TELL Hum, the ancient Chorazin, To explore these interesting ruins during spring is no easy task. No trodden path leads to them. The Arabs seem to avoid them. Thickets of thistles as tall as a man on horseback, and so dense that no horse can break through them, encompass and cover the whole site. 3 or 4 Arabs with their clubs are required to open a passage from ruin to ruin. The ruins lie close upon the shore, and are here and there washed by the waves. They cover a level tract about ½ m. long by ¼ broad; and consist chiefly of the foundations and prostrate walls of houses, all of unhewn stones except 2. One of these is a small tower-like structure, whose walls, still 8 or 10 ft. high, are composed of old materials—fragments of columns, capitals, and friezes, mingled with hewn stones of different sizes. To the E. of it are the prostrate remains of another edifice, which for extent and richness of workmanship is scarcely exceeded by any other in Palestine. It is thus described by Dr. Robinson :—

“The extent of the foundations of this structure is no longer definitely to be made out. We measured 105 ft. along the northern wall, and 80 ft. along the western; perhaps this was their whole length. Within the space thus enclosed, and just around, are strewed, in utter confusion, numerous columns of compact limestone, with beautiful Corinthian capitals, sculptured entablatures, ornamented friezes, and the like. The pedestals of the columns are often still in their place, though sometimes overturned and removed. The columns are large, but of no great length. Here we found, for the first time, the singularity of double columns; that is, two attached shafts, with capitals and base cut from the same solid block. The shafts are parallel, showing that they were not intended to form the corner of a colonnade. The same singularity , is seen on a much larger scale in some of the immense Syenite columns of the ancient ch. in Tyre. Another peculiarity here consists in several blocks of stones, 9 ft. long by half that width, and of considerable thickness, on one side of which are sculptured panels with ornamental work, now defaced. They have much the appearance of a stone door; but have no mark of having been suspended, and were more probably employed as pilasters, or perhaps as panels, in the ornamented wall,” —like the sculptured slabs in the palaces of Nineveh. '

“The stones of this edifice were large; and the whole must once have been an elegant structure. The material is everywhere compact limestone; unless some of the blocks may be regarded as passing over into a coarse marble. The character of the building it is difficult to determine.” But a comparison of the style of architecture and ornament with the ruins at Meirón, and Kefr Bir’im near Safed, leave little room for doubt that the building was once a Jewish synagogue. It has already been stated that after the destruction of Jerusalem the Jewish Sanhedrim found a resting-place at Tiberias, which continued to be the capital of their nation for 3 centuries. The Jews gradually gathered round it, and constituted a large proportion of the population of Galilee from the 2nd to the 6th centy., and even later. They were rich, influential, and powerful; and they have left monuments of their taste and skill in architecture in many of the towns, such as, in addition to those already mentioned, Irbid and Kedesh. (For the latter see Rte. 30.)

The arguments which tend to show that Tell Hum is the site of ancient Chorazin are few, and not very satisfactory; still they amount to a strong probability. From the narrative in the Gospels it would appear that Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum 'were not far distant from each other. Our Lord dwelt in the latter; and we read that He “began to upbraid the cities in which most of His mighty, works had been done’’—namely, the three just mentioned. (Matt. xi. 20-30.) According to Jerome the three were ‘upon the shore of the lake; and Chorazin was two miles from Capernaum—, Bethsaida apparently lying in the interval. (Comm. in Esa. ix. 1; and ~Onomast. s. v. Chorozaim.) St. Willibald, too, who travelled here in the middle of the 8th centy., says that he passed from Tiberias by Magdala to Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin ; and thence northward to the fountains of the Jordan. (Karly Travels in Pal., ‘Bohn, p. 16, 17.) In addition to this it may be added that in a rugged glen, about 3m. to the northward, a fountain, and the ruins of a small village, still bear the name Kerâzeh. May it not be that, after the destruction of the town on the exposed coast, some of the inhabitants retired to this more secure spot, carrying with them the name of their home; just as happened at the ancient Sarepta on the coast of Sidon? (Rte. 26.) “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you.” (Matt. xi. 21, 22; Luke x. 13, 14.)

(Pages 427-28)