What is…
Timnath-heres

Meaning: portion of the sun

This is one of the names of the place where Joshua was buried (Judges 2:9).

It is “in the mount of Ephraim, in the north side of the hill Gaash,” 10 miles southwest of Shechem.

Timnath-serah (Joshua 19:50; 24:30) and Timnath-heres (Judges 2:9) are the same place. The names differ by metathesis of the last two consonants. “Heres” means “sun”; rabbinic tradition sometimes linked it to Joshua’s command that the sun stand still. “Serah” can mean leftover or excess.

Location and archaeology

Kefr Haris, Israel (Kifl Haris) is the traditional religious identification of its site, but most modern historical geographers and archaeologists prefer Khirbet Tibnah, Israel as the site of the ancient town. Both are in the West Bank hill country of Ephraim; neither is proven definitely by an ancient inscription.

Kifl Haris, Israel (aka Kefr Haris)

This village (about 11 miles south or 18 km of modern Nablus, Israel (ancient Shechem) is the site favored by the traditions of Jews and Samaritans. Orthodox Jews identify the local shrines as the tombs of Joshua, Caleb, and Nun and make pilgrimages there (especially on 26 Nisan).

Muslims affirm the same structures as maqams of Yusha ibn Nun, Dhu al-Kifl, and Dhul-Nun.

The current “Tomb of Joshua” is an Ayyubid-period (early 13th century) Islamic shrine associated with Saladin’s era, not an Iron Age tomb. Surface pottery includes Middle Bronze, Iron II, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader/Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman sherds, so the village has a long occupation history, but it is a living settlement rather than a prominent tell and has not been extensively excavated as an ancient city. The name “Haris/Hares” is often taken as a survival of “Heres.” This is the identification many older Jewish travelers and some Bible dictionaries used.

“Of all sites I have seen, none is so striking as that of Joshua's home, surrounded as it is with deep valleys and wild, rugged hills. Opposite the town is a hill, on the northern side of which there are many excavated sepulchres. Among these is the supposed tomb of Joshua, which is said to be “the most striking monument in the country.” It is a “square chamber with 5 excavations in e of its sides, the central one forming a passage leading into a 2nd chamber beyond. A great number of lamp-niches cover the walls of the porch, upwards of 200, arranged in vertical rows. A single cavity with a niche for a lamp has been thought to be the resting-place of the warrior-chief of Israel.” —Lieut. Col. Conder

Khirbet Tibnah, Israel (aka Khirbet Tibneh or Khirbet Tibna)

This prominent hilltop ruin/tel/tell (between Nabi Saleh (N. Salih) and Deir Nidham, near the settlement of Halamish, Israel) is the location most scholars identify with the Greco-Roman town of Thamna/Thamnatha. Josephus, Pliny, and Eusebius mention it as a toparchy capital (a local administrative district center). Eusebius places it near Mount Gaash and notes that Joshua’s tomb was still shown there in the 4th century.

The site was occupied from the Early Bronze Age, and Iron Age material is also present. A 2015 survey by Dvir Raviv documented tombs, pottery, and burial caves; 2022 Bar-Ilan University excavations produced a 2nd-century CE Roman spearhead, coins (including one of 58–59 AD), and pottery. There are rock-cut tombs south of the site; one large tomb was associated with Joshua in Eusebius’s day. A nearby village was called Kefr Ishu‘a (“Joshua’s village”).

Coordinates approximately: 32.008060, 35.107290

19th-century explorers (Conder, Kitchener) and 20th-century scholars (Albright, Schürer, Aharoni and many atlas compilers) favored this identification.

Assessment

Kefr Haris has the stronger living religious tradition and a plausible name link. Khirbet Tibnah has the stronger archaeological and classical-source case for being the actual ancient town: it is a real tell with the expected periods, it matches Josephus and Eusebius’s Thamna, and it better fits the description of a place important enough to be a later administrative center.

Mount Gaash itself has never been independently identified with certainty; it is defined by its relation to Timnath. There is also no inscription that settles the question.

In short: Kifl Haris (Kefr Haris) is where tradition locates Joshua’s tomb and where many Jews still visit. Khirbet Tibnah is the site most archaeologists and historical geographers regard as the better candidate for biblical Timnath-heres / Timnath-serah itself.