ARMAGEDDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 286, 3 December 1930, Page 6

ARMAGEDDON.

Some ten years ago Dr. James Breasted under: took the exploration of the country from the Black Sea to Upper Egypt with funds supplied by one of the Rockefellers. He divided his explorations into three parts, one of which he called the Armageddon Exploration. He has now been able to purchase for the purposes of research the site of the ancient city of Armageddon and surrounding territory, which form what he describes as an "archaeological treasure house." The city itself was an old Canaanite capital assigned to Manaeseh. Solomon drew supplies for the royal household from here and restored the fortifications. It later became a Roman military station and the plain was called Campus Legionis. From the days of Thothmes 111. to our own the ( country round has been a chosen place for encampment in every contest carried on in Palestine. Jews, Turks, Arabs, Saracens, Crusaders, Persians and Druses have pitched their tents here. Lord Allen'by took the title of Lord Allenby of Megiddo. Its importance lies in the fact that it guards the northern edge to the pass over the ridge of Carmel, which forms the easiest line of communication between the plain of Sharon and that of Esdraelon. Through this pass ran the great road from Egypt to the north, along which armies have marched from the time of Thothmes to that of Napoleon. It was here that Deborah and Barak gained their great victory over the Oanaanites, and here also Midian defeated the Gibeonites. In this neighbourhood Saul was defeated by the Philistines- and Josiah by the Egyptians. It hae been called the "classic battleground of Scripture." The interest for most people centres round the verse in Revelation: "And he gathered them (this is, the kings of the earth) together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." They were gathered together "to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." This has been interpreted as signifying a great world battle before the end of the present dispensation. Most modern commentators, however, do not interpret it as signifying a literal battle, but as typifying the contest between the forces of good and evil, Armageddon being used much as we use the word Waterloo in the phrase "he met his Waterloo." The possibilities of interesting discoveries in this territory are enormous. There is hardly a nation of antiquity that has not been associated with Megiddo and the plain of Esdraelon, and the archaeological treasures ought to rival in interest those recently discovered in Egypt and Ur of the Chaldees. —W.M.