Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-06
THE ACTUAL PLACE
Tabor Identified as the Mount of the
TRANSPORTATION,
RESULT OF RECENT INVESTIGATION
Interesting Relics That Antedate
the Christian Era.
VALUABLE DTSCOV ERIE
Copyright, 1901. by c. H. Levy)

Written for The Evening Star by c. Fl. Levy.
That Jesus was TRANSPORTED upon a
mountain in Galilee is one of the events in
His life upon which no less than three of
the Gospels agree, almost to the point of
identity. That this was Mount Tabor is
agreed in the same unanimous fashion by
all Christian authorities from the earliest
times to the present day. But it is only
lately that excavations have been made at
Tabor proving the early occupation of this
mountain as a site sacred to the early
Christians. This valuable investigation has
been made by an Alsatian missionary.
Father Barnabe who is considered one of
the leading authorities upon Christian
archaeology in Palestine, and is now in the
monastery on Mount Tabor His investi-
cations have just been made public IN
Paris.
Mount Tabor had been a notable place,
even in early Egyptian times lying as it
did, upon the direct route between Egypt
and Assyria. Prof. Maspero has identified
an Egyptian scarabaeus found at Tabor
as belonging to the eighteenth Egyptian
dynasty, so this site must have been well
known as early as 1900 b. G. That 1t bore
a sacred character in the times just pre-
ceding the birth of Jesus seems more than
probable from RabbinicaI traditions. which
speak of it as the Sacred Mountain of Gal
lice. Father Barnabe holds that the tradf
ton which located the TRANSPORTATION on
Mount Tabor is one of the best founded of
all traditions, going back to the very first
century of the Christians. Origen, Fuse
bus, st. Cyril of Jerusalem and st. Jerome
ara unanimous in proclaiming Tabor as the
Mount of TRANSPORTATION. Attentive study
of the accounts in the three Gospels of the
TRANSPORTATION points toward Tabor, al
though 1t is not named.
Father Barnabe points out that Jesus,
during the last few weeks of His life was
making a final pastoral journey in Galiee.
to the Sea of Genesereth. At last he
reached Caesarea Philppi, on the extreme
northern boundary of the territory of Is
rael in the center of a population largely
pagan. When He arrived in this neigh
borhool He asked his disciples:
'Wh0 do they say the Son of Man is? And
you yourselves, who do you say / ann
Simon-Peter answering, said: YOU are the
Christ, the Son of the Living God" Seeing
them so well fixed in the faith, Jesus began
to disclose to His disciples that He must
go to Jerusalem, suffer much, be put to
death and rise the third day. Of His
further sojourn in Caesarea no single de-
tail is given. Six days later the mystery of
the TRANSPORTATION took place. All three
evangelists seem to insist upon space of
time having elapsed between the last dis
course of the Savior and His transfigura-
ton. Since no word is said of any preach
ing during this time, it is probable that the
six days We're passed in a journey, and it
might easily take six days, walking as
slowly as Jesus walked in converse with
His disciples, to go from Caesarea Philippi
to Tabor.
Studying the Ruins.
Having satisfied himself by his investiga-
lions, both historical and geographical
that Mt Tabor was the site of the trans
fguration, Father Barnabe set himself to
the examination of the ruins found there
The transformations of the buildings on
| Tabor have been so numerous that they
present many difficulties to the achaeolo-
| gist, who has to help himself by history at
| times, and then fill in the gaps of history