GAZA
156
GAZA
and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and I all, and put tlienii on his slioulders, and can-ied them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron." The : Philistines afterwards took Samson, and ]nit out his > e)-es, and brought him to Gaza, and bound him with j fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison-house : | be, however, pxdled down the temple of Da^^on, god of tlic Philistines, and slew, together with himself, "all the lords of the Philistines," besides men and ■women (Judg. xvi, 21-30). Solomon's kingilom ex- j tended as far as Gaza (1 Kings iv, 24). But the place ! always appears as a Philistine city in Scripture (Judg. iii, 3 ; xvi, 1 ; 1 Sam. vi, 17 ; 2 Kings xviii, 8). Heze- I kiah smote the Philistines as far as Gaza (2 Kings xviii, 8), Gaza fell into the hands of the Egyptians, probably Pharaoh-Xecho, as a diversion of Nebuchad- nezzar in his designs against Jerusalem (Jer. xlvii, 1), an event to -which has been incorrectly referred (Ra^v- j linson, Ilerod. i, 411) the statement of Herodotus (ii, 159) respecting the capture of Cadi/iis by the Egyp- tians. See Jerusalem. During this period of Jew- ish liistory, it seems that some facts concerning the connection of Gaza with the invasion of Sennacherib niav be added from the inscriptions found at Nineveh (La^ard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 144). See Cunei- FOttJi Inscriptions. The prophets speak in severe terms against it (Jer. xxv, 20 ; xlvii, 5 ; Amos i, C, 7 ; Zeph. ii, 4; Zech. ix, 5). After tlie destruction of Tyre it sustained a siege of two (Quint. Curt, iv, fi, 7, says five) months against Alexander the Great (Jose- phus, Ant. xi, 8, 4), a fact that illustrates the propriety of its name and its military importance. As Van de Yelde says (p. 187), it was the key of the country. So vigorously was it then defended l)y the forces under the command of the eunuch Batis, and of such massive strength were its walls, that the engineers of Alexan- der's army found themselves completely baffled in their attempts to effect a breach. They were obliged to erect an enormous mound 250 feet in height, and about a quarter of a mile in width, on the south side of the town ; and even with this adv^antage, and the use also of the engines that had been employed at the siege of Tyre, the besiegers were frequently repulsed, and Alexander himself sustained no slight bodily in- jury. It was at last carried by escalade, and the gar- rison put to the sword. The town itself was not de- stroyed, but most of the inhaliitants that remained ■were sold into slavery, and a fresh Aralj population settled in their stead (Arrian, ii, 27). What liad haj)- pened in the times of the Pharaohs (Jer. xlvii, 1) and Cambyses (Pomp. Jlel. i, 11) happened again in the struggles between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidas (Polybius, V, G8 ; xvi, 40). Jonathan Maccabfeus (1 Mace, xi, Gl) destroyed its suburbs ; Simon Maccalja;- tis (1 JIacc. xiii, 43) took the city itself, though not without extraordinary efforts. Alexander Janna3us spent a year (B.C. cir. OG) in besieging it and punish- ing its inhabitants (Josephus, ^1«/. xiii, Jo, 3). The place Avas rebuilt by Gabinius (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 5, 3). It was among the cities given by Augustus to Herod (Josephus, Ant. xv, 7, 3), after whose death it ■was united to the province of Sj'ria (Josephus, Ant. xvii, 11, 4). It was near Gaza — on the road from Je- rusalem to that place — that Philip baptized the eunuch " of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethi- oiiians" (Acts viii. 2G sq.). As Gaza lay some dis- tance from the sea (Arrian, ii, 20), it had a port on the .sea (.' Va'Canov Xifiiit', Ptol. v, IG) called VaZct Trpoc QaXarraav, " Gaza on the sea;" called also Majiima (o M(Y(oi'7/r»g), which Constantine called Cimntntitia, from the name of his son, giving it, at the same time, mu- nicipal rights. Julian took away this name, and or- dered it to be called the port of Gaza. Subsequent emperors restored the name and tiie ])rivilpges of the place. It was afterwards called the sea-coast of Gaza. Further particulars may be read in Keland (Palastina, p. 791 sq.), where mention is made, from Pausanias,
of something like a parallel to the feat of Samson ; and where, as well as in Kuinol (in loc.) and in Winer {Realwdrtcrhuch in voc), explanatory circumstances may be found of the words in Acts viii, l:G- — -"Gaza, which is desert ;" an expression that appears to refer rather to the road (otijc) from Jerusalem in that direc- tion than to Gaza itself (see Robinson, Eesearc/us, ii, G40). Besides the ordinary road from Jerusalem by Kamleh to Gaza, there was another, more favorable for carriages (Acts viii, 28), further to the south, through Hebron, and thence through a district ccm- parativelj' without towns, and much exposed to the incursions of people from the desert. The matter is discussed by Kaumer in one of his Bcitrac/e, incorpo- rated in the last edition of his Paldstina; also by Rob- inson in the Appendix to his second volume. The latter writer suggests a verj^ prolialde place for the baptism, viz. at the water in the 7vaili/ el-IIafy, be- tween Eleutheropolis and Gaza, not far from the old sites of Lachish and Eglon. The Icgendar}' scene of the baptism is at Beit-si'ir, between Jerusalem and He- bron : the tradition having arisen apparently from the opinion that Philip himself was travelling southwards from Jerusalem. But there is no need to suppose that he went to Jerusalem at all. Lange {Apost. Zeiialt, ii, 109) gives a spiritual sense to the word foiifioc. About A.D. G5 Gaza was laid in ruins by the Jews, in revenge for the massacre of their brethren in Cwsarea (Josephus, War, ii, 18, 1). It soon recovered again ; and it was one of the chief cities of Syria during the reigns of Titus and Adrian (see Smith's Diet, nf Class. Geof/r. s. v.). Though Christianity was early intro-