The play-house resounds with the
applause of the shades that fill the seats about me - and, then,
the curtain of mystery is dispelled by the bright sunlight that
floods all the landscape, and I see nothing but ruins everywhere.
The play is over. The shades have gone again to their long home.
On a commanding position in the north-west quarter stood temples
of vast proportions whose spacious courts, tottering walls, and
forsaken altars speak in eloquent terms of a glory long since
departed. Evidently this was a populous city, for it possessed two
theaters capable of seating many thousands of people. That it was
a religious city, and much given to idolatry, its temples and
altars declare.
While Josephus speaks of the capture of this city by Alexander
Jannaeus, about 85 B.C., we look in vain for a mention of it in
the Bible. But some recent investigators, notably Dr. Merrill,
(with whom I had the pleasure and honor of conversing,) incline to
the opinion that Gerasa was the original Ramoth-gilead. Dr.
Merrill gives six arguments in favor of his position, which, after
my observations made in the place itself, I feel like accepting.
If this were Ramoth-gilead, then how much of Bible story clusters
about the spot!
