Jerusalem the holy; a brief history of ancient Jerusalem; with an account of the modern city and its conditions political, religious, and social, by Edwin Sherman Wallace .. online

GIFT OF




irin



JERUSALEM THE HOLY



K



• • • •

• • »

• • ••



• • • .»• • ••, • •



Jerusalem the Holy



A Brief History of Ancient Jeru-
salem; with an Account of the
Modem City and its Conditions
Political, Religious and Social



EDWIN SHERMAN WALLACE

Late United States Consul for Palestine



With Fifteen Illustrations from Photographs
and Four Maps



NEW EDITION ; • .' i



Edinburgh and London

Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier

1904



1)51^'






d



To My Mother
At Rest in the Heavenly Jerusalem,

AND

To My Wife

Who Shared with Me the Varied Experiences

OF Five Years' Residence in the

Jerusalem of Earth



€52999



(yi-



^



Preface

BOOKS about Jerusalem are sufficiently numerous. Many
volumes within recent years have recorded the impres-
sions of tourists with such adequacy for their purpose as a
few days' sojourn in the city permits. These, while generally
too long for the careless, are too superficial for those really in-
terested in the past and present of the Holy City. Some fifty
years ago the appearance of Williams' " Holy City " and Bar-
clay's ** City of the Great King " gave the English public two
real histories of Jerusalem. But the great length of these excel-
lent treatises has confined them in great measure to the shelves
of large libraries, while the flight of time and the growth of
knowledge is, slowly but surely, rendering them antiquated.

In the present volume the author has sought to combine
completeness with brevity, and thus to place in the hands of
those who are interested in this city of sacred memories and
holy sites a book of such facts as are ascertainable. The opin-
ions expressed are based upon careful study of recognized
authorities, supplemented by diligent personal investigation,
carried on during a residence of five years in Jerusalem. In
many conversations with travellers the writer has learned what
is of greatest interest to those who have but limited time for
their own observation. The attempt is here made to give the
benefit of his studies to those who are interested, to answer as
briefly as possible the questions that have been so often asked,
and thus to prepare intending visitors for an intelligent com-
prehension of what they shall see when they arrive in the Holy
City. At the same time the work, it is hoped, will benefit
those whom circumstances prevent from beholding the present
remnant of the once great city, by giving them a picture of

7



8 Preface

what it is and narrating the experiences through which it has
reached its present condition.

For the historical parts of the work I must acknowledge my
indebtedness to many, but especially to Professor Sayce's
" Patriarchal Palestine " ; Edersheim's '* Jesus the Messiah " ;
Doctor Robinson's " Biblical Researches" ; Williams' ** Holy
City," and Barclay's '*City of the Great King." So many
books have been consulted that it would be useless to mention
all. I have not hesitated to draw from every source, and those
who are acquainted with the publications of the Palestine Ex-
ploration Society will find that these papers have assisted me
very materially. The illustrations are from photographs taken
by Rev. Putnam Cady and Prof. E. Warren Clark.

Edwin Sherman Wallace.

United States Consulate ^ Jerusalem y 1898.



K-



Contents



CHAPTER FAGB

I. The City of the Canaanites 13

II. The City of David and Solomon 27

III. Jerusalem as Christ Saw It 47

IV. The City as it is To-day 69

V. The New Jerusalem 89

VI. The Walls and Gates loi

VII. The Hills Round About 115

VIII. The Valleys 129

IX. The Temple Hill 147

X. Church of the Holy Sepulchre 171

XI. The New, or Gordon's, Calvary 199

XII. Some Places of Special Interest 215

XIII. Excavations in Jerusalem 231

XIV. Climate and Health 247

XV. Passion Week and Easter 261

XVI. The Jews 287

XVII. Christians in Jerusalem 311

XVIII. The Moslems 329

XIX. The Future of Jerusalem . . 349



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.



The MosQyi of Omar Frontispiece

Robinson's Arch Facing page 60

Native Water Carriers )

\ 79

Street Market Scenes )

United States Consulate )

V 94

Consular Guards )

Interior of Damascus Gate

Gate of St. Stephen

V . . . " " 106

East Wall and Moslem Cemetery



The Golden Gate

Mount of Olives and Garden of Gethsemanb . " " 118

Old Olive Tree in Garden of Gethsemane . . " "139

The City as Seen from the Summit of the New Calvary " " 199

Southern View of the New Calvary . . . " '* 209

Syrian Bishop of Jerusalem tt n ^^o

Maps following'' " Yj-;



^



THE CITY OF THE CANAANITES



Jerusalem — The Name — Its Origin — Salem — Testimony of
Egyptian Monuments — Tel-el-Amarna Tablets — Melchizedek
— Ebed-Tob — Abraham in Canaan — Civilization of the Ca-
naanites — Debir — Modern Explorations — Jerusalem always a
Sacred City — Jebusites — Hittites — The Confederates — Adoni-
Zedek — Victories of Joshua — Division of the Land — Judah and
Benjamin — Moral and Religious Degeneracy — Jebusite Su-
premacy — Judges — Samuel — Founding of the Monarchy —
David — Conquest of Jerusalem.



^r



THE CITY OF THE CANAANITES

JERUSALEM as a name and as a place has given students
of archaeology much concern. The origin of the name
and of the people who first employed it to describe their
city has been a fruitful source of speculation. Diligent ques-
tioning of the monuments of Egypt and the tablets of Babylonia
has succeeded in making these long silent witnesses give up
their secrets. Periods of time, the history of which conjecture
has supplied, are now positively known. Fact has taken the
place of supposition. The inquirer as to the origin of the
word Jerusalem is no longer told that the word was coined at
the time of David ; he learns that it was in existence centuries
before, that it was known as the name of a city of importance
in the days when Babylonish influence was felt as far west as
the shores of the Mediterranean.

Until within very recent years one might have accepted any
of several definitions of the word Jerusalem. The rabbis in
their zeal to connect the founding of the city with Abraham
asserted that he, the father of their faith, first called the place
Jireh and that Shem contributed the latter half of the name ;
in order that there might be no unpleasantness between these
two worthies, God himself combined the two words into the
one by which the city has since been known. Reland and
Ewald derived it from two Hebrew words meaning '*the in-
heritance of peace." Gesenius translated it ** foundation of
peace." Others have held the opinion that originally there
were here two separate cities, one known as Jebus, the other
Salem ; that eventually they were united and their names re-
solved into one, which, for the sake of euphony, became Jerusa-

'5



;l6/'r *-/'.;; ; .'/Jerusalem the Holy

lem instead of Jebussalem. A similar view was held by those
who give the Hebrew dual form to the word, reading it Jeru-
shalaim, a form that occurs in five places in the Old Testa-
ment. When the Greek influence predominated, a Greek der-
ivation made it mean *' the holy place of Solomon."

All these hypotheses had their value when no positive infor-
mation was at hand : now the facts are before us. In the
cuneiform documents the city is called Uru-Salim, the city of
Salim. In the early language of Canaan as we learn from a
Nineveh tablet **uru" was equivalent to the Babylonish
'* alu," a city. The Semitic *'uru" represents the Gen. xiv. i8; Psalm Ixxvi. 2. * Judges ii. 12.

'Judges ii. 10-14. < Judges xix. 12.



24 Jerusalem the Holy

The period of the judges, until the authority of Samuel, the
greatest of the judges, was recognized, was a time of political
and religious anarchy. ** Every man did that which \ras
right in his own eyes." * As a consequence the record of the
period is a story of corruption involving, except in a few cases,
even the priests and judges. Under such circumstances uo ad-
vance could be made, and we may pass rapidly over an epoch
the study of which tells us nothing of Jerusalem. Secure in
their rock fortress on Zion the Jebusites remained, doubtless us-
ing past experience to make more safe against attack the city
for which nature had done so much. And they would have
remained in insolent possession, had not a great leader ap-
peared.

In the midst of this national degeneracy Samuel, second
only to Moses as a ruler and guide, came upon the stage of ac-
tion. With the duties of a judge he combined those of a
teacher and a prophet. In time he shamed the Israelites out
of their idolatry and delivered them from the power of the
Philistines. The spirit of Jehovah came upon them again and