DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27910#0059
JERUSALEM, THE POOL OF HEZEKIAII.
DO not envy tlie man who can enter unmoved the land—
“ Where the holiest of memories, phantom-like, throng.”
If he has no organ of veneration, he had better stop at home and read “Eothen.” I cannot
write lightly of Holy Palestine. It is true that the natural features of the country are, for the
most part, monotonous and comparatively uninteresting—that the towns are paltry and dirty in the
extreme—that the Turkish Mohammedan population is ignorant and bigoted — that the Arabs who
infest its solitudes are the laziest, the most cowardly, and worthless set of fellows—in a word, and in every
sense of it, the greatest vagabonds in existence; yet, in spite of all this, and overwhelming it all triumphantly,
comes the thrilling recollection—that this was the country of Abraham and the Prophets! these the cities
of David! and—first and last, and mingling with every line of its eventful history—that this was the spot
of his earth chosen by its Creator from the beginning, upon which the plan of his salvation should be
finished. It was in Palestine that he was made flesh and dwelt among men. And it was especially in
Jerusalem and its neighbourhood that he fulfilled his ministry, manifested his Divine nature, and finally, in
one awful hour, “in his own body on the tree,” sustained the accumulated sins, and suffered the concentrated
agony of the whole human race. No wonder that men have striven to perpetuate the local memories of
even the most trivial events of this glorious and awful period. And yet, in spite of man’s most earnest
endeavours, most of these localities are irretrievably lost: even the site of the Holy Sepulchre is doubtful.
May we not recognize in this uncertainty—to which we find a parallel in the concealment of the burial-
place of Moses—the hand of Providence defeating the tendency of mankind to place-worship, and its attendant
ceremonials?
I shall have more to say respecting the general features of modern Jerusalem, in connection with some
other of my views: I confine myself, at present, to a short notice of the more prominent objects in the
picture before us, viz., the Pool of Hezekiah, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We read (2 Kings xx. 20),
that “Hezekiah made a pool and a conduit, and brought water into the city;” and also (2 Chron. xxxii. 30),
that he “ stopped the upper water-course of Gilion, and brought it straight down to the west side of the
city of David.” Upon this Dr. Robinson observes:—“From this language we can only infer that Hezekiah
constructed a pool within the city on its western part. To such a pool the present reservoir, which is
doubtless an ancient work, entirely corresponds; and it is also fed in a similar manner.” The buildings
with railings extending over the Pool are “The Mediterranean,” and other hotels, and will probably be
familiar to many of my readers. The Pool still continues to supply the city with water. It is 240 feet
long, by 144 feet broad.
The dilapidated domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre proclaim its present condition; but the
front is a good specimen of Byzantine architecture. Tt is in the joint possession of the Greek and Latin
churches, and the ceremonies performed in it at Easter have been described by a host of travellers. It
was formerly, and more appropriately, called the Church of the Resurrection. It has been twice, at least,
totally destroyed: once in the seventh, and again in the eleventh century; and as late as 1808, the greater
part of the church and the whole of the cupola were destroyed by fire. The identity of the site, as
before remarked, is very questionable: we are told that the Sepulchre was in “a garden nigh at hand,”
where Jesus was crucified; and the crucifixion took place without the walls. Dr. Robinson satisfied himself
by a survey from the very spot on which this view was taken, that the present site could never have
been excluded by the second wall (see his “ Researches,” vol. i- p* 410).
DO not envy tlie man who can enter unmoved the land—
“ Where the holiest of memories, phantom-like, throng.”
If he has no organ of veneration, he had better stop at home and read “Eothen.” I cannot
write lightly of Holy Palestine. It is true that the natural features of the country are, for the
most part, monotonous and comparatively uninteresting—that the towns are paltry and dirty in the
extreme—that the Turkish Mohammedan population is ignorant and bigoted — that the Arabs who
infest its solitudes are the laziest, the most cowardly, and worthless set of fellows—in a word, and in every
sense of it, the greatest vagabonds in existence; yet, in spite of all this, and overwhelming it all triumphantly,
comes the thrilling recollection—that this was the country of Abraham and the Prophets! these the cities
of David! and—first and last, and mingling with every line of its eventful history—that this was the spot
of his earth chosen by its Creator from the beginning, upon which the plan of his salvation should be
finished. It was in Palestine that he was made flesh and dwelt among men. And it was especially in
Jerusalem and its neighbourhood that he fulfilled his ministry, manifested his Divine nature, and finally, in
one awful hour, “in his own body on the tree,” sustained the accumulated sins, and suffered the concentrated
agony of the whole human race. No wonder that men have striven to perpetuate the local memories of
even the most trivial events of this glorious and awful period. And yet, in spite of man’s most earnest
endeavours, most of these localities are irretrievably lost: even the site of the Holy Sepulchre is doubtful.
May we not recognize in this uncertainty—to which we find a parallel in the concealment of the burial-
place of Moses—the hand of Providence defeating the tendency of mankind to place-worship, and its attendant
ceremonials?
I shall have more to say respecting the general features of modern Jerusalem, in connection with some
other of my views: I confine myself, at present, to a short notice of the more prominent objects in the
picture before us, viz., the Pool of Hezekiah, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We read (2 Kings xx. 20),
that “Hezekiah made a pool and a conduit, and brought water into the city;” and also (2 Chron. xxxii. 30),
that he “ stopped the upper water-course of Gilion, and brought it straight down to the west side of the
city of David.” Upon this Dr. Robinson observes:—“From this language we can only infer that Hezekiah
constructed a pool within the city on its western part. To such a pool the present reservoir, which is
doubtless an ancient work, entirely corresponds; and it is also fed in a similar manner.” The buildings
with railings extending over the Pool are “The Mediterranean,” and other hotels, and will probably be
familiar to many of my readers. The Pool still continues to supply the city with water. It is 240 feet
long, by 144 feet broad.
The dilapidated domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre proclaim its present condition; but the
front is a good specimen of Byzantine architecture. Tt is in the joint possession of the Greek and Latin
churches, and the ceremonies performed in it at Easter have been described by a host of travellers. It
was formerly, and more appropriately, called the Church of the Resurrection. It has been twice, at least,
totally destroyed: once in the seventh, and again in the eleventh century; and as late as 1808, the greater
part of the church and the whole of the cupola were destroyed by fire. The identity of the site, as
before remarked, is very questionable: we are told that the Sepulchre was in “a garden nigh at hand,”
where Jesus was crucified; and the crucifixion took place without the walls. Dr. Robinson satisfied himself
by a survey from the very spot on which this view was taken, that the present site could never have
been excluded by the second wall (see his “ Researches,” vol. i- p* 410).