The Significance of Biblical Place Names - Preface & Introduction

 Preface

This is written for those who are interested in making a visit to the Holy Land, perhaps joining a guided tour. You know about Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Jordan River, Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. But how many other places do you really know about?

This writing might also be of interest to those who have visited the Holy Land. You were on a tour and as you rolled along the guide pointing to places along the route and called out names that you might or might not be familiar with. She might say something about the place but there might not be time to say more or you simply can’t hear it all from where you are on the bus. 

If you are curious like me, a student of the Bible, perhaps a bit of a history buff, amateur geographer and cartophile (that’s lover of maps), you want to know more about those places. What happened there that was significant enough for the guide to mention the place?

That’s where this guide comes in. I hope the material I have collected enriches your pilgrimage and deepens your appreciation for the history and geography behind the Bible stories. It can deepen your knowledge of the Bible even if a Holy Land tour is not  a plan or dream.  If you have traveled in the Holy Land, or plan to, I wish you blessings as you learn these stories and, hopefully, learn from them. I have learned much from travels to the Holy Land and this study. It would be my prayer that this writing would be a help to you as you make that journey, reflect back on it if you have already gone, or simply want to broaden your knowledge.

1. Introduction

1. Definition

First off, I should say what I mean by Holy Land. Others might have different definitions or define it more broadly. I am limiting it to what I believe most understand by it: the geographical space in the Middle East now occupied by Israel and Palestine. 

2. Disputed Territories

I recognize that there are some who even question the existence of ‘Palestine’ as a separate entity. However, I am going by what most of the world, through the United Nations (UN), accepted as the boundaries of Israel back in 1948 when the state was reborn. It had been wiped out by the Roman Empire in the first century AD/CE. The region west of the Jordan River and along the Mediterranean Sea not given to Israel in 1948 is what can be referred to as Palestine. 

Over the years, with Israel’s successive incursions into Palestine, it has become separated into two zones which have come to be called The West Bank, as it lies west of the Jordan River and up against Israel to the west, and the so-called Gaza Strip, which hugs the Mediterranean coast in the southwest, bordering on Egypt to the south. Until the war of 1967 they were under the jurisdiction of Jordan for The West Bank and Egypt for The Gaza Strip. Now Israel claims these territories. Most of the world, again as the UN, has never accepted this. They continue to refer to these two regions as Occupied Territories, indicating their status according to international law. Israel detests that designation. Indeed, nowadays, if one looks at maps of the region that have their origin in Israel, you would be hard-pressed to see where The West Bank and Gaza are. Israeli cartographers nowadays seem to treat the whole area as theirs. 

3. Disputed Peoplehood

I believe, that just as Israel refers to all Palestinians, even those living within the Israeli borders as Arabs, not Palestinians, all of this is Israel’s way of denying the existence here of a place with a people. It is telling that an oft-quoted phrase arising out of early Zionism in the late 19^th century states that Israel, as “a people with no land” could go to live in “a land with no people.” This completely ignored the reality of some half-million residents in this area by 1948. 

Israel and its supporters constantly assert that there really was no ‘people’ here. They would have us believe that all the Palestinians, as we call them, are descendants of a variety of Arab peoples who gradually moved into the land, especially since the ouster of the Jews by the Romans in AD 70 – 135. To be sure, many from neighbouring nations did move to the area during the British mandate after 1917 because of the development, including the building of railways, pipelines and factories, that provided needed employment often not then found elsewhere in the area. However, a sizeable portion of the occupants of the region claim they are descended from non-Jewish groups that have lived in this land since before the Jews occupied it, beginning in the time of Abraham, but especially after the Exodus from Egypt. Some in the Christian Church in particular say they are descendants of members of the Early Church of the New Testament. Israel though, really hopes the world will slowly come to accept their descriptions, and give up any ideas of supporting Palestinian peoplehood, much less statehood. Israel insists only they have a valid claim to form a nation here, having established themselves as a nation here in the time of Joshua on and believing that God established a covenant with their ancestor Abraham that included giving them this land.

4. Biblical Places

When one travels in the so-called biblical Holy Land, one visits a number of places whose names one recognizes from The Bible. Indeed, there are too many such places to fit into any itinerary. My NIV Harper-Collins Study Bible alone lists nearly 1000 names of places on its maps. Some, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, which are the first items on many religious pilgrims’ agendas, have continuous histories from the past to the present. Of course, many are just known or even only possible locations, yet to have archaeology go in and see what is there.

I find it interesting and educational, being a lover of history, to be reminded of the historical significance of the places in The Bible. Those that are still inhabited sites today also have their own more recent and important histories, let alone current situations. The stories from the ‘dead stones’ and the ‘living stones,’ as people sometimes refer to the past and present in these lands today, are both important.  It is also important to link the stories wherever possible. This is especially so for those of us of the Judea-Christian traditions who believe in one God whom we believe acted in these past stories and revealed himself through them. This is revealed in the Bible, which is largely a record of those events. Where God is acting and thus revealing himself today is often less clear, but important nonetheless. Indeed, knowing the past stories helps interpret the present situation more accurately.

5. Biblical References

For my own benefit and the education of other students of The Bible, especially those who have completed pilgrimages to the Holy Land, or plan to, I have made a search of references in the Bible of sites I visited or were referred to on tours in 2016 and 2017. I have been immensely helped in this by both the search capabilities of the digital Bible and the standard Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. However, even this last does not seem to list all the references to a particular word. I suspect some of this might be because of newer translations which have different wording than the Authorized (King James) Version Strong uses. I have probably been more extensive than necessary to begin with, even though it has not been my intent necessarily to incorporate the substance of every reference to a name.  I have, however, introduced a good deal of the history of what transpired at some of these locations, whether they be, for example, Israelite tribal areas or cities. After all, that was the point of this exercise – to give the reader some background as to why these places one might see or hear reference to when visiting the Holy Land are important in the biblical narrative, in history.  

f. Survey Scope

I am limiting this survey to what I have called the Holy Land. I am not referencing and elaborating on names outside of this area, such as where Abraham came from when it comes to the Old Testament (OT), or where Paul traveled on his missionary journeys, when it comes to the New Testament (NT). This is simply because those places are not part of what is generally understood as being in The Holy Land. I am including some references to what the Bible refers to as the Transjordan, modern Jordan. This is because it figures prominently in The Pentateuch, The Prophets of the OT and even in the NT. It is also contiguous with Israel and Palestine and many tourists and pilgrims do visit these areas too. I also include references to the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon as they are frequently referred to and are adjacent to Israel and Palestine proper.

I have given a fairly exhaustive list of biblical references to the places included in this study. For most references, some or all of the passage is itself quoted. However, this varies. It would take up too much space to copy the whole reference in many cases. Besides, it is also my hope that these references would stimulate you to look up the passages yourself to read the whole story and see what more you might learn from it. 

        g. Divisions

I debated whether to divide the entries into OT and NT sections. Actually, one could even divide the NT into a section on The Life of Christ, and then set apart a third section on the Early Church. The former would include the Gospels and Acts 1; the latter Acts 1 to the end of Revelation. In the end, I decide only to do this for the larger or more important entries.

        h. Historical Names and Divisions of the Holy Land

Since names occur in geographic and geopolitical areas, I think it would also be appropriate here to summarize some of the overarching names given to different areas of The Holy Lands over time. Then, when a specific site is studied, one knows in which area of The Holy Land it occurs.

To begin with, and until what was ultimately the nation of Israel established itself in the land after returning from Egypt, the entire region was referred to as Canaan. Its occupants included many peoples or named entities sometimes referred to as nations, kingdoms or simply tribes by their specific names. Often, they are all lumped together as Canaanites. This land extends from modern day Lebanon and Syria in the north to Egypt in the south and included Jordan on the east. Of course, the western border is The Mediterranean Sea. 

As you read and study, you will learn who lived here and what they were called. You will learn what the boundaries of the region have been and are. The chief biblical characters of note will be referenced in conjunction with the places that are important to their stories. You will be reminded of when, how and why the name of the regions, Canaan, was gradually lost. You will learn of the many subdivisions of the land over time and how they came to be.

Some places will remind one of the stories of The Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, others of The Exodus of Israel from Egypt under Moses and subsequent Conquest of Canaan under Joshua. Still others are connected to The Exile of Israel and then Judah. You will see how names changed through history.

        i. Names or Stories

Names by themselves are of less meaning than the stories that go with them. As this is the Bible we are talking about, not a history book, we do want to look at what those stories tell us about God, who inspired this sacred text, The Bible, and what these records tell us about these lands and their occupants. How might that fit into knowing and understanding God’s plan for us all? What do these stories also tell us about his involvement in the real lives and histories of people through time? At points, I might try to draw some truth from the text, from the stories, but I also want to leave that for you to arrive at as a result of your study. As I wrote earlier, I will share some of my interpretations and deductions at the end. I would encourage you though, to make your own study, and then see how your findings compare with mine. Indeed, I would be glad to hear back from you on what you gained that I seem to have missed.

I will say that some of the things that struck me are:

1.Reminders of how utterances about places and events and persons involved there turned out to be predictively prophetic – the fulfilment of the saying comes later in The Bible.

2. The above is not just interesting in its own right. It is of special significance here in God’s Word because it shows how God’s promises do not return empty, as it is said in scripture itself.

3. All of the above show how God’s plans do come to fruition, in his time, according to his schedule. 

4. Another small detail that surfaced from time to time was an obvious anachronism in naming. Of course, a cursory reading of the scriptures might not reveal this. However, when we put the Bible into the bigger picture of its context and the history of those periods of time in which it was written, some of this becomes obvious.

A simple example has to do with Jerusalem. In Genesis Abram meets a priest, Melchizedek, said to be from Jerusalem. Reading further into the Bible chronologically one soon realizes that this place was known as Jebus until probably King David’s time. How to explain this? The obvious answer is that when editions of Genesis we have were written, people already knew of Jebus as Jerusalem and just put that name erroneously back on that historic site in the Genesis account.

DEAR READER:

If you've read this far - thanks. If you are interested in reading more, let me know in the comments below and I can add to this.

Thanks.

Pictorial Anabaptist Walk in Zurich with Map

Giving Thanks

 

We Give Thanks Daily - For Our Home

In recent years it has become an accepted practice for everyone from do it – yourself writers to therapists of all stripes to recommend a daily dose of gratitude. Indeed, for those of us who are also familiar with spiritual disciplines, that is a biblical injunction that goes back millennia.

Every day there is one thing I am particularly thankful for. That is our level four apartment. It is just far enough from our city's downtown to be quiet and green. It was built at a time when it was custom made to include a wide firelane around the three sides of the building besides its facing the street, so it does not feel hemmed in by adjacent buildings, giving it a more spacious feeling.

We are on the top floor of the building (penthouse?), and actually have a level five den, which opens up on to a large 300 square-foot deck, the inner part of which is covered.

We had chosen to downsize from a detached home to condominium living when we moved to this city from Manitoba in 2005. Our nephew and my wife's cousin lived in the area and we enlisted their help in locating a place to move to. We had two stipulations. One was that it was not under any flight paths for the Vancouver International Airport, which would've created considerable noise pollution. The other was that it should be within walking distance of where I was going to be working. We found this apartment that met both criteria.

We can see planes taking off or landing at YVR, but from such a distance that sometimes we don't even hear them. We do sometimes hear them when they are taking off, at which time they of course make more noise. What we hear more of are small twin engine or even single engine planes flying over from time to time but that is not frequent enough to be bothered. In fact, I generally like listening to the sound of, for example, a radial-engine Beaver, and seeing such what we used to call bushplanes, flying about. It reminds me of my childhood growing up in northern Manitoba, where bushplanes were the main form of transportation in and out of our communities at the time.

We are not bothered by traffic, but since we are close to the centre of the city and not that far from the hospital we might hear more ambulance noise than some other areas. However, actual traffic on what I might describe as a third-rate artery one lot over to our east. When we moved here, our apartment looked over attached residences with one older three-story apartment somewhat to the left at the corner of our street and the street that is directly one lot over from our unit. Since then, the home more to the left of our apartment was replaced by a three-story four unit townhouse complex. Fortunately, it has a flat roof which is more or less level with our main living level so it still allows us to see a good deal of greenery and doesn't impede our view of the sky at all. To the right of that, across a driveway for the complex, which itself comes from the street right up to the wooden fence at the border of our property, remain two detached homes. Their backyards are full of greenery of all kinds, to the point where we can barely see the homes in the summertime. Across the street, particularly around the church that is situated there, there are a lot of trees, with even more visible as a skyline in the distance in all directions. Especially from our deck, we have a view of snowcapped Mount Baker to the south eas, although it is becoming more obscured by tree growth as time passes.

I especially appreciate this location when I sit at my desk and look out the window to my left. Even in the winter, when the non-coniferous trees are bare, I can sometimes see overwintering hummingbirds, flickers, finches, starlings and the ever-present crows and gulls. When the last two are making a big fuss, we know it is likely due to the presence of a Bald Eagle which we can quickly spot trying to escape the neighbourhood pests or soaring overhead. Not infrequently flocks of Canada Geese fly by, even below tree level; less frequently ducks.

There is a steady stream of traffic on that road out from the front of our apartment, but not enough to be a bother, and if we close our windows, as is generally the case in winter, we really don't hear it at all.

In the spring and early summer, of course, we can see the different trees around us blossoming in their time. The neighbour has a magnolia tree, and at the end of the detached home driveway is a dogwood tree. Straight across from the end of the driveway next to the church parking lot is a cherry tree, which blossoms in the springtime. There is a tree with plum blossoms right next to the fence. To the right of that is a large bamboo groove, one could say. Then we see roses of all kinds, and more recently even lilac, as well as the banana tree that the nearest townhouse unit owners have their own property. In the fall, the maple trees that grace our firelane on the building side of it turn brilliant red.

The birds that we see in summer are basically a continuation of those in the winter, as this climate is warm enough for most birds to stay around, except for the smaller ones that might rely more on insects as food. We still see the House Finches and the starlings. There are more robins in the summertime. Chickadees and nuthatches are present year-round. A variety or two of junco are to be  seen in the different seasons.

With the wide open sky that we see, we see wonderful cloud formations of all kinds. At night we see the bright lights of approaching aircraft, some of the planets and a few stars. Most stars, of course, are not visible due to the light pollution from the urban environment in which we live. From time to time, we also see rainbows to the east, which is where our apartment faces. And, of course, we see all manner of wonderful sunrises. How often we have rushed to the window or out the balcony door to take pictures of sunrises and rainbows.

Besides what one might refer to as the social and economic benefits of our location in terms of being able to walk to most amenities, to visit friends, what you have just heard and describe most is a reference to being grateful for evidence of the natural order that we see all around us from where we live. Of course, most of this is planted by humans and some of the variety is a result of human breading practices. However, the basic building blocks of all of that, are still the results of the creative work of our all creative God, the source of all beauty. Ultimately, God gets our thanks for it all.

An Hour in Elk Island National Park

 An Hour in Elk Island National Park

Come with me on a tour of this National Park, one I had never visited, even though it is only a 40 minute drive from where a couple of my siblings live. Maybe you’ll be inspired to visit, should you pass this way some day. I was en route from the east, coming on the Yellowhead Highway, which is also north of their homes. This highway actually bisects the park, with Plains Bison in the northern section and Woodlands Bison in the south, which seems counter-intuitive.

It was a grey day in early May, with rain threatening. I checked things out on my iPhone at a rest stop east of the park - $7.75 for a Seniors Day Pass; that’s okay. I motored on and turned into the main park entrance, which is on the 

north side. No one was at the gate, but instructions there directed me to buy my pass at a roadside ticket dispenser

farther on, which I did.

Then I drove on and into what appeared to be the guest centre. No one there, closed for training! Fortunately, there was

a pamphlet of the park with a map in a rack outside. I picked one up and began to follow the Elk Island Parkway route north.

Not much farther was the first promising looking location - the Bison Loop to the right. It did not disappoint.

 

There were a number of the beasts calmly gazing or resting in the grassy meadows among the trees to my right. I reasoned that with the size of those wild creatures, I was safer in the car. So, I took some photos through the passenger window with my phone but then dug out my old point-and-shoot camera, a Canon PowerShot A 2000 IS, which still does take clearer

photos and took some more.

1There were one or two cars ahead of me that I could see and a couple of vehicles followed me in.

Leaving this area I rejoined the parkway and continued north, driving past what the map seemed to identify as Mud Lake, with its beaver lodges.

Continuing north I then did take the first road, Oster Lake, to the west. I shortly came across a couple of bison on opposite sides of the road. The one to my right was a majestic bull specimen, resting in the ditch. Returning later, he was still there, now on my side of the road, so I got a great shot.

Otherwise, not much seemed to be happening when to got to the parking lot. There were a number of vehicles there but no one in sight. I assumed they were off exploring the trails, but I

was coming from a wedding anniversary party and not dressed for that. I returned to the parkway again and drove up to Astotin Lake.

The parking lot, separated from the lake by shrubs and trees, was almost full, but still no one else in sight. I stepped out of the car with my camera and began to make my way along the lake. I almost missed this bird, perched low right in front of me. However, I got in a couple of snaps before she - I think it was a female Harrier - calmly flew off.

 I took some photos of a pair of Buffleheads and a flock of migrating coots on the pond to my right 

and Blue-winged Teals in the lake to my left. My camera only has 3X optical zoom, so I apologize for the quality of my photos taken at a distance.

 

I had spotted a number of birds about a boardwalk farther on so I made my way on a wide path over a hillock between

some spruces and other foliage and down to the walk. The birds making themselves most busy here were what I

deemed to be a number of Lesser Yellowlegs. I had more often seen the Greater Variety on the shores of Lake Winnipeg as a child. These shorebirds had no beach or mud flat to peruse for delicacies here but seemed just as at home wading amongst or perching 

d

on floating debris. The water must have been shallow where many of them were though, as they were often submerged to their bellies. One or two notable ones perched on a floating log gave out the characteristic call as they nodded up and down,

looking for all the world as if they were having balancing problems on that log.

I spent some time on the boardwalk, joined at one point by one of the waders. I was about to turn back to the parking lot 

 when my attention was drawn to some chirpy sounds and splashing along the reedy mud shore off to my left. Several muskrats seemed too be enjoying chasing one another around, diving and surfacing on each other. I was at some distance but I did get a few photos in.

With that, I made my way back to the car, joining throngs of mostly younger people coming from some buildings farther off to the left. Ah, teachers and students from those training sessions. Well, it was time for me to hit the road to my brother’s place east and south at Tofield. It had been a worthwhile stop.