A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE LAND
The land of Palestine would be one of the most interesting even if sacred events had never occurred within its borders.
In the first place, it is part of the world's largest oasis. Have you ever thought that it is the most isolated country on earth? Hemmed in by the desert, on part of one end by high mountains and on the west by the sea, it seems separated from an other lands as for some peculiar purpose.
It is most astonishing in its physical contour. Though smaller than New Hampshire and of about the same shape, its elevation varies from the height of Mount Hermon, 9000 feet above the sea, to the lower level of the Jordan, 1300 feet below it. In the short distance of twenty miles from the Mount of Olives to the Dead Sea there is a drop of over 4000 feet. Within these limits flourish the pine and the palm, the wheat and the cane, the grackle and the skylark, the mountain wolf and the gazelle. The mountain may be covered with snow when the plain is green with verdure. From more than one hilltop the traveler can see at once the glaciers of Hermon and the steaming cauldron of the Dead Sea.
These diversities explain many interesting points of history, and we may understand them more clearly through some of the rare and attractive photographs in THE BIBLE STORY.
The Seacoast Plain
Palestine may be most easily described as consisting of four strips widening from north to south, and broken across by Mount Carmel and the Valley of Esdraelon. These strips are, from west to east: the lowland plain, the highlands, the Jordan valley, and the tablelands east of the Jordan.
The lowland plain has several significant features. The coast line of Palestine, as you may see by the map ([14 T.J.]), is broken by only one indentation, that of the headland of Carmel, and has not a single harbor. The general character of its shores is admirably illustrated by the picture ([110 S.A.]), and their exposure by the picture of ancient Ascalon ([474 T.J.]). Jaffa, anciently Joppa, was then as now the common landing place for imports, but the small boats ([168 T.J.]) indicate how limited must have been the foreign commerce that could be carried among the rocks which fringe that shore. The plain farther inland was known at the north as the Plain of Sharon and at the south as the Plain of the Philistines. As the map ([112 T.J.]) shows, the main highroad from Asia Minor to Egypt ran through it. That Jerusalem was a spiritual rather than a commercial capital is seen in the fact that it was not on this road. Aijalon ([364 H.T.]) was one of those easy gateways at which Judea struggled with Philistia, and the valley of Sorek ([180 T.J.]), deeper among the hills, was the home of the individualistic patriot, Samson.
The Highlands
When Abraham came down over the backbone of Canaan and stood on the summit of Mount Ebal, which crowns the highlands, he chose for himself the hill country of Judah and Hebron. There may have been a stern prescience in this, as well as generosity to his luxury-loving nephew. Thenceforth the history of the Hebrews, like that of the Scotch, was largely that of highlanders. How suited were those hills for defense is suggested by photographs ([304 H.T.], [344 H.T.], [356 H.T.]). These highlands slope up gradually from the lowland plain on the west, but on the east they fall toward the Jordan with frightful rapidity, broken by kopjes, small canyons, and almost inaccessible swift streams. What this country is like is suggested by the picture ([154 G.B.]). It was a fitting home for such lonely prophets as Elijah and John the Baptist. Along these highlands rested the high towns of Hebron ([44 H.T.]), Bethlehem ([14 H.T.]), Jerusalem ([496 H.T.]), Shechem ([82 H.T.]), Samaria ([156 T.J.]), and, beyond Esdraelon, Nazareth ([60 L.J.]). Farther to the north lived the brave prophets of the Northern Kingdom among the mountain sanctuaries of the Lebanon ([44 S.A.], [460 H.T.]) under the shadow of the King of the Land, Mount Hermon ([60 S.A.]). On these highlands this mere speck of a people intrenched themselves for ages against the mightiest of world powers. Here lived all their great men. Here were written their histories. Here were their two capitals. In one of their hill towns lived the Master for thirty years; in another, Jerusalem, he consummated his mission.
The Jordan Valley
Jordan is more glorious in poetry than in history or in fact. As a stream it begins nowhere and ends in a salt lake. Its lower banks are a great hot muggy bowl ([126 T.J.], [394 T.J.], [280 H.T.], [290 H.T.]). The stream has never been anything but a boundary, since it is not navigable and is too low for purposes of irrigation. Its fords have been the scene of many wars of conquest and defense ([284 H.T.], [64 L.J.]), but the people living near it have always been weak and degenerate. It has been called the pantry of Canaan, fertile for food but ever open for easy attack. In literature, the stream has been often referred to as the symbol of the transition of death, and the outlet, the Dead Sea, as the emblem of judgment ([34 H.T.], [258 H.T.]).
Esdraelon and the Lake of Galilee
Where the Kishon crosses northern Canaan is a long triangular valley, bounded on the south by the low range of Carmel ([118 T.J.]). This is Esdraelon, the fertile ([328 H.T.], [56 T.J.]). It was Israel's natural battleground, and recalls Deborah, Gideon, Sisera, Saul, Ahab, Elijah, Jehu, Josiah, Pharaoh-necho, the Maccabees, the Romans, the Arabs, the Crusaders, and Napoleon. The seer of Patmos foresaw other world conflicts even more majestic in this valley of Armageddon.
A part of the Jordan valley, but upon the level of Esdraelon and sharing its salubrity, is the Lake of Galilee, unmentioned in the Old Testament, but in the time of Jesus a busy center of work and trade and the scene of his longest ministry. It is a sapphire sea, set in a golden frame ([96 G.B.], [108 G.B.]).
The Eastern Tableland
The high levels east of the Jordan were the border of the desert ([318 H.T.]). They were always occupied, as now, by wandering tribes, and they were decidedly foreign country. To the North there is more irregularity, as in the valley of the Jabbok ([78 H.T.]) mentioned in the story of Jacob. Down this tableland was another caravan road into Egypt past Sinai ([200 H.T.], [206 H.T.]), from Damascus ([410 T.J.]), the treasure-house of the East.