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GAZA

(Heb. ʿazzâ; Gk. Gáza)

An important coastal city of the southern Levant, best known in the Bible as one of the cities of Philistia. The site is Tell µarube/Tell ʿAzza in the northeastern, and highest, corner of the modern city (100100). Gaza is ca. 5 km. (3 mi.) from the Mediterranean, although in Roman and Medieval times the city extended to the sea. Traditionally the southwestern boundary of Syro-Palestine (Gen. 10:19; 1 Kgs. 4:24[MT 5:4]), Gaza was the nexus of most overland commercial and military activity between Egypt and Syro-Palestine.

The Bible refers to the original inhabitants of Gaza as the Avvim, who were succeeded by the Caphtorim (Deut. 2:23), probably a variant term for the Philistines. According to Josh. 15:47 Gaza was allotted to the tribe of Judah; according to Judg. 1:18, the Judahites briefly held Gaza but v. 19 notes that they were unable to hold the cities of the coastal plain, which included Gaza. The Philistines, not the Judahites, came to control the southern coastal plain, and Gaza was one of the five major Philistine cities, the Philistine Pentapolis (Josh. 13:3; 1 Sam 6:17). Two of Samson’s adventures took place in Gaza. There he visited a prostitute and, after eluding a Philistine ambush, uprooted the city gate and carried it to Hebron, 32 km. (20 mi.) away (Judg. 16:1-3). After Delilah betrayed him to the Philistines, Samson was returned to Gaza for torture and imprisonment (Judg. 16:21-25). Samson then toppled the temple of Dagon in Gaza, his final feat (Judg. 16:28-30).

The majority of biblical references to Gaza are in prophetic oracles against Philistia (e.g., Amos 1:6). Extrabiblical sources indicate that Sennacherib of Assyria captured Gaza in 734 b.c.e. Hezekiah of Judah made an incursion and attacked the city in the late 8th century (2 Kgs. 18:8). Nevertheless, Gaza maintained its independent status from ca. 1200 to nearly 600. The Egyptian pharaoh Necho II occupied the city for a time in 609, and Nebuchadnezzar captured it in 604, an event to which Jeremiah makes reference (Jer. 47:2; cf. v. 1).

The city was conquered by Cambyses in 529 and by Alexander the Great in 322. In the Hellenistic period Gaza was first an outpost of the Ptolemies and then came under Seleucid rule. The Maccabean commander Jonathan attacked the city, burning and plundering the surrounding towns before making peace on his own terms (1 Macc. 11:61-62). Alexander Janneus captured Gaza and virtually destroyed it in 96 b.c.e. after a year-long siege (Josephus Ant. 13.2-3; BJ 1.4.2). Pompey later wrested it from the Jews and the city was subsequently rebuilt.

In the NT, it is on the road to Gaza that Philip encounters and baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-39).

Gaza endured as a major city of southern Palestine from the Late Bronze Age until the 7th century c.e. Among the remains are evidence of Philistine occupation, walls dating to the time of Necho’s conquest, a dye-making industrial complex, and a 6th-century c.e. synagogue.

Bibliography. A. Ovadiah, “Gaza,” NEAEHL 2:464-67.

Gregory Mobley

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GAZA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)