Northwards of Samaria, to the limits of Palestine, lay GALILEE, having the Jordan and the Lake on the east, and Phoenice on the west. The northern part of this, between North Jordan and Phoenice, principally corresponding to Nephthalim, was termed GALILEE OF THE GENTILES: the southern part, west of the Lake and South Jordan, was peculiarly termed GALILEE, and is the district which is denoted by that appellation in the Gospels. Commencing with the populous part lying northwards of the Plain of Esdraelon, the whole of this district cannot have exceeded Worcestershire in extent.

Opposite Galilee, east of the Lake and North Jordan, lay several districts, having, as it appears, different appellations, and being incapable of specific division, but much correspon.ding with the eastern territory of Manasseh. St. Luke appears to have included the whole under the denomination of ITUREA and TRACHONITIS, the latter referring particularly to the mountainous region east of the sources of the Jordan. St. Matthew and St. Mark designate the country of which they speak, lying east of North Jordan and the Lake, by the appellation DECAPOLIS, SO called from the combination of ten cities most of which lay in that region. Josephus calls that same region GAULONITIS. The country east of it, he terms BATANEA-the ancient Bashan; and eastward of that was AURANITIS, now the Haouran, little of which appears to have been within the limits of Palestine. Batanæa seems to have been sometimes considered as extending to the Lake, so as to include Gaulonitis; and the Ituræa of St. Luke corresponds with Batanæa in this more extended sense, together with such portion of Auranitis as came within the tetrarchy of Philip. Trachonitis is used, both by Josephus and by St. Luke, to denote the north-eastern part of Philip's dominions, together probably, with the adjoining region.

In the Gospels, 'the Country beyond the Jordan' sometimes denotes all the part of Palestine which lay eastwards of the Jordan: and in like manner Josephus occasionally employs the appellation Peræa with the same extensiveness, as when he speaks of Gadara as the metropolis of the Peræa. But the region peculiarly termed PEREA by Josephus, and the COUNTRY BEYOND THE JORDAN by the Evangelists, extended only to above Pella in the north, and to beyond Philadelphia in the east, corresponding to Gad and Reuben.-See Bell. Jud. III. iii. 3.

St. Luke further mentions ABILENE as a tetrarchy distinct from Ituræa and Trachonitis; and this is usually placed, as in the Map, (and as rather best suits the words of Josephus), out of Palestine on the north-east: but the total want of connection between this district and the events of the Gospel history, rather leads to suppose that it was a district lying between

Ituræa and Peræa proper, where, in fact, there was a town termed Abila, which still exists.

Herod the Great reigned over the whole of Palestine as an independent king; yet he was greatly under the power of the Romans, Pompey having in the year 63 B. C. made the country tributary to them. Herod made a distribution of his dominions by will, which was afterwards ratified by the Roman Emperor: by this, Archelaus had Judæa and Samaria; Herod Antipas had Galilee with Peræa; and Philip the Tetrarch, Ituræa and Trachonitis. About ten years after the death of Herod, Archelaus was banished for his cruelty; and his territory, consisting of Judæa and Samaria, was made a Roman Province under Procurators who were subordinate to the Presidents of Syria. The enrollment which had been decreed by Augustus, and wh ch occasioned the birth of our Saviour to take place at Bethlehem, the city of David, was now carried into effect by Cyrenius the Governor of Syria. The power of life and death was taken out of the hands of the Jews; taxes were paid directly to the Roman Emperor; and justice was administered in his name, and by the laws of Rome. In matters of religion, however, the laws of the Jews, and the power of the Sanhedrim, were continued to them.

The Sanhedrim, whose power was of course confined to Judæa, consisted of seventy members, under the High Priest as President, with a Vice President: such were Caiaphas, and Annas, his father-in-law. There were three classes of members;--Chief Priests, the chiefs of the twenty-four courses of Priests; Elders, the heads of families; and Scribes, some of the class of persons so called, who were especially employed in studying, copying, and explaining the Scriptures. The Members of the Sanhedrim were generally of the sect of the Pharisees; and the Pharisees sometimes stands for the Sanhedrim: the Chief Priests and Elders, or the Scribes and Elders, are other synonymes.

Judæa and Samaria were under the government now described, during our Lord's Ministry,-Pontius Pilate being the fifth of the Roman Governors Herod Antipas reigned over Galilee and Peræa; and Philip, who was a mild and equitable prince, was the Tetrarch of the territory east of the Lake and North Jordan. This political division was of the greatest importance for the first preaching of the Gospel. When our Lord was in Samaria, (as after the raising of Lazarus), the Sanhedrim had no power over him; nor when he was in Galilee, or in any part of the country east of the Jordan. When he was in the dominions of Philip, he was also out of the reach of the cruel and crafty Herod. When Herod was resident at the royal fortress of Macharus, in the south of the Perea, where he

held his court, and which was the scene of the imprisonment and execution of the Baptist, then Galilee was open for the public and extensive exercise of our Lord's Ministry. When Herod returned to Galilee, after the death of John, and took up his residence at Tiberias, near the south of the Lake, then the northern parts of that country, the territories of Tyre and Sidon, and the dominions of Philip, afforded our Saviour security from the purposes of the despot who had now begun to hear of his mighty works; and he was thus enabled to proceed in the discharge of his all-important duty, till the days were fulfilled when he was to be received up.'-In this respect, as in a variety of others, we see that it was in the 'fullness of times' that 'God sent forth his Son'.

SECT. II. Descriptive Survey of Palestine.

The whole region of Palestine may be described as very hilly, with some extensive plains, those of Saron and Esdraelon especially, aud numerous small valleys. Several districts are very mountainous, particularly the country east of the Jordan, and some parts of Judea. The two great chains which branch off from the mountains of Syria, to which the common appellation of Lebanon is given in the Scriptures, run for a considerable way parallel to one another in a south-westerly direction; and the country between them forms the Cole-Syria of geographers, now called El Bekaa. The plain itself is quite flat, very highly cultivated, but with very few trees. It is several days' journey in length,* and about six or eight miles broad.+ From these chains another proceeds southwards, the Hermon of the Scriptures. These mountains, as well as those of Syria in general, are composed of a calcareous rock, whitish, hard, and ringing when struck. The granite scarcely begins to make its appearance till we come to the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai and the Red Sea.-Maltebrun, p. 128.

The object of this Dissertation is not to present a geographical detail of all that is stated, as to places and districts, by the ancients, or by modern

For loose reckoning, we may estimate a day's journey at about twenty miles; and the hour, by which the travelers in Palestine continually reckon distances, as three miles. The great diversity observable in the latter, depends much on the extent and nature of the traveling party,-whether consisting of a few individuals, or forming a caravan,— and also upon the season of the year: the inferences from Dr. Richardson's estimates of distances must, for the former reason, vary from Maundrell's or from Buckingham's.

+ See Dr. Morehead's "Tour of the Holy Land": Appendix p. 280. The Tour itself is imaginary; but the Extracts from a MS. Journal of a Traveler in Syria in the Spring of 1828, of which the Appendix consists, are, in general, singularly valuable, from the distinctness and obvious accuracy of its information.

travelers; but to give such a view of Palestine itself, as may enable those readers of the Gospels who cannot themselves examine the works of those writers, to form an impressive view of the country in which our Saviour lived, and especially of those districts over which he journeyed. For this purpose, the requisite information will sometimes be given in the very words of the authors on whom we have to depend; and from the materials which have been collected with the present object in view, such portions will be presented to the reader, whether or not they respect the exact localities referred to by the Evangelists, as may assist in realizing those scenes and circumstances on which the chastened imagination, the understanding, and the affections, may be alike engaged.*

1. Country WEST and SOUTH of Jerusalem.

We have no reason to suppose that our Saviour ever journeyed in the south-western part of Palestine; but the following representation of that region is too applicable to the districts more immediately in view, to b passed by. The traveler was proceeding, at the end of February, from Joppa, now Jaffa.

“Feb. 25. On issuing into the country, the difference between this and Egypt was most striking. Here the view is made up of green hillocks, and enclosures here and there, and gardens in the hollows. Palms are common, but intermixed with other trees: the prickly pear, of great size, is the commonest hedge." "The garden of the English Consul is an orchard filled with almonds, peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons, &c. mixed with mulberries, sycamores, and other trees: like every thing about this place, it gives a wonderful idea of the fertility of Syria :—yet the sandhills were in sight to the north, and still more to the south, where, on looking from the ship, there seemed almost a sandy desert extending by Ekron and Ashdod, towards Ascalon and Gaza."Feb. 26. "On quitting the gardens, a country quite different from any we had ever seen was opened to us; smooth green swells, succeeding each other with little variety but the greater or less degree in which they approached to a plain. The view, from a distance, was very pleasing; and nearer, the green was diversified in the most delightful manner by the numbers of beautiful flowers intermixed with the grass. The most common was a yellow flower, like a dandelion or small marigold, but in clusters; as common, but less conspicuous, was a low lilac flower; to these were added a profusion of red anemones,

* It would be injustice to the Author of "The Modern Traveller" not to mention that in his little volume on Palestine, published in 1824, most of the information given by previous writers respecting that country, is ably embodied. Those who have not access to the original volumes will be glad of this reference.

There was published at Neuchatel, in 1837, a little volume with the following title: Description de la Terre-Sainte par Andréas Bram, V.D. M.; publiée à Bale en 1834: Traduction Française, revue, augmentée, et publiée par F. de Rougemont. The Author's object resembles my own in this Dissertation; but it has a wider scope. I think a translation of it, with some good maps, would be generally useful.

sometimes scattered in small numbers, and sometimes making whole banks glow with their deep scarlet. There are other flowers also, particularly a white one of the lily kind; and towards evening I saw many purple and white anemones, besides red ones. These flowers and the vivid green are sufficient to make the undulations of this plain beautiful, but there is no other variety. A few woods of olive trees near villages are the only trees. While we passed along, during this day, we observed ploughing in progress, though some fields were full of young wheat or barley, and some of lupins or beans, both in flower." Morehead, p. 245.

About ten miles south-east from Jaffa is Ramla, situated on a high hill, and anciently of great importance. Some suppose this to have been the Arimathea, or Ramah, mentioned in the Gospels; but it is more probable that Joseph came from a place of the same name a few miles north of Jerusalem, and eastward of Emmäus, the village to which our Lord went on the day of his resurrection.-The traveler passing from Ramla towards Jerusalem, soon enters the mountain-district of Judæa.

"For some time before we reached the mountains (says Dr. Richardson*) we kept looking up at their dusky sides, as they rose, in towering grandeur, to the height of about 1000 or 1500 feet above our heads, covered with a sun-burnt grass; [this was early in April;] here and there disclosing stripes of bare horizontal rock, and diversified with a few bushy trees that stood at very unfriendly and forlorn distances from each other. Having entered the mountain defiles, we moved along a deep and most uncomfortable track, covered with big sharp stones, sometimes down a steep and almost precipitous descent, which obliged us to alight and lead our mules; at other times along the dry stony bed of a winter torrent.- -The hills, from the commencement of the mountain scenery, are all of a round handsome shape, meeting in the base, and separated at the tops-like the gradual retiring of two round balls, placed in juxta position. Their sides are partially covered with earth which nourishes a feeble sprinkling of withered grass, with here and there a dwarf tree or solitary shrub."-These general features continued till the party arrived in sight of Jerusalem, about half a mile from the walls. "The city presented itself (Dr. R. continues) in the midst of a barren mountain track. The Mount of Olives is seen on the left. The end of a lofty and contiguous mountain bounds the view beyond the city on the south. An insulated rock peaks up upon the right; and a broad, flat-topped mountain, furrowed by the plough, slopes down on the left." Of Jerusalem, "not an ancient tower, or gate, or wall, or hardly a stone remains. The foundations are not only broken up, but every fragment of which they were composed, is swept away.-The Mount of Olives still retains a languishing verdure, and nourishes a few of those trees from which it derives its name : but all round about Jerusalem, the general aspect is blighted and barren, the grass is withered, the bare rock looks through the scanty sward, and the green itself, like the starving progeny of famine, seems in doubt whether to come to maturity or die in the ear."

The contrast between Dr. Richardson's representations of the places he visited, and Mr. Carne's, in his Letters in the East, which will soon be employed, is very striking: the statements of the former will be most

• Travels along the Mediterranean and the parts adjacent, 1816-1818.