay began to spread through their ranks and omens of dire import began to be recognized. Instead of pressing on to the main body of Saladin, or at least forcing their way through to the waters of the lake, the weak-minded king gave orders to encamp on the high rocky plain, where there was no water, and to defer the final conflict to the following day. The night was dreadful to the Christians, tortured with thirst and TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 491 sleepless in the momentary expectation of a night attack. To add to their sufferings, the Saracens approached the camp, and by burning up the dry shrubs and herbage, overwhelmed them with clouds of stifling smoke. When the morning of the 5th dawned, they found themselves, as might have been ex¬ pected, wholly sur¬ rounded by the Mos¬ lem host. Gallantly forming in solid phalanx, they ad¬ vanced upon the foe, only to find the foe retire before them, while their flanks were constantly as¬ sailed. The stratagy of Saladin was to fight no serious bat¬ tle with them, but to wear them out in a succession of fruit¬ less efforts. Saladin succeeded. Utterly hopeless and worn out, the foot soldiers began to break ranks, and surrendered at discretion. The knights, in great dis¬ order, attempted to withdraw from further fight and encamp around the Cross; but now the Saracens pressed them closely, and the archers poured in showers of arrows. King Guy gave orders to renew the fight. It was too late. When ordered to advance, the knights of Raymond raised the coward cry of Sauve qui pent! spurred their horses through the ranks of the enemy PLAN OF ACRE. 492 TOWNS OF GALILEE — TYRE AND SIDON. which opened before them, and he and they escaped in shameful flight in the direction of Tyre. All was lost, but all was not yet over. The king withdrew to the height of Hattin, and there, from the spot where Christ is thought to have sat teaching the multitude, King Guy three times hurled back the Moslem power, before the standard of the Cross went down before the crescent. The True Cross fell into the hands of the infidel. The small remnant of the Christ¬ ian army were made prisoners. The perfidious Raynald was slain bySaladin's own hand. Two hundred Christian coin of acre. knights were put to death. The king and captive princes were transferred by their conqueror to Damascus. Thus the Christian power in Palestine was broken. The Christian fortresses, weakened by the loss of their garrisons which had been sent to perish at Hattin, were easily reduced. The Castle of Tiberias surrendered on the day after the battle, and on the next day Saladin marched to the siege of Acre. Before the end of September, Askalon, Joppa, Caesarea, Acre and all the cities of the northern coast except Tyre, were in his hands; and on the third day of October, Jerusalem capitulated. Saladin was master of the Holy City. Six miles north of Sepphoris was Jotopata, now Tell Jefat, famous for its siege by Vespasian, and for the capture of the Jewish general and historian, Josephus. It is a lofty round hill almost surrounded by moun¬ tains and connected by a low spur with those on the north. The top of the hill is flat and naked. There are no remains of fortifications, the works of soft lime-stone having entirely crumbled away. On the north side of the spur are the remains of a deserted village. The account of the siege of Jotopata given by Josephus is doubtless an exaggeration, in¬ tended at once to glorify himself by the grandeur of his downfall and to gratify the Romans by magnifying the difficulties of the siege. The approach to the city through the Wady Jefat must indeed have been almost impassable to a great army, but the hill of Jefat is by no means so impregnable as Josephus represents it. He says: “Now Jotopata is al¬ most all of it built upon a precipice, having on all the other sides of it i * I . ... v . * - - . '» - * . if t TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 495 valleys immensely steep and deep, insomuch that those who would look down would have their sight fail them before it could reach to the bottom. This mountain Josephus had encompassed with a wall when he fortified the city.” It was during this siege that the Jews, when worn out with fighting and watching, repulsed the Romans by pouring down upon them floods of boiling oil. The town was at last betrayed by a deserter, who SEA WALL OF ST. JEAN D'ACRE. told the Romans how they might attack it successfully. He was not at first believed, as treason was almost unknown among the Jews. Prison¬ ers chose rather to die under torture than reveal the state of their be¬ sieged compatriots, and one man who was crucified scornfully smiled at his executioners while hanging on the cross. Vespasian, however, thought it well to follow the indications given by the traitor, and Jotopata was taken. Josephus and others took refuge in a cave, and Vespasian sent an officer to assure him of his life if he would surrender, but his com- 496 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. p anions refused to allow him to surrender, notwithstanding a specious address in which he sought to induce them to submit. At his suggestion they then resolved that they would all die together, and drew lots with the understanding that the drawer of the first should be slain by the second, and he by the third, and so on. All perished except Josephus and one other man who agreed with him that life was better than death. It would be too much to say that Josephus contrived to manipulate the lots so as to save his own life after witnessing the death of his com¬ panions; but his sanctimonious reasons for his conduct stamp him as a hypocrite who might easily be guilty of so contemptible a fraud. It would be interesting to know whether our Saviour in His circuit through “all the cities and villages” of Galilee, ever entered the only sea¬ port of the province, which was then called Ptolemciis. Its more ancient name had been Accho , which signifies Hot Sand. Its modern names are Akka , and Saint Jean d' Acre. Akka is situated at the northern headland of the beautiful bay, the only bay on all the coast of Palestine, of which Mount Carmel forms the southern promontory. Across the bay from Akka to the head of Carmel, the distance is about six miles. Like Joppa on the coast of Judea, and like Caesarea in Samaria, Ptolemais was an unsafe port for shipping; but as it was the only port to which the way was open from the Plain of Esdraelon, from the plains lying north of the Nazareth hills, and through these from the country beyond Jordan, it was a place of much importance; and being surrounded on three sides by the sea, with a narrow neck of land in front, it was singularly well adapted for defence. It commands the entrances to Galilee, and round the sandy beach which lies between Carmel and the sea many an army has marched from the Plain of Acre into the Plain of Sharon. Acre has therefore been properly regarded as the military key to Palestine; and since foreign rice has become the ordinary food of the inhabitants, it has been said with some truth that “the lord of Acre may, if he will, cause a famine to be felt all over Syria.” At the very foot of the northern side of Mount Carmel, and within the bay (commonly called the Bay of Acre) is the little port of Haifa. Steamers call at it when the weather permits, but the harbor has long been choked with sand and also, it is said, by mud from the mouth of the TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 497 Nile. Thence around the bay to Akka there is a broad belt of sand between the sea and the green plain beyond. The shore is strewn with the wrecks of ships where many a gallant vessel has gone to pieces. Two miles north from Haifa is the mouth of Kishon, the bed of which is at one time wholly dry, at other times easily fordable, and then again only to be crossed by swimming the horses. The Kishon is so uncertain a stream, and runs, if it can be said to run, through so treacherous a swamp, that ST. JEAN D’ACRE. no one except McGregor, the adventurous navigator of the Rob Roy, has ever attempted to explore its course. Even he was compelled to abandon his enterprise when a large crocodile rose under his famous canoe and nearly upset it. Yet further on toward Akka is a dark and sluggish stream called Nahr cn N'oman ', the ancient Belus , where “the treasures hid in the sand” were first revealed by the vitrification which suggested the art of making glass (Deut. xxxiii: 19). Along this shore there were fisheries of the purple sea-snail which is still to be found, and from which 498 TOWNS OF GALILEE — TYRE AND SIDON. was made the famous Tyrian purple. The soil of the plain is naturally rich, and fully justifies the prophetic sayings that Asher “dipped his foot in oil,” that “his bread was fat,” and that “his land yielded royal dainties” (Gen. xlix:2o; Deut. xxxiii:24). Though this fertile country fell to the lot of the tribe of Asher, Accho was never wrested from its original’ inhabitants (Judg. i: 31) and was described by ancient writers as a city of Phoenicia. It is never men¬ tioned m the Old Testament history except in the passage just cited, and in profane history it is not mentioned as a place of importance until after the dismemberment of the empire of Alexander. In the division of the Empire, it was given with the rest of Phoenicia to Ptolemy Lagus, and received the name of Ptolemais , probably in honor of Ptolemy Soter. In the wars which followed between Egypt and Syria, Ptolemais was taken by Antiochus the Great, who made it his base of operations against the Maccabees after they had gained possession of Judea. Simon Maccabeus drove the Syrians back to Ptolemais, but did not take the city (1 Macc. v: 22). On the decay of the Syrian power, Ptolemais succeeded in estab¬ lishing its independence; but it was taken by Cleopatra and by her trans¬ ferred with her daughter Selene to the Syrian monarchy. It was next besieged and taken by Tigranes, but fell at length under the all conquer¬ ing power of Rome and was raised to the dignity of a Roman colony by the Emperor Claudius. Many Jews must have resided in Ptolemais, since two thousand of them were put to death at the outbreak of the Jewish war. The church was early planted there, and St. Luke records that, on their way from Tyre to Jerusalem, he and St. Paul “came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day” (Acts xxi: 7). The mediaeval and modern history of this ancient city is full of vicissi¬ tudes. After the fall of Jerusalem and the surrender of Caesarea, it was. taken by the Arabs in A. D. 638. After a siege begun in 1103 it was taken by Baldwin in 1104. For more than eighty years it flourished under the Crusaders, until it was taken from them by Saladin in 1 187. In 1189 King Guy de Lusignan besieged it on the landward side with an army of 10,000 men, while a Pisan fleet co-operated with him by sea; but for two years the city held out. On the 15th of June, 1191, Richard Coeur de Lion joined in the attack, and on the 12th of July Akka fell. It contained many TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 501 Saracens of rank whom Richard offered to put to ransom; but Saladin not paying the ransom agreed upon, the English conqueror brutally slaugh¬ tered 2,500 prisoners in a field outside the city. For a hundred years Akka continued to be the center of Christian power in Palestine. It was the court of the King, and the seat of the Patriarch. The Knights of St. John established their headquarters there, and from them Akka took its modern name of Saint jean d’Acre. The HAIFA. Teutonic Knights followed, and acquired large estates in the vicinity. A reign of luxury and confusion followed, such as probably has never been seen in any other city of the world. There was a nominal sovereign, but there was no real sovereignty. The motley remnants of the Christian powers claimed absolute independence of each other. Within the narrow limits of which Acre was the chief place, Gibbon says “the kings of Jeru¬ salem and Cyprus, of the House of Lusignan; the Princes of Antioch; the Counts of Tripoli and Sidon; the great Masters of the Temple, the Hos- 502 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. pital and the Teutonic Orders; the Republics of Venice, Genoa and Pisa, the Pope’s Legate; the kings of France and England, assumed an inde¬ pendent command. Seventeen tribunals exercised the power of life and death.” The end of this confusion came when the Sultan Ashraf took and utterly destroyed the city, which was never rebuilt until within about a hundred years. About the middle of last century a certain Sheikh Zahir el Omar established himself in Central Palestine and made his residence at Akka, which he fortified, and which under him became prosperous. Unhappily he was succeeded by Jezzar Pasha, whose name of Jezzar (the Butcher) fitly characterized the man. In 1799 Akka was besieged by the French, but after eight desperate assaults they failed to take it, and Sir Sidney Smith rolled back the tide of conquest on the French invader. In 1804 Jezzar died, to the great relief and joy of his subjects, who were thence¬ forth in comparative peace. In 1831 Ibrahim Pasha invaded Syria from Egypt and besieged Akka. It is said that he discharged 30,000 shells into the town, but could not take it until he called in the assistance of an Ital¬ ian engineer. In 1832 the city fell and was mercilessly plundered; and scarcely had it recovered from that misfortune when it was again bom¬ barded by the fleets of England, Austria and Turkey, who were resolved to drive out the Egyptian Pasha. After these many devastations, Akka has ceased to have any an¬ tiquities, and when one considers all that it has passed through, the old saying seems to be true, “Happy is the people that has no history ! The population numbers about 8,000 souls, of whom three-fourths are Mohammedans. There is a large trade in the export of grain from the country beyond Jordan, from two to three hundred ship-loads being ex¬ ported every year. The transport over land is by camels, and long trains of these patient beasts of burden are constantly passing along the road north of Nazareth and near to Sefuriyeh. In the time of our Saviour, when the whole country was at its highest point of prosperous activity, “the multitude of camels” and “dromedaries of Midian” thronged that same road in greater numbers than now; and thus, even in his childhood at Nazareth, the Saviour must often have beheld the commerce of the TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 503 great Roman world moving past the quiet and secluded village where He had his home. From the Ivishon northward the plain of Acre extends about twenty miles, with an average width of five, and ends at the rugged ridge of the Ladder of Tyre which juts out two miles into the sea. The ridge is eight miles wide and has three distinct promontories. The most southerly is called Ras el Musheirifeh. It is the loftiest and boldest, and has often MOUTH OF THE KISHON. HAIFA ON THE RIGHT. been erroneously described as the Ladder of Tyre. 1 he second, how¬ ever, which is called Ras en Nakurah , is the true Scala Tyriorum. 1 he third is Ras el Abyad, which does not jut into the sea more than about a mile. An eloquent traveler says: “The route from Acre to Tyre is very wild and varied. A three hours’ progress over the fine plain of Acre ends at the foot of bold cliffs of toilsome ascent. The path overhangs the sea, which it commands beautifully, yet fearfully, to a great extent both behind and in front. All is not barren; the naked masses of rock are often 504 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. relieved by more fertile places covered with lavender and rosemary, with a sprinkling of lofty trees. It is a silent, sublime and sea-beat scene, re¬ calling vividly many parts of the British coast where the Atlantic rolls its strength against the granite precipices; so like in feature, in sound, in association, that at times one can scarcely believe this to be part of the ruined Land of Promise. Thickets of myrtle and bay at intervals border the narrow and rugged path which is cut through the calcareous rock. In one part the track is really perilous, winding on the side of vast per¬ pendicular precipices, with the sea dashing far below and the horrible path hanging above. There the traveler will do well to dismount if he wishes to enjoy the wild sublimity of the scene, and to listen calmly to the fierce music of the waves dashing against the rocks. On the most southerly of the three promontories of the ridge is a ruined watch-tower from which the ruins of Tyre are first seen. The noon-day light beats full upon its rocks, its peninsula of sand, its ruined palaces, and its modern homes ; but no cry of the mariner, no voices from the once crowded mart or from the chambers of departed luxury, come over the waters. From the Ladder of Tyre to the city of Tyre the road lies along a narrow plain which bears the same name, and which is rarely more than two miles wide. The distance in a straight line is sixteen miles, but the winding of the shore makes the road something over twenty. About three miles south of Tyre is an ancient reservoir called Ras el Ain , or the Head of the Spring , where tradition has it that our Saviour was met by the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark vii: 24-31) whose humility in asking only for crumbs from the Master’s table brought her so rich a reward. Somewhere in that narrow plain they must have met on the only occasion, certainly known to us, when his feet had trod on Gentile soil since the return from Egypt. Mediaeval tradition affirms that He rested on a great stone near Ras el Ain, and that after drinking of its water, which Peter and John brought Him, He blessed the beautiful spot from whence it came. Tyre is a difficult place to treat briefly; not that its present appear¬ ance might not be easily portrayed with pen or pencil, but that its long and eventful history is so full of historical romance that to condense it is almost impossible. TURKISH CEMETERY AT SIDON TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 507 At present Tyre stands on a peninsula, but a more ancient town existed on the mainland, while the future site of the great Queen City of Syria was yet two rocky and barren islands. The original name of that ancient town has perished. In history it is mentioned only as Palaetyrus or Old Tyre; and though it continued to be in¬ habited for many ages, it be¬ came a suburb of the younger commercial city which so far excelled it. At an early time the two islands were united by filling up the space between them with stones, and the action of the waves, filling the crevices with sand, made the two islands nearly one. The name of Tyre in Hebrew, and probably also in the Phoenician language, was Tzor , from which came on the one hand Tyrus or Tyre, and on the other Sara and the modern name of Sur. From the same root it is extremely likely that the whole province of Syria took its name. The island city measured only 1,200 yards from north to south and 800 from east to west. Its entire circuit did not amount to three miles, and its area was not over two hun¬ dred acres. It was bordered with rugged rocks rising thirty or forty feet above the sea, which the inhabitants cut out into docks and convenient landing-places. On coin of tyre. the northern side was a harbor of small extent, not having much over twelve acres of surface, and on the south there appears to have been a mole which formed another and larger harbor. But the Tyrian works have never been accurately traced. Only I 508 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. the immense size of the blocks of granite and the grand columns — grand though fallen — which are still to be seen, many of them under the waves which now cover them, show that in its days of prosperity the ships of Tyre lacked no means of safety that art or industry could furnish. The narrow limits of Phoenicia proper, extending only from Tyre to Sidon, twenty miles north, and thence to Berytus, the modern Beyrout, were in ancient times inhabited by a people of one race who were called Sidonians. Virgil calls Tyre itself the Sidonian City, and a much earlier author calls the inhabitants of Tyre Sidonians (1 Kings v: 6). From these facts it may perhaps be inferred that Sidon was at first the chief city of Phoenicia and was afterward outstripped by its more enterprising rival. In the time of Joshua Tyre was a “strong city,” that is, a fortified place (Josh, xix: 29); but although it was allotted to the tribe of Asher, it was never taken into possession. There, as elsewhere, the children of Israel “dwelt among the Canaanites, for they did not drive them out” (Judg. i: 31, 32); but they continued nevertheless to be reckoned as belong¬ ing to Israel, so that, when David made his census of all his subjects, the Israelitish inhabitants of Tyre were included in the enumeration (2 Sam. xxiv:7). Between Solomon and Hiram, King of Tyre, a strong friendship existed. For the building of the temple Hiram sent cedar trees and fir trees in rafts from Tyre to Joppa, a distance of seventy-four geographical miles, besides making other valuable contributions to the sacred work; and Solomon, in return, sent grain and oil to Hiram (1 Kings v: 9; 2 Chron. ii: 16). The consequence of these royal exchanges of courtesy was a league between the two monarchs, and although Hiram was not greatly pleased at the gift of the district or circle ( golil ) of Cabul which Solomon gave him (1 Kings ix: 10-15), he could hardly have been displeased with the trading privileges which were granted to him in certain parts of the Red Sea (1 Kings ix: 26-28). In the story of the intercourse of Hiram and Solomon we have some insight into the state of Tyre at that time. Its government was monarchical; it was engaged in an extensive com¬ merce; it had a large trade in the timber with which the mountains of Lebanon were covered; but above all, it had attained to such skill in the working of metals that Hiram, a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphtali, 3 ‘ TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 509 workman of Tyre, was the artificer of all the ornamental metal-work of the temple (1 Kings vii: 13-45). After the division of Israel into two kingdoms the northern division continued the alliance with Phoenicia, and King Ahab married the bloody Jezebel, who was a daughter of Ethbaal, King of the Sidonians (1 Kings xvi: 31): but when the ten tribes fell into misfortune, their former friends were perfectly ready to purchase their effects from the conquerors, 'and RUINS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF TYRE, THE BURIAL PLACE OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. even to make merchandise of the Israelitish captives whom they sold in Grecian ports (Joel iii: 4-8; Amos ix: 10). Tyre was then enjoying a period of marvellous prosperity. She had founded the city of Carthage which at one time had more than an even chance to become the mistress of the world. She had gained possession of the island of Cyprus. She had engaged the services of an army of faithful mercenaries (Ezek. xxvii: 10, 11) who defended her against all comers. She traded with Arabia for gold from the further east; from Spain she brought silver, lead, tin and iron; from Cyprus, and perhaps also from the Caucasus, she received consignments of copper; Palestine sent her an abundant supply of wheat, oil, honey and 5io TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. balm, her wine came from Damascus; caravans from the Persian Gulf brought her the precious ivory of India; her famous purple dye-stuffs were found on her own coast and came also from Peloponnesus , and every known sea was whitened with Syrian sails made of cloth woven in Egypt. The narrow boundaries of her city could not contain the population required for her trade and manufacturers, and she built houses of many stories in height — a style of architecture which commanded the admiration and the envy of her neighbors. So self-confident was she that when Nebuchadnezzar advanced against Jerusalem, she was not alarmed at the advance of that powerful monarch, but rather rejoiced in the approaching downfall of a city which, under King Josiah, had within a few years done despite to the gods which were adored in Tyre. When she was herself attacked and besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, she held out stoutly for thir¬ teen years, and it is doubtful whether she submitted at last, or entered into an alliance with him. But that long war weakened her, and for a time she fell behind Sidon in commercial and political importance. She fell first under the yoke of Egypt and then of Persia; but she still main¬ tained a certain independence, and when Cambyses would have had her attack Carthage, she boldly refused to make war on the city she herself had founded. Tier dark day came when she was summoned to surrender by Alexander the Great. She clung to her Persian connection, and the conqueror attacked her. Secure in her island defences, she defied the Macedonian; but Alexander constructed a road between the city and the mainland which the sand has now made half a mile in width. Attacked from the land side, Tyre fell, and the conqueror took bloody vengeance of his gallant enemies, putting many thousands of them to the sword and selling 30,000 captives into slavery. Gradually Tyre recovered from this fearful blow. First under the Syrians and then under the Romans, she was permitted to enjoy a reason¬ able measure of freedom. Under Augustus she again became wealthy; her trade revived, her people were prosperous. Her dye-works alone were so considerable an industry that Strabo says they made the city an unpleasant place of residence; he adds that the houses were loftier and had more stories than the houses at Rome. Pliny says that the whole city, including the peninsula and Palaetyrus on the mainland, was nineteen TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON tains no record. It is very doubtful whether the Greek language was used in Nazareth, but it was spoken at Tyre, and it was undoubtedly the lan¬ guage used in His conversation with the Greek woman whom He met within the Tyrian border (Mark vii: 24-31). Where our Saviour learned to speak Greek we do not know, but it is by no means impossible that He may have acquired it in the course of frequent visits to Tyre. Christianity was early planted at Tyre. On his journey from Mace¬ donia to Caesarea, the ship in which St. Paul sailed called there to change cargo, and the Apostle found brethren in the city with whom he spent Roman miles in circumference. There is little doubt that its resident population was .greater than that of Jerusalem; and if it was so, it was undoubtedly the largest city our Saviour ever visited. That He did visit it is all but certain, since in passing to “the coasts” of Sidon, He would almost certainly pass through Tyre. Besides, Nazareth was only thirty miles from Tyre, and we may easily conceive that He went there fre¬ quently during the nearly thirty years of His life of which the Gospel con- ZARAPHA, THE ANCIENT ZAREPHATH OR SAREPTA. 512 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. seven days (Acts xxi: 3-7). The Christian community grew rapidly. A Bishop of Tyre is recorded to have been present at a Church Council as early as the close of the second century. For ages this fortunate city con¬ tinued to flourish without a break in her prosperity, while nearly every other city of the East was ravaged again and again; but her course was checked when she was taken by the Moslems in the seventh century and was subjected to degrading regulations. She was again flourishing as the greatest commercial city of Syria, when she was taken by the Crusaders on the 27th of June, 1124. In the following year the celebrated William of Tyre became Archbishop. Under the Crusaders Tyre became famous for its manufacture of glass. In 1190 the body of the German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, was buried there. Early in the fourteenth century, the inhabitants, seeing that it was impossible longer to hold out against the Saracens, abandoned the city by night, making their escape on the sea side, so that, when the enemy entered, it was to find nothing but an empty town. Tyre soon fell into complete decay. In the seventeenth century it had become a mere heap of ruins occupied by a few wretched fishermen; in 1751 it had only ten inhabitants. During the present century it has somewhat revived, but Beyrout has secured the trade which might again have made it an important commercial city. It has now a population of about 5,000, of whom one-half are Mohammedans and the rest are Chris¬ tians and Jews. The streets are miserable. The houses are dilapidated. Few antiquities are to be found. Even the hewn stones of the former dwellings and harbors have been taken away, and are still in course of removal, to be used at Acre and Beyrout. On the peninsular part of Tyre the most interesting object is the Cru¬ sader’s Church of St. Mark which was built by the Venetians. It is said to have been founded in 1125 and completed early in the thirteenth cen¬ tury. Possibly it occupies the same site as an earlier basilica which was consecrated by Eusebius in 323. It was in the Church of St. Mark that the body of Barbarossa was deposited, but German explorers have failed to discover the exact spot of his sepulchre. The central part of the ancient Palaetyrus on the mainland is marked by a hill or mound called Tell Mcl shuk, where the Mohammedan sanctuary called Wely Met shuk is perhaps a survival of a Tyrian temple. Ma shuk TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 5i3 (Beloved) was perhaps Astarte, the Beloved of Hercules, who brought her the treasures of the ocean. The slopes of the hill are covered with ruins, and many sarcophagi have been found there. Behind the Tell, on the east, is a necropolis. Two or three miles to the eastward of Ras el Ain is one of the most ancient and striking monuments in all Syria. It is called Kabr Hair an, the Tomb of Hiram. It is undoubtedly a Phoenician work of great antiquity, and it may very pos¬ sibly be the tomb of King Hiram. The pedestal con¬ sists of huge stones in two tiers, above which is a still thicker slab of rock overhanging the rest of the pedestal on all sides. On the slab rests a massive sarcophagus of ir¬ regular pyramidal form covered with a stone lid. Exca¬ vations made by Renan show that there is a rock cham¬ ber under the tomb with a stairway from the north end of the monument. The road from Tyre to Sidon runs along the narrow plain by the sea, through a country full of interest from the many antiquities which are everywhere to be found. To none of them, however, can we give attention here. We can pause only to notice the River Litany , which has its chief TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON 514 source near Baalbek, far to the north of Mount Hermon, and rushes between the mighty mountain ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, through the wildest gorges in Palestine, to lose itself in the Mediterranean, a few miles north of Tyre. Midway between Tyre and Sidon is a town at which we must pause for a moment, since it was to that town, and along this same road by the sea, that the “Lord of Hair,” the grim yet gentle prophet Elijah, went. SIDON ON THE APPROACH FROM BEYROUT. when the sky was like brass, and the whole earth was parched under a three years’ drought. In this little town upon a hillside by the sea, was she who was to minister to the prophet at that time. There were many widows in Israel, but to none of them was Elijah sent (Luke iv: 2.5). He was sent to the poor widow of Zarephath , afterward called Scirepta , and now Sarfend , whom he found gathering two sticks to cook the only handful of meal that remained in the barrel, and the little oil that remained in the cruse, that she and her son might eat it before they died. TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 515 But, after she had given that last morsel of food to the hungering prophet, the barrel of meal did not waste, neither did the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sent rain upon the earth (1 Kings xvii: 8-24). As we go northward toward Sidon we are reminded of the words with which the historian Gibbon closes his chapter on the Crusades: “A mourn¬ ful and solitary silence now prevails along the shore which once resounded with the world’s debate.” From early times until the close of the Crusad¬ ing adventures to win the Holy Land, Phoenicia has indeed “resounded with the world’s debate.” Now all is still. Since Gibbon wrote, these CASTLE OF ST. LOUIS AT SIDON. shores have heard the roar of cannon; but now again there is stillness almost of death. But there will yet be a resurrection, and these solitary places may hereafter rejoice and blossom as the rose. Sidon, now called Saida , shows decided signs of revival, but it is far indeed from the glory which it once had. In Bible history it does not possess the interest of Tyre, and its story may be more easily condensed. In Gen. x: 15, Sidon is called the first-born son of Canaan. His descend¬ ants had their original abode near the Persian Gulf. Their territories in Phoenicia were not always confined to the narrow strip of sea-coast, but extended far inland. Their history, as related by themselves, was a mere tissue of mythological conceits. Their settlements formed themselves into states under a kind of aristocracy, and were joined in a confederacy of 5 16 TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. which it is probable than Sidon was chief and therefore gave the general name of Sidonians to the people over whom it had some pre-eminence. Soon, however, Tyre outstripped the mother city and assumed a leading position which Sidon never regained. In the book of Joshua, Sidon is dignified as “the Great” (xix: 28); and, although the great city fell behind her sister, and seems to have acknowledged some sort of dependence upon her (1 Kings v: 6; Ezek. xxvii:8), yet she retained her own autonomy under her own kings (1 Kings xvi: 31 ; Jer. xxv: 22). The Sidonians were eminent in the learning of that age, that is, in astronomy and arithmetic, as Tyre was in manufuctures. In commerce they both excelled. In general the ccfurse of the history of Sidon runs parallel with that of Tyre, except that under the Persian rule, Sidon was almost utterly destroyed in consequence of a revolt, B. C. 351. Forty thousand persons are said to have been massacred at that time, and thereafter the city was compara¬ tively insignificant. It was still, however, treated with a certain considera- ion, and in the Roman period it was governed by its own senate and municipal officers. Its most famous manufacure was that of glass. Christianity was introduced into Sidon at an early date. On his journey to Rome Paul was permitted to visit his friends there (Acts xxvii:3). At the council of Nicsea, A. D. 325, a Bishop of Sidon was present. On the invasion of Syria by the Mohammedans, Sidon sub¬ mitted to the followers of the Prophet without a blow; but its submis¬ sion did not save it from fearful vicissitudes during “the world’s debate” which followed. After a siege of six weeks, it was taken by Baldwin in mi. In 1187, after the battle of Kurn Hattin, Saladin razed it to the ground. Ten years later it was re-occupied by the Crusaders, but they were driven out in the same year, and what remained of the town was again destroyed. In 1228 it was rebuilt by the Christians and strongly fortified, but in the year 1249 it was once more razed. Refortified by Louis IX, in 1253, it was purchased by the Templars; but again, within seven years, it was devastated by the Mongols. Passing finally under the Moslem power, it was cruelly devastated, and for centuries it seemed to have been extinguished. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, it was made the residence of the Druse Emir ed-D'in, under whom it flourished and became noted for its silk trade. After the fall of / TOWNS OF GALILEE— TYRE AND SIDON. 5i7 the Emir, the prosperity of Sidon continued until its commerce was anni¬ hilated by Jezzar Pasha. Under the government of Ibrahim Pasha it once more revived, and the town was fortified, but in 1840, the allied fleet dismantled the fortifications. In i860, the Christian population was fear¬ fully persecuted at the instigation of the Turkish governor, and nearly 2,000 Christians are said to have been brutally massacred. Since then Saida has had rest. Saida is beautifully situated on a promontory, in front of which is an island. Beyond the plain and the foot-hills on the east rise the snowy crests of Lebanon. In the environs are orchards full of bananas and palm-trees. The anchorage is not good. All around the island are re¬ mains of quays built of large hewn stones; but since Fakhr ed-Din closed the mouth of the harbor to exclude the Turkish fleet, the hewn stones of the quays have been removed to be used elsewhere, and now, in stormy weather, the sea washes over the rocks into the harbor. The population is about 10,000 souls, of whom 8,000 are Mohammedans; the rest are Jews, Christians and Maronites. In the necropolis are many curious tombs, some of which are of high antiquity. But of “Sidon the Great,” of the Sidon which Assyrian, Macedonian, Egyptian, Roman, Arabian, Frankish, Saracen and Turkish armies entered and plundered, each after the other, nothing remains. Sidon is a city of the past. Saida is a modern Syrian trading town. CHAPTER XVI. FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPI. The Cities of Decapolis — Ephphatha — Rejection of Jesus in Galilee — Routes to Caesarea — Directly from Bethsaida Julias — From Capernaum, Crossing the Jordan at Jisr Benat Yakub — Probable Route on West Side of Jordan — Description of the Country — Lake Huleh — Fauna and Flora — Papyrus — Huleh Lily — Tell Khureibeh — Edrei or Hazor — Tell Harah, Harosheth — Battle of Joshua — Ivedesh — Hunin, Chateau Neuf, Beth-rehob — Abel — Ijon — Tell el-Kady, Laish, Dan — Beauty and Fertility of the District — Sources of the Jordan — Capture of Laish by Danites — A Sanctuary of Idolatry — From Dan to Beersheba — Mount Hermon — Its Many Names — Beyond the Holy Land, but Visible From Most Parts of it — An Ancient Sanctuary of Baal — Worship of Pan — The Holy Mount — Fauna and Flora of Hermon — View from its Summit — Temple of, Baal — Paneas, Caesarea Philippi, Banias — Situation — Dean Stanley’s Description — Fortress of Subeibeh — Thou art Peter — The Transfiguration. BRIDGE OF JACOB S DAUGHTER. WHEN our Saviour departed from the 'coasts of Tyre and Sidon on His return to the Sea of Galilee, His most direct route would be almost in a straight line to the southeast through Giscala and Safed to Caper¬ naum. He did not tarry there, however, but went at once among the cities of Decapolis Those ten famous cities were Gentile colonies enjoying under the Romans many special privileges and immunities which had made them wealthy and pros¬ perous. Few of them had ever been cities of Israel , and the Israelites on their return from captivity had never been able to re-occupy even those which had been theirs. Their very names had been changed. Bethshean, for example, had come to be called Scythopolis, or the Scythian City, from the colonists who had been settled there under the Graeco-Syrian monarchy. It is remarkable that of all the great cities of Decapolis, not one, unless we except Damascus, which was not certainly one of them, is now of any importance. Seven are entirely desolate and uninhabited; only three have a few wretched people, living at Scythopolis and Canatha in 518 JEBEL. SHEIKH — MOUNT HERMON FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPE 521 huts and caves, and at Gadara in the ancient tombs. It was to these Gen¬ tile or semi-Gentile communities that Jesus paid a brief visit after leaving Tyre and Sidon (Mark vii: 31). He was not unknown in that region, for the fame of His wonderful works had already gone abroad there (Mark v.20), and He had hardly made His appearance in the district before a man was brought to Him who was wholly deaf and had also an impedi¬ ment in his speech. In connection with the healing of this man St. Mark has recorded one of the very words and one of the few significant gestures of our Saviour; for it was then that He lifted his eyes to heaven and sighed MOUTH OF THE JORDAN, LAKE HULEH. as He spoke the commanding word, “ Ephphatha !” — Be opened! — at which the sufferer’s “ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain”(Mark vii; 32-35). It was in vain that Jesus charged the people not to publish what He had done; “the more He charged them, so much the more they published it.” Thousands pressed around Him and followed His steps into the rural places which He preferred to crowded cities. Even into the wilderness four thousand of them followed Him, and it was there that He fed them all, when they were faint and famishing, with seven loaves and a few small fishes (Matt, xv: 32-38; Mark viii: 1-8). 522 FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPI. Again our Lord returned to the Sea of Galilee, but only to encoun¬ ter the opposition of His enemies while He went about doing good (Mark viii: 10-26). “He came unto His own and His own received Him not;” but He had “other sheep” which were not of that fold. In the days to come He was yet to bring those other sheep into the flock which His own refused to enter; and at this time He seems to have looked with great longing to the multitude of those unfolded sheep. He had gone into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon; He had visited the cities of Decapolis, and now He went once more beyond the boundaries of Israel to visit the towns of Caesarea Philippi (Matt, xvi: 13). In going from the Sea of Galilee our Lord and His disciples had a choice of routes. Leaving Bethsaida-Julias on the east side of the Jordan, they could travel nearly in a straight line northward to Caesarea, passing through many towns, the sites of which are still marked by tells or ruins all along that road. If they started from Capernaum, they might go along the west side of the Jordan for nearly ten miles, and then cross to the eastern side over a bridge or through a ford of the river a little to the south of Lake Huleh. At the present day the crossing is by a bridge called the Jisr Benat Yakub , or the bridge of Jacob’s Daughters. It is not an ancient structure, though it is strongly built of basaltic rock, and it was last repaired by Jezzar Pasha, the cruel ruler of Acre. It is quite certain that Jacob and his family crossed into Canaan at a point of the river far to the south of the Jisr Benat Yakub. Through this place, how¬ ever, has always been the caravan route from Damascus and the Hauran to Egypt and all parts of the Holy Land, and it was undoubtedly by this route that Saul of Tarsus went breathing threatenings and slaughter against the followers of Christ at Damascus. The Jisr Benat Yakub is a point of military importance. During the Crusades it was occupied and lost by Baldwin III. Baldwin IV recovered and strengthened it by build¬ ing a castle which he committed to the Knights Templar in 1178, only to be destroyed by Saladin in the following year. Its ruins remain at some distance from the bridge. In 1799 this was the extreme point of the French invasion of Syria, and in turning their backs upon the Jisr Benat Yakub the French abandoned the dream of oriental conquest with which the ambition of Napoleon had inspired them. The Jordan here is 87 feet FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPI. 523 above the level of the Mediterranean, and rushes rapidly toward the Sea of Galilee in a channel which is eighty feet wide, full of fish, and fringed on both sides with oleanders, zakkum, papyrus and gigantic reeds. The most probable, or certainly at least the most interesting, route from Capernaum to Caesarea would be altogether on the west side of the Jordan to the northern boundary of the country, and thence to the eastern side. All along that route our Saviour and His disciples would pass PAPYRUS. through or near towns and cities famous in the history of Israel. The course of the Jordan has already been described. Back from the river and the western shore of Lake Huleh (the waters of Merom) rises a chain of hills, most of which were once crowned with cities and populous vil¬ lages. In front, toward the river and the lake, are rich plains of arable land, and where these are abruptly cut off by a steep descent, there lies between the hills and the lake a swamp of rank and marshy vegetation. The whole of the southern end of Lake Huleh is bordered with impene- 524 FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI. trable morass or cane-brake in which is found the largest growth of papy¬ rus in the world. At its base, the triangular stalk of the paper plant, which the Arabs call babeer , is three inches thick, and on the top waves a tuft like broom-corn. The open water of the lake is merely a triangle, but north of it, where the water is not visible, is a mass of floating papyrus, through which, and under which, the stream of the Jordan makes its way. No human being has ever passed through that impassable maze. The plain around the lake-swamp is exceedingly productive. The thistles grow to an enormous height, out-topping a man on horseback, and their sharp thorns are a great annoyance to horses. The wild mustard also grows so high and strong that finches often take refuge in its branches. This is the most magnificent hunting ground in Palestine, panthers, leop¬ ards, bears, wild boars, wolves, jackals, hyenas, foxes and gazelles abound. Of water fowl there is no end. The pelican is also found in the waters of Merom, and it is said that the number of crows and rooks is so enormous as to surpass anything known elsewhere. In the cozy swamp the “bulls of Bashan” still delight to wallow, and on the surrounding plain they find perennial pasturage. The herbage is so mingled with flowers as to make a paradise for bees, so that the land might literally flow with milk and honey, and the butter is the best in Palestine. A species of lily is found here which may have been in our Saviour’s mind when He said, “Con¬ sider the lilies how they grow.’’ “That lily,” says Dr. Thomson, “is large, and the inner petals meet above, forming a gorgeous canopy, such as art cannot approach, and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. When I found this glorious flower in all its loveliness I felt assured that it was to such as that He referred. We call it the Huleh lily because it was here that it was first discovered. It is a species of iris, but with its botanical name, if it have one, I am unacquainted, and I am not anxious to learn of any other than that which connects it with this neighborhood.” The distance from the Sea of Galilee to Lake Huleh is ten miles, and north of the lake for eight miles more on either side of the Jordan lies a fertile plain five miles wide. Opposite to Lake Huleh at its middle point is a conical hill called Tell Khureibeh , or the Hill of the Ruin, which some authorities believe to be the ancient Edrei (Josh, xix: 37), but which Dr. Robinson identifies FROM DECAPOLIS TO CiESAREA PHILIPPI. 525 with Hazor. A little to the northwest of it is Tell Harcch, which Wilson believes to be the true Hazor, but which Tristram thinks is Harosheth. At Tell Harah are many cisterns which escaped the ravages of the Crusades, and which show that the city which once stood there must have been large and populous. Hazor was the capital of Jabin with whom Joshua fought the last GIRL HOLDING STYLUS AND TABLETS. A PAPYRUS ROLL. decisive battle of the conquest (Josh, xi: 1 — 1 5). The victory was complete, but the conquest of Hazor was not permanent, since in the time of the Judges there was another “Jabin, King of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of theGen- tiles” (Judg. iv: 2). We have already sketched the great battle in which Barak and Deborah destroyed the army of Ja- PAPYRUS WRITTEN IN COLUMNS. army bin under Sisera in the Plain of Esdrae- lon. We may now give Dean Stanley’s account of the victory of Joshua over the earlier king of the same name: “After the capture of Ai and the battle of Beth- horon — which secured to him the whole of the south and center of Palestine — a ANCIENT WRITING MATERIALS: Pen, Inkstand and Roll; Wax Tablet and Stylus; a Writing Tablet closed. From Herculaaeum. final gathering of the Canaanite races took place in the extreme north, under the king, who bore the hereditary title of Jabin (Josh, xi: 1), and the name of whose city, Hazor, still lingers in the slopes of Her- 526 FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPE mon, at the head of the plain. Round him were* assembled the heads of all the tribes who had not yet fallen under Joshua’s sword. As the British chiefs were driven to the Land's End before the advance of the Saxon, so at this Land’s End of Palestine were gathered for this last struggle, not only the kings of the north, in the immediate neighborhood, but from the Desert-Valley of the Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee, from the maritime Plain of Philistia, from the heights above Sharon, and from the still unconquered Jebus, to the Hivite who dwelt in the Valley of Baalbec. . . . ‘under Plermon;’ all these ‘went out, they and all their hosts with them, even as the sand is upon the seashore in multitude. . . and when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.’ (Josh, xi: 5). The new and striking feature of this battle, as distinct from those of Ai and Gibeon, consisted in the ‘horses and chariots very many,’ which now for the first time appear in the Canaanite warfare, and it was for the use of these, which probably fixed the scene of the encamp¬ ment by the lake, along whose level shores they could have full play for their force. It was this new phase of war which called forth the special command to Joshua, nowhere else recorded: ‘Thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.’ Nothing is told us of his previ¬ ous movements. All that we know is, that on the eve of the battle he was within a day’s march of the lake. On the morrow, by a sudden descent, like that which had raised the siege of Gibeon, he and all the people of war ‘fell’ (Josh, xi : y) like a thunderbolt upon them ‘in the mountain’ (Josh, xi: 7) slopes of the plain, before they had time to rally on the level ground. In the sudden panic ‘the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them’ westward over the mountains above the gorge of the Leontes ‘to Sidon,’ and eastward to the ‘Plain’ of ‘Massoch’ or ‘Mizpeh.’ This rout was complete, and the cavalry and chariots which had seemed so formidable were visited with special destruc¬ tion. The horses were hamstrung, and the chariots burned with fire. And it is not till the revival of the city of Hazor, under the second Jabin, long afterward (Judg. iv: 2), that they once more appear in force against Israel, descending, as now, from this very plain. Far over the western hills Joshua pursued the flying host, before ‘he turneth back,’ and FROM DECAPOLIS TO C.ESAREA PHILIPPI. 527 ‘took Hazor,’ and ‘burned it’ to the ground (Josh, xi: 10, 11). The battle of the Lake of Merom was to the north what the battle of Beth-horon had been to the south; more briefly' told, less complete in its conse¬ quences, but still the decisive conflict by which the four northern tribes were established in the south of Lebanon, by which Galilee, with its sacred sea, and the manifold consequences therein involved, was included within the limits of the Holy Land.” A little to the north west of Tell Harah is Kedes , the ancient Kedesh- Naphtali, the name of § which (the Holy) shows ^ that it must have been a * PC sanctuary, long before | the conquest. After it ^ was taken, and its king o s slain by Joshua (Josh. r . > xii: 22), it was included in g the tribe of Naphtali, and g was made a Levitical city, g and a city of refuge (Josh, xx : 7 ; xxi: 32). We know nothing of its after his¬ tory, except that it was the home of Barak, the conqueror of Sisera (Judg. iv : 6, 10) and that its people were carried captives to Assyria by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings xv: 29). In the time of the Cru¬ sades the tomb of Barak was still shown. There are now remains of a very ancient character, most of them, however, of the later Jewish period, and among them the ruins of a large and beautiful synagogue. The east¬ ern front and part of the walls are perfect, and the central door is sculp¬ tured with wreaths. The horses of the present village are watered from an ancient sarcophagus. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the situation of Kedesh, standing securely on a knoll of the eastern slope of the hill. 528 FROM DECAPOLIS TO CTTAREA PHILIPPI. with rich pastures behind and a bountiful spring bubbling below. On the lower ranges of the hill-side were hundreds of acres of olive trees, beyond them a level plain of tilled land rich to exuberance, and then the fat marsh pastures fringing the silvery waters of Merom which teemed with fish. Assuredly this part of Naphtali was “satisfied with favor and full with the blessings of the Lord” (Deut. xxxiii : 23). A t Hu nin, seven miles north of Kedes, is a great castle of the Cru¬ saders which they called Chateau Neuf \ or New¬ castle, standing on the walls and fosse of hunin. eastward edge of the heights and towering two thousand feet above the plain of the Hasbani, which is the most northerly of the streams which unite to form the Jordan. This great castle measures 740 by 340 feet and the citadel on the west is surrounded by a fosse or ditch 20 feet deep by 40 wide, cut out of the solid rock. The original wall of the fortress was built of large bevelled stones bound together with iron clamps which may even yet be seen in some places. The whole of the interior is a mass of shapeless ruins in which Jewish bevels, Roman arches, Crusading masonry and Saracenic remains are mournfully mingled together, and among which are scattered the wretched hovels of the present occupants. Hunin , according to Dr. Robinson, is the ancient Beth-rehob , the most northern point in the Holy Land which was reached by the spies of Moses (Num. xiii : 21). In the time of David this place, like others in its neigh¬ borhood, had become a Syrian dependency, and although the Syrians were defeated by Joab and compelled to make peace with Israel, it does not appear that they were entirely subdued (2 Sam. x:6, 8, 19). Three miles north of Hunin is Abil, once called Abel- Beth- Maachah, the Field of the House of Oppression, also (2 Chron. xvi:4) called Abel- Maim , where the rebellion of Sheba against David was suppressed FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI. 529 (2 Sam. xx : 14-22). As a border town, it was exposed to attacks from foreign enemies, and was captured by Benhadad, King of Syria (1 Kings xv:2o). Its inhabitants were carried into captivity by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings xv : 29). Beyond Abil a beautiful plain called Merj Ayun pre¬ serves the name of the city of Ijon , which shared the fate of Abel-Maim (2 Kings xv:29). On a round hill at the upper end of the plain are the remains of a strong city. Crossing the Hasbani we come to Tell el-Kady, the Hill of the Judge , that is to say, Dan, since Dan signified a judge. Not Dan, however, but Laish, was the original name of the place, though it is called Dan even in the Book of Genesis (Gen. xiv: 14). It is an extensive round-top mound, half a mile in diameter, rising eighty feet above the plain. The surround¬ ing country is exceedingly fertile, yielding the finest wheat in Syria. It is literally “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth” (Judg. xviii: 10). On the west side of the tell can be heard the murmuring of water to which the explorer must force his way through a thicket of oleanders. Beyond, at the bottom of a rocky slope, is a wonderful ba¬ sin or pool fifty paces in width and surrounded by heaps of blocks of basalt. It is the largest spring in gate of the castle of hunin. Syria, and is said to be the largest in the world, and from it emerges one of the streams which unite to form the Jordan. From the south¬ west corner of the tell issues another stream, and the two soon join together in one channel which contains twice as much water as the stream from Banias, and thrice as much as the river Hasbani, and might therefore be regarded as the true Jordan. By Josephus it was called the Little Jordan ; it is now called El-Leddan. The full-grown Jordan is formed by the union of these streams four and a half miles 530 FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPE below Tell el-Kady, where it flows in a bed nearly a hundred feet wide, though the river itself is hardly fifty feet wide. The city of Laish was inhabited by a peaceable community of Phoe¬ nicians, belonging to the confederacy of which Sidon was the head. Though they were far removed from their compatriots, they lived in quiet and security, expecting no hostile assault, minding their own affairs and not meddling with their neighbors. For some reason the tribe of Dan had received a small inheritance in Israel, and sent spies to look for some part of the land which they might conquer and colonize. At Laish, on the ex¬ treme northern border, they found a place which they might well covet, and a people whom they might easily subdue. To Laish, therefore, a party of Danites went. It was in that period of the history of Israel when there was no king, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. As the Danites passed through the mountains of Ephraim, they assured them¬ selves of victory by stealing from Micah the graven image of silver with which he had thought to conciliate the favor of God, and they also carried off the Levite whom he had hired to act as a priest in his household. So they “came into Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire; and there was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon and they had no business with any man. On the ruins of Laish the children of Dan built a new city and dwelt therein; and they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father; howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.” Even the Hebrew historian seems to have pitied the peaceable and helpless Sidonians who became the victims of these Danite ruffians; and there was little' reason for Israel to rejoice in the conquest of Laish, for the Danites immediately set up the graven image they had stolen from Micah, and the new city of Dan was ever afterward a sanctuary of idola¬ try. It was the northermost city of Israel, and the phrase “from Dan even unto Beersheba” soon became proverbial. But that phrase indicated only extent, not unity, since the idolatry maintained at Dan was a symbol of present discord and a prophecy of future retribution (Judg. xviii). All the time that the tabernacle of Jehovah was kept at Shiloh the idolatry of Dan was continued. Under King Jeroboam it was established in yet greater splendor, so that Dan and Bethel were the two chief sanctuaries of the FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPI. 531 northern kingdom (1 Kings xii: 25-31), Bethel was cleansed of its pollu¬ tions by King Josiah (2 Kings xxiii: 15), but a hundred years before that pious reformation, the children of Dan had been removed from their de¬ lightful home and transported to Assyria and Media (2 Kings xvii:6). From Dan to Caesarea the distance is only five miles, and the road rises upward on the lower slopes of the most majestic mountain of Syria, Mount Hermon. Though that famous mountain was not, strictly speak¬ ing, within the borders of the Promised Land, it would be difficult not to consider it as belonging to Palestine. From nearly every part of Pales¬ tine its snow-capped crest is to be seen. When Moses took his long look at the land he was not suffered to enter, he saw Hermon grandly marking its northern border. From the mountains of Gilead, and Bashan, and Hebron, and Ephraim, and Nazareth, and from many a plain between, from Sharon and Philistia, nay, even from the shores of the Dead Sea, the crest of Hermon bounds the view. Its name of Hermon signifies The Lofty and its other Hebrew name of Sion has the same signification. By the Sidonians Hermon was called Sirion , The Glittering , and by the Amorites, Senir , The Shield , from the gleam¬ ing snow with which it is crowned (Deut. iii: 9). By the modern Arabs it is known as Jebel esh- Sheikh an d Jebel eth- Thelj , the Chief Mountain and Jordan sources at tell-el-kadi. the Snowy Mountain. The height of Hermon has not been accurately measured; but it is not more than 10,000 feet above sea-level and is there¬ fore out-topped by some of the peaks of Lebanon. Yet so isolated is it and so grand in its majestic solitude that it surpasses every other mountain of Syria. In ages of remote antiquity Hermon was undoubtedly a sanctuary as famous and revered as Jerusalem and Mecca now are by men of later faiths. In the name Baal-Hermon (1 Chron. v: 23) we have a remnant of the former religion of that sanctuary, and every one of the known temples of Baal which still exist is built to face toward Hermon. Long ages later 532 FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPE Hermon became the sanctuary of a more graceful cult; for in one of its grottoes was established that worship of Pan from which the city near by took its name of Paneas. Some recollection of its ancient sanctity may have strengthened the better reason which led St. Peter to call Hermon “The Holy Mountain” (2 Pet. i: 18). Standing at the very head of the deep sunk Jordan Ghor, Hermon draws to itself, and quickly condenses in its cold clear atmosphere, the vapors rising from the tropic depth of the low-lying river; and “the dews of Hermon” (Psa. cxxxiii:3), which to the Israelites were a proverbial symbol of gracious influences, clothe the lower slopes of the mountain with rich and almost perennial pastures. The vine thrives; above the region of the cultivated grounds the almond flourishes abundantly; and higher still there is a belt of fruit trees growing absolutely wild. Still higher are conifers and prickly shrubs belonging to the flora of the oriental steppes, and above all lies the belt of snow which, even in summer, does not wholly disappear. In the wilder parts of Hermon foxes, wolves, and many sorts of game are to be found, and among them the peculiar species of brown bear which is known to naturalists as Ursus Syriacus. The form of Hermon is that of a truncated cone, but it has really three summits, situated, like the angles of a triangle, about a quarter of a mile from each other. This may be the reason why the Hebrew Psalmist speaks of the Hermons , or Hermonites as the word is improperly rendered in the Authorized Version (Psa. xlii : 6). Except when covered with snow, the cone is entirely naked, and a coat of decomposed limestone makes the surface smooth and bleak. “As summer advances, the snow gradually melts from the tops of the ridges, but remains in long glittering streaks in the ravines that radiate from the center, looking in the distance like the white locks that scantily cover the head of old age.” Canon Tristram gives the following sketch of the view from the summit of Hermon. “We were at last on Hermon, whose snowy head had been a sort of pole-star for the last six months. We had looked at him from Sidon, from Tyre, from Carmel, from Gerizim, from the hills about Jerusalem, from the Dead Sea, from Gilead, and from Nebo; and now we were looking down on them all, as they stood out from the embossed map that lay spread at our feet. The only drawback was a light fleecy cloud which stretched ,/ *> . FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI. 533 from Carmel s top all along the Lebanon, till it rested upon Jeoel Sunnin , close to Baal-bec. But it lifted sufficiently to give us a peep of the Mediterranean in three places, and amongst them of Tyre. There was a MOUNT HERMON FROM TELL-EL-KADI . haze, too, as over the Ghor , so that we could only see as far as Jebel Ajlun and Gilead; but Lakes Huleh and Gennesaret, sunk in the depths be¬ neath us, and reflecting the sunlight, were magnificent. We could scarcely realize that at one glance we were taking in the whole of the land 534 FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPI. through which, for more than six months, we had been incessantly wandering. Not less striking were the views to the north and east, with the head waters of the Awaj (Pharpar) rising beneath us, and the Barada (Abana), in the far distance, both rivers marking the courses of their fertilizing streams by the deep green lines of verdure, till the eye rested on the brightness of Damascus, and then turned up the wide opening of Coele-Syria, until shut in by Lebanon. “A ruined temple of Baal, constructed of squared stones arranged nearly in a circle, crowns the highest of the three peaks of Hermon, all very close together. We spent a great part of the day on the summit, but were before long painfully affected by. the rarity of the atmosphere. The sun had sunk behind Lebanon before we descended to our tents, but long after we had lost him he continued to paint and gild Hermon with a beautiful mingling of Alpine and desert hues.’' The situation of Banias, the ancient Ccesarea Philippi , is superb beyond description. The approach to it from Tell-el-Kady is through park-like scenery diversified with wooded hills and fertile valleys through which countless streamlets wind along or dash down natural cascades in the midst of thickets and overhanging vines; while ever before towers the gigantic form of Mount Hermon. The situation of the Grecian city of Herod Philip to which our Lord went, but which had never been a city of Israel, is very admirably described by Dr. Geikie, who says: “It lay on the northeast of the reedy and marshy Plain of El Huleh. It was close to Dan, the extreme north of the bounds of ancient Israel, as Beersheba was the extreme south. It was almost on a line with Tyre, and thus, far out of the reach of the rabbis and high-priests. A town, Baal-Gad — named from the Canaanite god of fortune — had occupied the site from immemorial antiquity, but Philip had rebuilt it splendidly, three years before Christ’s birth, and, in accordance with the prevailing flattery of the emperor, had called it Caesarea, in honor of Augustus. It had been the pleasure of his peaceful reign to adorn it with altars, votive images, and statues, and his own name had been added by the people, to distinguish it from the Caesarea on the sea-coast. It was one of the loveliest spots in the Holy Land, built on a terrace of rock, part of the range of Hermon, which rose behind it seven or eight thousand feet. Countless streams mur- FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI 535 mured down the slopes amidst a unique richness and variety of flower and shrub and tree. The chief source of the Jordan still bursts in a full silver- clear stream from a bottomless depth of water, in the old cave of Pan, at the foot of the mountain, from beneath a high perpendicular wall of rock, adorned with niches once filled with marble Naiads of the stream and Satyrs of the woods, and with countless votive tablets; but now strewn round with the ruins of the shepherd god’s ancient temple. Thick woods still shade the channel of the young river. Oaks and olive groves alter¬ nate with pastures and fields of grain, and high over all rises the old castle RUINS OF THE RAMPARTS OF BANIAS. of Banias, perhaps the 'Tower of Lebanon that looketh toward Damas¬ cus,’ of the Song of Solomon” (vii : 4). “But the center of attraction,” says Dean Stanley, “is the higher source of the Jordan. Underneath the high red limestone cliff which overhangs the town it bursts out, not, as in the lower or westernmost source, in a full spring, but in many rivulets, which, issuing from the foot of the rock, first form a large basin, and then collect into a rushing stream. It penetrates through the thickets on the hill side, and in the vale below, at some point which has never been exactly verified, joins the stream from Dan. In the face of the rock immediately above the spring, is the large grotto which furnished a natural sanctuary, not indeed to the Israelites, who, perhaps, never penetrated so far, but to the Greeks of the Macedonian kingdom of 536 FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI. Antioch, The cavern-sanctuary of Caesarea was at once adopted by the Grecian settlers, both in itself and for its romantic situation, the nearest likeness that Syria affords of the beautiful limestone grottoes which in their own country were inseparably associated with the worship of the sylvan Pan. This was the one Paneum or ‘sanctuary of Pan,’ within the limits of Palestine, which before the building ol Philip’s city gave to the town the name of Paneas , a name which has outlived the Roman substitute, and still appears in the modern appellation of Banias. Greek inscriptions in the face of the rock testify its original purpose; the reverence thus begun was continued by the Romans, the white marble temple built by Herod to Augustus crowned its summit, and in later times Jewish pilgrims mistook the traces ol this Gentile worship for the vestiges of the altar of the Dan- ites and Jeroboam; and Christian or Mussulman devotion has erected above it one of the numerous tombs dedicated to the mysterious saint whom the one calls St. George and the other Elijah.” Eleven hundred feet above sea-level, and still nine thousand feet below the summit of Mount Hermon, lay the ancient Caesarea, naturally fortified on three sides by the river and a deep valley. The remaining side was strongly fortified with three round towers which still remain, and an immense fosse which could be flooded when necessary. The bridge was defended by a large square tower, through the town ran an ample aqueduct, and magnificent granite columns, which are still found lying on the ground, show what manner of buildings adorned the streets of Caesarea. In the center of the south side of the castle is an ancient portal on which an Arabic inscription has been carved, and from which a stone bridge crosses the wady. Something over two miles from Banias is the vast fortress of Subeibeh, 2,000 feet long by 300 wide, the huge walls of which are still in some places 100 feet high. From the north, the south and the west, this fortification is almost inaccessible, and on the remaining side it is so defended as to have been called the Gibraltar of Palestine. Situated at the base of Mount Hermon it commands the passage to and from the countries lying east of Syria which was used by Chedorlaomer 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. On the road leading to Tyre Assyrian sculptures have been found which prove that this was the route taken by the great armies FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI 537 of Assyria in invading Palestine and Tyre; and the Phoenicians would be almost under the necessity of fortifying this pass for their own defence. At the eastern end of the castle, and one hundred and fifty feet above it, stands the citadel with a wall and a moat of its own; so that, as Josephus says, the garrison could retire into the citadel and make a protracted defence, even after the main castle had been taken by an enemy. In the THE TRANSFIGURATION. ( MATT. XVII: 1-8.) time of the Crusades the castle of Subeibeh naturally played an important part, but its history is too long to be told here. It was somewhere in the course of this interesting journey, and prob¬ ably in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi, that our Lord asked His disciples to tell Him how He was regarded by the common people. The ideas of the people concerning Him were all abroad. Some of them supposed Him to be John the Baptist; some thought He was Elijah; some imagined 538 FROM DECAPOLIS TO C7ESAREA PHILIPPE He must be the sad prophet Jeremiah ; the general opinion of those who believed in Him at all was that He was one of the old prophets who had risen from the dead. I hen Jesus asked the disciples whom they sup¬ posed Him to be, and in the name of all of them, Peter answered, ‘‘Thou art the Clnist, the Son of the living God! If this sublime confession, the coinei stone of the Christian faith, was pronounced in the vicinity of Csesaiea Philippi, then the rocky slopes of Hermon would afford a thous¬ and ready illustrations of its mighty significance. “Thou art Peter,” said the Master, that is, a living stone ( Petros ) “of the living Temple I am rear¬ ing, but on this rock (petra) , this immovable truth which flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee, I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” In the lofty glades of the majestic Hermon were a thousand places where eternal rocks and snow-strewn stones would fitly symbolize the firm foundation of the faith and the “lively stones” of which the Church of Christ is builded (Matt, xvi: 13-18); Mark viii: 27-29; Luke ix: 18-20). Alas, that so plain a matter should be wrested to sup¬ port the anti-Christian pretensions of the Church of Rome; in this cer¬ tainly anti-Christian, since they affirm that the “Church’s one foundation” is not Christ, but the weak Apostle Peter. Not so thought St. Paul when he said, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, even Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. iii: 11). How little the impulsive and warm-hearted Peter could be trusted as an infallible foundation of anything was sadly and quickly shown; for it was almost immediately afterward, and while still among the impressive scenes in which these solemn conferences were held, that our Saviour began to tell His disciples of the fast approaching tragedy in which His personal ministry on earth was to be closed. That prophecy surpassed the faith of Peter, who began to rebuke Him whom He had just confessed to be the Son of God! “Far be it from Thee, Lord,” he said; “this shall not be unto Thee.” Jesus was ineffably gen¬ tle: but He had the sternness which is sometimes the true voice of love; and that sternness was heard in the answer He then made to Peter: “Get thee behind me, thou Satan; thou art an offence unto Me; thou savorest not of the things which be of God, but of those that be of men!” So quickly had the little human stone which the Church of Rome would make the rock of the Church’s foundation, become an offence, that is FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPI 539 to say, a stone of stumbling , as the papacy has always been (Matt, xvi: 21-23; Mark viii: 31-33). It was six days after these events that Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and ascended “an high mountain,” which must surely have been Hermon, and was transfigured before them (Matt, xvii: REMAINS OF THE CASTLE OF SUBEYBEH ABOVE BANIAS. 1-9; Mark ix:2-8; Luke ix: 28-36). It was a fit spot for our Saviour to take a long look over the many scenes of His earthly pilgrimage. Before Him lay the Beautiful Land spread out like a map. Not far off were the hills of Nazareth where His infant years were spent. Stretching from north to south was the deep Ghor of the Jordan, on whose banks He had so often journeyed on His frequent expeditions to the Holy City. 540 FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI. Near the Dead Sea, which was clearly visible, was the place where John had baptized Him, and a little east of it the gloomy Mountain of Temp¬ tation. Wherever He gazed some natural object would remind Him of the countless works and words He had done and spoken in proclaiming and exhibiting His gospel. Beyond the mountains of Gilead on the east and the Midland Sea on the west, beyond the hills of Hebron on the south and the mighty ranges of Lebanon on the north, the good news of that gospel and its healing influences were yet to be borne to far-off lands by the poor fishermen whom He had taught and trained for that tremendous work of winning a world to God. But before they could set out on that marvellous work, He was to be taken from them; and the time was now not far off; it was nigh at hand. When He descended from that mountain, it would be to set His face toward Jerusalem, there to be offered up. Two mountains must have been conspicuously pres¬ ent to His thoughts — as they were conspicuous to His vision — Pisgah, the silent and mys¬ terious resting-place of Moses, the Prophet of Law; and Carmel, the triumphant scene of the victory of Elijah, the Prophet of Vengeance. Law is love unrecognized; vengeance itself is only love disguised; but the significance of both must be revealed by the Prophet of Reconciliation. On “a green hill far away,” a mere knoll of the Mountains of Jerusalem, He was to read the riddle which makes all things plain, and then from the summit of the Mount of Olives, He was to ascend to other scenes of which the poet can but dream, and even the prophet can but babble. As He gazed and meditated on the past, the present and the wondrous future, “the Life” that is “the Light of Men,” illuminated His whole being. The inner nature of the Christ sent an ethereal radiance gleam- REMAINS OF PHOENICIAN TEMPLE AT H I BBARIYEH. FROM DECAPOLIS TO C/ESAREA PHILIPPI. 541 ing through His mortal frame and glistening through the very garments which He wore. While He had been gazing and praying, night had fallen, and the drowsy followers He had brought with Him were fast asleep. It was ever so in the great crises of His life. His most solemn hours were spent, “apart, by Himself, alone.” On Hermon, and a few days later, in the garden of Gethsemane, the same three slept and left Him utterly alone. Yet He was not alone; the Father was with Him; and two grand human figures came and stood beside Him to partake in these His last meditations. Well does John Ruskin speak of those three who were there together. “When, in the desert, He was girding Him¬ self for the work of life, angels of life came and ministered unto Him; now, in the fair world, when He is girding Himself for the work of death, the ministrants come to Him from the grave — but from the grave con¬ quered — one from that tomb under Abarim, which His own hand had sealed long ago; the other from the rest into which He had entered without seeing corruption.” There stood by Him Moses and Elias, and spake of His decease. And when the prayer is ended, the task accepted, then first since the star paused over Him at Bethlehem, the full glory falls upon Him from heaven, and the testimony is borne to His ever¬ lasting sonship and power — “Hear ye Him.” It was of His decease that Moses and Elias spake at that time to Jesus, for His decease was imminent. It behooved Him first to suffer, and afterward to enter into glory; and, perhaps to strengthen Him for his “unknown sufferings,” as the Greeks beautifully say, a foretaste of the coming glory was vouchsafed Him in His transfiguration on Mount Hermon. For the weak disciples, too, whose faith was soon to be so sorely tried, some token of His glory was perhaps required to make their restora¬ tion to entire faith possible when they should have seen the tragedy of Golgotha. They started out of sleep and for a moment saw the glory of their Master. Somehow they knew the mighty men of old who stood with Him and talked with Him; and then the splendid vision faded from their sight. No man was with them save Jesus only, Jesus, no more gleaming with the light of heaven, only the Man of Sorrows who was soon to bear his Cross along the Via Dolorosa. Poor blundering Peter wist not what to say, and yet he spoke. He would fain tarry where he 542 FROM DECAPOLIS TO CAESAREA PHILIPPI. was, high on the slopes of Hermon. He would fain build tabernacles for his Master and the Prophets. But it was not to be so. For the Son of Man the time of tabernacles was nearly gone. It was but a step now to the place of many mansions which abide forever. Therefore from the steeps of Hermon and the momentary joy of His transfiguration, Jesus turned Himself and set his face steadfastly to go unto Jerusalem, there to do and suffer all that the prophets had told aforetime concerning Him. From Hermon to Golgotha! From Golgotha to Olivet! From Olivet to the New Jerusalem, the One Eternal City of the Great King! • . . . CHAPTER XVII. THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. Ruins of all Ages — Excursion I: — From the Upper Pool of Gihon to Job’s Well — Austrian Consulate— Talitha Kumi —Leper Hospital — Valley of Gihon — -Jewish Hospice— Valley of Hinnom — Gehenna — Tomb of David — Chamber ofthe LastSupper — House of Caiaphas — House of Annas — The Field of Blood — Excursion II: — Road to Neby Samwil — Tombs of the Judges — Tombs of the Kings — Cavern of Zedekiah — Queen Helena of Adiabene — Tombs of Simon the Just and of the Sanhe¬ drim — Grotto of Jeremiah — Tell ez-Zahara— Its Resemblance to a Skull — The Place of the Cru¬ cifixion — Various Opinions on the Subject— Excursion III: — Down the Kidron Valley— Place of the Last Judgment — Bridge Across the Kidron — Tomb of the Virgin — Gethsemane — The Ancient Olives — Place of the Betrayal — Ascent of the Mount of Olives — Place of the Weeping over Jeru¬ salem — Kefr et-Tur — Church of the Ascension — View from the Summit of the Mount of Olives — - Down the Mountain — Tomb of the Prophets — Tomb of Jehoshaphat — Tomb of Absalom — Tomb of St. James — Tomb of Zachariah — Village of Silwan — Excursion IV: — Around the Walls — Cas¬ tle of Goliath — The Jaffa Gate and Market Place — The Citadel — Southeast Angle — South Wall — - Gate of the Prophet David or Zion Gate — The Dung Gate — The Double Gate — The Triple Gate — The Single Gate— East Wall— Golden Gate — St. Stephen’s Gate— North Wall — Gate of Herod — Damascus Gate — The Cotton Grotto. J taking the most rapid possible survey of modern Jerusalem we shall find things new and old strangely mingled together. Side by side or in immediate contact are monu¬ ments of the time of Solomon, remains of Roman architecture, ruins of the Crusading period and buildings erected within the present generation. Near the wall of the ancient Temple Area Jewish lamentations are still heard bewailing the desolation of Zion. On Mount Moriah, perhaps on the very site of Herod’s Temple, stands the Mosque of Omar with its glorious dome surmounted by the crescent symbol of Islam. In various parts are churches, convents, schools and hospitals of Christian sects: Greek, Roman, Coptic, Anglican, Arme¬ nian and Abyssinian, which have no dealings with each other, notwith¬ standing the six times repeated prayer of their One Master that they might “all be one!” In all directions may be seen the flags of distant nations, pilgrims from many lands throng to the sacred places, and the 543 544 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. tongues of many peoples may be heard in every street, for now, more than in any former age, Jerusalem is El Khuds , the Holy City. With the aid of the map, the student will find it useful and interesting to acquaint himself with the surroundings of Jerusalem before enteriug within the walls, and for that purpose we shall offer our guidance in four short excursions, as follows: Excursion I. From the Upper Pool of Gihon, through the Valley of Gihon and the Valley of Hinnom, to Job’s Well. Excursion II. From the Jaffa Gate to the Tombs of the Judges, the Tombs of the Kings and the Grotto of Jeremiah. Excursion III. Down the Kidron Valley to Job’s Well. Excursion IV. Around the Walls. Excursion I. From the Upper Pool of Gihon to Job’s Well. The traveler who approaches Jerusalem by the road from Jaffa passes through a cluster of watch-towers about a mile from the northwestern angle of the city, and then on his left is the English Mission House. A little further on, still on his left, is the Austrian Consulate, and on his right is Talitha Kumi, an orphanage where a hundred Arab girls are edu¬ cated by seven Westphalian Deaconesses under the direction of their Superior. Skirting the road on its left or northern side, and beautifully situated on a rising ground, he will next pass the extensive buildings belonging to the Russian Government, and consisting of two immense hospices for male pilgrims, a third hospice for women, a noble church, a well-appointed hospital and the consulate. On the other side of the road, at a distance of three or four hundred yards, is the Upper Pool of Gihon which has already been described (p. 324). Two hundred yards south of the pool is a leper hospital, but not far from the Jaffa Gate, another hospital for lepers exists within the walls, and will be mentioned here¬ after. Two hundred yards east of the pool we enter the Valley of Gihon, or, more properly, the northwestern part of the Valley of Hinnom. Turning south, we pass the Jaffa Gate and the citadel on the left, and go straight on to the southwestern angle of the city wall within which is the spacious .Tombs ofOieh * (Tomb of Net ihmus < Ancient Cisterns s'// cistern- ■Amu. Hi Tower yrSTr/tet vAjicaB- -Oal (■/ '/Sr .» Mo/iNbimecian ) 0 7bm6i^~ - - ilftgP P'S'.1 ^ Kefr etT.ur}; Sf COurth of theA$c6 /iff /I <6§£ ect Oa/>ar/yjy^ ■{^eJIterncdTjate. IH ill AM KSH ip'/.Jg °M* Propfttt 1 Armenian Convent of St. James 2 Armenian Convent <>f the Olive Tree 3 Greek Convent of St. George 4 Syrian Convent JyS-:' 5 Greek Convent of St. Basil f 6 Greek Convent of St. Theodore ' J) 7 Casa Nuova & Latin Convent of St. Salvador (f 8 Greek Convent of St. Demetrius _ 9 Convent of the Greek Catholics A\ 10 Coptic Convent of St. George 11 Greek Convent of the Virgin 12 Bath of the Patriarch 13 Mediterranean Hotel 14 Greek Convent of St. John the Baptist 15 Latin Convent 16 Greek Convent of St. George 17 Greek Convent & Hospice of St. Michael 18 Greek Convent ot St.John Euthymius 19 Greek Convent of the Lady 20 Damascus Hotel 21 Convent of the Roman Catholic Armenians 22 Prussian Consulate & Hospice of Knights of St. John 23 English Consulate 24 Convent of the Sisters of Sion 25 Austrian Consulate 26 French Consulate 27 Spanish Consulate 28 Greek Convent of Gethsemane 29 Greek Convent of Abraham 30 Protestant Chm ch 31 Greek Consulate 32 House of Abu Saud 33 Greek Convent of Constantine 34 Mission Hospital To Bet?*} Tombs or the Pro/. fBtrkeh es \ A altar,) i OtrCP POOL oA C/hoaA\ Si/wdnior Ccerac I fDavta Wk tsoo * THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 549 garden of the Armenian monastery. In the valley, directly opposite to that angle, is the upper end of the Lower Pool of Gihon (p. 546 ); and on the other side of the valley southwest of the pool, is Sir Moses Monte- fiore’s Jewish TIospice or Poor-House for indigent Jews. Here the valley makes a sweeping circuit to the east, round the foot of Mount Zion, and. we are now in the Ge Bene Hinnom, the Valley of the Children of Groaning, also called Tophet, where young children were once sacrificed to Moloch (2 Kings xxiii: 10). and Jewish kings surrendered their JAFFA GATE, OK HEBRON GATE, JERUSALEM. own offspring to be offered as victims to that bloody god. So utterly detestable did that place become in the estimation of the Jews, that Gehenna , which is a contraction of its Hebrew name, came in New Testa¬ ment times to signify a place of torment. North of this valley of infamy is a large part of Mount Zion, which is not now inclosed within the city wall, and on its summit, surrounded by the burying-places of Latins, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, English and 55° THE ENVIRONS OE JERESALEM. Americans, is Neby Daud , the (Tomb of the) Prophet David, which is also called Coenaculum , or the Chamber of the Last Supper. It is a col¬ lection of buildings, almost a village, in which many traditions are singu¬ larly mingled. That the Tomb of David may have been here is entirely possible; that the Last Supper may have been celebrated near the same spot is not unlikely; that the gift of the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost m may have been received in o the same chamber in o * which the Eucharist was ^ instituted may be regard¬ 's ed as probable; whether % the Blessed Virgin died 1 — » tn there or not nobody can ~w . g possibly know; but that w the precise spot of each § and all of these different ^ facts or events should now o be ascertainable is simply ^ absurd. Yet the Cham- m ber of the Last Supper is exhibited, and in a lower room the place where the Lord’s Table stood is shown to the visitor. In a side room adjacent to the latter is a modern coffin which represents the sarcophagus of David, and is said to be a copy of the genuine coffin which is alleged still to exist in a subterranean vault, and in honor of which the Moslem mosque was erected. In the time of the Cru¬ saders a two-storied church stood here, with three apses in the lower story. In one of them was an altar commemorative of the washing of the NT ZION, FROM THE HILL OF EVIL COUNSEL. (On the right, In front of the Offence, Is the village of Siloam.) THE ENVIRONS OE JERUSALEM 553 Apostles’ feet by our Saviour which occurred on that very spot; the second had an altar on the spot where He appeared to them on the even¬ ing of the first Easter day; the altar of the third marked the spot where the Blessed Virgin died; and in the upper story was the scene of the Last Supper and of the giving of the Holy Ghost. Not even stupid superstition avails utterly to destroy the spirit of Christianity; for beside the Church of the Coenaculum was a monastery with a vast hospital for the solace and entertainment of pilgrims. To this day the Superior of the Franciscans is THE MOSQUE OE DAVID AND COENACULUM ON MOUNT ZION. called the “Guardian of Mount Zion;” but the Moslems long ago took pos¬ session of Neby Daud, and the Christian visitor must now pay a few piastres to the Moslem guard for the privilege of seeing the supposed Coenaculum and the Tomb of David. North of Neby Daud and near the Gate of David in the southern wall of the city is the traditional House of Caiaphus. Within the same gate, and about a hundred yards north of it, is the traditional House of Annas (John xviii: 13, 24). 554 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. On the south of the Valley of Hinnom rises the Hill of Evil Counsel, so-called because of a tradition that it was in a villa belonging to Caia- phas on that hill that the chief priests and elders of Israel took counsel together against Jesus to put Him to death (John xi: 53). In its steep sides many tombs have been excavated, some of which seem originally to have been closed by gates hung on sockets of stone; and toward the east- JESUS WASHING THE DISCIPLES’ FEET. (JOHN XIII : 5.) ern end of the Valley is Aceldama, the Field of Blood, the potter’s field for the burial of strangers, bought with the price paid for the betrayal of Jesus. “An old ruin thirty feet long and twenty wide, with one side of naked rock and the other of drafted stone, forms a flat-roofed cover to a dismal house of the dead. Two caverns beneath the floor, having their rocky sides pierced with loculi for corpses, are connected with galleries of tombs which extend from the bottom of the hill. There are holes in JERUSALEM FROM THE — — — " — “ — — THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 557 the roof of the ruin through which the bodies were let down by ropes, and there are marks of steps by which the tombs were entered. Clay from the potter’s field is still used by the potters of Jerusalem. As the valley goes eastward it “becomes very narrow, steep rocks forming its wall on the southern side, while on the upper side Mount Zion descends in steps like terraces, but very abruptly. Olive and almond trees cast their soft shadows over the rising green of the littie stony fields ENTRANCE TO THE GROTTO OF JEREMIAH. in the hollow and on the rocky sides of the ravine. The whole scene is beautiful in its quiet repose; yet it was in this narrow valley, now filled with budding fruit-trees and springing grain and sweet flowers, that the Israelites once offered their children to Moloch, and these very rocks have echoed the screams of innocent victims and reverberated with the chants and drums of the priests, raised to drown the cries of agony.” About a hundred yards below Aceldama the Hinnom Valley is joined by the Tyro- peon, and a little to the southeast they unite with the Kidron Valley above Job’s Well (p.336). 558 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. Excursion IE To the Tombs of the Judges, the Tombs of the Kings and the Grotto of Jeremiah. On this excursion, after leaving the Jaffa Gate, we take the road to Neby Samwil, pass the Russian buildings on the left, and proceed through olive groves, ash-heaps, cisterns and ruins, until we come to the Tombs of the Judges, a little more than two miles north of our starting point. These remarkable tombs are well worthy of a careful examination. On the west side of the rock is a small fore-court seven and one-half feet deep, leading to a vestibule twelve feet wide, open in front, and provided with a gable. Another gable rises over the portal which leads into the tomb-chamber. The southeast and northwest corners of the first tomb-chamber are imbedded in rubbish. On the north side of it are seven shaft-tombs, above which are three vaulted niche tombs, and at the back of these again are several shaft-tombs. Adjoining this first chamber on the east and on the south are two others nearly on the same level, and two on a lower level. The myth that the Judges of Israel are buried here is modern. There are many other rock-tombs in the vicinity, but none of such extent as these. A mile and a half southeast of the so-called Tombs of the Judges are The Tombs of the Kings. Of these tombs which he rightly describes as “bewildering catacombs,” Dr. Thomson gives the following description: “Those who made these tombs selected a platform, nearly level, of hard limestone rock, and in this they excavated an open court, almost ninety feet square and twenty deep. This court was, no doubt, perfectly protected all around, though the rock on the eastern side is now broken away. To obtain access to the court a trench was cut on the side of it, having a gradual slope eastward. Near the eastern end of this trench was an arched door-way, cut through the solid rock, opening into the court, which I suppose was originally the only entrance. On the west side of it is a portico thirty-nine feet long, seventeen feet wide, and fifteen high, measuring from the rock floor. The front of this portico w^as originally ornamented with grapes, garlands, and festoons, beautifully wrought on the cornice; and the two columns in the center, and the pilasters at the corners, appear to have resembled the Corinthian order. A very low door in the south end of the portico opens into the antechamber, nineteen feet THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM 559 square and seven or eight high. From this three passages conduct into other rooms, two of them to the south, which are about twelve feet square, and have each five or six crypts. On the west side is a room thirteen feet square, and a passage leads from it down several steps into a large vault running north, where are crypts parallel to the sides. These rooms are all cut in intensely hard rock, and the entrances were originally closed with stone doors, wrought with panels and hung on stone hinges, which EZ-ZAHARA, THE GROTTO OF JEREMIAH. (SUPPOSED TO BE GOLGOTHA.) are now all broken. The whole series of tombs indicate the hand of roy¬ alty and the leisure of years, but by whom and for whom they were made is a mere matter of conjecture.” Their careful construction proves them to have been the burial place of persons of high rank, and they are greatly revered by the Jews, who, from a very early period have called them the Cavern of Zedekiah, or the Tomb of Kalba Sabua, a rich Jewish noble who lived at the time of the great siege. A common opinion is that this cata¬ comb is the Tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene , which, according to Jose¬ phus, was situated here. With her son Izates, she was converted to 560 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. Judaism in her own country, and, after the death of husband Mambaz in A. D. 48, resided at Jerusalem. She afterward returned home, but when she died her body was brought to Jerusalem and buried in a pyramidal tomb three stadia from the city. Izates had twenty-four sons, and hence possibly the extent of the tomb. These vaults were understood to be tombs as early as the 14th century, and they were sometimes referred by JEREMIAH. (JER. i: 38-4 I.) tradition to the early kings of Judah, whence they are still called “Tombs of the Kings.” In the shallow wady of the Kidron, a little north of the Tombs of the Kings, are the Tombs of Simon the Just and of the Sanhedrim. “These curious sepulchers,” says Dr. Robinson, “are rarely visited. They are in the Valley of the Kidron, a short distance northeast of the Tombs of the Kings, and under the cliffs on the north side of the wady. They are fre- TOMBS IN THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT — — — THE ENVIRONS OE JERUSALEM. 563 quented exclusively by the Jews, and mostly on their festival days. I once entered them on the thirty-third day after the Passover — a day con¬ secrated to the honor of Simon. Many Jews were there with their chil¬ dren. Like all other sects in the East, they make vows to shave off the hair from their own and their children’s heads in honor of some saint or shrine. A number had that day been shorn, the hair weighed, and a sum LOOKING DOWN THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. ON THE LEFT IS THE MOUNT OF OLIVES,' ON THE RIGHT THE TEMPLE MOUNT; IN THE MIDDLE ABSALOM’S TOMB. of money distributed to the poor in proportion to the weight. The sur¬ rounding fields and olive-orchards were crowded with gayly-dressed and merry Hebrews. The tombs seemed to me to have been excavated in what were originally natural caves. The entrance to all of them was very low, and without ornament. The interior was spacious and gloomy in the extreme, especially that which was said to have contained the remains of the Sanhedrim. There were between sixty and seventy niches where bodies may have been placed; and from that number, perhaps, the idea THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 564 originated that they were the crypts of the seventy men of the great syna¬ gogue. Dr. Wilson seems to have heard of these tombs, but he confounds them with those of the Judges, which are a mile or more to the northwest.” Nearly southeast from the Tombs of the Kings, not far from the north¬ ern wall of the city, and nearly equally distant from the Damascus Gate and the Gate of Herod, is the Grotto of Jeremiah, a spot of peculiar interest, because an ingeniously supported theory has been put forward that the high Tell ez Zahara , under which the grotto or cave is situated, is the true Mount Calvary. “The yawning cave of Jeremiah,” says Dr. Thomson, “extends under the cliff about one hundred and fifty feet; and there are buildings, graves and sacred spots arranged irregularly about it, walled off, whitewashed and plastered. Under the floor of the cavern are vast cisterns. Lighting our tapers, we descend into the lowest one. The roof is supported by heavy square columns, and the whole, neatly plas¬ tered, is now used as a cistern. The water is pure, cold and sweet. In any other part of the world it would be considered a remarkable work; but here, in the vicinity of such excavations as undermine the whole ridge within the city, it dwindles into insignificance.” In this cave it is said that the Prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned and wrote his Lamentations, and the keepers of the grotto point out his tomb near by; but it is certain that the prison of the prophet was within the city (Jer. xxxviii), and it is equally certain that the present grotto was never included within the wall until the time of Herod Agrippa, six centuries later. Of the burial-place of Jeremiah nothing whatever is known, nor even of the place of his death. He was carried captive into Egypt (Jer. xliii: 5-7), and in all probability died there. The theory that the Tell ez Zahara above the so-called Grotto of Jeremiah is the true Calvary has a good deal of plausibility. The tradi¬ tion which places the scene of the Crucifixion and the. Resurrection under the Church of the Holy Sepulchre dates no earlier than the time of Con¬ stantine, and has no higher authority than an incredible myth which has already been told (p. 310). Whether that spot can possibly be the place of our Lord’s death and burial depends upon the question whether it was, or was not, at that time included within the wall. The Saviour was cruci¬ fied without the wall, as the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews distinctly THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 565 affirms (Heb. xiii: 12); and the same fact would be sufficiently implied by the Evangelists, even if we did not know that the Israelites invariably had their sepulchres outside their cities (Matt. xxvii:3i, 32; xxviii:ii; Mark xv :20, 21; Luke xxiii:26). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is within the modern wall, and the weight of opinion seems steadily to incline to a conviction that it must have been within the wall which existed in the time of Christ. The probability therefore is that, wherever Calvary may ANCIENT OLIVE TREES. have been, it cannot have been the place indicated by ecclesiastical tra¬ dition. Again, the place of crucifixion bore a name which it apparently owed to some peculiarity of formation, since it was called in Greek Kranion , A Skull (Luke xxiii: 33), and in Hebrew Golgotha , The Place of a Skull (Matt. xxvii:33; Mark xv: 22; Jolin xix: 17). There is every reason to suppose that the Crucifixion of our Saviour was at the usual place of execution, and it has often been explained that Golgotha may have received its sinister 566 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. designation from the skulls of executed criminals left to bleach on its unhal¬ lowed side. But if that were the true reason, the spot would have been called The Place of Skulls , and not Kranion, A Skull, or The Place of a Skull. It seems more reasonable to suppose that the form of Calvary itself may have resembled that of a huge skull, and in that case the name Kranion or Golgotha would have had a double appropriateness. The site MOUNT OF OLIVES, FROM THE WALL. of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is lower than that of the land immediately around it, can hardly have had any such form. The Tell ez Zahara lies without the northern wall, “nigh unto the city” (John xix:2o), being not more than forty rods from the Damascus Gate, and its outline, seen from a distance, strikingly resembles that of a skull. Moreover, the Jews, following a very ancient tradition of the Tal¬ mud, call it the Place of Stoning. An early Christian tradition makes it the scene of the stoning of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and the gate which is now called Herod’s Gate was formerly called St. Stephen’s Gate, though the name was transferred at a later time to another gate on THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 567 the east side of the city. From these facts it seems exceedingly probable that this Tell was the ancient place of public execution, Tell ez Zahara thus seems to have probabilities in its favor which are wholly lacking in the traditional Calvary, and in other respects it well con¬ forms to the incidental indications of the Gospels. Kranion was near a thoroughfare where persons were constantly passing, since “they that passed by” reviling and railing at the Crucified Saviour, were clearly not TOMB OF THE VIRGIN. those who had gone to see the Crucifixion, but chance passengers (Matt., xxvii: 39; Mark xv: 29). It was also an object so conspicuous as to be seen “afar off” (Matt, xxvii: 55 ; Mark xv:4o; Luke xxiii : 49) ; and in its neighbor¬ hood were tombs and gardens. In every one of these particulars the Tell above the Grotto of Jeremiah corresponds with the Kranion of the Gos¬ pels, and the conjecture that it is the true Calvary, first made by an Ameri¬ can gentleman, Mr. Fisher Howe, has gained many adherents, such as Dr. Selah Merril, U. S. Consul at Jerusalem, Dr. Otto Thenius and Capt. Conder. 568 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. In 1881 it was found that a Jewish tomb existed on a smaller knoll not far from the Tell ez Zahara, and in the Palestine Quarterly State¬ ment. 1883, p. 76, the following significant observation is made: “It would be bold to hazard the suggestion that this single Jewish sepulchre, thus found, is indeed the Tomb in the Garden, nigh unto the place called Gol¬ gotha, which belonged to the rich Joseph of AiimathEea, yet its appear¬ ance so near the old place of execution and so far from the other tombs in the old cemeteries of the city is extremely remarkable.” In the opinion of the writer, the location of Calvary is not a matter of supreme importance; nevertheless, as the subject is interesting, and as the suggestion of Mr. Howe seems be gaming favor, it may be well here to quote a passage in which the facts are very well put by Dr. Geikie. “There is little in the New Testament to fix the exact position of the ‘mount’ on which our Lord was crucified, though the statement that He ‘suffered without the gate’ (Heb. xiii: 12) is enough to prove that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not on the true site. The name Gol¬ gotha, ‘the Place of a Skull,’ may well have referred rather to the shape of the ground than to the place so called being that of public execution, and if this be so, a spot reminding one of a skull by its form must be sought, outside the city. It must, besides, be near one of the great roads, for those who were ‘passing by’ are expressly noticed in the Gospels (Mark xv : 29). That Joseph of Arimathsea carried the body to his own new tomb, hewn out in the rock, and standing in the midst of a garden, outside the city (Matt, xxvii: 60), requires, further, that Calvary should be found near the great Jewish cemetery of the time of our Lord. This lay on the north side of Jerusalem, stretching from close to the gates, along the different ravines, and up the low slopes which rise on all sides. The sep¬ ulchre of Simon the Just, dating from the third century before Christ, is in this part, and so also is the noble tomb of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, hewn out in the first century of our era, and still fitted with a rolling stone, to close its entrance, as was that of our Lord. Ancient tombs abound, moreover, close at hand, showing themselves amidst the low hilly ground wherever we turn on the roadside. Everything thus tends to show that this cemetery was that which was in use in the days of our Lord. “On these grounds it has been urged with much force that Calvary THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM 571 must be sought near the city, but outside the ancient gate, on the north approach, close to a main road, and these requirements the knoll or swell over the Grotto of Jeremiah remarkably fulfills (John xx: 12). Rising gently toward the north, its slowly-rounded top might easily have obtained from its shape, the name of ‘a Skull,’ in Latin, Calvaria; in Aramaic, Gol¬ gotha. This spot has been associated from the earliest times with the martyrdom of St. Stephen, to whom a church was dedicated near it before the fifth century. And this, as Captain Conder shows, is fixed by local SKETCH OF THE ROAD FROM ST. STEPHEN’S GATE ACROSS THE VAT. LEY AND OVER THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. tradition at the spot which is still pointed out by the Jews of Jerusalem as ‘the Place of Stoning,’ where offenders were not only put to death, but hung up by the hands till sunset, after execution. As if to make the iden¬ tification still more complete, the busy road which has led to the north in all ages passes close by the knoll, branching off, a little further on, to Gibeon, Damascus and Ramah. It was the custom of the Romans to crucify transgressors at the sides of the busiest public roads, and thus, as 572 THE ENVIRONS OE JERUSALEM. we have seen, they treated our Saviour when they subjected Him to this most shameful of deaths (Luke xxiii: 35). Here then, apparently, on this bare rounded knoll, rising about thirty feet above the road, with no build¬ ing on it, but covered in part with Mahommedan graves, the low yellow cliff of the Grotto of Jeremiah looking out from its southern end, the Saviour of the world appears to have passed away with that great cry which has been held to betoken cardiac rupture — for it would seem that He literally died of a broken heart. Before Him lay outspread the guilty city which had clamored for His blood; beyond it, the pale slopes of Olivet, from which He was shortly to ascend in trimuph to the right hand of the Majesty on High; and in the distance, but clear and seemingly near, the pinkish -yellow mountains of Moab, lighting up, it may be, the fading eyes of the Innocent One with the remembrance that His death would one day bring back lost mankind — not Israel alone — from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, to the kingdom of God.” The tomb in which our Lord was buried will be, perhaps, forever unknown, but it was some one of those, we may be sure, still found in the neighborhood of “the Place of Stoning.” Among these, one has been specially noticed by Captain Conder, as possibly the very tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, thus greatly honored. It is cut in the face of a curious rock platform, measuring seventy paces each way, and situated about 200 yards west of the Grotto of Jeremiah. The platform is roughly scarped on all sides, apparently by human art, and on the west there is a higher piece of rock, the sides of which are also rudely scarped. The rest of the space is fairly level, but there seem to be traces of the foundation of a surrounding wall, in some low mounds near the edge of the platform. In this low bank of rock is an ancient tomb, rudely cut, with its entrance to the east. The doorway is much broken, and there is a loophole, or win¬ dow, four feet wide, on both sides of it. An outer space, seven feet square, has been cut in the rock, and two stones, placed in this, give the idea that they may have been intended to hold in its proper position a rolling stone with which the tomb was closed. On the north is a side entrance, leading into a chamber, with a single stone grave cut along its side, and thence into a cavern about eight paces square and ten feet high, with a well-mouth in its roof. I THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 573 Another chamber, within this, is reached by a descent of two steps, and measures six feet by nine. On each side of it, an entrance, twenty inches broad, and about five and a half feet high, has been opened into another chamber beyond, and passages, which are four and a half feet long, having a ledge or bench of rock at the side. Two bodies could thus be laid in each of the three chambers, which, in turn, lead to two other chambers about five feet square, with narrow entrances. Their doors IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. were still thinly strewn with human bones when Captain Conder explored them. I am sorry to say that a group of Jewish houses is growing up round the spot. The rock is being blasted for building-stone, and the tomb, un¬ less special measures are taken for its preservation, may soon be entirely destroyed. Excursion III. Down the Kedron Valley to Job’s Well. The course of the Kedron Valley has already been sufficiently de- 574 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. scribed (pp. 2S9-90). In the shallow wady north of the city there are few objects ol interest but tombs, of which the sepulchres of Simon and the Sanhedrim are the most important (p. 560). In the deep ravine be¬ tween the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem are scenes of unspeakable sacredness, though now desecrated and vulgarized by the painful triviali¬ ties of cultivated superstition. From north to south the floor of the Kidron Valley deepens and contracts. The upper part is planted with olive trees; the lower is quite CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION. MOUNT OF OLIVES. uncultivated. As early as the time of Christ the Kidron was called the Winter Brook, and at the present day the upper part is always dry. Recent explorations have ascertained that its bed in ancient times lay about 30 feet west of the present floor of the valley. The eastern slope of the Temple Hill is now deeply covered with debris and must formerly have been much steeper than it is at present. The Moslems believe that this valley is to be the place of final judgment, and that its area will then be miraculously enlarged so that all men shall have room to stand within its limits. From the wall of the Temple area to the Mount of Olives a THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM 575 wire rope is to be extended; the two great Judges, Jesus and Mohammed, are to sit, the former on the Temple wall, the latter on the Mount; and in their presence all men must pass over the valley on the rope. The righteous, aided by their guardian angels, will cross safely over with the swiftness of lightning; but the wicked will fall headlong into the pit of hell. Nearly opposite St. Stephen’s Gate the bed of the Kidron is spanned THE ASCENSION. (ACTS 1:9.) by a bridge of a single arch, and on the left of the road (going south) is the subterranean Chapel of the Tomb of the Virgin, where the Apostles are supposed to have laid the remains of the Mother of Jesus, and where her body is supposed to have lain until her fabled assumption. I he only part of this curious church above ground is the porch, and to the open court in front of it the descent is made by three flights of steps. The portal in the principal facade of the porch has a beautiful pointed arch, 576 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. into which a wall with a small door has been built. Within the door is a handsome flight of 47 marble steps, 19 feet wide at the top, and descend¬ ing to a depth of 35 feet below the outer court. About half-way down are two side chapels; one on the right, containing the tombs of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, and another on the left, containing the tomb of Joseph. There is a third vault on the left of the stairs to which, however, no tradition is attached. At the foot of the stair-way we enter the chapel, which is cruciform and brilliantly lighted with lamps. Its length is 93 feet, its width 20 feet, the transept from end to end is about 45 feet. The nave lies east and west. Its eastern wing is, much longer than the western, and has a window above; and in the midst of it is the sarcophagus of the Virgin. In different places are the altars of the Greeks, the Armenians and the Abyssinians, and an oratory of the Moslems. Returning to the upper fore-court, we observe on our left a passage lead¬ ing to a cavern which is called the Cave or Grotto of the Agony, and is supposed to be the very spot in which Jesus prayed and said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt!” This is a genuine grotto in the solid rock; it is 54 feet long, 2,7/4 wide, and .12 in height; the ceiling is supported partly by natural pillars and partly by masonry; and a hole in the ceiling seems to indicate that the grotto is an ancient olive-press. If this supposition is correct, then it is not at all improbable that we are here in the very olive-press which gave its name to the Garden of the Olive Press — Gethsemane ! Somewhere in this vicinity the Garden Gethsemane must have been; and high authorities affirm that the enclosure which now bears that name entirely corresponds with the accounts of the Evangelists. Any spot in that part of the Kedron Valley would perhaps answer as well; and, indeed, another spot than this is claimed to be the true place of our Saviour’s soli¬ tary struggle. We need not spend much thought on such questions. It is the fact, not the place of its occurrence, that we have in mind when we pray “By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat, Good Lord , deliver us!" The modern Garden of Gethsemane is an enclosure of a rectangular form, 160 feet long and about 150 wide, which is now surrounded by a hedge. It is in the possession of Franciscan monks, and is kept in the THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 579 trimmest and most artificial style. The ground is divided into beds in which roses, pinks and other flowers are cultivated, and the attendant monk is careful to cull a nosegay for which the visitor is expected to pay him one franc. There are also cypresses and some young olive-trees; but the greatest glory of the garden is the seven venerable olive trees, some of which are nineteen feet in circumference, their bark burst with age, and 'lllHM'MUl'lWlM'Tl1 Wmm Hips mf&iak TOMB OF ZACHARIAS their trunks so bent as to require to be shored up with stones. One would fain believe these aged trees to be the same which spread their boughs over the Son of Man. That, however, cannot be; for at the siege of Jeru¬ salem by Titus every tree in that valley was cut down. A thousand years later, when the Crusaders took possession of Jerusalem, they found no trees in the Kedron Valley, and it was not before the sixteenth century that the ancient trees of Gethsemane began to be mentioned. For all 580 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. I that, these trees are very likely lineal though remote descendants of those which grew there in the time of Christ, and certain it is that they are utterly unlike all other trees of the same species which are seen elsewhere on the Mount of Olives. Dean Stan¬ ley says that, “in spite of all the doubts that can be raised against their antiquity or the genuine¬ ness of their site, these ancient olive trees, if only by their mani¬ fest difference from all others on the mountains, have always struck even the most indifferent ob¬ servers. They are now, indeed, less striking in the modern garden enclosure built round them by the Franciscan monks than when they stood free and unprotected on the mountain side; but they will remain so long as their al¬ ready protracted life is spared* the most venerable of their race on the surface of the earth; their gnarled trunks and scanty foliage will always be regarded as the most affecting of the sacred memorials in or about Jerusalem; the most nearly ap¬ proaching to the everlasting hills themselves in the force with which they carry us back to the events of the Gospel history.” The Garden of Gethsemane is entered from the eastern side, that is the side next to the Mount of Olives. A rock immediately east of the gate is said to mark the spot where the disciples, Peter and James and John, slept during their Master’s agony. Some ten or twelve paces to the south of that spot, and, of course, without the inclosure, the fragment of a pillar gggis^g THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 581 indicates the place where Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. At one time, the garden was of much greater extent that at the present, and contained several churches and chapels which have now long disappeared. The place of the betrayal was then located in the Grotto of the Agony, and the THE JAFFA GATE — INTERIOR. 582 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. traditions of the spot have greatly varied. T he oil made from the olives of Gethsemane is sold at a high price, and rosaries made from the olive stones are in great request. I rom the Garden of Gethsemane there are three roads to the summit ol the Mount of Olives, and half-way up the middle path, which is also the steepest, is a xuin on the spot where Jesus, “when He was come near, beheld the city and wept over it (Luke xix: 41). This spot is venerated even by the Moslems, who built a mosque in honor of it; but the building is now a deserted ruin. At or near that same spot undoubtedly is the place where Jesus pre dieted the destruction of Jerusalem, on the Tuesday of the week in which He suffered. On that day He had sat teaching in the Court of Israel, near the treasury (Mark xii: 41), and just before He left the Temple, He saw and commended the faith of the poor widow who, of her penury, cast in the two mites, which were all the living that she had (Mark xii : 41-44; Luke xxi: i-4). Then He quitted the Temple, passing the gate through the massive wall which surrounded the sacred enclosure. “As He went out of the Temple, one of his disciples” used an expression of admiration at the immense “stones and buildings” of the splendid structure, and in answer received a brief prophecy that not one stone of all the edifice should be left upon another. In going out they would be surrounded by a throng of people and there would be little opportunity for further conversation; but in returning to Bethany, Jesus did not take the easier, if longer, road round the Mount of Olives, but the shorter and steeper path directly up the west side of the Mount. Half-way up they rested and sat down facing Jerusalem “over against the Temple” (Mark xiii: 3), and it was then that He delivered the long discourse of warning and instruction which is recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Mark. Any one who will compare the account given by St. Luke of the action and discourse of our Saviour on that day with the circumstantial exactness of time and place exhibited by St. Mark, will surely perceive that while St. Luke was a faithful reporter of what he heard from others, he had nothing of that precision of detail which belongs to an original witness. That exactness and precision St. Mark has; not, of course, because he was an immediate witness (though he may have been so) of the things which he relates, but because, according to the universal THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 583 tradition of the Church, he was merely the secretary or amanuensis of the Apostle Peter from whom he learned the facts which he narrates. Only an eye-witness and ear-witness could have written or dictated the account of our Saviour’s words and acts on that last Tuesday of his earthly life as we find them recorded in the Gospel of St. Mark; and he who stands by the ruined mosque on the west side of the Mount of Olives may be sure that he is not far from the very spot on which our Saviour charged his followers in every age to “Watch!” If we proceed to the summit of the Mount of Olives, we find there a village, Kefr et-Tur, which is not visible from Jerusalem, and within the court of a mosque, the minaret of which is ascended by all travelers for the sake of the superb view over Je¬ rusalem and the Dead Sea, we find a small octagon chapel, where a shape¬ less depression in the rock is pointed out as the last footstep of Christ on earth before His ascension into heaven. To say nothing of the inherent ab¬ surdity of such a sign, it seems to be almost incredible that the crest of Olivet should have been taken for the place of the Ascension in face of the express statement of St. Luke that our Saviour, before parting from His disciples, “led them out as far as to Bethany” (Luke xxiv: 50), that is to say, beyond the crest of Olivet and zion gate. some way down the eastern side. Originally there was no intention to commit so glaring a blander. The Empress Helena built two churches in Palestine, one at Bethlehem in honor of the Nativity, and another on the top of a hill near Jerusalem in memory of the Ascension. The latter was probably on the summit of the Mount of Olives, and being called the Church of the Ascension, it was speedily supposed to be erected on the place of the Ascension. Other sacred buildings clustered around it. Con- 584 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. stantine built a roofless basilica; in the sixth century many monasteries had been added; the Crusaders erected “a small tower with columns in the center of a court paved with marble, and the principal altar stood on the rock within.” In 1130 a large church rose over the spot, having in the center a broad depression marking the scene of the Ascension, below which was a chapel. After the time of Saladin the chapel was inclosed by an octagonal wall. In the sixteenth century the church was completely destroyed; in the seventeenth the Moslems restored the interior of the chapel; and in 1834 — 1835 it was rebuilt on the former ground-plan. The entrance is through a door by the minaret on the west side, where a handsome portal admits the visitor to a court in the center of which rises a small chapel of irregular octagonal form and about twenty feet in diam¬ eter. In the middle of the chapel is a cylindrical drum with a small dome over the spot from which our Saviour is said to have ascended. It belongs to the Moslems, who regard it with veneration, but on certain days Chris¬ tians are permitted to use it as an altar for the celebration of the mass. In an oblong marble enclosure is shown the foot-print of Christ in the rock. Quitting this spot where an idle and superstitious tradition makes void an express statement of Holy Scripture, we enter an adjacent mosque occupied by a community of dervishes, and standing on the site of a former Augustinian monastery. On ascending the minaret a mag¬ nificent panorama is spread out before us. Below, on the west, lies Jerusalem with the Haram enclosure, like a vast park, dotted with ora¬ tories, and surmounted by the glorious dome of the Mosque of Omar. The physical conformation of the city appears as it never can from any other point. The impregnable position of the Temple Mount is manifest. The hollow of the Tyropeon between the Temple hill and the upper part of the town, though now filled with rubbish, is plainly distinguishable. The relative position and the different heights of Mount Zion. Mount Moriah, Acra, Bezetha and Ophel are perceived at a glance. Beyond the north wall we can trace the course of the upper Valley of the Kidron, rich with verdure in the spring time, and behind it Scopus, whence the Roman looked down on the city he was shortly to destroy, confessing that its beauty might avail to “move the majesty of Rome to mercy.” Looking THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM 585 to the south the opprobrious Mount of Offence is close at hand, and beyond it we can scan the southward course of the Kidron Valley. A few miles off are Tekoah, and the Frank Mountain, and the hills of Bethlehem, PART OF THE SOUTH WALL. though Bethlehem itself is concealed from view. Everywhere the clear¬ ness of the atmosphere deceives the eye, and the Dead Sea, lying thirteen miles off and not less than 3,000 feet below our point of view, seems near at hand and not many hundred feet below. Beyond the deep chasm in 586 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. which its blue and glass-like surface lies are the mountains of Moab, and north of them is Gilead, along the base of which the Jordan Ghor appears as a green line on a whitish ground. Gazing on this majestic panorama one can almost pardon the poetic superstition which imagines this place to be the place of the Ascension. Taking the southern path down the mountain, passing the spots where silly traditions affirm that the Lord's Prayer was first taught and the Apostle’s Creed was composed, we find ourselves opposite to the southeast corner of the Haram at the so-called Tomb of the Prophets. This curious and undoubtedly ancient Jewish sepulchre is peculiarly interesting on account of an early tradition, the truth of which Eusebius emphatically maintains, that our Lord initiated His disciples in His secret mysteries in a cave, and that it was in honor of that cave, which Constan¬ tine himself adorned, that Helena built her Church of the Ascension. “The cave to which Eusebius refers,” says Dean Stanley, “must almost certainly be the same as that singular catacomb, a short distance below the third summit of Olivet, commonly called the Tomb of the Prophets. It is clear from the language of Eusebius that the traditional spot which Helena meant to honor was not the scene of the Ascension itself, but the scene of the conversations before the Ascension, and the cave in which they were believed to have occurred. Had this been perceived, much useless controversy might have been spared.” No Hebrew tradition con¬ nects this remarkable sepulchre with the ancient Prophets of Israel; but as early as the seventh century four stone tables were shown there at which it was said that our Lord and his Apostles sat, and a church was erected there to commemorate the Betrayal. The spot was abandoned and forgotten, and remained unnoticed until the seventeenth century, when it was observed by travellers and assumed its present name. The entrance to the Tomb of the Prophets is insignificant, and leads into a rotunda, lighted from above, from which three passages, thirteen to nineteen yards long, extend and intersect two semicircular transverse passages. The wall of the outer semicircle contains about twenty-four shaft tombs. The rough way in which the chambers are hewn points to a very early origin of these tombs, and the form of the receptacles for the ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF THE KINGS - - - ■J ' . . - 3 .* - I! ^ mm * THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 589 dead proves them to be of the Jewish period. By the modern Jews they are regarded with the greatest veneration. Returning to the Garden of Gethsemane, and taking the path down the valley, we soon come to the Jewish burying ground and pass by four remarkable tombs. The first is the supposed Tomb of Jehoshaphat from whom the valley takes one of its names. It is cut into the face of the SOUTHEAST ANGLE OF THE HARAM, AND THE DESCENT OF MT. OPHEL. perpendicular rock and has an ornamental portal; but the sepulchre is wholly underground and is not architecturally remarkable. Close by, on the southwest of the Tomb of Jehoshaphat, is the Tomb of Absalom, by far the most striking object in the valley, hewn out of the native rock, which has simply been cut away from three sides, so as to leave a solid body twenty-two feet square and twenty feet high. As the base is embedded in rubbish which even covers the entrance, the true heighth of the block must be considerably greater. The huge monolith has been partly hollowed, and the entrance through a hole on the north side leads to an empty chamber eight feet square, with tenantless shelf-graves cut in 590 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. the rock on two sides. The exterior is ornamented with Ionic pillars and an architrave; above the monolith is a circular attic of large hewn stones; and the structure is finished to a total height of forty-seven feet with a small dome running up into a low spire, which spreads a little at the top, like an opening flower. Of the history of this striking monument there is no cer¬ tainty, but the Jews believe it to be the pillar which Absalom reared in the King’s Dale (2 Sam. xviii: 18). Jewish children have been seen casting stones at it and cursing the memory of the disobedient and treacherous Absalom. Some two hundred feet south of this is the Tomb of St. James, which has a porch eighteen feet by nine fronting the west, ornamented with two columns and two half-columns of the Doric order. The entrance, how¬ ever, is not through the porch, but by a passage cut through the rock from the south, and leading to a cave which extends forty or fifty feet back into the mountain. A tradition dating from the sixth century assures us that in this grotto St. James lay concealed and fasting from the hour of Christ's death until after his resurrection. The tradition that he was buried on the Mount of Olives is not older than the sixteenth century. The grotto was formerly occupied by monkish preachers; it now sometimes serves as a sheepfold. The fourth tomb, immediately south of the Tomb of St. James, is the monolith of Zechariah, a cubical block measuring seventeen feet each way, without masonwork, but hewn, like the lower part of the Tomb of Absa¬ lom, out of the solid rock, and surmounted by a flattened pyramid of twelve feet elevation. The entire height is nearly thirty feet, and there is no entrance. Each of the sides has two columns and two half-columns of the Ionic order. According to the Jews, by whom it is held in great veneration, this monument is the tomb of Zechariah, the priest mentioned in 2 Chron. xxiv: 20, 21, and the same to whom our Saviour referred in His scathing denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees: “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which slew the prophets. Behold I send THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM 59i unto you prophets and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto mMi gggj THE GOLDEN GATE the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the tem¬ ple and the altar” (Matt, xxiii: 29, 30, 34, 35). A hundred yards below these venerable tombs our path down the valley turns somewhat to the west of south, in a direction parallel with the base of Ophel, until we come to the Virgin’s Spring (p. 327). Thence, as we 592 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. proceed midway between Ophel and the Mount of Offence, we have the village of Silwan on our left skirting the base of the latter, until we come to the Pool of Siloam at the foot of Ophel (p. 326), three hundred yards above Job’s Well. Excursion IV. Around the walls. As the traveler approaches Jerusalem from the west, he has the whole west wall of the city behind him, extending north and south above the Gihon Valley. At the northwest angle are remains of an ancient tower, called Kulat el-Jalud , the Castle of Goliath, which Mr. Ferguson maintains is the Hippicus of Josephus. The entrance to the Holy City is by the Jaffa Gate, which the Arabs call Bab el- Khalil, that is, the Hebron Gate. It is a busy place; sentinels and custom-house officers are always on guard, and the open space within the gate is used as a market-place in which peasants dispose of fruits, vegetables and other country products. “This open space probably represents the ‘market-place’ mentioned by Josephus as being situated on the western hill, prior to the capture of the city by the Romans; and here the wholesale fruit and vegetable market is now held every day soon after sunrise. Dusky women of Bethany and Siloam, in long blue or white gowns, with bright colored kerchiefs tied round their heads, bring large baskets full of cucumbers, tomatoes and onions, and other garden produce, while from more distant villages, especially Bethle¬ hem and Urtas, troops of donkeys come laden with enormous cauliflowers and turnips, guided by boys in white shirts girdled with broad red leather belts. The pleasant-looking Bethlehem women, wearing crimson and yellow striped or blue gowns with long white linen veils, carry on their heads baskets of grapes, figs, prickly pears, pomegranates, and apricots, or whatever fruit is in season. Sometimes this market-place is almost blocked up with the piles of melons, or with oranges and lemons from Jaffa, and in the early summer time roses are sold here by weight to the makers of conserves and attar of roses. Hotel-keepers and servants from the various convents come here to make their bargains, and turbaned green¬ grocers and itinerant vendors of fruit come to buy their stock for the day. Soon the place is crowded, and the bustle of buying and selling begins. No purchase is effected without a considerable amount of contention. The seller does not usually price the goods, but waits for an offer. The first THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 593 offer is always absurdedly low. The seller then names an exorbitantly high price. For instance, a dignified-looking shopkeeper, wearing a white tur¬ ban, will offer three piastres for a large basket-full of tomatoes. The girl in charge answers indignantly, ‘I will carry my tomatoes back to Siloam rather than take less than fifteen!’ — ‘O thou most greedy of the greedy, I will give no more than six!’ — lO possessor of a tightly closed hand, I will not take less than twelve! How shall I buy the rice for my mother if I give away the fruits of her garden?’ Finally she obtains seven and a half piastres for her tomatoes, and goes away perfectly satisfied, having argued with pertinacity for the half piastre.” On the right of the Jaffa Gate is the Citadel, which has already been described (p. 305), and adjoining the Citadel on the south is the infantry barracks. “Within the citadel there is ruin and rubbish every¬ where; without, in the moat, soldiers’ gardens, beds of cactus or prickly pear, and filth of every possible description; and on the ramparts a few old cannon, much dreaded by the artillerymen who have to fire them. The view from the top of David’s Tower is extensive, embracing the whole town, the Mount of Olives, the Dead Sea and the mountains of Moab — a pleasant sight to feast the eyes upon for half an hour before the sun goes down.” From the barracks the wall runs due south to the southwest angle, within which is the garden of the Armenian monastery. There the south wall begins. For two hundred yards it runs due east, and then inclines irregularly to the north of east, following the natural conformation of Zion, until it crosses the Tyropeon to a point on Ophel situated about ninety yards south of the Haram. At that point it turns directly north for ninety yards and joins the south wall of the Haram one hundred yards from its southwest angle, and two hundred yards from its southeast angle, which is also the southeast angle of the city. INTERIOR OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 594 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. In the south wall there are two open gates, Bab en-Neby Dand or the Gate of the Prophet David , commonly called Zion Gate , which is about one hundred yards from the southwest angle of the city; and Bab el- Mugliari- beh , or the Gate of the Moors , commonly called the Dung Gate , at the Tyropeon. Zion Gate is simply an arch in the wall filled in with stones so as to leave space for a moderate-sized two¬ leaved door. The wall, however, is very thick. Within the north side of the gate is a row of hovels formerly oc¬ cupied by lepers. Suffering from a hopeless disease, and dependent on charity for daily, bread, these poor creatures lived to¬ gether under a sheikh of their own unfortunate class, with exemplary cheerfulness and good humor. Their appeals for alms which they made without rising from their seats, was sel¬ dom disregarded, and the backsheesh of the passenger was received in tin vessels on the ground beside them. The Dung Gate in the bed of the Tyropeon is a small and entirely INTERIOR OF ST. STEPHEN S GATE. THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 595 modern entrance with no architectural pretensions whatever. It is sup¬ posed, however, to be fairly representative of the gate of the same name mentioned by Nehemiah (Neh. iii: 13; xii 131). In the south wall of the Haram Area there are three closed gates. Of these the Double Gate is the most westerly, and is undoubtedly a relic of the Temple of Herod. It has two entrances, now closed, each eighteen feet wide, whence there was formerly a vaulted passage ascending to the Temple Mount. Over the former openings are two ornamental arches, not belonging to the structure, but fastened to it with iron clamps; and above them are heavy lintels, cracked by the weight of the masonry above, and now supported by columns. Next is the Triple Gate , with three openings now closed by a slight wall, which formerly gave entrance to three parallel passages now choked with rubbish. Furthest east is the Single Gate , of comparatively modern date, which led into the subterranean vaults called Solomon’s Stables. The East Wall runs directly north, and in that part of it which in¬ closes the Haram there is a closed gate called the Golden Gate. The Arabs call it Bab ed-Daheriyeh, or the Eternal Gate ; also, Bab et-Tobeh, or the Gate of Repentance; and Bab er-Rameh, or the Gate of Mercy. The Mos¬ lems have a traditional prophecy that on some fore-doomed Friday (the Moslem Sabbath), when the faithful are engaged in prayer, a Christian con¬ queror is to enter Jerusalem through this gate and take possession of the city. From a mistaken supposition that this is the Beautiful Gate (of the inner court) of the Temple mentioned in Acts iii: 2, the Greeks called it Tliyra Horaia , that is, the Beautiful Gate. By a second and curious mis¬ take the Latins mistook Horaia (Beautiful) for Aurea (Golden), whence the usual Christian name of The Golden Gate. In its present form it probably dated from the early centuries of the Christian era; but its resem¬ blance to the Double Gate on the south side is remarkable, and may sug¬ gest that it is the successor of the Gate Shushan of the Herodian Temple mentioned in the Talmud. In the time of the Crusades the Golden Gate used to be opened for a few hours on Palm Sunday and on the Festival of the Raising of the Cross. On Palm Sunday a great procession took place in honor of the Saviour’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and the people strewed palm branches in the way of the Patriarch, as he entered the City by the Golden Gate. 596 THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. just above Birket Israil, the Pool of Bethesda is Bab el-Asbat or the Gate of the Tribes , which is also called by the Arabs Bab Sitti Mariam or the Gate of the Lady Mary , but which Christians call St. Stephens Gate. Like most of the gates of Jerusalem it is situated in an angle. The doors are mounted with iron. Over the entrance are two lions in half-relief hewn in stone. In the guard-room within a “foot-print of Christ” is shown. In the north wall are two gates, the so-called Gate of Herod , quarter of a mile from the northeast angle, and the Damascus Gate , about midway be¬ tween the east and west ends of the wall. Herod’s Gate, which the Arabs call Bab ez-Zahiri or the Gate of Flowers , was formerly called St. Stephens Gate, and a church dedicated to St. Stephen was erected near by to commemorate the death of the first mar¬ tyr and mark the place where he was stoned, The church has wholly disap¬ peared and the name of St. Stephen was long ago trans¬ ferred to the Bab Sitti Mariam. By far the handsomest gate of Jerusalem is Bab el-Amud, or the Gate of the Columns, com¬ monly called the Damascus Gate. It is built in an irregular angular form and is a fine specimen of the architecture of the sixteenth century. Properly speaking, it consists of two gate-towers, and it takes its name of Bab el-Amud from the slender columns on either side which support a pointed gable. An inscription on the gable records that the gate was built by Soliman in the year 944 of the Hegira; but excavations have ascertained that it stands on the site of a more ancient gate. THE ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 597 About one hundred yards east of the Damascus Gate is the entrance to a cave or grotto, called the Cotton Grotto , of vast size and of great antiquity, which extends to a distance of 650 feet under the streets and houses of Bezetha, sloping from the entrance to a depth of more than one hundred feet. Strange to say, this excavation was not discovered until 1852, and its history is quite unknown. It is evidently an ancient quarry. “You still see clearly the size and form of the masons’ and hewers’ tools, for the marks of the chisel and the pick are as fresh as if the quarriers and the stone-cutters had just left their work. They appear to have been associated in gangs of five or six; each man making a cutting perpendicu¬ larly in the rock, four inches broad, till he had reached the required depth; after which, wedges of timber, driven in and wetted, forced off the mass of stone by swelling. It is touching to see that some blocks have been only half cut away from their bed, like the great stone at the quarry of Baalbek, or the enormous obelisk in the granite quarries of Assouan.” Sherds of pottery, fragments of utensils, and skeletons of men who died probably three thousand years ago were found in the grotto when it was discovered; and niches in the rock, with blackened spots above them, still remain to show where a feeble light enabled the “slaves of the lamp” to prosecute their subterranean labor. In all probability it was from this quarry that Solomon obtained the huge stones of the Temple wall and of the Temple itself. We are told that “there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any instrument of iron heard in the house while it was building,” but that the stone “was made ready at the quarry” (1 Kings vi: 9); and the vast quantities of chips and fragments of stone found in the Cotton Grotto show that the stones taken thence were dressed before being removed. It is pitiful to think of the toil and wretchedness of the workmen — probably slaves — who lived and died in darkness that Solomon in all his glory might rear his temple to Jehovah. CHAPTER XVIII. MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. Divisions of the City — David Street — Street of the Damascus Gate — Street of the Gate of David — The Jewish Quarter — Jewish Inhabitants — Their Habits, Superstitions and Religious Customs — The Wailing Place — Songs of Lamentation — The Ashkenazim and the Sephardim — The Arme¬ nian Quarter— Armenian Street — Armenian Monastery — Nunnery— Church of St. James — English Bishop’s Palace— Christ Church — English Hospital — Mohammedan Quarter — Wilson’s Arch — Robinson’s Arch — The Bazars — Via Dolorosa — Church of St. Anna — First Station — Second Sta¬ tion — Third Station — Ecce Homo Arch— Valley Street — House of the Poor Man Lazarus — Fourth Station — House of the Rich Man — Fifth Station — Sixth Station — St. Veronica — Gate of Judgment — Seventh Station — Eighth Station — Ninth Station — Christian Quarter— Latin Patri¬ archate — Christian Street— Pool of Hezekiah — Coptic Khan — Greek Patriarchate — The Muristan — Church of the Holy Sepulcher — Not the True Place of the Sepulcher— Sketch of its History — Detailed Description — Ceremonies at Easter — The Holy Fire— Haram esh-Sherif, the Noble Sanctuary — Dome of the Rock — Legends of the Rock — Description of the Mosque of Omar — Dome of the Chain— Pulpit on the Platform — Throne of Solomon and its Legend — Mosque el Aksa — The Huldah Gate — Conclusion. ITHIN the walls, modern Jerusalem is divided into five parts. The most prominent, of course is the Haram esh-Sherif , the Noble Sanctuary, which includes the whole of Mount Moriah, and corresponds more or less exactly with the Temple Area of the time of Christ. Its lofty platform is supported wholly on the east and mostly on the south by the city wall, and on the north and west by walls of equal strength. The rest of the city is divided into quarters occu¬ pied respectively by Mohammedans, Jews, Armenians and other Christians. From the Jaffa Gate David Street runs eastward through the city to the principal entrance of the Haram, which is called Bab es-Silsileh , the Gate of the Chain. Another street called the Street of the Damascus Gate , runs from the Damascus Gate due south to David Street; and almost from their point of intersection a third street, called the Street of the Gate of David, runs south to Zion Gate. Thus the inhabited part of Jerusalem is 598 * MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 601 divided into four unequal Quarters; on the southwest is the Armenian Quarter; on the southeast is the Jewish Quarter; on the northwest is the Christian (or Frankish ) Quarter; the rest, on the north, the west and the northwest of the Haram is the Mohammedan Quarter. The Jewish Quarter is the filthiest and most wretched part of a very filthy city, and, although some of its occupants are rich, the Jews of Jerusalem are for the most part extremely poor. Nearly all are for¬ eigners in the land of their forefathers, and have come to Jerusalem to die and be buried in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The motive which has brought many of them is that of deep religious feeling; in many others it is a superstitious belief that unless they are buried in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which they believe to be the place of final judgment, they will have to journey thither underground from any other place in which their bodies may be laid. In a few cases the motive is remorse for sin and a desire to expiate its guilt by lives of ascetic devotion in the Holy City. The aspect and demeanor of the Jews is dejected and sorrowful. Their religious duties are performed with pharisaical punctiliousness. Every rabbinical tradition is observed. Schools are kept open all the night for the study of the law. At all hours of the day men may be found in the synagogues absorbed in the mysteries of the Talmud. The daily evening services and sermons in the synagogues are largely attended. The Sab¬ bath is rigidly observed, and the yearly fasts and festivals are faithfully solemnized. On the last day of the Jewish year, which occurs in the month of September, they rise three hours before sunrise to engage in an office of penitence, in which every Israelite submits his back to a castiga¬ tion of forty stripes save one, and at every blow these two verses from the Book of Proverbs are recited, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of its correction; for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Prov. iii: ii, 12). I he Passover and other festivals are celebrated with expressions of the utmost delight. At the Feast of Tabernacles booths are erected out of doors and on the house-tops. At certain times the services in the synagogues are almost or quite tumultuous, the whole congregation leap¬ ing, dancing, singing, shouting and shrieking with a joy which seems to be hysterical, after which they stream forth and perambulate their poor 602 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. streets in procession bearing the Roll of the Law in their midst. Such occasions, however, are exceptional. The ordinary life of the Jews is austere to sadness. Only the younger people who have been born there are bright and cheerful. Their general appearance is that of men who mournfully realize that they are strangers in their own land, and dwelling in one filthy quarter of the once splendid city of their fore-fathers. Forbidden as they are to enter the precincts of the Haram, which was for¬ merly the glorious enclos¬ ure of the Temple, they purchased many years ago, and at a great price, the melancholy privilege of kissing the stones of the ancient Temple wall at a place not far from th 2 Dung Gate and now well known as the Jews’ Wailing Place. There, every Friday, and on other days as well, they can be seen, clothed in their quaint garb, bewailing the departed glory of Israel and the Holy City. They recite, with sorrowful ap¬ propriateness the Seventy-ninth Psalm: < PH X tn £ W “O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; Thy Holy Temple have they defiled; They have made Jerusalem an heap of stones!” Under their feet seventy feet of rabbish have been heaped above the street which once skirted the Temple wall; but they love to lean against the courses of masonry that are still above ground; and as they meditate, MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 603 they sit down, book in hand, and intone litanies of touching tenderness and poesy. One of them begins with these lines: “For the Palace that lies waste We sit in solitude and weep! For the Temple that is overthrown We sit in solitude and weep! For the walls that are cast down We sit in solitude and weep! For the mighty stones that are turned to dust We sit in solitude and weepl For our glory that is clean vanished away We sit in solitude and weep!” Here and elsewhere in the Holy Land the Jews are of two classes, the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. The Ashkenazim are mostly Poles and Germans, and are under the protection of their representative con¬ suls; the Sephardim are from Spain and Portugal, and speak a corrupt dialect of Spanish, but are Turkish subjects. These two classes of Jews have separate' places of worship, but their numerous synagogues are not remarkable. The extreme southeastern part of the Jewish Quarter, near the Dung Gate, is occupied by the Moors, and surpasses even the rest of the quarter in filth. In this district, and only about fifteen yards from the southwest corner of the Haram wall, is Robinsons Arch , so called from Dr. Robinson, its discoverer. It is part of an immense bridge,, fifty feet in width, which once spanned the Tyropeon Valley, and united the Temple platform with Mount Zion. It contains stones of 10 and 26 feet in length, but unfortunately only three courses are now distinguishable, and excava¬ tions made on the opposite side, anciently called Xystus , have not yet dis¬ covered the corresponding part of the bridge. As its name denotes, the Armenian Qiiarter is chiefly, though not exclusively, occupied by Christians of the Armenian Church. The garden belonging to the Armenian Monastery runs all along the west wall of the city from the barracks to the southwest angle, and thence east¬ ward to the Gate of Zion, but to this beautiful enclosure visitors are rarely admitted, and then with great reluctance. In going northward from Zion Gate to David Street along the narrow Armenian Street we first pass the 604 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. Armenian Hospice on the right, northeast of which, on the supposed site of the House of Annas, is an Armenian Nunnery. North of these is the great Armenian Monastery in which the Patriarch of that rite has his residence. The church is built on the spot where St. James the Great, to whom it is dedicated, is said to have been beheaded. Its walls are lined with porcelain tiles, and it contains some pictures of little merit. North of the Armenian buildings, east of the Tower of David, prob¬ ably on the site of Herod’s Palace and his famous garden, is the Palace of the English Bishop, and near by are Christ Church with its Clergy House. Adjacent to the Citadel is the English Hospital, These build¬ ings were erected at an enormous expense on account of the depth of rubbish to be removed before a solid foundation could be reached. Shafts had to be sunk; thirty-nine feet before the rock was found, and the cubical contents of the foundation of the church alone amounted to 70,000 feet of masonry. This and other similar facts go to prove that there was origin¬ ally in this part of Zion a deep ravine running down to the Valley of Gihon. In Jerusalem, and generally throughout the East, the Armenian com¬ munity is small but wealthy. The means of their people permitting them to travel, the number of pilgrims to the Holy City is large in comparison with the number of the adherents of their communion. The spacious monastery furnishes them with ample accommodations in “a fair place” on the Hill of Zion, the fairest place, indeed, of all Jerusalem. The Mohammedan Quarter is nearly as large as the other three together, but it is by no means exclusively occupied by Mohammedans. It contains several mosques, barracks for cavalry and for infantry, the public prison, and the official residence of the Pasha. In the Street of the Damascus Gate, which divides the Mohammedan from the Christian Quarter, are the principal bazaars. Its most notable antiquity is Wilson’s Arch, but to Christians by far the most interesting object in this Quarter is the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Sorrows, along part of which it is as cer¬ tain as it well can be that our Saviour passed on His way from the judg¬ ment seat of Pilate to the place of His crucifixion. After indicating the locality of most of the places just mentioned we may dwell a little more at length on the bazaars and the Via Dolorosa. MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 605 At the eastern end of David Street, directly under the Gate of the Haram, called the Gate of the Chain, is Wilson’s Arch, which once afforded a passage across the Tyropeon between the Temple and Mount Zion. This bridge, though now buried under fifty-five feet of rubbish, is absolutely JEWISH SYNAGOGUE IN JERUSALEM. perfect. Its masonry is of the same character as that of the foundation wall of the Haram, and is undoubtedly of the age of Herod. Like Robin¬ son’s Arch, it springs from the foot of the Haram wall, and as its stones are of the same character, it may be inferred that Robinson’s Arch was 6o6 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. either a copy or duplicate of this. Its span is forty-two feet, semi-circular and perfect, composed of twenty-five courses or tiers, twelve on each side of the key-stone. “It is by far the most impressive specimen of Roman architecture yet discovered in Jerusalem.” The descent to it is trouble¬ some, and the space within the arch can be satisfactorily illuminated only with calcium or magnesium lights. Somewhat to the northwest of the Gate of the Chain is the Hammam esh-Shifa , already mentioned (p. 338) as the conjectured Pool of Beth- esda. Due north of the same bridge are the cavalry barracks, west of which is the Pasha's residence; and adjacent to the west wall of the Haram at its northern end is the prison. The bazaars of Jerusalem are situated in the Street of the Damascus Gate and extend from David Street northward. They are simply three arched lanes lighted only from the top. The western lane is occupied by butchers’ stalls, the proprietors of which noisily proclaim the merits and cheapness of their meats to every possible purchaser. The variety, how¬ ever, is not great, the animals slaughtered being almost entirely sheep and goats. Beef is very rarely seen. In the other lanes every sort of mer¬ chandise may be found, but in no great abundance or variety. Jerusalem is not a point of distribution of merchandise to other places, and its trade is altogether local. The shops are tumble-down concerns, mere holes in the arched side of the lanes, somewhat resembling rough cupboards raised a couple of feet from the ground. Within they are rough, unplastered, and innocent of paint. A few shelves, hooks and nails suffice to stow away the stock, and at night the shop is closed with two half-doors fitting loosely together, and fastened with an immense lock so clumsily made that it might be picked with a stout knitting-needle. In these dens the merchants sit cross-legged at their ease with their wares in front of them: fruiterers, oil, grain and leather merchants, shoemakers, cobblers, tailors, embroider¬ ers, saddlers, cotton-cleaners, tin-smiths, pipe-borers and professional let¬ ter-writers. Silks from Damascus and Aleppo, prints and calico from Manchester, colored muslin veils from Switzerland and Constantinople, and beads from Hebron allure the women; cutlery, hardware, arms, sad¬ dlery, pipes and fragrant tobacco attract the men; and the ubiquitous grocer, with raisins, dates and other dried fruits, rice from Egypt and the MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 609 Jordan, flour from Galilee, olives, Pistachio nuts, walnuts, honey, salt, pep¬ per and spices, is ready to supply the inward wants of all sorts and condi¬ tions of men. At certain times of the day these narrow lanes are thronged by a motley multitude from every part of the world. The noise of the shopmen crying their wares, and the cheapening and chaffering of customers is almost deafening; the air is fetid; and under foot the ground is slippery with filth. To go shopping in Jerusalem is not the endless delight that ladies find it in more western lands. To an intelligent Christian the Via Dolorosa is one of the most deeply interesting and affecting of all the sacred places of the Holy City. Though not a stone now standing on either side of it may have been there when Jesus walked upon this earth, and though every foot of it is cov¬ ered deep with rubbish, so that modern Jerusalem is almost literally the grave of the ancient city, yet it is certain that somewhere along the line of the Via Dolorosa He must often have passed; and wherever may have been the place of His crucifixion (unless, indeed, as Ferguson conjectures, it was on the very site of the Mosque of Omar), it was over some part of the Via Dolorosa that He went forth from the court of Pilate bearing the cross on which He was to die. On the other hand, so many superstititious myths have been connected with all parts of this street that its solemn sacredness is marred by the vulgarity of idle and senseless superstitions, and in passing through it, pity and disgust con¬ tend with veneration. Entering the city by St. Stephen’s Gate we are at once in the Via Dolorosa; on the right is the Church of St. Anna, dedicated to the mother of the Blessed Virgin, which was presented in 1856 by the Sultan Abdul Medjid to Napoleon III; on the left is the Pool of Bethesda. Going westward with the Pool of Bethesda on our left, we come to the 1 urkish infantry barracks at the west end of the north wall of the Plaram, stand¬ ing probably on the former site of the Tower of Antonia and the Praetorium of Pilate. A chapel within the barracks is supposed to mark 6io MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. the First Station of the Way of the Cross, whence Jesus set out to “the place called Golgotha.” The Second Station , where the cross was laid upon Him, is located at the foot of the steps leading into the barracks. Immediately beyond the barracks, but on the right, is the convent of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Zion, in which 1 20 young girls are educated. Here, adjoining a church which is built partly into the rock, an arch, called the Ecce Homo Arch , crosses the street, and is supposed to mark the spot where Pilate uttered the words, “Behold the Man!” (John xix:5). This is the Third Station. The Ecce Homo Arch is undoubtedly modern. In 1856 Dr. Robinson was assured by residents of the city that it had been erected within their own time. Yet it probably stands on the foundations of a former arch of the time of Hadrian, which may have had more than one intervening successor. Not a stone of the arch was there when Pilate said, “Behold the Man!” and yet the Roman governor’s weak attempt to commend Jesus to the pity of His persecutors, by exhibiting Him before them in the depth of His humiliation, must have been made not very far V from this spot. From the Ecce Homo Arch the Via Dolorosa descends a short dis¬ tance to the Street of the Valley , which runs in a generally southeasterly direction from the Damascus Gate to the Dung Gate; and for a little way the Via Dolorosa coincides with Valley Street. Turning therefore sharply to the southeast we presently have on our right the traditional House of the Poor Man Lazarus, and just beyond it the Fourth Station , where our Saviour is said to have met His mother. A few steps beyond the Fourth Station the Via Dolorosa once more turns westward, and at the left hand corner we then have the House of the Rich Man Dives. Here is the Fifth Station , where Simon of Cyrene took up the cross under which Jesus had fainted. A stone built into the house next to that of Dives has a depression said to have been made by the hand of Jesus! From the Valley Street westward the Via Dolorosa begins to ascend, and about one hundred steps from the Fifth Station we come to the Sixth , where St. Veronica is said to have wiped the sweat from the brow of our Saviour, as He passed, and to have received as her reward the inestimable boon of a portrait of His countenance imprinted on her handkerchief. MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 611 Still ascending to the street of the Damascus Gate, we find at its nearest corner on our right, the Porta Judiciaria, which is the Seventh Sta¬ tion, near which Jesus fell a second time. Diagonally opposite, and therefore on the left, and in the Christian Quarter, is the Hospice of St. John, and thirty paces beyond its entrance, at a hole in the stone of the Greek monastery of St. Cara- lombos, is the Eighth Station , where Jesus addressed the weeping women of Jerusalem, bidding them to weep, not for Him, but for themselves and their children. The Ninth Station is not far off, in front of the Coptic Monastery; and there our Sa¬ viour is said to have sunk again under the weight of the cross, which Simon of Cyrene was bearing ! The last five stations are within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Tenth is where He was stripped for crucifixion; the Eleventh, where the nails were driven into His hands and feet; the Twelfth, where the cross was raised; the Thirteenth , where He was taken down from the cross; the Fourteenth is the Holy Sepulchre itself. We may dismiss these stations and the traditions connected with them without further remark. The Via Dolorosa is not a street in the European or American sense of that word. To use the words of Bartlett, the author and artist, “The pavement is rugged as a mountain road, and prison¬ like walls on either side are only pierced here and there by a small door¬ way or grated window or jalousie. At twilight the overhanging archways are involved in utter darkness; and unless provided with a lantern, it is 50 O td 2 in O 2_ in > 50 O r o o 2 2 O in O G H EC 612 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. difficult to grope one’s way without treading on a sleeping dog or coming into violent collision with some invisible passenger.” Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the puerility of the traditions connected with it, we can¬ not but feel with Mr Bartlett that the Via Dolorosa is “the most gloomily impressive street within the precincts of this melancholy city.” More than one long chapter might easily be devoted to churches and monasteries, Greek, Latin, Abyssinian and Coptic, in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem. We must be content to mention only the chief points of interest. Entering the city at the Jaffa Gate and going westward along David Street, we pass two streets on the left, then a short lane or wynd, then Christian Street, and at last come to the Street of the Damascus Gate, which is the eastern boundary of the Quarter. The first of these streets runs northwest to the Latin Patriarchate, which is situated near the wall, between the Tower of Goliath and the Jaffa Gate. The second leads to the Casa Nova of the Franciscans. Christian Street has the best shops in Jerusalem. At its northern end, less than 300 yards from David Street, it is crossed by a continuation of the Via Dolorosa. Walking through it from David Street, we have success¬ ively on our left the Pool of Hezekiah, the Coptic Khan, the great monas¬ tery of the Greeks, and the residence of their Patriarch, and on the right the Muristan and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Muristan is an open space, full of ruins, measuring 170 yards east and west by 150 yards north and south, once covered by the famous Hospital of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The beginning of that famous order was the charity of a few humble monks attached to a church built, A.D., 1048, by Italian merchants in honor of St. John, Patriarch of Alexandria. These poor monks, from their devoted care of sick pilgrims, were soon recognized as a separate order, and were called the Johnites or Brothers of the Hospital. Later on they were constituted an Order of Clerical Monks, some of whom were detailed for military ser¬ vice, others for spiritual functions, and others as serving brothers to escort pilgrims, to provide for their entertainment and to nurse them when sick. Their great Hospice was founded in 1120; its arched halls were supported by one hundred and twenty-four noble columns; and many MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 615 thousands of sick, wounded and helpless sufferers were tenderly cared for within its walls. The fame of the Knights of St. John, and the renown of their exploits in Palestine, Cyprus, Rhodes and Malta, soon rang through the world; but perhaps, if all were known, the martial deeds of the mili¬ tary monks were not more glorious than the humbler ministrations of the serving brothers in the Hospice of St. John. When the Christian king¬ dom of Jerusalem was overthrown, the noble buildings fell into decay. Nothing but ruins is left of them. Less than twenty years ago even the VIEW FROM A HOUSE-TOP IN THE MOHAMMEDAN QUARTER. ruins were concealed by heaps of indescribable filth. In 1869 the Sultan made a present of the Muristan to the Prussian government. It is said that he had previously made a present of it to the French government! Neither of them, however, seemed to care much for the gift until after the battle of Sedan, when the French Consul at Jerusalem thought it might be well to raise the French flag over the property. Accordingly, he repaired to the spot for that purpose, and found, to his chagrin and dismay, that the Prussian flag had just been raised over it by the Crown Prince Frederick, afterward Emperor. 1 he Prussians had the Muristan thoroughly cleansed 6i6 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. of the filth with which it was covered, leaving the ruins to tell their own tale of departed grandeur. Where the former building stood may now be seen fragments of columns eloquent in their decay, patches of flowering beans, straggling branches of prickly pear, and here and there a few scat¬ tered fig-trees. The entrance is through a gateway, surmounted with the Prussian eagle, over the arch of which there once were carvings of the sea¬ sons, now defaced, representing groups of sowers, reapers, pruners, threshers and other agricultural laborers. On the east side of the Muristan, a name which signifies Hospital and keeps alive the fragrant memory of its early history, is a Prussian church, school, hospital and parsonage. At the south¬ west corner is the Greek monastery of St. John the Baptist. On the west side is the Bath of the Patriarch (p. 337). On the north is a mosque named in honor of Omar and the Greek monastery of Gethsemane. North of the Muristan is the most interesting building in the Christ¬ ian Quarter, to hundreds of millions of Christians the most sacred build¬ ing in the world — the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Properly told, its his¬ tory would be the history of Christianity from the fourth century to the present time. It has witnessed those vast changes which have altered the face of Europe and Asia, from the time when Roman legions could be sent from Britain to Parthia until now, when an old man in the Vatican is the only visible link connecting ancient Rome with modern Italy. Around it have been marshaled armies from the east and from the west. Emperors of Rome and Byzantium, Caliphs of Bagdad and Damascus, Sultans of Egypt, Crusader Kings, Saracen heroes and Turkish marauders have in turn ravaged and adorned it. Christian sects, Greek, Syrian, Roman and Armenian, have intrigued and fought for the possession of it. Standing as a witness to the great facts of a universal faith, it has been desecrated by the blood of Christians shed by Christian hands; and to this very day the supposed scene of Christ’s resurrection is yearly profaned by a pre¬ tended miracle. We have here to do with hardly any of these high topics of history. For the present purpose a brief sketch of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre must suffice. Perhaps we ought rather to say the Churches of the Holy Sepulchre, for at least four have successively stood on sub¬ stantially the same spot, and the present edifice is really a double build- THE MURISTAN. MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 619 ing including within one area the Sanctuary of the Holy Sepulchre, a Crusading church over the supposed scene of the Crucifixion, and two other minor chapels. We have already seen that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre cannot possibly be on the true spot of the entombment of Christ unless, in the “AND HE, BEARING HIS CROSS, WENT FORTH.” (JOHN XIX: 17.) time of Christ, that spot was outside the north wall of Jerusalem. The walls of the city were wholly demolished by Titus, and the line of the north wall cannot now be certainly ascertained. Some topographers posi¬ tively maintain that it corresponded in certain parts, especially in the neighborhood of the Damascus Gate and Herod’s Gate, with the present north wall. Others as positively maintain that its course must have been on the north of the Hill of Zion at the line of the west branch of the Tyropeon Valley (p. 289), which would leave the site of the Church of the 620 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. Holy Sepulcher without the wall. Perhaps the strongest evidence in favor of the latter theory is the fact that on the north of the church the rubbish is of much less depth than on the south, which would naturally be the case if the second wall ran south of the spot. However that may be, there is no evidence whatever that this place was connected with the Sepulchre of Christ by any early Christian tradition; and the story of the ‘'Invention" or discovery of the True Cross (p. 310) implies that its dis¬ covery there was unexpected as well as miraculous. The first Church of the Sepulcher was called the Anastasis , or Church of the Resurrection, and was erected in 336. It was an octagonal rotunda in which were twelve statues of the Apostles surrounding the Sepulchre, and at the east was a lofty colonnade. At the same time and to the east of the Anastasis was erected the Basilica of the Cross over the supposed site of Golgotha, with open courts on the north and south and with a fore-court and propyl- aeon or pillared porch covering the entrance to three grand portals on the east. The view of these buildings from the Mount of Olives must have been magnificent. The Anastasis and Basilica of Constantine were destroyed by the Persians in 614, and between 616 and 626 they were replaced by Mo- destus, Abbot of the Monastery of Theodosius, with three buildings — the Anastasis, or Church of the Resurrection; the Martyrion, or Church of the Cross; and the Church of Calvary. In the following fifty years a fourth Church of St. Mary was added on the south; but these buildings were much inferior to the previous buildings of Constantine. In 936 and again in 969 they were partly destroyed by fire, and in 1010 they were desecrated and almost destroyed by the Moslems. In 1055 a substantially new church was erected and in 1099 the dome of the Sepulcher was solemnly entered by the Crusaders walking barefoot and chanting appropriate psalms and litanies. This edifice, however, was not sufficently magnificent for the Crusad¬ ers, and early in the twelfth century one large church was built, including the Sepulcher and all the other chapels under one roof. In outline it was substantially the same as the present building, but it has passed through so many vicissitudes, and has had so many additions and alterations, that it cannot be recognized as belonging architecturally to that age. In 1187 THE HOLY SEPULCHRE !' MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 623 it was damaged by the Arabs, and in 1244 the Sepulchre was destroyed by the Kharezmians; but before 1310 it had been magnificently restored, and not much later two domes were added to that of the Sepulchre. Ia the following centuries the dome of the Sepulchre became dangerously insecure, and in 1719 it was restored and the greater part of the church was rebuilt, but not without violent opposition from the Moslems. In 1808 occurred a great disaster. The whole building was almost entirely burned down; the dome fell in and crushed the Chapel of the Sepulchre; HOUSE OF DIVES, VIA DOLOROSA. the columns of the rotunda cracked; the lead on the roof melted and ran into the interior; hardly anything was saved except the eastern part of the building. Among other losses, the sarcophagi of the Crusading Kings of Jerusalem, including that of Godfrey de Bouillon which had been depos¬ ited under the spot where the Cross is said to have stood, disappeared. The Greeks now secured the chief right to the edifice, and, with the aid of the Armenians, they reared the present structure. It was designed by a certain Komnenus Kalfa of Constantinople, who religiously preserved as much as possible of the previous edifice. V 624 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. After this brief sketch of the history of the Church of the Sepulchre we may now examine its details, remembering always that it includes four once separate parts, the Dome over the Chapel of the Sepulchre, the Cru¬ sader’s Church of the Cross, the Chapel of Helena (where the Cross was found) and the Calvary. The entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is from the south, through a quadrangle or fore-court which is several steps below the street and not quite level. To the right and left of the court are chapels of no great importance. The first door on the right opens into a long passage which goes round the chambers and offices used by Greek pilgrims, and at its end a flight of eighteen steps leads to a small chapel (i) in the center of which a round hollow marks the spot on which Abra¬ ham laid Isaac for sacrifice. The second door on the right of the court leads to the Armenian Chapel of St. James (2), and the third into the Coptic Chapel of the Arch- an dark and uninteresting. On the left (or west) side of the gate of judgment, via dolorosa. court are three chapels. The first of these, dedicated to St. James, the Brother of our Lord (4), is handsomely fitted up. The second (5) is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and is said to be on the spot where our Saviour, according to tradition, appeared to Mary for the third time. The third (6) is in the lowest story of the Tower, and is called the Chapel of the Forty Martyrs. The tower, which originally adjoined the church, is now incorpor¬ ated, on different levels, with the old Chapel of St. John and the rotunda of the Sepulchre. In its four sides are large Gothic window-arches, and above them were formerly two rows of small Gothic windows of which only one has been preserved. Though the upper part of the tower has been destroyed, the remainder is extremely interesting, since it is the only part gel Michael (3), both of which are * itJMIlfl $§§||I ', , M W?!ln 4 ■ -*?.* ipXfl mifmm nmLi T 1 ENTRANCE TO THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE (In the center is the Stone of Unction.) ■ a <1 ' - ■ ,P - ■m ' V1 . - i " 3 . s MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 627 of the structure which undoubtedly dates from the Crusaders. It was built between 1160 and 1180. The south facade of the church on the right of the tower is not im¬ posing. It has two portals, one of them built up with Gothic arches so depressed as to be almost in the form of a horseshoe, over each of them. In the space between the doors and the arches are sculptures in foxs-relief. THE BURIAL OF JESUS. (JOHN XIX: 41, 42.) Entering by the portal on the left, we pass through the place of the Turkish guard (7), where the soldiers may usually be found regaling themselves with pipes and coffee. Here, down to the present cen¬ tury, every pilgrim was compelled to pay a heavy tax to the Turkish gov¬ ernment. Passing the guard, we reach (8) the Stone of Unction, on which the body of Jesus was laid by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathsea, when “they 628 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. wound it in linen clothes,” “after the manner of the Jews,” with “a mixture of myrrh and and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight.” Before the Crusades the Church of St. Mary, which was somewhat to the south of this spot, was supposed to cover the place of the Anointment; but when all the Holy places connected with the Sepulchre were enclosed within one building, the tradition was accommodated to architectural necessities The “WHY SEEK YE THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?” (LUKE XXIV: 5.) Stone has often been changed, and in different ages has been in custody of different religious communities. It is still regarded with the utmost vene¬ ration, and in the Middle Ages it was customary for pilgrims to measure it, with a view to have their shrouds made of the same length. The present stone, which was placed here in 1808, is a reddish-yellow marble slab, over which Greeks, Latins, Armenians and Copts are entitled to burn their lamps. Beside it are candelabra of immense size. MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 629 About sixteen paces to the left of the Stone of Unction (9) is a small inclosure round a stone marking the spot where the women stood and wit¬ nessed the anointment of the body of Jesus. Advancing a few paces northward we enter the rotunda of the Sepul¬ chre (10) in the center of which and under the apex of the dome is the PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. The dome, which is open at the top, is sixty-five feet in diameter, and is supported by eighteen piers. At the low door on the east of the chapel, the oriental Christians usu¬ ally remove their shoes before entering the vestibule (11) which is called the Angel s Chapel. Its walls are very thick, and are encrusted within and without with marble. In the center is a stone, set in marble, which is >630 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS, said to be the very stone which the angel rolled away from the Sepulchre, and on which he afterward sat. A fragment of the same stone is said to be built into the altar on the place of the Crucifixion. In this chapel fifteen lamps are kept burning, five of which belong to the Greeks, five to the Latins, four to the Armenians and one to the Copts. Through a still lower door we enter the Grotto or Chapel of the Sepul¬ chre, properly so called (12), which is only ‘six and a half feet long, six feet wide and very low. The roof is borne by marble columns, and from the ceiling are suspended forty-three precious lamps, of which four belong to the Copts, and the rest are equally apportioned among the other three sects. In the center of the north wall is a relief in white marble repre¬ senting the Saviour rising from the Tomb, and on the same side, to the right of the entrance, is the marble tomb-stone, five feet long, two feet wide, and about three feet high, on which mass is celebrated daily. Im¬ mediately to the west of the Grotto of the Sepulcher (13) is a small chapel which has belonged to the Copts since the sixteenth century. In the gloomy recesses around the rotunda only two places are of inter¬ est, the plain Chapel of the Syrians or Jacobites (14) in the niche at the extreme west, adjacent to which are the tombs of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathsea (15). Leaving the rotunda on the north we come to the place (16) where Jesus appeared in the garden to Mary Magdalene. The spot on which Jesus stood is indicated by a marble ring (J); the place of Mary is marked by another ring (M). This sacred spot belongs to the Latins, whose altar is on the east (A), and opens into the Chapel of the Apparition (17), where tradition has it that our Saviour appeared to His mother. Immediately to the right of the entrance to this chapel is an altar (A) within which a frag¬ ment of the Column of the Scourging is said to be preserved. As we leave the chapel we have on our left the Latin sacristy (18), in which the sword, the spurs and the cross of Godfrey de Bouillon are shown. They are still used in the ceremony of admitting knights into the Order of the Sepulcher, which has existed from the time of the Crusades; but they are of doubtful genuineness. The spurs are eight inches long; the sword is two feet eight inches long, and has a simple hilt, five inches long, in the form of a cross. We now leave the rotunda of the Sepulchre and enter the old Church of UNDER THE DOME. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE . .. m V1*' i ■ 1 ■ t v ■ M _ - Ijs . ■ MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 633 the Crusaders, passing under the lofty Arch of the Emperors (19) directly east of the entrance to the Sepulchre, where we find a Greek chapel, called the Catholicon (20) thirty-nine yards in length and lavishly orna¬ mented. At the southeast corner of the choir (21) is the Seat of the Patri¬ arch of Jerusalem, and at the northeast corner (22) seats for other CHAPEL OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. Patriarchs; and in front of this entrance (23) is a fragment of a column which is supposed to mark the center of the world! As is usual in Greek churches, the High Altar (A) is separated from the choir by the Holy Veil (24). Behind it (25) is the throne of the Patriarch. Passing into the north aisle (26) we find at the northeast angle (27) 634 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. a dark chapel containing an altar, under which are said to be foot-prints of Christ. These are questionably shown through two round holes in the altar. Behind this chapel is another (28) called the Prison of Christ, where the Saviour was kept bound while the cross was preparing. In the apse of the church, behind the Bema or Sanctuary of the Catholicon, we find three recesses. The first (29) is called the Chapel of Longinus, the soldier who pierced the Lord’s side. According to an early tradition, some of the blood and water spurted into one of his eyes which was blind, and restored his sight, whereupon he instantly became a Chris¬ tian. The Latins do not re¬ ceive this tradition, and their processions do not stop before the Chapel of Longinus. In the center of the apse is (30) the Armenian Chapel of the Parting of Christ’s Raiment, and beyond it, in the niche corresponding with that of the Chapel of Longinus (31) is the Chapel of the Derision or the Crowning with Thorns. Here we are shown the Col¬ umn of the Derision, to which Christ was bound during the mockery of the Roman soldiers. Between the two chapels last named a stairway of twenty-five steps descends to the Chapel of Helena (32). An altar on the northeast (33) is dedicated to the penitent thief ; the altar in the middle (34)10 the Empress Helena. On the right (35) a chair is shown in which the Empress sat during the search for the Cross. A flight of thirteen more steps leads into the Chapel of the Invention (discovery) of the Cross (36). It is entirely modern. Mass was said in it tor the first time in 1857. OF THE HARAM Z n f o U) C w M WSP Mill mt0l fgm ■u s •. liiiiill# , > ^.* ■ 1 -, _ lli&i a ->?’■. i i— glgBH ■rnmm " . T w^w&Si&m |U|Hi allEMlfl Jf'. • " •Ml '• ■" .\f.SV I 1 . . . * - 4 * * 'V a - . ' ' _ . ,4 . -- , , 9M U I ' ‘ -c* ■ ‘ :’;J . . . : 1 , J ' - . ' ' „ m. r « i 9 - j •/ $ i - ^ a . *v - ■ : -. * ' B _ MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 637 We have now only to visit Golgotha. To reach it we mount the stairs, turn to the left and walk round the apse of the church southward until we reach a passage on the left which leads to Golgotha, fifteen feet above the Church of the Sepulchre. There we find a chapel (37) called the Chapel of the Raising of the Cross, belonging to the Greeks. It is forty-two feet long and fifteen feet wide, and in the apse is shown the hole of the Cross (38), an opening faced with silver, in which the cross is said to PULPIT IN THE HARAM ESH-SHERIF. have been inserted. On either side, five feet distant from the Cross of the Redeemer, are the places where the two thieves were crucified. That on the north is the place of the penitent. Less than five feet from the cross of Jesus is the cleft in the Rock mentioned in Matt, xxvii: 51. It is covered with brass grating, above which is a slide of the same metal. This chapel is sumptuously ornamented with paintings and mosaics. In an adjoining chapel (39) is the supposed place of the nailing of the cross, and separated from this chapel only by two pillars is another much smaller and simpler chapel, belonging to the Latins, which is called the 638 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. Chapel of Mary or the Chapel of the Agony (40). It is only thirteen feet long and nine and a half wide, but is richly decorated. The altar-piece represents Christ on the knees of His mother. We again descend the stairway to a chapel immediately under the Chapel of the Raising of the Cross. This is called the Chapel of Adam. Here, according to tradition, Adam was buried, and here his body rested until the Crucifixion, when the blood of Jesus, trickling down the miraculous cleft in the rock, touched his head and restored him to life. A cleft in the rock, corresponding to that in the chapel above, attests to the truth of the legend. It is said that from this tradition comes the usual painting of a skull at the foot of the cross. However much we may dislike the superstitious traditions attached to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and however thoroughly we may be per¬ suaded that it does not cover the place of our Lord’s death, burial and resurrection, it is hardly possible for a Christian to visit it without becom¬ ing so saturated with the thoughts which it suggests as to be moved to involuntary veneration. The most resolute Protestants have felt the influ¬ ence and confessed the spell it has thrown over them, and it is remarkable that many persons who have maturely pronounced against the genuine¬ ness of the site of the sepulchre have gradually changed their opinion after a long residence in Jerusalem. In such cases it is surely not the wish nor the judgment, but the mysterious influence of association which is father to their ultimate conviction. The ceremonies of the oriental and Latin Christians at the Church of the Sepulchre are endless alike in number and variety. Some of the least edifying have been gradually discussed. In former times the Latin Patri¬ arch used to represent on Palm Sunday the entry of Christ “riding on an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass.” Now the Latins send to Gaza for palms which are blessed on that day and distributed to the people. On Maunday Thursday the ceremony of “washing the feet” is performed by the Latins; and on the corresponding day of the Greek calendar the Greeks perform a similar rite. The most disgraceful performance, in which the Latins once participated, is now confined to the Greeks alone. It is the recep¬ tion of the Holy Fire which is supposed to be sent from heaven into the. MOSQUE OF OMAR. ?\ ' ■ ■ ■ . _ ‘ — . ■./m » ' , j - .. r^m I - * _ _ . . MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 641 Sepulchre on every Easter Eve. Dean Stanley’s description is so striking that with it we may close our account of this wonderful temple: “The time is the morning of Easter Eve, which by a strange anticipa¬ tion, here, as in Spain, eclipses Easter Sunday. The place is the great rotunda of the nave; the model of all the circular churches of Europe especially that of Aix-la-Chapelle. Above is the great domA with its rents and patches waiting to be repaired, and the sky seen through the opening in the center, which here, as in the Pantheon, admits the light and air of day. Immediately beneath are the galleries, in one of which on the north¬ ern side — that of the Latin convent — are assembled the Frank spectators. Below is the Chapel of the Sepulchre — a shapeless edifice of brown marble; on its shabby roof a meager cupola, taw¬ dry vases with tawdry flowers, and a forest of slender tapers; whilst a blue curtain is drawn across its top to inter¬ cept the rain admitted through the dome. It is divided into two chapels — that on the west containing the Sepul¬ chre, that on east containing ‘the Stone of the Angel.’ Of these, the eastern chapel is occupied by the Greeks and Armenians. On its north side is a round hole from which the Holy Fire is to issue for the Greeks. A cor¬ responding aperture is on the south side for the Armenians. At the west¬ ern extremity of the Sepulchre, but attached to it from the outside, is the little wooden chapel, the only part of the church allotted to the poor Copts; and further west, but parted from the Sepulchre itself, is the still poorer chapel of the still poorer Syrians, happy in their poverty however for this, that it has probably been TOMB OF ELIAS IN THE HARAM AREA. 642 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. the means of saving from marble and decoration the so-called tombs of Joseph and Nicodemus, which lie in their precincts, and on which rest the chief evidence of the genuineness of the whole site. “The Chapel of the Sepulchre rises from a dense mass of pilgrims, who sit or stand wedged around it; whilst round them, and between another equally dense mass which goes round the walls of the church itself, a lane is formed by two lines, or rather two circles, of Turkish soldiers stationed to keep order. For the spectacle which is about to take place nothing can be better suited than the form of the rotunda, giving galleries above for the spectators, and an open space below for the pilgrims and their festival. For the first two hours everything is tranquil. Nothing indicates what is coming, except that the two or three pilgrims who have got close to the aperture keep their hands fixed in it with a clench never relaxed. It is about noon that this circular lane is suddenly broken through by a tan¬ gled group rushing violently round till they are caught by one of the Turk¬ ish soldiers. It seems to be the belief ot the Arab Greeks that unless they run round the Sepulchre a certain number of times the fire will not come. Possibly, also, there is some strange reminiscence of the funeral games, and races round the tomb of an ancient chief. Accordingly, the night before, and from this time forward for two hours, a succession of gambols takes place, which an Englishman can only compare to a mixture of pris¬ oner’s base, football, and leap-frog, round and round the Holy Sepulchre. First, he sees these tangled masses of twenty, thirty, fifty men, starting in a run, catching hold of each other, lifting one of themselves on their shoul¬ ders, sometimes on their heads, and rushing on with him until he leaps off, and some one else succeeds; some of them dressed in sheep-skins, some almost naked; one usually preceding the rest as a fugleman, clapping his hands, to which they respond in like manner, adding also wild howls, of which the chief burden is ‘This is the tomb of Jesus Christ — God save the Sultan — Jesus Christ has redeemed us!’ What begins in the lesser groups soon grows in magnitude and extent, till at last the whole of the circle between the troops is continuously occupied by a race, a whirl, a torrent of these wild figures, like the Witches’ Sabbath in ‘Faust,’ wheel¬ ing round the Sepulchre. Gradually the frenzy subsides or is checked; the course is cleared, and out of the Greek church, on the east of the MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 643 rotunda, a long procession with embroidered banners, supplying in their ritual the want of images, begins to defile round the Sepulchre. “From this moment the excitement, which has before been confined to the runners and dancers, becomes universal. Hedged in by the soldiers, the two huge masses of pilgrims still remain in their places, all joining, however, in a wild succession of yells, through which are caught from time to time strangely, almost affectionately, mingled the chants of the proces- ENTRANCE TO THE CAVE UNDER THE DOME OF THE ROCK. sion — the solemn chants of the Church of Basil and Chrysostom, mingled with the yells of savages. Thrice the procession paces round; at the third time the two lines of Turkish soldiers join and fall in behind. One great movement sways the multitude from side to side. The crisis of the day is now approaching. The presence of the Turks is believed to prevent the descent of the fire, and at this point it is that they are driven, or consent to be driven, out of the church. In a moment the confusion, as of a bat- 644 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. tie and a victory, pervades the church. In every direction the raging mob bursts in upon the troops, who pour out of the church at the southeast cor¬ ner — the procession is broken through, the banners stagger and waver. They stagger and waver, and fall, amidst the flight of the priests, bishops, and standard-bearers hither and thither before the tremendous rush. In one small but compact band the Bishop of Petra (who is on this occasion the Bishop of ‘the Fire,’ the representative of the Patriarch) is hurried to the Chapel of the Sepulchre, and the door is closed behind him. The whole church is now one heaving sea of heads resounding with an uproar which can be compared to nothing less than that of the Guildhall of London at a nomination for the city. One vacant space alone is left; a narrow lane from the aperture on the north side of the chapel to the wall of the church. By the aperture itself stands a priest to catch the fire; on each side of the lane, so far as the eye can reach, hundreds of bare arms are stretched out like the branches of a leafless forest — like the branches of a forest quivering in some violent tempest. “In earlier and bolder times the expectation of the Divine presence was at this juncture raised to a still higher pitch by the appearance of a dove hovering above the cupola of the chapel — to indicate, so Maundrell was told, the visible descent of the Holy Ghost. This extraordinary act, whether of extravagant symbolism or of daring profaneness, has now been discontinued; but the belief still continues — and it is only from the knowl¬ edge of that belief that the full horror of the scene, the intense excitement of the next few moments, can be adequately conceived. Silent — awfully silent — in the midst of this frantic uproar, stands the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. If any one could at such a moment be convinced of its genuineness, or could expect a display of miraculous power, assuredly it would be that its very stones would cry out against the wild fanaticism without, and wretched fraud within, by which it is at that hour desecrated. At last the moment comes. A bright flame as of burning wood appears inside the hole — the light, as every educated Greek knows and acknowl¬ edges, kindled by the Bishop within — the light, as every pilgrim believes, of the descent of God Himself upon the Holy Tomb. Any distinct feature or incident is lost in the universal whirl of excitement which envelopes the church as slowly, gradually, the fire spreads from hand to INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE EL-AKS4 - X MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 647 hand, from taper to taper, through the vast multitude — till at last the whole edifice from gallery to gallery, and through the area below, is one wide blaze of thousands of burning candles. It is now that according to some accounts, the Bishop or Patriarch is carried out of the chapel, in triumph, on the shoulders of the people, in a fainting state, ‘to give the im¬ pression that he is overcome by the glory of the Almighty, from whose immediate presence he is believed to come/ It is now that a mounted horseman, stationed at the gates of the church, gallops off with a lighted taper to communicate the sacred fire to the lamps of the Greek church in the convent at Bethlehem. It is now that the great rush to escape from the rolling smoke and suffocating heat, and to carry the lighted tapers into the streets and houses of Jerusalem, through the one entrance to the church, leads at times to the violent pressure which in 1834 cost the lives of hundreds. For a short time the pilgrims run to and fro — rubbing their faces and breasts against the fire to attest its supposed harmlessness. But the wild enthusiasm terminates from the moment that the fire is com¬ municated; and perhaps not the least extraordinary part of the spectacle is the rapid and total subsidence of a frenzy so intense — the contrast of the furious agitation of the morning, with the profound repose of the even¬ ing, when the church is once again filled — through the area of the rotunda, the chapels of the Copt and Syrian, the subterranean church of Helena, the great nave of Constantine’s basilica, the stairs and platform of Calvary itself, with the many chambers above — every part, except the one chapel of the Latin church, filled and overlaid by one mass of pilgrims, wrapt in deep sleep and waiting for the midnight service. “Such is the Greek Easter — the greatest moral argument against the identity of the spot which it professes to honor — stripped, indeed, of some of its most revolting features, yet still, considering the place, the time, and the intention of the professed miracle, probably the most of¬ fensive imposture to be found in the world.” The Haram esh- Sheriff the Noble Sanctuary , is one of the most sacred of all Mohammedan holy places, ranking next to the Kaaba at Mecca. In the Koran Mohammed himself professes to have visited it, and on that account it was for ages protected from the profane footsteps of any man who was not a Moslem, Until the year 1854 all but Moslems 648 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. were rigidly excluded; and it was only at the peril of their lives that Catherwood and Arundale succeeded in 1833 in making the first accurate measurements of the Haram and its edifices. Since the Crimean war travellers have been readily admitted, except at the time of the great Mohammedan festivals. The Jews, however, have never sought that privilege, lest they might ignorantly commit the sin of treading on the site of “the Holy of Holies.” In a general way the Haram corresponds with the ancient Temple Area, but there is no certainty concerning the details. It is probable, however, that the Temple stood somewhere in the southwest angle, and not on the spot now occupied by the Kubbet es-Sakhra ,. or Dome of the Rock , which is the most conspicuous object of the Haram. In the opinion of some ingenious topographers the site of the latter building was not even included within the Temple Area, but was altogether without the ancient wall, and was in fact the place of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. According to the same theory, which is not without plausibility, the Dome of the Rock, and not the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, occu¬ pies the site of the Anastasis or Great Church of the Resurrection built by Constantine. Into the discussion of this theory, which has been bitterly opposed, we shall not here enter, but shall confine ourselves to a brief sur¬ vey of the Haram and its most prominent features. The Haram is entered on the north by three gates, and on the west by seven, of which the principal is the Bab es-Silseleh, already mentioned, at the eastern end of David Street. Passing that gate we find ourselves in an extensive but irregular quadrangle measuring on the east 512 yards, on the west 536, on the north 348, and on the south 309. It is almost level, the only exception being at the northwest corner, which is about ten feet higher than the other corners. The west side is partly flanked with houses under whi*ch are open arcades. The two most prominent objects of the Haram are the Dome of the Rock and the Mosqtie el-Aksa. The rock over which the dome is built is not mentioned in Holy Script¬ ure, and it cannot be the threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, since the Temple, which was built over that spot, was undoubtedly to the south of this rock. According to Jewish and Moslem tradition, however Melchize- dek, the King of Salem, offered sacrifice upon it; it was here that Abraham MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 649 was about to offer up his son Isaac, and the rock itself was anointed by Jacob. The Ark of the Covenant once stood here; here it was concealed by the Prophet Jeremiah; and here, beneath the Shemhamphorash, the INTERIOR OF THE DOME OF THE ROCK. ineffable name of God, which Jesus is said to have read, and by the use of which He had power to work miracles. Under the rock is a cavern to which we descend by eleven steps, and the hollow sound under foot indi¬ cates the existence of another cave beneath. In the cavern places are shown where Abraham and Elijah used to pray, and where Mohammed 650 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. left the mark of his head on the rocky ceiling. Mohammed declared that one prayer offered here was more potent than a thousand offered else¬ where, and from this place he took his flight to heaven on his miraculous steed, El-Burak. As his body rose heavenward, it pierced in the ceiling of the rock a round hole which is still to be seen and is probably nothing else than the opening of an ancient cistern formerly occupying the place of the present cavern. Ferguson, however, believes the cavern to have been the Sepulchre of Christ. Omitting further mention of the innumerable legends connected with the rock and the underlying cavern, we may now observe the edifice which stands above it on a platform ten feet higher than the rest of the Haram. The Kubbet es-Sakhra is a large and lofty octagon, each of the sides meas¬ uring 66 feet in length. The sides were once covered externally with marble, but the upper part is now encrusted with porcelain plates which were added by Soliman the Magnificent in 1561. On four of the sides are gates with porticoes, above each of which are six windows; in each of the other sides are six windows. The interior is 58 yards in diameter, and is divided into three concen¬ tric parts by two series of supports. The first series consists of eight piers and sixteen columns, making with the outer wall an octagonal aisle. A second and wider aisle, if it can properly be so called, is formed by a second row of supports, on which rests the dome over the rock. The pavement of the interior is of marble mosaic, covered, in places, with straw mats. The dome is 65 feet in diameter and nearly a hundred feet high. It is made of wood, and on the outside is covered with lead. The inside is covered with tablets of wood, painted blue, and richly adorned with painted and gilded stucco. The windows admit a solemn but insufficient light. The panes are not painted, but are composed of separate pieces of variously colored glass, set in plaster and fastened with clamps of iron. There is no doubt whatever that the Dome of the Rock was originally a Christian church, however much it may have been changed in detail in later centuries. It produced on the Crusaders a profound impression, and some of them believed it to be the veritable Temple of Solomon* The renowned order of knighthood founded here was called the Order of the Temple, and the Dome of the Rock was adopted as a part of the MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. 651 armorial bearings of the Knights Templar. The plan of the building was carried by the Templars to Europe and churches in Metz, Laon and London which still exist owe their peculiar form to the model of the Dome of the Rock. At Milan its polygonal outline is reproduced in the back¬ ground of Raphael’s famous Sposalizio in the Brera. The eastern door of the Kubbet es-Sakhra is called Bab es-SilsBeji , or D oor of the Chain , which it is not to be .confounded with the outer gate of the same name which opens from the city into the Haram. The Moslem tradition is that a chain was once stretched across this door by Solomon, or perhaps by God Himself, for the detection of false witnesses; and while a truthful witness could safely grasp it, the touch of a perjurer instantly caused one of its links to fall. In commemoration of this miraculous test a building, called Kubbet es-Silseleh, the Dome of the Chain , and also called Mekhmet Daud , or David s Place of Judgment, stands in front of the east¬ ern gate of the Dome. It is an elegant little pavilion, consisting of two concentric rows of columns, of which the outer forms a pentagon and the inner a hendicagon. In this center rises a hexagonal drum surrounded by a dome which is surmounted with a crescent. At the southeast corner of the raised platform of the dome is an ele¬ gant pulpit of marble, recently restored, where sermons are preached every Friday in the sacred month of Ramadin. It is a noble specimen of Ara¬ bian art. Below the flight of steps which rises to the platform on the west is an elegant fountain-structure dating from the fifteenth century. In the east wall of the Haram is the closed gate called the Golden Gate, already described (p. 300), and north of it is a modern mosque, called the Throne of Solomon , from a legend that he was found dead here. It is said that, in order to conceal his death from the demons who had been in subjection to him, Solomon supported himself on his seat with his staff and it was not until the worms had gnawed the staff, asunder and had let the body fall that the demons knew of their deliverance from Solomon’s authority. At the southwest of the Haram is the great Mosque el-Aksa, a very complicated pile of buildings of great interest to the architectural antiqua¬ rian, and having at its southeast corner the Mosque of Omar. It is entered by a porch of seven arcades opening into as many aisles of the main building. It was founded by the Emperor Justinian as a basilica in 652 MODERN JERUSALEM WITHIN THE WALLS. honor of the Blessed Virgin. It has been repeatedly altered, but the original features of the basilica can still be traced. It has many legends attached to it; but the only sacred historical spot it contains is the Double Gate (p.299) which is probably the Huldah Gate of the Talmud. Through it we may safely believe that our Saviour often entered the Great Porch (p. 300) on the south of the platform of Herod’s Temple. Here we leave the ever sacred precincts of the Holy Temple. After « our long journey through the Beautiful Land of the Beautiful Life, and after visiting the City of the Precious Death and Burial of Jesus Christ, as we quit these hallowed scenes, the last point on which our eyes rest is the crest of Olivet, not far from the last spot of earth on which the Saviour’s feet stood when about to make His glorious ascension. Watcntower n the Road to Wt Yafa M. Child) Suburb Neby E I K a I Girls' School of the Engl Mi Latir Crock Church of the Sepulchre Patriarchate Monastery Kaukab Minaret Buildings & Cardens of the Armenian Monastery :h of th« Damascus Cate n Minaret Consulate Latin Monastery of St. Salvador of St John & German School Cate of Herod ,s,on (Towe- o< Oovid Yafa Gate • Muristan ,Gr“'k chufCh> Synagogues of the Ashkenasn Jebel Abu Tor ( Hill of : Evil Counsel) Place where Peter Rosel Mi Bcthleher * 9 *9 if Kjii»r v**’1 of tho Rom. Cath Sisters of Zior Former Serai Barracks Castle of 1 'he Temple Precincts Cate of St. Stephen Rqad to Geihsemane (Bab Sltti Mariam) to the Gate of Zi from Photographic Views Daud n t M A from ¥ * v ,r wnMt rfc'&ti f?Y^f wj i^-J^W^k^ *T. TrA. rf3& <4-*4& fJVl2L^»fv ' ■<*P4ts?'!,i&a * -%}r ^ ■ ' Mfa-: w? # a*i& ■V. 1 j :. ',]\\ *J,‘ ’■■ '-:l ■' . /H‘l ^ •:• S ZG£ GAYLORD #3523PI Printed in USA fill DS107 .F97 The beautiful land, Palestine Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00066 4625 ■ilIBHmnM ill '•»-v tllllllll mr ‘■■■I mtfp Sm*