MACHPELAH ("Double Thing"). - A plot of land with trees and a cave, situated opposite Mamre and precisely at Hebron (v.). It belonged to Ephron the Hittite, and Abraham (v.) bought it as a family burial place (Gen. 23:9-19). There were buried Sarah (ibid. 23:19), Abraham (ibid. 25:9), Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah (ibid. 49:50; 50:13).

The cave was always held in veneration; Herod the Great erected a vast enclosure over it. Within it, in the Byzantine period, a church was built, of which few traces remain. The Crusaders rebuilt it in 1115, and their structure, reduced to a mosque, is very well preserved. The Arabs have added various cenotaphs to it. With the Arab reoccupation of Palestine (1187), the cave became inaccessible to Christians, who for a considerable time, that is from the 14th to the 19th century, were excluded even from the enclosure; this prohibition is maintained to this day. Thus it is now impossible to know exactly the shape of the cave and the condition in which it is found.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: L. Heidet, s. v. in DB, IV, coll. 520-31; L.-H. Vincent - E. Mackay - F.-M. Abel, Hebron, Paris 1923.

Bellarmino Bagatti

@incollection{ec7_makhpelah_cosa_duplice, author = {Bagatti, Bellarmino}, title = {MakhpĒLĀH (= « Cosa Duplice »)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1878--1879}, 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/makhpelah-cosa-duplice} }

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Machpelah ("Double Thing")

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