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Gerrhenian

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(only in the plural, Γεῤῥηνοί v.r. Γεννηροί, Vulg. Gerreni), apparently the designation of the inhabitants of a town, which is named in 2 Maccabees 13:24 only as one limit (ἕως τῶν Γ .) of the district committed by Antiochus Eupator to the government of Judas Maccabaeus, the other limit being Ptolemais (Accho). To judge by the similar expression in defining the extent of Simon's government in 1 Maccabees 11:59, the specification has reference to the sea-coast of Palestine, and, from the nature of the case, the Gerrhenians, wherever they were, must have been south of Ptolemais. Grotius seems to have been the first to suggest that the town Gerrhon or Gerrhas (Γέῤῥον, Ptolemy, 4:5, page 103; Gerro, Pliny, Nat. Hi st. 6:29; Γέῤῥα, Strabo, 16, page 760; Γέρα, Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. 8:19) was intended, which lay between Pelsium and Rhinocolura (wady el-Arish). It has been pointed out by Ewald (Geschichte, 4:365, note) that the coast as far north as the latter place was at that thee in possession of Egypt, and he thereon conjectures that the inhabitants of the ancient city of GERAR, southeast of Gaza, the residence of Abraham and Isaac, are meant. In support of this, Grimm (Kurzg. Handb. ad hoc.) mentions that at least one MS. reads Γεραρηνῶν, which would without difficulty lee corrupted to Γεῤῥηνῶν . The Syriac version (early, and entitled to much respect) has Gozor, by which may be intended either (a) the ancient GEZER, which em- as near the sea-somewhere about Joppa; or (b) GAZA, which appears sometimes to take that form in these books. But these are evidently conjectural emendations of the text; and the objection of Ewald is sufficiently met by observing that the place in question was not included in the Maccabeaan province of Judas, any more than Egypt of the parallel passages (1 Maccabees 11:59; Josephus, Ant. 13:5, 4). (See MACCABAEUS, JUDAS).