2 unknown,' perhaps even a mere invention, yet there is one place mentioned as the point on which all the defences turned, and of which the notices agree with those in other parts of the Jewish history, namely, Dothain. This now appears to have been identified by the modern name of Dotan, a little on the west of what is now the usual descent on the plain from the hills. Its first appearance-not, however, without some doubt is in the story of Joseph. He left "the valley' of Hebron "—sought his brothers at Shechem-heard of them from a man in the cultivated "field," so often mentioned and found them at Dothain, or the Two Wells." Into one of these wells, as it would seem, his brethren cast him, when, coming up from Esdraelon, they saw the Arabian merchants on their way from the mountains beyond the Jordan join the great Egyptian route along the maritime plain. The next appearance is more certain. At Dothain, or (as it is here written, in a contracted form) Dothan, Elisha was living, when the Syrian army with its chariots and horses came up, no doubt from Esdraelon, on its way to Samaria. 3 1 It may possibly be the fortress of Sanur, mentioned above. 2 Such is the statement of M. Van de Velde. He describes it as a knoll, covered with ruins-the ruins of an aqueduct a flat grass field round it. (i. 364-368.) 3 Gen. xxxvii. 12-28. The traditional scene of Joseph's adventures is in the plain of the upper Jordan, immediately north of the Lake of Gennesareth, and its site marked by an ancient khan, bearing his name, "Khan Yusuf," as its neighbourhood is by the "Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob," over the river, and its consequences, by the black and white stones on the shores of the lake, said to be the marks NOTE. MOUNT GERIZIM. Two complete accounts have been given of Mount Gerizim,-one by Dr. Robinson,' who saw it in 1838, the other by M. De Sauley,* who saw it in 1851. It is needless, therefore, here to do more than briefly enumerate the main objects of interest; and this the more, as a work is shortly expected from the pen of Mr. Rogers, the English Vice-Consul at Caipha, who has probably seen more of the Samaritan sect, and of their worship, than any other European. I have ventured here and there to add a few confirmations or illustrations of my remarks from the mouth of his Samaritan friend Jacob-es-Shellaby. 3 The mountain is ascended by two well-worn tracks, one leading from the town of Nablous at its western extremity, the other from the valley on its northern side, near one of the two spots pointed out as Joseph's tomb. It is on the eastern extremity of the ridge that the "holy places" of the Samaritans are collected. First, there occurs the small hole in the rocky ground where the lamb is roasted on the evening of the Passover; next, the large stone structure, supposed by M. De Saulcy to be the remains of the Samaritan temple, and by Dr. Robinson to be the ruins of the fortress of Justinian; but in either case occupying the site of the ancient temple. In one of the towers of this edifice, on the northeast angle, is the tomb of a Mussulman saint, Sheykh Ghranem.* Under the southern wall of this castle or temple, is a line of rocky slabs, called the "ten stones," in commemoration of the ten (or twelve) stones brought by Joshua, or of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom. De Saulcy supposes them to be artificial, and erected by Joshua. But they have every appearance of a large rocky platform; the twelve (for there are twelve distinctly marked) divided each from each by natural fissures. It was also pointed out to him as the "burning-place" of the victims (Harakah). Beyond this platform, and still further to the east, is a smooth surface of rock, sloping down to a hole on its south side. The rock, according to the present story, is the holy place-the scene of Abraham's sacrifice the Bethel of Jacob-the spot where the Ark rested; the hole in the Holy of Holies. But it can hardly be 1 B. R. iii. p. 124. 2 Journey in Syria, ii. 370. 3 The whole scene of the Samaritan Passover is given in detail by Mr. Rogers in Notices of the Modern Samaritans, p. 25. The same name was reported to us as to De Saulcy, ii. 367. Meeting with Melchizedek. doubted that it is the original sanctuary;' and that the hole is an aperture for the sewerage of the blood of victims; and it thus furnishes an illustration of the threshing-floor of Araunah, on which the altar of David and Solomon was built, with the cavity' underneath for the reception of the blood and garbage. I have stated that there is every probability that Gerizim, and not Jerusalem, is the scene of two of the most remarkable events in the history of Abraham. 1. The meeting with Melchizedek (Gen xiv. 17, 18,) is expressly stated in the fragment of Theodotus preserved by Eusebius, to have occurred in "Ar-Gerizim," the "mountain of the Most High." It is clear that this, as in the analogous case of Ar-Mageddon, is simply the Greek version of "the mountain of Gerizim," the uniform mode of designating that eminence. So I observed that Jacob-es-Shellaby always called it "Ar-Gerizim" in Arabic. That it should have been thus early set apart as the "mountain of the Most High," is natural, from the commanding appearance which it presents, especially as seen from the plain of Philistia and Sharon, up which, in all probability, the old Gerizites, from whom it derives its name, must have swept from the Desert. And its elevation above the neighbouring hills is so great as naturally to deserve the supremacy which Josephus gives it, of "the highest of all the mountains of Samaria." This traditional selection of Gerizim as the scene of the meeting with Melchizedek is further confirmed by all the circumstances of the narrative. Abraham was returning from his victory over the eastern kings at Dan, at the head of the Valley of the Jordan, when he was welcomed by the king of Sodom "at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's 'valley,' or, as the Septuagint renders it, "of the kings," probably in allusion to this very meeting. This valley is mentioned once again expressly as "the king's valley," where Absalom had erected his tomb. It was conjectured in later times, that this valley was the ravine of the Kedron on the east of Jerusalem; and this conjecture has been perpetuated by the name of Absalom's tomb attached to the most conspicuous of the monuments in that ravine. But the context in both places leads to the conclusion that the place was somewhere near the Valley of the Jordan, probably on its eastern side, where the death of Absalom occurred, and where it would therefore be mentioned as a singular 1 See Chapter III. To us, as to M. de Saulcy, a niche or 6 Gen. xiv. 17. Josephus calls it wèdiov Bartelov (Ant. I. x. 2), an expression which he could never have applied to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. On the other hand (in Ant. VII. x. 3), in speaking of Absalom's tomb, he calls it Kolλas Baσλik, and speaks of it as only three stadia from Jerusalem. 6 2 Sam. xviii. 18. coincidence that he had erected his monument near the scene of his end. The only other occasion on which the word "Shaveh" is used (meaning, apparently, a dale, or level space), occurs in these same parts in the northern extremity of Moab, "Shaveh-Kiriathaim." In such a level space in one of the valleys, Abraham would naturally be met by the grateful king of Sodom. And at this same spot would also appear the king of the neighbouring town of SALEM, of which the name occurs again in the same vicinity in the history of Jacob; then again, after a long interval, in Judith iv. 4, then in the history of John the Baptist, and still lingers in a village seen from the summit of Gerizim in the valley which leads out of the plain of Shechem towards the Jordan. He was king of Salem, and priest of the Most High God-that is, according to the abovementioned tradition, of the God who was worshipped on the summit of Gerizim-and to him as the royal guardian and minister of the most ancient and conspicuous sanctuary of Palestine, Abraham paid the tenth of the recently acquired spoil. 2. What is affirmed by the Gentile tradition with regard to the Sacrifice of connection of Gerizim with Melchizedek, is affirmed by the Samaritan Isaac. tradition with regard to its connection with the sacrifice of Isaac. The Jewish tradition, as represented by Josephus, transfers the scene to the hill on which the temple was afterwards erected at Jerusalem, and this belief has been perpetuated in Christian times as attached to a spot in the garden of the Abyssinian Convent, not indeed on Mount Moriah, but immediately to the east of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with the intention of connecting the sacrifice of Isaac with the Crucifixion. An ancient thorn tree, covered with the of pilgrims, is still shown as the thicket in which the ram was caught. But the Samaritan tradition is here again confirmed by the circumstances of the story. Abraham was "in the land of the Philistines," probably at the extreme south. From Beersheba or Gaza he would 1 Gen. xiv. 5. See Appendix, Shareh. 2 That this was the Salem of Melchizedek is maintained by Jerome, in whose time large ruins were shown there, bearing the name of "Melchizedek's Palace," and more doubtfully by Epiphanius (Adv. Hær. ii. p. 469), who, however, speaks of its situation exactly where it is now shown, in the plain opposite Shechem. The other, and now more popular tradition, which Epiphanius describes as existing in his time, and which is also adopted by Suidas (voce Melchizedek), supposes Salem to have been the ancient name of Jebus, and that the subsequent application of this name to the Holy City was merely a revival of its ancient appellation. In favour of this belief, is -1. The fact that Jerusalem is once so called, in Psalm rags lxxvi. 2.-2. The authority of Josephus " probably be conceived to move along the Philistine plain, and then on the morning of the third day would arrive in the plain of Sharon, exactly where the massive height of Gerizim is visible "afar off," and from thence half a day would bring him to its summit. Exactly such a view is to be had in that plain; and, on the other hand, no such view or impression can fairly be said to exist on the road from Beersheba to Jerusalem, even if what is at most a journey of two days could be extended to three. The towers of Jerusalem are indeed seen from the ridge of Mar Elias, at the distance of three miles; but there is no elevation, nothing corresponding to the "place afar off" to which Abraham "lifted up his eyes.' And the special locality which Jewish tradition has assigned for the place, and whose name is the chief guarantee for the tradition-Mount Moriah-the Hill of the Temple-is not visible till the traveller is close upon it, at the southern edge of the Valley of Hinnom, from whence he looks down upon it, as on a lower eminence. And when from the circumstances we pass to the name, the argument based upon it in favour of Jerusalem is at least equally balanced by the argument which it yields in favour of Gerizim. The name of Moriah, as applied to the Temple hill, refers to the vision to David after the plague. "Solomon began to build the house in the Mount of the appearance of the Lord' (Moriah), where He appeared unto David his father." Some such play on the word is apparent also in Gen. xxii. 8, 14, where the same Hebrew word is employed, "God will see"-" in the mountain the Lord shall see" (Jehovah jireh). But in the case of the mountain of Abraham's sacrifice, it was probably in the first instance derived from its conspicuous position, as seen from afar off;" and the name was thus applied not merely to one of the mountains," but to the whole " "land" -an expression entirely inapplicable to the contracted eminence of the temple. The LXX, moreover, evidently unconscious of its identification with the Mount of Jerusalem, translate it, Thu yn Thν výnλny, “the high land," a term exactly agreeing with the appearance which the hills of Ephraim, and especially Gerizim, present to a traveller advancing up the Philistine plain, and also with the before-mentioned expression of Theodotus-"the mountain of the Most High." It is impossible here not to ask whether a trace of the name of Moriah, as applied to Gerizim and its neighbourhood, may not be found in the term "Moreh," applied to the grove of terebinths in the same vicinity, in Gen. xii. 6, of which the same translation is given by the LXX, as of Moriah-rǹv dpûv Tv dynλùv, "the high oak." Hebrew scholars must determine how far the difference of the radical letters of and D is an insuperable objection to the identification. In Gen. xxii. the Samaritans actually read Moreh for Moriah. 1 See Chapter VI. 3 |