LOD, LYDDA (Heb. place name, לֹ֖ד, in 1 Chron 8:12; Ezra 2:33 and Neh 7:37; 11:35). It is mentioned in connection with the other western towns of the postexilic period, Hadid and Ono. Its earliest mention is in the annals of the Asiatic towns and possessions held by Egypt from the time of Thutmose III (1502-1448 b.c.) These lists appear on the wall of the Amon Temple at Karnak. Lydda must have been in the area assigned to the tribe of Benjamin after the conquest, but it is not specifically mentioned in the Pentateuch or in the records of the conquest or the judges. Its strategic position ten m. S. of Joppa, on the two highways that led from Egypt to Babylon and from Joppa to Jerusalem, made it a prize of war throughout the centuries. During the era of Syrian rule it was part of Samaria and it is mentioned a number of times by Josephus (Jos. Antiq.), who states that Julius Caesar granted the town to the Jews and to the heirs of John Hyrcanus (XIV, 208). During the period of political instability after Caesar’s assassination when Octavius and Antony were struggling for supremacy (36-31 b.c.) of the empire, Antigonus, an Asiatic ally of Antony, quartered his troops in Lydda. By the close of the 1st cent. b.c. Lydda had grown to be a fair-sized town. Josephus reports that the Rom. governor of Syria, Quadratus, traveled to Lydda to mediate the war then raging between the Jews and the Samaritans. He found Lydda, “a village that was in size not inferior to a city” (Loeb tr. Jos. Antiq., XX. 130). Peter cured a man with palsy there (Acts 9:32-35) which is the only NT reference to the town. After the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, it became a center of Christian activity in northern Pal. It had been a center of rabbinic studies for a period even before the Rom. overthrow of the rebellion. The town became known as Diospolis by the 3rd Christian cent. and was the center of a trade in purple dye. It was the site of the death of St. George, who was martyred there in a.d. 303. During the 4th cent. a.d. it was the episcopal seat of the Syrian church and it was the meeting place of the council which tried Pelagius for heresy in a.d. 415. The story of St. George so fascinated King Richard of England when he traveled there during the Third Crusade that George was ultimately made patron saint of England by edict of King Edward III. During the Renaissance and Early Modern period it was an Arab town, but has passed into the state of Israel. It is presently called Lod, but nearby its name is attached to the giant Lydda Airport so that again it serves travelers between E and W as in the days of Thutmose III.