SHECHEM
636
SHECHEM
well, and sent liis disciples to the city situated in the narrow valley, intending, on tlieir return, to proceed along the plain on his way to Galilee, without himself visiting the city. All this corresponds exactly to the present character of the ground. The well, too, was Jacob's Well, of high antiquity, a known and venerated spot, which, after having already lived for so many ages in tradition, would not be likely to be forgotten in the two and a half centuries intervening between John and Eusebius."
It is understood that the well, and the site around it, have lately been purchased by the Russian Church, not, it is to be hoped, with the intention of erecting a Church over it, and thus forever destroying the reality and the sentiment of the place. A special fund has recently been raised in England for the purpose of surveying the prem- ises and cleaning out the well. See Jacob's Wkll.
(2.) The second of the spots alluded to is the Tomb of Joseph. It lies about a quarter of a mile north of the well, exactly in the centre of the opening of the valley between Gerizim and Ebal. It is a small square enclosure of high whitewashed walls, surrounding a tomb of the ordinary kind, but with the peculiarity that it is placed diagonally to the walls, instead of par- allel, as usual. A rough pillar used as an altar, and black with the traces of fire, is at the head, and another at the foot of the tomb. In the left-hand corner as you enter is a vine, whose branches " run over the wall," recalling exactly the metaphor of Jacob's bless- ing (Gen. xlix, 22). In the walls are two slabs with Hebrew inscriptions. One of these is given by Dr. Wilson (Lcfiick, etc. ii, 61), and the interior is almost covered with the names of pilgrims in Hebrew, Arabic, and Samaritan. Beyond this there is nothing to re- mark in the structure itself. It purports to cover the tomb of Joseph, buried there in the " parcel of ground" which his father bequeathed especially to him his fa- vorite son, and in which his bones were deposited after the conquest of the country was completed (Josh, xxiv, 32).
The local tradition of the tomb, like that of the well, is as old as the beginning of the 4th century. Both Eusebius ( Onomasf. Evx^f^ ) and the Bordeaux Pil- grim mention its existence. So do Benjamin of Tudela (1160-79) and Maundeville (1322), and so— to pass over intermediate travellers — does Maundrell (1697). All that is wanting in these accounts is to fix the tomb which they mention to the present spot. But this is difficult. Maundrell describes it as on his right hand, in leaving Nablus for .Jerusalem; "just without the city" — a small moscjue, " built over the sepulchre of Joseph" (^larch 2.5). Some time after passing it he arrives at the well. This description is quite inappli- cable to the tomb just described, but perfectly suits the Wely at the north-east foot of Gerizim, which also bears (among the Moslems) the name of Joseph. When the expressions of the two oldest authorities cited above are examined, it will be seen that they are quite as suitable, if not more so, to this latter spot as to the tomb on the open plain. On the other hand, the Jew- ish travellers, from bap-Parchi (cir. 1.320) downwards, specify the tomb as in the immediate neighborhood of the village el-Balata. See the itineraries entitled Jichii.t hdt-Tsadikim (A.D. 1561) and Jichvs lia-Abolh (l.")o7), in Carmoly, I/ineraircs tie hi Terrc - Sainte. Stanley states, after I'uckingham. that it is said by the Samaritans to be thus called after a rabbi .biseph of Nabliis {Sin. and Pal. p. 241, note). But this identiti- cation seems to be a mistake, probably a jNIohammedan legend, and imposed upon inquisitive travellers by un- scrupulous guides. The present Samaritans know of no Joseph's tomb but the generally accepted one; and to it does the .Fewisb as well as the Samaritan tradition bear testimony. llap-Parchi, who spent some years ex- ploring Palestine, fixes Joseph's Torab fifty yards north of Balafa (Kapht. va-Pherach).
In this conflict of testimony, and in the absence of
any information on the date and nature of the Moslem tomb, it is impossible to come to a definite conclusion. There is some force, and that in favor of the received site, in the remarks of a learned and intelligent Jewish traveller ( Lriwe, in the Ally. Ztitimg des Judtnlhums [Leipsig, 1839], No. 50) on the pecidiar form and nature of the ground surrounding the tomb near the well, the more so because they are suggested by the natural feat- ures of the spot, as reflected in the curiously minute, the almost technical, language of the ancient record, and not based on any mere traditional or artificial con- siderations. '"The thought," says he, "forced itself upon me, how iinpossible it is to understand the details of the Bible without examining them on the spot. This place is called in the Scripture neither hnek ('valley') nor shepheluh (' plain'), but by the individual name of Chdkath hus-Sadeh ; and in the whole of Palestine there is not such another plot to be f<iund — a dead level, with- out the least hollnw or swelling in a circuit of two hours. In addition to this, it is the loveliest and most fertile spot I have ever seen." See Joseph's Tomb.