The WORLD of RELIGION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22100, 4 May 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

The WORLD of RELIGION

Spadework in the East goes on apace since tlie Turkish dominion was terminated. by the Great War, and a series of the most astonishing explorations has uncovered to us the existence of remarkable civilisations existing milleniums before the Christian era. We know the life of these ancient peoples scarcely less intimately than that of England before the Conquest. Their hosts of war sweep before our eyes to brilliant campaigns, their •great temples bespeak the vigour of their religious faith, we can recite the creeds and chant the hymns which men used before a page of Holy Writ saw the light, we know the attire of the people, their commercial habits, the rent they paid for their houses, the kind of food they ate. It is a strange business, this resurrection of a longlost world from the silence of the dead.

In Palestine, low, flat-topped mounds, ranging from sixty to eighty feet in height, and often covered with a few scattered ruins, are found in almost every part of the land. These are the " tells " under which lie concealed the buried cities and villages of the past. In some cases a series of towns is embedded, superimposed one upon another. At Eglon, for instance, eight distinct occupations were unearthed. The accumulation of these " tells " is a very gradual growth. On a level plain like Esdraelon it is estimated that six hundred years of history go to every thirty feet in height. In Jerusalem the alteration in the levels of the city are astounding. The modern pavements aro in many places over thirty feet above the floor of the ancient city. At the Jews' Wailing Place the roadway of Herod's time lies forty feet beneath the present surface, and the original rock is buried below a further twenty feet of debris. In certain parts of the city shafts have been sunk through a hundred and twenty feet of accumulated rubbish. Some " Finds " Disappointing In many respects the " finds " derived from the exploration of these mounds aro disappointing. The Israelites, unliko the people of Egypt and Assyria, were not a writing nation. Their climate.was damp and did not tend to preserve their antiquities, their land was a buffer state and was constantly ravaged by destructive war, and at the best, it was a poor country, devoid of the treasures of the great neighbouring empires. No startling discoveries have therefore been made, but a body of facts, many of them small in themselves, has been gathered which, taken together, are of first importance. Speaking more generally of the whole work of the archaeologist in the East, Professor Stanley Cook says: "It is no exaggeration to say that the whole period from Abraham to Samuel is now so well illuminated that what we call the Mosaic Age is one of the best known from contemporary sources."

The most recent of these explorations ! are described by Sir Charles Marston, F.S.A., in his volume " The Bible id True," covering the discoveries mado from 1925 to 1934. He especially discusses their bearing upon the trustworthiness of the historical 'record of the Bible and maintains that they reflect disadvantageously on " the methods and assumptions of the Higher Criticism." The book is excellently illustrated and contains several good maps. The facts are set out clearly and arrestingly. The main positions held to be supported by research are:— (1) That the original primitive religion was a monotheism, from which polytheistic forms of religion are a degeneration. (2) That there are indisputable ' evidences of a Deluge of great extent, to which universal legend also bears witness. (3) That wherever

the Biblical record comes into touch with the facts disclosed by archaeology it is found to bo reliable.

Discoveries at Jericho

We may refer to the discoveries mado at Jericho, where five expeditions have been at work since 1924. The earliest settlement is supposed to dato from about 2000 8.C., when the city wall consisted of clay slabs banded with thick layers of bituminous earth after the Babylonian fashion. There follow two other cities built upon the site and then the city of Joshua's day id reached. It was ft small settlement with a circumference of but 650 yards, enclosing about seven acres. Under peaceful conditions the inhabitants probably resided outside the walls, seeking their protection only when an invader appeared. There were double walls of sun-dried brick, the outer being six feet thick, the inner double that thickness. They were some thirty feet in height, with a space of fifteen feet between. The structure of the walls was faulty and the foundations, being laid upon an earlier ruinel wall, were insecure. Astride the two walls houses had been built, thus linking them together, a fact which reminds us that Tfahab, who sheltered the spies, 'had " her house upon the ton n-wall dwelt upon the wall." (Joshua 2:15). The excavations showed that these walls " had fallen outward quite flat " in various places, particularly on the west side, the outer wall "having either slipped or been pushed over the brink of the slope on which it 'itood." The fact that the Avails were tied to« gether by the houses upon them involved both in a common destruction. Caused by Earthquakes A detailed examination of the ruins and of the striatums of the natural soil beneath them leads Sir Charles to the conclusion that the catastrophe was, caused by an earthquake; which in his view was due to the " direct action of the Deity working through natural causes." The walls were found to have had a single gate, thus confirming the statement of Joshua 2:5 and 7. It was also clear that the city had been destroyed by fire without beiri:;; plundered Iri the ruined houses were discovered foodstuff;:!, such as wheat, barley, lentils, onions, dates and pieces of doui?h, all reduced to charcoal by the intense heat of the conflagration and so preserved for more than • three thousand years. " And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein;" we read in Joshua 6:24.

Caused by Earthquakes

Wa have given but a hasty and fragmentary survey of a most fascinating piece of exploration, pursued with infinite patience and skill.. Professor Garstang and his wife in 1930 cleaned and examined on the spot no fewer than sixty thousand fri-igmenta of pottery taken, from the strata of the burned city, and in the following year another forty thousand were similarly treated. In 1931 in a small valley toward the western 1; ills the ancient burying place of Jericho, which had escaped the notice of plunderers, was found intact, with a precious store of fifteen hundred unbroken potterey vessels and countless weapons, t\'nkets, etc. Here also were eighty invaluable scarabs, which 7 bearing the cartouche of Pharaohs, the dates of whose reigns were otherwise known, served to date the pottery associated with them and so to 'provide a scale by which pottery might be used to date the destruction of the city, and thus the entrance of the Israelites tinder Joshua into Palestine. This Sir Charles Marston places at approximately 1400 B.C.

Such discoveries have viilue not merely as giving a general confirmation of parts of sacred history, bill; as help-, ing us to recreate those far-off time 3 and so to understand them lind their people the better. The Bible is being set by archaeology in an entirely new framework of hi-itory and religion, and its study has been enhimced in accuracy and in interest.