So narrow and precipitous a glen is quite unsuited to the Biblical event, but this inconsistency does not appear to have disturbed those who framed or those who hold the tradition. It is, however, implied in the Heb. terms employed in the two cases. That by Joel is emek {p'O"), a Avord applied to spacious valley's such as those of Es- draelon or Gibeon (Stanley, Syria and Palest., Appendix, § 1). On the other hand, the ravine of the Kidron is invariably designated by ndchal (StlD), answering to the modern Arabic tuady. There is no instance in the O. T. of these two terms being convertible, and this fact alone would warrant the inference that the tradition of the identity of the emek of Jehoshaphat and the nachal Kidron did not arise until Hebrew had begun to become a dead language. The grounds- on which it did arise were jirobably these :
1. The frequent mention throughout this passage of Joel of Mount Zion, Jerusalem, and the Temple (ii, 32; iii, 1,6, 16, 17, 18) may have led to the belief that the locality of the great judgment would be in the immedi- ate neighborhood. This would be assisted by the men- tion of the Mount of Olives in the somewhat similar passage in Zechariah (xiv, 3, 4).
2. The belief that Christ would reappear in judgment on the Mount of Olives, i'rom which he had ascended. Tliis was at one time a received article of Christian be- lief, and was grounded on the words of the angels, " He shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Adrichomius, Theatr, 7'errm Sanctce, s. v. Jerusalem, § 192 ; Corn, a Lapide on Acts i). Sir John IMaundeville gives a ilifferent reason for the same. "Very near this"— the place where Christ wept over Jerusalem— " is the stone on which our Lord sat when he preached ; and on tltat same stone shall he sit on the day of doom, right as he said himself." Bernard the Wise, in the 8th century, speaks of the church of St.
Leon, in the valley, " where our Lord will come to judg- ment" {Early Travels, p. 28).
3. There is the alternative that the valley of Jehosh- aphat was really an ancient name of the valley of the Kidron, and that, from the name, the connection with Joel's prophecy and the belief in its being the scene of Jehovah's last judgment have followed. This may be so, but then we should expect to find some trace of the existence of the name before the fourth century alter Christ. It was certainly used as a burying-place as early as the reign of Josiali (2 Kings xxiii, 6), but no inference can fairly be drawn from tliis.
But, whatever originated the tradition, it has held its ground most firmly, as is evinced by several local circum- stances. («) In the valley itself, one of the four remark- able monuments which exist at the foot of Olivet was at a very early date connected with Jehoshaphat. At Arculf's visit (about 700) the name appears to liave been borne by that now called " Absalom's tomb," but then the " tower of Jehoshaphat" {Early Travels, p. 4). In the time of Slaundrell, the " tomb of Jehoshaphat" was what it still is — an excavation, with an architectu- ral front, in the face of the rock behind "Absalom's tomb." A tolerable view of this is given in plate 33 of INlunk's Palestine ; and a photograph by Salzmann, with a description, in the Texte (p. 31) to the same. The name may, as already observed, really point to Jehosha- phat himself, though not to his tomb, as he was buried, like the other kings, in the city of David (2 Chron. xxi, 1). See Absalom's Tojib. (b) One of the gates ol' the city in the east wall, opening on the valley, bore the same name. This is plain from the Citez de Jherusakm, where the Porte de losafas is said to have been a " pos- tern" close to the golden gate-way {Portez Oiris), and to the south of that g^te {jmrs derers midi, § 4). It was, therefore, at or near the small walled-up door-way, to which M. de Saulcy has restored the name of the P6- terne de Josaphat, and which is but a few feet to the south of the golden gate-way. However this may be, this " postern" is evidently of later date than the wall in which it occurs, as some of the enormous stones of the wall have been cut through to admit it, and in so far, therefore, it is a witness to the date of the tradition being subsequent to the time of Herod, by whom this wall was built. It is probably the " little gate leading down by steps to the valley" of which Arculf speaks. Benjamin of Tudela (1163) also mentions the gate of Jehoshaphat, but without any nearer indication of its position than that it led to the valley and the monu- ments (Asher, i, 71). (e) Lastly, leading to this gate was a street called the street of Jehoshaphat {Citez de Jherusalem, § 7). — Smith.
If the " king's dale" (or valley of Shaveh) of Gen. xiv, 17, and of 2 Sam. xviii, 18, be the same, and if the commonly received location of them be correct, then we have the valley of Jehoshaphat identified with that of Melchizedek, and its history carries us back to Salem's earliest daj-s. But at what time it became a cemetery we are not informed. See Shaveh.