the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Chorazin
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or CHORAZIN.—Mentioned once only in the Gospels, Matthew 11:21 = Luke 10:13, along with Bethsaida, as one of the ‘cities’ (πόλεις) where most of Jesus’ mighty deeds were done. The name is not found in the OT nor in Josephus; and it is not certain whether it be the same place as ברנים or ברניים mentioned once in the Talmud (hoth, 85), where the superior quality of its wheat is praised. Jastrow’s gives ‘ near Jerusalem,’ Dalman’s ‘בִּרָוִים name of place.’ One MS has ברוים, two ב׳; see Rabbinowicz, ae Lectiones; Neubauer, Géographie du Talmud, p. 220. Most MSS [Note: SS Manuscripts.] of the NT spell Χοραζ(ε)ίν, others, especially in Luke, Χωραζίν; so Stephen in Luke, but not Elzevir, Mill; D [Note: Deuteronomist.] both times Χοροζαΐν, and the same form prevails in the Latin texts: C(h)orozain. Why the editions of the Peshitta, even Gwilliams’, spell ܟܴܘܪܰܐܻܝܢ Kôrăzîn, we fail to see. Barhebraeus gives expressly ܟܾܘܪܐܻܝܢ Kurzîn as the vocalization of the Peshitta, and Chorazin as that of the Greek.
Neither the grammatical form of the name (on which see Schwöbel, ZDPV [Note: DPV Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.] xxvii. 134) nor its etymology is sufficiently clear. The place has been identified with Khersa on the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee, but more probably with Khirbet Kerâzeh, 4 kilometres N. of Tell Hûm, first discovered by Thomson in 1857. Eusebius calls it a κώμη (oppidum), 12 Roman miles from Capernaum, in his time deserted; but 12 seems to be a misspelling of the MS for 2, as given by the Latin translation of Jerome (Eusebius, Onomasticon, ed. Klostermann, 174. 25, 175. 25).* [Note: In the Latin text (OS2 114. 7) the name is spelt ‘Chorazin’, not ‘Chorozain,’ as stated in Encyc. Bibl., where also the modern name Kerâzeh is once spelt with K, as if it were ק.] On the ruins of Kerâzeh, especially its synagogue, see the literature quoted by Schürer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] § 27, n. [Note: note.] 59. Cheyne’s list of Proper Names (in the Queen’s Printers’ Aids to the Student of the Holy Bible) recommends the pronunciation Cho-ra’zin; this is supported by the modern form Kerâzeh, if it be the same name; the accentuation of the first syllable, common in German, has the support of Kurzin in the Peshitta; in Latin Choroza in. The mediaeval explanation of the name ‘hoc mysterium meum’ = הוא רִאוי, goes back to Jerome (OS 61. 8). There was once a tradition that the Antichrist was to be born in Chorazin, and that its inhabitants were proud of this, and therefore the place was cursed by Jesus; see Expos. Times, xv. [1904] p. 524. The name Chorazin is, like that of Nazareth, an interesting illustration of the scantiness of our literary tradition.† [Note: Among the mighty works done in Bethsaida the feeding of the 5000 is certainly to be reckoned (Luke 9:10 ff., where ἐπισισισμος of v.12 is to be explained from Βηθσαιδά = οἶκος ἑτισιτισμοῦ [OS 174. 7, 188. 75]). Hence it is tempting to find one of the mighty works done at Chorazin in the healing of the demoniac in the land of the Gerasenes or Gergesenes (8:26), and to combine this name with Chorazin. In his Philologica Sacra (1890, p. 21) the present writer suggesten that the prominent part played by the swine in that story may be derived from a local name like Ras el-chinzir or Tell abu-l-chinzir. The plural of chinzir (swine) is chanazir, of which Chorazin might be a transposition.]
Eb. Nestle.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Chorazin'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/c/chorazin.html. 1906-1918.
