From tlie few scattered notices of Kabbah in the writings of the prophets from the 8tli cent, onwards, we gather that the city once more re- verted to the jjosscssion of the Ammonites. Thus Amos, in his denunciation of Aimiiun (1'"'), pro- phesies the destruction of the wall and palaces of Kabbah, while similar language is used by Jere- miah (49'- ') shortly before the siege of Jerusalem, and by Ezekicl ('25'). It is noticeable that the
• The reading of the Hebrew text ' city of wnten* ' is URually explained as referring to the lower town. But (1) the phrtma it«elf iu an unlikely one to he applied to a ^rt of the eity, (2) there is no reference elsewhere to a division of the city, and (3) the explanation seenm diie to the present condition of the ruins of 'Amman, which date, at earliest, from liomao times.
190
RAEBI, EABBONI
RAB-MAG
latter regards Rabbali as no less important politi- cally tlian Jenisaleiii itself (2)-»[Heb.-"']i.
In tlie 3rd cent. B.C. Kabbah was ^lill a place of consideral)le importance. After its capture by Ptolemy Pluiadelplius (B.C. 2S.5-247) it was called Philadelphia, and the surrounding district Phila- delphene or Arabia Philadul]>liensis (Ritter, Die Erdkunde, xv. pt. ii. p. 1154 f.). According to Polybius (v. 71), the city underwent a severe and protracted siege under Antiochus the Great, who succeeded in capturing it only through the agency of a captive. The latter revealed the existence of the subterranean passage by which tlie L'arrison of the citadel obtained their water supply : the passage was accordingly blocked up, and tlie gar- rison forced to surrender. The same authority makes use of the old name Rahbatamana ('Pa/3/3a- Ta^Lava), while Stephen of Byzantium states that it was formerly called Ainana, and afterwards Astarte. Joseplius describes it as the most easterly border-town of Persea (BJ ni. iii. 3), and Strabo especially notes it as one of the localities inhabited by a mixed population. It formed one of the cities of the Decapolis, and in the middle of the 4th cent. Ammianus JIarcellinus classes it with Bostra and Geresa as one of the fortilied great cities of Coele-Syria (Ritter, I.e.). Philadelphia, later, became tlie seat of a Christian bishup, forming one of the nineteen sees of ' Pala^stina tertia ' (Reland, Pal. 22S). Of the Arabic geographers, IMuk.iddasi (A.D. 985) describes 'Amman as the capital of the Belka district, lying on the border of the desert. He mentions the castle of Goliath as situated on the hill overhanging the city, and containing the tomb of Uriah, over which is built a mosque. YftkClt (iii. 719), in A.D. 1225, men- tions it as the city of the emperor Dakiyanfls (Deoius) : he further relates the Moslem legend, according to which 'Amman, the founder of the city, was the son of Lot's brother ("Amman = 'he who is of the uncle'). Abulfeda (A.D. 1321) also assigns the founding of the city to Lot (Guy le Strange, Pnl. under the Modems, p. 391 f.). Coins of the city exist with the head of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. Uil-lSO) and the legend 'Philadelphia of Hercules of Coele-Syria'; but, save for a few rude stone monuments, nothin" remains in the way of archi- tecture'which can be referred with any certitude to a pre-Roman period' (see Survey ofE. Pal. pp. 19-64, where a full description is given of the present site; see also Baedeker* pp. 170-172; Merrill, En.<!t of Jordan, p. 398 f.).
2. (Jos Li" .n;nrr ; B •Za8r,^i, A'Ape^pi ; Arebba). A city of Judah, apparently near Kiriath-jearim.
J. F. Stenning.
RABBI, RABBONI From 3"!, primarUy 'master'
in contrast with slave (Aboth i. 3; Suhka ii. 9; et nl.), was formed, bv the addition of the pro- nominal suffix, -n ('Pa;3/3r, 'Pa|3;3d WH), ' my m.aster,' the use of wliioli as a title of respect by which teachers were addressed occurs first within the last century before the destruction of Jeru- salem. The Mishna contains several instances of this mode of address (Nedarim ix. 5 ; liosh hnshnna ii. 9; Berarhoth ii. 5, 7 ; e< al.). In a similar way was formed Rabboni (Va^^oi/l Mk 10", 'PojS^ou^I Jn 20"=, 'Va^^ouvd WH) from l;"! or ]S:n (used of God in Taanith iii. 8), an Aramaic form of the title uscil almcst exclusively to designate the president of the Sanhedrin, if a descendant of Hillel, from the time of Ganinliel I. (Aboth 1. 17). In later times the title of Habbi appears to have been conferred officially upon such as were author- ized in Palestine to decide ritual or legal questions (Babn mrzia 86a ; Sanhedrin 136), the corre- sponding Babylonian title beinij Rab or Mar ; but there is no evidence of its use in this sense before or in the time of Christ. Its suffix, however,
quickly lost its specific force by a process of which parallels are allorded in several languages ; and in the NT the word occurs simply as a courteous title of address. Rabboni is even more respectful ; and in the two passages where it is used of Christ (Mk 10" and Jn 20'") the pronominal force may not have entirely disappeared. Neither word occurs in classical use, in the LXX or other Gr. version of the OT, or in the Apocrypha. In the NT the shorter title is apidied to Christ in Mt26=°-''», Mk 9' IP' U*\ Jn l*--"* 3= 43' 6'^ 92 118; to John Baptist in Jn 3="; whilst in Mt 23'- » Christ forbids His disciples to covet or use it. In Jn 1** a parenthesis states its equivalence in meaning with SiSdo-KuXf, which is in turn cited in Jn 20"" as a synonym of Rabboni. RVm implicitly supports this explana- tion in Mt 238, where, however, the text reads Ka6i]yi]Tris, a word whose primary meaning of ' guide ' naturally suggests that of ' teacher.' See, for further details and for literature, Schiirer, ILIP II. i. 315 fl'., and of. Dalman, Worte Jesu, 267, 272 ff.