MACPHAIL'S EDINBURGH ECCLESIASTICAL JOURNAL. No. XCI. AUGUST 1853. THE SITE OF CALVARY. Museum of Classical Antiquities, No. VIII. and Supplement. "And he, bearing his cross, went unto a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha; where they crucified him, and two others with him."-John xix. 17. "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore ;-for the sepulchre was nigh at hand."-John xix. 41. "I bow not, therefore, in the gorgeous pile, And monks their votaries and themselves beguile For rites like theirs let annual crowds illume Their odorous censers; scattering far and wide Their fumes. I doubt the tales the monks assume For gospel truth; and were not this denied, Much they misuse the spot where their Redeemer died." WHEN any great event has happened, either in the bygone ages of the world, or in the times with which we are more immediately connected, there is an invincible and deeply-cherished desire felt by all who have been made cognisant of such transactions, either to visit personally the scenes that have been so distinguished, or at least to be furnished with such exact details as may help their imaginations to form a correct picture of the actual localities, and, it may be, to supply the want of personal inspection. This, we say, is confessedly one of the most universally felt of all the propensities of the thoughtful and sentimental mind of man; and to it we are, in a great measure, indebted for most of what A we actually know of the events that are passed-of the great transactions that have given a deep meaning and interest to particular localities-and of the heroic characters that have, in different ages and countries shed a lustre on our common humanity. But this desire to be made acquainted, either by personal observation, or by descriptive detail, with such localities and transactions, is also one of the most difficult to be satiated of all the exercises of our sentimental nature. What commonly takes place is this:-When we have been made acquainted with the scenery of any past and remarkable transaction, the imagination has only received, by such information, an impulse which hurries it irresistably onward to a further prosecution of its earnest inquiries ;-we wish, when standing on the scene of any great transaction, to recall the figures and looks and struggles of the actors from whose heroism, or sufferings, or sublime devotion, the ground on which we tread has derived its hallowed character and enduring reputation, and as imagination, in such an exercise, is commonly left entirely to her own resources, the images that arise, for the realization of the event in all its complexity or grandeur, are necessarily of a very varied and shifting character,—and we are left in a condition which renders us for the time incapable of saying whether more uneasiness or satisfaction has been the result of this strong endeavour to gratify our curiosity. One thing at least remains to us, on which we think that we can lay firm hold for the gratification of our curiosity, or the satisfying of our longing the very dust is beneath our feet which has been trod by the men who have bled, or wept, or struggled, or died on the spot which our own footsteps are now marking-the rocks are there on which their eyes once gazed, and which witnessed the glorious or tragic strife by which their departure was signalized ;-and if, therefore, we cannot recall the very looks and lineaments and struggles of the departed, we can at least hallow the dust which was pressed by their footsteps, we can carry off some portion of the rocks that were stained by their blood, we can at any rate bear with us some root, or branch, or flower, as a relict of the spot; and thus it happens that superstition takes the place of what was originally devout admiration, and the love that was meant to be expressed for great or amiable or sorely tried worth, is transferred to the merest accessories of the places in which they figured. The ultimate and most to be deplored consequence of this process is, that the true character of the events, as properly entitled to the epithet "historical," is almost certainly lost amidst this whirl and turbulence of thought the higher propensities of our hearts are left ungratified and uncherished, while our more puerile attachments are strengthened and intensified, and exercises of mind, and visits of condolence or of benevolence, which might have awakened the finest and loftiest of our moral sympathies and aspirations, are finally made conducive only to the cultivation and permanence of some of the most frivolous, or it may be, deteriorating tendencies to which the affections or admiration of the human heart can be consecrated. An event or transaction is only, we have already hinted, so far entitled to the character of being properly "HISTORICAL," as it forms part of that great series of transactions which has characterized the past history of the human family, or has, in its very occurrence, some sublime features directly calculated to awaken profound emotion, or, lastly, has been the forerunner, or is fitted to be the prolongation of other transactions of high moment, which are apt to diversify, and to give splendour to the coming evolutions of Divine Providence. And hence it is, that historians of the truest and highest class always regard and depict events chiefly in their relation to the entire chain of occurrences of which they are either the consequences, or the remarkable evolution, or the destined forerunners, leaving to inferior artists the subordinate though often very popular task of gratifying the passing curiosity of readers by a minute display of all the accessory or subordinate incidents which can be ascertained as having either actually or probably occurred at the date of the transactions recorded. And it is hence, too, that the sacred writers,-whose object was to record the great processes of Divine Providence in their continuous and mutually influential bearing-never gratify an idle or morbid curiosity, by a minute detail of all the accessories of any important transaction, as if their object were rather to produce a picture, than to exhibit a result,but almost invariably sink these accessories in their rapid but powerful record of the leading circumstances of the event itself, and in their impressive indication of the great moral impression which the event was intended to produce. We have been naturally led to these preliminary considerations by the perusal of two numbers of a very respectable work, entitled, "The Museum of Classical Antiquities," in which there are two dissertations, replete with much valuable matter, respecting "The True Site of Calvary," and which we mean to take as the groundwork of a few observations which we hope may not be without interest to most of our readers. The subject has, of course, often been treated by the many respectable authors, who of late years have visited the Holy Land, and favoured the world with the result of their observations and opinions regarding it; and we believe the main points involved in such discussions have now been agreed upon by almost all the best informed and most trustworthy writers upon the subject,-our chief object, therefore, in the present article, is to give the results that have thus been agreed upon; and as we think the author of the two dissertations in the "Classical Museum" to be quite right in almost all his deductions, we shall willingly avail ourselves of some of the very abundant and judicious helps which he has held out to us for the illustration of this transcendently interesting and impressive topic. It is proper, however, that we should commence this inquiry by recapitulating the express notices which have been given by the sacred writers in reference to this topic; and from these we learn the following particulars, which we shall give in the express words of the divinelyinspired penmen. In the first place, then, we know from the explicit declaration of the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, (xiii. 11, 12,) that the place where the crucifixion took place, was without the gate of the city." "For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest, for sin, are burnt without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." This is not mentioned in the same explicit terms by any of the four Evangelists; but it is implied, in the next notice to which we refer, viz., John xix. 20, that "the place was nigh unto the city," which is as much as to say that it was without the walls of the city. "And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross, and the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews; for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city." The meaning certainly is not that the place was so nigh to the city, that such of the inhabitants as were within the walls could read the inscription, but that it was so much within the neighbourhood of the city, that many of the Jews who frequented the suburbs, of necessity could see and read the inscription.-Still further it is worth notice, that the place is nowhere called by the Evangelists a hill or a mount, or even an elevated place. We indeed have been so much in the habit of hearing of the "hill of Calvary," and "the mount" of crucifixion,-in paintings too, its serves so obviously the purpose of the artist to represent the triple crosses on the summit of a hill-and the common phraseology helps so well to round a pathetic sentence in the orations of preachers,—that the impression of the great sacrifice having been offered " on a mount," is not easily effaced from our minds. But certainly the words of the Evangelists do not naturally lead to such an interpretation. The words of Matthew, (xxvii. 33), are, "When they were come unto a place, called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull." Mark, in nearly the same words, but without any reference to a hill or steep ascent, says, (chap. xv. 22,) " And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is being interpreted, the place of a skull." The words of Luke are, (chap. xxiii. 33), "And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him." The words of John, who was present at the event, are still more remarkable, -(chap. xix. 16, 17)—he uses no word which leads to the idea of an ascent, but simply says, "They took Jesus and led him away. And he bearing his cross, went forth (eğŋλev) unto a place, called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha." However, although there is no evidence that the cross was erected on what is properly called "a hill," it is quite likely that the place of its uplifting was some piece of elevated ground, both that by being so placed it might be removed from the more direct pressure of the attending spectators, and that the mortal transaction might be the more distinctly seen by those who were present, either from curiosity, or as public functionaries.-We are next led to infer, without any forced or too nice interpretation, that the place where He was crucified, was in the vicinity of some public thoroughfare; for Matthew says, "They that passed by (apanope(παραπορε Voμevo) reviled him, wagging their heads." These apparently were persons intent on their own business, and not willing to linger on the road which led to the place of their destination.-Further, we naturally infer from the words of the Evangelist, that the place of crucifixion was a place of public execution; not merely a place of ordinary burial, but a scene where life was terminated by severe public infliction, and where even after death evidences were left of the contempt entertained for those who had there suffered-it was the place of a skull."-We are, however, entitled to conclude still further, that it was in the neighbourhood of rocky ground, and that rough as the locality was, and destined for so revolting purposes, it was interspersed with gardens, in one of which the dead body of the Lord was deposited "in a tomb cut out of the rock." This circumstance, though not likely to have characterized the vicinity of a place of public execution, is, however, of importance to be observed, for it will be found to indicate with considerable certainty the general character at least of the place where the great sacrifice was offered. To all these notices we may add, that the proper name of the place is not Calvary, but Golgotha. In our translation, indeed, Luke is made to say, "When they were come to a place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him." The word used by Luke, however, is not Calvary, but Kpaviov; and the phrase used by all the other Evangelists is τοπος κρανις. There is then no such word used by the Evangelists as Calvary, which is merely a Latin substitute for Golgotha, or κρανιον. There are a few other preliminary considerations which ought to be familiar to the minds of those who wish to think correctly on this subject. In the first place, notwithstanding the very precise and consistent accounts given by the different Evangelists on this subject, and even the exactness with which they all point to "Golgotha" as the scene of the crucifixion, it is plain from their usual style of writing relative to this topic, that they attached no very particular value to the mere place, either of the crucifixion, or the interment. And for this it has been commonly said in explanation, and in the words of one of the best informed writers, "that the Apostles had been living witnesses of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, and had no need of lifeless stones; as also, that the disciples had received instruction from the Apostles, and had seen them sealing their testimony with their blood; and that they, consequently, had no need of other witnesses." St. Chrysostom states that the Apostles and early Christians "had not busied themselves with it, partly because they were fearful of so doing, and partly because they were occupied with other matters." But it may be further said, in explanation on this point, that it would have been strange if the Evangelists or Apostles had been more detailed upon this subject than they actually have been. Such minuteness or amplitude of detail would have been out of harmony with the whole character and peculiar style of their narratives or epistles, and as it would have been unsuitable to their peculiar style, it would farther have been out of accordance with the great purpose which their writings and ministrations were intended to serve;-which certainly was not to draw attention to particular localities, but to evolve the great meaning, and to enforce the moral impres |