The place is not mentioned in the Apocryi)ha nor the N. T. Later authorities are more precise, but un- fortunately discordant among themselves. By Josc- phus (Ant. V, 1, 4) the encampment is given as fiftj' stadia, rather under six miles, from the river, and ten from Jericho. In the time of Jerome the site of the camp and the twelve memorial stones were still dis- tinguishable, if we are to take literally the expression of the Epit. Paulie (§ 12). The distance from Jericho was then two miles. According to Eusebius, the spot (WiXywX) was loft uncultivated, but regarded with great veneration by the residents (Ondinast. s. v. r«X- yaXci). AVhon Arculf was there at the end of the 7th century, the jdace was shown at five miles from Jeri- cho. A large church covered the site, in which the twelve stones were ranged (Early Travels in Pal. p. 7). It is probable, however, that the ecclesiastical archi- tects had not been very particular al)Out topography (Robinson, Research, ii, 287). The church and stones were seen hj Willibald thirt}' years later, hut he gives the distance as five miles from the Jordan, which again he states correctlj' as seven from Jericlio. The stones are mentioned also by Thietmar, A.D. 1217 (according to whom it was to these that John the Baptist pointed when he said tiiat God was "aide of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham," Peregr. 31); and, lastly, by Ludolf do Suchem a century later. These spocilicatioiis show that Gilgal must have been near the site of tho modern village of Kiha (Porter, Ilandh. for S. and P. p. 19G). In S'an de Velde's Map (1858), a spot named Mohnfer, a little south-east of cr-Eiha, is marked as probable. — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v.
GILL
871
GILLESPIE
Schwarz {Phjs. Descr. of Palest, p. 128) asserts that there is at present found near the Jordan in this vicin- itv a hill, which appears like a heap of stones, and is called hy the Araos Ualgala; but this lacks confirma- tion. It is probably this Gilgal that is called Geli- LOTH in Josh, xviii, 17, where, as well as in the par- allel passage, xv, 7, the position is given with more minuteness than elsewhere.
2. A royal cit}"- of the Canaanitss, whose sovereign ("king of the nations of Gilgal," or, rather, perhaps the "king of Goini-at-Gilgal," ^;"^?^ D^^IJ--^";) is mentioned in the catalogue of the chiefs overthrown by Joshua (Josh, xii, 23), appears to have been situa- ted on the western plain, as it is connected with the "region of Dor" (verse 22). Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v. TAyiA, Gelgel) say that it was in their time a village called Galgulis (rn/\yot'\//(,')i about six Eoman miles north of Antipatris (Kefr Saba) ; and this is probably the present ruined village Jiljulkh of the same neighborhood (Ivol)inson, Researches, iii, 47; Schwarz, Palest, p. 92), although tiiis is only two miles from Kefr Saba, and east-south-east (E. Smith, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, 1843, p. 492), rather than tlie Kilki- lieh, about two miles east of Kefr Saba (Kobinsou, Later Researches, p. 136, 138).
The Gohn, or original inhabitants of this place, evi- dently were in some' distinctive sense heathen (q. v.). "By that word (Judg. iv, 2) or ' nations' (Gen. xiv, 1) the name is usually rendered in the A. Vers, as in the well-known phrase, ' Galilee of the nations' (Isa. ix, 1 ; comp. Matt, iv, 15). Possibly they were a tribe of the early inhabitants of the country', who, like the Geriz- ites, the Avim, the Zemarites, and others, have left only this faint, casual trace of their existence there" (Smith, s. v.). See Galilec.
3. A town, evidsntly in the mountainous interior, whence Elij ih and Elisha are said to have gone doirn to Bethel (2 Kings ii, 2), which is itself 3000 feet above the Gilgal in the Jordan valley. It was perhaps here that Elisha rendered the pottage harmless (2 Kings iv, 38) ; he maj"^ even have resided here (2 Kings ii, 1 ; iv, 38). It lay in the vicinity of Baal-shalisha (2 Kings iv, 42). This is probaljly the Beth-Gilgal (A. V. "house of Gilgal") mentioned (Neh. xii, 29) as occupied by the Levitical singers after the exile ; and it is evidently also the Gulr/alci (r«\y«A«) on the route of the victorious Bacchides (1 Mace, ix, 3). See Galgala. Keil {Comment, on Jush. p. 219, 232) and Van de Velde {Memoir, p. 316), after Winer (s. v.), unnecessarily identify' this with the Gilgal of Joshua's camp, etc. It is doubtless the Galr/ ila {VaXyaXa') stated b}' Eusebius and Jerome {Onomast. s. v.) to be located near Bethel ; and is the large village JiljUia, one hour west of Sinjil, on the road from Jerusalem to Nablus, situated so high on the Ijrow of the central mountain tract as to allord an extensive view of the great lower plain and the sea, and even a view of Mount Hermon (Robinson, Researches, iii, 81).
Gill, Alexander, an English philologist and the- ologian, was born in Lincohishire Feb. 27, 15G4. He studied and graduated in Corpus Christi College, Ox- ford. In 1608 he became principal of St. Paul's school, which post he filled until his death, Nov. 17, 1635. He gained much reputation as a philologist and theologi- cal critic l)y his Treatise concerning ihe Triniiii (1601, 8vo) : — Logonnmiii A nglica (1C21, 4t()) : — Sacred Philos- ophg of Holy Scripture, or a Commentary on the Creed (1635, 8vo). See Wood, A thence Oxonlenscs, vol. i (Lon- don, 1691, 2 vols, fol.) ; Iloafer, Kon.v. Biog. Generate, XX, 523; Knight, Life of Colet; Allibone, Diet, of Au- thors, i, 671.