Teqoa (ancient town)

Tekoa
	Shown within the West Bank
Alternative name	Teqoa; Thekoa; Thecoe; Kh. et-Tuqū'; Kh. Tekoua; Kh. Tekû'a; Ch. Teḳū
Region	Judaean Hills/Judaean Desert
Coordinates	31°38′02.8″N 35°12′36.6″E / 31.634111°N 35.210167°E
Palestine grid	164/114
Type	town
History
Cultures	Jewish, Byzantine, Arab

Tekoa, Teqoa, Thekoa^[1] or Thecoe^[a] (Hebrew: תקוע; Greek: Θεκώα) was an ancient town in the hill country of Judea, on the edge of the Judaean Desert, known from various ancient sources. The town is identified with the ruins of Tel Tekoa^[3] or Khirbet Tekoa (also spelled Khirbet et-Tuqu'^[b]), located about 12 km southeast of Bethlehem.

The town appears in the Hebrew Bible, which connects its founding with the descendants of Caleb, in connection with figures such as the wise woman of Tekoa, the prophet Amos, and in accounts of Tekoa's fortification under Rehoboam (or possibly Josiah). During the Second Temple period, Tekoites returning from exile reportedly participated in rebuilding Jerusalem's walls, and the town features in accounts of the Maccabean revolt, the First Jewish Revolt and the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Archaeological finds at the site of Khirbet Teqoa include pottery from Iron Age IIA–IIC, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, as well as remains of a Byzantine church dedicated to St. Nicholas and a propheteion commemorating Amos. Although the site remained inhabited into the Middle Ages, with the remains of a Crusader fortress, it has been largely deserted since the 17th century.

The ancient town is distinct from the modern Palestinian Bedouin village of Tuqu' and the Israeli settlement of Tekoa, which are nearby and named after the historic site though were established in the 20th century.

Geography

Tekoa was situated on the eastern edge of the Judean hill country, between a broad fertile plain to the west and the desert that bears its name, the Wilderness of Tekoa, to the east.^[4] Its ruins are known as Khirbet et-Tuqu'.^[5] The town, situated about 16 km south of Jerusalem^[4] was connected by roads leading to Jerusalem, Hebron, and Ein Gedi.^[4] From the site, there are extensive views encompassing the fortress of Herodium, Bethlehem, Jericho, Mar Elias, the Judaean Desert, and the Mountains of Moab across the Jordan Valley in Transjordan.^[6]

History

Iron Age (Biblical Period)

Tekoa was extensively inhabited during the Iron Age,^[7] and is mentioned repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, the town belonged to the clan of Caleb.^[4] In the Septuagint version of the Book of Joshua, in a passage absent from the Masoretic Text, Tekoa is listed alongside Bethlehem and other nearby localities as part of the territory alloted to the Tribe of Judah.^[8]^[4]

Tekoa appears to have gained prominence during the rise of Judah in the 10th century BCE.^[4] According to the Books of Samuel, one of David's elite warriors, Ira ben Ikkesh, came from Tekoa.^[9]^[4] The town is also noted as the home of the "wise woman of Tekoa," whom Joab brought to David to counsel him and facilitate the reconciliation with Absalom.^[10]^[11]^[4] According to the Books of Chronicles, King Rehoboam of Judah fortified Tekoa along with other towns to defend his kingdom, an act that some scholars alternatively attribute to Josiah.^[12] Tekoa is also identified as the hometown of the prophet Amos, a local herdsman who prophesied in the Kingdom of Israel.^[13]^[14]

A royal stamped jar handle (LMLK seal) dating to the late 8th century BCE was discovered at Tekoa, bearing the inscription "LMLK" ("belonging to the king") and indicating the site's inclusion in the administrative network of Judah established during preparations for the Assyrian invasion.^[3] Following the Babylonian conquest and the fall of Judah in the 6th century BCE, the Tekoa region became largely depopulated.^[15]

Classical antiquity (Second Temple-Judea)

Persian period

Tekoa appears to have continued as a Jewish town after the Babylonian captivity. Post-exilic records list Tekoa's inhabitants among the clan of Caleb. Men from Tekoa were reportedly among those who returned from exile in Babylonia and helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the 5th century BCE (Nehemiah 3:5, 3:27). This indicates that Tekoa was resettled and inhabited during the Persian period (6th–4th centuries BCE), although archaeological evidence from that era is scant. Small finds of Persian-period pottery have been reported at the site, suggest a modest presence. During this period, the surrounding area saw renewed settlement activity, with communities shifting westward toward areas near the watershed where water and agricultural conditions were more favorable, and the region gained increased importance as the district (pelekh) of Tekoa mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah.^[15]

Hellenistic period

Tekoa is mentioned again in ancient accounts of the Maccabean revolt in the 160s. According to 1 Maccabees, during the campaign of the Seleucid general Bacchides (c. 162 BCE), the rebel forces of Jonathan and Simon fled to the wilderness of Tekoa and camped near a cistern at Asphar (1 Maccabees 9:33). The Jewish historian Josephus, in his own account of this war, says Bacchides fortified Tekoa along with other towns, indicating that the site may had a fortress or garrison in the 2nd century BCE. Tekoa's olive oil was famed in antiquity; the Mishnah praises the "oil of Tekoa" as the finest quality oil for use in the Temple in Jerusalem, followed by that of Regev in Transjordan.^[16]

Early Roman period and the Jewish–Roman wars

During the Roman period, Josephus refers to Tekoa in the context of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE). He notes it in passing when describing the movements of rebel and Roman forces in Judaea. The site's proximity ot Herodium (Herod the Great's fortress and tomb, only a few kilometers away) may have given Tekoa some significance. According to Josephus, Simon bar Giora, a leader of one of the Jewish factions during the revolt, camped in Tekoa while attempting to capture Herodium.^[17] In his autobiographical work, The Life of Flavius Josephus, he also recounts that, while in Tekoa, he recognized three men among those being crucified. After persuading Titus, he was allowed to have them removed from the crosses; two of the men subsequently died, while the third survived.^[18]^[19]

The surrounding region also saw military activity during the Bar Kokhba revolt, a major Jewish uprising against Roman rule that led to the widespread destruction and depopulation of Judea. Tekoa is mentioned in several documents from this period,^[20] including letters written by Simon bar Kokhba, the leader of the revolt.^[21] In these, Bar Kokhba rebukes his commanders at Ein Gedi for sheltering men from Tekoa who had evaded conscription, ordering: "Any Tekoan man who is found with you, let the house they reside in be burned,"^[22] and further instructing, "Any person from Tekoa, or from other places, who is with you—you are to send them to me immediately".^[23]^[21] It is also possible that some of Tekoa's inhabitants sought refuge in caves along the cliffs of Wadi Khureitun (Naḥal Tekoa), a nearby ravine associated with habitation during the revolt.^[24]

Late Roman and Byzantine periods

By the late 3rd–early 4th century, Christian writers also mention Tekoa. The church historian Eusebius (c. 330 CE), noted in his Onomasticon that Tekoa was "now a village" in his day. Tekoa flourished as a Christian village in the Byzantine period (4th–7th century CE), owing largely to its association with the prophet Amos. From at least the 4th century, pilgrims reported seeing the tomb of Amos at Tekoa, though veneration of the site may have begun earlier, in the context of ancient Judaism.^[25] A tradition recorded in the Lives of the Prophets, an apocryphal work from the early centuries CE, holds that Amos was not only from Tekoa but also buried there, allegedly dying after being struck on the tympanum by a club wielded by the son of Amaziah, his biblical adversary and a priest of Bethel.^[26]^[25] By the 6th century, there was also a chapel at Tekoa, as reported by Cyril of Scythopolis.^[27]^[7] The English bishop Willibald visited the town in 724/725, and his biographer Huneberc recorded the existence of a church containing the tomb of the prophet Amos, and further associated Tekoa with Herod's Massacre of the Innocents.^[28]^[7]

Middle Ages

In 1099, as the Frankish armies advanced through Judea, Tekoa's local Christian residents reportedly welcomed the Crusaders.^[29]^[30] The medieval chronicler William of Tyre relates that during the First Crusade, the people of Teqoa guided the Crusader forces to nearby water sources and provisions during the campaign, and some villages even joined the Crusaders in the siege of Jerusalem. The Crusaders knew the village as "Casal Techue".^[30] They built a quadrangular castle^[31] (or manor house^[32]) at the site, whose remains has been identified at the edge of the archaeological site.^[32] The structure measured approximately 41 × 48 × 60 × 59 meters, with walls over 2 meters thick and more than 3.5 meters high, and a rock-cut ditch on the northern side.^[31]

In the 12th century, Tekoa continued to be associated with the prophet Amos and the Massacre of the Innocents, but it was now also linked to another biblical figure, the prophet Habakkuk. According to this tradition, Tekoa was one of the places from which Habakkuk was transported to Daniel in Babylon.^[7] A church dedicated to Habakkuk was built on the outskirts of the village.^[7] In 1106/8, the Russian abbot Daniel visited Tekoa, approaching it from the church of Habbakuk, and described it as a "very large village" inhabited by Christians and Saracens.^[30]^[7] After spending the night there, he traveled to nearby Bethlehem, escorted by the local chief for protection against Saracen raiders who attacked Christians.^[7]

In February 1138,^[31] King Fulk and Queen Melisande of Jerusalem granted Casal Techue to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in a land swap.^[7] The royal charter also granted the residents rights to collect bitumen and salt from the Dead Sea shore.^[33]^[7]^[30] Soon after, Tekoa was attacked by Muslim forces: Zengid troops briefly captured Casal Techue that year. The inhabitants who did not flee to the nearby "cave of Odolla" were massacred.^[7] The Knights Templar led by Robert the Burgundian managed to recapture the town, but soon afterward the Templars were ambushed outside Tekoa.

The Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, who visited the area in 1225, described Tekoa as "a village renowned for its honey."^[7]^[34] In 1283, Philip of Savona mentioned the burial cave of the prophet Amos, over which a church stood in his time, adding that the site was also believed to contain the graves of the Massacre of the Innocents.^[35] Peter de Pennis, who visited in the mid-14th century, likewise referred to a burial cave of Amos associated with a church.^[35]

Early modern period

Following the Ottoman conquest of 1517, Teqoa, like the rest of Palestine, came under Ottoman rule. According to an Ottoman census in 1526, 82 families lived in the village, 55 of which were Christians.^[30] In the tax registers of 1596, Tekoa (listed as Tuqu') appears as a village in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jerusalem and the liwa (district) of the same name, with a population of 62 Muslim households and 5 Christian households. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, vineyards or fruit trees, and livestock or beehives, amounting to a total of 27,000 akçe, all of which was designated for a waqf.^[36]

In 1661, Father Eugène Roger, a French Franciscan missionary, reported that the Church of Amos had been damaged, writing that its vaults "have been knocked down by the Turks, and there still remains the greater part of the enclosure."^[35] He added that inside it was "a small mosque where the Mohammedans do their ceremonies."^[35] About eighteen years later, the Jesuit Father Nau recorded the testimony of a local villager, who said that the church had been dedicated to Saint Nicholas and that Greek Orthodox priests had officiated there within his lifetime.^[35] During his visit, the English traveler Edward Pococke was shown the remains of a castle, which locals regarded as those of an ancient church. Pococke, however, thought the church had stood nearer the center of the hill, where he observed an octagonal marble font and fragments of marble columns and bases.^[35]

The majority of Teqoa's Christian inhabitants emigrated to Bethlehem in the 18th century. Tekoa declined further in the following centuries. By the 19th century, the once-important town was largely in ruins. In 1863, French explorer Victor Guérin found only a handful of families at Khirbet Tekoua, "living in the caves" among the ancient remains. Guérin documented the fragments of a church and an ancient octagonal limestone baptismal font, carved with crosses and geometric designs, lying on the site.^[37] The Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) in 1883 likewise noted that Khūrbet Tekûà "seems to have been large and important in Christian times" but was in their day occupied by only a few cave-dwelling inhabitants amid the ruins.^[38]

Archaeology

The site of Tekoa covers an area of approximately 30 acres.^[2] Visible remains include burial caves, cisterns, a Byzantine church and chapel, as well as a Crusader fortress.^[2] No systematic excavations have yet been carried out at the site. Aside from several instances of unauthorized digging and the excavation of a single Iron Age burial cave, archaeological knowledge of Tekoa is based primarily on a series of surveys conducted at the site.^[4]

Byzantine monastic complex

A large Byzantine church was uncovered in the northern part of archaeological site during a 1968 survey and partial excavation.^[2] The structure, measuring about 25 by 17 meters, was basilical in plan and likely formed part of a monastic complex.^[2] Its prayer hall featured a rectangular external apse, a nave flanked by two aisles separated by rows of columns and pilasters, and an entrance in the southern wall.^[2]

Remains of a mosaic floor and various architectural fragments, including columns, capitals, and square bases, were documented. North of the church lay an open courtyard with several cisterns, while adjoining rooms extended to the west and south. An octagonal baptismal font decorated with crosses and rosettes was also found nearby, and some architectural elements from the church were later reused in the adjacent Crusader fortress.^[2]

A small apsidal chapel, about 11×6 meters in size and oriented to the east, was found south of the main church near the center of the site. It was enclosed within a walled area roughly 20×17 meters across.^[2]

Since none of the excavated Byzantine structures were found in association with a burial cave as described in medieval accounts of the Church of Amos, and no evidence of vaulting was identified, scholars believe that the true location of Amos's church may lie elsewhere.^[35] The archaeologist J. Escobar proposed identifying it with a cave on the northeastern side of the site, which appears to have been accessed through a vaulted space and surmounted by a rectangular building.^[35] This interpretation remains plausible but unconfirmed, pending further excavation and investigation.^[35]

Burial caves

Iron Age Judah

A rock-cut tomb (Tomb 302), located on the southwestern slope of the site and considered typical of late Iron Age II clan/family tombs in Judah, was excavated in 1968 and 1970 by J. J. Davis.^[39] The tomb consists of a single rectangular chamber (about 7.7 × 2.8 m) with an entrance cut into the western face of the rock. Along the chamber walls, eight burial loculi were hewn, what is in fact an unusually high number for Iron Age tombs in Judah. Each loculus contained a circular repository carved into the back wall.^[39] Finds from the tomb included ceramic bowls, jars, jugs, cooking pots, oil lamps, and small vessels, as well as iron implements, a bronze spatula, a terracotta figurine, and a bone object shaped like an animal. Human remains were also recovered, some showing signs of arthritis and other pathologies.^[39] The assemblage dates the tomb to the late 8th to early 6th century BCE, with secondary use during the Herodian or Roman period.^[39]

Additional rock-cut tombs are located on the western slope of the site, about 300 meters northwest of the ruin.^[40] Five such tombs were recorded there, some attributed to the Iron Age and others reused during the Roman or Herodian periods.^[40] Their architecture is only partially documented, but finds attributed to these tombs include Iron Age II pottery of the 8th–7th centuries BCE, consisting mainly of bowls, decanters, cooking pots, juglets, and lamps typical of Judahite assemblages of that era.^[40] Several of these vessels are housed in the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Museum in Jerusalem and the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[40]

Byzantine

Several burial caves discovered near the Byzantine complex contained oil lamps from the Byzantine period, decorated with cross motifs and inscriptions.^[2]

Notes

^ Alternatively, Tequ'a; Teqo'a; Tecoa^[2]
^ Alternatively, Kh. et-Tuqūʿ; Kh. Tekoua; Kh. Tekûʿa; Ch. Teḳū^[2]

References

^ Rogers 2022, p. 544.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Magen et al. 2012, p. 157.
^ ^a ^b Dever 2017, p. 550–553.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Wenning 2025, p. 292.
^ Avi-Yonah 1976, p. 99.
^ Conder & Kitchener 1883, p. 369.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Pringle 1998, p. 348.
^ Kallai 1986, p. 392.
^ 2 Samuel 23:26, 1 Chronicles 11:28; 27:9
^ 2 Samuel 14:2–20
^ Johnson 2023, pp. 50–52.
^ 2 Chronicles 11:5, 6
^ Amos 1:1
^ Ziv 1982, p. 49–53.
^ ^a ^b Lipschits 2003, p. 354.
^ Demsky 1997, p. 159.
^ Rogers 2021, p. 291.
^ Josephus, The Life of Flavius Josephus, 417–21
^ Rogers 2021, pp. 369, 471.
^ Mor 2016, p. 219.
^ ^a ^b Mor 2016, pp. 456, 458.
^ P. Yadin 54:10–11
^ P. Yadin 55:3
^ Raviv et al. 2021, p. 219.
^ ^a ^b Tiemeyer & Wöhrle 2020, p. 421.
^ Lives of the Prophets, 7:1–2
^ Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita S. Sabae, XXXVI
^ Hugeburc XXIII
^ William of Tyre, 8.7
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Ellenblum 2003, p. 136.
^ ^a ^b ^c Pringle 1997, p. 103.
^ ^a ^b Ellenblum 2003, p. 137.
^ Holy Sepulchre, #34, February 5, 1138, 99–100
^ Le Strange 1890, p. 542.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Pringle 1998, p. 350.
^ Hütteroth & Abdulfattah 1977, p. 114.
^ Guérin 1869, p. 141.
^ Conder & Kitchener 1883, p. 368.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Wenning 2025, pp. 293–294.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Wenning 2025, pp. 294–295.

Sources

Avi-Yonah, Michael (1976). "Gazetteer of Roman Palestine". Qedem. 5: 3–112. ISSN 0333-5844.
Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, Herbert (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography and Archaeology. Vol. III. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Demsky, Aaron (1997). "Qumran Epigraphy and Mishnaic Geography: the Identification of Htl¸ With Hattulim (Menahoth 8:6)". Dead Sea Discoveries. 4 (2): 157–161. doi:10.1163/156851797X00029. ISSN 0929-0761.
Dever, William G. (2017). Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah. SBL Press. ISBN 978-0-88414-217-1.
Ellenblum, Ronnie (2003). Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–137.
Guérin, Victor (1869). Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 1: Judée, pt. 3. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
Johnson, Dylan R. (2023). "The Woman from Tekoa (2 Sam. 14) and the Character of Judicial Wisdom in Ancient Israel". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 48 (1): 50–68. doi:10.1177/03090892231170645. ISSN 0309-0892.
Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlangen: Selbstverlag der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft : Palm & Enke.
Kallai, Zecharia (1986). Historical Geography of the Bible: The Tribal Territories of Israel. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004677142_030. ISBN 978-90-04-67714-2.
Le Strange, Guy (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Lipschits, Oded; Blenkinsopp, Joseph, eds. (2003). "Demographic Changes in Judah between the Seventh and the Fifth Centuries BCE". Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. pp. 323–376.
Magen, Yitzhak; Kagan, Evgeni D.; Tzionit, Yoav; Malka, Ayelet Hashahar; Ben-Lulu, Avia; Peleg, Yuval; Levin, Edward (2012). "Corpus of Christian Sites [165-364]". In Malka, Ayelet Hashahar (ed.). Christians and Christianity, Vol II. Corpus of Christian sites in Judea. Vol. 14 (1 ed.). Israel Antiquities Authority / רשות העתיקות. pp. 1–314. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1x76gt8.5. ISBN 978-965-406-253-4. Retrieved 2025-10-05.
Mor, Menahem (2016). The Second Jewish Revolt: The Bar Kokhba War, 132–136 CE. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-31463-4.
Raviv, Dvir; Ullman, Micka; Langford, Boaz; Frumkin, Amos; Porat, Roi; Zissu, Boaz (2021). "Finds from the Bar-Kokhba Revolt on the Cliffsides of Wadi Chariton (Naḥal Teqoa)". Israel Exploration Journal. 71 (2): 204–223. ISSN 0021-2059.
Rogers, Guy MacLean (2021). For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66–74 CE. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-24813-5.
Pringle, Denys (1997). Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN 0-521-46010-7.
Pringle, Denys (1998). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus: Volume 2, L-Z. Cambridge University Press. pp. 347–350. ISBN 0-521-39037-0.
Tiemeyer, Lena-Sofia; Wöhrle, Jakob (2020). The Book of the Twelve: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004424326_025. ISBN 978-90-04-42324-4.
Wenning, Robert (2021). Materialien zu den eisenzeitlichen Gräbern in Israel/Palästina. Ägypten und Altes Testament (in German). Münster: Zaphon. pp. 292–295. ISBN 978-3-96327-116-8.
Ziv, Yehuda (1982). ""בוקר ובולס-שקמים" — בתקוע?". Beit Mikra: Journal for the Study of the Bible and Its World / בית מקרא: כתב-עת לחקר המקרא ועולמו. כח (א (צ"ב)): 49–53. ISSN 0005-979X.