Quarantine, Mount of the

QUARANTINE, Mount of the. - Mount (Arabic Gebel Qurantal) to the west of Jericho, to which is linked the memory of the fast and the temptations of Our Lord (Lk. 4:1-8; Mt. 4:1-4). Tradition, verifiable as far back as the 4th century through the account of Egeria (v.) summarized by St. Valerius (7th century), ended by localizing the fast and the first temptation, that of the loaves, in a cave situated on a steep slope halfway up the mountain, as a refuge at night from the damp and by day from the scorching sun and also from wild beasts; and the third, that of the worship, on the summit of the mountain, from which a vast panorama can be enjoyed.

In all probability, the summit held the Maccabean fortress of Doch (1 Mach. 16:14-16; Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XIII, 8, 1 and Bell. Iud., I, 2, 3), of which the rampart and architectural remains can still be seen today. From the fortress the laura established by St. Chariton in the 4th century took the name Duca; it flourished in the Byzantine period and was then much reduced down to the present day. The commemorative cave of the first temptation was already painted in medieval times, but today, still adapted for worship, it is entirely renovated. As for the church on the summit, work to rebuild it began in 1914, but it has remained suspended since the beginning of World War I.

The mountain, wholly arid and dry, gives a good idea of the Lord's fast.

Bellarmino Bagatti