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From Blackwood's Magazine. the bed of the Jordan. It is about twelve and a quarter miles long from

EXPLORATIONS. - PART II.

THE pleasure which we promised our-north to south, and at its broadest part selves when recently concluding a paper six and three quarter miles wide from on the Surveys of the Holy Land, we east to west. But its width is by no now realize, as there is an opportunity means regular, its shape being that of a afforded of giving some account of the pear or a leg of mutton, the broadest part examination of the Sea of Galilee by the toward the north, and the more projectEngineer expedition. On the shores of ing side toward the west, the eastern shore this sea our Lord was "in His own coun-being by comparison straight, except try," for Nazareth is only about twenty near the lower end. It is full of fish. Its miles from the part of the water nearest waters, thick and muddy at the extreme to it: the sea washes the district in north, become clear and bright as they which His youth and the greatest part of approach its narrow end; for Jordan, His manhood were passed; for He was which flows into it a foul stream, leaves only an occasional visitor to Jerusalem. the lake a pure and sweet river. The A large proportion of the scenes depict-surface is from 600 to 700 feet below the ed in the Gospels occurred on this lake level of the Mediterranean. The climate or on its shores, or in the immediate is genial in winter, and not excessively neighbourhood of them. If the hills and hot in summer. With shores that rise valleys, and towns, and strands, and but gently, in most parts, from the basin, waters, and fields, and rocks of this and whose colour is uniformly brown favoured region could give their testi- where seen above the foliage at their mony, they would furnish tales on which bases, the scenery would be tame were it millions of minds would hang with rap- not for the fine hills, including the snowy ture; and the "many other things which tops of Hermon, which can be seen all Jesus did, the which, if they should be round through the transparent ether, and written every one, I suppose that even for the innumerable effects of light and the world itself could not contain the shade. Shrubs and blossoms add to the books that should be written," would be beauty of the coasts, which vary continmade manifest for our edification. That ually, being sometimes backed by broad wisdom of which we inherit but a few plains, showing at others the openings of pages was being poured forth daily for long gorges, and elsewhere, especially to years in the parts of Zebulon and Naph- the north, being broken into many and tali; those parables of which we know charming bays. Volcanic action appears but a selection were narrated plentifully to be energetic: there are hot springs in around the famous lake; that beneficence of which we long for further instances had here its chief exercise,- for it was in this region principally that our Lord Those who have formed a mental picwent about doing good." There can- ture of this sea, so often recurring in not be a mile of ground here which is not sacred story-as who in childhood has a field of interest not a village nor a not?-have, no doubt, imagined a water highway but what we can believe to have covered with ships and boats, resounding received the impress of his feet, or with the cries of sailors and fishermen, have echoed to his voice. The construc- and flanked by many proud cities rich in tion, therefore, of an accurate map of the merchandise and glorious to the sight. country, will be hailed universally with Alas for such visions! the cities and the satisfaction, and the researches of the men and the traffic were there, but they map-makers will, we are sure, be ardently have disappeared so completely that the followed. waters of the lake may be said to sleep The Sea of Galilee, or the Sea of Tibe- amid a solitude. As for the famous rias, or Lake of Gennesareth, is a sheet cities, of most of them it cannot be said of water formed by the expansion of with certainty where they were, and this

the basin of the lake, and very serious earthquakes occur. Wild boar are to be found on a plain to the north-east.

long straggling city without a wall. It seems, too, that the name Tel Hum may be derived from Capernaum or Capharnaum. It is to be remarked, also, that there was a synagogue at Capernaum; for we are told (John vi. 59) that our Lord taught therein and the remains of a

survey now first begins to give us some the truth after the unsentimental process reliable data for identifying their ruins of applying the chain and compass. A one or two remain, but not as cities; small, heap known as Tel Hum, nearly as exdirty, Arab villages alone represent those tensive as the ruins of old Tiberias, is, in busy towns, wherein were done "mighty Captain Wilson's opinion, what remains works," such as would have overcome of Capernaum. It is learned from Josethe sinful obduracy of Tyre and Sidon. phus that near to Capernaum was a celTiberias is there, on the west coast, ebrated fountain; and a fountain apparrather below the centre of the lake. Its ently answering to his description has sea-wall, broken columns, towers, aque- been found at Et Tabigah, a mile and a ducts, attest the glory of its ancient half from Tel Hum, and shown on the estate; but the modern Tiberias is but a map. Moreover, it has been ascertained poor collection of houses, chiefly inhab- that Tel Hum is a larger ruin than any ited by Jews who have returned to Pales- other on the sea-coast in that neighbourtine. Its filth and vermin have become a hood; and it is a common opinion that proverb.* About four miles north of Capernaum was of more importance than this, a heap of ruins, now named Mejdel, either of the other two cities, Bethsaida marks the site of that Magdala where and Chorazin. A very old traveller has Mary Magdalene had her home. North left it on record that Capernaum had no of this, again, is the plain of Gennesareth, wall; and Tel Hum must have been a an area of great beauty and fertility, along which, sad to say, are several heaps of rubbish, denoting, probably, the places of old towns and villages wherein our Lord taught. But there are other names more famous than those which we have mentioned; one is impatient to hear of the proud Capernaum, of Chorazin, of synagogue, which the explorers well Bethsaida. What report is there of these? Well, there is so little positively to be said of them — rather there was so little positively to be said, for the surveyors have done much toward bringing them to life again. that where they stood is a question. Bold travellers and learned sages have essayed to establish the identity of this or that heap of rubbish with one or other of the cities; each has been jealous for his own heap. There have been differences and controversies, and there would have been, for many a day, controversies destined to end in nothing, had not the surveyors, by subjecting each ruin and all its surroundings to rigid measurement, so that they may all be seen and judged of on the map at a glance, brought the different speculations to a test. We will not say what the many speculations have been, but state what seems most likely to be

That the king of the fleas holds his court at Tiberias, is, Captain Wilson tells us, an Arab proverb. Fleas must be rather plentiful where they are noticed by Arabs.

knew how to distinguish from any other building, have been found at Tel Hum. Captain Wilson thinks that by turning over the ruins and examining beneath them, evidence might be found sufficient to set the question at rest. Speaking of our Lord's discourse in this synagogue, he says: "It was not without a certain strange feeling that on turning over a large block we found the pot of manna engraved on its face, and remembered the words 'I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead." There remains something yet to be said about this synagogue. It was told of the centurion whose servant was healed, "he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue” (Luke vii. 5). Now, if Tel Hum be Capernaum, as it probably is, the surveying party stood within the ruined walls of this very synagogue, many of the stones of which have been burned for lime, or taken away to be used in modern buildings.

About two and a half miles to the north of Tel Hum, and nearly the same

Tauchnitz edition of the New Testament, which, by a slight difference with the authorized version, make the passages of our Lord and His disciples over the water, and some circumstances of time and place, harmonize completely with the sites which he ascribes to the cities, while in the same accounts our version would perplex a little.

distance up a valley from the shore of the survey, which by fixing the fountain in lake, is a ruin named Kerazeh. The the one place, and ascertaining the true name always suggested Chorazin; but site of the ruins in the other, cleared up travellers were unable to identify it with the prospect. And we ought to add that that city, because to their view the area Captain Wilson more than once notices of the ruins was very small. Here, how- the assistance which he received from ever, the hard facts of the survey come the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS., and the to the aid of inquiring minds: the ruins look small, because at a hundred yards' distance the masonry here can hardly be distinguished from the surrounding rocks; but when carefully examined and tried by the chain, they are found to be by no means insignificant, but to indicate that the area of the city was nearly, if not quite, equal to that of Capernaum, if Capernaum is Tel Hum. At Kerazeh, also, the ruins of a synagogue have been found. Many of the dwelling-houses here are in a tolerably perfect state; and Captain Wilson, very reasonably supposing that these give a good idea of the kind of house in which our Saviour dwelt, writes a description of them which we quote:

They are generally square, of different sizes -the largest measure was nearly 30 feetand have one or two columns down the centre to support the roof, which appears to have been flat, as in the modern Arab houses. The walls are about two feet thick, built of masonry or of loose blocks of basalt. There is a low doorway in the centre of one of the walls, and each house has windows twelve inches high and six and a half inches wide. In one or two cases the houses were divided into four chambers.

The information given concerning Bethsaida is not very precise; neither does Captain Wilson himself appear to be firmly convinced, although on the whole, he inclines to place the city at Khan Minyeh, a ruin on a cliff overhanging the lake, two and a half miles south of Tel Hum. But it is still matter of dispute whether there were two Bethsaidas or only one. Many, looking at the descriptions of Josephus and at the requirements of Scripture, decide that there must have been two- viz., Bethsaida in Galilee, and Bethsaida Julias, on the eastward of the Jordan, near where the river enters the lake. Bethsaida Julias was promoted from being a village to being a city by Philip the Tetrarch, who gave it its second name after the Emperor's daughter, and who there prepared himself a tomb in which he was buried. But the notices of Bethsaida in the Scripture would seem to require a place of that name on the west shore of the lake also. Very likely the wording of the Gospels would bear an interpretation which would dispense with a second Bethsaida, and in that case no further search in Galilee would be necessary. If there were a second, it no doubt stood on, or not far withdrawn from, the coast-line (five miles long) from Khan Minyeh to the flowing

Traces of the main road which led out of the city towards Damascus have been discovered. The city would have been in sight from the water at the same time as that at Tel Hum. So, the fact of its magnitude having been brought to light, there is no reason why we should object to Kerazeh as the modern form of Chorazin. Indeed, Captain Wilson has no doubt about their being the same; but he would be glad to have his conviction tried by the results of subterranean ex-in of the Jordan. aminations.

On a bend of the river a little way

Here we take occasion to state, that above the lake is Et Tel, a ruin which for the light thrown on these important has traditionally been identified with points to wit, the sites of Capernaum Bethsaida Julias; but our surveyors, and Chorazin we are indebted to the after examining this "heap" with their

most severely; and the King of Jerusalem was taken prisoner by Saladin. This was a little before Cœur de Lion appeared on the scene. But the Horns of Hattin have a claim to our regard higher than a fight between Crusaders and Moslems can give. This hill is traditionally known as the " Mount of Beatitudes," where the great precepts of Christianity were first propounded in a gentle discourse to a multitude, not as the Jewish law had been given in clouds and thunder from Sinai. We cannot hope to be ever positively certain as to where the Sermon on the Mount was preached, but our surveyors say that the Horns of Hattin affords a situation admirably fitted for its delivery.

usual care, are of opinion that the re- field of a battle very fatal to the Crusaders mains are those of a place not sufficient-in 1187. They lost the cross, and suffered ly magnificent to answer to the city of Philip. One-third of the way down the east coast of the sea, and nearly opposite to Magdala, is a ruin enclosed by a wall three feet thick, and named Khersa. This Captain Wilson, agreeing with some former travellers, decided to be Gergesa, the place where our Lord delivered the two demoniacs, and where He permitted the devils whom He had cast out to go into the herd of swine. Close to Gergesa the coast becomes suddenly steep; and this, no doubt, is the place where the swine ran down into the sea. A view of the maps, too, helps to smooth away an apparent discrepancy in the Gospels. Two of the evangelists say that the miracle was wrought in the country of the Gadarenes; but Captain Wilson shows that if the miracle had been wrought at Gadara, the swine would have had a gallop of two miles after rushing down the steep before they got to the sea; and he suggests, either that Gergesa was subject to Gadara, and might therefore properly be said to be in the country of the Gadarenes, or else that "Gadarenes" has been written in MSS. of Mark and Luke for "Gergesenes," which latter is the name given in Mathew. That the scene of the story was on the eastern side of the lake there can be no doubt; because our Lord, when the inhabitants besought Him to depart out of their coasts, entered into a ship, and passed over and came into His own city, which was on the west. From three to four miles south of Khersa, on the plateau of a hill, and a mile or more from the coast, are the walls of Gamala, once a fortified city, the inhabitants of which were all massacred when the Romans took it. The city of Gadara lies about five miles south-east of the most southern point of the lake. The remains here appear to be more numerous and better preserved than those of any other city on these coasts. Its theatres - one of them very perfect are yet to be seen; and its cemetery, containing rock-hewn tombs and sarcophagi, is a remarkable place. The tombs are now Arab dwelling-places. Close to where the Jordan flows out of the lake is Kerak, the remains of the city Tarichæa.

Four miles due vest of a point on the coast midway between Magdala and Tiberias, is the village of Hattin, and near it a curious two-peaked mountain, known as the "Horns of Hattin." This was the

There has been much controversy concerning the place where the miraculous feeding of the five thousand took place. Tradition puts it on the west coast; and this has been the chief cause of the supposition that there was a second Bethsaida in Galilee, because St. Luke says that it was in a desert place belonging to Bethsaida; while St. Mark states that after the miracle the disciples went on before to Bethsaida. Either, therefore, there must have been two Bethsaidas, or an error has somewhere crept into the accounts. Now it is interesting to learn from Captain Wilson that in the Sinaitic version of St Luke, the words "belonging to Bethsaida” do not occur. So, if this version be accepted as the right one, the miracle may have been performed on the west coast, in the neighbourhood of the cities from which the multitude came out; and the return voyage of the disciples may have been directed on Bethsaida, although one Gospel says that they came to Gennesaret, and another that they went towards Capernaum: for these last may be reconciled. The disciples may have embarked to go to Bethsaida and yet have been obliged to land at an intermediate point, if they encountered difficulties. Now we know that a memorable storm overtook them on this voyage; and this may have obliged them to land at Capernaum, which if it be Tel Hum, is in the land of Gennesaret. We should add, too, that the Sinaitic version, as quoted by Captain Wilson, by a verbally small difference from the other versions, makes the place of the miracle to be near Tiberias, which would accord with the tradition above mentioned. We do not by any means regard this reasoning as conclu sive; but, supposing it to be accepted,