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.

Colonialism and the State of Israel

I am not the first person to put these words together in this way. And, when I raise this topic, I am not talking about imperialist powers of previous millennia and their actions in this area. I am writing about the last 150 years.

Let me be brief and to the point when it comes to the history part. In 1917, Palestine, as it has been called since at least AD 135, was under the rule of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. It was losing its grip and the European powers were muscling into the area. Britain obtained a mandate to rule the area. There was some increase in agriculture and manufacturing on their watch. The Palestinians who had been there, some from before Israel ever entered the land in Abraham’s day, with more joining their ranks during successive empires in the last millennium before Christ, saw their numbers swelled by Arabs moving in from surrounding nations to take advantage of increased employment opportunities. Muslims were in the majority but there were many Christians, tracing their faith heritage to Christ’s time. Starting in the late 19^th century, the small number of Jews who had made their way back to the land since Rome expelled them in the first century, were joined by increasing numbers of immigrants, mostly from Europe. This led to unrest between them and the Palestinians to the point where Britain tried to stem the flow of Jewish immigrants, but not very successfully.

Then, in 1948, Jewish Zionist visionaries and their armed supporters were granted statehood by the United Nations over a strictly demarcated limited portion of the land the Jews claimed in their biblical heyday, including division of Jerusalem itself. The fledgling nation of Jordan was given power over the non-Israeli portion of Palestine, including East Jerusalem.

Here is where we can see the parallels to what the Israelis have done over the last 150 years to what colonial powers have done throughout history, including Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Belgium and others. Now, I must grant right from the outset, that the historical circumstances are somewhat different. In the case of European colonials, they were entering into territories where they had not lived before. Here, we have the Jews wanting to return to a land they claimed as theirs going back to a couple of millennia BC. However, the behaviours, the patterns of activities, are very much the same.

As with European powers, Israel began occupying the land, or re-occupying if you will. Likewise, when their moves were met with resistance by the local Palestinians and their allies, they were suppressed, often brutally, with military might. Israel took control of ever more land and ever more facets of life of the previous inhabitants and their descendants. To try to solidify their claims, they adopted an age-old tactic of the victors – rewriting history. Right from the outset, one of the Zionist slogans was, “A land without people, for a people without land.” This was in spite of their being somewhere in the neighbourhood of at least 750,000 Palestinians in some 900 villages spread over this small tract of land, not to mention Jerusalem, Haifa and other growing centres. To this day, pro-Israel writers try to deny Palestinian claims to the land by emphasizing Israel’s historical claims and denying those of the Palestinians, minimizing the duration of Palestinian occupancy and numbers at every turn.

In North America and Southern Africa, there were systems of racial separation for centuries. The conquered were forced to live in reserves or homelands. In Israel and Palestine, they are called refugee camps. The impact is the same. The Palestinians who live in Israel are called Arabs, an attempt by Israel to identify them with their Arab neighbours, as if to say, that is where they came from, that is who they are, and that is where they should be. They don’t refer to Palestinians, so as not to give that name credibility.  The Palestinians who live in Israel are second class citizens in many ways. Israel likes to claim they are the only democracy in the Middle East, with voting rights given to Palestinians living in their boundaries, with their being represented in Parliament by elected members. However, even these are restricted and often jailed on slim pretenses, rendering much of their representation powerless.

Colonial powers have often tried to assimilate their subjects to their way of life. Israel is not even that beneficent, if you can say that about the attempts of the European powers in the past. Israel’s ultimate aim is to push all the Palestinians out and claim all the land given to Palestine in 1948 for themselves and the Jews. Their tactics and pronouncements have demonstrated that ever since the Zionist forces began to make inroads into the land, even before 1948.

The record of the colonial powers in the Americas and the third world has been far from exemplary. However, over time, practically all of the former colonies have regained their independence. In the Americas, this has not meant the indigenous populations gained control. It only meant the settlers and their descendants established their own governments in the former colonies. The ‘natives’ are still largely under the thumbs of the settlers. Well, that is still certainly the case in Israel. In other former colonies though, there has been an increasing awareness of past injustices and attempts begun to right them. To be sure, there are many Jews in Israel and in the Jewish Diaspora who think in those ways too. However, until those elements ever get to form the government, things continue to look pretty bleak for the Palestinians. Indeed, for a variety of selfish reasons of their own, the Western powers continue to support Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, especially the United States. Until they see the injustices they are supporting in the so-called Holy Land, there will be no peace there. For a Christian like myself, the real tragedy here is that far too many so-called Christians blindly support their governments, abandoning their Christian brothers and sisters and forgetting all about Jesus’ and the Prophets’ teachings about love and justice. We continue to hope and pray for change. What else can we do about it? I leave that question to you, dear reader.

A Story of Tracking Jesus in the Holy Land

I.               Introduction

We have now been twice to what I refer to as the Holy Land. As I have written elsewhere, I often refer to the whole area between the Mediterranean Sea on the West and the Arabian Desert on the East, from Syria south to Egypt, this way so as to avoid using the emotion-laden words such as Israel, Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza, ‘occupied territories’ etc.

So, what does one do when one has been to The Holy Land? Just chalk it up to experience? One more item off the ‘bucket list’?

As a Christian in particular, what else is there to going to The Holy Land? As anyone familiar with my blogs knows, I have written a fair bit about this already. I believe one has a duty to share of what one is privileged to experience and learn in this area. What I have written has been as much about the current situation there as about what one saw or experienced as a tourist, or even pilgrim, if I might use that term. I and the groups my wife and I have been with to Israel and Palestine, even Jordan this year, have not often referred to ourselves as pilgrims. We have spoken of ourselves as on a learning tour – learning of the past and the present. My understanding of what a pilgrim does is somewhat different than what we have done. I believe they tend to focus more exclusively on sites of religious-historical significance from a more devotional and pietistic bent. We did some of that, and in so doing heard a lot of stories.

In some ways, I think one can draw a parallel between what one does on these tours or pilgrimages with what one does in bible study. We know that to better understand God’s Word we need to try and learn what it said to those for whom it was first written.  This is somewhat analogous to seeing sites of religious significance and learning about them in their historical context. However, we often also want to see what the Bible is saying to us today. I compare that with looking at the current situation and events taking place in and around the biblically historical sites.  What call to action derives from that?

You might also have noted I am calling this ‘a’ story of Jesus. As you know, there are many stories of Jesus, beginning, for most of us, with the 4 Gospels and other New Testament references in the Bible. The Koran talks about Jesus. There are a number of extra-canonical writings about Jesus – ‘gospels’ and letters that did not make it into the canon, or church-approved Bible. And, of course, as for stories about one’s experience with Jesus in The Holy Land today – there will be as many stories as residents, tourists, learners and pilgrims. What follows is what I read, saw, heard and experienced on these two trips. I will also try to relate the biblical situation as we understand it to today’s realities.

Another reason for calling this just ‘a’ story is that it is not even an attempt to be comprehensive. It really only deals generally with some aspects of events that transpired in conjunction with places we visited on our tours. There are many stories of the acts of our Lord that give no location as to where they took place. There are other places associated with more than one story, and I have not included all the stories, e.g. Jericho – there is the story of healing a blind man, Bartimeaus, there, and the story of Zaccheus. Only an old sycamore is still called Zaccheus’ tree, but everyone knows that is not even the ‘original,’ but only something like a 400-yr-old successor(?). There is nothing remembered to connect with where the restoration of physical sight occurred; one could say Zaccheus had his spiritual sight restored.

Finally, as a believer, a follower of Jesus, my hope would be that reading this as a Christian would draw us closer to the God-man Jesus we call our Lord and Savior. And for those who might read this who are not believers, I would pray that what I write might just help direct you in the direction of belief. This is what brings about reconciliation with the God who created us and whom we have all become estranged from because of our own helpless willfulness. This is what can give us true peace and joy, not just superficial earthly happiness.

So, as I complete the following 'chapters,' they will be posted - hopefully with photos [mine].