Cedron
Ce'dron, the name of a place and of a rivulet.
1. (ἡ Κεδρών v. r. Κεδρώ.) A place fortified by Cendebaeus, under the orders of king Antiochus (Sidetes), as a station from which to command the roads of Judaea (1 Macc. 15:39, 41; 16:9). It was not far from Jamnia (Jabneh), or from Azotus (Ashdod), and had a winter-torrent or wady (χειμάῤῥους) on the eastward of it, which the army of the Maccabees had to cross before Cendebaeus could be attacked (16:5). These conditions are well fulfilled in the modern place Katra or Kitrah, which lies on the maritime plain below the river Rubin, and three miles south-west of Akir (Ekron). Schwarz (Palest. p. 119) gives the modern name as Kadrûn, but this wants confirmation. Ewald (asr. Gesch. 4:390, note) suggests Tell- Turmus, five or six miles farther south. The Syriac has Hebron, and the Vulg. Gedor, which some compare with the village Gedrus (Κέδους), mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome (Ozonmast. s.v. Γεδούρ, Gaedur) as lying ten miles from Diopolis, toward Eleutheropolis.
2. In this form is given in the N.T. the name of the brook Kidron (נִחִל קַדרֹן = "the black torrent") in the ravine below the eastern wall of Jerusalem (Joh 18:1). Lachman, with codices A and D, has χειμάῤῥους τοῦ Κεδρών; but the Rec. Text with B has τῶν Κέδρών, i.e. "the brook of the cedars" (so, too, the Sept. in 2Sa 15:23). Other MSS. have the name even so far corrupted as τοῦ κέδρου (so א), cedri, and τῶν δένδρων. The word, however, has no connection with "cedar." In English, the name in this form is often erroneously pronounced (as if written Kedron) with a hard C. SEE KIDRON.
