Jerusalem: Some Notes of a Recent Journey E-Book

Charles A. Dana

• Herausgeber: Full Well Ventures
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

In the December 1893 issue of McClure's Magazine, Charles A. Dana describes a journey to the city of Jerusalem, arriving at Joffa, advice on taking the 3 1/2 hour train ride to the city, pointers on various sites of religious, including the Church of the

Leseprobe

JERUSALEM

Some Notes of a Recent Journey

CHARLES A. DANA

Originally published in December 1893 issue of McClure’s Magazine

Modern Edition © 2021 Full Well Ventures

Created with Vellum

Contents

I. How to Get There

II: The City Itself

III: Bethlehem and Bethany

I. How to Get There

I: HOW TO GET THERE.

EVERY CHRISTIAN and every philosophic student of history must desire to see Jerusalem. It was formerly very difficult, and even dangerous, to go there. But now it is safe, easy, and comparatively inexpensive.

There are various roads for the traveler to choose from. He may start from Egypt, and follow the route through the desert of Sinai; or he may land at Beirut, in Central Syria, pass the hills of Lebanon, and proceed southward through the country of Galilee; but each of these involves a long journey on horseback, with a caravan and tents and guards. The simplest and shortest way is through Jaffa, or Joppa, as it was called in St. Paul’s time. This is the seaport in the Eastern Mediterranean that is nearest to Jerusalem; and a railway, finished three months ago, bears the traveler directly to his destination. From Constantinople steamers for Jaffa are frequent, and so they are from Alexandria and Port Said, the nearest Egyptian ports. But landing at Jaffa is uncertain. It is an open roadstead, not a sheltered harbor; and between the anchoring ground of ships and the beach, there stretches a long and sharp-edged reef, just rising to the surface of the water; and on a windy day the breakers falling upon it are shattered into foam. In this reef there is a narrow passage, wide enough for a whaleboat; and, once through, there is safety. But the slightest variation from the true line hurls your boat upon the rocks and drowns its passengers. Just before we were there in November, a boat’s crew had been destroyed; and usually, if a westerly wind is blowing, steamers will not attempt to land, but carry away the pilgrims to a more distant port and an uncertain destination. But with the increased traffic of Jaffa, it cannot, we suppose, be very long before a safe harbor is built there, and the debarkation of voyagers made safe and comfortable.

After you are well ashore at Jaffa, you have two good ways of reaching Jerusalem. First there is the old carriage road, which has existed for many years, and a very good road it is; and then there is the new railroad. The carriage road is shorter than the railroad, being something like thirty-two miles long, while the railroad is some fifty miles; but it takes twice as much time to get there with a carriage and horses, and it is, of course, much more costly. The railroad is very good, indeed, substantially built by French engineers, with French capital, though the locomotives which I noticed bore the mark of a Philadelphia firm. For some twenty miles the line passes through the fertile and attractive plain of Sharon, that rich and lovely ancient region whose verdant beauty wars and devastations have not extinguished. Then it enters the mountains, and follows the lines of small streams, and during the remainder of the distance winds about through ravines, especially the Wady Surar and the Wady Bittir. The ascent from the sea to Jerusalem amounts to two thousand four hundred and eighty feet in all. I saw, no indications of great difficulties overcome in the engineering. There may be a tunnel or two, though I do not remember any distinctly. The trains now running consist of two second-class carriages and one first-class. These carriages are divided into compartments much like the cars of the Swiss and Italian railways. The first-class seats are not cushioned, but are just like our ordinary cane-seated chairs. There is now one daily train that makes the round trip between Jaffa and Jerusalem, and the first-class fare is ten francs. The time of leaving Jerusalem is nine, a.m., and the returning train starts from Jaffa at two, p.m. The running time is about three hours and a half. The language used upon the line by guards and station men is French.

I have been told by my friend Dr. Pereira Mendes, that there is a notion among Oriental Jews that the opening of a railway to Jerusalem must precede the coming of the Messiah. This he heard nearly twenty years ago, when minister of a congregation almost wholly composed of Hebrews from North Africa, Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor, and the farther East. The foundation for the opinion appears to be the last chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, in an eloquent prediction of the return of the Hebrew exiles, where we read: “They shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations, for an offering unto the Lord, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord.” The Hebrew word which is translated “swift beasts” in the English version is “kirkaroth,” and occurs only this once in all the Bible. The roots of the word are found in 11. Samuel 6:14, where it is applied to the swaying dance of David, and in the common Hebrew word for furnace. Hence the derived meaning, as Dr. Mendes tells me, “a swaying furnace.” For the English rendering there is no justification whatever in the sense of the Hebrew word in the text. Some propose to translate it “dromedaries”; but the same prophet, only a few chapters before (9:6), uses a totally different word, the accepted equivalent of which is “dromedary.” It is certainly neither camels nor asses, for there are well-known Hebrew words regularly used for these. When the English translation was made in King James’ time, there was no word to express the Hebrew in this passage; but what more accurate epithet could be applied to a railway locomotive than to call it a swaying furnace? And what more accurate term could the prophet use to describe what he had seen in his vision of the return of the Hebrews by all kinds of conveyances, among them one which he had never beheld in all his experience, but which “swayed” and carried fire? What a picturesque word to describe a train or locomotive in rapid motion!