MODIN (Septuagint μοδεῖν and μωδεῖν). — City of Judea, homeland of the Maccabees (I Mach. 2, 1.15. 23), where Mathathia and his two sons Giuda and Ionathan were buried (I Mach. 2, 70; 9, 19; 13, 25. 30). The Talmud places it 15 miles from Gerusalemme, and the Onomasticon near Diospoli (Lidda), where the tombs could be seen.
The geographical map of Madaba (6th century) places it between Kapar Eruta (Kefr Rut, west of Bethoron) and Diospoli, with the following inscription: “Modeim, which is now Moditha, whence the Maccabees came.” Moditha, according to the common opinion of scholars, corresponds to Medjeh or el-Midjah, the name of an Arab village until 1948, situated 12 km east of Lidda. Nearby, to the south, in the locality called el-Arba'in (“of the 40,” understood as “martyrs”), remains from the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, and Arab periods have been found. The tombs, known as those of the Maccabees, are hewn in the rock near the small sanctuary of Sejþ el-Garbāwī.
The location, now agreed upon by scholars, was uncertain from the 12th century onward, and was variously indicated at Soba, Qastal, or Ramleh, but generally along the Ramleh-Gerusalemme road. Since the last century, and not without the influence of the Franciscan P. E. Forner, the location has been fixed at Medjeh.