PALESTINE
The term ‘Palestine’, originally applied to the territory of Israel’s foes, the Philistines, was first used by
Herodotus as a designation of S{S South, southern} Syria. In the form of Palaestina, it was also used
by the Romans. The older term ‘Canaan’
has a similar history. In the el-*Amarna letters (14th century bc{bc before
Christ}) Canaan was limited to the coastal plains, then with the Canaanite
conquests of the interior it was applied to all the lands W{W West, western} of
the Jordan Valley. The terms ‘land of Israel’ (1 Sa. 13:19) and ‘the land of promise’ (Heb. 11:9 are
associated with the Israelites in the same area, the latter usually connected
with the area from Dan to Beersheba, N{N North,
northern} of the Negeb. The Israelite settlement of two-and-a-half tribes E{E East, eastern; Elohist} of the Jordan seems to have resulted from unforeseen
circumstances and the hold on that side of the valley appears to have been
generally precarious. After the division of the kingdom, the name Israel was usually given to the N{N
North, northern} realm. In the Middle Ages, the term ‘the Holy Land’ was often adopted (cf.{cf.
confer (Lat.), compare} Zc. 2:12).
I. The position and highways of Palestine
The mediaeval
perspective of Jerusalem as the centre of the earth is not so absurd as might
be thought, for on the tiny Syrian corridor that unites the world island of
Europe, Asia and Africa, the five seas of the Mediterranean, Black Sea,
Caspian, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf narrow the greatest land mass of our
planet into a single isthmus. All the important continental routes must go
across this corridor, and the great sea-routes of antiquity between the Indies and the Mediterranean must in turn be linked by land
communications across the Sinai Peninsula. The high mountain chains which run E{E East, eastern; Elohist} from Asia Minor to Kurdistan and
the deserts to the S{S South, southern} and E{E East, eastern; Elohist} further
help to concentrate the routeways of ‘the Fertile Crescent’, which, sickle-shaped,
runs from Palestine and S{S South, southern} Syria to the alluvial valley
basins of the Tigris and Euphrates. It is, of course, ‘fertile’ only in
comparison with the surrounding desert and mountainous terrain, since most of
it is either Mediterranean scrub or steppe. At either end of the Fertile Crescent a great locus of civilization developed in
the lower basin of Mesopotamia and the lower Nile Valley respectively, whose fortunes dominated the
history of the Near
East for
almost two millennia.
Three great trade
routes have always traversed Palestine. The great Trunk Road, perhaps described in
Is. 9:1 as ‘the way of the sea’, runs along the low coast from Egypt to the Vale of Esdraelon. Then it is
diverted inland by the Syrian mountains to skirt the W{W West, western} side of
the Lake of Galilee, then through the Syrian Gate and central depression to
Damascus, where it joins the desert caravan trails across to Mesopotamia. Two
other routes are of great antiquity although of lesser importance. The *King’s Highway
follows the edge of the Transjordan plateau from the Gulf of Aqabah towards Damascus. It marks a zone of increased rainfall and
was followed in part by the Israelites during the Exodus (Nu. 21-22), and all
the towns enumerated in Nu. 21; 27-30 lie along it.
The watershed of central Palestine is followed by another route, the shortest
between Sinai and Canaan. In the N{N North,
northern} *Negeb it links an important series of wells, keeping W{W West,
western} of the forbidding, barren depressions of the E{E East, eastern;
Elohist} Negeb that are still difficult to traverse. It links all the important
historic centres from Kadesh-barnea and Beersheba to Hebron, Jerusalem, Shechem and Megiddo. Heavily travelled from the Abramic (Middle
Bronze I) period onwards, it was also made famous by the journey of Joshua and
his fellow spies. All these routes emphasized the N{N
North, northern}-S{S South, southern} alignment of Palestine, which benefited from their fertilizing
contacts of trade and culture. But Israel was rarely able to control these highways
without upsetting the strategic interests of the great powers that dominated
their terminals. Even in Solomon’s day the coastal highway was too tightly
controlled by the sea-powers to warrant interference there (1 Ki. 9:11; 10:22; Ezk. 27:17), while Edom was for long Israel’s deadly enemy because it dominated the
routes from the Gulf of Aqabah where Israel obtained its copper (Ob. 3).
A number of minor
transverse routes have joined these parallel highways. Of these the most
important have been: (1) Gaza-Beersheba-Petra; (2) Ashkelon-Gath-Helvan; (3)
Joppa-Bethel-Jericho (cf.{cf. confer (Lat.), compare}
Jos. 10:6-14) and Joppa-Shechem-Adam-Gilead (Jos. 3:16); (4) Vale of Esdraelon-Megiddo-Gilead.
Exposed to coastal sedimentation from the Nile, the coast of Palestine as far
as Carmel has been unfavourable for port development, so the chief towns have
been route centres at important road junctions, either in the strategic plain
of Esdraelon or along the hilly dorsal of Judaea and Samaria. The sea was an
unfamiliar medium of communication to the Hebrews (cf.{cf.
confer (Lat.), compare} Ps. 107), while the desert was also feared as ‘a land
of trouble and anguish’ (Is. 30:6; cf.{cf. confer (Lat.), compare} Dt. 8:15). Perched precariously between them, the
Hebrew highlanders sought a protracted aloofness from both environments and
their peoples. Thus autonomy of spirit became a major characteristic of the
Israelites, despite their nodal position at the hub of the ancient world’s
trade routes.
II. The
geological structure and relief
For some 675 km
from the borders of Egypt to Asia Minor, the Levant consists of five major
zones: (1) the littoral; (2) the W{W West, western} mountain chain (the
Judaean-Galilean highlands, Lebanon and Ansariya mountains); (3) the rift
valleys (Arabah, Jordan valley, BiqaÔ and Ghôr); (4) the E{E East,
eastern; Elohist} mountains (highlands of Transjordan, Hermon and
Anti-lebanon); and (5) the deserts of Negeb, Arabia and Syria. But the contrasts
between the N{N North, northern} and S{S South,
southern} sections of these zones explain the individuality of Palestine. N{N North, northern} of Acre, the mountains
rise, abruptly from the sea, limiting the narrow coastal plains to
discontinuous stretches but providing the famous harbours of Sidon, Tyre,
Beirut, Tripoli and Ras Shamra. The limited hinterlands of each unit have
encouraged independent maritime city-states where ‘the families of the
Canaanites spread abroad’ (Gn. 10:18). . of Mt Carmel,
however, the coast opens into a broad continuous plain, harbourless except for
artificial ports erected by the
Philistines and later sea-peoples.
A second contrast
is to be found in the Rift Valley sectors. In Syria the BiqaÔ depression is a broad,
fertile plain between the lofty ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, with wide access to other
rolling plains, and studded with historic centres such as Kadesh, Homs and Hamath. To the S{S South, southern}, the
depression blocked by recent basaltic lavas narrows into deep gorges before
opening into the swamp of Lake Huleh, making N{N North,
northern}-S{S South, southern} communication difficult. These features have
tended to isolate Palestine from the N{N North,
northern} territory.
The rocks of Palestine are notably limestone, volcanics and recent
deposits such as marls, gravels and sands. The Rift Valley represents an
ancient planetary lineament that is traceable as far as the E{E
East, eastern; Elohist} African Lakes. Broadly speaking, it has operated like a
hinge, so that the areas to the W{W West, western} of
it have been mostly under the sea, whereas the Arabian block has been generally
continental. Thus, W{W West, western} of the Rift the
rocks are predominantly limestone laid down specially during the Cretaceous and
Eocene eras. Some of these are hard and dolomitic (Cenomanian and Eocene),
explaining the steep headland of Mt Carmel, the twin mountains of Ebal and
Gerizim above Shechem, and generally all the rugged, higher relief of the
Judaean-Galilean dorsal. But the Senonian is a soft chalk, easily eroded into
gaps and valleys that breach the highlands, notably at Megiddo, the Valley of
Aijalon and the moat of Beth-shemesh which separates the Eocene foothills of
the Shephelah from the Judaean plateau. These limestones have been upworked
along the central dorsal and gently folded in a series of arches which become
more complicated farther N{N North, northern} in Samaria and Galilee. They occur, however, horizontal in Transjordan, resting upon the continental block beneath
them. The ancient block is exposed in the SE in the high cliffs of the Wadi
Arabah and in the Sinai
Peninsula.
Overlapping them are the so-called Nubian sandstones, whose desert origin
prolonged over vast geological periods explains the red colour from which Edom probably derives its name (‘the red’). In
the NE, recent basaltic lavas cap the limestones in the broad, undulating
plateaux in the land of Bashan, and extending into the Jordan trough around the Lake of Galilee. These weather into
the rich soils which attracted to the Galilean shores a high density of
population from early times.
Palestine suffers from crustal instability. Volcanic
eruptions have continued into historic times, notably in the cases of Harrat
en-Nar, SE of the Gulf of Aqabah, which were active as late as the 8th and
13th centuries ad{ad anno Domini}. It is tempting to
equate the descriptions of Ex. 19:18 and Ps. 68:8 with volcanic manifestations,
but the traditional site of Sinai is in an area of ancient, crystalline rocks
where no recent volcanic action has occurred. The fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn. 14:10; 19:23-28) is a memory of some kind of volcanic
phenomena, associated probably with the intrusion of sulphurous gas and liquid
asphalt. There are also the biblical records of earthquakes (Gn. 19:25; 1 Sa. 14:15; Am. 1:1) and geological faulting (Nu. 16:31-35). All these are associated with the Great Rift Valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea, or with the series of transverse faults
that form the Vale of Esdraelon and divide Samaria and Galilee into a complicated series of highland blocks
and depressions floored with sediments.
Under the
semi-arid conditions, badland relief is typical, especially around the E{E East, eastern; Elohist} and S{S South, southern} rims of
the Judaean highlands and the W{W West, western} edge of the Transjordan plateau. Within the deep Jordan valley, soft
marls deposited by a lake more extensive than the present Dead Sea have been
dissected to form the Ghôr in the middle of the trough, lying at more than 365
m below sea-level. The seasonal wadis that drain into the Arabah trough have
also deeply dissected their slopes. Thus the av{av
Authorized Version (King James’), 1611} references to the ‘slippery places’ are
a characteristic feature of many parts of the Negeb and the Jordan (Dt. 32:35;
Pr. 3:23; Je. 23:12; 31:9). Much of the Negeb is a rock waste of
hammadas, and direct reference to the wind-borne loessial deposits is made (Ex.
10:20-23; Dt. 28:24; Na. 1:3).
III. The climate
and vegetation
In the Levant three climatic zones may be distinguished: a
Mediterranean, a steppe and a desert zone, each with its
distinct type of vegetation.
Along the coast
as far S{S South, southern} as Gaza, the Mediterranean zone has mild winters
(53.6°F, 12°C, mean monthly average for January at Gaza) compared with the
severer conditions of the interior hills (Jerusalem 44.6°F, 7°C, in January).
But summers are everywhere hot (Gaza 78.8°F, 26°C, in July, Jerusalem 73.4°F, 23°C). The prolonged snow cover of the high
Lebanon mountains (Je. 18:14) is exceptional, though snow is not
infrequent in the Hauran. Elsewhere it is a rare phenomenon (2 Sa. 23:20). Less than one-fifteenth part of the annual
rainfall occurs in the summer months from June to October; nearly all of it is
concentrated in winter to reach a maximum in mid-winter. The total amount
varies from about 35-40 cm on the coast to about 75 cm on Mt Carmel and the
Judaean, Galilean and Transjordan mountains. In the Beersheba area to the S{S
South, southern}, and in parts of the Jordan valley and of the Transjordan
plateau the climate is steppe, with only 20-30 cm of rain, though temperature
conditions are comparable to those of the Judaean hills. The deep trough of the
Jordan has sub-tropical conditions with stifling summer heat; at Jericho mean
daily maxima remain above 100°F (38°C) from June to September, with frequent
records of 110-120°F (43-49°C). The winter, however, has enjoyable conditions
of 65-68°F (18-20°C) (January mean daily maximum). In the Negeb, the S{S South,
southern} part of the Jordan Valley, and the country E{E East, eastern;
Elohist} and S{S South, southern} of the Transjordan steppe the climate is
desert, with less than 20 cm of rain a year.
There is no
archaeological evidence that climate has changed since biblical times. Near the
Gulf of Aqabah, a number of recently excavated Roman gutters still fit the
springs for which they were constructed, and wherever the Byzantine wells of
the Negeb have been kept clean and in constant use, the water still rises to
the ancient levels. Thus the biblical narrative gives a convincing picture of
the present climate. Distinction is made between the hot and cold seasons (Gn. 8:22; Am. 3:15), and the inception of the autumn rains is
clearly described (Dt. 11:14; Ho. 6:3; Joel 2:23). Variability in the amount and distribution
of rainfall is common (Am. 4:7), and the incidence of prolonged drought is
recorded on a number of occasions (1 Ki. 17:7; Je. 17:8; Joel 1:10-12, 17-20).
Because of the
contrasts of relief, from 1,020 m above sea-level near Hebron, to 390 m below
sealevel at the Dead Sea, the flora of Palestine is very rich (about 3,000
vascular *plants) for such a small area. A large proportion of them are
annuals. Few districts have ever had dense forests (*Trees), though remnants
have been preserved in Mts *Hermon and *Lebanon with their cedars, firs, oaks and pines, and
in the biblical Golan (Jaulan), where forests of pine and oak still exist. Lebanon has always been noted for its cedars. The
Israelites had their share in deforestation of the Mediterranean woodland that
once covered the central dorsal (Jos. 17:18), and today there are no traces of the
woodlands that once existed at Bethel (2 Ki. 2:24), Ephraim (Jos. 17:15) and Gilead near the Jordan valley.
Oak forests long
existed in Sharon, whose name means forest, but biblical prophecy states that
three forested regions were to be turned into sheep pastures, the coastal
Sharon, N{N North, northern} Gilead and SE Galilee (see Is. 65:10). The
development of pastoralism must be blamed for much of this forest clearance in Palestine (cf.{cf. confer
(Lat.), compare} 2 Ki. 3:4). But under Mediterranean conditions ‘the pastures
of the wilderness’ are seasonally short-lived, so Rabbi Akiba (c.{c. circa (Lat.), about, approximately} ad{ad anno Domini}
100) observed shrewdly that ‘those who rear small cattle and cut down good
trees. . . will see no sign of blessing’. Deterioration of the woodland scrub
had gone so far in Palestine before the establishment of the modern state of
Israel in ad{ad anno Domini} 1948 that most of the uncultivated land was a
dreary expanse of batha, low scrub with open, rock outcrops. Towards the steppe
and the desert, the colour of the landscape is governed more by the rocks than
the plant cover, with only a few shrubby elements, such as wormwood, broom,
saltwort and tufts of xerophytic grasses. Only along the banks of the Jordan is there a dense and wide gallery forest of
various willows, poplar, tamarisk, oleander, etc.
But many of the
Palestinian hill lands, eroded of their productive terra vessa soils, have been
the graveyard of former civilizations, especially with the decay of
terrace-cultivation. One estimate is that since Roman times 2,000-4,000 million
cubic metres of soil have been worked off the E{E East, eastern; Elohist} side
of the Judaean hills, sufficient to make 4,000-8,000 sq. km of good farmland.
This threat of soil erosion is possibly alluded to in Jb. 14:18-19, and the
easy spread of fire during the summer drought is described (Ps. 83:13-14).
These features of Mediterranean instability are recognized in the need for
balance and restraint, in a land which lies so precariously between the desert
and the sown (Ex. 23:29-30; Pr. 24:30-34). (*Dew,
*Rain, *Wind.)
IV. Water-supply and
agriculture
It is not by
chance that the names of over seventy ancient sites in Palestine contain the word Ôain, ‘spring’, and
another sixty such sites the word béÆr, ‘well’. Apart from the Jordan, a few of its tributaries and four or five
small coastal streams that are fed from springs, all the remaining rivers of Palestine are seasonal. Snow-fed streams account for
their maximum volume in May-June (Jos. 3:15), but the majority dry up in the hot summer
(1 Ki. 17:7; Jb. 24:19; Joel 1:20), notably in the Negeb (Ps. 126:4). With the
autumn rains the sudden spate is graphically described (Jdg. 5:21; Mt. 7:27). Thus ‘the fountain of living waters’ was
the ideal of the Israelite settler. The invention of a mortar which could be
used in the construction of rain-collecting *cisterns (c.{c.
circa (Lat.), about, approximately} 1300 bc{bc before Christ}) may well have
been a decisive factor in the rapid colonization of the highlands of Judaea by the Israelite settlers. *Wells dug for
watering the stock are early alluded to (Gn. 26, etc.) and irrigation was well
known (Gn. 13:10). Reservoirs too for the needs of the urban
population are frequently mentioned (Ct. 7:4), some fed through imposing
rock-cut tunnels (2 Ki. 20:20). The need for water often pointed a moral lesson
to the Israelites (Dt. 8:7-10; 11:10-17; 1 Ki. 18; Je. 2:13; 14:22).
Before the rise
of the Monarchy at least, the agricultural population of central Palestine; consisted of small land-owners, and the
typical produce of the land is described in the presents given by Abigail to
David (1 Sa. 25:18). The importance in Judaea of the barley crop rather than
wheat because of its low rainfall, and the fame of Carmel for its vines and
Ephraim and Galilee for olives, have been justified since biblical times. But
droughts tend to introduce debt and servitude, so that despite the ideological
democracy envisaged in the jubilee year (Lv. 25), crownlands, large estates and
forced labour already appear in the time of Saul (1 Sa. 8:16; 22:7; 25:2). In Transjordan and the Negeb it seems that the pastoral
life has been traditionally supplemented by settled agricultural practices
wherever wells and oases permitted. But the decline of agriculture has been
constantly threatened by over-grazing by sheep and goats, apart from the more
catastrophic incursions from the desert.
V. The
settlements
A major problem
in the historical geography of Palestine has been the identification of place-names.
There are approximately 622 place-names W{W West,
western} of Jordan recorded in the Bible. The lists of
Tuthmosis III, Sethos I, Rameses II and *Shishak I at Karnak throw some light on Palestinian topography.
The Onomasticon of Eusebius and Jerome is another valuable source. The work of
R. Reland (1714) paved the way for the modern topographical work of Edward
Robinson when he visited Palestine in 1838. He identified 177 place-names, few
of which have been subsequently changed. In 1865 the Palestine Exploration Fund was established, and by
1927 about 434 place-names had been located; Conder in particular added 147 new
names. A number of these are still disputed, and modern scholarship continues
to debate a few of them.
The startling
discoveries of Kathleen Kenyon at *Jericho show that there has been a semblance of
urban life there since 6000-8000 bc{bc before Christ}
with an 8-acre site occupied by some 3,000 inhabitants (*Archaeology). Indeed
the Jordan Valley seems to have been from early times an area of dense settlement. N. Glueck notes some seventy
sites there, many founded over 5,000 years ago, and over thirty-five of them
still inhabited by Israelite times. It was only later that this valley which
Lot found so attractive (Gn. 13:10) became more desolate, probably with the
advent of malaria. It has been suggested that some of the Tells were artificial
mounds built deliberately above the swampy ground, though added to by
subsequent settlement. But everywhere water-supply has been the decisive factor
of settlement. Fortified towns and castles were built at important perennial
springs such as Jericho, Beth-shan and Aphek (famous from the wars
of the Israelites with the Philistines). Indeed, it is a corollary that sites
with abundant springs have usually had the most continuous settlement from
remote times.
Along the coastal
plain S{S South, southern} of Carmel settlement has been relatively dense since
antiquity, favoured by the ease with which wells could be dug through the sandy
soils to the lenticular beds of clay that hold suspended water-tables. But
farther N{N North, northern} in the Vale of Sharon and Upper Galilee, where the water-supply is abundant,
relatively dense woodland made human occupancy difficult until more recent
centuries. In the basins of lower Galilee and Samaria population has for long
been dense, scattered in numerous villages, but S{S South, southern} of
Jerusalem village sites become fewer and more nucleated, until around Beersheba
settlement has been limited to strategic fortified well-sites. In Transjordan the edge of the plateau is marked by a
number of fortresses such as Petra, Bozrah (Buseira) and Tophel (Tafileh).
Beyond them to the E{E East, eastern; Elohist} is the
narrow stretch of agricultural land with its scattered villages along which ran
the King’s Highway. Within these patterns of settlement dictated largely by
water conditions, the strategic and most important towns have grown up at
cross-roads where the proximity of some defile enabled the transverse roads to
link with the main N{N North, northern}-S{S South, southern} highways. Such
were in biblical times Beersheba, Hebron, Jerusalem, Bethel, Shechem, Samaria, Megiddo, Beth-shan and Hazor. Hence the psalmist
could exclaim: ‘He led them by a straight way, till they reached a city to
dwell in’ (Ps. 107:7).
VI. The regions of Palestine
The geographer can
create as many regions as there are problems worth studying, so it is absurd to
suggest that the delimitation of areas within Palestine has a permanent validity. But certain
regional units have appeared again and again in the history of Palestine, and should be recognized. The broad
divisions already noted are distinct: the coastal plains, the central hill
lands, the Rift Valley, the plateaux of Transjordan and the desert.
The coastal
plains stretch for a distance of about 200 km from the borders of Lebanon to Gaza, interrupted by Mt Carmel in the N. To the N{N North, northern} of it, the plain of Asher runs for 40
km to the ancient Ladder of Tyre, where the Galilean hills crowd close to the
coast. It played no part in the life of Israel, but to the SE of it the Valley of Jezreel and plain of
Esdraelon have been of major significance. Stretching for 50 km into the
interior and some 20 km at its widest, this formed the main road from Egypt to
Damascus and the N. Along it were situated the strategic centres of Megiddo,
Jezreel and Beth-shan, famous in many of Israel’s wars (Jdg. 5; 7:1; 1 Sa.
29:1; 31:12) and the apocalyptic site of the future (Rev. 16:16). S{S South,
southern} of Carmel, which shelters the small plain of Dor, is the plain of
Sharon with its five great Philistine strongholds of Ekron, Ashdod, Ashkelon,
Gath and Gaza, merging E{E East, eastern; Elohist} into the hill lands of the
Shephelah, a buffer between Israel and Philistia. These hills were once heavily
wooded with sycamores (1 Ki. 10:27; 2 Ch. 1:15; 9:27) and crossed transversely by narrow valleys
which witnessed the early struggles of Israel from the times of the Judges to David,
notably Aijalon (Jos. 10:10-15; 1 Sa. 14:31); Sorek (Jdg. 16), and Elah (1 Sa. 17:1-2).
The Central Hills
run some 300 km from N{N North, northern} Galilee to Sinai, made up of interlocking hills and
plateaux. In the S{S South, southern}, Judah has gently undulating folds except in the E{E East, eastern; Elohist}, where the deeply dissected
chalky relief of the Wilderness of Judah, or Jeshimon, descends steeply to the
Rift Valley. This Judaean plateau runs N{N North,
northern} into the hill country of Ephraim with its easy transverse passages,
but to the N{N North, northern} the hills of Samaria decrease gently from the
Judaean heights of over 1,000 m to an average of just over 300 m in the central
basin, in which are situated the biblical sites of Gibeah, Shalem, Shechem and
Sychar. Above it tower the heights of Ebal (945 m) and Gerizim (890 m).
Together with other fertile basins, Samaria was exposed to outside influences, and its
faith early corrupted. N{N North, northern} of the plain of Esdraelon lies
Galilee, divided into S{S South, southern} or lower Galilee, which has a
similar landscape to the lands of Samaria, and N{N North, northern} or upper
Galilee, where the mountains reach over 900 m. A number of basins, notably Nazareth, provide easy passage and rich cultivation
between the coast and the Lake
area, densely settled in our Lord’s day.
Slicing across Palestine for over 100 km, the Jordan follows the great
Rift Valley. Its N{N North, northern} sector is
occupied also by the lakes Huleh and Galilee, surrounded by high mountains, notably
Hermon, the source of the Jordan (Dt. 3:9; 4:48). Below the basin of Huleh, the Jordan has cut through the basaltic dam that once
blocked the depression in a gorge to enter the lake
Tiberias or Sea
of Galilee
200 m below sea-level. Beyond it the river Yarmuk adds its waters to the Jordan and the valley gradually widens S{S South,
southern} towards the Dead
Sea trough.
S{S South, southern} of the cliffs of ÔAin Khaneizer commences the
Arabah, stretching 160 km to the Gulf of Aqabah, a desert dominated by the great wall of the
Transjordan tableland. W{W
West, western} stretches the desolate hilly relief of the central Negeb and its
steppe plains, towards Beersheba. E{E East, eastern; Elohist} over the edge
of the Transjordan plateaux extend a series of regions well known in Bible
times: the tableland of Bashan dominated E{E East, eastern; Elohist} by the
great volcanic caves of Jebel Druze; Gilead situated in a huge oval dome 55 km
by 40 km wide and famed for its forests (Je. 22:6; Zc. 10:10); the level
steppes of Ammon and Moab; and S{S South, southern} of the Zered valley (Dt. 2:13;
Is. 15:7) the faulted and tilted block of Edom with its impregnable
strongholds. Beyond to the E{E East, eastern; Elohist}
and the S{S South, southern} are the deserts, tablelands of rock and sand,
blasted by the hot winds. See also *Jordan, *Negeb, *Sharon, *Zin. For archaeology of Palestine, see *Archaeology and individual sites, for
history, see *Canaan, *Israel, *Judah, *Philistines, etc.
PalestinePalestine,
the territory along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea traditionally known as
the land of the Bible.
(Refer to map 1 in the section of color maps.)
Name: Besides ‘Palestine’ there are several other designations for
this area: the Holy
Land, the
Promised Land, the land of Canaan, and the land of Israel (Heb.{Heb. Hebrew}
eretz ysrael). Ironically the name ‘Palestine’ is derived from the Philistines, the
archenemies of the Israelites. Originally a designation for the southern
coastal strip where the Philistines had settled in the twelfth century b.c., Palestine became the name for the entire region. The
ancient Greek historian Herodotus was the first to use Palaistineµ, the
Hellenistic form of Philistia, in the inclusive sense.
After the
suppression of the Bar-Kochba revolt in a.d. 135 the Roman emperor Hadrian
expunged the name Provincia Judea and substituted Provincia Syria Palaestina or simply Palaestina (Palestine). By a.d. 400 three provinces had been
established with the designations Palaestina prima and secunda, west of the
Jordan River, and Palaestina tertia, east of the Jordan and north of the Arnon
River. The main part of the province of Palestine was in Cisjordan, meaning west of the Jordan, but sections of Transjordan, meaning east of the Jordan, also belonged to the province of Palestine.
After World War I
when the British ruled Palestine by mandate, they revived ‘Palestine’ as the official title of the land west of
the Jordan. In 1923 the British government divided Transjordan from Cisjordan, making Transjordan an emirate under British sovereignty.
Archaeologists
often use the title ‘Palestine’ as a geographical, not a political,
designation for the region including modern Israel and the western sector of modern Jordan. Despite perennial disputes over boundaries
in the Near
East, the
areas west and east of the Jordan have much in common with respect to history,
geography, and archaeology. ‘Palestine’ serves as a convenient term for all the
archaeological periods of the biblical land, while the geographical term ‘Israel’ would be inaccurate; this latter
designation did not come into existence until the tenth century b.c.
Geography:
Throughout history the political boundaries of Palestine have fluctuated considerably. Broadly
described, Palestine is bounded on the north by the foothills of
the Anatolian plateau, on the south by the Sinai desert, on the east by the Euphrates (‘the great river’ in the Bible), and on the
west by the Mediterranean (‘the great sea’ in the Bible). These
boundaries include the modern states of Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. In round figures Palestine was no more than five hundred miles long and
ninety-five miles wide. In accord with the traditional biblical formula ‘from
Dan to Beer-sheba’ Palestine would have been much smaller, about the size
of Vermont. Natural boundaries surrounded Palestine on three sides: the desert on the east and
south, the Mediterranean on the west. In biblical times the cities
were more like villages, small in size and population. The population of either
of the two capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem, probably never exceeded thirty thousand
inhabitants. According to scholarly estimates, in the first half of the eighth
century b.c. the population of the Northern Kingdom was about eight hundred
thousand and of the Southern Kingdom about three hundred thousand.
Although Palestine was insignificant in size and poor in
natural resources, its strategic location made it a vital region; it was a land
bridge for two continents and a crossroad for several nations. Armies and
caravans traversed Palestine for centuries. Its geographical position
immersed it in the political, commercial, cultural, and military activities of
the whole region. Its strategic location also made it vulnerable: Palestine was ruled by a succession of conquerors: Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Moslem caliphates, the Crusaders, the
Ottoman Turks, and the British.
Physical and
historical geography cannot be separated; they go hand in hand. The former is
concerned with the configuration of the terrain; the latter deals with people’s
use of the land and the impact of its geography on the life of the people. A
country’s geography determines to some degree its history and helps to explain
the history. Related phenomena, such as topography, climate, soil, and natural
resources, affect a country’s internal history and may influence its
international relations.
Palestine’s geographical position between the sea and
the desert had a distinct bearing on its history. The unbroken Mediterranean
coast’s lack of adequate harbors for anchorage discouraged maritime pursuits.
The wilderness on the east made the people of Palestine vulnerable to the incursions of desert
raiders.
Climate: Climate
influenced the daily life of the people. Palestine is situated in a zone of
subtropical climate, characterized by dry summers and rainy winters. Seventy
percent of the annual rainfall occurs between November and February.
Precipitation varies greatly in different parts of the country; most of the
rain falls along the coastal plain. The annual rainfall in Upper Galilee to the north is about 45 inches; in the
Negeb to the south about 8 inches. Palestine’s vegetation depends upon the
rainfall, but not entirely; dew also plays an important part. Abundant along
the coastal plain, especially on Mount Carmel, the dew is a great help to the summer
vegetation.
Westerly winds
prevail in Palestine, but there is also an unpleasant east wind from the desert
to the south and southeast of Palestine; known as the sirocco (Italian), the hamsin
(Arabic), and the sharab (Hebrew), it is the ‘east wind’ of the ot{ot Old
Testament} (e.g., Gen. 41:6; Exod. 14:21; Isa. 27:8). This oppressive,
dust-laden wind blows in the early autumn and late spring and often persists
for several days.
Economy:
Deuteronomy describes Palestine as ‘a land of wheat and barley, of vines and
fig trees and pomegranates,…a land whose stones are
iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper’ (8:8-9). The economy of Palestine was basically agricultural and pastoral. Agriculture
was conducted primarily in the north where the chief crops were wheat, barley,
olives, grapes, and figs; the breeding of sheep and goats was done mostly in
the south. In addition to domestic animals, there were foxes, jackals, hyenas,
lizards, snakes, and scorpions. The lions and bears of biblical times are now
extinct.
Palestine is not
rich in raw materials, except for the iron mines in Transjordan and the copper mines of the Arabah in the
south. The mineral products of Palestine are limestone, basalt, and clay. There is
gypsum in the mountains of Galilee,
sulphur in the environs of Gaza, and glass sand is dug near Beer-sheba.
Geology also had
its part to play in the life of the people. The rocks in Palestine are basically limestone, chalk, basalt, and
sandstone. The hard limestone makes excellent building stone; the porous
limestone, which is the base of soil in Palestine, traps water. The resultant wells and
springs are excellent for agriculture.
Five Natural
Zones: Between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Syrian desert to the
east, Palestine is divided into five natural zones running longitudinally,
clearly evident on a relief map; they are, from west to east, the coastal
plain, the Shephelah, the central mountain range, the Jordan Valley, and the
Transjordan plateau.
The
Coastal Plain. The
coastal plain is divided into the northern, central, and southern sections, a
strip a hundred and thirty miles long, with Phoenician Tyre in the north and Philistine Gaza in the south. The main features of the
coastal plain, narrow in the north and wider in the south, are (from north to
south) the Plain of Acco, the Jezreel Valley, the Sharon, the Philistine coast,
and the western Negeb. There are two coastal streams: the Kishon enters the sea
just north of Mount
Carmel; the
Yarkon serves as a border between the Sharon and the Shephelah. The great
international highway, the Via Maris (Lat.{Lat.
Latin}, ‘the way of the sea’), runs the length of the coastline.
Jezreel or
Esdraelon (‘Esdraelon’ is the Greek form of ‘Jezreel’) is the broad and
inviting valley connecting the coastal area and the Jordan Valley. This rich agricultural region is excellent
for farming. The Plain
of Sharon,
the central portion of the coastal plain, extends for a distance of about
forty-five miles from the Carmel range to Joppa. Forested in antiquity, the Sharon was not heavily inhabited in biblical times.
The Philistine coast encompasses the fertile land between Joppa and the Wadi
Ghazzeh (located about six miles south of Gaza). The Philistine pentapolis consisted of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod along the coast, Gath in the Shephelah, and Ekron six miles
inland. Although natural harbors were lacking in this area, Ashkelon served as the main Philistine port.
The western Negeb
lies at the southern end of the coastal plain. Usually translated ‘south’ from
its position, ‘Negeb’ means ‘dry land’; it designates the rugged territory
between Beer-sheba and the Gulf of Aqabah. The biblical Negeb is the east-west zone
from Gaza to the Dead Sea, known today as the northern Negeb. The
Bible identifies the southernmost area of Palestine as the Wilderness of Zin (Josh. 15:1). The
two prominent biblical sites located in the Negeb are Kadesh-barnea, where
Moses and the Israelites spent thirty-eight years on their trek from Sinai to Transjordan, and Beer-sheba, where the patriarchs
worshiped.
The
Shephelah. The
Shephelah, meaning ‘lowlands,’ is the range of limestone hills between the
Philistine plain and the Judean mountains. There
narrow foothills are ‘lowlands’ from the vantage point of the Israelites living
in the higher hill country to the east. Thickly settled in biblical times, the
Shephelah is a fertile region. As a buffer zone between the coastal plain and
the mountains, the Shephelah was strategic in the defense of Palestine; fortified towns like Lachish were situated in the Shephelah.
The
Central Mountain Range.
The next geographical zone is the central mountain range, also called the hill
country. Situated between the Shephelah and the Jordan Valley, it is the geographical backbone of Palestine. The principal regions of the hill country
are Galilee, Samaria, and Judah. Galilee, which figures prominently in the nt{nt New Testament}, is divided into Upper and Lower Galilee. The highest mountain regions in Palestine are in Upper Galilee; Lower Galilee has rolling hills and fertile soil.
In the ot{ot Old Testament} the most famous and prosperous part of
the country was the Northern
Kingdom,
known as Samaria; it is the geographical center of Palestine. The valley of Jezreel separates Samaria from Galilee. Deriving its name from the capital city of Israel, Samaria is rich in agriculture, especially grain,
olives, and vines. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are the two most conspicuous peaks among the
hills of Samaria. In biblical times these mountains had both
military importance and religious significance.
Judah designated the Southern Kingdom ruled by the
Davidic kings; it was the least desirable region of western Palestine. In Greek and Roman times (ca. 333 b.c.-a.d.
324) this southern region of Palestine was called Judea, the Greek form of Judah. The boundaries of both Judah and Judea fluctuated throughout history. Jerusalem, ‘the holy mountain,’ was the capital city
of the southern region. With an elevation of about 2,460 feet above sea level,
Jerusalem is secured on three sides by valleys: on the east by the Kidron
Valley, on the west by the Valley of Hinnom; the Tyropoeon is a central valley
dividing the mount of Jerusalem into the Upper City (the western hill) and the
Lower City (the city of David and the Temple Mount).
The
Jordan Valley. The unique feature of Palestine’s geography is the Rift Valley, splitting
the country down the middle. Palestine straddles this fissure, the largest geological
fault on earth. Beginning in northern Syria, the Rift extends to easternmost Africa. The Rift, as well as Palestine’s hilly topography and wadi system,
militated against political unity; they fragmented the country into separate
tribes or other political units.
The Jordan River flows down the middle of the Rift, whose
average width is about ten miles. The Rift is composed of the Huleh Valley, the Sea of Galilee (Chinnereth), the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, the Arabah plain and the Gulf of Aqabah (Elath).
Ten miles north
of the Sea of
Galilee is
the Huleh Valley; lying between the Litani River and Mount Hermon, it is mostly within modern Lebanon. The Sea of Galilee (it is a fresh-water lake) figured
prominently in the ministry of Jesus. The earliest name for this harp-shaped
body of water was Chinnereth, derived perhaps from a fortified city at the
northwest corner of the Sea
of Galilee.
Thirteen miles long and seven miles wide, the Sea of Galilee is 630 feet below sea level.
The Jordan, the largest river in Palestine, meanders for two hundred miles between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, three times the distance as the crow flies.
In its southerly course between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea the Jordan drops about 600 feet. The Yarmuk and Jabbok
rivers are important tributaries of the Jordan from the east; there are no significant
tributaries from the west.
The Dead Sea is another unusual geographical feature of Palestine. It is so called because its high mineral
content prevents the survival of marine life. In view of its high concentration
of sodium chloride (six times the salt content of the ocean) the Bible refers
to this body of water as the Salt Sea. On the other hand, the Dead Sea contains such useful minerals and natural
resources as potash, bromine, phosphate, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. The
Dead Sea measures fifty-five miles from north to
south and is about ten miles wide. Thirteen hundred feet below sea level at its
surface, the Dead
Sea is the
lowest depression on earth.
‘Arabah’ in the
Bible designates the Rift Valley from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea; today
the term refers only to the continuation of the Rift between the Dead Sea and
the Gulf of Aqabah (Elath), a distance of about a hundred and ten miles.
Covered with alluvial sand and gravel, the Arabah is rich in copper deposits.
The
Transjordan Plateau.
The final self-contained zone is the Transjordan highlands. The term ‘Transjordan’ embraces the whole easterly region between
the Rift and the Syrian
desert. Four main east-west tributaries cut the Transjordan highlands: the Yarmuk, the largest river in
Jordan, the Jabbok, the Arnon, and the Zered. These bodies of water also serve
as boundaries for the various geopolitical sections of Transjordan: Bashan (north of the Yarmuk), Gilead (south of the Yarmuk), Ammon (between the
Jabbok and Arnon), Moab (between the Arnon and the Zered), and Edom (south of the Zered).
The Jabbok is the
modern Nahr ez-Zerqa, ‘the blue river’; Jacob wrestled with an ‘angel’ at the
ford of the Jabbok near Penuel (Gen. 32:24-30). Wadi Mojib, the modern name of
the Arnon, is a precipitous canyon associated with Moab. The Zered is identified with the Wadi
el-Hesa, which divided Moab and Edom. On their way to Jericho the Israelites crossed the deep Wadi Zered.
Transjordan
is divided into three main sections: Bashan in the north; Gilead, Ammon, and Moab in the center; and Edom in the south. The King’s Highway, a well-known
international caravan route, extends from Damascus to the Gulf of Aqabah; it runs the length of Transjordan, passing through Bashan, Gilead, Ammon, Moab, and Edom. Transjordan has been the subject of intensive regional
archaeological surveys during the past decade.
Bashan in the northern district of Transjordan
parallels the Sea
of Galilee;
it is good pasture land. Several biblical authors commented on natural features
of Bashan, suggesting prosperity and luxury (1 Chron.
6:71; Ezek. 39:18; Mic. 7:14). The black basalt so abundantly available
in Bashan is used for building stones today as in
biblical times.
The mountainous
region of Gilead is most pleasant and is well known for its
excellent pasture. Gilead was forested in antiquity, and its trees may have
produced the balm to which Jeremiah alluded (Jer. 8:22). David fled to Gilead when Absalom attempted to usurp his throne
(2 Sam. 17:21-26).
The prophet Elijah was a native of Gilead (1 Kings 17:1).
The boundaries of
Ammon in the north-central part of the country were never clearly defined. The
citadel in modern Amman is the site of the ancient capital of Ammon.
The territory of Moab in central Transjordan lies east of the Dead Sea. Both Kerak and Dhiban (Dibon) served as the
capital cities of Moab. This region is known for wheat, barley,
sheep, goats, and camels. The Israelites had a strong antipathy toward the
Moabites, with whom they often contended.
Edom is the
region in the highland of Seir, located in southern Transjordan. The characteristic shrub forests covering
the mountains of Edom may account for the name ‘Mount Seir,’ meaning ‘hairy mountain’ in Hebrew. The
Edomite territory extended south of the Dead Sea on both sides of the Arabah, as far as the Gulf of Aqabah. Controlling the King’s Highway, which
brought trade from India and South Arabia to Egypt, the Edomites acquired great wealth.
After the fall of
Jerusalem in 586 b.c. the
Edomites incurred the fury of the Judahites by occupying their land. Their
encroachment on the land of Judah may have been occasioned by the invading
Nabateans, an Arabic-speaking people from the desert who settled in Edom, making Petra their capital. The Edomites of south Judah became the Idumaeans of Hellenistic and
Roman times. Herod the Great (Luke 1:5) was an Idumaean.
Archaeological
History: The advent of written records is one of the great dividers between the
prehistorical and historical periods; it dates to about 3000 b.c.
in the Near
East.
Current field surveys are producing abundant material from the prehistorical
period to supplement earlier studies.
Old,
Middle, and New Stone Ages.
Artifacts from the Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age, ca. 400,000-14,000 b.c.)
have been found on the surface of the ground at a number of sites in Palestine. In this period, humans were hunters and
gatherers of wild plants. The Paleolithic period is represented in Palestine by the Mount Carmel man; caves on the western edge of the Carmel range have produced stratified evidence of
Paleolithic and Mesolithic occupation.
The Mesolithic
period (Middle Stone Age) began about 14,000 b.c. Several pertinent sites
containing evidence of a microlithic flint industry are scattered throughout Palestine. The Natufian is a Mesolithic culture. It is
so called from the valley of Natuf, about ten miles northwest of Jerusalem, where an important flint deposit was found.
The Natufians lived in caves, hunted, and harvested wild grain. A number of
Natufian sites are known, notably Beidha, near Petra in Transjordan.
The Neolithic
period (New Stone Age, ca. 8000-4200 b.c.) is well
represented in the Levant; the study of several hundred sites has just
begun. Beidha is also an important Early Neolithic site; its earliest Neolithic
levels date to about 7000 b.c.
Jericho is a key site for Neolithic culture. The
earliest occupation at Jericho dates to about 8000 b.c. A clear distinction
is made between Prepottery Neolithic A and B. Lasting during most of the eighth
millennium, Prepottery Neolithic A is characterized by
circular house structures, a lithic industry, and the domestication of wheat
and barley. No longer nomads, the people lived in
huts; agriculture was responsible for a sedentary form of life in Palestine. A remarkable stone tower associated with
the town wall in Prepottery Neolithic A came to light
at Jericho. Prepottery Neolithic A ended abruptly; then
followed Prepottery Neolithic B, from the late eighth to the seventh
millennium; it, too, came to an abrupt end. Sites of this
period existed all over Palestine. Characteristic of Prepottery B were the
domestication of wheat and barley, domestic goats, and architecture consisting
of more elaborate houses with multiple rooms of rectangular form grouped around
courtyards.
One of the major
Neolithic sites in the Near
East was
discovered recently at Ain Ghazal, a Prepottery Neolithic B village in the northeastern
suburbs of Amman (Jordan). This site is three times larger than Jericho. A collection of modeled clay human statues
and figures made of clay or plaster came to light at Ain Ghazal. These statues,
dating to about 6200-6000 b.c., certainly bear a relationship to the remarkable
find at Jericho of human skulls with features restored by plaster and shell
incrustations.
Pottery first
appeared toward the end of the Neolithic period. The earliest pottery in Transjordan dates to Late Neolithic (ca. 4700-4200 b.c.); it came from the site of Dhra, east of the Dead Sea. In the coastal region of Palestine ceramic vessels fired in a kiln date to the
first half of the fifth millennium.
Chalcolithic Age.
Evidence from the Chalcolithic Age (Copper-Stone Age, 4200-3300 b.c.) was first recognized at Teleilat Ghassul, near the
northeastern end of the Dead
Sea.
Occupied in the Early Chalcolithic, Ghassul was a fully developed village site.
Because of the discovery of Chalcolithic at Teleilat Ghassul, the culture is
often referred to as Ghassulian.
The transition
between the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze periods is sometimes referred to
as the ‘Proto Urban’ phase. In this period people lived in villages; they also
introduced new pottery as well as new methods of burial in the form of rock-cut
tombs with multiple burials.
Early,
Middle, and Late Bronze Ages. The Early Bronze Age (ca. 3300-2300 b.c.)
is well represented at sites such as Arad, Megiddo, and Jericho west of the Jordan, and at Bab-edh-Dhra east of the Jordan. Bab-edh-Dhra is well known for its large
cemetery consisting of shaft tombs with multiple chambers in Early Bronze Age
I, and of charnel houses of mud-brick in Early Bronze Age II-III. The Early
Bronze Age III (2700-2300 b.c.) saw the full urban development of Palestine.
When the Early
Bronze Age came to an end in 2300 b. c, an Intermediate Early Bronze-Middle
Bronze period (ca. 2300-1900 b.c.), sometimes referred
to as Early Bronze IV, followed. The material culture was seminomadic,
nonurban, perhaps to be attributed in part to the incursions of pastoralists
from Syria and Mesopotamia. They may have been the invading Amorites, a
Northwest Semitic-speaking people who were present in Palestine by 1900 b.c.
The Middle Bronze
Age (ca. 1900-1550 b.c.) was a period of prosperity marked by the reappearance
of urban civilization and characterized by well-built houses, massive
fortifications, and walled towns. Dan, Hazor, Shechem, and Gezer are typical Middle Bronze sites. Egyptian
and Mesopotamian written records from this period contain references to Palestine.
The Late Bronze
Age (1550-1200 b.c.) was a time of Egyptian hegemony over Palestine; the quality of the material culture
declined in this period. The year 1200 b.c. marked the
advent of the Iron Age and the entry of the Israelites and their archenemies,
the Philistines, into Palestine. The remaining periods are the proper
subject of biblical history.
Mapping
Biblical Sites: The beginning of the nineteenth century marked the reawakening
of scientific interest in Palestine. In 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Palestine, he brought with him geographers and
engineers to prepare maps of the land. Foremost among the explorers of this era
was the American Edward Robinson, whose historic travels in the Holy Land in 1838 and 1852 signaled the beginning of a
new era in the geographical study of Palestine. While investigating the physical and
historical geography of Palestine, Robinson also succeeded in identifying over
a hundred biblical sites.
Robinson’s
contribution to the geography of Palestine inspired other explorers, among them
Titus Tobler of Germany, Victor Guérin of France, and Claude Conder of England. Influenced by Robinson the British in 1865
established the Palestine Exploration Fund for the systematic and
scientific exploration of Palestine. The Fund’s geographical Survey of Western Palestine (1872-1878) accomplished the mapping of more
than ten thousand sites; the resultant Map of Western Palestine still serves as the basis for the
cartography of Cisjordan.
The work begun by
the nineteenth-century explorers continues relentlessly today, as scholars from
many lands make their contribution. P.J.K.{P.J.K.
Philip J. King, S.T.D.; Professor of Biblical Studies; Boston College; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts}
PalestinePalestine,
the territory along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea traditionally known as
the land of the Bible.
(Refer to map 1 in the section of color maps.)
Name: Besides ‘Palestine’ there are several other designations for this
area: the Holy
Land, the
Promised Land, the land of Canaan, and the land of Israel (Heb.{Heb. Hebrew}
eretz ysrael). Ironically the name ‘Palestine’ is derived from the Philistines, the
archenemies of the Israelites. Originally a designation for the southern
coastal strip where the Philistines had settled in the twelfth century b.c., Palestine became the name for the entire region. The
ancient Greek historian Herodotus was the first to use Palaistineµ, the
Hellenistic form of Philistia, in the inclusive sense.
After the
suppression of the Bar-Kochba revolt in a.d. 135 the Roman emperor Hadrian
expunged the name Provincia Judea and substituted Provincia Syria Palaestina or simply Palaestina (Palestine). By a.d. 400 three provinces had been
established with the designations Palaestina prima and secunda, west of the
Jordan River, and Palaestina tertia, east of the Jordan and north of the Arnon
River. The main part of the province of Palestine was in Cisjordan, meaning west of the Jordan, but sections of Transjordan, meaning east of the Jordan, also belonged to the province of Palestine.
After World War I
when the British ruled Palestine by mandate, they revived ‘Palestine’ as the official title of the land west of
the Jordan. In 1923 the British government divided Transjordan from Cisjordan, making Transjordan an emirate under British sovereignty.
Archaeologists
often use the title ‘Palestine’ as a geographical, not a political,
designation for the region including modern Israel and the western sector of modern Jordan. Despite perennial disputes over boundaries
in the Near
East, the
areas west and east of the Jordan have much in common with respect to history,
geography, and archaeology. ‘Palestine’ serves as a convenient term for all the
archaeological periods of the biblical land, while the geographical term ‘Israel’ would be inaccurate; this latter
designation did not come into existence until the tenth century b.c.
Geography:
Throughout history the political boundaries of Palestine have fluctuated considerably. Broadly
described, Palestine is bounded on the north by the foothills of
the Anatolian plateau, on the south by the Sinai desert, on the east by the Euphrates (‘the great river’ in the Bible), and on the
west by the Mediterranean (‘the great sea’ in the Bible). These
boundaries include the modern states of Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. In round figures Palestine was no more than five hundred miles long and
ninety-five miles wide. In accord with the traditional biblical formula ‘from
Dan to Beer-sheba’ Palestine would have been much smaller, about the size
of Vermont. Natural boundaries surrounded Palestine on three sides: the desert on the east and
south, the Mediterranean on the west. In biblical times the cities
were more like villages, small in size and population. The population of either
of the two capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem, probably never exceeded thirty thousand
inhabitants. According to scholarly estimates, in the first half of the eighth
century b.c. the population of the Northern Kingdom was about eight hundred
thousand and of the Southern Kingdom about three hundred thousand.
Although Palestine was insignificant in size and poor in
natural resources, its strategic location made it a vital region; it was a land
bridge for two continents and a crossroad for several nations. Armies and
caravans traversed Palestine for centuries. Its geographical position
immersed it in the political, commercial, cultural, and military activities of
the whole region. Its strategic location also made it vulnerable: Palestine was ruled by a succession of conquerors: Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Moslem caliphates, the Crusaders, the
Ottoman Turks, and the British.
Physical and
historical geography cannot be separated; they go hand in hand. The former is
concerned with the configuration of the terrain; the latter deals with people’s
use of the land and the impact of its geography on the life of the people. A
country’s geography determines to some degree its history and helps to explain
the history. Related phenomena, such as topography, climate, soil, and natural
resources, affect a country’s internal history and may influence its
international relations.
Palestine’s geographical position between the sea and
the desert had a distinct bearing on its history. The unbroken Mediterranean
coast’s lack of adequate harbors for anchorage discouraged maritime pursuits.
The wilderness on the east made the people of Palestine vulnerable to the incursions of desert
raiders.
Climate: Climate
influenced the daily life of the people. Palestine is situated in a zone of
subtropical climate, characterized by dry summers and rainy winters. Seventy
percent of the annual rainfall occurs between November and February.
Precipitation varies greatly in different parts of the country; most of the
rain falls along the coastal plain. The annual rainfall in Upper Galilee to the north is about 45 inches; in the
Negeb to the south about 8 inches. Palestine’s vegetation depends upon the
rainfall, but not entirely; dew also plays an important part. Abundant along
the coastal plain, especially on Mount Carmel, the dew is a great help to the summer
vegetation.
Westerly winds
prevail in Palestine, but there is also an unpleasant east wind from the desert
to the south and southeast of Palestine; known as the sirocco (Italian), the
hamsin (Arabic), and the sharab (Hebrew), it is the ‘east wind’ of the ot{ot
Old Testament} (e.g., Gen. 41:6; Exod. 14:21; Isa. 27:8). This oppressive,
dust-laden wind blows in the early autumn and late spring and often persists
for several days.
Economy:
Deuteronomy describes Palestine as ‘a land of wheat and barley, of vines and
fig trees and pomegranates,…a land whose stones are
iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper’ (8:8-9). The economy of Palestine was basically agricultural and pastoral.
Agriculture was conducted primarily in the north where the chief crops were
wheat, barley, olives, grapes, and figs; the breeding of sheep and goats was
done mostly in the south. In addition to domestic animals, there were foxes,
jackals, hyenas, lizards, snakes, and scorpions. The lions and bears of
biblical times are now extinct.
Palestine is not
rich in raw materials, except for the iron mines in Transjordan and the copper mines of the Arabah in the
south. The mineral products of Palestine are limestone, basalt, and clay. There is
gypsum in the mountains of Galilee,
sulphur in the environs of Gaza, and glass sand is dug near Beer-sheba.
Geology also had
its part to play in the life of the people. The rocks in Palestine are basically limestone, chalk, basalt, and
sandstone. The hard limestone makes excellent building stone; the porous
limestone, which is the base of soil in Palestine, traps water. The resultant wells and
springs are excellent for agriculture.
Five Natural
Zones: Between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Syrian desert to the
east, Palestine is divided into five natural zones running longitudinally,
clearly evident on a relief map; they are, from west to east, the coastal
plain, the Shephelah, the central mountain range, the Jordan Valley, and the
Transjordan plateau.
The
Coastal Plain. The
coastal plain is divided into the northern, central, and southern sections, a
strip a hundred and thirty miles long, with Phoenician Tyre in the north and Philistine Gaza in the south. The main features of the
coastal plain, narrow in the north and wider in the south, are (from north to
south) the Plain of Acco, the Jezreel Valley, the Sharon, the Philistine coast,
and the western Negeb. There are two coastal streams: the Kishon enters the sea
just north of Mount
Carmel; the
Yarkon serves as a border between the Sharon and the Shephelah. The great
international highway, the Via Maris (Lat.{Lat.
Latin}, ‘the way of the sea’), runs the length of the coastline.
Jezreel or
Esdraelon (‘Esdraelon’ is the Greek form of ‘Jezreel’) is the broad and
inviting valley connecting the coastal area and the Jordan Valley. This rich agricultural region is excellent
for farming. The Plain
of Sharon,
the central portion of the coastal plain, extends for a distance of about
forty-five miles from the Carmel range to Joppa. Forested in antiquity, the Sharon was not heavily inhabited in biblical times.
The Philistine coast encompasses the fertile land between Joppa and the Wadi
Ghazzeh (located about six miles south of Gaza). The Philistine pentapolis consisted of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod along the coast, Gath in the Shephelah, and Ekron six miles
inland. Although natural harbors were lacking in this area, Ashkelon served as the main Philistine port.
The western Negeb
lies at the southern end of the coastal plain. Usually translated ‘south’ from
its position, ‘Negeb’ means ‘dry land’; it designates the rugged territory
between Beer-sheba and the Gulf of Aqabah. The biblical Negeb is the east-west zone
from Gaza to the Dead Sea, known today as the northern Negeb. The
Bible identifies the southernmost area of Palestine as the Wilderness of Zin (Josh. 15:1). The
two prominent biblical sites located in the Negeb are Kadesh-barnea, where
Moses and the Israelites spent thirty-eight years on their trek from Sinai to Transjordan, and Beer-sheba, where the patriarchs
worshiped.
The
Shephelah. The
Shephelah, meaning ‘lowlands,’ is the range of limestone hills between the
Philistine plain and the Judean mountains. There
narrow foothills are ‘lowlands’ from the vantage point of the Israelites living
in the higher hill country to the east. Thickly settled in biblical times, the
Shephelah is a fertile region. As a buffer zone between the coastal plain and
the mountains, the Shephelah was strategic in the defense of Palestine; fortified towns like Lachish were situated in the Shephelah.
The
Central Mountain Range.
The next geographical zone is the central mountain range, also called the hill
country. Situated between the Shephelah and the Jordan Valley, it is the geographical backbone of Palestine. The principal regions of the hill country
are Galilee, Samaria, and Judah. Galilee, which figures prominently in the nt{nt New Testament}, is divided into Upper and Lower Galilee. The highest mountain regions in Palestine are in Upper Galilee; Lower Galilee has rolling hills and fertile soil.
In the ot{ot Old Testament} the most famous and prosperous part of
the country was the Northern
Kingdom,
known as Samaria; it is the geographical center of Palestine. The valley of Jezreel separates Samaria from Galilee. Deriving its name from the capital city of Israel, Samaria is rich in agriculture, especially grain,
olives, and vines. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are the two most conspicuous peaks among the
hills of Samaria. In biblical times these mountains had both
military importance and religious significance.
Judah designated the Southern Kingdom ruled by the
Davidic kings; it was the least desirable region of western Palestine. In Greek and Roman times (ca. 333 b.c.-a.d.
324) this southern region of Palestine was called Judea, the Greek form of Judah. The boundaries of both Judah and Judea fluctuated throughout history. Jerusalem, ‘the holy mountain,’ was the capital city
of the southern region. With an elevation of about 2,460 feet above sea level,
Jerusalem is secured on three sides by valleys: on the east by the Kidron
Valley, on the west by the Valley of Hinnom; the Tyropoeon is a central valley
dividing the mount of Jerusalem into the Upper City (the western hill) and the
Lower City (the city of David and the Temple Mount).
The
Jordan Valley. The unique feature of Palestine’s geography is the Rift Valley, splitting
the country down the middle. Palestine straddles this fissure, the largest
geological fault on earth. Beginning in northern Syria, the Rift extends to easternmost Africa. The Rift, as well as Palestine’s hilly topography and wadi system, militated
against political unity; they fragmented the country into separate tribes or
other political units.
The Jordan River flows down the middle of the Rift, whose
average width is about ten miles. The Rift is composed of the Huleh Valley, the Sea of Galilee (Chinnereth), the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, the Arabah plain and the Gulf of Aqabah (Elath).
Ten miles north
of the Sea of
Galilee is
the Huleh Valley; lying between the Litani River and Mount Hermon, it is mostly within modern Lebanon. The Sea of Galilee (it is a fresh-water lake) figured
prominently in the ministry of Jesus. The earliest name for this harp-shaped
body of water was Chinnereth, derived perhaps from a fortified city at the
northwest corner of the Sea
of Galilee.
Thirteen miles long and seven miles wide, the Sea of Galilee is 630 feet below sea level.
The Jordan, the largest river in Palestine, meanders for two hundred miles between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, three times the distance as the crow flies.
In its southerly course between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea the Jordan drops about 600 feet. The Yarmuk and Jabbok
rivers are important tributaries of the Jordan from the east; there are no significant
tributaries from the west.
The Dead Sea is another unusual geographical feature of Palestine. It is so called because its high mineral
content prevents the survival of marine life. In view of its high concentration
of sodium chloride (six times the salt content of the ocean) the Bible refers
to this body of water as the Salt Sea. On the other hand, the Dead Sea contains such useful minerals and natural
resources as potash, bromine, phosphate, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. The
Dead Sea measures fifty-five miles from north to
south and is about ten miles wide. Thirteen hundred feet below sea level at its
surface, the Dead
Sea is the
lowest depression on earth.
‘Arabah’ in the
Bible designates the Rift Valley from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea; today
the term refers only to the continuation of the Rift between the Dead Sea and
the Gulf of Aqabah (Elath), a distance of about a hundred and ten miles.
Covered with alluvial sand and gravel, the Arabah is rich in copper deposits.
The
Transjordan Plateau.
The final self-contained zone is the Transjordan highlands. The term ‘Transjordan’ embraces the whole easterly region between
the Rift and the Syrian
desert. Four main east-west tributaries cut the Transjordan highlands: the Yarmuk, the largest river in
Jordan, the Jabbok, the Arnon, and the Zered. These bodies of water also serve
as boundaries for the various geopolitical sections of Transjordan: Bashan (north of the Yarmuk), Gilead (south of the Yarmuk), Ammon (between the
Jabbok and Arnon), Moab (between the Arnon and the Zered), and Edom (south of the Zered).
The Jabbok is the
modern Nahr ez-Zerqa, ‘the blue river’; Jacob wrestled with an ‘angel’ at the
ford of the Jabbok near Penuel (Gen. 32:24-30). Wadi Mojib, the modern name of
the Arnon, is a precipitous canyon associated with Moab. The Zered is identified with the Wadi
el-Hesa, which divided Moab and Edom. On their way to Jericho the Israelites crossed the deep Wadi Zered.
Transjordan
is divided into three main sections: Bashan in the north; Gilead, Ammon, and Moab in the center; and Edom in the south. The King’s Highway, a well-known
international caravan route, extends from Damascus to the Gulf of Aqabah; it runs the length of Transjordan, passing through Bashan, Gilead, Ammon, Moab, and Edom. Transjordan has been the subject of intensive regional
archaeological surveys during the past decade.
Bashan in the northern district of Transjordan
parallels the Sea
of Galilee;
it is good pasture land. Several biblical authors commented on natural features
of Bashan, suggesting prosperity and luxury (1 Chron.
6:71; Ezek. 39:18; Mic. 7:14). The black basalt so abundantly available
in Bashan is used for building stones today as in
biblical times.
The mountainous
region of Gilead is most pleasant and is well known for its
excellent pasture. Gilead was forested in antiquity, and its trees may have
produced the balm to which Jeremiah alluded (Jer. 8:22). David fled to Gilead when Absalom attempted to usurp his throne
(2 Sam. 17:21-26).
The prophet Elijah was a native of Gilead (1 Kings 17:1).
The boundaries of
Ammon in the north-central part of the country were never clearly defined. The
citadel in modern Amman is the site of the ancient capital of Ammon.
The territory of Moab in central Transjordan lies east of the Dead Sea. Both Kerak and Dhiban (Dibon) served as the
capital cities of Moab. This region is known for wheat, barley,
sheep, goats, and camels. The Israelites had a strong antipathy toward the
Moabites, with whom they often contended.
Edom is the
region in the highland of Seir, located in southern Transjordan. The characteristic shrub forests covering
the mountains of Edom may account for the name ‘Mount Seir,’ meaning ‘hairy mountain’ in Hebrew. The
Edomite territory extended south of the Dead Sea on both sides of the Arabah, as far as the Gulf of Aqabah. Controlling the King’s Highway, which
brought trade from India and South Arabia to Egypt, the Edomites acquired great wealth.
After the fall of
Jerusalem in 586 b.c. the
Edomites incurred the fury of the Judahites by occupying their land. Their
encroachment on the land of Judah may have been occasioned by the invading
Nabateans, an Arabic-speaking people from the desert who settled in Edom, making Petra their capital. The Edomites of south Judah became the Idumaeans of Hellenistic and
Roman times. Herod the Great (Luke 1:5) was an Idumaean.
Archaeological
History: The advent of written records is one of the great dividers between the
prehistorical and historical periods; it dates to about 3000 b.c.
in the Near
East.
Current field surveys are producing abundant material from the prehistorical
period to supplement earlier studies.
Old,
Middle, and New Stone Ages.
Artifacts from the Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age, ca. 400,000-14,000 b.c.)
have been found on the surface of the ground at a number of sites in Palestine. In this period, humans were hunters and
gatherers of wild plants. The Paleolithic period is represented in Palestine by the Mount Carmel man; caves on the western edge of the Carmel range have produced stratified evidence of
Paleolithic and Mesolithic occupation.
The Mesolithic
period (Middle Stone Age) began about 14,000 b.c. Several pertinent sites
containing evidence of a microlithic flint industry are scattered throughout Palestine. The Natufian is a Mesolithic culture. It is
so called from the valley of Natuf, about ten miles northwest of Jerusalem, where an important flint deposit was found.
The Natufians lived in caves, hunted, and harvested wild grain. A number of
Natufian sites are known, notably Beidha, near Petra in Transjordan.
The Neolithic
period (New Stone Age, ca. 8000-4200 b.c.) is well
represented in the Levant; the study of several hundred sites has just
begun. Beidha is also an important Early Neolithic site; its earliest Neolithic
levels date to about 7000 b.c.
Jericho is a key site for Neolithic culture. The
earliest occupation at Jericho dates to about 8000 b.c. A clear distinction
is made between Prepottery Neolithic A and B. Lasting during most of the eighth
millennium, Prepottery Neolithic A is characterized by
circular house structures, a lithic industry, and the domestication of wheat
and barley. No longer nomads, the people lived in
huts; agriculture was responsible for a sedentary form of life in Palestine. A remarkable stone tower associated with
the town wall in Prepottery Neolithic A came to light
at Jericho. Prepottery Neolithic A ended abruptly; then
followed Prepottery Neolithic B, from the late eighth to the seventh
millennium; it, too, came to an abrupt end. Sites of this
period existed all over Palestine. Characteristic of Prepottery B were the
domestication of wheat and barley, domestic goats, and architecture consisting
of more elaborate houses with multiple rooms of rectangular form grouped around
courtyards.
One of the major
Neolithic sites in the Near
East was
discovered recently at Ain Ghazal, a Prepottery Neolithic B village in the
northeastern suburbs of Amman (Jordan). This site is three times larger than Jericho. A collection of modeled clay human statues
and figures made of clay or plaster came to light at Ain Ghazal. These statues,
dating to about 6200-6000 b.c., certainly bear a relationship to the remarkable
find at Jericho of human skulls with features restored by plaster and shell
incrustations.
Pottery first
appeared toward the end of the Neolithic period. The earliest pottery in Transjordan dates to Late Neolithic (ca. 4700-4200 b.c.); it came from the site of Dhra, east of the Dead Sea. In the coastal region of Palestine ceramic vessels fired in a kiln date to the
first half of the fifth millennium.
Chalcolithic Age.
Evidence from the Chalcolithic Age (Copper-Stone Age, 4200-3300 b.c.) was first recognized at Teleilat Ghassul, near the
northeastern end of the Dead
Sea.
Occupied in the Early Chalcolithic, Ghassul was a fully developed village site.
Because of the discovery of Chalcolithic at Teleilat Ghassul, the culture is
often referred to as Ghassulian.
The transition
between the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze periods is sometimes referred to
as the ‘Proto Urban’ phase. In this period people lived in villages; they also
introduced new pottery as well as new methods of burial in the form of rock-cut
tombs with multiple burials.
Early,
Middle, and Late Bronze Ages. The Early Bronze Age (ca. 3300-2300 b.c.)
is well represented at sites such as Arad, Megiddo, and Jericho west of the Jordan, and at Bab-edh-Dhra east of the Jordan. Bab-edh-Dhra is well known for its large
cemetery consisting of shaft tombs with multiple chambers in Early Bronze Age
I, and of charnel houses of mud-brick in Early Bronze Age II-III. The Early
Bronze Age III (2700-2300 b.c.) saw the full urban development of Palestine.
When the Early
Bronze Age came to an end in 2300 b. c, an Intermediate Early Bronze-Middle
Bronze period (ca. 2300-1900 b.c.), sometimes referred
to as Early Bronze IV, followed. The material culture was seminomadic,
nonurban, perhaps to be attributed in part to the incursions of pastoralists
from Syria and Mesopotamia. They may have been the invading Amorites, a
Northwest Semitic-speaking people who were present in Palestine by 1900 b.c.
The Middle Bronze
Age (ca. 1900-1550 b.c.) was a period of prosperity marked by the reappearance
of urban civilization and characterized by well-built houses, massive
fortifications, and walled towns. Dan, Hazor, Shechem, and Gezer are typical Middle Bronze sites. Egyptian
and Mesopotamian written records from this period contain references to Palestine.
The Late Bronze
Age (1550-1200 b.c.) was a time of Egyptian hegemony over Palestine; the quality of the material culture
declined in this period. The year 1200 b.c. marked the
advent of the Iron Age and the entry of the Israelites and their archenemies,
the Philistines, into Palestine. The remaining periods are the proper
subject of biblical history.
Mapping
Biblical Sites: The beginning of the nineteenth century marked the reawakening
of scientific interest in Palestine. In 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Palestine, he brought with him geographers and
engineers to prepare maps of the land. Foremost among the explorers of this era
was the American Edward Robinson, whose historic travels in the Holy Land in 1838 and 1852 signaled the beginning of a
new era in the geographical study of Palestine. While investigating the physical and
historical geography of Palestine, Robinson also succeeded in identifying over
a hundred biblical sites.
Robinson’s
contribution to the geography of Palestine inspired other explorers, among them
Titus Tobler of Germany, Victor Guérin of France, and Claude Conder of England. Influenced by Robinson the British in 1865
established the Palestine Exploration Fund for the systematic and
scientific exploration of Palestine. The Fund’s geographical Survey of Western Palestine (1872-1878) accomplished the mapping of more
than ten thousand sites; the resultant Map of Western Palestine still serves as the basis for the
cartography of Cisjordan.
The work begun by
the nineteenth-century explorers continues relentlessly today, as scholars from
many lands make their contribution. P.J.K.{P.J.K.
Philip J. King, S.T.D.; Professor of Biblical Studies; Boston College; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts}
PALESTINEPALESTINE. The term ‘Palestine’, originally applied to the territory of Israel’s foes, the Philistines, was first used by
Herodotus as a designation of S{S South, southern} Syria. In the form of Palaestina, it was also used
by the Romans. The older term ‘Canaan’
has a similar history. In the el-*Amarna letters (14th century bc{bc before
Christ}) Canaan was limited to the coastal plains, then with the Canaanite
conquests of the interior it was applied to all the lands W{W West, western} of
the Jordan Valley. The terms ‘land of Israel’ (1 Sa. 13:19) and ‘the land of promise’ (Heb. 11:9 are
associated with the Israelites in the same area, the latter usually connected
with the area from Dan to Beersheba, N{N North,
northern} of the Negeb. The Israelite settlement of two-and-a-half tribes E{E East, eastern; Elohist} of the Jordan seems to have resulted from unforeseen
circumstances and the hold on that side of the valley appears to have been
generally precarious. After the division of the kingdom, the name Israel was usually given to the N{N
North, northern} realm. In the Middle Ages, the term ‘the Holy Land’ was often adopted (cf.{cf.
confer (Lat.), compare} Zc. 2:12).
I. The position and highways of Palestine
The mediaeval
perspective of Jerusalem as the centre of the earth is not so absurd as might
be thought, for on the tiny Syrian corridor that unites the world island of
Europe, Asia and Africa, the five seas of the Mediterranean, Black Sea,
Caspian, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf narrow the greatest land mass of our
planet into a single isthmus. All the important continental routes must go
across this corridor, and the great sea-routes of antiquity between the Indies and the Mediterranean must in turn be linked by land
communications across the Sinai Peninsula. The high mountain chains which run E{E East, eastern; Elohist} from Asia Minor to Kurdistan and
the deserts to the S{S South, southern} and E{E East, eastern; Elohist} further
help to concentrate the routeways of ‘the Fertile Crescent’, which,
sickle-shaped, runs from Palestine and S{S South, southern} Syria to the
alluvial valley basins of the Tigris and Euphrates. It is, of course, ‘fertile’
only in comparison with the surrounding desert and mountainous terrain, since
most of it is either Mediterranean scrub or steppe. At either end of the Fertile Crescent a great locus of civilization developed in
the lower basin of Mesopotamia and the lower Nile Valley respectively, whose fortunes dominated the
history of the Near
East for
almost two millennia.
Three great trade
routes have always traversed Palestine. The great Trunk Road, perhaps described in
Is. 9:1 as ‘the way of the sea’, runs along the low coast from Egypt to the Vale of Esdraelon. Then it is
diverted inland by the Syrian mountains to skirt the W{W West, western} side of
the Lake of Galilee, then through the Syrian Gate and central depression to
Damascus, where it joins the desert caravan trails across to Mesopotamia. Two
other routes are of great antiquity although of lesser importance. The *King’s
Highway follows the edge of the Transjordan plateau from the Gulf of Aqabah towards Damascus. It marks a zone of increased rainfall and
was followed in part by the Israelites during the Exodus (Nu. 21-22), and all
the towns enumerated in Nu. 21; 27-30 lie along it.
The watershed of central Palestine is followed by another route, the shortest
between Sinai and Canaan. In the N{N North,
northern} *Negeb it links an important series of wells, keeping W{W West,
western} of the forbidding, barren depressions of the E{E East, eastern;
Elohist} Negeb that are still difficult to traverse. It links all the important
historic centres from Kadesh-barnea and Beersheba to Hebron, Jerusalem, Shechem and Megiddo. Heavily travelled from the Abramic (Middle
Bronze I) period onwards, it was also made famous by the journey of Joshua and
his fellow spies. All these routes emphasized the N{N
North, northern}-S{S South, southern} alignment of Palestine, which benefited from their fertilizing
contacts of trade and culture. But Israel was rarely able to control these highways
without upsetting the strategic interests of the great powers that dominated
their terminals. Even in Solomon’s day the coastal highway was too tightly
controlled by the sea-powers to warrant interference there (1 Ki. 9:11; 10:22; Ezk. 27:17), while Edom was for long Israel’s deadly enemy because it dominated the
routes from the Gulf of Aqabah where Israel obtained its copper (Ob. 3).
A number of minor
transverse routes have joined these parallel highways. Of these the most
important have been: (1) Gaza-Beersheba-Petra; (2) Ashkelon-Gath-Helvan; (3)
Joppa-Bethel-Jericho (cf.{cf. confer (Lat.), compare}
Jos. 10:6-14) and Joppa-Shechem-Adam-Gilead (Jos. 3:16); (4) Vale of Esdraelon-Megiddo-Gilead.
Exposed to coastal sedimentation from the Nile, the coast of Palestine as far
as Carmel has been unfavourable for port development, so the chief towns have
been route centres at important road junctions, either in the strategic plain
of Esdraelon or along the hilly dorsal of Judaea and Samaria. The sea was an
unfamiliar medium of communication to the Hebrews (cf.{cf.
confer (Lat.), compare} Ps. 107), while the desert was also feared as ‘a land
of trouble and anguish’ (Is. 30:6; cf.{cf. confer (Lat.), compare} Dt. 8:15). Perched precariously between them, the
Hebrew highlanders sought a protracted aloofness from both environments and
their peoples. Thus autonomy of spirit became a major characteristic of the
Israelites, despite their nodal position at the hub of the ancient world’s
trade routes.
II. The
geological structure and relief
For some 675 km
from the borders of Egypt to Asia Minor, the Levant consists of five major zones:
(1) the littoral; (2) the W{W West, western} mountain chain (the
Judaean-Galilean highlands, Lebanon and Ansariya mountains); (3) the rift
valleys (Arabah, Jordan valley, BiqaÔ and Ghôr); (4) the E{E East,
eastern; Elohist} mountains (highlands of Transjordan, Hermon and
Anti-lebanon); and (5) the deserts of Negeb, Arabia and Syria. But the
contrasts between the N{N North, northern} and S{S
South, southern} sections of these zones explain the individuality of Palestine. N{N North, northern} of Acre, the mountains
rise, abruptly from the sea, limiting the narrow coastal plains to
discontinuous stretches but providing the famous harbours of Sidon, Tyre,
Beirut, Tripoli and Ras Shamra. The limited hinterlands of each unit have
encouraged independent maritime city-states where ‘the families of the
Canaanites spread abroad’ (Gn. 10:18). . of Mt Carmel,
however, the coast opens into a broad continuous plain, harbourless except for
artificial ports erected by the
Philistines and later sea-peoples.
A second contrast
is to be found in the Rift Valley sectors. In Syria the BiqaÔ depression is a broad,
fertile plain between the lofty ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, with wide access to other
rolling plains, and studded with historic centres such as Kadesh, Homs and Hamath. To the S{S South, southern}, the
depression blocked by recent basaltic lavas narrows into deep gorges before
opening into the swamp of Lake Huleh, making N{N North,
northern}-S{S South, southern} communication difficult. These features have tended
to isolate Palestine from the N{N North,
northern} territory.
The rocks of Palestine are notably limestone, volcanics and recent
deposits such as marls, gravels and sands. The Rift Valley represents an
ancient planetary lineament that is traceable as far as the E{E
East, eastern; Elohist} African Lakes. Broadly speaking, it has operated like a
hinge, so that the areas to the W{W West, western} of
it have been mostly under the sea, whereas the Arabian block has been generally
continental. Thus, W{W West, western} of the Rift the
rocks are predominantly limestone laid down specially during the Cretaceous and
Eocene eras. Some of these are hard and dolomitic (Cenomanian and Eocene),
explaining the steep headland of Mt Carmel, the twin mountains of Ebal and Gerizim
above Shechem, and generally all the rugged, higher relief of the
Judaean-Galilean dorsal. But the Senonian is a soft chalk, easily eroded into
gaps and valleys that breach the highlands, notably at Megiddo, the Valley of
Aijalon and the moat of Beth-shemesh which separates the Eocene foothills of
the Shephelah from the Judaean plateau. These limestones have been upworked
along the central dorsal and gently folded in a series of arches which become
more complicated farther N{N North, northern} in Samaria and Galilee. They occur, however, horizontal in Transjordan, resting upon the continental block beneath
them. The ancient block is exposed in the SE in the high cliffs of the Wadi
Arabah and in the Sinai
Peninsula.
Overlapping them are the so-called Nubian sandstones, whose desert origin
prolonged over vast geological periods explains the red colour from which Edom probably derives its name (‘the red’). In
the NE, recent basaltic lavas cap the limestones in the broad, undulating
plateaux in the land of Bashan, and extending into the Jordan trough around the Lake of Galilee. These weather into
the rich soils which attracted to the Galilean shores a high density of
population from early times.
Palestine suffers from crustal instability. Volcanic
eruptions have continued into historic times, notably in the cases of Harrat
en-Nar, SE of the Gulf of Aqabah, which were active as late as the 8th and
13th centuries ad{ad anno Domini}. It is tempting to
equate the descriptions of Ex. 19:18 and Ps. 68:8 with volcanic manifestations,
but the traditional site of Sinai is in an area of ancient, crystalline rocks
where no recent volcanic action has occurred. The fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn. 14:10; 19:23-28) is a memory of some kind of volcanic
phenomena, associated probably with the intrusion of sulphurous gas and liquid
asphalt. There are also the biblical records of earthquakes (Gn. 19:25; 1 Sa. 14:15; Am. 1:1) and geological faulting (Nu. 16:31-35). All these are associated with the Great Rift Valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea, or with the series of transverse faults
that form the Vale of Esdraelon and divide Samaria and Galilee into a complicated series of highland blocks
and depressions floored with sediments.
Under the
semi-arid conditions, badland relief is typical, especially around the E{E East, eastern; Elohist} and S{S South, southern} rims of
the Judaean highlands and the W{W West, western} edge of the Transjordan plateau. Within the deep Jordan valley, soft
marls deposited by a lake more extensive than the present Dead Sea have been
dissected to form the Ghôr in the middle of the trough, lying at more than 365
m below sea-level. The seasonal wadis that drain into the Arabah trough have
also deeply dissected their slopes. Thus the av{av
Authorized Version (King James’), 1611} references to the ‘slippery places’ are
a characteristic feature of many parts of the Negeb and the Jordan (Dt. 32:35;
Pr. 3:23; Je. 23:12; 31:9). Much of the Negeb is a rock waste of
hammadas, and direct reference to the wind-borne loessial deposits is made (Ex.
10:20-23; Dt. 28:24; Na. 1:3).
III. The climate
and vegetation
In the Levant three climatic zones may be distinguished: a
Mediterranean, a steppe and a desert zone, each with its
distinct type of vegetation.
Along the coast as
far S{S South, southern} as Gaza, the Mediterranean zone has mild winters
(53.6°F, 12°C, mean monthly average for January at Gaza) compared with the
severer conditions of the interior hills (Jerusalem 44.6°F, 7°C, in January).
But summers are everywhere hot (Gaza 78.8°F, 26°C, in July, Jerusalem 73.4°F, 23°C). The prolonged snow cover of the high
Lebanon mountains (Je. 18:14) is exceptional, though snow is not
infrequent in the Hauran. Elsewhere it is a rare phenomenon (2 Sa. 23:20). Less than one-fifteenth part of the annual
rainfall occurs in the summer months from June to October; nearly all of it is
concentrated in winter to reach a maximum in mid-winter. The total amount
varies from about 35-40 cm on the coast to about 75 cm on Mt Carmel and the Judaean,
Galilean and Transjordan mountains. In the Beersheba area to the S{S
South, southern}, and in parts of the Jordan valley and of the Transjordan
plateau the climate is steppe, with only 20-30 cm of rain, though temperature
conditions are comparable to those of the Judaean hills. The deep trough of the
Jordan has sub-tropical conditions with stifling summer heat; at Jericho mean
daily maxima remain above 100°F (38°C) from June to September, with frequent
records of 110-120°F (43-49°C). The winter, however, has enjoyable conditions
of 65-68°F (18-20°C) (January mean daily maximum). In the Negeb, the S{S South,
southern} part of the Jordan Valley, and the country E{E East, eastern;
Elohist} and S{S South, southern} of the Transjordan steppe the climate is desert,
with less than 20 cm of rain a year.
There is no
archaeological evidence that climate has changed since biblical times. Near the
Gulf of Aqabah, a number of recently excavated Roman gutters still fit the
springs for which they were constructed, and wherever the Byzantine wells of
the Negeb have been kept clean and in constant use, the water still rises to
the ancient levels. Thus the biblical narrative gives a convincing picture of
the present climate. Distinction is made between the hot and cold seasons (Gn. 8:22; Am. 3:15), and the inception of the autumn rains is
clearly described (Dt. 11:14; Ho. 6:3; Joel 2:23). Variability in the amount and distribution
of rainfall is common (Am. 4:7), and the incidence of prolonged drought is
recorded on a number of occasions (1 Ki. 17:7; Je. 17:8; Joel 1:10-12, 17-20).
Because of the
contrasts of relief, from 1,020 m above sea-level near Hebron, to 390 m below
sealevel at the Dead Sea, the flora of Palestine is very rich (about 3,000
vascular *plants) for such a small area. A large proportion of them are
annuals. Few districts have ever had dense forests (*Trees), though remnants
have been preserved in Mts *Hermon and *Lebanon with their cedars, firs, oaks and pines, and
in the biblical Golan (Jaulan), where forests of pine and oak still exist. Lebanon has always been noted for its cedars. The
Israelites had their share in deforestation of the Mediterranean woodland that
once covered the central dorsal (Jos. 17:18), and today there are no traces of the
woodlands that once existed at Bethel (2 Ki. 2:24), Ephraim (Jos. 17:15) and Gilead near the Jordan valley.
Oak forests long
existed in Sharon, whose name means forest, but biblical prophecy states that
three forested regions were to be turned into sheep pastures, the coastal
Sharon, N{N North, northern} Gilead and SE Galilee (see Is. 65:10). The
development of pastoralism must be blamed for much of this forest clearance in Palestine (cf.{cf. confer
(Lat.), compare} 2 Ki. 3:4). But under Mediterranean conditions ‘the pastures
of the wilderness’ are seasonally short-lived, so Rabbi Akiba (c.{c. circa (Lat.), about, approximately} ad{ad anno Domini}
100) observed shrewdly that ‘those who rear small cattle and cut down good
trees. . . will see no sign of blessing’. Deterioration of the woodland scrub
had gone so far in Palestine before the establishment of the modern state of
Israel in ad{ad anno Domini} 1948 that most of the uncultivated land was a
dreary expanse of batha, low scrub with open, rock outcrops. Towards the steppe
and the desert, the colour of the landscape is governed more by the rocks than
the plant cover, with only a few shrubby elements, such as wormwood, broom,
saltwort and tufts of xerophytic grasses. Only along the banks of the Jordan is there a dense and wide gallery forest of
various willows, poplar, tamarisk, oleander, etc.
But many of the
Palestinian hill lands, eroded of their productive terra vessa soils, have been
the graveyard of former civilizations, especially with the decay of
terrace-cultivation. One estimate is that since Roman times 2,000-4,000 million
cubic metres of soil have been worked off the E{E East, eastern; Elohist} side
of the Judaean hills, sufficient to make 4,000-8,000 sq. km of good farmland.
This threat of soil erosion is possibly alluded to in Jb. 14:18-19, and the
easy spread of fire during the summer drought is described (Ps. 83:13-14).
These features of Mediterranean instability are recognized in the need for
balance and restraint, in a land which lies so precariously between the desert
and the sown (Ex. 23:29-30; Pr. 24:30-34). (*Dew,
*Rain, *Wind.)
IV. Water-supply
and agriculture
It is not by
chance that the names of over seventy ancient sites in Palestine contain the word Ôain, ‘spring’, and
another sixty such sites the word béÆr, ‘well’. Apart from the Jordan, a few of its tributaries and four or five
small coastal streams that are fed from springs, all the remaining rivers of Palestine are seasonal. Snow-fed streams account for
their maximum volume in May-June (Jos. 3:15), but the majority dry up in the hot summer
(1 Ki. 17:7; Jb. 24:19; Joel 1:20), notably in the Negeb (Ps. 126:4). With the
autumn rains the sudden spate is graphically described (Jdg. 5:21; Mt. 7:27). Thus ‘the fountain of living waters’ was
the ideal of the Israelite settler. The invention of a mortar which could be
used in the construction of rain-collecting *cisterns (c.{c.
circa (Lat.), about, approximately} 1300 bc{bc before Christ}) may well have
been a decisive factor in the rapid colonization of the highlands of Judaea by the Israelite settlers. *Wells dug for
watering the stock are early alluded to (Gn. 26, etc.) and irrigation was well
known (Gn. 13:10). Reservoirs too for the needs of the urban
population are frequently mentioned (Ct. 7:4), some fed through imposing
rock-cut tunnels (2 Ki. 20:20). The need for water often pointed a moral
lesson to the Israelites (Dt. 8:7-10; 11:10-17; 1 Ki. 18; Je. 2:13; 14:22).
Before the rise
of the Monarchy at least, the agricultural population of central Palestine; consisted of small land-owners, and the
typical produce of the land is described in the presents given by Abigail to
David (1 Sa. 25:18). The importance in Judaea of the barley crop rather than
wheat because of its low rainfall, and the fame of Carmel for its vines and
Ephraim and Galilee for olives, have been justified since biblical times. But
droughts tend to introduce debt and servitude, so that despite the ideological
democracy envisaged in the jubilee year (Lv. 25), crownlands, large estates and
forced labour already appear in the time of Saul (1 Sa. 8:16; 22:7; 25:2). In Transjordan and the Negeb it seems that the pastoral
life has been traditionally supplemented by settled agricultural practices
wherever wells and oases permitted. But the decline of agriculture has been
constantly threatened by over-grazing by sheep and goats, apart from the more
catastrophic incursions from the desert.
V. The
settlements
A major problem
in the historical geography of Palestine has been the identification of place-names.
There are approximately 622 place-names W{W West,
western} of Jordan recorded in the Bible. The lists of
Tuthmosis III, Sethos I, Rameses II and *Shishak I at Karnak throw some light on Palestinian topography.
The Onomasticon of Eusebius and Jerome is another valuable source. The work of
R. Reland (1714) paved the way for the modern topographical work of Edward
Robinson when he visited Palestine in 1838. He identified 177 place-names, few
of which have been subsequently changed. In 1865 the Palestine Exploration Fund was established, and by
1927 about 434 place-names had been located; Conder in particular added 147 new
names. A number of these are still disputed, and modern scholarship continues
to debate a few of them.
The startling
discoveries of Kathleen Kenyon at *Jericho show that there has been a semblance of
urban life there since 6000-8000 bc{bc before Christ}
with an 8-acre site occupied by some 3,000 inhabitants (*Archaeology). Indeed
the Jordan Valley seems to have been from early times an area of dense settlement. N. Glueck notes some seventy
sites there, many founded over 5,000 years ago, and over thirty-five of them
still inhabited by Israelite times. It was only later that this valley which
Lot found so attractive (Gn. 13:10) became more desolate, probably with the
advent of malaria. It has been suggested that some of the Tells were artificial
mounds built deliberately above the swampy ground, though added to by
subsequent settlement. But everywhere water-supply has been the decisive factor
of settlement. Fortified towns and castles were built at important perennial
springs such as Jericho, Beth-shan and Aphek (famous from the wars
of the Israelites with the Philistines). Indeed, it is a corollary that sites
with abundant springs have usually had the most continuous settlement from
remote times.
Along the coastal
plain S{S South, southern} of Carmel settlement has been relatively dense since
antiquity, favoured by the ease with which wells could be dug through the sandy
soils to the lenticular beds of clay that hold suspended water-tables. But
farther N{N North, northern} in the Vale of Sharon and Upper Galilee, where the water-supply is abundant,
relatively dense woodland made human occupancy difficult until more recent
centuries. In the basins of lower Galilee and Samaria population has for long
been dense, scattered in numerous villages, but S{S South, southern} of
Jerusalem village sites become fewer and more nucleated, until around Beersheba
settlement has been limited to strategic fortified well-sites. In Transjordan the edge of the plateau is marked by a
number of fortresses such as Petra, Bozrah (Buseira) and Tophel (Tafileh).
Beyond them to the E{E East, eastern; Elohist} is the
narrow stretch of agricultural land with its scattered villages along which ran
the King’s Highway. Within these patterns of settlement dictated largely by
water conditions, the strategic and most important towns have grown up at
cross-roads where the proximity of some defile enabled the transverse roads to
link with the main N{N North, northern}-S{S South, southern} highways. Such
were in biblical times Beersheba, Hebron, Jerusalem, Bethel, Shechem, Samaria, Megiddo, Beth-shan and Hazor. Hence the psalmist
could exclaim: ‘He led them by a straight way, till they reached a city to
dwell in’ (Ps. 107:7).
VI. The regions of Palestine
The geographer
can create as many regions as there are problems worth studying, so it is
absurd to suggest that the delimitation of areas within Palestine has a permanent validity. But certain
regional units have appeared again and again in the history of Palestine, and should be recognized. The broad
divisions already noted are distinct: the coastal plains, the central hill
lands, the Rift Valley, the plateaux of Transjordan and the desert.
The coastal
plains stretch for a distance of about 200 km from the borders of Lebanon to Gaza, interrupted by Mt Carmel in the N. To the N{N North, northern} of it, the plain of Asher runs for 40
km to the ancient Ladder of Tyre, where the Galilean hills crowd close to the
coast. It played no part in the life of Israel, but to the SE of it the Valley of Jezreel and plain of
Esdraelon have been of major significance. Stretching for 50 km into the
interior and some 20 km at its widest, this formed the main road from Egypt to
Damascus and the N. Along it were situated the strategic centres of Megiddo,
Jezreel and Beth-shan, famous in many of Israel’s wars (Jdg. 5; 7:1; 1 Sa.
29:1; 31:12) and the apocalyptic site of the future (Rev. 16:16). S{S South,
southern} of Carmel, which shelters the small plain of Dor, is the plain of
Sharon with its five great Philistine strongholds of Ekron, Ashdod, Ashkelon,
Gath and Gaza, merging E{E East, eastern; Elohist} into the hill lands of the
Shephelah, a buffer between Israel and Philistia. These hills were once heavily
wooded with sycamores (1 Ki. 10:27; 2 Ch. 1:15; 9:27) and crossed transversely by narrow valleys
which witnessed the early struggles of Israel from the times of the Judges to David,
notably Aijalon (Jos. 10:10-15; 1 Sa. 14:31); Sorek (Jdg. 16), and Elah (1 Sa. 17:1-2).
The Central Hills
run some 300 km from N{N North, northern} Galilee to Sinai, made up of interlocking hills and
plateaux. In the S{S South, southern}, Judah has gently undulating folds except in the E{E East, eastern; Elohist}, where the deeply dissected
chalky relief of the Wilderness of Judah, or Jeshimon, descends steeply to the
Rift Valley. This Judaean plateau runs N{N North,
northern} into the hill country of Ephraim with its easy transverse passages,
but to the N{N North, northern} the hills of Samaria decrease gently from the
Judaean heights of over 1,000 m to an average of just over 300 m in the central
basin, in which are situated the biblical sites of Gibeah, Shalem, Shechem and
Sychar. Above it tower the heights of Ebal (945 m) and Gerizim (890 m).
Together with other fertile basins, Samaria was exposed to outside influences, and its
faith early corrupted. N{N North, northern} of the plain of Esdraelon lies
Galilee, divided into S{S South, southern} or lower Galilee, which has a
similar landscape to the lands of Samaria, and N{N North, northern} or upper
Galilee, where the mountains reach over 900 m. A number of basins, notably Nazareth, provide easy passage and rich cultivation
between the coast and the Lake
area, densely settled in our Lord’s day.
Slicing across Palestine for over 100 km, the Jordan follows the great
Rift Valley. Its N{N North, northern} sector is
occupied also by the lakes Huleh and Galilee, surrounded by high mountains, notably
Hermon, the source of the Jordan (Dt. 3:9; 4:48). Below the basin of Huleh, the Jordan has cut through the basaltic dam that once
blocked the depression in a gorge to enter the lake
Tiberias or Sea
of Galilee
200 m below sea-level. Beyond it the river Yarmuk adds its waters to the Jordan and the valley gradually widens S{S South,
southern} towards the Dead
Sea trough.
S{S South, southern} of the cliffs of ÔAin Khaneizer commences the
Arabah, stretching 160 km to the Gulf of Aqabah, a desert dominated by the great wall of the
Transjordan tableland. W{W
West, western} stretches the desolate hilly relief of the central Negeb and its
steppe plains, towards Beersheba. E{E East, eastern; Elohist} over the edge
of the Transjordan plateaux extend a series of regions well known in Bible
times: the tableland of Bashan dominated E{E East, eastern; Elohist} by the
great volcanic caves of Jebel Druze; Gilead situated in a huge oval dome 55 km
by 40 km wide and famed for its forests (Je. 22:6; Zc. 10:10); the level
steppes of Ammon and Moab; and S{S South, southern} of the Zered valley (Dt.
2:13; Is. 15:7) the faulted and tilted block of Edom with its impregnable
strongholds. Beyond to the E{E East, eastern; Elohist}
and the S{S South, southern} are the deserts, tablelands of rock and sand,
blasted by the hot winds. See also *Jordan, *Negeb, *Sharon, *Zin. For archaeology of Palestine, see *Archaeology and individual sites, for
history, see *Canaan, *Israel, *Judah, *Philistines, etc.