Timeline of the name Palestine

This article presents a list of notable historical references to the name Palestine as a place name in the Middle East throughout the history of the region, including its cognates such as “Filastin” and “Palaestina.”

The term “Palestine” first appeared in the 5th century BC when the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote of a “district of Syria, called Palaistinê” between Phoenicia and Egypt.

Herodotus applied the term to both the coastal and the inland regions such as the Judean Mountains and the Jordan Rift Valley.

Later Greek writers such as Aristotle, Polemon and Pausanias also used the word, which was followed by Roman writers.

In 135 AD, the Greek “Syria Palaestina” was used in naming a new Roman province from the merger of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea after the Roman Authorities crushed the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

Syria Palaestina was a Roman province between 135 and about 390. It was established by the merge of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea, shortly before or after the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

There is only circumstantial evidence linking Hadrian with the name change and the precise date is not certain. The common view that the name change was intended sever the connection of the Jews to their historical homeland is disputed.

Zachary Foster in his doctoral dissertation wrote that “Most scholars believe the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the provincial administrative name of Judaea to Palestine to erase the Jewish presence in the land.

Why were you so ungrateful to our gods as to desert them for the Jews? Was it because the gods granted the sovereign power to Rome, permitting the Jews to be free for a short time only, and then forever to be enslaved and aliens?

Look at Abraham: was he not an alien in a strange land? And Jacob: was he not a slave, first in Syria, then after that in Palestine, and in his old age in Egypt?

Does not Moses say that he led them forth from the house of bondage out of Egypt with a stretched out arm.

And after their sojourn in Palestine did they not change their fortunes more frequently than observers say the chameleon changes its color, now subject to the judges, now enslaved to foreign races?

Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Hebrew: פלשתינה‎ Palestina) is a geographic region in Western Asia usually considered to include Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and in some definitions, parts of western Jordan.

The name was used by ancient Greek writers, and it was later used for the Roman province Syria Palaestina, the Byzantine Palaestina Prima, and the Islamic provincial district of Jund Filastin.

The region comprises most of the territory claimed for the biblical regions known as the Land of Israel, the Holy Land or Promised Land, and represents the southern portion of wider regional designations such as Canaan, Syria, ash-Sham, and the Levant.

Located at the junction of Egypt, Syria and Arabia, and being the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the region has a tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics.

It has been controlled by numerous peoples, including Ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelite’s and Judeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, ancient Greeks, the Jewish Hasmoneans Kingdom, Romans, Mongols, Ottomans, the British, and modern Israeli’s,  Jordanians, Egyptians and Palestinians.

The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history. Today, the politically defined region comprises the states of Israel and Palestine (i.e. the Palestinian territories).

Wikipedia / ABC Flash Point News 2021.