The Dickinson press., 1890-04-19


The cast, however, arrived in such a
broken condition that it was practically
worthless.
Since then Professor M%illington, of
Roberts college, at Constantinople, and
ex-Minister Strauss have secured two adj
ditional casts for this country, one hav-
ing gone to the University of Rochester
and the other to the University of Penn
sylvania. The copy belonging to the
University of Pennsylvania was badly
broken in the transportation, but has
been sufficiently mended to have new
casts made. Harvard and Yale, as we'll
as the Lutheran Theological Seminary
at Mt. Airy, and the Protestant Episco-
pal Divinity school, have applied for fac
SMILES of this cast for their libraries.
HISTORY OF THE INSCRIPTION.
An interesting story is connected with
the discovery of this inscription. On the
26th of May, 1871, the French explorer,
Clermont-G anneau, who spent many
years in Jerusalem, and to whom the
Louvre in Paris owe a number of its
best specimens, was examining the par
TALLY ruinous walls of the old Moham-
medan school in Jerusalem, zeal the Via
Dolorosa, about $50 feet north of the
Haram wall. The F%renchman, with the
searching curiosity of an archeologist,
was scrutinizing every stone that showed
evidence of having been cut or chiseled
by human hands. While he was thus ell
gagged he noticed on a large block of
stone, projecting a few inches above the
ground, several Greek letters. Early
Greek inscriptions in Jerusalem are ex-
ceedingly rare, and, accordingly, he as
sured himself that no Mohammedan was
watching him, and then proceeded to lay
bare part of the stone.
To excite no suspicion he did not re-
main very long, and before leaving filled
in the earth about the stone as it had
been before. The next day he returned
with the proper implements, uncovered
the stone and found that it was a block
of marble. with an area of 8 by 2 feet,
carefully chiseled and showing seven
lines Of a we'll preserved Greek inscrip-
ton. The Interpretation presented nc
difficulty, as the characters were large
and legible. The inscription read as fol-
lows: 'sNo Gentle is to enter within the
Enclosure of the temple. Whosoeverdis
obeys this rule will incur the penalty of
DEATH"
Ganneau Immediately concluded that
this stone must formerly have belonged
to the Temple of Herod, and a few years
before the birth of Christ was part of a
wall that formed an inclosure about the
sacred fame of the Jews. Josephus re-
lates that on the southern and eastern
sides of the Temple, parallel to the por-
ticoes erected by Solomon and by Herod,
there was a wall several feet high, in
which. at certain intervals, there were
Greek and Latin Inscriptions, forbidding
Gentiles to enter the court of the Ten
pie. The workmanship and the size of
the stone discovered by Ganneau CORE
spond precisely with the description
given by Josephus, and the peremptory
style Of the inscription leaves little room
to doubt that the stone actually formed
part of the wall surrounding the Temple.
AN INTERESTING ILLUSTRATION.
The prohibition inscribed on this piece
of marble thousands of years ago forms
an interesting commentary to the story
related in the t%wenty-first chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles, where it is SAID that
the Jews of Asia stirred up all the people
against Paul because he drought Greeks
also into the temple and hath polluted
this holy place. (For they had seen be-
fore with him in the city Trophimus, an
Ephesian, whom they supposed that
Paul had brought into the temple.) And
all the city was moved, and the people
ran together: and they took Paul and
drew him out of the temple: and forth
with the doors were shut"
The wrath of the Jews is much more
clearly understood and seems quite natu-
raj when we see by this inscription how
jealousy they guarded the entrance into
their temple, and what a severe penalty
they inflicted upon Gentiles for entering
eve the outer court or Enclosure.
Reference is made to the same feature
in the second chapter of the Epistle to the
Ephesians, where Paul says that Christ
is u peace, "who hath made botl
(Gentiles and jews one, and hath bro
ken down the middle wall of PARTITION
1t was natural that the discovery Of
this interesting stone could not be KEEP
secret, and accordingly Ganneau made il
known in a letter to The Athen@um, ant
wrote a monograph on the meaning anc
historical value of the inscription. Blu
when an attempt was made to secure TIN
stone for the Louvre, at Paris, the pos
SCISSOR of the school house where it wa
found, under the impression, which j
very prevalent in the east, that ever,
archaeological object is worth an i'm
mense sum- Of money, demanded $780, 0o
When the Turkish governor of Jerusalem
heard of the discovery of the stone h
had it dug up and brought to his palace
when he himself offered it for sale a
$4,000.
But there was no buyer. Suddenl
the stone disappeared, and no trace of
could be found anywhere. When, thu
teen years after this, DR.. Mordtmann, {
Constantinople, a well known Semit
scholar, was n day examining til
treasures in the Turkish museum, Tsh
Mill Kiosk, in Constantinople, he disco,
cred the lost stone, and published Ii
discovery in the journal of the Germa
"Palestini society," (ss4). The origin
stone is still kept in this museum, whie
Is under the direction of the Turkish a
ch@ologist. Hamdi Bey, who BEGAN
known several years ago by his exte
i ' excavations of %sarcophagi at Slider
The cast which the university has g
tanned is in every particular a faitht
facsimile of the original.-Philadelpl
Ledger.
Devils Lake..
Devils lake is a body of bracki
water of uncertain size, according