The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

SUPPLEMENTAL ENCYCLOPEDIAgreat horsemen and would seem to have borne no very distantresemblance to the modern Cossacks. It is said theywere either refugees or exiles from the Scythian nation.Harran, as it is now called, is situated on a branch of theEuphrates, in a flat and sandy plain, and isonly peopledby a few wandering Arabs, who select it for the deliciouswater it furnishes.Hebrews That branch of the posterity of Abrahamwhose home was in the land of promise. The name Hebrewis first applied to Abraham in Gen. xv. 13, and is generallysupposed to have been derived from Heber, the last of thelong-lived patriarchs. Heber outlived six generations ofhis descendants, including Abraham himself, after whosedeath he was for some years the only surviving ancestorof Isaac and Jacob. Hebrews appears to have been thename by which the Jewish people was known to foreigners,in distinction from their common domestic name, "the childrenof Israel." The name of Jews, derived from Judah,was afterwards applied to them as inhabitants of Judea.Hebron On of the most ancient cities of Canaan, beingbuilt seven years before Tanis, the capital of Lower Egypt.It was anciently called Mamre, and was a favorite residenceof the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Here, too,they were buried. Under Joshua and Caleb the Israelitesconquered it from the Canaanites, and it was afterwardsmade a Levitical city of refuge. It was David's seat ofgovernment during the seven years when he reigned overJudah only. Here Absalom raised the standard of revolt.It was fortified by Rehoboam, the son and successor ofSolomon.At present Hebron is an unwalled city of about 8,000inhabitants, of whom some 600 are Jews and the remainderTurks and Arabs. It lies in a deep valley and on the adjacenthillside, in the ancient hill country of Judea, abouttwenty miles south of Jerusalem. Its modern name, El-179