Historical Foundations: Studies of Literary References to Hesban and Vicinity Arthur J
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Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University All Books 5-1989 Historical Foundations: Studies of Literary References to Hesban and Vicinity Arthur J. Ferch Malcolm B. Russell Werner K. Vyhmeister Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/books Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Islamic Studies Commons, and the Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons HESBAN Series Editors Lawrence T. Geraty 0ystein Sakala LaBianca \ ANDREWS UNIVERSITY PRESS BERRIEN SPRINGS, MICHIGAN in cooperation with the INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY ANDREWS UNIVERSITY HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS: STUDIES OF LITERARY REFERENCES TO HESBAN AND VICINITY Contributors Arthur J. Ferch Malcolm B. Russell Werner K. Vyhmeister Volume Editors Lawrence T. Geraty Leona G. Running Associate Editor Lori A. Haynes Assistant Editor Lorita E. Hubbard Technical Assistants James K. Brower Larry W. Coyle Cynthia Shuberg Eric Shults HESBAN 3 Published with the financial assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities and Andrews University A joint publication of the Institute of Archaeology and Andrews University Press Berrien Springs, MI 49104 © 1989 All rights reserved. Published May 1989. Printed in the United States of America. 94 93 94 92 9190 89 7 6 5 4 3 21 ISBN 0-943872-17-0 Library of Congress catalog card number 89-080164 Table of Contents Preface ix Chapter One The History of Heshbon from the Literary Sources 1 Werner K. Vyhmeister The Geographical Setting 3 Heshbon: A City of the Central Belqa 3 Location of Heshbon 3 Heshbon’s Name Through the Centuries 4 Heshbon in Old Testament Times 6 Earliest Biblical References 6 Heshbon Before the Israelite Conquest 6 From the Israelite Conquest to Solomonca .( 1400-931 B.C.) 7 From the Division of the Kingdom to the Syro-Ephraimite War (931-734 B.C.) 8 From the Syro-Ephraimite War to Cyrus’ Capture of Babylon (734-539 B.C.) 9 During the Persian Period (539-332 B.C.) 10 Esbus in Hellenistic, Maccabean, Roman, and Byzantine Times 10 Esbus in Hellenistic Times (332 -ca. 164 B.C.) 10 Esbus in Maccabean-Hasmonean Times (ca. 164-63 B.C.) 11 Esbus in Roman Times (63 B.C.-A.D. 330) 12 Esbus in Byzantine Times (A.D. 330-640) 14 Chapter Two Hesban During the Arab Period: A.D. 635 to the Present 25 Malcolm B. Russell Introduction 27 The Early Arab Period 27 The Crusader and Ayyubid Period 28 Hesban at Its Height: The Mamluk Era 28 The Ottoman Period: 1516-1918 30 The Modern Arab Period: 1918-Present 32 Hesban Today 33 Conclusion 34 Chapter Three A Review of Critical Studies of Old Testament References to Heshbon 37 Arthur J. Ferch Introduction 39 A Review of Critical Studies 39 Summary and Conclusions 53 Appendix A Heshbon Through the Centuries 59 Werner K. Vyhmeister Appendix B Hesban in the Literary Sources Since 1806 65 Werner K. Vyhmeister v Author Index 73 Biblical Reference Index 77 General Index 83 List of Figures Fig. 1.1 Wadis in the vicinity of Heshbon (after Sailer and Bagatti 1949) 4 Fig. 1.2 Roman milestones found in part of theProvincia Arabia (after Thomsen 1917) 13 Fig. 1.3 Byzantine Palestine (after Avi Yonah 1977) 15 Fig. B.l Plan of the ruins of Hesban (after de Saulcy 1865) 68 List of Plates Plate 1.1 Stone capital (bottom) with letters ECBY found atRQs es-Sidghah (after Sailer 1941b) 5 Preface When Siegfried H. Horn decided in 1966 on The series editors decided to bring these three the site of Tell Hesban, just southwest of Amman, studies by Vyhmeister, Russell, and Ferch together Jordan for a major new archaeological expedition in a volume on Historical Foundations. Though they to be sponsored by Andrews University, he also are dated, in general reflecting the scholarship of commissioned one of his graduate students, Werner the last decade, they continue to have value beyond K. Vyhmeister, to do a study of all the pertinent their historical importance to Andrews University’s historical references. Thus even before the first field archaeological project Rarely does an season in 1968, the expedition had in hand the archaeological team have such a treasure trove of results of this study in Vyhmeister’s B.D. thesis, literary references to their site at their disposal. Part "The History of Heshbon from the Literary Sources" of our duty, then, is to relate our finds to the (1967), later abridged for publication in Andrews picture that emerges from contemporary literary University Seminary Studies 11 (1968), pages 113- sources. As this is done in other volumes it is 125. The heart of the present volume is an edited hoped that the reader will appreciate the version of the B.D. thesis done by Vyhmeister opportunity to return to the original literary sources himself somewhat updated to abput 1978. collected and analyzed here. Despite its value, this study had two major flaws. Implicit in this volume are two assumptions that First it stopped with the Byzantine Period—though are not thoroughly defended: one is the early (15th it had an appendix which collected references to the century) date of the Israelite conquest of site by western travellers since 1806. Second it Transjordan and the other is the identity of modern treated the biblical sources uncritically, virtually Tell Hesban with biblical Heshbon, classical Esbus. ignoring the scholarly debate on the historicity and Both could be vigorously defended, but even if historical value of biblical references to Heshbon. alternate hypotheses are preferred, the studies here To remedy these lacks I commissioned two introduced still retain their value as a convenient additional studies. The first study, "Hesban During collection of the pertinent literary references. the Arab Period: A.D. 635 to the Present,” Arabists will take exception to the spelling completed in 1978, was by Malcolm B. Russell, an Hesban instead of the classical Husban or preferred Arabist teaching at that time in Andrews contemporary transliterationHisban. In these studies University’s History Department On a trip to the H esban is retained for consistency’s sake because Middle East and Europe in the summer of 1977 he it was the transliteration used in our preliminary utilized all the original sources for this period that reports through the 1960s and 1970s, at that time he could find, including those in Arabic, a language employed because it was commonly used in the last which, fortunately, he controls. The second study, century and well into the 20th century by both "A Review of Critical Studies of Old Testament travellers and scholars. If we had it to do over References to Heshbon," completed in 1981, was by again we would probably use Hisban. The biblical Arthur J. Ferch, at that time a doctoral candidate transliteration, H eshbon, is certainly the former in Andrews University’s Old Testament Department. name’s linguistic equivalent whether or not these He argues for the priority of Numbers 21:21-31 names all refer to one and the same archaeological over the deuteronomistic passages in Deuteronomy site, which I tend to think they do—but that and Judges, concluding that they "describe an argument must be postponed to another volume. Israelite victory over Sihon during the conquest period and incorporate an Amorite poem (Num 21:27-30) in early Hebrew orthography Lawrence T. Geraty commemorating an earlier Amorite conquest of South Lancaster, Massachusetts Moab" (p. 55). August 8, 1988 ix Chapter One ■ / THE HISTORY OF HESHBON FROM THE LITERARY SOURCES Werner K. Vyhmeister Chapter One The History of Heshbon From the Literary Sources The Geographical Setting Several wadis cut their way down from the plateau, through the Abarim, to the "plains of Moab" and the Heshbon: A City of the Central Belqa Dead Sea. The most important ones, from the Jabbok to the Amon, areW. Nimrin, W. Kefrein, and W. Zerqa Heshbon, modern HesbQn (Hesban), is located in M a'tn (W. Zerqa Ma'in). Transjordan, in the region today called el-Belqa In the vicinity of Heshbon the beginnings of several (Belqa).1 The Belqa extends from the Jabbok River wadis are found (fig. l.l).8 One of these is W. Hesban, (Nahr el-Zerqa) to the River Arnon (WfidT el-Mdjib ) which receives the water of several smaller wadis. Its (Wadi el-Mojib; Abel 1933: 383, n. I).2 Its northern main source is ‘Ain HesbQn (Thomson 1885:666). This part corresponds to the (southern) "half Gilead" or "the spring is located more than 4 km from the ruins of rest of Gilead" of Deut 3:12,13; Josh 12:2,5; and 13:31 Heshbon, "more than 100 meters lower" (Heidet 1903: (Simons 1959: 36-38, 125-127; Smith 1902: 548-549). col. 660). Its water is "beautifully clear . flowing out Heshbon is almost in the very center of the Belqa. from a small cave under the cliff on the north side of The Belqa is about 80 km long and 30 km wide, wady Hesban" (Thomson 1885: 666). from the desert to the Jordan River (see Nichol 1954a: As W. Hesban flows through the highland, a 374). Except for some points, all of its flat part is number of pools are formed in it. After visiting the covered by limestone that is visible as far south as the place, W. M. Thomson reported that in those little district of Kerak (Abel 1933: 90). pools "there were many small fishes" (1885: 667).9 As Looking at the central Belqa from east to west, it enters the Jordan valley it is known as W. Rdm eh.10 three clearly defined sections can be distinguished. The About 5 km before reaching the Jordan River it flows first one is the plateau, with an average altitude of 700 into W.