Paneas. But the main centre of attraction is the higher source of the Jordan. Underneath the high red limestone cliff' which overhangs the town it bursts out; not, as in the lower or westernmost source, in a full spring, but in many rivulets", which, issuing from the foot of the rock, first form a large basin, and then collect into a rushing stream. It penetrates through the thickets on the hill side, and in the vale below, at some point which has never been exactly verified, joins the stream from Dan. In the face of the rock immediately above the spring is the large grotto which furnished a natural sanctuary not indeed to the Israelites, who perhaps never penetrated so far, but to the Greeks of the Macedonian kingdom of Antioch. We have often had occasion to observe how slightly in the choice of their natural sanctuaries the Hebrews seem to have been influenced by the local beauty or grandeur of the spot; how modern is that "religion of caves which in the Christian times of Palestine has played so important a part'. At last we have arrived at an exception to this rule; and this shows that we are on the confines of the Gentile world. The cavern-sanctuary of Cæsarea, unknown to Israelite history, was at once adopted by the Grecian settlers, both in itself and for its romantic situation the nearest likeness that Syria affords of the beautiful limestone grottos which in their own country were inseparably associated with the worship of the sylvan Pan. This was the one Paneum or "sanctuary of Pan" within the limits of Palestine; which before the building of Philip's city gave to the town the name of Paneas, a name which has outlived the Roman substitute, and still appears in the modern appellation of Banias. Greek inscriptions in the face of the rock testify its original purpose; the reverence thus begun, was continued by the Romans; the white marble temple built by Herod to Augustus crowned its summit; and in later times Jewish pilgrims' mistook the traces of this Gentile worship for the vestiges of the altar of the Danites and Jeroboam; and Christian or Mussulman devotion has erected above it one of 1 The cliffs are about 80 feet high, of compact buff-coloured limestone, the surface of which has reddened in weathering." (Captain Newbold, Journ. As. Soc. xvi. 4.) 2Three (?) streams which fall over a plateau at the base of the cliffs, shaded by a verdant grove of poplars and oleanders." (Journ. As. Soc., xvi. 11). 90. 3 See Chapter II. 4 Benjamin of Tudela, Early Travellers, СНАР. ХІ.] LAKE OF MEROM AND SOURCES OF THE JORDAN. 399 the numerous tombs dedicated to the mysterious saint whom the one calls St. George and the other Elijah. But amidst these Pagan recollections of Paneas or Cæsarea Philippi, there is one passage which brings it within the confines of Sacred History. As it is the northernmost frontier of Palestine, so it is the northernmost limit of the journeys of Our Lord. In the turning-point of His history, when "from that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him," when even the Twelve seemed likely "to go away;" and He "could no more walk in Judæa because the Jews sought to kill Him;" then He left His familiar haunts on the Sea of Galilee, to return to them, as far as we know, only once more. He crossed to the north-eastern corner of the lake, and passed, as it would seem, up the rich plain along its eastern side', and came into "the parts," into "the villages" of Cæsarea Philippi. It is possible that He never reached the city itself; but it must at least have been in its neighbourhood that the confession of Peter was made; the rock on which the Temple of Augustus stood, and from which the streams of the Jordan issue, may possibly have suggested the words which now run round the dome of St. Peter's. And here one cannot but ask Mount of what was the "high mountain" on which six days the Transfiguration. from that time, whilst still in this region, "He was transfigured" before His three disciples? It is impossible to look up from the plain to the towering peaks of Hermon, almost the only mountain which deserves the name in Palestine, and one of whose ancient titles was derived from this circumstance', and not be struck with its appropriateness to the scene. The fact of its rising high above all the other hills of Palestine, and of its setting the last limit to the wanderings of Him who was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, falls in with the supposition which the words inevitably force. The sacredness of Hermon in the eyes of the surrounding tribes may well have fitted it for the purpose, even if upon us. 1 This seems to be implied by two passages. 1. If the Bethsaida of Mark viii. 22, be that on the east of the Jordan, this makes his starting-point for that journey to be from the east. 2. He is said to have returned from Cæsarea "through Galilee," (Mark ix. 30,)—as if implying that He then first re-entered it, which would be the case if His approach to Cæsarea had been through Gaulonitis. 2 See Chapter XII. it did not give it the name, of " the Holy Mountain'." High up on its southern slopes there must be many a point where the disciples could be taken "apart by themselves." Even the transient comparison of the celestial splendour with the snow, where alone it could be seen in Palestine, should not, perhaps, be wholly overlooked. At any rate, the remote heights above the sources of the Jordan witnessed the moment, when His work in His own peculiar sphere being ended, He set His face for the last time "to go up to Jerusalem "." 1 2 Pet. i. 18. See Chapter XII. 2 Mark ix. 2, 3; Luke ix. 51. NOTE ON THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY. I HAVE not thought it worth while to perplex the question of the boundary of Palestine by including the large tracts northward and eastward, which are given as parts of the Israelite possessions in the first journey of the spies, in the reigns of David and Solomon, and in the prophetical descriptions of Ezekiel. But it may be necessary to notice the position advanced by Hävernick (Pentateuch, 148), that "Dan," the Danite settlement and the northern boundary, was different from "Dan" in Gen. xiv. 14, and was situated not on the sources of the Jordan, but in the plain of Cole-Syria. The only argument in favour of this position is the mention, in Judg. xviii. 28, of Beth-Rehob, which in Num. xiii. 21, appears on the way to Hamath. But this (in the total uncertainty of the site of Rehob) can hardly stand against the decisive arguments on the other side. 1. Josephus (Ant. VIII. viii. 4) expressly identifies the northern Dan with the sources of the Jordan, and (Ant. V. iii. 1) calls the plain of Merom "the great plain of the Sidonians." 2. It is connected with Bashan in Deut. xxxiii. 22. 3. The word for "valley" in Judg. xviii. 28, is Emek, and not Bika'ah, the term uniformly (and still) applied to the Plain of Cœle-Syria. |