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“The wilderness.”
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Valley of Kidron (Jehoshaphat)
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Views of Jerusalem.
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Tombs.
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Theories of holy places.
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Gethsemane.
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Difficulty of identifying.
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Tombs of the Judges, &c.
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Fixed points.
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Excavations.
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Walls-gates.
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Valley of Hinnom and Gihon.
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Mount Zion.
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Sacrifices to Moloch.
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Tomb of David.
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Remarks on sacred shrines.
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April 26th.
Quarters on Mount Olivet
A friend has placed at our disposal a small cottage near the top of Olivet, which commands a charming view of the city in all its extent; and, as we are to remain some time at this true capital of the Christian world, we will accept the kind offer. By this arrangement our time will be as much at command as though we kept to the tent; we shall also escape the annoyance of Jerusalem's inexorable gates, and be able to prolong our walks and rides in the evening at pleasure. To reach the cottage, we must take this rather blind path from Bethany over the summit of the mount, and we at once experience the advantage of this arrangement, for it is already too late in the evening to enter the city; nor can we now stop to examine these misshapen ruins that mark the home of that happy family whom Jesus loved. Our cottage, however, will be within a short walk of it, and we shall have opportunities to visit it at our leisure.
April 27th.
The Wilderness
From the top of this Mount of Olives the view eastward and southward, over the regions through which we have wandered for the last few days, is most peculiar and impressive. It is the Creator's own conception realized of desolation absolute — hills behind hills, sinking far down to the Dead Sea, with Edom and Moab beyond. As the rising sun revealed them, I have been watching their worn and haggard features with a strange sort of fascination, for I doubt not it was into this “wilderness” that Jesus was led after his baptism in the Jordan — what particular part of it I care not to know. Enough for me that on these doleful hills the great temptation was borne by the suffering Son of God for forty days and forty nights — that here the prince of darkness was baffled at every point, and his accursed dominion overthrown and that forever.
Views of Jerusalem
Our position on this mount is indeed delightful, and whichever way one turns, he sees objects of the highest and most sacred interest. From a dozen points I have been, gazing down into the Holy City, and my utmost anticipations are more than realized. Jerusalem, as I see it this morning, is all I could desire; and if a nearer acquaintance is going to disappoint and disgust, let me not enter, but depart from this “Mount of Ascension,” carrying away the picture already imprinted on my heart.
View From the West
Such a result is not inevitable, though this your first is by far the best view you will ever have. Your introduction to the Holy City differs widely from mine. Wearied with a long ride from Jaffa, I approached from the west when the shadows of evening were falling heavily over the blank walls and unpicturesque ramparts of Zion. I could see nothing of the city, and entered the gate dissatisfied and sadly disappointed. Subsequently, while residing here, this first impression wore off, and was succeeded by feelings of deep reverence and earnest affection. Be not discouraged, therefore, if you return from the first walk about Zion hungry, weary, half-roasted, and with a sensation of disgust tugging desperately at your heart. As you repeat your rambles with less excitement and hurry, and become familiar with the localities and their sacred associations, an intelligent and abiding interest in the very dust and stones of Jerusalem will grow up vigorous and refreshing, you scarcely know how.
Guides
At any rate, I am resolved to make myself thoroughly acquainted with the Holy City and its environs, cost what it may.
A very sensible resolution; but I give your fair warning that I am not to be your guide and cicerone. It is no child's play, at this season of the year, to walk down and up Mount Olivet, and explore sites and scenes from the bottom of Jehoshaphat to the top of Zion. I have gone the rounds a hundred times, and intend now to rest. Guides in abundance can be procured, and the city is before you. As to “helps and helpers,” you are in danger of being bewildered with an embarras du richesse. Not to name the Bible and Josephus, here are Eusebius and Jerome, Reland, Maundrell, Chateaubriand, Williams,
Wilson, Schultz, Robinson, and any number of minor works. In charts, plans, and views we are equally rich — Catherwood's, Robinson's, Wilson's, Schultz's, Williams's, and many others; and, most satisfactory of all, you have the living original spread out beneath your eye, and ready to be questioned at all hours of day and night. Do not set out, however, like Mr. Solesby, resolved to make discoveries.
Discoveries
There is not a foot of ground that has not been already scrutinized by a thousand eyes as keen as yours; and the old adage, “If true, not new; if new, not true,” may be applied to Jerusalem and her monuments with more propriety than to any other place on earth.
I am in no mood to allow my enthusiasm to be extinguished by such a damper as that. To me everything is invested with the charm of novelty, and I shall taste all the pleasure of discovery without claiming any of its honors. Jerusalem is the common property of the whole Christian world — belongs neither to Greek nor Latin — is neither Papist nor Protestant. I claim a share in Zion and Moriah, Olivet and Siloah, Gethsemane and Calvary; and I mean to pursue my studies and researches with as much freedom and zest as though no eye but mine had ever scanned these sacred sites.
So be it; but do not dream of reaching results in all cases clear and satisfactory even to yourself, much less to others.
Conflicting Theories of Places
It would be entertaining, at least, if not instructive, to submit the topography of Jerusalem and her environs to a conclave composed of devout padres, learned authors, and intelligent gentlemen from Europe and America, now residing in the Holy City. They would scarcely agree on a single point. Poor Josephus would be so tortured, and twisted, and perplexed, as not to know what he meant himself; and, by the same process, every text in the Bible that had any bearing upon this topography would be mystified and confounded; and thus, too, would be treated the “fathers,” and every pilgrim and visitor who unfortunately published a sentence about Jerusalem. They would be completely bewildered, and then dismissed from the witness-box as incompetent, or otherwise unworthy of credit. Now, I would learn from this imaginary congress of conflicting theorizers to walk softly over such doubtful territory, and not to dogmatize where opinions of the learned clash.
Difficulty of Reconstruction
It is my own decided impression that no ingenuity can reconstruct this city as our Savior saw it, or as Josephus describes it. No man on earth knows the line of the eastern and southeastern portions of the first wall; nor where the second began, nor how it ran after it began; nor where the third wall commenced, nor one foot of its circuit afterward; and of necessity the locations of castles, towers, corners, gates, pools, sepulchers, etc., etc., depending upon supposed starting-points and directions, are merely hypothetical. One hypothesis may have more probability than another, but all must share the uncertainty which hangs over the data assumed by the theorizers.
Well, leaving speculations and their results to take care of themselves, may we not find some important points and boundaries about which there can be no reasonable doubts?
Fixed Points
Certainly there are such outlines, strongly drawn and ineffaceable, which make it absolutely certain that we have the Holy City, with all its interesting localities, before us. For example, this mount on which our cottage stands is Olivet without a doubt; the deep valley at its base is the channel of Kidron; that broad ravine that joins it from the west, at the Well of Joab, is the Valley of Hinnom, which is prolonged northward and then westward under the ordinary name of Gihon. The rocky region lying in between these valleys is the platform of ancient Jerusalem — the whole of it. Within these limits there was nothing else, and beyond them the city never extended. Thus I understand the language of Josephus when he is speaking of Jerusalem, one and entire.
I go a step further in generalizing, and with considerable confidence. This platform of Jerusalem is divided into two nearly equal parts by a valley which commences to the northwest of the Damascus Gate, shallow and broad at first, but deepening rapidly in its course down along the west side of the Temple area, until it unites with the Kidron at the Pool of Siloam.
The Valley of Tyropean
The city, therefore, was built upon two parallel ridges, with a valley between them, and these grand land-marks are perfectly distinct to this day. The eastern ridge is Moriah, on which stood the Temple; the western is Mount Zion; and the valley between them is that of the Cheesemongers. These ridges are parallel to each other, and that of Zion is everywhere the higher of the two; that is, the part of it without the present south wall towers above Ophel, which is over against it; the Temple area is much lower than that part of Zion which is west of it, and the northwest corner of the city overlooks the whole of the ridge on which the Temple stood.
Zion
This accords with the express and repeated assertion of Josephus, that Zion, which sustained the Upper Market-place, or the Upper City, was much the highest of all. The houses built down the eastern slopes of Zion everywhere face those on the western slopes of the opposite ridge, and the corresponding rows of houses meet in this intervening valley just as Josephus represents them to have done in his day. The historian wrote his description with an eye to Titus and the Roman army, and I cannot doubt but that, up to our present point of generalization, we have laid down the outlines of Jerusalem as they saw and conquered it.
Difficulty in Details
If we now proceed from generalities to particulars, we shall encounter obscurity and perplexing difficulties at every turn, and these will thicken around us just in proportion as we descend to details more and more minute. For example, perhaps all planographists of the Holy City agree that the lower part of the interior valley is that of the Cheesemongers, but higher up, where, under the name of Tyropean, it must define the supposed position of a certain tower, the course of this valley is very earnestly contested. And thus, too, all agree that the ridge south of Jaffa Gate is Zion, but some maintain that it terminates there at the Tower of David, while others believe that Zion continued up northward to the Castle of Goliath, and even beyond it. Some authors assume that the Tyropean commences at the Tower of David, and descends first eastward and then to the southeast, under the Temple area and down to Siloam, and that traces of such a valley can still be seen. Other eyes absolutely fail to discover it, and their owners say that the rain from heaven and the theodolite of the engineer obstinately refuse to acknowledge any such valley.
Acra
Some place Acra north of Jaffa Gate, and others northeast of the Temple area. But we need not extend the list of conflicting theories any further, for it includes nearly every rod of the entire city — the line of every wall, the position of every castle, the name of every pool, the place of every gate, the site of every scene, etc., etc. On most of these questions I have my own opinions, but to state and defend them would be a most wearisome business, and as useless as it would be endless.
The Walls
It is probable that a considerable part of the present western wall, and possibly some of the northern, occupy nearly the line of the ancient first wall. That part east of Damascus Gate may be on the line of the second wall, as far as that wall extended in that direction, and from the corner of the Temple area northward it must follow very closely that of the third wall. That part which crosses Zion from the lower Pool of Gihon to the Mosque of El Aksa is modern. These walls, as is well known, were built, or, more correctly, I suspect, largely repaired by Sultan Suleiman in 1542, A.H. 948. They are from ten to fifteen feet thick, and from twenty-five to forty feet high, according to the nature of the ground. They have salient angles and square towers, with battlements and loop-holes. A path, protected by a breastwork, runs all round on the top of these walls, and from many parts of this promenade the tourist obtains his most satisfactory views of the city. The stone employed is evidently the fragments and remains of ancient structures. They vary greatly in size and appearance. Along the eastern line of the Temple area are portions of very ancient walls — huge stones, well cut, and laid down with the utmost regularity; probably the work of Herod. Where the south wall crosses the Tyropean it is built of large irregular blocks, evidently the fragments of the Temple and its substructions. Near the Damascus Gate, also, were some fine specimens of ancient work. The entire length of these walls, according to Dr. Robinson's measurements, is four thousand three hundred and twenty-six yards — a little less than two miles and a half. This makes nearly twenty of the thirty-three stadii which Josephus says was the entire circuit of the exterior walls, and leaves but thirteen stadii for the south end of Zion, the hill Ophel, and the quarter of Bezetha, on the north of the Temple. The ancient third wall, therefore, could not have extended very far to the north of the present city.
Gates
Where the gates of ancient Jerusalem were located I do not know, and, therefore, I will leave it to others to station them according to their different theories. The present city has five gates: that at the Tower of David takes the name of Jaffa, Bethlehem, or Hebron Gate, because from it the roads to those places depart; Damascus Gate on the north, St. Stephen's on the east; Bab el Mugharabeh, leading down to Siloam; and the Gate of Zion. Some of these have other names, but it is not necessary to charge the memory with many titles for the same things. There are also two or three old gates, now walled up, as that of Herod on the northeast, and the Golden Gate in the east wall of the Temple area. The architecture of all these entrances to the Holy City is Saracenic, except the last, which is ancient, and the interior of it ornamented with rich and elaborate carving in good Grecian style.
Streets
It will facilitate your study of Jerusalem to fix in your memory the names and direction of a few of the leading thoroughfares of the city. The streets are, with rare exceptions, short, narrow, and crooked. A few, however, are sufficiently long and important as thoroughfares to be put down on a chart. I prefer the plan of Mr. Williams, and we will use his division of streets, and, to avoid confusion, his nomenclature also. There are only some half a dozen streets which are much frequented by travelers.
1. The Street of David, entering into Temple Street, which descends from Jaffa Gate, and crosses the Tyropean to the Temple area.
2. The Street of the Patriarch, leading north from David Street to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
3. Via Dolorosa, which is a sort of eastern continuation of the Street of the Holy Sepulcher, and leads finally to the Gate of St. Stephen.
4. The Street of St. Stephen, which passes through the markets to the Gate of Damascus. Zion Street is a southern continuation of it.
5. The street leading from the Armenian Convent to Zion Gate. There are many more, and a multitude of blind alleys, traversed only by those who are in search of some particular locality. These streets are paved with smooth stone, not a little dangerous to timid riders, especially where the descent is steep.
Tower of David
The only castle of any particular importance is that at the Jaffa Gate, commonly called the Tower of David. The lower part of it is built of huge stones, roughly cut, and with a deep bevel round the edges. They are undoubtedly ancient, but the interspersed patch-work proves that they are not in their original positions. I have been within it, and carefully explored all parts of it that are now accessible, but found nothing which could cast any light upon its history.
Hippicus
It is believed by many to be the Hippicus of Josephus, and to this idea it owes its chief importance, for the historian makes that the point of departure in laying down the line of the ancient walls of Jerusalem. Volumes have been written in our day for and against the correctness of this identification, and the contest is still undecided; but, interesting as may be the result, we may safely leave it with those who are now conducting the controversy, and turn to matters more in unison with our particular inquiries. Everything that can be said about this grand old tower will be found in the voluminous works of Williams, Robinson, Schultz, Wilson, Fergusson, and other able writers on the topography of the Holy City.
ILLUSTRATION
Mount Zion
After riding through the city, I spent this morning in walking about Mount Zion, particularly that part of it which is without the walls, and have been struck with the wonderful fulfillment of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Micah that Zion should be plowed as a field (Jer. 26:1818Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. (Jeremiah 26:18); Micah 3:1212Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. (Micah 3:12)). It has so happened that my visits to Jerusalem have been at the season when luxuriant crops of grain were growing on all the southeastern face of the mount. The full force of the prophecy is not reached unless we remember what Zion was the stronghold, by nature and by art almost impregnable. Even the Jebusites scornfully said to David, “Except thou take away the lame and the blind, thou canst not come up hither” (2 Sam. 5:66And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. (2 Samuel 5:6)) so confident were they that it could not be captured. David, having made it the capital of his kingdom, greatly strengthened the fortifications, and other kings, in after ages, added to them, and it was, no doubt, densely crowded with the best and the strongest edifices in Jerusalem at the time these prophecies were uttered.
Zion a Plowed Field
That such a place should become a common wheat-field, where, generation after generation, the husbandman should quietly gather rich harvests, was, indeed, a most daring prediction, and yet it has long since been most literally fulfilled.
What is there, or was there, about Zion to justify the high eulogium of David: “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King?” (Psa. 48:22Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. (Psalm 48:2)).
Situation
The situation is indeed eminently adapted to be the platform of a magnificent citadel. Rising high above the deep Valley of Gihon and Hinnom on the west and south, and the scarcely less deep one of the Cheesemongers on the east, it could only be assailed from the northwest; and then “on the sides of the north” it was magnificently beautiful, and fortified by walls, towers, and bulwarks, the wonder and terror of the nations: “For the kings were assembled; they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, and pasted away.” At the thought of it the royal psalmist again bursts forth in triumph: “Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks; consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following” (Psa. 48:12-1312Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. 13Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. (Psalm 48:12‑13)). Alas! her towers have long since fallen to the ground, her bulwarks have been overthrown, her palaces have crumbled to dust, and we who now walk about Zion can tell no other story than this to the generation following.
The True Zion
There is another Zion, however, whose towers are still more glorious, and shall never be overthrown. “God is known in her palaces for a refuge” (Psa. 48:33God is known in her palaces for a refuge. (Psalm 48:3)). And “this God is our God forever and ever” (Psa. 48:1414For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death. (Psalm 48:14)). How often is this name synonymous with the Church of the living God, and no other spot but one can divide with it the affection of his people — no other name but one can awaken such joyful hopes in the Christian's heart. The temporal Zion is now in the dust, but the true Zion is rising and shaking herself from it, and putting on her beautiful garments to welcome her King when he comes to reign over the whole earth.
Stations on Zion
There are very few stations to be visited on Zion. Inside the walls is the Armenian Convent, with its fine church and large gardens; and on the outside is the house of Caiaphas, near the gate — an ill-shaped building, in itself meriting no attention, but it is enriched with some choice relics. The Armenians here show the identical stone slab which closed the door of the sepulcher, and the precise spot where the cock stood when he crowed three times before Peter completed his miserable denial of the Lord. You may lay this up along with the olive-tree in which the ram was caught by the horns, and substituted on the altar for Isaac. It is growing near Abraham's Chapel, on the north side of Calvary.
Tomb of David
The only other building of any note on Zion is the Tomb of David — now a mosque, which has been so often drawn by artists that its appearance is familiar to all.
The Cœnaculum
Belonging to it is the Cœnaculum — a large, dreary “upper room” of stone, fifty or sixty feet long, by some thirty in width. An ancient tradition says that our blessed Lord here celebrated his last Passover, and at the close of it instituted the “Supper.” Here, too, he gave that most affecting lesson on humility, when he rose from supper, laid aside his garments, girded himself with a napkin, and washed the feet of his disciples (John 13:4,174He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. (John 13:4)
17If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. (John 13:17)). Whether there is any foundation for this, or for the equally old tradition that this was the place where the apostles had assembled on the day of Pentecost, when the miracle of cloven tongues was shown, I care not to inquire. There was an old chapel there in the fourth century, to commemorate these events, and I please myself with the idea that there may be truth in the traditions. What a pity that both it and the reputed Tomb of David below should be in the hands of Moslems! No Christian is permitted to enter the latter on any account, and it is guarded with more jealousy than even the Mosque of Omar.
Cemeteries
On this south part of Zion are the cemeteries of the different Christian denominations, and, among others, that of our own nation, northwest of the Tomb of David; and that of the English, to the southwest, on the very declivity of the mount, above the Valley of Hinnom. The high school of Bishop Gobat is located at the same place, and the whole establishment forms an interesting group in a most remarkable position.
The southeastern face of Zion declines, by many a winding terrace, down to the level of the Kidron at the Pool of Siloam, and the line of the aqueduct from the Pools of Solomon can be traced quite round the shoulder of the mount to the place where it passed under the city wall, some distance east of, and far below Zion Gate.
Valley of Jehoshaphat
Valley of the Kidron
Why the valley of the Kidron has this name, or when it first received it, I believe to be wholly unknown. It commences far round to the northwest, toward the Tombs of the Judges, and is there broad and shallow. Passing eastward, it has Scopus and the general platform of the city south of it. Meeting the northeastern corner of Olivet, it turns due south, and pursues this direction to Beer 'Ayub, where it bends again to the southeast.
Tombs
From the Church of the Virgin southward it becomes a narrow ravine, and sinks down between Olivet and Ophel very rapidly, so that at the Well of Job it is more than five hundred feet below the top of Zion. I had visited this lower part, to the Fountain of the Virgin, previously, and today I examined the sepulchral monuments above it. They are in the steep, rocky termination of that part of Olivet directly north of Kefr Silwan, and the entire base of the mountain has been cut and hewn into perpendicular faces by Jerusalem's ancient quarriers.
Tomb of Zechariah
In these faces are many sepulchers of the ordinary kind, but the tombs which merit special attention are — first, the monolith of Zechariah. It is a cubical block about twenty feet every way, and surmounted by a flattened pyramid of at least ten feet elevation, so that the entire height is thirty feet. It has no mason-work about it, but is one solid mass hewn out of the mountain, the adjacent rock being cut away, so that it stands entirely detached. Each of the sides has two columns and two demi-columns, and the corners are finished off with square pilasters. The capitals are plain Ionic, and a broad cornice, worked with acanthus leaves, runs round the top below the pyramid. There is no known entrance.
Tomb of St. James
Second, the Tomb of St. James, which is near to the north side of this monolith. It shows a fine front to the west, ornamented with four short Doric columns. The entrance is not by these columns, but from a passage cut through the rock, in the northeast corner of the space around the Tomb of Zechariah. The Cave of St. James extends forty or fifty feet back into the mountain.
Tomb of Absalom
Some two hundred feet north of this is the Tomb of Absalom. The lower part of this monument resembles that of Zechariah. Mr. Willis gives the following description of its architectural composition. The square has a pilaster at each angle, and a quarter column attached to it; and also, two half columns between these have Ionic capitals, and sustain an entablature of a singularly mixed character. Its frieze and architrave are Doric, and have triglyphs and guttæ. The metope is occupied by a circular disk or shield, but in lieu of the regular cornice there is one which resembles the Egyptian cornice, consisting of a deep and high corvetto, and a bold torus below it. Above this is a square attic rather more than seven feet in height. Upon this is a circular attic. The whole is finished off with what Dr. Robinson calls a small dome, running up into a low spire, which spreads a little at the top like an opening flower. The entire height of this very striking “pillar” cannot be less than forty feet, but the lower part is not a little encumbared with stones and rubbish.
ILLUSTRATION
Believing it to be Absalom's Tomb, the natives throw stones against and spit at it as they pass by. This tomb has been much broken on the north side, and an opening made into a small sepulchral chamber within the solid part of it.
Tomb of Jehoshaphat
Close to this monument, on the northeast, is the reputed Tomb of Jehoshaphat — and from it the valley may have taken this name. It has an ornamental portal in the perpendicular face of the rock, but the sepulcher is wholly subterranean, and in no way remarkable. I examined these monuments with special pleasure and interest, not because they really had any connection with the individuals whose names they bear, but because they remain very much as they were at the time of our Savior. I know not whether there is a single edifice, or part of one, in Jerusalem, upon which his eye of compassion rested, when from this Olivet he beheld the city and wept over it; but these sepulchral monuments appear now just as they did then to Him, and he must have often seen, admired, and spoken of them.
From these tombs I went north to look at the subterranean Church and Sepulcher of St. Mary. It was closed, and so was the so-called Garden of Gethsemane, a short distance to the southeast of it, and I could only examine the outside wall.
Gethsemane
The authenticity of this sacred garden Mr. Williams says he chooses rather to believe than to defend. I do not even choose to believe. When I first came to Jerusalem, and for many years afterward, this plot of ground was open to all, whenever they chose to come and meditate beneath its very old olive-trees. The Latins, however, have, within the last few years, succeeded in gaining sole possession; have built a high wall around it, plastered and whitewashed; and, by planting it with trees, seem disposed to make it like what they suppose it was when our Lord retired thither with his disciples on that mournful night of his “agony.” Whatever may be thought of this idea, all travelers regret the exclusiveness which makes access difficult, and renders it impossible for most of them to visit the spot at all. The Greeks have invented another site a little north of it, and, of course, contend that they have the true Gethsemane. My own impression is that both are wrong. The position is too near the city, and so close to what must have always been the great thoroughfare eastward, that our Lord would scarcely have selected it for retirement on that dangerous and dismal night. In the broad recess northeast of the Church of Mary there must have been gardens far larger and more secluded; and, as we have before suggested, it is nearly certain that all the gardens around the city were thrown open, during the great feasts, for the accommodation of the pilgrims, so that he could select the one best adapted to the purpose for which he retired from the crowded city. I am inclined, therefore, to place the garden in the secluded vale several hundred yards to the northeast of the present Gethsemane, and hidden, as I hope forever, from the idolatrous intrusion of all sects and denominations. The traditions in favor of the present location, however old, have but little weight, and fail to convince the mind; and there is no reason to think that a single tree, bush, or stone on either of these had any connection with the mysterious agony of the Son of God, when “his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:4444And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:44)).
Church of the Virgin
As to the Church and Sepulcher of the Virgin Mary, I have had more than one opportunity to examine it. There is a descent of sixty steps to the church, which, consequently, lies almost entirely under the bed of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The steps, however, are partly outside and partly within the door which leads down to the body of the church. Seen from above, when this is lighted up, the church presents a most striking appearance. On the right of the descent are shown the chapel and tombs of Joachim and Anna; that of St. Joseph on the left; and toward the east of the church is the supposed tomb of Mary, bearing a general resemblance to the Holy Sepulcher, and probably modeled after its pattern. The various altars bear witness to the divisions of Christendom, and its joint occupation by the various countries contributes to perpetuate their miserable feuds; nor does the influence of Gethsemane, which is hard by, seem to allay their animosity, or to inculcate Christian charity.
Sepulchers
There are other sepulchers in and around Jerusalem which are well worth examining. They are found in astonishing numbers along the south side of Hinnom; and, indeed, almost everywhere within and without the city, where the accumulated rubbish is removed, these tombs are met with, generally hewn into the perpendicular faces of the rocks, made in quarrying for building stone. They are of all sizes and shapes. Some are merely single rock-graves; other are small rooms, entered by a door in front, and having two, three, or more niches for the bodies; others, again, are much more extensive — a sort of catacomb, room within and beyond room, each having several niches.
Tombs of the King
The best examples of these are the Tombs of the Kings and those of the Judges. Those of the kings are in the olive grove about half a mile north of the Damascus Gate, and a few rods east of the great road to Nablus. A court is sunk in the solid rock about ninety feet square and twenty deep. On the west side of this court is a sort of portico, thirty-nine feet long, seventeen deep, and fifteen high. It was originally ornamented with grapes, garlands, and festoons, beautifully wrought on the cornice; and the columns in the center, and the pilasters at the corners, appear to have resembled the Corinthian order. A very low door in the south end of the portico opens into the antechamber — nineteen feet square, and seven or eight high. From this three passages conduct into other rooms, two of them, to the south, having five or six crypts. A passage also leads from the west room down several steps into a large vault running north, where are crypts parallel to the sides. These rooms are all cut in rock intensely hard, and the entrances were originally closed with stone doors, wrought with panels and hung on stone hinges, which are now all broken. The whole series of tombs indicates the hand of royalty and the leisure of years, but by whom and for whom they were made is a mere matter of conjecture. I know no good reason for ascribing them to Helena of Adiabene. Most travelers and writers are inclined to make them the sepulchers of the Asmonean kings.
ILLUSTRATION
Tombs of the Judges
The Tombs of the Judges are about a mile northwest of those of the kings. The vestibule in front of them is highly ornamented, but after an entirely different pattern from those of the kings. It faces the west, and from it a door leads into a room about twenty feet square and eight feet high. On the north side are seven loculi, seven feet deep, prependicular to the side of the room. Above these are three arched recesses, two feet and a half deep, probably for the reception of sarcophagi. Perpendicular to these recesses, two long loculi penetrate the rock from the back part. Doors on the south and east conduct to small rooms, which have three long niches perpendicular to their three sides, the doors occupying the fourth. There is also an arched recess over the loculi in these rooms. From the northeast corner of the anteroom a flight of steps goes down into a small vestibule, neatly cut, and ornamented by recesses and a slightly-arched roof like a dome. A passage leads into another chamber further east, nine feet square and six high, each of whose three sides has an arched recess parallel to it, from the back of which perpendicular loculi enter into the rock. In some respects this is a more remarkable catacomb than that of the kings, and the arrangement is more varied and complicated. Why the name, Tombs of the Judges, is given, no one can assign any plausible explanation.
ILLUSTRATION
In all directions from this locality, but especially toward the city, the strata of the mountain have been cut and carved into perpendicular faces by ancient quarriers, and in them are innumerable tombs, of every variety of pattern. Indeed, the prodigious extent of these quarries and tombs is one of the most striking indications of a great city, and of a long succession of prosperous ages, which the environs of Jerusalem furnish.
Tombs of the Prophets
The Tombs of the Prophets are here, near the southern summit of Olivet. I have never examined them with much care, but they are regarded as very mysterious excavations by antiquarians. Mr. Williams thus describes them: Through a long gallery, first serpentine and then direct, but winding as you advance, one passes into a circular hall, rising into a conical dome about twenty-four feet in diameter. From this hall run three passages, communicating with two semicircular galleries connective with the hall, the outer one of which contains in its back wall numerous recesses for the corpses, radiating toward the center hall. No inscriptions or remains of any kind have been discovered to elucidate the mysteries of these mansions for the dead.
Grotto of Jeremiah
The so-called Grotto of Jeremiah is beneath the high tell of Ez Zahera, about forty rods to the northeast of the Damascus Gate. This tell, no doubt, once formed the termination of the ridge [of Acra?], and the rock between it and the wall of the city has been quarried away. Nor will the magnitude of this work stumble any one who examines the vast subterranean quarries within and beneath the city, the opening to which is nearly south of Jeremiah's Cave. The high perpendicular cuttings which sustain the wall are directly opposite to similar cuttings over the cave, and each is about fifty feet high. The yawning Cavern of Jeremiah extends under the cliff about one hundred feet, and there are various buildings, graves, and sacred spots arranged irregularly about it, walled off, plastered, and whitewashed. Under the floor of the cavern are vast cisterns. Lighting our tapers, we descended about forty feet, into the deepest one. The roof is supported by huge square columns, and the whole, neatly plastered, is now used as a cistern. The water was pure, cold, and sweet. This place is in Moslem hands, but the keepers allowed us to explore every part of it at our leisure. In any other part of the world it would be considered a remarkable work, but here, in the vicinity of such excavations as undermine the whole ridge within the city, it dwindles into insignificance. There is no evidence to connect it in any way with Jeremiah, and no modern theory has sufficient probability to claim attention.
Excavations Under Ridge
The excavations under the ridge which extends from the northwest corner of the Temple area to the north wall of the city are most extraordinary. I spent a large part of this forenoon examining them with a company of friends from the city. Passing out at the Damascus Gate, we ascended the hill of rubbish east of it, and just under the high precipice over which the wall is carried, we crept, or rather backed through a narrow opening, and, letting ourselves down some five feet on the inside, we stood within the cavern. Lighting our candles, we began to explore. For some distance the descent southward was rapid, down a vast bed of soft earth. Pausing to take breath and look about, I was surprised at the immense dimensions of the room. The roof of rock is about thirty feet high, even above the huge heaps of rubbish, and is sustained by large, shapeless columns of the original rock, left for that purpose by the quarriers, I suppose. On we went, down, down, from one depth to a lower, wandering now this, now that way, and ever in danger of getting lost, or of falling over some of the many precipices into the yawning darkness beneath. In some places we climbed with difficulty over large masses of rock, which appear to have been shaken down from the roof, and suggest to the nervous the possibility of being ground to powder by similar masses which hang overhead. In other parts our progress was arrested by pyramids of rubbish which had fallen from above, through apertures in the vault, either natural or artificial. We found water trickling down in several places, and in one there was a small natural pool full to the brim. This trickling water has covered many parts with crystalline incrustations, pure and white; in others, stalactites hang from the roof, and stalagmites have grown up from the floor. The entire rock is remarkably white, and, though not very hard, will take a polish quite sufficient for architectural beauty.
Direction and Extent
The general direction of these excavations is southeast, and about parallel with the valley which descends from the Damascus Gate. I suspect that they extend down to the Temple area, and also that it was into these caverns that many of the Jews retired when Titus took the Temple, as we read in Josephus. The whole city might be stowed away in them; and it is my opinion that a great part of the very white stone of the Temple must have been taken from these subterranean quarries.
Tombs of Simon the Just and of the Sanhedrim
These curious sepulchers are rarely visited. They are in the valley of the Kidron, a short distance northeast of the Tombs of the Kings, and under the cliffs on the north side of the wady. They are frequented exclusively by the Jews, and mostly on their festival days.
Tomb of Simon
I once entered them on the thirty-third day after the Passover — a day consecrated to the honor of Simon. Many Jews were there with their children. Like all other sects in the East, they make vows in reference to shaving off the hair from their own and their children's heads in honor of some saint or shrine. A number had that day been clipped, the hair weighed, and a sum distributed to the poor in proportion to the weight. The surrounding fields and olive orchards were crowded with gaily-dressed and merry Hebrews. I never saw so many pretty Jewesses together on any other occasion. The tombs seemed to me to have been cut in what were originally natural caves. The entrance to all of them was very low, and without ornament. The interior was spacious and gloomy in the extreme, especially that which was said to contain the Sanhedrim.
Tombs of the Sanhedrim
There were between sixty and seventy niches where bodies may have been placed; and from this number, perhaps, the idea originated that they were the crypts of the seventy men of the Great Synagogue. Dr. Wilson seems to have heard of these tombs, but he confounds them with those of the judges, which are a mile or more to the northwest.
Sacred Tombs
On the general subject of willies and sacred tombs, have you ever thought of the interpretation put upon them by our Lord? In Luke we read, “Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchers” (Luke 11:47-4847Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. (Luke 11:47‑48)). How? why? might not the Pharisees have replied, that, by honoring their remains and their memory, they condemned their murderers?
The greatest sin of Israel and of the world was, and is, apostasy from the true God and his worship by idolatry; and the most prevalent mode of this apostasy is sacrilegious reverence for dead men's tombs and bones. This is the most prevalent superstition in the great empire of China, and in Western Asia, Jews, Moslems, Metawelies, Druses, Nesairiyeh, Ismailiyeh, Kurds, Yezedy, Gipsies, and all sects of Christians, are addicted to it. Every village has its saints' tombs — every hill top is crowned with the white dome of some neby or prophet. Thither all resort to garnish the sepulchers, burn incense and consecrated candles, fulfill vows, make offerings, and pray. So fanatical are they in their zeal, that they would tear any man to pieces who should put dishonor upon these sacred shrines. Enter that at Hebron, for example, and they would instantly sacrifice you to their fury. Now, it was for rebuking this and other kinds of idolatry that “the fathers killed the prophets”; and those who built their tombs would, in like manner, kill any one who condemned their idolatrous reverence for these very sepulchers. Thus the Pharisees, by the very act of building those tombs of the prophets, and honoring them as they did, showed plainly that they were actuated by the same spirit that led their fathers to kill them; and, to make this matter self-evident, they very soon proceeded to crucify the Lord of the prophets because of his faithful rebukes. Nor has this spirit changed in the least during the subsequent eighteen hundred years. Now, here in Jerusalem, should the Savior reappear, and condemn with the same severity our modern Pharisees, they would kill him upon his own. reputed tomb. I say this not with a faltering perhaps, but with a painful certainty. Alas! how many thousands of God's people have been slaughtered because of their earnest and steadfast protest against pilgrimages, idolatrous worship of saints, tombs, bones, images, and pictures! And whenever I see people particularly zealous in building, repairing, or serving these shrines, I know them to be the ones who allow the deeds of those who killed the prophets, and who would do the same under like circumstances. If you doubt, and are willing to become a martyr, make the experiment tomorrow in this very city. You may blaspheme the Godhead, through all the divine persons, offices, and attributes, in safety; but insult these dead men's shrines, and woe be to you!
Touch of a Tomb Polluting
It was probably that he might render apostasy into this insane idolatry impossible to a faithful Jew, that Moses made the mere touching of a grave, or even of a bone, contamination. The person thus polluted could not enter his tent, or unite in any religious services. He was unclean seven days, and was obliged to go through a tedious and expensive process of purification. And, still more, if the person would not purify himself, he was to be cut off from the congregation and destroyed. Strange, that even this stern law was not sufficient to restrain the Jews from worshipping dead men's graves.
Valley of Hinnom
This valley commences northwest of the Jaffa Gate, above the Upper Pool of Gihon. Descending eastward to the immediate vicinity of the gate, it turns south, and the bed of it is occupied by the Lower Pool of Gihon. Below this it bends round to the east, having the cliffs of Zion on the north, and the Hill of Evil Counsel on the south. It is here that Hinnom properly begins, and it terminates at Beer 'Ayub, where it joins the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Tophet
The cliffs on the south side especially abound in ancient tombs, and it was this part that was called Tophet. Here the dead carcasses of beasts, and every offal and abomination, were cast, and left to be either devoured by that worm that never died, or consumed by that fire that was never quenched. Hinnom was condemned to this infamous service, perhaps, because in it, when Israel fell into idolatry, they offered their children in sacrifice to Baal. Jeremiah has an extended reference to this place and its horrid sacrifices: “Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; they have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire — burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter” (Jer. 19:1-121Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, 3And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: 6Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 7And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. 9And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. 10Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 11And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. 12Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: (Jeremiah 19:1‑12)). This denunciation was doubtless fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar sacked and destroyed Jerusalem; and more emphatically by Titus and “his men of war.” Josephus says that when Titus saw, from a distance, these valleys below Jerusalem heaped full of dead bodies, he was so horrified at the sight that he raised his hands, and called Heaven to witness that he was not responsible for this terrific slaughter.
Breaking a Jar
Jeremiah was commanded to break the potter's “bottle” or jar in the presence of the ancients of the people and the priests, after he had denounced these terrible judgments upon them in the valley of Tophet (Jer. 19:1010Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, (Jeremiah 19:10)). The people of this country have the same custom of breaking a jar when they wish to express their utmost detestation of any one. They come behind or near him, and smash the jar to atoms, thus imprecating upon him and his a like hopeless ruin.
Sacrifices to Moloch
The cruel sacrifices of children in this valley are frequently referred to by Jeremiah. They were made to “pass through the fire unto Moloch” (Jer. 7:31; 19:5; 32:3531And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. (Jeremiah 7:31)
5They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: (Jeremiah 19:5)
35And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. (Jeremiah 32:35)); from which it appears that Baal and Moloch were names for one and the same deity. The victims were placed on the red-hot hands of the idol, and their agonizing shrieks were drowned by cymbals and the shouts of the frenzied worshippers. Milton thus sings indignant at these “abominations:”
“Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears,
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their children’s cries unheard, that passed though fire
To his grim idol in the pleasant vale of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.”
The place seems to have become infamous for idolatry at an early age. Isaiah, speaks of it metonymically by the name Tophet, for the place where Sennacherib's army was to be consumed by the breath of the Lord: “For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it” (Isa. 30:3333For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. (Isaiah 30:33)).
Valley of Hinnom – a Type of Hell
Under its original name of Hinnom, Grecized into Gehenna, it is used in the New Testament as synonymous with, or as a type of hell. The idea seems to be borrowed from the above passages, and from the scenes which were witnessed in this valley. The language of our Savior, as given by Mark (Mark 9:44-4844Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:44‑48)), is copied almost verbatim from Isaiah (Isa. 66:2424And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. (Isaiah 66:24)).
As I move about among these sacred localities, an inquiry of this sort is constantly arising, With what amount of reverence should a pious mind regard them?
Respect Due to Sacred Places
I prefer to use the word respect. There is nothing now in or about Jerusalem that can justly claim from me any religious reverence whatever. This subject is one of much importance, and needs to be placed in a clear light and upon a proper basis, for the number of visitors of all ages who resort hither is rapidly multiplying, and I notice an increasing disposition among many Protestants to glide into the same sort of reverential deportment in presence of these localities that Roman Catholics and Orientals generally manifest. This should be arrested, not by treating with profane levity such places and scenes, but by acquiring correct views in regard to them, and the manner in which we may derive both pleasure and profit from visiting them, while at the same time we escape this dangerous bias toward idolatrous reverence.
There are two or three distinctions to be made, fundamental and broad enough to reach every case of the kind that can come before the pious mind. The first is, that in the Mosaic economy, which multiplied holy places and instruments, it was not the place or the thing itself that was regarded and treated as holy. Moses, for example, was commanded to put off his shoes before the burning bush, not that it was any more holy than any other bush in the desert of Sinai.
The Divine Presence the Object of Reverence
The reverence was simply and solely to the infinite and untreated Being who for the moment dwelt in it in a peculiar manner. So the ark, with the mercy-seat, and the apartments in the Tabernacle and Temple where it was placed, were holy, for no other reason than that God, who is ever to be approached with fear and reverence, there made his special abode. The “bush,” without the Presence, differed in nothing from any other; and so of the Holy of Holies in the Temple, and of every other place on this earth. When the divine presence is withdrawn, all religious reverence-before the place or thing must cease of course. There is nothing, therefore, about the Temple area, or the so-called Sepulcher of Christ Jesus, that can now receive any other worship than that which is purely idolatrous. The prophets and apostles always acted upon this principle. To mention but one of a hundred instances, the disciples of our Lord, when they hurried to ascertain the truth of the report about the resurrection, manifested not the slightest reverence for the tomb. Peter ran right into it without stopping to take off his shoes, as you must now do before the fictitious sepulcher in the church, and this, too, though he knew with absolute certainty that his Lord had been there, and had but just left the place. The same is true in the case of the women; none of them seem to have dreamed that the rock-tomb merited any reverence when the Lord himself was gone. Nor do we again hear a whisper about this tomb throughout the entire New Testament history. There is no evidence that any one of them ever revisited it.
No Religious Reverence to the Creature
The second great principle in regard to these shrines is, that no religious reverence to human, beings or to angelic spirits was ever tolerated, nor to any place or thing that represented them. We cannot, therefore, participate in any such rites or ceremonies without enacting a piece of naked idolatry, every way, and in all ages and places, extremely offensive to God. This sweeps into one general and undistinguished category of condemnation the entire catalog of shrines, and tombs, and caverns sacred to dead men.
The third grand fact bearing upon this subject is, that God, in his providence, has so ordered matters that not one of all these shrines can show any just title to the honors claimed for them. The bush is gone, the tabernacle has vanished, not one stone of the Holy of Holies remains, and doubt and uncertainty absolutely impenetrable rests on every sacred locality, and upon everything connected with them. And in view of the sad and ruinous perversions to which their very shadows give rise, I am thankful that there is not a single tomb of saints, nor instrument employed in manifesting miraculous power, nor a sacred shrine, whose identity can be ascertained.
You have given only a negative answer to my inquiry, and, after all, I feel that the whole truth has not been stated.
Certainly not.
Proper Use of Sacred Shrines
To discuss the matter of sacred sites and scenes in detail would require a volume, and I have no disposition to enter the arena of such earnest controversy. The proper use to be made of these things can be laid down in a few words. We should so conduct our visits as to confirm faith and deepen the impressions which the Bible narratives of what here took place in former ages are intended to produce; and for this the materials are abundant and satisfactory.