* It Is Intended to treat this subject only In lo tw aa I 1> coniu'C(4-<l witJi hiblicAl historv.
t lUwIinaoD. llittory <ff Pkimida, 188», p. M.
260
GKEAT SEA
GREECE, HELLENISM
of Ejfj'pt,'* thus etlectually exclmling the Israelites from the commancl of the sea. The only port, in fact, to which in the time of the monarcliv this nation hail full access seems to have been Joppa, which, from its position as the nearest to Jerusalem, became the chief centre of the import and export trade. Thither in the time of Solomon the timber required for the construction of the temple and the royal palace, which had bren cut in the Lebanon, was transported ; and thitlier, doulitles.s, were con- veyed the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine, which the Phoenicians received in exchan^re for their firs and cedars (2 Ch 2"'- '"). In the time of the Maccabees, however, this jiort became the property of the Jews(l Mac 10'"). Another port, Aeco, — now known as Acre, — situated on the northern shore of the bay of that name, was assifjned to Zebulun ('a haven of ship.s,' Gu 49''), but it is doubtful if it was ever occupied bj- that tribe for any considerable time. It is the best natural roailstead on the Syrian coast, and was conciuered and retained by tlie Assyrians in their wars with Palestine and EK3'pt. In later times it played an important part in the wars of the Crusades, and has become celebrated in recent times for its successful resistance to Napoleon, when held by a Turkish garrison and supported by a British fleet under the command of Ailmiral Sir Sidney Smith (1799). The port under the name of Ptolemais is mentioned as having been visited by St. Paul on his third missionary journey (Ac 21').
Mediterranean Coast. — l''rora the Bay of Iskcn- derun on the north to el-'Arish on the south, a distance of 450 miles, the coast of the Levant (the eastern part of the Mediterranean) is remarkably straight, with few deep bays or prominent head- lands. All along the Syrian coast as far as Beirftt, tlie land rises with a rocky and bold front from the waters. At Acre the coast recedes and the land gently slopes upwards along the banks of the Kishon, forming the plain of Esdraelon. South of tills valley, the long ridge of Mount Carmel pro- trudes into the waters and terminates in a bold headland ; and from its southern slopes the Vale of Sh.'iron padually e.xpands in breadth and ulti- mately merges into that of Philistia ; and the coast-line follows an almost unbroken semicircular curve towards the Delta of the Nile.
Sandhills. — When the early settlers, coming from the head of the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Mediterranean (about B.C. 1500), first surveyed its blue waters they beheld groves of palms lining the coast, in consequence of which the Greeks called the land ' Phoenicia.' t These palms have long since disappeared, and their place is generally occupied by enormous banks of sand gradually moving inwards from the coast as they are impelled by the westerly winds. Most of the ancient coast towns, both of Phoenicia and Philistia, are buried to a ^eater or less extent beneath these sandhills, which, when not prevented by artificial means, are still moWng inland, and have become a source of danger and loss to the inhabitants. These sandhills, according to Sir H. Kitchener, cover a large tract of country between southern Philistia and Ismailia. New Testament Notices. — Once in the history of our Lord did He with His disciples visit the coast of the Great Sea ; this was on the memorable occa- sion when, endeavouring to obtain a brief period of repose. He visited the borders of Tj-re and passed through {JiXBev Sii IlSQivos) Sidon.J and per- formed a miracle of healing on a Gentile, the daughter of a Syro-phcenician woman. But in
• Wady el-'Ar!sh ; for au account of this valley, see Hull, itount Seir, Sijtai, and W. Palentine. Appendix by Kitchener, 120 (1SS9).
t Phoenix dacti/h'fera, the date palm.
t Mt 1621, Mk 7«. On this visit see Farrar, Life of Chritt .47>.
the missionary journeys of St. Paul, and especially in the incidents connected with his final voyage to Kome (Ac 27. 28), we are brought into contact with numerous seaports, headlands, islands, and baj-s, commencing with Coesarea on the coast of Pha-nicia and terminating with the port of Puteoli (Pazzuoli) on the western coast of Italy. In following the narrative of this voyage we can trace its course from jioint to point on the map, and wo gain some insight into the dangers of navigation at a time when the mariner's compass was unknown, when nautical charts were rude, or were perhaps unused by the commanders of ships, and when tlie heavenly bodies alone were guides to the ship's course when out of sight of land. [For the description of St. Paul's voyages in the Medi- terranean, consult Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul'-, 1856; the works on St. Paul's Life, as Conybeare and Howson, Lewin, Fariar, Stalker, Iverach ; the Commentaries on the Acts ; lianisay, St. Paul t/ie Traveller ; and the various Hible Appendixes, 'Aids' (Queen's Printers), 'Helps' (Oxford), 'Companion' (Cambridge), 'Manual' (Collins)]. E. Hull.
GREAT SYNAGOGUE.— See Synagogue (The