Difference between revisions of "Moriah"

<p> &nbsp;Genesis 22:2; &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1. (See [[Jehovah]] JIREH; GERIZIM.) What Jehovah has made one see (this hophal mowreh occurs four times in the Pentateuch, nowhere in later books) "the vision of Jehovah". In the same neighborhood He vouchsafed a vision to [[Abram]] (Genesis 14; &nbsp;Genesis 15:1) after [[Melchizedek]] had met him in the valley near [[Salem]] and Abram paid tithe of the spoils of Chedorlaomer. [[Afterward]] on [[Moriah]] he offered Isaac (&nbsp;Genesis 22:2; &nbsp;Genesis 22:14). [[Abraham]] saw Moriah at some little distance (&nbsp;Genesis 22:4) on the third day; the distance, two days' journey from Beersheba, would just bring him to Zion, but not so far as [[Moreh]] and [[Gerizim]] (&nbsp;Genesis 12:6) where some fix Moriah. </p> <p> "The mount of the Lord" (&nbsp;Genesis 22:14) means almost always Mount Zion. The proverb "in the Mount of Jehovah it (or He) shall be seen" probably originated in [[Jerusalem]] under Melchizedek. Jehovah's vision to David in the same spot, before the preparation for building the temple there, revived the name Moriah (&nbsp;2 Samuel 24:16; &nbsp;2 Samuel 24:24-25.) The threshing floor of [[Araunah]] the [[Jebusite]] was the spot on which David reared an altar by Gad's direction from Jehovah. The Angel of Jehovah had stood by Araunah's threshing floor; there David saw Him, and Araunah (Ornan) also, subsequently on turning back, saw Him and hid himself. Then [[Ornan]] saw David, and made over to him the threshing floor (&nbsp;1 Chronicles 21:15-16; &nbsp;1 Chronicles 21:18-26). </p> <p> Jehovah testified His acceptance of David's sacrifice there by sending down fire to consume it (&nbsp;Leviticus 9:24; &nbsp;1 Kings 18:24; &nbsp;1 Kings 18:38; &nbsp;2 Chronicles 7:1). So thenceforth David sacrificed there, and no longer on the altar at [[Gibeon]] where the tabernacle was, separate from the ark, which was at Zion; for he could not go to Gibeon on account of the sword of the Angel, i.e. the pestilence. God's answer to his sacrifice at this altar of the threshing floor, and God's removal of the plague, determined David's choice of it as the site of the temple (&nbsp;1 Chronicles 28:2; &nbsp;1 Chronicles 21:28; &nbsp;1 Chronicles 22:1; &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1, etc.). It lay, like all threshing floors, outside the city, upon Mount Moriah, N.E. of Zion. [[Evidently]] the threshing floor on Moriah was near the real Mount Zion, the city of David (on the eastern not the western half of Jerusalem). </p>

<p> MOUNT. A hill on the northeast side of Jerusalem, once separated from that of [[Acra]] by a broad valley, which, according to Josephus, was filled up by the Asmoneans, and the two hills converted into one. In the time of David it stood apart from the city, and was under cultivation; for here was the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, which David bought, on which to erect an altar to God, &nbsp;2 Samuel 24:15-25 . On the same spot Solomon afterward built the temple, &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1; when it was included within the walls of the city. Here, also, Abraham is supposed to have been directed to offer his son Isaac, &nbsp;Genesis 22:1-2 . <em> Moriah </em> implies "vision;" and the "land of Moriah," mentioned in the above passage in the history of Abraham, was probably so called from being seen "afar off." It included the whole group of hills on which Jerusalem was afterward built. </p>

<p> [[Moriah]] (''Mo-Rî'Ah'' ), ''Chosen Of Jehovah?'' 1. The place where Abraham was directed to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. &nbsp;Genesis 22:2. 2. A mount on which Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1. It was in the eastern part of the city, overlooking the valley of the Kedron, and where was the threshing-floor of Araunah. &nbsp;2 Samuel 24:24; &nbsp;1 Chronicles 21:24. See Jerusalem. </p>

<p> (Heb. Moriyah', מוֹרַיָּה, &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1; and, מֹרַיָּה, &nbsp;Genesis 22:2; as to the etymology, [[Gesenius]] remarks [ Thesaur. Heb. Page 819] that the sacred writers themselves derive it from רָאָה, ''To See,'' and understand it as for מָרְאַיאּיָהּ, [[Chosen]] or ''Shown By .Ehovah,'' but the form may be readily made as the part. fem. of ''', מָרָה''' ''',''' ''To Be Bitter,'' i.e., ''Obstinate,'' and thus signifying the ''Resisting,'' i.q. castle; comp. Fuller, ''Miscell.'' 2:14; Sept. in Genesis ὑψηλός, Vulg. ''Visio;'' in Chron. Ἀμορία v.r. Ἀμωρία, Vulg. ''Moria),'' one of the hills of Jerusalem, on which the Temple was built by Solomon, on the spot that had been occupied by the threshing-floor of [[Oman]] the Jebusite (&nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1). (See Temple). </p> <p> The name seldom occurs (not even in &nbsp;1 Kings 6:1), being usually included in that of Zion, to the north-east of which it lay, and from which it was separated by the valley of [[Tyropceon]] (Josephus, ''Ant.'' 8:3, 9; ''War,'' 5:4, 1; see Robinson, ''Researches,'' 1:393, 413, 416). (See Jerusalem). The land of Moriah, whither Abraham went to offer up Isaac (&nbsp;Genesis 22:2), is generally supposed to denote the same place, and may at least be conceived as describing the surrounding district (comp. Josephus, τὸ Μώριον, ''Ant.'' 1:13, 1). The Jews themselves believe that the altar of burnt-offerings in the Temple stood upon the very site of the altar on which the patriarch purposed to sacrifice his son (see Michaelis, Suppl. 5:1551; Janisch, in Hamelsveld, 2:39 sq.; Bleek, in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. [1831], page 530 sq.; comp. Hengstenberg, Pentat. 2:195 sq.; Ewald, Israel. Gesch. 1:358; 3:35). The force of the tradition is impaired by the mythic addition that here also [[Abel]] offered his first sacrifice, and Noah his thank-offering (Munster, Fagius, and Grotius, ad loc.). The following disquisition treats of certain disputed points. (See Abraham). </p> <p> Before considering the geographical and other difficulties in the way of this identification, it is desirable to investigate the derivation of the word מֹרַיָּה . Various etymologies supplied by Jews all proceed on the supposition of the identity of the Moriah of Genesis with that on which the Temple was built. The oldest, that of Onkelos and Gerundensis, was that it was derived fromמוֹר '', Myrrh,'' as in &nbsp;Song of Solomon 4:6, "I will go to the mountains of myrrh." [[Fuller]] (in ''Llsc. Sacra,'' 2:15) .maintains that the הִמּוֹר of [[Canticles]] was an abbreviation of הִמּוֹרַיָּה, and referred to the holy mount where the great king had just erected his Temple. Rabbi Solomon supposes it to be derived from הוראה, ''Instruction,'' because thence the word of the Lord went forth into all Israel. Kalisch ''(Comment. On Genesis'' ad 22:2) approaches this interpretation by saying that it springs in all probability from מֹרַיאּיָהּ, "Jehovah is my instructor," from יָרָה, the root of the great derivative תּוֹרָה . [[Jonathan]] derives it from מוֹרָא, fear or reverence, and imagines that the word was used anticipatory of the worship and fear of God there solemnized (Lightfoot, Opera, Descriptio Templi, 1:553). Fuller (Misc. Sacra, ii, 15) maintains that the word represents an abbreviation of מוֹרַאֶהאּיָּה, ''Conspicietur Jehovah,'' because there eventually the Son of God would appear in human flesh. Knobel insists that it is a compound of, מָרְאֵה (a dual form of רָאָה, ''To See)'' and יָהּ; and [[Hengstenberg]] ''(Dissert. On Genesis Of Pentateuch,'' 2:159-163, Clark's transl.), Kurtz ''(Old Covenant,'' 1:272), Gesenius ''(Thesaurus, P.'' 819), Fiirst ''(Lex.),'' all agree as to the presence in the word of the elements of the name of Jehovah. Vatke, Vater,Van Bohlen, the early opponents of the genuineness of the Pentateuch, even based a portion of their antagonism on this proof of a later date. [[Bishop]] Colenso ''(Pentateuch And Joshua,'' part 2, chapter 9, 10) labors to demolish the etymology, but without much success. The existence of a proper name Moriah would be a proof of the existence of the name and worship of Jehovah before some of the modern documentists would find it at all satisfactory. Hengstenberg states that the word הִמּוֹרַיָּהּ is a compound of מָרְאֶה, the Hophal participle of רָאָה, ''To See,'' and means ''That Which Is Shown,'' or ''The Appearance Of Jehovah.'' </p> <p> Colenso objects to the sense of the interpretation, and maintains that there is no explanation of the disappearance of the characteristic radical א . Gesenius accounts for the form מָרַיָּהּ by a combination of the Hophal participle of רָאָה and the ''Jod-Comnpa.Ginis'' common in derivatives from verbs of the form of לה. Thus מָרְאֵה, combined with יָהּ, would suffer the following change, מָרְאַיאּיָהּ = מֹרַיָּה . There is another proper name, derivable from the same root, which has lost its characteristic radical א viz. רוּת, from רְאוּת, ''Beautiful To [[Look]] Upon'' (Ruth). But whatever may be the precise nature of the contraction, the obvious interpretation of the writer is given in &nbsp;Genesis 22:8 : יְהוֹה יַרְאֶה which is the name given by Abraham to the place where Jehovah saw his agony and provided a victim in place of his son. Here it was that the proverb was originated, "In the mountain Jehovah shall be seen." Moriah was the name permanently attaching itself to the place, just as קִיַן had been the abbreviation of Eve's exclamation, קָנַיתַי אַישׁ; and it was used by the narrator 400 years afterwards to describe a district, a ''Land,'' a mountain which had always gone by that name ever since the proverb had first been uttered, amid the very circumstances he was then proceeding to describe. It would be presumptuous to assert to what extent the knowledge and worship of Jehovah was diffused, on the ground of the mere presence of the name Jehovah ill this proper name; still, there is nothing to shake the conclusion. It is curious that the Sept. translates the אֶרֶוֹאּהִמֹּרַיָּה by εἱς τὴς γῆν ὑψηλήν; and it also renders by some similar expression the various references to the ''Oak Or Plains'' of MOREH, near [[Sichem]] (&nbsp;Genesis 12:6); where the [[Hebrew]] text has אֵלוֹן מוֹרֶה the Sept. reads τὴν δρῦν τὴν ὑψηλήν (see also &nbsp;Deuteronomy 11:30). The translation of [[Aquila]] in &nbsp;Genesis 22:2 is εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν καταφανῆ; and [[Symmachus]] has εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς ὀπτασίας '','' closely resembling the ''In Terram Visionis'' of the Vulgate. </p> <p> Dr. [[Davidson]] (in Introduction to the O.T. volume 1) conjectures that Moreh was the original reading; but neither Kennicott, De Rossi, nor Dr. Davidson himself (in his [[Printed]] Text of the O.T.) give any diplomatic authority for such a reading. The translations of Aquila and Symmachus may have originated with some reading resembling that in the [[Samaritan]] text, מוראה, and signifying "far seeing" or "conspicuous." But when [[Josephus]] wrote (Ant. 1:13, 2), it is quite clear that the reading in &nbsp;Genesis 22:2 and &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1 must have been identical, as he speaks of the place of Abraham's sacrifice as τὸ ὄπος ἐφ᾿ ου τὸ ίερὸν Δαβίδης ὁ βασιλεὺς ὕστερον ἱδρύεται ''.'' In &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1 the Sept. does not attempt to translate the proper name הִמּוֹדַיָּה but writes ἔν ὄρει τοῦ Ἀμωρία. It is true that there is no reference to the original manifestation of God on this site to the patriarch, and express mention is made of second and additional reasons for this hill being called Moriah (see &nbsp;1 Chronicles 21:16; &nbsp;1 Chronicles 22:1; &nbsp;2 Samuel 24:1; &nbsp;2 Chronicles 3:1). This was in perfect harmony with the law of God that forbade the offering of burnt sacrifices in any place which the Lord had not consecrated by his visible manifestation (Hengstenberg, ''Diss.'' 2:32 sq.). The geographical conditions supplied by the narrative in Genesis are not inconsistent with the Samaritan tradition (see Robinson, ''Biblical Researches,'' 3:100) that ''Gerizinz'' was the scene of the sacrifice, and that the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, from their neighborhood to ''Moresh.'' a spot well known to Abraham, were the mountains in the land of Moriah (Colenso, part 2, chapter 10). They have led dean Stanley ''(Syr. And Pal.'' page 250 sq.; ''Hist. Of [[Jewish]] Church,'' 1:48, 49) to decide on Gerizim as the scene of the event. His arguments are weighty, but not conclusive. </p> <p> '''(1.)''' The distance from [[Beersheba]] to the plain of Sharon, from which Gerizim might be seen "afar off," corresponds with the two-days' journey of Abraham; while the third day, which would be occupied by the great event, would be sufficient for the journey to the summit and the return. The same thing, however, may be said with greater certainty of Jerusalem itself. </p> <p> '''(2.)''' Stanley objects that there is no spot from which the "place" where the sacrifice was to be offered could be seen from "afar off;" that the hill of Moriah is not visible at all until the traveller ''Is Close Upon It,'' at the southern edge of the valley of Hinnom, from whence he looks down upon it, as on a lower eminence. Now the narrative informs us that Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the [[Place]] of which the Lord had spoken to him. That "place" was the אֶרֶוֹ הִמּוֹרַיּה, as Gesenius translates it, the land about Moriah, just as אֶרֶוֹ הָעִי is the land about Ai. It is very possible to see from the ridge ''Mar Elias'' the heights about Jerusalem, if not the hill of Moriah itself; and we are expressly told that Abraham did not see the place until he was fairly within a walk Of the spot, and could leave the young men and the ass while he and Isaac proceeded, personally laden with the materials for the sacrifice. </p> <p> '''(3.)''' A formidable difficulty urged by others is that the fortress of Zion must at that time have been occupied by the king of the Jebusites, some forerunner of Adonizedek, or by Melchizedek himself, and therefore Abraham must have prepared to perform this awful sacrifice under the walls of the city. To obviate the great apparent improbability of this, it may be said that sometimes the outside of fenced cities — where a deep ravine runs between the wall and the suburb — is often one of the loneliest spots in the world. The name Moriah is unquestionably given by the chronicler to the Temple hill, but this passage is a solitary one. The more ordinary name, even for the entire city of Jerusalem and for the holy mountain, is Mount Zion, and various psalms and prophecies speak of the dwelling-place of Jehovah under this old and honored name. It cannot be true that any writer of the time of Solomon composed the narrative of Abraham's sacrifice to do honor to the Temple hill, as was suggested by De Wette; for, if that had been his intention, he would have called it Zion, and not Moriah. Great stress has been laid by bishop Colenso and by the writer in Smith's Dictionary, 2:423, on the absence of other reference besides that of the chronicler to the name of Moriah as the site of the Temple hill, and also on the impropriety of associating the name and career of Abraham so vitally with Jerusalem. In the same article, however, Jerusalem is spoken of as the city of Melchizedek. For the shape of Moriah, its relations with [[Bezetha]] and Acra, the bridge that connected it with Zion across the valley of the Tyropoeon,' (See Jerusalem). </p> <p> [[Notwithstanding]] the various and variously motived endeavors to disturb the old Hebrew tradition, it has not been proved necessary to deny the identification of the two sites; nor to denounce the old etymology; nor to cease perceiving the interesting link of connection supplied by it between the sacrifice of Isaac, the vision of God's judgment and mercy, the erection of the Temple, and the offering up of God's only-begotten Son. (See Solomon). </p>