1005 Gate, Gates 1006

1 : 36). He also serves as a clan leader (allûp)in ner and outer gates replaced the enormous flanking Edom (Gen 36 : 16). towers and the depth of the chambers increased. John Lewis These changes in form from the Bronze to Iron Ages were related to the evolving role(s) that the See also /Eliphaz city gate played in society. In the Middle Bronze Age a gate’s main purpose was to control traffic and to offer defense, while in the Iron Age the gate be- Gate Between the Two Walls came a nexus for administrative, economic, and ju- The gate between the two walls was the gate dicial activities in addition to these other roles. The through which Zedekiah, the Judean king, fled roles of the city gate were delineated not only by with all of the soldiers from Jerusalem, when the the socioeconomic and political structures of the city was besieged by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, time, but also by military considerations, such as king of Babylon, at the end of June in 587 BCE the capabilities and weaponry of the enemy. (2 Kgs 25 : 4; Jer 39 : 4; 52 : 7). The gate between the 1. Form. There is no standardized plan for gates in  πυλη της two walls (MT ša ar bên haḥōmōtayim; LXX ´ ˜ the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000–1550 BCE). Some α ν μεσν των τειεων ´ ˜ ´ ) was located in the king’s had long bent-axis entries (Megiddo XIII, Tel garden, perhaps near the reservoir that bears the Poleg), while others had shorter entryways with two same name (Isa 22 : 11). chambers (Shechem East Gate, Ashdod). The most Bibliography: ■ Fischer, J., Jeremia 26–52 (HThKAT; Frei- common plan, however, was the gate with massive burg i. Br. 2005). [Esp. 353] flanking towers and two sets of doors – one facing Jan Dušek the city and the other facing outwards – which when closed turned the gate complex into an inde- pendent stronghold (Hazor Str. 4–3, Megiddo XI, Gate of the Guard Shechem XVI, Gezer XIX–XVIII). A Gate of the Guard (MT šaar hammaṭṭārâ; LXX Middle Bronze gate plans continued into the πυ´ λη τη˜ ς υλακη˜ ς) is only mentioned in Neh 12 : 39 Late Bronze Age, though there are few examples in as part of the Jerusalemite wall. It is the place where this latter period (Megiddo VIIA, Jaffa), no doubt one of the processions organized by Nehemiah due to the policy of the ruling Egyptians that ap- stopped during the dedication of the wall. If such a parently prevented the Canaanites from construct- gate really existed, it was probably located south of ing monumental fortifications. There is a similar the temple, near the Court of the Guard and the dearth of fortifications in general in the more rural royal palace (Neh 3 : 25). Iron Age I, however, some Philistine (Ashkelon, Jan Dušek Miqne-Ekron, and Ashdod) and Canaanite (Tel Kin- rot, Tel Hadar) sites along main trade routes were walled. There is no good example of a city gate in Gate, Gates the Iron I until the end of that period. The best example comes from the site of Lahun on the north I. Archaeology ridge of the Mujib (Arnon) Canyon. Another comes II. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from Ashdod (Str. X), although the precise dating III. New Testament of this stratum is disputed. In both instances the IV. Judaism gates have already lost many of the features com- V. Reception mon in Middle Bronze gates, such as the massive flanking towers and inner sets of doors. Also, the I. Archaeology chambers have become deeper and are typical of the Gates were the weakest point in a city’s defenses gate plan that became ubiquitous in the Iron Age. and with the perennial threat of war in the ancient Beginning in the Iron IIA there is re-urbaniza- Near East much effort was invested in the construc- tion and the construction of monumental gate com- tion of formidable gate complexes that could be ef- plexes. As in the Middle Bronze Age, however, fectively defended. Already in the Early Bronze Age there is still no standardized gate plan. While most I–II (ca. 3000 BCE) gates were constructed with had two, four, or six chambers, some gates were massive flanking towers (Tell el-Farah [N]) a fea- more austere, being merely an opening in a site’s ture that would continue to appear in many Middle fortifications (as in many of the Negev “fortresses”). Bronze IIB–C gates over a millennium later. In ad- Some sites even appear to lack a proper gate and dition to such towers, gates in this latter period are were presumably entered via ladder (Kadesh Barnea also typified by the presence of piers and chambers III, Horvat Rosh Zayit IIa). At the same time, gate along the gate’s entryway, a feature which itself complexes comprised of both an inner and outer would continue into the Iron Age (1200–586 BCE). gate are common (e.g., Lachish, Dan, Megiddo, Despite this continuity, Iron Age gates did continue Beersheba; cf. 2 Sam 18 : 24). No matter the plan of to evolve; massive bent-axis gate complexes with in- the gate itself, the entryway was typically closed

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1007 Gate, Gates 1008 with one set of two doors that were sealed with cite, numerous city gates have benches on which metal bars laid across them. This method of closing elders and/or the king could sit while conducting a city’s gate is informed archaeologically by the re- business. Moreover, the increased depth of the mains of two in situ door sockets in Stratum III at chambers in Iron Age gates in comparison to the Dan and textually by Deut 3 : 5 and Judg 16 : 3, both depth of the chambers in Bronze Age gates, which of which refer to gates with double-doors and bars. were often only deep enough to hold the doors of Yigael Yadin (1963: 322–25) argued that there the gate when they were open, is undoubtedly due was a chronological evolution to the number of to the larger number of people conducting business chambers present in gates. To him, six-chambered in and around the gateway. gates were hallmarks of the 10th century. Excava- C. Economic. Shops often line inner and/or outer tions of the gates at Gezer (Str. VIII), Hazor (Str. X), gate plazas, as at Lachish (Str. III) and Dan, indicat- and Megiddo (Str. VA–IVB) all produced six-cham- ing that gates also served as locales for economic bered gates, which led to the moniker “Solomonic” transactions such as selling grain (2 Kgs 7 : 1) or for such gates based on their date and the fact that trading (1 Kgs 20 : 34). Occasionally names are at- 1 Kgs 9 : 15 states that Solomon fortified each of tributed to gates according to the business con- those three sites. It appeared that in the ninth cen- ducted in or near them, e.g., the Fish Gate (2 Chr tury the number of gate chambers decreased to 33 : 14) and the Sheep Gate (Neh 3 : 1, 32). four, before eventually shrinking to only two cham- D. Ritual. Standing stones (maṣṣēbôt), stelae, raised bers at the end of the Iron Age. Subsequent excava- platforms, ritual vessels, and ashes with burnt tions have shown Yadin’s chronological-typological bones indicate the presence of cults at some city scheme to be untenable. Despite the predominance gates, in particular at Dan (Str. III–II) and Bethsaida of six-chambered gates in the tenth century, there (Str. 5). Though such cults are likely more wide- are also examples of four-chambered (Ashdod X, spread, as can be inferred by 2 Kgs 23 : 8; Ezek 8 : 3, Beersheba V, Khirbet Qeiyafa) and two-chambered 5; and 16 : 24, 31, there is often a limited number gates (Tell Beit Mirsim B3). In actuality, gates of of archaeological remains, whose interpretation every style appear contemporaneously in all phases also may be ambiguous, that preclude knowing just of the Iron Age. The specific plan of a site’s gate, how widespread (see Blomquist). while possibly related to its chronological context, ■ was dictated more by geopolitical concerns – i.e., Bibliography: Bernett, M./O. Keel, Mond, Stier und Kult am Stadttor: Die Stele von Bet-saida (et-Tell) (OBO 161; Freiburg i. access to resources and labor, the location of the Br. 1998). ■ Blomquist, T. H., Gates and Gods: Cults in the site, and the perceived importance of the site, City Gates of Iron Age Palestine (Stockholm 1999). ■ Cantrell, among other factors. D., The Horsemen of Israel: Horses and Chariotry in Monarchic 2. Functions. A. Population Control and Defense. Israel (HACL 1; Winona Lake, Ind. 2011). ■ Chadwick, R., The main function of the city gate was to control “Changing Forms of Gate Architecture in Bronze and Iron Age Transjordan,” in Studies on Iron Age Moab and Neighbou- and allow the flow of traffic both into and out of a ring Areas in Honour of Michèle Daviau (ed. P. Bienkowski; city. It was also a place to mingle and congregate ANESS 29; Leuven 2009) 183–214. ■ Emerton, J. A., “‘The for announcements (Amos 5 : 3; Jer 36 : 10; Neh 8 : 1, High Places of the Gates’ in 2 Kings XXIII 8,” VT 44/4 (1994) 3; Job 29 : 7–10), and for the poor, it was a place to 455–67. ■ Gregori, B., “‘Three-Entrance’ City-Gates of the ask for alms (Prov 22 : 22). For military personnel, Middle Bronze Age in Syria and Palestine,” Levant 18 (1986) gates and their associated plazas provided a space 83–102. ■ Herzog, Z., Das Stadttor in Israel und in der Nach- to marshal (2 Chr 32 : 6) and perhaps to store and/ barländern (Mainz 1986). ■ Herzog, Z., “Fortifications: An Overview,” OEANE (New York 1997) 319–26. ■ Van den or process chariots and the horses that pulled Boorn, G. P. F., “Wd ‘-ryt and Justice at the Gate,” JNES 44/ them (Cantrell). 1 (1985) 1–25. ■ Yadin, Y., The Art of Warfare in Biblical B. Administration and Legislation. Biblical texts in- Lands, 2 vols. (New York 1963). dicate that various administrative and legislative Kyle Keimer tasks were conducted at the city gate. These tasks were commonly coordinated by the city elders (Deut II. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 21 : 19; 22 : 15; 25 : 7; Josh 20 : 4; Ruth 4 : 1–12) but The Hebrew word šaar, plural šĕārîm, is usually occasionally also the king (2 Sam 19 : 8; 1 Kgs translated “gate(s)” in the HB/OT. The synonyms 22 : 10; Jer 38 : 7). Although the association of legis- petaḥ (1 Kgs 17 : 10) and dĕlātayîm (lit., double-door; lation and gateways appears in New Kingdom Deut 3 : 5) are sometimes translated as “gate(s)” in Egypt, the gateway in consideration was that of the the NRSV. palace or temple and not the city (van den Boorn). In the HB/OT, the term šaar typically denotes However, with the collapse of the palatial system an entrance into a building, city (Gen 23 : 10, 18), (including kingship) common throughout the Le- or territory (Gen 24 : 60). Sometimes a city has sev- vant in the Bronze Age, a new location was required eral gates that may be variously named (Neh 3 : 1, for such activities and the city gate became that lo- 3, 26; Ezek 48 : 31–34). City gates were to be shut cation. While a specific manifestation of any specific at night (Josh 2 : 5, 7) and opened by day (Neh 7 : 3). material correlates to these activities is difficult to In particular, the gates of Jerusalem were to be shut

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1009 Gate, Gates 1010 at dark before the Sabbath and to remain closed un- III. New Testament til after the Sabbath to prevent any trouble from As gates (from πλη or πυλν) were entrances to being brought into the city on the Sabbath (Neh cities or large structures (such as the Jerusalem tem- 13 : 5; cf. Jer 17 : 27). One particular gate in a palace ple), they appear frequently in the NT. Often a gate was used solely by the prince and never opened ex- provides the setting for narrative action, and an au- cept for his use (Ps 24 : 7, 9; Isa 45 : 1; Ezek 44 : 1– thor assumes that a gate is the point of transition  ˆ 2). Gatekeepers (šō arim) were assigned for each between “in” and “out” (see Luke 7 : 12; Acts 9 : 24; gate, and this was a significant office (1 Chr 9 : 17– 10 : 17; 12 : 10, 14; 16 : 13). The role of gates as 22). boundary markers and/or transition points makes Gates were important as places of assembly: In intelligible Jesus’ claim in the Fourth Gospel, “I am the time of emergencies, kings, their generals, and the gate” (John 10 : 7–9): that is, though Jesus one leaders may assemble at gates (2 Sam 19 : 8; 1 Kgs enters God’s salvation. The author of Revelation de- 22 : 10). Public announcements were made at the scribes gates as the means by which one enters the gates (Gen 34 : 20). At the city gates the prophet Jer- new Jerusalem (22 : 14). As markers of “in” and emiah delivered his oracles (Jer 17 : 19), and Ezra “out,” gates were also places to find outcasts from read the law to the assembly (Neh 8 : 1). The admin- istration of justice took place at the city gates (Deut society. It is no surprise that encounters with the 21 : 19; 22 : 15, 24; 25 : 7; 2 Sam 19 : 9; Isa 29 : 21; lame or poor occur at or outside gates (John 5 : 2; Ruth 4 : 10, 11; Prov 22 : 22; Zech 8 : 16). However, Acts 3 : 2, 10). In one of Jesus’ parables, the poor at times justice might be denied (Job 31 : 21), even man Lazarus is said to have sat continuously out- misused (Amos 5 : 10, 12; Ps 69 : 12). Thus, the pro- side the rich man’s gate (Luke 16 : 20). At one point phet Amos calls for justice at the gate (5 : 15). Re- Paul is cast out of a temple gateway as a statement lated to rendering justice, legal transactions were of rejection (Acts 21 : 30), and the author of He- conducted at gates (Gen 23; Ruth 4). Moreover, brews emphasizes that Jesus was crucified “outside Deut 11 : 20 (cf. 6 : 6–9) implies that laws, particu- the city gate” (13 : 12). One also finds symbolic uses larly šema (Deut 6 : 4–6), are to be written on the of gates in the NT. Jesus describes adherence to his gates (e.g., KAjr 15, see Dobbs-Allsopp: esp. 286- teaching as entrance through a “narrow gate” (Matt 89). Gates also served as commercial centers (2 Kgs 7 : 13). In Revelation, the symmetry of the gates 7 : 1, 18; Zeph 1 : 10–11). Not surprisingly, there- around the new Jerusalem as well as their number fore, the term “gate” may mean “city/town” or “set- (12) indicates restitution and perfection (21 : 12–13, tlement/community” (Deut 12 : 15, 17; 14 : 21, 27; 15, 21, 25). And the seer’s claim that the gates of Isa 14 : 31). To possess the gate means having con- the holy city will never shut indicates the complete trol over the whole area to which the gate belongs lack of danger (21 : 25). (Gen 22 : 17; 24 : 60; Isa 22 : 7; Jer 39 : 3). The Jesus of Matt 16 : 18 avows that the gates of The term “gate” may connote power and Hades will not prevail against “my church.” (See strength, and hence also security and deliverance “Hades/Hell, Gates of I. New Testament.”) (Ps 9 : 13, 14; Isa 60 : 18). Hence the expression “to Bibliography: ■ Jeremias, J., “πλη, πυλν,” TDNT 6 reside in the gates” meant protection and provision (Grand Rapids, Mich. 1968) 921–28. (Ps 147 : 13, 14). Tucker S. Ferda Gates were used for aesthetic (Exod 27 : 16) as well as defensive purposes (Neh 7 : 3). As the en- IV. Judaism trance point for divine-human interactions (Ps 118 : 20; Ezek 44 : 4), temple gates often were elabo- Among the many gates in the HB, the ones that rate architectural, focal points at sacred sites. They received the most attention in postbiblical Judaism were well-decorated (Exod 38 : 18) and their stand- were the gate of heaven (Gen 28 : 17) and the gates ard measurements were precisely indicated (Ezek of God’s palace. In apocalyptic texts such as the Ara- 40 : 5–46). maic Testament of Levi, the Greek Testament of Levi, Figuratively, “gate of heaven” implies the tem- and 3 Baruch, the mystical ascent demands entrance ple/the house of God (Gen 28 : 17). It also refers to into gates that are opened or guarded by angels. the place of death/deep darkness (Job 38 : 17; Ps In rabbinic literature, prayers are said to enter 9 : 13). Thus, gates symbolized the transitional heaven through “gates of prayer”: point between the safely protected realm and the R. Eleazar said, Ever since the day the Temple was de- chaotic outer realm in the OT (Pss 118 : 19; 122 : 2). stroyed, the gates of prayer have been closed, for Scrip- ture says, “Yea, when I cry and call for help, He shuts Bibliography: ■ Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W. et al. (eds.), “Kuntil- out my prayer” (Lam 3 : 8). But though the gates of let Ajrud (KAjr),” in Hebrew Inscriptions: Texts from the Biblical … Period of the Monarchy with Concordance (New Haven, Conn. prayer are closed, the gates of weeping are not closed. (bBer 32b) 2004) 277–98. ■ Otto, E., “šaar,” TDOT 15 (Grand Rapids, Mich. 2006) 359–405. ■ Seow, C. L., Ecclesiastes (AB 18c; R. Samuel bar Naḥman [said]… The gates of prayer are New York 1997). ■ Seow, C. L., Job 1–21 (Grand Rapids, sometimes open and sometimes closed, but the gates of Mich., 2013). repentance are never closed… R. Berekhiah and R. Lahpai Fanang Lum H elbo and R. Anan bar Joseph in the name of R. Iddi

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1011 Gate, Gates 1012

said: Even the gates of prayer are never closed. (MTeh guards of Hekhalot rabbati have been replaced by 65:4) tempting heaps of coins; but in truth the entire pal- Even today, Shaarei tefillah (the gates of prayer), ace is an illusion, and there are no barriers separat- Shaar ha-shamayim (the gate of heaven; Gen 28 : 17), ing us from God. Shaarei shamayim (the gates of heaven) and Shaarei There was once a king who built a magical palace, with tsedeq (the gates of righteousness, Ps 118 : 19) are all walls within walls and partitions within partitions. common names of modern synagogues. And the king sat at the center of the palace. And in The fifth and final prayer service of Yom Kippur order to test the eagerness and the love of his subjects, was named Neilah, “the closing,” as a double allu- and whether they would be diligent and eager to see sion to the time of day at which the prayer is re- him, he commanded that heaps of coins be placed at every gateway, a larger heap at each gateway as you cited, near sunset, when the temple locked its gates went inside. And some people went home after they (cf. yTaan [Venice] 4.1, 67 : 3), but also to the closing found money at the first gate, and some at the second of the gates of heaven, which were open specifically gate and the third gate and so on. And just a few who to receive Yom Kippur prayers. The image of the were not greedy came all the way into the king; and gates of heaven was elaborated in the medieval lit- then they saw that there had been no walls and no par- urgy of that prayer service, still recited in most syn- titions, and it had all just been a magical illusion. (Ka- agogues: hana 87, from Ben Porat Yosef [Korets, 1781]) Open the gate for us, even at the closing of the gate, It is unclear which of these images of gates and for the day is nearly past. The sun is low, the day is gatekeepers inspired Franz Kafka’s parable “Before growing late, let us come into your gates. the Law,” which appears in The Trial, but echoes of An influential passage in Hekhalot rabbati (ch. 19) the Yom Kippur Neilah liturgy are unmistakable. imagines God’s seven palaces as having gates within In Kafka’s text, the man from the country wishes to gates, and terrifying angelic guards posted at each approach the Law, but at the door, the doorkeeper gate. Only the most accomplished and virtuous announces that the man cannot be allowed to enter mystics can pass through the gates: yet. The doorkeeper also makes reference to further When you come and stand before the gate of the sixth doors and doorkeepers within. The doorkeeper palace, show the three seals of the guards of the sixth himself is not frightening, and the man from the palace to Katspiel, the prince, whose sword is un- country waits for years, but never gains entry. His sheathed in his hand. From it lightning shoots out- eyes grow dim, and in darkness he perceives, or ward, and he raises it against anyone who is not worthy imagines that he perceives, “a radiance that streams to gaze upon the King and His Throne. (Blumenthal: inextinguishably from the door of the Law.” He 71) asks the doorkeeper why no one else has ever come Centuries later, in the climactic passage at the end to the door besides him. The doorkeeper answers, of his Guide of the Perplexed (3.51), Moses Maimoni- “No one but you could gain admittance through des reimagined the palace and its gates. In his para- this door, since this door was intended for you. I ble, they represent the search for wisdom and true am now going to shut it” (Kafka: 213–15). understanding. The terrifying guards are gone, but Bibliography: ■ Blumenthal, D., Understanding Jewish Mysti- Maimonides warns that rabbis and talmudists who cism: a Source Reader – The Merkabah Tradition and the Zoharic lack philosophical sophistication will be unable to Tradition (New York 1978). ■ Kafka, F., The Trial (trans. W. find the gate to enable them to proceed within. Muir/E. Muir; New York 1968); trans. of id., Der Prozess: Ro- God’s gates are further elaborated in the Zohar man (New York 31946). ■ Kahana, A., Sefer ha-Ḥasidut (War- (1 : 103a), where they are associated with the gates saw 1922 [= repr. Tel Aviv 1978]). ■ Matt, D. C, Zohar: The of mystical imagination, in a passage that opposes Book of Enlightenment (New York 1983). Maimonides’ strict rationalism. The sefirot are Joseph Davis “gates” through which God can be known. That is, the gates are the levels of the Godhead itself. V. Reception The Blessed Holy One… is hidden, concealed, far be- 1. Introduction. Given the frequency with which yond.… How then can you say, “Her husband is known gates and portals appear in the Bible (see above, “II. in the gates” (Prov 31 : 23)? [The Shekhinah’s] husband Hebrew Bible/Old Testament” and “III. New Testa- is the Blessed Holy One! Indeed, He is known and ment”), it is not surprising that they seem almost grasped to the degree that one opens the gates of imagi- nation. Rabbi Shimon said… Who are these gates? The ubiquitous in biblical reception, especially in the vi- ones addressed in the Psalm: “O gates, lift up your sual media of art and film. For example, whenever heads! Be lifted up, openings of eternity, so the King one or more walls of a biblical city or town are re- of Glory may come” (Ps 24 : 7). Through these gates, presented in works of visual art, it is only natural these spheres on high, the Blessed Holy One becomes for one or more gates to be shown. This is true not known. (Matt: 65–66) only, of course, in the case of Jerusalem (see below), The implications of this image are worked out in a but also of any number of other biblical cities and parable attributed to Israel Baal Shem Tov by his towns as well. For example, in Lorenzo Ghiberti’s disciple Jacob Joseph of Polonnoye. The terrifying portrayal of the battle of Jericho, an arched gate in

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1013 Gate, Gates 1014 the city’s crumbling wall is visible in the center 1435, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Masac- background (panel [gilded bronze relief], east por- cio, fresco, ca. 1427, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria tal, 1426-52, Florence Baptistery; cf. Josh 6 : 1-27). del Carmine, Florence; and Ghiberti, Adam-and-Eve Likewise, Heinrich Aldegrever’s engraving of Lot’s panel, east portal, 1426-52, Florence Baptistery. It encounter with the two angels “in the gateway of has been noted that Jacopo della Quercia, in two Sodom” (Gen 19 : 1) shows him stepping toward different renditions, presents the figures of Adam, them, away from a large, partially opened door Eve, and the angel as seemingly too large for the (1555, Auckland Art Gallery), just as representa- gate through which they have just passed: his mar- tions of his flight from Sodom with his daughters ble relief on the Fonte Gaia, 1414-1419, Siena; and (Gen 19 : 15-26) sometimes show the gate through his relief in Istrian stone, ca. 1425, Porta Magna which they exited in the background: e.g., a wood- of the Basilica di San Petronio, Bologna. Michael cut in Hartmann Schedel’s Liber chronicarum (1493), Wolgemut’s woodcut of the scene in the Nuremberg or Das Buch der Chroniken, known in English as the Chronicle, fol. 7r, is unusual in presenting the Nuremberg Chronicle, fol. 21r; and the fresco by Lucca sword-wielding angel’s pursuit of Adam and Eve Penni (vault 4, sc. 3 of Raphael’s Loggia, 1518-19, still inside of Eden, as the couple heads toward the Vatican), where some of the flames consuming the open gate in the background (Bayerische Staatsbi- condemned city are brightly visible through the bliothek, Munich). open gate. Milton, at the close of Paradise Lost (1667), de- The Nuremberg Chronicle is literally filled with – scribes Adam and Eve not only being pressured out and justly famous for – its panoramic woodcut vis- of Eden by “the hastning Angel” through “th’ East- tas of cities from around the known world of the ern Gate,” now “Wav’d over by that flaming Brand” time, depicted consistently with fortified walls and (12.637, 638, 643), but also embellishes the account gates (all of which have imaginative, European ap- by having the exiled pair look back to see the gate pearances, regardless of the cities’ locations and cul- “With dreadful Faces throng’d and fierie Armes” (12.644). tures): Sodom, as already mentioned; Nineveh (fol. Thomas Cole’s 1828 painting of this subject 20r); Salem, with Melchizedek shown coming out presents a deeply Romantic landscape, where the of that city’s gate to greet Abram (fol. 21v; see Gen portal – through which shafts of light shine forth – 14:18–20); Jerusalem (see below); Babylon (fol. 24v); is a cleft in a large rock formation that separates a and so forth. In the case of Babel, only its notorious bright, idyllic Eden from the dark, foreboding ter- tower is portrayed, with a large gate at its base rain of the outside world in which the diminutive (fol. 17v). figures of the first two humans are seen warily mak- In all reception of the Bible, the most common ing their way (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). A sim- images of gates and portals are those associated ilar treatment of the gate is found in John Martin’s with the gates of hell and the gates of paradise or Expulsion painting of ca. 1823-27 (Laing Art Gallery, of heaven. However, these particular gates will be Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK). discussed not in this article, but in the entries “Ha- In his painting Another Expulsion (1950, private des/Hell, Gates of” and “Heaven, Gates of,” s.v. “Re- collection), the New York-born American artist Guy ception.” Although this present article will concern Pène du Bois adapts the biblical theme to convey itself mostly with representations and adaptations his earlier sense of alienation from 20th-century of certain well-known, biblically-derived images of modernism. Here, two Masaccio-like figures of gates, it should be kept in mind that the portals of Adam and Eve are expelled through a gate by “a many actual buildings, most notably cathedrals and Piccassoid character … from the temple as the cir- churches, are often adorned with biblical images. cus freaks of modernism enter behind. That temple Thus the Basilica of San Zeno in Verona exemplifies might just as well be The Museum of Modern a characteristic of Italian churches that drew nu- Art” (Panero). merous northern European responses during the For Bob Dylan, true to his famous observation age of the Crusades, namely, bronze doors adorned elsewhere that “the times, they are a-changin’,” the with biblical narrative cycles (Brown: 144). On the associations conjured in his song “Gates of Eden” medieval identification of baptisteries as “gates of (1965) are ominous and dystopic. For example: paradise,” see “Heaven, Gates of,” s.v. “Reception.” All and all can only fall 2. Gate(s) of Eden. Although the account of Eden With a crashing but meaningless blow in Genesis mentions no gate or gates, depictions of No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden the expulsion of Adam and Eve typically show the [….] couple departing from a gate, often driven by a As he weeps to wicked birds of prey sword-wielding angel (cf. Gen 3 : 24): e.g., nave mo- Who pick up on his bread crumb sins saic, mid-12th cent., Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Si- And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden. cily; Limbourg brothers, illumination, Les très riches 3. Samson Carrying the Gaza Gate. Samson carry- heures du duc de Barry, fol. 25v, 1412-16, Musée ing off the gate of Gaza (Judg 16 : 3) has been a pop- Condé, Chantilly; Giovanni di Paolo, painting, ca. ular iconographic motif since the Middle Ages. In a

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1015 Gate, Gates 1016

Romanesque mosaic (11th cent., crypt, St. Gereon The Gaza gate scene meets a varied fate in three Church, Cologne), he casually carries the two doors different films entitled Samson and Delilah: those of of the gate on one shoulder, as he does in a minia- Cecil B. DeMille (1949), Lee Philips (1984), and Nic- ture painted ca. 1250 in an OT manuscript in Paris olas Roeg (1996), the last two of which were made (New York, P. Morgan Library MS M. 638, fol. 15r; for TV. DeMille’s film omits the scene altogether. see Cockerell: 6, 82-83). Later, one of the panels of Philips’ film replaces it with an unscriptural scene the typological “Bible of the Poor” window by the of Samson vengefully pulling up from its deep Master of the Marienkirche Stained-glass panels foundation a huge flogging post of the Philistines, (late 14th cent., from the Marienkirche, Frankfurt tossing it aside, and then apparently exiting the an der Oder; now [since 1946] in the State Hermit- town gate as the scene ends. Only Roeg’s film age Museum, St. Petersburg), shows Samson trans- adapts the biblical scene, but only partially, show- porting the gates on his back – as a prefiguration ing Samson kneeling at the base of the giant doors of Jesus bearing his cross, as shown in one of the of the Gaza gate as he readies to pull them up, other panels. In a copy of the Speculum humanae sal- shouting, “I am the instrument of God!” The scene vationis (15th cent.), a woodcut image of Samson then cuts off before he performs his action. carrying the doors is typologically juxtaposed with 4. Boaz at the Gate. Although Boaz announces his one of Jesus stepping out of the sarcophagus with marriage to Ruth beneath a gate (Ruth 4 : 1-12), pic- a cross standard in one hand and giving a benedic- tures of him rarely show a gate. An exception occurs tion sign with the other, as the accompanying com- in James Hartwell Willard’s retelling of the story of mentary explains that Samson’s action among the Ruth, A Farmer’s Wife (1906), which includes illus- Philistines plotting to kill him “prefigures the trations by unnamed artists. These include a picture strength of Jesus’ spirit breaking out of the tomb of Elimelech’s kinsman handing his removed san- among his enemies” (Wilson/Wilson: 196 [ch. 28]). dal to Boaz beneath a high arched gate (Willard: In a block book of the Biblia pauperum (Bible of the 41; see Ruth 4 : 1, 7-8), as well as, beforehand, an Poor) from the Netherlands, dating from ca. 1470, a illustration of subjects bowing and prostrating similar image of Samson carrying the doors, clearly themselves before a ruler in front of a city gate (Wil- based on the same template as the Speculum image, and an image of Jonah released from the whale (Jo- lard: 37). This picture is followed by the narrator’s nah 2 : 11), are set on either side of an image of the explanation of the importance of gates in the an- resurrecting Jesus as he “threw down the gates of cient Holy Land: the sepulcher [portas sepulcri] and walked out free” In Palestine, nearly every town, and many villages, (Bible of the Poor: 43, 85, 128). Anticipated by this were surrounded by walls, and at the main entrances scene’s rendering in an illuminated Byzantine Octa- there were gateways which generally had broad and teuch manuscript (Vatican Library, cod. gr. 747, fol. shady spaces in front, where people frequently met. 250r.), modern artists have tended to show Samson These gates became the chief places of interest. They carrying the gate structure, including both doors were often arched over and used as watch towers; they and frame, squarely on his back: e.g., Gustave Doré, became the guard-house, business was transacted there, and in this way they became markets. engraving, 1865; Frederic Leighton, illustration for Dalziel’s Bible Gallery, 1881, Tate Britain, London; People met in the city gates to discuss the news of the and the hand-colored etching of 1957 by Marc Cha- day, and proclamations were made there. Kings and gall, Haggerty Museum, Milwaukee, Wis. rulers gave audience there…. (Willard: 39) The scene remained popular in other media as 5. Jerusalem’s Gates. A subject worthy of extensive well, up through the past century. Vachel Lindsay’s study, but of a scope impossible here, is the history poem of 1917, “How Samson Bore Away the Gates and development of representations of Jerusalem’s of Gaza,” subtitled “A Negro Sermon,” presented many gates in Bible-related art and maps, both Jew- the absconding, gate-stealing Samson as having ish and Christian. From the Middle Ages on, artists prefigured Jack Johnson (1878-1946), the first Afri- and cartographers presenting cityscapes of Jerusa- can-American world heavyweight boxing champion lem, with its extensive, encompassing walls, could (still reigning then), who was controversial for his hardly avoid showing one or more of its gates, public defiance of the racist Jim Crow mores of that which European artists typically made to look like time in the U.S.: the fortified walls and gates with which Europeans He [i.e., Samson] lifted the gates up, post and were familiar in their own cities. lock. Identified by the University of Maine’s Osher The hole in the wall was high and wide Map Library as “the first printed imaginary view of When he bore away old Gaza’s pride Jerusalem, depicted as a circular walled city domi- Into the deep of the night: — nated by Solomon’s temple [labeled Te(m)plum Sa- The bold Jack Johnson Israelite, — lomo(n)is]” (“Maps and the History of Jerusalem”), Samson — the woodcut labeled “Hierosolima” (Jerusalem) in The Judge, the Nuremberg Chronicle, fol. 17r is a telling example. The Nazarite. (Lindsay: 124) The picture, which misrepresents the temple as a

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1017 Gate, Gates 1018

Byzantine-like church with three domes, identifies C. Jesus Bearing the Cross. The NT nowhere de- six of the city’s outer gates by name, including Da- scribes the cross-bearing Jesus passing through a vid’s Gate, also labeled – in this context, most an- gate. Yet late medieval and Renaissance artists de- achronistically – “Gate of the Pisans” (Porta pisaû), picting him on the way to Calvary (a.k.a. the via for the crusaders from Pisa who arrived in the Holy dolorosa; see “Stations of the Cross” and “Via Dolo- Land at the end of the 11th century, well over a rosa”), often show him processing, usually toward millennium and a half after the destruction of Solo- the right from the viewer’s perspective, beyond mon’s temple. The temple, too, is surrounded by an some gate of the Jerusalem city walls, typically pic- inner wall with multiple gates, but these are unla- tured on the left side and/or in the background of beled. Further in the Nuremberg Chronicle, another the picture: e.g., Andrea da Firenze, fresco, 1366- quite different depiction of Jerusalem, encompass- 67, Cappellone degli Spagnoli, Santa Maria Novella, ing fols. 63v-64r, labeled Destruccio Iherosolime (sic; Florence; Andrea di Bartolo, painting, ca. 1400, Jerusalem destroyed), presents the city presumably Thyseen-Bonemisza Museum, Madrid; Martin following its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. Schongauer, engraving, ca. 1470, Lehrs 26, Alber- Although the, again, anachronistically placed tina, Vienna; Antwerp Bearing of the Cross, poly- “Temple of Solomon” (Te[m]plu[m] Salomo[n]is) is chromy and gold, ca. 1500, National Museum, War- engulfed in flames, most of the remaining build- saw; Albrecht Dürer, woodcut, “Large Passion,” no. ings remain intact, as do the only two gateways 5, 1498 (published 1511), Albertina, Vienna; Dürer, shown: the Porta Aurea and Porta Gregis. woodcut, “Small Passion,” no. 21, 1509, British Museum, London; Netherlandish print by Cornelis A. Solomon’s Temple. Gates are also revealingly Cort after Lambert Lombard, ca. 1560, registration prominent on the grounds of Solomon’s temple it- no. F, 1.19, British Museum, London (a rare exam- self in the engraving of it by Swiss-born German ple of Jesus processing leftward, with the gate on Reformist artist Matthäus Merian in his Icones bibli- the right); Lovis Corinth, lithograph, 1923, Mu- cae (1625-27). In this picture, the temple’s main seum of Modern Art, New York. portal, topped by a Romanesque arch, is led to by a In films of the life of Jesus, depictions of his series of three main gates, each of which in turn has bearing of the cross almost inevitably include shots a smaller but likewise Romanesque arch, and the of his passing through one or more city gates: in, walls themselves are lined on their inner sides by e.g., Jesus, a.k.a. The Jesus Film, dir. John Krish and continuous series of many similar arches (Yeru- Peter Sykes, 1979; and The Passion of the Christ, dir. shalmi: fig. facing pl. 62). Exemplifying a direct Mel Gibson, 2004. The motif is only hinted at in Christian influence on Jewish art, this picture by Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew. Merian, with all the arches, was replicated in nu- D. Other Scriptural Scenes Involving Jerusalem Gates. merous haggadot as an image of the future messi- Also popular, though less common, are depictions anic temple (see the examples from the 1695 Am- of such other gate-related scriptural scenes as Sts. sterdam Haggadah and the 1960 [sic] Moroccan Peter and John healing the lame man at the Beauti- Haggadah, from Fez, repr. in Yerushalmi: pls. 62, ful Gate of the temple (Acts 3 : 6-7), by, e.g., Nicolas 192; and also the 1695 Venice Haggadah “and its Poussin (painting, 1655, Metropolitan Museum, numerous manuscript and printed remakes”; Ro- New York) and Doré (engraving, ca. 1866); or the dov: 227). An illustration of “Jerusalem, the Holy apocryphal scene of Sts. Joachim and Anne meeting City” that adheres to more conventional images of at the Golden Gate (Prot. Jas. 4.4): by, e.g., Giotto Jerusalem’s walls and prominently features several (fresco, ca. 1305, Arena Chapel, Padua); Taddeo gates, appears in the Trieste Haggadah of 1864 Gaddi (fresco, ca. 1330, Baroncelli Chapel, Santa (repr. in Yerushalmi: pl. 104). Croce, Florence); Master of Catherine Cleves, The B. Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem. Pictorial and filmic Hours of Catherine of Cleves ([Utrecht, ca. 1440], New renditions of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusa- York, P. Morgan Library MS M.917, p. 144); and lem tend to show the gate through which he is to Nicolas Dipre (panel from a predella of the life of enter, although the portal goes unmentioned in the the Virgin, ca. 1500, Louvre, Paris). Although the gospel accounts (Matt 21 : 1-11; Mark 11 : 1-10; report at 1 Sam 17 : 54a of David taking Goliath’s Luke 19 : 28-44; John 12 : 12-18; see also “Trium- head to Jerusalem mentions no gate, Ghiberti’s Da- phal Entry into Jerusalem”). See, e.g., the represen- vid-and-Goliath panel on the east gate of the Flor- tations of this scene by Giotto (fresco, ca. 1305, ence Baptistery shows a high arched gate in the Arena Chapel, Padua); Duccio di Buoninsegna, city’s wall toward which the young victor carries wood panel from the Maestà altarpiece, 1308-11, the giant’s head. Museo dell’Opera Duomo, Siena; Albrecht Dürer, 6. The Gate/Door of, or as, the Human Soul or woodcut from his “Small Passion,” no. 6, 1511, Heart. A. St. Teresa’s Gated Castle of the Soul. For British Museum, London. Among films of Jesus’ the Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila, in her treatise life, see, e.g., Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel Accord- El castillo interior (The Inner Castle), known to Span- ing to St. Matthew (Il vangelo secondo Matteo, 1964). iards as Las moradas (composed 1577; The Mansions),

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1019 Gate, Gates 1020 the progress of the soul inside itself, metaphorized in Christ’s left hand (rather than a staff, which he on the basis of John 14 : 2 as a crystalline castle (cas- holds in the other two pictures), depicting the door tillo) containing many rooms or mansions (moradas), as overgrown by foliage (rather than merely flanked begins at the castle’s outer entrance door or gate (la or surrounded by it, as in the other pictures), and, puerta para entrar en este Castillo), which is comprised most significantly, showing the door without a of prayer and meditation (la oración y consideración; knob or latch, and hence suggesting that it is only Teresa 1984: 273, 276; 1989: 28, 31 [“First Man- openable from inside (see also Brown: 342). sions,” ch. 1]). From there, the soul must pass The most popular of all image of the door- through seven interior “rooms” toward marriage knocking Christ, which adopts and extends even with God within the innermost mansion. further the allegory of the European versions, is the B. Christ Knocking at the Door of the Heart of Soul. American artist Warner Sallman’s (1892-1968) Like Teresa, that preeminent Counter-Reformation painting Christ at the Door (1942; Scheierman Gal- saint, Protestants imagined a portal to the human lery, Anderson University, Anderson, Ind.), in soul or heart and associated it with Christ, but did which the door has a small, dark grillwork, as in so on the basis of Rev 3 : 20: “Behold, I stand at the Hofmann’s picture, and is knocker-less and latch- door, and knock…” (KJV). The popularity of this less, as in Hunt’s, but Christ for the first time holds text with English Puritans is exemplified by the nothing in his clinched, non-knocking left hand. collections of sermons on it by Obadiah Sedgwick Though he is lantern-less, he emits his own bright (1600?-1658), The Riches of Grace (1657, a portion of luminosity, whose glow forms the shape of a large whose lengthy subtitle reads: “…the Gracious Be- heart around the door that is otherwise surrounded haviour of Christ, Standing at the Door and Knock- by thorny foliage. Although the allegory of Sall- ing for Entrance…”); and John Flavel (ca. 1627- man’s image epitomizes the evangelical Protestant 1691), originally published under the title England’s spirituality “premised on the acceptance of a call, a Duty Under the Present Gospel Liberty (1689) but re- ‘born again’ experience, and subsequent testimony published from the 19th century onward – and bet- to that experience” (Morgan 1996: 43), the many ter known – under the title Christ Knocking at the adaptations of Sallman’s image include one “in con- Door of Sinners’ Hearts. The same text inspired the ventional [Eastern Orthodox] iconographic im- hymn by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96; see agery,” advertised on a Catholic (sic) website for “Stowe, Harriet Beecher”), “Knocking, knocking, greeting cards (Printery House). who is there? /…/ ‘Tis a Pilgrim, strange and Bibliography. Primary: ■ The Bible of the Poor [Biblia Paupe- kingly, / Never such was seen before,” adapted to rum]: A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9 music by Philip P. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey in 1875. d.2 (trans./commentary A. C. Labriola/J. W. Smeltz; Pitts- As David Morgan points out, a paramount mo- burgh, Penn. 1990). ■ Cockerell, S.C. (ed.), Old Testament Miniatures: A Medieval Picture Book with 283 Paintings from the tif in evangelical Christianity iconography is that Creation to the Story of David (New York 1975). ■ Dalziel, G./ of the door-knocking Christ, inspired by Rev 3 : 20, E. Dalziel, Dalziels’ Bible Gallery: Illustrations from the Old Tes- illustrating the Protestant conviction that genuine tament from Original Drawings […] (London 1881). ■ Flavel, faith is personal faith, evidenced through a private J., Christ Knocking at the Door of Sinners’ Hearts; or, a Solemn response to God’s summoning. A tradition of 19th- Entry to Receive the Saviour and His Gospel in this Day of Mercy century British and German paintings and prints (New York 1850). ■ Lindsay, V., “How Samson Bore Away showing Christ knocking at the door includes, the Gates of Gaza,” in id., Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems (New York 1917) 124–27. ■ Milton, J., Paradise Lost [1674], among others: Karl Schönherr’s The Savior (date and in The Riverside Milton (ed. R. Flannagan; Boston, Mass. medium unknown; reproduced in Elder: pl. 129; 1998) 349–710. ■ Schedel, H., The Nuremberg Chronicle: A Morgan 1996: 142); Heinrich Ferdinand Hofmann’s Facsimile of Hartmann Schedel’s Buch der Chroniken, printed by I Stand at the Door and Knock (date unknown, chalk Anton Koberger in 1493 [illustrated by Michael Wohlgemut on paper), which appears on the cover of the 1886 and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff] (New York 1979). ■ Sedgwick, Munich edition of his Christmas box-set of illustra- O., The Riches of Grace Displayed in the Offer and Tender of Salva- tions from the life of Jesus (see also Morgan 1996: tion to Poor Sinners: […] the Gracious Behaviour of Christ, Standing 43); and William Holman Hunt’s pre-Raphaelite at the Door and Knocking for Entrance […] (London 1657). ■ Stowe, H. B., “Knocking, Knocking, Who is There?” painting The Light of the World, of which the artist [hymn], adapted in P. P. Bliss and I. D. Sankey, Gospel Hymns painted three versions (Keble College, Oxford, and Sacred Songs (New York 1875) no. 17. ■ Teresa de Jesús, 1853-56; Manchester Art Gallery, ca. 1852; North S., La vida. Las moradas (ed. A. Comas; Barcelona 1984); ET: transept, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, 1904). Os- Interior Castle [1961] (trans./ed. E. A. Peers; New York 1989). tensibly, these three works are quite similar to one ■ Willard, J. H., A Farmer’s Wife: The Story of Ruth (Philadel- another: the shut door at which Christ knocks with phia, Pa. 1906). ■ Wilson, A./J. L. Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: his right hand represents the human heart, though Speculum Humanae Salvationis. 1324–1500 (Berkeley, Calif. 1984). ■ Yerushalmi, Y., Haggadah and History (Philadel- only Hofmann’s picture includes in it a small grill- phia, Pa. 1975). work revealing the darkness inside. Hunt’s picture, Secondary: ■ Brown, M. P., The Lion Companion of Chris- however, intensifies the allegory by setting the tian Art (Oxford 2008). ■ Elder, A. P. (ed.), The Light of the scene in a dark nocturnal wood, placing a lantern World or Our Saviour in Art (Chicago, Ill. 1896). ■ Grimes, R.

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM 1021 Gath 1022

L., “Portals,” in Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 11 (ed. L. Jones; indicate the important status of the site. Gath is Detroit, Mich. 22005) 7333–335. ■ Morgan, D., “Imaging known from the el Amarna letters found in Egypt Protestant Piety: The Icons of Warner Sallman,” Religion and which date to the mid-14th century BCE, and sev- ■ American Culture 3/1 (1993) 29–47. Morgan, D., “Warner eral of these letters mention the city of Gath or de- Sallman and the Visual Culture of American Protestantism,” in id., Icons of American Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman rive from it. One and possibly two kings of the ter- (New Haven, Conn. 1996) 25–60. ■ Panero, J., “Gallery ritory are known (Shuwardatta and Abdi-ashtarti). Chronicle,” The New Criterion 22 (June 2004) 45. ■ Rodov, During the transition between the Late Bronze I., “Jerusalem. In Art,” in Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 11 (New Age and the Iron Age (ca. 1200 BCE), the site expe- York 1971–72) 224–28. rienced major change. While only parts of the site Websites and web materials: ■ “Maps and the History of were destroyed, evidence of the appearance of new Jerusalem,” Osher Map Library: Smith Center for Cartographic culture – the Philistine culture – was seen, inter alia Education: http://oml1.doit.usm.maine.edu/exhibitions/ in new pottery types, but also in daily aspects such jerusalem-3000/i-maps-and-history-jerusalem ■ Printery House (www.printeryhouse.org; accessed May 31, 2014). as changes in diet and food preparation. Following Eric Ziolkowski the appearance of the Philistine culture at Gath, there is evidence of a continuous, uninterrupted de- / / See also Hades/Hell, Gates of; Heaven, Gates velopment of the site, up until the mid-9th century of BCE. There is no evidence on the site of any con- quest of the site during the late 11th or early 10th century BCE, indicating that the biblical narrative Gates of Hades/Hell of King David’s conquest of Philistia should be read /Hades/Hell, Gates of with caution. A temple dating to the Iron I, with two large pillars in the middle of the structure, is similar to Gates of Heaven the plan of the Philistine temple at the site of Tel /Heaven, Gates of Qasile, and perhaps is the architectural template on which the biblical story of Samson destroying the Philistine temple at Gaza is based. Right next to Gath this temple a small area with evidence of metallur- Gath of the Philistines is one of the five major cities gical production was found. From the late Iron Age of the Philistines (“Philistine Pentapolis”), appear- I or early Iron IIA, an inscription written in archaic ing in the biblical text particularly in the book of alphabetic mentions two non-Semitic, Indo-Euro- Samuel. While the site of Tell es-Safi was suggested pean names (ALWT, WLT), etymologically close the as the location of the city already in the mid-1800s, origins of the name Goliath. this was contested for many decades. The identifica- During the Iron Age IIA, in the late 10th and tion of Tell es-Safi as biblical Philistine Gath (and early/mid 9th century BCE, the Philistine city of Canaanite Gath, known from the el Amarna texts as Gath reached is zenith. The site expanded beyond well) has been widely accepted since the mid-1970s the upper tell, encompassing a large lower city to following Anson Rainey’s analysis and from the late the north, and reached a size of ca. 45–50 ha., per- 1990s with the commencement of excavations. haps the largest site in the Southern Levant at the Tell es-Safi/Gath is a large site (maximum size time. Extensive evidence of this city was discovered ca. 50 ha.) located on the border between the south- in all the excavations areas, with destroyed build- ern Coastal Plain (Philistia) and the Judean Foot- ings and hundreds of well-preserved finds. This city hills (Shephelah), on the southern bank of the ended in a terrible destruction, dating to the mid/ Elah River. late 9th century BCE, which is associated with con- Brief excavations were conducted in 1899 by quest of Gath by Hazael, King of Aram Damascus, Frederick J. Bliss and Robert A. S. Macalister, while mentioned in 2 Kgs 12 : 17-18. extensive research was started in 1997, directed by Evidence of a large siege system that surrounds Aren Maeir, continuing until this day (as of 2014). the site was discovered, most likely relating to the During the Early Bronze Age, the site was ca. siege and subsequent conquest of the site by Hazael 25 ha., one of the larger urban sites in the region. of Damascus. Evidence of fortifications and domestic quarters Subsequent to the Hazael destruction, the role have been uncovered, dating to the end of this pe- of the site drastically changed. The site was no riod (ca. 2500 BCE). longer an important Philistine site, and in fact, in Following the Early Bronze Age, the size of the late biblical texts it is rarely mentioned. site declined, and the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1950– From the mid-8th century BCE there is evidence 1500 BCE) settlement was quite small. During the of a devastating earthquake, perhaps connected to Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1200 BCE) Gath ex- the well-known earthquake mentioned in Amos panded substantially, reaching a size of ca. 25 ha. 1 : 1, dated to ca. 760 BCE. In the aftermath of the Fortifications, large houses, and imported objects earthquake, evidence of a Judahite settlement of the

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 9 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2014 Download Date | 12/18/18 11:19 PM