land of caverns. Beth-horon1 means "house of caverns;" and Horonaim,2 2 "two caverns." Underground places used as dwellings, or for other purposes, were by no means natural caves in all cases, but were often excavated in the solid rock at great expense of time and labor. About twentyfive years ago, Dr. Wetzstein, a distinguished German, discovered an underground city at ed-Der'aah in western Haurân. It has recently been explored under the direction of the Palestine Exploration Fund. A passage four feet wide leads down to the gate of the city. The gate consists of a massive stone, six inches in thickness, which still swings on its ancient stone hinges. The city is made up of an indefinite number of chambers or dwellings in the solid rock, communicating with one another by means of narrow passages. Ventilation is provided for by air-shafts, many of which, in process of time, have become closed up. The weak limestone roofs are, in some instances, supported by strong pillars. The presence of troughs, mangers, and the like, shows that animals as well as men found a home here. Lot had his dwelling in a cave after the destruction of Sodom.3 During the wars of the Conquest, we read of five kings taking refuge at one time in the cave of Makkedah from the pursuit of Joshua's army. Subsequently, in the period of the Judges, we learn that "because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strong holds."5 The same was true while the Philistines overran Israel, prior to their subjugation by Saul and David. The hunted David found in these places his most secure retreat." Elijah fled to a cave in Horeb before the fury of Jezebel. In the same great persecution the faithful Obadiah hid a hundred prophets of the Lord, by fifties, in a cave." 6. There are numerous allusions and poetic images to be found in the Bible, which, to say the least, are greatly obscured unless the fact is kept in mind that natural and artificial caves were much resorted to in seasons of want, danger and discouragement. In Job, for example, the depths of distress are represented as reached by those who "are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter." 10 In another place he speaks of men who are "gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation. . . . In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks."1 The prophets also make considerable rhetorical use of this custom. Isaiah, describing the coming of Jehovah in judgment, says that "men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth."" The same image is employed in the Revelation. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the persecuted saints of old, "of whom the world was not worthy," are spoken of as going about in sheepskins and goatskins, and as "wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth." The inaccessibility and security of such places is referred to in many a passage. The Psalmist prays to Jehovah, "Be thou to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort."5 7. The fact that caves as well as shadowy groves were often selected for idolatrous worship is recognized by the prophet Isaiah: "Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, ye that inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; that slay the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?" It is matter of interest that some of the oldest cloisters of the East appear to have had their origin from the custom of living in caves. To some single hermit who was thus spending his life, others gradually united themselves. The cave was accordingly enlarged by the addition of separate cells to accommodate them. Little by little there arose around the old grotto or cavern, and always including it as its sacred centre, a common place of prayer, a church, and, finally, a cloister or monastery. 8. THE TENT.-According to the Bible, the custom of living in tents is of the highest antiquity. It is traced back to Jabal, who was a son of Lamech.' It did not, as it would seem, precede, as to matter of time or conception, the more stable dwelling. From the first there were movable as well as fixed abodes, and those who decidedly preferred the one to the other. There are peoples in the East who, as far as known, have never been engaged in anything else than strictly pastoral pursuits, or occupied any dwellings but tents. In some cases a peculiar form of tent, as distinct in style from those in common use as the modern dwelling-house is from that of two centuries ago, has been adopted by a people and held its 1 Job 30:3, 6. 2 Isa. 2:19; cf. Zech. 14:5. cf. Cant. 2:14; Isa. 33:16; Jer. 48:28; 49: 16. 3 Rev. 6:15, 16. 4 Heb. 11:38. 5 Ps. 71:3; 7 Gen. 4: 20. place against every innovation for a millennium. As already intimated, it would be erroneous to suppose that for a people to lead a wandering, pastoral life implies, in itself, a lower stage of civilization. This cannot have been the case when Abraham and his descendants pastured their flocks in ancient Canaan. It is as little true in the same countries to-day. For hundreds of years the only sanctuary of Israel was a simple tent-structure, and from this the magnificent temple of Solomon and those that succeeded it derived their peculiar style. 9. Cloth for tents was usually manufactured from the coarse hair of goats or camels. The name "house of hair" is given to the tent by the modern Arab. When goat's hair was used for this purpose the black or brown color was preferred. If of good quality, cloth of this kind was impervious to the rain, and as a protection from the sun's rays superior to the material commonly used for tents among ourselves. Tents were also covered with skins. The tents on which Paul wrought were doubtless made of Cilician hair-cloth, which was highly prized for the purpose, and were probably intended for the use of the Roman soldiers. After being woven into cloth of the required width, stitched together and provided with cords and loops, the tent-cloth was spread over poles of about the height of a man and securely fastened to the ground by tent-pins. 10. The size of the tent varied according to taste and requirement. The space between the border of the tent-covering and the ground was covered, if desired, by curtains of the same material, or by mats. Tents were sometimes round in form, but more often rectangular, presenting, when spread, the appearance of the hull of a ship turned bottom upwards. The interior was divided into separate apartments, generally two or three, by means of other curtains fastened to the parallel rows of poles by which the structure was supported. One portion was appropriated to the men, another to the women, and if there was a third, it would be most likely set apart for the servants and the cattle. Separate tents for wives and children would be a mark of wealth and rank. The word "alcove," coming down to us through the Spanish and the Arabic, goes back for its idea to the old tent structure, and its root is still preserved in the Hebrew word rendered "pavilion" in Num. 25: 8, and in the margin" alcove." 11. The furniture of the tent was of the simplest description. It rarely went beyond a few mats, serving at once for chairs, couch 1 Cant. 1:5. 2 Ex. 35: 23. 3 Acts 18:3. 4 Gen. 24: 67; 31: 33, 34. and table, a hammer for driving tent-pins, a hand-mill for grinding the food, a few copper pans, and possibly a lamp. Other articles were, of course, often found in a tent, but formed no part of its proper furniture. There might be, for example, sacks of grain and other sacks used in loading camels, the camel's pack-saddle and remaining outfit,' distended skins containing water or curd, leathern buckets for drawing water, bowls for receiving milk, and, if there were horses, their feeding-bags and tackling. In the tent of a modern Arab, means for grinding coffee would be thought indispensable; possibly, even the stones on which the dish containing it is placed over the fire. When a fire was needed, it was built in a hole in the ground within the enclosure of the tent. The smoke was left to find its way outside as best it could. 12. When a number of tents were pitched near together they were placed in a certain determined order. If they were the tents of herdsmen or shepherds, they were generally arranged in a circle, the flocks and herds finding protection in the enclosed area. The Hebrews had special names for such collections of tents, usually rendered "encampments" or "villages" in the revised English version. It was probably a small number of shepherds, or those without tents, who were keeping watch in turn over their flocks by night when the angels appeared to them with the announcement of the Saviour's birth. 5 4 13. The figurative use of the scenes of tent life is very common in the Scriptures. The most widely-employed Hebrew word for removing, journeying from place to place, referred originally to the drawing of the tent-pins. Similarly the apostle Paul speaks of the bodily frame as a tabernacle or tent which may be expected to dissolve or suddenly disappear. So, too, King Hezekiah, in his sickness, spoke of his life as removed and carried away from him like a shepherd's tent. The prophet Isaiah, picturing the Church of his day as still inhabiting movable dwellings, addressed it in the inspiring words: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." The Psalmist, on the other hand, conceived of the whole earth as but the floor of a tent of which the sky was the pavilion. Even the tent-pin was not overlooked. Of the servant of the Lord it is said in prophecy that he shall be fastened "as a nail [tent-pin] in a sure place." With a similar metaphor the 1 Gen. 31: 34. 10:4. 8 2 Gen. 25:16; Deut. 2:23; 1 Chron. 6:54; Ps. 69: 25; Isa. 22: 23; cf. Zech. 3 Gen. 33: 17. 4 2 Cor. 5: 1. 5 Isa. 38: 12. 6 Isa. 54: 2. 7 Ps. 19: 4. 8 Ezra 9: 8. Preacher in Ecclesiastes brings his book to a close: "The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails [tent-pins] well fastened are the words of the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd." 14. THE HOUSE.-Of ancient Hebrew architecture the Bible has little to say. In fact, a proper architecture can scarcely be said to have arisen among the Hebrews before the time of the early kings, about B.C. 1000. When it appeared, it differed but little from that of their neighbors, the Phoenicians, Assyrians and Egyptians. The earliest mention of permanent dwellings in the Bible is the statement that Cain built a city and named it Enoch, after the name of his son.2 Probably it consisted of a small collection of huts surrounded by a wall with a view to their defence against the "avenger of blood.” The genuineness of the biblical narrative is here corroborated by the fact that the building of the first city is ascribed not to nomads but to agriculturists and those pursuing the arts of life. 15. BUILDING MATERIALS FOR HOUSES.-The materials used by the ancients for building purposes varied with the location and the object to be served. On the vast alluvial plains in the midst of which Babylon stood neither quarries of stone nor forests of trees were to be found. Accordingly, the material employed in building was necessarily bricks. These were generally dried in the sun, but sometimes, as now, burnt in kilns. Bitumen abounded in the region. and was used as mortar. If we may trust the account of Herodotus, it was applied hot: As fast as they dug the moat, the soil which they got from the cutting they made into bricks, and when a sufficient number were completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building and began with the borders of the moat; after which they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every thirteenth course of the bricks."3 66 The account of the erection of the tower of Babel, found in Gen. 11: 3-5, is also very instructive as illustrating the mode of building in that early period: "And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." In ancient Nineveh, ordinary clay mixed with stubble was used for bricks; and from an incidental allusion in the prophecy of Nahum we infer that prepared mortar and not bitumen was employed in the structure of its walls: "Draw thee water for the siege, strengthen thy fortresses: go into 1 Eccles. 12:11. 2 Gen. 4:17. 8 Herodotus 1: 179. |