JAMNIA, an ancient town of southern Palestine 13 m. S. of Joppa and 4 m. from the sea. The name is a Graecized form of the Jabneh, or Jabneel, of the Old Testament. The modern in heritrix of the site is a large village on a sandy hill in the midst of gardens and coppices. It has two mosques, one taking the place of an ancient church.
A Canaanite town, it was allotted to Judah, surrendered later to Dan, and passed to the Philistines. Its port, in ancient times also called Iamnia, is the modern linnet er-Rubin, where Judas Maccabaeus burned the vessels (164 B.c.). Simon, Alexander Jannaeus and Pompey possessed it in turn. In A.D. 7o a rabbinic college was established there by Jochanan ben Zakkai, traditionally believed to have escaped from the siege of Jerusalem concealed in a coffin. The Great Sanhedrin transferred its activities thither
and continued there until Bar Cochba had come into the open against the Romans (A.D. 132). It was erected into a bishopric at the time of Eusebius, and its bishop was present at Nicaea (A.D. 325). The Crusaders, to whom the place was known as Ibelin, built a fortress there There was a Jabneel (mod. Yemma), 8 m. S. of Tiberias, and Josephus describes a fortress in Upper Galilee named Jamnia (Vita 37). (E. Ro.)