Curiosities of Christian History Part 6

From the time Pompey (63 B.C.) captured Jerusalem and subjected the country to the Roman yoke, the Jews were always on the verge of insurrection. In 65 A.D., when Florus the Roman procurator robbed the sacred treasury, and brought on an insurrection, Bernice, the wife of Agrippa, rushed with bare feet through the streets to intercede with Florus; but it was in vain. In 69 A.D. t.i.tus approached and besieged the city, starved out the inhabitants, and destroyed the Temple. Many Jewish captives were afterwards carried to Rome to swell the triumph of t.i.tus, and were thrown to the wild beasts or forced to kill one another. The triumphal arch of t.i.tus, erected soon after his death, remains to this day in Rome. From that date the Jews ceased to be a nation, and were dispersed over the world. There are no clear accounts of what became of the Apostles after the fall of Jerusalem. Some say that they arranged to go into different regions, as Scythia, Asia, Parthia, India. Those writers who profess to give later accounts of the Apostles flourished only in the third or fourth century.

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM IN 70.

Not long before the outbreak of the Jewish War, seven years before the siege of Jerusalem, a man, by name Jesus, came to the city at the Feast of Tabernacles, and in a fit of abstraction cried continually, "Woe to the city! woe to the Temple!" He alarmed the authorities, who ordered him to be scourged as a madman; but he continued these exclamations, and during the siege he was last seen sitting on the wall, still repeating the same cries, till a missile put an end to him. The Jews rebelled against the Romans in 66. The Christians, remembering our Lord's admonition (Matt.

xxiv. 15), forsook the city, and fled beyond the Jordan. In April 70, when the city was filled with strangers, the siege began, and history records no other instance of such obstinate resistance, such desperate bravery and contempt of death. The Castle of Antonia was surprised and taken by night.

The famine was so severe that many swallowed their jewels; a mother even roasted her own child. t.i.tus wished to spare the Temple. But in a fresh a.s.sault a soldier, unbidden, hurled a firebrand through the golden door.

When the flame arose the Jews raised a hideous yell. The Roman legions vied with each other in feeding the flames. It was burnt on August 10th, 70, the same day of the year on which the first Temple was, according to tradition, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The sight was terrible. The mountain seemed enveloped in one sheet of flame; all was covered with corpses; over these heaps the soldiers pursued the fugitives. Josephus says the number of Jews slain was 1,100,000, and the number sold into slavery was 90,000. The Christian Church was by this event liberated from local influences, and took up an independent position in the world.

ANTIOCH THE FIRST GENTILE CHURCH.

The interest of Antioch consists in certain memorable events having occurred there in the first ages of Christianity. It was situated where the chain of the Lebanon, running north, and the chain of Taurus, running east, meet, and was partly on an island. It was here that the Christians, when dispersed from Jerusalem at the death of Stephen, preached the Gospel. Here was the first Gentile Church founded; here the disciples of Christ were first called Christians; here St. Paul first settled as a minister of the Church and started on his first mission; here St. Paul rebuked St. Peter for conduct into which he had been betrayed through the influence of emissaries from Jerusalem. Jews were from the first settled in Antioch in large numbers. The city was founded in 300 B.C., and became prosperous. The citizens were noted for scurrilous wit, and for the nicknames they gave, and perhaps the name of Christian had its origin in this disposition of theirs. The modern place known as Antioch is a small and insignificant town of 6,000 inhabitants, though the ancient city was supposed to have had a population of 200,000. An earthquake destroyed most of the city in 526, and again in 583. The Saracens captured it in 635; the Crusaders stormed it in 1089; and it fell under the Moslem rule in 1286, since which time it has dwindled into insignificance.

PALESTINE EXPLORATIONS.

In modern times the geography of Palestine was chiefly known through the works of Dr. Robinson, Burckhart, and Vande Velde; but in 1864 a society sprang up in England for the purpose of a more systematic exploration.

Successive expeditions were sent there for that purpose. In 1868 the Moabite Stone was discovered by the Rev. F. Klein. It is a block of basalt about 3-1/2 feet by 2 feet, and has on its face thirty-four lines of writing in the character known as Phoenician. If it had remained entire, there would have been no great difficulty in reading the inscription; but when the Arabs heard that the Europeans attached great value to its possession, they quarrelled about it and broke it up. About two-thirds of the fragments were afterwards collected and pieced together. And, fortunately, a "squeeze" of the whole had been taken before it was broken, and a translation has been arrived at. The restored monument was preserved in the Louvre at Paris, and a plaster cast is in the British Museum. The inscription is supposed to be a record by Media, King of Moab (nearly nine hundred years before Christ), of the victories and public works he had achieved. Besides the Moabite Stone, the explorers discovered numerous dolmens, being circular terraces 3 feet high, some of which were conjectured to be burial-places; also, dolmens being flat, table-like surfaces, probably used as altars by the Canaanite tribes.

THE COURSE OF THE JORDAN TO THE DEAD SEA.

Mr. Macgregor, of the _Rob Roy_ canoe, traversed the upper part of the Jordan, and arrived at certain measurements, which have been corrected slightly by the Palestine Survey Commission. From the source to the Dead Sea it is 200 miles long. The source of the tributary of the Hasbany is 1,700 feet above the level of the sea. The Dead Sea is 1,292 feet below the level of the sea. The Lake of Tiberias is 682 feet below the level of the sea. The river at first runs 20 miles, then falls into the basin of Hooleh, 4 miles long; then runs 10 miles, and falls into the basin of Tiberias, or the Lake of Galilee, 12-1/2 miles long and 8 miles wide; then runs 65 miles, and falls into the basin of the Dead Sea, 47 miles long and 10 miles wide. The Dead Sea is 1,278 feet deep at its greatest depth; the Sea of Galilee is 165 feet deep at the greatest; Hooleh about 15 feet deep. The Jordan ranks in size with the Dee of Aberdeenshire, but is rather less rapid. The Jordan has nearly the same rapidity as the Clyde and the Tweed. The Dead Sea, called in the Old Testament the Salt Sea, has no outlet to the south, but gets rid by evaporation from the surface of all the water poured into it. This is said to be the most remarkable depression of the kind on the face of the earth. There is no port, and there are no fish. The waters of lakes which have no outlet, such as the Caspian, the Sea of Aral, Lakes Balkash, Van, Uramiah, and the Dead Sea ultimately become more or less saline. The excessive saltness of the Dead Sea is represented as 2457 lbs. of salt in 100 lbs. of water; while that of the Atlantic is only 6 lbs. of salt in the same quant.i.ty.

THE SEA OF GALILEE.

The Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias, or Gennesaret, is pear-shaped, tapering towards the lower end. In its central part it varies from 60 feet to 165 feet deep. It is 12-1/2 miles long, and its greatest width is 8 miles.

Bethsaida, now called Tabiga, is on the upper sh.o.r.e of Galilee, and consists of a few huts and mills. Some hot springs here flow into the lake, and great numbers of fish crowd round that spot, which cormorants and gulls watch and feed upon. Here was the miraculous draught of fishes.

Here Christ stood in a ship a little from the sh.o.r.e and addressed the mult.i.tude. There was also a Bethsaida on the east of the Jordan at St.

Tell, where the five thousand were fed. The site of Capernaum, as related (p. 62), is now doubtful; but Mr. Macgregor thought it was at Khan Minyeh, about a mile west of Bethsaida and on the sh.o.r.e of Galilee. Magdala is on the west sh.o.r.e of the lake near the middle, now called Midgel, and is a poor village without beauty or cleanliness. It gives the name to Mary, who is known over the whole world. Behind Magdala the hills rise abruptly to about 1,000 feet. Tiberias is three miles farther down the west coast than Magdala, and is now a filthy town, especially in the Jews' quarter. Christ seemed never to have entered this town, and the chief reason given is that it was full of foreigners.

FISHING IN SEA OF GALILEE.

The boats now used on the Sea of Galilee have dwindled to about six, of five oars each; and for half a century travellers seldom have seen more than one or two on the lake. The fish in the lake were said by Macgregor to be the carp and the cat-fish, or coracinus. When Dr. Tristram visited the country in 1869, he found a mode of fishing in vogue which was to scatter poisoned bread crumbs, which caused the fish to die and float on the surface in large shoals. He was told that there were fourteen species of fish in the lake, but only three sorts were eatable. He also saw a man wade in naked to guide his seine net round, and then draw it ash.o.r.e. The storms or squalls on the Sea of Tiberias are often violent, and this is said to be owing to its depth below the level of the sea, where the air is so rarefied and causes a gap in the continuity of the atmosphere. The steep place where the herd of swine ran down into the Sea of Tiberias is judged to be at Kersa, directly opposite to Magdala.

THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN.

Mr. Macgregor, with the _Rob Roy_ canoe, about the year 1868 explored the sources of the Jordan, which are three. One is the Hasbany, due north, near which is the Pool of Fuarr, which the natives all believed to be 1,000 feet deep, being unapproachable by them; but when sounded it was only 11 feet deep. There is a weir made to form this pool, and to supply a mill near this point, and also a bridge with two arches crosses the stream a little lower down. Two miles to the east of the Hasbany is another source of the Jordan, called the Leddan; and on the east bank is a mound, about 30 feet high and 600 feet wide, said to have been once the town of Dan, where Jeroboam set up the idol (1 Kings xii. 28). Near this spot is an impenetrable thicket, covering a pool 100 feet wide, supplied by a subterranean stream. The natives believed the pool bottomless, but it was found by the _Rob Roy_ to be only 5 feet deep. This pool also supplies a mill. About fourteen miles farther east is the third source of the Jordan, issuing out of a cavern at the village of Banias, which was once the town of Caesarea Philippi, where Christ asked His disciples who they thought He was. Near this spot was supposed to be the scene of the Transfiguration.

Near this also are the vast ruins of the Castle of Subeibeh, built by the Herods, and held by the Crusaders. It is 1,500 feet above the plain.

THE HOOLEH, OR WATERS OF MEROM.

The three sources of the Jordan--the Hasbany, the Leddan, and the Banias--unite, after running about 12 miles, at a place called Tell Sheik Yusuf. The Banias is about 70 feet wide before it reaches this point, and the banks are 20 feet high and abrupt. The united river is called the Jordan from this point, being then about 100 feet wide, and 8 or 9 feet deep. After running about 6 miles, the river becomes dispersed into small channels, and these are soon lost in a vast mora.s.s, called the Hooleh, or Waters of Merom, choked with reeds and papyrus, and swarming with leeches.

These obstacles prevent even a canoe pa.s.sing. The pa.s.sage being thus blocked for half a mile, the water is again collected in a central pool or lake about 60 yards wide. A clear channel of a 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep flows from this pool, between thick walls of papyrus, which grows to a height of 15 feet above the water. And this is said now to be the largest papyrus ground in the world. Pelicans and water-fowl abound in Hooleh, and Mr. Macgregor killed a pelican which measured 10 feet between the tips of the extended wings. The Hooleh lake, or that part of it which is clear of the papyrus, is about 4 miles wide and 6 miles long, tapering to a point at the lower end, where the Jordan again issues as a river. The lake is not deeper than 15 feet, and is more usually 9 and 10 feet only.

The Jordan, on its issuing from Hooleh, is about 60 feet wide; and after running 10 miles very rapidly, falls into the Sea of Tiberias or Galilee, or Lake of Gennesaret.

THE RIVERS OF DAMASCUS.

When Naaman the Syrian went to Elisha to be healed of leprosy, and was told to wash seven times in the Jordan, he exclaimed, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" In 1868 Mr. Macgregor, with the _Rob Roy_ canoe, visited these places.

Damascus was picturesque in its situation, but the houses and people exceedingly dirty. It is said to be the oldest inhabited city in the world. Vines and orange trees relieve the mud walls, but there is nothing really beautiful except the scenery surrounding this city. The population is said to be now 150,000. The river rises a little to the east of the source of the Jordan out of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, and flows due east past Damascus. It is a deep and rapid river about sixty feet wide, with high banks, without trees, and with fruitful plains on each side.

Tortoises and land crabs abound. The _Rob Roy_ canoe sailed down to the Tell of Salahiyeh, which is a small green hill like Primrose Hill, near London. There are many ca.n.a.ls used for irrigation in the course of the river. The river then divides into three branches, on one of which is the spot known as Abraham's Well, now called the village of Harran. These three branches become lost in a large mora.s.s called Ateibah. The _Rob Roy_ explored this mora.s.s, and found it perfectly still water, choked with reeds and osiers about five feet high. The natives never go into it, believing some of the pools to be bottomless. The mora.s.s or lake is of a double form, and the whole is about fourteen miles long and four miles wide, seldom visited except for wild ducks and the myriads of other fowl which are the only active inhabitants of the spot, and make the only noise that can be heard. A few villages are dotted over the surrounding plains.

The river Pharpar flows parallel to the Abana in a line about twelve miles more to the south. It also runs into a large mora.s.s, south of which is the land of Bashan. Here wild boars have their tracks through the reeds. The "bulls of Bashan" are s.h.a.ggy buffaloes, which stand up to their middle in the marshes enjoying the coolness, till the Arab herdsman with a long stick drives them away, when they bellow and snort, raise their tails and scamper off, spreading terror all round.

POPULOUSNESS OF GALILEE IN CHRIST'S TIME.

According to Josephus, who lived a few years after the Crucifixion, the populousness of Galilee was far before most other regions of the world. He says that in a district of between fifty and sixty miles long, and sixty or seventy miles broad, there were no less than 204 cities and villages, the least of which contained 15,000 souls. If this were true, then, leaving out of view the straggling villages, the population of the province would amount to the incredible number of 3,060,000. There were, according to Strabo, many Egyptians, Arabians, and Phoenicians in Galilee about that period.

CLIMATE OF PALESTINE.

Major Conder, engaged in the survey of Palestine about 1874, said that Palestine is still a land of corn, wine, and oil, as of yore, and sheep are still fed in the same pastoral regions; the same vineyards are still famous; the corn of its plains still yields a hundred-fold. Plagues, famines, fever, and leprosy still are common. There are still the former and the latter rains; and the rose of Sharon has not withered; the purple iris is still royally robed. Except in the disappearance of the lion and the wild bull there is no change in the fauna. The deer, the antelope, the fox, the wolf, the hyaena, the jackal, the ostrich, and the crocodile still survive in the wilder part of the land, and the great boar, the leopard, the wild goat, and the wild a.s.s. The corn ripens even in April in the Jordan Valley, and in May on the hills; and the olive harvest and the vintage follow in the early autumn. In January comes the snow, with ice and hail. In one year in Jerusalem there were seven falls of snow.

MOUNT HERMON.

Mount Hermon, the second mountain in Syria, is a range of hills lying east and west, all on the east side of the source of the Jordan, often called the Anti-Lebanon. The highest cone is entirely naked. The snow never disappears from the summit, though in the height of summer it melts here and there, except in the ravines radiating from the top. The parallel range nearest the Mediterranean is called the Lebanon; and Mount Lebanon, the highest part, is snow-capped the greater part of the year. The range decreases in elevation southward. The average height of both ranges, exclusive of the peaks, is 1,500 to 1,800 feet. The range is rugged, consisting of deep fissures, precipices, towering rocks, and ravines. The forests of Lebanon consist of the cedars of Lebanon and a great variety of trees; but the cedars have dwindled to about 1,400. In the lower valleys and plains fig trees cling to the rocks, mulberries are cultivated in rows on step-like terraces, vines also are trained along narrow ledges, and dense groves of olives occupy the lower parts of the glens. The date palm, once abundant, is now almost extinct.

THE LILIES OF THE FIELD.

Considerable variety of opinion has existed as to the precise flower which Christ alluded to in the ever-memorable Sermon on the Mount (Matt. vi.

28). Some have thought it must have been the rose; but the Septuagint translated the same word into lily, and this is considered the standard meaning. Father Souciet laboured to prove it ought to be the crown imperial, a plant common in Persia. Whatever flower was indicated, it was no doubt conspicuous and beautiful, as well as common. There are red or purple and white lilies; and probably the scarlet or purple colour was the one referred to, called the scarlet martagon, which grows in profusion in the Levant, and in the district of Galilee in April and May. The purple flowers of the khob or wild artichoke, which abounds in the plains north of Tabor, are thought by some to be the lilies of the field. A recent traveller also introduces to notice a plant with lilac flowers like the hyacinth, which he thought probably the flower meant. Dean Stanley says the only lilies he saw in Palestine were the large yellow water-lilies near Lake Merom. Mr. Thompson, in "The Land and the Book," seems to prefer a large species of lily which grows among thorns, and is fed upon by the gazelles. He calls the colour gorgeous, but does not state what the colour is. The anemone _coronaria_ is also noticed by Mr. John Smith, of Kew, with its brilliant colours, growing everywhere, and is abundant on the Mount of Olives. The lily of the valley, as known in England, is not a native of Palestine, and is not the flower of that name mentioned in the Bible.

WAYSIDE CEREALS, FRUITS, AND FLOWERS OF PALESTINE.

The most substantial as well as ordinary corn and fruits of Palestine are, and probably were in our Lord's time, wheat, maize, lentils, barley, vines, olives, figs, and pomegranates. The land was ploughed by oxen. The fields were not usually separated by hedges, walls, or fences. The plough was a rude and light implement, which did not penetrate deeply into the soil, but merely scratched the surface a little. The threshing floor was merely a smooth and hard place where the corn was piled in a heap in the centre, and the oxen led round the outside to trample out the grains. The usual vegetables in Palestine are beans, peas, beets, turnips, carrots, and radishes. Gourds also abound. The herbs are lettuce, parsley, mint, mustard, lentils, cabbages, onions, and garlic. Melons and cuc.u.mbers are rather luxuries, the former being manured from the dove-cotes which abound, and which are often substantial round buildings. The vineyards, which are surrounded by a hedge and ditch, are carefully watched during the ripening season to protect them from thieves, and also from the invasion of foxes, jackals, badgers, bears, and wild boars. The vineyards also have cherry, apple, pear, fig, and nut trees. The olives are planted in rows in the orchards. It is a tradition that the olives still growing at the foot of Mount Olivet were growing in the time of our Lord; but this is highly improbable, and is contradicted by some facts recorded by Josephus. The olives are first salted, then crushed in the olive press by a round stone as a press, run out into stone troughs, and the oil is stored in skin bottles or in stone jars, which are buried in the ground.

The date palm abounds in the low and sheltered places. The palm tree consists of a single stem or trunk, rising to sixty or eighty feet without a branch, and with a tuft of leaves on the top. The fig tree, with its short stem and wide lateral branches, with sprigs of little figs growing all round the trunk, is the easiest to climb. The cedar tree was considered the most excellent for size, beauty of form, and for fragrance and durability of its wood. Hence Solomon used it chiefly for the Temple.

It attained sometimes 120 feet in height. The wild cypress yielded gopher wood, of which the Ark was made. The oak and the terebinth are sometimes confounded together; but a small kind of the latter produces pistachio nuts. The poplar, evergreen, and sycomore are conspicuous in the jungles near the Jordan, as well as the tamarisk and cane. Of flowers the rose is a favourite. The flower called the rose of Sharon was rather the flower of a bulbous root. The lily of the field referred to in the Sermon on the Mount has been sometimes identified as a red tulip, called by the French a meadow anemone or queen of the meadows. It is remarkable for its great variety of colours, the scarlet abounding especially. There are also b.u.t.tercups, dandelions, daisies, poppies, white and yellow crocus, mandrake, hyacinth, and sweet-scented stock. Of wild shrubs the oleander grows to a height of twelve to fifteen feet, and with its bright red flowers adorns the banks of the Jordan. The maidenhair fern hangs luxuriant round the fountains.

THE BIRDS OF PALESTINE.

The birds found in modern times in Palestine include the following:--The woodp.e.c.k.e.r, the robin, the lark, the thrush, the willow wren, and chiff-chaff; the true bulbul, which is the nightingale of Palestine; the grackle, or orange-winged blackbird, haunting the gorges of the Dead Sea; also rock doves issue from the caverns; the wagtail; rock swallows; the black-headed jay; great spotted cuckoos; the black-shouldered kite; the red-legged partridge; ducks, rails, and coots; the eagle owl, as large as those in Central Europe; also little owls; the bat; the seagull, flamingo, crane, and cormorant; the imperial eagle; the vulture, griffon, and falcon; the hooded crow, the rook, and jackdaw. Of all the birds of Jerusalem the raven is the most conspicuous, one species being the ashy-necked, and smaller than the common sort. These ravens haunt the trees of the Kedron and Mount Olivet.

WILD BEASTS AND ANIMALS OF PALESTINE.

The wild beasts in Palestine include the following:--The ichneumon, which frequents the rocks, being as large as a badger, and of the same colour; the fox, the hedgehog, and the badger; the mole rat, which frequents all ruins, being twice the size of the English mole, and of a pale slate colour; the wild boar, the hyaena, and jackal; hares and gazelles. The bees are of smaller size than the English; b.u.t.terflies the same as in England.

Lizards and snails are common.