Palestine, or, the Holy Land: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time

by Michael Russell

Of the original edifice, said to have been erected by the mother of Constantine, some remains may still be observed in the form of subverted columns, which, with the fragments of their capitals and bases, lie near the modern building. The present church and convent are of a comparatively recent date, at least so far as the outward structure and internal decorations are concerned; the former being filled with pictures supplied by the modern school, all of which are said to be below mediocrity.

Besides the antiquities already mentioned having a reference to the early history of our Lord, the traveller is conducted to the "workshop of Joseph," which is near the convent, and was formerly included within its walls. It is now a small chapel, perfectly modern, and whitewashed like a Turkish sepulchre. After this is shown the synagogue where the Redeemer is said to have read the Scriptures to the Jews; and also the precipice from which the monks aver he leaped down to escape the rage of his townsmen, who were offended at his application of the sacred text "And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way."[155]

The Mount of Precipitation, as it is now called, is, according to Mr. Buckingham, about two miles distant from Nazareth; is almost inaccessible, from the steep and rocky nature of the road; and is decidedly not upon the hill where the town could ever have been built. Dr. Clarke, on the other hand, maintains that the words of the evangelist are most explicit, and prove the situation of the ancient city to have been precisely that which is now occupied by the modern town. In a recess there is an altar hewn out of the rock, said to be the very spot where Christ dined with his disciples. Close by are two large cisterns for preserving rain-water, and several portions of buildings, all described as the remains of a religious establishment founded by the pious and indefatigable Helena. Immediately over this scene, and on the edge of a precipice about thirty feet in height, are two flat stones set up on their edges. In the centre, and scattered over different parts of one of them, are several round marks like the deep imprint of fingers on wax; and it is insisted that these are the impression of our Saviour's hand when he clung to the stone, and thereby escaped being thrown headlong down.[156]

One celebrated relic still remains to be noticed, which, although it is not alluded to in the New Testament, is regularly authenticated by the pope; who, besides, grants a plenary indulgence to every pilgrim visiting the place where it is exhibited. This is nothing more than a large stone, on which it is affirmed that Christ did eat with his disciples both before and after his resurrection from the dead. A chapel has been built over it, on the walls of which are several copies of a printed certificate, stating the grounds of its claim to veneration. Dr. Clarke transcribed this curious document, which we give in a note below, accompanied with a translation for the use of such readers as have not formed an acquaintance with the Latin tongue.[157]

There is not an object in all Nazareth so much the resort of pilgrims,—Greeks, Catholics, Arabs, and even Turks,—as this stone: the former classes on account of the seven years' indulgence granted to those who visit it; the two latter, because they believe some virtue must reside in a slab before which all comers are so eager to prostrate themselves.

In a valley near the town is a fountain which bears the name of the Virgin, and where the women are seen passing to and fro with pitchers on their heads, as in the days of old. It is justly remarked, that, if there be a spot throughout the Holy Land which was more particularly honoured by the presence of Mary, we may consider this to be the place; because the situation of a copious spring is not liable to change, and because the custom of repairing thither to draw water has been continued among the female inhabitants of Nazareth from the earliest period of its history.

As another memorial of primitive times, we may mention that it is still common in Nazareth to see "two women grinding at the mill;" illustrating the remarkable saying of our Lord in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem. The two females, seated on the ground opposite to each other, hold between them two round flat stones, such as are seen in Lapland, and which in Scotland are usually called querns. In the centre of the upper stone is a cavity for pouring in the corn; and by the side of this an upright wooden handle for moving it. To begin the operation, one of the women with her right hand pushes this handle to her companion, who in her turn sends it back to the first,—thus communicating a rotatory and very rapid motion to the upper stone; their left hands being all the while employed in supplying fresh corn, as fast as the bran and flour escape from the sides of the machine.[158]

It is not without pleasure that the traveller contemplates these unaltered tokens of the simple life which prevailed in Palestine at the time when our Saviour abode in the house of Mary his mother; and more especially, as he cannot fail to contrast them with the pernicious mummery which continues to disgrace the more artificial monuments of Christian antiquity. From the extravagances chargeable upon the priesthood at all the holy places in Canaan, there has resulted this most melancholy fact, that devout but weak men, unable to distinguish between monkish fraud and simple truth, have considered the whole series of topographical evidence as one tissue of imposture, and have left the Holy Land worse Christians than when they entered it. Credulity and skepticism are extremes too often found to approximate; and the man, accordingly, who suddenly relinquishes the one, is almost sure to adopt the other.

Burckhardt remarks that the church of Nazareth, next to the one over the Holy Sepulchre, is the finest in Syria, and possesses two tolerably good organs. Within the walls of the convent are several gardens and a small burying-ground; the building is very strong, and serves occasionally as a fortress to all the Christians in the town. There are eleven friars on the establishment, the yearly expenses of which, amounting to about 900l., are defrayed by the rent of a few houses and the produce of a small portion of land, the property of the good fathers.

Before quitting this interesting place,—the scene where our Lord passed the days of his childhood and youth,—we may observe, that there is a great variation in the accounts given by different travellers as to the number of its inhabitants. Dr. Richardson restricts it to six or seven hundred; Mr. Buckingham raises it to two thousand; while others assert that it does not fall short of half as many more. There are five hundred Turks, and the remainder are Christians,—the later described as a civil and very industrious class of people.