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. 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. 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 Sauley 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 Ghranem3. 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. 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 12 Kings vi. 13. 2 B. R. iii. 124. Journey in Syria, ii. 370. 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 Sauley, ii. 367. out to him as the "burning-place" of the victims (Harrakah). 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 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 2 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, Meeting to have occurred in "Ar-Gerizim," the "Mountain of the with Melchizedek. 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 Samaria1." 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 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 1 See Chapter III. 2 To us, as to De Sauley, a niche or apse in the "castle" was shown as the "Kibleh" of the Samaritans. But this probably was merely from the Mussulman guide's association of such a spot with the niche of the "Mihrab" in mosques. 3 Euseb. Præp. Ev. ix. 22. + Ant. XI. viii. 2. Gen. xiv. 17. Josephus calls it πedíov Bariλelov (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 кoiλas BaAh, and speaks of it as only three stadia from Jerusalem. 62 Sam. xviii. 18. times, that this valley was the ravine of the Kedron on the east of Jerusalem; and the 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 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 also priest of the Most High God that is the very name, as we have seen, under which God 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. Isaac. 2. What is affirmed by the Gentile tradition with regard to the Sacrifice of connection of Gerizim with Melchizedek, is affirmed by the Samaritan tradition with regard to its connection with the sacrifice of Isaac. "Beyond all doubt," this is the form in which the story is told amongst the Samaritans themselves." Isaac was offered 1 Gen. xiv. 5. See Appendix, Shaveh. Josephus (Ant. I. x. 2), who expressly identifies the Salem of Melchizedek with Jerusalem.-3. The incidental confirmation of it in the name of Melchizedek (the King of Righteousness)-which might seem to be the natural precursor of Adonizedek (the Lord of Righteousness), king of Jebus in the time of Joshua. But the concurrence of testimonies and probabilities is decidedly in favour of the northern Salem, and there is no trace of any belief to the contrary in the Scriptures themselves. Jerome inclined to the belief that Jacob's Salem was Shechem itself, though he mentions another near Scythopolis, and also one on the west of Jerusalem. The Samaritan tradition fixes Melchizedek's abode to some spot on the eastward of Nablous. on Ar-Gerizim.-Abraham said, 'Let us go up and sacrifice on the mountain.' He took out a rope to fasten his son; but Isaac said, 'No : I will lie still.' Thrice the knife refused to cut. Then God from heaven called to Gabriel, 'Go down and save Isaac, or I will destroy thee from among the Angels.' From the seventh heaven Gabriel called and pointed to the ram. The place of the ram's capture is still shown near the Holy Place." 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 rags 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 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 of 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 1 See Chapter VI. 22 Chron. iii. 1. 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, Tu yŷr Thu výnλn, "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 neighhourhood, 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 — τὴν δρῦν τὴν ὑψηλήν "the high oak." Hebrew scholars must determine how far the difference of the radical letters of and is an insuperable objection to the identification. In Gen. xxii. the Samaritans actually read Moreh for Moriah. 1 Gen. xxi. 2. |