Archæology and the Bible

by George A. Barton

3. A Rock-altar at Jerusalem.—We are told in Gen. 22:2 that Abraham went to the land of Moriah to offer up Isaac, and in 2 Chron. 3:1, ff. that Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah on the threshing floor which David acquired from Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite. Just to the east of the site of Solomon’s temple in the open court where the altar of burnt-offering stood, there was a rock surface similar to the two rock-altars described above. It is still visible in Jerusalem and is now enclosed in the Mosque of Omar. The Mohammedans regard it as a sacred rock. One can still trace on it the channels which conducted the blood to an opening which in turn conducted it to a cave underneath. This cave is still regarded by the Mohammedans as sacred. There is little doubt that the sacrificial victims offered in the temples of Solomon and Herod were slain on this stone, and that that part of the blood not used in sprinkling drained into the cave underneath. This rock-altar is on the hill to which we are told Abraham came for the sacrifice of Isaac[198]; (see [Fig. 208]).

4. High Place of Tell es-Safi.—In the Old Testament the “high place” is frequently mentioned as a place of worship. (See 1 Sam. 9:12, f.; 1 Kings 3:2; 2 Kings 23:5, 8, etc.) It follows from 2 Kings 23:14 that these high places contained “pillars” and “asherim.” The pillars were made of stone, and the asherim of wood.

Recent exploration has brought to light a number of these high places, and the revelations made by these discoveries greatly illuminate the Old Testament narrative. The first of these was discovered by Bliss and Macalister at Tell es-Safi.[199] The high place was enclosed by walls, but, as the upper courses of these had been destroyed, the original height of the walls could not be determined. Within the largest enclosure stood three monoliths or “pillars.” These rested on bases of stone. The pillars themselves were, respectively, 5 feet 10 inches, 6 feet 5 inches, and 7 feet 1 inch high. One of them was pointed, and one of them almost flat on the top. No tool-mark was discernible on any of them. All showed signs of having been rubbed. The fat and the blood of sacrifices were smeared over such stones, and the rubbing was probably produced by this. The walls enclosing these pillars formed an approximate square 30 feet from east to west and 32 feet from north to south. On the north a fairly large room was walled in, as shown in [Fig. 212], and on the south three smaller rooms. In the wall to the north of the three pillars was a semicircular apse. Facing this apse was a low semicircle of stones 3 feet 7 inches in diameter, which is situated much nearer the “pillars.” The purpose of this semicircle is unknown. In the east wall of the court of the high place there was a “skewed” opening, or an opening which ran diagonally through the wall. The purpose of this is obscure. It has been suggested by Prof. Macalister that it was made to permit the rising sun to shine on a certain spot of the interior on a certain day of the year, but of this there is no proof.

5. High Place of Gezer.—The foundations of this high place were in the second stratum below that which contained Israelitish pottery. It was one of the high places of the Canaanites, therefore, or of one of the tribes that were in Palestine before the coming of Israel. This is the most interesting of the high places which have been discovered in Palestine.[200] It contained ten monoliths or upright “pillars,” the tallest of which was 10 feet 9 inches in height, and the shortest 5 feet 5 inches. These pillars ran in a curved line the general direction of which was from north to south. This was in striking contrast to the high place of Tell es-Safi, where the line of pillars ran from east to west. The center of the curved line of the pillars of Gezer was toward the east. All of these pillars except one were of the kind of stone abundant about Gezer. They had been found near by. None of them bore the mark of a tool. They had not been shaped by working. One of them (the one that was the sacred stone, as the smooth spots on it showed) was a different kind of stone—the kind found at Jerusalem and elsewhere, but not near Gezer. There were on it traces of an indentation, as though a rope for dragging it might have been fitted around it; ([Fig. 206]). As Mesha, King of Moab, tells us twice in his inscription that he dragged altar-hearths of other deities away from their original locations into the presence of his god Chemosh,[201] it seems likely that this stone was dragged to Gezer from some other sanctuary—possibly from Jerusalem. Perhaps it was its capture that first suggested to the inhabitants of Gezer the establishment of this high place. The other stones of the series were erected to keep this one company and to do it honor. These were probably not all set up at once. They were added from time to time by different rulers of Gezer, and we have no means of knowing when the latest of the pillars was erected; (see [Fig. 204]).

(1) Choice of Site.—Judging from the scarabs found about the foundations of the high place, its beginnings date from 2000 B. C. or earlier, and it continued in use down to the Babylonian Exile. Curiously enough, this high place is not situated on the highest part of the hill. The land is higher both to the east and to the west of it. It is situated in a sort of saddle to the east of the middle of the mound. Why was this spot chosen for it? Two considerations, perhaps, led to the choice of the site. A great ramifying cave on a higher part of the hill had already been appropriated by Semites as a sepulcher, and was, therefore, unclean. The cave which the earlier inhabitants had used as a crematorium was for the same reason unacceptable. Why the high place was not built near the cave that the cave-dwellers had used as a temple, we cannot now conjecture. Perhaps in some way the memory that that had been a sacred spot had faded from men’s minds. Macalister thinks that the choice of the site was determined by the presence at this point of the two caves shown in [Fig. 203]. These caves had been dwellings of cave-men in the pre-Semitic time. They were now connected by a narrow, crooked passage, so that they could be utilized for the giving of oracles. Macalister conjectures that a priest or priestess would go into one, while the devotee who wished to inquire of the god was sent into the other, and that the inquirer would hear his oracle through this passage. This theory is plausible, though incapable of full proof.

Just back of one of the pillars a square stone was found with a deep hole cut in its upper side; (see [Fig. 209]). Several theories as to the use of this have been put forward; the most probable one is that it was a laver.

The area of the high place seems to have been approximately 150 feet from north to south and 120 feet from east to west. Some few walls were found of the same date as the high place, but it was impossible to tell their purpose. There seem to have been no buildings that could be regarded as a part of the sanctuary. It seems to have been entirely open to the air. Two circular structures, one at the north and the other to the south of the sacred stones, were found. The one at the south was badly ruined; that to the north was in a good state of preservation. This structure had a pavement of stones on a level with the bottom of the sacred pillars. It was entirely surrounded by a wall 2 feet thick at the bottom and 1 foot 6 inches thick at the top and 6 feet high. There was no doorway. The wall leaned outward. The diameter of the structure was 13 feet 8 inches at the bottom and 16 feet 6 inches at the top; (see [Fig. 207]). On the pavement in this enclosure were the fragments of many clay bowls, of a type found in Cyprus, but common at Gezer from 1400-800 B. C., and among these fragments a brazen serpent, evidently the model of a cobra. This discovery suggests the possibility that the structure may have been a pen in which sacred serpents were kept. The practice of venerating serpents as sacred is found in many parts of the world.[202] This brazen serpent reminds one of Nehushtan, the brazen serpent worshiped by the Judæans until it was destroyed by King Hezekiah. (See 2 Kings 18:4, and [Fig. 219a].)

(2) Child-sacrifice.—The whole area of the high place was found to be a cemetery of new-born infants. These were in all probability first-born children who had been sacrificed to the deity of the high place. Two of them displayed marks of fire, but most of them had been simply enclosed in large jars. The body was usually put in head first. Two or three smaller vessels were put in with them. These generally included a bowl and a jug. They were usually inside the jar between the body and the jar’s mouth; sometimes they were outside near the mouth of the jar. That these were sacrifices is shown by the fact that they were children. It was not, therefore, a general place of burial. Indeed, had these children not been sacrificial, they could not have been buried in the sanctuary, as dead bodies were unclean.

The Semites generally believed that the first-born were sacred to deity and must be sacrificed to it. This sort of human sacrifice persisted for a long time among the Phœnicians. It was said that God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and that he then permitted him to offer a ram instead (Gen. 22). The law provided for the redemption of Hebrew first-born by the sacrifice of a lamb (Exod. 34:20), but in the time of King Manasseh the old custom was revived and men “made their children pass through the fire.” (See 2 Kings 21:6; 23:10; Jer. 7:31; 32:35.) The gruesome discoveries of this high place have made very real these horrible practices and the inhuman fate from which Isaac and other Hebrew children were delivered.

With the exception of a little unhewn stone about 18 inches square, found in one of the caves connected with the high place, and which might possibly have served as an altar, no altar was found. Possibly none was needed in the rites practised there, but it is more likely that the altar was simply a mound of earth such as is prescribed in Exod. 20:24—a mound which could not be distinguished, in excavating, from the common earth.