Ga'ash (Heb. id. ll.""|i, a shaking or enrtliquahe ; Sept. VaaQ or IViat,), a "hill" (rather mount, ^il) among the mountains of Ephraim, near Timnath-se-
GABA
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GABBATIIA
rah, on the north side of which Joshua was buried (Josh, xxiv, 30; Sept. r«\«c(t" ; Jiulf^. ii, 0). Hence "tlie brooks of Gaash," i. e. the valleys or water- courses (C^bnS, wadys, Sept. NaxnAi or 'SaxaXt)) around tlie mountain, which were the native place of Iliddai or Hurai, one of David's warriors (2 Sam. xxiii, 30 ; 1 Chron. xi, 32). Eusebius and Jerome mere]}' state that Joshua's tomb was still a remarka- ble monument near Timnah in their day {Onomast. s. V. Vadc, Gaas). See Joshua. If Timnath (q. v.) be the modern Tibneh, then Mt. Gaash is probably the liill full of sepulchral caverns now facing it on the south. See Ei-iikaim, Mt.
Ga'ba, a less correct mode of Anglicizing (Josh, xviii, 24 ; Ezra ii, 26 ; Neh. vii, 30) the name Geba (q. v.).
Gaba (evidently a form of the Heb. ^^'35, i. e. hill; see Gibe ah), a town mentioned by Josephus, and always in connection with Ptolemais : it was destroyed by "ilie insurgent Jews in the time of Floras {War, ii, x'-\ii, 1, Vufia v. r. r«yi/oXa and rrt/3«\«) ; it adjoined Mt. Carmel, and was called " the city of horsemen" (jtuXkj 'nnrUov), because those horsemen that were dis- missed by Herod dwelt there (IFa?-, iii, 3, 1, raftd v. r. rdjiaXa, r«/3aXrt, Fc'tfiXa, FafSXaa) ; but it was differ- ent from the Gibea (Tajiu) that lay about 20 stadia from Ptolemais {Life, 23), as this was apparently the Gibeah of Benjamin. Keland, who notices several an- cient allusions to places of a similar name {Palast. p. 269), thinks that the town in cjuestion was the modern Haifa, on the shore near Carmel (q. d. XS'^fl), the Si/c- aminus of later writers (see Robinson, Researches, iii, 194, note), a conclusion in which Schwarz coincides {Palest, p. 09, note). See Gabala.
Gab'ael (ra(3aij\ v. r. ra/(rt//X ; Vulg. Gabelus), the name of two persons in the Apocrj-pha.
1. An ancestor of Toliit (Tobit i, 1).
2. A poor Jew (Tobit i, 17, Vulg.) of "Rages in Jledia," to Mhom Tobias lent (Vulg. sub chirognipho dedif) ten talents of silver, which Gabael afterwards faithfully restored to Tobias in the time of Tobit's dis- tress (Tobit i, 14; iv, 1, 20; v, 6; ix ; x, 2).— Smith, s. V. See Gaeuias.
Gabala (rn/3«Xrt), a place located by Ptolemy in Phoenicia (Reland, Palasi. p. 458), and the seat of one of the Palestinian bishoprics (ibid. p. 220). Schwarz {Palest, p. 170) refers to Josephus's mention of a Gali- la;an village bj' this name built by Herod {Ant. xv, 8, 5, where, however, the text has r«/3rt v. r. rdfSaXa and r((|U«X«, evidently the Gaba [q. v.] of other pas- sages), and to the Talmudical notices of a Gebul (i'-i*, border) ; finding both in " the village Jehil, three Eng. miles N.E. of Beth-Shean,"' doubtless the ruins by that name marked on Van de Velde's Map five miles N, of Beisan. See Gamala.
Coin of G.ibalfi,
Gabara {ru r«j8apo), a place several times men- tioned by Josephus as one of tlie principal cities of Galilee {Life, § 25, 01 ; comp. 10), thought by Reland {Pabist. ]>. 771) to be also the Gabarolh {ValiapioSr) of Josephus (Life, § 45, 47). and to have sometimes been supplanted by Gadiira (q. v.) in that historian's text ( War, iii, 7, 1). It was situated twenty stadia from Sogane (Josephus, Life. § 51), and was discovered by Scliulz in the ruins still called Jiubareh, in the speci- fied localitj' (Ritter, Erdk. xvi, 709). They are situa- ted on the northern brow of the table-laud looking
down upon the plain of Rameh, and consist of the re- mains of a large ancient building, with four cisterns, still unbroken, adjoining, and hewn stones strewn around over the space of an acre or more (Robinson, Later Bib. Res. p. 80 sq.).
Gab'atha (rn/3«3-rt'), one of the eunuchs of king Xerxes, the exposure of whose plots by Mardochffius led to their execution (Esth. xii, 1, Apocr.) ; evidently the Bigthan (q. v.) of the Heb. text (Esth. ii, 21).
Gabatha {Vajia^bd), a village {Kwfnf) mentioned only by Eusebius and Jerome {Onomast. s. v. Fn/Sn- biov, Gabathon) as lying on the eastern part of the great plain Daroma (Esdraelon), near Diocresarea; a position corresponding with that of the modern village Jebata, north of tlie Kishon (Ritter, Erdk. xvi, 748), seen but not visited by Robinson {Researches, iii, 201). Euseb. and Jerome elsewhere {ib. s. v. Ta(iac'ic, Gaba- ath) mention a place of the same name as being twelve miles from Eleutheropolis, and containing the tomb of the prophet Habakkuk (a statement which Reland, Pcdtest. p. 772, reconciles with their location of the same prophet's tomb at Keilah) ; but this seems to have been the Benjamite Gibeah (q. v.). For the Gabatha {l\iii)a^d) of Josephus {Ant. xiii, 1, 4; comp. Reland, Palnst. p. 772), see the Nadabatha (Naca- /3ft3-) of the Apocrypha (1 Mace, iv, 37).
Gab'bai (Heb. Gabbay', "'SJ, tax-gatherer; Sept. ri]fitii V. r. r»;/3f), a chief of the tribe of Benjamin, who settled in Jerusalem after the captivity (Neh. xi, 8). B.C. ante 530.
Gab'batha (r<7/3/3nS«, in some MSS. ra/3fl3ro) occurs John xix, 13, where the evangelist states that Pontius Pilate, alarmed at last in his attempts to save Jesus by the artful insinuation of the Jews, " If thou let this man go thou art not Cffisar's friend," went into the prretorium again, and brought Jesus out to them, and sat down once more upon the ftiji-ia or tri- bunal, in a place called AiOocrrpiorov, but in the Heb. Gabbatha. The Greek word, signifying literallj' st07ie- paved, is an adjective, and is generallj' used as such bj' the Greek writers ; but they also sometimes use it substantively for a stone pavement, when ica<poQ miy be understood. In the Sept. it answers to il2^^ (2 Chron. vii, 3; Esth. i, G). Jerome reads, "Sedit pro tribunali in loco qui dicitur Lithostrotos." The Greek word, as well as the Latin, is frequently used to denote a pavement formed of ornamental stones of various colors, commonl}' called a tesselatcd or mosaic pavement. The partialit}' of the Romans for this kind of pave- ment is well known. It is stated by Plinj' {Ilist. Nat. xxxvi, 64) that, after the time of Sj'lla, the Romans decorated their houses with such pavements. They also introduced them into the provinces. Suetonius relates {Ccesar, 46) that Julius C»sar, in his military expeditions, took with him the materials of tesselated pavements, ready prepared, that wherever he encamp- ed they might be laid down in the prsetorium (Casau- bon, ad Sueton. p. 38, etc., edition 1605). From these facts it has been inferred by many eminent writers that the tottoc XiSoorpwror, or place where Pilate's tri- bunal was set on this occasion, was covered by a tes- selated pavement, which, as a piece of Roman magnif- icence, was appended to the pratorium at Jerusalem. The emphatic manner in which John speaks of it agrees with this conjecture. It further appears from his narrative that it was outside the prajtorium ; for Pilate is said to have "come out" to the Jews, who, for ceremonial reasons, did not go into it, on this as well as on other occasions (John xviii, 28, 29, 38; xix, 4, 13). Besides, the Roman governors, although they tried causes, and conferred with their council (Acts XXV, 12) un<hin the pra3torium, alwaj'S pro- nounced sentence in the open air. May not, then, this tesselated pavement, on wliich the tribunal was now placed, have been inlaid on some part of the terrace,