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JAMNIA

(Gk. Iamneía)

Hebrew Yavneh, a city in the coastal plain of ancient Palestine S of Jaffa. It is mentioned in 2 Chr. 26:6 (Jabneh) and in the late Hellenistic age, in the Apocrypha (e.g., 2 Macc. 12:8-9, 40), and in classical sources. Jamnia had its own harbor during Phoenician, Hellenistic, and Roman occupation, Jamnia Paralios or Yavneh-Yam, which was 8 km. (ca. 5 mi.) away from the city on the coast. Early in the 1st century b.c.e. Alexander Janneus incorporated the city into the Hasmonean kingdom (Josephus Ant. 13.395), and its population became largely Jewish. When Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 c.e., Jamnia became a center for Jewish sages. In the 4th century and later it was the seat of a Christian bishop.

Yavneh-yam, 16 km. (ca. 10 mi.) S of Tel Aviv, was excavated in 1967-69 by Jacob Kaplan, and later by others doing rescue projects. The main discovery was a large square enclosure surrounded by a Middle Bronze Age rampart, which was threatened by the encroaching sea. Kaplan also excavated three superimposed gates of mud brick.

Bibliography. B. Isaac, “A Seleucid Inscription from Jamnia-on-the-Sea: Antiochus V Eupator and the Sidonians,” IEJ 41 (1991): 132-44; J. Kaplan, “Further Aspects of Middle Bronze Age II Fortifications in Palestine,” ZDPV 91 (1975): 1-17; E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 b.c.–a.d. 135), rev. ed., 2 (Edinburgh, 1979), 109-10.

Kenneth G. Holum

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JAMNIA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)