tō´par - ki , top´ar - ki ( τοπαρχία , toparchı́a ): the King James Version renders this Greek word by "government" in 1 Maccabees 11:28 (the King James Version margin and the Revised Version (British and American) "province"). It denotes a small administrative district corresponding to the modern Turkish Nahieh , administered by a Mudı̄r . Three such districts were detached from the country of Samaria and added to Judea. Elsewhere ( 1 Maccabees 10:30; 11:34 ) the word used to describe them is nómos . Some idea of the size of these districts may be gathered from the fact that Judea was divided into ten (Pliny v. 14) or eleven ( BJ , III, iii, 5) toparchies.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) was edited by James Orr, John Nuelsen, Edgar Mullins, Morris Evans, and Melvin Grove Kyle and was published complete in 1939. This web site includes the complete text.
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