Gofena
The cave near Ephraim.
Inhabitants or natives
Samuel the Saphorim takes refuge in one of its caves.
Description
Village located between Beeroth and Ephraim on the border between Samaria, where Jesus condemned by the Sanhedrin took refuge, and Judea. This village is surrounded by caves."The road taken by Manaen to lead Jesus to the place where He is expected is really a difficult one. A mountain road, narrow, covered with stones, running through maquis and woods. [...]'Look, Master. That is Gofenà over there. Now let us go round here. I shall count three hundred steps and we shall be at the grottoes' [...]
They are now in a barren rocky corridor, like an ascending cavern, between the two mountain faces that almost touch each other. One would say that it is a fracture brought about by a cataclysm, so strange it looks. A huge knife-wound in the mountain rock, splitting one third of it from its summit. High above, beyond the sheer mountain faces, beyond the tossing branches of the trees that have grown on the edge of the huge cut, the stars are shining, but the moon gives no light down here, in this abyss."[1]
Notable events
It is in one of these caves that Jesus secretly welcomes Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus[2] then there he also welcomes Samuel the Saphorim who came to arrest him.[3]
Its name
No indication on this village which remains located but unidentified. Based on descriptions, it could be approximately situated in the narrow valleys northeast of Dayr Dibwan.
Where is it mentioned in the work?
GRM 559 GRM 560 GRM 561
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