Palestine (region): Difference between revisions

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The first clear use of the term Palestine to refer to the entire area between Phoenicia and Egypt was in 5th century BC [[Ancient Greece]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Palestine and Israel |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |first=David M. |last=Jacobson |editor-first=James M. |editor-last=Weinstein |number=313 |year=1999 |month=February |publisher=The American Schools of Oriental Research |issn=0003097X |pages=65–74 |jstor=1357617 |accessdate=28 February 2012|quote="The earliest occurrence of this name in a Greek text is in the mid-fifth century b.c., Histories of Herodotus, where it is applied to the area of the Levant between Phoenicia and Egypt."..."The first known occurrence of the Greek word Palaistine is in the Histories of Herodotus, written near the mid-fifth century B.C. Palaistine Syria, or simply Palaistine, is applied to what may be identified as the southern part of Syria, comprising the region between Phoenicia and Egypt. Although some of Herodotus' references to Palestine are compatible with a narrow definition of the coastal strip of the Land of Israel, it is clear that Herodotus does call the "whole land by the name of the coastal strip."..."It is believed that Herodotus visited Palestine in the fifth decade of the fifth century B.C."..."In the earliest Classical literature references to Palestine generally applied to the Land of Israel in the wider sense."}} and {{cite web |url= http://cojs.org/cojswiki/When_Palestine_Meant_Israel,_David_Jacobson,_BAR_27:03,_May/Jun_2001.|title= When Palestine Meant Israel|author= David Jacobson|date= May/Jun 2001|publisher= BAR 27:03|accessdate=2 March 2012|quote= As early as the Histories of Herodotus, written in the second half of the fifth century B.C.E., the term Palaistinê is used to describe not just the geographical area where the Philistines lived, but the entire area between Phoenicia and Egypt—in other words, the Land of Israel. Herodotus, who had traveled through the area, would have had firsthand knowledge of the land and its people. Yet he used Palaistinê to refer not to the Land of the Philistines, but to the Land of Israel}}</ref> [[Herodotus]] wrote of a 'district of Syria, called ''Palaistinê''" in ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|The Histories]]'', the first historical work clearly defining the region, which included the [[Judean mountains]] and the [[Jordan Rift Valley]].<ref>Jacobson, David M., ''Palestine and Israel'', Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 313 (Feb. 1999), pp. 65–74</ref><ref>The Southern and Eastern Borders of Abar-Nahara Steven S. Tuell Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 284 (Nov. 1991), pp. 51–57</ref><ref>Herodotus' Description of the East Mediterranean Coast Anson F. Rainey Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 321 (Feb. 2001), pp. 57–63</ref><ref>Herodotus , discussing [[History of male circumcision|male circumcision]] writes that the [[Phoenicians]] and the Syrians in Palestine (Σύριοι οἱ ἐν τᾔ Παλαιστίνῃ) concur in maintaining they learnt the custom fromn the Egyptians. Herodotus,''The Histories''.Bk.2,104:3; at David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, Aldo Corcella
, ''A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1–4,'' Oxford University Press, 2007 p.315</ref> and formed part of the 5th Persian [[satrapy]] (νομός).<ref>Herodotus, ''The Histories,'' Bk 3.91,1.,at David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, Aldo Corcella, ''A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1–4,'' pp.71,484–5</ref> Approximately a century later, [[Aristotle]] used a similar definition in ''[[Meteorology (Aristotle)|Meteorology]]'', writing "Again if, as is fabled, there is a lake (λίμνη) in Palestine, such that if you bind a man or beast and throw it in it floats and does not sink, this would bear out what we have said. They say that this lake is so bitter and salt that no fish live in it and that if you soak clothes in it and shake them it cleans them," understood by scholars to be a reference to the [[Dead Sea]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/meteorology.2.ii.html |title=Meteorology By Aristotle |publisher=Classics.mit.edu |date= |accessdate=17 August 2012}}</ref> Later writers such as [[Polemon of Athens|Polemon]], and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] also used the term to refer to the same region. This usage was followed by Roman writers such as [[Ovid]], [[Tibullus]], [[Pomponius Mela]], [[Pliny the Elder]],<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History,'' Bk.V,66–68:'namque Palaestine vocabatur qua contingit Arabas, et Iudaea, et Coele, exin Phoenice, et qua recedit intus Damascena'= ('Syria . . had a great many divisions with many names), the part adjacent to Arabia being called Palestine, and Judaea, and Hollow Syria, the Phoenicia, and the more inland part Damascena'.tr. H.Rackham,''Natural History,'' Loeb ed.1942 vol.2, Books 111-VII pp.270–271.</ref> [[Statius]], as well as Roman-era Greek writers such as [[Plutarch]], [[Dio Chrysostom]] and Roman-era Judean writers such as [[Philo|Philo of Alexandria]]<ref>Philo locates the [[Essenes]] as living in ''Suria Palaistinē''. Joan E. Taylor,, ''The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea,'' Oxford University Pres, 2012 p.147.</ref> and [[Josephus]].<ref name=Robinson/> Other writers, such as [[Strabo]], a prominent Roman-era Greek geographer, referred to the region as ''Coele-Syria'' around 10–20 CE.<ref>Studies in Hellenistic Judaism :Louis H. Feldman</ref><ref>The Hellenistic settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa :Getzel M. Cohen</ref> The term was first used to denote an official province of the Roman Empire in c.135 CE, when the [[Roman Empire|Roman authorities]], following the suppression of the [[Bar Kokhba Revolt]], combined [[Iudaea Province]] with [[Galilee]] and other surrounding cities such as [[Ashkelon]] to form "[[Syria Palaestina]]" ({{lang|la|Syria Palaestina}}), which some scholars state was in order to complete the dissociation with Judaea.<ref name = "Lehmann">{{cite web
| url = http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/history.htm#135-337
| title = Palestine: History: 135–337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy