Casiphia

CASIPHIA (ka-sĭf'ĭ-a). A place near the river Ahava, a tributary of the Euphrates, twice mentioned in Ezra.8.17 as a place where exiled Levites lived.

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CASIPHIA kə sĭf’ ĭ ə, Heb. כָּסִפְיָ֖א, an unidentified town from which Ezra summoned Levites to return from Babylon and serve the newly restored Jewish community in Jerusalem. The name appears only in Ezra 8:17 twice. However, folk etymologies led to many variants, LXX A & B, Gr. ἐν ἀργυρίῳ του̂ τόπου̂, “in the silver place”; Gr. ἐν τῳ̂ τοπῳ του̂ γαζοφυλακίου, “in the place of the treasure” (1 Esd 8:45). The name has been a rich source of Jewish traditions, and other passages of the OT were related to it by the rabbis. The Ger. archeologist H. Winckler attempted to identify the site with ancient Ctesiphon but without success.

Bibliography

H. Winckler, “Kasiphja-Ktesiphon,” Altorientalische Forschungen, 2, Bd. III, (1898-1899), 509-530; W. Rudolph, Ezra und Nehemiah (1949), 83ff.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

ka-sif’-i-a, ka-sif-e’-a (kaciphya’): An unidentified place in North Babylonia, near the river Ahava, to which Ezra sent for "ministers for the house of our God" (Ezr 8:17). Some have thought the name to be connected with keceph, "silver" or "money." Septuagint renders argurio tou topou, as in 1 Esdras 8:45, "the place of the treasury."