Here’s a nice piece from Jewish Life from October of 2024: “Around the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (circa 132 CE, although the precise timing remains unclear) — a large-scale armed rebellion initiated by the Jews of Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba, against the Roman Empire — the Romans changed the name of the province of Judea to Palaestina. It is commonly believed that the Romans changed Judea’s name (which literally means “Place of the Jews”) as a way of severing the Jewish connection to the land, and that they chose “Palestine” because it was derived from the Philistines, an ancient enemy of the Jews. The Greek scholar and traveler Herodotus was the first to use the term “Palestine” to describe the land, in the second half of the fifth century BCE: “The region I am describing skirts our [Mediterranean] sea, stretching from Phoenicia along the coast of Palestine-Syria till it comes to Egypt, where it terminates.”
Author: New York Post
Published at: 2026-03-16 23:58:25
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