Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, November 5th, 2024
the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Bible Dictionaries
Arbela

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Arbatta
Next Entry
Arbite
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

ARBELA . The discrepancy between 1Ma 9:1-73 and Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Ant . XII. xi. 1, our only authorities, makes uncertain the route of Bacchides in his march on Jerusalem. Josephus makes him pitch his camp at Arbela in Galilee: 1 Mac. brings him ‘by the way that leadeth to Gilgal,’ to ‘Mesaloth which is in Arbela.’ His course thence points to Jiljilia as Gilgal, about 5 miles N. of Bîr ez-Zeit , where the battle was fought with Judas. Mesaloth might then he sought in Meselieh , about 3 miles S.E. of Dothan. But no name resembling Arbela, either of town or district, is found in the neighbourhood; although Eusebius ( Onomasticon ) seems to have known an Arbela not far from Lejjun. On the other hand, Arbela in Galilee survives in the modern Irbil or Irbid , a ruin on the S. lip of the gorge, Wâdy Hamâm , which breaks westward from Gennesaret. There is, however, no trace of a Mesaloth here, unless indeed Robinson’s ingenious suggestion is right, that it may be the Heb. mesillîth , referring to the famous caverned cliffs in the gorge, whence Bacchides extirpated the refugees.

W. Ewing.

Bibliography Information
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Arbela'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​hdb/​a/arbela.html. 1909.
 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile