Gilead

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Gilead (Hebrew גלעד, Gil'ad) denotes a biblical land that is said to have been named after its ancestor. It lies east of the Jordan between the Yarmuk River in the north on the border with Damascus and the Nahr ez-Zarqa (Jabbok) River in the south on the border with Ammon . It was acquired by the Aramaic king Hazael of Damascus in the 8th century BC. Incorporated into his sphere of influence. Later it was one of the main areas of the Decapolis .

The administrative city was Ramot-Gilead (Tell Rumeith).

Biblical testimony

The Bible tells of the landings of the tribes of Reuben , Gad and parts of Manasseh in Gilead. The founding father of Gilead was then Machir, the son of the ancestor Manasseh.

Jacob fled from Laban to the mountains of Gilead ( Gen 31.21  EU ). There God ordered Laban not to harm Jacob.

Gilead was the home of the seer Balaam , son of Beor, who, in addition to the Balaam text from the settlement hill Tell Deir Alla near Penuel , also appears in an Aramaic text and has also influenced the biblical narrative ( Num 22-24  EU ).

According to Dtn 34.1  EU it was part of the promised land .

After the return of King Saul to Gibeah after the battle of Eben-Ezer, the Ammonite king Nahash oppressed the Gad and Reuben tribes . About 7,000 men escaped this distress by fleeing to Gilead. Thereupon the Ammonite king besieged the city. As a result, Saul provided military aid to the residents of the Gilead city of Jabesh ( 1 Sam 11  EU ).

Gilead was also considered to be rich in medicinal herbs.

Literary adaptation

The term "Gilead" is also in the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale ( The Handmaid's Tale ) and its sequel The witnesses ( The Testament ) by Margaret Atwood used where one in the future, the United States detaching patriarchal , partly theocratic military dictatorship called, whose ideology is officially based on the Bible or the Old Testament , but in truth on twisted and out of context Bible verses. Volker Schlöndorff filmed this topic in The Handmaid's Story . The plot of the TV series The Handmaid's Tale, which is based on Atwood's novel and has been released since 2017, is also set in this totalitarian, Christian fundamentalist state called Gilead.

There is also a place called "Gilead" in Stephen King's Dark Tower Saga . It is the original place of origin of the protagonist Roland Deschain.

In Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven , the protagonist asks: "... is there balm in Gilead?" ( Jer 8,22  EU ; Eng. "... is there a cure in Gilead?")

Georgy Porgy at the end of Roald Dahl's story of the same name claims: "There is always some balm in Gilead".

Finally, Christopher Paolini names a place Gil'ead in his Eragon books .

Marilynne Robinson , an American author, also published a novel Gilead in 2005 .

music

Gilead is mentioned in the text of the Johann Sebastian Bach cantatas There is nothing healthy about my body and you will cry and howl (text by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler ).

There Is a Balm in Gilead is a traditional spiritual song.

The American singer and composer Rickie Lee Jones called her 2009 album Balm in Gilead .

The German singer-songwriter Rainald Grebe sings about a mental hospital called "Gilead" in his stage concert and on the album Das Rainald Grebe Konzert 2012, which was released for this purpose - presumably in relation to community service in Gilead III or IV.

The German techno DJ Bauernfeind processed his impressions of the protests in Hong Kong in his LP “Mount Gilead”, which was released in 2020 .

Other earnings

The Evangelical Clinic Bethel (Bielefeld) has been operating large clinics under the name "Gilead", now I-IV, for 100 years.

The S&P 500 pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences , founded in 1987, also uses this name - with reference to Jeremiah 8:22 (“Is there no cure in Gilead or there is no doctor there?”) Because of the appropriate combination of words.

In the 19th century, the abolitionist John Brown founded the League of Gileadites, a group that protected black citizens from slavers.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard A. Gabriel: The Military History of Ancient Israel , Praeger Publishers, 2003, ISBN 0-275-97798-6 , p. 203
  2. ↑ [1]