RAPHAIM. - A more generic descriptive term for the race that in the Stone Age populated Transjordan and some parts of Palestine (v. GIGANTI). The Moabites called them Emim (Deut. 2:10 ff.); in the country of Ammon, Zomzommim or Zuzim (ibid. 2:20 ff.; already defeated by Chodorlahomor at Ham, Gen. 14:4); Anakim ("long-necked": Josh. 21:22 ff., etc.). The same term (Heb. rêphâ'im) is used for the inhabitants of šē'ōl (Isa. 14:9; 26:14, 19; Ps. 88:11; Prov. 2:18; Job 26:5). Their name evokes the idea of weakness, of lack of consistency, contained in the root rāphāh (Septuagint: laxpoî, Vulg. medici, from the root rāphā' [Ps. 87:11]; Isa. 26:14).

There is general agreement on the single root rāphāh; while no plausible explanation of its semantic development has, it seems, been successfully given. According to M.-J. Lagrange (followed by A. Clamer, F.-M. Abel, etc.), the term would have been used first for an important class of the dead: heroes, warriors, of imposing appearance (Isa. 14:9; cf. Ezek. 32:21-24) and therefore applied to the aforementioned pre-Semitic race; only later would it have been extended to all the dead. What P. Dhorme suggests (v. op. cit. in bibl.) seems more probable: R. was the appellation corresponding to the shadowy life of the dead; these, however, were at the same time considered, according to ancient Babylonian conceptions, terrible and vindictive, capable of ruining the living with diseases and obsession. For this reason those men were called R. (cf. Gen. 6:4) to whom the Bible, more than bulk and physical prowess, attributes stubborn rebellion against God, wickedness (cf. Bar. 3:26 ff.).

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: J.-M. Lagrange, Etudes sur les religions sémitiques, 2nd ed., Paris 1905, pp. 378, 405 ff.; P. Dhorme, Le séjour des morts chez les Babylonons et les Hibreux, in Revue biblique, 16 (1907), p. 75 f.; F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, I, Paris 1933, pp. 325-29; A. Clamer, Deutéronome (La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 2), ibid. 1940, pp. 524, 526 f.; J. Chaine, Le livre de la Génèse, ibid. 1948, pp. 104 ff., 196, 199; A. Gelin, Josué (ibid., 3), ibid. 1949, p. 72 f.

Francesco Spadafora

@incollection{ec10_raphaim, author = {Spadafora, Francesco}, title = {Raphaim}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {523--524}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/raphaim} }

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