Gerar
Gerar ( Hebrew גְּרָר, Gərar) is the name of an ancient town and city-state, probably in southern Canaan halfway between Gaza and Beersheba was. The name means “possibly 'scraped / bare place'”. Gerar is mostly believed to be at Tel Haror (= Tell Abu Hurere) between Netiwot and Ofakim . Gerar never belonged to the tribal area of Judah or the Judean Kingdom .
Mentions of Gerars
Pre-biblical documents
The place is written in cuneiform texts from the 2nd millennium BC. Chr. , In Egyptian lists from the time of Thutmose III. (ruled 1479–1425 BC) and mentioned in the Amarna letters (14th century BC). According to Hübner, it is not certain whether the places mentioned are the biblical Gerar.
Bible
In the Bible the place is mentioned for the first time in the table of people in Gen 10.19 EU .
Abraham , the progenitor of the people of Israel , is said to have settled there for a while ( Gen 20.1 EU ). At that time, according to biblical tradition, Abimelech ruled as Philistine king in Gerar ( Gen 20.2 EU ; 26.1 EU ). Isaac later also lived in Gerar ( Gen 26.6 EU ).
According to the biblical story , Abraham is said to have given his wife Sarah to this king as a tribute for permission to live there . This jeopardized the promise that YHWH had given him before he set out for Canaan: He would have offspring and a great people would emerge from them. But Sarah had remained childless until then, and Abraham passed her off as his sister in order to protect his clan from possible attack. But then God appeared to the foreign king in a dream and warned him not to touch the woman who did not belong to him. Abimelech then confronted Abraham in front of his court because of his mistrust, gave him back his wife and cattle and silver as a gift. He also gave him the option to settle where he wanted. At Abraham's prayer to God, Abimelech was cured of sterility and his wives were able to bear children again ( Gen 20 EU ).
Asa (ruled 913–873 BC) is said to have followed the beaten Cushites to Gerar and then plundered the surrounding areas ( 2 Chr 14,12f EU ).
The place Gedor ( 1 Chr 4.39 EU ) is represented in the Septuagint with Gerar ( 1 Chr 4.39 LXX ).
Hellenistic and Post-Biblical Period
In 2 Makk 13.24 EU , Gerar appears as the area name. Gerar also occurs in Josephus ' Jewish Antiquities and in Eusebius' Onomasticon . Later places with the same name were probably not exactly coincident with the biblical Gerar. The Ottoman Military Railroad in Palestine had a light rail line that led to Tel Haror.
See also
literature
- Ulrich Huebner: Gerar . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 4 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995, Sp. 494-495 .
- Immanuel Benzinger : Gerara . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 1, Stuttgart 1910, Col. 1240.
Web links
- Edgar Kellenberger: Gerar. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
- William Smith : Gerar . In: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 1854.
- Gerar . BiblePlaces.com, accessed July 28, 2014 (with images from Tel Haror)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 31 ° 22 ′ 54 ″ N , 34 ° 36 ′ 25 ″ E