There is one remarkable natural peculiarity of Hermon still to be noticed (says Conder) namely, the extreme rapidity of the formation of cloud on the summit. In a few minutes a thick cap forms over the top of the mountain, and as quickly disperses and entirely disappears. In the accounts of our Lord’s transfiguration, we read that whilst staying at Cæsarea Philippi, he retired with his disciples to “a high mountain apart,” and there can be but little doubt that some part of Hermon, and very probably the summit, is intended. From the earliest period the mountain has been a sacred place; in later times it was covered with temples; to the present day it is a place of retreat for the Druzes. This lofty solitary peak seems wonderfully appropriate for the scene of so important an event; and in this connection the cloud formation is most interesting, if we remember the cloud which suddenly cleared away, when they found “no man any more, save Jesus only, with themselves” (Mark ix. 8).
After these things it occurred, as Christ and his disciples “were on the way to Jerusalem, that he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee” (Luke xvii. 11). Some critics have cited this text as a proof that St Luke was ignorant of the country about which he wrote. Seeing that Galilee is north of Samaria, they think that a journey from north to south should rather be described as a passing through the midst of Galilee and Samaria. Moreover, they point out that, according to Matt. xix. 1 and Mark x. 1, Jesus did not pass through Samaria at all, but crossed the Jordan, and travelled by the eastern route. Notwithstanding the neatness of this indictment, it is easy to show that St Luke’s statement may be perfectly correct. Jesus intended to go up to Jerusalem to the feast, and as he did not share the Jewish prejudice against the Samaritans, he contemplated going through Samaria. He sent some of the disciples before him to prepare his way, and they entered into a Samaritan village; but they could not succeed in obtaining accommodation, because the object of the Master was to go through to Jerusalem (Luke ix. 52). The chronic feeling of enmity between Samaritans and Jews was naturally stirred into greater heat by the sight of pilgrims going up to the festival; for then the question was revived whether men ought to worship at Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. Being refused a passage through Samaria, and yet still intent upon going up to Jerusalem, Jesus Christ would turn eastward, and journey along the border, which led straight to the Bethabara ford of the Jordan. Travelling thus, with Samaria on his right hand and Galilee on his left, it is surely not incorrect to say that he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee; or, as we have it in the margin of the Revised Version, he passed _between_. It seems to have been at one of the border villages that he was met by ten lepers, one of whom was a Samaritan (Luke xvii. 12); and where would he be more likely to find Jewish and Samaritan lepers in one group than on the border line of the two provinces? He is following this line eastward, and accordingly, when Matthew and Mark say that he crossed the Jordan and came into the borders of Judea, by the eastern route, it is in perfect accordance with the statement in Luke. In further confirmation, we read in Luke xviii. 35, as well as in the other Evangelists, that the route taken brought Jesus through Jericho. To approach Jerusalem from Jericho was a matter of course with the pilgrims from Galilee who had travelled by the eastern route.