Excursions to Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Balbec From the United States Ship Delaware, During Her Recent Cruise / With an Attempt to Discriminate Between Truth and Error in Regard to the Sacred Places of the Holy City

by George Jones

Nearer to me, and just within the city walls, on the east, was a large open place, and from the centre of this rose an octangular edifice of considerable beauty; I had seen pictures of it, and recognized it as the mosque of Omar, standing on the supposed site of the Temple of Solomon. There at least was undoubtedly Mount Moriah, and my own eyes were gazing upon it.

I turned from it soon, however, to look for a spot of still more absorbing interest. Where was Mount Calvary? Not far from me rose two domes, one somewhat peaked, the other one more obtuse, but very large. In all directions, however, were domes of various sizes, and the mind was puzzled, though still arrested by the position as well as the magnitude of these two. A couple of old and venerable looking monks were hanging over the parapet of a neighboring convent watching my motions, and turning to inquire of them, I found my surmise had been correct. This was the church of Mount Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre.—“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”—“At least,” a voice seemed to say to me, “walk here with seriousness and humility; bow thy head, and cleanse thy heart, and tread with meekness the ground trod by Him who was here humbled for thee, and here bore thy sins upon the cross.” It was the Sabbath also—this first day of our visit; and the quiet and healthful influence of that holy season was added to the power which Jerusalem would at any time have exercised upon the heart.

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Imagination in its highest flights has not pictured a scene that will compare in interest, or in deep and searching pathos, with the reality here displayed in the redemption of man. It partakes of the character of all the works of God, combining a simplicity that opens it to the comprehension of all men, with a grandeur and sublimity that must excite the admiration of the highest seraphim. I have seen it where I have seen man’s proud philosophy quail and shrink into nothingness—in the sick room and by the dying bed; I have seen it come gently and quietly, and open the feeble lips in praise, and in utterance of joyful and triumphant hope. I have seen it sustain and cheer those whom the world, and the world’s enjoyments and earthly hopes too, had all deserted, and who would otherwise have been left in maddening solitude and wretchedness; I have seen it sustain them; and while the body was tortured with pains, I have seen it raise the mind superior to bodily feeling, and while the cold sweat was breaking out upon the brow, keep that brow calm and serene. The tortured child of clay thought of his Saviour’s humiliation and pains, and of the glory wrought out for him; and, in the boundless love that led to the sufferings of Calvary, found assurance that God was even now a friend closer than a brother, and would not desert him to the last. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ crucified, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;”—and the highest honor of my life was on that day, when I was permitted to walk amid scenes dignified and exalted by the great events of our redemption.

It was, indeed, a day of concentrated interest and gratification, such as I had never experienced before, and do not expect ever to feel again. After breakfast our large Company broke up into smaller parties, and proceeded to visit the various localities. In company with Lieutenant F. I walked over to Mr. Nicholayson’s, and, under the guidance of that gentleman, we went, with the Commodore and family, first to the church of Mount Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre.

But is this church really on the site of the crucifixion, and of the sepulture of our Saviour? This is a question which it may be well to settle before proceeding further, so that we may know with what feelings to approach spots of such sacred and interesting titles. It is a subject on which my own mind is satisfied almost beyond a doubt, and if the reader will for a short time give me patient attention, in a somewhat dry and difficult examination of facts, I think he may find himself rewarded for his labor. It is true that the question with regard to the exact locality of these events is of little consequence, compared with the great subject of the redemption itself, and the query whether we have, by a living faith, made that salvation ours; but still it is one not without its practical consequences. The mind often tries to picture the scene of the Saviour’s sufferings, the uplifted bloody cross, the hours of agony, the tumultuous crowds of scoffers below; and our feelings are touched, and the heart is benefitted, by contemplating the price that was paid for our salvation, the obligations under which we are placed by it, and the assurance it gives us of the surpassing love of Him who spared not his own Son, but gave him freely for us; the whole scene is often one of pious thought and of pulpit description, and has frequently enlisted the skill of painters, and is a matter of practical interest. My impression is, that the scene we sketch is very seldom correct, and that the event itself had a depth of humiliation that our thoughts do not reach; and in this I do not have reference to the condescension of the sufferer, but to circumstances connected with the locality of the suffering. Our thoughts, when they turn to this subject, I believe place before us an eminence of considerable elevation, sloping gradually upward, and crowned at the summit by the crosses of our Saviour and the malefactors, while the slopes are all crowded with the excited spectators. This, I believe, is the picture that is generally presented to our mind; and there is in it a degree of physical dignity, that the event itself, I am inclined to think, did not possess. On the other hand, if my apprehensions are correct, the crucifixion was attended with every physical circumstance that could make it humbling as well as painful; instead of being on the summit of a lofty eminence, it was on a rocky knoll at the bottom of a natural theatre of hills; on one side, at the distance of five hundred feet, was the city wall; on another, the low and wretched suburb of a suburb; it was in an open place, with dusty roads to various parts of the city passing near it; a thoroughfare, in short, where the spectacle of dust and confusion was broken only by a few gardens, the remains of a larger range of such enclosures, now nearly destroyed by the encroaching suburb.

Such is the scene which the result of my investigations, commenced there, and followed up since my return, places before me. I examined the ground in and about the city as carefully as my time would allow, and with the aid of Josephus, [have constructed a map], which is here offered to the examination of the reader. In my younger days, I used to take great interest in maps of Jerusalem, till, finding that each differed from every other one, and that they were filled with the localities of public buildings, some of them evidently placed at random, I lost in a measure my confidence in all the plans, and as they furnished me with no means of judging for myself, I gave them up in despair; and this is probably the case with many other persons.

In this map I have laid down nothing for which we have not authority, and I have in every part quoted the authorities; so that, if the reader chooses, he can examine and form an opinion for himself. He will find that I have been guided chiefly by Josephus, whose descriptions of the ancient city are, undoubtedly, by far the most correct as well as the most minute that we possess.[15] If I have not rightly understood them, it has not been from the want of study. I have read him carefully, and compared one part with another, and have seized on every allusion to localities, and have again and again studied and compared, and did not stop till I had a map that would correspond to all such descriptions and allusions. He is, I think, deserving of our confidence; for he spent much time in and about the ancient city; his duties as an officer in Titus’ army led him to examine, and as far as possible to get the admeasurements of its walls and towers; he must at this time have been preparing for his work on the Jewish nation, and probably made his records on the ground; and with a little allowance for the pride and prejudices of a Jew, as regards his country, seems to be a fair and candid narrator of events, a large part of which fell under his own observation. In some places he is obscure, and at times appears to contradict himself; but a little study will enable us to understand and reconcile most of these passages; in many parts, particularly in scenes of pathos, there is a simplicity and yet a force, in his descriptions, that are really admirable.

In the map[16] just spoken of, I have sketched also the line of the present city walls, as I found it could be done without producing confusion, and I thought the reader would like to be able to see how much of the ground of the ancient city is occupied by the modern Jerusalem.