THE TEMPLE VESSELS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3297, 16 August 1911, Page 8

THE TEMPLE VESSELS.

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THEM

“The Sheiks of the Mosque of Omar and other officials, induing an Armenian, who are accused of aiding and abetting a party of explorers in the alleged removal of priceless relics of Solomon’s Temple from the hill on. which the mosque stands, have been sent under an aimed escort to Beyrout to undergo trial by a special court,” says Reuter. “The arrests are in connection with excavation work by an English syndicate, at the head of which was Captain Parker, brother of the Earl of Morley, to find the treasures of King Solomon, which were supposed to have been indicated by a cryptogram in the Talmud.” Mr Richard Gottheil, Professor of Semitic Languages in Columbia University. discusses in the “Outlook” (N.Y.) in collection with this incident, the question of “What Has Become of the Temple Vessels?” WHERE IS THE ARK? “What oould they hope to find?” he asks. “Certainly not the Ark of the Covenant. What became of it ultimately''history does'not say. It had vanished at a very early date. It was neither in the Temple as reconstructed uv the exiles who returned from the Babylonian captivity, nor was it in the Temple built by Herod. That it was liidden in a cave by the prophet Jeremiah, together with the holy fire and the other appurtenances, is a late apocrypal legend. "What lias become of the rest of the Temple equipment, made of gold and of precious stones, which were remade after each successive nillage of the Temple ? They were evidently in use in the Temple built by Herod. Some, but not all (as Josephus expressly suggests), wore carried off to Rome and figured in the splendid triumph accorded to Vespasian and Titus in the year 71 They are stiLl to be seen pictured on the triumphal, arch erected in honor of the second of these two great leaders. Their subsequent history is interesting; but it ends in utter darkness

“They were token t 0 Carthage when the Vandal 'king Genseric sacked Rome in 455 A.D.„ and. sent from there to Constantinople by Belisaiius in 534 A.D. But because of a superstitious feag that their presence away from their real home might be a harbinger of evil, the Emperor Justinian had them returned to Jerusalem and placed in the Christian church, there. From that.' time we lose all track of them. But Jerusalem had been again over-run and pillaged by the Romans in 134 A.D., and was.laid' waste in. 614 hv the Persians under Ohosroes 11. There can be little hope, then, that any of the Temple treasures have escaped the general .doom that overtook the city—either such as may have been left by the Romans in 70 or those that had been returned from Constantinople. “The south-eastern hill upon which the expedition has been working is, however, of much greater import in a cardinal question that bids been eagerly, and sometimes all too fervently, discussed by scholars. Where was the ‘City iof David!’ situated? Was Zion upon the eastern or upon the western of the two' ridges that project from the present Jerusalem and fall quite precipitously into the valley below? From the time of Josephus, this ‘City of David’ lias been placed upon the southwestern, of the two ridges. The theory lias been consecrated by tradition,, and has been sanctified by both Christian and Mohamedan pious usage. But from the middle of the nineteenth century onward doubts have been cast upon this hallowed 'tradition; and the weight of scholarly opinion, borne out by archaeological investigations, tends to place the ‘City of David’ upon the south-eastern ridge. “The dispute can be laid only, by further excavations in the debris which lias accumulated for centures. Some work lias already been done here by Sir Charles Warren, Professor Guthe, and by Dr Frederick Bliss; but no scientific exploration of the whole ridge has been made—probably because of the antipathy of the Mohanuneda.n population to any excavations in the neighborhood of the mosque area. WHERE IS DAVID BURIED?

“At the time of Hezekialh a tunnel was built through the rock to .convey, the- water • from this fountain to the -Pool of Si loam—still farther south, but at tliat time within the walls. Before approaching tlie Pool the tunnel makes a wide bend to the east, seemingly for no- other purpose than to avoid some spot. Clermont-Ganneau supposes that this spot was the place where the Kings of Judah. David!, Solomon, and a number of their descendants were buried. As we know from the Biblical records that these princes were .interred in the ‘City of David,’ the finding of these tombs would set at rest the vexed question as to the actual position of that city.”