Kiryat Arba

קרית ארבע


See under Chevron (Hebron - חברון), by which name it is also known, for more detail.

Genesis 23:2, Joshua 15:54 and 20:7, and Judges 1:10 all note that Chevron was originally called Kiryat Arba.

Nehemiah 11:25 gives Kiryat Ha Arba (קרית הארבע), "the village of the four", which reference must either lend doubt to the dating of the change of name to Chevron, or more likely be treated as an error itself.

Rather than meaning "four villages" or "village of the four" it more likely refers to a man named Arba, one of the Anakim (ענקים) or aboriginal Beney Kena'an (Canaanites). Joshua 14:15 says that Arba was "the Great Man" (האדם הגדול), which suggests he may have been the original Adam, i.e. the Promethean hero of the shrine; or that Adam and the Beney Edom (Edomites) were themselves aboriginal Beney Kena'an, in which case the apparent error in distinguishing Keynim (Kenites) from Beney Kena'an may not be an error after all.

Kiryah (קריה) means "a village", rather than "a town", and not a suburb either, which would be a MIGRASH (a dozen references in the Book of Joshua; cf 14:4), nor a village now absorbed into a larger conurbation, which would be a CHATSER (likewise dozens; cf Joshua 18:24), nor a BAT, plural VENOT, which is literally a "daughter" town - a village that grew up because of some human habitation already there, usually a sacred tree or rock, possibly a garrison or fort (ditto; cf Joshua 17:11), even some rich man's fancy villa where the tradesman and craftsmen then gathered. 

NB: Judas Iscariot, the true but traduced hero of the Jesus myth, was properly Yehudah Ish Ha Krayot (יהודה איש הקריות) = "a Jew from the villages"; from the same root; although there are towns specifically named Krayot, one in Yehudah (cf Joshua 15:25) the other in Mo-Av (cf Jeremiah 48:24 and 41; Amos 2:2).

There is also the possibility (I do not agree with it, but many scholars have suggested it) that the word Kerayot was originally an ellipsis of Kor'e (קרא) and Yah (יה); Kor'e being "a partridge" in Yehudit, which bird was sacred to the moon-goddess, and whose hobbling dance is associated with the earliest Passover rituals. Kor'e in Greek was a name for the moon-goddess Demeter, and Io (יה) founded Eshet (Isis)-worship in Egypt as Demeter-worship. Given what we know of the shrine of Chevron, especially the fact that Av-Raham purchased it from Ephron of the Beney Chet (Hittites), who is the brother of Io...



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