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  • From: Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>
  • To: "'b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu'" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Locating Bethel
  • Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 02:34:37 +0200




-----Original Message-----
From: John Ronning [SMTP:ronning AT xsinet.co.za]
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 22:28
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: Locating Bethel

Walter wrote:

>
> "Edward Robinson (1867:452-53) was the first modern scholar to
propose that
> Beeroth be identified with el-Bireh...He argued that this site not
only has
> toponymic support but fits Eusebius' description : "el-Bireh can
be seen on
> the right at about 7 miles distance from Jerusalem as one travels
to Emmaus
> via el-Jib."

This is, of course, Robinson being quoted, not Eusebius.
(Eusebius would not make reference to any "el-Bireh.") What
Eusebius said is that Beeroth was at the seventh mile marker
from Jerusalem on the road to Nicapolis, which is sufficient
to exclude el-Bireh (which is on the road to
Neapolis/Nablus). Robinson evidently wanted to make
Eusebius say that when one is at said location, one could
see Beeroth off in the distance, several miles away - but
that is not what Eusebius said. Where Eusebius put Beeroth
makes sense based on the fact that it was part of the
Gibeonite coalition - it's quite a ways from el-Bireh.
...

It is, however, interesting to note that Hieronymus translates the
said part of Eusebius as: Beeroth sub colle Gabaon. ostenditur hodieque
uilla ab Aelia euntibus Neapolim in septimo lapide.

NPL





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