Timnath-heres or Timnath-serah, later Thamna, was the town given by the Israelites to Joshua according to the Hebrew Bible. He requested it and the people gave it to him "at the order of the Lord". He built up the town and lived in it. According to the Septuagint version of the Book of Joshua, Joshua placed there "the stone knives, with which he had circumcised the children of Israel". On his death, he was buried there. Jewish tradition also places the tomb of Caleb there.
Location
The town was located in the mountainous region of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. It has variously been identified with the Palestinian village of Kifl Hares, located 6 kilometres west of Salfit in the West Bank; or Khirbet Tibnah, located between Deir Nidham and Nabi Salih. Both, E. Schürer and archaeologist, W. F. Albright, have identified the town with Thamna mentioned in Greco-Romansources and in the writings of Josephus. Eusebius, in his Onomasticon, mentions the site under the entry of Gaas, a mountain in Ephraim, "near the village of Thamna." Conder & Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund, steering clear of committing themselves to pinpointing the position of the biblical Timnath-heres in either Kifl Haris or Khirbet Tibnah, mention only the classical references to the place Thamnatha / Thamna, saying that this place is to be identified with the present ruin Tibneh, and that "some have identified it with Timnath-heres." During the first-century CE until its destruction, Thamna served as an administrative district.
Etymology
In and, the town is called Timnath-serah, whereas in it is named as Timnath-heres. The name "Timnath-serah" signifies in Hebrew an "extra portion" or "portion of abundance". Similarly, the name "Timnath-heres" means "portion of the sun". In the book of JoshuaChapter 24, verse 30; it is written in thirteen different published editions of the Old Testament as Timnath-Heres or some variation of it where the second word begins with an 'h', or 'H' and ends in 's', either with or without the intermediate dash. The inversion of "serah" to make "heres" has the connotation of sun, as in. Some allege that the figure of the sun was put on Joshua's monument, in commemoration of the miracle of the sun standing still for him. In the Talmud the town is mentioned in Bava Batra 122b, where "heres" is translated as "earthenware," in reference to fruits in the area being as dry as earthenware prior to the arrival of Joshua. The word's inversion, "serah" is defined as "rotting," that after Joshua's arrival, the fruits became so juicy that they could quickly rot.
