PART TWO
Where does the name Palestine come from?
All of the various Western names such as Palestine, Palestina, and Philistia, come from the original Hebrew word Peleshet, from the root Palash, which is a verb meaning to roll in the dust of the earth and to invade. The Egyptians identified the Pelishtim as “Sea Peoples.” The Pelishtim were not native Canaanites, but invaders from Phoenicia. Pottery found from the cities of Ekron and Ashdod in Philistia are similar in style to pottery found in the Aegean Sea area and on Cyprus. Their main god was Dagon. (Judg. 16:23; 1 Sam. 5:1-7)
The first clear use of the term Palestine that refers to the area between Phoenicia and Egypt occurred in 5th century BCE ancient Greece when Herodotus described a “district of Syria, along the Mediterranean coast called “Palaistine“, which included the Judean Mountains and the Jordan Rift Valley. Other writers referred to the region as Coele-Syria (“all Syria”) around 10-20 CE.
The Jewish historian Josephus (37-100 AD) quotes Herodotus in referring to “Syria of Palaistine” and “the Syrians that are in Palaistine“, inhabitants of Palaistine who are circumcised are Jews.” This confirms that Jews lived in Palaistine at that time.
In the Bible, the names “Palestia” or “Philistia” occur fewer than ten times in the Old Testament. For example: “What have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coasts of Palestia?” (Joel 3:4- 4:4; Exod. 15:14; Isa. 14:29, 31; Ps. 60:8; 83:7; 87:4; 108:9). The term is never used to refer to the whole land of Israel, but to the southwestern coastal area. The rest of the land was called Canaan.
The inhabitants of Peleshet were called the Pelishtim, Philistines in English. This word occurs 287 times in the Hebrew Bible (Some examples: Gen. 10:14; 26:1; Exod. 13:17, etc., many in Judg., 1 & 2 Sam., and 1 Chron., Jer. 6:26; Ezek. 27:30; Mic. 1:10).
The Pelishtim
From the time the Israelites first entered Canaan, under Joshua’s leadership, the “Philistines” were and remained the enemies of Israel. Their centers of power were the five cities/states along the coast of southern Canaan: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. However, their battlegrounds of fighting Israel spread to other parts of the country, the most famous one, David against the giant Philistine Goliath (from the city of Gath). Those cities were promised by God to the tribe of Judah in Joshua 15:1, 46, 47: “This then was the lot of the tribe of Judah…from Ekron to the sea, all that lay near Ashdod, with their Villages; Ashdod with its towns and villages, Gaza with its towns and villages-as far as the Brook of Egypt and the Great Sea (Mediterranean) with its coastline.”
The ancient Philistines are long gone and there are no descendants. God said in His word that He would destroy the Philistines in several prophecies including: “Thus said Lord YHVH: I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines and cut off the Cherethites and wipe out the last survivors of the seacoast” (Ezek 25:15-16).
Jeremiah forewarns that “the day is coming” when “YHVH will ravage the Pelishtim, the remnant from the island of Caphtor” (Jer 47:4). Archeologists believe Caphtor is likely the island of Crete.
Neither “Palestina” or “Philistia” occur in the Greek New Testament. When Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Roman government issued a coin with the phrase “Judea Capta,” meaning Judea has been captured. The term Palestine was never used in the early Roman days.
It was not until the Romans crushed the second Jewish revolt against Rome in 135 CE under the leadership of Bar Kochba that Emperor Hadrian changed the name of the Land of Israel to Palestine. He replaced the Jewish shrines in Jerusalem with temples to pagan deities and changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitalina. Hadrian’s choice of the name Palestine was not accidental. He used the name of the ancient enemies of Israel, the Philistines and gave it a western name to replace the name Land of Israel. His purpose was to erase the name Israel from all memory and erase the Jewish connection to the land.
Following the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, names of places that were in use by the Byzantine administration generally continued to be used in Arabic, including the use of the name “Palestine.” The land was still Palestine when it became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the years 1517-1917.
In the 20th century, after the British won the 1st World War and conquered the land from the Turks, the name was used by the British to refer to “Mandatory Palestine”, though they called the land on both sides of the Jordan River, Palestine. This became the accepted geo-political term for several decades, and those who lived in the land were called Palestinians, whether they were Jews, Arabs or Europeans.
Today’s Palestinians
After Israel became a nation in 1948, the name of the land was changed back to Israel and the Jews were called Israelis. Only in 1968, The Palestinian National Charter, as amended by the PLO’s Palestinian National Council defined “Palestinians” as “those Arab nationals who, until 1947, normally resided in Palestine regardless of whether they were evicted from it or stayed there. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father—whether in Palestine or outside it—is also a Palestinian.”
Unfortunately, today even many Christians continue to refer to the Land of Israel as Palestine. by this, they join the world, pagans, and haters of Israel in calling Israel by the anti-Israel term of Palestine.
The enemy of God hates the reality of the restoration of Israel as the nation that will ultimately receive Jesus as the Messiah at His return and be saved. God chose Israel as His people and Jerusalem as His dwelling place. There is no mention in His word of Palestine or Palestinian people occupying the land. He gave the people of Israel the Land for an everlasting possession. The only term we, as believers in Yeshua, should use for the Land of Israel is Israel, and the so-called occupied territories Judea and Samaria.
So Where does the name Palestine come from? As opposed to the name Israel, which God chose, Palestine is a name that men chose to usurp God’s authority and purpose for His Promised Land and People.
Please pray for God’s truth to prevail in the Land of Israel and the world.
[Read more about the history of Israel in our Blog: History from the Ottoman Empire to the Establishment of the State of Israel and The Land of Israel Was Legally Purchased]
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