Bible Encyclopedias
Girgashite

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

gûr´ga - shı̄t ( גּרגּשׁי , girgāshı̄ ; Γεργεσαῖος , Gergesaı́os ; also punctuated (?) Girgasite ( Genesis 10:16 the King James Version)): A son of (the land of) Canaan ( Genesis 10:16 ), and accordingly enumerated along with the Canaanite' in the list of tribes or nationalities inhabiting that country (Genesis 15:21; Deuteronomy 7:1; Joshua 3:10; Joshua 24:11; Nehemiah 9:8 ). It has been supposed that the name survived in that of "the Gergesenes," the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "the Gadarenes"), of Matthew 8:28 , on the East side of the Sea of Galilee; Josephus (Ant. , I, vi, 2), however, states that nothing was known about it. The inscriptions of the Egyptian king, Ramses II, mention the Qarqish who sent help to the Hittites in their war with Egypt; but Qarqish was more probably in Asia Minor than in Syria. Pinches (The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records , 324) would identify the Girgashites with the Kirkishati of an Assyrian tablet; the latter people, however, seem to have lived to the East of the Tigris, and it may be that, as in the case of the Hittites, a colony of the Qarqish, from Asia Minor, was established in Palestine.