GERAR cro ; Sept. rIpa,pa), a town and dis trict on the southernmost borders of Palestine, in the country of the Philistines, and not far from Gaza. It was visited by Abraham after the de struction of Sodom (Gen. xx. /), and by Isaac when there was a dearth in the rest of Canaan (Gen. xxvi. 1). The incidents of their sojourn shew that the district was very fertile. It was the seat of the first Philistine kingdom we read of, and gave name to it. The intercourse, differences, and alliances of the Hebrew fathers with the king and people of Gerar form a very curious and inte testing portion of patriarchal history. It was still an important place in later times, as we may gather from 2 Chron. xiv. 13, 14. According to the an cient accounts Gerar lay in or near a valley, which appears to bc.no other than the great Wady Sheriah (or one of the branches of it), that comes down from Beersheba ; besides we know that it was in the land of the Philistines, and that it was not far from Beersheba. when Isaac resided there (Gen.
xxvi. z, 20, 23 ; 26-33 ; comp. xx. 1). The name continued to exist (perhaps as a matter of tradition) for several centuries after the Christian era. Euse bius and Jerome (Onomast., s. v. Gerara) place it twenty-five Roman miles southward from Elan theropolis ; and Sozomen (Hut. Eccles. vi.32 ; ix. 17) reports that a large and celebrated monastery stood there near a winter torrent. The abbot Sil vanus resided there towards the end of thc 4th cen tury, and the name of Marcion, bishop of Gerar, appears among the signatures of the council of Chalcedon in A. D. 451. The naine seems to have been aftenvards lost, and Dr. Robinson was nnable to discover any traces of it in the locality. Some local information respecting it may be seen in the Chevalier Van de Velde's tVarrative of a ylnirmy through Syria and Palestine.—J. K.