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Geba

cityOld TestamentJudea1 verse
Today El JibCountry IsraelCoordinates 31.847, 35.183

Geba is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as El Jib. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.

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Archaeological Data
Occupation Phases
Early Bronze Age3800 BCE – 2500 BCE
Early Bronze Age II3050 BCE – 2850 BCE
Early Bronze Age IV/Middle Bronze Age I/Int. Bronze2500 BCE – 2000 BCE
Middle Bronze Age2000 BCE – 1550 BCE
Middle Bronze Age II-III1750 BCE – 1550 BCE
Iron Age I1150 BCE – 980 BCE
Iron Age IIa980 BCE – 830 BCE
Iron Age II980 BCE – 539 BCE
Iron Age IIb830 BCE – 720 BCE
Iron Age IIc720 BCE – 539 BCE
Iron Age III (Persian)539 BCE – 333 BCE
Hellenistic333 BCE – 63 BCE
Roman63 BCE – 324 CE
Byzantine324 CE – 638 CE
UnitoAssyrianGovernance, Villages to Empires Dataset (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732Uppsala University, ANE Site Placemarks (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.6384044

Biblical History

This Geba, associated in the biblical text with the modern site of El Jib, more commonly identified with ancient Gibeon, represents one of the complex geographical puzzles of Old Testament topography in the hill country of Benjamin. The Benjaminite plateau contained numerous towns in close proximity, and the names Geba, Gibeah, and Gibeon were sometimes confused or interchanged in both ancient manuscripts and modern scholarship. The town appearing in texts associated with El Jib may reflect a scribal variant or a secondary designation for a well-attested Benjaminite settlement. Gibeon itself plays a major role in Scripture as the site of the Gibeonite covenant with Joshua (Joshua 9–10), the battle where the sun stood still, and the location of the tabernacle during part of David's and Solomon's reigns (1 Chronicles 16:39; 2 Chronicles 1:3). Whether this particular Geba reference reflects Gibeon proper or a neighboring settlement, it points to the dense sacred and historical geography of the Benjamin highlands.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

El Jib, the proposed site for this Geba variant, is located approximately nine kilometers northwest of Jerusalem and is most confidently identified with ancient Gibeon. Excavations conducted by James Pritchard in the 1950s and 1960s at El Jib yielded extraordinary discoveries including a massive Iron Age water system, a circular shaft cut 11.8 meters into bedrock, and dozens of storage jar handles inscribed with the name "Gibeon" in ancient Hebrew script, providing unambiguous epigraphic identification of the site. These jar handles, dating to the seventh century BC, confirm El Jib as ancient Gibeon and demonstrate its role as a major wine production and storage center. The water system corresponds to the "pool of Gibeon" referenced in 2 Samuel 2:13.

Verse Appearances (1)

References

  1. Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
  2. OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
  3. Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
  4. Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
  5. Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
  6. Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]

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