Thank you for an excellent factual essay, that adds to what I’ve been telling everyone for years. I have saved this article and will be sending it to a number of people. I belong to a community group, and last year I reached my limit of patience hearing people which I consider somewhat intelligent, repeat week after week how the poor “Palestinians” were victims of Israel “genocide”, especially the ones who rely on the CBC for their information. I explained to them that there is no country called Palestine, there never was, and there were never will be. Palestine was the name of a region centuries before Jesus in the Middle East. Full stop. It’s amazing what propaganda and manipulation can do to people’s beliefs. Someone send this article to PM Mark “Palestine” Carney, the imbecilic Liberal and NDP party members, our incompetent mainstream media enablers, and their Elbowzo supporters. Thank you for your attention to this matter. 💥
Thank you for this excellent brief history and summary that most people not knowledgeable about history and who aren't otherwise well read or well travelled are simply not aware of! This is compounded by today's media as mentioned.
“The argument is compelling, and yet, there remains a consensus among many scholars that the Greeks of Herodotus’ time merely transliterated a long-standing name for the coastal region that was largely occupied by the Philistines.”
The question is, where did that consensus come from? In Greek, the region occupied by the Philistines was called Φυλιστια (Phulistia), which bears very little resemblance to Παλαιστινα (Palaistina). Consensus is often wrong.
You have, perhaps inadvertently, added to the balance of opinion that sees the Greek word we read as “Palestine” as a sort of pun (for which the ancient Greeks were in fact known). There is a theory that “Palestine” derives from the term meaning “wrestler” and was a recognition of the founding hero story of the biblical Jacob and his name change to Israel (‘who wrestles with God”). It was not at all unusual back then to trace your lineage to either a founding god or hero.
The current consensus is that the name derives from the Philistines (in either its Hebraic or closely related Egyptian version approximating “pleshet” which itself has the sense of foreigner or invader). But, as you point out, if the Greeks had a word for Philistines, then it might take jumping through a series of etymological hoops to explain why they had a different name for the land of the Philistines with which they could not reasonably be said to have ever been acquainted or remembered … unless they were keen students of Jewish history which kept the name alive.
And, though I suspect it would be impossible to prove, what an irony that a group of Arabs took on the name initially created by the Greeks to describe Jews. Talk about cultural appropriation. But isn’t it irony enough that these Arabs who claim indigeneity call themselves by a name that scholarly consensus claims to derive from “foreigner” or “conqueror”? It would seem that they lack that “ decent respect for the opinions of mankind” that Jefferson appealed to in our Declaration of Independence. The Arabs seem to proceed in line with the French expression “n’importe quoi.” And weirdly, that appears to be the correct tactic. Then again, their target audience is not particularly open minded.
Excellent essay.
Thx
The history is the history. Unfortunately, too many have swallowed the marketing pitch and reject the facts.
Thank you for an excellent factual essay, that adds to what I’ve been telling everyone for years. I have saved this article and will be sending it to a number of people. I belong to a community group, and last year I reached my limit of patience hearing people which I consider somewhat intelligent, repeat week after week how the poor “Palestinians” were victims of Israel “genocide”, especially the ones who rely on the CBC for their information. I explained to them that there is no country called Palestine, there never was, and there were never will be. Palestine was the name of a region centuries before Jesus in the Middle East. Full stop. It’s amazing what propaganda and manipulation can do to people’s beliefs. Someone send this article to PM Mark “Palestine” Carney, the imbecilic Liberal and NDP party members, our incompetent mainstream media enablers, and their Elbowzo supporters. Thank you for your attention to this matter. 💥
Thank you. I didn’t think it was very good. It’s just basic.
A lie that i write about in my book #AidInferno that has sucked in more aid $ per capita than any other place…
Thank you for this excellent brief history and summary that most people not knowledgeable about history and who aren't otherwise well read or well travelled are simply not aware of! This is compounded by today's media as mentioned.
Free the Winnepeggers from genicidal Canadians!
You wrote, "The term “Palestine” enters recorded history not as the name of a nation, a people, or an ethnicity, but as a deliberate Roman insult."
That's what most people believe, but the name is actually much older than that. It appeared twice in Herodotus' history, six centuries earlier.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/is-palestine-the-ancient-greek-name-for-the-children-of-israel/
“The argument is compelling, and yet, there remains a consensus among many scholars that the Greeks of Herodotus’ time merely transliterated a long-standing name for the coastal region that was largely occupied by the Philistines.”
Interesting article, though.
The question is, where did that consensus come from? In Greek, the region occupied by the Philistines was called Φυλιστια (Phulistia), which bears very little resemblance to Παλαιστινα (Palaistina). Consensus is often wrong.
You have, perhaps inadvertently, added to the balance of opinion that sees the Greek word we read as “Palestine” as a sort of pun (for which the ancient Greeks were in fact known). There is a theory that “Palestine” derives from the term meaning “wrestler” and was a recognition of the founding hero story of the biblical Jacob and his name change to Israel (‘who wrestles with God”). It was not at all unusual back then to trace your lineage to either a founding god or hero.
The current consensus is that the name derives from the Philistines (in either its Hebraic or closely related Egyptian version approximating “pleshet” which itself has the sense of foreigner or invader). But, as you point out, if the Greeks had a word for Philistines, then it might take jumping through a series of etymological hoops to explain why they had a different name for the land of the Philistines with which they could not reasonably be said to have ever been acquainted or remembered … unless they were keen students of Jewish history which kept the name alive.
And, though I suspect it would be impossible to prove, what an irony that a group of Arabs took on the name initially created by the Greeks to describe Jews. Talk about cultural appropriation. But isn’t it irony enough that these Arabs who claim indigeneity call themselves by a name that scholarly consensus claims to derive from “foreigner” or “conqueror”? It would seem that they lack that “ decent respect for the opinions of mankind” that Jefferson appealed to in our Declaration of Independence. The Arabs seem to proceed in line with the French expression “n’importe quoi.” And weirdly, that appears to be the correct tactic. Then again, their target audience is not particularly open minded.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-name-palestine-literally-just-means-land-of-israel-in-greek/
Exactly. And the Philistines disappeared.