En-Gannim

views updated

EN-GANNIM

EN-GANNIM (Heb. עֵין גַּגִּים).

(1) A locality in the territory of Judah, about 2 mi. (3 km.) south of Beth-Shemesh, that is mentioned in the Bible together with Zanoah (Josh. 15:34). Its identification with ʿAyn Fatīr near Beit Jimal has been proposed.

(2) A levitical city in the territory of Issachar (Josh. 19:21; 21:29). This has been identified by various scholars with the modern Jenin on the southern extremity of the Jezreel Valley, which Josephus mentions (Wars, 3:48) as Ginaea, on the northern border of Samaria. Jenin, however, is probably the biblical Beth-ha-Gan ("gardenhouse," ii Kings 9:27), and a more plausible identification is Khirbat Beit (Bayt) Jann near Jabneel on the northern border of Issachar.

bibliography

G. Dalman, Sacred Sites and Ways (1935), 211; Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 317; Albright, in: zaw, 44 (1926), 231f.; A. Saarisalo, in: Boundary between Issachar and Naphtali (1927), 37–39.

[Michael Avi-Yonah]

More From encyclopedia.com