Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Tabitha's Tomb and St. Peter's Church at Jaffa

In my last communication I spoke of "Tabitha's Tomb," at Jaffa, and other rock-cut tombs there, illustrated by drawings, plans, inscriptions, &c. To-day I wish to speak fully of Tabitha's Tomb and St. Peter's Church, at Jaffa.

We read in the Acts of the Apostles ix, 36–43: "At Joppa was a certain disciple named Tabitha. . . . . This woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did. And it came to pass . . . . that she was sick and died. . . . . The disciples, hearing that Peter was at Lydda, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come they brought him into the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them. But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down and prayed, and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive. And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord. And Peter tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon, a tanner," whose house was situated on the seashore, as it is afterwards stated (chapter x, 6, 32).

Now in this history we have the house of Tabitha situated somewhere in the place which was then called Joppa, and the house of the tanner, where Peter had his abode for many days, situated by the seaside, in the same town.

When Tabitha finally died she was no doubt buried, not in her house, but, as the custom of the time was, outside the town. Thus we have three distinct places which would be kept in memory and venerated by the early Christians. As places where such events took place afterwards became places for worship, and often had churches built over them, we may expect that this was the case in Joppa. As Jaffa is now a small city, until recently confined within a wall, and extensive gardens, with many houses in them, where also people are dwelling, the whole being called Jaffa, so I think it was in ancient times, and this seems to be indicated by the words (chap, ix, 42) "and it was known throughout all Joppa," implying the city and all outside dwellings belonging to or making up altogether the place "Joppa." This state of things must be kept in mind when one speaks of the traditional holy sites, and also, further, that the configuration of the ground is now in some decree changed from what it was in ancient times.

Since Robinson, the Nestor and originator of the opponents of ​doubtful traditions, many writers have followed in his steps, and in quoting what is stated by pilgrims daring past centuries, do this in such a way that one seems to contradict the other, or that it at least appears that these sites were shown in various ages at different spots, and hence no reliance is to be placed in what is shown to-day. For instance, the writer of "The Land and the Book" gives the Jaffa sites in the following words (p. 520). On the self-uttered question, "Did you find Tabitha's house?" he answers, "No!" and adds: "Well, our Consul discovered her grave in one of his gardens, and gave it to the Armenian Convent of Jerusalem. I examined the sarcophagus in its original bed, and there was the negative evidence in favour of Tabitha that there was no counter claim whatever. If not Tabitha's, whose tomb was it, pray?" And with regard to the house of the tanner, "it is certainly by the sea-side, and that is something, but, then, so is all Jaffa." Other writers speak similarly, but one may remark that the author of "The Land and the Book" asks for the house, and answers with a tomb, as if Tabitha had been buried in her own house. Tradition speaks of three different points.

Antoninus, A.D. 600, mentions the tomb of Tabitha, and, A.D. 728, Willibald says: "Joppa is a maritime town of Palestine where St. Peter raised the Widow Dorcas," and again, when coming from Lydda to Jaffa, "one comes to the Church of St. Peter the Apostle, and there he raised the widow," at the time in the suburbs.

Sæwolf, A.D. 1103, speaks of the larger Church of St. Peter as being near Jaffa, and hence outside the walls; and to speak of the larger implies that there was also a smaller one, which was very naturally erected on or near the house of Simon the tanner. We have therefore the three places. The smaller Church of St. Peter, probably in the town, at the tanner's house; the larger St. Peter's Church, in the suburb, at Tabitha's house; and the third was her tomb.

The Greek Patriarch gave the larger St. Peter's Church with the neighbouring cemetery to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, where then the Latins (or Franks) were ruling in the year 1114 A.D., under King Baldwin II. Here is the "Cemetery" mentioned, in which we may fairly conclude was also Tabitha's tomb. This cemetery, as is reported in the Quarterly Statement, 1874, p. 3, et seq., was found by M. Clermont-Ganneau, and has since been proved to have been the general cemetery of Jaffa, at the time of the beginning of the Christian era. Here are rock-cut tombs in great number, with epitaphs, so that the whole hill seems to be undermined with them. The city of Jaffa has a long and eventful history. It has been often destroyed and rebuilt; sometimes it was a small walled city; at other times, especially in the more ancient period, large and extensive, as walls and ruins, found occasionally under the surface, show. 1280 A.D. Alexander speaks of a rock near the sea, below which was the church and Simon the tanner's house. Troilo and Ladoire, and also Quaretinius, a few hundred years later, declare "that the house of the charitable Tabitha ​had been formerly within the city of Jaffa, but the high ground on which it once stood is now outside the town, a quarter of a league from the then present city, near the road to Ramleh." This remark proves that it was believed that in the time of the Apostles Joppa was much more extended than in 1620 A.D., either embraced by a wall or consisting of the real city and extensive suburbs. Rauwolf found the city entirely destroyed, and only near the sea extensive ruins, and on the top of the hill some towers, with a small garrison to protect the harbour.

1738 A.D. Pococke speaks also of Tabitha's place, and understands by this, apparently, the ground where her tomb is shown, one mile distant from the then existing town. By the Greeks it was customary once in a year to go to Tabitha's tomb and worship there, so that the place was a kind of sanctuary. As in almost every place where Christians had churches, the Moslems either took away the churches and converted them into mosques, or sometimes destroyed them, or created in the vicinity a Mohammedan site, so here they established the Makam "Sheikh-Kebir," to which the ground round about now belongs. Even a village arose here, the stones for the houses being quarried on the spot, and thus many of the old rock-cut tombs being destroyed. This village is growing every year.

The Russians succeeded in buying a piece of this ground, and made there at first a garden or bayárah, and more recently built a nice church, which forms a landmark for the neighbourhood, as it stands on high ground, and can be seen from a great distance. The rock-cut tomb, which is now considered to have been Tabitha's tomb, is like the others, and, if not the real one, this must have been very near, and so the ground there is, with good reason, called Tabitha. But the exact sites of the larger St. Peter's Church and Tabitha's house seem to be now lost. The tanner's house is still shown in the town. Certainly it is not the ancient one, as the building is comparatively modern, but it may be not far from its real site. In the Crusading time there was near it a hospice, which now perhaps is the Hospice of the Franciscan Brethren, where many a pilgrim has found lodging and food.

By these remarks it is not meant to say that traditions are always correct, but to show that tradition is sometimes opposed on feeble grounds, and apparently from an inclination to deny all such, without looking properly into customs, legends, and history.