Information AboutShechem |
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| samaritan culture and history | |
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| torah cities | |
| amarna letters locations | |
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BIBLICAL ORIGINAL Sichem, Shechem, or '''Shkhem''' ('''שְׁכֶם''' / '''שְׁכָם''' "Shoulder", Standard Hebrew '''Šəḫem''' / '''Šəḫam''', Tiberian Hebrew '''Šəḵem''' / '''Šəḵām''' was an Israelite city in the tribe of Ephraim, the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel, situated at ''Tell Balatah'' , 2 km east of present-day Nablus ) was the first capital of the Kingdom Of Israel . Archeological evidence indicates that the city was razed and reconstructed up to 22 times before its final demise in 200 CE. Within the remains of the city can still be found a number of walls and gates built for defense, a government house, a residential quarter and the ruins of a temple raised to Zeus by the Roman Emperor Hadrian , the latter dating to the second century CE. Its position is clearly indicated in the Bible: it lay north of Bethal and Silo, on the high road going from Jerusalem to the northern districts (Judges xxi, 19), at a short distance from Machmethath (Joshua 17:7) and of Dothain (Genesis 37:12-17); it was in the hill-country of Ephraim (Joshua 20:7; 21:21; 1 Kings 12:25; 1 Chronicles 6:67; 7:28), immediately below Mount Garizim (Judges 9:6-7). These indications are completed by Josephus, who says that the city lay between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Garizim, and by the Medaba map, which places Sychem, also called Sikima between the Tour Gobel (Ebal) and the Tour Garizin (Garizim). We may therefore admit unhesitatingly that Sichem stood on (St. Jerome, St. Epiphanius), or very close to (Eusebius, "Onomast.", Euchem; Medaba map), the site occupied by the town of Nablus, the Neapolis, or Flavia Neapolis of early Christian ages. Pre-Roman History and Biblical tradition The old city of Shechem dates back an estimated four thousand years. At Shechem, Abram "built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him ... and had given that land to his descendants" (Gen 12:6-7). This Biblical account, considered by some to be the first place Abram stopped when Abraham Sarah , Lot and their party entered Canaan . The Bible states that on this occasion, God confirmed the Covenant He had first made with Abraham in Ur , regarding the possession of the land of Canaan . Joshua assembled the Israelites in Shechem and encouraged them to reaffirm their adherence to the Torah . During the Judges period, Abimelech was crowned king in Shechem. Shechem was a commercial center due to its position in the middle of vital trade routes through the region. It traded in local grapes, olives, wheat, livestock and pottery between the middle Bronze Age and the late Hellenic Period (1900-100 BCE). Shechem had been a reached the "great tree of Moreh " at Shechem and offered sacrifice nearby. Later Joseph's bones were brought out of Egypt and reburied at Shechem. That the city of Sichem, the name of which (Hebrew ''shékém'' — 'shoulder, saddle') appears to have been suggested by the configuration of the place, existed in the time of Abraham is doubted by a few who think it is referred to in Genesis, xii, 6, by anticipation; but there can be no question touching its existence in Jacob's time (Genesis 33:18, 19); it is certainly mentioned in the El-Amarna letters (letter 289), and is probably the ''Sakama'' of the old Egyptian traveler Mohar (fourteenth century B.C.; Muller, "Asien u. Europ.", p. 394, Leipzig, 1893). Owing to its central position, no less than to the presence in the neighborhood of places hallowed by the memory of Abraham (Genesis 12:6, 7; 34:5), Jacob (Genesis 33:18-19; 34:2, etc.), and Joseph (Joshua 24:32), the city was destined to play an important part in the history of Israel. There it was that, after took it, utterly destroyed it, and burnt the temple of Baal-berith where the people had fled for safety. When and by whom the city was rebuilt is not known; at any rate, Sichem was the place appointed, after Solomon's death, for the meeting of the people of Israel and the investiture of Roboam ; the meeting ended in the secession of the ten northern tribes, and Sichem, fortified by Jeroboam , became for a while the capital of the new kingdom (1 Kings 12:1; 14:17; 2 Chronicles 10:1). In the Amarna Letters of about 1350BC, Shachmu (i.e. Shechem) was the center of a kingdom carved out by Labaya (or Labayu), a Canaanite warlord who recruited mercenaries from among the Habiru . Labaya was the author of three Amarna letters, and his name appears in 11 of the other 382 letters, referred to 28 times, with the basic topic of the letter, being Labaya himself, and his relationship with the rebelling, countryside Habiru. The city, including its Bronze Age temple, fell to the Israelites sometime before 1000 BC. In the Book Of Judges (especially chapter 9), it was the center for the ephemeral Israelite kingdom of Abimelech Ben Gideon . Later, it was an administrative center under Solomon and the northern Kingdom Of Israel . When the kings of Israel moved first to expelled the grandson of the high priest Eliashib (probably the Manasse of Josephus, "Antiq., XI, vii, viii), who refused to separate from his alien wife, Sanaballat's daughter, and with him the many Jews, priests and laymen, who sided with the rebel, these betook themselves to Sichem; a schismatic temple was then erected on Mount Garizim and thus Sichem became the "holy city" of the Samaritans. The latter, who were left unmolested while the orthodox Jews were chafing under the heavy hand of Antiochus IV (Antiq., XII, v, 5) and welcomed with open arms every renegade who came to them from Jerusalem (Antiq., XI, viii, 7), fell about 128 B.C. before John Hyrcanus, and their temple was destroyed ("Antiq.", XIII, ix, 1). From that time on, Sichem shared in the fate of the other cities of Samaria. Classical and modern history In Classical times, Shechem was the main settlement of the 4:5 it is called Sychar. Shechem, which lay in a narrow shoulder of land in the narrow valley between ' meeting with the woman of Samaria , The Ancient Roman and Arab city of Nablus lies 2 km to the west of the site. Josephus , writing in about AD 90 ('' Jewish Antiquities '' 4.8.44), placed the city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and other ancient writers knew that it was on the outskirts of "Neapolis" (Nablus), but its Archaeological site was only stumbled upon in 1903 by a German party of archaeologists led by Dr. Hermann Thiersch at a site known as Tell Balatah, beside the traditional site associated with the Tomb of Joseph ( Joshua 24:32). Like all Samaria it was annexed, at the time of the deposition of Archelaus, in A.D. 6, to the Roman Province of Syria. Some, no doubt, of its inhabitants (whether Sichar of John 4:5, is the same as Sichem or a place near the latter we shall leave here undecided) were of the number of the "Samaritans" who believed in Jesus when He tarried two days in the neighborhood (John 4), and the city must have been visited by the Apostles on their way from Samaria to Jerusalem (Acts 8:25). Of the Samaritans of Sichem not a few rose up in arms on Mt. Garizim at the time of the Galilean rebellion (A.D. 67); the city was very likely destroyed on that occasion by Cerealis ("Bell. Jud.", III, vii, 32), and a few years after a new city, Flavia Neapolis, was built by Vespasian a short distance to the west of the old one; some fifty years later Hadrian restored the temple on Mt. Garizim, and dedicated it to Jupiter (Dion Cass., xv, 12). Neapolis, like Sichem, had very early a Christian community and had the honor to give to the Church her first apologist, St. Justin Martyr; we hear even of bishops of Neapolis (Labbe, "Conc.", I, 1475, 1488; II, 325). On several occasions the Christians suffered greatly from the Samaritans, and in 474 the emperor, to avenge an unjust attack of the sect, deprived the latter of Mt. Garizim and gave it to the Christians who built on it a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin (Procop., "De edif", v, 7). Since the Mohammedan conquest (636, first under the Arab Caliphates, ultimately underthe Ottoman Turks) Christianity, except during the twelfth century, had practically disappeared from Nablús , which, however, remained the headquarters of the Samaritan sect (about 150 members) and of their high priest. HOMONYM Sichem is also the old spelling for Zichem, a Flemish municipality which is named after the biblical Sichem; it is now merged into Scherpenheuvel-Zichem . SEE ALSO REFERENCES SOURCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS
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