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whom was the monarch himself, mounted in a splendid car, attended by his fan-bearers on foot, bearing over him the state flabella. Next followed other regiments of infantry, with their respective banners, and the rear was closed with a body of chariots. The prisoners, tied together with ropes, were conducted by some of the king's sons, or by the chief officers of the staff, at the side of the royal car. The king himself frequently held the cord which bound them, as he drove slowly in the procession; and two or more chiefs were sometimes suspended beneath the axle of his chariot, contrary to the usual humane principles of the Egyptians, who seem to have refrained from unnecessary cruelty to their captives, extending this feeling so far as to rescue, even in the heat of battle, a defenceless enemy from a watery grave. Having reached the precincts of the temple, the guards and royal attendants selected to be the representatives of the whole army, entered the courts, the rest of the troops, too numerous for admission, being drawn up before the entrance; and the king, alighting from his car, prepared to lead his captives to the shrine of the god. Military bands played the favourite airs of the country; and the numerous standards of the different regiments, the banners floating in the wind, the bright lustre of the arms, the immense concourse of people, and the imposing majesty of the lofty towers of the propylæa, decked with their bright-coloured flags streaming above the cornice, presented a scene seldom, we may say, equalled on any occasion in any country. But the most striking feature of this pompous ceremony was the brilliant cortège of the monarch, who was either borne in his chair of state by the principal officers of state under a rich canopy, or walked on foot, overshadowed with rich flabellæ and fans of waving plumes. As he approached the inner pylon, a long procession of priests advanced to meet him, dressed in their robes of office; censers full of incense were burnt before him; and a hierogrammat read from a papyrus roll the glorious deeds of the victorious monarch, and the tokens he had received of the divine favour. They then accompanied him into the presence of the presiding deity of the place; and having performed sacrifice, and offered suitable thanksgivings, he dedicated the spoil of the conquered enemy, and expressed his gratitude for the privilege of laying before the feet of the god, the giver of victory, those prisoners he had brought to the vestibule of the divine abode.

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"In the mean time, the troops without the sacred precincts were summoned, by sound of a trumpet, to attend the sacrifice prepared by the priests, in the name of the whole army, for the benefits they had received from the gods, the success of their arms, and their own preservation in the hour of danger. Each regiment marched up by turns to the altar temporarily raised for the occasion, to the sound of the drum, the soldiers carrying in their hand a twig of olive, with the arms of their respective corps; but the heavy-armed soldier laid aside his shield on this occasion, as if to show the security he enjoyed in the presence of the deity. An ox was then killed; and wine, incense, and the customary offerings of cakes, fruit, vegetables, joints of meat, and birds, were presented to the god they invoked. Every soldier deposited the twig of olive he carried at the altar, and as the trumpet summoned them, so also it gave the signal for each regiment to withdraw and cede its place to another. The ceremony being over, the king went in state to his palace, accompanied by the troops; and having distributed rewards to them, and eulogised their conduct in the field, he gave orders to the commanders of the different corps, and they withdrew to their cantonments, or to the duties to which they were appointed.

"The birth-days of the kings were celebrated with great pomp: they were looked upon as holy; no business was done upon them; and all classes indulged in the festivities suitable to the occasion. Every Egyptian attached much importance to the day, and even the hour of his birth; and it is probable that, as in Persia, each individual kept his birthday with great rejoicings, welcoming his friends with all the amusements of society, and a more than usual profusion of the delicacies of the table.

"Of the pomp of a royal funeral in the time of the Pharaohs, no adequate idea can be formed from the processions represented on the tombs of ordinary individuals; and the solemn manner in which the public mourning was observed in his honour, the splendour of the royal state, and the importance attached to all that appertained to the king, sufficiently show how far these last must have fallen short of royal grandeur. A general mourning was proclaimed throughout the country, which lasted seventy-two days after his death. The people tore their garments; all the temples were closed; sacrifices were forbidden; and no festivals were celebrated during that period. A procession of men and women, to the number of two or three hundred, with their dresses attached below the breast, wandered through the streets, throwing dust and mud upon their heads, and twice every day they sung the funeral dirge in honour of the deceased monarch, calling upon his virtues, and passing every encomium upon his memory. In the mean time a solemn fast was established, and they neither allowed themselves to taste meat or wheaten bread, abstaining also from wine and every kind of luxury; nor did any one venture, from a religious scruple, to use baths or ointments, to lie on soft beds, or in any way to gratify his appetites; giving himself up entirely to mourning during those days, as if he had lost the friend most dear to him." See MOURNING.

"Considering the marked distinction maintained between the sovereign and the highest subjects in the kingdom, in a country where the royal princes walked on foot when in attendance upon their father, and even bore him in his chair of state upon their shoulders; where the highest functionaries of the priestly order, the most influential of the hereditary nobles of the land, walked behind the chariot of their monarch, we may readily believe how greatly the funeral processions of the wealthiest individuals fell short of those of the kings. But from the pomp of ordinary funerals, some idea may be formed of the grand state in which the body of a sovereign was conveyed to the tomb. In the funeral processions of the Egyptian grandees, the order was frequently as follows: first came several servants carrying tables laden with fruit, cakes, flowers, vases of ointment, wine, and other liquids; with these, young geese and a calf for sacrifice, chairs and wooden tables, napkins and other things. Then others bringing the small closets in which the mummy of the deceased and of his ancestors had been kept, while receiving the funeral liturgies previous to burial, and which sometimes contained the images of the gods. They also carried daggers, bows, sandals, and furs; each man having a kerchief or napkin on his shoulder. Next came a table of offerings, fauteuils, couches, boxes, and a chariot; and then the charioteer, with a pair of horses yoked in another car, which he drove as he followed on foot, in token of respect to his late master. After these were men carrying gold vases on a table, with other offerings, boxes, and a large case upon a sledge borne on poles by four men, superintended by two functionaries of the priestly order; then others bearing small images of his ancestors, arms, fans, the sceptres, signets, collars, necklaces, and other

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things appertaining to the king, in whose service he had held an important office. To these succeeded the bearers of a sacred boat, and the mysterious eye of Osiris as god of stability, so common on funeral monuments; the same which was placed over the incision in the side of the body when embalmed, was the emblem of Egypt, and was frequently used as a sort of amulet, and deposited in the tombs. Others carried the well-known small images of blue pottery representing the deceased under the form of Osiris, and the bird emblematic of the soul. Following these were seven or more men bearing, upon staves or wooden yokes, cases filled with flowers and bottles for libations; and then seven or eight women, having their heads bound with fillets, beating their breasts, throwing dust upon their heads, and uttering doleful lamentations for the deceased intermixed with praises of his virtues. One is seen, in the act of adoration towards a sacred case containing a sitting Cynocephalus, the emblem of the god of letters, placed on a sledge drawn by four men; the officiating high-priest or pontiff clad in a leopard skin, following, having in his hand the censer and vase of libation, and accompanied by his attendants bearing the various things required for the occasion. Next came the hearse, placed in the consecrated boat, upon a sledge drawn by four oxen and by seven men, under the direction of a superintendant, who regulated the march of the procession. A high functionary of the priestly order walked close to the boat, in which the chief mourners, the nearest female relatives of the deceased, stood or sat at either end of the sarcophagus; and sometimes his widow, holding a child in her arms, united her lamentations with prayers for her tender offspring, who added its tribute of sorrow to that of its afflicted mother. The sarcophagus was decorated with flowers; and on the sides were painted alternately the emblems of stability and security, two by two (as on the sacred arks or shrines,) upon separate panels, one of which was sometimes taken out to expose to view the head of the mummy within. These two emblems are frequently put into the hands of the mummies, as may be seen in the coffins of the British Museum and other collections. The first appears to be a sort of stand used by workmen for supporting vases or other things they were chiseling which required a firm position; and the other resembles the knot or clasp of a belt worn by the gods and kings. Behind the hearse followed the male relations and friends of the deceased; some beating their breasts; others, if not giving the same token of grief, at least showing their sorrow by their silence and solemn step as they walked, leaning on their long sticks. These closed the procession.

"Arrived at the sacred lake, the coffin was placed on the baris, or consecrated boat of the dead, towed by a larger one furnished with sails and oars, and having frequently a spacious cabin, which in company with other sailing-boats carrying the mourners and all those things above-mentioned appertaining to the funeral, crossed to the other side. Arrived there, the procession went in the same order to the tomb; at which the priest offered a sacrifice, with incense and libation; the women still continuing their lamentations, united with prayers and praises of the deceased. It frequently happened that the deceased, with his wife if dead at the time of his funeral, was represented seated under a canopy, in lieu of the coffin. Before him stood an altar laden with offerings; and a priest opening a long roll of papyrus read aloud the funeral ritual, and an account of his good deeds, 'in order to show to Osiris and the assessors the extent of his piety and justice during his life.' When the boats reached the other side of the lake, the yards were lowered to the top of the cabin; and all those

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engaged in the ceremony left them and proceeded to the tomb; from which they appear to have returned by land, without recrossing the lake."

Such was the funeral procession of a Basilico-grammat or royal scribe, a member of the priestly order, who lived in the reign of Thothmes III., and no doubt it corresponded in many particulars, though with less pomp and magnificence, to the funerals of their kings.

"The custom of refusing funeral rites to a king was not confined to Egypt; it was common also to the Jews, (1Kings 14. 13; 2Kings 9. 10,) who forbade a wicked monarch to repose in the sepulchres of his fathers. Thus Joash though 'buried in the city of David,' was not interred in the 'sepulchres of the kings.' (2Chron. 24. 25.) Manasseh 'was buried in the garden of his own house,' and several other kings of Judah and Israel were denied that important privilege. That the same continued to the time of the Asmonæans, is shown by the conduct of Alexander Jannæus, who, feeling the approach of death, 'charged his wife on her return to Jerusalem, to send for the leading men among the Pharisees, and show them his body, giving them leave, with great appearance of sincerity, to use it as they might please; whether they would dishonour the dead body by refusing it burial, as having severely suffered through him, or whether in their anger they would offer any other injury to it. By this means, and by a promise that nothing should be done without them in the affairs of the kingdom, it was hoped that a more honourable funeral might be obtained than any she could give him, and that his body might be saved from abuse by this appeal to their generosity.' They had also the custom of instituting a general mourning for a deceased monarch whose memory they wished to honour. (1 Kings 14. 18. &c.)" See BURIAL.

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PHARISEES, Papioatot. This was a powerful sect among the Jews, in general opposed to the Sadducees; the time of their origin is unknown, but they are first mentioned by Josephus as existing under Hyrcanus, about B.C. 130, and even then in high repute. It is supposed they derived their name from the Hebrew verb pharash, to separate, meaning "the separate," designated in the Talmud roshin. The Pharisees were rigid interpreters of the Mosaic law, and exceedingly strict in its ceremonial observances; but often violated its spirit by their traditional and strained expositions. Their sect was very numerous, and there were Pharisees of every tribe, family and condition. The credit which they had acquired by their reputation for knowledge and sanctity of life early rendered them formidable to the Maccabæan sovereigns; while they were held in such esteem and veneration by the people that they may be almost said to have given what direction they pleased to public affairs. They boasted that from their accurate knowledge of religion they were the favourites of heaven; and thus trusting in themselves that they were righteous, despised others. (Luke 11. 52; 18. 9-11.) The discussions between the schools of Hillel and Shammai, a little before the Christian era, increased the number and power of the Pharisees. Hillel and Shammai were two great and eminent teachers in the Jewish schools. Hillel was born one hundred and twelve years before Christ; having acquired profound knowledge of the most difficult points of the Law, he became master of the chief school at Jerusalem, and laid the foundation of the Talmud. Shammai, one of the disciples of Hillel, deserted his school, and formed a college in which he taught doctrines contrary to his master. He rejected the oral law,

and followed the written law only in its literal sense. These schools long disturbed the Jewish church by violent contests: the party of Hillel, however, was at last victorious.

The principal doctrines of the Pharisees are frequently alluded to by Our blessed Lord, and we therefore here give a brief sketch of them.

(1.) They agreed with the Stoics in teaching the doctrine of fate, or an immutable order of things fixed by the decree of God, or that oversight in the Supreme Being which rules and co-operates with all events in such a manner, as to prevent at least their being left entirely dependant on the will of man; since the actions of man himself are dependant on the eternal purpose of God. (Acts 5. 38,39.)

(2.) They taught that the souls of men were immortal, and dwelt, after the present life, in some subterranean abode (Sheol). They further taught, that the spirits of the wicked were tormented with everlasting punishments, and that they at times made their re-appearance upon the earth to vex men with epilepsy, mental derangement, madness, and melancholy; that the good on the other hand received rewards, and at length passed into other human bodies. (Matt. 14. 2; 16. 14; John 9. 2,34.) It is nowhere remarked by Josephus that they believed in the resurrection of the dead, but that they nevertheless held such a belief, is clear from the New Testament. (Matt. 22. 24-34; Mark 12. 18-23; Luke 20. 27-36; John 11. 24.)

(3.) They believed in and taught the existence of angels both good and bad. The angel that held the highest rank among the former class, they believed to have been uncreated; the name of this angel, at least as it occurs in the more recent Jewish writings, is that of Mittraton. The highest in rank among the latter class, or the prince of bad angels, received various names, and was called the Devil, Samael, Ashmedai or the tempter, a liar and homicide from the beginning, the old serpent, the prince of the world who accuses men before God and demands their destruction. (Matt. 4. 3; Luke 4. 2; John 8. 44; 14. 30; Heb. 2. 14; Rev. 12. 9.) | They believed that angels were the ministers or agents of the Divine Being on the earth, and that some one of them was assigned not only to every kingdom, but to every individual, and at times made his appearance. (Matt. 18. 10; Luke 4. 10; Acts 12. 15; Heb. 2. 5.)

(4.) They believed furthermore, that God was under obligation, and bound in justice to bestow favours upon the Jews, to render them partakers of the kingdom of the Messiah, to justify and to render them eternally happy; and that He could not condemn any of them. The ground of justification in the case of the Jews, they alleged to be the merits of Abraham, the knowledge of God which existed among them, circumcision, and the offering of sacrifices.

5. They likewise interpreted certain of the Mosaic laws most literally, and distorted their meaning so as to favour their own system. Thus, the law of loving their neighbour, they expounded solely of the love of their friends, that is, of the whole Jewish race; all other persons being considered by them as natural enemies, (Matt. 5. 43, comp. with Luke 10. 31-33,) whom they were in no respect bound to assist. Dr. Lightfoot has cited a striking illustration of this passage from Maimonides. An oath, in which the name of God was not distinctly specified, they taught was not binding, (Matt. 5. 33,) maintaining that a man might even swear with his lips, and at the same moment annul it in his heart. So rigorously did they understand the command of observing the Sabbath-day, that they accounted it unlawful to pluck ears of corn, and heal the sick, &c.

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(Matt. 12. 1, et seq.; Luke 6. 6, et seq.; 14. 1, et seq.) Those natural laws which Moses did not enforce by any penalty, they accounted among the petty commandments, inferior to the ceremonial laws, which they preferred to the former, as being the weightier matters of the law, (Matt. 5. 19; 15. 4; 23. 23,) to the total neglect of mercy and fidelity; hence they accounted causeless anger and impure desires as trifles of no moment. (Matt. 5. 21; 22. 27-30.) They compassed sea and land to make proselytes to the Jewish religion from among the Gentiles, that they might rule over their consciences and wealth; and these proselytes, through the influence of their own scandalous example and character, they soon rendered more profligate and abandoned than even they were before their conversion. (Matt. 23. 15.) Esteeming temporal happiness and riches as the highest good, they scrupled not to accumulate wealth by every means, legal or illegal. (Matt. 5. 1-12; 23. 4; Luke 16. 14; James 2. 1-8.) Vain and ambitious of popular applause, they offered up long prayers in public places, but not without a self-sufficiency of their own holiness, (Matt. 6. 2-5; Luke 18. 11;) under a sanctimonious appearance of respect for the memories of the prophets whom their ancestors had slain, they repaired and beautified their sepulchres, (Matt. 23. 29;) and such was their idea of their own sanctity, that they thought themselves defiled if they but touched or conversed with sinners, that is, with publicans or tax-gatherers, and persons of loose and irregular lives.

The Pharisees were the strictest of the powerful sects that divided the Jewish nation, and affected a singular probity of manners according to their system, which was however for the most part lax and corrupt. Thus many things which Moses had tolerated in civil life, in order to avoid a greater evil, the Pharisees determined to be morally right; for instance, the law of retaliation, and that of divorce from a wife for any cause. (Matt. 5. 31, et seq.; 19. 3-12.) During the time of Our Lord, on the question of divorce, the school of Shammai maintained that no man could legally put away his wife except for adultery; the school of Hillel, on the contrary, allowed of divorce for any cause, from Deuteronomy 21. 1, even if the wife found no favour in the eyes of her husband,-in other words, if he saw any woman who pleased him better. The practice of the Jews seems to have gone with the school of Hillel. Thus we read, in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus 25. 26, "If she go not as thou wouldst have her, cut her off from thy flesh; give her a bill of divorce, and let her go;" and in conformity with this doctrine, Josephus, who was a Pharisee, relates that he repudiated his wife, who had borne him three children, because he was not pleased with her manners or behaviour.

The Pharisees observed a multitude of traditions, that is, unwritten ordinances, which originated with their ancestors, and some of them, as they maintained, with Moses himself. They not only placed these traditions on an equality with the laws, which were acknow ledged to be divine, but even esteemed them to be of still higher importance. (Matt. 15. 2,3,6; Mark 7.3-13.) The practices which were founded on tradition at length made their appearance in a collected form in the Talmud. By the aid of what is there stated, we shall be able to illustrate some things which occur in the New Testament. The washing of hands before meals, a custom which originated from the practice of conveying food to the mouth in the fingers, was by the Pharisees eventually made a religious duty, on the ground, that if any one, though unconscious of the circumstance at the time, had touched anything, whatever it might be, which was unclean, and remained unwashed when he ate, he

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thereby communicated the contamination to the food also. The Pharisees judged the omission of this ablution to be a crime of the first magnitude, and worthy of death. (Matt. 15. 1, et seq.) They taught that if a person had not departed the house, the hands, without the fingers being distended, should be wet with water poured over them, and then elevated, so that the water might flow down to the elbows; further, the water was to be poured a second time over the arms, in order that (the hands being held down) it might flow over the fingers. This practice is alluded to in Mark 7. 3, and is denominated by the Rabbins natel. On the contrary, those who had departed from the house washed in a bath, or at least immersed their hands in water with the fingers distended. The ceremony in this case is denominated by the Rabbins tabil. The waterpots which are mentioned in John 2. 6, appear to have been used in ablutions of the kind that have now been

mentioned. From these ablutions it is necessary to distinguish the symbolic washings spoken of in Deuteronomy 21. 6; Psalm 26. 6; Matthew 27. 24. Indeed the Pharisees were so scrupulously cautious, that they deemed it necessary to strain the liquids they were to drink for the fear that they might inadvertently swallow some unclean animalcule. (Matt. 23. 24.) They were so fearful of being contaminated, that they would not eat with Gentiles, nor indeed with those persons to whom it fell to discharge the unpopular office of tax-gatherer, and were disposed to consider as sinners, and to spurn from their presence, all who were not of their own sect. (Matt. 9. 11; Luke 7. 39.) They fasted twice a week, namely, on Thursday, when, as they supposed, Moses ascended Mount Sinai, and on Monday, when he descended. (Taanith II. 9; comp. Luke 18. 11.) They enlarged their phylacteries and the borders of their garments. (Matt. 23. 5.) See FRINGE; PHYLACTERY. From the Talmuds we learn that the Pharisees (that is to say, some fanatical ascetics amongst them,) practised severe mortifications and austerities, in order to preserve the purity of the body. Sometimes they imposed these painful exercises for four, eight, or even ten years, before they married. Some of them are said to have slept on narrow planks, not more than twelve fingers broad, in order that, if they should sleep too soundly, they might fall upon the ground and awake to prayer. Others slept on small and sharp-pointed stones, and even on thorns, in order that they might be laid under a kind of necessity to be always awake. As, however, none of these austerities were legally commanded, no one was absolutely bound to practise them; and each seems to have followed his own inclination, and the impulse or ardour of his devotion.

The Talmuds mention seven sorts of Pharisees, two of whom appear to be alluded to, though not mentioned by name, in the New Testament. (1.) The Shechemite Pharisees, DJ V Pharash Shichem, or those who entered into the sect only from motives of gain, (Matt. 23. 5,14;) and (2.) Those who were anxious to place themselves under strict moral discipline, and were ready to perform every duty. (Luke 18. 18.) It was in reference to the last-mentioned persons that the name of Pharisee was given, which may be favourably interpreted, “one who is desirous of knowing his duty in order that he may do it."

With all their pretensions to piety, the Pharisees held the people in contempt, whom, being ignorant of the Law, they pronounced to be accursed. (John 7. 49.) Mosheim remarks that the religion of the Pharisees was for the most part founded in consummate hypocrisy; and that, in general, they were the slaves of every vicious appetite, proud, arrogant, and avaricious, consulting only

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their own gratification, even at the very moment when they professed themselves to be engaged in the service of their Maker. These odious features in the character of the Pharisees caused them to be reproved by Our Saviour with the utmost severity, even more than He rebuked the Sadducees, who, although they departed widely from the genuine principles of religion, yet did not impose on mankind by pretended sanctity, or devote themselves with insatiable greediness to the acquisition of honours and riches. All the Pharisees, however, were not of this description: there were a few honourable exceptions, as Gamaliel, (Acts 5. 34;) Simeon, (Luke 2. 25;) Joseph of Arimathea, (Luke 23. 51;) and Nicodemus. (John 7. 50.) See SADDUCEES.

PHARPAR. See ABANA.

PHEBE, Poiẞn, a Christian female, a deaconess in the church at Cenchrea, whom St. Paul strongly recommends to the Christians at Rome in his Epistle, (of which she appears to have been the bearer,) ch. 16. 1,2, for her services to himself. Nothing whatever is known as to her personal history. The deaconesses in the primitive Church were sometimes married women, but generally widows advanced in years, and who had been the wife of one man,—that is, who had not parted with one husband and married another, a practice which at that time was not unusual both among the Jews and heathens. (1Tim. 6. 9,10.) Their functions consisted in taking care of the poor and sick of their own sex, visiting the prisoners and martyrs, instructing catechumens, assisting at the baptism of women, and various other inferior offices. See DEACONESS.

PHENICE or PHOENICIA, a province of Syria, which extended along the coast southwards from the gulf of Issus on the north, to the termination of the ridges of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, near Tyre, where it met the border of Palestine. It comprehended in breadth only the narrow tract between the western chain of Libanus and the sea. The name, however, has sometimes a greater latitude. Herodotus extends the boundaries of Phoenicia along the sea-coast from the border of Egypt to almost the extreme north of Syria; some Greek writers also call the whole land of Canaan, Phoenicia; and others apply the term to the greater part of Syria, divided into two parts, Phoenicia Maritima, which reached from Tripoli to Ptolemais, according to some, or to Pelusium in Egypt, and Midland Phoenicia, of which Damascus was the metropolis. But it is in general only the tract of coast between Issus and Ptolemais that is meant by the term Phoenicia. This country was fertile, but being extremely limited, the inhabitants early became a colonising people; extending their colonies to the very extremity of the Mediterranean Sea. Of these Carthage was one of the most distinguished; and as a commercial nation, the Phoenicians are the most celebrated people of antiquity. The principal cities of Phoenicia were Ptolemais, Sidon, and Tyre. Sir Isaac Newton thinks that vast numbers of Edomites fled to Phoenicia in the days of David, and carried their arts along with them. The Phoenicians were celebrated for their learning, and Herodotus says letters were brought thence by Cadmus into Greece, and were thence called Phoenician letters. Phoenician workmen built the Temple of Solomon; Phoenician sailors navigated his ships; Phoenician pilots directed them; and before other nations had ventured to lose sight of their own shores, colonies of Phoenicians were established in the most distant parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. These early advantages were owing doubtless in part to their own.

enterprising character, and in part also to their central situation, which enabled them to draw into their own narrow territory all the commerce between the East and the West.

Sidon, it is thought, was built not long after the Flood by Zidon, the eldest son of Canaan; and some ages after, the Sidonians built Tyre, on a high hill on the same shore, about twenty-five miles to the south. Hence Tyre is called "the daughter of Sidon."

The Phoenician cities were generally ruled by kings, some of whom are mentioned in the Scriptures; sometimes Tyre and Sidon had distinct kings, and sometimes one ruled over both. Though they had lost their independence, they flourished under the rule of the Persians; but they were ruined by the conquest of their country by Alexander; their trade was transferred to Alexandria, and they often changed their Syro-Grecian and Egypto-Grecian masters. Having fallen at length into the hands of the Romans, Augustus, to punish the frequent tumults of the Phoenicians, and their siding with Cassius, deprived Tyre and Sidon of their liberties; but both cities somewhat revived, and were places of consequence under the Lower Empire. In A.D. 636, the Saracens took possession of Phoenicia, and after they and the Seljukian Turks had possessed it nearly five hundred years, the Crusaders became masters of the country, but these were expelled in 1291 by Alphix, sultan of Egypt, who utterly destroyed Tyre and Sidon, and other strong places adjacent, that they might never more afford any shelter to Christians. After some further changes of masters, the country was in 1516 overrun by the Turks, under whose sway it still remains.

Part of the Phoenicians became proselytes to the Jewish religion; and many from these parts attended the instructions of Our Saviour, and received his cures. He praised the faith of a Syro-Phoenician woman, (Mark 3. 8; 7.24-30.) The Gospel was early preached here, and St. Paul remained for a time with the Christians of Tyre and Sidon. (Acts 21. 2,4,5.) For many ages there were Christian churches in these and other places, and such is still the case. See SYRIA.

To give a notion of the general aspect of this celebrated tract of country, we quote Professor Robinson's description of his journey along the coast from Tyre to Sidon, a distance usually reckoned at eight hours. "We left the gate," he says, "of Tyre at six o'clock, and following the beach of sand along the northern shore of the isthmus, left the high and broken arches of the ancient aqueduct upon our right. Beyond the isthmus, the path gradually leaves the beach. In thirty-five minutes we came to a large spring of fine water, once inclosed by a wall; it is highly prized by the Tyrians, who suppose it to possess medicinal virtues. The road now strikes obliquely across the plain towards the point of the hills where the valley of the Litany, here called Nahr-el-Kasimeyeh, issues from them. The stream in this part is of considerable depth, being perhaps onethird as large as the Jordan above the lake of Tiberias, and flows to the sea, with many windings, through a broad low tract of meadow land. It is the same stream, which, under the name of el-Litany, drains the great valley of El-Bukaa, between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and then breaks down through to the sea by a mountain gorge at the south end of Lebanon.

"Our road lay for the remainder of the day along the celebrated Phoenician plain, sometimes at the foot of the mountains, and sometimes near the shore. This plain extends from Ras-el-Beyad or Abyad, the Promontorium Album of the ancients, nearly three hours south of Sur, to the Nahr-el-Auly, an hour north of Saide; a distance of ten or eleven hours. Its breadth is unequal; but is

nowhere more than half an hour, except around the cities of Tyre and Sidon; where the mountains retreat somewhat further. In some places they approach quite near to the shore. The surface is not a dead level, but undulating; the soil is fine and fertile, and everywhere capable of tillage; though now suffered for the most part to run to waste. The adjacent heights are hardly to be called mountains; they constitute, indeed, the high tract running off south from Lebanon, which has some higher bluffs and ridges further east, towards the Bukaa; but, as here seen, they are low; and though sometimes rocky, and covered with shrubs, are yet oftener arable and cultivated to the top. The hills too are enlivened with villages; of which there is not a single one in all the plain, until near Sidon. At half-past ten o'clock the hills approached nearer to the coast; and we had, on the shore at our left, the traces of a former site called Adlân, consisting of confused heaps of stones, with several old wells. On the mountains above are two or three villages; one of which is called el-Ansariyeh; and in the plain were fields of millet in bloom, (June 25th.) The side of the projecting mountain is here rocky and precipitous near the base; and in it are many sepulchral grottoes, hewn out of the hard limestone rock. These tombs are very numerous; and were described to us by friends who had visited them, as being all of the same form; having a door leading into a chamber about six feet square, with a sort of bed left in the rock on three sides for the dead bodies. The doors are gone, and not a bone is left. This accords with the account of Nau in A.D. 1674, who describes them very minutely, and was led, from their regularity and uniformity, to regard them as an ancient house of monastic cells. It is perhaps the spot spoken of by William of Tyre, as the Tyrian cave in the territory of Sidon, occupied by the Crusaders as a stronghold? If so, we might compare it with the 'Mearah (cavern) that was beside the Sidonians,' mentioned in the Book of Joshua, (ch. 13. 4.) The whole suggestion, however, is of very questionable value. Proceeding on our way, we came at twelve o'clock in sight of Saida, still at a distance, but looking verdant and beautiful in the midst of a forest of Ten minutes later brought us to a fine fountain near the shore called 'Ain-el-Kanterah; shaded with many trees, and watering a small tract of gardens. At half-past twelve o'clock we crossed a water-course from the mountains, nearly dry; and after a quarter of an hour another with stagnant water in spots. Here again were many oleanders in blossom; and on our left the abutments of a ruined bridge. We came to 'Ain-elBurak at fifty-five minutes after twelve, another fine fountain, with a pretty stream running to the sea. In this pleasant spot M. Katafago of Saida had recently built a house and khân, and laid out large gardens, and planted extensive cotton-fields. The whole establishment was yet in its commencement, but seemed to promise well." See SYRIA.

trees.

PHILADELPHIA, Φιλαδελφεια, (Rev. 1. 11; 3. 7,) a city of Asia Minor, one of the seven Apocalyptic Churches, is supposed to have derived its name from the brothers Attalus, Philadelphus, and Eumenes, who founded it. It is situated about thirty-five miles east by south from Sardis, and stands in the plain of Hermus, about midway between the river of that name and the termination of Mount Tmolus. Not long before the date of the Apocalyptic Epistle in Revelation 3. 7,13, this city had suffered so much from earthquakes that it had been in a great measure deserted by its inhabitants; which may, in some degree, account for the

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