The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-10-26

/
Divine Word. and to take more pains to do il
Intelhgently. Here it takes up Mr.. Porte, q
book, The Giant Cities OF Bashan," and in a
half page editorial proves from it that the fenced
cities OF Og continue to the present day in their
ruins, to testify of the truth of the stories OF
Moses and Joshua. We regret to inform it that
no 10, scholars accept Mr.. Porters conclusions.
The deserted halls of Bashan" are not still in
existence and the ruins The Central Presbyterian
calls by that name are simply of a Byzantine
antlquity.-N. Y. Independent
We beg the Independent to be careful
how it carries out its great purpose to
weaken confidence in the infallibility of
the Divine Word, and to take more pains
to do it with accuracy.
We have been corrected several times
recently by the Independent in the first
of these cases, without any reply on our
part, the Independent, in its succeeding
issue, " fastened to confess that it had
fallen into an error: in the second it mis-
represented what we said about the or
thodoxy of the Rev. Dr. Withrow of Bos-
ton: the third instance is in its issue of
last week, from which we clip the above
severely-constructed paragraph.
1t has again misrepresented us. We
undertook to show in the article referred
to that, astonishing as the statement of
Moses is with regard to the existence of
three-score fenced cities in the region of
Argob, in Bashan, "a very limited area),
the assertion of the sacred writer has
been proved by the observations of recent
travellers in that country to be strictly
true. From one spot Mr.. Porter counted
thirty deserted towns.
We are now informed by the Iadepen-
dent with a grand flourish of learning,
that eve regret to inform it THE CEN
TRIAL PRESBYTERIAN that no scholars
accept Mr.. Porter's conclusions the
ruins THE Central Presbyterian calls by
that name the deserted halls of Bashan |
are simply of Byzantine antiquity"
We were well aware that the date as.
signed by Mr.. Porter to the structures and
ruins found on these sites had been dis
puted we were well aware that many of
the remains are of Roman and Syrio-
Greek architecture. We believed, and
still believe, that some of the structures 90
back to far more remote antiquity. But
this is not important; we have no doubt,
in the course of $500 years, these cities
have, many of them. been built and re-
built. AS at Troy, no doubt the future
explorer of the Hauran will find one
civilization above another. The object
of our article, as plainly expressed, was
to show that the Biblical statement Lad
been verified as to the amazing number
of walled towns in an area about equal
to that Of one of the larger Virginia
counties. The date of the present sur
face luins does not affect the question
one way or the other.
But the Independent, with all its lord
ly airs, is not informed even about the
dates. 1t has not read the most recent
literature on the subject.
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons have
just published work by Mr.. Selah Mer-
rill, Arch@ologist of the American Pales-
tine Exploration Society, which is, per-
haps, the highest authority we have with
regard to the region east Of the Jordan.
This is very handsome volume of some
$50 pages, introduced to the public by
the Rev. Roswell D. Hitchcock, D. D.,
President of Union Theological Seminary,
New York.
Mr.. Merrill rejects the conclusions of
De Vogd6 that the structures Of this re-
gion belong to the period from the first
to the seventh centuries of our era. =
ut is, he says Up. 74), ga sufficient an
swer to call attention, first, to the pre-
Roman work at Burak, at Thine, in the
castle at Bozrah, and in Kunawat. -
Again: 1T is, therefore, impossible to
say how many layers of civilization may
exist beneath any one Of these important
Hauran towns" He quotes an inscrip-
ton Of Shalmaneser II (B. @. 800, sta
ting that he had pulled down, destroyed