Middle East Crisis: A Biblical Backdrop

Gamal Abdel Nasser flexed his military muscle last month, and suddenly the world tottered on the edge of a major armed conflict. Americans were preoccupied in Viet Nam, the British in Hong Kong, where Communist-inspired rioting persisted. But the Middle East situation worsened so rapidly that the eyes of the world shifted anxiously to the lands of the Bible. There were no immediate religious issues in the crisis, but overtones of conflicting faiths and ideologies were quickly apparent.

Nasser, the Muslim president of the United Arab Republic (Egypt), touched off the global concern—perhaps at the provocation of Israel. He demanded withdrawal of a 3,400-man United Nations surveillance force from the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, where Israel and Egypt meet. United Nations Secretary General U Thant, a Buddhist, quickly acceded, and the border-watchers were evacuated.

Then Nasser announced a blockade against Israeli shipping at the Strait of Tiran. To the Israelis, who have been forbidden by Egypt to use the Suez Canal, it seemed a deliberate act of aggression. The Gulf of Aqaba had been closed to Israel from 1948 until after the Suez war in 1957. Part of the price for withdrawal of Israeli forces from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula was the opening of the water access to the port of Elath at the southern tip of Israel. Israel used it to receive oil supplies from Iran and to send important cash exports.

The immediate ecclesiastical effect of the crisis was the threat that North American and British Christian missionaries would have to leave their posts in the Middle East. That seemed to be a virtual certainty if major hostilities developed. Archaeological research (see story below) could also be seriously affected.

Meanwhile, Jewish leaders in the United States brought pressure on President Johnson to assert himself on behalf of Israel. Irving Fain, head of social-action programs for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, called on the chief executive “not simply to reaffirm a general interest in Israel’s security—but to make the kind of statement which cannot be misinterpreted—i.e., a statement of intention to keep the Straits of Tiran open for international shipping; a stern warning to the effect that armed incursion by Arab aggressors will not be tolerated; and a systematic effort to persuade Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union to join in this quest for peace.”

General Secretary R. H. Edwin Espy of the National Council of Churches sent a telegram to U Thant saying “We … consider the U.N. presence in the Middle East as essential to the prevention of a disastrous conflict.” Another telegram, sent to Arthur Goldberg, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., asserted that the “failure to secure the U.N. peacekeeping function in the Middle East now will be a severe setback to peace.”

Britain and France delayed action on the Middle East crisis. But the Soviet Union, which has been supplying arms to Egypt, quickly lined up behind Nasser and blamed Israel for “aggravating the atmosphere of military psychosis” in the Middle East.

Nasser also got expected support from the University of Al-Azhar in Cairo, a famous seat of Muslim learning dating back to about A.D. 968. The rector of the university, Sheik Hassan Maamoun, called the situation a “decisive battle in the history of religion and Arabism.” He issued a statement appealing to the world’s Muslims to support Nasser in the face of the “Zionist menace” and to “strike hard at the aggressor.”

Elath, the Aqaba port of the Israelis, is at or near the site of the Ezion-Geber of Numbers 32:35, where it is recorded that the Hebrews encamped while traveling from Kadesh-barnea to Moab. In First Kings 9:26, King Solomon is remembered as having built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber. The site was excavated in the thirties by archeologists Nelson Glueck and Fritz Frank. Large-scale copper refinery installations were found.

Digging Solomon’S Wall

The eventful spring archaeological dig in Gezer, Israel, this year may well have rediscovered the third city wall and gate built by King Solomon. Positive proof may come within weeks. Gezer, twenty miles west of Jerusalem, was one of the half-dozen most important cities in old Palestine, and one of the largest. It was conquered by Joshua and the Israelites. As a Philistine center, it rose against King David. Solomon got it as a dowry when he married Pharaoh’s daughter.

The rediscovery tale began in 1958, when the well-known soldier-archaeologist Yigael Yadin uncovered the gate Solomon built at Hazor, and concluded that the ancient mound at Gezer would reveal another gate of Solomon if the excavator’s pick were sunk in the correct spot.

How did he know? Yadin, Israel’s first chief of staff, and now a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, found the gate not by picking through the twenty-seven acres at the site, but by reading two books: the Bible and a sixty-year-old archaeological work by Britain’s R. A. Stewart Macalister. Macalister had set out to turn over every foot of soil at Gezer, but time and money ran out before the job was completed. His three-volume chronicle of the effort, though it leaves much to be desired by current standards of scientific accuracy, inspired future archaeologists to re-excavate the area.

Macalister had discovered a casemate (double) wall and a four-entry gate, which he sketched and labeled “Maccabean Castle.” Yadin compared the sketch with Hazor and the wall found in the 1930s at Megiddo and theorized that they had been planned by the same ancient royal architect. And First Kings 9:15 affirmed the theory—it reports that walls were built at Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

The theory was tested in April by an expedition from Hebrew Union College under Harvard—trained archaeologist William G. Dever. They uncovered the “Maccabean Castle,” and it appears to be the Solomonic wall and gate Yadin had predicted.

A group of theological students from the American Institute for Holy Land Studies, working as volunteers with Dever, shared the general excitement as the entrance to the gate slowly came into view. The next day, the students were off to Megiddo, then Hazor, and one enthused, “We are probably the first in 3,000 years to view all three of Solomon’s gates which stood before his fortified cities.”

Positive proof on Gezer must await further work this summer, when archaeologists will seek undisturbed, datable pottery. From June 26 to August 4, the expedition will be joined by more than 100 students from the United States and Israel. Those following the prescribed course will get four hours’ credit for the summer of work. Besides digging, they will hear lectures from six scholars on the summer staff.

The Gezer work began in 1964 under Harvard’s G. Ernest Wright, assisted by Dever and another of his students, H. Darrell Lance. Dr. Nelson Glueck, who heads Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and its branch school of archaeology in Jerusalem, commissioned the work. Wright was succeeded by James F. Ross of Drew University, then Yale’s Marvin Pope, with Dever as field director. Lance, now with Colgate Rochester Divinity School, joins the group this summer as associate director.

Glueck said excavations will continue for the next six to eight seasons, to “salvage everything possible done by Macalister, published or unpublished.” The group also hopes to “excavate large areas of the untouched portion of the mound in order to fill in the gaps that exist in the history of the site.”

Macalister published so little evidence that most scholars had thought the mound was deserted during the tenth and ninth centuries B.C. Yadin’s hunch and the 1967 discovery that the structures do exist erases much of the doubt and opens the way for establishing positively that the area was occupied in Israelite times. The work of coming seasons promises to fill other historical gaps and add to the growing store of knowledge about the life and times of this land in the days of the Bible.

DWIGHT L. BAKER

India’S Muslim President

It took the United States 171 years to elect a Roman Catholic president. Last month, India chose a member of its Muslim minority as president (ceremonial head of state) just twenty years after the tumultuous religious partition with Muslim Pakistan.

Zakir Husain, 70, noted scholar and vice-president since 1962, defeated Hindu jurist Subba Rao both in the national Parliament and in the state assemblies. The Muslims—one-tenth of India’s 500 million population—apparently voted for Husain regardless of party. Though predominantly Hindu, India is officially a secular state under its 1947 constitution.

The third president of India is a great admirer of Gandhi and said after his election, “We have to talk less, quarrel less, work hard and ever harder, and hold together.”

T. E. KOSHY

Greece’S New Primate

The military junta that controls Greece has ousted highly conservative Archbishop Chrysostomos and replaced him with Archimandrite Jerome Kotsonis, a theologian who has worked with the World Council of Churches and supports closer ties with the Vatican. The new primate was elected by the Synod of Bishops, whose nine members had earlier been replaced by the junta. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei later opposed the church changeover.

Internally, the move represents the success of the junta in bringing the church under its control—something that both the old government and Greece’s King Constantine had favored but were unable to achieve.

Internationally, the new archbishop raises hopes among ecumenically minded church leaders for more friendly relations between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

Preaching at his enthronement in Athens, Archbishop Kotsonis pointed to the need for Christians to put the basic principles of Christianity into effect regardless of doctrinal differences. “All of this can be attained,” he said, “only with the close cooperation of all the Christian Churches.”

At 62, he is exceptionally young to hold the church’s highest office. He is also the first non-bishop elected to that rank since 1920. He has been a chaplain to the royal family since 1949 and is a member of the central committee of the World Council of Churches and a professor of canon law at the University of Thessalonica.

Spain: Strings Attached

Protestants in Spain hardly know whether to feel happy or hurt about the final text of the religious-freedom law voted by a Cortes (parliament) committee last month. Final approval is scheduled at the July Cortes plenary session. “Private and public profession of any religion” is permitted, but only for those who accept a long string of regulations.

On the eve of the Cortes action, Protestant representatives held their yearly meeting in Valencia, and their verdict on the law was unanimous: Unacceptable, because the state will interfere with the affairs of the church. They decided not to accept the rules, even if it means loss of the new freedom the law promises.

Under the law, the 35,000 Protestants will be recognized on the same level as secular organizations. They must provide annual membership lists and financial reports to the government. The government must accredit new pastors and will tell seminaries how many new students they can accept. Church schools may be started only if congregations have the required number of children. No churches can accept foreign aid.

The new law says religious freedom is “based on the Catholic teaching and must be put in agreement in every case with the fact that Spain is a confessional state.” The Cortes discussion stressed that the Vatican had approved the law, and Protestants were mentioned only in a derogatory way. As Adolfo (named after Hitler) Munoz Alonso said, “This law will inaugurate a new political situation, and I must express my fears that a second step of the sects will be to ask for other liberties under the pretext of still being discriminated against.”

The law does not give Protestant ministers the exemption from military service granted Catholic priests. And Protestants will be required to attend the military Mass which accompanies the ceremony of loyalty to Spain.

Since non-Catholic worship, whether private or public, must be in places approved by authorities, Protestants fear the law could prevent even their private devotions at home. Also, most Protestant converts are won through home visitation and the law clearly forbids this.

Episcopal Bishop Ramon Sienes regrets that non-Catholic churches are considered “mere associations of private right,” and Jewish leader Don Samuel Toledano says, “We are considered to be second-class citizens of Spain.”

Come Down, Kingey

A version of the four Gospels in the “Scouse” dialect of Liverpool, England, will appear shortly. The cover will picture Christ on the cross, wearing a flat cap, open shirt, and dungarees, against a Liverpool background. The crucifixion scene reads:

“ ‘Come down, Kingey,’ dey yelled, ‘You’ve done some big talkin’. If yer de Son of God, get yourself out of this mess—den we’ll believe yer.’ ”

Liverpool’s Bishop Stuart Blanch says “it is a fine piece of work. In parts, it gets to the root of the real meaning of the Gospel, which may have been obscured in normal orthodox translation.”

The writer is the Rev. R. H. L. Williams, whose church is by the Liverpool docks. He was converted in 1949 under the ministry of noted evangelical Leith Samuel.

The Fatima ‘Obstacle’

Before he left for Fatima, Portugal, last month, Pope Paul admitted that “Marian dogma still constitutes one of the greatest obstacles to unity in one faith with the Catholic Church.” Even so, he said in an encyclical the same week that “all those who believe in the Gospel” are “obliged” to venerate the Virgin Mary, and that the church is entering a new “Marian era.”

The fiftieth anniversary of the reported visions of Mary at Fatima and the Pope’s interest in Mary are of great ecumenical significance (see “Fatima’s Fiftieth,” News, March 31 issue).

In his sermon during a low mass at the shrine attended by one million pilgrims, the Pope said “we have come to the feet of the Queen of Peace to ask her for the gift, which only God can give, of peace.” He meant not just a military ceasefire, it developed, but peace in the Roman church itself. The Pope issued a strong appeal against liberal theology:

“What terrible damage could be provoked by arbitrary interpretations, not authorized by the teaching of the church, disrupting its traditional and constitutional structure, replacing the theology of the true and great fathers of the church with new and peculiar ideologies, interpretation intent upon stripping the norms of faith of that which modern thought—often lacking rational judgment—doesn’t understand and doesn’t like.”

The sermon also remembered “all Christians, non-Catholics but brothers in baptism” and asked Mary for a “united church.” Earlier, the Pope had used mostly Bible texts in speaking about Mary to a group of Portuguese Protestants.

Besides multitudes of diseased persons visiting the shrine, the onlookers included famed Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who was visiting his Portuguese publisher. He said “it was a very impressive experience” and that he plans to write a poem about it.

The Pope’s five-hour Portugal visit included a nine-minute chat with dictator Antonio Salazar. The New York Times said the Pope has rarely been mentioned in Portugal’s government-controlled press since he visited India after it absorbed the Portuguese colony of Goa. But the papal audience was long enough to bring a protest from Algeria, which harbors several anti-Salazar rebel groups.

Besides Portugal and India, the Pope has visited the Holy Land and the United Nations in New York since his election in 1963.

The Fatima visit was seen on all three U. S. TV networks, in Canada, and in fifteen West European nations through Eurovision, which assigned two dozen cameras to the operation.

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