A small town located on Israel's coastal strip between Joppa and Ashdod that became famous as a center of rabbinical activity during the 1st Cent. AD, and where an important conference known as the Council of Jamnia was supposed to have taken place, during which the rabbi gathered were supposed to have agreed upon the extent of the Hebrew canon.
Though we cannot be certain, the town of Jamnia (or Jabneh, which is what it is still called today) may be identified with the "walled" town of Jabneh that King Uzziah destroyed (2 Chron 26:6). The town is famously associated with great Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai. Jamnia seemed already to have become a magnet for rabbinic scholars before the First Jewish Revolt. During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, however, R. ben Zakkai, who was trapped in the city, had his disciples announce his death. His 'corpse' was then conveniently carried out of the city for burial in a casket. Once outside the city wall, ben Zakkai went to see General Vespasian and got the general to let him have "Jabneh and its wisemen." Thus it was, according to one tradition, that Jamnia became, for some time, the home of the Great Sanhedrin. Another famous rabbi who made Jamnia his residence, and was the head of the Sanhedrin and the rabbinic seminary, was R. Gamaliel II (possibly a descendent of the "Pharisee . . . [and] teacher of the law" in Acts 5:34 and Paul's mentor (Acts 22:3)).
Further Reading & Resources:
☰ Robert C. Newman, "Council of Jamnia and the Old Testament canon," Westminster Theological Journal 38.4 (Spring 1976): 319-349
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