Jerusalem Explored Part 40

It surpa.s.sed all the other buildings in size, workmans.h.i.+p, and design; but was afterwards destroyed by the treacherous Gentiles: its ruins are to be seen even to this day. Bongars, p. 574. De Vogue says that the author grounds his statement wrongly on an apocryphal letter of S.

Jerome. See Quaresmius, E. T. S. Tom. II. p. 244.

NOTE VIII. Brocardus writes: "The Sepulchre of the Virgin is covered with earth to such an extent that the church built upon its site, though its walls were lofty, and it had a n.o.ble roof, is now entirely buried underground.... There was built, however, on the same site, and _upon the surface of the ground_, a church or a building like a chapel, after the repairing of the city. Having entered this, you will descend by several steps _underground_ to the aforementioned church and the Tomb of the Virgin; if I am not mistaken there are sixty steps. The tomb is in the middle of the choir and in front of a marble altar beautifully decorated, which the Saracens too most devoutly wors.h.i.+p, falling down before it and kissing it, and in a loud voice, as is their custom, praying for the intercession of the Holy Virgin. I have been inside the Sepulchre itself."

Willibrand (Leo Allat. Sym. p. 149) says, "We saw a church richly adorned and in its midst a monument, covered on all sides with white, i.e. virgin, marble."

NOTE IX. Father Geraldo Calvetti, guardian and keeper of Mount Sion, took possession of the Sepulchre. The doc.u.ment which proves this is found in the archives of the convent of S. Saviour at Jerusalem, under the letter C. Quaresmius, I. 181: "These things were done at Jerusalem before the gate and entrance of the said church of Our Blessed Lady of the Valley of Jehoshaphat."

NOTE X. A firman, granted in 1852, allows the Latins to hold service in the Sepulchre of the Virgin, after the Greeks and the Armenians, enjoining upon them at the same time to take away on each occasion the objects of wors.h.i.+p. This firman, amongst the many false statements that it makes, contains a few lines which are worth quoting: "it is just to confirm the permission granted at all times to the Christians of the Catholic rite to exercise their own form of wors.h.i.+p in this place." In spite of these previous concessions, &c. the Latins had been totally driven out from it. Of what use are firmans when they are acquired at will by presents of gold?

NOTE XI. Father Morone[903], Guardian of the Holy Land, relates that towards the middle of the seventeenth century some tombstones were found near the entrance of the Grotto of the Agony; and on them were inscriptions belonging to the Latin Christians; but that he himself, who had the oversight of the work, did not let them be uncovered, from fear lest the Turks should take possession of them. If he had only taken a copy of these epitaphs, we might possibly know the resting-place of some of the more distinguished Crusaders. However, I conclude, from the fact that he relates, that the existing pa.s.sage was made at that time.

NOTE XII. In 1857 I obtained leave from the Superior of the Greek convent to draw the ground-plan of the church. I set to work, and got as far as the Armenian Chapel of S. Joseph, when the Armenian lay-keeper of the chapel wished to hinder my continuing my work; I asked him as a favour to let me go on, and offered him an acknowledgment, but he only became more annoying still. At last I tried force, compelled him to return to his sacristy, set a European servant to watch at the door, and, regardless of his cries, persisted in my work. I mention this to shew how great difficulties are met with, even amongst Christians of other sects, in conducting any investigations respecting the monuments that belong to them.

NOTE XIII. The olive-trees of the Garden of Gethsemane, says Chateaubriand (Itineraire, Vol. II.), belong at any rate to the later empire. In Turkey, every olive-tree found already planted when the Turks invaded Asia, pays a tax of a medino; those that have been planted since the conquest pay to the Sultan the half of their fruit. Now, the eight olive-trees of Gethsemane are taxed at eight medini.

NOTE XIV. The various elevations of the hills, and other special localities of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, are drawn in section.

(Plate IV.)

NOTE XV. The Jews had derived the wors.h.i.+p of Moloch from the Canaanites.

Moloch and Saturn appear to have been the same deity: the way in which they were wors.h.i.+pped is the same. The Carthaginians, who were descended from the Canaanites, offered human victims to Saturn. "There was in their city," says Diodorus Siculus (Book XX. chap. 14), "a bronze statue representing Cronos (Saturn): it had its hands spread out, and bent down towards the ground, so that the child that was put in its hands, rolling itself up, fell into a fiery furnace." These cruel sacrifices continued to prevail in Africa till the time of the Emperor Tiberius (Tertullian, Apol. IX.). From Syria the practice pa.s.sed into Europe. Agathocles, king of Sicily, sacrificed two hundred children of the n.o.blest families to his deity, believing him to be angry. (Pescennius Festus in Lactant.

Divin. Inst.i.t. I. 21.)

The Rabbi Simon, in his commentary on Jeremiah (viii.), gives the following description of the idol Moloch: "All the idol temples were in the city of Jerusalem, except that of Moloch, which was in a place set apart outside the city. It was a statue of bronze with the head of an ox, and with the hands stretched out like those of a man who wishes to receive something from another; within it was quite hollow. Before the image were seven chapels; he who offered a dove, or any other bird, went into the first; he who gave a lamb, or a sheep, into the second; into the third for a wether; into the fourth for a calf; into the fifth for a bull; into the sixth for an ox; while he who sacrificed his own son entered the seventh chapel and embraced the idol, as it is said in Hosea (xiii. 2), 'Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.' The child was set before the idol, beneath which a fire was kindled, till the bronze became red hot; then the priest took the child, and put it between the burning hands of Moloch, while the parents were bound to witness the sacrifice without any expression of feeling. To prevent the cries of the victims reaching them, drums and gongs were sounded! from this comes the name _Topheth_, which signifies a drum. It was also called _Hinnom_, because of the cries of the children, from _naham_, to cry, or, according to another interpretation from the words which the priest used to address to the parents, _Jehenelach_--this will be of service to thee. King Josiah, in order to render the place an object of horror, 'defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pa.s.s through the fire to Moloch' (2 Kings xxiii. 10)."

NOTE XVI. So when Solomon is spoken of, it is said, "Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David, his father" (1 Kings xi. 43); and the same formula is used of the kings Rehoboam, Abijam, Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah, Jehoiada, the priest (2 Chron. xxiv. 16), and the kings Amaziah, Jotham, Josiah; while in the case of the rest different expressions are used. Asa was buried "in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David" (2 Chron. xvi. 14); therefore he was not buried with his fathers. Jehoram was buried "in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings" (2 Chron. xxi. 20). The place of burial of the usurper Athaliah is not mentioned. Joash, in 2 Kings xii. 21, is buried "with his fathers in the city of David," while in 2 Chron. xxiv. 25, it is said that "they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings." Uzziah "they buried with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper" (2 Chron. xxvi. 23). Ahaz they "buried in the city, _even_ at Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xxviii. 27). Hezekiah was buried "in the highest of the sepulchres of the sons of David" (2 Chron. x.x.xii. 33). Mana.s.seh "was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza;" as also was Amon, his successor (2 Kings xxi. 18, 26). Jehoahaz died in Egypt (2 Kings xxiii. 34). Eliakim, or Jehoiachim, according to Jeremiah (xxii.

19), is to be "buried with the burial of an a.s.s, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem;" and (x.x.xvi. 30), "his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost;" from all which we may the more certainly conclude that the sepulchres of the other kings were within the gates of Jerusalem. Lastly, we have Jehoiachin and Zedekiah led captive to Babylon, where they died.

NOTE XVII. Bede, who wrote in the eighth century (on the authority of Arculf), calls the building of the Coenaculum a large church. In his time there was in the neighbourhood a convent of monks. He says: "On the upper part of Mount Sion there is a large church, surrounded by a great number of monks' cells. The church was founded, it is said, by the apostles, because it was there that they received the Holy Ghost, and that Mary died. They shew there to this day the memorable place which was the scene of our Lord's supper. In the middle of the church is a column of marble, to which Jesus was bound when He was scourged."

FOOTNOTES:

[900] Persons who have seen them have told me that they were of the veined red breccia of Palestine.

[901] These three inscriptions were traced in characters of the 12th century.

[902] Lib. VII. ad fin. p. 289, ed. Bonn.

[903] Mariano Morone da Maleo, Terra Santa nuovamente ill.u.s.trata.

Piacenza, 1669, 4to.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY

OF THE HISTORY AND EVENTS OF JERUSALEM.

B.C.

1913 Melchizedek, king of Salem, receives Abram at the Valley of Shaveh, which is the King's Dale Gen. xiv. 17, 18.

1872 Sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah _Ib._ xxii. 2-14.

1451 Adonizedek king of Jerusalem Josh. x. 1.

1444 The descendants of Judah dwell among the Jebusites at Jerusalem _Ib._ xv. 63.

1425 The descendants of Benjamin dwell among the Jebusites at Jerusalem Judges i. 21.

-- Jebus, the city of the Jebusites, is Jerusalem _Ib._ xix. 10, 11.

1050 David reigns in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah 2 Sam. v. 5.

1023 Death of Absalom, and his Pillar in the King's Dale _Ib._ xviii. 14, 18.

1017 The prophets, Nathan and Gad, at Jerusalem _Ib._ xxiv. 11; 1 Kings i. 11.

-- David buys the Thres.h.i.+ng-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and builds there an Altar to G.o.d 2 Sam. xxiv. 24, 25.

-- Solomon proclaimed king at Jerusalem 1 Kings i. 39.

1015 Death of David, after 40 years' reign _Ib._ ii. 10, 11.

1014 Solomon begins to build the Temple _Ib._ vi. 1.

1007 The Temple finished _Ib._ vi. 38.

1004 Dedication of Solomon's Temple _Ib._ viii. 63.

992 Solomon forsakes G.o.d, and builds a high place to Chemosh, &c.

_Ib._ xi. 7.

977 Death of Solomon, after 40 years' reign _Ib._ xi. 42, 43.

-- Division of the Kingdom. Rehoboam, king of Judah, reigns 17 years _Ib._ xii. 17; xiv. 21.

973 s.h.i.+shak, king of Egypt, besieges and takes Jerusalem _Ib._ xiv. 25, 26.

960 Abijam, king of Judah, reigns 3 years _Ib._ xv. 1, 2.

958 Asa, king of Judah, reigns 41 years _Ib._ xv. 9, 10.

917 Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, reigns 25 years _Ib._ xxii. 42.

896 The prophet Elijah taken up to heaven. Elisha the prophet 2 Kings ii. 11, 12.