Timnath (Hastings' Dictionary)

t»ne of the strong cities in Jud.nea built by Baccliides(l Mac !P). The name occurs between Bethel and Pliaralhon. Pharathon may perhaps be a corruption of Ephraim (,et-TaiyiOen), and in this case Timnath would be Thamna, now 'I'ibnch, on the Roman road from Antipatris to Jeru.salem, which Jo.seplius says was the chief town of a toparchy (ii./ III. iii. 5). G. A. Smith (IIGUL 3.'i.")n.) con.

-siders that the two names Timnath and Pharathon should not be separated, and that the}- represent one place, — Pharathon being Wddy Far'ah, and Timnath being reco''nized in the name Tammiin, so common now at the head of WciUy Far'ah. But this position is too far N. to have been in Juda'a. C. W. Wll.soN. TIMNATH-HERES {c-in njcn ' portion of the sun ' ; B Qa/xi'a.Sdpei, A Oaiivaddp' (as ; ThaniHiitli Srire).

— The name ot Joshua's inheritance and burial-place (Jf 2'-'), which is called Timnath-serah in Jos 19" and 24*". Jlires is su|)i)Osed by some commentators [Ewald, Bertheau, Miihiau, etc.) to be a very early JOpyist's error for Scrah. On the other hand, it 18 neld to be the correct form of the name by the Jews and Samaritans, who identify the place with Kefr Ifdris." But see Tl.MNATH-SEHAH. C. W. Wilson. TIMNATH-SERAH (m.

p njcn ; B Qaiiapxip-ns, dafifaOaaaxapd, A Ha/xfaOaapd, Qa/ivaaaxdp ; Tham- nath Hcraa, Thamnath Sare). — The place given by the children of Israel to Joshua as an inheritance, ind in the border of whicli he was buried. It was in the hill-countiy of Ephraim, and on the north side af the mountain of Gaash (Jos 19°" 24^"). In Jg 2" the name is written Timnath-Heres (see preceding irt. ). According to Josephus, Joshua was buried it Thamna (ea^j-d), a city of Ephraim (Ant. V. i. 29).

This is apjiarontly identical with Thamna, the chief town of a toparchy [ISJ III. iii. 5), which idioined the to]iarchy of Lydda (Wnom. ), and was reduced to subjection by Vespasian before he marched on Lyd<la and Jamiiia (BJ IV. viii. 1). Thamna, now 'Jihiirh, occuj)ied an important position on the road from Jems, to Antipatris and C;esarea. It was taken by Ua.ssius {Ant. xiv. xi. 2), and was occupied by .^ohn the Essene, at the commencement ot the .lewish war {b,f II. xx. i).

Eusebius and Jerome (Onom. s. QafuvaOnapd) say that Timnath-^erah, the town of .Joshua, where his tomb was shown, was in the hill-country, ami that it was in the territory of 1 )an. They identilied it with the Thamna to which .ludali went up to visit his sheep-shearers (Gn 38'-), and placed it in Dan, or Judah, on the border of Ljdda, and on the road fioin that place to Jerus. (Onom. Qaprnd).

It is not Improbable that by an intentional tnolathesis, to »voidanytiiin(j thatKavoure<l ot i<ioI:itry,Tiiniuitli-^crr.'', ' portion oj thr sun,' was ciiangf-d into Tinnialh-^eruA. See IlHRW, ad An. ; and cf. Moore on Je 2. Elsewhere (s. Tads) they state that Joshn.-i's torn)', was shown ne.ar Thnmna, on the N. side of Gaas. a mountain of Ephraim. Jerome takes St. Paula to Timnath-serah after leaving Bethel, and before reaching Shi loh (Kp. Paul. xv.)

The place referred to by Eusebius and Jerome is Tihnch. Two sites have been proposetl for Timnath-^erah, and their cl.iims mav be thus stated — (1) Tifmeh is an old Tibnath, and the position, yarding an approach to the interior of the country, IS a suitable one for the homo of the great Jewish warrior. Josephus probably, and early Christian trailition certainly, identihes it with the city of .Joshua. In the north face of a hill to the S. of the ruins there is a rem.

irkable groiip of rock-hewn tombs ; a great oak tree near the tomb is called Sheikh et-Teim, 'the chief servant of God'; and about 3 miles to the E. is Kefr Ishu'a, or Joshua's village (/'A'i'^ Mem. ii. 374-378; Guerin, Samarie, ii. 89, etc.) The identilication with Tibnch is ac- cepted by most modems, e.g. Dillm. (on Jos 19"), Moore, Miihiau (in Riehra's'i/nTi), Buhl (17u).

(2) Kefr IJCiris, about 9 mUes south of Ndb/us, is, according to existing Samaritan tradition, the burial-place of Joshua and Caleb. It is ahso the Kefr Cheres of the Jewish pilgrims, Kalibi Jacob (A.D. 1258), hap-Parehi, etc., wliich Sehwarz (151) places S. of A/lbius. To the E. of the vill.age there are two sacred places (miiMms) — one named Neby Kill, the ' Prophet of the Division by Lot,' the other Neby Kulda, or Ktinda.

Conder identifies the first with Joshua, the second he takes to he a corruption of Caleb (PEF Mem. ii. 378). If the identification with Kefr IJdris bo acce|)ted, it must be 8up]iosed that the name of the place, Timnath, has disappeared whilst its distinctive title, IJeref or Scrah, litis survived. C. W. WiLSON.