Note 9 — Chapter I · (I) OLD TESTAMENT, (II) DEUTERO-CANONICAL BOOKS, (III) NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES TO GAZA

In the Old Testament the distinction between a town and a village is not generally defined. The former, as a rule, was an inhabited place surrounded by a wall. The latter, one that is not so enclosed (Lev. xxv. 29-31). Towns themselves, however, are also sometimes distinguished as walled and unwalled (Deut. iii. 5; Esther ix. 19). The New Testament and Josephus uniformly distinguish between πόλις and κώμη (an unwalled village, opposite to a fortified city).—Schürer, II. i. 154.