Timnath Serah
תִּמְנַת־סֶרַח · “Timnath Serach” on the map
Where was biblical Timnath Serah? At Kifl Haris, west of Ariel, about 40 km north of Jerusalem. I mark it debated. The case for the main rival site is below.
Joshua took his own inheritance last of all. He asked for one small hill town in Ephraim, built it up, lived in it, and was buried in it.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Kifl Haris, west of Ariel
- How sure
- Debated Two or more serious candidates.
- Other names
- Timnath-serah, Timath Serach, Timnath-heres, Timnat Serach, Timnat Heres, Thamna, Kifl Haris, Khirbet Tibnah
- Location
- 32.1178° N, 35.1586° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The text gives an address: "in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash." That would settle it if we knew where Mount Gaash was. We don't. So the text alone cannot decide between the two candidates.
The second name is the strongest clue. The Book of Judges records the same burial at Timnath Heres. Serach and Heres are the same three Hebrew letters, reversed. Rashi explains the name. Heres is the sun, and an image of the sun was set on the grave of the man who made the sun stand still.
That name points to Kifl Haris. Jewish and Samaritan tradition both place Joshua's town at this village, and its name may preserve Heres. Muslim shrines mark the graves, and Jews still come to visit them as the tombs of Joshua, his father Nun, and Caleb.
Many scholars prefer Khirbet Tibnah, about 12 km to the southwest. Its Arabic name echoes Timnah. In Roman times a district town called Thamna stood there, and it has a large rock-cut tomb complex that has long been linked with Joshua. Both sites have a real claim, which is why I mark it debated. I chose Kifl Haris because when a tradition is this old and this widely held, I give it deference unless the evidence is overwhelmingly against it. Here it isn't.
Visiting today
The traditional tombs of Joshua, Nun and Caleb at Kifl Haris are usually visited on organized night visits with army coordination, especially around Joshua's yahrzeit on 26 Nisan. Khirbet Tibnah is a ruin with rock-cut tombs in a valley to the southwest.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Timnath Serach on the interactive map →
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