Machpelah

The cave that Abraham bought for a burying place, Gen. 23. 9. The word means double.

See Burial.

Machpe´lah (twofold, double), the name of the plot of ground containing the cave which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite for a family sepulcher (Gen 23:9; Gen 23:17) [HEBRON].

Machpe’lah. (double, or a portion). See Hebron.

The tract containing the field and cave in the end of Ephron’s field, which Abraham bought as his burying ground from Ephron and the sons of Heth (Gen 23:9); his only possession in the land of promise. All ancient versions translated Machpelah "the double cave," from kaphal, "to divide or double". Either there were two entrances or two receptacles for bodies. Gesenius derives it from a root, "portion." A mosque now covers it. The sacred precinct (harem) is enclosed by a wall, the oldest in Palestine. The masonry is more antique than the S.W. wall of the haram at Jerusalem; one stone is 38 ft. long, 3 1/4 ft. deep. The beveling is shallow, and at latest belongs to the age of Solomon; Jewish ancient tradition ascribes it to David. It lay near Hebron. (See HEBRON.) The sepulchers of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are shown on the mosque floor; but the real sepulchers are in the cave below the floor; the cave opens to the S., and the bodies were laid with their heads to the N.

Machpelah (mak-pç’lah), double cave. A field in Hebron containing the cave which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite as a burial-place for his family. A full account of the negotiations, carried on after the oriental forms still prevalent, is given in Gen 23:1-20. That cave became the burial-place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. Gen 23:19; Gen 25:9; Gen 49:29-32; Gen 50:12-13. The name does not occur except in the book of Genesis. The cave Machpelah is one of the Bible sites which are positively known. It was situated on the western slope of a hill in Hebron, the town lying for the most part to the south and west. Within an enclosure is a mosque, which was probably erected in the time of Justinian as a Christian church. Visitors are rigidly excluded, but by a special firman of the sultan the Prince of Wales was admitted in 1862, and others have since entered it. Of the cave itself there is no trustworthy account. Captain Warren was told that it had not been entered for 600 years. The Moslems have a superstition that whoever attempts to enter it will be struck dead, and their fanaticism causes them to prohibit any one from making the attempt. It is thought to be possible that the embalmed body of Jacob may still be preserved in the cave, as Egyptian mummies have been found of as early a date.

[Machpe’lah]

Both a field and a cave which Abraham bought of the children of Heth for a burying place. It was near Hebron; Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah were buried there. Gen 23:9; Gen 23:17; Gen 23:19; Gen 25:9; Gen 49:30-31; Gen 50:13. The manner in which the purchase was accomplished is exactly the way bargains are to this day arranged in the East by the Bedouins. See HEBRON.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn, Solomon Schechter

—Biblical and Post-Biblical Data:

Name of a field and cave bought by Abraham as a burying-place. The meaning of the name, which always occurs with the definite article, is not clear; according to the Targumim and the Septuagint it means "the double," while Gesenius ("Th."), with more reason, connects it with the Ethiopic for "the portion." It appears to have been situated near Mamre, or Hebron, and to have belonged to Epbron the Hittite. Abraham needed a burying-place for Sarah, and bought the field of the Machpelah, at the end of which was a cave, paying four hundred silver shekels. The cave became the family burying-place, Sarah being the first to be buried there; later, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob were placed there (Gen. xxiii. 9, 16-20; xxv. 9; xlix. 30-31; 1. 13). It is designated twice only as the "cave" of the Machpelah (Gen. xxiii. 9, xxv. 9); in the other instances it is called "the cave of the field of the Machpelah" or "the cave in the field of the Machpelah." No further reference is made to it or to the burying-place of the Patriarchs, though some scholars find an allusion to it in II Sam. xv. 7, 9.

Josephus speaks of the purchase of Ephron's field at Hebron by Abraham as a place of burial and of the tombs (Μνημεῖα) built there by Abraham and his descendants, without, however, mentioning the name "Machpelah" ("Ant." i. 14. 22). In the twelfth century the cave of the Machpelah began to attract visitors and pilgrims, and this aroused the curiosity and wonder of the natives. Benjamin of Tudela relates: "At Hebron there is a large place of worship called 'St. Abraham,' which was previously a Jewish synagogue. The natives erected there six sepulchers, which they tell foreigners are those of the Patriarchs and their wives, demanding money as a condition of seeing them. If a Jew gives an additional fee to the keeper of the cave, an iron door which dates from the time of our forefathers opens, and the visitor descends with a lighted candle. He crosses two empty caves, and in the third sees six tombs, on which the names of the three Patriarchs and their wives are inscribed inHebrew characters. The cave is filled with barrels containing bones of people, which are taken there as to a sacred place. At the end of the field of the Machpelah stands Abraham's house with a spring in front of it" ("Itinerary," ed. Asher, pp. 40-42, Hebr.). Samuel b. Samson visited the cave in 1210; he says that the visitor must descend by twenty-four steps in a passageway so narrow that the rock touches him on either hand ("Pal. Explor. Fund," Quarterly Statement, 1882, p. 212). Now the cave is concealed by a mosque; this was formerly a church, built by the Crusaders between 1167 and 1187 and restored by the Arabs (comp. Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," p. 149). See Hebron.

E. G. H. M. Sel.Tomb of Adam and Eve. —In Rabbinical Literature:

The name of "Machpelah" (= "the doubled one") belongs, according to the Rabbis, to the cave alone, their reasons for the name being various: it was a double cave, with two stories (Rab); it contained pairs of tombs (Samuel); it had a double value in the eyes of people who saw it; any one buried there could expect a double reward in the future world; when God buried Adam there He had to fold him together (Abahu; 'Er. 53a; Gen. R. lviii. 10). Adam and Eve were the first pair buried there, and therefore Hebron, where the cave was situated, bore the additional name of "Kirjath-arba" (= "the city of four"; i.e., of the tombs of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah ('Er. 53a; Soṭah 13a; comp. Gen. R. lviii. 4).

According to Pirḳe R. El. xxxvi., the cave of Machpelah was at Jebus, and the reason that induced Abraham to buy it was the following: When Abraham went to fetch the calf for his guests (comp. Gen. xviii. 7) it escaped to the cave of Machpelah. Abraham ran after it, and when he entered the cave he saw Adam and Eve lying in their beds as though they were sleeping, while lighted candles were around them, exhaling a fragrant odor. Abraham, filled with a desire to possess the cave, determined to buy it at any price. The Jebusites, however, refused to sell it to him until he had sworn that when his descendants conquered the land of Canaan they would spare the city of Jebus (Jerusalem). Abraham accordingly took the oath, and the Jebusites inscribed it on brazen idols which they placed in the markets of the city. This was the reason why the children of Benjamin did not drive out the inhabitants of Jebus (Judges i. 21). Abraham secured his purchase of the cave of Machpelah by a formal deed signed by four witnesses: Amigal, son of Abishua the Hittite; Elihoreph, son of Ashunah the Hivite; 'Iddon, son of Ahira the Gardite; Aḳdul, son of 'Abudish the Zidonite ("Sefer ha-Yashar," section "Ḥayye Sarah," p. 37a, Leghorn, 1870).

Title-Deeds.

After Isaac's death, Jacob, desirous of becoming sole owner of the cave of Machpelah, acquired Esau's part of it in exchange for all the riches left him by his father. This sale was also ratified by a document, which Jacob put in an earthen vessel to preserve it from decay (ib. section "Wayesheb," p. 77b). Nevertheless, at the burial of Jacob the cave was the subject of a violent dispute between Jacob's children and Esau. The latter opposed the burial of Jacob in the cave on the ground that there was room only for four pairs, and that Jacob, by burying Leah, had filled up his part. Naphtali returned to Egypt for the title-deed, but meanwhile Hushim, the son of Dan, struck Esau on the head with a stick so that the latter's eyes fell on Jacob's knees (Soṭah l.c.; comp. "Sefer ha-Yashar," l.c. pp. 97a-98a, where it is said that Hushim cut off Esau's head, which was buried on the spot). There is another tradition, to the effect that Esau was slain by Judah in the cave of Machpelah at Isaac's burial (Midr. Teh. xviii.; Yalḳ., Gen. 162).

MACHPELAH.—The name of a locality in which, according to the Priestly narrative of the Hexateuch, were situated a field and a cave purchased by Abraham from Ephron the Hittite, to serve as a burial-place for himself and his family (Gen 23:17-18). Here Sarah was buried by her husband; and subsequently Abraham himself, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob were laid to rest in the same spot (Gen 49:31). The appellation ‘Machpelah,’ which seems in strictness to designate the site comprehensively, is also applied to the actual field and the cave within it, which are respectively called ‘the field of Machpelah’ (Gen 23:19; Gen 49:30; Gen 50:18) and the ‘cave of Machpelah’ (Gen 23:9; Gen 25:9). The place is described as being ‘before Mamre’ (Gen 25:9), ‘before’ usually meaning ‘east of’ (see Gen 25:18, Jos 13:3, 1Ki 11:7), just as ‘behind’ signifies ‘west of’ (Num 3:23). Mamre, in Gen 23:19, is identified with Hebron, which is the modern el-Khalil (‘the Friend,’ i.e. Abraham, cf. Isa 41:3, Jas 2:23), a town built on the sides of a narrow valley, the main portion of it lying on the face of the E. slope. The traditional site of the cave of Machpelah is on the E. hill, so that it would appear that ancient Hebron was built to the west of the modern city, on the W. hill, and that it has subsequently extended into the valley and climbed the opposite declivity.

Above the supposed site of the cave there is now a rectangular enclosure called the Haram, measuring 181 ft. by 93 ft. internally (the longer axis running from N.W. to S.E.), and surrounded by massive walls 40 ft. high, which are conjectured to date from the time of Herod the Great, though some authorities incline to assign them to a still earlier period. At the S.E. end of the quadrangle is a mosque, once a Christian church, 70 ft. by 93 ft., parts of which are attributed to the 12th century. Within the mosque are cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebekah; in a porch on the N.W. side are those of Abraham and Sarah; whilst at the opposite end of the enclosure are those of Jacob and Leah. The Haram has been but rarely entered by Christians in modern times. King Edward vii. was admitted to it, when Prince of Wales, in 1862; and the present Prince of Wales, with his brother, visited it in 1882. The cave, which is reputed to be the real resting-place of the patriarchs and their wives, is below the floor of the mosque, and is thought to be double, in accordance with a tradition which perhaps is derived from the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] rendering of Machpelah as ‘the double cave.’ The entrances to it, of which there are said to be three, are in the flagged flooring of the building. It is doubtful whether any Christian has been allowed to enter it in modern times.

G. W. Wade.

The burial-place in the vicinity of ancient Hebron which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hethite for the interment of Sara (Genesis 23:9, 17). Sara was buried there in a cave (xxiii, 19), as was later Abraham himself (xxv, 9). The words of the dying Jacob inform us that Rebecca and Lia were also buried in this cave (xlix, 31), and, lastly, Jacob found there his last resting place (l, 13). According to the Hebrew text, which always uses the word Machpelah with the article, the Machpelah is the place in which the field with the cave is to be found. Thus we read "the cave in the field of the Machpelah" in Gen., xxiii, 17, 19; xliv, 30; l, 13, "the cave of the Machpelah" is twice mentioned (xxiii, 9; xxv, 9). But in the Greek text the word is rendered "the double cave"–by derivation from the root kafal, "to double". This meaning is admitted into the Targum, into the Syrian translation and into the Vulgate.In the later books of the Old Testament Machpelah is not mentioned. Josephus, however, knows the tomb of Abraham and his descendants in the district then known as Hebron (Antiq., I, xiv, 1; xxii, 1; xxi, 3). According to this historian (op. cit., II, viii, 2), the brothers of Joseph were also interred in their ancestral burial-place–a hypothesis for which there is no foundation in Holy Writ. A Rabbinic tradition of not much later date on the strength of a misinterpretation of Jos., xiv, 15 (Hebron-Kiriath Arba–"City of Four") would place the graves of four Patriarchs at Hebron, and, relying on the same passage, declares Adam to be the fourth Patriarch. St. Jerome accepted this interpretation (see "Onomasticon des Eusebius", ed. Klostermann, Leipzig, 1904, p. 7), and introduced it into the Vulgate. According to Rabbinic legends, Esau also was buried in the neighbourhood. Since the sixth century the grave of Joseph has been pointed out at Hebron (Itinerar. Antonini), in spite of Jos., xxiv, 32, while the Mohammedans even to­day regard an Arabian building joined to the north-west of the Haram as Joseph’s tomb. The tomb mentioned by Josephus is undoubtedly the Haram situated in the south-east quarter of Hebron (El-Khalil). The shrine facing north-west and south-east forms a spacious rectangle 197 feet long by 111 feet wide, and rises to a height of about 40 feet. The mighty blocks of limestone as hard as marble, dressed and closely fitted ("beautiful, artistically carved marble", Josephus, "Bell. Jud.", IV, ix, 7) have acquired with age almost the tint of bronze. The monotony of the long lines is relieved by rectangular pilasters, sixteen on each side and eight at the top and bottom. Of the builder tradition is silent; Josephus is ignorant of his identity. Its resemblance in style to the Haram at Jerusalem has led many to refer it to the Herodian period, e.g., Conder, Benzinger. Robinson, Warren, and Heidet regard the building as pre-Herodian.Since Josephus tradition has no doubt preserved the site correctly. Eusebius merely mentions the burial-place ("Onomasticon", ed. Klostermann, s. v. "Arbo", p. 6); the Pilgrim of Bordeaux (333) speaks explicitly of a rectangular building of magnificent stone ("Itinera Hieros.", ed. Geyer, "Corpus Script. Eccl. Lat.", XXXIX, Vienna, 1898, p. 25). In his version of the "Onomasticon", St. Jerome unfortunately does not express himself clearly; it is doubtful whether the church, which he declares to have been recently built (a nostris ibidem jam exstructa), is to be sought in the mausoleum or at Haram Ramet el Khalil, half an hour’s journey north of Hebron. The "Itinerarium" of St. Antoninus (c. 570) mentions a basilica with four halls (perhaps four porches about the walls) at the graves of the Patriarchs, possessing an open court, and equally venerated by Christians and Jews ("It. Hieros.", ed. Geyer, 178 sq.). About 700, Adamnan informs us, on the authority of Arculf, that the burial-place of the Patriarchs is surrounded by a rectangular wall, and that over the graves stand monuments, but there is no mention of a basilica ("De Locis Sanct.", II, x, Geyer, 261 sq.). The following centuries (Mukkadasi, Saewulf, Daniel–985, 1102, 1106) throw no new light on the question. In 1119 a Christian church was undoubtedly to be found there, either the old Byzantine or the Crusader’s church, which, to judge from the style, apparently dates from the middle of the twelfth century. Remains from early times are still perceptible, but they do not enable one to form any judgment concerning the old basilica; what still remained of it at the period of the Crusades is uncertain. According to a rather improbable statement of Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish synagogue stood in the Haram before the re­establishment of Christian domination. After the downfall of the Frankish kingdom, the Latin church was converted into the present mosque. This is built in the southern section of the Haram in such a position as to utilize three of the boundary walls. The interior is seventy feet long and ninety-three feet wide; four pillars divide it into three aisles of almost the same breadth, but of unequal length. The entrance to the Haram is effected by means of two flights of steps, a specimen of Arabian art of the fourteenth century.According to a late and unreliable Mohammedan tradition, the tombs of the Patriarchs lie under six monuments; to Isaac and Rebecca are assigned those within the mosque itself; to Abraham and Sara the next two, in front of the north wall of the mosque in two chapels of the narthex; those of Jacob and Lia are the last two at the north end of the Haram. Concerning the subterranean chambers we possess only inexact information. The Jewish accounts (Benjamin of Tudela, 1160-73; Rabbi Petacchia, 1175-80; David Reubeni, 1525) are neither clear nor uniform. An extensive investigation was undertaken by the Latin monks of Kiriath Arba (D. V. Cariath-Arbe-Hebron) in 1119, but was never completed. After several days of laborious work, they disclosed a whole system of subterranean chambers, in which it was believed that at last the much-sought-for "double cave" with the remains of the three Patriarchs had been discovered. In 1859 by means of an entrance in the porch of the mosque between the sarcophagi of Abraham and Sara, the Italian Pierotti succeeded in descending some steps of a stairway hewn in the rock. According to Pierotti’s observations, the cavity extends the whole length of the Haram. Owing to the intolerance of the Mohammedans, all subsequent attempts of English and German investigators (1862, 1869, 1882) have led to no satisfactory results. Concerning the plan of and connection between the underground chambers no judgment can be formed without fresh investigation.-----------------------------------     ROBINSON, Biblical Researches in Palestine, II (Boston, 1841), 75 sqq.; Memoirs on the Survey of Western Palestine, III (London, 1883), 333 sqq.; Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement (1882), 197 sqq. (1897), 53 sqq.; LE STRANGE, Palestine under the Moslems (London, 1890), 300 sqq.; Acta SS., IV, Oct., 688 sqq.;RIANT, Archives de l’Orient latin, II (Genoa, 1884), 411 sqq.; PIEROTTI, Macpéla ou tombeaux des patriarches (Lausanne, 1869); HEIDET in VIGOUROUX, Dict. de la Bible, s. v. Macpélah.A. MERK Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to St. Mary’s Church, Akron, Ohio The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

mak-pē´la (המּכפּלה, ha-makhpēlāh, “the Machpelah”; τὸ διπλοῦν, tó diploún, “the double”): The name of a piece of ground and of a cave purchased by Abraham as a place of sepulcher. The word is supposed to mean “double” and refers to the condition of the cave. It is translated “double cave” (τὸ διπλοῦν σπήλαιον, tó diploún spḗlaion) in the Septuagint in Gen 23:17. The name is applied to the ground in Gen 23:19; Gen 49:30; Gen 50:13, and to the cave in Gen 23:9; Gen 25:9. In Gen 23:17 we have the phrase “the field of Ephron, which was in (the) Machpelah.”

1. Scriptural Data:

The cave belonged to Ephron the Hittite, the son of Zohar, from whom Abraham purchased it for 400 shekels of silver (Gen 23:8-16). It is described as “before,” i.e. “to the East of” Mamre (Gen 23:17) which (Gen 23:19) is described as the same as Hebron (see, too, Gen 25:9; Gen 49:30; Gen 50:13). Here were buried Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. (Compare however the curious variant tradition in Act 7:16, “Shechem” instead of “Hebron.”)

2. Tradition Regarding the Site:

Josephus (BJ, IV, ix, 7) speaks of the monuments (mnēmeı́a) of Abraham and his posterity which “are shown to this very time in that small city (i.e. in Hebron); the fabric of which monuments are of the most excellent marble and wrought after the most excellent manner”; and in another place he writes of Isaac being buried by his sons with his wife in Hebron where they had a monument belonging to them from their forefathers (Ant., I, xxii, 1). The references of early Christian writers to the site of the tombs of the patriarchs only very doubtfully apply to the present buildings and may possibly refer to Rāmet el-Khalı̄l (see MAMRE). Thus the Bordeaux Pilgrim (333 AD) mentions a square enclosure built of stones of great beauty in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were buried with their wives. Antonius Martyr (circa 600) and Arculf (698) also mention this monument. Mukaddasi speaks (circa 985) of the strong fortress around the tombs of the patriarchs built of great squared stones, the work of Jinns, i.e. of supernatural beings. From this onward the references are surely to the present site, and it is difficult to believe, if, as good authorities maintain, the great buttressed square wall enclosing the site is work at least as early as Herod, that the earlier references can be to any other site. It is certain that the existing buildings are very largely those which the Crusaders occupied; there are many full references to this place in medieval Moslem writers.

3. The Charam at Hebron:

The Ḥaram at Hebron, which present-day tradition, Christian, Jewish and Moslem, recognizes as built over the cave of Machpelah, is one of the most jealousy guarded sanctuaries in the world. Only on rare occasions and through the exercise of much political pressure have a few honored Christians been allowed to visit the spot. The late King Edward VII in 1862 and the present King George V, in 1882, with certain distinguished scholars in their parties, made visits which have been chiefly important through the writings of their companions - Stanley in 1862 and Wilson and Conder in 1882. One of the latest to be accorded the privilege was C.W. Fairbanks, late vice-president of the United States of America. What such visitors have been permitted to see has not been of any great antiquity nor has it thrown any certain fight on the question of the genuineness of the site.

The space containing the traditional tombs is a great quadrangle 197 ft. in length (Northwest to Southeast) and 111 ft. in breadth (Northeast to Southwest). It is enclosed by a massive wall of great blocks of limestone, very hard and akin to marble. The walls which are between 8 and 9 ft thick are of solid masonry throughout. At the height of 15 ft. from the ground, at indeed the level of the floor within, the wall is set back about 10 inches at intervals, so as to leave pilasters 3 ft. 9 inches wide, with space between each of 7 ft. all round. On the longer sides there are 16 and on the shorter sides 8 such pilasters, and there are also buttresses 9 ft. wide on each face at each angle. This pilastered wall runs up for 25 ft., giving the total average height from the ground of 40 ft. The whole character of the masonry is so similar to the wall of the Jerusalem Ḥaram near the “wailing place” that Conder and Warren considered that it must belong to that period and be Herodian work.

The southern end of the great enclosure is occupied by a church - probably a building entirely of the crusading period - with a nave and two aisles. The rest is a courtyard open to the air. The cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebecca are within the church; those of Abraham and Sarah occupy octagonal chapels in the double porch before the church doors; those of Jacob and Leah are placed in chambers near the north end of the Ḥaram. The six monuments are placed at equal distances along the length of the enclosure, and it is probable that their positions there have no relation to the sarcophagi which are described as existing in the cave itself.

4. The Cave:

It is over this cave that the chief mystery hangs. It is not known whether it has been entered by any man at present alive, Moslem or otherwise. While the cave was in the hands of the Crusaders, pilgrims and others were allowed to visit this spot. Thus Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, writing in 1163 AD, says that “if a Jew comes, who gives an additional fee to the keeper of the cave, an iron door is opened, which dates from the times of our forefathers who rest in peace, and with a burning candle in his hand the visitor descends into a first cave which is empty, traverses a second in the same state and at last reaches a third which contains six sepulchres - those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, one opposite the other.... A lamp burns in the cave and upon the sepulchre continually, both night and day.” The account reminds us of the condition of many Christian tomb-shrines in Palestine today.

It would appear from the description of modern observers that all entrance to the cave is now closed; the only known approaches are never now opened and can only be reached by breaking up the flags of the flooring. Through one of the openings - which had a stone over it pierced by a circular hole 1 ft. in diameter - near the northern wall of the old church, Conder was able by lowering a lantern to see into a chamber some 15 ft. under the church. He estimated it to be some 12 ft. square; it had plastered walls, and in the wall toward the Southeast there was a door which appeared like the entrance to a rock-cut tomb. On the outside of the Ḥaram wall, close to the steps of the southern entrance gateway is a hole in the lowest course of masonry, which may possibly communicate with the western cave. Into this the Jews of Hebron are accustomed to thrust many written prayers and vows to the patriarchs.

The evidence, historical and archaeological seems to show that the cave occupies only the south end of the great quadrilateral enclosure under part only of the area covered by the church. See HEBRON.

Literature.

PEF, III., 333-46; PEFS, 1882, 197; 1897, 53; 1912, 145-150; HDB, III., article “Machpelah,” by Warren; Stanley, SP and Lectures on the Jewish Church; “Pal under the Moslems,” PEF; Pilgrim Text Soc. publications.