Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

"In that day shall a man cast away his idols of silver,

And his idols of gold, which they have made to worship,

To the moles and to the bats:

To go into the caves of the rocks, and into clefts of the craggy rocks,
From the fear of Jehovah, and from the glory of his majesty,

When he ariseth to shake the earth with terror."

The same image is employed by the prophet Hosea, and adopted after him by the author of the Revelations:

"The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed;

The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars;

And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us,'

And to the bills, Fall on us.'

"And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the clefts of the mountains."

The cavern, in the mountains of Engedi, in which David and his men secreted themselves, must have been of considerable dimensions, for he had upwards of six hundred followers with him, and they were concealed in the sides of the cave. Strabo mentions, beyond Damascus, two mountains called Trachones, and from thence towards Arabia and Iturea, certain rugged mountains, in which there are deep caverns, one of which will hold four thousand men : ὧν ἐν και τετρακισχιλίους ανθρωπους δεξασθαι δυναμενον.* Tavernier speaks of a grot between Aleppo and Bir, that would hold near three thousand horse. Of smaller grottoes, Maundrell noticed a considerable number in the neighbourhood of Sidon: "Three hours distant, about a mile from the sea, there runs along a high rocky mountain; in the sides of which are hewn a multitude of grots, all very little differing from each other. They have entrances about two feet square; in the inside you find, in most or all of them, a room of about four yards square. There are of these subterraneous caverns, two hundred in number. It may, with probability, at least be concluded, that these places were contrived for the use of the living and not of the dead. Strabo describes the habitations of the Troglodyte to have been somewhat of this kind."‡

The scene of David's seclusion and Saul's jeopardy may, in all probability, be identified with a capacious cave visited and described by Pococke. "A little beyond this place," he observes, speaking of the neighbourhood of Tekoa, in the district of Engedi, "the valley runs east and west; and on the right hand is a very large grotto, which the Franks call a labyrinth, and the Arabs, El Maamah, or the hiding place. The high rocks on the side of the valley are almost perpendicular, and the way to the grotto is by a terrace formed in the rock, which, either by art or nature, is very narrow. The rock is supported by great natural pillars; the top rises in several parts like domes. The grotto is perfectly dry, and

* Strabo, lib. xvi.

+ Voyage de Perse, part 2, c. 4.

Maundrell, p. 118.

there are no petrifactions or stalictites in it. We went along a very narrow passage for a considerable way, but did not find the end. There is a tradition that the people of the country, to the number of thirty thousand, retired into this grotto to avoid a bad air, which probably might have been the hot winds that are sometimes very fatal in these countries. This place is so strong, that one would imagine it to be one of the strong holds of Engedi, to which David, with his men, fled from Saul, and possibly it may be that very cave in which he cut off Saul's skirt, for David and his men might, with great ease, have lain hid here and not have been seen by him. Beyond this cave there is a spring of water that drops from the rocks."*

The neighbourhood of Engedi was the scene of the birth and early life of Amos, the prophet herdsman of Tekoa: there he pursued his pastoral occupations, tending his flocks, and gathering the sycamore fruit, previous to his call to prophecy in the kingdom of Israel. The same district is also celebrated for one of the most remarkable of those providential interpositions which distinguish the Jewish history. When Jehoshaphat sat upon the throne of Judah, the Moabites and Ammonites, with a large body of Arabians, according to Josephus, made an expedition against him. The confederate armies came across the Dead Sea, and encamped "in Hazazon Tamar, which is Engedi," on their way to attack the metropolis. The pious monarch congregated the people in the temple, and implored the divine protection, of which he was assured by the prophet Jehaziel. In obedience to his advice they went forth early in the morning of the next day, into the wilderness of Tekoa, and at a place called the Eminence, they began to celebrate in vocal hymn the victories of ancient days. The 136th Psalm appears to have been repeated, the Levites singing the first part of the verse:

46

'Glorify Jehovah for he is good,”

and the people the chorus,

"For his mercy endureth for ever."

Then, says Josephus, "God caused a terror and a commotion to arise among the Ammonites, who thought one another to be enemies, and slew one another, insomuch that not one man out of so great an army escaped; and when Jehoshaphat looked upon that valley, wherein their enemies had been encamped, and saw it full of dead men he rejoiced at so surprising an event as this assistance of God, while he himself by his own power, and without their labour, had given them the victory. He also gave his army leave to take the prey of the enemy's camp, and to spoil their dead bodies; and indeed so they did for three days together, till they were weary, so great was the number of the slain; and on the fourth day all the people were gathered together unto a certain hollow place or valley,

* Travels, vol. i p. 41.

and blessed God for his power and assistance, from which the place had this name given it, the valley of Berechah or Blessing.*

The

The rock of Hachilah has been already mentioned as one of David's places of retreat. This was situated close by the Engedi cavern, and is the same as the Massada of the Roman wars. rock is described by Josephus as of considerable circumference, and very high, encompassed with valleys of vast depth, and therefore exceedingly difficult of access. A fortress was erected upon it by Jonathan, the Asmonean brother of Judas Maccabeus. The fortifications were re-edified by Herod the Great, and made impregnable. He built a wall round the entire summit of the hill, seven furlongs long, eight cubits broad, and twelve high: upon this wall he erected thirty-eight towers each of them fifty cubits high; excavations were made in the rock as reservoirs for water, and here he intended to retire, in case his subjects revolted, as to a secure asylum. At the close of the Roman war, Massada was the scene of the following dreadful tragedy. A band of Jews had taken possession of the fortress, under the command of Eleazar, the grandson of the famous Judas Gaulonites; where they were assailed by the Romans, flushed with the recent conquest of Jerusalem, under the direction of Flavius Sylva. Walls and towers were erected by the general to cover the position of his troops; guards were stationed at convenient distances, to prevent supplies from reaching the devoted rock, and also to cut off the escape of its defenders. But rather than fall into the hands of the Romans, the besieged preferred being the executioners of one another. After listening to an address from Eleazar on the contempt of death, and the dignity and immortality of the soul, husbands embraced their wives, and took their little ones in their arms, and after indulging in the last embrace, destroyed them. When the women and children had been dispatched, ten men were chosen by lot to slay the rest. Each man then lay down beside the corpse of his wife, and throwing his arms around the lifeless body, surrendered his neck to the sword. The surviving ten then selected by lot one to be the executioner of the nine, who when his melancholy work was done, set fire to the fortress and killed himself. Thus perished upon the rock of Hachilah, on the fifteenth day of the month Nisan, nine hundred and sixty persons: two women and five children escaped, having concealed themselves in one of the

caverns.+

The succeeding history of Engedi, after this bloody transaction, has a few claims upon our notice. Its rude wilds were penetrated by the wondering crusaders, and the sublime though sullen shores of the Dead Sea echoed with the songs, and glared with the watchfires of the martial bands of Europe. Tradition relates that a company of Christians, probably recluses, were massacred in one of the caves, by order of one of the caliphs: the skulls of these martyrs are shown with pious reverence by the monks of St. Saba to the traveller, carefully piled in small pyramids, in a chamber of their

* Antin. Lib. ix. c. 1.

↑ Josephus, Wars, lib. vi. c 8, 9.

convent. Engedi was the favourite retreat of a crowd of anchorites previous to the Saracenic invasion: its savage rocks-its numerous caverns-and the complete seclusion of its ravines, afforded all the accommodation that could be desired by the most gloomy solitary.

In the fourth century, St. Saba is said to have formed a religious establishment in this region of rock and glen; and here, situated in a very extraordinary manner amid precipices, at the base of which is the bed of the Kedron, is the convent still called after the saint. The monastery when at the height of its glory, witnessed ten thousand devotees in its neighbourhood, some gathered within its walls, but the great herd inhabiting the natural grottoes around it. The building has now more the appearance of a military fortress, than a monkish residence it is surrounded with walls of immense strength, and seen from a distance, the stranger would suppose its lofty towers indicated the castle of some "baron lord," rather than a sanctuary of religion. But the lawless habits of the Arabs render it necessary for the monks to look to the security of their dwelling, and keep a sentinel stationed upon one of their highest turrets. They are now thirty in number, of the Greek persuasion, celebrated for their hospitality to the stranger, whom they conduct to the tomb of the holy St. Saba, and entertain with wild tales of the bituminous sea!

St. Saba boasts of having been the residence of John Damascenus, in the eighth century, celebrated for his learning and piety. He was born at Damascus, and brought up under the care of Cosmas, the monk, by whose instructions he profited so much as to obtain the name of Chrysorrhoas, because of his flow of eloquence. Cosmas was originally of Jerusalem, but was carried off to Damascus by robbers, where he was taken into the house of the father of John, and appointed tutor to his son. He was afterwards raised to the bishopric of Majuma: he wrote several hymns, some of which are still used by the Greek church. On the death of his father, John Damascenus became secretary to the Saracen prince of the city, who took him into his confidence, and raised him to distinction. At length, by his advocacy of image worship, he incurred the hostility of the Emperor Leo Isauricus, who, to ruin him with his employer, caused a letter to be forged in John's name, offering to betray the city. This document falling into the hands of the governor, he at once discarded him, and ordered his hand to be struck off; but afterwards becoming convinced of his innocence, he invited him back to his service. The invitation was refused-John, convinced of the uncertainty of princely favour, sighed for repose-he retired therefore to the wilds of Engedi, where, in the convent of St. Saba, he ended his days about the year 750.

Damascenus wrote a treatise on Dialectics, addressed, in a letter divided into seventy chapters, to his old master Cosmas, Bishop of Majuma.

He wrote also a book on Heresies, abstracting a considerable portion from the well-known work of Epiphanius, adding to the number he specifies, those heresies that had sprung up since his day. He mentions the Hicetæ, a sect somewhat like the American Shakers, dancing during their worship-the Heliotropita, who

venerated the turn-sol as a plant endowed with a divine energy, capable of turning them to the Sun of Righteousness, as it followed itself the course of the natural sun-the Christolyta, who say that our Lord left his body and soul in hell, and ascended into heaven only with his divinity-the Lampetiani, whose chief distinction was, that they lived as they liked, and burthened themselves with no self-mortification whatever.

But his principal work is-De Fide Orthodoxa, of the orthodox faith-a body of divinity, and perhaps the first regular system that was ever compiled. Here we have an account of the doctrines and practices of the Greek church in the eighth century. He maintains the sentiment which the modern Greeks so tenaciously hold, the procession of the Spirit from the Father alone-ro εκ του Πατρός εκπορευομενον και εν Υιφ αναπαυομενον. Speaking of the practices of the church, he says, that the Cross itself should be worshipped, and every thing else which Christ has touched, as being thus by him sanctified; but feeling that this was going too far, he afterwards guards against the accusation of worshipping the mere material-it is only to be reverenced as a symbol of Christ, s Xploтov ovμßoλov. The productions of Damascenus are only valuable as compilations from the writings of others: his mind was sadly clouded with the superstitions of his time-he had no taste, no genius, no sound views upon many important points of divine truth, and hence his sermons, where he was left to his own mental resources, are literally worthless-but as containing a series of useful and beautiful passages from the older fathers, his works will well repay perusal.*

The present appearance of Engedi answers to the ancient description of the inspired historian, a place of "rocks of the wild goats." An Arab family, at the time of Mr. Carne's visit, inhabited the cavern where Saul slumbered, and David was concealed. The Kedron has seldom any water in its bed; silence and desolation mark its track; silence, unbroken save by the footsteps of a casual visiter, startling some hind from its rocky nest, or alarming in the distance the watch-dogs of an Arab horde. From the summits of St. Saba, the eye commands an extensive range of country-the frowning precipices which surround it-the wilderness of Ziph-the mysterious waters of the Dead Sea-and the distant granite mountains of Arabia Petræa on its opposite shore. And the solitary watcher of the convent, the sentinel perched on high, is often, one would think, musing upon the marvellous events of past history, of which the region before his view has been the scene-the rain of "fire and brimstone" upon the cities of pollution-and the strange adventures and narrow escapes of Israel's shepherd king! But no! the religion of a Greek monk consists in the possession of a few dirty paintings and the bones of some renowned saint; and the majority of them would much rather quaff Cyprus wine, and talk of the glorious days of "old Hellas," than "hear of Moses and the prophets !"

* J. Damasceni, Op. 2 vols. fol. Mich. Lequein. Paris, 1712.

« ElőzőTovább »