001_naman_co_481-497 13/02/15 11:20 Pagina 490 490 NADAV NA’AMAN lowing the excavations held at the site 42, the majority of scholars accepted its identification with Gibeah 43. However, some scholars posit that biblical Gibeah/Gibeah of Saul and Geba are alternative names of one place that is located at Jeba‛, in the eastern Benjamin hill country 44. They thus dismissed the iden- tification of the former with Tel el-Fûl. In my opinion, this suggestion is wholly erroneous, resting on (a) a misreading of the text of Isa 10,29; (b) a misrepresentation of the data of Josephus; and (c) un- likely interpretations of the biblical references to Gibeah 45. 1. According to Isa 10,29 (“They crossed through the ravine; ‘Geba‛ is our lodge for the night’; Ramah trembled, Gibeah of Saul has fled”), Geba and Gibeah of Saul were two different places on the road leading from the north to Jerusalem. 2. The confusion of Gibeah and Geba in Judges 19–20 results from the late expansions inserted into the story, but the original story in chapter 19 identified Gibeah at Tell el-Fûl. This identifica- tion is suggested by the account of the march from Bethlehem to Gibeah. The Levite proceeded from Bethlehem around the evening (v. 9), arrived near Jerusalem (Jebus) when the day was mostly gone (v. 11), and when the sun went down arrived at Gibeah (v. 14). Jeba‛ is located far off from Jerusalem; only the nearby Tell el-Fûl fits the account’s time-table. 3. In his account of Titus’ march toward Jerusalem, Josephus (Wars, V 50-51) relates that the Roman army proceeded from Samaria and spent the night at Gophna (Jifnâ). After a second day’s march, the army camped at a place called “the Valley of Thorns”, near Gabath-Saul, about 30 stadia from Jerusalem. Clearly, the Roman army proceeded along the central highland’s main road that 42 For the excavations of the site, see W.F. ALBRIGHT, Excavation and Re- sults at Tell el-Fûl (Gibeah of Saul) (AASOR 4; New Haven, CT 1924); L.A. SINCLAIR, “An Archaeological Study of Gibeah (Tell el-Ful)”, AASOR 34-35 (1960) 1-52; P.W. LAPP, “Tell el-Fûl”, BA 28 (1965) 2-10; N.L. LAPP, “Fûl, Tell el-”, The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, vol. 2 (ed. E. STERN) (Jerusalem 1993) 445-448, with earlier literature. 43 See recently, H. HARRIS, “Albright’s Identification of Gibeah with Tell el-Ful”, PEQ 146 (2014) 17-30, with earlier literature. 44 J.M. MILLER, “Geba/Gibeah of Benjamin”, VT 25 (1979) 145-166; P.M. ARNOLD, Gibeah: The Search for a Biblical City (JSOTS 79; Sheffield 1990); I. FINKELSTEIN, “Tell el-Ful Revisited: The Assyrian and Hellenistic Periods (with a New Identification)”, PEQ 143 (2011) 106-118. 45 For detailed criticism, see HARRIS, “Albright’s Identification”, 17-30.