Jews that their conditions were not, as they alleged, so hard but that they might build the Temple; assures them that they could hope for no happier conditions until they did build it; and promises them that, if they do build, God will both protect them from their foes and bless them in all the labour of their hands. As they sat on the Temple hill, amid the piles of stone and stacks of timber which had now been exposed for fourteen years to rain and wild weather, and felt as though the place with all its sacred memories were enforcing the prophetic appeal, what wonder that "they hearkened unto the voice of the Lord their God, and did according to the words of Haggai the prophet, since their God had sent him ? A holy fear fell on them (verse 12); they saw that it was their forgetfulness of God their King from which all their miseries had sprung, and they dreaded to remain forgetful of Him, lest worse miseries should overwhelm them. They seem at once to have set about their preparations for the work. And on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, only twenty-three days after Haggai had uttered his rebuke and challenge, they made an actual com- According to the Hebrew conception, God was only with them when they had erected a palace for Him; but, for their encouragement, and that the joy of the Lord may be their strength, He announces Himself as already present, though some four years must elapse before His habitation will be complete. He will be with them while they build, that they may not fear what men can do against them-with them, to bless them when they labour for themselves as well as when they build for Him-; so that the heaven shall no longer withhold its dew, nor the earth its fruit; but when they look for little, they shall behold much, and, instead of creeping about with dejected and hopeless hearts, they shall eat their bread with gladness, praising their God and King. DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. THE GOSPELS:-ST. MARK. BY THE REV. CANON ELLIOTT, B.D., VICAR OF WINKFIELD, BERKS. "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it ? Have salt in your selves, and have peace one with another."-ST. MARK ix, 49, 50. are em 66 reference to the fire spoken of in the preceding verse, amounts to little more than the simple truism that every one who shall be finally consigned to the "fire" of which that verse speaks, shall be salted, as in the case EW passages present greater difficulties to of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the the Biblical expositor than this, and few other Cities of the Plain, with that enduring fire of which have been more differently or more un- theirs is set forth as an example. There are other obsatisfactorily interpreted. The chief diffi-jections to this interpretation, and, as it seems to us, culty of the passage consists in determining the true objections yet more insuperable. For (1) the terms of sense in which the words "salt" and "fire the proposition, πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται, “ for every one ployed in it, and the purposes for which they are shall be salted with fire," seem to demand a general and represented as being employed. not a restrictive interpretation; (2) the symbolism of Holy Scripture suggests, if it does not require, a different interpretation of the words "fire" and "salt,” as regards their primary signification in this verse; and (3) whilst the interpretation above mentioned may seem at first sight to explain the connection with the preceding verse which the particle yap, "for," suggests, it destroys the connection with the general subject of discourse as contained in the verses which precede, and in that which follows; and it seems absolutely inconsistent with that symbolical use of the word "salt" which is found not only in verse 50, but also in the two parallel passages of St. Matthew and St. Luke (Matt. v. 13; Luke xiv. 34), with which the whole of this passage must be compared. It has been assumed by some that the 49th verse of this chapter must be taken in exclusive connection with the 44th, as repeated in the 46th and 48th verses, and, consequently, that it must be interpreted only in a retributive or punitive sense.1 It seems to have been overlooked that “salt" and "fire," like leaven, are symbolically used in Holy Scripture in a double signification; that they have reference in some passages to the righteous, and in other passages to the wicked; and, consequently, that they must not only be interpreted in a different manner in different passages, according to the connection in which they are found, but that they may also admit of a twofold interpretation in the twofold application of the same passage. The import of the first clause of the 49th verse, if understood, as it is by many expositors, with exclusive 1 It is altogether foreign from our present subject to inquire into the genuineness or spuriousness of verses 44 and 46. The genuineness of verse 48 is not called in question. When taken in its plain and obvious signification, and in that which the context (verses 43-48) appears imperatively to require, the first clause of verse 49 asserts the necessity of trial in the case of all Christ's disciples. Numerous passages of a similar character 66 might be adduced. The following will suffice, in one or more of which it seems probable that allusion is made to the verse under consideration. In 1 Cor. iii. 13, St. Paul writes thus: Each man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by [or in] fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man's work, of what sort it is." And St. Peter, assuming the necessity of the same fiery ordeal, wúpwois, not as some strange thing (1 Pet. iv. 12), but as a part of the Christian's appointed course of discipline, encourages and consoles those whom he addresses by the assurance that the designed end of the trial of their faith, which is “much more precious than of gold that perisheth, and yet is tried by fire," dià Tupòs dè SokaCoμévov, is that "it might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. i. 7). If any further illustration were required of the symbolical use of "fire" for the purpose of purification in the case of the righteous, as well as of punishment in the case of the wicked, it may suffice to refer to Matt. iii. 11, 12, where John the Baptist declares concerning our Lord (1) that He would baptise His own disciples "with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; " and (2) that He would burn up the chaff "with fire unquenchable." 66 Salt is symbolically used in Holy Scripture in the same double signification. As symbolising the enduring character of the punishment of the wicked, it will suffice to refer to the case of Lot's wife, who became a pillar of salt," "a monument," as the Book of Wisdom expresses it, "of an unbelieving soul; "1 and, again, to the threatened curse pronounced on the land of Israel, that it should become "brimstone, and salt, and burning" (Deut. xxix. 23). Elsewhere, however, salt is employed in Scripture to denote purification, perpetuity, or exemption from corruption. We may refer here to the healing of the waters of Jericho by the infusion of salt, as recorded in 2 Kings ii. 19-22. Again, in the fundamental passage to which allusion is made by our Lord, viz., Lev. ii. 13, we find the universal law laid down, first and particularly with regard to the minchah, or offering of flour and oil, and then with regard to every korban or offering of every kind, whether vegetable or animal, that it should be "seasoned," or rather "salted with salt." The words may be literally rendered thus: "And every oblation [or korban] of thy vegetable offering [or minchah] shalt thou salt with salt; and thou shalt not suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy vegetable offering; with all thine offerings [or with every korban of thine] thou shalt offer salt." "The con cluding words of the command," says Kalisch, "are too distinct to allow us to doubt that salt was meant to be an ingredient not of bloodless only, but of animal sacrifices also, so that the application of salt with the latter class of offering (Ezek. xliii. 24; Mark ix. 49) was no deviation from the ancient laws."2 1 Book of Wisdom x. 7. 2 Commentary on Leviticus, p. 486 (1867). With the passage just quoted from Leviticus, prescribing the use of salt with every offering, we must combine another to which our Lord (especially in the word "their") appears to make direct reference in verse 48, viz., Isa. lxvi. 24: "For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." Now in the 20th verse of the same chapter the following prediction is found in connection with other prophecies of the Church of the latter days: "And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering [literally, a minchah] unto the Lord out of all nations." As, then, every legal sacrifice was to be salted with salt as a symbol of incorruption, and as a type of the perpetuity of the covenant between God and His people, described in this respect as a covenant of salt" (Numb. xviii. 19), so Christ's disciples must, in like manner, be salted with the salt of the sanctuary; "cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit," and thus presented as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God." 66 It is thought by some commentators that the «al, "and," of verse 49 (as the corresponding Hebrew copula, 13) may properly be rendered by as or even as. For every one shall be salted with fire, even as every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." In addition, however, to the difficulty which, in this case, arises out of the use of the future tense in the latter as well as in the former clause, and the doubt whether the copula κal is used in the sense of as in the New Testament, this proposed rendering seems rather to weaken than to strengthen the meaning which the verse, when taken in connection with its context, clearly demands. Our Lord, in the preceding verses, 43-48, teaches the absolute necessity of surmounting all obstacles, and of removing all stumbling-blocks, which would impede His followers in their efforts to "enter into life." He then proceeds, as it would seem, to assert here, as elsewhere, the necessity of trial as a course of preparation for glory. He who would escape the fire that "is not quenched" must be content to endure the purifying fire to which the great Refiner subjects those whom He designs to reflect more clearly His own image. Ås, under the Levitical law, every sacrifice was salted with salt, so every one who would now offer and present himself, his body, soul, and spirit, as a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice" unto God, and thus escape the final and enduring doom of "barrenness" (literally saltness, Ps. cvii. 34), typically represented in the salt of Shechem (Judg. ix. 45), and of unbelief, typically represented in the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was changed, must himself be seasoned with the salt of the sanctuary, and must seek to become, as in the parallel passage of St. Matthew's Gospel it is predicated of Christ's true disciples, "the salt of the earth," by means of which the surrounding mass of ungodliness is to be pervaded and leavened, and by which, instrumentally, the whole lump is to be rescued from destruction. 3 Cf. Job v. 7: "Man is born unto trouble, as [lit. and] the sparks fly upward." The alleged parallel in Luke xi. 4, as compared with Matt. vi. 12, is one which is not conclusive. GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE. PALESTINE. BY MAJOR WILSON, R. E. II-THE JORDAN FROM LAKE HULEH TO THE Roman road which followed this line can be clearly traced as it passes Khan Jubb Yusuf; and between the Jordan and Damascus there are large portions of it in perfect repair. The Jisr Benat Jakub is connected by tradition with Jacob's flight from Haran, as the place at which he crossed over Jordan, but we know from the Bible that Jacob's route lay through Gilead, and that he passed over the ford of Jabbok, the Zerka, a tributary of the Jordan much further to the south, and thence journeyed by Succoth to Shechem, the modern Nablus. There is more reason for the belief that it was at this point our Lord crossed the Jordan on his way to Cæsarea Philippi, and that Saul followed the Roman road, mentioned above, on his way to Damascus (Acts ix. 2, 3). THE SEA OF GALILEE. FTER leaving Lake Huleh the Jordan flows onward with a gentle current to the bridge of "Jacob's daughters," Jisr Benat Jakub, two miles from the end of the lake: here, however, its character changes to that of a mountain torrent. There are no falls or cascades, but the river "makes a sweep or two to right and left, as if with a struggle to get free," and then " a white-foamed bursting rush of water hurries between rocks thick set with oleanders, which often meet across the stream, not a dozen feet in width." Seven miles below the bridge the Jordan issues from its confined bed on to the plain of Buteiha, and two miles beyond, after many windings, it pours its waters into the Sea of Galilee. Between Lake Huleh and the bridge the Jordan flows This lake is called in the Old Testament the Sea of through a narrow tract of cultivated plain, but beyond Chinnereth (Numb. xxxiv. 11), apparently from a town this the country becomes exceedingly wild and rugged; of that name on or near its shore, which has sometimes the river forces its way between steep banks of limestone been identified with the modern Tiberias, but there are and basalt, whilst the only road through the gorge is a several difficulties connected with this identification which narrow path over the heights on the west bank, often will be noticed hereafter. In the New Testament the winding along the edges of steep precipices where the lake is known under the more familiar titles of "Sea of footing is not always of the best; at one point in the Gennesaret," a name of uncertain origin, also applied pass there is a hill from which an interesting view is to a portion of the coast, "the land of Gennesaret;" the obtained of the exit of the Jordan from Lake Huleh, "Sea of Galilee," derived from the district of Galilee on and its point of entrance into the Sea of Galilee. On its western shores; and at a later period, when Tiberias leaving the hills the current is sluggish, and the stream, became the chief town of Galilee, the "Sea of Tiberias" fordable in several places at certain times of year, flows (John xxi. 1). The lake is pear-shaped, the broad end along the western part of the plain of Buteiha. The being towards the north; its length from north to south only point of interest between the two lakes is the Jisr is twelve miles and a quarter, and its greatest breadth Benat Jakub, by means of which one of the great lines of from Mejdel to Khersa six miles and three-quarters; communication between Damascus and Palestine crossed the level of its surface has never been accurately ascerthe Jordan. The bridge has three arches, and is sixty tained, and the estimates of various travellers differ feet long, but it does not appear to be older than the greatly; perhaps 626 feet below the level of the Medififteenth century, as William of Tyre and other writers terranean is as close an approximation to the truth as speak of the place as Jacob's ford; on the east bank of the we can make at present. The lake was at one time supJordan are the ruins of a large khan, at which caravans posed to be of great depth, but Lieut. Molyneux, R.N., halted on their way to or from Damascus, and at the who examined it by means of a boat in 1847, found its west end of the bridge is a round tower, probably the greatest depth to be 156 feet, and this result has been custom-house, at which toll was levied on all passing confirmed by more recent observations. At the time of over the road. On the west bank, a mile below the our Saviour there appear to have been numerous boats bridge, are the remains of the castle built by Baldwin on the Sea of Galilee, and Josephus describes a naval in 1178 A.D., to keep the Saracens in check, and com- engagement which took place on its waters between the mand the Damascus road. The route over the bridge Jews and the soldiers of Vespasian; now, a sail is rarely must always have been the principal line of communi- seen on its surface, and in 1866, when the writer visited the cation between Damascus, the Sea of Galilee, and the lake, there was only one boat belonging to some fisherport of Acre, on the Mediterranean; in the Middle men at Tiberias. The water of the lake is bright, clear, Ages it was called the via maris, and it is the "way of and limpid; it is well stocked with fish, and at certain the sea "alluded to in Matt. iv. 15, but whether the seasons of the year large shoals may be seen near the name was derived from the Sea of Galilee or the Medi-shore darkening the water, as they may have done when terranean is not quite clear. The remains of the old the disciples let down their nets into the sea and “inclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake." The scenery of the lake presents no striking features, 1 Rob Roy on Jordan, 307. MAP OF THE SEA OF GALILEE (OR LAKE OF GENNESARET) AND SURROUNDING DISTRICT. (From Surveys made for the Palestine Exploration Fund.) Scale, 2 miles to 1 inch. but it has, nevertheless, a natural beauty of its own, particularly in the spring months when all is green and the surrounding hills glow under the rich tints of sunset and sunrise. In the time of our Saviour, when Art aided Nature, making its shores one of the gardens of the world, and when the hill-sides were clothed with trees, the whole country must have presented a very different aspect, and fully merited the praise which Josephus bestows upon it. "The hills except at Khan Minyeh, where there is a small cliff, are recessed from the shore of the lake or rise gradually from it; they are of no great elevation, and their outline, especially on the eastern side, is not broken by any prominent peak; but everywhere from the southern end the snow-capped peak of Hermon is visible, standing out so sharp and clear in the bright sky that it appears almost within reach; and towards the north, the western ridge is cut through by a wild gorge, 'the Valley of Doves,' over which rise the twin peaks or horns of Hattin." The climate during the winter months is very enjoyable, and even in summer the heat is tempered by a morning and evening breeze, but occasionally, when the south wind blows, the heat is excessive, and fevers, possibly of the same type as that with which Peter's wife was afflicted, are very prevalent. There is little cultivation now, but Josephus tells us that in his day all the forest trees throve there, and that walnuts, figs, olives and palms grew in profusion; the date-palm, pomegranate, indigo, rice-plant, and sugar-cane are still found; and the district seems peculiarly suitable for the growth of both tropical and temperate productions. There does not appear to be anything volcanic in the origin of the lake, which is simply part of the great Jordan depression. The hills on either side are limestone, capped in places with basalt, which has three distinct sources; one at Kurn Hattin, or in its neighbourhood; another near Khan Jubb Yusuf, north of the lake; and a third in the Jaulan district. Earthquakes are frequent, and sometimes of great violence, as that of 1837, when nearly one-third of the inhabitants of Tiberias perished, and the town was left little more than a heap of ruins. There are several hot springs in the vicinity of the lake, the principal ones being those of Tiberias, which are said to have been sensibly affected by the earthquake of 1837 not only was the temperature higher, but the body of water poured into the lake was much greater than at any previous period within the memory of man. : We may now pass to a fuller examination of the district bordering on the lake which is so intimately connected with the history of the last three years of our Lord's life on earth, and in which so many of his mighty works were performed, and commencing with the point at which the Jordan enters the lake, make a complete circuit of its shores. The Jordan, as mentioned above, for the last two miles of its course, flows with a sluggish current along the western end of the plain of Buteiha, and in winter after heavy rains, or in spring on the melting of the snow, overflows its banks, forming a large tract of marshy ground near its mouth. It was here that the skirmishes took place between Josephus and the Romans under Sylla, in the first of which Josephus was injured by the fall of his horse in one of the marshy places, and had to be carried to Capernaum. On the western bank at the mouth of the river are a few small mounds which Dr. Thomson, the well-known author of The Land and the Book, considers to be the site of Bethsaida of Galilee, and not far from the eastern bank, beneath the shade of some palm-trees, are old foundations, heaps of rubbish, Arab tombs and 1 Recovery of Jerusalem, 338. fragments of basaltic columns, which he identifies with Bethsaida Julias, the burial-place of Philip the Tetrarch. The question of the position of Bethsaida has always been a difficult one in the account of the feeding of the 5,000 in the New Testament, St. Luke states (ix. 10) that it took place in a desert place "belonging to the city called Bethsaida;" whilst St. Mark tells us (vi. 45), that after the miracle Jesus directed the disciples "to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida;" and in order to reconcile these statements, many commentators have adopted the theory that there were two Bethsaidas. If, however, we accept the readings of the ancient MS. of the Bible which have recently been brought to light, there appears to be no necessity for the creation of a second Bethsaida; in the Sinaitic version, and in the ancient Syriac recension, published by Mr. Cureton, the words "belonging to a city called Bethsaida,” in Luke ix. 10, are omitted, and the reading of John vi. 22 in the Sinaitic version places, as we shall see further on, the scene of the feeding of the 5,000 near Tiberias. From the Bible we gather that Bethsaida was a town of Galilee (John xii. 21), and the native place of Andrew, Peter, and Philip; that it was not far from Capernaum and Chorazin; and that, from the place at which the 5,000 were fed, near Tiberias, according to the Sinaitic version, it was spoken of as being on "the other side" of the lake (Mark vi. 45). The name would seem to imply that it was near the water's edge. Josephus informs us that Bethsaida was a village raised to the dignity of a town by Philip, who changed its name to Julias, and built himself a tomb there in which he was afterwards buried with great pomp. He also states that it was a town of Lower Gaulonitis (B. J. ii. 9, 1), that the Jordan passed by it (B. J. iii. 10, 7), and that it was situate at the Lake Gennesaret (Antiq. xviii. 2, 1). With this also agrees the account of the battle with the Romans (Vit. 70-72), which requires that Julias should be close to the Jordan, and not far from its mouth. Eusebius and Jerome mention that Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida lay on the shore of the lake, and St. Willibald, A.D. 722, after visiting Capernaum, proceeds to Bethsaida, where he passes the night, and then goes on to Chorazin and the sources of the Jordan; he also informs us that there was a church on the site of the house of Andrew and Peter. These indications are all satisfied by identifying Bethsaida with the ruins on the east bank of the Jordan, and there is a curious topographical feature which may explain the difference between the Bible and Josephus, as to the district in which the town was situated. East of the ruins marked B, in the map on page 169, there is a deep inlet from the lake, marked F, which may possibly have been an old channel of the Jordan, or an artificial excavation made for the protection of the town of Bethsaida; the town of Tarichea, at the point at which the Jordan leaves the lake, was, as we shall see presently, protected in a similar manner; and it is not unlikely that a town so situated may at one time have formed part of Galilee, and at another part of Gaulonitis. |