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Bible Encyclopedias
Adummim
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Heb. Adummim’, אֲדֻמַּים, the red ones; Sept. Ἀδαμμίν), a place on the border between Judah and Benjamin, (See TRIBE), and apparently an ascending road between Gilgal (and also Jericho) and Jerusalem, "on the south side of the ‘ torrent’" (Joshua 15:7; Joshua 18:17), which is the position still occupied by the road leading up from Jericho and the Jordan valley to Jerusalem (Robinson, Researches, 2, 288), on the south face of the gorge of the Wady Kelt. (See MAALEH-ADUMMIM). Most commentators take the name to mean the place of blood (Heb. דָּם ), and follow Jerome, who finds the place in the dangerous or mountainous part of the road between Jerusalem and Jericho (in his time called corruptly Maledomim; in Greek, ςΑναβα; in Latin, Ascensus rufforum sive robentium), and supposes that it was so called from the frequent effusion of blood by the robbers, by whom it was much infested. Others (see Keil, Comment. p. 365) attribute the name to the color of the rocks; these, however, are of limestone. It is possibly of a date and significance far more remote, and is rather derived from some tribe of "red men", (See EDOM) of the earliest inhabitants of the country (see Stanley, Palest. p. 416 note), doubtless themselves banditti likewise. Indeed, the character of the road was so notorious, that Christ lays the scene of the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10) upon it; and Jerome informs us that Adummim or Adommim was believed to be the place where the traveler (taken as a real person) "fell among thieves." He adds that it was formerly a village, but at that time in ruins, and that a fort and garrison was maintained here for the safeguard of travelers (Onomast. s.v. Adommim, and in Epist. Pauloe). The travelers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries noticed the ruins of a castle, and supposed it the same as that mentioned by Jerome (Zuallart, 4:30); but the judicious Nau (Voyage Nouveau de la Terre-Sainte, p. 349) perceived that this castle belonged to the time of the Crusades. Not far from this spot was a khan, called the "Samaritan’ s khan" (le Khan du Samaritain), in the belief that it was the "inn" to which the Samaritan brought the wounded traveler. The travelers of the present century mention the spot and neighborhood nearly in the same terms as those of older date; and describe the ruins as those of "a convent and a khan" (Hardy, 193). They all represent the road as still infested by robbers, from whom some of them (as Sir F. Henniker) have not escaped without danger. The place thus indicated is about two thirds the distance from Jerusalem towards Jericho. Dr. Robinson probably means the same by the ruined Khan Hudhrur (or another a little south of it) on the way between Jerusalem and Jericho (Researches, 2, 122); and Schwarz speaks of seeing "a very high, rocky hill composed entirely of pyrites, called by the Arabs Tell Adum, six English miles E.N.E. of Jerusalem" (Palest. p. 95), apparently the ruined locality, Kulat ed-Dem, observed by Schultz (Ritter, Erdk. 15, 493) about half way on the descent to Jericho (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 282, and Map).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Adummim'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/a/adummim.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
