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Out of the Jezreel Plain emerges a mountain,
perfectly rounded and symmetrical, 1400 feet above its surroundings, 1900 above
sea level, a constant reference point in Galilee.
In the drama of its thrust, it has for ages
attracted religious feeling. The tribes of Zebulon and Issachar are told to
rejoice (Deuteronomy 33):
19
"They will call peoples to
the mountain;
There they will offer righteous sacrifices;
For they will draw out the abundance of the seas,
And the hidden treasures of the sand."
Since Tabor stands on the border between them,
it was probably the intended mountain. Hosea later condemned the cult on Tabor (Hosea
5:1)
Its thrust also led the Psalmist to couple it
with the much higher Hermon (9146 feet above the sea): "Tabor and Hermon shout
for joy at Your name." (Psalms 89:12)
Tabor, therefore, could compete with Hermon in
the Byzantine period for the honor of being the "high mountain" upon which Jesus
appeared transfigured to Peter, John and James (Matthew 17) . In the late
fourth century it won the contest, thanks to support from St. Jerome -- and, no
doubt, from aging Byzantine tour guides.
Here, then, we recall Jesus' conversation with
Moses and Elijah, both of whom received the Word from God on a mountain in
Sinai. After Peter proposes building huts for the three, a voice comes from a
cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen
to Him!" The words echo those of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15: "The LORD
your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your
countrymen, you shall listen to him."
In the period of the judges, Barak was
told to gather 10,000 men of Naphtali and Zebulon at Mt. Tabor (Judges 4:6).
It is hard to imagine anyone attacking down such a steep slope: soldiers and
horses would have had to keep the brakes on. An army might take refuge here,
however, or safely muster before an assault. Thus in preparing the revolt
against Rome, Josephus, then a general leading the Jewish rebels, fortified the
top of Tabor with a wall, parts of which are still visible. The Roman general,
feigning retreat, managed to lure the Jewish forces down to the plain, where he
overwhelmed them.
The story...
Today two churches, a Greek Orthodox and a
Roman Catholic, grace the top of the mountain. A bus cannot negotiate the
zigzag road. One ascends either by taxi (found just north of the Beduin village
Daburiyya) or by foot, following either the road or the marked trail. The view
toward Megiddo, from the drive leading toward the Catholic church, makes it very
worthwhile.
Mt. Tabor in the Jewish Revolt
Josephus Flavius, The Jewish War III
7.31 (Whiston translation):
And these were the hard circumstances that the
people of Gamala were in. But now Vespasian went about other work by the by,
during this siege, and that was to subdue those that had seized upon Mount
Tabor, a place that lies in the middle between the great plain and Scythopolis,
whose top is elevated as high as thirty furlongs and is hardly to be ascended on
its north side; its top is a plain of twenty-six furlongs, and all encompassed
with a wall. Now Josephus erected this so long a wall in forty days' time, and
furnished it with other materials, and with water from below, for the
inhabitants only made use of rain water. As therefore there was a great
multitude of people gotten together upon this mountain, Vespasian sent Placidus
with six hundred horsemen thither. Now, as it was impossible for him to ascend
the mountain, he invited many of them to peace, by the offer of his right hand
for their security, and of his intercession for them. Accordingly they came
down, but with a treacherous design, as well as he had the like treacherous
design upon them on the other side; for Placidus spoke mildly to them, as aiming
to take them, when he got them into the plain; they also came down, as complying
with his proposals, but it was in order to fall upon him when he was not aware
of it: however, Placidus's stratagem was too hard for theirs; for when the Jews
began to fight, he pretended to run away, and when they were in pursuit of the
Romans, he enticed them a great way along the plain, and then made his horsemen
turn back; whereupon he beat them, and slew a great number of them, and cut off
the retreat of the rest of the multitude, and hindered their return. So they
left Tabor, and fled to Jerusalem, while the people of the country came to terms
with him, for their water failed them, and so they delivered up the mountain and
themselves to Placidus.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN
STANDARD BIBLE(r), (c) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975,
1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. (www.Lockman.org)
© 2003
Near East Tourist Agency
(NET)
Text © 2003
Stephen Langfur
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