5 occurrences in 5 dictionaries

Reference: Sychar

Easton

liar or drunkard (see Isa 28:1,7), has been from the time of the Crusaders usually identified with Sychem or Shechem (Joh 4:5). It has now, however, as the result of recent explorations, been identified with 'Askar, a small Samaritan town on the southern base of Ebal, about a mile to the north of Jacob's well.

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Fausets

Joh 4:5. Shechem or Nablus (Jerome Quaest. Ge 48:22) corrupted into Sichem, Sychar. Some think it an intentional corruption, as if from sheker "falsehood," or shikor "drunkard" (Isa 28:1,7), due to Jewish bigotry against the Samaritans. It is objected that Jacob's well at the entrance into the valley is a mile and a half from Shechem, and that it is unlikely the woman, if belonging to Shechem, would go so far for water when plenty was nearer at hand; but Robinson conjectures the town had extensive suburbs anciently which reached to near Jacob's well. The woman probably went to this well, irrespectively of distance, just because it was Jacob's; her looking for "Messiah" is in consonance with this, besides the well was deep and the water therefore especially good. However Sychar may have been close to the well; and (Thomson, Land and Book, 31) the present village, Aschar, just above Jacob's well, on the side of Ebal and on the road by which caravans pass from Jerusalem to Damascus, and by which doubtless Jesus passed between Judaea and Galilee, may answer to Sychar.

So Jerome and Eusebius (Onomasticon) make S. "before," i.e. E. of, Neapolis (Shechem) by the field of Joseph with Jacob's well. The Bordeaux pilgrim (A.D. 333) puts Sechar or Sychar a Roman mile from Sychem, which he makes a suburb of Neapolis. "A city of Samaria called Sychar" is language not likely to be used of the metropolis Shechem; moreover the name Sychem occurs Ac 7:16. On the other hand "called" suits the idea that Sychar is a Jewish nickname for Shechem. Lt. Conder favors Aschar, which is the translation of the Samaritan Iskar, not from the Hebrew "drunkard," but from a Hebrew Aramaic root meaning "to be shut up." This derivation and the description in Joh 4:5-6 answer accurately to Aschar. Jacob's well is at the point where the narrow vale of Shechem broadens into the great plain; it is 2,000 yards E. of Nablus (Shechem), which is hidden from it. The tomb of Joseph is a third of a mile northeastward, thence a path ascends to Aschar which is visible from Jacob's well. (See Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1877, p. 149.)

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Hastings

A city of Samaria,' near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph (Joh 4:5). Jerome in Onomast. distinguishes Sychar from Shechem, but in Ep. Paul. and Qu

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Morish

Sy'char

City of Samaria in the vicinity of which was Jacob's well, where the Lord met the woman of Samaria, and where He stayed two days, and many of the Samaritans believed on Him. Joh 4:5. Identified with Askur, 32 13' N, 35 17 E. Jacob's well is about half a mile from the village.

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Smith

Sy'char,

a place named only in

Joh 4:5

Sychar was either a name applied to the town of Shechem or it was an independent place. The first of these alternatives is now almost universally accepted. [SHECHEM]

See Shechem

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