Mount of Temptation
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The Mount of Temptation (Arabic: جبل الأربعين, Hebrew: קרנטל) is said to be the hill in the Judean Desert where Jesus was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:8). The exact location is unknown and impossible to determine. It is generally identified with Mount Quarantania, Arabic name: Jabal al-Quruntul, from its Crusader name, Mons Quarantania, a mountain approximately 366 metres (1,201 ft) high, towering from the northwest over the town of Jericho in the West Bank. According to the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-1914), Quarantania is "a limestone peak on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho".
Description[]
Halfway up to the top of the mount is the Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Temptation or "Deir al-Qarantal" in Arabic.
Above Qarantal, on top of the cliff, is a modern wall that sits on the ruins of the Hasmonean (later Herodian) fortress Dok or Duq (1 Macc 16:15), mentioned in the First Book of Maccabees, which appears as Dagon in Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews" (Ant., XIII, viii, 1; BJ, I, ii, 3). The modern wall was built at the end of the 19th century: the Greek Orthodox hoped to raise another monastery on the top of the mount, but ran out of money.
In 1998 an Austrian-Swiss company built a 1,330 metres (4,360 ft)-long cable car from Jericho's Tell es-Sultan, the mound where the prehistorical and biblical towns once stood, to the level of the monastery, in preparation for the year 2000 when large numbers of tourists were expected.[1]
In literature[]
The Mount of Temptation is mentioned in a poem of the Temptation event by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.[2]
See also[]
- Chariton the Confessor, a monk and saint who established a lavra here at the beginning of the 4th century
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References[]
- ^ Jericho cable car
- ^ See Christus: A Mystery (I:1:2 Mount Quarantania) Archived 2011-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
Sources[]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Missing or empty |title=
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons. Missing or empty |title=
(help)
Coordinates: 31°52′26″N 35°25′53″E / 31.87389°N 35.43139°E
- Mountains of the West Bank
- New Testament mountains
- Judaean Desert