Bethmaus
Beth Maʿon | |
  Shown within Mandatory Palestine  Bethmaus (Israel) | |
| Location |  |
|---|---|
| Region | Lower Galilee |
| Coordinates | 32°47′40″N 35°32′00″E / 32.79444°N 35.53333°E |
| Type | village (ruin) |
| History | |
| Periods | Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine |
| Cultures | Jewish |
| Associated with | Jews |
Bethmaus, (
Kitchener visited the site in 1877.[1][2] It was situated upon the hill, directly north-west of the old city of Tiberias, at a distance of one biblical mile,[3] rising to an elevation of 250 metres (820 ft) above sea-level. It is now incorporated within the modern city bounds of Upper Tiberias. Others place the ancient Bethmaus (Ma'on) where is now the Arab ruin, Khirbet Nadhr ad-Din, saying that with the passing of time, the old namesake was transferred to Tell Maʿūn, a short distance away.[4]
The Midrash (Genesis Rabba § 85:7) says of the village, "Beth Maʿon, they ascend to it from Tiberias, but they go down to it from Kefar Shobtai."[5][6] The Jerusalem Talmud, citing a variant account, says that they would go down to Beth Maʿon from its broad place.[7]
History
Based on the potsherds found in situ, the place was inhabited as early as the Bronze Age and Iron Age.[8]
Herod the Tetrarch in Tiberias, and which had the figures of living creatures in it (contrary to Jewish law), but to restore the royal furniture of that house, consisting of candlesticks
made of Corinthian brass, and of royal tables, and of a great quantity of uncoined silver, to the king. However, when Josephus took leave of Beth Maʿon and went into Upper Galilee, before Josephus and the senate of Tiberias could carry out their schemes, certain mariners and poor people of Galilee had plundered the house built by Herod of its effects, and taken away the spoils.
In the early 2nd-century CE, following the
Eleazar ben Killir, echoing the same tradition, also wrote a liturgical poem detailing the 24-priestly wards and their places of residence.[14]
In the 3rd-century CE,
kid of a goat that was roasted whole over a spit without first removing the suet (forbidden fat).[17]
In extant Turkish documents dating to May 1566, the Ottoman ruler, Sultan
Don Joseph Nasi
) demanded more money from the Sultan to complete the project, the Sultan refused to set aside more money for the project. Below Beth Maʿon, between the ruins of the ancient village and Tiberias, are found three natural springs: ʿAin el-Kelbeh, ʿAin et-Tineh and al-Biyyar.
References
- Kitchener (1881), p. 371. Tell Maʿūn is shown on the 1880 Survey of Western Palestine map, sheet no. 6.
- Conder, C.R. (1879), p. 181
- ^ Ishtori Haparchi (2007), p. 56, who makes mention of the village Maʿon, which he describes as being "within a Sabbath day's journey to the west of Tiberias." The editor of the volume has identified the site as Beth Maʿon, mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud, Sotah 1:8, and Baba Metziah 7:1. Ishtori Haparhi had mistaken this Maʿon in Galilee for being the one where David and his men took refuge from King Saul, in I Samuel 23:24.
- ^ M. Aviam & P. Richardson, "Josephus` Galilee in Archeological Perspective", 177-201
- ^ Klein, S. (1939), p. 16
- ^ Neubauer, A. (1868), p. 218
- ^ Original: paloṭetha = perhaps der. of πλατεια ("a broad place"). Above Bethmaus there was an extensive plateau. See Jerusalem Talmud, Sotah 1:8 (7a)
- OCLC 745203905., s.v. Ancient sites in the vicinity of Tiberius: The ruin of Beit Ma'on
- Vita § 12, which happens to be the equivalent of a biblical mile.
- ^ Klein, S. (1939), p. 164 (s.v. בית מעון); Klein, S. (1945), p. 65
- ^ Rosenfeld, B. (1998), p. 82 [26]
- ^ Avi-Yonah, M. (1962), pp. 137–139
- ^ Avi-Yonah, M. (1964), pp. 24–28
- ^ Poem entitled, Lamentation for the 9th of Ab, composed in twenty-four stanzas, and the last line of each stanza contains the name of the village where each priestly family lived.
- Babylonian Talmud(Baba Kama 99b)
- Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 139a; Yebamot 64b), Jerusalem Talmud(Eruvin 5:1)
- ^ Babylonian Talmud (Ḥullin 97a)
- ^ Heyd, U. (1966), p. 199
Bibliography
- JSTOR 27924896.
- JSTOR 23614642.
- Conder, C.R. (1879). Tent Work in Palestine - A Record of Discovery and Adventure. Vol. 2. London: Richard Bentley & Son.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- JSTOR 23416042.
- Ishtori Haparchi (2007). Avraham Yosef Havatzelet (ed.). Sefer Kaftor Ve'ferah (in Hebrew). Vol. 2 (chapter 11). Jerusalem.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Klein, S. (1909). "Barajta der vierundzwanzig Priester Abteilungen (Baraitta of the Twenty-Four Priestly Divisions)". Beiträge zur Geographie und Geschichte Galiläas (in German).
- Klein, S. (1939). Sefer Ha-Yishuv (The Book of the Yishuv: A treasure of information and records, inscriptions and memoirs, preserved in Israel and in the people in the Hebrew language and in other languages on the settlement of the Land of Israel) (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik Institute.
- Klein, S. (1945). Yehuda Elitzur (ed.). Land of the Galilee: From the Time of Babylonian Immigration until the Redaction of the Talmud (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.
- Neubauer, A. (1868). Géographie du Talmud (in French). Paris: M. Lévy Frères.
- Rosenfeld, Ben-Zion (1998). "Places of Rabbinic Settlement in the Galilee, 70-400 C.E.: Periphery versus Center". Hebrew Union College Annual. 69: 57–103. JSTOR 23508858.
External links
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6: IAA, Wikimedia commons
