Where is sychem?

Shechem (/ˈʃɛkəm/ SHEK-əm), also spelled Sichem (/ˈsɪkəm/ SIK-əm; Hebrew: שְׁכֶם, romanized: Šəḵem, lit. 'shoulder'; Ancient Greek: Συχέμ, romanized: Sykhém;[1] Samaritan Hebrew: ࠔࠬࠥࠊࠝࠌ, romanized: Šăkēm), was a Canaanite and Israelite city mentioned in the Amarna Letters, later appearing in the Hebrew Bible as the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel following the split of the United Monarchy.[2] According to Joshua 21:20–21, it was located in the tribal territorial allotment of the tribe of Ephraim. Shechem declined after the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The city later regained its importance as a prominent Samaritan center during the Hellenistic period.[3]

Traditionally associated with the city of Nablus,[4] Shechem is now identified with the nearby site of Tell Balata in the Balata al-Balad suburb of the West Bank.

Shechem's position is indicated in the Hebrew Bible: it lay north of Bethel and Shiloh, on the high road going from Jerusalem to the northern districts (Judges xxi, 19), at a short distance from Michmethath (Joshua 17:7) and of Dothain (Genesis 37:12–17); it was in the hill-country of Ephraim (Joshua 20:7; 21:21; 1 Kings 12:25; 1 Chronicles 6:67; 7:28), immediately below Mount Gerizim (Judges 9:6–7). These indications are substantiated by Josephus, who says that the city lay between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, and by the Madaba map, which places its Sykhem between one of its two sets of "Tour Gobel" (Ebal) and the "Tour Garizin" (Garizim). The site of Shechem in patristic sources is almost invariably identified with,[5] or located close to,[6] the town of Flavia Neapolis (Nablus).

Shechem was a very ancient commercial center due to its position in the middle of vital trade routes through the region. A very old "Way of the Patriarchs" trade route runs in the north–south direction.[citation needed]

The oldest settlement in Shechem goes back to about six thousand years ago, during the Chalcolithic period (4000–3500 BCE). At that time agriculture was already practiced.[7]

Subsequently, during the Early Bronze Age, activity seems to have moved to the nearby area of Khirbet Makhneh el-Fauqa.[8] Some publications claim that Shechem is mentioned in the third-millennium Ebla tablets, but this has been denied by competent archaeologists.[9]

The first substantial building activity at Shechem dates from the Middle Bronze Age IIA (c. 1900 BCE).[8] It became a very substantial Canaanite settlement, and was attacked by Egypt, as mentioned in the Sebek-khu Stele, an Egyptian stele of a noble at the court of Senusret III (c. 1880–1840 BCE).

In the Amarna Letters of about 1350 BCE, Šakmu (i.e., Shechem) was the center of a kingdom carved out by Labaya (or Labayu), a Canaanite warlord who recruited mercenaries from among the Habiru. Labaya was the author of three Amarna letters (EA 252, EA 253, and EA 254), and his name appears in 11 of the other 382 letters, referred to 28 times, with the basic topic of the letter, being Labaya himself, and his relationship with the rebelling, countryside Habiru.

Shechem may be identical to the Sakama mentioned in an account dated to the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt (around 1200 BCE).[10][11][12][13] (See Papyrus Anastasi I).

During the partial exile of the Kingdom of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar from 606 to 536 BCE, those Judeans who remained in Eretz Israel reestablished the altar at Shechem to keep the worship system of Judaism going when access to Jerusalem was cut off.[14]

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Shechem was the main settlement of the Samaritans, whose religious center stood on Mount Gerizim, just outside the town. In 6 CE, Shechem was annexed to the Roman Province of Judea. Of the Samaritans of Sichem not a few[clarification needed] rose up in arms on Mt. Gerizim at the time of the Galilean rebellion (67 CE), which was part of the First Jewish–Roman War. The city was very likely destroyed by Sextus Vettulenus Cerialis ,[15] during that war.

In 72 CE, a new city, Flavia Neapolis, was built by Vespasian 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) to the west of the old one. This city's name was eventually corrupted to the modern Nablus. Josephus, writing in about 90 CE (Jewish Antiquities 4.8.44), placed the city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Elsewhere he refers to it as Neapolis.

In Emperor Hadrian's reign, the temple on Mt. Gerizim was restored and dedicated to Jupiter.[16][full citation needed]

Like Shechem, Neapolis had a very early Christian community, including the early saint Justin Martyr; we hear even of bishops of Neapolis.[17] On several occasions the Christians suffered greatly at the hands of the Samaritans. In 474 the emperor, to avenge what Christians considered an unjust attack by the Samaritans, deprived the latter of Mt. Gerizim and gave it to the Christians, who built on it a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.[18]

The city of Nablus was Islamicized in the Abbasid and Ottoman periods.[citation needed] In 1903 near Nablus, a German party of archaeologists led by Dr. Hermann Thiersch stumbled upon the site called Tell Balata and now identified as ancient Shechem. Nablus is still referred to as Shechem by Israeli Hebrew speakers, even though the original site of Shechem lies east of the modern-day city.[3]

Shechem first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 12:6–8, which says that Abraham reached the "great tree of Moreh" at Shechem and offered sacrifice nearby. Genesis, Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges hallow Shechem over all other cities of the land of Israel.[19] According to Genesis (12:6–7) Abram "built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him… and had given that land to his descendants" at Shechem. The Bible states that on this occasion, God confirmed the covenant he had first made with Abraham in Harran, regarding the possession of the land of Canaan. In Jewish tradition, the old name was understood in terms of the Hebrew word shékém – "shoulder, saddle", corresponding to the mountainous configuration of the place.

On a later sojourn, two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, avenged their sister Dinah's rape by "Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land" of Shechem. Shimon and Levi said to the Shechemites that, if "every male among you is circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to ourselves."[20] Once the Shechemites agree to the mass circumcision, however, Jacob's sons repay them by killing all of the city's male inhabitants.[21]

Following the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan after their Exodus from Egypt, according to the biblical narrative, Joshua assembled the Israelites at Shechem and asked them to choose between serving the GOD of Abraham who had delivered them from Egypt, or the false gods which their ancestors had served on the other side of the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they now lived. The people chose to serve the GOD of the Bible, a decision which Joshua recorded in the Book of the Law of God, and he then erected a memorial stone "under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord" in Shechem.[22] The oak is associated with the Oak of Moreh where Abram had set up camp during his travels in this area.[23]

Shechem and its surrounding lands were given as a Levitical city to the Kohathites.[24]

Owing to its central position, no less than to the presence in the neighborhood of places hallowed by the memory of Abraham (Genesis 12:6, 7; 34:5), Jacob's Well (Genesis 33:18–19; 34:2, etc.), and Joseph's tomb (Joshua 24:32), the city was destined to play an important part in the history of Israel.[citation needed] Jerubbaal (Gideon), whose home was at Ophrah, visited Shechem, and his concubine who lived there was mother of his son Abimelech (Judges 8:31). She came from one of the leading Shechemite families who were influential with the "Lords of Shechem" (Judges 9:1–3, wording of the New Revised Standard Version and New American Bible Revised Edition).[25]

After Gideon's death, Abimelech was made king (Judges 9:1–45). Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, made an allegorical speech on Mount Gerizim in which he warned the people of Shechem about Abimelech's future tyranny (Judges 9:7–20). When the city rose in rebellion three years later, Abimelech took it, utterly destroyed it, and burnt the temple of Baal-berith where the people had fled for safety. The city was rebuilt in the 10th century BC and was probably the capital of Ephraim (1 Kings 4). Shechem was the place appointed, after Solomon's death,[citation needed] for the meeting of the people of Israel and the investiture of his son Rehoboam as king; the meeting ended in the secession of the ten northern tribes, and Shechem, fortified by Jeroboam, became the capital of the new kingdom (1 Kings 12:1; 14:17; 2 Chronicles 10:1).

After the kings of Israel moved, first to Tirzah (1 Kings 14:17) and later on to Samaria, Shechem lost its importance, and we do not hear of it until after the fall of Jerusalem (587 BC; Jeremiah 12:5). The events connected with the restoration were to bring it again into prominence. When, on his second visit to Jerusalem, Nehemiah expelled the grandson of the high priest Eliashib (probably the Manasse of Josephus, Antiquities, XI, vii, viii) and with him the many Jews, priests and laymen, who sided with the rebel, these betook themselves to Shechem; a schismatic temple was then erected on Mount Garizim and thus Shechem became the "holy city" of the Samaritans. The latter, who were left unmolested while the orthodox Jews were chafing under the heavy hand of Antiochus IV (Antiquities, XII, v, 5, see also Antinomianism in the Books of the Maccabees) and welcomed with open arms every renegade who came to them from Jerusalem (Antiq., XI, viii, 7), fell about 128 BC before John Hyrcanus, and their temple was destroyed (Antiquities, XIII, ix, 1).

Shechem is mentioned in The Book of Acts (Acts 7:16).

It is not known whether the Samaritan city of Sychar (Greek: Συχαρ, Sykhar) in the Gospel of John (John 4:5) refers to Shechem or to another nearby village: "So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph."[26]

John 4:15 mentions one of the women of Sychar going to Jacob's Well. Some scholars believe the location of Sychar is at the foot of Mount Ebal, but other scholars disagree because the proposed location is 1 km (0.62 mi) from Jacob's Well, which they think is not close enough for the women of Sychar to have fetched their water there. Based on John 4:15, these scholars have argued that Shechem is the Samaritan city of Sychar described in the Gospel of John.[26]

Some of the inhabitants of Sychar were "Samaritans" who believed in Jesus when he tarried two days in the neighborhood (John 4). Sychar and/or Shechem city must have been visited by the Apostles on their way from Samaria to Jerusalem (Acts 8:25).([citation needed]

At such a sacred site in the old Biblical city of Shechem in Jordan an altar and a sacred oak existed, according to a tradition preserved orally by the Hebrew people for some 1000 years before the Bible was first written down during the 11th century B.C.

The archaeologists--from over a dozen American and foreign institutions--located Shechem's sacred area this summer below the courtyard of the city's temple-fortress. The excavations, which were begun in 1957 and resumed in 1960 and this summer, have provided scholars with the long history of the sacred area.

An Accurate Record

According to G. Ernest Wright of Harvard, who directed the archaeological team, this accurate historical record can be critically compared with the ancient oral traditions. The achievement is similar to the light shed on the Greek legend of Troy by Schliemann's excavations in Asia Minor.

The Drew-McCormick-Harvard expedition at Shechem is the largest archaeological dig in the Holy Land and has become an important site for training graduate students and teachers in Palestinian archaeology.

Shechem was one of the great cities of its area in ancient times; its 4000 years of history now lie buried in a ten-acre mound, or "tell," just east of Nablus in Jordan. When it flourished during ancient Egyptian and Biblical times, it occupied a strategie position at the eastern opening of the pass between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerasim. At the edge of the site is the modern village of Balatah, whose beautiful spring and nearby Jacob's Well once supplied Shechem with water.

Empire Stronghold

Shechem is the first city mentioned in Bible; when Abraham and Jacob visited it, the city was a stronghold of an empire ruled from Egypt. It was during this early era at the very beginning of what is called the "Hyksos" age (13th century B.C.) that Shechem's inhabitants enclosed the sacred place within a large courtyard, with rooms for priests and pilgrims adjoining it. They also erected a fortification wall outside it to put the sacred area within the confines of the city.

Aftre having been rebuilt four times in a century, this structure was abandoned about 1650 B.C., the ruins covered over, and a massive temple-fortress erected--the largest in Palestine. A new 35-foot-high wall was built to protect the temple, and two great city gates constructed. It remained in Egyptian hands for 400 years until the 13th century B.C., when the Israelites under Joshua conquered the land of Palestine.

Throughout this period Shechem was the religious, as well as political, center of north-central Palestine, long before Jerusalem took over that role under King David.

After the death of King Solomon, all Israel assembled at Shochem to make Rohebeam, the son of Solomon, their king. But there the ten tribes of Israel revolted and joined together into the Northern Kingdom of Israel, with Shochem as its first capital.

Rival of Jerusalem

Later during the time of Alexander the Great, the Samaritans, a dissident religious sect, tried to make the city the rival of Jerusalem. (The Samaritans believed that Mt. Gerasim, rather than the sacred hill of Jerusalem, was the mountain where God first entered into covenant agreement with his people.) Shochem's final destruction occurred about 107 B.C., when the Samaritan capital was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, high priest and prince of the Judeans in Jerusalem.

The Old Testament story of the Israelites first began to be written down during the 10th century B.C., though a variety of poems, legal documents, and lists were perhaps written from before this. But the history of the Israelites in the Holy Land began hundreds of years earlier, and the first scribes relied upon oral traditions that had passed down from generation to generation. The tradition of a sacred area, with an altar and a sacred oak, in the city of Shochem begins in Genesis and reappears from time to time in the Old Testament down to the book of Judges.

In Genesis 12, the Lord commands Abraham to go into the land of Canaan "unto the place of Shochem, unto the oak of Moreh" (sacred oak). There, the Lord appears and promises the land to the descendents of Abraham, and Abraham then builds an altar unto the Lord.

Moses Commands People

Deuteronomy 37 relates the farewell of Moses to his people, who are preparing to leave for the land in Jordan promised them by the Lord. Moses commands the people, when they arrive there, to build an altar to the Lord on Mount Ebal, which flanks Shechem, and also to erect on the site plastered stones inscribed with the laws of the covenant.

In the last chapter of the book of Joshua, the leader of the people, now very old, calls all the tribes of Israel to Shochem to renew their covenant with the Lord. Joshua sets beneath the sacred oak a great stone (the sacred Pillar) to serve as a witness of the covenant, "a witness against you, lest you deny your God."

Revolution Reported

The sacred oak and pillar reappear in Judges 9, which reports the revolution touched off by Abimelech when he established himself as Israel's first king: "And all the men of Shochem assembled themselves together ... and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shochem."

The Bible does not say when any of these events in the tradition occurred. But the excavations at Shochem provide a concrete background to the story with approximate dates. These are derived from such evidence as changes that occur in the styles of pottery as the digging goes deeper and deeper.

During the previous season at Shochem, in 1960, the archaeologists reconstructed a portion of the courtyard of the temple and restored the great sacred pillar to the spot where it stood as late as the 12th century B.C. in front of the temple. However there was no reason to believe that this place in the courtyard was the city's earlier sacred area.

Ruins House Shrine

This summer, while excavating below the temple's courtyard, the archaeologists for the first time saw that the ruins there were a building housing an open-air shrine and separated from the rest of the city by an enclosure wall. Along one side was a series of rooms, used perhaps by resident priests, erected in the 13th century B.C. The structure was rebuilt a number of times during the next two centuries, but the open-air shrine and sacred area remained on the same spot, though the floor level was raised with each building period.

At first, the sacred area was outside the city wall. When the enclosure was built, a fortification wall extended the area of the city to the west, but the sacred area remained undisturbed, though now it was inside the city proper.

Shechem, also spelled Shekhem, Canaanite city of ancient Palestine, near Nablus.

At such a sacred site in the old Biblical city of Shechem in Jordan an altar and a sacred oak existed, according to a tradition preserved orally by the Hebrew people for some 1000 years before the Bible was first written down during the 11th century B.C.

The archaeologists--from over a dozen American and foreign institutions--located Shechem's sacred area this summer below the courtyard of the city's temple-fortress. The excavations, which were begun in 1957 and resumed in 1960 and this summer, have provided scholars with the long history of the sacred area.

An Accurate Record

According to G. Ernest Wright of Harvard, who directed the archaeological team, this accurate historical record can be critically compared with the ancient oral traditions. The achievement is similar to the light shed on the Greek legend of Troy by Schliemann's excavations in Asia Minor.

The Drew-McCormick-Harvard expedition at Shechem is the largest archaeological dig in the Holy Land and has become an important site for training graduate students and teachers in Palestinian archaeology.

Shechem was one of the great cities of its area in ancient times; its 4000 years of history now lie buried in a ten-acre mound, or "tell," just east of Nablus in Jordan. When it flourished during ancient Egyptian and Biblical times, it occupied a strategie position at the eastern opening of the pass between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerasim. At the edge of the site is the modern village of Balatah, whose beautiful spring and nearby Jacob's Well once supplied Shechem with water.

Empire Stronghold

Shechem is the first city mentioned in Bible; when Abraham and Jacob visited it, the city was a stronghold of an empire ruled from Egypt. It was during this early era at the very beginning of what is called the "Hyksos" age (13th century B.C.) that Shechem's inhabitants enclosed the sacred place within a large courtyard, with rooms for priests and pilgrims adjoining it. They also erected a fortification wall outside it to put the sacred area within the confines of the city.

Aftre having been rebuilt four times in a century, this structure was abandoned about 1650 B.C., the ruins covered over, and a massive temple-fortress erected--the largest in Palestine. A new 35-foot-high wall was built to protect the temple, and two great city gates constructed. It remained in Egyptian hands for 400 years until the 13th century B.C., when the Israelites under Joshua conquered the land of Palestine.

Throughout this period Shechem was the religious, as well as political, center of north-central Palestine, long before Jerusalem took over that role under King David.

After the death of King Solomon, all Israel assembled at Shochem to make Rohebeam, the son of Solomon, their king. But there the ten tribes of Israel revolted and joined together into the Northern Kingdom of Israel, with Shochem as its first capital.

Rival of Jerusalem

Later during the time of Alexander the Great, the Samaritans, a dissident religious sect, tried to make the city the rival of Jerusalem. (The Samaritans believed that Mt. Gerasim, rather than the sacred hill of Jerusalem, was the mountain where God first entered into covenant agreement with his people.) Shochem's final destruction occurred about 107 B.C., when the Samaritan capital was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, high priest and prince of the Judeans in Jerusalem.

The Old Testament story of the Israelites first began to be written down during the 10th century B.C., though a variety of poems, legal documents, and lists were perhaps written from before this. But the history of the Israelites in the Holy Land began hundreds of years earlier, and the first scribes relied upon oral traditions that had passed down from generation to generation. The tradition of a sacred area, with an altar and a sacred oak, in the city of Shochem begins in Genesis and reappears from time to time in the Old Testament down to the book of Judges.

In Genesis 12, the Lord commands Abraham to go into the land of Canaan "unto the place of Shochem, unto the oak of Moreh" (sacred oak). There, the Lord appears and promises the land to the descendents of Abraham, and Abraham then builds an altar unto the Lord.

Moses Commands People

Deuteronomy 37 relates the farewell of Moses to his people, who are preparing to leave for the land in Jordan promised them by the Lord. Moses commands the people, when they arrive there, to build an altar to the Lord on Mount Ebal, which flanks Shechem, and also to erect on the site plastered stones inscribed with the laws of the covenant.

In the last chapter of the book of Joshua, the leader of the people, now very old, calls all the tribes of Israel to Shochem to renew their covenant with the Lord. Joshua sets beneath the sacred oak a great stone (the sacred Pillar) to serve as a witness of the covenant, "a witness against you, lest you deny your God."

Revolution Reported

The sacred oak and pillar reappear in Judges 9, which reports the revolution touched off by Abimelech when he established himself as Israel's first king: "And all the men of Shochem assembled themselves together ... and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shochem."

The Bible does not say when any of these events in the tradition occurred. But the excavations at Shochem provide a concrete background to the story with approximate dates. These are derived from such evidence as changes that occur in the styles of pottery as the digging goes deeper and deeper.

During the previous season at Shochem, in 1960, the archaeologists reconstructed a portion of the courtyard of the temple and restored the great sacred pillar to the spot where it stood as late as the 12th century B.C. in front of the temple. However there was no reason to believe that this place in the courtyard was the city's earlier sacred area.

Ruins House Shrine

This summer, while excavating below the temple's courtyard, the archaeologists for the first time saw that the ruins there were a building housing an open-air shrine and separated from the rest of the city by an enclosure wall. Along one side was a series of rooms, used perhaps by resident priests, erected in the 13th century B.C. The structure was rebuilt a number of times during the next two centuries, but the open-air shrine and sacred area remained on the same spot, though the floor level was raised with each building period.

At first, the sacred area was outside the city wall. When the enclosure was built, a fortification wall extended the area of the city to the west, but the sacred area remained undisturbed, though now it was inside the city proper.

In addition, when the area was filled about 1600 B.C. and a temple built there, its altar and sacred pillar were carefully placed directly over that same spot where the earlier shrine had stood. At this level the archaeologists also found traces of the great processional road leading from the lower city to the temple.

Altar, Sacred Oak