صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Among later writers, some have extended the bounda ries of Palæstine, and others have circumscribed the limits of Syria. D'Anville (u) considers the former as including the whole of Phoenice, with all the western side of Anti-¿ Libanus and Hermon; and Mentelle, editor of the ancient Geography published in the French Encyclopedia, confines the latter to that part of Asia which has the Mediterranean on the west; Mount Taurus, the river Euphrates, and a small portion of Arabia, on the east ; and the land of Judea, or Palæstine, on the south.(x) D'Anville had considered Judæa merely as a province of Palæstine. In fact, the several additions to the number of observations published concerning this part of Asia, seem rather to have increased than diminished the uncertainty respecting the geography of the country. "Tanta est," says Selden "inter profanas et sacras literas in regionum finibus discrepantia. Neque in Syriae duntaxat nomine, sed in Judæa, et Palestine, Judæos, ut parest, seu Ebræos a Palestinis ubique separamus ita et Scriptura. Sed Ptolemæo, Straboni, Tacito, Syria Palæstina eadem ipsa est, quæ Judæa: aliis diversæ sunt, sic Ebrai a Palastinis disterminantur."(y) This discrepancy characterizes even the writings of the learned Cellarius, who, at an early period, opened his treatise De Syria with marks of the indecision perplexing the sources of his information.(s) Dr. Wells, in his "Historical Geography of the Old and New Testament," restricts Syria within much narrower limits than those assigned for it by Mentelle, excluding all Phoenice and the Holy Land." Although," says he,(a) "heathen authors do (sometimes include the Holy Land as a part of Syria, yet by sacred writers it is always used in a more restrained sense; and in the New Testament, as a coun

*(u) Voy. Carte de la Palaestine, par D'Anville. Par. 1767. ((Encyclop. Methodique, Geog. Anc. tom. III. Par. 1792 (y) Selden then quotes from Statius, Syl. V.

Palaestini simul Ebraique liquores,

Fide Seldeni Prolegomena ad Syntagma de Diis. Syrie.

(z) He is speaking of Pliny,“Nimis taxe finis ponit Syria: sed in hoc Melam suum sequutus erat, qui propte iisdem verbis, lib. 1. cap. 11. recitavit. Et ex hac opinione videtur emanesse ut multi scriptores Syriam et Assyriam permisceant ac confundant." Cel lar. Geog. Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 12. p. 398. Lips. 1706

(a) Histor. Geog, of the Old and New Test. vol. II. p. 139. Oxf: 1801.

[ocr errors]

try distinct, not only from the Holy Land, but also from Phoenice, (mentioned Acts xi. 19. &c.) and of which the coasts of Tyre and Sidon were the southern part; so that by Syria, in the New Testament, is to be understood the country lying to the east and northeast of the Holy Land, between Phoenice and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the river. Euphrates to the East." Under all these circumstances, although there may be something more suited to existing prejudices in the use of the word Palæstine; (b) the author conceives that he is accurate in thinking The Holy Land an appellation of more extensive, although not less definite, signification.(c) He also believes that he is the more justified in adopting this latter name, as distinguished from the former, because be thereby adheres to the clue afforded by the observations of Brocardus, an author held in the highest estimation by men who have written most learnedly upon the country to which these observations refer. Brocardus was doubly qualified, both by the evidences of ocular demonstration in that part of Asia, and a thorough knowledge of all that sacred or profane writers have said upon the subject, to ascertain its geography with ability and with precision; Eum fere semper secutus sum, quod persuasisimum haberem, non fuisse unquam, qui voluerit magis aut vero etiam potuerit melius, perfectam et simplicem quandam ad hujus rei cognitionem viam sternere." (d)

The boundaries of Palestine are physically defined by the face of the country: the distinction is, to a certain extent, yet maintained among the inhabitants of Syria. Even at this hour, the vast plain, which extends westward from the mountains of Judæa, and is bounded by the sea, bears the name of Phalestin.(e) According to Volney, (f)

(b) "Palaestinae nomen, quod nobis prae reliquis placuit, quum buic operi titulum daremus," says Reland, with reference to his inestimable work, Palestina Illustrata. (c) Fuller, in his "Pisgah-sight of Pulastine," perhaps intending a sly satire upon the age, (for it was published in the beginning of the reign of Charies the Second,) refrains from calling it the Holy Land, through fear of being thought superstitious: Lest." as he quaintly expresses it, "whitest I call the land Holy, this age count me superstitious." See Book I. c. ii. p. 2. London, 1650.

(d) Adrichomii Eulog. in Brocard. Vide Theat. Ter. Sanct. in praefat. p. 3. Colon.

1628.

(e) This is the plain, which, under the name of Falastin, or Palestine, terminates on this side the country of Syria." Volney's Travels, vol. II. p. 327. London, 1787. (S) Ibid, p. 328.

it comprehends the whole country included betweenthe Mediterranean to the west; the chain of mountains. to the east; and two lines, one drawn to the south by Kan Younes,(g) and the other to the north, between Kaisaria, and the rivulet of Yafa." The whole of ancient Phoenice is thereby excluded from the boundaries of modern Palæstine, which is still a district independent of every Pacalic. (h) In the most ancient periods of history its boundaries were equally restricted; and if we examine those records wherein the name first occurs,(i), we shall be able to define its limits with precision. The first mention of it is in Genesis, (k) where it is stated that Isaac went unto Abimilech, (Rex Palaestinorum,) (1) king of the Philistines, unto Gerar; and he is told not to go into Egypt, but to sojourn in the land of the Philistines, (Palaestine,) and he dwelt in Gerar. Now, Gerar was situated in the district afterward occupied by the tribe of Judah, not far from Hebron, and between Hebron and Gaza.(m) Afterward, in the book of Joshua,(n) where mention is made of the five cities of Palaestine, or of the Philistines, the following are enumerated: Gaza, Azotus, Ascalon, Geth or Gath, and Accaron; all of these were comprehended within that district, which has Joppa to the north, and Gaza to the south. (0) Of the most an

(g) See Volney's Map of Syriá, as published in the English Edition of his Travels, vol. I. p. 287, London, 1787.

(h) Ibid. page 329.

(i) The word Palestina signifies nothing more than Philistina. St. Jerom often, and Josephus always, calls the Philistines Palaestini. Philistaeors autem, ut supra diximus. Palaestinos significat. Hieronimi Comment. în Esa. xiv. 29.

(k) Gen. xxvi. 1.

(See the Latin version by St Jerom, as given in the London Polyglotte Bible, Gen. xxvi. 1. where the Hebrew Philistiim is translated Palestinorum; only in the copy referred to, this word is improperly written Palestinorum, and in some editions of the Vulgate, more erroneously, Palesthinorum. Reland (De Nomine Palæstinæ : Vide Thesaur. Antiq. Sacrar. Ugolini, v. 6.) says, that the name occurs in the oldest Jewish writing, where it is written . This in the Greek is always aaiorín, and not Faktorin. The Romans, upon their medals sometimes wrote this word PALESTINA, instead of PALESTINA, as they wrote JVDEA, instead of JUDEA. See Medals of Vespasian, &c.

(m) Gerar, or Gerara, is also mentioned in Genesis x. 19. but its situation is precisely stated in Genesis xx. 1. where Abraham having journeyed toward the south country," is said to have "sojourned in Gerar between Kadesh and Shur." It formed with Gaza the southern frontier of Palaestine. The Desert of Cades belonged to Egypt, that of Sur to Arabia Petraea.

(n) Josh, xiii. 3.1 In 1 Samuel, vi. 17. they are thus enumerated; Azotus, Gaza, Ascalon, Gath, Accaron. See also Josephus, lib. vi. Antiq. c. 1.

(0) The boundaries of Philistaa, or Palaestine, are thus defined by Joshua, xiii. 3. "From Sihor, (the river,: see Jeremiah ii. 18,) which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron, (Accarron,) northward."

[ocr errors]

cient Heathen writers, Herodotus expressly states that country to have been called Palaestine, which extended from the boundaries of Egypt to those of Phoenice.(p) Thus, having summed all the evidence which can be adduced upon this point, it may be manifest that the use of the term Palaestine, as applied to all that country originally called the Land of the Israelites, is a geographical error; that its application is most erroneous when it is made to comprehend to Phoenice; (q) and further, that the proper general appellation is, The Holy Land→→ a name applied to it by Jewish as well as by Christian writers. (r) Even Reland, who preferred the use of the word Palaestina, as a more sounding appellation for the title of his book, says that Terra Sancta is a name doubly applicable to the region his work illustrates.(s) And surely, without imputation of superstition or of bigotry, so long as the blessings of Religion diffuse their consolitary balm of hope, and peace, and gladness, this land may be accounted holy(t)-holy, as consecrated by the residence of the Deity, through all the ages of Jewish historyholy, as sanctified by the immediate presence, and by the blood of our Redeemer-holy, as the habitation of Patri archs, Prophets, and Apostles" Quam Terram," to use the energetic language of Urban the Second, in his eloquent address to the council of Clermont, " merito sanctam diximus, inqua non est etiam passus pedis, quem non illustraverit et sanctificaverit vel corpus, vel umbra Sal vatoris, vel gloriosa præsentiæ Sanctæ Dei Genitricis, vel

(p) Herodot, in Polyhymn, that is to say, from Egypt to Joppa. The whole country was maritime, Situs regionis Philistaea est maratimus, ab Joppa ad Egypti fines." Cellar. lib, iii. cap. 13. tom. II. p. 595. Lips. 1706.

(4) The Greeks, after the time of Herodotus, on account of the great power of the Philistines, comprehended under the name of Palestine, the four provinces of Idumaea, Judaea, Samaria, and Galilaea, although never Phaenicia, quia saepe regionibus tribuntur nominu a parte alique quae vicinas antecellit potentia." Quaresmii Elucid. Terr. Sanet. lib. 1. c. 2. tom. I. p. 6. Antverp. 1639.

[ocr errors]

(r) See" Exempla Scriptorum Judaicorum et Christianorum qui hoc nomen usurpant," as. they are given by Reland, in his chapter "De Noinine Terrae Sanctae." Vide Thesaur. Antiq, Sacrar. Ugolini, vol. VI. xvii. xviii,

(s) Dupliciratione nomen Terrae Sanctae huic regioni tribuitur, aliter a Judaeis, aliter a Christianis. Ibid.

(1) Quis enim non rapitur in admirationem et stuporem, qui Montem Oliviferum, Mare Tiberiadis, Jordanem, Hierosolymam, et alia loca, quae Christum frequentasse notum est, conspicit et menti suae praesentem sistit generis humani 80spitatorem, illic ea operantem aut passum, quae originem dedere sacris Christianorum ejus nomen confitentium !" Thesaur. Antiq, Sacrar. Ugolini, Ibid.

1

amplectendus Apostolorum commeatus, vel Martyrum sanguis effusus."

Yet, while the author is ready to acknowledge the im pression made upon his mind by the peculiar sanctity of this memorable region, he is far from being willing to enumerate, or to tolerate the degrading superstitions, which, like noxious weeds, have long poluted that land of “ milk and honey." Those who have formed their notions of the Holy Land, and particularly of Jerusalem, from the observations of Adrichomius, Sandys, Doubdan, Maundrell, from the spurious work of Thevenot, or even from the writings of Pococke, and the recent entertaining pilgrimage of Mons. De Chateaubriand,(t) will find their prejudices frequently assailed in the following pages. The author has ventured to see the country with other eyes than those of monks, and to make the Scriptures, rather than Bede or Adamnanus, his guide in visiting "the Holy Places" to attend more to a single chapter, nay, a single verse of the Gospel, than to all the legends and traditions of the Fathers of the church.

In perusing the remarks concerning Calvary and Mount Sion, the reader is requested to observe, that such were the authors observations, not only upon the spot, but after collating and comparing with his own notes, the evidences afforded by every writer upon the topography of Jerusalem, to which he has subsequently had access. It is impossible to reconcile the history of ancient Jerusalem, with the appearance presented by the modern city, and this discordance, rather than any positive conviction in the author's mind, led to the survey he has ventured to publish. If his notions, after all, be deemed by some readers inadmissible, as it is very probable they will, yet even thèse, by the suggestion of new documents, both in the account given of the inscriptions he found to the south of what is now called Mount Sion, as well as of the monuments to which those inscriptions belong, may assist in reconciling a confused topography !(u) Quaresmius,

(4) Published in London, October 1811, when this volume was nearly completed. The author has not yet seen the original French edition of Mons. De Chateaubriand's work. (u) The generality of readers, who have perused the different accounts published

« السابقةمتابعة »