The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, especially in relation to the history of Israel and of the early Church ... With six maps

Front matter

THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND PLATE II. ladon; Itodder and. S.uu-Jhton THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL AND OF THE EARLY CHURCH BY GEORGE ADAM SMITH, D.D. PROFESSOR OP HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW WITH SIX MAPS LONDON HOUDER AND STOUGHTON 27 PATERNOSTER ROW Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to Het Majesty TO MY FATHER CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS On Plate V. delete ' Brook Cherith. On Plate VI., on the surface of the Lake of Galilee, for '882 feet below the Mediterranean Sea ' read ' 682 feet.' Page ix. line A, sor ' 1S92 ' read ' 1891.' Page 1S2 n. 1, for ' ta) dpxv ' read ' rrj dpxfl Page 346 11. 1, line I, for 'for' >vW ' from. Since page 637 was printed off I have seen, through the kindness of Professor Ramsay of Aberdeen, a proof of the inscriptions copied by the Rev. \V. Ewing.

They contain two Greek inscriptions, of dates later than the Moslem invasion. No. 153 records the laying of the foundation of a church of St. George at El Kufr in 652 a.d. ; and No. 150 the building from the foundation of another church at the same place, in what seems to be the year 720. Page 6So, for ' Kefr Suba ' read ' Kefr Saba Page ( 84, for ' Segoi ' read ' Segor.' ,, for ' Sephatha ' read ' Sephatha.' Page 6S$,for ' Singil ' read ' Sinjil.' Page 6Sfi. sor ' Tekoah ' read ' Tekoa. '

Preface

THERE are many ways of writing a geography of Palestine, and of illustrating the History by the Land, but some are wearisome and some are vain. They do not give a vision of the land as a whole, nor help you to hear through it the sound of running history. What is needed by the reader or teacher of the Bible is some idea of the main outlines of Palestine — its shape and disposition ; its plains, passes and mountains ; its rains, winds and temperatures ; its colours, lights and shades. Students of the Bible desire to see a background and to feel an atmosphere — to discover from ' the lie of the land ' why the history took certain lines and the prophecy and gospel were expressed in certain styles — to learn what geography has to contribute to questions of Biblical criticism—above all, to discern between what physical nature contributed to the religious development of Israel, and what was the product of purely moral and spiritual forces.^ On this last point the geography of the Holy Land reaches its highest interest. .

It is also good to realise the historical influences by which our religion was at first nurtured or exercised, as far as we can do this from the ruins which these have left in the country. . To go no further back than the New Testament — there are the Greek art, the Roman rule, and the industry and pride of Herod. But the remains of Scripture times are not so many as the remains of the centuries since. The Palestine of to-day, as I have said further on, is more a museum of Church history than of the Bible — a museum full of living as well as of ancient specimens of its subject. ' East of Jordan, in the in destructible basalt of Hauran, there are monuments of the passage from Paganism to Christianity even more numerous and remarkable than the catacombs or earliest Churches of Rome ;,, there are also what Italy cannot give us — the melancholy wrecks of the passage from Christianity to Mohammedanism.

On the west of the Jordan there are the castles and churches of the Crusaders, the im pression of their brief kingdom and its ruin. -' There is the trail of the march and retreat of Napoleon. And, then, after the long silence and crumbling of all things native, there are the living churches of to-day, and the lines of pilgrims coming up to Jerusalem from the four corners of the world. For a historical geography compassing such a survey, the conditions are to-day three — personal acquaintance with the land ; a study of the exploration, discoveries and decipherments, especially of the last twenty years ; and the employment of the results of Biblical criticism during the same period. i. The following chapters have been written after two visits to the Holy Land. In the spring of 1880 I made a journey through Judæa, Samaria, Esdraelon, and Galilee : Preface IX that was before the great changes which have been produced on many of the most sacred landscapes by European colonists, and by the rivalry in building between the Greek and Latin Churches.

Again, in 1892, I was able to extend my knowledge of the country to the Maritime Plain, the Shephelah, the wilderness of Judæa, including Masada and Engedi, the Jordan Valley, Hermon, the Beka', and espe cially to Damascus, Hauran, Gilead, and Moab. Unfor tunately — in consequence of taking Druze servants, we were told — we were turned back by the authorities from Bosra and the Jebel Druz, so that I cannot write from personal acquaintance with those interesting localities, but we spent the more time in the villages of Hauran, and at Gadara, Gerasa and Pella, where we were able to add to the number of discovered inscriptions. 2. With the exception of the results of early geographers, admirably summarised by Reland, -the renewal of Syrian travel in the beginning of this century, and the great work of Robinson fifty years ago — the real exploration of Pales tine has been achieved during the last twenty years.

It has been the work of no one nation ; its effectiveness is due to its thoroughly international character. .America gave the pioneers in Robinson, Smith, and Lynch. To Great Britain belong, through the Palestine Exploration Fund — by Wilson, Warren, Drake, Tristram, Conder, Kitchener, Mantell, Black and Armstrong — the splendid results of a trigonometrical survey of all Western, and part of Eastern, Palestine, a geological survey, the excavations at X Jerusalem and Tell el Hesy, very numerous discoveries and identifications, and the earliest summaries of natural history and meteorology. But we cannot forget that this work was prepared for, and has been supplemented in its defects, both by French and Germans. The French have been first in the departments of art and archæology — witness Waddington, Renan, De Vogue, De Saulcy, Clermont-Ganneau, and Rey.

In topography, also, through Guerin and others, the French contributions have been important. To Germany we owe many travels and re searches, which, like Wetzstein's, have added to the geography, especially of Eastern Palestine. The Germans have also given what has been too much lacking in Britain,* a scientific treatment of the geography in the light of Biblical criticism : in this respect the work of Socin, Guthe, and their colleagues in the Deutsches Palastina-Verein, has been most thorough and full of example to ourselves. The notes in this volume will show how much I have been indebted to material provided by the journals of both the British and German societies, as well as to other works issued under their auspices. I have not been able to use any of the records of the corresponding Russian society. , Recent American literature on Palestine is valuable, chiefly for the works of Merrill, Trumbull and Clay.

But the most distinctive feature of the work of the last twenty years has been the aid rendered by the European inhabitants of Syria. Doctors and missionaries, the chil dren of the first German colonists and of the earlier Preface XI American missionaries, have grown into a familiarity with the country, which the most expert of foreign explorers cannot hope to rival. Through the British and German societies, Chaplin, Schumacher, Schick, Gatt, Fischer of Sarona, Klein, Hanauer, Baldensperger, Post, West and Bliss have contributed so immense an amount of topo graphical detail, nomenclature, meteorology and information concerning the social life of the country, that there seems to lie rather a century than a score of years between the present condition of Syriology and that which pre vailed when we were wholly dependent on the records of passing travellers and pilgrims.

During recent years a very great deal has been done for the geography of Palestine from the side of Assyrian and Egyptian studies, such as by the younger Delitzsch, Maspero, Sayce, Tomkins, and especially W. Max Muller, whose recent work, Asien u. Europa nach den alt-dgypti schen Denkmdlern, has so materially altered and increased the Egyptian data. I need not dwell here on the information afforded by the Tell-el-Amarna tablets as to the condition of Palestine before the coming of Israel. On the Roman and Greek periods there have appeared during recent years the works of Mommsen, Mahaffy, Morrison, Neubauer, Niese's new edition of Josephus, Boettger's topographical Lexicon to Josephus, the collec tion of Nabatean inscriptions in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, and Schiirer's monumental History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ.

I have constantly referred to the latter on the Maccabean and Herodian periods ; and where I have ventured to differ from his geographical conclusions it has always been with hesitation. The last fifteen years have also seen the collection and re-publication of the immense pilgrim literature on Pales tine, a more thorough research into the Arab geographies, of which Mr. Guy Le Strange's Palestine under the Moslems affords the English reader so valuable a summary, and a number of works on the Crusades and the Frank occupation and organisation of Palestine, of which the chief are those of Rey, Rohricht and Prutz. The great French collection of the Historians of the Crusades, begun as far back as 1843, largely falls within this generation. From one source, which hitherto has been unused, I have derived great help.

I mean Napoleon's invasion of Syria and his conduct of modern war upon its ancient battle-fields. It is a great thing to follow Napoleon on the routes taken by Thothmes, Sennacherib, Alexander, Vespasian, and the Crusaders, amidst the same difficulties of forage and locomotion, and against pretty much the same kind of enemies ; and I am surprised that no geographer of the country has availed himself of the opportunity which is afforded by the full records of Napoleon's Asiatic campaign, and by the journals of the British officers, attached to the Turkish army which followed up his retreat. Of all these materials I have made such use "as con Preface XIII tributed to the aim of this work. I have added very few original topographical suggestions. I have felt that just at present the geographer of Palestine is more usefully employed in reducing than in adding to the identifications of sites.

In Britain our surveyors have been tempted to serious over-identification, perhaps by the zeal of a portion of the religious public, which subscribes to exploration according to the number of immediate results. In Ger many, where they scorn us for this, the same temptation has been felt, though from other causes, and the Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins has almost as many rash proposals as the Quarterly Statement, and Old and New Testament Maps, of the Palestine Exploration Fund. I have, therefore, ignored a number of identifications and contested a number more. If the following pages leave the reader with many problems stated rather than solved, this has been done of purpose. The work of explorers and critics has secured an enormous number of results which cannot be reasonably doubted.

But in many other cases what has been achieved is simply the collection of all the evidence that exists above-ground — evidence which is conflicting, and can be settled only by such further excavations as Messrs. Flinders Petrie and Bliss have so happily inaugurated at Tell-el-Hesy. The exploration, of Western Palestine at least, is almost exhausted on the surface, but there is a great future for it under-ground. We have run most of the questions to earth : it only remains to dig them up. > 3. But an equally strong reason for the appearance at this time of a Historical Geography of Palestine is the recent progress of Biblical Criticism. The relation of the geo graphical materials at our disposal, and the methods of historical reconstruction, have been wholly altered by Old Testament science, since, for instance, Dean Stanley wrote his Sinai and Palestine.

That part of criticism which consists of the distinction and appreciation of the various documents, of which the Books of Scripture are composed, has especially contributed to the elucidation and arrange ment of geographical details in the history of Israel, which without it had been left by archæology in obscurity. I heartily agree with most of what is said on the duty of regulating the literary criticism of the Bible by the archæology of Syria and the neighbouring countries, but we must remember there is a converse duty as well. We have had too many instances of the embarrassment and confusion into which archæology and geography lead us, apart from the new methods of Biblical Criticism. And to those among us who are distrustful of the latter, I would venture to say that there is no sphere in which the helpfulness of Lrecent criticism, in removing difficulties and explaining contradictions, has been more apparent than in the sphere of Biblical Geography.

In this volume I have felt forced by geographical evidence to contest some of the textual and historical conclusions of recent critics, both in this country and in Germany, but I have fully accepted the critical methods, and I believe this to be the first geo- Preface XV graphy of the Holy Land in which they are employed. In fact, at this time of day, it would be simply futile to think of writing the geography of Palestine on any other principles. It is as a provisional attempt to collect old and new material from all these sources that I offer the following pages. I have not aimed at exhausting the details of the subject, but I have tried to lay down what seem to me the best lines both for the arrangement of what has been already acquired, and for the fitting on to it of what may still be discovered.

There are a few omissions which the reader will notice. I have entirely excluded the topography of Jerusalem, the geography of Phœnicia, and the geography of Lebanon. This has been because I have never visited Phœnicia, because Lebanon lies properly outside the Holy Land, and because an adequate topography of Jerusalem, while not contributing to the general aim of the volume, would have unduly increased the size of a work which is already too great. I was anxious to give as much space as possible to Eastern Palestine, of which we have had hitherto no complete geography. Portions of Chapters VII, vm, xil-xiv, and xx, most of Chapters x, xv-xvn, xix, and xxi, and all Chapter XVIII, have already appeared in The Expositor for 1892-93. With regard to maps, this volume has been written with the use of what must be for a long time the finest illustration of the geography of Palestine — the English b Survey Maps, both the large map of Western Palestine, on the scale of an inch to the mile, and the reduced map of all Palestine on the scale of three-eighths of an inch to the mile.

The latter, in its editions of 189 1 ff., though over crowded by ' identifications,' is by far the most useful map ever published for students or travellers : one might call it indispensable. Mr. Armstrong has lately put this map into relief ; the result is a most correct, clear and impressive reproduction of the shape and physical varieties of the land. If students desire a cheap small map, brought down to date, they will find it in Fischer and Guthe's ad mirable map of Palestine, published by the German society. The six maps for this volume have been specially prepared by the eminent cartographer, Mr. John George Bartholomew, of Edinburgh, and my hearty thanks are due to him for the care and impressiveness with which he has produced them. The large map and the three sectional ones (the latter on the scale of four miles to an inch) have this distinction, that they are the first orographical maps of Palestine, representing the whole lie and lift of the land by gradations of colour.

The little sketch-map on p. 5 1 is to illustrate the chapter on the form and divisions of the land : while the map of the Semitic World has been prepared, under my directions, to illustrate Syria's place in history, and her influence westwards. Through the courtesy of the engineers, Mr. Bartholomew has been able to indicate the line ofthe new Acca-Damascus Railway. Preface XVII During my work on this volume, I have keenly felt the want, in English, of a good historical atlas of the Holy Land. I have designed one such, containing from thirty to forty maps, and covering the history of Syria from the earliest epochs to the Crusades and the present century ; and preparations are being made by Mr. Bartholomew and myself for its publication by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. In conclusion, I have to thank, for help rendered me at various times, both in travel and in study, Dr. Selah Merrill ; Rev. W. Ewing, late of Tiberias, whose collec tion of inscriptions is promised by the Exploration Fund ; Dr. Mackinnon and Rev. Stewart Crawford of Damascus ; Rev. Henry Sykes of the Church Missionary Society at Es-Salt ; Rev. C. A. Scott of Willesden ; and Professors Ramsay and Kennedy of Aberdeen.

I have been greatly assisted by two collections of works on the Holy Land : that made by Tischendorf, now in possession of the Free Church College, Glasgow ; and that made by the late Mr. M'Grigor of Glasgow, now in the Library of Glasgow University. My wife has revised all the proofs of this volume, and, with a friend, prepared the Index. GEORGE ADAM SMITH. 2%th April 1894. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE, . vii LIST OF PLATES, xxn CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, XXlll LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, Etc, XXV Book I.— THE LAND AS A WHOLE CHAI*. I The Place ok Syria in the World's History, I. The Relation of Syria to Arabia, . 2. The Relation of Syria to the Three Continents, 3. Syria's Opportunity Westward, 7 1 1 21 4. The Religion of Syria, 28 The Form ok the Land and its Historical Consequences, ...... II 43 III. The Climate and Fertility ok the Land, with their Effects on its Religion, 01 1.

The Climate, . 2. The Fertility, . 61 70 The Scenery of the Land, with its Reflection in the Poetry of the Old Testament, IV. 90 V, The Land and Questions of Faith, The View krom Mount Ebal, ios VI II- Contents XX Book IL— WESTERN PALESTINE CHAP. PAGE VII. VIII. The Coast, 125 The Maritime Plain, '45 The Philistines and their Cities, The Shephelah, . i6? IX. X. 199 XI. XII. Early Christianity in the Shephelah, 237 Judæa and Samaria— -The History of their Frontier, ...... 245 XIII. The Borders and Bulwarks of Judæa, 257 1. East: The Great Gulf with Jericho and Engedi — The Entrance of Israel, .... 26l 2. The Southern Border : The Negeb, 3. The Western Border : The Defiles, 278 286 4. The Northern Border : The Fortresses of Benjamin, 289 XIV. An Estimate of the Real Strength of Judæa, XV. The Character of Judæa, 295 3°3 XVI.

Samaria, 321 XVII. The Strong Places of Samaria, XVIII. The Question of Sychar, 343 365 XIX. Esdraelon, XX. Galilee, . 377 411 XXI. The Lake of Galilee, XXII. The Jordan Valley, XXIII. The Dead Sea, . 437 465 Contents XXI Book IIL— EASTERN PALESTINE CHAP. PAGE XXIV. Over Jordan : General Features, . . 517 XXV. The Names and Divisions of Eastern Palestine, 531 1. The Three Natural Divisions, . . . 534 2. The Political Names and Divisions To-day, . . 535 3. In the Greek Times : the Time of Our Lord, . 538 4. Under the Old Testament, .... 548 XXVI. Moab and the Coming of Israel, . . . 555 XXVII. Israel in Gilead and Bashan, . . . 573 XXVIII. Greece over Jordan : The Decapolis, . . 593 XXIX. Hauran and its Cities, .... 609 XXX. Damascus, ...... 639 APPENDICES I. Some Geographical Passages and Terms ot the Old Testament, . . ■ . .651 II.

Stade's Theory of Israel's Invasion ok Western Palestine, ...... 659 III. The Wars against Sihon and Og, . . . 662 IV. The Bibliography of Eastern Palestine, . 665 V. Roads and Wheeled Vehicles in Syria, . . 667 INDEX OF SUBJECTS, .... 673 INDEX OF AUTHORITIES, . . .688 LIST OF PLATES I. General Map op Palestine, ..... Frontispiece II. Map ok the Semitic World, to face page i III. Physical Sketch Map, on page 51 IV. Judæa, the Shephelah, and Philistia, . . to face page 167 V. Samaria, ,,321 VI. Esdraelon and Lower Galilee, .... „ 377 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE B.C. Entrance of Israel into Palestine, . . . circa 1300 Deborah and her Song-, ) , , „. , > . . . . before 1100 Gideon, ) Saul anointed, ..... circa 1075 David, King, .... „ 1050 Solomon, King, . . . . „ 1020 Disruption of the Kingdom and invasion by Shishak, „ 970 Elijah, ........

S70 Israel comes into touch with Assyria : Battle of Karkar, . 854 Elisha, ........ 850-S00 First Writing Prophets : Amos, Hosea, . . circa 750 fUzziah dies, ...... 740 Northern Israel falls, . . . . .721 Deliverance of Jerusalem, .... 701 'Discovery of Book of Law, . . . 621 Death of Josiah at Megiddo, . . . 608 Jeremiah - Fall of Assyria : Rise of Babylonia, . . 606 ( First Great Captivity of Jerusalem, . . 597 Ezekiel \ c , _ (. „ „ „ . . 587 ( Fall of Babylonia : Rise of Persia, . . . 538 Isaiah - Return of Jews from exile, .... 536 [Temple Rebuilt, . . . 515 Ezra and Nehemiah, ...... 457-440 Erection of Temple on Gerizim, .... 360 Alexander the Great in Syria, ..... 332 Beginning of Seleucid Era, ..... 312 Kingdom of Parthia founded, ..... 250 Rome defeats Antiochus the Great at Magnesia, . . 192 Chronolog ical Table XXIV B.C. The Maccabees', . . . . • .166-135 John Hyrcanus, ...... i35"IOS Alexander Janneus, ..... 104-78 Arrival of Pompey : Roman Province of Syria, . . 64 Parthians invade Syria, ..... 40 Battle of Actium, . . . . . . 31 Herod the Great, ...... 37-4 His kingdom divided among Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip, ...... 4 A.D. Archelaus banished : Judæa under Roman Procurator, . 6 Death of Philip, . ■ . . . . . 34 Banishment of Antipas, ..... 39 Agrippa 1., .... . 37-44 Agrippa 11., ....... 50-100 Jewish Rebellion against Rome, .... 66 Siege of Jerusalem, ...... 70 Formation of Roman Province of Arabia by Trajan, . 106 Final overthrow ofthe Jews under Bar Cochba by Hadrian, 135 Origen in Palestine, ..... circa 218 Decian Persecution, ...... 250 Diocletian's Persecution, . . . on from 303 Eusebius, Archbishop of Cæsarea, .... 315-318 Constantine the Great, ..... 323-336 Final overthrow of Paganism in Palestine, . circa 400 The Hejra ....... 622 Death of Mohammed, ...... 632 Moslem conquest of Syria, ..... 634-638 Omeyyade Khalifs make Damascus their capital, . . 661 Invasion of Seljuk Turks, .... 1070-10S5 First Crusade and Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, . 1098-1187 Battle of Hattin won by Saladin, . . . . 11S7 Third Crusade, Richard of England, .... 1191 Sultan Bibars, and overthrow of the Franks, . circa 1270 Mongol Invasions, the last by Timur, . '240, 1260, 1400 Napoleon in Syria, ......

ABBREVIATIONS Baudissin, Stud. = Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte. Boha-ed-Din, Vit Sal., ed. Schult= Vita Saladinis, with excerpts from the geography of Abulfeda, ed. Schultens. Seep. 17, n. 2. Budde, Ri. it. Sa. or Richt. Sam. = Die Biicher Richter u. Samuelis. C./.S. = Corpus /nscriptionum Semiticarum, cf. p. 15, n. 1. Conder, T.W.=Tent Work in Palestine. De Saulcy, Num. de la T.S. = Numismatiqite de la Terre Sainte. Geog. Gr. Min. = Geographi Graeci Minores, edd. Hudson and Muller. See p. 16. Ilend. Pal. = The Historical Geography of Palestine, by Rev. A. Henderson, D.D. 2d ed. In ' Handbooks for Bible Classes. ' Clark, Edinburgh. Josephus, Antt. = Antiquities. ,, Wars = Wars of the Jews. /.'..-I. T. =Schrader's Keilinschriften 11. das Alte Testament. Neubauer, Gt'og. Tal. = La GSographie du Talmud, Paris, 1 S6S. P.E.F. Mem. =Memoirs of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

P.E.F.Q. = Quarterly Statement of Palestine Exploration Fund. P.E.F. Red. Map — Reduced Map of Palestine Exploration Fund, edd. 1890 f. P. P. T. = Palestine Pilgrims Text Society's Series of Publications. Robertson Smith, O.T.J.C. = Old Testament in the Jewish Church, ed. 2, 1892. Robinson, B.R. or Bib. Res. = Biblical Researches, London, 1S41. ,, L.R.= Later Researches, London, 1852. Siegsried-Stade = Siegfried and Stade's Haiidworteibuc/i. Stade, G. V.I. or Gesch. = Geschichte des Volkes /srael. Wadd. = Le Bas and Waddington, /ascriptions Grecques et Latines recuillies eu Grice et en Asie Mineure. Seep. 15, n. I. Wetz. = Wetzstein. Z.A. T. W.= Zeitschrift fur Alt-testamenlliche Wissemchaft. Z.D.M.G. —Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellscltaft. Z.D.P. V.=Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palcistina Vereins.

In the transliteration of Hebrew and Arabic words 'Alep/i is usually rendered by a light, 'Ayin by a rough, breathing; but in well-known names they are sometimes omitted ; Qofh by K; Sade usually by S. In ancient names Gimel is rendered by G (hard), in modern names by_/.

Chapter I The Place Of Syria In The World's History

A For this chapter consult Afap THE PLACE OF SYRIA IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY BETWEEN the Arabian Desert and the eastern coast of the Levant there stretches — along almost the full extent of the latter, or for nearly 400 miles — a tract of fertile land varying from 70 to IOO miles in breadth. This is so broken up by mountain range and valley, that it has never all been brought under one native government ; yet its well-defined boundaries — the sea on the west, Mount Taurus on the north, and the desert to east and south — give it a certain unity, and separate it from the rest of the world. It has rightly, therefore, been covered by one name, Syria. Like that of The Names Palestine, the name is due to the Greeks, but of the Land by a reverse process. As ' Palestina,' which is really Philistina, was first the name of only a part of the coast, and thence spread inland to the desert,1 so Syria, which is a shorter form of Assyria, was originally applied by the Greeks to the whole of the Assyrian Empire from the Caucasus to the Levant, then shrank to this side of the Euphrates, and finally within the limits drawn above.

The Arabs call the country Esh- Sham, or ' The Left,' for it is really the northern or north-western end of the great Arabian Peninsula, of 1 See p. 4. which they call the southern side El Yemen, or ' The Right.' 1 The name Palaistine, which Josephus himself uses only of Philistia, was employed by the Greeks to distinguish all Southern Syria, inclusive of Judæa, from Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria. They called it Syria Palaistine, using the word as an adjective, and then Palaistine, the noun alone. From this the Romans got their Palestina, which in the second century was a separate province, and later on divided into Palestina Prima, Secunda, Tertia. It still survives in the name of the Arab guud or canton — Filistin.2 These were foreign names : the much older and native name Canaan is of doubtful origin, perhaps racial, but 1 Syria, as a modern geographical term, is to be distinguished from the Syria and Syrians of the English version of the Old Testament.

The Hebrew of these terms is Aram, Arameans, a northern Semitic people who dwelt in Mesopotamia, Aram-Naharaim, and west of the Euphrates — as far west as the Phoenician coast, and south to Damascus. Some, however, hold that Aram-Naharaim was on this side the Euphrates. The Roman Province of Syria extended from the P'uphrates to Egypt. Its eastern boundary was a line from the head of the Gulf of Suez past the south-eastern end of the Dead Sea, the east of Gilead and the Hauran and Palmyra, to the Euphrates. East of this line was Arabia (see chap. xxv.). 2 The full history of the word is this : — Philistines, siTlE'^D °r D^TIB^S is rendered by the LXX. in the Hexateuch tjivXioTidpi ; cf. I Mace. iii. 24, Sirach xlvi. 18. From this Josephus has the adjective tpvXtarivos, i. Antt. vi. 2. But his usual form is Ta\aurTtvos.

He also knows the noun H Xla\auTTlvt), and uses it himself of Philistia, xiii. Antt. v. 10 : ' Simeon traversed Judah Kai rr\v WaXatorlvrpi up to Askalon.' Cf. i. Antt. vi. 2 : ' The country from Gaza to Egypt . . . the Greeks call part of that country Palestine.' But in Contra Apion, i. 22, he quotes Herodotus as using the name in the wider sense inclusive of Judæa. Herodotus, who describes Syria as extending from Cilicia to Mount Carius, distinguishes the Phœnicians from the Zbptoi ol Iv rrj YloLKtxioTivri, or 0! Ha\aitrrlvoi Ka\c6p.evot (ii. 104 ; iii. 5, 91 ; vii. 89), and defines it as ttjs Supiijs tovto t6 xwp'<"' Kai rb ptlxpt AlyviTTOv Trac naXanrWci) KaXetrai. Arrian (Anabasis, ii. 25) speaks of t) Ivptr) XlaXatorlvr). Syria was divided into S. Palestina, S. Punica, and S. Crela ; Herod, i. 105.