Chorazin (Hastings' Dictionary)

A town situated at the N. end of the Sea of Galilee on the \V. of the Jordan. The meaning of the name is uncertain. It was a ' city ' f'n-iXis), and therefore possessed a synagogue. Our Lord laboured in it, as is shown by His mention of it in Mt 1 P>, Lk 10''. It is not mentioned in Josephus, but the Jews long after the time of Christ praised the superior quality of its wheat (B«i. Tal. 'Menahoth' 85 A). Jerome (c. A. D.

400) locates it at two miles from Capernaum, but says that it was deserted. Beyond these meagre notices the place has no history. Thomson (1857) found a ruin called Kerazeh, which from its location and the correspondence of names he thought was the site of Chorazin. Wilson (1SC6) examined and described the remains at this place, and confirms the identiUcjtion of Thomson. This view is now generally accepted.

The ruins are of some import- ance, the entire stonework, walls, columns, and ornamentation being composed of black basalt rock. A short paved road ran from the town to the great caravan road leading past the Sea of Galdee to Damascus. S. Merrill. CHOREE (XopjS^, AV Corbe), 1 Es 5'»=Zaccai, Ezr 2», Neh "'*. CH0SAM;EUS. — In 1 Es 9»» Sf^xwr Xoaana'm A, or Xocrd/iao! B, takes the place of pi'PP, the reading of the parallel passage Ezr 10^' (see Simeon, No. 2). It is not improbable that the Gr.

reading is due to a copyist's error, especially seeing that the three proper names that follow Simeon in the text of Ezra are omitted in 1 Es. J. A. Selbib.