Taanath Shiloh

TAANATH SHILOH (tā'a-năth-shī'lō, Heb. ta’ănath shilōh, approach to Shiloh). A town on the NE border of the heritage of Ephraim (Josh.16.6). It was about ten miles (seventeen km.) east of Shechem and the same distance west of the Jordan River. Several large cisterns and ruins SE of Nablus are supposed to mark the site of the town.

This village lay between Michmethath and Janoah (Josh 16:6) on the NE border of Ephraim. It has been tentatively located seven m. SE of Shechem (modern Nablus), where there is evidence of an ancient hill fort (modern Ta’nah). The name may mean “approach to Shiloh.”

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

A town on the border of the territory of Ephraim named between Michmethath and Janoah (Jos 16:6). According to Eusebius, Onomasticon (s.v. "Thena") it lay about 10 Roman miles East of Neapolis, on the road to the Jordan. Ptolemy speaks of Thena, probably the same place, as a town in Samaria (Jos 16:5). It may be identified with Ta`na, a village about 7 miles Southeast of Nablus. Yanun, the ancient Janoah, lies 2 miles to the South. A Roman road from Neapolis to the Jordan valley passed this way. At Ta`na there are "foundations, caves, cisterns and rockcut tombs" (PEFM, II, 245). This identification being quite satisfactory, the Talmudic notion that Taanath-shiloh was the same place as Shiloh may be dismissed (Jerusalem Talmud, Meghillah, i).