Village

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Κώμη (Strong'S #2968 — Noun Feminine — kome — ko'-may )

"a village," or "country town," primarily as distinct from a walled town, occurs in the Gospels; elsewhere only in  Acts 8:25 . The difference between polis, "a city," and kome, is maintained in the NT, as in Josephus. Among the Greeks the point of the distinction was not that of size or fortification, but of constitution and land. In the OT the city and the village are regularly distinguished. The Mishna makes the three distinctions, a large city, a city, and a village. The RV always substitutes "village(-s)" for AV, "town(-s),"  Matthew 10:11;  Mark 8:23,26,27;  Luke 5:17;  9:6,12;  John 7:42;  11:1,30 . See Town.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Village . For the OT villages and their relation to the ‘mother’ city, see City, and cf. Fortification and Siegecraft, ad init . In all periods of Heb. history the cultivators of the soil lived for greater security in villages, the cultivated and pasture land of which was held in common. Solitary homesteads were unknown. The NT writers and Josephus also distinguish between a city ( polis ) and a village ( kômç ), the distinction being primarily a difference not of size but of status. Thus in   Mark 1:38 the word rendered ‘ towns ’ is literally ‘village-cities’ (others render ‘market-towns’), i.e. places which are cities as regards population but not as regards constitutional status. When Josephus tells us that ‘the very least of’ the villages of Galilee ‘contained above 15,000 inhabitants’ ( BJ III. iii. 2 [Niese, § 43]), he is, more suo , drawing a very long bow indeed!

A. R. S. Kennedy.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Village. This word in addition to its ordinary sense, is often used, especially in the enumeration of towns in  Joshua 13:15;  Joshua 13:19 to imply Unwalled Suburbs Outside The Walled Towns. Arab villages, as found in Arabia, are often mere collections of stone huts, "long, low rude hovels, roofed only with the stalks of palm leaves," or covered, for a time, with tent-cloths, which are removed when the tribe change their quarters. Others are more solidly built, as are most of the of Palestine, though, in some, the dwellings are mere mud-huts.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Leviticus 25:29 25:31 1 Chronicles 6:54-60Agriculture[[Cities And Urban Life]]House

King James Dictionary

VIL'LAGE, n. A small assemblage of houses, less than a town or city, and inhabited chiefly by farmers and other laboring people. In England, it is said that a village is distinguished from a town by the want of a market.

In the United States, no such distinction exists, and any small assemblage of houses in the country is called a village.

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) A small assemblage of houses in the country, less than a town or city.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

a collection of houses less regular and important than a town (q.v.) or city (q.v.). (See Topographical Terms).

I. Original Terms. — The word "village" stands in the A.V. as the rendering of many Heb. and Gr. words, several of which represent quite other ideas.

1. The proper Heb. term for village is כָּפָר , Kaph '''''Â''''' R'' (from כָּפִר , To Cover ; Sept. Κώμη; Vulg. Villa ) , which appears also in the forms כְּפַיר , Kephir ( Nehemiah 6:2, Κώμη , viculus) , and כֹּפֶר , K Ô Pher ( 1 Samuel 6:18, Κώμη , villa) , and is represented by the Arabic Kefr , still so much in use. In the Heb. the prefix Caphar implied a regular village, as Capernaum, which place, however, had in later times outgrown the limits implied by its original designation (Lightfoot, Infra ; Stanley, Sin ; And Pal. p. 521-527;  1 Maccabees 7:31). (See Caphar).

Another term, חָצֵר , Chatser (from חָצִר , To Hedge In ; Sept. Ἔπαυλις or Κώμη ; Vulg. Villa, Castellum, or Oppidum ) , properly an Enclosure, is used of farm buildings enclosing a court of the encampment of nomads ( Genesis 28:16;  Deuteronomy 2:25, etc.); and of hamlets near towns ( Joshua 13:23;  Joshua 13:28;  Joshua 15:32 sq.;  1 Chronicles 4:33;  Nehemiah 11:2;  Nehemiah 11:5), especially the un-walled suburbs near walled towns ( Leviticus 25:31; comp.  Leviticus 25:34). They were in reality "pastoral settlements," or little enclosures formed partly for shelter, and partly as a kind of defense from the wandering Arabs. The enclosures, sometimes, were nothing better than tents, but pitched in the form of an encampment, as in the case still of the Jehalin Arabs, who arrange their tents in a sort of circle for the sake of better security and mutual protection (Wilson, Lands of the Bible, 2, 710; Robinson, Res. 2, 468). In some parts of Syria the term haush is applied to a few houses, which are constructed so as to join together, and thereby present a defense against the Arab robbers, the entrance into the haush being usually through a strong wooden gate, which is firmly secured every evening (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 212). Such, probably, of whatever material formed, were the villages spoken of in connection with some of the ancient towns of the Israelites; those, especially, which bordered on pasture or desert lands. The places to which, in the Old Test., the term chatser is applied were mostly in the outskirts of the country (Stanley, Sin. and Pal. p. 526).

Different from these were the בְּנוֹת הָעַיר , Daughters Of The City, which were small towns or villages lying near to a great city, dependent on it, and included under its jurisdiction. (See Daughter).

The term חִוָּה , Chavoth, from חָוָה , To Breathe, To Live, qu. Place Of Living, though others prefer to derive it from the Arabic Chawa, Convolvit, In Gyrum Se Flexit, whence Chewaon, A Tent, or A Cluster of Tents, An Abode Of Nomads, also denotes a village. The term occurs only in the plural, and only in reference to certain villages or small towns bearing the name of Havoth- jair. These are mentioned in  Numbers 32:42  Deuteronomy 3:14;  Joshua 13:30;  Judges 10:4;  1 Kings 4:13. (See Havoth-Jair).

In the New Test. the term Κώμη is applied to Bethphage. ( Matthew 21:2), Bethany ( Luke 10:38;  John 11:1), Emmaus ( Luke 24:13), Bethlehem ( John 7:42). A distinction between city or town ( Πόλις ) and village ( Κώμη ) is pointed out in  Luke 8:1. On the other hand, Bethsaida is called Πόλις ( Luke 9:10;  John 1:45), and, also Κώμη ( Mark 8:23;  Mark 8:26), unless by the latter word we are to understand the suburbs of the town, which meaning seems to belong to "country" ( Mark 6:56). The relation of dependence on a chief town of a district appears to be denoted by the phrase "villages of Caesarea Philippi" ( Mark 8:27). Bethsaida of Gaulonitis, to which Herod Philip II allowed the dignity of a city (Josephus, Ant. V. 2,1), is called Πόλις; unless these two are one and the same place (Thomson, Land and Book).

2. Other terms are improperly thus rendered. Thus  Habakkuk 3:14, the plur. of פָּרָז , Paraz (from פָּרִז , To Separate, hence To Judge, like Κρίνω ) , is rendered "villages." It should be "captains," or "eminent men," men separated by their rank or prowess from the mass (Sept. Δυ Νάσται ;Vulg. Princeps, Prafectus ) . In  Judges 5:7;  Judges 5:11, the cognate פַּרָזוֹן , Perazon, properly Rulers (Sept. Δυνα Τοί ) , is rendered "villages;" and  Ezekiel 38:11 פְּרָזוֹת , Peramoth, means "open country." The cognate noun פְּרָזַי , however, signifying a countryman, a rustic, with כֹפֶר prefixed, signifies a "country village" ( Φερεζαῖος , Oppidum ) .

The word מַגְרָשׁ , Migr  Sh (from גָּרִשׁ , To Draw Out ; Περισπόριον ; Suburbanum ) , transl. "village" in  Leviticus 25:31, is more correctly rendered in  Leviticus 25:34 "suburb."

II. Comparative Statements. — There is little in the Old Test. to enable us more precisely to define a village of Palestine, beyond the fact that it was destitute of walls or external defenses. Persian villages are spoken of in similar terms ( Ezekiel 38:11;  Esther 9:19). The rabbins make the distinction between a city ( עיר ) and a village ( כפר ) to lie in the former having, and the latter wanting, the number of learned men (ten) deemed requisite to entitle a place to a synagogue (Lightfoot, Chorograph. Matthew Praemiss. c. 98; and Hor. Heb. in  Matthew 4:23). This is a distinction, however, so purely arbitrary and artificial that it is worthless for any practical purpose. Galilee, in our Lord's time, contained many villages and village-towns; and Josephus says that in his time there were in Galilee two hundred and four towns and villages ( Πόλεις Καὶ Κώμαι ) , some of which last had walls (Josephus, Life, § 45). At present the country is almost depopulated (Raumer, Palest. p. 105; Stanley. Sin. and Pal. p. 384). Most modern Turkish and Persian villages have a menil or medh  fa, a house for travelers (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 295;. Robinson, 2, 19; Martyn, Life, p. 437). Arab villages, as found in Arabia, are often mere collections of stone huts "long, low, rude hovels, roofed only with the stalks of palm- leaves," or covered for a time with tent-cloths, which are removed when the tribe change their quarters. Others are more solidly built, as are most of the modern villages of Palestine, though in some the dwellings are mere mud-huts (Robinson, Res. 1, 167; 2, 13,14, 44, 387 Hasselquist, Trav. p. 155; Stanley, Sin. and Pal. p. 233; App. § 83, p. 525). Arab villages of the Hejaz and Yemen often consist of huts with circular roofs of leaves or grass, resembling the description given by Sallust of the Numidian mapalia, viz. ships with the keel uppermost (Sallust, Jug. 18; Shaw, Trav. p. 220; Niebuhr, Descr. de l'Arab. p. 54).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

vil´ā́j ( כּפר , ḳāphār , חוּות , ḥawwōth , חצרים , ḥăcērı̄m , בּנות , bānōth , פּרזות , perāzōth  ; κώμη , kṓmē ): (1) The general term for a village, in common with Aramaic and Arabic is ḳāphār (  Song of Solomon 7:11;  1 Chronicles 27:25; kōpher  ;  1 Samuel 6:18; kephı̄r ,  Nehemiah 6:2 ). This designation is derived from the idea of its offering "cover" or shelter. It is used in combination, and place-names of this formation became prominent in post-Biblical times, probably because the villages so named had then grown into towns. A well-known Biblical instance of such names is Capernaum. (2) Ḥawwōth (always "town" in English Versions of the Bible; see Havvoth-Jair ) means originally a group of tents (Arabic ḥiwa' ). These in settled life soon became more permanent dwellings, or what we understand by a village. The term, however, is applied only to the villages of Jair in the tribe of Manasseh ( Numbers 32:41;  1 Kings 4:13 ). (3) Ḥăcērı̄m likewise came from nomadic life. They were originally enclosures specially for cattle, alongside of which dwellings for the herdsmen and peasantry naturally grew up (see Hazar-Addar; Hazor ). They were unwalled ( Leviticus 25:31 ) and lay around the cities ( Joshua 19:8 ). (4) Bānōth is literally "daughters." The word is applied to the dependent villages lying around the larger cities, and to which they looked as to a kind of metropolis ( Numbers 21:25 , etc.); the Revised Version (British and American) "towns" except in  Numbers 32:42 . (5) Perāzōth means "the open country," but it soon came to mean the villages scattered in the open ( Ezekiel 38:11;  Zechariah 2:4;  Esther 9:19 ). Some have sought to connect the Perizzites with this word and to regard them, not as a distinct people, but as the peasant class. Attempts have also been made to connect perāzōn in  Judges 5:7 ,  Judges 5:11 with the same root, and the King James Version rendered it "inhabitants of the villages." the Revised Version (British and American), on the contrary, gives it the meaning of "rulers." The versions indicate a word meaning authority, and probably the text should be emended to read rōzenı̄m , "rulers." A similar emendation is required in  Habakkuk 3:14 . "Village" in the Revised Version (British and American) of the New Testament invariably represents the Greek kōmē , but in 2 Macc 8:6 the Revised Version (British and American) Apocrypha has "village" for chṓra , lit. "country." See City; Town .