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BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST is published with the financial assistance of ZION RESEARCH FOUNDATION Boston, Massachusetts A nonsectarianProtestant foundation for the study of the Bible and the history of the Christianchurch
Biblical Archeologistis publishedquarterly (March,June, September,December)by the AmericanSchools of OrientalResearch.Its purposeis to providethe generalreaderwith an accuratescholarlyyet easily understandable accountof archeologicaldiscoveriesand their bearingon the biblicalheritage.Unsolicited mss. are welcome but should be accompaniedby a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Address all editorial correspondence to Biblical Archeologist, 1053 LSA Building,The Universityof Michigan,Ann Arbor,MI 48109.Addressall businesscorrespondence to ASOR, 126 Inman Street, Cambridge,MA 02139. Secondclass postagepaidat Ann Arbor,Ml 48106.
-
The American Schools of Oriental Research is
no longer affiliatedwith the Centerfor Scholarly Publishing and Services at Missoula, Montana. Effective30 June 1978,theproductionandpublication of ASOR journalsand bookswillbe centeredin the PublicationsOffiicein Ann Arbor,Michigan.All orders, payments, and other matters concerning memberships,book sales, andjournalsubscriptions should be directedto our businessoff ces at the following address:
Copyright i' 1978 American Schools of OrientalResearch.Annualsubscriptionrate: $12.00. Currentsingle issues:$4.00. Compositionby Eisenbrauns,WinonaLake, IN 46590. Printedby PrintingDepartment, The Universityof Michigan.
Editor: David Noel Freedman,The Universityof Michigan
ASOR 126 Inman Street Cambridge, MA 02139
Associate Editor: H. T. Frank,OberlinCollege
Editorial Committee: Frank M. Cross, HarvardUniversity John A. Miles,jr., Universityof California Press
Assistantsto the Editor: Ronald L. Guengerich, Kent P. Jackson, TerrenceM. Kerestes,KennethA. Mathews, WilliamRudolph, BruceWilloughby
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Solomon's Temple,the centralshrineof Jerusalem.Theresponse to a critical situation made an unimportantvillage a religious and political capital.
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A Tale of Three Cities: fig. I by Kent P. Jackson,Ann Arbor,Ml; figs. 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11 by Michael M. Eisman;fig. 3 used with permissionof TheodorA. Busink;fig. 4 used by courtesy of the Israel Exploration Society; fig. 7 used by courtesy of the DeutschesArchaologischesInstitut,Athens. Paul's MissionaryJourneyto Spain: Tradition and Folklore:photo on p. 62 c/ o Otto F. A. Meinardus. The Prideof the Jordan-The Jungleof the Jordan:photo on p. 64 reprintedfromNelson Glueck, The River Jordan ( 1968), p. 49; photo on p. 67 by RichardW. Cleave,used with permission;map on p. 69 by Kenneth Mathews,Ann Arbor,Ml; photos on pp. 70 and 73 c/o MenasheHar-El. Colophon: by David Jones, reprintedfrom 7the Sleeping Lord and Other Fragments, ChilmarkPress, New York;i' David Jones, 1955.
BI BL ICAL ARCHEOLOGIST
9Stv
Michael M. Eisman
47 A TALE OF THREE CITIES A studyof the urbandevelopmentof Jerusalem,Athens,and Rome, the three great ancient cities which are the fountainheadsof westerncivilization.The responsethat each madeto its own urbancrisis determinedits place in history forever.
Otto F. A. Meinardus
61 PAUL'S MISSIONARY JOURNEY TO SPAIN: TRADITION AND FOLKLORE Did Paul ever visit Spain as he had intended?An examination of traditionsand legends,some of which persistto the presentday.
Menashe Har-EI
65 THE PRIDE OF THE JORDAN JUNGLE OF THE JORDAN
THE
The lush, tropical strip of land which bordersthe Jordan Rivercontrastssharplywith the barrenhills on eitherside of the valley.Ancienttravelersand moderngeographersdescribe the uniqueecosystemwhich the Jordan River has createdin the wilderness.
42 LETTER TO THE READERS 42 OP-ED 43 COLLOQUIA 76 TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
77 BOOK REVIEWS Coats and Long, Canon and Authority (Blenkinsopp); Slingerland,The Testamentsof the Twelve Patriarchs:A CriticalHistory of Research(Reese); Moeller, The Legacy of Zion: IntertestamentalTexts Relatedto the New Testament (Burrows); Towner, How God Deals with Evil (Myers);Burrows,Jesus in the First ThreeGospels(Cope); Aulen,Jesus in ContemporaryHistoricalResearch(Bailey).
80 COLOPHON
op-ed
Letter
to
the
Readers
The City and the Country The contrast between city and country has fascinatedobserversof the human scene since earliest times, and stereotypeslike "city slicker"and "country bumpkin"have been ingrained in our language and thought. Fabulists and philosophers, satirists and sophists have had their say, and in literatureas in life the tensions of mutual interdependencepersist. In a f1eld of inquiry where hardheadedanalysis should be combined with cool, dispassionate reflection, sentimentality and prejudicestill abound. In an effort to shed light and stimulate reasonable discussion, we here present two articles, each of which takes up one side of this contrast.The first is a provocative assessment of three cities of antiquity whose historical roles were decisive and whose symbolic importancehas been of even greater magnitude. Jerusalem, Athens, Rome cities of widelyvaryingcharacterand status-are nameswhich to this day evoke strong reactionsfrom all kinds of people, not least from those who have never lived in any of them. MichaelEismanhas taken on these three cities in a remarkableeffort to show how they came to be centersof powerand authorityand why that special aura or nimbus surroundsthem to the present day, whateverthe realitiesof their mundaneexistence,e.g., the daily traffic jams in the shadows of the great monuments of antiquity. The other side of the contrastis presentedin the articleon the Jungleof the Jordanby MenasheHar-El. The Jordan River-similarly symbolic-is perhaps the most widelyacclaimedof all the riversof the world. The reality,however,is ratherunimpressive,as an early foreign visitor, the Syrian generalNaaman, was quick to observe (2 Kgs 5:12). The Jordan valley and its Jungle are only slightly less imbuedwith the patinaof age and tradition.But what was the actual situationin ancient times? For those who live there today, or are among the millionswho have come to see the riveras it winds its way from northernGalilee to its Dead Sea terminus,it is hard to imagine that there was ever a "jungle,"one with its share of wild animals. But the learnedgeographerfrom HebrewUniversityassuresus that this was indeed the case and paints an even more colorful picture of this region in earlier prehistoric times.
With the appearanceof Oded Borowskis essay on "BiblicalArcheology and Biblical Anthropology," we inauguratethe op-ed series in BA. Wehave invited a number of colleagues, old and young, to express themselves on aspects of Biblical Archeology (the subject as well as the magazine, since they overlap substantially):to raise questions, press issues, ride hobby horses or tilt at windmills,mainly to write what they think,so that our readerswill have the benefitand stimulus of many voices and differing opinions. We hereby extend the invitation to all of our readersto write us lettersfor the section Polemics & Irenics or essays for the op-ed page. We await your communications. DNF
Biblical Archeology and Biblical Anthropology
Since the inception of biblical archeology, people whose main interestwas the history of ancient Israelas depictedin the Bibleand extra-biblicalsources have dominated this science. Another dominating factor has been religiousfaith and the desireto pursue its biblical roots. These two factors brought into the field people from differentwalks of life who, in turn, helped shape biblicalarcheologyand made it a science (or an art). Thesefactorsnot only producedactivefield archeologists,but continue, in the present, to create and maintaina stronginterestamong lay people in the ongoing fieldwork. It was only naturalthat the interestin history and religion would lead to a search for places where famous events occurredand the attempt to follow in the footsteps of those figureswho participatedin them. This search both limited archeologiststo sites which could be identifiedwith biblicalplacesand determined where money and effort would be invested. It also determined the type of evidence sought by archeologists, namely, structuresand other remains which could be related to biblical accounts. A few people were interestedin a broader,regionalpicture,but this also had to be relatedto biblicalevents.Dating systems developed or adopted by archeologists were used mainlyas tools in uncoveringand datinglocal eventsin the hope of relating them to biblical accounts. But biblical archeologyis not a fossilizedfield, and many changesin directionand methodstook place in it as a result of the varied backgroundof their initiators. Lately, and it is very hard to determine exactly when, a certain developmenthas been taking place. It might have been started during the 50's at DAVIDNOELFREEDMANJericho by Dame KathleenKenyon or at Shechem by
42
JUNE
1978
G. Ernest Wright and then was continued by their students at other sites. This change in approach,both as to the type of evidencethat shouldbe recoveredand to its interpretation,influencedthe developmentof new methods of digging and recording.The new attitude takes into account materialrelateddirectlynot only to biblical events but to human history and to the environmentin which it took place. Before thls turning point, biblical archeology was a one-man or a two-man show. The director(s), who by himself did most of the sophisticatedwork (photographing,drawing,etc.) was in the pursuitof a certain problem, usually related to proving or disprovinga biblicalaccount. While local laborersdug under the watchful eye of a local or "imported" foreman,the director,howeverlimitedby the scope of his knowledge or interest, interpretedthe finds. As far as active fieldwork was concerned, anthropologistslimited themselvesto studying prehistoric man and illiterate societies, to the research of subsistence systems and daily life of the anonymous inhabitants. These researcherswere interested, basically, in developmentsand changes which took place during periods earlier than those studied by biblical archeologists, or in other regions. More recently, biblical archeology has abandoned the one-man-show approach and become a concertin whichthe directoris the drivingforce behind a multidisciplinaryresearch,where participatinginvestigators cooperate in the effort to reconstruct past societies and their environment.The interest of these researchershas grown to encompass more than just "BiblicalLands and Times"in the limited sense of the word. They understandthat archeology is an instrument for producingdata which can then be utilizedin multipleways to help explain man in his worldand the influenceof both society and the environmenton the historicalprocess.The most significantcontributionof the new approachis the realizationthat biblicalfigures did not act (nor did eventstake place)in a vacuum,but that certainconditionsin the environmenthelpedthem take shape. Today, most archeologicalexpeditionsmakeuse of the services of specialists,and, wheneverpossible, they are active in the field. In addition to the professionalstaff which includestrainedarcheologists, photographers, draftpersons, etc., expeditions bring along geologists, paleobotanistsand paleozoologists, anthropologists,and many other expertsto help in the recoveryand interpretationof maximumdata. Putting their skills at the archeologists' disposal, computer experts, nuclearphysicists,and other scientistssupport biblical archeologistsin their research,with the result that much more information is gained from each shovelfulof dirt. This aspect of biblicalresearchmerits a new title, namely, Biblical Anthropology.Gone are the days of a man with a Biblein one handand a spade in the other. Today's field archeologists have to be
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
trained harderand longer in order to be preparedfor the enormous task. Most expeditions, however,work budgetwithouthaving"a richuncle" on a "shoe-string" to supportthem. In spite of this, archeologyis a field open to anyone who wants to participate,and the lay people who await the resultswith expectationsshould realize that now more than ever before biblical archeology needs and deserves their support. ODEDBOROWSKI Emory University Atlanta, GA
Colloquia AIA Report The 79th meetingof the ArchaeologicalInstitute of America,held at Atlanta,Georgia,December28-30, 1977, featured two events of special interest for BA readers. The section on "Science in Archaeology," introduced in 1976, was expanded by a "workshop" designedto afford scientistsan opportunityto enquire into the needs of archeologistsand to describe and evaluate the latest technologicaldevices which could aid in data retrievaland analysis.Another "first"was the Special Panel dealing with "Conservationand Preservation,"a subject of increasingconcern to the archeologicalcommunity. Several papers of particularinterest to Near Eastern archeologists were read in the section on "Sciencein Archaeology."R. H. Johnstonis a member of ASOR's excavation team exploringthe harborand tophet(burial ground for infants sacrificedto Tanit and Baal-Hamon)at Carthage,Tunisia. He described his experiments with the use of xeroradiographyin workingwith ancient ceramicsfrom Jordan, Iraq, and Tunisia. This process permitsthe study of the interior of ceramics without damage to or destructionof the object. Both positive and negative exposures can be made of cuneiformtablets,figurines,juglets, and other objects made of clay. Radiology may prove to be another tool for the determinationof provenanceand date of archeological finds and thereby facilitate interpretationof the material. LeonardGorelick reported"On the Use of the Scanning ElectronMicroscope(SEM) in the Study of Ancient Near EasternSeals."The use of this device in the examination of ancient stamp and cylinder seals furnishes accurate detection of fake seals. To make fake seals without damaging the originals, silicone impressionsand acryliccastingsare used to copy with great accuracy bores and other parts of seals. SEM permits close observation and recording of fine topographicaldetails reproducedin the impressionor casting.Notable differencescould be observedbetween
43
the abrasion characteristicsof the genuine and fake seals. Robert H. Brill explained "The Usefulness of Lead-Isotopesin the Investigationof Ancient Glass." Determinationsof isotope ratios for samples of lead extractedfrom ancient objectscan identifythe mining regions from which the leads could have come. This evidence,in turn, is helpful in detectingthe locality of manufactureof the objects.The techniquealreadyhas been applied to a wide arrayof ancientmaterialssuch as metalliclead and their corrosionproducts,bronzes, silvers, pigments, glazes, and glasses. Other papers in this section dealt with subjects such as ;'Near Eastern Trade Communications Evidences from Neutron Activation Studies of Pottery," "UnderwaterExcavation in the Garigliano River, Italy," "Provenance of Greek Statuary by Isotopic Methods,"and "ScientificCollaborationwith A Report on the Activities of Archaeologists European Laboratories." In the section,"Preservationand Restorationof Ancient Sites,"efforts in five countriesweredescribed. Robert H. Dyson, Presidentof the AIA, painteda grim picture of the situation in Iran, where the problemof site preservationhas grown to crisisproportionsdue to the lack of adequate registrationof sites, the use of mechanizedearth-movingequipment in development projects, and the destructionof mud-brickstructures. Equally pessimisticwas Martin Biddle's outlook for Great Britain's buried past. More positive are the efforts of Italy and Greece, where the respective governmentsare actively involved in the preservation of their national heritage. Conservationis receiving particularattention in Greece, where, during the past two years, emergency measures have been put into effect to preservethe Athenianacropolisand to protect the Parthenon, Propylaia, and Erechtheion from pollutionand consequenterosion.LawrenceJ. Majesti, Chief Conservatorsince 1964 of the Harvard-Cornell excavationat Sardis, reviewedthe uniqueconservation activities carried out in the field laboratory and on excavated monuments.These activitiesare an integral part of the excavationand constitutea modelfor other large-scaleexpeditions. In the Near Easternsection, J. D. Muhly, the projectdirector,gave an account of the first season at Tell Michal, a coastal site just north of Tel Aviv. At present,little is known of the historyof the coastlineof Israel between Ashdod and Akko and of the relationship betweenthe coast, the surroundingSharon Plain, and inland sites such as Tell Aphek. The expedition concentratedon eight separateareas, three located on the mound proper, and five on smaller tells which appearto have been the "LowerCity."The bulk of the materialuncoveredis from the Persianperiod,and Tell Michal emergesas a majorcoastal site duringthis era. A large Persian cemeteryattests a good-sizedpopulation. The outstandingElndin 1977was a hoard of fifty
44
silver coins struck by Ptolemy III at Akko and Tyre. Pottery of the Israelite period as well as of the Late Bronze Age was unearthed, including some Cypriot White Slip ware; full investigationof these strata has been scheduled for the 1978 season. The American Expedition to Petra by the Universityof Utah concentratedupon two excavation areas, one producing domestic architecture and remains and the other a cultic structure. Philip C. Hammondpointed out that the domestic architecture extended from the Nabatean period (ca. 2nd century B.C.) to about A.D. 750; pottery,jewelry,and daily life objects found within the succession of domestic structuresattest the occupation of this area after its conquest by Trajanin A.D. 106. The cultic structure,a temple from the time of Aretas IV (ca. 9 B.C.-A.D. 40), was in use until the early 2nd century A.D. In his paper on "Patron Saints in the Iconography of Petra, Palmyra,and Dura-Europos,"Javier Teixidor discussedthe function of the Arab gods. At Palmyra,ginnaye (an Aramaictermrelatedto the Arab jinn meaning "tutelary gods') were believed to protect caravans, flocks, fields, and villages in the desert.The Palmyrenesdescribedthemas "theintimate ones," representingthem as wearinglocal costumeand riding horses. Aside from these ginnaye, the Palmyrenes recognized the goddess Fortune (gad), who, however,did not fulfill the same functionas the Greek Tyche, the goddess of good luck and fortune.Aramaic Fortune expressed the theological concept of providence, rather than chance and individual fate. Representations of Aramaic Fortune from DuraEuropos show that any god or goddess could be invokedas the Fortuneof individuals,tribes,or towns; a recentlyfound stele from Palmyrasupportsthe idea that Aramaic Fortune personifiedthe power of a god or goddess. Interestingly,Classicaland EarlyChristian writerscalledthe angels"virtutesdei,"a traditionwhich the Nabateans of the 1st century B.C. emphasizedby calling the angel of their national god "The Raised Hand"and representedhim on their coins by a raised hand. Paul E. Zimanskyreportedthat recent German excavations at Bastam, Iran, found nearly 100 clay dockets (bullae). Most of the dockets bear seal impressionswith inscriptionswhich identifiedthem as those of "Rusa,"the name of several Urartiankings. The royal sealings provide new evidence of a highly centralizedadministrationand imply that the kingdom remainedunited until its final years,that is, to the end of the 6th century B.C. "A New Look at Syro-Palestineat the Beginning of the Middle BronzeAge"by Patty Gerstenblith proposeda reevaluationof the beginningof that period as well as a revisionof the terminologyused to describe it. She suggesteda terminologyof EB IV, MB I, MB II, which would place the development of a more sophisticatedproductionof ceramicand metal types, as
JUNE
1978
well as a more complex settlementsystem,into the MB I period which, therefore, would constitute the truly formativephase of the fully urbanizedMB II and MB III periods. The presentexcavationsof the MB strata at Tell Aphek and a revisionof the stratigraphyof the Megiddo loci furnish the basis for a new ceramic typology. This sequence can be used to place in a relativechronologicalorder the many isolated groups of MB I material as well as foreign elements in the ceramicand metal repertoireof Syria-Palestine.It also providesfor the correlationof the MB I phasesin that region with the culturesof Mesopotamiaand Anatolia and results in a tentative dating of the MB I period from about 2000/1950 to 1775/1750 B.C. Denise Schmandt-Besserat'spresentation,"On the Originof Writing,"maintainedthat writingwas not an invention of the Sumeriansin the 4th millennium B.C. but had evolved graduallyin five stages from the 9th millennium B.C. onward by means of a local recording system common to many Middle Eastern cultures. This recordingsystem was based on tokens (abnatl) usually of clay or stone and found in clusters in storage areas all over the Middle East. A need for a recordingsystemwent hand in handwith the development of agriculture and the emergence of sedentary tribes ca. 8500 B.C. When the economy changed and trade increasedbetween settlementsand over long distances, a new recording system was needed. Thus, in the second phase (4th millennium B.C.), "tokens"representingspecial transactionswere enclosed and sealed in clay balls which served as "envelopes."In the Uruk period (ca. 3100 B.C.), these tokens have different shapes: some may have had numerical value while others may have represented commoditiesof daily life. The third phase entailedthe custom of impressingon the outside of each clay ball the number and shapes of abnaticontained within. During the next stage, these outer markingsgain in importance, generally become understood, and are transferredto clay tablets which eventuallyreplacethe abnatisystem. Finally, during the last phase, "writing develops with more precise, incised signs which still reproducethe shapes of those on the abnati."Thus, marked "envelopes"could well be accepted as the prototypeof writing,whileat the sametime they would serveas an explanationfor the widespreaduse of early clay tablets and the presence of rare pictographs. It was objected,however,that these theoriesdo not take into consideration that recording is not writing, and if it is not writing, then the origins of writingremainin the middleof the 4th millenniumB.C. as previouslymaintained.Undoubtedly,the processof recording triggered the idea of writing, but the representationof an object on clay, be it oil, sheep, or cattle, is not writing. It merely reveals the ability to "abstract."The transformationof representationof objects into symbols is a mentalprocessdemandinga second step in abstraction. We do not know what
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
motivated people to turn drawings of objects into abstractsymbols, but it is preciselythis processwhich leads to the true origin of writing. Writingsystemsand theircomparisonwith early alphabetswere the subject of Jon Billigmeier'spaper, "The Byblos'Hieroglyphics'as an Aegean Script."The "pseudo-hieroglyphic" or Gublitic writing system, dating from the 2nd millennium B.C., remains undeciphered, despite the efforts of Hrozny, the decipherer of Hittite who read it as Hittite, and Dhorme, who believed that it contained a HebrewPhoenician dialect strongly infused with Egyptian elements. Billigmeier maintains that the Byblos hieroglyphsmay have more in common with Aegean scriptsthan with those found in the easternregionsof the Mediterranean,that is, the Phoenician alphabet, Egyptianhieroglyphs,or cuneiform,althoughthey are permeatedwith elements common to all of those. He also finds remarkablesimilaritiesbetweenGubliticand the Cypro-Minoanscript used at Enkomi in the Late Bronze Age (only slightlylater in date than the Byblos script).Finally,he notes that resemblancesbetweenthe Byblos scriptand LinearB are "in some respectscloser than between the former and Cypriot."So, while the language may well be Semitic, a relationshipbetween the scriptitself and the Aegeanwritingsystemseemsto be undeniable.A new signary and numberingof the signs is recommended,as well as an examinationof the correspondenceswith Aegean and Cypriot scripts. Dr. Hikmet Gur,cay, Director General of Antiquitiesof Turkey,was the guest of honorto whom the papers in the Anatolian section were dedicated. Cecil L. Striker surveyed"ByzantineArchaeologyin Istanbul: Kalendarhane(1966-1977),"and Robert A. Bridgesdescribed"FuneraryArchitectureof the Elmali Plain." Robert T. Marchesepointed out that in"The Lower MeanderRiver Valley in SouthwesternTurkey duringthe Late BronzeAge"therehas been no detailed and systematictopographicalsurveyof the area nor an analysis of specific ceramic types from an intensive surface collection. There is little doubt that two cultural traditions existed side by side and became fused. One is of southwest Anatolian origins, as exemplifiedby the type-siteof Beycesultan;the other is Aegean, as evidenced in the presence of Mycenean centers and remains. These two well-established traditions, as attested by ceramic evidence, had a profound effect not only on the indigenous Late Bronze Age cultures of the Lower Meanderbut may even have influenced those of distant inland sites. Fikret K. Yegul discussed"VillageArchitecture of Asia Minoras Model for the DomesticArchitecture of Antiquity" and stressed the need for larger area surveys in Anatolia with the objective of discovering rural settlements, villages, and farms alongside the major sites. Such an investigationshould supply the kind of information needed to reconstructaspects of the village cultureof antiquityand permitmore reliable
45
comparisons between the past and contemporary building forms. Keith De Vries' paper, "Greco-PersianAnatolia," pointedout that thereis clearevidencethat during the AchaeXnenidperiod in the 5th century B.C., the upper classes in that region abandoned some Greek modes of life in favor of various Persian customs. Representations from the second quarter of this century show that dress, banquet procedures,local court etiquette, and methods of hunting followed the Persian pattern,while at the same time, however,the Anatolianscontinuedto share the idioms of Greekart (or to hire Greekartisans).The resultswere a seriesof
monumentsmore or less Greek in style, celebratinga life-style which by this time had become less Greek than it had been in earlier times. The awardof the Gold Medal for Distinguished ArchaeologicalAchievementto Edith Porada evoked unanimous satisfaction. The citation not only took cognizance of her outstanding achievements as the world's foremost authority on ancient seals but emphasized her unswerving devotion to scholarship and her unique gift as an inspiringteacherwho "made the world of archaeology more learned and more human." LOTTA MOREAU GASTER
a--n
coming
next in
Biblical Archeologist
How have scholarsneglectedwomen in theiranalysisof social history? Have 3,000 years of male dominance dulledour understanding of the status and role of womenin ancientIsrael?
I
Carol Meyers answers affirmativelyand offers a provocativenew suggestionto explain the transformationof women's social position.
f Also in September'sBiblical Archeologist,Jacob Milgromanticipatesthe English translationof the TempleScroll from Qumranby givinga summaryof the content of the scroll from Yigael Yadin's 3-volume study in Hebrew.
-
Es-so-ces
46
JUNE
I 978
A
TALE
OF
THREE
CITIES
MICHAELM. EISMAN
Threeancient cities-Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome have had an influenceon westernsociety which has not faded throughthe centuries.More than any other Cities, these three have made contributionsto the world which form not only the backgroundbut the veryfoundationof the religious,social,and legalsystemsof the westernworld.
and Islam. For Jews, SSThelaw of the LORD shall go forth from Jerusalem,the word from Zion." Since its association with King David in the early part of the 10th century B.C. and the building of the Temple by King Solomon in the latter part of the same century, Jerusalemhas remainedthe most sacredplace for Jews. For Christians, Jesus' last days on earth were centeredin this city and its monuments the great Temple of Herod, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Via Dolorosa; it remainsthe location of the pageant that is the physical center of the Christian mystery. Finally, Muhammedof Islam, having receivedhis inspiration MichaelM. Eismanis AssociateProfes- from Judaism and Christianity,is sor of History at Temple University. memorializedby not one but two During 1976-77he received the Olivia major mosques on the Temple Mount. They were built to enshrine Jones TravelingFellowshipfrom AIA the belief that here, where Abraham and visited- among other cities preparedto sacrificeIsaac and Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem.
Jerusalem,Athens, and these three names, these Rome three cities, have probablymeant more to the westernworld than any others. Singly or linked in various combinations,they have often been analyzed as the sources of our cultural, intellectual,and religious heritage. It is indeed in these three cities that our civilizationhas its roots (fig. 1). Jerusalem,situated among the rough and rugged mountains of Judea, overlooks the desert to the east and is only a short distance from the narrow coastal plain and the Mediterraneanto the west. The city is sacredto Judaism,Christianity,
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
where the altar of the Temple stood, Muhammedascendedto and returnedfrom heaven, having receivedthe wisdom of Solomon. Jerusalemthus remainsthe primarycity of religious inspiration for western cultures. On the other hand, Athens, just inland from the Saronic Gulf, is an urban center of a differenttype. Here in the 5th and 4th centuriesB.C. the intellectualand artistic heritage of Greece coalesced. Led in the 5th century by the work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides(who themselveswere inspiredby the achievementsof their beloved Athens in stopping the Persian invasions of 490 and 480), the Atheniansnot only celebratedtheir city but brought her to artistic and intellectualheights seldom if ever matchedin subsequentwestern history. Athens attractedto her shores the best minds of Greece 47
Fig. 1. The EasternMediterraneanregion showing the relativelocations of Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem.
Protagoras,Gorgias, and Herodotus. Then, at the end of the 5th century and in the 4th, the city producedThucydides,Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. These giants of the mind weldedphilosophy(literally: the love of knowledge)and ethics which becameAthens'supreme achievement.In the centuriesthat followed, HellenisticJudaismand Early Christianityjoined the philosophy of Athens to the religions of Jerusalem. It was Rome that made this synthesisendure. In the centuries after the Punic Wars (264-146 B.C.), Rome graduallybrought the Mediterraneantogether into a single unit. Although never as successfulas her supportershave claimed in establishing a Pax Romana, she did more than her critics will admit. The peace of Rome was very real. Rome brought new conceptsjof government and organizationinto the West yet,
48
while encompassingall around her, she did not subdue or eradicatethat which had gone before. More than this, she produceda world in which Jerusalemand Athens were accessible, not only to each other, but to the farthest shores of Britainand the inmost recessesof Germanyas well. With the city of Rome as its center, the Empire had a unity and consistencyof remarkablestrength,
they hold in common. Here the historianand archeologistmay join forces to explore the commonalities of these three crucial cities. First, there is nothing in the early developmentof Jerusalem,Athens, or Rome that hints at the subsequentroles they were to play. They were all rather minor settlements,one of many in their own areas. Second, each city in turn
HellenisticJudaism and early Christianityjoined the philosophy of Athens to the religions of Jerusalem.It was Rome that made this synthesis endure. which enabled Rome to become the major center of Christianityas well as the place from which western culture was spread. Whilethe glories of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome have been told over and over, little attention has been paid to certain featureswhich
underwenta major transformationat a specific crisis point, a transformation which was accomplishedin a short period of time. It is just this aspect which archeologistsand historianstogether can do most to explain. Finally, it was the nature of the crisis and its effects that did
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most to structureeach city into the particularpattern of activity which we recognizetoday as fundamental to our culture. In each case the crisis was responsiblefor turning a small center into a major city. The intention here is to trace briefly the developmentof each city in order to show these critical transformations and their signiElcance.
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Jerusalem Jerusalemis known to us from the 3rd millenniumB.C. It appearsas Urusalimain the recent discoveriesat Tell Mardikh(Ebla) in Syria. The name is written in the S<, EgyptianExecrationTexts of the l9th century B.C. as Rushulimim,and later in the Amarna Texts of the 14th century as Urusslims. The excavations of Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the years 1961-66have laid open for us the basic character of the city as it existed before the Israeliteconquest of King David. Jerusalemwas a small hillside center. Perched on the Ophel ridge (fig. 2) below and to the south of the latter-dayTemple Mount, Jerusalemwas impressiveonly for the precipitousslope on which the people lived. Even today, habitation is confined to the ground above or " ' . . ._ ' ' . S I L O A M *^ . below the Ophel because of that declivity. Though it was a relatively unimportantcenter, pre-Davidic Jerusalem'snatural defenses helped t- HINNON VALLEY. . 0 . ; -/ ' it withstandthe early efforts of the Istaelites to take it (in spite of the claims, Josh 10:16-25,of capturing the King of Jerusalem,Adoni-zedek). Fig. 2. Jerusalemat the time of King Hezekiah(715-687B.C.) with key It is clear from 2 Sam 5:6-10 that topographicalfeaturesindicated. Jerusalemwas not part of the Israelitetribal confederationat the time of Saul and only with the did not affect Jerusalemand that me. First, if Jerusalemwas too end of Philistine hostilities could the Jerusalemitescould watch importantto be ignored and David turn his attention to without concern a major conflict in requiredthat David make some subduingthe various surviving their own area. It seems more likely accommodationwith it before he independentCanaanitecenters. to me that this could be done only attacked the Philistines,then it David could hardly have undertaken seems unlikely that David would by a city that was politicallyand a major campaignagainst the economicallyweak, even if she had have turned on it so readily. Philistineswith a hostile Jerusalem excellent defenses. Second, could Jerusalemhave been at his back, unless the city were lTheinformationin the book a strong city and remainedaloof unimportantor weak or both. of Samuel is consistent with what from involvementwith both the To say that this was not the case we know from excavations.Jerusalem Philistinesand the Israelites?lThis leaves two other possibilities,both was a minor if somewhatforbidding position raises difficultiesbecause it city. It was not like Lachish or Beth would have meant that the conflict of which seem less convincingto
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Fig. 3. Reconstructionof the facade of Solomon's Temple (drawnby Th. A. Busink).
Shemesh or even Gibeon centers which dominateda surrounding plain and which could not be ignored. Whateverhistoricalchronology may be behind the record of their conquest, settlements,or destructions,the list of cities in Joshua shows that it would be necessaryto have their allegiance before there could be any real peace in the Israelitesettlementsof Canaan. Jerusalemposed no such problem. When David moved his capital from Hebron to the newly conqueredJerusalemearly in the
so
10th century, he was attractedby of Israel. David also built for several considerations.As a site, it himself a palace; unfortunately,to was near the middle of the territory date no recognizableremainsof it he now controlled. As it had not have been found. His son and been in Israelitehands before, it successor, Solomon, proceededin apparentlyhad not been claimed by the second half of the 10th century any of the tribes and may, to build a larger palace and the therefore,have been outside the Temple which was part of the tribal system entirely. It was palace complex (fig. 3). In so doing, essentiallyneutrai territoryamong Solomon extended the city to the the tribes. Further,while not northern"TempleMount"or Mount particularlyuseful for offensive Moriah as it is sometimescalled. militaryoperations,its defenses were Today there are no structural admirable.With all of these remainsknown to us of either his advantages,David made Jerusalem palace or the Temple, although the his capital and the religiouscenter location can be Elxedwithin narrow
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limits. The central structuresof the Temple the Holy of Holies (the Debir)or the altar were presumablyover the outcroppingof rock now covered by the Dome of the Rock mosque. Although this presumptionis reasonableand supportedby much tradition, the archeologistmust face the hard fact that today there is no identifiable physical evidence of Solomon's Temple. The Jerusalemof David, Solomon, and their immediate successorsof the Kingdom of Judah in the 9th and 8th centurieswas an administrative,royal, and religious center. During the period of the Divided Monarchy,roughly two hundredyears from the death of Solomon until the conquest of the northernKingdom of Israel by the Assyrians(from the last quarterof the 10th century B.C. until the last quarter of the 8th), Jerusalemwas in constant competitionwith Samaria, as rival capitals of competing kingdomsand religious centers. In spite of its special claims, Jerusalemhardly qualiEledas a true city. Other urban centers both north and south were larger and, for economic life, more important.Such cities included Lachish and Beersheba in the south, and Megiddo,
archeologists,especially Nahman Avigad and Magen Broshi, have been working in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.It is their finds and interpretationswhich have caused scholars to reconsiderthe nature of ancient Jerusalem.The ancient city was divided into three differentsectors. First, there was the original Jebusite (Canaanite)city and its extensions on the upper part of the Ophel; these are defined and delimited by the very deep gorge of the Kidron Valley opposite the Mount of Olives. Second is the -
Theurbanizationof Jerusalemcan be dated to 721 B.C. and is tied to the destructionof the northernkingdomof Israeland the dissipationof its population.
Temple Mount where the palace and Temple stood. Third, there is Mount Zion, lying to the west of the first two, across the Tyropoeon Valley and ending in the Hinnom Valley to the west. The first (the Jebusite city on the Ophel) is outside the medievaland Islamic walls of the present Old City, while the latter two are for the most part within them. The exact locations of the ancient walls, which are often very different from those of the present walls, are the subject of much controversy.What is clear and In spite of its specialclaims, critical is that at some point prior to the Roman period, large parts of Jerusalemhardlyqualifed Mount Zion, the lower city on the as a true city. east side of Mount Zion extending into the lower Tyropoeon Valley, Hazor, and Samaria in the north. and parts of the Ophel and Jebusite Jerusalemremaineda citadel, a city were enclosed by walls. This is royal center, and a shrine-but known from the lst-centuryhistorian not a city. Josephus and from other literary In the last part of the 8th sources. Furthermore,remainsof the century, however, there was a Hasmoneanand Herodianbuildings dramaticchange: Jerusalembecame were always visible at the Citadel, a city. Our literarytexts do not the fortress on the westernpart of mention this transformation,but Mount Zion, and adjacent-tothe then these texts most likely were Jaffa Gate. Josephus, the Talmud, put into their final form decades and the New Testamentall reflect in later when their authors could their accounts a large urban conceive of Jerusalemonly as a city, complex, and that complex forms an an urban center. Our knowledgeis integralpart of the backgroundof new and archeologicalin nature. HellenisticJudaism and Early In the years since 1967, Israeli Christianity.When did Jerusalem
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change from a royal citadel into a true urban center? We now know that the urbanizationof Jerusalemcan be dated to 721 B.C. and that it is tied to the destructionof the northern Kingdomof Israeland the dissipation of the northern"ten tribes"(or "lost tribes"as they are popularlycalled). In the recent excavations of the Old City, a numberof sections of the city walls have been uncovered more will undoubtedlyfollow in the years to come. From these sections it is now possible to reconstructthe
.
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line of the wall as it existed about 700 B.C. In particular,two sections excavated by Magen Broshi (fig. 4) give incontrovertibleproof of the extension of the city to the west at the end of the 8th century. Furthermore,the wall and the surroundingareas can be shown to be the first building activity in the area, meaning that previouslythere was no settlementof any size west of the Temple Mount. The history of settlementas can now be determinedshows a markedincrease in the population of Jerusalem,as much as two hundredpercentin the space of a few years. If this wall section providesus with the evidence for the western extension of occupation, then we can understand much better the purpose and function of the Siloam Tunnel, long known to archeologists,which was hewn out at this timee A great convenienceto the increased population of the city in time of peace and absolutelyvital in time of war, it brought water from the Gihon spring in the Kidron Valley within the new walls. Parallelwith the growth of Jerusalem,a number of sites in Judea show a similar but lesser expansion. In historicalterms, many questions remainto be answered, but it seems plausibleto reconstruct
51
Fig. 4. Segment of Israelitewall (ca. end of the 8th centuryB.C.) indicating settlementof Mount Zion after the fall of Israel to Assyria in 722 B.C.
the situation in the following manner.The long-standingimperialistic desires of Assyria receivednew momentumwith the accession of Tiglath-PileserIII in 744. He pushed westward,greatly extending the pattern of his predecessors; Israel lay in his path, along with many other small nations. During his lifetime he overranoutlying areas of the country, includingGalilee, and set a puppet king, Hoshea, on the throne. His death in 727 preventedhim from any further actions, but his successor,Shalmaneser V, resumedthe attack when Israel rebelled. Samariawas besieged and finally capturedin 723-22.
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About this time Shalmaneserdied and was succeededby Sargon II, who completed the campaign,removing a substantialpart of the population to the east (in 721). The exact definition of this "population" has never been made clear. Certainly some people were forcibly removed to the east, but it appearsfrom the new discoveriesin Judah that, possibly before Shalmaneser'sattack and certainlyafter it, large numbers fled to the southern kingdom, which had purchasedlimited autonomy from Assyria. Arrivingin Judah, they were forced to give up their traditionaloccupationsof farming and herding. Both of these activities
requiredland, but land in sufficient quantity was not availablebecause it was already owned, occupied, and used by the local inhabitants.Thus, the refugeeswere forced into the citadel and palace areas. Habitation of true urban proportionsgrew up aroundthese areas,transforming them into centers with an urban economic and social base. The Assyrianswere not to be kept at arm's length for long. Therefore,the kings of Judah had to undertakeextension of the city wall to encompassand protect the new inhabitants(as noted above). Evidencefor this activity is the hydraulicconstructionof King Hezekiah (ca. 680), the Siloam Tunnel mentionedabove. The precautionsof the Tunnel and the new wall proved their value when Assyriankings marchedon Jerusalem several years later. This large influx of Israelites had an effect on religion in Judah during the crucial 7th century.That century saw major religious reforms during the reigns of King Hezekiah and King Josiah. The first saw the suppressionof official sacrificial cults outside of Jerusalem,and the second brought about the official recognitionof absolute monotheism and the suppressionof all other cults, public and private. This latter reform is associated with the publication(or republication,depending on how one interprets 2 Kings 22-23) of the law code now found in Deuteronomy.These reformshave been shown to have caused specific cultic changes, alreadyreportedfrom the excavations of the late Professor Aharoni at Arad and other Negev sites reported in this journal (1968: 2-32; 1972: 111-27; 1974:2-6). It is easy to say that these reformswere necessaryand justiEled,
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but did they occur in a vacuum?I think not. From the death of Solomon (ca. 922) to the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel (ca. 721) there had been two "Yahwistic"states with separatekings and two major cult centers:Jerusalemand Bethel. In addition there were other centers of the cult such as Arad, Dan, and most likely Beer-sheba.The Davidic monarchyin Jerusalemwas increasingly drawn to assert that Jerusalem was the center of the cult and that its Temple was the Temple of Yahweh. Meanwhile, to lessen the importanceof Jerusalemand its cult for the inhabitantsof Israel, the kings of Israel in Samaria championedthe multi-centerconcept of worship. In 721 and thereafterthe situation was altered:the position of the Jerusalemmonarchywas seen as vindicatedby its survivalin the face of the Assyrianthreat. With large numbersof Israelitesfrom the northernkingdom now in the south, and particularlyin Jerusalem,the importanceof the Temple was substantiallyincreased.It had, in fact, ceased to be primarilya royal sanctuaryand chapel. Now it had become the rallyingcenter of the "Mosaic"faith so clearly set out in Deuteronomy.Thus, these two factors the joining together of peoplesto createan urbanJerusalem and the emergingdominanceof Deuteronomicmonotheismthrough the reformsof Hezekiahand Josiah are bound to one another. Such was the nature of the critical transformationthat took place in 8th- and 7th-centuryJerusalem.
Athens Athens, like Jerusalem,had humble if honorablebeginnings.The city dominatedthe plain between Mount Hymetteuson the east and Mount Aegaleos on the west (fig. 5). There are Mycenean(Late Bronze Age, 1500-1100 B.C.) ruins on and around the Acropolis, and there is a constant level of settlementin the Iron Age period known in Greek
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Fig. 5. Athens and Vicinity. Megaraand Aigina were independentstates. The Attic countrysideand the island of Salamis were part of the state of Athens.
history as the Dark Ages (1000750 B.C.). She had participatedin the economic and demographic growth of the area, but not in any way out of proportionto other similar sites in Greece. The one archeologicalglory of Athens at the end of the 7th century, her remarkabledecorated Proto-Attic pottery, had little distribution outside of Attica. The archeological evidence points to a very ordinary Greekpolis. This is reinforcedby literary evidence:Athens was not part of any of the Bronze Age pan-Hellenic memories.The referencesto her in the Iliad and later Greek tragedy, and even her national epic hero, Theseus, are all late developments and are responsesto its growth. The traditionsthat exist about Athens at the end of the Bronze Age only
strengthen this basic picture. The Dorians, when they came to Greece, bypassed Athens. Athens served as a refugee center for the rest of Greece and the embarkation point for the colonization movement eastward to Ionia. They could do this because Athens was poor enough that the migrating Ionians would not seize her, and her population density was low enough that refugees could gather in Attica without disrupting the local population. During the years of the Dark Ages, Greece was developing its characteristic polis concepts and government. Athens too participated in this activity but, influenced by a variety of factors, proceeded to join with the surrounding poleis of the Attic peninsula, such as Marathon, Brouron, and Sounion: this was
53
probablyaccomplishedby conquest, but the Atheniansdid not treat the defeated areas as conqueredterritory any more than they treated their gods as conqueredgods. The conqueredpeoples were made part of Athens just as their local deities were given honored sanctuarieson the Acropolis at the side of Athena. Except for the last phases, the incorporationof Eleusis and the island of Salamis, this process had been hidden in the created mythology of the hero-kingTheseus. It was claimed that Theseus made Athens and Attica one large polis, an occurrencewhich was celebratedeach year in the festival
Fig. 6. The city of Athens at the time of Solon and Peisistratos. 1) The Old Temple of Athena, 2) The Mycenean Gate (built ca. 1350 B.C.), 3) The Mycenean Tower, and 4) The Enneapylon (nine-gate entrance built before the 6th century B.C.).
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of the synoikismos. By 650, Athens found itself a small administrative and religiouscenter of a fairly large land area (at least by Greek standardsof the time). What happenedthereafterwas not unusual. The drama of 7thcentury Athens has been played out many times since. Large landholding families were better able to survive the agriculturalcrises that beset all farmersat one time or another. Further,since these families, as an aristocraticclass, controlledthe Athenian state and acted as its judges, they reinforcedthe position that land was the only form of wealth. This gave them executive and judiciarypower, but their arbitraryuse of this power alienated the bulk of the people, slowly generatingdiscontentand ultimately leading to revolt. Toward the end of the 7th century,a crisis occurredin the militaryranks. The heavy infantry("hoplites"= the heavily armed foot soldiers) demandedthat the ordinancesunder which cases were to be tried be written down instead of allowing the judges to apply traditionallaw "as they
rememberedit." Under severe pressureto maintaina modern army and dependentupon the infantry, the aristocracy(from whose ranks came the knights or horsemen) relented,and in 620 the famous law code of Draco was promulgated. Even this dramaticaction, however,did not stop the steady erosion of the situation of the small farmers.With recurrentcrop failures, the farmerwas chronically debt-riddenand could only offer himself and his family as collateral for furtherloans. After more inadequatecrops, the unhappy farmerswere bound over as debt slaves. Thus, large numbersof farmerswere removed from the rolls of the free citizens who constituted the manpowerpool for the army, and a major political, social, and militarycrisis ensued. It came to a head early in the 6th century. The ruling aristocracyappointed one of their number, Solon, to solve the problem.More importantly,they gave him the power to impose on the state such changes as he felt were necessary. The exact reformsof Solon, and indeed many other facts about him and his career, have remaineda source of continuingdiscussionand controversy.What is clear is that, whetherintentionallyor otherwise, he managedto create an urbanized Athens. Solon's reformscan be noted in three areas, each of which increasedurbanization.First, he abolisheddebt slavery and freed the debtors;but he did not give the debtors back their land. Thus, there appearedon the scene a significant number of landless citizens who found themselveswith no place to live and no possibilityof workingat their traditionaloccupation of farming.They would of necessity gravitatetoward Athens. Second, Solon seems to have changed the traditionalrequirementsof the citizenshipclasses. Formerly,political status was measuredin terms of landed wealth, i.e., the size of crops producedby the land. Now, the base was broadenedto include wealth in any form, including
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ffo-
Fig. 7. Pedimentalsculpturalfragmentshowing Heraclesand the Triton. Found on the Acropolis, it belongs to one of several Peisistratidbuildings.
goods and chattels. Thus, the hold of the landownerswas broken, and urban wealth was made equal to land wealth, acceleratingthe process of urbanization.Third, Solon revised Athens' system of weights and measuresto bring them into line with those of the major trading centers of the Greek world. Athens was then preparedto enter into internationaltrade on a large scale. Finally, as an appendix to his reformsfor those who were already citizens,Solon extendedan invitation to artisansand merchantselsewhere to settle in Athens, offering citizenshipas an inducement.How long this offer was in force is not known, but even if only for a short time, it was a remarkableaction, given the particularGreek view of restrictingcitizenshipto those descendedfrom citizens. The result of this atypical decision was a decisive move toward urbanization. Each of the major refolllls of Solon
had the effect of moving people into the city and strengtheningtheir political, economic, and social positions after they arrived. The growing urbanization, while still modest by modern standardsor even later ancient standards,was considerable.Under Solon and his successors,Peisistratos and his sons, the first monumental
Acropolis buildingsnow on display in the Acropolis Museum(fig. 7). These show the increasingwealth of Athens and the manpowershe was able to muster to monumentalize the Acropolis with temples and other buildings.The surviving indicationsof the water system of Peisistratosand the other public buildingsof the Agora are even
Whetherintentionallyor otherwise,Solon createdan urbanizedAthens. ,
buildingsappearedon the Acropolis and in the present Agora (fig. 6). While only traces of these buildings survive, they are often sufElcientto allow archeologiststo recoverfloorplans and other features of the architecture.In some cases parts of earlier buildingswere preservedby being built into later structures.The most impressiveof these remainsis the large number of pedimental sculpturesfrom the 6th-century
more lmposlng monumentsto urbanization.The Agora was an allpurpose open-air market where citizens could gather for political expressionand occasional trading activities. With the introductionof fountain-housesand the digging of wells to ensure adequate water, an industrialestablishmentcould begin to operate on a permanentbasis. The most obvious and remarkable change can be seen in the manu*
fi
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stage was the inaugurationof the GreaterPanathenaicFestival by Peisistratosin 556. Celebratedevery fourth year, the main religious ceremonywas the processionand presentationof a new garmentto the tutelarygoddess of the city, Pallas Athena. In addition, there were athletic games and competitions in the recitationof Homer. Peisistratosobtained an "official" text of the niad and Odyssey,which was used in judging the contestants. As an indicationof the city's rising
century, such as sending out excess population to establish colonies, she would not have been in a position to assume the leadershipat the time of the Persian invasions. Like Thebes and other states, she might easily have surrendered at the first sign of a Persian envoy. That there was a large urban mass in which people's livelihoods were not dependenton the land providedthe difference.Leadershipin Greece, with the obvious exception of Sparta (which had turned its state into an
Greekpotteryand paintingfrom 550 B.C. on is either Athenianor an imitationof it.
Fig. 8. Detail of an Attic krater (large open vessel for mixing wine), decorated in the early black-Elgure style (ca. 570-560 B.C.). The scene illustrated on the krater (shown here only in part) depicts satyrs and maenads with the god of wine, Dionysos.
facture of pottery, a ubiquitous necessity of the ancient world. Athens began to imitate the current styles of Corinth and then very quickly developed its own, so that by the middle of the 6th century Athens had not only surpassed Corinth but overwhelmed it. Greek pottery and painting from 550 on is either Attic (i.e., Athenian) or an imitation of it (fig. 8). The culmination of this initial
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status (or maybe just in response to a good price), several lines about Athens were inserted into the epics at this time. This text is substantially the one which has come down to us through the ages. Athens by SSOhad thus begun her cultural ascendancy. The introduction of dithyrambic performances (= stylized choral odes with added narration) foreshadowed the development of Attic tragedy. All Athens needed to become a major state was political prominence. The first steps were taken under the aegis of Peisistratos and his sons and then by the new democracy after S10. In the first two decades of the 5th century the Persian invasions catapulted Athens into political, as well as cultural, leadership. How inevitable was this? I think not at all. Look at the large but culturally unimportant and politically indecisive cities of Argos and Thebes. With strong Bronze Age backgrounds and extensive wealth, they did little. Megara, Athens' rival to her immediate west, with a better harbor and resources, could mount military and political attacks on Athens but could not compete intellectually or artistically. Either before or at the same time, all of the Greek states had to face crises similar to those which confronted Athens. If Athens had imitated some of its neighbors in dealing with the problems of the 6th
armed camp), rested with the urban centers. It was Solon and Peisistratos who turned crisis into opportunity, molded Athens into a true city with an industrial-commercial base, and laid the foundations for an artisticintellectual culture of unmatched quality.
Rome The stories about Rome's origin and foundation already assume the creation of an urban complex. The well-known historian Livy, writing in the 1st century B.C., fixed the date (= 754 B.C.) as year one Zfrom the foundation of the city," ab urbe condita. Archeological information seems to confirm that in the mid-8th century the villages on the hills surrounding the present Forum Romanum joined together, drained the swampy area, and used it as their center (fig. 9). The Regias or king's official residence, was built at this time. Rome's geographic position uniquely favored urban development. Situated midway between the northern and southern extremes of the Italian peninsula, Rome was also at the farthest navigable point upstream on the Tiber River. In the 6th century Rome seems to have come under the strong cultural and political influence of the Etruscan people to her immediate north.
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Throughthem she was exposed to Greekcivilization.Both the historical tradition and the excavated Attic pottery indicate a vital, growing center of some sophistication.These activities culminatedat the end of the century with the expulsion of the tyrant-kingTarquiniusSuperbus, the setting up of the Roman Republic, and the dedication of the most importanttemple in Rome, the Etruscan-styledTemple of Jupiter OptimusMaximus. The literarytradition assumed -The backbone of
citizen.
connection with Rome this is particularlythe case. Even without the literarytradition, however, there are elements which will direct our attention away from urban society toward a much more simple and rural existence. The literaryand historico-politicaltradition of Rome assumedthat the backbone of the state was the farmer-soldier-citizen. Backedby the austere virtues of Romancustom and tradition (the mos maiorum), a person had to be a landownerin order to provision
the Romanstate was thefarmer-soldier-
anurban center, and there are archeological remainswhich can be usedto support this. The complete pictureis, however, somewhat different. The reliabilityof the literary tradition is a matter of great debate,since the actual written records come from a later period. Theoral traditionsmay preserve accurate informationfrom the remote past, but they often surround itwith anachronisticmaterial.In
himself for the army, since soldiers werenot paid. Further, one had to bein the army before one could exercisecitizen rights. Priorities amongthe three phases of life did notexist they were equal and interdependent. They also left no roomfor a free urban population to exist! The status of the farmersoldier-citizen is exemplifiedin the stories about the crusty old
conservative,Lucius QuintiusCincinnatus. In 458 s.c., having served as consul (accordingto Livy) he was quietly "workinghis fourjugera farm tabout three acres] west of the Tiberjust opposite where the shipyardsare today." Meanwhile,the Roman army was being defeated by the Aequi. In response the Senate voted that he should come out of retirementand assume the duties of dictatorwith absolute power for six monthsor until he resolvedthe emergencyto his satisfaction.A committeeof the Senate sent to informhim of this decision found himin his field. He left his work, puton his toga, and went to run thestate. Sixtegn days later, having rightedthe situation by defeatingthe Aequi,he resignedhis office and resumed his farm work exactly where he had stopped it. The story isprobablyin large part apocryphal, butone cannot help but notice that the farm was only a short walk from the center of Rome and that Cincinnatus here is seen as Elrsta farmer, then a citizen, and Elnallya soldier. The basic systemillustrated here was at the foundation of the Roman state and army for centuries. Eventually the wealthy classes stopped farmingwith their own hands and oversaw large plantations run by noncitizensand slaves. The farmer-soldiersitizenwas apossibilitybecause ancient practice tended to confine Elghtingand farming to differentparts of the year. The two did not conflict. When, startingin 264 s.c., Rome's system of alliances which had brought her to the dominationof Italy involved her in wars with Carthage and Macedonia,the system began to break down. The soldiercitizen found himself away from his
Fig. 9. RepublicanRome with the major hills, city walls, and primary roads indicated.The area of the docks shows the proximityof farm land to the Forum in the early republic.
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST 57
Fig. 10. Plan of the Forum Romanumin RepublicanTimes. Since most of the buildingswere rebuilt several times with changes in dimensionsand plans, only the location and probablesize are indicated.1) Regia, 2) Temple of Vesta, 3) Atrium Vesta (House of the Vestal Virgins),4) Temple of Castor, 5) Sempronium,later torn down and replacedwith the BasilicaJulia, 6) Temple of Saturn, 7) Exposed portion of the ancient Sacra Via (Sacred Way), 8) Tabularium9) Possible location of the Basilica Porcia, 10) Lapis Nager (Tomb of Romulus),11) Old Rostra, 12) Venus Closina (Shrine of Venus of the Drain), 13) Old Senate House (approximatelocation at the top of the ArgeletiumHill), 14) BasilicaAemelia.
farm for months and then years at a time. Conversely,the large landholders who directed the activities of the state could afford this activity because they did not personally work their land. Worldly, rich, and increasinglysophisticatedand Hellenized, they believed that Rome's time of triumphand glory was at hand. Spurredby the usual mixture of revengefor insults both real and imagined,and a drive for power and wealth conditionedby pride, ambition, and greed, they embarked on a series of overseas wars which lasted from 264 to 146, culminating in the destructionof the great rival Carthageand the effective conquest of Greece. In this process most of the small farmerswere ruined. Their lands failed and were taken over by
58
the wealthy;ruined as farmers,they could not be soldiers either and thus were disenfranchisedas citizens. By the end of the 2nd century,this situation had sparkeda two-fold crisis: urban and military. 1) First, the ex-farmersbegan to move into Rome, looking for work. There were some jobs but not many, as the city was unprepared for its newly acquiredurban mass, which in itself is an indicationof her previouslynonurbancharacter.In the beginningthe ex-farmer-soldiercitizens attached themselvesto various membersof the nobility for protectionand support and offered personaland political support in exchange. Soon, however, the numbersof the urban mass had increasedto a point beyond the capacity of the patriciansto handle
them. It then fell to ambitious politiciansto- support these masses as part of their demonstrationof civic virtue and to gain support in their campaignsfor higher office. This approachestablisheddangerous precedentsfor the future and in any case was no long-rangesolution to the problem.The society would have to devise a broad-basedplan of action to deal with it. 2) In addition to the urban crisis of feeding and supportingthe new urban masses, there was the militaryproblem. The former citizens were also ex-soldiersand willing to fight, but the state had no mechanismfor paying or supporting soldiers. At the beginning of the 2nd century, Rome ran out of Roman soldiers. It was at this point that Gaius Marius"volunteered"to raise
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Fig. 11. Remains of the Republican Basilica Aemelia in the Forum.
a private army at his own expense to do Rome's bidding. Marius recruitedhis army from the streets of Rome. Soon he and the Roman Senate came into conflict, and the Senate was forced to raise its own "private"army and fight a war with Marius'"Roman"army. For its militaryproblems, Rome had found a "solution"which brought it three generationsof civil war. The long chain of battles ended only with the victory of Octavian(Augustus)over Antony and Cleopatrain 31 B.C. The end of the civil war brought about the establishmentof the Empireand the Pax Romana. The enlistmentof the disenfranchised citizens in the armies and the creation of the empire may have solved Rome's military recruitment problem, but it did not resolve in any permanentway the urban problem. As conquest followed conquest, the city was filled with a larger mass of slaves taken in battle in addition to the earlier"Roman" mass. Rome increasedin size and ethnic complexity without a suitable economic base. Rome never found a solution to her urban crisis. Rather, the city found an imperialsolution. Two directly relatedfactors increasedin scope as Rome grew: on one hand, the proletariatwere constantly consumingthe wealth of the city, and on the other hand, the territoriesbrought the city their wealth in the form of tribute. The tribute of the empire was used to alleviate the urban problems.The urban problems, however, were not solved but merely held at bay by the empire. Thus when the empire declined, so did the tribute and so did the city. In this regard,it is worth noting that as the empire of Rome slipped away in late antiquity, so did her urban population. MedievalRome was a small town centeredon her churchesand
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST
surroundedby the ruins of her glorious past. The characterof the city after the 2nd century B.C. was determined by its position as the capital of the empire. Monumentally,Rome transformed herself accordingly(fig. 10). Prior to this time, Rome's public buildings consisted of temples and a Senate House (the Curia).In 185 B.C. the Elrstbasilica,the Basilica Porcia, was built. Named after the royal halls of the Hellenistickings and destinedto become the architecturalmodel for the Christian Church,it servedRome as a public meetinghall for law cases and the transactionof public and private
the history of the empire.These buildingswere only the beginning. In the followingcenturiesone major public structureafter another forum, bath, theater or performance arena, triumphalarch or templewas built in Rome. Rome became the urban capital of the world. The basis of its urbanizationwas the empire, while its function, to some extent administrative,was mainly symbolic. Not by accident have Rome's contributionsto our culture centeredon these two areas: administrationand imperial symbolism.Except in areas of imperialsymbolism, Rome's achievements in art, literature,and
-
Rome'sonly solutionto her urbancrisiswas the growth°f theempire but when the empiredeclined,so did the city. businessfor individualsand small groupsof people. This basilicawas to be followedby the Basilica Aemelia in 179(fig. 11), the Semproniain 170, andthe Tabularium(publicrecords building)in 78. The BasilicaJulia followedin 55 B.C. The Basilica Porciaand the Semproniawere later destroyed and not rebuilt,but the otherthree buildingsprovideda monumental presencein the Forum representing the life of Rome, her nature and purpose,for the rest of
philosophyhave been secondaryto others.In contrast, architecture, whichis primarilypublic and stronglysymbolic, stands as her majorvisual contributionto subsequentages. In other areas, Rome provedto be an efficient borrower, adapter,and imitator, and thus transmittedand made accessiblethe greaterachievementsof others. In the introductorywords andelsewhere,attention was directed toformativeaspects of the three dominantstrains of western culture:
59
the religiousexperiencefrom Jerusalem,the philosophicaland artisticachievementof Athens, and the governmentalorganizationof Rome. Each of these is known through the literarymaterialsand confirmedand explained through the archeologicalmaterials.In the brief discussionsof each of these cities, I have tried to show that their basic characterwas part of a responseto a specific crisis that created a particulartype of urban center. The nature of the urban center was determinedby the particularsolution to the crisis
which confrontedeach city. In turn it was the nature of the urban center which was the determining factor in the particularcontribution which that city made to our culture. It was this factor too which set it apart from the many similar cities which existed at the same time and faced essentiallythe same problems. The presentessay concerns the three most pivotal cities of the westernworld. There were many other urban centers in antiquity, most of which were faced with crisis situationsat one time or another, and yet their contributionsdid not
exert the influence of these three on our civilization. It was not the crisis but ratherthe response which was determinative:the unique action that shaped subsequenthistory. Is it possible to make a similar analysis of other cities such as Constantinople, Paris, London, or Florence of a differentage? Or New York, Moscow, Peking, or Tokyo? Perhaps a later age will look back on this one and find the key to our culture in the history of how our dominant urban centers handled their urban crises.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jerusalem
Athens
Ehrenberg,V. 1973 From Solon to Socrates, 2nd edition. London. Hill, I. T. 1953 7he Ancient City of Athens. London. Judeich, W. 1931 Topographievon Athen, 2nd edition. Munich. Thompson, H. A., and Wycherley,R. E. 1972 The Agora of Athens, The AthenianAgora, Results of Excavations,vol. 14. Princeton,NJ. Rome Cary, M., and Scullard, H. H. 1976 A History of Rome, 3rd edition. London. Robathan, D. M. 1950 ThteMonumentsof Ancient Rome. Rome. Romanelli, P. 1967 n Foro Romano. Rome.
Aharoni,Y. 1968 Arad:Its Inscriptionsand Temple.BiblicalArchaeologist 31: 2-32. 1972 Excavationsat Tel Beer-sheba.BiblicalArchaeologist35: 111-27. 1974 The HornedAltar of Beer-sheba.BiblicalArchaeologist 37: 2-6. Avigad, N. 1976 Excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, 1969-1971. Pp. 41-51 in Jerusalem Revealed, ed. Y. Yadin. New Haven, CT: Yale University. Broshi, M. 1974 The Expansioncf Jerusalemin the Reigns of Hezekiah and Manasseh. Israel Exploration Journal 24: 21-25. Kenyon, K. 1971 Jerusalem.London.
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PAUL'S
MISSIONARY JOURNEY TRADITION
AND-
TO
SPAIN:
FOLKLORE
OTTO F. A. MEINARDUS
The early church,and especiallythe churchin Spain,has maintainedvariousaccountsof themissionary journeyby the apostlePaulto Spain.Theofficialandpopulartraditionsare describedbriefly.
We shall probablynever know whether Paul fulfilled the intention expressedin his Letter to the Romans to visit Spain (Rom 15:24, 28). The early church believed that the apostle's appeal to Caesar terminatedsuccessfully,that he was acquittedof the chargesagainst him, and that he spent some years in freedom before he was again imprisonedand sentencedto death. Eusebiuswrites that "afterpleading his cause, he is said to have been sent again upon the ministryof preaching,and after a second visit to the city, he finished his life with martyrdom"(Hist. eccl. 2.22). Evidenceof Paul's activity subsequentto the "two whale years" mentionedin Acts 28:30 is found in Otto F. A. Meinardusis the author Qf St. Paul in Ephesus and the Cities of Galatiaand Cyprus,St. Paul in Greece, and other volumes in the Lyeabettus Press (Athens, Greece) series on the religious archeology of the eastern Mediterranean.
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
three early Christiandocuments.In A.D. 96 Clement of Rome, whom traditionhas identifiedas Paul's disciple mentionedin Phil 4:3, wrote an epistle to the Corinthians,in which he states that Paul .
had been seventimesin bonds,hadbeen driven into exile, had been stoned, had preachedin the Eastand in the West,he won the noble renownswhich was the reward of his faith, having taught righteousnessunto the whole worldand having reached the farthest bounds of the West.
document, originallywritten in Greek and translatedinto somewhat barbarous Latin, includes the following in its account of the Acts of the Apostles: Luke puts it shortly to the most excellent Theophilus that several thingsweredone in his own presence, as he also plainly shows by leaving out the passion of Peterand also the departureof Paul from town on his journey to Spain.
By the middle of the 2nd For a Roman, the "farthest century, Christiansbelieved that the bounds of the West," a phrase often - apostle's intendedvisit to Spain was used by Roman writersto refer to in fact realized. This is not the place Spain, could only mean the Iberian to discuss the manifold arguments peninsula. Further,the Acts of for or against the apostle'sjourney Peter, written in the late 2nd to Spain. It is well known that later century, informs us in some detail accounts of outstandingconquerors, about the departureof the Apostle missionaries,and other important Paul from the Roman harbor of personagesshow a tendencyto Ostia to Spain. And lastly, the exaggeratehistoricalfacts by MuratoriCanon, compiled by an representingthe territorialextent of anonymous Christianabout A.D. 170, their influenceas greaterthan it refers to his Spanish mission. This actually was. It is possible, therefore,
61
of the city because he is the
.
by Nero in A.D. 54, soon became one of the largercosmopolitan and commercialcenters in Italy with more than 50,000 inhabitants.Every year on January 27, large crowds from Rome gatheredin Ostia for the celebrations in honor of Castor and Pollux. The Jewish communitymaintaineda synagogueon the outer peripheryof the city on the Via Severiana.The recentlyexcavatedsynagoguein Ostia shows an elaboratevestibule leading to the main buildingending in a slightly curved apse; in the southernsection was the tabernacle containingthe scrolls of the Hebrew scriptures.One would not be surprisedif Paul had visited and even preachedin this synagogue. Ostia had rapidlytaken over the commerceof Puteoli, and most of the goods destinedfor Rome arrivedin Ostia. Accordingto Strabo, "it was the port-townof the Roman navy, the port into which the Tiber after flowing past Rome, empties."Ships sailed regularlyfrom Ostia to the Spanish ports of Cadiz and Tarraco(Tarragona).According to Pliny the Elder, who under the emperorVespasianserved as procuratorin HispaniaTarraconensis, the journey from Ostia to Spain took four days. The third chapterin the apocryphalActs of Peter describes in a vivid mannerthe departureof the Apostle Paul from Ostia harbor: Augusti
The statue of St. Paul next to the MetropolitanCathedralin Tarragona honors and perpetuatesthe tradition of Paul's missionaryjourney to rpaln.
that the tradition of Paul's mission to Spain is a mere extension of an intent. Treatingthe apostle'sjourney as an undoubtedhistoricalfact, John Chrysostommentionsthat "Paul after his residencein Rome departedto Spain,"and Jerome states that the apostle reachedSpain by sea. If Paul realizedhis plans to visit Spain, he would have considered his stay in Rome as a mere stopover for his mission to the West. In that case, the apostle would have left Rome by the Via Ostienseto Ostia, the new port of imperialRome. Ostia harbor,begun by Claudiusand dedicatedas Portus
62
A great multitude of women were kneelingand prayingand beseeching Paul, and they kissed his feet and accompaniedhim unto the harbor. But Dionysius and Balbus of Asia, knights from Rome, and illustrious men, and a senator by name of Demetriusabodeby Paul on his right sideand said:"Paul,I woulddesireto leave the city if I were not a magistrate, that I might not departfrom thee." Also from Caesar's house, Cleobiusand Iphitusand Philostrate with Narcissusthe presbyteraccompanied him to the harbor: but whereasa storm of the sea came on, he (Narcissus?)sent the brethren back to Rome, that if any would, he mightcomedownandhearPauluntil
he set sail; and hearing that, the brethrenwent up into the city. And when they told the brethrenthat had remainedin the city, some on beasts, and some on foot, and othersby way of the Tiber came down to the harbor, and were conElrmedin the faithfor threedays,and on the fourth until the flfth hour, prayingtogether with Paul, and makingthe offering, and they put all that was needfulon the ship and deliveredto him two young men, believers, to sail with him, and bade him farewellin the Lord and returnedto Rome. Tarragona would have been the most likely city for the apostle's mission to Spain. Known as Colonia Julia Victrix Triumphalis Tarraco to commemorate the victories of Julius Caesar, the city was made the seat of one of the four assize courts established in Hispania Citerior. Having spent some time in Tarragona, Augustus made it the capital of the whole province, subsequently named Hispania Tarraconensis. East of the site of the present cathedral the people of Tarragona constructed an altar to Augustus. An 8th-century Spanish tradition relates that during his mission to the Catalans the Apostle Paul consecrated Prosperus first bishop of Tarragona. Because of intense local persecutions by the Romans, Prosperus fled to Regium Lepidum Reggio Nell' Emilia, northwest of Bologna where he was immediately accepted as bishop successor of Paul in Tarragona." The 10thwentury Greek Menologion and the hagiographer Symeon Metaphrastes mention that Paul, while preaching in Spain, converted the two sisters Xanthippe and Polyxene, who are commemorated in the Greek Orthodox Church on September 23. Xanthippe converted her husband, Philotheus, prefect of Provo (?), to the Christian faith; Polyxene, on the other hand, went to Achaia in Greece, where she was baptized by Andrew the Firstwalled. Although the patron of Tarragona is St. Fructuosus, who
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together with Sts. Auguris and Eulogius sufferedmartyrdomin the local amphitheaterin A.D. 259, the Catalansproudly assert their association with the Apostle Paul. Behind the MetropolitanCathedral,in the cloister of the l9th-centuryDiocesan Seminary,is the old Chapel of the Apostle Paul which was built, accordingto Tarragoniantradition
I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be sped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyedyour company for a little. At present, however,I am going to Jerusalemwith aid for the saints WhenthereforeI have completedthis, and have deliveredto them what has been raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain. Rom 15:24-25, 28 (RS p
on the site of Paul's preaching in the city. In 1963, on the occasion of the l9th-centenary celebrations of Paul's preaching to the citizens of Tarragona, a statue of the Apostle Paul was erected on the Plaza de Palazio, next to the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was constructed over the remains of the once lofty temple of Jupiter-Ammon. The co-patron of Tarragona is Thecla, who is honored here annually on September 23 and whose right arm is said to repose in her chapel in the cathedral. In the principal sanctuary of the cathedral the white marble front of the high altar shows eight magnificent 12thcentury reliefs of scenes portraying the beautiful romance of the Apostle Paul and Thecla in Iconium in Asia Minor, a story found in the apocryphal Acts of Paul.
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
In Tortosa, a Roman colony 55 km. southwest of Tarragonaon the River Ebro, a local tradition claims Paul to have founded the local church and consecratedRufus, the son of Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21; Rom 16:13) as the Elrst bishop of the city. In addition to the Catalan traditionsof the visit of Paul to Spain, there is an Andalusiancycle of legends maintainedby the Christiansin Ecija, ancient Astigis, in the province of Seville. These 16th-centurytraditionshold that the apostle sailed from Ostia to Cadiz, then proceededto the Roman colony of Astigis, known as Augusta Firma. Hierotheus,a citizen of Astigis, is said to have traveledto Achaia where he was convertedin Athens by Paulsspreaching.Paul consecratedhim first bishop of Athens, whereuponHierotheusasked the apostle to visit his native city. After his first Roman imprisonment Paul rememberedthe requestof
Hierotheusand went to Astigis. His preachingin the forum converted many people, among them Crispin, whom he ordainedbishop of Astigis. With Crispinas patron of the shoemakers,it is no coincidencethat throughoutthe centuriesEcija was famous all over Spain for its shoemaking! None of the local Spanish traditionscan be traced to a period prior to the 8th century,and many of them emergedduring the 14th centuryand even later. In the early 1960'sseveral Spanish communities celebratedthe l9th centenaryof the arrivalof the Apostle Paul in Spain, and in 1961 the Spanish postal authoritiesissued a l-peseta commemorativestamp showing E1 Greco'sApostle Paul with the text: XIX CENTENARIO DE LA VENIDA DE SAN PABLO A ESPARA
BIBLIOGRAPHY Dubowy, E. 1914 Klemensvon Rom uber die Reise Pauli nach Spanien. BiblischeStudien 19.3. Pfister,F. 1913 Die zweimaligeromische Gefangenschaftund die spanische Reise des Apostels Paulus. Zeitschriftfur die neutestamentlicheWissenschaft.14:216-21. Serra,V. J. del XlX Centen1963 San Pablo en Espana.Commemoracion ario du sa venida.Tarragona. Spier 1742 In historiacriticade SIispanicPauli Itinere.Wittenberg. Vega, A. C. 1964 La venida de San Pablo a Espanay los VaronesApostolicos. Boletin de la Real Academia de la SIistoria 114:7-78. Vives,J. ia SIispanica. 1965 Tradicion y Leyenda en la SIagiograf Barcelona.
63
THE
PRIDE THE
JUNGLE
OF
THE OF
THE
JORDAN JORDAN
MENASHE HAREL
The Pride of the Jordan,its lush plant life providingthe habitatfor wildanimals,furnishedthe biblicalwriterswith the imageryfor desolation,danger,and strife.Thistropical ecosystem,whichruns in a narrowband as a valleyat the bottom of the Jordan Rift Valley,stands out in sharp contrast to barrenwildernessand seasonalpasturelands which border it.
The Jordan River, whose headwatersare located in the foothills of the Hermon and the southern Lebanon Valley and which empties into the Dead Sea, is classified accordingto its upper and lower waters. The Upper Jordan from the headwatersto the Sea of Galilee has a Mediterranean climate and an abundant supply of fresh water flowing throughoutthe year; parts of it flow through marshyareas, and the greater portion through a basalt region, I
Menashe Ilar-El is the Senior Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University,Departmentof Geography.In 1969he won the Ben-Zvi Prizefor his book Masa'ei Sinai (Sinai Journeys)and in 1972 he receivedtwo Jerusalemprizes for his books This is Jerusalem and The Judean Desert and the Dead Sea Journeys.
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
neither of which stimulates the growth of forests along the banks of the river. The Lower Jordan differs from the Upper in that it comprises both the latter's waters, which flow all year round, as well as the floodwaters which swell the many extensive streams on both sides during the winter and early spring. The northern section of the Lower Jordan has a steppelike climate, while the central and southern portions, where the Jordan crosses the salty hills of the Lisan Marl, have a desert climate. The hot climatic conditions, together with the vast erosion which sinks and spreads out the banks of the Jordan, allow for the growth of dense forests, the most famous in the natural history of the Holy Land. In Arabic the Jordan is called el-Urdun or esh-Shari'ah (meaning
zbasin"or SSwatering place'). Horowitz (1923: 337) notes that the Arabs refer to the Upper Jordan, as far as the Sea of Galilee, as the GreaterJordan (el-Urdunel-kabir), while the portion from the Sea of Galilee southwardis called the Lesser Jordan (el-Urdunes-saghir). The Jordan Rift, a local geographicalterm, is part of the Syrian-AfricanRift Valley and was referredto by several names in the Bible:the Jordan Wilderness ('Arebat IIayarden),the Jordan Plain (Kikkar Hayarden),the Jordan Districts (Gelilot Hayarden),and the Pride of the Jordan (Ge'on Ilayarden). It appearsthat each of these names referredto a different specific geographicallocation and to differenteconomic and settlement functions. Josephus refersto the Jordan Rift as the Great Valley in
65
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TheHistoryof the Jews,4.6.1, or as
Temple Periods to those of the Mishna and Talmud, that is, at all times that eastern Transjordanwas populated,and there was a link The Jordan Wilderness between the two sides of the Jordan. Narrowlydefined, the Jordan With the Moslem conquest of Israel, Wildernessis the valley which however, the populationin eastern extends from the ChinnerothValley Transjordandeclined, and the to the Dead Sea, accordingto Josh settlementsof the Jordan Rift were 12:3:"And from the plain to the sea graduallyabandoned.Total desolaof Chinnerothon the east, and unto tion prevailedduring the time of the sea of the plain, eventhe Salt Ottoman rule over Israel. The Sea on the east ...." It appears travelerand researcherC. W. M. that the Hebrew term 'arabahcomes Van de Velde (vol. 2, 327) indicates from the word 'ereb (evening),as that the Korea Valley at the Fariah the form of the wildernesswas like (Kerrith)Stream possesses enough that of the 'areibah,a low valley lush grass to support all the flocks between the mountainsin the of Israel. To his surprise,he saw eastern part of the country. Night that this fertile land was abandoned fell here sooner than it did in the entirely. Except for a few peasants mountains,hills, and coastal plain. whom he saw at the Fariah Stream, Since the valley is low, the shadows he did not see any remnantof of the mountainsat sunset hit the human settlementfrom Korea to valley and darken it before the more Tammun.W. M. Thomson (1859: II, westerly regions of Israel grow dark. 457) indicatesthat the Jordan Rift More broadly, the Jordan easily could support 500,000 Wildernessis evidentlysynonymous inhabitantsand that cotton, rice, with the Jordan Rift, which in sugar, indigo, and the other tropical Arabic is called the Ghor,meaning plants could be grown there to "depression."The Jordan Rift, more sustain human needs. Watersfrom than 1000 km long and from 4 to the great floods, eroding the desert's 20 km wide, contains deep soil salt, settle in the low depressionsof which has eroded from the the Arabah. When the water mountains. evaporatesin the summerthe salt The Bible (Isa 35:1; Jer 2:6; remainson top of the soil. However, 50:12; 51:43;Job 24:5) describesthe since the topographicalstructureof Jordan Wildernessas desolate since the Arabahtakes the form of a low the greaterportion of it, from the and straightdepressionwith many Gulf of Elath to the Beth-shean seasonal water sources, some of the Valley, is in a desert climate region. most importantnorth-southtransTherefore,many sections of the portation routes in the country were Arabah Valley, especiallythe depressionssouth of the Dead Sea The Bible describesthe and other small sections north of it, Jordan Wildernessas a are desolate and have salty soil. A parched, desolate region. frequentbiblical synonym for the Arabah is "salt land" (MleEha): "To constructedthrough it. Indeed, the whom I have given the steppe for great and mighty floodwatersof the his home, and the salt land his dwelling place," (Job 39:6), and "For country reach the streamsof the Arabah. Its roads and floods he is like a shrub in the desert, and thereforeare mentionedfrequentlyin shall not see any good come; he the Bible (roads in Deut 2:8; 2 Sam shall dwell in the parchedplaces of 2:29; 4:7; 2 Kgs 25:4; Jer 39:4; 52:7; the wilderness,in an uninhabited Isa 40:3; Ps 68:7; water in Ezek salt land" (Jer 17:6). 47:8; Isa 35:6; 2 Kgs 3:16-17).Those The Jordan Wildernesswas sections of the Arabahwhich are settled intensivelyfrom the first close to the mountainsor main period of Israelitesettlement, cities in the Jordan rift were given through the First and Second the Great Plain in 12.8.5.
-
66
individualnames in the Bible, such as the Moab and Jericho Wildernesses (Num 22:1; 26:3; 31:12; 33:4850; 35:1; 36:13;Josh 4:13; 5:10; 2 Kgs 25:5; Jer 39:5; 52:8). The Jordan Plain Extendingfrom the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea regions and serving as a drainagebasin for one or more streams,the plain referred to in the Bible is a low and narrow rift surroundedby mountains.The Hebrewterm kikkaris rendered "plain"(mei£ara,cf. Hebrewmi£or) by the AramaicTargums,apparently because of the flat, straightform of the alluvial fans of the streamss outlets. The Bible refersto three distinct plains in this region: Genesis mentions both the "Citiesof the Plain" and the "Land of the Plain" south of the Dead Sea (Gen 13:12; 19:28-29).This plain evidently included the outlets of the Zered and Nimrin Rivers;the abundant waters of Moab and the alluvial fans thereof created the fertile soil of the Sodom Plain. A second plain was located in the Jericho Valley north of the Dead Sea. It should be emphasizedthat the Bible refers to this area as "ThePlain" (Deut 34:3), and those who returnedto Zion with Ezra and Nehemiahare referredto as the gmen of the plain,"namely, those priests and poets inhabiting the Jericho Plain (Neh 3:22; 12:28). This area is evidently referredto as "ThePlain" because it is here that the Jordan Rift is at its widest, measuring24 km from side to side, as comparedwith the averagewidth of 12 km. This wide plain absorbed the tributariesof the Perat (Qelt) and Nueima streams,which lie to the west of Jericho and are rich in wellsprings,forming alluvial fans whose soil yields abundantproduce. It also absorbedthe major tributariesfrom the east of the Jordan:the Azimi, Hesban, and Nimrin streams,which extended the area of the grain fields of the Plain. The third plain was located in the Valley of Sukkoth at the juncture of the Jabbok stream with
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1978
the Jordan, as was written concerning Solomon: "In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Sukkoth and Zarethan"(1 Kgs 7:46 = 2 Chron 4:17). Indeed, the outlet of the Jabbok and its tributaries,rich in fresh water, as well as the erosion of fertile lands, created and enriched the Jordan Plain. Thus we see that the biblical plains were not only narrowvalleys surroundedby mountains,but also wide alluvial fan regions of freely flowing streams,with continuous currents,a hot climate, and fertile, erosional soil. The principalcrops of these plains were dates, spices, and flax; beginningwith the Middle Ages, sugar cane, cotton, rice, and other crops also were cultivated here. The Jordan Districts M. Broshi (1958: 781) is of the opinion that the biblical designation"JordanDistricts"was actually a general term for the Jordan Rift. Broshi, on the other hand, refers to Glueck'scontention that the "JordanDistricts"is a name for the densely populated settlementarea at the outlets of the streamsemanatingfrom Gilead into the Jordan, that is, the Jordan Valley District. Glueck'shypothesis appearsthe more valid one, as the "easternregion"mentionedin Ezek 47:S apparentlyrefers to the northernand more heavily populated Jordan Rift. It appears that the "districtsof the Philistines"(Josh 13:2;Joel 4:4) also refer to this area of intensive Philistinesettlement, namely, the southerncoastal plain. The Pride of the Jordan The Pride of the Jordan is the lowest spot in the Jordan Rift. There was much activity in this area by both man and beast. Here the river swelled and ebbed, and there were passes which aided them in crossing the river.The banks of the Jordan sustainedthe densest forest in the entire Jordan Rift and in all the Holy Land. The ancients grazed
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
Jordan Rift valley with the Dead Sea in the background.
their sheep and cattle in the grassy meadows of the Jordan Rift and the Pride during the appropriate seasons. The dense forest was the habitat and source of prey for wild beasts. The Form and Structureof the Pride The air distance between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is 105 km, while the distance along the meanderingJordan River totals 217 km. The differentialin depth between the Sea of Galilee (-212 m) and the Dead Sea (-392 m) is 180 m, while the slope is 1.79 mils
(Schattner 1962: 36). The drainage basin of the Jordan is at its widest here, spreadingout over both banks and having an area of 13,600 km2. It should be stated that the area of the basin from the sources of the Jordan to the Sea of Galilee is 2,735 km2, representingsome 17%of the entire basin. Thus, there is no significantflow north of the Sea of Galilee. Similarly,the entire western drainagebasin of the Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee (i.e., Samaria and Judea) is only 2,000 km2, or 12%of the overall area. The remainingflow, constituting71% of the total area, is from the Gilead 67
eastern during sailed and stream at Sea Molyneux its its toswell, swell side. depth the theExpedition into onBefore isranges outlet April Jordan between 16, thefrom 1849, construction ofto from 0.5-1.0 Jordan, 1-3the the as m. 50 the Jordan Heshbon miles. vBab In Sea Dead * edh-Dhra Q and ofr/t ZShan \ Galilee J ), \@
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and Ammon drainagebasin on the of the National Water Works, one billion cubic meters of water drained into the Dead Sea from the Jordan each year; the velocity of the current at ebb tide is 1.37 m/sec (Schattner 1940: 146). The pass from the Jordan Rift to the Pride of the Jordan passes through the steep, divided, and barrenhills of the Lisan Marl. The differencein height between the Rift and the riverbedis some 45 m. Along the northernpart of the
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the spring, when the river swells, the water level rises and the riverbed widens from 60 to 1500 m and more. C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener(1882: 79) indicate that the width of the Jordan riverbed
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and the Dead Sea indicatedthat the waters of the Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee reacheda depth of 45 feet on August 25, 1848. The Pride of the Jordan, called Zor by the Arabs, has thickets of tamarisk,willow, poplar, oleander,cane, and reeds. In Hebrew,the region is called Ge'on Hayarden,which has several meanings:the place of the Jordan's swell; the place where the dense
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Jordanforest grows, and the habitat of Israel'smightybeasts prey. It may be asked why the of forests of the Lebanon, Bashan,dense Gilead, Carmel, and Sharon were not also designatedby regions the name ge'on. The answer is that it is naturalfor cold, rainy mountain peaks to produce dense forests, whereashere, in the burninghot, salty,desolate Jordan theforest of the PrideWilderness, of the Jordan isespecially beautiful the thisarid region and a uniquepride of phenomenonin the land. The Fords Because of its depth, its marshes on either side, and the thick forests of the Pride, as well as the wild beasts which lurked in its thickets, the Jordan served as a border and dividing line. On the other hand, the Jordan easily was bridged, owing to its 54 fords. The numerous Jordan fords were created by naturalforces. Many secondary streams descend to the Jordan from the eastern and westernmountains of Transjordan,causing much eroded soil to settle in the river, forming the fords. The lack of covering vegetation on the Lisan Marl along the banks of the river causes the banks to sharplydecline and large sections of the marl crumble into the water, which grinds them finely. When this occurs close to theextremes of the secondary streams, it aids in formation of the fords. Earth tremorsalso cause sections of the Lisan Marl to crumble (Schattner 1956: 147), and when these sections settle near the fords, they create paths through them. The fords, convenientcrossings forpeople and their flocks, were easily seen from both sides ofJordan, the since they were not flooded most of the year. Even during the spring flow it was
Jordan River and its environs. -
Thefords wereconvenient crossingsfor people and animals.Therewas no construction of bridgesacrossrivers in biblicaltimes. possible to cross them, though with difficulty,using beasts of burden suchas horsesand mules (Burckhardt 1822:345; Irby and Mangles 1847:304; Merrill 1881: 198). Fords arereferredto by three distinct Hebrewterms in the Bible: ma'abara, ma'abarand 'ebra,all of whichsignify accessible crossings riversand streams. Fords were of referred to at three different geographical sites: at the Jordan Riveritself, at the smaller andat the dry streams. rivers, 1) Most of the fords mentioned in the Bible are those of the Jordan River. As there was no construction of bridges across rivers and streams in biblical times, and since the principalriver of the country was indeed the Jordan, which separatedthe populationson either bank, it was here that the important fords were located. They were created, as mentionedabove, entirely by naturalforces, and it was only by means of them that man and beast could cross the river on dry land. Thus, the Bible describes the inhabitantsof Jericho who pursued the spies of Joshua: "So the men pursuedafter them on the way to the Jordanasfar as thefords . . ." (Josh 2:7). In addition, during the war of Jephthahand the Gileadites against Ephraim,the Gileadites captured the Jordan fords, blocking Ephraim's passage westwardand slaughtering those Ephraimiteswho retreated to the fords (Judg 12:5-6). Asimilar picture of the capture of fords infBabyloniais given in Jer 51:32: "And the fords have been taken, and the bulwarksare burned with fire,and the soldiers are in panic." The southernsection of the Jordan, south of the Jabbok, between the land of Ephraimand the kingdoms of Ammon and Moab, had only five fords, which the Israelites capturedin wartime,thus
preventingthe enemy from at points which were not crossing controlled: "And he said to them, 'Follow after me; for the LORD has given your enemiesthe Moabites into your hand.'So they went down after him, andseized the fords of the Jordan againstthe Moabites,and allowed not aman to pass over"(Judg 3:28). 2) There were also fords at theshallower streams. It is reasonableto assume that these fordswere man-made,that is, stones wereremovedfrom the stream's banksand cast into the water, just asfarmers,shepherds,and hikers do inour own time. It appears that Jacob and his family, on their way from Gilead to the westernJordan, utilized such a ford at the Jabbok: "And the same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children,and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everythingthat he had" (Gen 32:23-24).It appears that the "fords of the Arnon" (Isa 16:2) also were constructedat shallow places to form crossing points for men and their flocks; the sheep could be brought across the stream in this mannereven by youngsters. 3) The ford at a wadi, or dry stream, was apparentlylocated in a canyonlike region. It was not possible to cross these streams because of the straightwalls of the canyon, and man was therefore compelled to sidestep the canyon and seek convenient passages.This iswhat happenedto Jonathan to hisarms-bearer,who crossedand from Geba to Michmashover the dry Suweinitstream which empties into the Perat: "In the pass, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistinegarrison,there was a crag on the one rocky side, and a crag on the other rocky side; and thename of the one was Bozez,
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST 69
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and the name of the other Seneh (1 Sam 14:4). It may be assumed that David fleeing from his son Absalom also tarried in the "fords of the wilderness"(2 Sam 15:28; 17:16),in the stream passes which had steep, straight walls, as the form of most of the streamsof the Judean Desert is indeed canyonlike. Similarly,Isaiah relates"He is come to Aiath; he is passed through Migron;at Michmashhe stores his baggage;they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles;Gibeah of Saul has fled" (Isa 10:28-29).
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Galilee to the Dead Sea on April 10-18, 1849, describedthe vegetation at the Pride (1849: 212). The expedition indicated that tamarisk a}ld willow trees grow in the Jorda}l, as did a thicket of cane, many bushes and low plants, giving the area the appearanceof a jungle. From the Damiya Bridge southward in the direction of the Dead Sea, the plant life resembledthat of the north, with oleander most prevalent; tamariskswere thick, and the cane was dense, thereby inhibiting passage. The jujube was scarce, however. On both banks scorched and blackenedtrees were seen, the result of Elresset by the Arabs to Vegetationand GrazingLand clear land for grazing (1849: 246). The hot, dry climate of The Jordan Valley and the the Jordan Rift, the fertile soil Pride of the Jordan served as a which settles at the Pride of the convenient locale for raising liveJordan, the ebb and flow of the stock during certain seasons. As river tides which saturatethe land as livestock thrives principallyon field a result of the moderateslope of the grass?shepherdswere compelled to river, all contributeto the growth of move from one area to another lush plant life at the Pride. The accordingto the season. In summer growth along the banks of the river and autumn the shepherdsascended may reach the riverbeditself and the mountains on both sides of the has developed into a forest despite Jordan, while in spring they the characteristicerosion along the descended to the Rift. Warrenand river,formingislandsand peninsulae. Conder (1884: 480) indicate that The vegetation forms belts which during January, February?and part spread from the river to its banks: of March, shepherdsdescend with in the water grow reeds, and their flocks to the Jordan Rift to alongside them, cane; in the next graze in the lush grass, coming strip grow bushes, especiallythe wild within 1.5 km of the Jordan River. orache (atriplex);and, in the Merrill (1881: 192) states that on outermost strip, during the winter March 18, 1876, at the Zarka and spring floods, the Euphrates (Jabbok) stream, there were many poplar, tamarisk,and willow grow. Bedouin tents belonging to the Zohary (1955: 459-61) indicates that camel raisersof the Bani Saker the Euphratespoplar and the Jordan tribe, who came there in order to tamariskare characteristicof the graze their flocks of sheep and banks of the Jordan. These two cattle. trees are tolerant of the salt of the Lisan Marl, although the concentraA Habitat for Beasts of Prey tion is much higher than average. These trees are joined by the The Pride of the Jordan bramble,asparagus,wild orache signiElesquarrelsand dangers in the (atriplex),prosopsis, and the licorice Bible. Living conditions at the Pride planteWillow trees are characteristic were unbearablefor both man and of the northernsection of the course beast; the soil, plants, water, and of the Jordan. The oleander climatic conditions renderedit a flourisheswhere there is gravel and "land which devourethits inhabilarge stones in the riverbed. tants." In winter and spring there The Lynch Expedition,which are destructivefloods which ensailed the Jordan from the Sea of danger the lives of all living things;
71
writes that the lion reignedin the Holy Land during the Crusades and disappearedin the 13th centuryC.E. Tristam(1898: 113-15) states that the lion is mentionedby various names 150 times in the Bible, and that it dwelled in the forests of Israel and the canebrakes of the Pride, disappearingtogether with them. The membersof the Lynch Expedition(1849: 212) indicated that at one place on the borders of the Lisan Marl near the Jordan in the Beth-shanValley, they saw the fresh footprints of a leopard, as well as forest boar. They mentionedthat they saw footprints of leopardsand other beasts of prey in the vicinity of the Damiya Bridge(p. 247). Merrill(1881: 204-5) writes that the jungle of the Pride of the Jordan had wild boars, jackals, hyenas, desert rats, otter, and other wild animals. According to him, 20 years previouslyit was possible to purchaseleopard skins at the Pride of the Jordan, although in his day (1876) not a one was to be found. Tristram (1898: 49) saw a Syrian bear in the winter of 1898 at the swell of the and it burnsto the lowesthell, Sea of Galilee, as well as footprints devours the earth and her increase, bears in the snows of the andsetsonfire thefoundationsof the of and Lebanon. Tristram Hermon mountains. the habitats of the of learned I will heap evils upon them; accordingto place beasts various I will spend mine arrows upon them; names: leopards Beth Nimrin, Theyshallbe wastedwith hunger, located in the Gad region near the and devouredwith burningheat, with Ammon and Moab, border and poisonous destruction; Nimrin in Moab, the mountains of and I will send the teethof beasts Nemeirimin Lebanonand the against them, Laish in Dan with venom of crawlingthings in the Hermon;and lions in the Huleh Valley, Lebaot (young dust. lions), and Beit Labaot in the The thickets of trees adjacentto the Simeon region of the Negev. It fords of the Jordan serve as an ideal appearsthat the wolf inhabited hiding-placefor fugitives like Elijah the Pride of the Jordan as well as (1 Kgs 17:3). Robber bands who the Arabah;the Bible mentions looted the passing caravansalso both the Arabah wolf and the infested the area. If the Pride of the wild boar, which is called the Jordan was indeed a habitat for "forestboar." beasts of prey, we must then ask From these and other biblical ourselveswhat the subsistencearea sources, it is reasonableto assume was for these beasts and what the that wild animals set out from their limits of their migrationswere. forest habitats in search of prey: E. Bilik (1955:560-61)indi'*Thereforea lion from the forest cates that the Bible speaks of lions shall slay them . . ." (Jer 5:6); "My dwelling in the hilly areas of Israel heritagehas become to me like a at the Pride of the Jordan;he lion in the forest . . ." (Jer 12:8); there are quicksandmarshesalong the banks which breed malarial mosquitoes.The hills of the Lisan Marl on both sides of the Pride are cleft with ravineswhich inhibit passage;their soil is salty, barren, and utterly devoid of vegetation. There is a dense forest at the Pride of Jordan which is a natural habitat for wild beasts which prey on both men and animals. Glueck (1946:22)writes that the inhabitants of the mountains rarelyvisited the Jordan Rift, whose awesome reputationmust have reachedtheir ears. The heat of summeris unbearableand during the hamsin the thick forests are suffocating.Van de Velde (vol. 2, 309) tells of descendingfrom Majdal Bani Fadil to the Jordan Rift in the vicinity of Ein Fasayil on May 12, 1852. The air resembledfire, owing to the easterly wind. He and the guide thought that they would die descendinginto the giant furnace of the Rift. In Deut 32:22-24the reputationof this area is expressed as follows: For a fire is kindled by mine anger,
72
"Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has taken nothing?" (Amos 3:4); " . . . like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, there is none to deliver." (Micah 5:7); "Like a lion he has left his covert, for their land has become a waste . . ." (Jer 25:38); "Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their covert?" (Job 38:3940). Lions, leopards, and other wild beasts found a haven and shelter in the Pride of the Jordan, and they multiplied rapidly, migrating from the Pride to the forests and the mountains of the Holy Land, pursing the flocks according to the seasons. They began their migrations in the spring, when the Pride was flooded from the swell of the river. In summer and in autumn they followed the sheep to the mountains, and in winter and spring they preyed upon the herbivores of the Jordan's banks. This all took place while the mountains of Israel were devoid of any human settlement, that is, before the period of the Israelite settlement of Canaan, or following war, destruction, and exile. When the population of the east bank of the Jordan multiplied, especially during the days of Israelite settlement and the period of the Kingdom, the beasts of prey migrated to the thickest and densest place in the country, the Pride of the Jordan. On the other hand, the wild, herbivorous deer, gazelles, roebucks, animals came to the Jordan to drink etc. or to cross the river. Beasts of prey who lurked in the dense forest could look out upon all who descended the bare hills of the Bezek ford in the southern Beth-shean Valley.
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Lisan Marl to the thicket of the Jordan. Thus, prey was suppliedto these wild animals, as is stated in the Bible: "The lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyerof nations has set out; he has gone forth from his place to make your land waste; your cities will be ruins without an inhabitant"(Jer 4:7); also "He lurks in secret like a lion in his covert; he lurks that he may seize the poor . . ." (Ps 10:9). This indicatesthat the intensive settlementon both sides of the Jordan limited the migrationsof the wild beasts thereinand precludedtheir roamingthe mountainsduring peacetime.When an area bordering on the Jordan was abandoned because of war or forces of nature, the beasts immediatelyflocked to it, preyingupon man and beast alike. The Pride of the Jordan thus became a metaphorfor war. "If you have raced with men on foot, and they have weariedyou, how will you compete with horses?And if in a safe land you fall down, how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan?"(Jer 12:5);"Behold,like a lion coming up from the jungle of the Jordan against a strong sheepfold, I will suddenlymake him run away from her; I will appoint over her whomeverI choose" (Jer 49:19); "Hark,the wail of shepherds,for their glory is despoiled! Hark, the roar of lions; for the pride of the Jordan is laid waste"(Zech 11:3). On the other hand, the lone and serenelyquiet mountain served as the symbol of peace and securityfor the prophets:" . . . the city of our solemnities. . . a quiet habitation, a tabernaclethat shall not be taken down ...." Isaiah (33:20) calls Jerusalemby the name "quiet habitation":"Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes shall see Jerusalem,a quiet habitation,an immovabletent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken."Ezekiel saw the forests of the mountain and the desert as symbols of peace: "I will feed them
74
Beastsof prey, lurkingin theforests, could look upon any who descendedthe bare hills of the LisanMarl.
with good pasture,and upon the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture;there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on fat pasturethey shall feed on the mountainsof Israel"(34:14);"I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securelyin the wildernessand sleep in the woods" (34:25). Isaiah, too, saw the mountainand the desert as the habitationof peace: "Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousnessabide ln the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousnesswill be peace; and the result of righteousness,quietness and trust forever. My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation,in secure dwellings,and in quiet resting places"(32:16-18). The securityand peace on the mountain are emphasizedin Ps. 72:3: "Let the mountainsbear prosperityfor the people, and the hills, in righteousness!" The abandonmentof mountain settlementsin wartimeand the subsequentproliferationof wild beasts are reflectedin the accounts of the war between the kingdoms of Assyria and Israel. After Samaria was destroyed,the king of Assyria settled the area with aliens transferredfrom other parts of the empire. These newcomerswere attacked by the lions in the area: "And at the beginningof their dwelling, they did not fear the
LORD;thereforethe LORDsent lions among them, which killed some of them"(1 Kgs 17:25). It may be assumed that these lions came from the Pride of the Jordan and the Kerit stream or the streams of the dense forests surroundingthe mountainsof Samaria. An indication of the proliferationof wild beasts as a result of the destruction of settlementsis seen in Deut 7:22: "And the LORDyour God will take away these nations before you little by little; you may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerousJor you.'l We see testimony to the destructionof wild beasts during peacetimein Lev 26:6: "And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid;and I will remove evil beastsfrom the land, and the sword shall not go through your land." During wartime, however, wild animals prey on man and beast: "I will let loose the wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children,and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number;so that your ways shall become desolate"(Lev 26:22). The presenceof wild beasts along the roads of Israel is mentionedin Hos 13:7:"So I will be to them like a lion; as a leopard I will lurk beside the way." During such periods of social disruption,the mountain settlementsdwindled,and roads were abandonedto wild animals.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Bilik, E. 1955 Lion (Hebrew). Cols. 56044 in EncyclopediaBiblicaI. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute. Broshi, M. 1958 Jordan (Hebrew). Cols 778-87 in EncyclopediaBiblica III. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute. Burkhardt, J. L. 1822 Travelsin Syria and the [Ioly Land. London: Murray. Conder, C. R., and Kitchener, H. H. 1882 The Survey °f WesternPalestine,II. London: Palestine Exploration Fund. Glueck, N. 1946 The River Jordan. Philadelphia: Westminster. Horowitz, I. S. 1923 Palestineand the AdjacentCountries(Hebrew). Vienna: Vernay. Irby, C. L., and Mangles, J. 1847 Travelsin Egypt and Nubia, Syria, and the Holy Land; During the Years1817 and 1818. London: Murray (Elrst published in 1823). Lynch, W. F. 1849 Narrativeof the United States' Expeditionto the River Jordanandthe DeadSea.Philadelphia: Lee and Blanchard.
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Merrill, S. 1881 East of Jordan. New York: Scribners. The Molyneux Expedition to the Jordan and the Dead Sea 1848 Journalof the Royal GeographicSociety 18. 'Schattner, I. 1956 The Meanderings of the Jordan. Bulletin of the Israel ExplorationSociety[ Yediot]20:145-51. 1962 7he Lower Jordan Valley.Scripta Hierosolymitana 11. Jerusalem: Magnes. Thomson, W. M. 1859 The Land and the Book. 2 vols. New York: Harper. Tristam, H. B. 1898 The Natural Afistoryof the Bible. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Van de Velde, C. W. M.
Syria and Palestinein 1851 and 1852. Warren, C., and Conder, C. R. 1884 The Surve °f WesternPalestine, Jerusalem.London: Palestine Exploration Fund. Zohary, M. 1955 Geobotany(Hebrew). Merhavia, Israel.
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ThepopularBA ReadersI and2, nowin theirthirdprinting(paper),areavailableat a newdiscount-a 30%discount whenyou orderbeforethepublication dateof 1 September. Witha listpriceof $6.00,your cost is only $4.25 per volume. Volume1, in the traditionof BiblicalArcheologist, offersthereadera "reliable butnon-technical" approach to researchand discoveryin the field of biblicalarcheology.Articleson Manna,the Flood, and the Tabernaclebear directlyon the Bible while othersdealingwith ancientrites and settingsprovidea backgroundfor its understanding. Volume2 takesas its unifyingthemethe citiesof biblicaltimesandis dividedinto threeareas:Citiesand Landsof Israel'sNeighbors,MajorExcavatedCitiesof the Holy Land,and ProminentCitiesof the New Testamentperiod.The book rangesfrom 3rd-millennium Mesopotamiato Ist centuryConnth. The BA Readersare a convenientcollectionof some of the finestcontributions in the field of biblical archeologyand are companionvolumeswhichyou as a BiblicalArcheologistreaderwill wantto have. BA Reader 1 $4.25 Make checkspayableto ASOR ASOR BA Reader 2 $4.25 Forwardorderand check to Cambridge,MA 02139
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Twenty-FiveYearsAgo
Exploring the Manuscripts of Sinai and Jerusalem Biblical Archeologist is pleased to reprint excerptsfrom Kenneth W. Clark'simportantreport on manuscriptfnds at St. Catherine'sMonasteryat Mt. Sinai. This article, frst published in May, 1953, is especially interestingin light of the fact that a new hoard of manuscriptswas found recentlyat the same place (see BA, March, 1978).MartinHengeland other Germanspecialistshave stated that theyfear that the new collection could be lost in any new Arab-Israeli war unless the monks allowforeign scholarsto microfilm it soon. The monks have given one or two Greek scholarsaccess to the manuscripts,but they arephotographing the scripts piecemeal. As one scholar said, "All we need is three men with the right equipment, and we could microfilmthe whole lot in a week. It is going to take themyears." Thesituationis complicated by competitionbetweenexpertsfrom the universitiesin Athens and Salonikaand rivalriesbetweenthe governments of Egypt and Greece.Furtherdifficultiesstem from the fact that the Egyptianbranch of the Greek Orthodox Church is not responsible to the mother church in Greece, resulting in the present situation where no clear understandingexists concerningwhat will happen to the manuscriptsin the future.
discovery led to its identification with the Greek original embedded in a longer work already possessed .... Such discoverieshave shown how urgentit has been to explore the great collections in the Near East. In 1949-1950,such an exploration was at last made possible.The plan was double-pronged,designed to explore two of the largest and the least accessible libraries. One expedition was dispatched to Saint Catherine's Monastery in the wilderness of Sinai; second, underthe auspicesof the AmericanSchools of Oriental Research and the Library of Congress, another expedition was sent to Jerusalem. The expedition of 1949-1950had an objective differentfrom that of any previousexpedition. It was neither to search for special treasures,nor to acquire manuscripts for western libraries, nor to prepare library catalogues. The objective was to examine the entire library of manuscriptsin all languagesand to select the most importanttexts to reproduceon microfilm, in order that this selectedportion might be made accessibleto all scholarsand be submittedto manifold researches. Earlier explorers at Sinai returned with estimates that were sometimes glowing and sometimes completely deflating .... The reasons for all this confusion are several.First, the books were kept until recently in several places in the monastery and in Cairo. Second, the monks were not consistently cooperativewith all visitors.Third,manyof the visitors made fleeting, and often inexpert, exploration of the collection. Again, some searched only for the sensational and counted all else insignificant. Perhaps most important,manuscriptsand printed books were as one to the monks. All alike were "books"and even cataloguesdid not distinguishbetweenthem. Greatage in manuscriptcopy was a detriment rather than an asset -a legible text was the thing. The collection must have reachedits presentsize long ago, except for a few monastery record books in Greek. The Manuscripts
On January23, 1950, we were first admittedto the library. We chose to examine first a dozen choice For centuriestherehave remainedunexploredin the Near East valuabledepositsof ancientmanuscripts. volumes kept in a special cupboard, only three of Occasional discoveries there have served only to which had been describedby Gardthausen.We began emphasize the need for thorough investigations.For with a Lectionaryof the Gospels (Gr. 207) completely example, it was at Saint Catherine'smonasterythat encased in a silver-giltbox-cover, Russian art of the ConstantineTischendorfdiscoveredin 1859 a manu- sixteenth century. The manuscriptmost prized by the monks, in scriptof the entireBiblein Greek.Writtenin the fourth this special group, is the TheodosiusLectionarycalled century, Codex Sinaiticus has come to stand second only to Codex Vaticanusin age and importance,for the "GoldenGospels"(Gr. 204). It is a noble book on these two sister codices are the chief sources of our fine parchment, in large golden uncials throughout, New Testamenttext today. Again, it was in the same written about A.D. 1OOO. The last item from the specialcupboardwas the monastery thirty years later that Rendel Harris discovered in a Syriac manuscriptthe lost text of the small "Psalter of Cassia,ll written in the fourteenth second-century Apologia of Aristides, and this century.This is a leather-boundbook (cont. on p. 79) 76
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The Testamentsof the Twelve Patriarchs:A Critical Historyof Research,by H. Dixon Slingerland.ix + 122 pp. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1977; $6.00,paper $4.50. This doctoral dissertation,completedfor Union Theological Seminaryin New York City in 1973 and revised for publication in the Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series, covers research on a book includedin the Pseudepigraphaof the Bible. The Testamentsof the Twelve Patriarchshas been looked to as an important source of Christian origins. Slingerlandagreesthat its real value lies in "itsuse as a primary source for the way of life of some ancient community(ies)"(p. 20), although he warns, "thereis no consensusconcerningthe origin of the Testaments"
Book Reviews
Canon and Authonty,editedby G. W. Coatsand B. O. Long. xvi + 190pp. Philadelphia:FortressPress, 1977; $13.50. The presentcollection of papersfocuses on the historicaland theologicaldynamicsbehind the present shape of the Hebrew Bible canon and the authorityclaims implicit in the various stages of its formation. Six of the ten contributorsdeal with issues in the propheticcanon. BurkeLong stressesthe social aspects of prophetic legitimation while viewing the callnarrativesas part of the editorialhistory of the books. G. M. Tuckerdeals with anotheraspectof that history, the addition of superscriptions;Ronald E. Clements shows how the process of canonizationmoves in the directionof a unifiedmessage;while James A. Sanders discusses the hermeneutics of ;'false prophecy, an issue of growing importance in canon criticism. A careful study of Amos 7:9-17 by Peter R. Ackroyd suggeststhat it may have originatedin a differenttextform of Kings which included propheticjudgment on Jeroboam II, while yet another study on Amos, from Rolf P. Knierim,argues that the pronominalsuffix in 'aClbennu (Amos 1:3, etc.) refers to the anger of Yahweh('ap) symbolizedby fire in the culticand Holy War ambient of the Day of Yahweh. There is also a stylistic study of the P creation narrative from BernhardW. Anderson,a characterizationof Mosaic leadership as exemplified in the golden calf episode from George W. Coats, and an examinationof some contradictionsor, as he prefersto call them, examples of creativetensionin the CovenantCode, from Paul D. Hanson. The one contributionon the Writings,that of W. Sibley Towner, suggeststhat the work of the sages might be taken to provide biblical warranty for a contemporarysecular interpretationof events and of personal experience.
(p. 91).
He divides his report into two parts of unequal length. The first is descriptive, a detailed and "comprehensivehistoryof researchon the Testaments" (pp. 5-90). The second part is a "criticism of the presuppositionsand methods"used by commentators through 1970(pp. 91-115). In the first part Slingerland gives a chronological record of his research. It is extremely detailed and yet fails to provide essential background information readers need to understand positions assumed by investigatorsof the Testaments. For example,he does not supplyinformationabout the quantity or quality of manuscripts-availableat the various periods. Informationabout textual matters is scatteredpiecemealall throughthis historicalpart, but evaluation of the sources does not appear until the second part. After a brief evaluationof text-critical,sourcecritical, form-critical, and literary-critical methods previously employed, Slingerlandproposes to substitute "a more inclusiveapproach,"namely,"thedouble origin of the document"(p. 107). But he devotes only six pages to this approach, which simply begs the question. Near the end he states frankly, "No new methods are proposed . . . no new evidenceis brought forth" (p. 113). As a result,the readeris left with the frustration of having worked through a complicated research report without receiving adequate direction for a personal encounter with the Testaments. In other words, despite his promiseto offer a new approachto the origin of this work, Slingerlanddoes not offer a methodologyfor dealing with this admittedlycomplex problem.This type of doctoralthesis needs to be done, but it should be reworked radically for general publication. A detailed bibliographycloses the study.
BLENKINSOPP JOSEPH University of Notre Dame
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
JAMESM. REESE St. Johnss University Jamaica, NY
77
occupied with confessional statements of several churcheswhich, the author holds, do not sufficiently recognize"the full diversityof the Biblicaldata on the motif9'(p. 93). He affirmsthat the whole problemmust be consideredand located withinthe frameworkof the Because Jesus and his disciples "spoke in and christological center of the biblical revelationand its from, as well as to, their times," the editor has compiled this "book of readings"to help "studentsin basic redemptionmotif. He sets the subject of divine seminary or Bible school understandmore fully the retribution in the context of "the ongoing Biblical religious background of New Testament thought." motif of God'sredeemingpurpose"(p. 94). The idea is Compact and comparatively inexpensive, it should not new, but Towner'selucidationof it puts a rather captivatingand convincing constructionon it. God's serve this purpose well. A generalintroductionexplainsthe purposeand redeeming grace "supersedes his commitment to plan of the work, the importanceof the history and achieve perfect justice through retribution"(p. 140). literature of the intertestamentalperiod for under- The concludingchapter bringsthe biblical perspective standing the New Testament, and the scope of the in its entiretyto bearon "a non-retributionallife-style." literature.The continuity between the Old Testament Some notes, a bibliography,glossary of terms, and and the intertestamentalliterature,the developmentof scripturalindex follow. All in all, a stimulatingand varied tendencies and forms of expression, and the thoughtful book. major themes of the sources are discussed briefly. JACOBM. MYERS The largestpart of the book consistsof the texts Gettysburg,PA themselves.The selection is limited to "Judaic"documents of the last two centuriesB.C. and the 1st century A.D. and includes some material not found in collections with a broaderscope. The quoted portions Jesus in the First Three Gospels, by Millar Burrows. are presentedin threesectionsentitled:The Maccabean 304 pp. Nashville: Abingdon Press; $11.95. Struggle, the Hasmonean Heyday, and Judea Under Rome. Each section begins with a historical sketch This book, by a respectedbiblical scholar best consistingof excerpts from Josephus'Jewish War;the known for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, seeks to selectionsfrom the literaturefollow. Accordingto the help dedicatedChristiansthink about the meaningof availabilityof the materialelsewhere,less is givenfrom Jesus. It attempts to draw together the information the apocryphaand the Qumranliteraturethan from the about Jesusin the SynopticGospelsso that the resultis pseudepigrapha.An introductorystatement precedes a portrait of the ministryand message of Jesus. It is each selection, and commentsare interspersedamong clear from the introductionthat Burrowsintends to and within the quotations. Cross-referencesand brief begin from an assertionof the humanityof Jesus and notes are given in the margin. thence to probe the Messianicquestion. The structure Part Three contains "ExtendedNotes," four on of the study is essentiallyan outline of the Gospel of "Literary-Historical" topics and three on "Messianic- Mark, with special sections devoted to the materialin Christological" themes. Bibliographical suggestions Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2, to the Sermon on the follow each note, and a "Select Bibliography" Mount/Sermon on the Plain, and to Luke's special concludes the volume. section (Luke 9:51-18:14). Throughout the work there is clarity of MILLAR BURROWS expression, sensitivityto religiousissues, and thoughtYale University ful analysis.The natureof the study itself, however,is puzzling.It is criticaland liberalin its treatmentof the Gospel passages,but it is so only in a pre-form-critical sense. As a result, one can read this study unawareof How God Deals With Evil, by W. Sibley Towner.185 the problems about the knowledge of the historical pp. Philadelphia: WestminsterPress, 1976; $4.95. Jesus so familiar since Schweitzerand Bultmann.No systematic way of separating church tradition from This is one of the seriesin BiblicalPerspectives Jesus traditionis proposedor followed. For those who on Current Issues under the general editorship of need a preliminaryintroductioninto the studyof Jesus, Howard C. Kee. The theme with which it deals has this book will serve,but for those who are awareof the been, is, and in all probabilitywill continueto be one difficulties in ascribing everything to Jesus himself, of the most tantalizingproblemsin both biblical and Burrow'swork representsa throwbackto anotherera. systematictheology. Towner'sdiscussionis set forth in LAMAR COPE five chapters.First, he surveysthe pastoralproblemof Carroll College punishment,and then, he offers a lengthytreatmentof Waukesha, WT the motif of divine retribution.The third chapter is The Legacyof Zion: IntertestamentalTexts Relatedto the New Testament,edited by Henry R. Moeller.212 pp. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977; $8.95.
78
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Jesus in ContemporaryHistoricalResearch,by Gustaf discussed redaction criticism - which he does not, Aulen. 163 pp. Philadelphia:FortressPress, 1976; despite its significancefor his topic he would have been less likely to espouse this position. To be fair, he $7.95. Gustaf Aulen, well-knownsystematictheologian and bishop in the Swedish Lutheran Church, has turned his pen to the treatmentof the historicalJesus in major works writtensince 1961 by such scholarsas Dodd, Braun, Jeremias, Davies, Gerhardsson,Linnemann, Via, and Hahn. His book, not designedfor the New Testamentspecialist, will be of value to those in the church who know little of currentNew Testament scholarship, particularly those fearful that recent scholarlywork may have more or less writtenoff the historical Jesus. After a brief review of major developmentsin Jesus research from 1900-1961,given special significance by the fact that the author knew almost all the men he discusses (including Harnack, Schweitzer, Bultmann,and Dodd), Aulen discussesin turn Jesus' ethical teaching (which he sees as dominated by a radical interpretationof the demand of love for God and one's neighbor),the accusationsmadeagainsthim, his parables, his last days, the issue of the titles attributedto him and-though he acknowledgesthat this is strictly speaking outside the bounds of his subject -the resurrectionaccounts. His own concerns emerge in his discussion of the views of other men on these topics. He is clearly opposed to both Bultmann's discounting of the importance of the facts of Jesus' ministry and Schmithal'sview that the quest for the historicalJesus is theologically illegitimate. He refuses to find a theologicallysignificantdifferencebetweenthe teaching of Jesus and the church's proclamationabout him. Following Gerhardsson he sees Jesus himself as belongingto the gospel he proclaims(p. 32), as already incarnatingthat gospel during the days of his earthly ministry. Furthermore,while not committing himself on the issue of what titles Jesus may have claimedfor himself, he is clear-certainly correctly-that Jesus' authoritywas not groundedin such titles but ratherin the context of his messageand in its powerto convince, a power related to his deeds as well as his words. While Aulen is willing to acknowledge cases where there is no scholarlyconsensus-for instance, in relation to the issue of Jesus' use of titles later grantedhim by the church-inevitably the emphasis in his treatmentlies on the degreeof agreementamong the scholars he discusses. This at times is a welcome corrective in relation to a discipline perhaps overly concerned to draw fine distinctions. Still, it tends to make New Testament scholarshipboth less exciting and less dangerousthan it currentlyis. It is no accident that Aulen most often quotes his contemporaryDodd and agrees with Dodd that a chronological reconstruction of Jesus' ministry is possible-a view not widely held among leading scholars today. Had he
BIBLICALARCHEOLOGIST
does not reject form-criticismand is willing to admit that many statementsattributedto Jesus originatedin the church. Nevertheless,he says of the evangelists, "they strenuouslylabor to understandwhat actually happened"-a statement of which the final part is problematical. The book is commendablein its lucidity and one is full of admirationfor the man who finishedit when he was 96! One neverthelesswishes that he had discussedor at least mentionedthe questionswhichthe current Jesus researchraises for systematictheology, his own field of expertise. The translation is generally competent. The bottom three lines of p. 123 are in disorder,on p. 104 is used for "apocalyptist"and on p. 126 "apocalyptic'9 "first fruit" is used for "first fruits." JOHNA. BAILEY The University of Michigan
only 5 x 3 inches,in which 151 (cont. from p. 76) Psalms are written on only six paper folios in a microscopicbut clear hand, and in this same century ArchbishopJoseph wrote on the flyleafthat it "belongs to the Monastery of Mount Sinai." Thereare more than 500 manuscriptsof biblical text at Saint Catherine's,in five languages(200, Old Testament;300, New Testament). More than 300 of these are in Greek, of which 175 contain New Testamenttext which is now for the first time under study. The chief treasure at Sinai today is Codex Syriacus(Syr. 30) discoveredby Mrs. Lewisin 1892on her first visit to the monastery.It is an old copy (A.D. 778) of the "Lives of the Holy Women," but Mrs. Lewisdetectedunderneatha Syriactext of the Gospels written about A.D. 400. The second language in Sinai has long been Arabic. It was therefore no surpriseto find that the Arabic collection is very large, including about a hundredbiblical manuscripts.The two oldest contain the Acts and Epistles (Arab. 154 and 151), writtenin the eighth centuryand in A.D.867. Otherninth-century copies contain the Old Testament, Gospels, Pauline Epistles, and the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach.... Other languagesrepresentedin the great Sinai library are Ethiopic, Latin, Armenian,Persian, Turkish,and Coptic. W. CLARK KENNETH DUKEUNIVERSITY BA 16.2 (May, 1953)
79
Colophon from "The Wall" Did the augurs inaugurate,did the Clarissimisteady the transverserods, did they align the plummets carefully, did they check the bearing attentively, was the templum dead true at the median intersection did the white unequal pair labour the yoke, tread the holy circuit did they, so early in the marls of Cispadana show forth, foretoken the rudiments of our order when the prectrsors at the valley-sitesmade survey of the loam, plotted the trapezoidson the sodden piles, digged the sacred pits, before the beginning . . . did they square the hill-sites for the hut-circles,did the hill-groupslook to each other, were the hostile strong-points one by one, made co-ordinate did Quirinal with Viminal call to the Quadrata
did the fence of Tullius embrace the mixed kindreds did the magic wall (that keeps the walls) describe the orbit did that wall contain a world from the beginning did they project the rectilineal plane upwards to the floor of heaven had all within that reaching prism one patria: rooted clod or drifted star dog or dryad or man born of woman did the sacred equation square the mundane site was truth with fact conjoined did the earth-mother blossom the stone lintel did urvusbecome urbs did the bright share turn the dun clod to the star plan did they parcel out per
scamna
et strigas
the civitas of God that we should sprawl from Septimontium a megalopolis that wills death? DAVID JONES
o
David Jones (1895-1974),in addilion to his two major poems, In Parenthesis and The Anathemata, wrole severalfragmenls of a poem dealing wilh Palesline, where he lived briefly in 1934. Thefragmenls were published, along wilh some olher shorler works, in The Sleeping Lord (New York: Chilmark,1974). In "The Wall,"an excerpl of which is reprinledhere, some "Roman lroops garrisoned in Syria al lhe lime of lhe Passion"are on parade in Jerusalem. The speaker of lhe poem says lO his male, "ll's nol for lhe likes of you and me lo cogilale high policy or lO guess lhe inscrulableeconomy" of lhe Roman dispensalion. Yel, he insisls, "You see a lhing or lwo, you lhink a lhing or lwo, in our walk of life, walkingfor lwenly years, by day, by nighl, doing lhe rounds of lhe walls hal mainlain lhe world," lhal is, lhose of Rome. Bul he is in Jerusalem,and as he goes on speaking of Rome, il is lhe vision of Jerusalem'swalls lhal informs his concern wilh lhe greal lheme of lhe cily as world. In lhe single long peroralion here, he licks off lhe cosmogonic lrappings of lhe mylh of lhe Roman empire and leads us lO inquire whal cilies and people have lo do wilh lhe hislories of each olher. Jones' work is known lO archeologislsof lhe Roman world, especially of Roman Brilain, and we hope, by reprinlinglhis brief seclion, lo inlroduce il lo lhose inlerested in he archeology of SoulhweslernAsia.
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