The city of Jerusalem

by C. R. Conder

FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER VI

[226] Lucan, “Pharsalia,” viii. 698–9, x. 380–1; “Psalms of Solomon,” ii. 30–3; see Drummond, “Jewish Messiah,” 1877, pp. 140–1.

[227] “Ant.,” XIV. viii. 1.

[228] Ibid., XIV. xi. 4.

[229] “Ant.,” XIV. xiii. 3–10.

[230] Ibid., XIV. xiv. 5, xv. 2, xvi. 1–4.

[231] “Ant.,” XV. v. 2.

[232] Ibid., XV. i. 1.

[233] Ibid., XIV. xvi. 2. That is eighteen sabbatic cycles after 163 B. C., which was a sabbatic year.

[234] Matt. ii. 1; Luke i. 5, iii. 1, 23. The date of the Crucifixion depends on whether the Ministry covered one or four years.

[235] “Ant.,” XVII. vi. 4.

[236] Eleazar, son of Jacob, died about 130 A. D., and is quoted in Middoth, i. 9; Rabbi Meier was about the same age (quoted Midd., ii. 2); Rabbi Eleazar, son of Zadok (Midd., iii. 8) died about 120 A. D. See Chiarini, “Talmud de Babylone,” 1831, pp. 105–7. Nothing is said above of the pretended description by Aristeas, as the work is well known to be a forgery.

[237] “Wars,” V. iv. 1, translated from the Greek.

[238] Ibid., iv. 2.

[239] “Wars,” V. vi. 5, vii. 3. This postern may have been the Corner Gate; see back, chap. iv. p. [82]. Distinguishing this from the Valley Gate, the city had twelve gates in all.

[240] “Recovery of Jer.,” 1871, pp. 149, 299, 300; Bliss, “Excav. at Jer.,” 1898, p. 29, and plate iv.

[241] “Ancient Jerusalem,” 1908, p. 297.

[242] Ibid., p. 23. The remains of an old wall outside the Damascus Gate date only from the twelfth century, and will be noticed later.

[243] One at south-west angle is 38 feet 9 inches; another at north-east angle 23 feet 8 inches long.

[244] The drafts, and a border 3 inches wide on the block, are worked with a comb of eight teeth to the inch in two directions, making a criss-cross pattern. The remainder is finely finished with a point.

[245] See Sir C. Warren’s plates accompanying the “Memoir” (Jerusalem vol.).

[246] Text No. 1, K’a ḳ’aḳ’at, “carelessness of brand” (Lev. xix. 28). Text No. 2, Le-’aṭṭ ṣ’an le-u, “for covering, removal to it.” The other markings seem to be initials of words—e.g. K twice for K’a (“carelessness”); Ṣ twice for Ṣ’an (“removal”); and Ḥ twice incised, perhaps for ḥaṭa (“error”), or for ḥaba (“hide”). Altogether ten out of twenty-two letters of the alphabet occur in these texts.

[247] “Murray’s Bible Dict,” 1908, s.v. “Temple,” p. 876.

[248] “Wars,” VI. v. 4.

[249] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883, p. 223; “Recov. Jer.,” p. 219.

[250] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 5, referring to the royal cloister.

[251] “Ord. Survey Notes,” plate xvi. figs. 1, 2.

[252] For plan, elevation, and details, see plates ii. and iii., de Vogüé, “Syrie Centrale.” For Greek texts, Waddington, “Inscrip. de la Syrie,” 1870, pp. 540, 541, Nos. 2364–2369. No. 2366 is specially valuable as having a bilingual in Aramaic on the base. This gives ’Abisheth (“dry region ”) as the local name—Greek Obeisa—and M’aîru (“God-fearing”) for the Greek Moairos, with Malikoth (“royal”) for Maleichathos. Waddington supposes that the temple may have been raised by Idumæans (“Ant.,” XVI. ix. 2, 3). We have already seen that a Malichus lived in the time of Herod.

[253] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jersualem vol., p. 423; Josephus, “Wars,” V. v. 2. He means that some of the warnings were in Latin, some in Greek. The expression in the inscription mêthena allogenê is the same practically as the médena allophulon (“no foreigner”) of Josephus.

[254] “Ant.,” VIII. iii. 9; “Wars,” V. v. 1, 2; “Ant.,” XV. xi. 3; “Wars,” I. xxi. 1. Josephus exaggerates the height of the walls, unless he means the command above the Kidron Valley.

[255] Mishnah, Middoth, ii. 1. Abarbanel on this passage says, “The mountain was indeed much larger than 500 cubits would contain either way, but the sanctity did not extend outside this.”

[256] See my “Handbook to Bible,” p. 371. Tosephoth Yom Tob.

[257] The exact measures are: south wall of Ḥaram, 922 feet outside; east wall, 1,530 to the Roman north-east corner; west wall to Antonia, 1,601 feet; north wall, 1,042 feet. The north-east and south-west angles are right angles; the south-east angle measures 92½°. The old scarp on north side of the platform is about 1,180 feet north of the south wall.

[258] Mishnah, Middoth, ii. 3: “All steps were half a cubit high.”

[259] Josephus, “Wars,” V. ii. 5, VI. i. 8, ii. 7, iv. 1. The south-east part of the platform of the Dome of the Rock is supported probably by vaults. The entrance to these, on the east, was visible in 1881, though built up.

[260] Mishnah, Middoth, i. 6–9.

[261] Ibid., i. 4. On north the gates Niṣúṣ (“projecting”), Ḳorban (“gift”), and Môḳed (“hearth”), enumerated from east to west; on the south Dalaḳ (“burning”), Ḳorban (“gift”), and Mim (“waters”). The chamber of the draw-well (gulah) was on south near the last (v. 4). See Tamid, i. 4.

[262] For plan and details, see Constantine l’Empereur, Codex Middoth, 1630; and Conder’s “Handbook to the Bible” (3rd edit. 1882), pp. 359–86. For model (Religious Tract Society), see [Frontispiece].

[263] Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly, April 1903, p. 126, Oct. 1903, p. 326.

[264] Acts iii. 2.

[265] Middoth, i. 3; “Ant.,” XV. xi. 5. The Bible mentions the Parbharîm or “suburbs” (2 Kings xxiii. 11), close to the Temple. Standard records of the greater and lesser cubit were kept at the Gate Shushan (Mishnah, Tohoroth, xvii. 9).

[266] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 7.

[267] Sir C. Wilson, “Ord. Survey Notes,” 1864, p. 60; “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 203–6, 270.

[268] Mishnah, Middoth, i. 2; Yoma, i. 8, ii. 2; Tamid, i. 2-iii. 8, vii. 1.

[269] Yoma, iv. 1, v. 2; Sukkah, v. 1–3; Parah, iii. 2–5, 11; Sotah, i. 5.

[270] Mishnah, Sotah, vii. 8.

[271] Ezek. viii. 16.

[272] “Ant.,” XVII. vi. 2; “Wars,” I. xxxiii. 3.

[273] Mishnah, Sheḳalîm, i. 3, 6, 7, iii. 2, vi. 4, 5.

[274] “Ant.,” XV. viii. 5, xi. 3, 4, 7, XVIII. iv. 3; “Wars,” I. iii. 3, v. 4, xxi. 1, II. xvi. 5, V. iv. 2, v. 8, ix. 2, VI. i. 5, 8, ii. 5, 9.

[275] “Ant.,” XIII. v. 11; “Wars,” V. iv. 1. The Rabbis (Tosiphta, Sanhed., chap. xiv.) mention an “upper” and a “lower” market.

[276] “Ant.,” XVII. x. 2, 3; “Wars,” II. iii. 1, xvii. 6, 8, V. iv. 3, v. 8, VI. viii. 1, VII. i. 1; Tacitus, “Hist.,” v. 11.

[277] Sir C. Wilson, “Ord. Survey Notes,” p. 46; “Mem. Survey West Pal.,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 267–70.

[278] “Wars,” I. xxi. 1.

[279] “Ant.,” XX. viii. 11; “Wars,” II. xvi. 3.

[280] 1 Macc. i. 14; 2 Macc. iv. 9, 12; “Wars,” II. xvi. 3, VI. iii. 2, vi. 2, viii. 1, V. iv. 2; “Mem. Survey West Pal.,” pp. 201, 202; “Wars,” VI. vi. 3.

[281] “Ant.,” XV. viii. 1, 2, XVII. x. 2; “Wars,” II. iii. 1.

[282] “Wars,” V. xi. 4; “Mem. Survey West Pal.,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 263, 264.

[283] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 5. For the bridge see “Ant.,” XIV. iv. 2; “Wars,” I. vii. 2, VI. vi. 2, viii. 1. The bridge was 51 feet wide, and at 38 feet 9 inches from its south side was the outside of the south wall at south-west angle of the Ḥaram.

[284] “Ant.,” XV. xi. 1; “Wars” I. xxi. 1.

[285] “Ant.,” XX. ix. 7; John ii. 20. This date would be 24 or 27 A. D., reckoning from foundation.

CHAPTER VII
THE GOSPEL SITES

Passover being finished, and the Galileans having set out in a pilgrim caravan for their homes in the north, the Temple courts were no longer crowded, and the rabbis sat in the spring sunshine on the steps of the great Gate Nicanor, teaching their pupils as usual.[286] But with them sate that wondrous Child “in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.” Across the broad “Court of the Women” came the anxious mother, to the gate where twelve years before she had offered “a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons,” and where the Babe was held in the arms of Simeon, son of the famous Hillel. The gentle reproach, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing,” received the gentle answer, “How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be among my father’s people?”

This scene in the Temple court is one of the very few as to which we can have no doubt, though the steps of Nicanor are hidden from us, under the platform, to-day. Speaking generally, it is notable that the Gospels do not define the exact position of places, in and near Jerusalem, to which they refer in passing. The first Christians turned their eyes up to heaven, not down to earth. They thought of the return of their Master, not of the Way of Sorrow, the Place of the Skull, or the empty tomb. They knew, and their first readers knew, where these were, but to us they have left no indication. We do not know where was the “upper chamber” in which our Lord ate His last supper of the Passover. We do not know where was the little “farm” Gethsemane—the “oil-press”—except that it was a “garden” beyond the valley of the Kidron. We can only conjecture the sites of the Prætorium, or of the palaces where Annas and Caiaphas lived, and where Herod Antipas lodged as a Galilean visitor at the time of the Passover. We are uncertain as to where the Pool of Bethesda may have been, and we dispute as to the Way of Sorrow, the Mount of Calvary, and the Sepulchre. It is well that we should not know; and that we should not localise at any footprint, or on any rock, that which was meant to be for all the world. Yet we cannot help guessing and searching, if by any means we may really find the places where the feet of Jesus must have trodden the hard, rough rocks, or the smooth pavement of Antonia. We experience the same doubts and difficulties which early pilgrims felt, and we must not forget that they had no more to guide them than we have when we study the Gospels. They had indeed less knowledge, because they did not see, as we do, that the valleys had been filled by the ruins of the ancient city long before their day. Some thought that the Prætorium was Antonia, others thought later that it was on Zion. They changed the site of Bethesda more than once. They always thought it necessary to suppose that the city must have been much increased in size by Hadrian, because their bishops showed them the holy tomb and Calvary within the Jerusalem of their own time.

KNOWN SITES

There are some places mentioned in the Gospels as to which we have roughly some idea of position. We know that the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of those that sold doves, were somewhere in the outer court of the Temple. The “treasury” was one of those boxes, placed in the Court of the Women, where offerings of money—even the two mites of the widow—might be made. “Solomon’s Porch” was apparently the cloister on the eastern wall, and is not to be confused with the “Beautiful Gate” (Kîpunos) on the west.[287] We can also picture to ourselves the view of Jerusalem seen from Olivet when the disciples pointed to the mighty masonry of the Holy House, of which not one stone is left standing on another.[288] “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee.... Behold, your House is left unto you desolate.” But it is because of the history of that day of sin and sorrow, when the three crosses were raised in the cold morning after Passover night, that we now read and write so much about the Holy City; and our present inquiry is the most important of all.

The white chalky slopes of Olivet were terraced and dotted with grey olive trees then as now, with here and there a fig garden and a solitary palm. But looking west there was only hard rock under grey walls—hard and stubborn as the hearts of the people, and as unlike the purple copses and dove-haunted oak woods of Galilee as was the sacerdotalism of priests to the teaching of the Son of Man. Above the mighty ramparts the great “wing wall” (not a “pinnacle”) of the House itself towered 150 feet over the gate towers and cloisters of the inner court. The black smoke of the fig-tree logs rose high above the great Altar. The scarps of Antonia frowned down on the Temple from the north. Beyond these great buildings were the white-washed domes of the city, and farther yet the great square towers by Herod’s palace. Perhaps a glimpse might be caught of the trees in its gardens, and of the wicked bronze statues from which its fountains poured; of the great halls, and cloisters, and fluttering doves. And outside, to the north, was the precipice and rounded summit of the Place of a Skull. Below the feet of the disciples was the Kidron gorge, the sepulchre of King Alexander cut in its cliff, and perhaps hard by in the flatter ground to its north the olive-yard of Gethsemane, and the rocky slope of the Agony to come; while on the western side was the spring of Bethesda, with its great reservoir in front, and its five cloisters, near the “Sheep Place,” where the flocks were gathered to the watering.

BETHESDA

As regards this last site there is, of course, much difference of opinion. Bethesda could not be at Siloam, for that pool is mentioned by its old name in the same Gospel.[289] Bethesda in Hebrew means “the house of the stream,” and all we know about it is that it was near the “Sheep Place,” and that it had “five cloisters.” Here the blind, halt, and withered lay “waiting for the disturbance of the waters.” It is remarkable that the text of the three oldest manuscripts of the fourth Gospel—the Alexandrian, Vatican, and Sinaitic uncials—here differs in several respects from that of later copies; and the three differ from one another. The Alexandrian alone has the words, “for an angel of the Lord washed at a certain season in the pool,” instead of the verse as it stands in our English Bible. The Sinaitic text calls it “a sheep pool,” and names it Bethzatha. The Vatican reads Bethsaida; and, strangely enough, all three uncials omit the words “waiting for the disturbance of the water,” for it is very unlikely that this remarkable indication was not given in the original. It evidently existed in some text as early as 330 A. D. (that is, earlier than either of the uncials), for the first pilgrim, who places Bethsaida at the “Twin Pools,” says that “they have five porches where those who had been ill for many years were healed, and the water was perturbed as though boiling.” A fifth-century writer speaks of the water as being red, and probably follows Eusebius and Jerome, who say: “Twin pools are shown, one of which is usually filled by the winter rains, but the other in wondrous wise is red, as though the bloody water testified to the ancient use; for they say that the victims used to be washed therein by the priests, for which cause it was named”—that is, “the Sheep Pool.”[290]

It is beyond dispute that the Twin Pools in the Antonia fosse—perhaps the Strouthios, or “Bird’s Pool” of Josephus, already cut by Herod—were those to which the fourth-century tradition pointed, and their claims are thus superior to those of the twelfth-century site farther north, or of the Templars’ site—the modern Birket Isrâîl—to the east. The latter pretty certainly did not exist till the time of Hadrian at earliest. It is also clear that the eastern of the two pools might depend on the rains, and that the western, which was fed by the aqueduct that led from outside the city walls where, on the north-west, the rain-water of the northern fosse was collected, may have been red and muddy from the red surface soil washed down. But this hardly describes the sudden “disturbance” for which the sick waited. It has been supposed that the Twin Pools were adorned by pillars, on four sides and on the central rock wall which divides them; but no remains of such pillars exist now on the site, and the central wall is less than 6 feet wide, and would therefore only serve to support a single line of columns, which does not represent a stoa, or “cloister,” such as is mentioned in the Gospel. Thus even the oldest traditional site does not fully meet all requirements. There is only one place which seems to do so—namely, the Kidron spring, now called by Christians “the Virgin’s Well,” and by Arabs “the Mother of Steps.” Here, as already described, occurs an intermittent “disturbance of the waters,” and the Jews still bathe in the cavern when the water suddenly surges up to fill it. They say that it is a cure for rheumatism. Josephus calls this spring “Solomon’s Pool,” using the same word (Kolumbêthra) used in the Gospel, and he evidently regarded it as the Gihon where Solomon was anointed. Till of late it might have been objected that there was no reservoir here such as might have been surrounded by five cloisters above the steps which led to the “troubled” waters of Bethesda. But the excavations of 1902—already noticed—showed that a large pool formerly existed before the cave, under the present mound with its two modern flights of steps leading down to the water. The only real objection to this site thus disappears, and we may regard Bethesda as having been the later name of the older Gihon, and as one of the few well-fixed Gospel sites.

THE COUNCIL HOUSE

Careful study also serves to cast some light on the sites connected with our Lord’s Passion, including those of the palaces of Annas and Caiaphas, the Prætorium, the palace of Herod, and the Golgotha. It should be noted that the Sanhedrin[291] assembled first in the “Chamber of Hewn Stone,” which was near the south-west corner of the Priests’ Court. But forty years before the fall of Jerusalem—according to rabbinical tradition—when the power of life and death had been taken from this assembly by the procurators, “the Sanhedrin transferred itself and established itself in vaulted buildings”[292] (or “in a vaulted building”), by which we may well understand the “Council House” (boulê or bouleutêrion), which—as we have seen—was possibly the “ancient hall” found by Sir Charles Warren outside the West Gate of the Temple. Josephus also notices the house of a high-priest (Ananias) apparently as being near the Hasmonæan palace (rebuilt by Agrippa II. in the north-east corner of the upper city), or close to the “Council House.”[293] These indications are valuable, because the time between the first appearance of Jesus before the procurator and the hour of crucifixion is limited. If the latter occurred at 9 a.m., and the first appearance before Pilate “in the morning”—that is to say, after 6 a.m.—we have only three hours, during which time the various events of the trial occurred. These included the first examination by Pilate, the transference to Herod’s palace, the mocking, the return to Pilate’s tribunal, the scourging and crowning with thorns, after a second examination, and Pilate’s interviews with priests and people; finally, the slow procession of the cross to Calvary, and the preparations for crucifixion. When the author of the fourth Gospel speaks of the “sixth hour” as that when the words “Behold your King” were uttered, we can only suppose that some clerical error has arisen, as this contradicts the older Gospel.[294] The time is so short for the various events that the various places mentioned should be sought in close proximity to one another.

For this reason we are led to suppose that the Prætorium was the castle of Antonia.[295] The Greek word (praitôrion) borrowed from Latin means “the house of a prætor,” or more generally the residence of a governor. We do not actually know where the procurators lived when they were in Jerusalem, but in 65 A. D. we find that the first object of Florus, on entering the city, was to establish himself in Antonia, and it was not till he failed to reach this citadel that he took refuge in the upper city. Peter’s prison seems also to have been in Antonia, since the gate opened thence into the city. Paul was certainly taken to this “castle” (parembolê), up the steps whence he spoke to the mob. The site of these steps is marked by a cutting in the middle of the south scarp of Antonia which is now walled up, and the mob had thus invaded the broad court of the citadel, extending from the scarp to the Temple cloisters. Antonia was the station of an “Italian band” which policed the excited Temple crowds, and we read that Jesus was led by the soldiers “to the Praitorian hall.” But the fourth Gospel gives a yet clearer indication, for it identifies the “pavement” with the Hebrew Gabbatha, or “height,” where was the bêma or tribune—the raised pulpit of the judge. It is not at first evident what a “pavement” has to do with a “height,” but the word (lithostrôton) does not mean a tessellated floor but only something “covered with stones,” and Josephus tells us that at Antonia “the rock itself was covered over with smooth pieces of stone from its foundation, both for ornament, and that any one who would try either to get up or go down it might not be able to hold his feet upon it.” Thus an apparent mistranslation of “Gabbatha” is perhaps in reality an indication that the Prætorium was in the citadel of Antonia.

THE PALACES

The “upper palace”—that of Herod the Great, on the west side of the upper city—seems always to have been held by the procurators as a fortress, and when Herod Antipas came to Jerusalem he probably—like Agrippa II.—lived in the old Hasmonæan palace close to the bridge, as this enabled him to go to the Temple without passing through the city.

These various considerations may perhaps help us to trace the course of events. In the darkness before dawn the traitor came, with the servants of the high-priest, to the garden of Gethsemane somewhere on Olivet beyond the Kidron. Jesus was led thence perhaps across Ophel, and under the great bridge, to the “hall” of the high-priest, which may probably have adjoined the Council House. He was seen first by Annas, who ordered that He should be sent bound to Caiaphas. The latter had hastily summoned “all the Sanhedrin,”[296] probably in the Council House. This expression no doubt means the full Sanhedrin of seventy-one members; for Caiaphas inquired of Jesus concerning “His doctrine,”[297] and He was arraigned as a false prophet and false Messiah. Many false witnesses were examined, and the examination may have been long, since, according to the Mishnah, “every judge who extends examination is to be commended.” A false prophet, according to the same authority, could only be judged at Jerusalem and by the full Sanhedrin, and could be tried and executed on a holiday, which in other cases was not allowable.[298] Jesus could not, according to law, be condemned as a blasphemer,[299] for that crime was defined as being the utterance of the name Jehovah. Yet the fact that the Sanhedrin “rent their clothes” shows that He was condemned unjustly on this accusation also. Peter stood in the outer court of the building, where a brazier burned because of the cold. His denial of his Master probably occurred at the moment when He was being led from the council chamber to be taken before Pilate,[300] this being at “cock crow,” though the procurator was not to be approached till the morning[301]—that is to say, after sunrise, which took place about 6 a.m.

The power of life and death had been taken from the Sanhedrin by the procurators, so that it was not lawful for them to put any man to death. They no longer held their meetings in the Temple court, and though their decisions were obeyed by Israel, their private assembly, in the precincts of the high-priest’s “hall,” had no force under Roman rule. It was necessary to induce the Procurator himself at least to consent to the punishment of Jesus by death, but the priests had scruples which forbade their entering Pilate’s Prætorium at Passover time. They passed through the Temple, where Judas met them and cast down the thirty pieces of silver, and they waited in the open court below the stairs and scarp of Antonia, with the gathering crowd of fanatical Jews, just where (more than twenty years later) another mob assembled and was addressed by Paul from the same stairs.

Pilate was the favourite of Sejanus, who was the favourite of Tiberius. The appointment did much to incense the Jews against Rome; for, judging from the various riots and massacres of Jews, Galileans, and Samaritans which occurred during his ten years’ rule, he was an incompetent governor; and from the Gospel narrative it appears that he was afraid of the mob, and anxious to shift all responsibility on others, while endeavouring to follow the advice of his wiser wife, who bade him have “nothing to do with that just man.” He took his seat on the bêma within the castle, where no doubt the angry roar of the multitude below the rock could be heard. His first attempt to evade his duties was made as soon as he learned that Jesus was a Galilean, and the trial was interrupted in order that the prisoner might be sent to Herod Antipas. We may suppose, therefore, that Jesus was taken by the soldiers of the governor down the great stairs, and along the west cloisters, where a guard was only needed on the left hand, and so across the great Tyropœon bridge to the neighbouring palace of the Hasmonæans.

But Antipas had no jurisdiction in Jerusalem, though he was curious to see the prophet of Nazareth, and “hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him.” He questioned our Lord with many words, and the priests and scribes “vehemently accused Him.” But he took no responsibility, though—with his men of war—he “set Him at nought, and mocked, and arrayed Him in a brilliant mantle, and sent Him again to Pilate”[302] by the way whereby He came.

THE PRÆTORIUM

Again Pilate took his seat in the Prætorium, and questioned our Lord whether He was King of the Jews. For the priests brought no charge of blasphemy against Him before the procurator, but endeavoured to represent Him as a dangerous rebel against Rome, and as claiming to be “the King Messiah.” Another mode of escape suggested itself to the vacillating governor. He “went out” to the stairs, and offered to the mob the release of their King as a concession at Passover. Again he failed, for the people began to understand that he was afraid—afraid of the mob, afraid of what would be said in Rome, afraid of his wife’s face, afraid to do his duty. He saw that “he could prevail nothing but rather that a tumult was made.” No one listened to his question, “What evil hath He done?” They demanded that Jesus be crucified, and Barabbas released. Meanly Pilate yielded his authority, and vainly he washed his hands. Barabbas was no doubt in Antonia also, and was brought out to appease the people. Jesus was scourged, and the soldiers in the Prætorium clad Him again in the purple robe of Antipas, crowned Him with thorns, placed in His hand the reed, and mocked Him in the hall which afterwards became the Christian “Chapel of the Mocking,” still existing on the Antonia rock. He was brought out and shown to the multitude below, with the words, “Behold the man.”

Yet again Pilate hesitated, and went in to re-examine his prisoner, seeking some means of escape from crime. But the power of which he boasted was gone, and Jesus answered, “He that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin”—no doubt meaning Caiaphas, who worked on the fears of the procurator through the mob that cried, “Thou art not Cæsar’s friend.” For the last time he came forth to appease the people, saying, “Behold your King,” and “gave up” Jesus to the Jews, who “had no king but Cæsar,” conniving at the unlawful death doom (while seeking not to admit his consent) by providing a guard. The white-robed figure came down the broad flight of steps to where the cross was already prepared, and bearing this He passed through the courts of Antonia to the most northern of the Temple gates, and so down to the rough pavement of the street, which ran northwards west of the sanctuary to the city gate. This we may regard as the true Way of Sorrow, lying below the street to-day.

CALVARY

We come therefore to the final question, where we should look for Golgotha, and for the new tomb in the garden hard by. No one doubts that these sites lay outside the city. The first and fourth Gospels and the Epistle to the Hebrews alike make this conclusion quite certain.[303] The first tells us that the guard of the sepulchre came “into the city” afterwards; the second that Calvary was “nigh to the city”; the third that “Jesus ... suffered without the gate.” It was near this gate apparently that Simon the Cyrenian was found “coming out of the field,” and forced to carry the cross. The only other indications of the position of Golgotha are, that it was apparently near a road and visible to those that “passed by,” and that it was probably on a height because it was to be seen “afar off.”[304] There is no reason to doubt that it was the usual place of execution, which was familiar to the Gospel writers, and the same place outside the city where Stephen and James were afterwards stoned.[305]

We must remember that although the punishment of crucifixion was not one of the four death penalties of the Jews, yet it was not exclusively a Roman mode of torture. It was usual among the Greeks in Alexander’s age, and among Carthaginians a century later. It had been used by Alexander Jannæus—as already mentioned—who was a pure Hebrew, and who crucified eight hundred Jews. It was also customary, according to the Mishnah, to crucify those who had been stoned: “They sank a beam into the ground and a cross beam proceeded from it, and they bound his hands one over the other, and hung him up.”[306] It was thus a Jewish practice; and Pilate, though he provided the “title” to be borne before the condemned—“The King of the Jews,” written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin—did not order the Crucifixion, but “gave up” the Son of Man to His foes. There also seems to be no reason why a separate place of execution, other than that generally used, should have been peculiar to Roman executions at any time.

THE SUPPOSED SITE OF CALVARY.

From the Author’s sketch, looking north-west.

THE HOUSE OF STONING

The “House of Stoning” was the Jewish place of death. It is mentioned in the Mishnah,[307] and it was not at the judgment hall, but some distance from it and out of sight; for a man was stationed at the door of the hall, with a cloth in his hand, “and another man rode a horse at a distance from him, but so that he might see him.” Thus if any one desired to bring further evidence at the last moment for the acquittal of the condemned, the cloth was waved, and the “horseman galloped” after the prisoner, and brought him back to be tried again. This description shows that a considerable distance separated the “House of Stoning” from the vicinity of the Temple. At the place of execution there was also apparently a precipice, for it was “the height of two men,” or nearly 12 feet, and the two witnesses who cast the first two stones seem to have stood above the victim on this cliff. It must also have been outside the city in accordance with the law,[308] but unfortunately the Rabbis have not told us in which direction. It was close to a garden, in which was the private sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathæa, “wherein was never man yet laid,” and this serves rather to point to the north, which is the only direction in which we have any notice of gardens outside Jerusalem[309]—the hill of Gareb (or “plantations”) mentioned by Jeremiah being also on the north. The north was regarded by the Jews as the unlucky side, and even down to the sixteenth century the Ṣahrah, or “plateau” north of the city, is described by an Arab writer as a place of evil repute,[310] while in the fifth century the place of Stephen’s death by stoning was thought to have been outside the north gate of Jerusalem. We have thus a consensus of Jewish, Christian, and Moslem tradition on this subject.

It is unnecessary to describe the knoll, north of the Damascus Gate, which is now a Moslem graveyard, or the cliff on its south side in which is the so-called “Grotto of Jeremiah”; for the place is familiar to all who have visited the Holy City, and from many well-known photographs and drawings. It is called the Heidhemîyeh (or “cutting”) by Syrians, and it was very clearly outside the city in the time of our Lord, and even later, as we shall see in describing the course of the third wall. It is a site suitable for a public execution, having round it a flat amphitheatre of sloping ground. It is visible “afar off” on either side, and it is immediately east of the great north road. It is regarded still by the Jews of Jerusalem as being the ancient “House of Stoning,” and though this tradition cannot be traced in the scanty notices of the city to be found in the pilgrim texts of Jewish travellers, yet it is by no means modern, and it exists among the Sephardim families from Spain who have lived for centuries in Jerusalem. The circumstances thus enumerated give good grounds for the conclusion that this remarkable hill is not only the true site of the “House of Stoning,” but the actual site of Calvary, and as such it has been long regarded by many who have felt it impossible to accept the traditional sites shown in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[311]

This site I advocated in 1878; and it was afterwards pointed out[312] that others, whose works I have never seen, had fixed on the same spot, including Otto Thenius in 1849, and Mr. Fisher Rowe in 1871; but neither of these writers has apparently mentioned the Jewish tradition. In 1881 Dr. T. Chaplin kindly arranged for me to go, with a respectable Spanish Jew, to see the reputed tomb of Simon the Just, and this guide pointed out the hill in question when we passed it as the ancient “House of Stoning.” After the publication of my suggestion in 1878, the idea was adopted, first by Mr. Laurence Oliphant, and afterwards in 1882 by General Gordon. The very general acceptance of the site was due no doubt to the great influence of the last named; but he added theories of his own, and thought that a tomb in the cliff—now known as the “Garden Tomb”—must be the true site of the Holy Sepulchre.

THE GARDEN TOMB

General Gordon had not then been long in Palestine, and he was not aware that this tomb had been described already, and had been attributed to a much later age than that of our Lord. He was not versed in Palestine archæology, and the arguments brought forward by the supporters of this opinion are not convincing. The fourth Gospel[313] says that “in [or “at”] the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre” which was “nigh at hand,” but not of necessity in the cliff of Calvary, which would indeed be a very unlikely position for a private tomb. Others have urged that since the “deacons of the Church of the Marturion,” named Nonus and Onesimus,[314] were buried near this place, and one of their texts speaks of a deacon as “buried near his Lord,” there must have been an early Christian tradition pointing to this site. But the church so described was that built by Constantine, and the texts are not earlier at most than the fourth century, when the whole Christian world accepted the present traditional sites of Calvary and the Sepulchre. The “Garden Tomb” is not a Jewish tomb, and there is good reason to suppose that it is not older than the twelfth century A. D. It was first excavated in 1873, when I visited and described it.[315] When opened, it was found to be filled to the roof with bones, and when these were cleared away by Herr K. Schick, two Latin patriarch’s crosses, in red paint, were found on the east wall of the inner chamber. These could not have been painted before the twelfth century, since the Greek cross is always found alone earlier in Palestine.

East of the tomb there are marks of vaults supported against the rock. It is well known that the Hospice of the Templars[316] was here built, for pilgrims visiting Jerusalem, not earlier than the end of the twelfth century, and it was called the Asnerie, or “place for asses,” because the asses used by the travellers were here stabled. The remains of mangers were still visible in 1881, at the south-west corner of this building, in the flat ground below the cliff to the south. The hospice thus appears to have been about 200 feet square, and the tomb in all probability was connected with it, as a sepulchre for pilgrims or for Templars. The immense accumulation of corpses, here hurriedly buried, may have been due to the Kharezmian massacre in 1244 A. D. The inner chamber of this tomb, to the east, had three graves on the floor. It does not in any way answer to the tomb described in the Gospels, nor is it at all like the Greco-Jewish tombs of the first century A. D.

TOMB WEST OF CALVARY.

From the Author’s sketch.

THE NEW TOMB

For these reasons, while it is probable that the site is that of Calvary, we must still say of our Lord as was said of Moses, “No man knoweth of His sepulchre unto this day.” This indeed is the general conclusion of recent writers, and even as regards Calvary we have only probabilities to consider. It is not desirable to create new sacred places, by the same enthusiasm without knowledge which led to the creation of those of the fourth century. There is, however, a single tomb, on the west side of the north road, which passes close to the “House of Stoning” leaving it to the east; but I should be loath to describe this as being more than a possible site at most for the “new tomb.” This sepulchre I examined in 1881, and was led, by comparing it with the other tombs of about the first century A. D., to the conclusion that it was a Greco-Jewish tomb.[317] It is cut in the east face of a rock, and has a chamber for six bodies. Outside, to the north of its outer court, there is another chamber with a single loculus, which might conceivably represent the “new tomb”; for though there are many old Christian tombs in the vicinity, there is no other known which is Greco-Jewish.[318] A cylindrical rolling stone (like a cheese set up on its round edge) often closes the door of this class of tomb—as can still be seen at the tomb of Helena of Adiabene, north of Jerusalem, and elsewhere. The Garden Tomb can never have had such a stone, but at the Greco-Jewish tomb in question guard stones outside both chambers exist, which may have kept such stones in place before the doors.

In Palestine generally there are five kinds of rock tomb. In the north the Phœnician class has a chamber with kokîm, or tunnel graves, at the bottom of a deep shaft—as in Egypt. The usual Hebrew tomb has a chamber entered from the face of the rock, with kokîm dug endwise from the walls. The inner, and therefore later, chambers of such tombs have a different arrangement in examples which—from the Greek details of the porches—must belong to the Greek or the Herodian ages. In such chambers a rock sarcophagus under an arch is cut parallel to the wall on each side. The “new tomb” was clearly of this class, since we read that two angels sat, one at the head, the other at the foot of the grave, which would be impossible in a tomb with kokîm graves. The Greco-Jewish class of tomb was certainly in use in the first century A. D. The fourth class consists of rock-sunk graves, with a heavy lid fitted above: this seems to belong to Roman times. The fifth has two graves, one each side of a shaft, and this is known from inscriptions to have been in use in the twelfth century. Leaden coffins were sometimes used in these later tombs. The sepulchre west of the “House of Stoning” belongs to the third class—the Greco-Jewish—but, since similar arrangements are to be found in some later Greek tombs of the Byzantine age, it is not here intended to be understood that this tomb of necessity existed at the time of the Crucifixion.

The present chapter has been one of conjecture as to probabilities, rather than of the description of undoubted monuments. This is rendered inevitable by the circumstances. The results will not be admitted by those who are convinced that the traditional sites are to be accepted; but to those who are not so convinced, the arguments may appear more suggestive. The only known patristic allusion to Calvary before 326 A. D. is that of Origen in our third century,[319] and he only refers to a “Hebrew” tradition that Adam was buried at Golgotha. He must mean Hebrew Christians, as the Jews never mention Golgotha by name at all, and held that Adam was buried at Hebron, as Jerome also supposed—a tradition repeated by the Jewish traveller Rabbi Jacob in 1258 A. D., and which was based on the old name of Hebron, Kirjath Arb’a, “the city of four,” who were supposed to be Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.[320] Even if some Hebrews supposed Adam to have died in Jerusalem, the tradition is very improbable, and also tells us nothing as to the position of Calvary.

The events of the Passion have been detailed at some length, with the object of showing that the accounts in the four Gospels do not disagree as a whole with one another, and that the close proximity of the sites fits with the limited time that elapsed between the first trial in the Prætorium and the Crucifixion of our Lord. Like the early Christians, we must be content with a very general idea of the localities; and as regards the “new sepulchre,” we must “let the dead bury their dead.”