360 I'ROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL iWHEUM. vol. !. 



of places in the Divine Scriptures — is a kind of glossary of the BibUcal 

 place names, explaining and identifying them with contemporarv" 

 designations, noting the distances between the larger cities, and add- 

 ing Bibhcal and historical reminiscences. It was translated into 

 Latin by St. Jerome (331-420). The edition of Klostermann con- 

 tains the original Greek text and the Latin translation on opposite 

 pages, the former on the left, the latter on the right hand. 



THE TOWN OF MEDEBA. 



Medeba ^ was origmally a town of Moab situated almost directly 

 east of Bethlehem, about five miles south by west from Hebron, at an 

 elevation of 2,040 feet above the sea level. It is frequently men- 

 tioned in the Old Testament and played a considerable part in the 

 frontier conflicts of the Israelites, being often taken and retaken. 

 From the Moabites it was wrested by the Amorites (Numbers xxi, 

 30). After the conquest of Canaan it was allotted to the tribe of 

 Reuben (Joshua xiii, 9, 16). In David's time it was an Ammonite 

 point of defence (I Chronicles xix, 7). In the 9th centuiy B. C. it 

 was seized by Omri, King of Israel, and recaptured by the Moabites.^ 

 During the Maccabean period it was the seat of a robber clan who 

 murdered John, the brother of Jonathan, the Jewish prince (I Mac- 

 cabees ix, 35-37). It was taken by John Hyrcan (135-105 B. C.) 

 and had to be retaken by Alexander Jannaeus (104-79 B. C, Jose- 

 phus, Antiquities, XIII, 1, 2, 4; XV, 4). 



Under the Romans Medeba was incorporated in the province of 

 Arabia, which was estabhshed by Trajan (98-117 A. D.), and from 

 the reign of Elagabal (218-222 A. D.) there are extant coins bearing 

 the name of Medeba. During the Byzantine period Medeba seems 

 to have been a flourislung Christian center. It was the seat of a 

 bishop who attended the council of Chalcedon (451 A. D.). It was 

 probably overwhelmed and destroyed either by the Persians under 

 Chosroes II, who at the beginning of the seventh century wrested 

 the entire Christian S3^ria from the eastern empire, or by the Ai-abs 

 under Omar, who in 636 completed the conquest of Syria and Pales- 

 tine. Since then and until the latter part of the eighteenth century 

 it lay in desolation and ruins and forgotten. In 1880 a Christian 

 colony, mostly of Greeks, from Kerak (the Biblical Kir Moab, Isaiah 

 XV, 1), and also some Latin (Roman Cathohc) fathers settled there. 

 In erecting the necessar^^ buddings for the new occupation many 

 ancient remains have been brought to light. These include a large 

 pool with soUd walls (324 by 309 feet and from 10 to 13 feet deep), 



' So in the English Bible, in Hebrew, Medeva; on the Moabite stone (9th century, B.C.), Medheba; Jose- 

 phus, Antiquities, XIII, 9, 1, Medaba; Euseblus (OS, p. 128), Medabaand Medabba; Ptolemy, Geography 

 (2nd century A. D.) IV, 17, 6, Medana; the modern Arabic name is Madeba. 



2 Compare Moabite stone (a plaster cast facsimile of which is in the National Museum), line 8: "Omri 

 had taken possession of tlie land of Medeba and (his people) occupied it during his days and half the days 

 of his son, forty years, but Chemosh restored it in my days"; compare also Isaiah XV; 2). 



