CHAPTER VIII
The Resurrection of Edom
From the staggering mass of archeological material and evidence which is at the disposal of the twentieth century scholar, it is very difficult to choose the most perfect illustrations of our theme. If the case of the Hittites offers a complete refutation of the critical theories concerning the origin and veracity of the Old Testament, the resurrection of Edom is no less dramatic and valuable.
The word “Edom,” together with its various derivates such as “Edomite,” occurs more than fourscore times in the text of the Old Testament. As the history of this region and its various inhabitants unfolds in the Old Testament story, there is a complete, remarkable and stirring record of this land and its people that covers many centuries of time. The word Edom first occurs in the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis, thirtieth verse:
“And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.”
In this first instance the word appears in connection with the eldest son of Isaac, whose name was changed from Esau to Edom because of the strange incident of the sale of his birthright. The pottage that his younger brother, Jacob, had cooked was made from a lentil which gave a red hue that was characteristic of any food in which this particular lentil was used. So, because Esau exchanged his priceless rights of inheritance for a pot of red mush, his name was thereafter called Edom.
In the thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis, verses one, eight, and nineteen, this same definite statement is carried out:
“Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.”
“Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.”
“These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.”
Here we read that the dwelling place of Esau and his people was in mount Seir, and that Esau is Edom. Hence the name of Edom was also applied to the people who descended from Esau, as well as to the country wherein they dwelt.
This region of the ancient world was also known as mount Seir. It was so named because of the progenitor of the Horites who originally dwelt in that section. We are told that this people derived their name from Hori, who was the son of Seir. This ancient people habitually dwelt in caves. Therefore, by transition, their name came to mean cave dwellers, as it was descriptive of their type of habitation.
If one should journey from Jerusalem to the center of Edom today, the most convenient route would lie through the modern city of Amman, which is at the present writing the seat of government of Iraq. On the outskirts of this city, and all through this region, the limestone caves are today occupied by families of people. They, with their folks, their horses and cattle, and all of their possessions, dwell in these ancestral caves in contentment as their fathers have always done before them. These caves are furnished as our modern homes are equipped, with rugs, tapestries, and all the treasures that go to make a human habitation into a home!
To summarize the Old Testament record of Edom and Edomites, we must begin by noting that although Esau sold his birthright, his brother Jacob actually stole the blessing. We are all familiar with this fascinating drama of the deception wrought by Jacob at his mother’s insistence, when he impersonated his brother to deceive his dying father. This account constitutes one of the implacably honest records characteristic of the Bible. No other book known to man is so frank in the delineation of the weaknesses of its leading characters, as God can deal honestly with sin and failure, since He knows how to overrule such, and effect a cure! When Esau learned that the blessing of his father had been stolen by his younger brother, he took a solemn oath that as soon as the days of mourning for his father were ended, he would slay Jacob, the deceiver. His vengeance was frustrated, however, as Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob to Padan-aram. Here Jacob met a shrewd bargainer more ruthless than himself; and dwelt in Padan-aram for twenty years, during which he prospered enormously.
On his way home from his long sojourn, the account tells how he met Esau. Two chapters of Genesis, namely, the thirty-second and the thirty-third, are occupied with this dramatic and human document. Still burdened by the guilt of his dishonest conduct in the matter of the blessing, and perhaps feeling also that he had been less than honorable in buying the birthright, Jacob prepared an enticing bribe to soften the wrath of Esau. Word had been brought to him that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred retainers, and Jacob believed that the hour of reckoning had come. The score of years, however, had softened the wrath of Esau, and he greeted his younger brother with love and affection. Refusing to accept any bribe or present at his hand, he made him welcome to his possession. The record distinctly states that at that time Esau was dwelling in Seir.
It is evident that he must have prospered there, as the genealogical tables in the thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis list his progeny. All of his grandsons appear in the record as dukes. Verses one, eight and nine of this chapter identify the Edomites as descendants of Esau. They further identify the land of their dwelling with the ancient site of Seir. To clarify this point, we here reproduce these three verses:
“Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.”
“Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.”
“And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir.”
Verse twenty begins the list of the previous inhabitants of Seir, who are called the Horites. These people are listed in Genesis 14:6 as among the races that were smitten by Chedorlaomer in the days of Abraham in the notable Battle of the Kings. It seems evident, then, that Esau was powerful enough to overcome the Horites and to impose his dominion upon them. The two companies intermarried and became the Edomites of the later record.
The next important point in their development is introduced in the twentieth chapter of Numbers. As the children of Israel were making their notable journey from Egypt to the land of Canaan, Moses sent a courteous request to the king of Edom asking permission to make a peaceful passage across that land. The salutation of Moses was brotherly and affectionate. He reminded the king of Edom that Israel and the Edomites were brethren. He asserted his peaceful purpose, and gave a pledge not to harm the fields or the crops with the passage of his flocks.
The king of Edom summarily refused this courteous request in the most graceless manner. He threatened the company of Israel and forbade them to pass over his domain. The answer of Moses was a renewal of the request for peaceful passage. This time, Moses stated that they would stay to the high and rocky way where no harm could come to the land from their herds. He even covenanted to pay for such water as the flocks might drink. The result was a renewal of the threat to oppose the passage with the edge of the sword. Consequently the people of Israel were forced to make a circuit of Edom, and they passed around its border by way of mount Hor.
From this time on, there was implacable enmity between the two great branches of these Semitic people. The subsequent history is a constant record of battle and hatred on both sides.
Saul fought against them in the days of his might, and records with delight his various successes against them.
When David occupied the throne warfare was renewed. So great a nuisance did the Edomites prove to the people of Israel in David’s day, that this great warrior king finally directed a complete campaign against them. In the notable battle that was fought in the salt valley, he slew eighteen thousand of the Edomite army and pressed on to capture their cities. In their conquered strongholds, he placed capable garrisons. Under Joab these garrisons patrolled the land for more than six months. At this time Benhadad, to whom we shall again refer, escaped to Egypt to become a later source of distress to Israel.
In all of their history, the Edomites were consistently allied against Israel. They never missed a chance to vex their kinsmen. No matter who the enemy of Israel might be, the Edomites hastened to form an alliance with that foe and gladly accepted the occasion to battle against Israel. This bad blood that existed between these races, who should have been allied by the ties of consanguinity, resulted in the prophecies that foretold the final overthrow of Edom and the destruction of the people. Such a prophecy is written in Jeremiah 49, verses seventeen and twenty:
“Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.”
“Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.”
When Nebuchadnezzar finally took the people of Israel away into their great captivity, the Edomites rejoiced without restraint. Their happiness was utterly unbounded and they celebrated with every means at their disposal. They overran the southern regions of Judah and took much of that land for themselves during the days of the captivity.
Jeremiah, in the Book of Lamentations, reproves their unnatural jubilation and warns Edom that the same fate that overtook Israel will come upon them.
So also the prophet Ezekiel speaks from his refuge and warns Edom. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Ezekiel, we read in verses twelve to fourteen, this following warning:
“Thus saith the Lord God; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.
“And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God.”
Joel adds his voice in a characteristic reference such as we find in the third chapter and nineteenth verse of his prophecy:
“Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.”
So also Amos, in chapter one and verse eleven utters this fateful sentence:
“Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.”
Thus the prophet is moved of God to list the continued transgressions of Edom, and the consequent and subsequent judgment.
So literally were these words of the prophets fulfilled that Edom was not only overthrown and its people vanquished, but for a great deal more than a thousand years the very name of their city and people dropped out of the memory of men. Here is one more case where a great people catastrophically disappeared from the stage of history, leaving no secular record of the part that they had played in the drama of human life.
Needless to say, this was the critics’ great occasion! With a vociferous unanimity they argued and wrote that there had been no city called Edom, and no people called Edomites. Since the word “Edom” literally means “red,” the critics erected a fanciful demonstration purporting to show that the Edomites would be any people with a red complexion. According to their fanciful theory, any race or group of people whose skin or hair was red would be poetically called Edomites.
When the defenders of the text pointed to the denunciations in the prophets, the critics laughed them out of the picture. These utterances were listed as pure, poetic fancy and figurative diatribes. The critics pointed out that all such outbursts were found in the prophecies! As a stated principle of higher criticism, all prophecies are repudiated. They are held to be purely fanciful, and any fulfillment is entirely coincidental. This attitude is the proper one for criticism to assume. The supernatural fulfillment of prophecy is one of the strongest evidences of the Divine origin of the Scriptures. Such demonstrations cannot be reconciled with the critical basis of humanism. Therefore, it is only logical that it be ignored or denied in a critical approach to the text.
The enemies of orthodoxy had one strong argument that in the early day seemed to be unanswerable. Their constant cry was “Where is Edom?” Admittedly, this was a question that the orthodox believer could not answer. The city had disappeared, the people were forgotten, and no relic nor remnant of this race remained. It was not until the nineteenth century of the Christian era that the resurrection of Edom began.
The first and earliest archeological reference to Edom which was discovered, was a statement from the record of Ramses the Third, who proudly boasted that in his great campaign he smote the people of Seir. The next discovery came when the record of Tiglath-pileser was read. In his story he told of the campaign against Rezin, king of Syria. He recounted that among other vassals who yielded to his yoke, he received homage from Quaus-Malaka of Edom. This Rezin, with whom we shall later deal in Tiglath-pileser’s voluminous records, is the king of Syria who is warned in the seventh chapter of Isaiah as allied with Israel against Judah.
Following this, we have the monument of Esar-haddon. He also tells how among his Assyrian conquests he overthrew the Edomites and forced their king to render homage and allegiance to his power. Again, the records of Nebuchadnezzar tell us that in his final battle with Judah, the Edomites were among his allied forces.
Gradually, as this people began to rise from the silence and obscurity of forgotten antiquity, something of their customs and beliefs began to be recovered. At least three of their deities are known today. These are Hadad, Quaus and Kozé. About 300 B. C., Edom fell into the hands of a people who were called the Nabataeans. Their inscription claims that they captured Edom, exterminated its then numerous population and occupied its capital, which was Petra.
Here, then, is the final vindication of the text of Scripture. This city, Petra, is variously mentioned in the Old Testament text as the center of Edomite dominion. It is sometimes called “Sela” in the historical and prophetical references, and twice is referred to by the name of “Rock.” Obadiah calls the city “the rock,” the Greek form of which would be “he Petra.” It is thus evident that it was known peculiarly for its structure. This fact appeared to be of no significance until archeology had brought it to the prominence of our present comprehension. The issue of the National Geographic Magazine for May, 1907, made Petra so well known to the English speaking world that there remains little to be said of an historical nature to establish the actuality and certainty of this great discovery.
With the collapse of the Roman empire, Petra disappeared from the knowledge of mankind and became shrouded in mystery and darkness. It began to emerge into the light again when a young Swiss traveler first visited its site in 1812. The record of his discovery was not published, however, until ten years later.
The next notice of the site of Petra was taken when two British naval officers visited the splendid remains in 1818, and published their observations seven years later. After this it became the custom for adventurous travelers to take a brief look at the stupendous beauty of this forgotten city and make some passing mention. The real exploration of Petra, however, began some thirty years ago when certain German scholars made a scientific investigation of the site. The results of their labors were printed only in German, and filled a surprising number of lengthy volumes. A large literature on Petra is now in the possession of the English speaking world, but surprisingly little of a definite nature is known about its earlier inhabitants.
The monuments of Petra, which we here illustrate in plates numbered Plate 22 and Plate 23, were not built by the later inhabitants, who were called Nabataeans. These monumental structures were carved out of the living rock. Some of them were temples, and others were tombs. To illustrate the extent of these works, we may note that the great open-air theatre at Petra would comfortably seat a crowd of three thousand spectators.
Just a word of explanation is necessary before we proceed to the application of this discovery. Petra, the capital of Edom and the principal city of the Edomites, is found in the most rugged region of that part of the earth. The land is thrown up into abrupt ranges, which are deeply incised with canyons and gorges until they form one of the wildest and most entrancing geographical spectacles to be seen in the Eastern world. In some regions the underlying structure is limestone. The walls of the canyon, however, are largely porphyry and sandstone. The sandstone is brilliantly colored with hues which run from brown through red, to a definite purple. Some of the strata, grotesquely twisted and torn and laid bare by erosion, are among the loveliest and most entrancing geological studies in that region.
In approaching the site of Petra, it is necessary to journey up a narrow canyon called in the Arabic, a siq. This approach is so narrow that almost all of the way it is scarcely possible for two horsemen to ride abreast. This might have been an important factor in deciding the site of the city in antiquity. A dozen men could have successfully defended the approaches to Petra against an entire army of invaders.
Plate 24 will give some conception of the ruggedness of the country and the difficulty of approach. In place of a truck, such as would have been used in flat country, we have the familiar donkey carrying the camera and supplies. This resting place is in one of the wider sections of the canyon. Plate 25 is the first glimpse of one of the amazing monuments of Petra. This great structure bears the Arabic name of El Khazne. A full view of this temple is given in plate 26.
Petra was not built after the fashion in which cities are constructed today. Every structure was hewn out of the living sandstone. The city has been called “The Rose Red City, half as old as time,” and this description is perfect. When the sunlight strikes the ruins of Petra, it is as red as blood. Edom, indeed, and Edomites, might well be applied by the ancients to the color and beauty of this old site, as well as to its inhabitants! In plate 27 we have illustrated this manner of carving a dwelling from the living stone in the great structure which the Arabians call El Deir. (See Plate 28.) Observing this photograph, you will note that the rock wall has been hewn away into the shape of columns, pillars, and decorated facade in the similitude of a building that has been put together by the orthodox style of masonry. Such, however, is not the case. Plate 29 shows some of the detail of one of these notable monuments. It will be observed that the workers began from the top and carved their way down. In the upper left corner of the picture a series of holes will be seen. These were chiseled for the foothold of the workers who started the process.
Their manner of labor was unique. The architect laid out the size, shape, and site of the building, and the workmen began to cut away the stone about the top of their designated area until they had a recessed trough some ten feet deep into the face of the cliff, on the top and both sides. Then, beginning with the top of the structure, they carved that slab in the similitude of a building. As they worked their way down, they shaped the pillars, carved these brilliant decorations and recessed the cliff on both sides to make their monuments stand forth. Plate 28 shows the result of this type of labor, looking from the bottom upward. Reaching the bottom of their carved columns, these artisans would then chisel away between and behind the posts that they had formed of the face of the cliff until they had a great square entry way. The face of this entry way would be further beautified by carving the semblance of a doorway. A short tunnel would then be run back into the cliff to serve as a hall, and rooms hollowed out on the inside into a series of apartments or caves. “Cave-dwellers,” indeed, is the proper name for these people!
The rough approach to Petra (Photo by Matson)
Approaching Petra by way of the main siq the first sight of the ruins
The extent of their operations may be dimly understood from plates numbered plate 22 and plate 23. Some of these tombs that are here depicted, were never finished. A few of them have suffered from the ravages of time, but the general state of preservation of these priceless monuments of Petra is fascinating. In plate 30 we have depicted the approach to the garden tomb. By the side of this tomb there is the ascent to the “high place” for the sacrifices of their idolatrous religion. In plate 31 we have shown the altar and the “high place.”
These high places of antiquity should be the subject for a volume in themselves. They are mentioned one hundred two times in the Old Testament. Being the altars of heathen sacrifices, they were the subject of constant denunciation on the part of the Lord God and were a source of trouble and distress to Israel during all her periods of apostasy. The groves to which the prophets refer and which the godly kings cut down, were the places where Ashtoreth was worshipped. Very few systems of degenerate religion in antiquity were more lecherous and vile than the cult of this unclean goddess. The high places, however, were the altars where sacrifice was made to the gods of the heathen nations. As these sacrifices were very often human, and as it was not uncommon for the ancients to dedicate their children to the fierce and abominable worship of their false religion, the people of Israel were sternly forbidden to have any contact with such idolatrous practices. So when godly kings occupied the throne, they destroyed the “high places.” In a time of apostasy the high places were builded and dedicated again. Some of the most stirring denunciations of the prophetic sections of the Old Testament are in the words that God directs against the high places of Israel and in the announcing of His final and complete victory over them.
This high place shown in plate 31 is characteristic, then, of the ancient custom. It shows that the Hittites had forsaken whatever knowledge they may have derived from their earlier Hebrew origin and were wholly dedicated to the practices of idolatry. Incidentally, the worship of God is still practiced by Israel, but the “high places” of Edom and all other heathen centers are merely curiosities today!
As far as artistry and ability are concerned, antiquity knew no greater or more capable people. The monument that they have left to mark their mysterious disappearance is a lasting testimony to their culture and power.
But more than that, it is a living, resurrected testimony to the truth and credibility of the Word of God!
There is no scene of desolation and ruin that amazes the spirit of man as much as the desolation of Edom. Forsaken of human occupants, the wonderful Rose Red City is today a curiosity to be viewed by the hardy adventurer who would study the antiquities of the Eastern world.
Just what hands constructed these noble temples and tombs it is not at this time possible to say. The Nabataeans were incapable of producing this kind of work, nor would they have invested the time. The bodies of the departed were spread upon the field as fertilizer or buried in the most indescribably filthy pits of their day and time. The Semitic peoples who preceded them, however, have left this record in stone as a testimony to their reverence for the dead. What the future will yield in the hoped-for excavations of Petra, no one is able to say. If, however, a spade is never sunk into soil and no more appears to the gaze of man than is seen by the casual traveler today, we have sufficient to call forth a doxology from the hearts of those who love and reverence the Word of God. We cannot refrain from commenting again and again upon the marvelous manner in which the Author of this Great Book has cared for His own case.
The consternation and defeat of the critics have been complete in this instance. What a quaint conceit it is in our generation to note that God is so firm in His promised defense of His Book, that He will move to crush the enemies of the Word even if it is necessary to smite their fallacious fancy with a carved mountain of stone!