File:The home of God's people (1874) (14764249985).jpg

Identifier: homeofgodspeople00gage (find matches)
Title: The home of God's people
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Gage, William Leonard, 1832-1889
Subjects: Bible Palestine -- Description and travel
Publisher: Hartford, Conn. : Dustin, Gilman & Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ight beotherwise supposed. If the graves of Rameses and Osirei canstill be ascertained, there is nothing improbable in the thoughtthat the tombs of the patriarchs may have survived the lapseof twenty or thirty centuries. The rocky cave on MountHor must be at least the spot believed by Josephus to markthe grave of Aaron. The tomb of Joseph must be near oneof the two monuments pointed out as such in the opening ofthe vale of Shechem. The sepulchre which is called the tombof Rachel exactly agrees with the spot described as a littleway from Bethlehem. The tomb of David, which wasknown with certainty at the time of the Christian era, mayperhaps still be found under the mosque which bears his nameon the modern Zion. Above all, the cave of Machpelah isconcealed, beyond all reasonable doubt, by the mosque at He-bron. But with these exceptions, we must rest satisfied ratherwith the general than the particular interest of the tombs ofPalestine. The proof of identity in each special instance de-
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THE TOMBS OF PALESTINE. 523 pends almost entirely on the locality. Instead of the acresof inscriptions which cover the tombs of Egypt, not a singleletter has been found in any ancient sepulchre of Palestine;and tradition is, in this class of monuments, found to be un-usually fallacious. Although some of those which are des-cribed as genuine by Jewish authorities can neither be rejectednor received with positive assurance, such as the alleged sep-ulchres of Deborah, Barak, Abinoam, Jael, and Heber, atKedesh; and of Phineas, Eleazar, and Joshua, m the easternranges of Shechem; yet the passion of the Mussulman con-querors of Syria for erecting mosques over the tombs ofcelebrated saints (and such to them are all the heroes of theOld Testament) has created so many fictitious sepulchres, asto throw doubt on all. Such are the tombs of Seth and Noah,in the vale of the Lebanon; of Moses, on the west of theJordan, in direct contradiction to the Mosaic narrative; ofSamuel, on the top of Nebi-Sam

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