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but also built by its side another for his beautiful but meretricious sister Berenice. Here also was the famous hall "for feasting and compotations," to which the great Jewish historian and priest thus alludes: "King Agrippa built himself a very large dining-room in the royal palace in Jerusalem, near to the portico. Now this palace had been erected of old by the children of Asmoneus, and was situated upon an elevation and afforded a delightful prospect to those that had a mind to take a view of the city, which prospect was desired by the king, and there he could lie down and sit, and thence observe what was done in the temple, etc." (Ant. book 20, chap. ix. sec. 10.) And truly it was a most delightful prospect. The beautiful, purplish, chatoyant mountains of Moab and Ammon, bounding a part of the horizon, at the distance of twenty-five or thirty miles; the hallowed ridge of Olivet forming the remainder at the distance of a mile. Then, only one hundred and fifty yards distant was the gorgeous Temple, "exceeding magnifical, and of fame and glory throughout all conntries," crowning Mount Moriah. The deep gorge of the Tyropoon, at that time perhaps about two hundred feet below the palace, adorned by the magnificent Xystus Porticos which lay below - the towering Castle of Antonia loomed aloft on the north, and on the right were Ophel, Kedron, Siloam, En-rogel, etc. Immediately adjacent on the north was unquestionably situated the "Armory of Solomon," or "the House of the Forest of Lebanon," and just in its rear, in the direction of the Tower of Hippicus, was the "House of the High Priest." The east end of the palace was connected with the Temple by that cyclopean bridge so often mentioned by Josephus, spanning the Tyropoon, and forming a noble highway between Moriah, the colossal remains of which are still to be seen at its abutment against the Temple wall the highway or "ascent" of Solomon, so much admired by the queen of Sheba.

This spot was subsequently occupied by the Crusaders, who (if we may form a judgment from present indications) crowned it with a magnificent church, in one sense at least resembling a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. The tent, pitched on the top of one of the houses, now jumbled on its ruins, covers one of the circular skylights of the ancient church; and the little court beneath this tented skylight is the humble tabernacular chapel of the Mission.

Immediately at the base of this perpendicular cliff, more than a hundred feet below the ancient palace, was situated the Xystus, so often mentioned by Josephus. By this term, we are not only to understand the long gallery beneath the palace, running parallel to the western cloister of the Temple, at a distance of about three hundred feet to the west, but also the intervening Tyropoon, or Cheese-monger's Valley of Josephus, called here, both by Josephus and the sacred writers, the suburbs (and the situation is literally sub urbe) — Mount Zion overhanging it on one side, to the height of one or two hundred feet, and Mount Moriah nearly as much on the other. It seems originally to have been mainly appropriated to gymnastic purposes, but in process of time evidently became the theatre of the grand

Jewish convocations, for the discussion of great national concerns. Hence it was probably the place where Herod the Great convened the Jews to consider his proposition for the reedification of the Temple. And here it certainly was that king Agrippa assembled the hosts of Israel, to address them on the occasion of their rebellion against their oppressive Roman masters, the circumstances of which Josephus details, as well as the king's speech, in the 16th chapter of the Second Book of the Wars of the Jews.

It was across this portion of the Tyropoon occupied by the Xystus that Titus caused Josephus to remonstrate with the infatuated Jews, after he had dispossessed them of the Temple; and across it also that Marc Antony held his celebrated parley with that stubborn people after he had captured Mount Zion - the bridge, in each instance, having been broken down. Many other circumstances concur to invest this place with peculiar interest in the eyes of the Jews."

Dr. Barclay also resided at one time in the Mohammedan quarter on Bezetha, and he has had a summer health-retreat on the mount of Olives, whence the city as a whole is distinctly in view. He has therefore gained that knowledge of localities which a neighborhood residence affords to one whose powers of observation are always upon the alert.

The intelligent family of Dr. Barclay, who sympathized with him in his spirit of antiquarian research, as well as in his missionary zeal, brought to him additional facilities for exploration, and largely assisted in his measurements and observations. Some of the most interesting passages in his work, as well as many of its most beautiful illustrations, were furnished by these invaluable assistants. Besides being a good draughtsman, Dr. Barclay is skilled in the art of photography, and hence his sketches of buildings and remains are more authentic and reliable than many hitherto given to the public. These have been reproduced by the engravers in the best style, and they are worked into the letter press with care. The mechanical execution of the volume deserves the highest praise. In the quality of the paper, the clearness of the text, and the neatness and beauty of the illustrations, it is one of the finest specimens of the typographic art ever issued in the United States.

The work is divided into three principal parts, which treat severally of "Jerusalem as it was," "Jerusalem as it is," and "Jerusalem as it is to be." The first of these divisions

The topics

occupies more than one half of the volume. discussed under this division are the local features of the city and its environs, its various quarters as mentioned in the Bible and by Josephus, its walls, towers, gates, castles, citadels, fortresses, palaces, tombs and sepulchral monuments, the temple, the fountains, aqueducts and reservoirs, and the changeful fortunes of the city under Pagan, Moslem, and Christian domination. Dr. Barclay is, we believe, the only writer who has attempted to identify every locality of ancient Jerusalem upon the surface of the present city and its surrounding ruins. In his catalogue of names and his array of arguments and measurements, he exhibits an enthusiasm worthy of all praise; but his anxiety to make this identification complete, sometimes leads him to hasty assumptions and untenable positions, which impair the confidence of the reader in his conclusions.

This plan, moreover, compels the author to enter largely into minutia that can interest only the scholar, while yet his work does not present the scholarly attractions of profound learning and cultivated style. Uncouth phrases, cumbersome sentences, an occasional grandiloquence of fancy or unseemly witticism, detract from the literary merit of a book, faultless in mechanical execution. But the preface of the author would disarm mere verbal criticism, if the greatness of his theme and the service he has rendered it, did not forbid this. Dr. Barclay's compendium of ancient writers upon Jerusalem will be found of value to the general reader; and his minute description of the city as it now is, will interest readers of every class. But we are chiefly concerned with those investigations and discoveries which relate to the topography of Jerusalem and the line of its defences in the time of our Saviour.

Before analyzing the contributions of Dr. Barclay towards a solution of this vexed question, it will be well to inquire what points in the topography of Jerusalem may be regarded as settled. As the ground-plan of our inquiry, we take the well known description of Josephus. '

1

1 B. J. 5. 4. 1.

"The city was fortified by three walls, except where it was encircled by impassable ravines; for in that part there was but one wall. It was built upon two hills, one part facing the other, (avτipóσwños, face to face,) separated by an intervening valley, at which, one upon another, (i. e. crowded together) the houses ended. Of these bills, that on which the upper city stood was much the higher, and straighter in its length. Accordingly, on account of its strength, it was called the fortress by King David, the father of Solomon, by whom the temple was originally built; but by us it is called the upper market place. The other hill, called Akra, which sustains the lower city, is curved on each side (àμpíkupтos, gibbous). Over against this was a third hill, naturally lower than Akra, and formerly separated from it by another broad ravine. Afterwards, however, when the Asmoneans were in power, desiring to connect the city with the temple, they filled in this ravine, and cutting down the summit of Akra, they reduced its elevation, so that the temple might appear above it. The valley called Tyropoon [the valley of the cheese-makers], which we have said separated the hill of the upper city from that of the lower, extends as far as Siloam; for so we call a fountain whose waters are both sweet and abundant. From without [i. e. exterior to the city] the two hills of the city were encom-** passed by deep ravines, and because of the precipices on both sides there was nowhere any approach."

In the succeeding chapter of the same book, Josephus thus describes the hill upon which the temple was built:

"The temple, as I have said, was seated on a strong hill. Originally, the level space on its summit scarcely sufficed for the sanctuary and the altar, the ground about being abrupt and steep. But king Solomon, who built the sanctuary, having completely walled up the eastern side, a colonnade was built upon the embankment. On the other sides the sanctuary remained exposed. In process of time, however, as the people were constantly adding to the embankment, the hill became level and broader. They also threw down the northern wall, and enclosed as much ground as the circuit of the temple at large subsequently occupied. After having surrounded the hill from the base with a triple wall, and accomplished a work which surpassed all expectation—a work on which long ages were consumed, and all their sacred treasures exhausted, though replenished by the tributes offered to God from every region of the world, they built the upper boundary walls and the lower court of the temple.

"The lowest part of the latter they built up from a depth of three hundred cubits, and in some places more. The entire depth of the foundations, however, was not discernible; for with a view to level the streets of the town, they filled up the ravines to a considerable extent. There were stones used in the building which measured forty cubits; for so ample was the supply of money and such the zeal of the people, that incredible success

attended the undertaking; and that of which hope itself could not anticipate the accomplishment, was by time and perseverence completed."

From the foregoing description it would seem that if we can identify any two of the hills named, we have the third. Thus, if we can identify Zion and the temple-hill, then the hill which directly faces Zion upon the north, and is divided from it by a ravine, and which also stands "over against" the temple-hill, but with traces of another intervening ravine, must of course be Acra, and no hill which does not at once face Zion and the temple-hill, as a natural prominence distinct from either, can properly claim that name. The geographical characteristics so clearly marked by Josephus, must be first sought for as the basis of all identification. If we except the theory of Schwartz and of some resident savans of Jerusalem, to be noticed presently, there is little diversity among writers on the topography of Jerusalem, as to the identity and the general boundaries of Zion. Williams makes Zion identical with the Armenian and Jewish quarters of the present city, together with the parts of the hill lying without the walls, to the south and east. He also regards the northwestern tower of the modern citadel at the Jaffa gate, as occupying the site of the tower of Hippicus, which stood at the northwest angle of the wall of Zion."1

There is a like agreement as to the site of the temple. Indeed Mr. Williams observes that "this site has the singular good fortune to be the only one of all the sacred localities in Jerusalem whose identity has not been disputed in modern times. It is universally agreed that the hill now occupied by the mosque of Omar and its surrounding courts, is the mountain of the Lord's house." 2

3

But Mr. Williams makes what Dr. Robinson and nearly all recent authorities regard as Bezetha, the Acra of Josephus, and the valley running down from the Damascus gate to the pool of Siloam, the Tyropoon. He does not however, with Schwartz, extend the area of Zion so as to include any part of the hill which Robinson regards as Acra, 8 Ibid. p. 273.

Holy City, p. 261. VOL. XV. No. 58.

2 Ibid.

p.

15.

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