Ophni (2)
Ophni The modern representative of this place, Jufna, is laid down on the Ordnance Map at two and three quarter miles north-west of Beitin (Bethel), and thus described in the accompanying Memoirs (2:294):
"An important Christian village, with a Latin church and convent (Mar Yusef), on an ancient road from the north to Jerusalem. The octagonal apse of this church, with colored glass in its east window, and a red-tiled pointed roof, forms a conspicuous feature of the village as seen from the south. The place is situated in a small plain, and on the south, higher up, is a spring called Ain Jelaztm. The road crosses the valley-bed by a small footbridge (now broken), with an inscription in Arabic, and on the south of this is a Greek church of St. George, with a fine walnut-tree and two meiss- trees. There are ruins of a town in the village, and pillar-shafts, as if of a former chapel, east of the Latin monastery. The hills and valleys are cultivated with olives, vines, figs, pears, apricots, and pomegranates. The population is stated by Robinson at two hundred, some Latins, some Greeks." The Greek church is particularly described, ibid. page 323.
