Gaza: A City of Many Battles 2

Gaza: A City of Many Battles 2

APPENDICES

 

I PUBLIC GAMES AT GAZA 97

II DESTRUCTION OF THE EIGHT HEATHEN TEMPLES

OF GAZA, A.D. 401 110

III BIBLICAL REFERENCES 115

INDEX 117

 

 

 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

_To face page_

FROM GAZA TO ASCALON[3] _Frontispiece_

THE MUSLIM MOSQUE--ONCE THE CRUSADER'S CHURCH 79

NATIVES WITHIN THE C.M.S. COMPOUND 90

 

FOOTNOTE:

 

[3] Reduced and reproduced by permission of The Palestine Exploration

Fund.

 

 

 

 

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

 

 

_A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities_, _etc._, 1891.

ALFORD'S _Greek Testament_, vol. ii, 1861.

_Apocrypha_, revised version of, 1895.

 

BÆDEKER'S _Palestine and Syria_, 1906.

BARING-GOULD, REV. S., _Lives of the Saints_.

BELL'S _The Saints of Christian Art_ ("The Great Hermits"), 1902.

_Bible Educator, The_, vols. i and iii (no date).

_Bible, Holy, The._

BRIGHT'S _The Age of the Fathers_, 2 vols., 1903.

 

_Cambridge Companion to the Bible_, 1905.

CONDER'S _Syrian Stone Lore_, 1886.

CONDER'S _Tent Work in Palestine_, vol. ii, 1878.

 

_Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_, vol. i, 1875.

 

_Encyclopædia Britannica_, vol. x (ninth edition), 1879.

EUSEBIUS' _Ecclesiastical History_, 1851.

 

FLINDERS PETRIE'S _Egypt and Israel_, 1911.

 

GEIKIE'S _The Holy Land and the Bible_, vol. i, 1887.

GUY LE STRANGE'S _Palestine under the Muslims_, 1890.

 

Handbooks of the C.M.S. Missions. _The Palestine Mission_, 1910.

HASTINGS' _Dictionary of the Bible_, 1904.

HEAD'S _Historia Numorum_, 1887.

HILL'S _Life of Porphyry_, 1913.

 

_Josephus_ (Whiston's), edited by Dr. Margoliouth, 1906.

_Jottings and Snapshots from Gaza, S. Palestine_, Nos. 1-3, 1908-1910.

 

MADDEN'S _Coins of the Jews_, 1881.

MEISTERMANN'S _Fr. Barnabas' New Guide to the Holy Land_, 1907.

METAXAKIS on the Madaba Map, in _Nea Sion_, 1907.

MEYER'S _History of the City of Gaza_, 1907.

MURRAY'S _Dictionary of Christian Biography_, 1911.

MURRAY'S _Handbook of Syria and Palestine_, Part I, 1868.

 

NEALE'S _History of the Holy Eastern Church_, Part I, 1850.

NEALE'S _History of the Holy Eastern Church_, "The Patriarchate

of Alexandria," vol. i, 1847.

NEALE'S _Lent Legends_, 1905.

NEALE'S _The Patriarchate of Antioch_, 1883.

 

OLIPHANT'S (LAURENCE) _Haifa_, or _Life in Modern Palestine_, 1887.

 

PORTER'S _The History of Beirût_, 1912.

PUSEY'S _Commentary on the Minor Prophets_, 1879.

 

_Quarterly Statement_ of the Palestine Exploration Fund--various.

 

ROBERTSON'S _History of the Christian Church_, vol. i, 1854.

ROBERTSON'S _Biblical Researches in Palestine_, vol. ii, 1856.

 

SAYCE'S _Patriarchal Palestine_, 1912.

SCHÜRER'S _History of the Jewish People in the time of Christ_,

vols. i, ii, 1898.

SMITH'S (GEORGE ADAM) _The Historical Geography of the Holy Land_, 1902.

STEVENSON'S _The Crusaders in the East_, 1907.

 

WORSDWORTH'S _Greek Testament_, "The Acts of the Apostles," 1860.

WORDSWORTH'S _The Ministry of Grace_, 1901.

 

 

 

 

GAZA

 

 

CHAPTER I

 

(I) OLD TESTAMENT, (II) DEUTERO-CANONICAL BOOKS,

(III) NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES TO GAZA

 

 

There are twenty _Old Testament_ allusions to Gaza; certainly one

reference in the _Deutero-Canonical_ books; and one more in the _Acts

of the Apostles_.

 

1. Genesis x. 19.--_The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as

thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza._ Thus Gaza is among the earliest of

the Canaanitish cities mentioned in Genesis. The reference in this

early chapter, which transports us into the dim dawn of human history,

is a presumption of its extreme antiquity, and like its distant

neighbour Sidon suggests its being among the most ancient cities of

the world. Even before Abraham left his fatherland Gaza stood on the

southernmost border of Canaan. Its important strategic position on the

frontier of Egypt has contributed to its long-continued existence.

 

Gaza, like Damascus, is mentioned both in the _Book of Genesis_, and in

the _Acts of the Apostles_.

 

2. Joshua x. 41.--_Joshua smote them from Kadeshbarnea even unto Gaza._

 

Gaza became celebrated as one of the five royal cities of the

Philistines.

 

Politically, there were five _principal_ centres: the cities of

Ashdod, Gaza, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron (1 Sam. vi. 16, 17).

 

Unlike its neighbours Gath and Askelon, Gaza has survived the various

changes of history. Ashdod is now the mud village of Esdûd. The modern

name of Askelon is 'Askalân.[4] The site of Gath is uncertain. Ekron

is identified with 'Akîr, near a station on the railway from Jaffa to

Jerusalem.

 

3. Joshua xi. 22.--_There were none of the Anakims left in the land of

the children of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there

remained._

 

Joshua only partially subdued this remarkable people, who seem to have

been akin to the Rephaim and other gigantic races alluded to in the Old

Testament. It was not contemplated that, under any circumstances, the

"dispossession" alluded to in Numb. xxxiii. 51-3, would be _at once_

completed, as plainly intimated in Exodus xxiii. 29, 30.[5]

 

4. Joshua xv. 20 and 47.--_This is the inheritance of the tribe of

Judah ... Gaza with her towns and her villages._

 

Although the tribe of Judah, to whom the city fell, subdued it, yet

they appear to have held it but a short time.[6]

 

5. Judges i. 18.--_Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof._

 

This victory of Judah _alone_ over the chief cities of Palestine is

a proof that the subsequent oppression of Israel by the Philistines

was due to the sins of Israel. The five lords of the Philistines not

only regained possession of their own territory, but also increased in

strength, and, at length, extended their jurisdiction in turn over the

Israelites (Judges iii. 1-5).

 

"The Philistines appear to have come into the maritime plain of Syria

either shortly before or shortly after Israel left Egypt."--_G. A.

Smith._

 

6. Judges vi. 3-5.--_When Israel had sown, the Midianites came up, and

the Amalekites, and the children of the east, ... and they encamped

against them ... till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for

Israel._

 

A new apostasy, punished by the oppression of Midian, is here

introduced. This invasion came from the south-east and extended over

the whole land "unto Gaza" in the south-west.

 

7. Judges xvi. 1-4.--_Then went Samson to Gaza._

 

8. Judges xvi. 21-31.--_The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes,

and brought him down to Gaza._

 

Gaza had been the scene of Samson's sin (verses 1 and 2). It is now

made the scene of his punishment.

 

After forty years of oppression, Samson appeared as the champion and

avenger of his people. The tragic close of his life has given Gaza an imperishable fame.