36 



REV. JOHN UKQUHART^ ON THE BEARING OF RECENT 



and " legendary amplifications " are conspicuous by their 

 absence. 



Other details have had a like vindication. We are told that 

 " the house was built of stone made ready before it v^as 

 brought thither, so tluit there was neitlier hammer, nor axe, 

 nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building " 

 (1 Kings vi, 7). That is, the stones were prepared and fitted for 

 their places in the quarries. An indication that snch was the 

 case is seen in the large vermilion letters and stone marks 

 which the undergronnd blocks still bear. A wet finger is 

 sufficient to obliterate them, and doubtless they were thus 

 removed from the building that was above ground. Those 

 marks no doubt showed the builders where the stones were to 

 be placed, a precaution which would have been unnecessary had 

 the stones been prepared at the Temple site. We are also told 

 that " Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew the 

 stones " (v, 18). Were thos.e marks, then, such as would be used 

 by Syrian, that is, Phoenician, builders ? The late Emmanuel 

 Deutsch, after an elaborate inquiry, replies : " They are 

 Phceiiician . . . Some of them were recognisable at once 

 as well-known Phtenician characters ; others, hitherto unknown 

 in Phoenician epigraphy, I had the rare satisfaction of being 

 able to identify on absolutely undoubted antique Phoenician 

 structures in Syria, such as the primitive substructures of the 

 harbour at Sidon." 



Samuel. — A significant mark of the antiquity of the Books of 

 Samuel is found in the name of that prophet. " Samuel," as a 

 Hebrew word, was an enigma to scholars. Almost all the 

 attempts to explain it were wrecked against one or other of those 

 two middle letters ni and n. The explanation to which least 

 objection could be raised was " heard-of-God." P)ut with that 

 interpretation no account could be givevi of the absence from 

 the name of another letter, the Hebrew Ay in. The ancient 

 Assyrian tongue shows us that an old Sendtic word for " son " 

 was sitinn in Assyrian, which is no doubt represented by the 

 first iwo syllables of the ])r()])het's name. Sumu-el, or Samu-el, 

 means, then, " God's son." Jlannah thus I'egistered, in the name 

 given to her child, her vow that he should l)e the Lord's. 



The exploration of Palestine has resulted in the discovery of 

 ancieni; sites, which compel tlie conviction that these Books set 

 before us actual incidents and not the creations of legend or 

 the embellishments of tradition. After recording a number of 

 those id(mtifications. Colonel ('<)iid(!r sp(\aks of "the exactitude 

 of this t(q)ography," and .^ays tl:at J)avid's wanderings can now 



