(3.) It is a far more important question whether, as the Samaritans believe, Gerizim was the mountain on which Abraham was directed to offer his son Isaac (Gen. xxii, 2, and sq.). It has been observed that it is not the mountain, but the district which is there called Moriah (of the same root with Moreh : see Corn. a Lapid. on Gen. xii, 6), and that antecedent/?/ to the occurrence which took place " upon one of the moun- tains" in its vicinity — a consideration which of itself would naturally point to the locality, already known to Abraham, as the plain or plains of Morel), " the land of vision," "the high land," and therefore consistent- ly "the land of adoration," or "religious worship," as it is variously explained. That all these interpreta- tions are incomparably more applicable to the natural features of Gerizim and its neighborhood than to the hillock (in comparison) upon wliich Solomon built his Temple, none can for a moment doubt who have seen both. Jerusalem unquestionably stands upon high ground ; but owing to the hills " round about" it, can- not be seen on any side from any great distance ; nor, for the same reason, could it ever have been a land of vision or extensive views. Even from Mount Olivet, which must always have towered over the small emi- nences at its base to the southwest, the view cannot be named in the same bi-eath with that from Gerizim, M'hich is one of the finest in Palestine, commanding, as it does, from an elevation of nearly 2500 feet (Arrow- smith, Geogrciph. Diet, of the H. S. p. 145), "the ^Medi- terranean Sea on the west, the snowy heights of Her- mon on the north, on the east the wall of the trans- Jordanic mountains, broken by the deep cleft of the Jabbok" (Stanley, S. and P. p. 235), and the lovely and tortuous expanse of plain (the Mukhna) stretched as a carpet of nianj' colors beneath its feet. Neither is the appearance Avhich it would "present to a traveller advancing up the Philistine plain" (ib. p. 252) — the di- rection from which Abraham came — to be overlooked. On the other hand, it is clear that the "land of Mo- riah" was only thus designated as containing the nota- ble mountain there referred to ; and any of the hills about Jerusalem are sufficiently conspicuous for the purpose. Abraham was undoubtedly at Beersheba when he received the command (comp. Gen. xxi, 33, and xxii, 1-3, 19). It appears from the narrative that on the third day he reached the place, offered the sac- rifice, and returned to the spot where he had left his servants. The distance from Beersheba to Gerizim is about 70 geographical miles, as the crow flies, which, in such a countiy, will give 90 of actual travel. Abra- ham's servants were on foot, carrj-ing wood ; Isaac was also on foot, and Abraham rode an ass. It is not, indeed, absolutel}' necessarj^, as Mr. Porter thinks {Hand-hook of S. and P. i, 339), that lie should have started from I5eersheba (see Gen. xxi, 34 — "the whole land being before him," c. xx, 15). But had he set out, even from so southern a spot, " on the morning of the third day, he would arrive in the plain of Sha- ron, exactly where the massive height of Gerizim is visible afar off" (Stanley, p. 248), and from thence, with the mount always in view, he would proceed to the exact "place which God had told him of" in all solemnity— for again, it is not necessary that he should have arrived on the actual spot during the third day. All that is said in the narrative is that, from the time that it hove in sight, he and Isaac parted from the 3-oung men, and went on together alone. Still this interpretation is not the natural and obvious one, and supposes too protracted a journey for the circum- stances. The Samaritans, therefore, through whom the tradition of the site of Gerizim has been preserved.
GERIZIM
822
GERIZBI
are probably wrong •when they point out still — as they have done from time immemorial — Gerizim as the hill upon which Aljraliam's " fi;ith was made perfect;" a natural result of their desire to magnify tlieir national seat of worship. It is, moreover, strange that a place once called by the "Fatlicr of tlie faithful" Jehovah- jireh, should have been merged by Moses, and ever afterwards, in a general nauie so different from it in sense and origin as Gerizim. Josephus, in more than one place, asserts that where Abraham offered, there the Temple was afterwards built {Ant. i, 13, 2 ; vii, 13, 9). St. Jerome follows Josephus {Qnn'st. in Gen. xxii, 5, ed. Migne), and the Kubbinical traditions respecting Mount Moriah arc strongly in the same direction (Cu- nicus. Be Republ. Heb. ii, 12). The Christian tradi- tion, which makes the site of Aijraham's sacrifice to have been on Calvary, is merely a monkish transfer- ence from the Jewish vicinitj'. See Moriah.
(4.) Another tradition of the Samaritans is still less trustworthy, viz., that Mount Gerizim was the spot where Melchizedek, met Abraham — though there cer- tainly was a Salem or Shalem in that neighborhood (Gen. xxxiii, 18 ; Stanley, S. and P. p. 247, and sq.). The first altar erected in the land of Abraham, and the first appearance of Jehovah to him in it, was in the plain of JMoreh, near Sichem (Gen. xii, G) ; but the mountain overhanging that cit}' had not in any case, as yet, been hallowed to him by any decisive occur- rence. He can hardly, therefore, be supposed to have deviated from his road so far, Mhich lay through tha plain of the Jordan ; nor again is it likely that he would have found the king of Sodom so far away from his own territory (Gen. xiv, 17, and sq.). See Shaveh, Yalt.ey of. Lastly, the altar which Jacob built was not on Garizim, as the Samaritans contend, though probahlj' about its base, at the head of the plain be- tween it and Ebal, " in the parcel of a field" which that patriarch purchased from the children of Hamor, and where he spread his tent (Gen. xxxiii, 18-20). Here was likewise his well (John iv, C), and the tomb of his son Joseph (Josh, xxiv, 32), b,)th of which are still shown, the former surmounted by the remains of a vaulted chamber, and with the ruins of a clmrch hard by (Robinson, lii'd. Res. ii, 283) the latter with " a fruitful vine" trailing over its whitewashed inclosure, and before it two dwarf pillars hollowed out at the top to receive lamps, which are lighted every Friday or Moliammedan Sabliath. There is, however, anoth- er Mohammedan monument claiming to bo the said toml) (Stanley, S. and P. p. 211 note). The tradition (lioliinson, ii, 283 note) that the twelve patriarchs were buried there likewise (it should have made them eleven without Joseph, or thirteen including his two sons) is probably an erroneous inference from Acts vii, 16 (where avrog is not to be uicluded in the subject of Herk^i](Tav ; see Hackett, ad loc). See Melchize- dek.