Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/327

 where the Crusaders received their last crushing defeat at the hands of Sal-a-din, the great Saracen general, in the year 1187. But it is still more interesting to us as being the place where Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount. The tradition which makes Kurn Hattin the Mount of Beatitudes is of Latin origin, and not older than the twelfth or thirteenth century; but the place is so well adapted for the delivery of a discourse to a large multitude, that in this case we may well believe it was correctly chosen by those who first selected it. When we are at the spot we have no difficulty in reconciling the seemingly inconsistent statements of St Matthew, who says that the sermon was preached on the mount, and St Mark, who says that Christ came down from the mount, and preached in the plain. Sitting on one of the peaks or "horns" aforesaid, Jesus might begin his discourse to his disciples, and when a larger crowd began to gather, might descend to the base of the peak, while still remaining on the mountain of Hattin.

From Hattin we are soon at Tiberias, a town once beautiful and famous, but now notorious for the filth of its streets and the activity of its vermin. The Arabs say that the king of the fleas holds his court there. Josephus tells us that the city was built by Herod Antipas, and named in honour of the Emperor Tiberius. It was therefore a new city in Christ's day, and probably at first inhabited only by Romans, Antipas himself having a palace there, adorned with figures of animals, "contrary to the Jewish law." Moreover, as it was built on the site of an ancient burial ground, it would be regarded by the Jews as a polluted and forbidden locality. These circumstances, taken together, may account for the fact that Jesus Christ does not appear ever to have entered the city.

The former greatness of Tiberias is indicated by the extent of the walls, 12 feet in thickness, which have been