Zoar (Bible)
Coordinates: 31 ° 2 '48.5 " N , 35 ° 30' 8.8" E
Zoar is an ancient settlement on the east coast of the Dead Sea . The location of the place is shown on the mosaic map of Madaba , a cartographic representation of the south-eastern Mediterranean from the middle of the 6th century AD.
According to biblical tradition, Lot , Abraham's nephew , found refuge in Zoar after the destruction of Sodom ( Gen 19: 20–22 EU ). He is said to have given the city its name, alluding to its small size. According to Gen 14.2 EU , the city would initially have been called Bela, which as a descriptive name refers to the fate of the coalition to which Zoar is said to have belonged ( Sodom and Gomorrah ).
In Roman times the city belonged to the Provincia Arabia or Palaestina tertia . A Byzantine cemetery had numerous gravestones inscribed in Greek and Aramaic . Based on the script / language, a distinction can be made between Jewish and Christian graves. The Jewish gravestones show the day of death as a special innovation. Likewise, the name of the father is usually mentioned for women instead of the name of the man, as was customary until then.
Today there is a titular bishopric of the Roman Catholic Church that goes back to the ancient bishopric.
See also
literature
- Haggai Misgav: Two Jewish Tombstones from Zoar. In: Israel Museum Studies in Archeology 5 (2006), pp. 25–46.
- Yael Wilfand: Aramaic Tombstones from Zoar and Jewish Conceptions of the Afterlife. In: Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009), pp. 510-539.
Web links
- Bible Atlas, Dead Sea sheet
- Detlef Jericke : Zoar. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
- Konstantinos D. Politis: The Sanctuary of Agios Lot, the City of Zoara and the Zared River.
