Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>]

        -----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