The portion of Syria which was formerly the possession of the Israelites. It includes the whole of the country between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean as well as the country immediately to the east of the Jordan. The word represents the Greek form, Παλαιστίνη, of the Hebrew (Ex. xv. 14; Isa. xiv. 29, 31; Ps. lx. 10 [A. V. 8]), although in the Old Testament is applied only to the land of the Pelishtim (), or Philistines, and hence denotes merely the coast district south of Phenicia. It was the Greeks who began to denote the inland country as well by this term; such an application, by a foreign people, of the name of the coast to the interior is no rare phenomenon. As early as Herodotus, who is followed by other classical writers, as Ptolemy and Pliny, the phrase Συρίε ἡ Παλαιστίνη denotes both the littoral and the neighboring inland region (Judea and Palestine), as well as the entire interior as far as the Arabian desert. Josephus, however, usually limits the name to the land of the Philistines. In the course of time the term "Palestine" superseded the longer "Palestinian Syria," and it is used with this connotation by Josephus and Philo, while Vespasian officially designated the country as "Palestine" on the coins which he struck after the suppression of the Jewishinsurrection in 70 C.E., implying thereby the territory of the Jews. The name is used in this sense by Christian authors beginning with Jerome, as well as by the Jewish writers (), while the Arabic "Filasṭin" is more restricted in meaning, denoting only Judea and Samaria.
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JewishEncyclopedia.com - PALESTINE:
FALLEN ON YOUR SWORD...O Stoney I'm SAD FOR THEE,TIME TO THROW AWAY YOUR BIBLE MATE.........IT DID YOU NO GOOD.....WELL DONE JOS AND TINMORE...TITANS BOTH.
