The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1904-01-14

Holy Land Canaan or Palestine.
In 81 LETTERS. LETTER NO. IS.
Written for Brandon News, by Virgil
PADAN.ARAM-HOME OF REBHCcA, LEAH
AND RACHEL.
-Aram-field OF Aram-was a
country we'll known in the days of the
patriarchs.
"And Isaac was forty years old when
he took Rebbecca to wife, the daughter
Bethuel the syrian of Padan- Aram, the
sister to Laban the Syrian" (Gen. 2s:2o)
"And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him,
and charged him, and said unto him, Thou
shalt not take wife of the daughter of
Canaan. Arise, 60 to Padan-A ram, to
the house of Bethuel thy mothers father;
and take thee wife from hence of the
daughter of Laban thy mothers brother"
"Aram of two rivers, the Greek Meso-
potamia and the field of Aram. (Hos.
I2:I3.) The term was perhaps more es-
pecially applied to that portion which bor-
dered on the Euphrates, to distinguish it
from the mountainous districts in the
north and northeast of Mesopotamia. "lf
the derivation from Ar Fadda, to ploug be
correct, Paddan-Aram is the arabic land of
Syria; either an upland vale in the hills or a
fertile district Immediately at their feet Pad
the ploughed land would thus correspond
dan with the Latin arvum and is analogous
to Eng field, this felled land from which
the trees have been cleared" Padan-A-
ram IplavS an important part in the early
history of the Hebrews. The family of
their founder had settled there, and were
long looked upon as the aristocracy of the
race, with whom alone the legitimate
descendants of Abraham might inter-
marry, and preserve the purity of their
blood" The country probably took its
name from Aram, the son of Shem and
father of Uz, who first settled in this
quarter of the globe. AFTER the Greek
Conquest it vas known as Syria, and in
the Greek translation of the Bible, Ar ram
is always rendered Syria, the two names
having the same import and being used
in common to denote the same country.
The name signifies highland" and was
originally applied to both ranges of the
Lebanon. the Hauran, and all the noun
tains of Palestine on both sides of the Jor-
dan as far north as the Orontes. Of the
several districts into which the country
was divided, Aram Damascus was the
principle and though at:frstit only enclud-
ed the territory around that ancient city,
was afterwards applied to tine whole fs'
Syria of which Damascus was q Long
time the capital" Padan-Araah where
"Laban the Syrian" lived, rendere1d, IN the
Hebrew Aram.Naharaihm, the lPlaln Of
Aram) "or the country between the rivers
or. as Dean Gotanly renders it, the culti'
waited distri.s at the foot of the hills. 1t
is Thought by Denass, Beke and Portor
that il fefers to the Plain of Damascus
BET een the rivers Phorpar and Abana' y
When the Almighty appeared to Abra-
4 ham and commanded him to 'get out" Of
his own country, he left ''the land Of
his notivity, or of the Chaldees," situated
on the Euphrates down near the Persian
Gulf, and settled first at Haran, which ap.
pears to have been somewhere near
the border of Canaan. And when we con.
slider that his steward who was born in his
house," and when he raised up as an heir
was ''Eleazer of Damascus" the clear
meaning of which is he was born in or near
Damascus and Josephus informs US
Abraham was a prince in this land and
"reigned in Damascus" we infer that
Haran could not have been very far from
that city. The river that Jacob passed
over after leaving Laban was probably
the Phorpar as from here he could see the
mountains of Gilead. And it appears he
was only ten days making the journey
with his family and flocks from Padan-
Aram to Mount Gilead and Laban only
seven days in overtaking him. 1t will
also be remembered that Nahar, the
brother of Abraham, when living at Haran
named one of his son Uz, indicating a
connection between Haran and the land
or family of Uz, and that Laban and
Jacob when they parted for the last time
on Mizpah-Giead, erected an alter and
heaped up stones of witness to define the
boundary between the possessions of the
two families, showing that they could
not have lived very far apart. Now,
strange as it may seem, after the lapse of
near four thousand years. we find in the
delta of the Phorpar and Abana about
twelve miles east of Damascus, the
remains of city still bearing the name of
Haran which meets the conditions of the
inspired account.
1t is situated in the midst of fertile plain
between the two rivers and on the shores
of what was once large lakebefore the
waters were drawn off to irrigate the
desert. Three ionic columns Of black
basalt are ali that remains standing of an
ancient temple without name OF date;
and these silent witnesses, with few
fragments of sculpture, and some broken
stone pillars are the only memorials left
to mark the site of this interesting place,
which so far as location and topography
are concerned may be Haran, "The city of
Nahur," where Ferah the father of Abra.
ham, died and where ''Laban the Syrian
| lived".
| And ''the well in the field" where the
maidens still water their flocks may be
the same from which Rebeoca often filled
her pitcher, and where Jacob first met
his beautiful Rachel, whom he loved so
fevcrently, and with whom he lived to
way" and was buried after 1000 years;
his tomb still is seen near Bethlehem.