Search

[German version] (Hebrew plištīm; LXX Φιλιστιείμ/ Philistieím, Gn 10:14 et alibi; Ἀλλόφυλοι/ Allóphyloi, 1 Chr 14:10 et alibi; Vulgate Philistim). In the Old Testament the inhabitants of a pentapolis with the cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath in the southern coastal plain east of the Mediterranean Sea (Palaestina). They are attested for the first time as prst/ pw-r-s­-ṯ in the context of a sea and land battle in 1177 BC in inscriptions and reliefs from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III in Madinat Hābū (western Thebes) along with other…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Sassanids | Writing | Syria | Christianity | Zenobia | Coloniae | Diadochi and Epigoni | Alexander | Commerce | Hasmonaeans | Hellenistic states | Colonization | Mesopotamia | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pilgrimage | Pompeius | Rome | Aegean Koine (Tyre. Phoenician, Ugaritic ṣr; Egyptian Ḏwr, Dr; Akkadian Ṣurru; Hebrew Ṣor; Greek ἡ Τύρος/ hē Týros; Latin Tyrus, feminine; Arabic Ṣūr) was a Phoenician island city that was connected to the mainland when Alexander [4] the Great had a causeway built for its conques…

[1] Son of King David [German version] I. Old Testament S. (Hebrew Šelomō, literally 'his peace' or 'his restitution'). Successor to David [1] (2 Sam 9-1 Kg 2) in the second third of the 10th cent. BC. His 40-year reign (1 Kg 11:42, cf. 1 Kg 2:11) is of ideal duration, resulting from his esteem as a wise man and temple-builder (1 Kg 3:6-8, cf. Sir 47:12-18). He is criticized for building altars to foreign deities (1 Kg 11:1-13) and his introduction of forced labour (1 Kg 5:27-32). Stories about S. (1 Kg 3-1…

[German version] The Hebrew (Sam. 1 6; Kgs 2 14,11) term (‘house of the sun’) probably refers to veneration of the sun god (Jos. 19,41). The name is preserved in the Arab village Ain Šams (‘source of the sun’) that earlier lay east of Tall ar-Rumaila (‘the sandy ground’), with which the ancient Beth Shemesh (BS) is to be identified. 20 km west of Jerusalem, BS had a geographically advantageous and trade-oriented location. After settlement in the middle of the Bronze Age, the place enjoyed an initial intercultural upsurge in the late Bronz…

This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Christianity | Coloniae | Diadochi and Epigoni | Hasmonaeans | Hellenistic states | Colonization | Mesopotamia | Natural catastrophes | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pompeius | Aegean Koine (Σιδών/ Sidṓn; Hebrew Ṣîdôn, Arabic Ṣaidā). [German version] I. To Alexander the Great In Homer (Hom. Il. 6,290 f.; 23,743 f.; Hom. Od. 4,83 f., 618 et passim; cf. Jos 13:6; 1 Kg 5:20), S., 35 km north east of Tyrus on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, is synonymous with Phoenicia in general. In the 1st millennium BC, i…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Phoenicians, Poeni | Aegean Koine (Tall al-Mutasallim in the Plain of Jesreel) was settled from the Neolithic until the Persian period (6th-4th millennia BC). Archaeological finds include temples, palaces and installations for water supply, as well as worked ivory and a clay tablet fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh (14th century BC). M. (Egyptian m-k-t) is first mentioned by name in the time of Thutmosis III (15th century BC) and in letters sent by Biridiya, the ruler of the city of M. (Akkadian URU Ma-gi-id-da KI), to the Phar…

[German version] Place in the eastern Negev (Nm 21,1; 33,40; Jos 12,14; Judges 1,16), mentioned in a source other than the Bible, by the Pharaoh Shoshenk ( c. 920 BC) in a list of towns; first settled around 3000-2650 BC. In the 9th cent. BC, a fortress with a sanctuary was built on the tell and repeatedly destroyed. In the 1st cent. BC, a Roman fort belonged to the Herodianic Limes Palaestinae. A. is a site of significant finds for ostraka with inscriptions in Hebrew and Aramaic. Liwak, Rüdiger (Berlin) Bibliography Y. Aharoni, Arad Inscriptions, 1981 Z. Herzog, M. Aharoni, A. F. Rainey,…

[German version] (Ζεβέκη/ Zebékē). Josephus [4] Flavius mentions Z. as the place of a battle mentioned in Judges 1:1-7 between the tribes of Judah and Simeon on the one hand and the Canaanites, led by Adoni-Zebek (Jos. Ant. Iud. 5,121: Ἀδωνιζέβεκος/ Adōnizébekos), on the other. The Hebrew form of the name in Judges 1:4f. is Bȧzȧq or Adonī-Bȧzȧq (in manuscripts of the Josephus tradition, 'Zebeke' is sometimes corrected to Βεζέκη/ Bezékē). The text of Judges 1 derives the place name from the personal name Adonī-Bȧzȧq and places it near Jerusalem (cf. Judges 1:7). …

[English version] Das Dorf Ḏı̄bān, 4 km nördl. des Arnon, hat den Namen des in der Nähe gelegenen ant. D. bewahrt, das von den israelitischen Stämmen Gad (Nm 32,34) bzw. Ruben (Jos 13,17) beansprucht wurde. Der Ort, in dem eine Steleninschr. des Moabiterkönigs Meša (TUAT 1, 646-650) gefunden wurde (vgl. 2 Kg 3,4), war seit dem 9. Jh.v.Chr. moabitisch (Nm 21,30; Is 15,2; Jer 48,18; 22). Von frühbrz. Spuren abgesehen, haben Ausgrabungen eine eisenzeitliche Besiedlung ergeben, deren Wohnarchitektur durch nabatä., röm. und byz. Überbauungen weitgehend zerstört ist. …

[English version] Platz im östl. Negev (Nm 21,1; 33,40; Jos 12,14; Ri 1,16), außerbiblisch in einer Ortsliste des Pharao Schoschenk (ca. 920 v. Chr.) erwähnt; war zunächst von ca. 3000-2650 v. Chr. besiedelt. Auf dem Tell entstand im 9. Jh. v. Chr. eine wiederholt zerstörte Festung mit Heiligtum. Im 1. Jh. v. Chr. gehörte ein röm. Fort zum herodianischen Limes Palaestinae. A. ist ein bedeutender Fundort für Ostraka mit hebr. und aram. Inschriften. Liwak, Rüdiger (Berlin) Bibliography Y. Aharoni, Arad Inscriptions, 1981  Z. Herzog, M. Aharoni, A. F. Rainey, S. Moshkovitz, The Israelit…

[German version] I. Samaria (Hebrew Šomron, LXX Σαμάρεια/ Samáreia), seat of government of the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel from the reign of Omri (882-871 BC; Judah and Israel). The newly-founded city, whose name (root šmr, 'to guard, protect; watch-tower') refers to its strategic location, was not, as is often assumed, a Canaanite city-state alongside Jezreel as the Israelite centre. S. was the Israelite royal seat, and Jezreel a royal demesne. As is evident from Assyrian and OT texts, the rulers of S. were compelled to deliver tribute to the Assyrians b…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | Zenobia | Hasmonaeans (Besan). 25 km south of Lake Galilee (Lake Tiberias) on the Tall al-Ḥiṣn; the ancient city was settled from Chalcolithic time to the Crusades. The Arabic name is derived from the Hebrew bēt-šean (Egyptian btsr, Cuneiform script Bı̄tšāni). Owing to its strategic and economic significance, B. became a military and administrative centre for Egyptian Asian policy from the 15th cent. to the middle of the 12th cent. BC. It was the only city in Israel to…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. Definition Juda (= J.) and Israel (= I.) are names that, in the course of history, have displayed geographical, political, ethnic and theological components. J. was initially the name of a region in southern  Palaestina; later, it referred to the fictitious founding hero of a tribe and thus became the name of the tribe itself. J. became a political construct with David's kingdom (10th cent. BC). The name J. (in OT yhwdh, in Ancient Hebrew texts outside the OT yhd/yhwd, Assyrian ia-u/ ʾu-da-a-a, Babylonian ia-a-ḫu-du) possibly means ‘ Yahweh is v…

(Hebrew Menašše; Greek Μανασσῆ(ς)/ Manassê(s)). [German version] [1] Israelite tribe Israelite tribe in Middle Palestine, east of the Jordan ( Judah and Israel). Liwak, Rüdiger (Berlin) [German version] [2] King of Judah King of Judah. During his unusually long reign ( c. 696-642 BC), Judah was restricted to Jerusalem and its environs after the Assyrian conquests of 701 BC ( Judah and Israel), but progressively regenerated politically and economically [2. 169-181]. M. (in cuneiform script Me-na-se-e/si-i or Mi-in-se-e) as a loyal vassal of the Assyrians was obliged to pr…

[German version] Arabic, ‘steep track’, situated at the north-eastern end of the gulf of the same name, first mentioned by medieval geographers as aqabat ayla (steep track of Aila). Aila, 1 km north of the place today known as Aqaba, was, in the Nabataean-Roman-Byzantine era, the name of the settlement replacing the OT Elat. In 1 Kg 9,26-28 the Edomite city of Elat/A. serves as the topographical approximation for the site of the port Ezjon-Geber, from where King Solomon is supposed to have condu…

(Νεεμιας/ Neemias, hebräisch Nehæmjāh). [German version] I. Old Testament According to the book of the same name, of which the so-called ‘Nehemiah-Memoir’ in Neh 1-7 and 11-13 forms the historical basis, Nehemiah is the cupbearer of the great king of Persia (Neh 1:11). In 445 BC (Neh 1:1; 2:1ff.), he came to Jerusalem on the instructions of Artaxerxes' [1] I. Amidst opposition (e.g. Ezr 4:8ff.), he supervised the rebuilding of the walls, which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II,  in only 52 days (Neh 6:15). He administered the settlement in Jerusalem in accordance with a type of syn…

[German version] (Ζιφηνή/ Ziphēnḗ). Z. is the term used by Iosephus [4] Flavius (Jos. Ant. Iud. 6,275; 277) for the wilderness of Zīph (1 Sam 23:14 f.; 26,2). In that area situated near the OT city of Zīph (Jos 15,55, modern Tall Zīf, 6 km to the south of Hebron), David [1] hid while fleeing from Saul (1 Sam 23:24-28, cf. Ps 54:2) whose life he left unassailed in a nocturnal action, according to a legendary story (1 Sam 26:1-25) out of respect for his kingship ('The Anointed One'). Liwak, Rüdiger (Berlin)

[German version] (Ῥαφία/ Rhaphía, Egyptian Rpḥ, Akkadian Rapiḫu). First mentioned in Egyptian city lists of the 2nd millennium BC, to be found southeast of Gaza in Ḫirbat Bir Rafaḥ. The first dispute between the Assyrians and Egyptians took place here when Ḫanūnu of Gaza with Egyptian support unsuccessfully fought against Sargon [3] II in 720 BC. In 217 BC in R., Ptolemy [7] IV Philopator was victorious over Antiochus [5] III (Pol. 5,82-86; 3 Macc 1:4). The latter established Seleucid rule in 200 BC and in 193 BC through …

[German Version] I. Terminology The term wealth belongs to the semantic field that includes kingdom, empire, violence, dominion, and glory. In that context it suggests first an abundance of earthly goods that brings power, then abundance or profusion of almost anything. A distinction must be made between an economic sense of wealth and a broader figurative sense. In its economic sense it means property, possessions, the sum of available goods and values (Value/Values) that substantially exceeds what is considered …

No secure dates can be given for the chronology of the Pre-Monarchic Period and the beginnings of the monarchy. For the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel narrower variations are still possible, since it is unclear what the effects of coregencies (2 Kg 15:1f., 5, 7, 32f., 38) and rival kings (1 Kg 16:21f., 23, 28) were, whether ante- or post- dating was used (i.e. including or excluding the accession year), or where the year’s beginning should be situated (in Fall or in Spring). The dates f…