For as Much Money as it is Worth

Cave of Machpelah in the Biblical period

Then Abraham rose [and] said, “I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.” (Genesis 23:3-4)

The Cave of Machpelah, located in the old city of Hebron, is the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people. The cave and the field in which it lies were purchased—at well over the market price—by Abraham some 3700 years ago. The story in Genesis, in which Ephron the Hittite continues to insist Abraham take the field as a gift is somewhat amusing, because he of course never means to give it away. In fact, setting the price at 400 shekels of silver was only his opening volley, meant to begin the bartering process, but Abraham refused to negotiate and simply accepted the offer. Whether out of his grief or to eliminate any possible future charge of deception, we don’t know. At any rate, this is the first piece of land acquired by Abraham in the land given to him by God.

Abraham, his son Isaac and his wife Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah are all buried here. The only one missing is Rachel, who was buried near Bethlehem where she died in childbirth.

Cave of the Patriarchs today

A structure was built over the cave during the Second Temple Period (about two thousand years ago) by Herod, King of Judea, providing a place for gatherings and Jewish prayers at the graves of the Patriarchs. As the land has been invaded and conquered, the use of the building has changed: the Byzantines and Crusaders transformed it into a church, and the Muslims rendered it a mosque. About 700 years ago, Muslims from Egypt conquered Hebron, declared the structure a mosque and forbade entry to Jews, who were not allowed past the seventh step on a staircase outside the building.

Following the Israeli victory in the Six Day War, the area came back under Jewish authority for the first time in 2,000 years and the 700-year-long restriction limiting Jews to the seventh step outside was lifted. In 1968, a special arrangement was made to accommodate Jewish services on the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement. Further tension and the increased sensitivity of the site meant that in 1996 the Wye River Accords, part of the Arab-Israeli peace process, included a temporary status agreement for the site restricting access for both Jews and Muslims.

Orthodox Jewish text tells us Adam dug out the cave after he saw a ray of light near the gate to the Garden of Eden and he wanted that place for his grave.

While I was researching this site, the amount of information about the cave itself was staggeringly absent. Tradition states that at least Caleb visited the tombs while scouting out Canaan. Obviously there were no buildings there then. But now, no one knows or seems to care what it looked like then, whether inside or outside. All anyone is interested in is who owns or has rights to the land right now, and who has control of the building. The caves under the enclosure are not themselves generally accessible; the Muslim authorities have historically prevented access to the actual tombs out of respect for the dead. I wrote to the people at machpelah.com, who sent me watercolor above. Other than that, I couldn’t find any other information about the caves in the Biblical period.