Timnat Serah

Timnath-heres or Timnath-serah ( he, תמנת חרס), later Thamna, was the town given by the Israelites to Joshua according to the Hebrew Bible version of the Book of Joshua, Joshua placed there "the stone knives, with which he had circumcised the children of Israel".

On his death, he was buried there (). Jewish tradition also places the tomb of Caleb there.

In 2022, excavations by Israeli archaeologists were launched at Khirbet Tibnah in Samaria, a hilltop site commonly identified as biblical Timnath.First archaeological dig begins at site believed to be Joshua's tomb
Jerusalem Post, 29 July 2022. Accessed 8 August 2022.

Etymology

In and , the town is called ''Timnath-serah'', whereas in it is named as ''Timnath-heres''.

The name "Timnath-serah" signifies in Hebrew an "extra portion" or "portion of abundance". Similarly, the name "Timnath-heres" means "portion of the sun". In the book of Joshua Chapter 24, verse 30; it is written in thirteen different published editions of the Old Testament as Timnath-Heres or some variation of it where the second word begins with an 'h', or 'H' and ends in 's', either with or without the intermediate dash. The inversion of "serah" to make "heres" has the connotation of sun, as in . Some allege that the figure of the sun was put on Joshua's monument, in commemoration of the miracle of the sun standing still for him.

In the Talmud the town is mentioned in Bava Batra 122b, where "heres" is translated as "earthenware," in reference to fruits in the area being as dry as earthenware prior to the arrival of Joshua. The word's inversion, "serah" is defined as "rotting," that after Joshua's arrival, the fruits became so juicy that they could quickly rot.

Location

The town was located in the mountainous region of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. It has been variously identified with two possible locations, Kifl Hares and Khirbet Tibnah.

Identification with classical-period Thamna

Both E. Schürer and archaeologist W. F. Albright have identified the town with ''Thamna'' mentioned in Greco-Roman sources including the writings of Josephus. Eusebius, in his '' Onomasticon'', mentions the site under the entry of Gaas (Mount Gaash), a mountain in Ephraim (), "near the village of Thamna."

Conder & Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund, steering clear of committing themselves to pinpointing the position of the biblical Timnath-heres in either Kifl Haris or Khirbet Tibnah, mention only the classical references to the place ''Thamnatha'' / ''Thamna'' (as in Pliny, '' Hist. Nat.'' v. 14 and in ''The Jewish War'
3.3.5
, saying that this place is to be identified with the present ruin ''Tibneh'' (marked on sheet xiv), and that "some have identified it with Timnath-heres."

During the first-century CE until its destruction, Thamna served as an administrative district (toparchy).Josephus, ''The Jewish War'
3.3.5
/ref>

Kifl Hares

One possible location Timnath-heres has been identified with is the Palestinian village of Kifl Hares, located 6 kilometres west of Salfit in the West Bank.Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 460

Khirbet Tibnah

Another candidate is Khirbet Tibnah, located between Deir Nidham and Nabi Salih,Finkelstein ''et al.'', 1997, p. 367 Schürer, E. (1891), p
158
note 438. east of the Israeli town of Shoham and near the settlement of Halamish. Various surveys have produced proof of habitation from the Bronze Age until the early Ottoman period, with various findings from the Iron Age and the Hasmonean, Roman, and Mamluk periods.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* Survey of Western Palestine, 1880 Map, Map 14
IAA
Wikimedia commons (Tibneh, shown to the left of ''Neby Saleh'' and ''Deir en Nidham'')

Hebrew Bible cities
Archaeological sites in Samaria
Archaeological sites in the West Bank
Disputed Biblical places
Joshua