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are to this very time shown in this small city: the fabric of which monuments is of the most excellent marble, and wrought after the most excellent manner.’ He makes Hebron, and not Gibeon, the site of the ‘high place’ where Solomon yrayed for wisdom (2 Ch 1°; Ané. vill. 11. 1); and
erome appears to suggest (Qu. Heb. on 28 167) that the ancient sanctuary of J” there was at the ancient sepulchres of the patriarchs, But this altar, built by Abraham at Hebron (Gn 13"), had no connexion with the cave of Machpelah.
The connexion of Adam and Esau (Edom) with Hebron is very interesting, and it is difficult to arrive at any conclusion as to the period when this view first arose. Perhaps it was in later times, when Idumzza extended over the Negeb or South country. Originally the land of Esan (or Edom) was Mount Seir (‘rough’ or ‘hairy’=Esau, with a different pointing), which lay to the east of the Arabah and east and south of Moab (Gn 271}; Ant. I. xviii. 1). In process of time, however, when the power of the Edomites increased, the territory west ex- tended to the south of Palestine, so that Josephus (Ant. ν. i. 22) describes it as taking in the lot of Simeon, and in 1 Mac it includes even the hills north of Hebron, and Hebron itself was an Iduman city (1 Mac 5®).
Isaac was buried at Hebron by his sons Esau and Jacob (Gn 35”), and after this (?; according to 324 [J] Esau was already resident in Seir when Jacob returned from Mesopotamia) Esau is said to have left the land of Canaan and ‘dwelt in Mount Seir: Esau is Edom’ (Gn 36°; both P).
Adam and Eve are traditionally (by Moslems) supposed to have been buried at Mecca, and have no Makdms in Palestine. On expulsion from Paradise, however, they are supposed to have hidden themselves in, or near, a spring at Hebron, which is now called ‘Ain el-Judeidah. Here, also, the red earth from which Adam was said by the Jews to have been formed, is shown by the Moslems. This tradition is mentioned by several writers in the time of the Crusaders, and may be of Chris- tian origin (SWP, S. Pal. 261).
Hebron is also called the City of Arba (Kiriath- arba), ‘the greatest man among the Anakim’ (Jos 14%), which by later writers was fancifully inter- preted as the ‘ city of four.’ Thusa fourth patriarch was required in addition to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the substitution of Adam for Edom (Esau) may be suggested as the consequence. The view taken by the Jewish writers (from the words of Jos 145) (Bereshith rabba, quoted by Beer, Leben Abrahams, 189) is that the ‘ city of four’ refers to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Adam, who are buried there. See KrRIATH-ARBA. Jerome (Onomast. p. 120, Ep. Paul. 11) also explains that the ‘ city of four’ refers to the four above mentioned.
The statements of the various historians con- cerning the sepulchres of the patriarchs are to be found collected together in Archives de UV Orient Latin, ii. (1884), 411, and in Palestine under the Moslems (1890), 318. The following are the more important. It will be noted that there is no direct allusion to the present Haram enclosure until the 12th cent., ane as its construction is considered to be at least as early as the time of Herod the
Great, it seems doubtful whether it was ever visited
by Christians until the time of the Crusades, the House of Abraham, about two miles north of Hebron, being then probably the Christian tra- ditional site of the tombs of the patriarchs. In the 4th cent. the sepulchres of the patriarchs are spoken of as existing at Hebron, built of marble, and of elegant workmanship, and the Basilica of Constantine close to the great enclosure is called ‘Abraham’s House’ (Onomast. art. ‘Arboch’). The Bordeaux Pilgrim (A.D. 333) describes the square
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enclosure within which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives, were buried, as built of stones of great beauty. Antoninus Martyr (c. A.D. 600) adds Joseph to the three patriarchs, and says that a Basilica was built there ‘in quadriporticus’ with an interior court open to the sky, in which the Jews and Christians entered from different sides, burning incense as they advanced. Arculf (c. A.D. 698) speaks of the double cave and the monuments of the four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Adam, enclosed by a low square wall; the tomb of Adam lies not far from the others, and the three women, Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, have smaller monuments, and were buried in the earth. The hill of Mamre is a mile from these monuments, with a church and a stump of the oak of Mukaddasi (c. A.D. 985) speaks of the strong fortress round the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives, built of great squared stones, the work of Jinns (1.e. of people before the Moslems: the Moslems often attribute old build- ings of superior construction to Jinns). The Moslem name at the proent day for the enclosure is ‘The wall of Solomon.’ Saewulf (A.D. 1102) and the Abbot Daniel (1106) are the first Christians who speak of the tombs being surrounded by a Le strong castle or high wall. The caves are said to have been discovered and opened in A.D. 1119 (Archives de [Orient Latin, ii. 411). John of Wurzburg (A.D. 1100), Theodoricus (A.D. 1172), Jacques de Vitry (A.D. 1220), Burchardt (A.D. 1230), speak of the fourth tomb being that of Adam, while Saewulf and Daniel make the fourth the tomb of Joseph.