Gibeon (ancient city)

In Jewish law

In regard to the Gibeonites and the killing of seven descendants of King Saul: According to the Babylonian Talmud: "...As to the nethinim, however, let them be summoned and we shall pacify them. Immediately the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them ... 'What shall I do for you? and wherewith should I make atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord'? And the Gibeonites said to him: 'It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house,' neither is it for us [to put] any man etc. ... Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us and we will hang them up unto the Lord etc.' He tried to pacify them but they would not be pacified. Thereupon he said to them: This nation is distinguished by three characteristics: They are merciful, bashful and benevolent. 'Merciful', for it is written, And shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee. 'Bashful', for it is written, That His fear may be before you. 'Benevolent', for it is written, That he may command his children and his household etc. Only he who cultivates these three characteristics is fit to join this nation. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore into Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. Why just these? — R. Huna replied: They were made to pass before the Holy Ark. He whom the Ark retained [was condemned] to death and he whom the Ark did not retain was saved alive.

R. Hana b. Kattina raised an objection: But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul! — He did not allow him to pass. Was there favouritism then! — In fact he did let him pass and it retained him, but he invoked on his behalf divine mercy and it released him. But here, too, favouritism is involved!, — The fact, however, is that he invoked divine mercy that the Ark should not retain him. But, surely, it is written, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children etc.! — R. Hiyya b. Abba replied in the name of R. Johanan: It is better that a letter be rooted out of the Torah than that the Divine name shall be publicly profaned. And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured upon them from heaven; and she suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on then by day, nor the beast of the field by night. But, surely, it is written, His body shall not remain all night upon the tree! — R. Johanan replied in the name of R. Simeon b. Jehozadak: It is proper that a letter be rooted out of the Torah so that thereby the heavenly name shall be publicly hallowed. For passers-by were enquiring, 'What kind of men are these?' — 'These are royal princes' — 'And what have they done?' — 'They laid their hands upon unattached strangers' — Then they exclaimed: 'There is no nation in existence which one ought to join as much as this one. If [the punishment of] royal princes was so great. how much more that of common people; and if such [was the justice done for] unattached proselytes, how much more so for Israelites

A hundred and fifty thousand men immediately joined Israel; as it is said, And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bore burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountain. Might not these have been Israelites? — This cannot be assumed, for it is written, But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondservants. But that might have represented mere public service! — [The deduction,] however, [is made] from the following: And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the Land of Israel, etc. And they were found a hundred and fifty thousand etc. And he set threescore and ten thousand of them to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountains.

Was it David, however, who issued the decree of prohibition against the nethinim? Moses, surely, issued that decree, for it is written, from the hewer of thy wood to the drawer of thy water! — Moses issued a decree against that generation only while David issued a decree against all generations.

But Joshua, in fact, issued the decree against them, for it is written, And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord! — Joshua made his decree for the period during which the Sanctuary was in existence while David made his decree for the time during which the Sanctuary was not in existence.

In Rabbinic Judaism, the alleged descendants of the Gibeonites, known as Natinim, are treated differently from ordinary Jews. They may not, for example, marry a Jew by birth. However, a Natin may marry Mamzerim and Gerim. The men of Gibeon, with Melatiah the Gibeonite at their head, repaired a piece of the wall of Jerusalem near the old gate on the west side of the city (Nehemiah 3:7), while the Nethinim dwelt at Ophel on the east side (Nehemiah 3:26). At the time of Nehemiah and Ezra, they were fully integrated into the Judean community, and were signatories to the former's covenant. Several centuries later, their status had declined rapidly. In the 10 genealogical classes (yuhasin) set forth in the Mishnah, they are ranked above shetukim (people of whose paternity is unknown) and assufim (foundlings) but beneath mamzerim, the offspring of illicit unions, and were prohibited from marrying Israellites of good standing, though intermarriage between the last four classes, which included freed slaves, was permitted. A child of such illicit unions was defined as a natin. Whereas the Biblical prohibitions against intermarriage with the Moabites, Ammonites, Egyptians and Edomites only applied for a certain number of generations or did not apply at all to their daughters, the ban on marriage with Mamzerim and Nethinim was deemed "perpetual and applies both to males and females".

Archaeology

The earliest known mention of Gibeon in an extra-biblical source is in a list of cities on the wall of the Amun temple at Karnak, celebrating the invasion of Israel by Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq I (945–924 BCE). Josephus placed Gibeon at 40 furlongs from Jerusalem. The 10th-century lexicographer David ben Abraham al-Fasi, identified al-Jib with the ancient city Gibeon, which view was corroborated also by the Hebrew Lexicon compiled by Wilhelm Gesenius and Frants Buhl ("now al-Ǧīb"). The first identification of al-Jib with the ancient Canaanite city of Gibeon was made by Frantz Ferdinand von Troilo in 1666, and later adopted by Edward Robinson in 1838 in his Biblical Researches in Palestine. Later discovery of the Al Jib jar handles added weight to this identification. The remains of Gibeon were excavated in six expeditions from 1956 to 1962, led by the University of Pennsylvania archaeologist James B. Pritchard.

Early Bronze Age

Gibeon was founded in the Early Bronze Age (EB, c. 3300– 2000 BCE), for the excavators discovered 14 EB storage jars beneath the foundations of the Iron Age wall. Other EB remains were discovered at the top of the tell, but the stratigraphy had been destroyed by British gunfire during the First World War. It is probable that there was a defensive wall, but this has not yet been found. Tombs cut into the rock on the east site of the hill contained EB jars and bowls, formed first by hand and then finished on a slow wheel. The Early Bronze city was destroyed by fire, but no date has been determined for this destruction.

Middle Bronze Age

Permanent settlements in Gibeon appeared in Middle Bronze Age I-II.

Late Bronze Age

No trace of a Late Bronze Age city has been found. Only seven tombs are known from the period, but they nevertheless point to a degree of sophistication, as they contained imported Cypriote ware and local potters attempted to copy Mycenaean and Cypriote pottery. It would appear that some, at least, of these tombs had been cut during earlier periods and were being reused. Pritchard suggested that somewhere in an area not touched by his four-year dig, remains of the Bronze Age "great city" from the Book of Joshua might still be found.

Iron Age I

During Iron I (c. 1200-1000 BC), a massive wall was constructed around the crown of the hill and a huge pool was cut in the living rock just inside the wall. In a first phase it was cut with a diameter of 11.8 m to a depth of 10.8 m, with a spiral staircase of 79 steps cut into the walls of the pool, and in a second phase a tunnel was added that continues downwards to a water chamber 24 m below the level of the city. It is possible, but cannot be proven, that this structure is the "pool of Gibeon" of 2 Samuel 2:13.

Iron Age II

Kingdom of Yehuda

In Iron Age II, another tunnel of 93 steps was constructed to a better water source below the city starting from a point near the pool. A second access point to this source from the base of the hill is still in use today.

Gibeon flourished during the late Iron Age II, when the city had large fortifications, a large wine industry and an advanced water system. To the east of the tell, a lavish cemetery of the same period was discovered.

The flat and fertile land with many springs which surrounds it gave rise to a flourishing economy, attested to in the large number of ancient jars and wine cellars discovered there. The jars could hold 45 litres of wine each and 66 wine cellars two meters deep and dug out of rock have been unearthed in Jib.

In the 8th and 7th century BCE there was a considerable wine industry there; cellars with room for 95,000 liters of wine have been found. Impressive among these finds are sixty-three wine cellars. Hebrew inscriptions of גבען (GBʻN) on the handles of wine storage jars, most of which were excavated from a large pool matching the biblical description, made the identification of Gibeon secure and a landmark product of biblical archaeology. Pritchard published articles on their production of wine, the Hebrew inscriptions, the rock-cut wine cellars, and the well engineered water conduits that supplied the city water.

Classical Age

From the 6th to the beginning of the 1st century BCE, there is scant evidence of occupation. Gibeon was possibly a dependency of Jerusalem, and was probably not fortified at the time.

Hellenistic period

Potsherds and coinage from the Late Hellenistic from the time of Antiochus III.

At a nearby ruin, built on the southern slope of a ridge at the western side of the al-Jib highland, archaeologists discovered a Hellenistic-Second Temple period dwelling, in which were found a plastered ritual bath with three descending staircases and an industrial zone with lime kilns.

Hasmonean period

Finds also date to the Hasmonean and the time of John Hyrcanus.

Roman period

During the Roman period there was considerable building, including stepped baths and water conduits.

During the early phases of the First Jewish–Roman War, the Roman governor of Syria (63–65), Cestius Gallus, camped in Gibeon while en route to Jerusalem and again during his retreat.

Eusebius, in his Onomasticon, mentions Gibeon (Gabaon) as formerly being inhabited by the Gibeonites, who were a Hivite nation, and that their village was located about 4 milestones to the west of Bethel, near Ramah. The 10th-century lexicographer, David ben Abraham al-Fasi identified al-Ǧīb" (now al-Jib) with the ancient city Gibeon, which view was accepted by Frants Buhl and by other historical geographers and described as such in the Hebrew Lexicon compiled by Wilhelm Gesenius, and proved by Hebrew inscriptions unearthed in 1956.