The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1907-02-21
4 BASKET or JAR HANDLES.
Their Connection With a Battling
Passage Of the Bible.

Passage of the Bible.
In a mound in Palestine identified as
the site of the ancient city of Gezer
was found large number of jar han
dies. Enough to make a basketful were
collected by the excavators. Each bore
a potter's mark-the name of its maker
with legend A basket of jar han
dies might be expected to have some
interest for the philologist, says Mr..
Mscalister, the author Of "A Record
of Excavation and Discovery In Pal
estine,1 but could hardly be expected
to be of historical value. Yet this col
lection of sherds enabled its finders to
revise and make plain battling pas
sage in the Bible and to establish a
connected story through several other
isolated passages.
The obscure passage is In l Chroni-
cles, fourth chapter. sixteenth to TWEEN
ty third verses. A list of names, so dis
arranged as not to appear true gen
ealogy, had been widely accepted as a
mythical account of the descent of
tribes. These were the potters and
the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah.
There they dwelt with the king for his
work." is the end of the passage.
Each of the jar handles dug from the
ruins of Gezer bears the inscription
Fer the King" and the names of the
makers are tile names of those in the
Bible verses, except where a copyist
has made an error, which frequently
occurred. Revised by the new knowl-
edge. the passage becomes a complete
gen aa,ogy of the family of the potters
and makes plain the story of their
wanderings On each handle also is a
scarab. or beetle, which explains the
reference to a daughter of Pharaoh,
an allusion to the fact that the potters
followed the religion CT Egypt
1t becomes evident, therefore, that
here IS the story of the Menuhoth, the
descendants of Menahem, and eventu-
ally Of Caleb, son of Jephunneh. They
long Inhabited region south of He
bron and followed many crafts, but
principally that of pottery making.
This, in the reign of Joash, brought
them to the notice of the king of Judah,
and royal patronage followed, possibly
in connection with the restoration of
the temple In the days of Uzziah one
of the family, Shebaniah, son of Ezrah,
rose to be steward of the royal estates
at Carmel
The family trademark" at this time
was the scarab, but under the right
eous kings Amaziah. lothian and Uz-
ziah this was suppressed.
In the days of HeZekiah raid of the
wild semibarbarous tribe of Simeon
was made into their territory, and they
were forced to seek another home in
the south of Moab or the north of
Edom, and, driving out the Amale-
kites, they settled there and lived in
neutrality-suspicious.
After the return from the captivity
they settled In Bethlehem and, under
the name of Pahath-Afoab. assumed
position of considerable Importance I'M
der Ezra and Nehemiah.
All this story is in the Bible and
most of it in the books of Chronicles,
but in isolated fragments to which the
jar handles gave the connection. But
their whole significance is greater than
that, for they indicate that the chap
tiers of Chronicles contain simply what
they appear to contain, the real gene
alogies of real men, and in them one
need seek no mythical or symbolical
meaning