Ramathaim-Zophim, also called Ramah and Ramatha in the Douay-Rheims, is a town that has been tentatively identified with the modern Israeli village of Nabi Samwil, about 5 miles north-west of Jerusalem. The site comprises what is now the Nebi SamuelNational Park in Israel, with its most prominent feature being a two-storey Crusader fortress, now used as an Orthodox synagogue. Others suggest that Ramathaim-Zophim may have been located where Ramallah is now built. The home of Elkanah, Samuel’s father, the birthplace of Samuel and the seat of his authority, the town is frequently mentioned in the history of that prophet and of David. Here Samuel died and was buried. Benjamin of Tudela visited the site when he traveled the land in 1173, noting that the Crusaders had found the bones of Samuel in a Jewish cemetery in Ramla on the coastal plain and reburied here, overlooking the Holy City.
Identification
The historian Josephus distinguishes between Ramathaim, "a city of the tribe of Ephraim," and Ramah, the burial place of Samuel the prophet. Ramah, according to Eusebius' Onomasticon, was located 6 milestones north of Jerusalem, opposite Bethel. Accordingly, Ramah is now thought by many historical geographers to be Er Ram, about 8 km north of Jerusalem. The traditional tomb site of Samuel the prophet, which became known as Neby Samwil, may have been Mizpah in Benjamin, where Samuel was appointed leader of the Israelites. Such was the view of Edward Robinson who visited the site in 1838, and who vehemently objected to identifying Neby Samwil with the Ramah of Samuel. Conder and Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund described the site in their days as being "a small hamlet of mud hovels." Judas Machabeus, preparing for war with the Syrians, gathered his men at Mizpah, over against Jerusalem: for in Mizpah was a place of prayer heretofore in Israel. Some, e.g. Petrus Comestor in his Historia Scholastica, Cap. CLXXX: De sepultura Domini, have identified Ramathaim-Zophim as Arimathea of the New Testament.
