Feedback archive →  Feedback 2011

Origins of the word “Palestine”

Some correspondents have objected to phrases in our articles such as “The 925 BC campaign into Palestine in year 20 of Shoshenk I” and “Conversely, there is much about parochial Palestinian Jewish issues that would have been of little interest to much later churches.” The objectors argue that the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea “Syria Palaestina” in AD 135 after the Philistines as an insult to the Jews. This, and expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem, was punishment for the Bar Kochba rebellion.

Dr Jonathan Sarfati, a Hebrew Christian, replies by explaining the origin of the word ‘Palestine’:

I am ethnically Jewish myself, and I am a strong supporter of Israel’s right to exist and a staunch opponent of “Palestinian” Arab terrorists. But as a historic term, I see no objection. My great uncle was the first New Zealander to settle in the Holy Land, as long ago as 1928—Dr Edward Joseph, who became Head of Surgery at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for 30 years. Many of his descendants live in Israel to this day. The Jewish documents and conversations from that time referred to emigrating to “Palestine”. Also, the “Palestine” chess team in the 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires comprised Jews such as Moshe Czerniak (1910–1984, Hebrew: משה צ‘רניאק‎) (see team photo), the “Palestinian Chess Champion”, who, eight years after Israel’s independence, founded the first Israeli chess magazine, 64 Squares.

In fact, the name Palestine (Greek Παλαιστίνη Palaistinē) appears as far back as the 5^th century BC in the famous historical writings of Herodotus, who says that its inhabitants were circumcised:

The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine themselves confess that they learnt the custom of the Egyptians; and the Syrians who dwell about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, as well as their neighbours the Macronians, say that they have recently adopted it from the Colchians. Now these are the only nations who use circumcision, and it is plain that they all imitate herein the Egyptians. (Histories 2 (Euterpe))

Aristotle likewise uses the name as a real place in which he says there is a fabled ultra-salty lake, which we now know to be the Dead Sea, proving that Palestine must refer to the Land of Israel:

Again if, as is fabled, there is a lake in Palestine, such that if you bind a man or beast and throw it in it floats and does not sink, this would bear out what we have said. They say that this lake is so bitter and salt that no fish live in it and that if you soak clothes in it and shake them it cleans them. (Meteorology 2(3))

Furthermore, David Jacobson points out:

Jewish writers such as Philo, in particular, and Josephus, who flourished while Judea was still formally in existence, used the name Palestine for the Land of Israel in their Greek works.¹

So where did this ancient name come from? It’s unlikely that it has anything to do with the Philistines, since the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (c. 250 BC) calls the Philistines something quite different: Φυλιστιιμ Phylistiim, a transliteration of the Hebrew. Rather, it is far more likely that the name comes from the Greek παλαιστής palaistēs, wrestler, from Greek παλαιώ palaiō, wrestle). Jacobson points out:

The striking similarity between the Greek word for ‘wrestler’ (palaistes) and the name Palaistine—which share seven letters in a row, including a diphthong—is strong evidence of a connection between them.¹

So, why “wrestler”? Because this goes back to the origin of the name Israel itself. Genesis 32:22–32 describes God (probably the pre-incarnate Christ) wrestling with Jacob, then renaming him “Israel”, after whom the Israelite nation was named. The Greek Septuagint even uses two derivations of the word palaiō in this passage.

It’s also notable that the term “Palestine” doesn’t appear in the Koran. It was only after Israel’s devastating victory in the Six Day War in 1967 that the term “Palestinian” was applied to Arabs living in or near Israel.