I Appeal To Caesar!

Endnotes for Chapter 7, The Fugitive An Overview of Damascus (by Author). Damascus is an ancient city, some say the oldest inhabited city in the world! Josephus the Jewish historian points out that Damascus was founded by Uz, grandson of Shem, and it is first mentioned in Scripture in Genesis 13:15, in connection with Abraham. Its name may be derived from a patterned cloth known as damask, its most important export item in OT times. Damascus flourished as a trade center on the desert caravan routes. The city was a commercial center where caravans converged from all directions in the affluent world and where the Christian faith began to flourish. Saul realized that from Damascus, the gospel of Christ could spread throughout the world. Located on a plain of about 2200’ elevation, the city and its agriculture is surrounded on three sides by mountains. Situated 150 miles northeast of Jerusalem, Damascus is actually only about fifty direct miles West from the Mediterranean Sea, occupying a most unusual location. To the West, however, are the two, parallel lower Lebanon Mountain ranges (with a valley between) that cut off the moisture-laden winds from the sea, making the climate on the east side of the mountains a sub-desert one. The highest part of the second mountain range is snow-capped Mount Hermon at 10,200’ elevation. As the mountains slope downward to touch the desert, the weary traveler eventually enters an oasis of great beauty, a fertile plain almost circular and thirty miles in diameter. This fertility is due to the Abana River and two other streams having their sources in Hermon and the other Anti-Lebanon mountains; Damascus sits beside the Abana River, from which it draws water to irrigate the sun- parched landscape in and around the city. Otherwise, the 10-inch per year rainfalls would be too sparse. The streams from Hermon transform the plain into a green garden surrounded by barren, brown hills and desert sands. The surrounding desert has dry and thorny shrubs, thistles, and herbs, but in striking contrast the fertile plain of Damascus has temperate and sub-tropical vegetation, including fruit trees. Aspens and poplars grow thickly near the streams, and the productive land produces cereals such as wheat, barley and lentils, growing in the shade of olive trees.