ARBATTA

ar-bat'-a, ar-bat'-is the King James Version Arbattis, (en Arbattois (plural)): Apparently a district in the neighborhood of Galilee, from which the Jews who were in danger of attack by the heathen were carried by Simon Maccabeus to Jerusalem (1 Macc 5:21 ff). It cannot be identified with certainty. Ewald (Hist, V, 314, English translation) favors el-BaTeicha, the plain through which the Jordan flows into the Lake of Galilee. Encyclopedia Biblica (s.v.) suggests "the Arabah, or Araboth of Jordan." Possibly however we should look for it in the toparchy of Akrabattis, to the Southeast of Shechem (BJ, III, iii, 4 f).

W. Ewing

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.