WE cannot, in strictness, call Tyre “a city of Israel,” for though it seems (together with Sidon) to have been allotted to the tribe of Asher, it was never conquered by that tribe, and was never in subjection to Jerusalem. We include it in these papers because of the place it has in the evangelic narrative. Tyre is there several times referred to, though all the occasions seem to be reducible to three events: first, the coming of a great multitude from “the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon” to Jesus as He stood “in the plain.” to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; secondly, the reference to the sister-cities on the occasion of pronouncing the woes on Chorazin, &c.; and lastly, the healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter.
At the time of this last mentioned event, the Lord Jesus was near Tyre, and apparently sought for retirement, for He entered into a house, and would have no man know it. But “He could not be hid”; the anxious mother, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, found Him. The silence of the Lord; so unusual with Him when the pleadings of distress sought an answer, and the strangeness of the reply which He at last gave to the woman, have perplexed many. Yet the reason for this apparent exception to His usually gracious manner, is really to be found in the situation of Tyre and the nationality of the woman, ― of which reason, indeed, the gospel gives a clear intimation in the words of the Lord. To His disciples He said, when they urged that He should send her away, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” We cannot too distinctly bear in mind that this was indeed the mission of the Lord, however much more extended may have become the acting’s of His grace consequent upon the refusal of His mission by Israel―that is, since the Cross. Son of Abraham and of David, it was to the seed of Abraham and to David’s people that He came, though they rejected Him and denied His claims. Blessing has indeed come to us, “though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not,” but for that blessing we must urge other pleas than those which during the ministry of the Lord might be put forward by a Jew. As long as God in His wisdom was pleased to make national distinctions, and to give to Israel the Honor of being a “peculiar people” unto Himself, so long would God’s Son observe those distinctions. It seems, then, that the name the woman invoked― “Son of David”―should not have been used by her. Bartimæus might lawfully use it, but this woman was a Greek or “heathen,” one truly (in the later language of the apostle) “an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger from the covenants of promise,” even as she was “without hope” ―that “Hope of Israel,” which was the theme of psalmists and prophets, and the earnest desire of the faithful in Israel. Such, too (we add), are we. And when she owns this of herself, assenting to the Lord’s distinct enunciation of the difference then still existing between Jew and Gentile, and pleads only for a “dog’s” portion, it is then that she receives the blessing she sought, even according to her desire. And thus this incident, which seems to stand alone in the pages of the gospels, is found to be fully as precious as any recorded in those pages. For it is the only instance there set down of such blessing being received by a heathen; while in this respect it was like the answer to the “great faith” of the Capernaum centurion―that by a word, and at a distance, the afflicted child was healed.
We ask you, dear reader, have you acted as honestly as this poor woman―giving up all pretense of claim on God’s mercy, and pleading only His grace? Do you, in response to His statement of your distance and sinner-ship, answer, “Truth, Lord”? There is no other way of blessing.
All who are familiar with the map of Palestine will remember that Tyre is situated on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on that long, narrow strip of land lying between Lebanon and the sea―the southernmost part of Phoenicia, of which it was the chief city. The city is of undoubted antiquity; it is mentioned in the Book of Joshua as “the strong city Tyre,” or Tzor (margin). The name signifies “a rock,” and is probably taken from the broad reef of rock on which the city stood. There is no doubt that it was originally an island; but a causeway between the island and continent having been made by Alexander the Great, the action of the sea in the deposition of sand, &c., has widened that connection to such an extent that at the present day every sign of Tyre’s insular nature is obliterated. The connecting isthmus is now about half a mile wide. The prophet Ezekiel, however, speaks of Tyre as being “in the midst of the sea,” and Josephus, referring to the exchange of cedar and wheat between Solomon and Hiram, king of Tyre, says that the latter asked for corn on the ground that the Tyrians inhabited an island.
The island was not of great size, being scarcely a mile in length, and in breadth somewhat shorter than its length. Space being therefore limited, the houses were built in a manner which, familiar though it is to us, was strange to Eastern eyes―stories were piled one above another, recalling the aspect, says an ancient geographer, of the gigantic mansions of Rome.
The early history of Tyre is mixed up with fable; only when we reach its connections with Israel are we sure of our facts. The command given to Israel to exterminate the Canaanites of course included the Tyrians and Sidonians, but, as is well known, Israel stayed its hand, and settled down with its work undone. Thus we read: “Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of... Zidon...; but the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out.” There is no record of war at any time between Tyrians and Jews, and, when at last Tyre is brought prominently into notice, it is as a helper in great and mighty works which were going forward in Israel. First of all, Hiram (who was “ever a lover of David,”) sent to David “cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house.” Afterward the still mightier work of the house of the Lord was undertaken, and Hiram (who on his mother’s side was of Jewish stock―the tribe of Naphtali) was again requisitioned. “He came to King Solomon, and wrought all his work.” His name is associated with the pillars and chapiters, the checker work and chain work, the molten sea and the oxen, the pots, the shovels, and the basins―all these were made of “bright brass” the molten sea of Jehovah. A great friendship seems to have existed between the kings, and between their peoples; their navies went to sea together; Solomon made Hiram a present of twenty cities―(which, however, greatly displeased the receiver)―and the latter sent six-score talents of gold to Solomon. Moreover, Solomon took to himself wives from the Sidonians, which, as before explained, is the larger expression, including Tyrians as well as Sidonians. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” Tyre had ever retained its idolatry. With most impure and licentious rites it had worshipped, among other gods, Ashtoreth, “the queen of heaven”―the Syrian Venus, the Goddess of Love. Was it strange that Solomon’s heart was turned away from the Lord, and that he placed among his “new gods―gods that came newly up”― the Phœnician Ashtoreth? It is recorded of Solomon’s younger days, that he “loved the Lord; ... only (most solemn word!) he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.” When he was old his heart was altogether turned away “after other gods.” Who can tell whither the beginnings of evil, when once allowed, will lead us?
Passing down the stream of time, we meet, in the prophecy of Joel, with the first intimation of heart burnings between Israel and Tyre. The latter had sold the children of Judah and of Jerusalem to the Grecians. Amos, also, is an herald of punishment on Tyre, because it had not remembered “the brotherly covenant” ―probably an allusion to the intimate relations with the early kings of Judah. Isaiah, too, still later, takes up the parable against the Phoenician capital “her own feet” should carry her afar off to sojourn. It sustained sieges by Shalmaneser, and by Nebuchadnezzar, but its fortunes were not greatly affected by the hardships of war fill a third siege, laid B. C. 332, by the famous Alexander. First of all, he summoned the Phoenician cities to submit; all did so except Tyre, and Alexander set himself to reduce that city. Ever victorious, he succeeded here, after seven months’ labor, during which he united the island of Tyre to the continent by an enormous causeway. Blockaded north and south by fleets, attacked from the mainland by the army, Tyre fell; and, after the barbarous fashion of the time, its defenders were put to death, and 30,000 of its inhabitants were sold as slaves.
Even after this it recovered, and in the time of our Lord it had a large measure of prosperity―not so great as before, it is true, yet Jerome, a Christian writer of the fifth century, speaks of Tyre as “the most noble and the most beautiful city of Phoenicia.” In the seventh century, it surrendered (with all Syria and Palestine) to the followers of Mahomet. In 1124 it was captured by the Crusaders, but in 1291 it endured a siege from the Saracens, and one day the Tyrians fled in their vessels, leaving their city undefended. The blight which everywhere falls where the Crescent rises, fell on Tyre; it never recovered this its last capture. Partly by the destruction which the Saracens then poured out upon the place, and altogether in fulfillment of the prophetic word, it became a heap of ruins, and the aspect which now meets the eye is such as to indeed call up Isaiah’s exclamation, “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days?” Even the ruins are scarce, for they have been worked as quarries to supply building stone for other places! In calm weather many granite columns can be seen on the bottom of the sea, and occasionally beautiful remains have been met with in excavations, but that is all; for the rest, it is an “insignificant village,” a “wretched roadstead,” “an empty harbor.”
We have not space to speak of Tyre’s ancient wealth and prosperity. Indeed, we could only set down on this page that which is much more fully given in the Scriptures, and we especially commend to the reader’s attention the 26th, 27th, and 28th chapters of Ezekiel. The riches and the beauty of Tyre are fully described there, as well as the pride and boasting begotten of those possessions. The whole world was laid under contribution to pour its treasures into her, the “mart of nations.” Every precious thing, whether of natural produce, or of the work of man’s hand, went to enrich her, but her heart was lifted up by it. She is fallen now: “her walls” are “destroyed,” “her towers” are “broken down,” the dust is scraped from her; she is made like the top of a rock. Very literally has it become “a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.” Recent attempts have been made to revive the city, but they are vain. “Thou shall never be any more” is the word of the Lord God, and this word cannot be broken. Jr.