{"id":3604,"date":"2025-08-23T10:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T10:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toponomastics.com\/en\/?p=3604"},"modified":"2026-04-04T14:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:24:52","slug":"machpelah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toponomastics.com\/en\/machpelah\/","title":{"rendered":"The burial place of Abraham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
This place is called: \u201cbar arba\u201d = \u201cfield of four\u201d.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cave of Machpelah, ( or The burial place of Abraham), is a place-name mentioned in the bible. It is the cave where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are believed to be buried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a historiographical standpoint, the location of the biblical \u201cCave of Machpelah\u201d remains fundamentally uncertain prior to the Crusader period (c. 1095\u20131291). No securely datable Jewish, Christian, or early Islamic source provides an unambiguous geographical identification. The absence of such evidence suggests that the site\u2019s later prominence emerged not from continuous tradition but from medieval processes of reinterpretation and territorial sacralization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During their occupation of the Levant, certain Crusader authorities advanced a highly conjectural identification of a site in the region of today\u2019s West Bank as the burial place of the patriarchs. They designated it in their Gothic vernacular as Abram de baron. This act of naming\u2014typical of Crusader-era attempts to anchor biblical memory in the physical landscape\u2014functioned less as the recovery of an ancient tradition and more as the creation of one. Over time, the site\u2019s sacral status facilitated the growth of a settlement known as Habron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adoption of this name appears to reflect a literal reading of Genesis 23:1\u20132, which equates Kirjath-arba with Hebron. Medieval interpreters, lacking archaeological or textual controls, treated this equivalence as a straightforward geographical marker. Thus, the presumed Kirjath-arba was retroactively mapped onto the Crusader-designated site, illustrating a broader medieval tendency to conflate textual authority with spatial certainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Muslim powers later regained control of the region, they did not overturn the Crusader identification but rather integrated it into their own sacred topography. The site came to be known as Ibr\u0101h\u012bm al-Khal\u012bl (\u201cAbraham, the Friend [of God]\u201d), shortened to al-Khal\u012bl (\u0627\u0644\u062e\u0644\u064a\u0644). This continuity underscores how sacred geographies often persist across confessional transitions, not because of demonstrable historical accuracy but because they serve shared devotional, political, or communal functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In subsequent centuries, Jewish communities\u2014especially those distant from the region\u2014embraced the site as the burial place of Avraham Avinu (\u201cOur Father Abraham\u201d), largely accepting the inherited tradition without critical examination. Notably, modern scholarship has tended to reproduce this assumption rather than interrogate it. Despite advances in archaeology, textual criticism, and historical geography, no major academic challenge to the identification of Abraham\u2019s burial site with present-day Hebron has gained traction, nor has an alternative location been systematically proposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this sense, the Hebron identification stands less as a product of verifiable antiquity than as a case study in how sacred landscapes are constructed, stabilized, and transmitted through layered acts of interpretation, political authority, and devotional investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Old Testament, (Genesis 23:1\u201320 KJV), this cave is in a place called: \u201cHebron<\/mark>\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the New Testament, (Acts 7:16), this cave is in a place called: \u201cShechem<\/mark>\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hebron<\/mark><\/strong> or Shechem<\/mark><\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hebron<\/mark><\/strong> is not Shechem<\/mark><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, explain more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe relation of the story of the burial to the Old Testament traditions is complicated<\/mark><\/strong>. According to (the New Testament), they were all buried at Shechem<\/mark><\/strong> in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor. According to Genesis 49: 29\u201332; 50:13 Jacob was buried in the cave of Machpelah<\/strong> near Hebron<\/strong><\/mark> which Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite (Gn. 23). Joseph was buried at Shechem (Jos. 24:32) in land which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor (Gn. 33:18\u201320). Josephus states that Jacob\u2019s other sons (and, by implication, Jacob himself) were buried at Hebron (Jos., Ant. 2:199), and this tradition is also found in Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. There was a local tradition at Shechem that the twelve sons of Jacob were buried there<\/strong>. It thus appears that Stephen, (in the New Testament), differs from the Old Testament account in that he locates the tomb which Abraham bought at Shechem, not Hebron<\/mark>, and in that he adds the detail about the brothers of Joseph being buried there also.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Genesis 23:1\u201320 KJV:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c1And Sarah was one hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2And Sarah died in Kirjath arba<\/strong>; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, 4I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9That he may give me the cave of Machpelah<\/strong>, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a burying place amongst you. 10And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. 12And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. 13And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 14And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 16And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. 17And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure 18Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 19And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah <\/strong>before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. 20And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The burial place of Abraham<\/strong> is said to be in \u201cKiryat Arba<\/strong>\u201d (Town of the Four).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another name of this place is: \u201cthe field<\/strong> of Machpelah<\/strong>\u201d (or the cave<\/strong> of Machpelah).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we have four key words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1- Arba
2- Field
3- Machpelah
4- Cave<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arba<\/strong> (\u05d0\u05e8\u05d1\u05e2): means: Four.
Machpelah<\/strong> (\u05de\u05db\u05e4\u05dc\u05d4): according to the Targumim and the Septuagint it means \u201cthe double\/\u03b4\u03b9\u03c0\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd<\/strong>\u201d
In Rabbinical Literature: The name of \u201cMachpelah<\/strong>\u201d (= \u201cthe doubled one\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At \u201cAl Ahsa<\/strong><\/a><\/strong>\u201d, there is a place called \u201cbar Arba<\/strong>\/\u0628\u0631 \u0623\u0631\u0628\u0639\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBar\/\u0628\u0631\u201d in Arabic means: \u201cleveled land\u201d or field. [11]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArba<\/strong>\/\u0623\u0631\u0628\u0639\u201d in Arabic means: \u201cFour<\/strong> (4)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, \u201cbar Arba<\/strong>\u201d can be translated as: \u201cField of Four<\/strong>\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.. Because there are Four distinguished rocky hills, in that field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of these rock-formations are \u201cconjoined hills<\/strong>\u201d, or \u201cdouble-peak hill\u201d<\/strong>, and this is exactly the intended contextual meaning of: \u201cMachpelah<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The double-peak hill contains several burial caves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Abraham is buried here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As yet, no scholar has questioned the identification of Abraham burial site<\/em> with Hebron, or suggested a different location. We suggest the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n