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.