and expects to find its descriptions realised is doomed to
disappointment. The population has disappeared. To the stir of
busy life a mournful silence has succeeded. A single filthy
ruinous town—Tiberias—half-a-dozen wretched villages, and the
black tents of the Bedouins, are the only human habitations on the
banks. Where Herod, Josephus, and Titus could, without difficulty,
collect fleets of from three hundred to five hundred vessels, I
only found three small fishing-boats, and these so dilapidated
that their owners dared not launch them except in a perfect calm.
The soil is fertile and productive as ever, but labour is wanting
to break up the fallow ground, to cast in the seed, or to reap the
harvest.
[Illustration: THE NORTH SHORE OF THE LAKE, NEAR TELL HUM.]
But there is a sense in which this mournful silence and solitude are
felt to be not inappropriate. There is nothing to distract our thoughts
from that Divine Presence which here abode in human form. One great
memory lingers undisturbed amongst these hills and valleys. The bustle
of modern life and the squalid misery and degradation of the eastern
peasantry would equally clash with the sacred, tender associations of
the spot where “most of His mighty works were done,” most of His
“gracious words” were spoken. The stage is empty, and there is nothing
to prevent our peopling it with hallowed memories of Him who spake as
“never man spake,” who was Himself “the way, the truth, and the life.”
The contrast between the silence of Scripture as to our Lord’s life at
Nazareth and the ample details which it gives of His life here is very
striking. To mention them all would be to quote the larger part of the
first three gospels and some of the most striking incidents of the
fourth. He “dwelt in Capernaum” which was “His own city.”[249] On the
shores of the lake He called Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew to
be His disciples.[250] In the villages and towns around it “most of His
mighty works were done.”[251] In a mountain overlooking it, from a boat
upon it, and in a town on its banks, He taught the people in His most
memorable discourses.[252] Over its waters He often sailed, on them He
walked, hushed its storm to a calm, and rescued His faint-hearted
disciple who was sinking beneath them.[253] In a desert place on its
shore he twice fed the assembled multitudes.[254] But space is wanting
to enumerate all the mighty deeds and gracious words of which this
hallowed spot was the scene, and which culminated in that affecting
interview when He manifested Himself to His disciples after His
resurrection and restored Peter to the place from which he had fallen in
the apostolic band.[255]
In the Old Testament the lake is known as the sea of Chinneroth, or
Chinnereth, from a city which stood on its north-western shore.[256]
Gennesareth is probably a Grecised form of the earlier name, though its
etymology (_a garden of riches_) suggests a very suitable derivation. By
this name or by that of the Sea of Galilee it is commonly known in the
New Testament. John, writing after the city of Tiberias had risen to
importance as the capital of Galilee, speaks of it as “the sea of
Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias,”[257] a fact which is not without
importance as fixing the date of his gospel.
The road from Nazareth to Tiberias leads over the low ridge which bounds
the valley on the north-west, across a broken table-land, and through
the village of Kenna, already spoken of as the traditional site of Cana
in Galilee. Sefurieh, the ancient Sepphoris, is passed. It played an
important part in the heroic but unsuccessful resistance of the Jews to
the Romans under Titus, and hither the Sanhedrim retired after the fall
of Jerusalem. The battle-field of Hattin is likewise distinctly seen,
where the last great battle was fought between the Crusaders and
Saladin, issuing in the total destruction of the Christian army and the
establishment of the Moslem power in the East. The hills which enclose
the lake soon come into view, but the lake itself is not seen till we
reach the summit of the steep descent which leads down to Tiberias, a
thousand feet below us. The clear, blue, placid waters lie in a deeply
depressed basin nearly seven hundred feet below the level of the sea.
Some geologists have supposed it to be the crater of an extinct volcano.
More careful investigation, however, proves that this is a mistake. It
is but a part of that long line of depression which, starting from the
sea level near the Lake Huleh, sinks down along the whole Ghor or valley
of the Jordan, till at the Dead Sea it has reached the unparalleled
depth of thirteen hundred feet.
The lake is about thirteen miles in length by about six or seven in
breadth at the widest part. The mountains on the eastern side rise to a
height of two thousand feet, but they are flat and monotonous, destitute
alike of colour and of foliage. The scenery has neither the bold outline
of the Swiss lakes, nor the rich verdant loveliness of our own. The
tamer parts of Windermere, stripped of their glorious mantle of forests,
the grey hill-sides bleak and bare, would give a not unapt illustration
of the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
We do not read that our Lord ever entered Tiberias. The reason is
doubtless to be found in the fact that it was practically a heathen
city, though standing upon Jewish soil. Herod, its founder, had brought
together the arts of Greece, the idolatry of Rome, and the gross
lewdness of Asia. There was a theatre for the performance of comedies, a
forum, a stadium, a palace roofed with gold in imitation of those in
Italy, statues of the Roman gods, and busts of the deified emperors. He
who “was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” might
well hold himself aloof from such scenes as these.
Modern Tiberias is a village of about two thousand inhabitants. A large
proportion of these are Jews, who regard it as one of their holy places
and have here a rabbinical school. It is filthy and squalid beyond even
the average of eastern towns. From the swarms of vermin with which it is
infested the Arabs have a proverb that “the king of the fleas lives at
Tiberias.” Wilson says that on spending a night here he was literally
covered with them and plucked them from his coat by handfuls. In common
with other places in the valley of the Jordan it suffers severely from
earthquakes. In the great shock of January, 1837, the Turkish walls
which surround the town were shattered, and in many places laid
prostrate. As under the present government nothing is ever repaired, the
fortifications remain in the dilapidated condition in which they were
left nearly forty years ago.
[Illustration: THE TOWN OF TIBERIAS.]
Northward from Tiberias the hills on the western side slope gently down
nearly to the edge of the lake. The strip of shore is of extraordinary
fertility. Though now uninhabited and uncultivated, it is easy to
believe that the glowing descriptions of Josephus were in no degree
exaggerated. In about an hour after leaving Tiberias we find the hills
gradually recede, leaving a broad open plain—that of Gennesareth. The
only sign of human habitation is a cluster of mud hovels near the
water’s edge. There are a few remains of other buildings, one of which
seems to have been a watch-tower (_Migdol_). A palm-tree rises from the
centre of the village and a few thorn bushes cluster round it. The
modern name Mejdel reminds us that this was MAGDALA, the place where our
Lord came ashore after feeding the multitude on the opposite bank,[258]
and the home of Mary Magdalene.[259] Into the disputed questions as to
her history we do not enter here. We know how great a debt of gratitude
she owed to her Lord, who had delivered her from demoniacal possession
in its most aggravated form; and how fondly and devotedly she attached
herself to His service, ministering to Him of her substance, waiting at
His cross, present at His entombment, watching at His sepulchre, and
first to welcome her risen Lord when He had burst “the bonds of death”
and “led captivity captive.” As we stand amongst these crumbling ruins
and squalid hovels we cannot but reflect upon the fact that through her
the name of this spot has passed into all the languages of Christendom,
is commemorated in the noblest ecclesiastical edifice of modern France,
and holds a conspicuous place in our military history as that of the
almost impregnable stronghold of a bloodthirsty Abyssinian tyrant.
[Illustration:
MAGDALA.
_From a Sketch by T. Jenner, Esq._
]
Every step we took in this district, hallowed by so many sacred
associations, seemed to furnish a fresh commentary on the discourses of
our Lord. Every detail in the parable of the sower passed under our
view—the hard pathway running through unenclosed fields upon which the
seed fell without finding entrance, the soil choked with thorns through
which the tender blades were struggling, the thin, shallow coating of
earth resting upon the rock beneath, and the luxuriant growth of the
rich deep loam bringing its return of a hundredfold to the sower.[260]
The edge of the lake is fringed with thickets of oleander in full bloom.
The turf carpeted with an incomparable profusion of wild flowers, the
variety and splendour of which surpassed all that I had seen elsewhere,
covered the earth with a mantle of beauty with which “Solomon in all his
glory” could not vie.[261] Here and there is a fisherman who has cast
off his “fisher’s coat” and stands “naked” in the water “casting his
nets,” or drawing them ashore, or examining his haul, choosing the good,
rejecting the worthless.[262]
[Illustration:
_By Permission of Mr. Macgregor._
SOUTHERN END OF THE SEA OF GALILEE.
]
Many travellers have spoken of the sudden and violent storms to which
the lake is liable. This is common to all lakes surrounded by mountains.
But the danger is greatly increased here by the depression of the
surface below the sea level. Gusts of wind rush down from the mountains
into the rarefied air below, and raise storms of extraordinary
suddenness and fury. One of these I experienced which illustrated many
of the details of New Testament history. I had taken a boat on a bright,
cloudless morning, to explore the eastern shores and the point where the
Jordan enters the lake. There was not a ripple on the water, not a
perceptible current in the air. Almost without warning the wind rose,
the waves, crested with foam, began to break over the sides of the boat.
I was sitting on a cushion or “pillow” on the flat, raised stern “in the
hinder part of the ship” and watched the crew “toiling in rowing.” But
all their efforts were vain. They were unable to make any way for “the
wind was contrary.” At length one of them jumped overboard, and partly
swimming, partly wading, towed the vessel ashore close to the site of
Capernaum.[263] Walking thence to our camp at Khan Minyeh we passed the
probable site of Bethsaida (_the house of fish_). Here we found the
fishermen washing, drying, and mending their nets.[264]
[Illustration: HILLS OVER GENNESARETH.]
At the end of a glen which ran westward from our camp is the mountain
which tradition asserts with some probability to be that of the
Beatitudes, and high above it, visible from every point for miles
around, is the city of Safed—“a city which is set on a hill and cannot
be hid.”[265]
The hills do not rise direct from the lake but stand at a little
distance from it, leaving a strip of shore, of varying breadth, at their
feet. But there is one striking exception to this rule. On the eastern
bank, near to Khersa, the ancient Gergesa, is a steep, almost
precipitous descent coming down into the lake itself with no intervening
space between. It was here, in the very place which the narrative
indicates, that the “herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into
the sea.”[266]
Into the disputed questions as to the topography of the northern and
north-western shore we have not space to enter. A volume might be
written summing up the various arguments adduced as to the sites of
Capernaum, Chorazin, and the Bethsaidas, without arriving at a
conclusive and final result. The balance of probability seems to me to
incline in favour of the identification of the fountain of Tabigah with
that of Capharnaum described by Josephus. Capernaum as the chief town of
the district would stretch for some distance along the shore. The ruins
of Tell Hum are not so far distant from the fountain but that they might
have formed part of the city or its suburbs. And nowhere else have
remains been found the character and extent of which would indicate the
site of a commercial centre and great military station which we know
Capernaum to have been. The similarity of name is likewise an important
point. _Tell_ is a mound of ruins; _Kefr_, or _Capher_, is a village.
Tell Hum would thus be the ruined mound of the ancient Capher Nahum, or
village of Nahum. Without presuming to dogmatize on the subject, the
balance of probabilities seems to favour the view that it was here that
our Lord took up His abode on leaving Nazareth, so that it was called
“His own country.”
[Illustration: RUINS OF ET TABIGAH (BETHSAIDA?).]
Amongst the ruins of Tell Hum, the most interesting and important are
those of a synagogue apparently of the Roman period. It was built of
white marble, with finely carved Corinthian columns, and sculptures of
the seven-branched candlestick, the paschal lamb, and the pot of manna.
If Tell Hum be indeed the site of Capernaum this ruined synagogue
becomes invested with an interest absolutely unique, for it is the only
edifice now remaining which we can, with any probability, associate with
the personal history of our Lord. It was here that “He taught on the
sabbath days. And they were astonished at His doctrine: for His word was
with power.” Here, too, He cast out the unclean spirit who acknowledged
Him as “the Holy One of God,” and, amid the murmurs of the Pharisees,
healed the man with a withered hand.[267] Whilst the ruins are
unmistakably those of a Jewish synagogue, the Corinthian columns seem to
indicate a Roman element and feeling at work in the construction. It is
thus, at least, a plausible conjecture that this is the very edifice
referred to by “the elders of the Jews” when pleading on behalf of the
centurion they said, “he loveth our nation, and he hath built us the
(τὴν) synagogue.[268]” Captain Wilson, cautious and careful almost to
excess as he is, says, “If Tell Hum be Capernaum, this is without doubt
the synagogue built by the Roman centurion, and one of the most sacred
places on earth.” It was in this building that our Lord gave the
well-known discourse in John vi.; and it was not without a certain
strange feeling, that on turning over a large block, we found the pot of
manna engraved on its face, and remembered the words, “I am that bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are
dead.”[269]
[Illustration:
_From a Photograph by the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1866._
RUINS OF TELL HUM.
]
But we must leave, though reluctantly, this hallowed spot with its
inexhaustible treasures of sacred associations. As we do so the words of
McCheyne rise to our lips:
“How pleasant to me thy deep blue wave,
O Sea of Galilee;
For the glorious One who came to save,
Hath often stood by thee.
“It is not that the wild gazelle
Comes down to drink thy tide;
But He that was pierced to save from hell,
Oft wandered by thy side.
“Graceful around thee the mountains meet,
Thou calm, reposing sea;
But, oh, far more! the beautiful feet
Of Jesus walked o’er thee.
“O Saviour, gone to God’s right hand,
But the same Saviour still;
Graved on thy heart is this lovely strand,
And every fragrant hill.”
[Illustration: THE LAKE OF GENNESARETH, FROM NEAR KHAN MINYEH.]
[Illustration: Head-Piece—Lake Hûleh]
GENNESARETH TO THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN.
WE climb the steep ascent which rises to the north of Khan Minyeh with
frequent halts, and casting many a “longing, lingering look behind;” for
we know that when we turn the crest of the hill we shall have lost sight
of the lake on whose waters we have sailed, round whose shores we have
wandered, with such profound interest. The district upon which we are
now to enter, though the scene of many memorable events, is yet barren
of Scriptural associations as compared with the region we have left. The
tribes of the extreme north played a conspicuous part in Jewish history
under the Judges. But with the establishment of the Kingdom the chief,
almost the sole, interest is concentrated in the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin, of Ephraim and Manasseh. The records of the tribe of Dan are
especially meagre. It contributed only one great name to Jewish
history—that of Samson—and he belonged to the original settlement of the
Danites in the south-east on the borders of the plain of Sharon. The
statement in Judges xviii. 30, 31, seems to imply that even at this
early period the children of Dan had separated themselves from the
commonwealth of Israel and established a political and religious
organization of their own which lasted down to “the captivity of the
land.” This may account for the remarkable omission of all mention of
the tribe not only in the genealogical tables of 1 Chronicles ii.-xii.,
but also in the enumeration of “all the tribes of the children of
Israel” in Revelation vii. 4-8.
[Illustration: Initial—An Arab Encampment]
The contrast between what the country once was and what it is now, which
has so often been referred to already, is most striking in the district
upon which we are now entering. Dr. Porter says: “On reaching the brow
of the long ascent, where the lake lies far below us, with the green
valleys radiating from it, and the rich plateaux spreading out from the
top of its high banks, we cannot refrain from sitting down to gaze upon
that vast panorama. A mournful and solitary silence reigns over it.
Nature has lavished on it some of her choicest gifts; but man has
deserted it. In the whole valley of the Jordan, from the lake Hûleh to
the sea of Galilee, there is not a single settled inhabitant. Along the
whole eastern bank of the river and the lakes, from the base of Hermon
to the ravine of Hieromax—a region of great fertility, thirty miles long
by seven or eight wide—there are only some _three inhabited villages_!
The western bank is almost as desolate. Ruins are numerous enough. Every
mile or two is an old site of town or village, now well-nigh hid beneath
a dense jungle of thorns and thistles. The words of Scripture here recur
to us with peculiar force—‘I will make your cities waste, and bring your
sanctuaries unto desolation. And I will bring the land into desolation:
and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I
will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you:
and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the
land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your
enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her
sabbaths.’”[270]
[Illustration:
BRIDGE OF JACOB’S DAUGHTERS.
_From a Sketch by T. Jenner, Esq._
]
Leaving the hilly country which lies on the northern side of the Lake of
Gennesareth, we enter a broad open plain through which the Jordan
meanders on leaving Lake Hûleh, the WATERS OF MEROM of Scripture. About
two miles south of the lake is an ancient bridge called Jisr Benat Yakûb
(_the Bridge of Jacob’s Daughters_). The exact meaning of the name is
unknown. It seems to have originated in an erroneous tradition that the
patriarch crossed the river at this spot when returning from his sojourn
in Mesopotamia, and met his brother Esau here. But no reason is assigned
for his daughters being introduced in connection with it. It was
formerly a post of considerable importance, being the point at which the
main road from Egypt and Jerusalem turned westward to Damascus. Century
after century invading armies or caravans of peaceful traders have
passed to and fro along this route; but none of them have left results
so deep and lasting as when, eighteen hundred years ago, Saul of Tarsus,
“breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord, ... journeyed to Damascus,”[271] little thinking, as he crossed
this bridge, that he should return to preach the faith he now sought to
destroy.
[Illustration: ROB ROY CAPTURED BY THE ARABS OF LAKE HÛLEH.]
[Illustration:
THE MOUTH OF THE JORDAN, LAKE HÛLEH.
_By Permission of Mr. Macgregor._
]
Of Lake Hûleh little was known until it was explored by Mr. Macgregor in
his canoe voyage on the Jordan. It is a triangular sheet of water, about
four and a half miles in length by three and a half in its greatest
breadth, surrounded by an impenetrable morass covered with tall canes
and papyrus reeds, through which, as the Arabs declare, it is impossible
even for a wild boar to make its way. It could not be surveyed from the
shore, and until Mr. Macgregor’s adventurous expedition no boat had ever
floated on its waters. The additions which he has made to our knowledge
of the hydrography of the district are of the highest value; and his
vigorous narrative of the difficulties he surmounted, and the perils he
escaped amongst the wild Bedouins of the district is familiar to all our
readers.
[Illustration: LAKE HÛLEH, OR THE WATERS OF MEROM.]
It was in this hot, seething, pestilential, but fertile plain that
Joshua, after the subjugation of central and southern Palestine, fought
his third and last great battle with the hosts of Canaan. Jabin, king of
Hazor, rallied round him all the chiefs who had not yet yielded.[272]
They came from “the plains south of Chinneroth,” the Jordan valley south
of the sea of Galilee, the Jebusite from the fortress of Benjamin, the
Hittite and the Amorite from the far south, to “the Hivite under
Hermon,” in the north. “And they went out, they and all their hosts with
them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in
multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings
were met together, they came and pitched together at the Waters of Merom
to fight against Israel.” It was doubtless the multitude of their horses
and chariots, a force not possessed by Israel, which induced them to
select this long plain as their battle-field. Suddenly Joshua and his
men fell upon them from the heights above, and the Lord delivered them
into the hand of Israel, who smote them and chased them far to the west,
across the hills and valleys of Galilee, where their horses and chariots
could only encumber them, right across the land to Zidon, utterly
destroying them in the long pursuit, houghing their horses, and burning
their chariots. Northward and eastward, too, Joshua chased the Hivites
even to the valley of Mizpeh, the plain of Cœle-Syria, which extends to
the entering in of Hamath. So utter was the rout, so complete the
victory, that no cities attempted further resistance, as they had done
in the south. Hazor, the capital, and probably the stronghold of king
Jabin, was the only place which Joshua burned with fire when he turned
back from the pursuit. The whole land was now secured to Israel to the
base of Lebanon, and the four northern tribes were settled in their
allotted possessions.
[Illustration: HERMON FROM THE NORTHERN SHORE OF LAKE HÛLEH.]
Soon after passing the northern end of the lake the snowy summit of
Hermon, which has been previously visible at intervals for some days,
comes full into view, and forms a fine feature in the landscape. A cool,
refreshing breeze flows down from its glittering heights, and is doubly
welcome in the sultry plain over which we are toiling. The contrast
between the near and the distant landscape is very striking. The plain
of Hûleh might be a portion of tropical Africa. Droves of black,
hairless buffaloes wallow in the swamps. The Gawarineh Arabs, almost
black and quite naked, live in reed huts like many negro tribes, and
twist their hair into a tuft like the inhabitants of the Gold Coast. The
intense heat produces a semi-tropical vegetation. But we have only to
turn our eyes to the northern horizon to see a long stretch of snow as
bright, and clear, and cold as that of Switzerland.
[Illustration: HERMON FROM NEAR TELL-EL-KADI.]