001_naman_481-497 19/02/15 10:43 Pagina 491 JEBUSITES AND JABESHITES IN THE SAUL AND DAVID STORY-CYCLES 491 led to Jerusalem and did not turn east toward Jeba‛. Josephus sup- ports the identification of Gabath-Saul with Tell el-Fûl with two other pieces of evidence. (a) In Antiquities (VIII 303), he relates that Ramah was distanced 40 stadia from Jerusalem. Since Jeba‛ is farther from Jerusalem than Ramah is, the statement that Gabath- Saul is located 30 stadia from Jerusalem cannot refer to Jeba‛ 46. (b) In his description of the Outrage of Gibeah, Josephus (Antiqui- ties V 139-140) relates that the Levite, after arriving near Jerusalem, decided to proceed a distance of 20 stadia and lodge in an Israelite town, that is, Gibeah. Evidently, in his two works, Josephus recorded approximate measures — 30 and 20 stadia — for the dis- tance between Jerusalem and Gibeah/Gabath-Saul. An average span of about 25 stadia corresponds exactly with the distance from Jerusalem to Tell el-Fûl, but certainly not to far-off Jeba‛ 47. 4. In Jerome’s description of Paula’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he relates that she passed Aijalon and Gibeon, stopped briefly at “Gabaa” and proceeded to Jerusalem while passing near the mau- soleum of Helena. Even scholars who identified Gibeah at Jeba‛ admit that Jerome’s Gabaa refers to Tell el-Fûl 48. This identification is also applied to the other sites named Gabaa that Jerome mentions in his commentaries on Hos 5,8 and Zeph 1,15-16 49. 5. The confusion in identification of Geba‛ and Gibeah is mainly confined to the episode of Saul’s war with the Philistines (1 Samuel 13–14), which is beyond the scope of this article. In all other ref- erences within the story-cycle of Saul, the place is called either Gibeah of Saul (1 Sam 11,4; 15,34) or Gibeah (1 Sam 10,26; 22,6; 23,19; 26,1) and refers to Saul’s place of birth and his residence as king. Its identification with Tell el-Fûl is self-evident 50. 46 ROBINSON (“Notes”, 600) has already suggested this proposition. 47 ROBINSON, “Notes”, 600-601. For further discussion, see C. MÖLLER – G. SCHMITT, Siedlungen Palästinas nach Flavius Josephus (BTAVO, Reihe B [Geisteswissenschaften] Nr. 14; Wiesbaden 1976) 55, with earlier literature; E. REGEV, “Josephus on Gibeah: Versions of a Toponym”, JQR 89 (1999) 352-353. 48 MILLER, “Geba/Gibeah”, 162. 49 For references, see Y. TSAFRIR – L. DI SEGNI – J. GREEN, Tabula Imperii Romani — Maps and Gazetteer. Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods (Jerusalem 1994) 126a. 50 The location of Gibeath Elohim (1 Sam 10,5.10) is not clear and de- pends on the authenticity of the LXX of v. 13 (MT “he came to the high place [hmb]; LXX “to Gibeah”). I therefore exclude it from the discussion.