SYCAMORE is a species of fig, IV. Ficus Syco morns of botanists, and the same as SILIKMOL. j. F. R.
SYCHAR C.F..tx4 : and .,.7.,uxdp ; Sichar, and Sychar). This name is but once mentioned, and it has created considerable controversy. Our Lord left Judma. for Galilee, and,' the evangelist says, he must needs go through Samaria. Ile cometh, therefore, to a city of Samaria which is :ailed Sychar' (John iv. 5). The form of expression is somewhat peculiar. It would seem to convey the idea. that the city was an obscure one, or else that, whilst Sychar was its popular name, it had another. The.common opinion is that Sychar is only another name for the better known Sychem or Shechem. It is necessary to examine the evidence on which this theory is supposed to rest.
The position of Sychar is very clearly indicated in the gospel of John : It was near the parcel of ground which Jacob gave to Ys son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there.' The well was in the parcel of ground,' and it exists to this day in the entrance of the valley of_Nabulus, at the foot of Mount Gerizim. But the well is a: mile and a half froru the site of Shechem, now Nabulus ; and the question arises—If Sychar and Shechem were identical, could it be described as near (7rXn cloy) the well, while at such a distance ? The word 7rXncrfor, is indefinite. It is difficult to say what distance would be called near.' It would appear, however, that the city must have been a good way off, for the disciples had gone there to buy bread, and they were absent some time. It has been said that, as the woman came from the city to draw water at this well, Sychar could not have occupied the site of Nabulus, because in that town there are numerous fountains. To one conversant with Eastern life and habits, such an argument has no weight. The mere fact of the well having been Jacob's would have given it virtue in the estimation of the old Samaritans. And even independent of its associations, some little superiority in the quality of the water would have attracted people to it from a still greater distance (Hana'hook, p. 342). No farther information is given by the sacred writer, and the question is thus left undecided.
The testimony of ancient geo,graphers does not tend to remove the difficulty. Eusebius writes : Sychar, before Neapolis (rpa Tc13 N4ar 116Xews), near the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. . . . . And to this day it is pointed out.' Jerome translates his words, and adds, apparently referring to the site, ubi nunc ecclesia fabricata est (Ononzast. s.v. Sichar'). Of Sichem Eusebius says that it was shown as a desert place in the suburbs of Neapolis, where was also Joseph's tomb ; and Jerome simply translates the words (s.v. Sichem'). Again, when describing Luza, Eusebius says : It lies beside Sichem ' Oraparceil.4477 liVA) in the ninth mile (Jerome has third mile) from Neapolis' (s. v. 'Luza' ; cf. Terebinthus). According to the Bourdeaux Pilgrim, who travelled in A.D. 333, by Neapolis,
at the base of the mountain, stood Sichem, beside Joseph's monument, in the field his father gave him ; and a thousand paces farther was Sychar, whence the Samaritan woman came to draw water at Jacob's well.* Thus these writers distinguish between Sychar and Sichem, and they make both distinct from Neapolis.
But Jerome gives an entirely different account elsewhere. Speaking of St. Paula's journey, he says : She passed Sichem, not as many erroneously read it Sichar, which is now called Neapolis.' And in his questions on Genesis, he says, that ac cording to Greek and Latin custom, the Hebrew Sichem is written Sicima ; but the reading Sichar is an error ; and he adds that it is now called Neapolis. T. So Aclamnan writes of Arculf, who travelled in the 7th century He visited the town called in Hebrew Sichem, but by the Greeks and Latins Sicima, and now more usually Sychar' (Early Travels ; Bohn, p 8). In the rnth century Pho cas says : Sichar was the metropolis of the Sama ritans, and was afterwards called Neapolis' (Re land, Pal. too9).
The weight of ancient testimony therefore ap pears to be in favour of identifying Sichem, Sychar, and the Greek Neapolis.
Various theories have been advanced as to the origin and meaning of the name Sychar. It has been suggested that the Jews applied it as a by name in scorn to the Samaritan capital. If so, it may be derived from new, falsehood, in allusion to the false Samaritan wor-sh. ip on Gerizim (cf. John iv. 22 ; Hab. I8) ; or from 1".ni, drunken, with a reference to Is. xxviii. 1, where Samaria is called The crown of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim.' The son of Sirach speaks of the foolish people that dwell in Sikima (1. 28. See in Lightfoot, Opera, ii. 586; Robinson, B. R. ii. 290 ; Lange, Lift of Christ, ii. 337 ; Hengstenberg en St. Yam iv. 5).
It has been thought that Sychar may be identi fied with the little village of Askar, on the south eastern declivity of Mount Ebal (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 350 ; Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 472). The etymology, however, is against it, and also tlae topography. Our Lord was on his way to Galilee. The great road runs past the mouth of Wady Nabulus. Jacob's well is on the southern side of the opening ; and Askar about half a mile distant on the northern side. The main road passes quite close to both. Our Lord sat down by the well while the disciples turned aside into the city to buy bread. IIad Askar been the city this would have been unnecessary ; for by continuing their route for a short distance farther they would have been within a few paces of the city. There is besides a copious spring at Askar. If, on the other hand, Sychar stood on the site of Nabulus, then Jacob's well was the natural place for our Lord to remain until the return of his dis ciples. Besides, Eusebius and the Bourdeaux Pil grim, if they are to be taken as authorities, locate Sychar at Jacob's well.—J. L. P.