What is…
Aphik

also known as: Aphek

Meaning: stronghold

This is the name of 3 biblical cities.

1. Aphik, a city in the territory of the tribe of Asher

   also known as: Afqa, Afka, Aphaca (Ancient Greek: Ἄφακα)

   This city was located in the mountains of Lebanon, about 12.5 miles (20 km) from the ancient city of Byblos (aka Gebal).

   The Asherites failed to drive out this city’s pagan Canaanite inhabitants (Judges 1:31).

   It was the scene of the licentious worship of the Syrian Aphrodite (Aphrodite Aphakitis).

   The ruins of this famous pagan temple, are still seen at Afka (aka Afqa), on the northwest slopes of Lebanon, near the source of the river Adonis (now Nahr Ibrahim), 12 miles east of Gebal. Delegations were sent from quite far away to this shrine during festivals to offer donations to this goddess here.1 At this temple there was a small pool into which worshippers would throw offerings. If the offerings sank, it was thought to be proof they were acceptable to Aphrodite.2

   The temple was eventually destroyed by the command of the Roman emperor Constantine.3

   1. David Kennedy, Gerasa and the Decapolis (Bloomsbury Publishing: 2013).
   2. John F. White, The Roman Emperor Aurelian: Restorer of the World (Casemate Publishers: 2015), p. 91.
   3. Eusebius, translated by Averil Cameron and Stuart G. Hall, Life of Constantine (Clarendon Press Oxford: 1999), pp. 144-145.
   • Answers about ancient Lebanon
   • Who are the Canaanites?
   • About idolatry and false gods in the Bible

2. Aphek, near Jezreel

   This is a city of the tribe of Issachar.

   Samuel called all Israel to battle the Philistines army camped at this Aphek (1 Samuel 4:1).

   The thousands of Philistines also camped here to go against King Saul’s army at Jezreel (1 Sam. 29:1).

   • Who is Issachar?
   • What is Jezreel?
   • Who are the Philistines?
   • Who is Samuel? and what is his significance?
   • Who is King Saul?

3. Aphek, a town east of the Sea of Galilee

   This town was on the road from Damascus to Israel, in the level plain east of the Jordan River, near which Ben-hadad was defeated by the Israelites (1 Kings 20:26, 30; 2 Kings 13:17).

   It later became the Syrian village of Fiq (aka Fik), later abandoned.

   There is now an Israeli settlement called Kibbutz Afik adjacent to what is believed to be the ruins of ancient Aphek.

   Modern Afik, Israel—a kibbutz