Note XIV. The various elevations of the hills, and other special localities of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, are drawn in section. (Plate IV.)
Note XV. The Jews had derived the worship of Moloch from the Canaanites. Moloch and Saturn appear to have been the same deity: the way in which they were worshipped is the same. The Carthaginians, who were descended from the Canaanites, offered human victims to Saturn. "There was in their city," says Diodorus Siculus (Book XX. chap. 14), "a bronze statue representing Cronos (Saturn): it had its hands spread out, and bent down towards the ground, so that the child that was put in its hands, rolling itself up, fell into a fiery furnace." These cruel sacrifices continued to prevail in Africa till the time of the Emperor Tiberius (Tertullian, Apol. IX.). From Syria the practice passed into Europe. Agathocles, king of Sicily, sacrificed two hundred children of the noblest families to his deity, believing him to be angry. (Pescennius Festus in Lactant. Divin. Instit. I. 21.)
The Rabbi Simon, in his commentary on Jeremiah (viii.), gives the following description of the idol Moloch: "All the idol temples were in the city of Jerusalem, except that of Moloch, which was in a place set apart outside the city. It was a statue of bronze with the head of an ox, and with the hands stretched out like those of a man who wishes to receive something from another; within it was quite hollow. Before the image were seven chapels; he who offered a dove, or any other bird, went into the first; he who gave a lamb, or a sheep, into the second; into the third for a wether; into the fourth for a calf; into the fifth for a bull; into the sixth for an ox; while he who sacrificed his own son entered the seventh chapel and embraced the idol, as it is said in Hosea (xiii. 2), 'Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.' The child was set before the idol, beneath which a fire was kindled, till the bronze became red hot; then the priest took the child, and put it between the burning hands of Moloch, while the parents were bound to witness the sacrifice without any expression of feeling. To prevent the cries of the victims reaching them, drums and gongs were sounded! from this comes the name Topheth, which signifies a drum. It was also called Hinnom, because of the cries of the children, from naham, to cry, or, according to another interpretation from the words which the priest used to address to the parents, Jehenelach—this will be of service to thee. King Josiah, in order to render the place an object of horror, 'defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch' (2 Kings xxiii. 10)."
Note XVI. So when Solomon is spoken of, it is said, "Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David, his father" (1 Kings xi. 43); and the same formula is used of the kings Rehoboam, Abijam, Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah, Jehoiada, the priest (2 Chron. xxiv. 16), and the kings Amaziah, Jotham, Josiah; while in the case of the rest different expressions are used. Asa was buried "in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David" (2 Chron. xvi. 14); therefore he was not buried with his fathers. Jehoram was buried "in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings" (2 Chron. xxi. 20). The place of burial of the usurper Athaliah is not mentioned. Joash, in 2 Kings xii. 21, is buried "with his fathers in the city of David," while in 2 Chron. xxiv. 25, it is said that "they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings." Uzziah "they buried with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper" (2 Chron. xxvi. 23). Ahaz they "buried in the city, even at Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xxviii. 27). Hezekiah was buried "in the highest of the sepulchres of the sons of David" (2 Chron. xxxii. 33). Manasseh "was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza;" as also was Amon, his successor (2 Kings xxi. 18, 26). Jehoahaz died in Egypt (2 Kings xxiii. 34). Eliakim, or Jehoiachim, according to Jeremiah (xxii. 19), is to be "buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem;" and (xxxvi. 30), "his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost;" from all which we may the more certainly conclude that the sepulchres of the other kings were within the gates of Jerusalem. Lastly, we have Jehoiachin and Zedekiah led captive to Babylon, where they died.
Note XVII. Bede, who wrote in the eighth century (on the authority of Arculf), calls the building of the Cœnaculum a large church. In his time there was in the neighbourhood a convent of monks. He says: "On the upper part of Mount Sion there is a large church, surrounded by a great number of monks' cells. The church was founded, it is said, by the apostles, because it was there that they received the Holy Ghost, and that Mary died. They shew there to this day the memorable place which was the scene of our Lord's supper. In the middle of the church is a column of marble, to which Jesus was bound when He was scourged."