et other two crossing-places further up the river —one by the bridge el-Mujdmi, + hour south of the
* In this neighbourhood, in the time of Christ, was the customs boundary (Mt 99). J ; i
+ Janéah may be sought most fittingly in Hunia.
t Jos, Ant. xiv. xv. 11; BJ1. xiii, 1, mi. ii. 4; Vita, 74.
§ Jos. Ant. xiv. ili. 4. :
|| It continues its course to the north as the great road leading over the Litany river to Zidon. ‘ ing
«| A photograph of this bridge will be found in the Mitteilwn- gen und Nachrichten des deutschen Pal. Vereins, 1899, p. 34.
mouth of the Jarmuk; the other immediately south of the exit of the Jordan from the Lake of Gennesareth, a point (Bdd el-Twmm) where some traces of an ancient bridge remain. ‘The ford last named had special importance for such of the dwellers on the shore of the Lake as did not avail themselves of boats. Between the Lake of Gen- nesareth and that of Hfleh is the Bridge of Jacob’s Daughters, at the spot where the old caravan road, already referred to more than once, crosses the Jordan.*—Lastly, in the northern Jordan Valley there is a road from Galilee to Dan, where the different sources of the Jordan have to be crossed, a task now accomplished for the most part by bridges. In the OT this road is alluded to in such passages as Jg 187.
(e) About the roads on the east side of the Jordan the Bible gives us little information. On the other hand, the Roman roads give a good picture of the later routes of communication, and trom these we may draw backward inferences as to the earlier roads. The way from Mahanaim to the Jordan Valley (28 2” 4”) probably ran through the Wady‘Ajlin. Nothing can be said about the road mentioned in 2 K 10" until the site of Ramoth- gilead has been determined. Coming down to a later time, the route followed by Judas Maccabzeus after his conquests in the districts to the west of the Hauran range can be fixed with tolerable certainty. Ephron (1 Mac 5%) is in all probability identical with Gephrun (Polyb. Vv. lxx. 12), a name which is recalled by that of the deep Wady Ghafr, in which the city will thus have lain which Judas had to pass through.t Josephus speaks incidentally of the roads which led from the city of Julias to Gamala (the modern Jami (?)) and Seleucia. (now Selikiye).t We have already spoken of the road from Damascus to the Bridge of Jacob’s Daughters.
Il. TRAVEL.—i. MOTIVES FOR TRAVELLING.— Journeys were undertaken only on a very small scale by the Israelites after they had exchanged the shifting nomadic stage of existence for a settled life; for the inconveniences and dangers attached to travelling were many and the ad- vantages few. Any one who left his home and family gave up, according to the ancient Oriental conception, the best part of his human rights, and became a gér (see art, GER in vol. ii.), whose welfare and whose life were entirely at the mercy of those with whom he sojourned. This was, above all, the case if he lived in a foreign land, where, as David expresses it (1S 26"), he had to serve other gods. The traveller was frequently exposed to the risk of being plundered and maltreated on the way.§ In the desert he was threatened with all the perils characteristic of such places (Is 30°, Jer 26 ete.). On the sea his life was in constant danger (Jon 14, Ps 107%, Enoch 101"), || Journeys for pleasure in our sense of the term were thus quite unknown to the Israelites. Nor do we find any who undertook travels for purposes of research, moved by a scientific interest, like Herodotus or Ibn Battita; although they enjoyed listening to the tales of those who had visited foreign parts (cf. Job 21). The Israelite who travelled had a definite and practical aim in view. Such aims might of course be purely accidental and indi- vidual, as, for instance, when one did not dare or wish to remain at home, like Jacob, or the Levite
* Of. the picture of the bridge in ZDPV xiii. 74. t
+ Cf. Schumacher, Northern Ajlin, 179, 181; Buhl, Studien zur Topogr. d. nordl, Ostjordantandes, 17 f.
Jos. Vita, 71.
ior for different periods, Jg 9%, Hos 69, Jer 32, Ezr 8%, Pr 9328, Lik 1030; Jos. Ant. XIV. XV. Bee Vie F
|| Cf. the diverting poem in Néldeke’s Delectus carminun arab., Carmen 62, in which a Bedawi describes the terrors that had beset him on his passage by sea.
374 ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN OT)
who was dissatisfied with his abode at Bethlehem- judah (Jg 17); or when one had to go in pursuit of runaway slaves or a fugitive wife (1 K 2°, Je 19'7-) ; or when a prophet was commanded to be- take himself for concealment to another country (1 K 17), ete. But, in addition to such casual instances, there were regularly recurring occasions which necessitated the facing of the hardships of a journey.
(a) In part these occasions were connected with religious observances. Even in earlier times the Israelites were accustomed to assemble for the great festivals at certain of the more important sanctuaries (1 8 1°, Ex 34%"); and when, after the Deuteronomic reformation, the temple at Jerusa- lem was recognized as the only legitimate sanctu- ary, these festival pilgrimages received a strong impulse, and became a main element in the life of an Israelite. From all parts of Palestine, and afterwards from all quarters of the then world (see art. DIASPORA in the present volume), Jews poured into Jerusalem, which, on the occasion of these festivals, was a seething mass of humanity. Those who had most acquaintance with the dangers of such a journey were the Galilean Jews, who had to pass through the hostile territory of the Samaritans (Jos. Ant. XxX. vi. 1). On this account many of them preferred to take the roundabout way by the east of the Jordan, where they were liable to no such misadventures.*—It must be re- membered, moreover, that in early days men often visited a sanctuary for the purpose of obtaining oracles or receiving instruction on a point of ritual (Gn 25”, 2 K 12, 1S 329 98, Zee 7°).