PALESTINE
556
PALESTINE
glorj', and again in the person of Jesus, For this land the Lord always demanded both a special acknowledg- ment of lordship and certain stipulated returns to hira, as tithes and first-fruits (Keland, p. 1(5, 17).
5. The Land of Israel (bx'^ir;' y"1X; N.T. yf/ 'lapa- 7jX). — By this name Palestine was distinguished from all the other countries of the earth. Of course this must not be confounded with the same appellation as applied to the northern kingdom only (2 Chron. xxx, 25 ; Ezek. xxvii, 17). It began to be used after the establishment of the monarchy. It occurs first in 1 Sam. xiii, 19, and is occasionally used in the later books (2 Kings v, 2 ; vi, 23); but Ezekiel employs it more frequently than all the sacred writers together (though he commonly alters its form slightly, substituting iT^^^. for "f!^^)) the reason probably being that he compares Palestine with other countries more frequently than any other writer. Mat- thew, in relating the story of the infant Saviour's re- turn from Egypt, uses the name : " He arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel'' (ii, 21). The name is found in the apocryphal books (Tobit i, 4); in Josephus, who also uses" land of the Hebrews" {'EfSpaiojv ^wpa); and in some of the early Christian fathers (Reland, p. 9). The name is es- sentially Jewish; it was familiar to the rabbins, but, in a great measure, unknown to classic writers. It is only applied in the Bible to the country which was actually occupied by the Israelites: and so it was understood by the rabbins, who divided the whole world into two parts, " The land of Israel," and " the land out of Israel" (Reland, p. 9). In 2 Esdr. xiv, 31, it is called " the laud of Sion."
6. The Land (V^^i^ ; >'/ y*})- — This name is given to Palestine emphatically, by way of distinction, as we call the Word of God the Bible. Thus in Ruth (i, 1), '' There was a famine in the land" (V^NS) ; and in Jer. xii, 11, " The ichole land is made desolate" (1, 34) ; and so also in Luke's Gospel, " When great famine was throughout all the land" (v, 25) ; and in Matt, xxvii, 45, " Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour." This also was a strictly Jewish name (Reland, p. 28 sq.). In Daniel it is called " the glorious land" (Dan. xi, 41).
7. Jvdma. — The use of this name in the Bible and by classic writers requires to be carefully noted. At first, its Hebrew equivalent, tTl^in^ '(^^^ ^^^® confined to the possessions of the tribe of judah (2 Chron. ix, 11). After the captivity of the northern kingdom, the name " Judah" became identified with the Jewish nation ; and hence, during the second captivity, 1"iT^, Judcea, was applied to all Palestine and to all the Israelites. In the same sense it was employed in Josephus, in the N. T., and in classic writers ; and it was even made to include the region east of the Jordan (Matt, xix, 1 ; Mark x, 1 ; Josephus, Ant. ix, 14, 1 ; xii, 4, 11). In the book of Ju- dith it is applied to the portion between the plain of Esdraclon and Samaria (xi, 19), as it is in Luke xxiii, b\ though it is also used in the stricter sense of Judoea proper (John iv, 3 ; vii, 1), that is, the most southern of the three main divisions west of Jordan. In this nar- rower sense it is employed throughout 1 Mace, (see es- pecially ix, 50; x,30,38; xi,34). Itis sometimes ( H'rt?-, i, 1, 1 ; iii, 3, oh) difficult to ascertain whether Josephus is using it in its wider or narrower sense. In the nar- rower sense he certainly does often employ it {Ant. v, 1, 22; War, iii, 3, 4, 5rt). Nicolaus of Damascus applied the name to the whole couiitr}' (Josephus, Ant. i, 7, 2).
Sec J UD.KA.
The Roman division of the country hardly coincided with the Biblical one, and it does not appear that the Romans had any distinct name for that wliich we under- stand by Palestine. The province of Syria, established by Pompey, of which Scaurus was the first governor (quajstor propraetor) in B.C. 62, seems to have embraced the whole seaboard from the Bay of Issus (Iskanderun)
to Egypt, as far back as it was habitable, that is, up to the desert which forms the background to the whole district. " Jud;ca" in their phrase appears to have sig- nified so much of this country as intervened between Iduma;a on the south and the territories of the numer- ous free cities on the north and west which were consti- tuted with the establishment of the province— such as Scythopolis, Sebaste, Joppa, Azotus, etc. (Smith, Did. of Geofiraphy, ii, 1077). The district east of the Jor- dan, lying between it and the desert — at least so much of it as was not covered by the lauds of Pella, Gadara, •= Canatha, I'hiladelphia, and other free towns — was called Peraea.
8. The Holy Land Qdn'pri n^'IX; r) yn a) Uyta ; Ter- ra Sancta). Next to Palestine, this is now the most familiar name of the country. Zechariah is the first who mentions it, "The Lord shall inherit Judah, his por- tion of the Holy iMnd" (ii, 12). The rabbins constantly use it, and they have detailed, with great minuteness, the constituents of its sanctity. They did not regard it as all equally holy. Judtea ranked first : after it the northern kingdom ; and last of all the territory beyond Jordan (Reland, p. 20 sq.). The very dust and stones and air of the land are still considered holy by the poor Jews (Reland, p. 25). The name Ta-netr (i. e. Holy Land), which is found in the inscriptions of Rameses II and Thothmes III, is believed by M. Brugsch to refer to Palestine {ut siq}. p. 17). But this is contested by M. de Rouge (Revue Archeologique, Sept, 1861, p. 21Gj. The Phoenicians appear to have applied the title Holy Land to their own country, and possibly also to Palestine, at a very early date (Brugsch, p. 17). If this can be sub- stantiated, it opens a new view to the Biblical student, inasmuch as it wnuld seem to imply that the country had a reputation for sanctity before its connection with the Hebrews. The early Christian writers call it Terra Sancta (Justin Martyr, Tryphon; TertuUian, Zie Resur- rectione ; comp. Reland, p. 23). During the INIiddle Ages, and es|jecially in the time of the Crusades, this name became so common as almost to supersede all others. In the present daj-, it is adopted, along with Palestine, as a geographical term. It was originally, and is now, applied only to the land allotted to the twelve tribes; and some Christian writers appear to confine it to the section west of the Jordan. More usually, however, it is employed in the same sense as Palestine (Reland, p. 2 1-28). In the long list of Travels and Treatises given by Ritter {Erdkunde, Joi-dan, p. 31-55), Robinson {B. R. ii, 534-555), and Bonar {Land of Promise, p. 517-535), it predominates far beyond any other appellation. Quaresimus, in his Elucidatio Term Sanctce (i, 9, 10), after enumerating the various names above mentioned, concludes by adducing seven reasons why that which he has embodied in the title of his own work, "though of later date than the rest, yet in excel- lency and dignity surpasses them all;" closing with the words of pope Urban II addressed to the Council of Clermont: "Quara terram merito Sanctam diximus, in qua non est etiam passus pedis quem non illustraverit et sanctificaverit vel corpus vel umbra Salvatoris, vel gloriosa pra?sentia Sanct.'e Dei gcnitricis, vel amplec- tendus Apostolorum commeatus, vel martyrum ebiben- dus sanguis effusus."