Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and AdventureConder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
History
Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure
Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
Palestine -- Description and travel
The line of argument thus followed is, I believe, a new one, though the
result is old. The observation of the rock-levels is a matter of primary
importance, and the special observations on which the argument has been
based have never before been published. The military consideration seems
to me to set the matter at rest; and, to state the idea in a
nutshell--“fortresses stand on hills, not in deep ravines.”
The course of the third wall is a matter which has little bearing on the
question of the site of Calvary; but it may be noted that the line laid
down on the plan is controlled by three considerations. First, the
necessity of placing the great corner tower, Psephinus, on very high
ground, the position indicated being the very top of the watershed;
second, the distance from the Women’s Towers to the Tomb of Helena,
which was three furlongs according to Josephus; third, the line passing
through the “Caverns of the Kings,” as described by the same author, and
extending to the Tower of the Corner.
The third wall was built by Agrippa about ten years after the
Crucifixion, to enclose the suburbs north of the city. There seems every
probability therefore that the greater part of this suburb already
existed in the time of Christ--an additional argument, were one needed,
against the claims of the traditional sites of Calvary and of the Holy
Sepulchre.
Will any reader who holds in veneration so sacred a spot feel
disappointed at such a result? In the last chapter I endeavoured to give
a faithful account of the yearly Pandemonium which disgraces the ancient
walls, and of scenes which lower the Christian faith in the eyes of the
Moslem. Surely none who read those pages could still wish to believe
that the place thus annually desecrated is the Tomb of Christ.
The question which naturally next demands attention is that of the real
site of Calvary; but the Gospel gives us no indication sufficient to
settle the matter, though the words in the Epistle are enough to condemn
the miraculously-discovered fourth-century site.
There is a fact bearing on this question which has never been published.
It was mentioned to me by Dr. Chaplin, and by his consent I now make use
of it.
The place called Calvary was, according to our general idea, the public
place of execution. Some have supposed its name--Golgotha, or “place of
the skull”--to be derived from this fact; though others, including many
of the early fathers, suppose it to refer to the shape of the ground--a
rounded hill, in form like a skull. We look naturally for some spot just
outside the city, and beside one of the great roads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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