GIRGASHITES (Hebrew Girgāshī; Septuagint Germachai, Latinized as Gergesites). - A clan or tribe that shared dominion over pre-Israelite Palestine with other ethnic groups. In the table of nations (Gen. 10:16) the G. are presented as descendants of Ham; but this does not prejudice the ethnological classification of this people, since in that document particular principles are followed, which do not always coincide with the somatic-linguistic characteristics of modern ethnology.

Perhaps they were Semites like the Canaanites; but an ethnic affinity with the Hittites is not excluded. In the Bible the G. are mentioned very few times (Gen. 10:19; 15:21; Deut. 7:1; Ios. 3:10; 24:11; Neh. 9:8) and always with a stereotyped phraseology, which lists the various clans or tribes of pre-Israelite Palestine. So far there is no extra-biblical confirmation for the existence of such a people; nevertheless, Phoenician proper names or similar ones have been found, or at least ones deriving etymologically from the same root (cf. M. Lidzbarski, Handbuch der nordwestlichen Epigraphik, I, Weimar 1898, p. 252).

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: F. Böbl, Kanander und Hebräer, Leipzig 1911, p. 66; F.-M. Abel, Geographie de la Palestine, I, Paris 1933, pp. 322-25.

Angelo Penna

@incollection{ec6_gergesei_ebr_girgaii_settanta, author = {Penna, Angelo}, title = {Gergesei (Ebr. GirgĀIi; Settanta, γερμαχίαι, latinizzo in gergesei)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {110}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gergesei-ebr-girgaii-settanta-germakhiai-latinizzo-in-gergesei} }

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Girgashites

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