POPULATION AND SIZE OF JERUSALEM. 693 XLIV. Jerusa lem. houses, and upper storeys have more rooms and larger available space than the CHAPTER lower, and so always accommodate much the greater number of people. This at once furnishes accommodation for at least 200,000 inhabitants, and no impar- Size of tial person who has opportunity to examine modern Oriental cities, or to ancient observe how densely the poor Jews can and do pack themselves away in the most wretched hovels, will deem these calculations extravagant. But we are prepared to lay aside all speculations and theories, and take Jerusalem as she now is for the basis of calculation. I have seen more than twenty-five thousand people in the present city, nor was it overcrowded. Then it must be remembered that the whole of Bezetha, and a large part of Acra, is uninhabited; the space taken up by the Mosque of Omar is much larger than was that of the Temple; the parts about Bab el Mugharabeh and the south-east end of Zion are either ploughed fields or overrun with cactus; the entire western face of Zion is occupied by the gardens of the Armenian Convent; the space south of Calvary is vacant; convents, churches, and mosques take up much room; and, finally, that even in those parts occupied by dwellings, the houses are low, small, badly contrived, and many of them in ruins. All these things taken into account, we can readily admit that, if the whole area were covered over with high houses, economically built, a hundred thousand inhabitants could find homes within the present walls. It only remains to state that the southern half of Zion, all of Ophel, and the broad expansion of the lower Tyropean, is without the walls on the south; and so, also, on the north, is the entire space enclosed by the third wall, about which Josephus speaks in such glowing terms. Take in the whole, cover it with habitations as it once was, and I hesitate not to say that two hundred thousand inhabitants could dwell comfortably " within thy walls, O Jerusalem." Should any one think differently, I will not argue the point with him. We are not obliged to assume so high a figure, for neither the Bible, nor Josephus, nor any other old author, gives such a number for the actual resident population of the Holy City. at the fes How the vast multitudes at the great feasts could be accommodated may easily Accombe explained. Let us take even the astounding statistics of Josephus himself, modation and suppose that the two millions and a half who partook of the Passover at tivals. the time of Cestius was neither an exaggeration nor an exception, it is by no means certain that one-fifth of this multitude sat down to the Paschal Supper within the walls. The Jews originally were dwellers in tents. It is certain that in some parts of the country they did not abandon this custom, at least not until after many generations. The proverb, "To your tents, O Israel !" was not a mere Oriental metaphor; and the tribes, when they assembled at small places, such as Gilgal and Shiloh, must have come up with their tents, or, at least, prepared to sleep out-doors. Nor is even this last supposition absurd. The feasts occurred in the warm, non-rainy months, and throughout all the southern part of Palestine the people at this season do not hesitate to sleep in the open air, under trees, vines, or even in open gardens. Now not only two, but half a dozen millions of people could find room to eat PART JV. Appear ance of Jerusa and sleep on the mountains which are "round about Jerusalem." At such times, no doubt, every garden was thrown open, and every available spot occupied. We may gather this much from two incidents in the history of our Lord. When he drew near the city, and sent two disciples to prepare the Passover, they were to say to the man whom they should meet bearing a pitcher, "Where is the guest-chamber ?” 1 implying the existence of such apartments, and the custom of allowing the use of them as a matter of course. Again, after supper our Lord went out into a garden in Olivet.2 Neither he nor his disciples owned a garden there, but the matter thus mentioned clearly implies that such gardens were on these occasions left open for all who needed them. I have often tried to realize the appearance of these profound valleys and high hills around Jerusalem during the great feasts. Covered with olive-groves, lem dur- fruit-orchards, and vineyards, beneath whose friendly bowers many a happy ing fesfamily and neighbourhood group assembled, rising rank over rank to the very tivals. top of the mountains, I marvel that no artist has thought of reproducing this scene. Innumerable thousands gathered to the Passover, with happy children, busy servants, festooned victims, and all the joyful host, in picturesque costumes, hastening hither and thither, as business, or pleasure, or worship prompted, furnishing all the elements for the most magnificent and impressive panorama the world has ever beheld. It might require the lifetime of the artist, but he who should realize the idea would need to execute no other work. Arrange ment of the tribes These hills, and valleys, and mounts lie all around the Holy City, as if on purpose for such convocations. The artist might arrange the tribes, with their ensigns and standards, round about Jerusalem, as they were commanded to pitch their tents about the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Judah would then occupy this Mount of Olives; for that tribe, with Issachar and Zebulun, encamped on the east side, toward the rising of the sun. Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, with their standards, pitched on the south. On the west were Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin; and on the north, Dan, and Asher, and Naphtali. Thus they continued to pitch and march for forty years. Now, it is not improbable that when the Tabernacle was in Gilgal and in Shiloh this same order was preserved, and, as far as circumstances permitted, it might have been kept up even after the Temple at Jerusalem took the place of the Tabernacle. Without some well-arranged system, there would be endless confusion in such vast assemblies. Each tribe, therefore, had its proper station on these noble hills. Every important city may also have had its appropriate quarter, every village its terrace, every family its shady tree or sheltered arbour. Fancy now, if you can, this great city, thus surrounded by all Israel, assembled here to worship; the glorious Temple towering up on Moriah like a pyramid of snow; the smoke of victims and the clouds of incense ascending up to heaven 1 Mark xiv. 12-17. 2 John xviii. 1. 'Numbers ii. 18, XLIV. from morning to night; while Temple, court, hall, street, valley, and hill side chapter echo and re-echo with the songs of Zion from millions of devout and joyful worshippers of the living God. Who would not join the sons of Korah in their triumphal psalm: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. Let Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Israel be glad; for this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death." "1 of Jerusa Josephus, near the close of his Wars, gives the following rapid sketch of the Josephus' history of Jerusalem: 2 "He who first built it was a potent man among the history Canaanites, and is in our tongue called the Righteous King, for such he really lem. was; on which account he was the first priest of God, and first built a temple, and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and settled his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians four hundred and seventy-seven years and six months after him. And from king David, who was the first of the Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction under Titus, were one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years; but from its first building till this last destruction were two thousand one hundred and seventyseven years. It had been many times besieged and taken-first by David, then by Shishak, king of Egypt; afterward by Nebuchadnezzar, then by Antiochus; after him by Pompey, then by Sosius, then by Herod, and finally by Titus, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpieus"-September. He closes the sad story with this affecting remark: "Yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed." How much importance do you attach to the statement of Jerome, that the Salem of Melchizedek was near Beisan? Not enough to disturb my settled belief that he was mistaken. I follow MelchizeJosephus, and am convinced that his account coincides with the Bible; dek. but the old tradition that Melchizedek was no other than Shem is a vast improvement on the Jewish historian. Such an origin for the city of the great King is so gratifying that one is reluctant to carry research into the cold region of critical scepticism. Let us therefore believe, if we can, that here the son of Noah founded the City of Peace, reigned in righteousness, and was priest of the most high God. Perhaps it was near his very altar that Abraham, in a figure, offered up Isaac-type of that other sacrifice, |