Joppa: Beauty, a town in the portion of Dan
(Joshua 19:46) A.V., "Japho", on a
sandy promontory between Caesarea and Gaza, and at a distance of
30 miles north-west from Jerusalem. It is one of the oldest towns
in Asia. It was and still is the chief sea-port of Judea. It was
never wrested from the Phoenicians. It became a Jewish town only in
the second century B.C. It was from this port that Jonah "took ship
to flee from the presence of the Lord"
(Jonah 1:3) To this place also
the wood cut in Lebanon by Hiram's men for Solomon was brought in
floats
(2 Chronicles 2:16) and here the material for the building of the second
temple was also landed
(Ezra 3:7) At Joppa, in the house of Simon the
tanner, "by the sea-side," Peter resided "many days," and here, "on
the house-top," he had his "vision of tolerance"
(Acts 9:36-43) It bears
the modern name of Jaffa, and exibits all the decrepitude and
squalor of cities ruled over by the Turks. "Scarcely any other town
has been so often overthrown, sacked, pillaged, burned, and rebuilt."
Its present population is said to be about 16,000 It was taken by the
French under Napoleon in 1799 who gave orders for the massacre here
of 4,000 prisoners. It is connected with Jerusalem by the only
carriage road that exists in the country, and also by a railway
completed in 1892 It is noticed on monuments B.C. 1600 and was
attacked by Sannacharib B.C. 702.
