Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
There he and his immediate descendants were laid 3700 years ago, and there they are believed to
rest now, under the great mosque of Hebron; but no one in modern times has seen their remains,
or been allowed to enter into the cave where they rest. From the time when Abraham established
the burying-place of his family at Hebron till the time when David fixed that of his family in the
city which bore his name, the Jewish rulers-had no fixed or favorite place of sepulture. Each was
buried on his own property, or where he died, without much caring for either the sanctity or
convenience chosen. Tomb of the kings.—Of the twenty-two kings of Judah who reigned at
Jerusalem from 1048 to 590 B.C. eleven, or exactly one half, were buried in one hypogeum in the
“city of David.” Of all these it is merely said that they were buried in “the sepulchres of their
fathers” or “of the kings” in the city of David, except of two— Asa and Hezekiah. Two more of
these kings—Jehoram and Joash—were buried also in the city of David “but not in the sepulchres
of the kings.” The passage in (Nehemiah 3:18) and in Ezek 43:7,9 Together with the reiterated
assertion of the books of Kings and Chronicles that these sepulchres were situated in the city of
David, leaves no doubt that they were on Zion, or the Eastern Hill, and in the immediate proximity
of the temple. Up to the present time we have not been able to identify one single sepulchral
excavation about Jerusalem can be said with certainty to belong to a period anterior to that of the
Maccabees, or more correctly, to have been used for burial before the time of the Romans. The
only important hypogeum which is wholly Jewish in its arrangement, and may consequently belong
to an earlier or to any epoch, is that known as the tombs of the prophets, in the western flank of the
Mount of Olives. It has every appearance of having originally been a natural cavern improved by
art, and with an external gallery some 140 feet in extent, into which twenty-seven deep or Jewish
loculi open. Graeco-Roman tombs .—Besides the tombs above enumerated, there are around
Jerusalem, in the valleys of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat and on the plateau to the north, a number of
remarkable rock-cut sepulchres, with more or less architectural decoration, sufficient to enable us
to ascertain that they are all of nearly the same age, and to assert with very tolerable confidence
that the epoch to which they belong must be between the introduction of Roman influence and the
destruction of the city by Titus, A.D. 70. In the village of Siloam there is a monolithic cell of
singularly Egyptian aspect which Deuteronomy Saulcy assumes to be a chapel of Solomon’s
Egyptian wife. It is probably of very much more modern date, and is more Assyrian than Egyptian
in character. The principal remaining architectural sepulchres may be divided into three groups:
first, those existing in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and known popularly as the tombs of Zechariah
of St. James and of Absalom. Second those known as the tombs of the Judges, and the so-called
Jewish tomb about a mile north of the city. Third, that known as the tomb of the kings, about half
a mile north of the Damascus Gate. Of the three first-named tombs the most southern is known as
that of Zechariah a popular name which there is not even a shadow of tradition to justify. Tombs
of the judges .—The hypogeum known as the tombs of the judges is one of the most remarkable
of the catacombs around Jerusalem, containing about sixty deep loculi, arranged in three stories;
the upper stories with ledges in front, to give convenient access, and to support the stones that close
them; the lower flush with the ground; the whole, consequently, so essentially Jewish that it might
be of any age if it were not for its distance from the town and its architectural character. Tombs of
Herod .—The last of the great groups enumerated above is that known as the tomb of the
kings—Kebur es Sulton—or the Royal Caverns, so called because of their magnificence and also
because, that name is applied to them by Josephus. They are twice again mentioned under the title
of the “monuments of Herod.” There seems no reason for doubting that all the architectural tombs
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William Smith