Pher'esite (1 Esdr. viii. G9) or Pher'ezite (Ju- dith v. 19; 2 Esdr. i, 21), different modes of rendering ($fpt^a7or) the name Peuizite (q. v.).
Phiala ($ia\j;), Lake, a small body of water de- scribed by Josephus, and believed by him to supply the fountain at Banias (War, iii, 10, 7). It is the present Birket er-Rdm, east of Banias; tirst examined by Irby and Mangles (1818, Travels, p. 287); identified by Thomson (BMioth. Sacra, iii, 189-192). See also Bit- ter, Erdkunde, xv, 154 sq., 174 sq. ; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii, 180; Lynch, Official Report, p. 110; Kobinson, Later Bibl. Res. p. 399.— Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 340.
Phibionitae is a local name of the Gnostics (q. v.). and is probably a corruption of I'lireh'umikr. which was acquired from Valentinus, the founder of the sect, who was a native of Phrebonitis, on the coast of Egypt (see Epiphanius, Hceres. xxvi, 3; xxxi, 2).
Phi'chol (Heb. PikoV, 5b"iQ, of doubtful meaning [see below]; Sept. <Pt\(o\ v. r. <l>i/criA; Josephus <PiKw- Xoc), the proper, or, more probably, the titular name of the commander of the troops of Abimelech, the Philis- tine king of Gerar in the patriarchal period. See Abim- elech. If the Abimelech of the time of Isaac was the son of the Abimelech of the time of Abraham, we may conclude that the Phichol who attended on the second Abimelech (Gen. xxi, 22) was the successor of the one who was present with the tirst at the interview with Abraham (Gen. xxvi, 26). Josephus mentions him on the second occasion only. On the other hand the Sept. introduces Ahuzzath, Abimelech's other com- panion, on the first also. By Gesenius the name is treated as Hebrew, and as meaning the '; mouth of all." By Fiirst (Heb. Lex. s. v.) it is derived from a root ^33, to be strong. But Hitzig (Philisfuer, § 57) refers it to the Sanscrit pitshula, a tamarisk, pointing out that Abraham had planted a tamarisk in Beersheba, and comparing the name with Elah, Berosus, Tappuach, and other names of persons and places signifying differ- ent kinds of trees; and with the name <Piya\og, a vil- lage of Palestine (Josephus, Ant. xii, 4, 2), and <t>tya\ia in Greece. Stark (Gaza, etc. p. 96) more cautiously avoids such speculations. The natural conclusion from these mere conjectures is that Phichol is a Philistine name, the derivation and meaning of which are lost to us. — Smith.
Philadelphia [strictly Philadelphia] (#(Wf\- 0»«, brother!// love), one of the seven cities of Asia Mi- nor to which the admonitions in the Apocalypse were addressed (Rev. i, 11; ii, 7). The town stood about twenty-live miles south-east from Sardis, in N. lat. 323 28', E. long. 28D 30', in the plain of Her m us, about midway between the river of that name and the termi- nation of Mount Tmolus. It was the second in Lydia (Ptolemy, v. 2; Pliny, Hist. Xat. v, 30), and was built by king Attains Philadelphia, from whom it took its
name. In B.C. 133 the [dace passed, with the dominion in which it lay, to the Romans. The soil was ex- tremely favorable to the growth of vines, celebrated by Virgil (Georg. ii, 98) for the soundness of the wine they produced ; and in all probability Philadelphia was built by Attains as a mart for the great wine-producing re- gion, extending for 500 stadia in length by 400 in breadth. Its coins have on them the head of Bacchus or a female Bacchant. Strabo compares the soil with that in the neighborhood of Catana, in Sicily ; and mod- ern travellers describe the appearance of the country as resembling a billowy sea of disintegrated lava, with here and there vast trap-dikes protruding. The original population of Philadelphia seems to have been Macedo- nian, and the national character to have been retained even in the time of Pliny. There was, however, as ap- pears from Rev. iii, 9, a synagogue of Hellenizing Jews there, as well as a Christian Church — a circumstance to be expected when we recollect that Antioehus the Great introduced into Phrygia 2000 families of Jews, remov- ing them from Babylon and Mesopotamia, for the pur- pose of counteracting the seditious temper of the Phryg- ians; and that he gave them lands and provisions, and exempted them from taxes (Josephus, Ant. xii, 3, 4). The locality continued to be subject to constant earth- quakes, which in the time of Strabp (xiii. 628) rendered even the town-walls of Philadelphia unsafe ; but its in- habitants held pertinaciously to the spot, perhaps from the profit which naturally accrued to them from their city being the staple of the great wine-district. But the expense of reparation was constant, and hence per- haps the poverty of the members of the Christian Church (o7<j« . . . brt fiatpav t'xfif Svvafiiv, Rev. iii, 8), who no doubt were a portion of the urban popula- tion, and heavily taxed for public purposes, as well as subject to private loss by the destruction of their own property. Philadelphia was not of sufficient importance in the Roman times to have law-courts of its own, but belonged to a jurisdiction of which Sardis was the cen- tre. It continued to be a place of importance and of strength down to the Byzantine age ; and of all the towns in Asia Minor it withstood the Turks the longest. It was taken by Bajazet I in A.D. 1392. Furious at the resistance which he had met with, Bajazet put to death the defenders of the city, and many of the inhabitants besides (see G. Pachym. p. 290 ; Mich. Due. p. 70 ; Chal- cond. p. 33).