Raphia
RAPHIA (Ῥαφία, Ῥάφεια a maritime city in the extreme south of Palestine, between Gaza and Rhinocorura, a day's march from both, reckoned by Josephus, Polybius, and others, as the first city of Syria. (Joseph. B. J. 4.11.5; Plb. 5.80.) It was taken from the Egyptians by Alexander Jannaeus, and held by the Jews for some time. It was one of the ruined and depopulated cities restored by Gabinius. (Ant. 13.13.3, 15.4, 14.5.3.) It is mentioned also by Strabo (16. p. 759) and in the Itinerary of Antoninus, between the above-named towns. Coins of Raphia still exist, and it was represented by its bishop in the council of Ephesus, and in those of Constantinople, A.D. 536 and 553. (Reland, s. v. pp. 967, 968; Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, vol. iii. pp. 629, 630.) It was in the neighbourhood of this city that a great battle was fought between Ptolemy Philopator and Antiochus the Great, in which the latter was routed with immense loss. (3 Maccab. 1.2; Plb. 5.80, &c.; Hieron. ad Dan. cap. xi.) Its site is still marked by the name Refah, and two ancient granite columns in situ, with several prostrate fragments, the remains apparently of a temple of considerable magnitude. (Irby and Mangles' Journal, October 8.)
[G.W](Ῥαφία) or Raphēa (Ῥάφεια). Now Repha; a seaport town in the extreme southwest of Palestine, beyond Gaza, on the edge of the desert.
The southern-most city on the coast of Palestine and its port, identified with Tell Rafah. A halt under the same name is mentioned in ancient Egyptian sources in conjunction with the Via Maris. Diodorus (20.74) reported that Demetrius (in 306 B.C.), who sailed from Gaza, had many of his galleys driven by a storm to Raphia, “a city which affords no anchorage and is surrounded by shoals.” Strabo (16.2.31) refers to a battle fought there between Ptolemy IV and Antiochos the Great in 217 B.C. At Raphia Antiochos V married the daughter of the same Antiochos the Great (Polyb. 5.82-86). The city was taken by Alexander Jannaeus (Joseph. AJ 13.357; 14.396), who annexed it to the Hasmonaean kingdom. It was freed again by Pompey in 64 B.C., and was subsequently rebuilt by Gabinius (Joseph. BJ 1.166). In A.D. 69 Titus went by Raphia on his way from Alexandria to Caesarea. On this occasion Josephus (BJ 1.662) wrote that Raphia is “the city where Syria begins.” Ptolemy (5.15.5) knew it as a city of Judea and Raphia is frequently mentioned in Byzantine sources.
Raphia minted coins from the time of Commodus to that of Philip the Arab, and from these coins we learn that Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysos were worshiped there. There have been no excavations.
BIBLIOGRAPHYF. M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine II (1938) 431-32; M. Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land from the Persian to the Arab Conquests (536 B.C. to A.D. 640). A Historical Geography (1966).
A. NEGEV