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Showing 21 - 40 from 59 entries
> The Country of Samaria
> Ebal and Gerizim
> Dayr Tarif
> Dayr Ayyub
> Bayt Nabala
> Khirbat al-Jawfa
> 'Ayn al-Mansi
> Bayt Nattif
> Al-Maliha
> Al-Qastal
> Ras Abu 'Ammar
> Al-Qabu
> Nitaf
> The Shepherds' Fields
> Tequ'a
> Khureitun
> Herodium
> Artas
> Solomon's Pool
> Centers and Institutions in Beit Sahour
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The location of the Twin Mountains was once contested. No one of course, denied their existence, but it was denied that they had Biblical associations, which on the contrary were attributed to two moun¬tains in the vicinity of Jericho. The source of the misunderstanding is to be found in Deut. 11, 30: 'Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?' The writer of Deuteronomy wished to distinguish this western plain from the eastern one, inhabited by the Amorites, and while it is unlikely that he wished to deprive the Josephites — Ephraim and Manasseh — of their sacred mountains, it must be acknowledged that his text was used against the Samaritans.
While Flavius Josephus (1) accepts the localization in Samaria, Eusebius in his Onomasticon (2) and Jerome in his translation — out of dislike for the Samaritans, and at least in this respect following Jewish Palestinian tradition — clearly state that the mountains are situated at Gilgal, near Jericho (3). Epiphanius and Procopius of Gaza (4) are of the same opinion. The Map of Madaba (5) renders the duality visual: on it are to be noted, beside Sichem, the words TOYP TAPIZIN and TOYP TWBH (Tur Garizin and Tur Gobel), and near the found of Elisium in Jericho the words TAPIZEIN and TEBAV (Garizein and Ge-bal).
Despite the weight of the authorities, the factious theory of Jericho did not win the day: the Gerizim and Ebal of Samaria are the mountains on which the rite of the renewing of the Covenant was performed.
It must be admitted that the typical tenacity of all traditions in Palestine, true and false alike, the Jericho theory died hard. In 1480 Felix Fabri and his companions saw Ebal and Gerizim at Jericho.
Source: "Samaria" by Maria Petrozzi
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