File:The Jordan Valley and Petra (1905) (14802789103).jpg

Identifier: jordanvalleypet01libb (find matches)
Title: The Jordan Valley and Petra
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Libbey, William
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Putnam
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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uin of a church, whose ancient pavement is alsoa mosaic, apparently of the same general style andage as the mosaic at Madeba, and an inscriptioncontaining some reference to John or Zachariah. This to their minds proves conclusively that theyhave discovered the true home and birthplace ofJohn the Baptist, and that this ancient church wasbuilt on the spot. The Latins so strongly en-trenched at Ain Karim, several hours away, will notsurrender easily, and the controversy may extendinto the twenty-first century ! As to the origin and purpose of this uniquemap, Mr. Clermont Ganneau (P. E. F., July,1901) suggests that it may be a copy ofthe picture which St. Jerome speaks of asbeing found in his Ononiasticon. Then, lackingfurther information, he calls in imaginationand makes a brilliant suggestion, which byits peculiar fitness carries almost the weight ofwritten testimony. What, he says, was theorigin of this extraordinary work ? What is its ob-ject ? To what need or preconceived notion does
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m Madeba 277 it correspond ? What was the idea in fixing thusupon the pavement of the basiHca at Madeba arepresentation of the Holy Land as faithful andas detailed as the means of that period permitted ? What it is necessary to consider before all, isthe position of Madeba. I am struck by one fact—it is that Madeba is situated close to Mt. Nebo ; itwas in the Byzantine period the most importanttown which stood in those regions, where the greatmemory of Moses still lingered. It was in theimmediate neighborhood that the leader of Israelreceived from Jehovah the order to climb the sum-mit of Pisgah where he was to die, and to contem-plate in one supreme vision in all its extent thisland of Canaan, the Land of Promise, which was tobelong to his people, but which he was not himselfallowed to enter. See Genesis xxxii., 41-52, xxxiv.,1-8, compare iii., 27—28, and Numbers xxvii., 12-13.Might it not be, perhaps, this geographical picturewhich was virtually unrolled under the eyes ofMoses,

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