Information AboutZarephath |
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HISTORY Sarepta is mentioned for the first time in the voyage of an Egyptian in the , 722 BC. It fell to Sennacherib in 701 BC. We learn from , in '' Natural History '' (Book V, 17). Sarepta as a Christian city was mentioned in the ''Itinerarium Burdigalense''; the ''Onomasticon'' of Eusebius and in St. Jerome ; by Theodosius and Pseudo-Antoninus who, in the 6th Century call it a small town, but very Christian (Geyer, ''Intinera hierosolymitana'', Vienna, 1898, 18, 147, 150). It contained at that time a church dedicated to St. Elias (Elijah). The ''Notitia episcopatuum'' a list of bishoprics made in Antioch in the 6th century, speaks of Sarepta as a suffragan see of Tyre; none of its bishops are known. After the Islamization of the area, in 1185 , the Greek Monk Phocas , making a gazetteer of the Holy Land (''De locis sanctis'', 7), found the town almost in its ancient condition; a century later, according to Burchard , it was in ruins and contained only seven or eight houses (''Descriptio Terrae sanctae'', II, 9). Even after the Crusaders' kingdoms had collapsed, the Roman Catholic church continued to appoint purely titualar bishops of Sarepta. Some are mentioned after 1346 . ARCHAEOLOGY The site of the ancient town is marked by the Ruins on the shore to the south of the modern village, about 8 miles to the South of Sidon, which extend along the shore for a mile or more. They are in two distinct groups, one on a headland to the west of a fountain called ‛Ain el-Ḳantara, which is not far from the shore. Here was the ancient harbor which still affords shelter for small craft. The other group of ruins is to the south, and consists of Columns , Sarcophagi , and marble slabs, indicating a city of considerable importance. The modern village of Sarafand was built some time after the 12th Century , since at the time of the Crusades the town was still on the shore. Pritchard's excavations revealed many artifacts of daily life in the ancient Phoenician city of Sarepta: pottery workshops and Kiln s, artifacts of daily use and religious figurines, numerous inscriptions that included some in Ugaritic . Pillar Worship is traceable from an 8th Century shrine of Tanit-Ashtart , and a seal with the city's name made the identification secure. His article, "Sarepta in history and tradition" in ''Understanding the Sacred Texts'' (1972) displays the background research that informed all his meticulous work. In his book ''Recovering Sarepta, an Ancient Phoenician City'' (1978) he made the discovery comprehensible to the average reader in lucid prose. OTHER USES OF THE NAME In Hebrew after the Diaspora , the name Zarephath (צרפת, ts-r-f-t, Tsarfat) is used to mean France , perhaps because the Hebrew letters ts-r-f, if reversed, become '''f-r-ts'''. EXTERNAL LINKS
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