Archæology and the Bible

by George A. Barton

CHAPTER IV

PALESTINE AND ITS EXPLORATION

The Land: Rainfall. Early Exploration: Place names. Early American Explorations: Robinson and Smith. Lynch. American exploration societies. Palestine Exploration Fund: Warren’s excavations at Jerusalem. The survey of Palestine. Exploration of Lachish. Bliss’s excavation at Jerusalem. Excavation at Azekah. At Tell es-Safi (Gath?). Tell el-Judeideh. At Marash (Moresheth-Gath). Gezer. Beth-shemesh. Exploring the Wilderness of Zin. The German Palestine Society: Guthe’s excavation at Jerusalem. Megiddo. Taanach. Capernaum. Jericho. The American School at Jerusalem. Samaria. Parker’s Excavations at Jerusalem. Latest Excavations.

1. The Land.—Palestine is a very different land from either Egypt or Mesopotamia. They are made by the irrigation of rivers. Palestine is fertilized by rain from heaven. In them the scenery is monotonous; they are river valleys each of which was once in part an arm of the sea, but now filled up by the gradual deposit of mud. Palestine was formed in one of the greatest geological upheavals the earth ever experienced. This was nothing less than a great rift in the earth’s crust extending from the Lebanon mountains to the Indian Ocean. The strata on the west side of this rift slipped downward past those on its east side for a mile or more. Those on the west were bent at different points in this long course in different ways, but the result of the rift itself was to form the Jordan valley and the bed of the Dead Sea, the valley which runs from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba, and that deep rift between Asia and Africa which forms the Red Sea itself.

In Palestine the strata on the west of this rift bent up into two parallel ridges, to the west of which a narrow plain of varying width, ancient Philistia, rises from the sea. To the east of this rift the land remained at approximately its old level. The various ridges of the country are, on account of the birth-pangs of their origin, intersected with valleys innumerable, so that in no country of the world can such variety of scenery and climate be found within such narrow limits.

Rainfall.—This land, with all its variety of form, is redeemed from the desert by the moisture which the west winds drive in from the Mediterranean Sea. These winds in the winter months bring clouds, which, when they come into contact with the colder air over the elevated hills, deposit their moisture in rain. The Jordan valley is so warm that little rain falls upon it, but it drains the water from the rainfall on both sides of it. Just so far back as the clouds reach before their moisture is exhausted, just so far the fertile land extends; beyond that is the Arabian Desert. When the rainfall during a winter is good, bountiful crops are raised the following season; when it is scant, the harvest fails and famine follows. In Egypt and Babylonia a man could water his garden by kicking a hole in a dyke; they were lands which were watered “with thy foot” (Deut. 11:10); Palestine was dependent on heaven for its life, and we cannot doubt that this fact was one of the instruments for the training of the Israelites for their great religious mission. In a land of such variety—a land in which for nine months in the year snow-capped Hermon may be seen from many an elevated point and from the whole stretch of the tropical Jordan valley, where oleanders are blooming and mustard seeds are growing into trees—it was possible to think of God in a way that was at least more difficult in Egypt or in Mesopotamia.

Here in this marvelous land, which formed a bridge between the two oldest civilizations of the world, the men lived to whom God committed the task of writing most of the Bible. This was the earthly home of the Son of God.

Even before the Hebrews came into it, many had crossed this bridge and some had paused long upon it. Living here they had left the remains of their homes, their cities, and their civilizations. Archæology is now recovering these. After the time of Christ various races and civilizations continued to pass over the bridge. Their remains buried those left by earlier men. The story of the recovery of these earlier remains is, accordingly, not only of great interest, but often of great value to the reader of the Bible.

2. Early Exploration.—The misfortunes which overtook Judæa in the years 70 and 132-135 A. D., in consequence of the Jewish rebellions against Rome, led to the paganizing of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews from Judæa. At this period Christianity was a struggling and a persecuted religion, too busy working its way to take an active interest in the land of its birth. When Constantine early in the fourth century made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, all this was changed. Both Constantine and his mother, Helena, took the deepest interest in identifying the holy places in Jerusalem, and a stream of pilgrims began at once to visit the land. The earliest of these to leave us an account of his travels was a pilgrim from Bordeaux who visited Palestine in 333 A. D. As he was anxious to see the principal places hallowed by the bodily presence of Christ and the heroes of Scripture, he visited places in different parts of the country. He was followed by many others. The stream has been almost continuous down to the present time. As the aim of these travelers was devotional and they possessed little scholarly training or critical faculty, their works are of secondary value to the modern student. They did, however, prevent that loss of knowledge of the country to which Babylonia was subjected for so many centuries.

Place Names.—At the very beginning of this period Eusebius of Cæsarea, a contemporary of Constantine, compiled a list of the place names of Palestine which are mentioned in the Bible. The names were arranged in alphabetical order, the events for which the places are celebrated were given, in many instances identifications with places existing in the fourth century were proposed, and the distances from other well-known places mentioned. In the next century this work was translated into Latin by Jerome, who lived many years at Bethlehem and traveled extensively in Palestine, and who died in 420 A. D. It is called the Onomasticon.