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Show IN the remarkable ruins of Beth-Shan, "The Massacre of the Innocents," the famous painting in the Holy Land, where at least six by Breughel, in the museum at Brussels and perhaps twice that number of ancient cities lie buried one underneath the other, explorers from the University mi wrwn r SSzmm' now d 'trtjir "' ".J t '''""Tr-BBBBM They unearthed '"' '" . the fragments of ' : ar ' v.'s e tomb that proved - ' , '' . '; C- on investigation to ' ?. tsS hold the moldering A. fant Saviour tho ' ' H old under." 5 't -' '"' 'v ThiF Massacre ; T '"V of the Innocents t k ' aHHHHB r-,yV p"&j war. L. result f . Herod's hearing V - Jvj r $$r 'J'' A ?& Ife : '" the Christ child de- l&J&r V$jUV ' --ifS ' ' : '.' scribed by the wise v-v men as destined to f'3 ' - ' ro& jW- saved onlv bv the flight of His par- Cruel King Herod the Great, directing the slaying of the ents with Him into innocent children by Antiochus and his fellow executioners . Egypt. (From the painting ty Matteo di Ciovanni di Bartolo) I rri . r . Mlttt- ' ' '-' ! '' 1 ne story 01 ine massacre is dramatically told in the second sec-ond chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, as follows: "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding ex-ceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired -f the wise men. "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying "In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, chil-dren, and would not be comforted, because be-cause they are not." And now the tomb of the very man whose hands were stained with the blood of all these innocent children haB been uncovered I Very probably this was only one of many bloody deeds which Antiochus did at the command of his cousin, Herod. It is thought that he may have been the one who cut off the head of John the Baptist when Salome, the daughter of Herodias, made Herod redeem his promise prom-ise to give her anything she aaked in return re-turn for a dance that became notorious. We read in the sixth chapter of St. Mark that when Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist Herod "was exceeding ex-ceeding sorry, yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which Bat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately immedi-ately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought : and he went, and beheaded him in prison." Since Antiochus is known to have been the man on whom Herod relied to do his most bloodthirsty work, it is thought quite possible that he was the one sent to behead John the Baptist. Arid perhaps per-haps he was the one who later brought the bleeding head to the dancer. No discovery made by archaeologists since a start was made a century ago on the exploration of the buried cities in the Near East has aroused so much interest among students of New Testament Testa-ment history. It is the nearest approach ap-proach so far made to the finding of contemporary con-temporary lecords of Christ and of the events leading up to the founding of the Christian religion. The tomb of Antiochus is thought to be the first of the Herodian family that has been unearthed. Information of the discovery came from Dr. CI arence Stanley Fisher, director direc-tor of excavations at Beth-Shan, who has just concluded the second half year of operations there. In a letter to Dr. Gordon, director of the museum at the University of Pennsylvania, he announced an-nounced that the hard stone sarcophagus containing what arc believed to be the ashes of Antiochus had been found in one of the Roman tombs. "The letters on it were quite clear, Dr. Fisher wrote, "but the date at tho beginning and the name at the end puzzled puz-zled us. We have in the camp no works of reference and so could net look up any of the details. On Monday we had a visit from Pere Vincent and two of his colleagues, and, of course, showed them p How They Found the Bones of Herod's I IPI Cousin Who Killed Bethlehem's 1 I Hfi Bernadino Luir.o's painting of Salome receiving the head of John the Baptist. It is th'. -iht qn te possible that John the Baptist met death Ht at the hands of the very man whose tomb wi uncovered the other day in the ruins of Beth-Shan I 1 ; Below the V flight into Esypt which H saved the jjjp$SS9 infant Jeous from the f$k V, J death Herod had ordered ( From Ihe painting bjf jjp . Bcato Angeitcb) the sarcophagus. They also could not get the meaning, but supposed, as we had done, that the last name was some local family name.'' On their return to Jerusalem Pere Vincent looked up the name and made his remarkable discovery. The tomb was undoubtedly that of Antiochus. the son of Phallion and the first cousin and chief executioner of Herod the Great! This discovery clears up several points in history on which there has been great uncertainty. Many links that have been missing from the Roman period, 1900 j pars ago, are certain to be brought to light as a result of further excavations in this vicinity. For instance, Antiochus's father, Pnal-lion, Pnal-lion, was killed at Beth-Shan during a battle with Pompey, and Antiochus himself him-self was supposed to have died there some time later. The discovery of his coffin in the cemetery of the unearthed city proves this point beyond a doubt. Under the vast mound that marks the site of Beth-Shan lie the ruins of perhaps per-haps twelve successive cities. Since pre-historic pre-historic times one conqueror has succeeded succeed-ed another on this spot and each has destroyed de-stroyed the city of his predecessor and built another in its place. It S .' i was with the object of v laying bare these dif- JjSv'- ferent ancient cities t'lfit l'ie University of Pennsylvania started ls Preat work and hap-- pened upon the tomb 1 ' Antiochus, along 'y with other interesting relics. The site has tremendous tre-mendous historical significance. It was there that Joshua was checked v. hilo leading the Chosen People s into the Promised Land, because g the warlike inhabitants possessed many iron chariots, while the Israelites had none, as the Bible tells us. f-' It was near Beth-Shan that Saul, the first King of Israel, killed himself and the Philistines placed his body in the wicked temple of Ashtaroth, at Beth-Shan, and hung his armor on the wall of the city. It was near Beth-Shan that Saul, the first King of Israel, killed himself and the Philistines placed his body in the wicked temple of Ashtaroth, at Beth-Shan, Beth-Shan, and hung his armor on the wall of the city. Why was Beth-Shan so important and so persistently fought over by all the great races of ancient history? Because it occupies a dominating strategic position posi-tion with regard to Asia Minor and Egypt, which once constituted the greater part of tne rinlissd ' world. The cemetery ii uaid to belong to the Roman J period, which occurred i shortly r.ftcr the tims the mighty Roman pen- j eral and Consul, Pom-' J 1 1 1 i r.r ii . I T Pil PalPV .1 tine (in 60 B. C). 3 The Romans pi:i:in.. to make the ifr j cient strategic city worthy of their j mighty empire To-day the remains of a Roman amphitheater, v. here games, 1 chariot race and gladiatorial contest I were held and the cemetery where An- 1 tiochus's coffin was unearthed still stand j near Beth-Shan. There are sIfo fins 1 Roman bridges over the river, extensrfS j l uins of a public bath, triumphal arches. I and several temple-; of the same period. J The houses were luxurious and had pipe j for running vntjr. baths and othtf sanitary conveniences. Of almost equal importance is iho diS- i covery in a deeper lcei of envation, ifl another city buried beneath Beth-Shan, J of the first known sarcophagus of ths A Philistines. Historians have been pus- fl zled to account for the Philistines here- tofore, as contemporary records of them 4 were few and far between. But they J now know that after King Solomon hsd I cEtablished himself in his capital st ,j Jerusalem and ordered the building of j 'he great temple there he set about con-'J quering those parts of the kingdom 1 which still remained in the possession of the idolatrous Canaanite races, one v hom were 1he Philistine Beth-Shan was especially important to j olomon because it lay near the route to j the country of his ally, Hiram King of Tyre, north of Israel The quarrelsome j inhabitants of Beth-Shan could attack j travelers and caravans passing overlan between Jerusalem and the other IsraeV ite cities. Solomon and his officers ..apiured the ,1 city of Beth-Shan, then occupied Wv Amoritea and Philistines, and leveled tM wicked old city to the ground. He pullt 1 down the temples of Ashtoretb, Baal, 4 Marduk, Dagon and the other objection- j able pagan gods. The idols that were o wood he burned and those that were m stone he disfigured and smashed- Already the Philistine coffins have be found. They may contain'tho UstrtJ j whom Solomon slaughtered, or the) ny 1 contain the bones of the children were the victims of the worship or j Oi perhaps they contain the remains warriors that fought in th 1 tween King Saul and the Ph. 'stinJ when, as readers of the B.b!c will j King Saul was defeated. |