El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1896-12-15
AN INTERESTING RELIC.
a Battered Tablet from the Ancient Tenn
Dle of HerOd.


In the interesting museum OF an
tiouities at ConStantinOple the object
that struck me most was hOary. bai-
tered tablet, with long Greek iEscrii1-
ton cut on it in seven lines. II was
discovered in Jerusalem about the end
of MAY, 1871, by the French archacOlo-
gist, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, at a cons der
able depth below the ground, in the
foundations of an Arab house, not far
from the mosque of Omar, on what
might have been the site Ofthe temple
of Ierod.
This is one of the very few relics OF
that magnificent structure which have
survived to our day. The inscription
is in capital monumental letters and
may be translated thus: NO stranger
can enter within the balustrade round
the sanctuary and Enclosures. Who
ever is caught will be responsible to
| himself for his death" Josephus gives
a graphic description of Herod's tenn
pie and mentions that the court of the
GentileS was separated from the part
that was restricted to the Jews by two
parallel walls. about Is feet apart. The
outer wall was about Az feet high.
It was an elaborate carved stone baluS-
trade with 13 doors in it, each of which
had a pillar in front of il, bearing an
inscription in Greek and Latin, forbid
ding any foreigner to enter the inclo-
sure on pain of death. Josephus men
| tons that the Romans respected This
law and no Gentle ever ventured to
intrude beyond this point.
The prohibition in question, how
| ever, was long regarded as apocrypha!.
| even although Philo spoke of the in
| scription and corroborated the state
ment of the Jewish historian. But the
| discovery of Clermont-Ganneau has
| placed the matter beyond dispute. Tho
| tablet which he found was part of on"
| of the columns guarding the inner
| sanctuary from the approach of IN
| hallOwed feet, and the connection be
| tween the inscription carved on it arf
| the passage in Josephus is most strik
| ing. The expressions and forms arr
! almost identical. There is indeed 4
| curious variation in the Greek word
| for ''balustrade." or partition wall. L.
| the passage in Josephus it is druphak-
| tos, whereas in the Inscription il i
| truphaktos; but this variation may
| be accounted for by the fact that 10
| ScphuS used the correct classical term.
while the inscription spelled the word
according to the Jewish method OF
| pronouncing it, changing n into Il I
| Josephus twice refers to the inscrip-
ton, once in his Earthquakes" and thu
| parallel passages are differently word
ed. showing that he did not intend t.
give the exact phraseology of the stone
monument, but only the sense; and
therefore, that the tablet should Civ
the sense of Josephus' words, without
his exact expression, is just what might
! have been expected in such a discOv-
cry. According to ClermOnt-Gan
| the tablet is the most ancient. as wei
as the most interesting Greek inscrip
ton which archaeological investiga-
ton in Jerusalem has produced. It's
bearings are most important. 1t sup
plies standard of comparison by
which to distinguish the Herodiar
sculpture and photographic works
from those of previous or later days.
Sunday at Home.