Bible Dictionary
JERICHO
JERICHO
Important city in the Jordan Valley (Deut. 34:1, 3), on the west bank of the river, about 8 km from the northern coast of the Dead Sea, and approximately 27 km from Jerusalem.
Jericho is located at the bottom of the slope that leads to the mountainous plateau of Judah. The city was known as the city of palm trees (Deut. 34:3; Judges 3:13); The first mention in Scripture is given in relation to the Israelite camp at Shittim (Num. 22:1; 26:3).
The location of Jericho, a highly fortified city, gave it control of the lower Jordan and the passes that led to the western mountains; The only way the Israelites could advance into Canaan was to take the city.
Joshua sent two spies to spy out the city (Joshua 2:1-24), the people miraculously crossed the Jordan on dry land, and pitched their tents in front of the city. By order of God, the men of war circled the city, once a day, for six consecutive days.
In the middle of the soldiers, the priests carried the ark of the covenant, preceded by seven priests blowing trumpets. On the seventh day they circled the city seven times; At the end of the seventh round, as the long blast of the trumpets sounded, the army broke into a loud clamor, the walls collapsed, and the Israelites entered the city.
As for the date, it would be around the year 1403 BC. (cf. EXODUS AND PILGRIMAGE THROUGH THE DESERT).
The city had been proclaimed anathema. Except for Rahab, who had given refuge to the spies, and his family, all the other inhabitants were killed. The gold, the silver, the precious objects, entered the treasury of Jehovah. Joshua placed a curse on anyone who rebuilt the city (Josh. 5:13-6:26).
It was assigned to Benjamin; It was located on the borders of Benjamin and Ephraim (Josh. 16:1, 7; 18:12, 21).
Eglon, king of Moab, made it his residence at the time when he oppressed the Israelites (Judg. 3:13).
In the reign of Ahab, Hiel of Bethel fortified the city; In the course of this fortification he lost, or sacrificed, his two sons, in fulfillment of Joshua’s curse (1 Kings 16:34).
During Elisha’s ministry there was a community of prophets in Jericho (2 Kings 2:5).
Elijah, on his way to be caught up to heaven, passed through Jericho with Elisha (2 Kings 2:4, 15, 18).
In Jericho the men of Judah who had been taken prisoner by the army of Pekah, king of Israel, were released (2 Chron. 28:15).
The Chaldeans seized Zedekiah near Jericho (2 Kings 25:5 Jer. 39:5 52:8).
After the return from exile, some of its inhabitants helped build the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 3:2).
Bacchides, a Syrian general, built the walls of Jericho in the time of the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 9:50).
At the beginning of Herod’s reign the Romans sacked Jericho (Ant. 14:15, 3).
Herod then beautified it by building a palace and, on the hill behind the city, built a citadel which he called Cypro (Ant. 16:5, 2; 17:13, 1; Wars 121, 4, 9).
The parable of the Good Samaritan is set on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho (Lk. 10:30).
The healing of blind Bartimaeus and his companion took place on the road to Jericho (Mt. 20:29; Luke 18:35);
Zacchaeus, whom Jesus called to stay in his house and give him salvation, lived in Jericho (Lk. 19: 1, 2).
Jericho is almost 240 m away. below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, in a tropical climate, where balsam trees, henna, and sycamores grew (Song. 1:14; Luke 19:2, 4; Wars 4:8, 3).
The roses of Jericho were considered extraordinarily beautiful (Sir. 24:14).
Ancient Jericho rose very close to the abundant waters called today ‘Ain es-Sultãn; this is undoubtedly the fountain that Elisha healed (2 Kings 2:12-22; Wars 4:8, 3).
Modern Jericho, in Arabic “Er-Riha”, is located 1.5 km southeast of the fountain.
Archeology:
Ernst Selin and the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft company (1907-1909) began excavations there on the mound called Tell es-Sultan. They were continued very extensively by John Garstang (1930-1936); in 1952 they were resumed by Kathleen Kenyon and by the archeology schools of England and the USA.
It was Garstang who discovered the evidence of the fallen walls, and this evidence was photographed by him and later researchers. The walls had fallen from the inside out.
Its foundations had not been undermined, but must have been collapsed by a powerful earthquake. There was also evidence of a violent burning of the city. Miss Kathleen Kenyon’s revision of this identification based on the pottery associated with the chronology of Egypt does not take into account the necessary revision of the chronological structure of Egyptian history (See EGYPT, EXODUS, PHARAOH, HYKSOS, HITTIES, etc. ).
Based on the review of Velikovsky and Courville, the destruction of Jericho agrees perfectly with all the physical details of the destruction and with the archaeological remains, and there can be no objection to the identification made by Garstang in 1930-1936, nor to the date from 1400 BC
The remains corresponding to the conquest corresponded to a double brick wall, with an outer wall of 2 m. thick, an empty space of around 4.5 m. and an interior wall of 4 m. These walls were 9 m at that time. Tall.
The city, very small, was then so overcrowded that houses had been built on the upper part of the wall, above the empty space between the two walls (cf. Rahab’s house, Joshua 2:15). The outer wall sank outward, and the second wall, with its buildings on top, sank into the empty space. Thus, archeology actually gives us evidence that is completely harmonious with the story of the Scriptures.
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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BETHEL
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