CHAPTER IV.

GOSPEL HISTORY IN THE LIGHT OF PALESTINE EXPLORATION.

1. _Christ in the Provinces._

In New Testament times Palestine was a Roman province, and its divisions were no longer tribal. East of Jordan were the districts of Perea Batanæa, Trachonitis, Auranitis, Paneas, and Gaulonitis. In this chapter, however, we have to do chiefly with Western Palestine. On this side the central position was held by Samaria, with Galilee north of it, Judea south, and in the extreme south Idumea.

The Samaritans were not pure Hebrews in blood, and not purely Jewish in their worship. When the ten tribes of Israel had been crushed, and their principal families carried into captivity, the Assyrian conquerors brought men from Cuthah, Sepharvaim, and other places in the far east, and set them down in Samaria. Of various nationalities themselves, these people intermarried with the poorer Jews who had been left behind, and so their descendants were of mixed blood. Naturally also, there was at first some admixture of religious beliefs and practices, and some confusion of dialects (2 Kings, xvii.).

But eventually the various elements of the population coalesced, and the Samaritans settled down as a people, speaking a language allied to that of the Jews, and accepting the Books of Moses as their guide. But they rejected all the later books excepting Joshua, and claimed that Mount Gerizim was the place where it had always been intended that the Temple of Jehovah should be built. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah the co-operation of the Samaritans in rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple had been refused, and at no later period would the Jews consent to have friendly dealings with the Samaritans.

Nehemiah had seen the evils resulting from mixed marriages, and the contaminating influence of foreign merchants in Jerusalem. In later days, when Greek literature and Greek manners were spreading over Syria, the more zealous of the Jews contended earnestly against the corrupting innovations. The day when the Seventy Elders translated the Law into Greek for king Ptolemy was pronounced accursed--a day of evil, as when Israel made for itself a golden calf. The patriotic struggle of the Maccabees was all intended to get rid of foreign influence, and keep God’s chosen people separate. The Pharisees were a party who by their very name claimed to be “separated,” and made it their object to resist the slightest departure from the requirements of the Jewish Law. Their ideas and tenets came to be generally accepted by the Jews of Judea; and hence in the days of Christ Jerusalem was a centre of exclusiveness, bigotry, and ceremonialism.

The Jews of Galilee, cut off from their brethren of the south by the interposition of Samaria, could seldom visit the Temple at Jerusalem; they saw little of the sacrifice of bulls and goats, and learned to worship in synagogues in a plainer way. They were in contact with the northern nations, made alliance with Phœnicia, and did business with men of many nationalities in the fishing towns of the Lake of Tiberias. It is possible that through their intercourse with foreigners, a part of their district was called “Galilee of the Gentiles;” and they seem to have become so different in their dialect or pronunciation that when a man from Galilee opened his mouth in Jerusalem, his speech betrayed him. The Galileans derived at least one advantage from their intercourse with foreigners; it made them less exclusive, and prepared them in a degree for a religion which should be addressed to Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus Christ, when he began his ministry, did not address crowds in Jerusalem, nor seek disciples from among the Scribes and Pharisees, but came into the towns of Galilee, and called fishermen from their humble occupation.

The prophecy in Micah led the Jews to look to Bethlehem Ephrathah as the destined birth-place of the Messiah; and it was made an objection to the claims of Jesus of Nazareth that his home was in Galilee.

Bethlehem is a long white town on a ridge, with terraced olive groves, at a distance of 6 miles from Jerusalem. Here, enclosed within the walls of the Greek convent, is the venerable Church of the Nativity, now parcelled out among the Greek, Latin, and Armenian monks, who house together from necessity in different quarters of the convent. The church, built by Helena, the mother of Constantine, is one of the oldest in the world; and the cave beneath it under the choir is the traditional Cave of the Nativity. It is mentioned by Justin Martyr in the second century; and Origen, in the fourth, says that “there is shown at Bethlehem the cave where He was born, and the manger in the cave.” It is the only sacred place, as far as I know (says Conder), which is mentioned before the establishment of Christianity by Constantine; yet it is remarkable that Jerome found it no longer in possession of the Christians. “Bethlehem,” he says, “is now overshadowed by the grove of Tammuz, who is Adonis; and in the cave where Christ wailed as a babe the paramour of Venus now is mourned.”

Mr Bartlett, in his “Walks about Jerusalem,” deems the identification of the spot at variance with probability, since, although it may occasionally happen that caverns are used as stables in Palestine, this one is deeper underground than would be convenient for such a purpose. When we consider, in addition, the tendency of the monks to fix the scene of remarkable Scriptural events in grottoes, perhaps from the impressiveness of such spots, the presumption against the site appears almost conclusive.

Palestine exploration was hardly likely to throw any light on this question, which is to be elucidated rather by a study of the causes which led to a confusion between the traditions relating to Christ and the legends told of Tammuz.

The people of Bethlehem are better fed, better dressed, better off in most respects than the people of other small towns in Palestine. The women are remarkable for their beauty, and they wear a peculiar kind of head-dress, adorned with rows of silver coins. It is believed that at the time of the Crusades a good deal of intermarriage took place between Europeans and the women of Bethlehem. The population now is chiefly Christian.

If we attempt to follow Joseph and Mary, returning from Egypt and taking at first the road for Bethlehem, but changing their course when they hear that Archelaus reigns, and withdrawing into the parts of Galilee (Matt. ii. 23), we may suppose that they make their way to the river Jordan, cross by the ford near Jericho, journey on the eastern side and so avoid Samaria, and then, re-crossing by the ford near Bethshan, make their way to Nazareth.

Nazareth, the town in which Jesus was brought up, is also without any Jewish inhabitants at the present day; the population is about six thousand, of whom one-third are Moslem, while two-thirds are Christians of the Latin, Greek, and other churches. Unfortunately they bear an evil character for their turbulence.

In Nazareth we are shown what purports to be the workshop of Joseph the carpenter, but we know that this is a modern appropriation, a Latin chapel, built only in 1859. We are asked to look at the _Mensa Christi_, a block of rock, rudely oval, 10 feet across and 3 feet high, in a church built in 1861, but we have no confidence that Jesus and his disciples used it as a table. Making a stronger claim is the house in which the Holy Family lived, or what remains of it, for the legend says that the upper storey or the outer room was carried away by angels through the air, and after lengthy travels was set down on the wooded hill-top of Loretto in Italy. It is a rock-cut grotto under the high altar of the Latin church. A wall of separation makes two chambers of it, the outer being called the Grotto of the Annunciation, and the inner the Grotto of St Joseph. The shaft of a red granite pillar hanging through the roof is believed to be miraculously suspended over the very place where the angel Gabriel stood to deliver his message. From the inner chamber--that of St Joseph--a narrow passage, with seventeen steps, leads up obliquely to the inmost part of the cave, a chamber of irregular shape, traditionally supposed to be the Virgin’s kitchen.

Escaping from these places we inquire for that synagogue in which Jesus received instruction when a youth, and “stood up to read” on a memorable occasion after he had become a public teacher. But there are no Jews in Nazareth, and so there is no need of a synagogue now. The Greek Catholics, indeed, tell us that their chapel, in the main street, occupies the very site of the synagogue; but we find no remains of synagogue architecture. It occurs to us that there is one site, at all events, the features of which could hardly be destroyed or altered, namely, the “brow of the hill on which the city stood,” and from which the Nazarenes intended to precipitate the great Teacher after that scene in the Synagogue. But when we have been guided to the “brow,” although we see before us a fearful descent of about 1000 feet--which old Maundeville calls “the Leap of the Lord”--we observe that it is 2 miles from the town; and we cannot understand how it can be the brow of the hill on which the city stood.

In this general uncertainty of things are our explorers able to do anything for us? Yes, some little, for they are men who use their eyes, and they point out that high up above the present town are numerous old cisterns and tombs. The cisterns would certainly be in close proximity to the dwellings of the people, the ancient Nazareth must therefore have stood higher on the slope; and so the “brow of the hill” was probably one of the cliffs now above the town.

Conder also points out that the Virgin’s Fountain of Nazareth--also called the Fountain of the Annunciation--should be one of the most surely identified places. There is but one spring in the town, and Mary must necessarily have drawn water from it like other women. The Greeks have built their church at the place, and declare it to be the scene of the Annunciation. Their church is dedicated to St Gabriel, and even the Latins admit that it stands on the site where the angel first became visible. “As in the eighth century, so now, the spring is under the floor of the church, which is itself half subterranean. The water is led to the left of the high altar, past a well-mouth, by which it is drawn up for pilgrims, and so by a channel to the masonry fountain, where it comes out through metal spouts under an arched recess broad enough for fifteen women to stand side by side. A pool is formed below at the trough, and here the constant succession of the Nazareth women may be seen all day filling their great earthenware jars, standing ankle-deep in water, their pink or green-striped baggy trousers tucked between their knees; their heads are covered, if Moslems with the moon-shaped tire, if Christians with a gay handkerchief or the hair plaited in long tails. A negress in blue here and there mingles with the crowd, which is chattering, screaming, gossiping, and sometimes fighting.

“The people of the town are remarkable for the gay colouring of their dresses, and the Christian women for their beauty. Many a charming bit of colour, many a shapely figure set off by picturesque costume, many a dark eye and ruddy cheek have I seen in the streets or by the spring. This beauty is peculiar to the Christians of Bethlehem and Nazareth.”

Jesus lived at Nazareth until the time arrived for entering upon his public work. The immediate occasion which called him forth from the carpenter’s shop was the news that John the Baptist had begun preaching in the wilderness of Judea. The work of the Palestine explorers has thrown important light on the movements and mission stations of John the Baptist.

John appears to have begun his public work at the great ford of the Jordan near Jericho; and there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea to be baptized. The Jordan at this part is a brown, rapid swirling stream, about 20 yards across, fringed with a jungle of tamarisk and cane and willow, in which the leopard and the wolf find a hiding place. The tradition which says that Jesus was baptized here is at least as old as the fourth century; the Greek and the Latin churches agree in regard to it, and at the present day pilgrims from all churches resort to this spot to bathe in the sacred waters.

Our explorers see no reason to doubt this tradition, and a difficulty which did exist they have been enabled to remove. It is stated in the fourth Gospel (John i. 28), that John was baptizing in Bethabara beyond Jordan, when Jesus came to him; that the Baptist bare testimony to Christ during two days, and on the third day Jesus was minded to go into Galilee and was present at Cana at the marriage feast. Hostile critics of the fourth Gospel, taking the traditional scene of John’s baptizing near Jericho--where Bethabara has usually been placed on the maps--asserted that Jesus would have a journey of 80 miles to accomplish in a single day to reach Cana of Galilee, and that the feat is of course impossible. But there is really no assertion that it was done or attempted. It is only a tradition of the fourth century which fixes Bethabara so far south, or says that Jesus was baptized at Bethabara. A position near Upper Galilee would suit the narrative better as the site of Bethabara. Now the surveyors in the course of their work marked all the fords of the Jordan, and collected all the names. The following winter, when Major Conder was looking through the list in order to prepare an index, he was struck with the presence of the word _Abara_. He saw at once that the house or station at this place would be Beth-Abara, which had thus been discovered unwittingly. He looked it out upon the map, and found it to be one of the principal fords of the Jordan, just above the place where the Jalud river, flowing down the Valley of Jezreel and by Beisan, debouches into Jordan. The distance thence to Cana would only be 22 miles. The fourth Gospel does not say that Jesus was baptized at Bethabara, and so this new discovery does not disturb that part of the tradition which fixes the baptism near Jericho. Jesus, after being baptized, retired into the wilderness, and when he returned to the world he found that John had removed to the more northerly station, and thither he followed him. As Jesus began to make disciples at Bethabara, the events of John i. must have occurred after the Temptation, and so indeed they are placed in the Gospel Harmonies (see Smith’s “Dictionary of Bible,” p. 721).

The Revised Version reads “Bethany beyond Jordan,” instead of Bethabara, and this is the reading of the oldest manuscripts. It is gratuitous to suppose any confusion with Bethany near Jerusalem. “Bathania” was a well-known form (used in the time of Christ) of the old name Bashan, a district in Peræa or the country beyond Jordan; and perhaps, as Conder suggests, the original reading was “Bethabara in Bethany beyond Jordan.” We must agree with him, too, that this identification of Bethabara is one of the most valuable discoveries resulting from the survey.

That John the Baptist did move from one station to another in pursuance of his mission is shown again by the statement that after these things John was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim, because there was much water there (John iii. 23). Where was Ænon? It used to be assumed that it was of course near the desert of Judea where John first preached. But surely it would be unnecessary to tell us that there was enough water to baptize with in the Jordan, whereas if abundance of water could be found anywhere else in Palestine it would be somewhat remarkable. Now such abundance is found almost in the heart of Samaria. The traveller who rides across from the town of Samaria, passing behind Ebal, or who follows the stony road in the magnificent gorge east of the same mountain, finds himself gradually descending to the springs which lie at the head of the great _Far’ah_ valley, the open highway from Shechem to the _Damieh_ ford of the Jordan. It was up this valley that Jacob drove his flocks and herds from Succoth to Shalem near Shechem. It was along the banks of the stream that the “garments and vessels” of the hosts of Benhadad were strewn as far as Jordan. It was here also that Israel, returning from captivity (according to the Samaritans), purified themselves before going up to Gerizim to build the temple. But the place possesses a yet higher interest as the probable site of “Ænon near Salem” where John was baptizing, and where a question arose between John’s disciples and a Jew about purifying (John ii. 25). The phrase “much water” might fairly be translated many waters or many springs, and in an open valley here the springs are found. The waters gush out over a stony bed and flow down rapidly in a fine stream. The supply is perennial, and a continual succession of little springs occurs along the bed of the valley, so that the current becomes the principal western affluent of Jordan south of the Vale of Jezreel. About 4 miles north of the head springs is a village called ’_Ainun_, and about 3 miles south another village called _Salem_. So here we have “Ænon near Salem,” and in between the two villages the two great requisites for the baptism of a multitude, namely, an open space in which the crowd could stand, and abundance of water. There are indeed other places called Salem scattered up and down the country, but none of them has an Ænon near to it; and there is one other place called Ænon, but it has no Salem near to it, besides which, it is away near Hebron, in a district quite out of the question.

It would appear, then, that John began baptizing, in the first instance, near Jericho, and made his appeal to Jerusalem and all Judea; that next, remembering the other great section of the Jews in Galilee, he removed to Bethabara in the north; and further, because the reformed religion was not to be for the Jews alone, he entered Samaria itself and baptized at Ænon.

At the head-springs of Ænon we are only about 5 miles from Jacob’s Well. Conder and others consider the identity of Jacob’s Well beyond question, because Jewish and Samaritan tradition, Christian and Mohammedan tradition all agree about it. The identity is further supported by the proximity of Joseph’s Tomb, about 600 yards north of it, a tomb venerated by the members of every religious community in Palestine. A Christian church was built round Jacob’s Well before the year 383 A.D., and destroyed before Crusading times, only the vault or crypt remaining. The ruins covered up the well and hid it altogether some few years ago; but Captain Anderson, of the Palestine Exploration Fund, removed them and descended by a rope. The Arabs allowed the rope to twirl and slip, so that Anderson went into a swoon, from which he was awakened by the shock of striking the bottom. He measured the well and found it 7½ feet in diameter and 75 feet deep. Anciently it must have been deeper, for some of the ruins have fallen into it, and every passing traveller throws in a stone to hear it fall. The question arises, why there should be any well at this spot at all, seeing that the valley (between Ebal and Gerizim) abounds in streams of water, and there is one stream only 100 yards from the well itself? The answer given is that the man who dug the well had no right to use the streams; he was a stranger in the land, and felt the need of a supply of water upon his own property.

Jacob’s Well is one of the few spots undoubtedly rendered sacred by the feet of Christ. When the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John, Jesus left Judea for Galilee, “and he must needs pass through Samaria. So he cometh to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob’s Well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water,” &c. (John iv. 1-7). This woman, we suppose, came from Sychar; but an unaccountable confusion has grown up between Sychar and Shechem. If the woman had come from Shechem she would have to carry her pitcher a mile and a half to the well, passing abundant streams on the way--an apparently needless trouble. But the early Christians used to place Sychar a mile east of Shechem, and our explorers agree with Canon Williams and others in identifying it with the village of ’Askar, which stands within sight of the well, about half a mile distant, on the slope of Ebal. Yet the Crusaders confounded Sychar with Shechem, misleading everybody who came after; the error lasting to our own time, and reappearing even in carefully-written books.

The question arises, why Jesus on this occasion must needs go through Samaria? It has been customary to reply that it was because Samaria lay right across his path in going from Judea to Galilee. But this does not satisfy us when we know that it was a frequent thing to cross the Jordan and travel by the eastern route, because the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. I was one day reading the Gospel of St John very carefully in order to compare notes with a friend, and I was struck with the meaning implied in Christ’s expression, “One soweth and another reapeth.” Jesus says to his disciples, “Say not ye, there are yet four months and then cometh the harvest.” We judge that he is pointing to the rich cornfield, where the valley opens out into the Plain of _Mukhnah_; he remarks that the corn is not ripe yet, and the harvest is not due. Yet he says, “Behold! Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest. He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.” He is now referring to the spiritual harvest: the people are flocking out of the town to listen to his teaching, they are favourably disposed and ready to be converted. Now, why should they be so ready to listen, seeing that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans? Christ himself supplies the answer when he says, “Herein is the saying true, ‘One soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not laboured; others have laboured, and ye are entered into their labour.’” He cannot mean that he is sowing seed now, by his preaching, for his disciples to reap a harvest of conversions by-and-bye, for he says, “The fields are white already unto harvest. Lift up your eyes and look!” He recognises the truth that sowing and reaping are separated by an interval of time, though at the Harvest-home sower and reaper may rejoice together, as those who have laboured at different seasons for the same result. Some Teacher, therefore, has been sowing seed among these Samaritans before Christ came to Jacob’s Well; and who is that likely to have been but John the Forerunner, when he preached at Ænon, and the people of Sychar went to be baptized at the “many waters”? In the light of this reading we may understand how the woman of Samaria so soon grasps the fact that the Jewish stranger at the well is the Christ that John had said was to come after him. If we read the chapter again we shall see how it was through John’s baptizing at Ænon that circumstances arose which made Jesus decide to go through Samaria.

It was while John was yet at Bethabara that Jesus went to Cana of Galilee to the wedding feast. There are two rival sites for Cana: one is the ruin of _Kanah_, about 8 miles north of Nazareth, the supposed site in Crusading times; the other is the village of _Kenna_, about 4 miles north-east, which was the accredited site before the Crusaders arrived. The traveller is shown the water-pots at either place. It is difficult in the present instance to decide between rival claims, but the opinion of most writers is in favour of _Kefr Kenna_, and our explorers lean to that, partly for the reason that it is on the high road between Nazareth and Tiberias.

Travelling eastward to Tiberias we see a little way off the road on our left hand a hill of rather peculiar form; it looks as though it might be the crater of a volcano, with two stunted horns, one at either end. This is called the _Horns of Hattin_, and is noted in history as being the place where the Crusaders received their last crushing defeat at the hands of Sal-a-din, the great Saracen general, in the year 1187. But it is still more interesting to us as being the place where Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount. The tradition which makes _Kurn Hattin_ the Mount of Beatitudes is of Latin origin, and not older than the twelfth or thirteenth century; but the place is so well adapted for the delivery of a discourse to a large multitude, that in this case we may well believe it was correctly chosen by those who first selected it. When we are at the spot we have no difficulty in reconciling the seemingly inconsistent statements of St Matthew, who says that the sermon was preached on the mount, and St Mark, who says that Christ came down from the mount, and preached in the plain. Sitting on one of the peaks or “horns” aforesaid, Jesus might begin his discourse to his disciples, and when a larger crowd began to gather, might descend to the base of the peak, while still remaining on the mountain of Hattin.

From Hattin we are soon at Tiberias, a town once beautiful and famous, but now notorious for the filth of its streets and the activity of its vermin. The Arabs say that the king of the fleas holds his court there. Josephus tells us that the city was built by Herod Antipas, and named in honour of the Emperor Tiberius. It was therefore a new city in Christ’s day, and probably at first inhabited only by Romans, Antipas himself having a palace there, adorned with figures of animals, “contrary to the Jewish law.” Moreover, as it was built on the site of an ancient burial ground, it would be regarded by the Jews as a polluted and forbidden locality. These circumstances, taken together, may account for the fact that Jesus Christ does not appear ever to have entered the city.

The former greatness of Tiberias is indicated by the extent of the walls, 12 feet in thickness, which have been traced by Dr Selah Merrill and by Herr Schumacher for a distance of 3 miles, on the south side. In the course of the wall is an old castle on the summit of a hill, 1000 feet above the town. An aqueduct, 9 miles long, brought pure water from a distance, whereas the present inhabitants are content to drink of the waters of the lake. Looking about in the town we notice some traces of its former grandeur; here a magnificent block of polished granite from Upper Egypt, there a hunting scene carved on the surface of a hard black lintel of basalt, besides old buildings, and broken shafts and columns half buried in rubbish.

From Tiberias we go north, and after a ride of 3 miles reach Medjel, which represents the Magdala of Christ’s time, and is known wherever the New Testament is read as the home of Mary Magdalene. The village is insignificant, being only a collection of huts and hovels; the people are poor and degraded, and their children half naked. Travellers approaching the place are greeted by the howling of dogs, which rush out as though they would devour them.

Tiberias and Medjel are the only places now inhabited about the lake, and the visitor is impressed with a sense of deadness and desolation. Yet the lake is beautiful, and upon its shores there were in Christ’s time no less than nine cities, while numerous villages dotted the plains and hills around. All the surrounding region was highly cultivated, and the lake itself was covered with fishing boats. There are no more than half a dozen boats now--made at Beyrout, or some other seaport town, and brought hither on the backs of camels--but the lake still swarms with fish. When a revolver was fired into the water at random several fishes were killed and floated on the surface.

The lake is surrounded by hills, except at the south end, where it touches the Jordan Valley. These hills are at such a distance from the water as to leave a belt of land, generally level, all round it, which at some points broadens out into large plains, such as those of Gennesaret and Bathia. Medjel, already mentioned, is at the southern end of the charming Plain of Gennesaret, about which Josephus goes into ecstasies on account of its exceeding great fertility. He speaks of the palms and figs, olives and grapes that flourished there, and the fish for which its streams were far-famed. The plain is but 3 miles long by 1 mile wide, and it now looks neglected; but it might be made a little paradise again, for the soil is as fertile as ever. “As we journey towards the northern end” (says Dr Merrill) “we observe on our left a strange sight. The mountain appears to have parted asunder and left a great chasm, the walls of which are perpendicular, and full of caves, which, not long before the birth of Christ, were occupied by robbers, whom Herod the Great had much difficulty in subduing. Along the bottom of that chasm, ran, in Christ’s time, the main road from Cana of Galilee, Nazareth, Tabor, and the region of the south-west, to the north end of the lake, and thence to Damascus. Christ would pass along this road in going down from Nazareth to Capernaum.”

It was probably in the Plain of Gennesaret that the multitude stood on the land while Jesus put off in a boat to be free from the pressure of the crowd while he addressed them (Mark iv. 1). In this neighbourhood, also, no doubt, was spoken the parable of the net cast into the sea.

Of all the nine cities then about the lake we should like to recover especially the sites of Capernaum and Bethsaida. Before the Exploration we had to be content with the vague statement that Capernaum was somewhere north of Tiberias. We are now able to point to two sites, and say that Capernaum was one or other of these, while these two places are but 2½ miles apart. One of these places is _Tell Hum_, at the head of the lake, about 2 miles west of the point where the Jordan enters the lake. Here we have ruins indicating the former existence of a town hardly smaller than Tiberias; we find a regular cemetery, and within an enclosure we have the remains of a synagogue. Besides the synagogue ruins the argument in favour of this site is found in its name: _Tell_ means a heap, such as the place has become, and _Hum_ is the abraded form of the name Nahum. Tradition said that the prophet Nahum lived and died here, and indeed his grave was pointed out as late as the fourteenth century. The village of Nahum would be _Kefr Nahum_ in Hebrew; Khafarnaum, as Josephus has it; Capernaum as we are familiar with it. Sir Charles Wilson is in favour of this site. On the other hand, Major Conder is in favour of _Khan Minyeh_, 2½ miles from _Tell Hum_, along the shore southward, and right in the corner of the Plain of Gennesaret. Here, again, we have evidences of the former existence of a town, although we have no synagogue ruins. The name of the place, in this case also, supplies a strong argument. It appears that the Jews, who looked upon Capernaum as the home of Christ and the headquarters of his followers, called the disciples “Sons of Capernaum;” they also nicknamed them Diviners or Sorcerers--in their language, _Minai_, a name often appearing in the Talmud. Khan Minyeh, then, would seem to be the town of the Minai or Sorcerers, the early Jewish converts to Christianity; and their mother town was Capernaum. An objection might seem to lie against Khan Minyeh because of its situation in the plain, while it is said of Capernaum, “And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades” (Matt. xi. 23). Such an expression might be interpreted morally; but if it is to be understood literally, then there is the suggestion that the town was not entirely in the plain, but spread over the rocky promontory to the north-east. Rev. Henry Brass explored this promontory in the spring of 1890, and on the highest part, about 242 feet above the lake, found “the remains of a fortification--possibly the station of the Roman Centurion (Matt. viii. 5)--and here and there traces of buildings, but everywhere broken pottery, showing that there was formerly a large population. The ruins of the Khan at the junction of the roads from Cæsarea, Jerusalem, and Perea with the great Roman road leading north to Damascus, probably mark the very spot where Matthew sat at the receipt of custom; and the outlying rocks at the foot of the cliff, to this day the favourite resort of fish, indicate the spot where Peter would naturally go to cast his hook (Matt. xvii. 27).”[40]

Before quite dismissing Capernaum from our minds, let us inquire about the site of Bethsaida. The name signifies House of Fisheries, and it is recorded that Bethsaida was on the lake and had the Jordan running past it. Before we go further let us recall what occurred after the feeding of the five thousand.

Jesus constrained his disciples to enter into the boat, and to go before him unto the other side to Bethsaida. This is St Mark’s account (Mark vi. 45). St John, speaking of the same event, says that the disciples entered into a boat, and were going over the sea unto Capernaum (John vi. 17). It would appear, therefore, that Bethsaida and Capernaum were in the same direction, looking across the lake from the place where the disciples embarked. On the morrow, when the multitude which had been fed found that Jesus and his disciples had gone away, they engaged some small boats which had come from Tiberias, and crossed over to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. They must have had some ground for believing he had gone away in that direction: at any rate, at Capernaum, “on the other side of the sea,” they found him, and so we cannot doubt that the boat had landed him at Capernaum, or near it. When, therefore, two Evangelists tell us that they came to the shore at Gennesaret, and moored the boat there (Matt. xiv. 34; Mark vi. 53), it seems plain that Capernaum itself was in the land of Gennesaret, as it would be if situated at Khan Minyeh. And yet, considering that the disciples had been instructed to go “unto the other side, to Bethsaida,” and perhaps only deviated a little through the stress of the storm, and landed at Capernaum, we can hardly doubt that Bethsaida was close by. In fact the ruins at _Tell Hum_ may very well mark the site of Bethsaida, especially as their position agrees with the descriptions of early travellers who place Bethsaida north-east of Capernaum. For example, Willibald (A.D. 722) says, “And thence (from Tiberias) they went round the sea, and by the village of Magdalum to the village of Capernaum, where our Lord raised the prince’s daughter. Here was a house and a great wall, which the people of the place told them was the residence of Zebedæus and his sons John and James. And thence they went to Bethsaida, the residence of Peter and Andrew, where there is now a church on the site of their house. They remained there that night, and next morning went to Chorazin, where our Lord healed the demoniac, and sent the devil into a herd of swine. Here was a church of the Christians.” They afterwards went on to the sources of the Jordan at Banias.[41]

Chorazin, 2 miles north-west of _Tell Hum_, is called _Kerazeh_, a name easily confounded with _Khersa_, in the Gadarene country east of the lake; and this mistake Willibald appears to make.

The question is much discussed whether there were not two Bethsaidas; and those who believe there were, call the second one “Bethsaida Julias,” and place it on the eastern side of the Jordan, not far from the north end of the lake. Josephus says that Bethsaida was a village raised to the dignity of a town by Philip the Tetrarch, who rebuilt it and changed its name to Julias in honour of the daughter of the Emperor. Philip built himself a tomb there, and was buried there.

The question between _Tell Hum_ and _Khan Minyeh_ as the site of Capernaum has been made to turn partly on the presence of synagogue ruins at the former place and their absence from the latter. But this can have little or nothing to do with the decision, for the best judges believe that the synagogues date only from the second century A.D.

Nevertheless, the existence of synagogue ruins in Galilee is a very interesting fact; and it is probable that those erected in the second century would be modelled after the pattern of those which preceded them and in which Christ, in so many instances, read and taught. The synagogue ruins at _Tell Hum_ are a shapeless heap, but the stones have been carefully examined and measured, and it becomes possible theoretically to reconstruct the building. Similar ruins are found at seven or eight other places in Galilee, and some of them--especially those at _Kefr Birim_--are in a better state of preservation. (_See_ Frontispiece.) Examination shows that the Jewish synagogues were not the plain barn-like structures some people had imagined. The building faced the south, looking towards Jerusalem, the holy city. Four rows of columns ran from one end to the other, dividing the building into five aisles. At Kefr Birim one synagogue was furnished with a porch. A smaller building, at a little distance from the village, has two lambs sculptured on the lintel of the door, and beneath them is an inscription in Hebrew. The inscription has been thus read by Renan, “Peace be to this place, and upon all the places of God. Joseph the Levite, the son of Levi, put up this lintel. A blessing rest upon his work.” At the synagogue ruins of _Nebartein_, north-east of _Safed_, on the lintel of the main entrance, is a representation of the seven-branched candlestick, similar to those in the catacombs at Rome and on the rocks in the wilderness of Sinai. Here, again, is an inscription in Hebrew. During the excavations at _Tell Hum_ synagogue a lintel of one of the side entrances was found, and on its face a vase--perhaps the pot of manna--and on either side a rod or reed. Along the head is a scroll of vine leaves and grapes. The dimensions of this synagogue were 74 feet 9 inches by 56 feet 9 inches. The material was white limestone, brought from a distance, while the stone used at Kerazeh was the hard black basalt of the neighbourhood.

As already remarked, _Kerazeh_ (Chorazin), north-west of _Tell Hum_, has sometimes been confounded with _Khersa_, which was on the eastern side of the lake. Khersa is Gergesa, where Christ was met by the two demoniacs coming out of the tombs (Matt. ix. 1). It is situated on the left bank of _Wady Semakh_, and at the point where the hills end and the plain stretches out towards the lake. Sir C. Wilson is of opinion that there is only one spot where the herd of swine could have run down a steep place into the lake. It is a place about a mile south of Khersa, where the hills, which everywhere else on the eastern side are recessed from a half to three-quarters of a mile from the water’s edge, approach within 40 feet of it, and _there_ do not end abruptly but descend in a steep, even slope. Some time after Sir C. Wilson’s survey, the eastern coast was carefully examined by Mr Macgregor in his canoe, and he came to exactly the same conclusion.

A difficulty has arisen with regard to this locality in consequence of the different readings in the three Gospels. In Matthew Christ is said to have come into the country of the Gergesenes; in Luke and John into that of the Gadarenes. The old MSS. do not give any assistance here, but the similarity of the name Khersa to that of Gergesa is, as Dr Thomson points out, in “the Land and the Book,” a strong reason for believing that the reading of Matthew is correct; and we have also the testimony of Eusebius and Origen that a village called Gergesa once existed on the borders of the lake. Perhaps the discrepancy may be explained by supposing that Gergesa was under the jurisdiction of Gadara. Gadara itself, now _Umm Keis_, is a good two hours’ distance from the lake, else here we find rock-hewn tombs which are actually occupied by fellahin, while there do not appear to be any such at Khersa. To meet the difficulty which might be felt from the absence of tombs at Khersa, Sir C. Wilson has suggested that the demoniacs may have lived in a tomb built above ground, like one still existing at _Tell Hum_, a rectangular building, capable of holding a large number of bodies, and which appears to have been whitewashed within and without. It is possibly this description of tomb to which our Lord refers in Matt. xxiii. 27, where he compares the Scribes and Pharisees to “whited sepulchres,” beautiful in outward appearance, but within “full of dead men’s bones.”

Dr Merrill, speaking of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and other places now desolate by the Lake of Galilee, remarks that the contrast between the present and the former condition of this region is painful to one who knows its history. Nevertheless, he says, “this region is to me one of the most sacred and delightful on earth. No place that men have consecrated brings me so near to Christ as a day spent in walking and meditating on these lonely shores.”

“Christ also visited Perea, the country east of the Jordan. Doubtless he followed the main road to the hot springs on the Yarmuk, and thence to the beautiful city of Gadara, on the mountain above them. He may have gone a little farther east, past _Capitolias_ and _Dium_, cities belonging to the Decapolis, and turned south through a densely populated region to Geraza, whence, by one of the two routes before indicated, he would return to the valley after his mission had been accomplished. It was in Perea that the ‘seventy disciples’ were commissioned to labour, and their welcome and success must have been unusual, for it is reported of them that they ‘returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through thy name’ (Luke x.). The connection of our Saviour with this region opens up an interesting field of inquiry. He may have foreseen that in its rich cities, and among its throngs of human beings, his Gospel was soon to triumph in a remarkable manner, for it is true that in Bashan, a country which we are now accustomed to speak of as a desert, Christianity, in the early centuries of our era, had one of its most important strongholds.”

Jesus Christ at one time, either for quietness or for safety, went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and there entered into a house and would have no man know it (Mark vii. 24). A similar reason may have led him to visit Cæsarea Philippi (ancient Paneas and Dan) at the extreme north-east corner of the Holy Land, where the Jordan springs forth a full-grown stream, under the slopes of Hermon. It is generally accepted now that Hermon, and not Tabor, was the Mount of the Transfiguration (Luke ix. 29). Hermon was once _Shenir_, the “Shining,” a name made appropriate by its cap of snow; and some writers imagine a connection between this and the raiment that became white and dazzling.

There is one remarkable natural peculiarity of Hermon still to be noticed (says Conder) namely, the extreme rapidity of the formation of cloud on the summit. In a few minutes a thick cap forms over the top of the mountain, and as quickly disperses and entirely disappears. In the accounts of our Lord’s transfiguration, we read that whilst staying at Cæsarea Philippi, he retired with his disciples to “a high mountain apart,” and there can be but little doubt that some part of Hermon, and very probably the summit, is intended. From the earliest period the mountain has been a sacred place; in later times it was covered with temples; to the present day it is a place of retreat for the Druzes. This lofty solitary peak seems wonderfully appropriate for the scene of so important an event; and in this connection the cloud formation is most interesting, if we remember the cloud which suddenly cleared away, when they found “no man any more, save Jesus only, with themselves” (Mark ix. 8).

After these things it occurred, as Christ and his disciples “were on the way to Jerusalem, that he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee” (Luke xvii. 11). Some critics have cited this text as a proof that St Luke was ignorant of the country about which he wrote. Seeing that Galilee is north of Samaria, they think that a journey from north to south should rather be described as a passing through the midst of Galilee and Samaria. Moreover, they point out that, according to Matt. xix. 1 and Mark x. 1, Jesus did not pass through Samaria at all, but crossed the Jordan, and travelled by the eastern route. Notwithstanding the neatness of this indictment, it is easy to show that St Luke’s statement may be perfectly correct. Jesus intended to go up to Jerusalem to the feast, and as he did not share the Jewish prejudice against the Samaritans, he contemplated going through Samaria. He sent some of the disciples before him to prepare his way, and they entered into a Samaritan village; but they could not succeed in obtaining accommodation, because the object of the Master was to go through to Jerusalem (Luke ix. 52). The chronic feeling of enmity between Samaritans and Jews was naturally stirred into greater heat by the sight of pilgrims going up to the festival; for then the question was revived whether men ought to worship at Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. Being refused a passage through Samaria, and yet still intent upon going up to Jerusalem, Jesus Christ would turn eastward, and journey along the border, which led straight to the Bethabara ford of the Jordan. Travelling thus, with Samaria on his right hand and Galilee on his left, it is surely not incorrect to say that he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee; or, as we have it in the margin of the Revised Version, he passed _between_. It seems to have been at one of the border villages that he was met by ten lepers, one of whom was a Samaritan (Luke xvii. 12); and where would he be more likely to find Jewish and Samaritan lepers in one group than on the border line of the two provinces? He is following this line eastward, and accordingly, when Matthew and Mark say that he crossed the Jordan and came into the borders of Judea, by the eastern route, it is in perfect accordance with the statement in Luke. In further confirmation, we read in Luke