trahunt honestæ purpuras clientæ.—Hor. Od. ii. 18.
See Bochart Geogr. Sacr. lib. iii. c. 4. It seems singular that Tyre, so renowned for its own purple, should be represented as buying it from Greece. Perhaps the fine linen or byssus of Elis, dyed purple, is meant. Arvad is the Aradus of the ancients, on the coast of Phœnice. V. 9. Gebal is the Byblos of the Greeks, another seaport of Phœnice, still called Djebel. V. 11. Who the Gammadæans were is unknown; some consider the word as meaning guards. See Rosenmüller in loc. V. 12. Tarshish is generally agreed to be Tartessus in the south of Spain, celebrated for its metallic riches. V. 13. The Tibarenians and Moschians (Tubal and Meshech) inhabited the southern shores of the Pontus Euxinus. Cappadocia, of which Tibarenia was a part, furnished many slaves to other parts of the world; “Mancipiis dives eget æris Cappadocum rex.” Hor. Epist. i. 6. Bochart, G. S. iii. 12. V. 14. Togarmah is Armenia, which furnished an annual tribute of 20,000 colts to the kings of Persia. Strabo, xi. p. 529. V. 15. Dedan is supposed by Bochart, iv. 6. and Michaelis, Spic. Geogr. 201. to be Daden on the Persian gulf, and the ivory and ebony to have been brought from India or Ethiopia. V. 16. For ארם (Syria) the author has adopted the reading אדם, Edom, or Idumea. V. 17. The narrow and rocky country of Tyre was “nourished” (Acts xii. 20. 1 Kings v. 9. 11.) from the abundance of corn in Judæa, especially in Galilee. Minnith was on the other side Jordan; Pennag is unknown. It is supposed by Newcome to be the grain called panic. V. 18. Chalybon was the Greek name of the modern Haleb or Aleppo, whose wine was celebrated as the best of Asia in ancient times, ὁ Περσῶν βασίλευς τὸ Χαλυβῶνιον μόνον οἴνον ἕπινεν. Ath. i. c. 51. p. 28) and still much esteemed. Russell’s Aleppo. V. 19. Nations of southern Arabia seem to be meant by the names in this verse. V. 20. Dedan here mentioned is not the same as that in v. 15, but an Idumean tribe. Isaiah xxi. 13. Gen. xxv. 3. V. 21. Kedar denotes an Arabic tribe, (Is. lx. 7.) celebrated for its pastoral riches. V. 22. Sheba is the Sabæans; Rama, a town on the Persian gulf, the Rhegma of Ptolemy; the wares which they are said to bring must have been imported by them from India. V. 23. Haran, Cane, and Eden, appear all to be places in Arabia; the meaning of Chilmedians is not ascertained. I have illustrated this passage at some length from its importance in the history of the Tyrians, a people by whom we have benefited so much, and yet of whom we know so little.
[Page 221.]—Damascus.] See the description of the Ager Damascenus in Volney, Voyage en Syrie, ii. 158. Egmont and Heyman, ii. 255.
[Page 222.]—The lake Phiala.] Φιάλη, patera, a round, or oval and shallow vessel for drinking or libation, was a name given by the ancients to other lakes from their form, especially those which are the first receptacle of the waters of a river after issuing from their source, Reland, p. 265. There can be little doubt that the lake of Phiala is that which is described by Captains Irby and Mangles, p. 387. “We saw close to us a very picturesque lake, apparently perfectly circular, of little more than a mile in circumference, surrounded on all sides by sloping hills, richly wooded. The singularity of this lake is, that it has no apparent supply or discharge, and its waters appeared perfectly still, though clear and limpid.” Ἐκ μὲν οὐν τῆς περιφερέιας ἐτύμιως Φιάλη κέκληται τροχοειδὴς οὖσα λίμνη· μένειν δὲ ἐπὶ χέιλους αὐτη ἀιει τὸ ὑδως, μήτε ὑπονοστοῦν μήτε ὑπερχεόμενον. Jos. Bell. Jud. iii. 9. Josephus makes the lake Phiala to be one hundred and twenty stadia from Cæsarea or Paneas, towards the Trachonitis, or north east; it also agrees with the lake mentioned by Captains Irby and Mangles. The apparent source of the Jordan at Banias, described with some exaggeration perhaps by Josephus, Bell. Jud. i. 21. Ant. XV. 10. 3. as in a mountain of immense height and itself unfathomable, is thus spoken of by Seetzen. “The copious source of the river of Banias rises near a remarkable grotto in the rock, on the declivity of which I copied some ancient Greek inscriptions dedicated to Pan and the nymphs of the fountain. The ancients gave the name of source of the Jordan to this spring: but in fact it appears that the preference is due to the spring of the river Hasberia, which forms the largest branch of the Jordan. The spring of Tel-el-kadi, which the natives take for the source of the Jordan, is that which least merits the name.” Yet the Tel-el-kadi, an hour and a quarter north-east from Paneas, appears from Burckhardt, p. 42, to be the real Lesser Jordan of Josephus. It not unfrequently happens that the smaller branch gives its name to the united stream, as in the case of the Yorkshire Ouse, which is very small compared with the waters of the Swale and Ure, whose names are lost in it. Whether the fountain of Paneas have really that subterraneous communication with the lake Phiala, of which Josephus Speaks, must be left to be ascertained by future travellers. The experiment of throwing substances into the lake which the spring casts up, is said by Josephus to have been made (Bell. Jud. iii. 9. 7.) by Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis. Our author therefore speaks of it by a prolepsis. The Hasberia, which rises to the north-west of Paneas, joins the stream from that place, about an hour and a half below the town. Burckhardt, p. 38.
[Page 223.]—The lake Samochonitis[Samochonitis].] Josephus, Bell. Jud. iii. 9. 7. iv. 1. Reland, 262. It is now called Houle,[[173]] Burckhardt, p. 37. Pococke, ii. p. 73, says of it: “The waters are muddy and esteemed unwholesome, having something of the nature of a morass. After the snows are melted, it is only a marsh through which the Jordan runs. The waters, by passing through the rocky bed towards the sea of Tiberias, settle, purify, and become very wholesome.”
[224.]—The leprosy.] Of this disorder and the Mosaic regulations respecting it, see Michaelis, Mos. Law, 209. Jos. Ant. iii. 11.
[Page 227.]—Bethsaida.] The name בית צידין implies a residence of fishers, Reland, p. 653. According to Josephus, Ant. xviii. 2. the same Philip who ascertained the real source of the Jordan, greatly enlarged this fishing village, and changed its name from Bethsaida to Julias, in honour of the daughter of Augustus. The old name however seems to have kept its ground: for we never find the place called Julias in the New Testament. According to Pococke, some ruins of it are to be found at a place called Telouy. He mentions, however, a large village, still bearing the name of Baitsida, about two miles west of the lake of Gennesareth, and near the southern extremity, which he supposes to be the Bethsaida of the gospels, while he regards the ruins of Telouy as marking the site of the Bethsaida of the Gaulonitis, ii. 68.
[Page 227.]—Magdela.] מגדל, signifying a tower, gave rise to the names of many places in Palestine, Megiddo, Migdol, Magdela, &c. There is a place which now bears the name of Magdol, a little to the north of Tiberias; but the Magdala of the New Testament (Matt. xv. 39.) appears to have been on the eastern side of the lake. Pococke, ii. 71. Lightfoot, from the Talmudical writers, fixes it to the vicinity of Gadara, or Omkeis, which is on the eastern side.
[Page 227.]—Lake of Gennesareth.] Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 9.) makes its length to be one hundred stadia, its breadth forty. Pococke thinks its real length is about fourteen or fifteen miles. Clarke estimated its breadth at six miles. “The water was as clear as the purest crystal; sweet, cool, and most refreshing to the taste. Swimming to a considerable distance from the shore, we found it so limpid that we could discern the bottom covered with shining pebbles.” Clarke, v. 224. Strabo, xvi. p. 755, mentions the aromatic plants of the shore; but Burckhardt, p. 319, says he did not observe any of them.
[Page 227.]—Capernaum.] Its situation is not accurately known; it is commonly supposed to be Telhoum, (Burckhardt, p. 319) between the Jordan and Tabegha. The plain of Gennesareth, (Pococke, ii. 71.) which adjoins the lake on its western side, by its fertility, corresponds very well with the description which Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 9.) gives of the environs of the fountain of Capernaum. The name signifies the beautiful town, (בפר נאה) an appellation which it must well have deserved, according to the description which Josephus gives of the plain of Gennesareth. Παρατείνει δὲ τὴν Γεννησὰρ ὁμώνυμος χῶρα, θαυμαστὴ φύσιν τε καὶ κάλλος·—θιλοτιμίαν ἄν τις εἴποι τῆς θύσεως βιασαμένης εἰς ἔν συναγαγεῖν τὰ μάχιμα καὶ τῶν ὡρῶν ἀχαθὴν ἔριν ἑκάστης ὥσπερ αντιποιουμένης τοῦ χωρίου· καὶ γὰρ ου μόνον τρέφει παρὰ δόξαν τὰς διαφόρους ὁπώρας ἄλλὰ καὶ διαφυλάσσει· τὰ μὲν γε βασιλικώτατα, σταφυλήν τε καὶ σῦκον, δέκα μησὶν αδιαλείπτως χορηγεῖ· τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς καρποὺς δὶ ἔτους ὅλον περιγηράσκοντας αὐτοῖς. This plain may perhaps be that which Burckhardt describes (p. 319) as lying at the southern foot of the mountain which stretches down to the lake. It may be objected that Tel-houm is not in this plain; but it is evident that Josephus speaks of a larger plain, thirty stadia in length, while Burckhardt describes only a part of it, which he occupied twenty minutes in crossing. The position which the author assigns to Chorazin, on the eastern side, is very doubtful. No traveller has hitherto been able to identify it. Jerome places it two miles from Capernaum; and Dr. Richardson says, that the natives, when he inquired for the ruins of Capernaum, told him that it and Chorazin were near.