192 The Fundamentals tinuation of the most southerly of three routes which connect the Jordan valley with the Maritime Plains. * * * Now just before this road (coming up from the Jordan valley) leaves the higher ground and descends to the Shepheleh, it divides into two, the one branch leading down to the Wady Suleiman, the other running in a more southerly direction by way of the Bethhorons. Here, on this fertile, open plateau, slightly to the south of the main road, rises the hill on which the modern village of El-Jib is built, right on the frontier line which traverses the central range to the south of Bethel. It was the natural pass across Palestine, which in early times served as the political border between North and South Israel, and it was owing to its position that Gibeon acquired so much prominence in the rei gn s of David and Solomon. A short distance to the east of the village, at the foot of the hill, there is, further, a stone tank 01 reservoir of considerable size, supplied by a spring which rises in a cave higher up." This spring, the explorers tell us, was probably the ancient "pool of Gtbeon" mentioned in 2 'Sam. 2 :13. Also, respecting the "h gr eat high place," Smith's Dictionary has the following: "The most natural position for the high place of Gibeon i·s the twin mountain immediately south of El-Jib, so close as to be all but a part of the town, and yet quite separate and distinct. The testi mony of Epiphanius, viz., that the 'Mount of Gibeon' was the highest round Jerusalem, by which Dean Stanley supports his conjecture (that the present Neby Samwil was the great high place), should be received with caution, standing, as it does, quite alone and belonging to an age which, though early, was marked by ignorance and by the most improbable conclusions." Some additional facts, as given by Rev. W. Shaw Caldecott (ibid. pp. 60-62) , are as follows : "ElJ- ib is built upon an isolated oblong hill standing in a plain or basin of great fertility. The northern end of the hill is covered over with old massive ruins, which have fallen down in every direction, and in which the villagers now live. Across the plain to the south is the lofty range of Neby Samwil. * * * Gibeon was one of the four towns in the division of Benjamin given as residences for the sons of Aaron (Josh. 21 :17). It was thus already inhabited by priests, and this, added to its other advantages, made it, humanly speaking, a not unsuitable place for the capital of the new kingdom. No remains of (very ancient) buildings have been discovered, such as those of er Ramah and Tell el-Full."
I •
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker