Appendix II : The Cave at Machpelah (part 2)
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D.
It seems to our notions almost incredible that Christians and
Mussulmans, each for a period of 600 years, should have held
possession of the sanctuary, and not had the curiosity to explore
what to us is the object of interest, — the cave. But the fact
is undoubted that no account exists of any such attempt. Such
a silence can only be explained (but it is probably a sufficient
explanation) by the indifference which prevailed, throughout the
Middle Ages, to any historical spots however interesting, unless
they were actually consecrated as places of pilgrimage. The
Mount of Olives, the site of the Temple of Solomon, the Rock
of the Holy Sepulchre itself, were not thought worthy of even
momentary consideration, in comparison with the chapels and
stations which were the recognized objects of devotion. Thus
at Hebron a visit to the shrines, both for Christian and Mussul-
mans, procures a certificate. The cave had therefore no further
value. In the case of the Mussulmans this indifference is still
more general. Sûraya Pasha himself, a man of considerable in-
telligence, professed that he had never thought of visiting the
Mosque of Hebron for any other purpose than that of snuffing
the sacred air, and he had never, till we arrived at Jerusalem,
seen the wonderful convent of Mar Saba, or the Dead Sea, or the
Jordan. And to this must be added, if not in his case, in that
of Mussulmans generally, the terror which they entertain of the
effect of the wrath of the Patriarchs on any one who should in-
trude into the place where they are supposed still to be in a kind
of suspended animation. As far back as the seventeenth century
it was firmly believed that if any Mussulman entered the cavern,
immediate death would be the consequence.
It should be mentioned, however, that two accounts are re-
ported of travellers having obtained a nearer view of the cave
than was accomplished in the visit of the Prince of Wales.
The first is contained in the pilgrimage of Benjamin of Tudela,
the Jewish traveller of the twelfth century: — "The
Gentiles have erected six sepulchres in this place,
which they pretend to be those of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac
and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. The pilgrims are told that
they are the sepulchres of the fathers, and money is extorted
from them. But if any Jew comes, who gives an additional
fee to the keeper of the cave, an iron door is opened, which
dates from the time of our forefathers who rest in peace, and
with a burning candle in his hands, the visitor descends into a
first cave, which is empty, traverses a second in the same state,
and at last reaches a third, which contains six sepulchres, those
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Sarah, Rebekah, and
Leah, one opposite the other. All these sepulchres bear in-
scriptions, the letters being engraved. Thus, upon that of
Abraham we read: — 'This is the sepulchre of our father
Abraham; upon whom be peace,' and so on that of Isaac,
and upon all the other sepulchres. A lamp burns in the cave
and upon the sepulchres continually, both night and day, and
you there see tombs filled with the bones of Israelites, — for
unto this day it is a custom of the house of Israel to bring
hither the bones of their saints and of their forefathers, and to
leave them there."
In this account, which, as may be observed, does not profess
to describe Benjamin's own experience, there are two circum-
stances (besides its general improbability) which throw consider-
able doubt on its accuracy. One is the mention of inscriptions,
and of an iron door, which, as is well known, are never found in
Jewish sepulchres. The other is the mention of the practice of
Jews sending their bones to be buried in a place, which, as is
evident from the rest of the narrative, could only be entered with
the greatest difficulty.
The second account is that of M. Ermete Pierotti, who, hav-
ing been an engineer in the Sardinian army, acted for
some years as an architect and engineer to Sûraya Pasha,
at Jerusalem, and thus obtained, both in that city and at Hebron,
access to places otherwise closed to Europeans. The following
account appeared in the "Times" of April 30, 1862, immediately
following on the announcement of the Prince's visit:—
"The true entrance to the Patriarch's tomb is to be seen close
to the western wall of the enclosure, and near the north-west
corner; it is guarded by a very thick iron railing, and I was
not allowed to go near it. I observed that the Mussulmans
themselves did not go very near it. In the court opposite the
entrance gate of the Mosque, there is an opening, through
which I was allowed to go down for three steps, and I was able
to ascertain by sight and touch that the rock exists there, and
to conclude it to be about five feet thick. From the short ob-
servations I could make during my brief descent, as also from
the consideration of the east wall of the Mosque, and the little
information I extracted from the Chief Santon, who jealously
guards the sanctuary, I consider that a part of the grotto exists
under the Mosque, and that the other part is under the court,
but at a lower level than that lying under the Mosque. This
latter must be separated from the former by a vertical stratum
of rock which contains an opening as I conclude, for two rea-
sons: first, because the east wall, being entirely solid and mas-
sive, requires a good foundation; secondly, because the petitions
which the Mussulmans present to the Santon to be transmitted
to the Patriarchs are thrown, some through one opening, some
through the other, according to the Patriarch to whom they
are directed; and the Santon goes down by the way I went,
whence I suppose that on that side there is a vestibule, and
that the tombs may be found below it. I explained my con-
jectures to the Santon himself after leaving the Mosque, and
he showed himself very much surprised at the time, and told
the Pasha afterwards that I knew more about it than the Turks
themselves. The fact is, that even the Pasha who governs the
province has no right to penetrate into the sacred enclosure,
where (according to the Mussulman legend) the Patriarchs are
living, and only condescend to receive the petitions addressed
to them by mortals."
It will be seen that this statement of the entrance of the San-
ton, or Sheik of the Mosque, into the cave, agrees with the state-
ment given in my Lectures: "that the cave consists of two
compartments, into one of which a dervish or sheik is allowed
to penetrate on special emergencies." Against this must be
set the repeated assertions of the guardian of the Mosque, and
of the Governor of Jerusalem, (which, as has been seen, are
substantially confirmed by the Arab historians,) that no Mussul-
man has ever entered the cave within the memory of man. Of
the staircase and gate described by M. Pierotti, there was no ap-
pearance on our visit, though we must have walked over the
very spot, — being, in fact, the pavement in front of the Mosque.
Of the separate apertures for throwing down the petitions we
also saw nothing. And it would seem from Finati's account,
that the one hole down which he threw his petition was that by
the tomb of Abraham.
The result of the Prince's visit will have been disappointing
to those who expected a more direct solution of the
mysteries of Hebron. But it has not been without
its indirect benefits. In the first place, by His Royal
Highness's entrance, the first step has been taken for the removal
of the bar of exclusion from this most sacred and interesting
spot. The relaxation may in future times be slight and gradual,
and the advantage gained must be used with every caution; but
it is impossible not to feel that some effect will be produced even
on the devotees of Hebron when they feel that the Patriarchs
have not suffered any injury or affront, and that even Isaac rests
tranquilly in his grave. Even on our return to our encampment
that evening, and in our rides in and around Hebron the next
day, such an effect might be discerned. Dr. Rosen had predicted
beforehand that if the entrance were once made, no additional
precautions need be provided. "They will be so awe-struck at the
success of your attempt, that they will at once acquiesce in it."
And so in fact it proved. Although we were still accompanied
by a small escort, yet the rigid vigilance of the previous day was
relaxed, and no indications appeared of any annoyance or anger.
And Englishmen may fairly rejoice that this advance in the
cause of religious tolerance (if it may so be called) and of
Biblical knowledge, was attained in the person of the heir to
the English throne, out of regard to the position which he and
his country hold in the Eastern world.
In the second place, the visit has enabled us to form a much
clearer judgment of the value of the previous accounts, to cor-
rect their deficiencies and to rectify their confusion. The narra-
tive of Ali Bey in particular, is now substantially corroborated.
The existence and the exact situation of the cave underneath
the floor of the Mosque, the appearance of the ancient enclosure
from within, the precise relation of the different shrines to each
other, and the general conformity of the traditions of he Mosque
to the accounts of the Bible and of early travellers, are now for
the first time clearly ascertained. To discover the entrance of
the cave, to examine the actual places of the patriarchal sep-
ulture, and to set eyes (if so be) on the embalmed body
of Jacob, the only patriarch the preservation of whose remains is
thus described, must be reserved for the explorers of another
generation, for whom this visit will have been the best prepara-
tion.
Meanwhile it may be worth while to recall the general in-
structions furnished by the nearer contemplation of this
remarkable spot. The narrative itself to which it takes
us back stands alone in the Patriarchal history for the precision
with which both locality and character are delineated. First,
there is the death of Sarah in the city of Kirjath-Arba, whilst
Abraham is absent, apparently at Mamre. He comes to make
the grand display of funeral grief, "mourning aloud and weep-
ing aloud," such as would befit so great a death. He is filled
with the desire, not Egyptian, not Christian, hardly Greek or
Roman, but certainly Jewish, to thrust away the dark shadow
that has fallen upon him, "to bury his dead out of his sight."
Then ensues the conference in the gate, — the Oriental place of
assembly, where the negotiators and the witnesses of the transac-
tion, as at the present day, are gathered from the many comers
and goers through "the gate of the city." As in the Gentile
traditions of Damascus. and as in the ancient narrative of the
pursuit of the five kings, Abraham is saluted by the native
inhabitants, not merely as a wandering shepherd, but as a
"Prince of God." The inhabitants are, as we might expect,
not the Amorites, but the Hittites, whose name is that recog-
nized by all the surrounding nations. They offer him the most
sacred of their sepulchres for the cherished remains. The Pa-
triarch maintains his determination to remain aloof from the
Canaanite population, at the same time that he preserves every
form of courtesy and friendliness, in accordance with the mag-
nificent toleration and inborn gentleness which pervades his
character. First, as in the attitude of Oriental respect, "he
stands," and then, twice over, he prostrates himself on the
ground, before the heathen masters of the soil. Ephron, the
son of Zohar, is worthy of the occasion; his courtesy matches
that of the Patriarch himself: — "The field give I thee, the
cave . . . . give I thee; in the presence of the sons of my
people give I it thee." "What is that betwixt thee and
me?" It is precisely the profuse liberality with which the
Arab of the present time places everything in his possession at
the disposal of the stranger. But the Patriarch, with the high
independence of his natural character, (shall we say, also, with
the caution of his Jewish descendants?) will not be satisfied
without a regular bargain. He "weighs out" the coin. He
specifies every detail in the property; not the field only, but the
cave in the field, the trees in the field, and on the edge of
the field, "were made sure." The result is the first legal con-
tract recorded in human history, the first known interment of
the dead, the first assignment of property to the Hebrew peo-
ple in the Holy Land.
To this graphic and natural scene, not, indeed, by an absolute
continuity of proof, but by such evidence as has been given
above, the cave of Machpelah caries us back. And if in the
long interval which elapses between the description of the spot
in the book of Genesis (whatever date we assign to that descrip-
tion) and the notice of the present sanctuary by Josephus, so
venerable a place and so remarkable a transaction are passed
over without a word of recognition, this must, on any hypothesis,
be reckoned amongst the many proofs that, in ancient literature,
no argument can be drawn against a fact from the mere silence
of authors, whether sacred or secular, whose minds were fixed
on other subjects, and who were writing with another inten-
tion.
from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. I : Abraham to Samuel,
Appendix II : The Cave at Machpelah
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1879, pp. 549-556
Posted Jul 29, 2018, 4:41 AM UTC
10