to render it "the well of Sychar"? And after detailed extracts and
explanations he says: "And now let the reader give us his judgment
as to its name and place, whether it doth not seem to have some relation
with our 'well of Sychar.' It may be disputed on either side." Wieseler,
who first, in more recent times, developed the conjectures of Lightfoot,
argues: "In the first place, there can be no doubt that by [Greek:
Suchar] Sichem is meant," and he adds, a few lines after: "Regarding
this there is no controversy amongst interpreters." He totally rejects
the idea of such in alteration of the name occurring in translation,
which he says is "unprecedented." He therefore concludes that in
[Greek: Suchar] we have _another_ name for Sichem. He merely submits
this, however, as "a new hypothesis to the judgment of the reader,"
[32:2] which alone shows the uncertainty of the suggestion. Lightfoot
and Wieseler are substantially followed by Olshausen, [32:3] De Wette,
[32:4] Hug, [32:5] Bunsen, [32:6] Riggenbach, [32:7] Godet, [32:8]
and others. Bleek, [32:9] in spite of the arguments of Delitzsch and
Ewald, and their Talmudic researches, considers that the old town
of Sichem is meant. Delitzsch, [32:10] Ewald, [32:11] Lange, [32:12]
Meyer, [32:13] and others think that Sychar was near to, but distinct
from, Sichem. Lücke [33:1] is very undecided. He recognises the
extraordinary difference in the name Sychar. He does not favourably
receive Lightfoot's arguments regarding an alteration of the name of
Sichem, nor his conjectures as to the relation of the place mentioned
in the Talmud to Sichem, which he thinks is "very doubtful," and he
seems to incline rather to an accidental corruption of Sichem into
Sychar, although he feels the great difficulties in the way of such
an explanation. Ewald condemns the "Talmudische Studien" of Delitzsch
as generally more complicating than clearing up difficulties, and
his views as commonly incorrect, and, whilst agreeing with him that
Sychar cannot be the same place as Sichem, he points out that the