Why does the maps at the back of bibles describe it as Palestine?
Openline program on January 4, 2025 Hour 1 @16:17
Question:
2 listeners were looking at their maps at the back of the bible and found that it describes it as Palestine, for example, expansion of the church in Palestine or Palestine in new testament times. What is meant by this, shouldn't it be Israel instead?
Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:
Summary of Answer:
The word Palestine became a regional term when the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the land of Judea as Palestine. Emperor Hadrian did that because he was exasperated at the Jews for revolting against him in 135 AD and he renamed the region after the Philistines, who were the foes of Israel. In the New Testament, the term Palestine was never used except in the maps. It is significant now because now that the state of Israel exists, the state of Palestine has now become a controversial term.
Why do they still print the word Palestine in the maps?
Well, it became the term for centuries in scholarly literature, so if you are writing in the eighteenth , nineteenth century, that was the term that was used then. They did not use biblical terms, they use the term that was in that time. It's not like they have a political purpose when they do that, it's just a tradition.
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