A Trip Abroad
by
Don Carlos Janes
Part 2 out of 3
around the city where the angel Gabriel announced to Mary the words:
"Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee" (Luke 1:28).
These hours, with what time I had already spent here, enabled me to see
several places of interest. Tradition points out many places connected
with the lives of Joseph and Mary, but tradition is not always reliable,
for it sometimes happens that the Greeks and the Romans each have a
different location for the same event. This is true with regard to the
point where the angry people were about to throw Jesus over "the brow of
the hill" (Luke 4:29). I saw no place that struck me as being the one
referred to in the Scriptures, and in reply to an inquiry, a lady at the
English Orphanage, who has spent twenty years in Nazareth, said she
thought it was some place on that side of the town, but the contour of
the hill had probably changed. She also mentioned that the relics taken
out in excavations were all found on that side, indicating that the old
city had been built there. When Brother McGarvey visited Palestine, he
found two places that corresponded somewhat with Luke's reference to the
place. Concerning one of them he wrote: "I am entirely satisfied that
here is where the awful attempt was made." I was shown the "place of
annunciation" in the Latin monastery. On the top of a column stands the
figure of a female, probably representing the Virgin, and a bit of ruin
that is said to date back to the time of Constantine is pointed out.
Here, I was told, stood the first church building erected in Nazareth.
One of the "brothers" took the key and went around to a building
supposed to stand on the site of Joseph's carpenter shop. It is a small
chapel, built about 1858 over the ruins of some older structure. In the
floor of marble or stone there are two wooden trapdoors, which are
raised to show the ruins below. Over the altar in the end opposite the
door is a picture to represent the holy family, and there are some other
pictures in different parts of the little chapel. From here I went to
the Virgin's Fountain. If it be true that this is the only spring in
Nazareth, then I have no doubt that I was near the spot frequently
visited by the Nazarene maid who became the mother of our Lord. I say
near the spot, for the masonry where the spring discharges is about a
hundred yards from the fountain, which is now beneath the floor of a
convent. The water flows out through the wall by two stone spouts, and
here the women were crowded around, filling their vessels or waiting for
their turn. The flow was not very strong, and this helps to explain why
so many women were there before daylight the morning I went to Tiberias.
I saw one woman, who was unable to get her vessel under the stream of
one of the spouts, drawing down a part of the water by sticking a leaf
against the end of the spout. I also visited some of the bazaars and
went to the Orphanage. This missionary institution is nicely situated in
a prominent place well up on the hill, and is managed entirely by women,
but a servant is kept to do outside work. They treated me very kindly,
showing me about the building, and when the girls came in to supper they
sang "the Nazareth Hymn" for me.
One of the occupations of the people here is manufacturing a knife with
goat horn handles that is commonly seen in Palestine. Many of the women
go about the streets with their dresses open like a man's shirt when
unbuttoned, exposing their breasts in an unbecoming manner. The same is
true of many women in Jerusalem. About one-third of the mixed population
are Jews; the other two-thirds are Mohammedans and professing
Christians, made up of Orthodox Greeks, United Greeks, Roman Catholics,
Maronites (a branch of the Greek Church), and Protestants. I went back
to Haifa and spent a night. The next morning I boarded the Austrian ship
_Juno_ for Jaffa. When I first landed here I had trouble with the
boatman, because he wanted me to pay him more than I had agreed to pay,
and on this occasion I again had the same difficulty, twice as much
being demanded at the ship as was agreed upon at the dock; but I was
firm and won my point both times. While in Galilee I had crossed the
province from sea to sea; I had visited the city in which Jesus spent
the greater part of his earth life, and the sea closely connected with
several important things in his career. I had ascended Carmel, and from
the top of Tabor I had taken an extensive view of the land, and now I
was satisfied to drop down the coast and enter Judaea.
CHAPTER V.
SIGHT-SEEING IN JERUSALEM.
Before leaving the ship at Jaffa I was talking with Mr. Ahmed, a
gentleman from India, who had spent some time in Egypt, and had traveled
extensively. He claimed to be a British subject, and was able to speak
several languages. While we were arranging to go ashore together, one
of the many boatmen who had come out to the ship picked up my suit-case
while my back was turned, and the next thing I saw of it he was taking
it down the stairs to one of the small boats. By some loud and emphatic
talk I succeeded in getting him to put it out of one boat into another,
but he would not bring it back. Mr. Ahmed and I went ashore with another
man, whom we paid for carrying us and our baggage. I found the suit-case
on the dock, and we were soon in the custom house, where my baggage and
passport were both examined, but Mr. Ahmed escaped having his baggage
opened by paying the boatman an additional fee. As we arrived in Jaffa
too late to take the train for Jerusalem that day, we waited over night
in the city from whence Jonah went to sea so long ago. We lodged at the
same hotel and were quartered in the same room. This was the first and
only traveling companion I had on the whole journey, and I was a little
shy. I felt like I wanted some pledge of honorable dealing from my newly
formed acquaintance, and when he expressed himself as being a British
subject, I mentioned that I was an American and extended my hand,
saying: "Let us treat each other right." He gave me his hand with the
words: "Species man, species man!" He meant that we both belonged to the
same class of beings, and should, therefore, treat each other right, a
very good reason indeed. A long time before, in this same land, Abraham
had expressed himself to Lot on a similar line in these words: "Let
there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my
herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we are brethren" (Gen. 13:8). On Saturday
we moved our baggage over to the depot and boarded the train for
Jerusalem. On the way to the depot an old gentleman, whom I would have
guessed to be a German, passed me. When I entered the car it was my lot
to ride by him. He learned that I had been to Bristol, England, and had
visited the orphan homes founded by George Muller, and he remarked: "You
are a Christian, then." He probably said this because he thought no
other would be interested in such work. It developed that he was a
converted Jew, and was conducting a mission for his people in the Holy
City. Without telling him my position religiously, I inquired concerning
different points, and found his faith and mine almost alike. This new
acquaintance was D.C. Joseph, whose association I also enjoyed after
reaching Jerusalem.
It was late in the afternoon of October ninth when we got off the train
at the Jerusalem station, which is so situated that the city can not
be seen from that point. By the time we had our baggage put away in a
native hotel outside the city walls it was dark. We then started out
to see if there was any mail awaiting me. First we went to the Turkish
office, which was reached by a flight of dark stairs. Mr. Ahmed went
up rather slowly. Perhaps he felt the need of caution more than I did.
According to my recollection, they handed us a candle, and allowed us to
inspect the contents of a small case for the mail. We found nothing, so
we made our way down the dark stairway to the German office, situated
on the ground floor, nicely furnished and properly lighted, but there
was no mail there for me, as mail from America goes to the Austrian
office, inside the Jaffa gate.
The next day was Lord's day, and for the time being I ceased to be
a tourist and gave myself up mainly to religious services. I first
attended the meeting conducted by Bro. Joseph at the mission to Israel.
It was the first service I had attended, and the first opportunity that
had come to me for breaking bread since I left London, the last of
August. After this assembly of four persons was dismissed, I went to the
services of the Church of England and observed their order of worship.
The minister was in a robe, and delivered a really good sermon of about
fifteen minutes' duration, preceded by reading prayers and singing
praise for about an hour. By invitation, I took dinner with Miss Dunn,
an American lady, at whose house Bro. Joseph was lodging. As she had
been in Jerusalem fifteen years and was interested in missionary work,
I enjoyed her company as well as her cooking. After dinner I went to a
little iron-covered meeting-house called the "tabernacle," where a Mr.
Thompson, missionary of the Christian Alliance, of Nyack, New York, was
the minister. At the close of the Sunday-school a gentleman asked some
questions in English, and the native evangelist, Melki, translated them
into Arabic. By request of Mr. Thompson, I read the opening lesson and
offered prayer, after which he delivered a good address on the great,
coming day, and at the close the Lord's Supper was observed. I
understood that they did this once a month, but it is attended to weekly
at the mission where I was in the morning. At the tabernacle I made the
acquaintance of Mr. Stanton, a Methodist minister from the States; Mr.
Jennings, a colored minister from Missouri, and Mr. Smith, an American
gentleman residing in Jerusalem. There was another meeting in the
tabernacle at night, but I staid at the hotel and finished some writing
to be sent off to the home land.
Monday was a big day for me. Mr. Ahmed and I went down inside the Jaffa
gate and waited for Mr. Smith, who was our guide, Mr. Jennings, and a
Mr. Michelson, from California. Mr. Smith had been a farmer in America,
but had spent three years at Jerusalem and Jericho. He was well
acquainted with the country, and we could depend upon what he told us.
Add to all this the fact that he went around with us without charge, and
it will be seen that we were well favored. On this Monday morning we
started out to take a walk to Bethany, the old home of that blessed
family composed of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We passed the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher, walked along the street called the Via Dolorosa, and
saw several of the "stations" Jesus is supposed to have passed on the
way to the execution on Calvary. We passed the traditional site of the
"house of the rich man," the "house of the poor man," and the Temple
Area. After passing the Church of St. Anne, we went out of the city
through St. Stephen's gate, and saw the Birket Sitti Mariam, or Pool
of Lady Mary, one hundred feet long, eighty-five feet wide, and once
twenty-seven and a half feet deep. It is supposed that Stephen was led
through the gate now bearing his name and stoned at a point not far
distant. Going down the hill a few rods, we came to the Church of St.
Mary, a building for the most part underground. It is entered by a
stairway nineteen feet wide at the top, and having forty-seven steps
leading to the floor thirty-five feet below. We went down, and in
the poorly lighted place we found some priests and others singing or
chanting, crossing themselves, kissing a rock, and so on. This church
probably gets its name from the tradition that the mother of Jesus was
buried here. Just outside the church is a cavern that is claimed by some
to be the place of Christ's agony, and by others, who may have given the
matter more thought, it is supposed to be an old cistern, or place for
storing olive oil or grain. Perhaps I would do well to mention here that
tradition has been in operation a long time, and the stories she has
woven are numerous indeed, but often no confidence can be placed in
them. I desire to speak of things of this kind in such a way as not to
mislead my readers. It was near this church that I saw lepers for the
first time. The valley of the Kidron is the low ground lying between
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. The water flows here only in the wet
part of the year. Crossing this valley and starting up the slope of the
Mount of Olives, we soon come to a plot of ground inclosed by a high
stone wall, with a low, narrow gateway on the upper side. This place is
of great interest, as it bears the name "Garden of Gethsemane," and is
probably the spot to which the lowly Jesus repaired and prayed earnestly
the night before his execution, when his soul was "exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death." It is really a garden, filled with flowers, and olive
trees whose trunks, gnarled and split, represent them as being very old,
but it is not to be supposed that they are the same trees beneath which
Jesus prayed just before Judas and "the band of soldiers and officers"
came out to arrest him. There is a fence inside the wall, leaving a
passageway around the garden between the wall and the fence. Where the
trees reach over the fence a woven-wire netting has been fixed up, to
keep the olives from dropping on the walk, where tourists could pick
them up for souvenirs. The fruit of these old trees is turned into olive
oil and sold, and the seeds are used in making rosaries. At intervals
on the wall there are pictures representing the fourteen stations Jesus
passed as he was being taken to the place of crucifixion. This garden
is the property of the Roman Catholics, and the Greeks have selected
another spot, which they regard as the true Gethsemane, just as each
church holds a different place at Nazareth to be the spot where the
angry Nazarenes intended to destroy the Savior.
Leaving the garden, we started on up the slope of Olivet, and passed the
fine Russian church, with its seven tapering domes, that shine like the
gold by which they are said to be covered. It appears to be one of the
finest buildings of Jerusalem. As we went on, we looked back and had a
good view of the Kidron valley and the Jews' burial place, along
the slope of the mountain, where uncounted thousands of Abraham's
descendants lie interred. Further up toward the summit is the Church of
the Lord's Prayer, a building erected by a French princess, whose body
is now buried within its walls. This place is peculiar on account of at
least two things. That portion of Scripture commonly called "the Lord's
prayer" is here inscribed on large marble slabs in thirty-two different
languages, and prayer is said to be offered here continually. There is
another church near the Damascus gate, where two "sisters" are said to
be kneeling in prayer at all hours. I entered the beautiful place at
different times, and always found it as represented, but it should not
be supposed that the same women do all the praying, as they doubtless
have enough to change at regular intervals. The Church of the Creed is,
according to a worthless tradition, the place where the apostles drew up
"the creed." It is under the ground, and we passed over it on the way
to the Church of the Lord's Prayer. The Mount of Olives is two thousand
seven hundred and twenty-three feet above sea level, and is about two
hundred feet higher than Mount Moriah. From the summit a fine view of
Jerusalem and the surrounding country may be obtained. The Russians have
erected a lofty stone tower here. After climbing the spiral stairway
leading to the top of it, one is well rewarded by the extensive view.
Looking out from the east side, we could gaze upon the Dead Sea, some
twenty miles away, and more than four thousand feet below us. We visited
the chambers called the "Tombs of the Prophets," but the name is not a
sufficient guarantee to warrant us in believing them to be the burial
places of the men by whom God formerly spoke to the people. On the way
to Bethany we passed the reputed site of Beth-page (Mark 11:1), and soon
came to the town where Jesus performed the great miracle of raising
Lazarus after he had been dead four days. (John 11:1-46.) The place
pointed out as the tomb corresponds to the Scripture which says "It was
a cave" where they laid him. Twenty-six steps lead down to the chamber
where his body is said to have lain when the "blessed Redeemer" cried
with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." Whether this is the exact spot
or not, it is probably a very ancient cave. One writer claims that it
is as old as the incident itself, and says these rock-cut tombs are the
oldest landmarks of Palestine. Tradition points out the home of Lazarus,
and there is a portion of an old structure called the Castle of Lazarus,
which Lazarus may never have seen. Bethany is a small village, occupied
by a few Mohammedan families, who dislike the "Christians." On the
rising ground above the village stands a good modern stone house,
owned by an English lady, who formerly lived in it, but her servant, a
Mohammedan, made an effort to cut her throat, and almost succeeded in
the attempt. Naturally enough, the owner does not wish to live there
now, so we found the building in the care of a professing Christian,
who treated us with courtesy, giving us a good, refreshing drink, and
permitting us to go out on the roof to look around.
From this point we turned our footsteps toward Jerusalem, "about fifteen
furlongs off"--that is, about two miles distant. (John 11:18.) When
we reached the lower part of the slope of Olivet, where the tombs of
departed Jews are so numerous, Mr. Michelson and Mr. Jennings went on
across the Kidron valley and back to their lodging places, while Mr.
Ahmed, Mr. Smith and I went down to Job's well, in the low ground below
the city. The Tower of Absalom, the Tomb of James, and the Pyramid
of Zachariah were among the first things we saw. They are all burial
places, but we can not depend upon them being the actual tombs of those
whose names they bear. The first is a peculiar monument nineteen and
one-half feet square and twenty-one feet high, cut out of the solid
rock, and containing a chamber, which may be entered by crawling through
a hole in the side. On the top of the natural rock portion a structure
of dressed stone, terminating in one tapering piece, has been erected,
making the whole height of the monument forty-eight feet. The Jews have
a custom of pelting it with stones on account of Absalom's misconduct,
and the front side shows the effect of their stone-throwing. The Grotto
of St. James is the traditional place of his concealment from the time
Jesus was arrested till his resurrection. The Pyramid of Zachariah is
a cube about thirty feet square and sixteen feet high, cut out of the
solid rock, and surmounted by a small pyramid. It has many names cut
upon it in Hebrew letters, and there are some graves near by, as this is
a favorite burial place. Some of the bodies have been buried between the
monument and the wall around it in the passage made in cutting it out of
the rock. Going on down the valley, we have the village of Siloam on the
hill at our left, and on the other side of the Kidron, the southeastern
part of the Holy City. St. Mary's Well is soon reached. This spring,
which may be the Gihon of 1 Kings 1:33, is much lower than the surface
of the ground, the water being reached by two flights of stairs,
one containing sixteen steps, the other fourteen. The spring is
intermittent, and flows from three to five times daily in winter. It
flows twice a day in summer, but in the autumn it only flows once in the
day. When I was there, the spring was low, and two Turkish soldiers were
on duty to preserve order among those who came to get water.
The Pool of Siloam, fifty-two feet long and eighteen feet wide, is
farther down the valley. The spring and the pool are about a thousand
feet apart, and are connected by an aqueduct through the hill, which,
owing to imperfect engineering, is seventeen hundred feet long. From
a Hebrew inscription found in the lower end of this passageway it was
learned that the excavation was carried on from both ends. A little
below the Pool of Siloam the valley of the Kidron joins the valley of
Hinnom, where, in ancient times, children were made "to pass through the
fire to Moloch" (2 Kings 23:10). Job's Well, perhaps the En Rogel, on
the northern border of Judah (Joshua 15:7), is rectangular in shape and
one hundred and twenty-three feet deep. Sometimes it overflows, but it
seldom goes dry. When I saw it, no less than six persons were drawing
water with ropes and leather buckets. The location of Aceldama, the
field of blood, has been disputed, but some consider that it was on the
hill above the valley of Hinnom. There are several rock-cut tombs along
the slope of the hill facing the valley of Hinnom, and some of them are
being used as dwelling places. The Moslems have charge of a building
outside the city walls, called David's Tomb, which they guard very
carefully, and only a portion of it is accessible to visitors. Near this
place a new German Catholic church was being erected at a cost of four
hundred thousand dollars. We entered the city by the Zion gate, and
passed the Tower of David, a fortification on Mount Zion, near the Jaffa
gate.
On the ship coming down from Beyrout I had a conversation with a man who
claimed to have been naturalized in the United States, and to have
gone to Syria to visit his mother, but, according to his story, he was
arrested and imprisoned by the Turks. After being mistreated in the
filthy prison for some time, he secured his release by bribing a soldier
to post a letter to one of the American authorities. He expressed a
desire to visit Jerusalem, but seemed afraid to get back into Turkish
territory. Learning that I was going there, he wrote a letter to the
Armenian Patriarch, and I presented it one day. In a few minutes Mr.
Ahmed and I were led into the large room where the Patriarch was seated
in his robe and peculiar cap. Meeting a dignitary of the Armenian Church
was a new experience to me. I shook hands with him; Mr. Ahmed made some
signs and sat down. In the course of our limited conversation he said
rather slowly: "I am very old." Replying to a question, he informed me
that his age was eighty years. I was on the point of leaving, but he
hindered me, and an attendant soon came in with some small glasses of
wine and a little dish of candy. The Patriarch drank a glass of wine,
and I took a piece of the candy, as also did Mr. Ahmed, and then we took
our leave.
The eleventh day of October, which was Tuesday, was occupied with a trip
to Hebron, described in another chapter devoted to the side trips I made
from Jerusalem, but the next day was spent in looking around the Holy
City. Early in the morning the Mamilla Pool, probably the "upper pool"
of 2 Kings 18:17, was seen. One author gives the dimensions of this
pool as follows: Length, two hundred and ninety-one feet; breadth, one
hundred and ninety-two feet; depth, nineteen feet. It is filled with
water in the rainy season, but was empty when I saw it. Entering the
city by the Jaffa gate, I walked along David and Christian Streets, and
was shown the Pool of Hezekiah, which is surrounded by houses, and was
supplied from the Mamilla Pool.
The next place visited was that interesting old building, the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher, where our Lord is supposed to have been buried in
Joseph's new tomb. Jerusalem has many things of great interest, but some
few things are of special interest. The Temple Area and Calvary are of
this class. I am sure my readers will want to know something of each,
and I shall here write of the latter. No doubt the spot where Jesus was
crucified and the grave in which he was buried were both well known to
the brethren up to the destruction of the city in the year seventy.
Before this awful calamity the Christians made their escape, and when
they returned they "would hardly recognize the fallen city as the one
they had left; the heel of the destroyer had stamped out all semblance
of its former glory. For sixty years it lay in ruins so complete that
it is doubtful if there was a single house that could be used as a
residence; during these years its history is a blank." There is no
mention of the returned Christians seeking out the site of either
the crucifixion or burial, and between A.D. 120 and A.D. 136 Hadrian
reconstructed the city, changing it to a considerable extent, and naming
it Aelia Capitolina. This would tend to make the location of Calvary
more difficult. Hadrian built a temple to Venus, probably on the spot
now occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Eusebius, writing
about A.D. 325, speaks of Constantine's church built on the site of
this temple. It is claimed that Hadrian's heathen temple was erected
to desecrate the place of Christ's entombment, and that Constantine's
church, being erected on the site of the temple, and regarded as the
place called Calvary, fixes this as the true site; but whether the
church and temple were on the same site or not, the present church
stands where the one built by Constantine stood, and is regarded by the
mass of believers as the true location.
Constantine's church stood two hundred and eighty years, being destroyed
by Chosroes II., of Persia, in A.D. 614, but was soon succeeded by
another structure not so grand as its predecessor. In 1010, in the
"reign of the mad caliph Hakem," the group of churches was entirely
destroyed, and the spot lay desolate for thirty years, after which
another church was erected, being completed in eight years. This
building was standing in 1099, the time of the Crusaders, but was
destroyed by fire in 1808. This fire "consumed many of the most sacred
relics in the church. Marble columns of great age and beauty crumbled in
the flames. The rich hangings and pictures were burned, along with lamps
and chandeliers and other ornaments in silver and gold. The lead with
which the great dome was lined melted, and poured down in streams." The
building now standing there was finished in 1810 at a cost of nearly
three millions of dollars, one-third of this, it is said, being expended
in lawsuits and Mohammedan bribes. It is the property of several
denominations, who adorn their separate chapels to suit themselves.
The church is entered from a court having two doors or gates. Worshipers
pass through the court, and stop at the left-hand side of the door and
kiss the marble column, which clearly shows the effect of this practice.
Just inside of the building there is a guard, composed of members of the
oldest Mohammedan family in the city. The reader may wonder why an armed
guard should be kept in a church house, but such a reader has not seen
or read of all the wickedness that is carried on in the support of
sectarianism. Concerning this guard, which, at the time of the holy fire
demonstration, is increased by several hundred soldiers, Edmund Sherman
Wallace, a former United States Consul in this city, says in his
"Jerusalem the Holy": "This Christian church has a Moslem guard, whose
duty it is to keep peace among the various sects who profess belief in
the Prince of Peace. * * * It is a sickening fact that Moslem brute
force must compel Christians to exercise, not charity toward each other,
but common decency and decorum. But it is a fact nevertheless, and will
remain apparent to all so long as priestcraft takes the place of New
Testament Christianity and superstition supplants religion."
A little beyond this guard is the "Stone of Unction," upon which many
believe Jesus was prepared for burial, but the original stone for which
this claim was made is not now visible, being covered with the present
slab to keep it from being worn out by the kissing of pious pilgrims.
It is eight and a half feet long and four feet wide. Pilgrims sometimes
bring the goods for their burial robes here and measure them by this
stone. Some large candles stand by it, and above it are eight fine
lamps, belonging to the Greek and Roman Catholics, the Copts, and
Armenians. Not far away is a small stone, which I understood was called
the place where the women watched the preparation by Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus. (John 19:38-42.)
In the center of the rotunda, with its entrance facing the east, is the
Chapel of the Sepulcher, the holiest place in all this holy building.
Passing through the small door, the visitor finds himself in the Chapel
of the Angels, a very small room, where a piece of stone, said to have
been rolled away from the grave by the angels, is to be seen. Stooping
down, the visitor passes through a low opening and enters the Chapel of
the Sepulcher proper, a room only six and a half feet long and six feet
wide. The "tomb" is at the right hand of the entrance, occupying about
half of the floor, above which it rises two feet. It is covered with
marble, so that even if this were the very spot where the Lord and
Savior was laid by the hands of kind friends, the modern visitor would
not know what it looked like when that event took place. The little
chapel, capable of accommodating about six people at a time, contains
some pictures and forty-three silver lamps, the property of the Copts,
Armenians, Greek and Roman Catholics. A priest stands on guard, so that
no damage may be done to any part of the place.
The Greek chapel, the largest, and to my notion the finest that I saw,
is just in front of the sepulcher. From its having two sections and a
partition, I was reminded of the tabernacle of the wilderness journey.
Services were being conducted once while I was there, and I saw the
Patriarch and others, gorgeously robed, going through with a service
that was at least spectacular, if not spiritual. At one point in the
exercises those participating came down close to where I was standing,
passed around the spot designated "the center of the world," and went
back again to the farther end of the richly ornamented room. One of the
priests, with hair reaching down on his shoulders, bore a silver vessel,
which I suppose contained burning incense. The long hair, beautiful
robes, the singing, praying, and such things, made up a service that
reminded me of the days of Solomon and the old priesthood.
The demonstration of the "holy fire" takes place in this church once a
year, and there are thousands who believe that the fire passed out from
the Chapel of the Angels really comes from heaven. This occurs on the
Saturday afternoon preceding Easter, and the eager, waiting throng, a
part of which has been in the building since the day before, soon has
its hundreds of little candles lighted. As the time for the appearance
of the fire approaches the confusion becomes greater. Near the entrance
to the sepulcher a group of men is repeating the words: "This is the
tomb of Jesus Christ;" not far from them others are saying: "This is
the day the Jew mourns and the Christian rejoices;" others express
themselves in the language: "Jesus Christ has redeemed us;" and
occasionally "God save the Sultan" can be heard.
Mr. Wallace, from whose book the foregoing items are gleaned, in telling
of a fight which took place at one stage of the service, describes it as
"a mass of wriggling, struggling, shrieking priests and soldiers, each
apparently endeavoring to do all the possible injury to whomever he
could reach. * * * But the fight went on. Greek trampled on Armenian,
and Armenian on Greek, and Turk on both. Though doing his very best, the
commanding officer seemed unable to separate the combatants. The bugle
rang out time after time, and detachment after detachment of soldiers
plunged into the melee. * * * This went on for fifteen minutes. Just
how much damage was done nobody will ever know. There were a number
of bruised faces and broken heads, and a report was current that two
pilgrims had died from injuries received." This disgraceful and wicked
disturbance is said to have been brought about by the Armenians wanting
two of their priests to go with the Greek Patriarch as far as the
Chapel of the Angels. And it is furthermore said that the defeat of the
Armenians was brought about, to some extent at least, by the muscular
strength of an American professional boxer and wrestler, whom the
Greeks had taken along in priestly garb as a member of the Patriarch's
bodyguard. It is not surprising that Mr. Wallace has written: "The
Church of the Holy Sepulcher gives the non-Christian world the worst
possible illustration of the religion of Him in whose name it stands."
As I was going through the city, I saw a camel working an olive press.
The poor blindfolded animal was compelled to walk in a circle so
small that the outside trace was drawn tightly over its leg, causing
irritation; but seeing the loads that are put upon dumb brutes, and men
too, sometimes, one need not expect much attention to be given to the
comfort of these useful servants. Truly, there is great need for the
refining, civilizing, and uplifting influence of the gospel here in the
city where it had its earliest proclamation. I also visited two grist
mills operated by horses on a treadmill, which was a large wooden wheel
turned on its side, so the horses could stand on it. I was not pleased
with the nearness of the manure in one of these mills to the material
from which the "staff of life" is made.
The German Protestant Church of the Redeemer is a fine structure on the
Muristan, completed in 1898. The United States consulate is near the
Austrian postoffice inside of the Jaffa gate. I went there and rested
awhile, but saw the consul, Selah Merrill, at his hotel, where I also
met Mrs. Merrill, and formed a favorable opinion of both of them. Here I
left my belt, checks, and surplus money in the care of the consul.
Continuing my walk on Wednesday, I passed one of the numerous threshing
floors of the country. This one was the face of a smooth rock, but they
are often the ground on some elevated spot, where a good breeze can be
had to blow away the chaff, for the grain is now threshed and cleaned by
the primitive methods of long ago. After the grain has been tramped out
(1 Cor. 9:9), the straw, now worn to chaff, is piled up, and when a
favorable wind blows, a man tosses it in the air with a wooden fork. The
grain falls in a pile at his feet and the chaff is carried aside
some distance. When this operation has been carried on as long as is
profitable, the wheat and what chaff remains in it are thrown into the
air with a wooden shovel, called in our Bibles a "fan." (Matt. 3:12.)
The final cleaning is done by washing the grain, or with a sieve.
The Tombs of the Kings, which may never have contained a king, are
extensive and interesting. They are surrounded by a wall, and to reach
them the visitor must go down a very wide stairway. The steps probably
do not number more than twenty-five, but the distance from one side of
the stairs to the other is twenty-seven feet. There are channels cut in
the rock to carry the water that comes down these steps to the cisterns,
two in number, one of which is a good-sized room cut in the rock at the
side of the stairway. It contained about three feet of water when I saw
it, although there had been no rain in Jerusalem for half a year. The
other one, at the bottom of the stairs, is much larger, and was empty.
The vaulted roof is supported by a column, and there are steps leading
from one level of the floor to another.
Turning to the left at the foot of the big stairway, we passed through
an arch cut through the rock into a court made by excavating the earth
and stone to a depth of perhaps twenty feet. It is ninety feet long and
eighty-one feet wide. The entrance to the tombs is by a vestibule cut in
the rock at one side of the court, and it appears that this once had a
row of pillars along the front, like veranda posts. We went down a few
steps and stooped low enough to pass through an opening about a yard
high. Beyond this we found ourselves in a good-sized room, cut in the
solid rock. There are five of these rooms, and so far as the appearance
is concerned, one might suppose they had been made in modern times, but
they are ancient. The bodies were usually buried in "pigeon-holes" cut
back in the walls of the rooms, but there are some shelf tombs, which
are sufficiently described in their name. One room seems never to have
been completed, but there are burial places here for about forty people.
One of the interesting things about these tombs is the rolling stone by
which they were closed. It is a round rock, resembling a millstone. The
height is a little over three feet and a half, and the thickness sixteen
inches. It stands in a channel cut for the purpose, but was rolled
forward before the entrance when it was desirable to have the tombs
closed. When Jesus was buried, a "great stone" was rolled to the mouth
of the sepulcher, and the women thought of this as they went to the tomb
on the first day of the week, saying: "Who shall roll us away the stone
from the door of the tomb?" (Mark 16:3.) They went on and found the tomb
open; so, also, we may often find the stone rolled away if we will go
forward in the discharge of our duties, instead of sitting down to mourn
at the thought of something in the distance which seems too difficult.
On our way to the tombs just mentioned, we passed the American Colony,
a small band of people living together in a rather peculiar manner,
but they are not all Americans. I understood that there had been no
marriages among them for a long time until a short while before I was
in Jerusalem. Some of them conduct a good store near the Jaffa gate. We
passed an English church and college and St. Stephen's Church on the way
to Gordon's Calvary. This new location of the world's greatest tragedy
is a small hill outside the walls on the northern side of the city. The
Church of the Holy Sepulcher stands on ground which for fifteen hundred
years has been regarded as the true site of our Lord's death and burial,
but since Korte, a German bookseller, visited the city in 1738, doubts
have been expressed as to the correctness of the tradition. Jesus
"suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13:12), and "in the place where he was
crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb wherein was
man never yet laid" (John 19:41), and it appears to have been near a
public road. (Mark 15:29.) In 1856 Edward Robinson, an American, offered
proof that the site sustained by the old tradition was inside the city
walls at the time of the crucifixion, and more recent discoveries, made
in excavating, confirm his proof. The new Calvary meets the requirements
of the above mentioned scriptures, and gets its name "Gordon's Calvary,"
from the fact that General Gordon wrote and spoke in favor of this being
the correct location, and a photographer attached his name to a view of
the place. In the garden adjoining the new Calvary I visited a tomb,
which some suppose to be the place of our Lord's burial.
On the way back to my lodging place we passed the Damascus gate, the
most attractive of all the old city gates, and one often represented
in books. It was built or repaired in 1537, and stands near an older
gateway that is almost entirely hidden by the accumulated rubbish of
centuries, only the crown of the arch now showing. As we went on we
passed the French Hospice, a fine modern building, having two large
statues on it. The higher one represents the Virgin and her child, the
other is a figure of the Savior. The Catholic church already mentioned,
where two sisters are to be seen in prayer at all times, is near the
Hospice. It is a rather impressive sight to stand in this beautiful but
silent place, and see those women in white robes kneeling there almost
as motionless as statues.
Thursday and a part of Friday was taken up with a trip to Jericho, but
we got back in time to spend the afternoon in looking around Jerusalem,
and we had an interesting visit to the home of Mrs. Schoenecke, a German
lady, whose father, named Schick, spent fifty-six years of his life in
Jerusalem. From what information Mr. Schick could gather from the Bible,
Josephus, the Talmud, and his personal observations during the time the
Palestine Exploration Fund was at work, he constructed large models of
the ancient temples that stood on Mount Moriah from the days of Solomon
to the time of Herod and Christ. I was told that the original models
were sold to an American college for five thousand dollars. Mr.
Schick then constructed the models shown to us, and explained by Mrs.
Schoenecke. We were also shown a model of the tabernacle used while
Israel was marching to the promised land.
The Wailing Place is a rectangle one hundred feet long by fifteen feet
wide on the outside of the Temple Area, on the western side, where the
wall is about sixty feet high. Some of the stones in this section are of
large size, and authorities admit that they are of Solomon's time, but
the wall in which they now stand may be a reconstruction. The Jews come
here on the Sabbath, beginning at sundown on Saturday, for a service
which one author describes as follows: "Nearest to him stood a row of
women clad in robes of spotless white. Their eyes were bedimmed with
weeping, and tears streamed down their cheeks as they sobbed aloud
with irrepressible emotion. Next to the women stood a group of
Pharisees--Jews from Poland and Germany. * * * The old hoary-headed men
generally wore velvet caps edged with fur, long love-locks or ringlets
dangling on their thin cheeks, and their outer robes presented a
striking contrast of gaudy colors. Beyond stood a group of Spanish Jews.
* * * Besides these there are Jews from every quarter of the world, who
had wandered back to Jerusalem that they might die in the city of their
fathers, and be buried in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, under the shadow of
the Temple Hill. The worshipers gradually increased in number until the
crowd thronging the pavement could not be fewer than two hundred. It was
an affecting scene to notice their earnestness; some thrust their hands
between the joints of the stones, and pushed into the crevices, as far
as possible, little slips of paper, on which were written, in the Hebrew
tongue, short petitions addressed to Jehovah. Some even prayed with
their mouths thrust into the gaps, where the weather-beaten stones were
worn away at the joints. * * * The congregation at the Wailing Place is
one of the most solemn gatherings left to the Jewish Church, and, as the
writer gazed at the motley concourse, he experienced a feeling of sorrow
that the remnants of the chosen race should be heartlessly thrust
outside the sacred inclosure of their fathers' holy temple by men of an
alien race and an alien creed." So far as I know, all writers give these
worshipers credit for being sincere, but on the two occasions when I
visited the place, I saw no such emotion as described in the foregoing
quotation. The following lines are often rehearsed, the leader reading
one at a time, after which the people respond with the words: "We sit in
solitude and mourn."
"For the place that lies desolate;
For the place that is destroyed;
For the walls that are overthrown;
For our majesty that is departed;
For our great men who lie dead;
For the precious stones that are buried;
For the priests who have stumbled;
For our kings who have despised Him."
This solemn practice has been observed for about twelve hundred years,
but the same place may not have been used all the time. "She is become a
widow, that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among
the provinces is become tributary! Jerusalem hath grievously sinned;
therefore she is become as an unclean thing" (Lam. 1: 1, 8).
On Friday evening we entered some of the many synagogues yet to be found
in Jerusalem and observed the worshipers. On Saturday we went to the
House of Industry of the English church, where boys are taught to work.
Olive wood products are made for the tourist trade. We passed a place
where some men were making a peculiar noise as they were pounding wheat
and singing at their work. This pounding was a part of the process of
making it ready for food. An old lady was standing in an open door
spinning yarn in a very simple manner. We watched her a few minutes, and
I wanted to buy the little arrangement with which she was spinning, but
she didn't care to part with it. She brought out another one, and let me
have it after spinning a few yards upon it. I gave her a Turkish coin
worth a few cents, for which she seemed very thankful, and said, as Mr.
Ahmed explained: "God bless you and give you long life. I am old, and
may die to-day." She told us that she came from Mosul, away beyond the
Syrian desert, to die in Jerusalem. We visited the synagogue of the
Caraite Jews, a small polygamous sect, numbering in this assembly
about thirty persons. They also differ from the majority of Hebrews in
rejecting the Talmud, but I believe they have a Talmud of their own.
Their place of worship is a small room almost under the ground, where we
were permitted to see a very fine old copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, our
Old Testament. The work was done by hand, and I was told the man who
did it was sixteen years of age when he began it, and was sixty when he
finished the work, and that the British Museum had offered five thousand
dollars for the book. Some of these people speak English, and we
conversed with one woman who was quite intelligent. They kindly
permitted us to go up and view the city from the housetop.
In the afternoon we visited the Temple Area, an inclosure of about
thirty-five acres, in the southeastern part of the city, including the
Mosque of Omar (more appropriately called the Dome of the Rock), the
Mosque El Aksa, and Solomon's Stables. For Christians to enter this
inclosure, it is necessary to notify their consul and secure the service
of his _cavasse_, an armed guard, and a Turkish soldier, both of
whom must be paid for their services. Thus equipped, we entered the
inclosure, and came up on the east front of the Dome of the Rock,
probably so named from the fact that the dome of this structure stands
over an exposed portion of the natural rock, fifty-seven feet long,
forty-three feet wide, and rising a few feet above the floor. After
putting some big slippers on over our shoes, we entered the building
and saw this great rock, which tradition says is the threshing floor
of Araunah, and the spot where Melchizedek sacrificed. It is also the
traditional place where Abraham sacrificed Isaac, and it is believed
that David built an altar here after the angel of destruction had put
up his sword. It is furthermore supposed that the great altar of burnt
offerings stood on this rock in the days of Solomon's Temple, which
is thought to have been located just west of it. This is the probable
location of Zerubbabel's Temple, and the one enlarged and beautified
by Herod, which was standing when Jesus was on earth, and continued to
stand until the awful destruction of the city by the Roman army in A.D.
70.
The modern visitor to this fine structure would have no thought of the
ancient temple of God if he depended upon what he sees here to suggest
it. All trace of that house has disappeared. The Dome of the Rock, said
to be "the most beautiful piece of architecture in Jerusalem," belongs
to the Turks. It has eight sides, each about sixty-six and a half feet
long, and is partly covered with marble, but it is, to some extent, in a
state of decay. Between the destruction of the temple and the erection
of this building a heathen temple and a church had been built on the
spot.
The Mosque El Aksa was also visited, but it is noted more for its size
than the beauty of its architecture. The Turkish Governor of Palestine
comes here every Friday to worship at the time the Sultan is engaged
in like manner in Constantinople. Solomon's Stables next engaged our
attention. We crossed the Temple Area to the wall on the southeastern
border, and went down a stairway to these underground chambers, which
were made by building about a hundred columns and arching them over and
laying a pavement on the top, thereby bringing it up on a level with
the rest of the hill. The vaults are two hundred and seventy-three feet
long, one hundred and ninety-eight feet wide, and about thirty feet
high. They were not made for stables, but were used for that purpose in
the middle ages, and the holes through the corners of the square stone
columns show where the horses were tied. A large portion of these
chambers has been made into a cistern or reservoir.
After a visit to what is called the Pool of Bethesda and the Church of
St. Anne, we went outside the city wall on the north side and entered
what looks like a cave, but upon investigation proves to be an extensive
underground quarry. These excavations, called Solomon's Quarries,
extend, according to one authority, seven hundred feet under the hill
Bezetha, which is north of Mt. Moriah. The rock is very white, and will
take some polish. Loose portions of it are lying around on the floor
of the cavern, and there are distinct marks along the sides where the
ancient stone-cutters were at work. In one part of the quarries we were
shown the place where visiting Masons are said to hold lodge meetings
sometimes. Vast quantities of the rock have been taken out, and this is
probably the source from whence much of the building material of the old
city was derived.
The trip to the quarries ended my sight-seeing for the week. The next
morning I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and witnessed a part
of the service of the Greek Catholics. At a later hour I went around to
the mission conducted by Bro. Joseph, and, with the little congregation
there assembled, broke bread in memory of Him who in this city, almost
two thousand years ago, gave his life for the sins of the world, after
having instituted this supper, a monumental institution, representing
to our minds the cost of the world's redemption. In the afternoon I
attended the preaching service in Mr. Thompson's tabernacle, and visited
the Abyssinian church, near Mr. Smith's house. This Abyssinian house is
circular, and has a small, round room in the center, around which the
congregation stands and worships, leaning on their staves, for the place
is void of seats. At night I preached in the tabernacle on the question:
"What must I do to be saved?" Melki, the native evangelist, translated
for me as I went along, and the congregation paid good attention and
seemed pleased to have heard me. I know I am pleased to have had
opportunity to "preach the word" in the city from whence it was first
published to the world.
One of the first sights beheld when I started out on Monday morning was
a foundation, laid at the expense of a woman who intended to build a
house for the "hundred and forty-four thousand." It represents one of
the many peculiar religious ideas that find expression in and around
Jerusalem. We went on to the railway station, where I saw a young man, a
Jew, leave for that far-off land called America. Next the Leper Hospital
was visited. This well-kept institution is in the German colony, and had
several patients of both sexes. A lady, who spoke some English, kindly
showed me through the hospital, and explained that the disease is not
contagious, but hereditary, and that some lepers refuse to enter the
hospital because they are forbidden to marry. The patients were of
various ages, and showed the effects of the disease in different stages.
In some cases it makes the victim a sad sight to look upon. I remember
one of these poor, afflicted creatures, whose face was almost covered
with swollen and inflamed spots. Some were blind, and some had lost
part or all of their fingers by the disease. One man's nose was partly
consumed.
At Bishop Gobat's school we were kindly received, and given a good,
refreshing drink. The founder of this school, a member of the English
church, was one of the pioneers in Jerusalem mission work, and stood
very high in the estimation of the people. His grave is to be seen in
the cemetery near the school, where one may also see the supposed site
of the ancient city wall. Besides the Leper Hospital, we visited another
hospital under German control, where patients may have medical attention
and hospital service for the small sum of one _mejidi_, about eighty
cents, for a period, of fifteen days, but higher fees are charged in
other departments. We soon reached the English hospital, maintained by
the Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews. It is
built on a semi-circular plan in such a way that the wards, extending
back from the front, admit light from both sides. This institution is
free to the Jews, but I understand Mohammedans were not admitted without
a fee.
The Syrian Orphanage had about three hundred children in it, who were
being instructed in books and in manual labor. Those who can see are
taught to work in wood, to make a kind of tile used in constructing
partitions, and other lines of useful employment. They had some blind
children, who were being taught to make baskets and brushes. On the way
back to Mr. Smith's I stopped at the Jewish Library, a small two-story
building, having the books and papers upstairs. They have a raised map
of Palestine, which was interesting to me, after having twice crossed
the country from sea to sea.
The last Thursday I was in the city I went with some friends to the
Israelite Alliance School, an institution with about a thousand pupils,
who receive both an industrial and a literary education. We were
conducted through the school by a Syrian gentleman named Solomon Elia,
who explained that, while the institution is under French control,
English is taught to some extent, as some of the pupils would go
to Egypt, where they would need to use this language. The boys are
instructed in wood-working, carpentry, copper-working, and other lines
of employment. We saw some of the girls making hair nets, and others
were engaged in making lace. Both of these products are sent out of
Palestine for sale. The institution has received help from some of the
Rothschild family, and I have no doubt that it is a great factor for the
improvement of those who are reached by it. Jerusalem is well supplied
with hospitals and schools. The Greek and Roman Catholic churches, the
Church of England, and numerous other religious bodies have a footing
here, and are striving to make it stronger. Their schools and hospitals
are made use of as missionary agencies, and besides these there is a
Turkish hospital and numerous Mohammedan schools.
On Friday I had an opportunity to see a man measuring grain, as is
indicated by the Savior's words: "Give, and it shall be given unto you;
good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they
give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again" (Luke 6:38). He filled his measure about full,
and then shook it down thoroughly. He next filled it up and shook it
down until he evidently thought he had all he could get that way, so he
commenced to pile it up on top. When he had about as much heaped up as
would stay on, he put his hands on the side of the cone opposite himself
and gently pulled it toward him. He then piled some more on the far
side, and when he had reached the limit in this way, he carefully
leveled the top of the cone down a little, and when he could no longer
put on more grain, he gently lifted the measure and moved it around to
the proper place, where it was quickly dumped. In the evening Mr. Smith
and I walked out on Mount Scopus, where Titus had his camp at the time
of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, as foretold by our Lord and
Master in the twenty-fourth of Matthew.
As we went along, Mr. Smith pointed out the watershed between the
Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. The view from Scopus is very extensive.
We could look away to the north to Nebi Samwil, where the Prophet Samuel
is supposed by some to have been buried. Ramallah, the seat of a school
maintained by the Society of Friends, is pointed out, along with Bireh,
Bethel, and Geba. Nob, the home of the priests slain by command of Saul
(1 Samuel 22:16), and Anathoth, one of the cities of refuge (Joshua
21:18), are in sight. Swinging on around the circle to the east, the
northern end of the Dead Sea is visible, while the Mount of Olives is
only a little distance below us. Across the valley of the Kidron lies
the Holy City, with her walls constructed at various periods and under
various circumstances, her dome-shaped stone roofs, synagogues, mosques,
and minarets, being "trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of
the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). Here, with this panorama spread
out in the evening light, I may say my sight-seeing in the City of the
Great King came to an end.
I lacked but a few hours of having been in the city two weeks, when I
boarded the train for Jaffa on my way to Egypt. The most of the time I
had lodged in the hospitable home of Mr. Smith, where I had a clean
and comfortable place to rest my tired body when the shadows of night
covered the land. I had received kind treatment, and had seen many
things of much interest. I am truly thankful that I have been permitted
to make this trip to Jerusalem. Let me so live that when the few
fleeting days of this life are over, I may rest with the redeemed. When
days and years are no more, let me enjoy, in the NEW JERUSALEM, the
blessedness that remains for those that have loved the Lord.
"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and
God himself shall be with them, and be their God: and he shall wipe away
every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall
there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things have
passed away" (Revelation 21:2-4).
CHAPTER VI.
SIDE TRIPS FROM JERUSALEM.
Early on Tuesday morning, the eleventh of October, I set out by
carriage, with some other tourists, for a trip to Bethlehem, Solomon's
Pools, and Hebron. Bethlehem is about five miles south of Jerusalem, and
Hebron is a little southwest of the Holy City and twenty miles distant.
We started from the Jaffa gate and passed the Sultan's Pool, otherwise
known as Lower Gihon, which may be the "lower pool" of Isaiah 22:9. "The
entire area of this pool," says one writer, "is about three and a half
acres, with an average depth, when clear of deposit, of forty-two and
a half feet in the middle from end to end." We drove for two miles, or
perhaps more, across the Plain of Rephaim, one of David's battlefields
soon after he established himself in Jerusalem. Here he was twice
victorious over the Philistines. In the first instance he asked Jehovah:
"Shall I go up against the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into
my hand?" The answer was: "Go up; for I will certainly deliver the
Philistines into thy hand." In this battle the invaders were routed and
driven from the field. "And they left their images there; and David and
his men took them away." But "the Philistines came up yet again, and
spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of
Jehovah, he said, Thou shalt not go up: make a circuit behind them, and
come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And it shall be, when
thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees,
that then thou shalt bestir thyself, for then is Jehovah gone out before
thee to smite the hosts of the Philistines." David obeyed the voice of
the Lord, and smote his enemies from Geba to Gezer. (2 Samuel 5:17-25.)
On the southern border of the plain stands the Greek convent called Mar
Elyas. This is about half way to Bethlehem, and the city of the nativity
soon comes into view. Before going much farther the traveler sees a
well-built village, named Bet Jala, lying on his right. It is supposed
to be the ancient Giloh, mentioned in 2 Samuel 15:12 as the home of
Ahithophel, David's counselor, for whom Absalom sent when he conspired
against his father. Here the road forks, one branch of it passing Bet
Jala and going on to Hebron; the other, bearing off to the left, leads
directly to Bethlehem, which we passed, intending to stop there as we
returned in the evening. At this place we saw the monument erected to
mark the location of Rachel's tomb, a location, like many others, in
dispute. When Jacob "journeyed from Bethel and there was still some
distance to come to Ephrath," Rachel died at the birth of Benjamin, "and
was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem). * * * And
Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave" (Gen. 35:16-20). The spot, which
for many centuries was marked by a pyramid of stones, is now occupied
by a small stone building with a dome-shaped roof, at the east side of
which is a room, open on the north, with a flat roof. For hundreds of
years tradition has located the grave at this place, which is indeed
near Bethlehem, but in 1 Samuel 10:2 it is mentioned as being "in the
border of Benjamin," which has occasioned the belief that the true
location is some miles farther north.
Before long we came to Solomon's Pools. We first stopped at a doorway,
which looks like it might lead down to a cellar, but in reality the door
is at the head of a flight of stairs leading down to what is known as
the "sealed fountain" (Song of Solomon 4:12). The door was fastened,
and we were not able to descend to the underground chamber, which is
forty-one feet long, eleven and a half feet wide, with an arched stone
roof, all of which, except the entrance, is below the surface. A large
basin cut in the floor collects the water from two springs. After rising
a foot in the basin, the water flows out into a channel more than six
hundred feet long leading down to the two upper pools. These great
reservoirs, bearing the name of Israel's wisest monarch, are still in a
good state of preservation, having been repaired in modern times.
The first one is three hundred and eighty feet long, two hundred and
twenty-nine feet wide at one end, two hundred and thirty feet wide at
the other, and twenty-five feet deep. The second pool is four hundred
and twenty-three feet long, one hundred and sixty feet wide at the upper
end, two hundred and fifty feet wide at the lower end, and thirty-nine
feet deep at that end. The third pool is the largest of all, having a
length of five hundred and eighty-two feet. The upper end is one hundred
and forty-eight feet wide, the lower end two hundred and seven feet,
and the depth at the lower end is fifty feet. The pools are about one
hundred and fifty feet apart, and have an aggregate area of six and a
quarter acres, with an average depth approaching thirty-eight feet. The
upper two received water from the sealed fountain, but the lower one was
supplied from an aqueduct leading up from a point more than three miles
to the south. The aqueduct from the sealed fountain leads past the
pools, and winds around the hills to Bethlehem and on to the Temple
Area, in Jerusalem. It is still in use as far as Bethlehem, and could be
put in repair and made serviceable for the whole distance. An offer
to do this was foolishly rejected by the Moslems in 1870. The only
habitation near the pools is an old khan, "intended as a stopping place
for caravans and as a station for soldiers to guard the road and the
pools." The two upper pools were empty when I saw them, but the third
one contained some water and a great number of frogs. As we went on to
Hebron we got a drink at "Philip's Well," the place where "the eunuch
was baptized," according to a tradition which lacks support by the
present appearance of the place.
Towards noon we entered the "valley of Eschol," from whence the spies
sent out by Moses carried the great cluster of grapes. (Num. 13:23.)
Before entering Hebron we turned aside and went up to Abraham's Oak, a
very old tree, but not old enough for Abraham to have enjoyed its
shade almost four thousand years ago. The trunk is thirty-two feet in
circumference, but the tree is not tall like the American oaks. It is
now in a dying condition, and some of the branches are supported by
props, while the lower part of the trunk is surrounded by a stone wall,
and the space inside is filled with earth. The plot of ground on which
the tree stands is surrounded by a high iron fence. A little farther up
the hill the Russians have a tower, from which we viewed the country,
and then went down in the shade near Abraham's Oak and enjoyed our
dinner.
Hebron is a very ancient city, having been built seven and a half years
before Zoar in Egypt. (Num. 13:22.) Since 1187 it has been under the
control of the Mohammedans, who raise large quantities of grapes, many
of which are made into raisins. Articles of glass are made in Hebron,
but I saw nothing especially beautiful in this line. The manufacture of
goat-skin water-bottles is also carried on. Another line of work which I
saw being done is the manufacture of a kind of tile, which looks like a
fruit jug without a bottom, and is used in building. Hebron was one of
the six cities of refuge (Joshua 20:7), and for seven years and a half
it was David's capital of Judah. It is very historic. "Abraham moved his
tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and
built there an altar unto Jehovah." (Gen. 13:18.) When "Sarah died in
Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan, * * * Abraham
came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her." At this time the worthy
progenitor of the Hebrew race "rose up from before his dead, and spoke
unto the children of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with
you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury
my dead out of my sight." The burial place was purchased for "four
hundred shekels of silver, current money of the land. * * * And after
this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave in the field of Machpelah
before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan" (Gen.
23:1-20). Years after this, when both Abraham and his son Isaac had
passed the way of all the earth and had been laid to rest in this cave,
the patriarch Jacob in Egypt gave directions for the entombment of his
body in this family burial place. "There they buried Abraham and Sarah
his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I
buried Leah" (Gen. 49:31), and here, by his own request, Jacob was
buried. (Gen. 50:13.) Joshua, the successor of Moses, "utterly
destroyed" Hebron (Joshua 10:37), and afterwards gave it to Caleb, to
whom it had been promised by Moses forty-five years before. (Joshua
14:6-15.) Here Abner was slain (2 Samuel 3:27), and the murderers of
Ishbosheth were put to death. (2 Samuel 4:12.)
The most interesting thing about the town is the "cave of Machpelah,"
but it is inaccessible to Christians. Between 1167 and 1187 a church was
built on the site, now marked by a carefully guarded Mohammedan mosque.
It is inclosed by a wall which may have been built by Solomon. We were
allowed to go in at the foot of a stairway as far as the seventh step,
but might as well have been in the National Capitol at Washington so far
as seeing the burial place was concerned. In 1862 the Prince of Wales,
now King of England, was admitted. He was accompanied by Dean Stanley,
who has described what he saw, but he was permitted neither to examine
the monuments nor to descend to the cave below, the real burial chamber.
As the body of Jacob was carefully embalmed by the Egyptian method, it
is possible that his remains may yet be seen in their long resting place
in this Hebron cave. (Gen. 50:1,2.)
Turning back toward Jerusalem, we came to Bethlehem late in the
afternoon, and the "field of the shepherds" (Luke 2:8) and the "fields
of Boaz" (Ruth 2:4-23) were pointed out. The place of greatest interest
is the group of buildings, composed of two churches, Greek and Latin,
and an Armenian convent, all built together on the traditional site
of the birth of the Lord Jesus. Tradition is here contradicted by
authorities partly on the ground that a cave to which entrance is made
by a flight of stairs would probably not be used as a stable. This
cave is in the Church of St. Mary, said to have been erected in 330 by
Constantine. Descending the stairs, we came into the small cavern, which
is continually lighted by fifteen silver lamps, the property of the
Greeks, Latins, and Armenians, who each have an interest in the place.
Beneath an altar, in a semi-circular recess, a silver star has been set
in the floor with the Latin inscription: "_Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus
Christus Natus est._" An armed Turkish soldier was doing duty near this
"star of Bethlehem" the evening I was there. The well, from which it is
said the "three mighty men" drew water for David, was visited. (2 Samuel
23:15.) But the shades of night had settled down upon the little town
where our Savior was born, and we again entered our carriages and drove
back to Jerusalem, having had a fine day of interesting sight-seeing. On
the Wednesday before I left Jerusalem, in the company of Mrs. Bates, I
again visited Bethlehem.
Thursday, October thirteenth, was the day we went down to Jericho, the
Dead Sea, and the Jordan. The party was made up of the writer, Mr.
Ahmed, Mr. Jennings, Mrs. Bates, four school teachers (three ladies and
a gentleman) returning from the Philippines, and the guides, Mr. Smith
and Ephraim Aboosh. We went in two carriages driven by natives. "A
certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among
robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half
dead" (Luke 10:30). This lonely road is still the scene of occasional
robberies, and the Turkish Government permits one of its soldiers to
accompany the tourist for a fee, but we did not want to take this
escort, as neither of the guides feared any danger. Accordingly we took
an early start without notifying the soldiers, and reached Jericho,
about twenty miles away, in time to visit Elisha's Fountain before
dinner. The road leads out past Bethany, down by the Apostles' Fountain,
on past the Khan of the Good Samaritan, and down the mountain to the
plain of the Jordan, this section of which is ten miles long and seven
miles wide. Before the road reaches the plain, it runs along a deep
gorge bearing the name Wady Kelt, the Brook Cherith, where the prophet
Elisha was fed by the ravens night and morning till the brook dried up.
(1 Kings 17:1-7.) We also saw the remains of an old aqueduct, and of a
reservoir which was originally over five hundred feet long and more than
four hundred feet wide. Elisha's Fountain is a beautiful spring some
distance from the present Jericho. Doubtless it is the very spring whose
waters Elisha healed with salt. (2 Kings 2:19-22.) The ground about
the Fountain has been altered some in modern times, and there is now a
beautiful pool of good, clear water, a delight both to the eye and to
the throat of the dusty traveler who has come down from Jerusalem seeing
only the brown earth and white, chalky rock, upon which the unveiled sun
has been pouring down his heat for hours. The water from the spring now
runs a little grist mill a short distance below it.
After dinner, eaten in front of the hotel in Jericho, we drove over to
the Dead Sea, a distance of several miles, and soon we were all enjoying
a fine bath in the salt water, the women bathing at one place, the men
at another. The water contains so much solid matter, nearly three and a
third pounds to the gallon, that it is easy to float on the surface with
hands, feet and head above the water. One who can swim but little in
fresh water will find the buoyancy of the water here so great as to make
swimming easy. When one stands erect in it, the body sinks down about
as far as the top of the shoulders. Care needs to be taken to keep the
water out of the mouth, nose and eyes, as it is so salty that it is very
disagreeable to these tender surfaces. Dead Sea water is two and a half
pounds heavier than fresh water, and among other things, it contains
nearly two pounds of chloride of magnesium, and almost a pound of
chloride of sodium, or common salt, to the gallon. Nothing but some very
low forms of animal life, unobserved by the ordinary traveler, can live
in this sea. The fish that get into it from the Jordan soon die. Those
who bathe here usually drive over to the Jordan and bathe again, to
remove the salt and other substances that remain on the body after the
first bath. The greatest depth of the Dead Sea is a little over thirteen
hundred feet. The wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood here some
place, but authorities disagree as to whether they were at the northern
or southern end of the sea. In either case every trace of them has been
wiped out by the awful destruction poured on them by the Almighty. (Gen.
18:16 to 19:29)
The Jordan where we saw it, near the mouth, and at the time we saw it,
the thirteenth of October, was a quiet and peaceful stream, but the
water was somewhat muddy. We entered two little boats and had a short
ride on the river whose waters "stood, and rose up in one heap, a great
way off," that the children of Israel might cross (Joshua 3:14-17), and
beneath whose wave the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was baptized by the
great prophet of the Judaean wilderness. (Matt. 3:13-17.) We also got
out a little while on the east bank of the stream, the only time I was
"beyond Jordan" while in Palestine. After supper, eaten in Jericho, we
went around to a Bedouin encampment, where a dance was being executed--a
dance different from any that I had ever seen before. One of the
dancers, with a sword in hand, stood in the center of the ground they
were using, while the others stood in two rows, forming a right angle.
They went through with various motions and hand-clapping, accompanied
by an indescribable noise at times. Some of the Bedouins were sitting
around a small fire at one side, and some of the children were having a
little entertainment of their own on another side of the dancing party.
We were soon satisfied, and made our way back to the hotel and laid down
to rest.
The first Jericho was a walled city about two miles from the present
village, perhaps at the spring already mentioned, and was the first city
taken in the conquest of the land under Joshua. The Jordan was crossed
at Gilgal (Joshua 4:19), where the people were circumcised with knives
of flint, and where the Jews made their first encampment west of the
river. (Joshua 5:2-10.) "Jericho was straitly shut up because of the
children of Israel," but by faithful compliance with the word of the
Lord the walls fell down. (Joshua 6:1-27.) "And Joshua charged them with
an oath at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before Jehovah,
that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: with the loss of his
first-born shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his
youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." Regardless of this curse,
we read that in the days of Ahab, who "did more to provoke Jehovah, the
God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before
him, * * * did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: he laid the foundation
thereof with the loss of Abiram his first-born, and set up the gates
thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word
of Jehovah, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun" (1 Kings 16:33,34).
"The Jericho * * * which was visited by Jesus occupied a still different
site," says Bro. McGarvey. The present Jericho is a small Arab village,
poorly built, with a few exceptions, and having nothing beautiful in or
around it but the large oleanders that grow in the ground made moist by
water from Elisha's Fountain. We had satisfactory accommodations at the
hotel, which is one of the few good houses there. Jericho in the time of
our Lord was the home of a rich publican named Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10),
and was an important and wealthy city, that had been fortified by Herod
the Great, who constructed splendid palaces here, and it was here that
"this infamous tyrant died." The original Jericho, the home of Rahab the
harlot, was called the "city of palm trees" (Deut. 34:3), but if the
modern representative of that ancient city has any of these trees, they
are few in number. Across the Jordan eastward are the mountains of Moab,
in one of which Moses died after having delivered his valedictory, as
recorded in Deuteronomy. (Deut. 34:1-12.) From a lofty peak the Lord
showed this great leader and law-giver a panorama of "all the land of
Gilead unto Dan. * * * And Jehovah said unto him, This is the land which
I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it
unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou
shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in
the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah. And he buried him
in the valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man
knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."
Early Wednesday morning we began our toilsome journey back to Jerusalem,
having nearly four thousand feet to climb in the twenty miles
intervening. We stopped awhile at the Khan of the Good Samaritan, which
stands near some old ruins, and may not be far from the place to which
the Good Samaritan carried his poor, wounded fellow-man so long ago.
Here I bought some lamps that look old enough, but may be quite modern
imitations of the kind that were carried in the days of the wise and
foolish virgins. A stop was also made at the Apostles' Fountain, near
Bethany, where I saw an Arab working bread on his coat, which was spread
on the ground. Over by the Damascus gate I one day saw a man feeding his
camel on his coat, so these coarse cloth garments are very serviceable
indeed. We got back to Jerusalem in time to do a good deal of
sight-seeing in the afternoon.
The following Tuesday was occupied with a trip on "donkey-back" to Nebi
Samwil, Emmaus, Abu Ghosh, and Ain Kairim. Our party was small this
time, being composed of Mr. Jennings, Mr. Smith, the writer, and a
"donkey-boy" to care for the three animals we rode, when we dismounted
to make observations. He was liberal, and sometimes tried to tell us
which way to go. We went out on the north side of the city and came to
the extensive burial places called the "Tombs of the Judges." Near by is
an ancient wine press cut in the rock near a rock-hewn cistern, which
may have been used for storing the wine. En Nebi Samwil is on an
elevation a little more than three thousand feet above the sea and about
four hundred feet higher than Jerusalem, five miles distant. From the
top of the minaret we had a fine view through a field glass, seeing the
country for many miles around. This is thought by some to be the Mizpah
of the Bible (1 Kings 15:22), and tradition has it that the prophet
Samuel was buried here. A little north of Nebi Samwil is the site of
ancient Gibeon, where "Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before
the servants of David" (2 Samuel 2:12-17).
We next rode over to El Kubebeh, supposed by some to be the Emmaus of
New Testament times, where Jesus went after his resurrection and sat at
meat with his disciples without being recognized. (Luke 24:13-25.) The
place has little to attract one. A modern building, which I took to be
the residence of some wealthy person, occupies a prominent position, and
is surrounded by well-kept grounds, inclosed with a wall. The Franciscan
monastery is a good sized institution, having on its grounds the remains
of a church of the Crusaders' period, over which a new and attractive
building has been erected. One section of it has the most beautiful
floor of polished marble, laid in patterns, that I have ever seen. It
also contains a painting of the Savior and the two disciples.
We went outside of the monastery to eat our noon-day lunch, but before
we finished, one of the monks came and called us in to a meal at
their table. It was a good meal, for which no charge was made, and I
understand it is their custom to give free meals to visitors, for they
believe that Jesus here sat at meat with his two disciples. We enjoyed
their hospitality, but drank none of the wine that was placed before us.
Our next point was Abu Ghosh, named for an old village sheik who, "with
his six brothers and eighty-five descendants, was the terror of the
whole country" about a century ago. Our object in visiting the spot was
to see the old Crusaders' church, the best preserved one in Palestine.
The stone walls are perhaps seven or eight feet thick. The roof is still
preserved, and traces of the painting that originally adorned the walls
are yet to be seen. A new addition has been erected at one end, and the
old church may soon be put in repair.
The last place we visited before returning to Jerusalem was Ain Kairim,
a town occupied mainly by the Mohammedans, and said to have been the
home of that worthy couple of whom it was written: "They were both
righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless" (Luke 1:6). The portion occupied by the Latins and
Greeks is very beautifully situated on the side of the mountain. The
stone houses, "whited walls," and green cypresses make quite a pretty
picture. The Church of St. John, according to tradition, stands on the
spot where once dwelt Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John, the
great forerunner of Jesus. Night came upon us before we got back to our
starting place, and as this was my first day of donkey riding, I was
very much fatigued when I finally dismounted in Jerusalem; yet I arose
the next morning feeling reasonably well, but not craving another donkey
ride over a rough country beneath the hot sun.
On Saturday, the twenty-second of October, I turned away from Jerusalem,
having been in and around the place almost two weeks, and went back to
Jaffa by rail. After a few miles the railway leads past Bittir, supposed
to be the Beth-arabah of Joshua 15:61. It is also of interest from the
fact that it played a part in the famous insurrection of Bar Cochba
against the Romans. In A.D. 135 it was captured by a Roman force after
a siege of three and a half years. Ramleh, a point twelve miles from
Jaffa, was once occupied by Napoleon. Lydda, supposed to be the Lod of
Ezra 2:33, was passed. Here Peter healed Aeneas, who had been palsied
eight years. (Acts 9:32-35.)
Jaffa is the Joppa of the Bible, and has a good deal of interesting
history. When "Jonah rose to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of
Jehovah," he "went down to Joppa and found a ship going unto Tarshish:
so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to
Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah." (Jonah 1:3.) His unpleasant
experience with the great fish is well known. When Solomon was about to
build the first temple, Hiram sent a communication to him, saying: "We
will cut wood out of Lebanon as much as thou shalt need; and will bring
it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to
Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 2:16). In the days of Ezra, when Zerubbabel
repaired the temple, we read that "they gave money also unto the masons,
and to the carpenters; and food, and drink, and oil, unto them of Sidon,
and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, unto
Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia"
(Ezra 3:7). It was the home of "a certain disciple named Tabitha," whom
Peter was called from Lydda to raise from the dead. (Acts 9:36-43.)
Simon the tanner also lived in Joppa, and it was at his house that Peter
had his impressive vision of the sheet let down from heaven prior to his
going to Caesarea to speak the word of salvation to Cornelius and his
friends. (Acts 10:1-6.)
The city is built on a rocky elevation rising one hundred feet above
the sea, which has no harbor here, so that vessels do not stop when the
water is too rough for passengers to be carried safely in small boats.
Extensive orange groves are cultivated around Jaffa, and lemons are also
grown, and I purchased six for a little more than a cent in American
money. Sesame, wine, wool, and soap are exported, and the imports are
considerable. The train reached the station about the middle of the day,
and the ship did not leave till night, so I had ample time to visit the
"house of Simon the tanner." It is "by the sea side" all right, but
looks too modern to be impressive to the traveler who does not accept
all that tradition says. I paid Cook's tourist agency the equivalent of
a dollar to take me through the custom house and out to the ship, and I
do not regret spending the money, although it was five times as much as
I had paid the native boatman for taking me ashore when I first came to
Jaffa. The sea was rough--very rough for me--and a little woman at my
side was shaking with nervousness, although she tried to be brave, and
her little boy took a firm hold on my clothing. I don't think that I was
scared, but I confess that I did not enjoy the motion of the boat as it
went sliding down from the crest of the waves, which were higher than
any I had previously ridden upon in a rowboat. As darkness had come, it
would have been a poor time to be upset, but we reached the vessel in
safety. When we came alongside the ship, a boatman on each side of the
passenger simply pitched or threw him up on the stairs when the rising
wave lifted the little boat to the highest point. It was easily done,
but it is an experience one need not care to repeat unnecessarily.
I was now through with my sight-seeing in the Holy Land and aboard the
Austrian ship _Maria Teresa_, which was to carry me to the land of the
ancient Pharaohs. Like Jonah, I had paid my fare, so I laid down to
sleep. There was a rain in the night, but no one proposed to throw me
overboard, and we reached Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal, the
next day.
CHAPTER VII.
EGYPT, THE LAND OF TOMBS AND TEMPLES.
The _Maria Teresa_ landed me in Port Said, Egypt, Lord's day, October
twenty-third, and at seven o'clock that evening I took the train for
Cairo, arriving there about four hours later. I had no difficulty in
finding a hotel, where I took some rest, but was out very early the next
morning to see something of the largest city in Africa. The population
is a great mixture of French, Greeks, English, Austrians, Germans,
Egyptians, Arabians, Copts, Berbers, Turks, Jews, Negroes, Syrians,
Persians, and others. In Smyrna, Damascus, and Jerusalem, cities of the
Turkish empire, the streets are narrow, crooked, and dirty, but here
are many fine buildings, electric lights, electric cars, and good, wide
streets, over which vehicles with rubber tires roll noiselessly.
I first went out to the Mokattam Heights, lying back of the city, at an
elevation of six hundred and fifty feet. From the summit an extensive
view can be obtained, embracing not only the city of Cairo, with its
many mosques and minarets, but the river beyond, and still farther
beyond the Gizeh (Gezer) group of the pyramids. The side of the Heights
toward the city is a vast quarry, from which large quantities of rock
have been taken. An old fort and a mosque stand in solitude on the top.
I went out by the citadel and passed the mosque tombs of the Mamelukes,
who were originally brought into the country from the Caucasus as
slaves, but they became sufficiently powerful to make one of their
number Sultan in 1254. The tombs of the Caliphs, successors of Mohammed
in temporal and spiritual power, are not far from the Heights.
As I was returning to the city, a laborer followed me a little distance,
and indicated that he wanted my name written on a piece of paper he was
carrying. I accommodated him, but do not know for what purpose he wanted
it. I stopped at the Alabaster Mosque, built after the fashion of one of
the mosques of Constantinople, and decorated with alabaster. The outside
is full of little depressions, and has no special beauty, but the inside
is more attractive. The entrance is through a large court, paved with
squares of white marble. The floor of the mosque was nicely covered with
carpet, and the walls are coated for a few feet with alabaster, and
above that they are painted in imitation of the same material. The
numerous lamps do much towards making the place attractive. The
attendant said the central chandelier, fitted for three hundred and
sixty-six candles, was a present from Louis Philippe, of France. A clock
is also shown that came from the same source. The pulpit is a platform
at the head of a stairway, and the place for reading the Koran is a
small platform three or four feet high, also ascended by steps. Within
an inclosure in one corner of the building is the tomb of Mohammed Ali,
which, I was told, was visited by the Khedive the day before I was
there.
The most interesting part of the day was the afternoon trip to the nine
pyramids of the Gizeh group. They may be reached by a drive over the
excellent carriage road that leads out to them, or by taking one of the
electric cars that run along by this road. Three of the pyramids are
large and the others are small, but one, the pyramid of Cheops, is built
on such magnificent proportions that it is called "the great pyramid."
According to Baedeker, "the length of each side is now seven hundred and
fifty feet, but was formerly about seven hundred and sixty-eight feet;
the present perpendicular height is four hundred and fifty-one feet,
while originally, including the nucleus of the rock at the bottom and
the apex, which has now disappeared, it is said to have been four
hundred and eighty-two feet. * * * In round numbers, the stupendous
structure covers an area of nearly thirteen acres."
It is estimated that two million three hundred thousand blocks of stone,
each containing forty cubic feet, were required for building this
ancient and wonderful monument, upon which a hundred thousand men are
said to have been employed for twenty years. Nearly all of the material
was brought across from the east side of the Nile, but the granite that
entered into its construction was brought down from Syene, near Assouan,
five hundred miles distant. Two chambers are shown to visitors, one of
them containing an empty stone coffin. The passageway leading to these
chambers is not easily traversed, as it runs at an angle like a stairway
with no steps, for the old footholds have become so nearly worn out that
the tourist might slip and slide to the bottom were it not for his
Arab helpers. A fee of one dollar secures the right to walk about the
grounds, ascend the pyramid, and go down inside of it. Three Arabs go
with the ticket, and two of them are really needed. Those who went
with me performed their work in a satisfactory manner, and while not
permitted to ask for "backshish," they let me know that they would
accept anything I might have for them. The ascent was rather difficult,
as some of the stones are more than a yard high. It is estimated that
this mighty monument, which Abraham may have looked upon, contains
enough stone to build a wall around the frontier of France. Of the Seven
Wonders of the World, the Pyramid of Cheops alone remains. The other
attractions here are the Granite Temple, and some tombs, from one of
which a jackal ran away as we were approaching. I got back to Cairo
after dark, and took the eight o'clock train for Assouan.
This place is about seven hundred miles from Port Said by rail, and is
a good sized town. The main street, fronting the river, presents
a pleasing appearance with its hotels, Cook's tourist office, the
postoffice, and other buildings. Gas and electricity are used for
lighting, and the dust in the streets is laid by a real street
sprinkler, and not by throwing the water on from a leathern bag, as I
saw it in Damascus. The Cataract Hotel is a large place for tourists,
with a capacity of three hundred and fifty people. The Savoy Hotel is
beautifully located on Elephantine Island, in front of the town. To
the south of the town lie the ancient granite quarries of Syene, which
furnished the Egyptian workmen building material so long ago, and still
lack a great deal of being exhausted. I saw an obelisk lying here which
is said to be ninety-two feet long and ten and a half feet wide in the
broadest part, but both ends of it were covered. In this section there
is an English cemetery inclosed by a wall, and several tombs of the
natives, those of the sheiks being prominent.
Farther to the south is a great modern work, the Nile dam, a mile and a
quarter long, and built of solid masonry. In the deepest place it is one
hundred feet high, and the thickness at the bottom is eighty-eight feet.
It was begun in 1899, and at one time upwards of ten thousand men were
employed on the works. It seemed to be finished when I was there, but a
few workmen were still engaged about the place. The total cost has been
estimated at a sum probably exceeding ten millions of dollars. There are
one hundred and eighty sluices to regulate the out-flow of the water,
which is collected to a height of sixty-five feet during the inundation
of the Nile. The dam would have been made higher, but by so doing Philae
Island, a short distance up the river, would have been submerged.
The remains on this island are so well preserved that it is almost a
misnomer to call them ruins. The little island is only five hundred
yards long and sixty yards wide, and contains the Temple of Isis, Temple
of Hathor, a kiosk or pavilion, two colonnades, and a small Nilometer.
In the gateway to one of the temples is a French inscription concerning
Napoleon's campaign in Egypt in 1799. All the buildings are of stone,
and the outside walls are covered with figures and inscriptions. Some of
the figures are just cut in the rough, never having been finished. Here,
as elsewhere in Egypt, very delicate carvings are preserved almost as
distinct as though done but recently. The guard on the island was not
going to let me see the ruins because I held no ticket. After a little
delay, a small boat, carrying some diplomatic officers, came up. These
gentlemen, one of whom was a Russian, I think, tried to get the guard to
let me see the place with them, but he hesitated, and required them to
give him a paper stating that I was there with them. Later, when I got
to the place where the tickets were sold, I learned that Philae Island
was open for visitors without a ticket. Perhaps the guard thought he
would get some "backshish" from me.
I made an interesting visit to the Bisharin village, just outside of
Assouan, and near the railroad. The inhabitants are very dark-skinned,
and live in booths or tents, covered with something like straw matting.
I stopped at one of the lodges, which was probably six feet wide and
eight feet long, and high enough to enable the occupants to sit erect on
the floor. An old man, naked from the waist up, was sitting outside. A
young woman was operating a small hand mill, and one or two other women
were sitting there on the ground. They showed me some long strings of
beads, and I made a purchase at a low price. While at this lodge, for I
can not call it a house, and it is not altogether like a tent, about
a dozen of the native children gathered around me, and one, who could
speak some English, endeavored to draw out part of my cash by repeating
this speech: "Half a piaster, Mister; thank you very much." The girls
had their hair in small plaits, which seemed to be well waxed together.
One of the boys, about ten years of age, clothed in a peculiar manner,
was finely formed, and made a favorable impression on my mind. I would
like to see what could be made of him if he were taken entirely away
from his unfavorable surroundings and brought up with the care and
attention that many American boys receive. He and another lad went with
me to see the obelisk in the granite quarry, and I tried to teach them
to say: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." As I
was repeating the first word of the sentence and trying to induce one of
them to follow me, he said, "No blessed," and I failed to get either of
them to say these beautiful words. In Egypt and other countries there
are millions of persons just as ignorant of the gospel and just as much
in need of it as the curly-headed Bisharin lad who conducted me to the
granite quarry.
I took a pleasant boat ride across the river, past the beautiful grounds
of the Savoy Hotel, to the rock tombs of the great persons of ancient
Elephantine. I tarried a little too long at the tombs, or else did not
start soon enough, for darkness came upon us soon after leaving them.
For some distance the boatman walked on the shore and towed the boat
with a long rope, while I tried to keep it off of the rocks with the
rudder. There was not enough wind to make the sail useful, and as we
were passing around the end of Elephantine Island we drifted against
the rocks, but with no other loss than the loss of some time. It was my
desire to see the Nilometer on the island, and I did see it, but not
until after I had sent the boatman to buy a candle. This ancient
water-gauge was repaired in 1870, after a thousand years of neglect.
The following description by Strabo is taken from Baedeker's _Guide to
Egypt_: "The Nilometer is a well, built of regular hewn stones, on the
bank of the Nile, in which is recorded the rise of the stream--not only
the maximum, but also the minimum, and average rise, for the water in
the well rises and falls with the stream. On the side of the well are
marks measuring the height for the irrigation and other water levels.
These are published for general information. * * * This is of importance
to the peasants for the management of the water, the embankments, the
canals, etc., and to the officials on account of the taxes, for the
higher the rise of the water, the higher the taxes." It needs to be
said, however, that this "well" is not circular, but rectangular, and
has a flight of steps leading down to the water.
On the way back to Cairo I stopped at Luxor, on the site of the ancient
city of Thebes. The chief attraction here is the Temple of Luxor, six
hundred and twenty-one feet long and one hundred and eighty feet wide.
In recent times this temple was entirely buried, and a man told me he
owned a house on the spot which he sold to the government for about four
hundred and fifty dollars, not knowing of the existence of a temple
buried beneath his dwelling. Some of the original statues of Rameses II.
remain in front of the ruins. I measured the right arm of one of these
figures, from the pit where it touches the side to the same point in
front, a distance of about six feet, and that does not represent the
entire circumference, for the granite between the arm and the body was
never entirely cut away. Near by stands a large red granite obelisk,
with carvings from top to bottom. A companion to this one, for they were
always erected in pairs, has been removed. In ancient times a paved
street led from this temple to Karnak, which is reached by a short walk.
This ancient street was adorned by a row of ram-headed sphinxes on each
side. Toward Karnak many of them are yet to be seen in a badly mutilated
condition, but there is another avenue containing forty of these figures
in a good state of preservation.
The first of the Karnak temples reached is one dedicated to the Theban
moon god, Khons, reared by Rameses III. The Temple of Ammon, called "the
throne of the world," lies a little beyond. I spent half a day on the
west side of the river in what was the burial ground of ancient Thebes,
where also numerous temples were erected. My first stop was before the
ruins of Kurna. The Temple of Sethos I. originally had ten columns
before it, but one is now out of place. The Temple Der el Bahri bore an
English name, signifying "most splendid of all," and it may not have
been misnamed. It is situated at the base of a lofty barren cliff of a
yellowish cast, and has been partially restored.
In 1881 a French explorer discovered the mummies of several Egyptian
rulers in an inner chamber of this temple, that had probably been
removed to this place for security from robbers. In the number were the
remains of Rameses II., who was probably reigning in the boyhood days of
Moses, and the mummy of Set II., perhaps the Pharaoh of the Oppression,
and I saw both of them in the museum in Cairo.
The Ramasseum is another large temple, built by Rameses II., who is
said to have had sixty-nine sons and seventy daughters. There are also
extensive remains of another temple called Medinet Habu. About a half a
mile away from this ruin are the two colossal statues of Memnon,
which were surrounded by water, so I could not get close to them. The
following dimensions of one of them are given: "Height of the figure,
fifty-two feet; height of the pedestal on which the feet rest, thirteen
feet; height of the entire monument, sixty-five feet. But when the
figure was adorned with the long-since vanished crown, the original
height may have reached sixty-nine feet. * * * Each foot is ten and
one-half feet long. * * * The middle finger on one hand is four and a
half feet long, and the arm from the tip of the finger to the elbow
measures fifteen and one-half feet."
All about these temples are indications of ancient graves, from which
the Arabs have dug the mummies. As I rode out, a boy wanted to sell me a
mummy hand, and another had the mummy of a bird. They may both have been
counterfeits made especially for unsuspecting tourists. There are also
extensive rock-cut tombs of the ancient kings and queens, which are
lighted by electricity in the tourist season. I did not visit them on
account of the high price of admission. The government has very properly
taken charge of the antiquities, and a ticket is issued for six dollars
that admits to all these ruins in Upper Egypt. Tickets for any one
particular place were not sold last season, but tourists were allowed to
visit all places not inclosed without a ticket.
While in Luxor I visited the American Mission Boarding School for Girls,
conducted by Miss Buchanan, who was assisted by a Miss Gibson and five
native teachers. A new building, with a capacity for four hundred
boarders, was being erected at a cost of about thirty-five thousand
dollars. This would be the finest building for girls in Egypt when
finished, I was told, and most of the money for it had been given by
tourists. I spent a night in Luxor, staying in the home of Youssef Said,
a native connected with the mission work. His uncle, who could not speak
English, expressed himself as being glad to have "a preacher of Jesus
Christ" to stay in his house.
Leaving Luxor, I returned to Cairo for some more sight-seeing, and I had
a very interesting time of it. In Gen. 41:45 we read: "Pharaoh called
Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and gave him to wife Asenath, the
daughter of Potipherah, priest of On." Heliopolis, meaning city of the
sun, is another name for this place, from whence the wife of Joseph
came. It is only a few miles from Cairo, and easily reached by railway.
All that I saw of the old city was a lonely obelisk, "probably the
oldest one in the world," standing in a cultivated field and surrounded
by the growing crop. It is sixty-six feet high, six feet square at the
base, and is well preserved.
The Ezbekiah Gardens are situated in the best portion of Cairo. This
beautiful park contains quite a variety of trees, including the banyan,
and is a resort of many of the people. Band concerts are held, and a
small entrance fee is taken at the gate.
On the thirtieth of the month I visited the Museum, which has been
moved to the city and installed in its own commodious and substantial
building. This vast collection of relics of this wonderful old country
affords great opportunities for study. I spent a good deal of time there
seeing the coffins of wood, white limestone, red granite, and alabaster;
sacrificial tables, mummies, ancient paintings, weights and measures,
bronze lamps, necklaces, stone and alabaster jars, bronze hinges,
articles of pottery, and many other things. It is remarkable how some
of the embalmed bodies, thousands of years old, are preserved. I looked
down upon the Pharaoh who is supposed to have oppressed Israel. The body
is well preserved, but it brought thoughts to me of the smallness of the
fleshly side of man. He who once ruled in royal splendor now lies there
in very humble silence. In some cases the cloths wrapped around these
mummies are preserved almost perfectly, and I remember a gilt mask that
was so bright that one might have taken it for a modern product. After
the body was securely wrapped, a picture was sometimes painted over the
face, and now, after the lapse of centuries, some of these are very
clear and distinct. I saw a collection of scarabaei, or beetles, which
were anciently worshiped in this country. Dealers offer figures of this
kind for sale, but the most of them are probably manufactured for the
tourist trade.
On Lord's day, October thirtieth, I attended the evening services at the
American Mission, and went to Bedrashen the following day. This is the
nearest railway station to Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt, now an
irregular pile of ruined mud bricks. I secured a donkey, and a boy to
care for it and tell me where to go. We soon passed the dilapidated
ruins of the old capital. Two prostrate statues of great size were seen
on the way to the Step Pyramid of Sakkara, which is peculiar in that it
is built with great offsets or steps, still plainly visible, although
large quantities of the rock have crumbled and fallen down. The
Department of Antiquities has posted a notice in French, Arabic and
English, to the effect that it is dangerous to make the ascent, and that
the government will not be responsible for accidents to tourists who
undertake it. I soon reached the top without any special difficulty,
and with no more danger, so far as I could see, than one experiences
in climbing a steep hill strewn with rocks. I entered another pyramid,
which has a stone in one side of it twenty-five feet long and about five
and a half feet high. Some more tombs were visited, and the delicate
carving on the inner walls was observed. In one instance a harvest scene
was represented, in another the fish in a net could be discerned. The
Serapeum is an underground burial place for the sacred bull, discovered
by Mariette in 1850, after having been buried since about 1400 B.C. In
those times the bull was an object of worship in Egypt, and when one
died, he was carefully embalmed and put in a stone coffin in one of the
chambers of the Serapeum. Some of these coffins are twelve feet high and
fifteen feet long.
Before leaving Cairo, I went into the famous Shepheard's Hotel, where I
received some information about the place from the manager, who looked
like a well-salaried city pastor. The Grand Continental presents a
better appearance on the outside, but I do not believe it equals
Shepheard's on the inside. I was now ready to turn towards home, so I
dropped down to Port Said again, where there is little of interest to
the tourist except the ever-changing panorama of ships in the mouth of
the Suez Canal, and the study of the social condition of the people. My
delay in the city while waiting for a ship gave me a good deal of
time for writing and visiting the missionaries. The Seamen's Rest is
conducted by Mr. Locke, who goes out in the harbor and gathers up
sailors in his steam launch, and carries them back to their vessels
after the service. One night, after speaking in one of these meetings, I
rode out with him. The American Mission conducts a school for boys, and
Feltus Hanna, the native superintendent, kindly showed me around. The
Peniel Mission is conducted by two American ladies. The British and
Foreign Bible Society has a depot here, and keeps three men at work
visiting ships in the harbor all the time. I attended the services
in the chapel of the Church of England one morning. With all these
religious forces the city is very wicked. The street in which my hotel
was located was largely given up to drinking and harlotry.
On the ninth of November the French ship _Congo_ stopped in the harbor,
and I went down late in the evening to embark, but the authorities would
not permit me to go aboard, because I had not been examined by the
medical officer, who felt my pulse and signed a paper that was never
called for, and I went aboard all right. The ship stopped at Alexandria,
and I went around in the city, seeing nothing of equal interest to
Pompey's Pillar, a monument standing ninety-eight feet and nine inches
high. The main shaft is seventy-three feet high and nearly thirty feet
in circumference. We reached Marseilles in the evening of November
sixteenth, after experiencing some weather rough enough to make me
uncomfortable, and several of the others were really seasick. I had
several hours in Paris, which was reached early the next day, and the
United States consulate and the Louvre, the national museum of France,
were visited. From Paris I went to London by way of Dieppe and New
Haven. I left summer weather in Egypt, and found that winter was on hand
in France and England. London was shrouded in a fog. I went back to my
friends at Twynholm, and made three addresses on Lord's day, and spoke
again on Monday night. I sailed from Liverpool for New York on the _SS.
Cedric_ November twenty-third. We were in the harbor at Queenstown,
Ireland, the next day, and came ashore at the New York custom house on
the second of December. The _Cedric_ was then the second largest ship in
the world, being seven hundred feet long and seventy-five feet broad.
She carries a crew of three hundred and forty, and has a capacity for
over three thousand passengers. On this trip she carried one thousand
three hundred and thirty-six, and the following twenty classes of people
were represented: Americans, English, French, German, Danes, Norwegians,
Roumanians, Spanish, Arabs, Japanese, Negroes, Greeks, Russian Jews,
Fins, Swedes, Austrians, Armenians, Poles, Irish, and Scotch. A great
stream of immigrants is continually pouring into the country at this
point. Twelve thousand were reported as arriving in one day, and a
recent paper contains a note to the effect that the number arriving in
June will exceed eighty thousand, as against fifty thousand in June
of last year. "The character of the immigrants seems to grow steadily
worse."
My traveling companion from Port Said to Marseilles and from Liverpool
to New York was Solomon Elia, who had kindly shown me through the
Israelite Alliance School in Jerusalem. I reached Philadelphia the same
day the ship landed in New York, but was detained there with brethren
on account of a case of quinsy. I reached home on the fourteenth of
December, after an absence of five months and three days, in which
time I had seen something of fourteen foreign countries, having a very
enjoyable and profitable trip.
CHAPTER VIII.
GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE.
This section of country has been known by several names. It has been
called the "Land of Canaan," the "Land of Israel," the "Land of
Promise," the "Land of the Hebrews," and the "Holy Land." Canaan was
simply the country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, extending
from Mt. Lebanon on the north to the Desert of Arabia on the south. Dan
was in the extreme northern part, and Beer-sheba lay in the southern end
of the country, one hundred and thirty-nine miles distant. The average
width of the land is about forty miles, and the total area is in the
neighborhood of six thousand miles. "It is not in size or physical
characteristics proportioned to its moral and historical position as the
theater of the most momentous events in the world's history." Palestine,
the land occupied by the twelve tribes, included the Land of Canaan and
a section of country east of the Jordan one hundred miles long and about
twenty-five miles wide, occupied by Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of
Manasseh. The Land of Promise was still more extensive, reaching
from "the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates,"
embracing about sixty thousand square miles, or a little less than
the five New England States. The country is easily divided into four
parallel strips. Beginning at the Mediterranean, we have the Maritime
Plain, the Mountain Region, the Jordan Valley, and the Eastern
Table-Land.
The long stretch of lowland known as the Maritime Plain is divided
into three sections. The portion lying north of Mt. Carmel was called
Phoenicia. It varies in width from half a mile in the north to eight
miles in the south. The ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon belonged to
this section. Directly east of Mt. Carmel is the Plain of Esdraelon,
physically a part of the Maritime Plain. It is an irregular triangle,
whose sides are fourteen, sixteen, and twenty-five miles respectively,
the longest side being next to Mt. Carmel. Here Barak defeated the army
of Sisera under Jabin, and here Josiah, king of Judah, was killed in a
battle with the Egyptians under Pharaoh-necoh.
The Plains of Sharon and Philistia, lying south of Carmel, are usually
regarded as the true Maritime Plain. Sharon extends southward from
Carmel about fifty miles, reaching a little below Jaffa, and has an
average width of eight miles. The Zerka, or Crocodile river, which
traverses this plain, is the largest stream of Palestine west of the
Jordan. There are several other streams crossing the plain from the
mountains to the sea, but they usually cease to flow in the summer
season. Joppa, Lydda, Ramleh, and Caesarea belong to this plain. Herod
the Great built Caesarea, and spent large sums of money on its palace,
temple, theater, and breakwater.
The Plain of Philistia extends thirty or forty miles from the southern
limits of Sharon to Gaza, varying in width from twelve to twenty-five
miles. It is well watered by several streams, some of which flow all the
year. Part of the water from the mountains flows under the ground and
rises in shallow lakes near the coast. Water can easily be found here,
as also in Sharon, by digging wells, and the soil is suitable for the
culture of small grains and for pasture. During a part of the year the
plain is beautifully ornamented with a rich growth of brightly colored
flowers, a characteristic of Palestine in the wet season.
Gaza figures in the history of Samson, who "laid hold of the doors of
the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and
all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the
mountain that is before Hebron." Ashkelon, on the coast, is connected
with the history of the Crusades. Ashdod, or Azotus, is where Philip was
found after the baptism of the eunuch. It is said that Psammetichus,
an ancient Egyptian king, captured this place after a siege of
twenty-seven years. Ekron and Gath also belonged to this plain.
The ridge of mountains lying between the coast plain and the Jordan
valley form the backbone of the country. Here, more than elsewhere,
the Israelites made their homes, on account of the hostility of the
inhabitants in the lowlands. This ridge is a continuation of the Lebanon
range, and extends as far south as the desert. In Upper Galilee the
mountains reach an average height of two thousand eight hundred feet
above sea level, but in Lower Galilee they are a thousand feet lower. In
Samaria and Judaea they reach an altitude of two or three thousand feet.
The foot-hills, called the Shefelah, and the Negeb, or "South Country,"
complete the ridge. The highest peak is Jebel Mukhmeel, in Northern
Palestine, rising ten thousand two hundred feet above the sea. Mt.
Tabor, in Galilee, is one thousand eight hundred and forty-three feet
high, while Gerizim and Ebal, down in Samaria, are two thousand eight
hundred and fifty feet and three thousand and seventy-five feet
respectively. The principal mountains in Judaea are Mt. Zion, two
thousand five hundred and fifty feet; Mt. Moriah, about one hundred feet
lower; Mount of Olives, two thousand six hundred and sixty-five feet,
and Mt. Hebron, three thousand and thirty feet. Nazareth, Shechem,
Jerusalem, and Hebron belong to the Mountain Region.
The Jordan Valley is the lowest portion of the earth's surface. No other
depressions are more than three hundred feet below sea level, but the
Jordan is six hundred and eighty-two feet lower than the ocean at the
Sea of Galilee, and nearly thirteen hundred feet lower where it enters
the Dead Sea. This wonderful depression, which includes the Dead Sea,
forty-five miles long, and the valley south of it, one hundred miles in
length, is two hundred and fifty miles long and from four to fourteen
miles in width, and is called the Arabah. The sources of the Jordan
are one hundred and thirty-four miles from the mouth, but the numerous
windings of the stream make it two hundred miles long. The Jordan
is formed by the union of three streams issuing from springs at an
elevation of seventeen hundred feet above the sea. The principal source
is the spring at Dan, one of the largest in the world, as it sends forth
a stream twenty feet wide and from twenty to thirty inches deep. The
spring at Banias, the Caesarea Philippi of the Scriptures, is the
eastern source. The Hashbany flows from a spring forming the western
source. A few miles south of the union of the streams above mentioned
the river widens into the waters of Merom, a small lake nearly on a
level with the Mediterranean. In the next few miles it descends rapidly,
and empties into the Sea of Galilee, called also the Sea of Chinnereth,
Sea of Tiberias, and Lake of Gennesaret. In the sixty-five miles from
the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea the fall is about six hundred feet.
The rate of descent is not uniform throughout the whole course of the
river. In one section it drops sixty feet to the mile, while there is
one stretch of thirteen miles with a descent of only four and a half
feet to the mile. The average is twenty-two feet to the mile. The width
varies from eighty to one hundred and eighty feet, and the depth from
five to twelve feet. Caesarea Philippi, at the head of the valley,
Capernaum, Magdala, Tiberias, and Tarrichaea were cities on the Sea of
Galilee. Jericho and Gilgal were in the plain at the southern extremity,
and Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, upon which the wrath of God was
poured, were somewhere in the region of the Dead Sea.
The Eastern Table-Land has a mountain wall four thousand feet high
facing the river. This table-land, which is mostly fertile, extends
eastward about twenty miles, and terminates in the Arabian Desert, which
is still higher. Here the mountains are higher and steeper than those
west of the Jordan. Mt. Hermon, in the north, is nine thousand two
hundred feet high. South of the Jarmuk River is Mt. Gilead, three
thousand feet high, and Mt. Nebo, lying east of the northern end of the
Dead Sea, reaches an elevation of two thousand six hundred and seventy
feet. Besides the Jarmuk, another stream, the Jabbok, flows into the
Jordan from this side. The Arnon empties into the Dead Sea. The northern
section was called Bashan, the middle, Gilead, and the southern part,
Moab. Bashan anciently had many cities, and numerous ruins yet remain.
In the campaign of Israel against Og, king of Bashan, sixty cities
were captured. Many events occurred in Gilead, where were situated
Jabesh-Gilead, Ramoth-Gilead, and the ten cities of the Decapolis, with
the exception of Beth-shean, which was west of the Jordan. From the
summit of Mt. Pisgah, a peak of Mt. Nebo, Moses viewed the Land
of Promise, and from these same heights Balaam looked down on the
Israelites and undertook to curse them, Moab lies south of the Arnon
and east of the Dead Sea. In the time of a famine, an Israelite, named
Elimelech, with his wife and sons, sojourned in this land. After the
death of Elimelech and both of his sons, who had married in the land,
Naomi returned to Bethlehem, accompanied by her daughter-in-law, Ruth,
the Moabitess, who came into the line of ancestry of David and of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Once, when the kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom
invaded the land, the king of Moab (when they came to Kir-hareseth,
the capital) took his oldest son, who would have succeeded him on the
throne, "and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall." At this
the invaders "departed from him and returned to their own land."
The political geography of Palestine is so complicated that it can not
be handled in the space here available. Only a few words, applicable
to the country in New Testament times, can be said. The provinces of
Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea were on the west side of the Jordan, while
the Decapolis and Perea lay east of that river. The northern province
of Galilee, which saw most of the ministry of Jesus, extended from the
Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee, and a much greater distance from
the north to the south. It was peopled with Jews, and was probably a
much better country than is generally supposed, as it contained a large
number of cities and villages, and produced fish, oil, wheat, wine,
figs, and flax. "It was in Christ's time one of the gardens of the
world--well watered, exceedingly fertile, thoroughly cultivated, and
covered with a dense population."--_Merrill_.
Samaria, lying south of Galilee, extended from the Mediterranean to the
Jordan, and was occupied by a mixed race, formed by the mingling of Jews
with the foreigners who had been sent into the land. When they were
disfellowshiped by the Jews, about 460 B.C., they built a temple on Mt.
Gerizim.
The province of Judaea was the largest in Palestine, and extended from
the Mediterranean on the west to the Dead Sea and the Jordan on the
east. It was bounded on the north by Samaria, and on the south by the
desert. Although but fifty-five miles long and about thirty miles wide,
it held out against Egypt, Babylonia, and Rome.
The Decapolis, or region of ten Gentile cities, was the northeastern
part of Palestine, extending eastward from the Jordan to the desert.
Perea lay south of the Decapolis, and east of the Jordan and Dead Sea.
The kingdom of Herod the Great, whose reign ended B.C. 4, included
all of this territory. After his death the country was divided into
tetrarchies. Archelaus ruled over Judaea and Samaria; Antipas ("Herod
the tetrarch") had control of Galilee and Perea; Philip had a section of
country east of the Sea of Galilee, and Lysanius ruled over Abilene, a
small section of country between Mt. Hermon and Damascus, not included
in the domain of Herod the Great. Herod Agrippa was made king by
Caligula, and his territory embraced all that his grandfather, Herod the
Great, had ruled over, with Abilene added, making his territory more
extensive than that of any Jewish king after Solomon. He is the "Herod
the king" who killed the Apostle James and imprisoned Peter. After
delivering an oration at Caesarea, he died a horrible death, "because
he gave not God the glory." At his death, in A.D. 44, the country was
divided into two provinces. The northern section was ruled by Herod
Agrippa II. till the Jewish State was dissolved, in A.D. 70. He was the
"King Agrippa" before whom Paul spoke. The southern part of the country,
called the province of Judaea, was ruled by procurators having their
seat at Caesarea. When Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70, the country
was annexed to Syria.
The climate depends more upon local conditions than on the latitude,
which is the same as Southern Georgia and Alabama, Jerusalem being on
the parallel of Savannah. In point of temperature it is about the same
as these localities, but in other respects it differs much. The year has
two seasons--the dry, lasting from the first of April to the first of
November, and the rainy season, lasting the other five months, during
which time there are copious rains. One authority says: "Were the old
cisterns cleaned and mended, and the beautiful tanks and aqueducts
repaired, the ordinary fall of rain would be quite sufficient for the
wants of the inhabitants and for irrigation." The summers are hot, the
winters mild. Snow sometimes falls, but does not last long, and ice is
seldom formed.
Palestine is not a timbered country. The commonest oak is a low, scrubby
bush. The "cedars of Lebanon" have almost disappeared. The carob
tree, white poplar, a thorn bush, and the oleander are found in some
localities. The principal fruit-bearing trees are the fig, olive, date
palm, pomegranate, orange, and lemon. Grapes, apples, apricots, quinces,
and other fruits also grow here. Wheat, barley, and a kind of corn are
raised, also tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, and tobacco. The ground
is poorly cultivated with inferior tools, and the grain is tramped out
with cattle, as in the long ago.
Sheep and goats are the most numerous domestic animals, a peculiarity of
the sheep being the extra large "fat tail" (Lev. 3:9), a lump of pure
fat from ten to fifteen inches long and from three to five inches thick.
Cattle, camels, horses, mules, asses, dogs and chickens are kept.
CHAPTER IX.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF PALESTINE.
In the ancient Babylonian city called Ur of the Chaldees lived the
patriarch Terah, who was the father of three sons, Abram, Nahor, and
Haran. Lot was the son of Haran, who died in Ur. Terah, accompanied by
Abram, Sarai, and Lot, started for "the land of Canaan," but they "came
unto Haran and dwelt there," "and Terah died in Haran." "Now Jehovah
said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and
from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee: and I will
make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name
great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee,
and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed." So Abram, Sarai, and Lot came into
the land of Canaan about 2300 B.C., and dwelt first at Shechem, but "he
removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched
his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east." Abram did not
remain here, but journeyed to the south, and when a famine came, he
entered Egypt. Afterwards he returned to the southern part of Canaan,
and still later he returned "unto the place where his tent had been at
the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. * * * And Lot also, who went with
Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents." On account of some discord
between the herdsmen of the two parties, "Abram said unto Lot, Let there
be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my
herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we are brethren." Accepting his uncle's
proposition, Lot chose the well watered Plain of the Jordan, "journeyed
east," "and moved his tent as far as Sodom," but "Abram moved his tent,
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