TIBNEH, TIMNATH-SERAH.-JOSHUA'S TOMB.

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scend from this rather breezy lookout to our tent. In the evening we may resume the subject, for there are some places of great interest not yet described.

April 12th. Evening.

This morning you indicated, from the top of the tower, the position of a village called Tibneh, on the mountain a few miles north-east of el Medyeh. Was it distinguished in Bible times?

It marks the site of Timnath-serah, where Joshua closed his long and glorious career. In the nineteenth chapter of Joshua we read, at the forty-ninth and fiftieth verses, "When they had made an end of dividing the land for inheritance by their coasts, the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them: according to the word of the Lord they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath-serah in Mount Ephraim: and he built the city, and dwelt therein;" and in the twenty-ninth and thirtieth verses of the twenty-fourth chapter it is recorded that he died. there, "being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash." Much surprise was expressed in Jerome's time that he who gave the whole nation their inheritance should have selected this place for his own lot. The surroundings are singularly wild, rocky, and barren, but his choice may have been influenced by these very characteristics as promising a secluded and peaceful retreat for the evening of his eventful life. It also occupied a central position in the territory of his own tribe.

The Roman road from Jerusalem to Cæsarea by Antipatris passed through the village, and it is probable that the Apostle Paul was conducted along it by the Roman soldiers. The chief interest in Tibneh is derived from the numerous rock-cut tombs, many of which are doubtless "on the north side of the hill of Gaash," and one of them is believed to be the sepulchre of Israel's great captain. It is thus described by Lieutenant Conder: "This is certainly the most striking monument in the country, and strongly recommends itself to the mind as an authentic site. That it is the sepulchre of a man of distinction is manifest from the great number of lamp niches which cover the walls of the porch; there are over two hun

dred arranged in vertical rows, giving the appearance of an ornamental pattern, and all smoke-blacked. Entering the low door, we find the interior chamber to be a square with five loculi, not very perfectly cut on three sides. The whole is quite unornamented, except by four very rough brackets supporting the flat roof. On becoming accustomed to the darkness, one perceives that the central loculus at the back forms a little passage about 7 feet long, 2 feet 6 inches high, and 3 feet 4 inches broad, through which one creeps into a second but smaller chamber, 9 feet 3 inches by 8 feet 1 inch, and 5 feet 5 inches high. In this, opposite the entrance, a single loculus runs at right angles to the wall, and a single niche is cut on the left for a lamp. Here, then, if we accept the site, is the resting-place of the great leader, the stout soldier, the fierce invader, who first brought Israel into the Promised Land."

If this be so, then, with the exception of Machpelah, there is not a more interesting sepulchre in Palestine.

Of Moses, Joshua's great master, it is truly said, "No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day;" and the exact site of the new tomb from whence the Lord of Life arose and burst the bands of death has been divinely concealed; but the grave of him who typified the Captain of our Salvation and bare his name may be re

THAMNA.-SACRED TOMBS.

vealed to us in the rock-cut chamber at Timnath-serah.

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The site.

was first identified as the home and burial-place of the great leader of Israel by Dr. Eli Smith, the travelling companion of Dr. Edward Robinson. The village was once a place of considerable importance, and gave its name to a district, or toparchy, called Thamna, that included much of the country between it and Ludd.

Besides the sepulchre of Joshua, there are other rock-hewn tombs at Tibneh well worth the attention of the visitor, though, as Lieutenant Conder says, "almost every tomb has its porch so filled with rubbish that only the top of the little door into the tomb is visible."

Tibneh appears to have been a favorite burial-place in ancient times.

This was quite natural. Orientals of all sects have ever manifested a strong and even superstitious desire to be buried near the tombs of saints and celebrated heroes; and if the tomb of Joshua here at Tibneh were not thus associated with other sepulchres, this fact would of itself cast a doubt upon the truth of the identification. There is at Tibneh a venerable and remarkable oak-tree, and this, also, is common at such sacred localities. Lieutenant Conder thus describes it: "The Roman road passes between the plateau and the tell, and not far south of it stands perhaps the oldest and finest tree in Palestine. This noble oak, which must be upwards. of thirty feet in height, and beautifully symmetrical, is all the more

striking to the sight after a residence in a country but sparsely scattered with olives and ballût of no great size. It is covered with foliage, the leaves being very small, and has received the name of Sheikh Taim from the natives."

We shall have occasion hereafter to notice that there are many incidental references in the Bible to remarkable trees, and it is fair to infer that this country was generally as destitute of great trees in early times as it is now.

That which interested me most yesterday was 'Amwâs. Do you suppose it is the site of the Emmaus towards which the two disciples were pursuing their sad walk when the risen Saviour joined them, and where he was revealed to them in the breaking of bread? So thought Eusebius and Jerome, but there are grave objections against it. Luke says it was threescore furlongs from Jerusalem, and this site is more than that distance as the crow flies.' If we were at liberty to correct the text, as has been suggested, and make it read one hundred and sixty furlongs instead of sixty, that would bring you to 'Amwâs; but could the disciples get back to Jerusalem that same night, before the apostles had retired to sleep, as we are expressly told that they did?" It was certainly evening when they sat down to meat. They could not, therefore, have started back before dark; still I think they could have accomplished the journey from 'Amwâs. It is not more than sixteen miles distant from Jerusalem, and it is quite probable that there was a footpath over the mountains direct to the city. With such news as the two disciples were bearing to their disconsolate brethren, they would take the very shortest road, and make all possible haste. The walk would not require more than five hours, and if they left 'Amwâs at seven o'clock, they would be in the Holy City by midnight. Nor need it occasion any surprise that the apostles were together at that late hour. The entire company of believers must have been in a state of great excitement, wonder, and expectancy. Since, therefore, there is no insuperable difficulty in the return to Jerusalem from 'Amwâs, and a possibility that the true reading of the text gives one hundred and sixty furlongs instead of sixty, and, also, since the most careful research has failed to discover any other Emmaus in that region, it will scarcely be safe to reject absolutely the testimony of Eusebius and Jerome, and the belief of the entire ancient Church. I should like to believe that we have in 'Amwâs the scene of that most interesting conversation and miracle recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke. If it be not there, the true site is yet to be found. Josephus states that Cæsar, after the destruction of Jerusalem, gave Emmaus, a village sixty fur1 Luke xxiv. 13. ? Luke xxiv. 33.