Shechem
The great city of Samaria.
Inhabitants or natives
Reuben, Elisha and Isaac, the young children saved from the thieves.[1]
Description
The city has a beautiful appearance, surrounded by walls, crowned with bWaterx and majestic buildings around which beautiful houses are orderly clustered. I get the impression that the city, like Tiberias, was recently rebuilt by the Romans with a plan coming from Rome. All around, beyond the walls, an environment of very fertile and well cultivated lands. The road that leads from Samaria to Shechem unfolds descending in successive terraces with a system of small walls supporting the terrain, which reminds me of the passes of Fiesole. There is a magnificent view of green mountains to the south and of a very beautiful plain that stretches to the west. The road tends to descend but rises from time to time to cross other hills from the top of which you overlook the country of Samaria with its beautiful crops of olive trees, wheat, vineyards watched over from the hilltops by woods of oaks and tall trees forming a Protection Against the winds that, coming from the passes, tend to form whirlwinds that would damage the crops. This region reminds me a lot of points in our Apennines here, towards Amiata, when the eye contemplates at the same time the flat cereal crops of the Maremma and the joyful hills, and the severe mountains that rise higher, further inland. I do not know how Samaria is today. Then it was very beautiful.[2]
The main square has a spring-like note with the fresh foliage of the trees which, in double rows along the block formed by the walls of the houses, surround it forming a kind of gallery. The sun plays with the tender leaves of the plane trees forming embroidery of light and shadow on the ground. The basin, in the middle of the square, is a silver plate under the sun.[3]
Here is Shechem, all beautiful and adorned. It is full of people from Samaria going to the Samaritan Temple, full of pilgrims from all regions going to the Temple of Jerusalem. The sun floods it entirely, lying as it is on the eastern slopes of Mount Garizim which dominates it to the west, all green as much as it is white. To its northeast the Ebal, even wilder to look at, seems to protect it Against the north winds. The place is fertile, enriched by the Waterx flowing down from the mountains.[4]
The two streams of Water, near which it rises, form a silver-blue semicircle around the city; then one of them flows singing and sparkling between the white houses, to then flow out and run into the greenery, appearing and disappearing under the olive trees and the lush orchards in the direction of the Jordan. The other, more modest, remains outside the walls, licking them so to speak, irrigating the fertile vegetable crops, then goes to water some herds.[5]
Key facts
During his passage through this city, on the way to Jerusalem,[6] Jesus was well homely:"The Apostles speak with the Master, and although they are incorrigibly Israelites, they must recognize and praise The Spirit they found among the inhabitants of Shechem who, I understand from the conversations I hear, invited Jesus to stay among them".This Home leaves the traces of a genuine sympathy.[7]
It is on the territory of Shechem that Ennon is located, the place where the Baptist took refuge while pursued.[8] He too was homely and respected by the Shechemites.
Its name
שכם (Nablus)[9]
Shechem means "shoulder" or "neck" and refers to its position between Mount Ebal and Mount Garizim on which was the Samaritan Temple. Today Nablus (Shekhem) - Other spellings: Nablus, Tel/Tell Balatah, Nabulus, Neapolis, Shakim, Shechem, Sychem.
Note that Maria Valtorta mentions a Roman milestone[10] alternately indicating "Neapoli" and "Shechem". According to this indication, the name Neapolis would be older than that of Flavius Neapolis mentioned in historical records, as in the year 30 the future emperor Titus Flavius Vespasian, who would be the origin of the name, was not famous enough to be thus honored.
The name Neapolis (new city) evolved into Naples during the Crusades and then into Nablus, the current name.
Where is it mentioned in the work?
EMV 193
EMV 211
EMV 483 EMV 484
EMV 553 EMV 554 EMV 557 EMV 563 EMV 564 EMV 566 EMV 570 EMV 571 EMV 572 EMV 573 EMV 576 EMV 581
Learn more about this place
An important city in the center of Palestine, in the hills of Ephraim, near Mount Garizim. It is the first site in Palestine mentioned in Genesis. Abraham camped there, as did Jacob who buried his foreign idols there.[11]
After the Israelite conquest, Joshua renewed the Covenant of the nation with God there.[12] It is also where he made his farewell speech.[13] At the time of the judges, it was still a center of Canaanite Worship which was destroyed by Abimelech, son of Gideon.[14]
After the death of Solomon, it was in Shechem that the ten northern tribes rejected Rehoboam as king and anointed Jeroboam as their king. He restored the city and made it for some time his capital.[15] The Assyrians destroyed it in 724-721 BC. Around 300 BC, Shechem became the main city of the Samaritans who erected a Temple on Mount Garizim. John Hyrcanus destroyed the Temple in 128 BC and the city in 108 BC. It was later rebuilt and named Flavia Neapolis in honor of the Roman emperor Flavius Vespasian.
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