Abila (Peraea)

Coordinates: 31°50′59″N 35°40′43″E / 31.84972°N 35.67861°E / 31.84972; 35.67861
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about Abila in Peraea. For the Abila in the Decapolis, see Abila (Decapolis). For Abil es-Suk in Syria, see Abila Lysaniou.
Tall el-Hammam that is identified by most scholars as Abel-Shittim.

31°50′59″N 35°40′43″E / 31.84972°N 35.67861°E / 31.84972; 35.67861

Abila (

Peraea, near Livias, about twelve km northeast of the north shore of the Dead Sea.[citation needed] The site is identified with modern Khirbet el-Kafrayn, Jordan and identified on the Madaba Map as an unnamed icon.[1][2][3] There is a widely supported theory that in the Hebrew Bible, it is referred to as Abel-Shittim, as well as in the shorter forms Shittim and Ha-Shittim.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Biblical Abel-Shittim

Abel-Shittim,

Baal-peor incident with the Midianites (Numbers 25:1–14). It was also the final headquarters of Joshua before he crossed the Jordan (Joshua 2:1
).

The location is transliterated as Shittim in the

Good News Translation has Acacia Valley and the New King James Version has Acacia Grove.[Note 1]

The place is mentioned as a-bi-il-šiṭ-ṭi along with Gilead and described as "the border of the land Bīt Ḫumria (Israel)" in the royal annals of Tiglath-Pileser III.[10]

Identification

Abel-Shittim is identified with the area around

Tall el-Hammam, in the Late Bronze Age.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Josephus' Abila (1st century CE)

Date palms at the south-west edge of Tall el-Hammam, Jordan

Deuteronomy.[11] In 1906 there was still an acacia grove not far from the place, although palms as mentioned by Josephus were not to be found.[12]

Pliny commented on how the dates of Livias were of high quality both juicy and sweet.[13] Theodosius also praised the dates of Livias stating "it has there some great Nicolas dates" (ibi habet dactalum Nicolaum maiorem).[14] The Madaba Map also depicts the date palms still growing in the area of Livias-Betharamtha in the sixth century AD.

During the

Roman Imperial army, and was used by them to resettle deserters who had joined the Roman ranks.[15]

Identification

The archaeological site of Tell el-Hammam near Abila is identified by some[who?] as Livias.[citation needed][dubious – discuss] Date palms still grow at the edge of Tell el-Hammam.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ All translations except Jerusalem Bible are taken from Bible Gateway www.biblegateway.com, accessed 27 June 2015

References

  1. ^ Glueck (1943), pp. 7–26 (see 15, 21).
  2. ^ Glueck (1951), p. 377.
  3. ^ Graves & Stripling (2007)
  4. ^ a b Thomson (1886)
  5. ^ a b Glueck (1951), p. 378.
  6. ^ a b Glueck (1943), p. 15.
  7. ^ a b Miller & Tucker (1974)
  8. ^ a b Harrison (1983)
  9. ^ a b MacDonald (2000)
  10. ^ Hayim Tadmor, The Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III, King of Assyria (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994), p. 105, 131, 134.
  11. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities 4.8.1.
  12. Jewish Encyclopedia
    , 1906.
  13. ^ Pliny Nat. 13.44
  14. ^ Theodosius Top. 19
  15. ^ Josephus, War 4.7.6 (4.437).

Sources

Bibliography

Sources

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