GOLGOTHA AND THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE 'SPECTATOR.)
Sirs,—Perhaps you will kindly allow me to explain the few expressions which you blame in your friendly notice in the Spectator of July 13th of my article in the current "Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund." I intended the expression "elaborate guesswork and slipshod reason- ing " to characterise Dr. Robinson's argument against the traditional site only. Surely a writer who, without a shred of proof, accuses the whole clergy of Palestine, including the illustrious "Father of Ecclesiastical History," Eusebius, of having conspired, for the most sordid ends, to foist a fraud on the Emperor Constantine, deserves but small consideration from any critic who examines his reasoning on that point, On other questions Robinson argues rationally enough, though he is somewhat out of date in the light of recent researches. "Fantastic paradox" I thought a mild descrip. tion of Ferguson's theory, which, I believe, nobody believes in now. Sir Charles Warren applies much severer language to it in his "Temple and Tomb." As to "jaunty allegation," may I quote the whole sentence ? "So much then as to the jaunty allegations of the literary advocates of the new Golgotha and Sepulchre, that no one dowered with common sense and moderate knowledge can believe in the authenticity of the traditional site." Very well. I withdraw the word "jaunty," and leave your readers to substitute a more appro. prints epithet for the tone of pitying contempt which is generally adopted by the literary advocates of the new site towards the believers in the old. Was not Pilate continually oscillating between impulses of cowardice and blind fury in his treatment of the Jews, now cowed by their threats, then insulting their religious prejudices to the quick, and "mingling their blood with their sacrifices " ? Surely the title on the cross of Jesus was meant as a dire insult? Why not also the choice of Golgotha for the Crucifixion? But it is a matter of speculation, and the point is not essential to my argument. All I insist on is that Golgotha was not a place of execution at all, but one of the most sacred shrines of the Jews from time immemorial.—I am, Sir, &e..
MALcoLm loacCom..
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