Town
Town
(not carefully distinguished in the A. V. from city, which latter is the usual rendering of , occasionally town this latter is also the translation, at times, of , prop. a wall, as usually rendered; , a village, as generally rendered; and so in the New Test. [once more distinctively ark 1:38]; , a daughter, sometimes fig. employed; , only in the phrase Havoth-jair [q.v.]; ; unwalled towns, means rather open country). The first mention of such collective residence occurs early in the antediluvian history (Gen 4:17), but we are not to think, in the case of such primitive cities, of anything more than a mere hamlet, the nucleus, perhaps, of an eventual metropolis.
Towns, however, appear in the history of the patriarchs as strong central points of the agricultural tribes in nomadic regions. They were therefore enclosed with walls, and thus each town was originally a fortress (see Num 32:17; hence the term , literally a fort, applied to Tyre, Jos 19:29; 2Sa 24:7); such as the cities which the Israelites captured and demolished under Joshua. For this purpose eminences and hills (comp. Mat 5:14) were naturally selected as more commanding and secure sites (see Konig, De Montibus, Urbium Antiquiss. Sedibus [Annseberg. 1796]), a precaution which Palestine, with its varied surface and exposed situation, especially suggested (comp. 2Sa 4:6). We know little, however, of the exact architectural style of its cities, with the exception of Jerusalem. In modern times Oriental towns are built very wide-spreading, and often include extensive open spaces, gardens, etc. (see Thevenot, 2, 114; Buckingham, p. 95, 335; Taverhier, 1, 169; Rosenmller, Morgenl. 4:395 sq.), e.g. Damascus:(Kampfer estimates Ispahan as more than a day’s ride in circuit, Amer. Exot. p. 163). This especially applies to the larger cities of Asia, such as Babylon and Nineveh, which enclosed an area of many miles (see Ritter, Erdk. 11:903). The gates of the cities were closed (Jos 2:5 sq.; Jdg 16:3; 1Sa 23:7; 1Ki 4:13; Psa 147:13, etc.) with strong folding-doors ( ) with brazen or iron bars (), and were surmounted by turrets (2Sa 18:32), which were guarded by sentries (2Sa 18:24 sq.). In these the governors and judges held their sittings, and a more or less extensive square (, which, however, does not always mean an open place, but sometimes a wide [] street, Gen 19:2; Jdg 19:15; Jdg 19:17; Jdg 19:20) adjoined (Ezr 10:9; Neh 8:1; Neh 8:3; Neh 8:16; 2Sa 21:12; 1 Chronicles 32:6; Job 29:7; Son 3:2) where the market was held (2Ki 7:1; comp. , Josephus, Life, 22). The streets (, Job 18:17; Isa 5:25; Jer 37:21, etc.; , Son 3:2; Ecc 12:4, etc.; , Mat 6:5; Mat 12:19; Act 5:15, etc.) were not so narrow (yet see applied to those of Jerusalem in Josephus, War, 6:8, 5) as in modern Oriental towns (Maundrell, p. 172; Olearius, p. 291; Russegger, 1, 367; Robinson, 1, 38; 3, 697), where, as in Acre (Mariti, p. 246), scarcely two laden camels, or in Damascus (Schubert, 3, 29) scarcely a single one, can pass (Burckhardt, Arab. p. 151).
The streets of Hebrew antiquity (at least in the large towns)’ had names, which were sometimes taken from those of the kind of trade carried on in them (Jer 37:2; comp. , Josephus, War, 5, 8, 1, like modern bazaars; Russell, Aleppo, 1, 29 sq.; Harmer, 1, 245 sq.; Arvieux, 1,55; Ker Porter, 1, 406,407). They were occasionally paved in the later period (Josephus, Ant. 15:9,6; 16:5, 3; 20:9,7); in earlier times (comp. Isidore, Orig. 15:16) we find notice of paving in the court of the Temple (2Ki 16:17). From 1Ki 20:34 it would seem that kings sometimes constructed or improved certain avenues (comp. Rosenmller, Morgenl. 3, 201 sq.). Aqueducts () were built in Jerusalem before the exile (2Ki 20:20; Isa 7:3; Isa 22:9; for Pilate’s undertaking see Josephus, Ant. 18:3, 2; comp. War, 2, 17, 9; Robinson, 2, 166 sq.); other cities were supplied by springs (see Josephus, Ant. 17:13, 1) and cisterns, the latter, at times, of very expensive construction (War, 7:8, 3). SEE WATER.
As to the varied condition of cities in pre-exile times of Palestine we have only disconnected notices. The oldest ones of the land were destroyed by a natural or miraculous combustion in Abraham’s time (Gen 19:24 sq.). During the conquest by the Israelites many were destroyed by fire (Jos 6:24; Jos 6:26; Jos 11:13), but later were in part rebuilt (Jdg 1:26; 1Ki 16:24) and embellished (Jdg 18:28; 1Ki 12:25; 1Ki 15:17; 1Ki 17:21; comp. 2Ch 8:5). The Chaldaean invasion made (especially in the case of Jerusalem) many changes, and during the exile most of the cities were deserted. The Syrian wars under the Maccabees wasted or destroyed several (see 1Ma 5:44; 1Ma 5:65; 1Ma 9:62). Others, however, especially Jerusalem, were fortified, and castles and citadels were built (1Ma 9:50; 1Ma 12:38; 1Ma 13:33; 1Ma 15:7; 1Ma 15:39-40; Josephus, War, 4:7, 2; Ant. 13:16, 3). During the Roman period cities especially multiplied, chiefly under the patronage of the Herodian family; but many of them were largely occupied by Gentiles, with their heathenish theatres, gymnasia, stadia, and temples (ibid. 15:5, 2; 18:2, 1 and 3; 20:9, 4, etc.). Fortifications and towns also increased (ibid. 15:9, 4; War, 7:8, 3). The post-exilian topography of Palestine therefore exhibits many names of places not mentioned in the Old Test.; some of them, however, may have existed earlier. The district of Galilee was especially rich in towns and villages which amounted in all to two hundred and four (Life, 45). SEE PALESTINE.
The names of Palestinian cities were almost invariably significant, as appears from the present situation and configuration of the land (e.g. Agin, fountain; Bethlehem, bread-producing Gibeon, elevation; Mizpah, look- out; Ramah, height; many of them, accordingly, used with the article). Numbers of these are compounded, e. g with (house; see Rdiger, De Arb. Libror. Hist. Interpret. p. 21), or (city) (court), (valley), (meadow), (well), (spring), and in the post- exilian period with (village); those with (Baal) appear to have been of Canaanitish origin (see Panofka, Ueb. d. Einfuss der Gottheiten auf Ortasdmen [Berl. 1842]). Some are of dual (Kitrjathaim, Jerusalem, Dothan) or plural form (Kerioth, Anathoth, Gebim); in one case (Beth- horon) we hale the distinction of upper and lower villages. Several places of the same name are distinguished by the name of the tribe added (see Mat 2:1; Mat 2:5; Mat 21:11; Luk 4:31). In Roman times, especially under the Herods, many old names were displaced by others of Greek or Latin origin (e.g. Diospolis, Neapolis, Sebaste, Caesarea, Tiberias, later Elia Capitolina), some of which have still survived (comp. Ammian, Marcel. 14:8), while the most of them have again yielded to the older appellation (comp. Josephus, War, 1, 4, 2; Ant. 13:13, 3; see Reland, Palest. p. 567), or to an imitation in Arabic of a similar sound (Palmer, Desert of the Wandering, p. 31). SEE NAME.
On the population of the cities of Palestine nothing definite is known, for the numbers (as Jdg 20:15) from which an estimate might be made are in many cases corrupt (Josephus’s statements [e.g. War, 3, 3,1] are suspicious; but see Raumer, Palaest. p. 430 sq.). SEE NUMBER. A distinction between walled towns and open villages is not uniformly maintained in the Old Test., although in the later period they began to be distinguished (see , Eze 38:11; , Neh 12:25; comp. , Num 21:25; Numbers 32; Jos 15:45; Jdg 11:26; Neh 11:25; 2Sa 20:19; see Gesenius, Monum. Phoen. 2, 263; a metropolis or province is called in the Talmud, Maas. Sheni, 3, 4, etc.). The New Test., however, males such distinctions (Mar 1:38; comp. Mat 10:11; Mar 6:56 [Mar 8:27]; Luk 8:13; Luk 8:22; Act 8:25): , e.g. Bethphage (Mat 21:22), Bethany (Joh 11:1), Emmaus (Luk 24:13), Bethlehem (Joh 7:42 ); but , e.g. Nazareth, Capernaum, Nain; but these terms are used loosely, and the compound even occurs. So, likewise, Josephus uses and almost interchangeably (see Life, 45; Ant. 20:6, 2), and he occasionally employs the diminutive (War , 4:2, 1). In general, however, (village) chiefly belongs to those places whose name is compounded with (Gesenius, Thesaur. 2, 707). The Talmathdists (but comp. Megillah, 1 3; Erubin, 5, 6) distinguish places thus: , cities with defenses; .’ towns without fortifications; , villages (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. p. 599 sq.). Reland gave the first extensive list of the localities of Palestine (in his Palaestina), which might be greatly enlarged from the Talmud (see Baba Bathra, 2 and 3; Baba Metsiah; 11:5). SEE TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS.
On the municipal government of pre-exilian Palestine no definite information remains. There were judges () and overseers () both named as officers (Deu 16:18), but the latter title is not clear; and elsewhere the elders appear as civil authorities. In post-exilian times the magistrates of Palestinian cities are called councilors (, Josephus, Life, 12,13, 34, 61, 68), at whose head, as it would seem, stands a ruler (, ibid. 27; War 2, 21, 3). But from these are to be distinguished the territorial or , who had their seat in certain towns, and probably had civil jurisdiction over a particular district (Life, 9,11, 17; Ant. 19:7, 4). On the civil law in cities see the Mishna (Sanhedr. 1, 1 sq.). SEE GOVERNMENT.
The gates of cities were guarded during the day by sentinels, who looked out from the turret on the walls no the distance (2Sa 13:24 sq.; 2Ki 9:17 sq.; comp. Eze 27:11), and either with the voice or with a horn gave the news (Jer 6:17; Eze 3:6). Night patrols are also mentioned (Song of Solomon 3, 3). Of lighting the streets, however, there is no trace, as in western towns (Becker, Gallus, 1, 333 sq.). SEE WATCH.
The mile-stones (still extant, Robinson, 3, 693) set up along the roads to indicate the distance of one town from another belong to Roman times (see Ideler, in the Schrif. d. Berl. Akad. 1812, hist. class. p. 134 sq.). On this point, and on the geographical position of towns, there are only incidental notices in the canonical books (see Gen 12:8; Jdg 21:19, etc.), and clearer indications appear in the books of Maccabees, and particularly in Josephus (see Life, 12, 24, 51, etc., collated by Reland, Palaest. 2, c. 6; comp. Mishna, Maas. Sheni, 5, 2); but it is not till the time of Eusebius and his Latin editor, Jerome (in his Onomasticon), that we get definite data (jon these points; while the later itineraries (namely, the Itiersar. Antoinii [not the emperor of that name] and the Itin. Herosol. [both edited by Wesseling, Amst, 1735, 4to] and Abulfeda (Tabula Syria) give full and exact details on the subject, which, however, have to be supplemented (and often corrected) by modern; comparisons and measurements. SEE GEOGRAPHY.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Town
TOWN.See City, Village.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Town
toun: This word is used to represent a number of different Hob terms in the Old Testament. (1) When any explanatory word or attendant circumstances show that a city was unwalled, and sometimes in the contrary case (1Sa 23:7), the Hebrew r is translated town by the King James Version, and the Revised Version (British and American) generally agrees with it (Deu 3:5; 1Sa 27:5; Est 9:19). (2) Both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) translate hawwoth by towns (Num 32:41; Jos 13:30; 1Ki 4:13; 1Ch 2:23), while hacerm and perazoth both appear in the King James Version as towns, but in the Revised Version (British and American) as villages (Gen 25:16; Zec 2:4). See HAVVOTH-JAIR. (3) Bath, literally, daughter, is sometimes found in the plural between the name of a city and hacerm, villages, as in Jos 15:45 margin, Ekron, with its daughters and its villages. Towns is evidently the appropriate translation, and, even without hacerm, bath is rendered town (the Revised Version (British and American) Num 21:25, etc.). The same use of daughter occurs also in the Greek of 1 Macc 5:65 (thugater), the King James Version town, the Revised Version (British and American) village, margin daughter. (4) the King James Version and the English Revised Version gloss kr, wall in Jos 2:15 by rendering it town wall; the American Standard Revised Version omits. (5) The Greek term komopoleis (Mar 1:38), being a combination of the words for village and city, is a clear attempt to describe something between the two, and is well translated town. (6) the King James Version uses town (Mat 10:11 etc.) and village (Mat 9:35, etc.) quite indifferently for kome; the Revised Version (British and American) has village throughout. For similar changes of the King James Version town compare 2 Macc 8:6 (chora); 11:5; 12:21 (chorion, the Revised Version (British and American) place). See CITY; VILLAGE.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Town
See Cities
Cities
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Town
denotes “a country town,” Mar 1:38, “a large village” usually without walls.
“a village,” or “country town without walls.” The RV always renders this “village” or “villages,” AV, “town” or “towns,” Mat 10:11; Mar 8:23, Mar 8:26 (twice), Mar 8:27; Luk 5:17; Luk 9:6, Luk 9:12; Joh 7:42; Joh 11:1, Joh 11:30. See VILLAGE.