2. (MS'in, with the definite article; Sept. Sw^/3a v. r. 'Ap£/3/3a ; Vulg. Arebba) a city of Judah, named, with Kirjath-jearim. in Josh, xv, 60 only. It lay among the group of towns situated to the west of Jerusalem, on the northern border of the tribe of Judah (Keil, Comment, ad loc). It is probably only an epithet for Jerusalem itself, which otherwise would not appear in the list. See Judah [Tribe of).
3. In one passage (Josh, xi, 8) Zinox is mentioned with the affix Rabbah — Zidon-rabbah. This is pre- served in the margin of the A. V., though in the text it is translated " great Zidon."
4. Although there is no trace of the fact in the Bible, there can be little doubt that the name of Rabbah was also attached in Biblical times to the chief city of Moab. Its Biblical name is "Ar," but wre have the tes- timony of Eusebius (Onomast. s. v. Moab) that in the 4th century it possessed the special title of Rabbath- Moab, or, as it appears in the corrupted orthography of Stephanus of Byzantium, the coins, and the Ecclesias- tical Lists, Rabathmoba. Rahbathmoma, and Ralba or
VIII.— I i i
Robba ifoabitis (Reland, Pctlfst. p. 226. 957 ; Seetzen, A', isen, iv, 227; Bitter, p. 1220). This name was for a time displaced by Areopolis, in the same manner that Rabbath-Ammon had been by Philadelphia : these, how- ever, were but the names imposed by the temporary masters of the country, and employed by them in their official documents ; and when they passed away, the original names, which had never lost their place in the mouths of the common people, reappeared, and Rabba, like Amman, still remains to testify to the ancient ap- pellation. Rabba lies on the highlands at the south- east quarter of the Dead Sea, between Kerak and Jibel Shihan. Its nuns, which are unimportant, are de- scribed by Burckhardt (July 15), Seetzen (Reisen, i, 411), De Saulcy (Jan. 18), and Porter (Handb. for Pal- estine, p. 297 sq.). See An.
Rab'bath of the Children of Ammon, and of the Ammonites. (The former is the more accurate, the Hebrew being in both cases "(1523 "\!J3 "" ; Sept. >'/ UKpa Tiov v'uuv 'A/J/.IWV, P«/3/3d$ viu>v 'Afifidiv ; Vulg. Rabbath filiorum Amnion.) This is the full ap- pellation of the place commonly given as Rabbah (q.v.). It occurs only in Deut. iii, 11 and Ezek. xxi, 20. The th is merely the Hebrew "construct state." or mode of connecting a word ending in alt with one following it. Comp. Gibeath; Kirjath; Ramath, etc.
Rabbenu Gershom, or, more properly, Rabbi Gershom bex-Jehuda, the reputed founder of the Franco-German Rabbinical school, in which the studies of that of Babylonia were earnestly revived, was born about 960, and died in 1028. He was called " The An- cient," "The Light of the Exile," and was the founder of monogamy and other " institutions" among the Jews, which were for a long time disputed and rejected, and himself was placed under ban for attempting to abro- gate the Mosaic precept respecting the marriage of a man with the childless wife of his deceased brother. Gershom also wrote a commentary on the Talmud, and some hymns and penitential prayers, which are extant in the Machzor. For reasons unknown he went to Mayence, where lie founded a college, which soon at- tracted the youth of Germany and Italy. See Flirst, Bibl. Jud. i, 328 ; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico (Germ, transl.), p. 114; Griitz, Gesch. cler Juden (Leips. 1871), v, 364 sq. ; Braunschweiger, Gesch. der Juden in den romanischen Staaten, p. 32 sq. ; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth.
KAnnEXU
8G6
RABBI
a. a. SJ.ini. ii. :>>': Dessauer, Gesch. d. Tsra 310; Etheridge, Tntrod. to Heb. Literature, p. 283 sq.; Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, p. 69; Zunz, Litera- turgesch. </. synagogalen Poesie, p. 238; id. SynagogaJU Poatie, p. 171 171: Delitzsch, Zar GescA. derjiid. Poe- sie, p. 51, 156; Adams, ///.«■/. <;/'///< ./etc*, i, 226; l'rau- kel, Monatsschrift, L854, p. 230 sq. (B. P.)
Rabbemi Tam. See I a.m.
Rab'bi QPafifii, "~ I, a title of honor given by the their Learned nun. authorized teachers of the law, and spiritual heads of the community, and which in the New. Test is frequently given to Christ (In the following article we mainly adopt thai given by Ginsburg in Kin..'- Cyclopadia, with additions from other soui
I. Different Forms, and tfu Signification of tin Title.
I be ti rni "~. Rabbi, is a form of the noun -~. ll<ih (from -"■ to multiply, to become great, distinguished), which in ilic Biblical Hebrew denotes agreat man; one distinguished either for age, position, Office, or skill (Job xxxii, 9; Dan. i, 3; Prov. xxvi, 10) ; bul in the canon- ical I ks il does not occur with this suilix. I; is in
post-Biblical Hebrew that this term is used as a title, indicating sundry degrees by its several terminations for those who arc distinguished for learning, who are the authoritative teachers of the law, and who arc the ap- pointed spiritual heads of the Jewish community. Thus, for instance, the simple term ~"\ Bab, without any ter- mination, and with or without the name of the person following it, corresponds to our expression teacher, mas- /■ r, diSaoicaXog, and is the lowest degree; with the pro- nominal suffix first person singular— viz. "Z~t, Rabbi, 'Pa/3/3«, my Rabbi (Matt. xxiii, 7. 8 ; xxvi, 25, 49; Mar!, ix,5; si, 21 : \i\. 15; John i. 38, 19; iii. 2, 26; iv, 31 ; vi, 25; i\. 'J: \i. 8)— if is a higher degree; and with the pronominal suffix first person plural— viz. )Z~}. Rab- bdn, 'IV •> ->nr. our teacher, our master, in the Chaldee form — it is the highesl degree, and was given to the pa- triarchs '"X-r:) or the presidents of the Sanhedrim. Gamaliel I. who was patriarch in Palestine A.I). :>()-."i0, was the firsl thai obtained this extraordinary title, and nol Sit i heii-Ilillel. as is erroneously affirmed by Light- fool {Harmony of the Four Evangelists, John i. 38). This is evident from the following Statement in the Aruch ofR. Nathan (s. v. -"X): "We do nol find thai the title Rabbon began Inf.. re the patriarchs rabbon Gamaliel I. rabbon Simon his son (who perished in the destruction of the second Temple), and rabbon Jochanan ben-Zakkai, all of whom were presidents." Lightfoot's mi-iake is all the more strange since he himself quotes this passage elsewhere (comp. Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations, Man. xxiii, 7). "jan, however, which, as we have said, is the noun yi, with the Chaldee pro- nominal Buffix firsl person plural, is also used in Aramaic as a noun absolute, the plural of which is "•:" and c~:" (comp. Chaldee paraphrase on Psa. Ixxx, 11; Ruth i. 2); pronominal suffix second person singular ~"" (Song of Songs vi, I); pronominal snilix third person plural yirT\331 i Psa. Ixxxiii, 12). Accordinglj I in Mark x. 51, which in John xx. h', is spelled