To Faustus, presbyter of the island, from Eucherius the bishop. I have briefly embraced the situation of the city of Jerusalem and of Judaea itself, as it was made known to me either by report or learned by reading, and I indicate it with a brief preface, since for a work that is not diffuse it is by no means fitting that the preface be diffuse. Farewell in Christ, my honor and my safeguard. Jerusalem is called Aelia from Aelius Hadrianus, for after its overthrow it received the name of Aelius, its builder, together with the work. By the lofty nature of the place, those who approach it from whatever side will doubtless have to ascend, since indeed it rises by a long but gentle slope.
The site of the city itself is brought round almost into a circle, with no small circuit of walls, by which it now also takes within itself Mount Zion, once neighboring, which, situated on the south, overlooks the city as a citadel. The greater part of the city lies below the mountain, set on the plain of a lower hill. Mount Zion, on one side—the one that faces north—is set apart for the dwellings of the clergy and the religious; on its summit the cells of the monks have occupied a level space, surrounding a church which is said to have been founded there by the apostles out of reverence for the place of the Lord's resurrection, because there they were once filled with the Spirit when the Paraclete was promised by the Lord.
There are three more notable exits of gates: one from the west, another from the east, a third from the north for those entering the city from the northern side. First, among the holy places, according to the arrangement of the streets, one must turn aside to the basilica which is called the Martyrium, recently erected by Constantine with great splendor. Thence the adjoining places to the west are visited, Golgotha and the Anastasis; but the Anastasis is on the place of the resurrection, while Golgotha is the place midway between the Anastasis and the Martyrium, the place of the Lord's passion, in which there also appears that rock which once bore the very cross with the Lord affixed to it. And yet these are seen as situated outside Mount Zion, where the swelling of the place, sloping toward the north, extended itself.
The Temple, indeed, situated in the lower part of the city in the vicinity of the wall on the east, and magnificently built, was once a wonder, of which a certain pinnacle of one wall survives among the ruins, the rest being destroyed from the very foundations. A few cisterns are shown there for the use of water, in that part of the city which extends toward the north. Near the Temple, the pool of Bethsaida appears, distinguished by its twin basins, of which one is for the most part filled with the winter rains, while the other is discolored with reddish waters. From that front of Mount Zion which, with a sheer crag, looks toward the eastern region, within the walls and at the roots of the hill, the spring of Siloam breaks forth, which, with an alternating flow of waters, runs toward the south.
Alongside the wall of Jerusalem and of the Temple, on the east, Gehenna meets one, which is called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, extended from north to south, through which the torrent Kidron runs down, if at any time it receives the waters of the rains. The surroundings of the city of Jerusalem are seen to be rugged and mountainous, which also look out toward the Mount of Olives, a mile distant from it, to the east. Two most celebrated churches are held to be there: one founded on that place where the Lord is said to have held discourse with the disciples, the other on that place from which he is reported to have ascended into heaven.
Six miles from Jerusalem, Bethlehem lies apart on the southern side, surrounded by a low wall and, without towers, in a very narrow space, where the manger of the Lord, moreover adorned with silver and gleaming gold, is enclosed by a cell. Jericho, indeed, runs out from Jerusalem toward the east in summer, eighteen miles. The Jordan also stretches before the land of Judaea from the same quarter of the sky, separated by the twenty-fourth milestone from Aelia; it first intersects the Sea of Tiberias and, plunging from it, then with abundant and placidly flowing waters is buried in the Dead Sea, which sea looks toward Jerusalem at about twenty miles.
Hebron, once a city of giants, is distant about the twenty-second milestone from Jerusalem, below, in the southern region. The Great Sea nowhere holds a nearer position than around the town of Joppa, which is forty miles away from it toward the summer west. The length, indeed, of the land of Judaea is extended from Dan as far as Beersheba, produced from the northern region toward the south. For Dan is a small village in the outer parts of Judaea, which look toward the northern part, at the fourth milestone from Paneas as one goes to Tyre; from it the Jordan, bursting forth, has obtained its name from the place. For the Hebrews call a river 'Ior.' Beersheba, moreover, as we said above, is a very great village, leaning toward the south, at the twentieth milestone from Hebron.
Therefore, how great the length and also the breadth of Judaea may be, the holy Jerome too determined in a certain letter to Dardanus, from which we have excerpted for this work the things that seemed necessary; in which, discoursing against the Jews concerning the land of promise, he added these things also: "Let those answer me who think this land—which now, by the passion and resurrection of Christ, has been made the land of promise for us—was possessed by the people of the Jews, after they returned from Egypt: how much did they possess? Surely from Dan as far as Beersheba, which is scarcely extended in length over a space of one hundred and sixty miles.
For Scripture does not testify that even David and Solomon, those most powerful kings, held more than this—apart from those whom, after victory, they received into friendship. And this I say, to be silent about the five cities of Palestine: Gaza, Ascalon, Geth, Accaron, Azotus; and the Idumaeans too, separated from the southern region scarcely twenty-five miles from Jerusalem; and the Arabs and Hagarenes, whom they now call Saracens, in the vicinity of the city of Jerusalem. I am ashamed to speak of the breadth of the land of promise, lest we should seem to have given the heathen an occasion for blasphemy. From Joppa as far as our little village of Bethlehem there are forty-six miles; to which succeeds a most vast wilderness full of fierce barbarians." Likewise, a little after:
"But if you object that the land of promise is meant which is contained in the book of Numbers, from the south of the Salt Sea, through Sina and Cadesbarne, as far as the Torrent of Egypt, which flows into the Great Sea near Rhinocorura; and to the west the sea itself, which stretches before Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria Coele, and Cilicia; from the north Mount Taurus and Zephyrium as far as Emath, which is called Epiphania of Syria; to the east, indeed, through Antioch and Lake Cenereth, which is now called Tiberias, and the Jordan, which flows into the Salt Sea, now called the Dead Sea; and across the Jordan, moreover, the possession of the two and a half tribes, Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh:
then I too shall acknowledge that these things were promised to you, not delivered." Likewise afterward he added: "And to me in the Gospel the kingdoms of heaven are promised, which the Old Testament does not name at all; but if I do not do the things that are commanded, the fault will by no means be in him who promises, but in me, who have not deserved to receive the promise. Read the book of Joshua and of Judges, and you will understand by what straits of possessions you are confined." These things Jerome said, a man most learned of all in every knowledge of the Scriptures. But Josephus also, the noble historian of the Jews, reports the situation of that whole region, who by his account distinguishes the boundaries of both Galilees and of Samaria, or the various peoples which adjoin and bound Galilee, Syria, and Phoenicia:
from the west, Ptolemais with the borders of its territory and Mount Carmel, which was formerly the Galileans', but now is associated with the borders of the Tyrians, to which is joined the city Gabaa, which once was the cause of grievous destruction to the Jews; from the east, Hippene and Gadara remain with their own borders. These same places, however, were prescribed in ancient time as confines also to the region of Gaulanitis and to the kingdom of Agrippa. On the southern side, Scythopolis and Samaria each take it up with their own regions, nor do they suffer it to be extended beyond the streams of the Jordan. Its northern parts, on the right side, Tyre closes off, and the whole region of the Tyrians, by the opposition of which the spaces of Galilee are defined.
These same regions, moreover, are distinguished between themselves in this manner: that what is called Lower Galilee is spread out in length from the city of Tiberias as far as the city whose name is Zabulon, extended above the maritime region of Ptolemais. Its breadth, however, is drawn without doubt from the village Chaloth, which is in the greatest plain, as far as Beersheba. From which the beginning of Upper Galilee also opens, until it reaches the borders of the village Bacatae; and by that village too the borders of the land of Tyre are determined. The beginning of its length is also the village Thoalla, the end Thoalla bordering on the Jordan. From this it is given to be understood how far the spaces of Upper Galilee extend, whose beginning is the Jordan, or its confines.
By this estimate of its magnitude, therefore, each Galilee is distinguished. The land, moreover, is rich, grassy, gleaming with diverse kinds of cultivation, marked out with trees, so as to entice anyone to its charm and to invite and rouse even one who shuns labors to the pursuits of cultivation. In short, here no portion of land, however small, lies idle; it is frequented by very many inhabitants. Frequent are the cities, the villages numerous, the multitude of men innumerable, so that a small village in its district has fifteen thousand inhabitants. Likewise a little after: "The Samaritan region too," he says, "lies in the middle between Judaea and Galilee, beginning from a village whose name is Helias, ending in the land of the Acrabattheni, of a nature quite similar and differing in nothing from Judaea.
For each is both mountainous and level, according to the diversity of places, neither spread out wholly in plains nor in all places cleft by mountain crags, but it has the charm of either quality. For the exercise of cultivation, the soil is friable and softer, and therefore useful for grain, and as to the fertility of the soil it is second to none, and certainly first of all in the ripeness of its fruits; for while elsewhere the grain is still being sown, here it is being reaped. The kind, too, and the very nature of the grain is nowhere held to be more excellent."
The water is sweet, fair to behold, and pleasant also to drink, so that, in keeping with the favour of the elements, the Jews supposed that this was the land promised to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, since He had pledged to them the prerogative of resurrection; and indeed the divine goodness had conferred both, had they but kept the faith; but from their unbelieving souls both were snatched away—here under the yoke of captivity, there under the bond of sin. It is a wooded region, and therefore rich in cattle and abounding in milk; indeed nowhere does the herd bear udders so swollen with milk. Its fruits, both wild and cultivated, surpass the abundance of every other land. Both Samaria and Judaea are crowded with a multitude of people, so that it seems to me the Jews drew from this the interpretation of that which is written:
namely, that in these lands none shall be barren or unfruitful, since the Law has prescribed this concerning the fruitfulness of merits and the fertility of virtues. Samaria begins at the borders of Arabia, from a village named Jordan, and its boundary extends northward to the village of Bortheus; the breadth of Judaea, however, runs from the river Jordan as far as Joppa. For it begins at the springs of the Jordan and at Mount Lebanon, and is extended as far as the lake of Tiberias. From the village of Arpha also begins its length, which is stretched out as far as the village of Julias, in which the Jews and the Tyrians have a common dwelling.
In the midst of Judaea the city of Jerusalem is named, as it were the navel of the whole region, as wise men have judged—a region abounding in inland riches yet not deprived of those of the sea, for it reaches as far as Ptolemais and borders that whole sea with its shores. There are many cities, but among them all Jerusalem stands pre-eminent, so that, like the head in its own body, it does not overshadow its members but governs them and serves for their protection and adornment." Thus far Josephus, whom I thought fit to insert into this account so that a Jewish narrator concerning the situation of Judaea might give greater credence to those who earnestly seek the truth.