Deception 11: The Herodotus Deception. 

Peloni:  Here is the 11th installment of Joseph Shellim’s 12 Deceptions, an excerpt from his important work, “Philistine-To-Palestine”.  We are posting one Deception each week, and  links to the previous installments can be found at the bottom.

Joseph Shellim

The Great Scholarly Manipulation. 
The quoting of a 5th Century BCE Greek Historian by his remark of ‘Syria Palaistinê’ and thereby that  there was a first century Palestine is a new historical distortion that underlies a deception. This claim is  used to justify the avoidance and negation of quoting a first century Judea, that this land was part of the  

Jews but of Syria, and that Jesus was an Arab Palestinian. Numerous anti-Israel scholars and  theologians have embraced this historical mendacity as a political agenda to deceive, via selective  media, history books and some encyclopedias that call First Century Judea as Palestine via this  Herodotus usage. 

There was no country called Palestine in the first century; Rome applied this name in the 2nd Century.  Judea was never a part of Syria; nor was Jesus an Arab Palestinian. The Herodotus reference was a  stray mention by a Greek writer with no impact of how this land was called or referred to in the first  century, other than applying to the land of Israel; yet many scholars have pounced upon this singular  quote as a new politically devised manipulation to promote an anti-Israel history. 

All Scholars are not scholarly. 
It is borne out of gross omissions and political manipulation that is difficult to account as a sincere  error. Omitted by these scholars who use their title to deceive, is that Herodotus was referring only to  the Jews in his description of ‘the circumcised people’ and the ‘people who observed the Sabbath’ in  his usage of Palaistinê. (Herodotus, Histories 2.104). There was never a Syria-Palaistinê state or such a  people in Horodotus’ time or any other time. Thereby the inversion of aligning Herodotus’ Palaistinê to  20th Century Palestinians is a deception. Ultimately, it seeks to promote Arabs as Palestinians and as  natives of Palestine, both premises being false. 

Herodotus was a Greek writer who first contextually aligned this name to the homeland of the Jews. It  appears doubtful a historian can derive such an adverse conclusion other than he referred to Judea,  even with minimalist consideration. Five centuries after Herodotus, Rome minted 1000’s of coins  embossed with “Judea Capta”; not “Palestine Capta” or “Syria Capta” or “Syria- Palaistinê”. These  coin relics are commonplace in numerous museums and history books. The emblem of “Judea Capta” were overlaid on coins that said ‘State of Israel’ (‘Medinat Yisrael’ in Hebrew letters), the name of this  land before Rome called it Judea:

Both Sides of Shekel Coin Relics of Israel. 

• “When Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Roman government struck coins with the phrase  “Judea Capta,” meaning Judea has been captured. The term Palestine was never used in the early  Roman designations.” (Zvi Rivai, Zola Levitt Ministries). 

Robert Spencer, author of New York Times bestseller books, (including “The Political Guide to Islam” and “The Truth About Muhammad”) refers to the book “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of  Nazareth” by Reza Aslan: 

• “Aslan refers numerous times throughout his book to Jesus living in “first-century Palestine.” He has  defended this usage in interviews by claiming that that was the Roman name for the area during Jesus’ time. But in fact, Jesus lived not in first-century Palestine, but in first-century Judea, a place that no  one called “Palestine.” The Romans renamed it “Palestine” after emptying the area of Jews after the  Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 A.D. (2nd Century). Aslan’s usage is an anachronism, and given his  venomous opposition to the state of Israel, perhaps a politically motivated one at that. – (“Five  Falsehoods in Reza Aslan’s Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth”, By Robert Spencer, PJ  Media, September 2, 2013) 
• Quote: “Herodotus used Palaistinê to refer not to the Land of the Philistines, but to the Land of Israel.  His understanding of the geographical extent of Palestine is reflected in his reference to the population  of Palaistinê as being ‘circumcised’. However, the Philistines, as we know from the Bible, were not  circumcised. The Israelites, of course, were circumcised. Hadrian officially renamed Judea Syria  Palaestina after his Roman armies suppressed the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (the Second Jewish Revolt) in  135 C.E.; this is commonly viewed as a move intended to sever the connection of the Jews to their  historical homeland.” – (David Jacobson, ‘When Palestine Meant Israel’) 

Thus the Herodotus writing is used deceptively by many scholars, or else with a surprising deficiency  of history. Also surprising is that some prominent media facilitates such provisions. 

First Century Palestine is Fiction. 
Both the Roman and Greek writers, which are post-Herodotus, used the name Judea (Iudaea, from the  Greek Ioudaia), not Palestine, as is freely quoted when referring to this land in our modern lexicon. It  is highly implausible scholars can be confused that first century Judea was never called as Palestine.  ‘First Century Palestine’ is a fictional premise; its reference had no historical reality or impacts. Judea  was not an Arab land in the first century. 

‘When Palestine Meant Israel’ 
The modern world’s adaptation of Palestine as a reference other than of the homeland of the Jews is  based on a manipulation of dubious historical employ. 

The Palestina usage referred to the Greek’s Philistine kin as marking the first European invasion of  Arabia from across the seas in the time of Abraham; it was a ‘take-over’ inference of the later invasion  by the early Greeks, including of the notorious Antiochus who attempted to change the name of  Jerusalem and failed, one who made Syria as a conquered base following Alexander’s invasion.  Herodotus did not refer to any Arabian people other than the Jews as the inhabitants of Judea, as is  misconstrued by some scholars. 

In all historical instances and archives, and all references of Palestina and Syria- Palaistinê by ancient  writers, these were directed to the Jews and the land of the Jews and by the name Judea:

• “Jerusalem is by far the most illustrious city of the East, not merely of Judea.” [‘Natural History’ by  Pliny the Elder; First Century] 
• Philo, the Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, allocates Palestinian as the populous nation of the Jews  (Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, p. 349). 
• The poet Ovid (First Century) writes of “the seventh day feast that the Syrian of Palestine observes” – namely the unique Jewish Sabbath observances. 
• Aristotle was similarly also referring to the Jews in his reference to the Dead Sea; as was the Latin  poet Statius, and the writer Dio Chrysostom. Aristotle’s comments of ‘the waters in which neither man  nor beast can sink, and which are bitter and salty and do not support fish’ leaves no doubt he is  referring to the Dead Sea of Israel. – (Menachem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism,  vol. 1, From Herodotus to Plutarch; Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974, pp.  6-7 and note 2). 
• “Like Herodotus, Aristotle gives the strong impression that when he uses the term Palestine he is  referring to the Land of Israel. In his description of the Dead Sea, Aristotle says that it is situated in  Palestine. 4. The Land of the Philistines, however, was separated from the Dead Sea by the hills and  wilderness of Judea, so Aristotle could hardly have intended the two to be directly connected! He, too,  seemed to identify the Land of Israel as Palestine.” – (David Jacobson, ‘When Palestine Meant Israel’,  Bar 27:03; Archive Today) 

The Greek and Roman Historians of 2,000 years ago, including Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, Plutarch and  Ptolemy, who requested of the Jews the first translation of the Hebrew Bible in 300 BCE (‘The  Septuagint’), also used the name Judea, not Palestine of this land’s name: 

• “Judaea was divided. The Samaritans came under Felix and the Galileans under Ventidius “[Roman  Historian Tacitus, The Annals, XII: 54] 
• The New Testament never used the term Palestine, referring to the Jews as ‘The people of Israel’ and  ‘The land of Israel’ more than once: 
• ‘And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.’ [Matt.  2:21 and 22]. 
• “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria” (Acts 1:18) The oldest existing manuscript of Herodotus that some authors refer to as their evidence is dated 10th Century AD/CE, which is 1,300 years after he is said to have lived in 425 BCE. While copies may be  authentic, this is more recent than numerous earlier documents which contradict these scholars’ reporting, including the older copies of the Gospels that use the name of Israel for this land, as do the  Roman archives and the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

The First Century Palestine Myth. 
When Horodotus used the name Palestine it was referred to Judea – the land of the Jews, a reference to  the land that the Greek’s Philistine kin once invaded. The Romans later officially applied the name  Palestine on Judea in the second century, not the first century, as a mockery relating to the ancient  4,000-year-old enemies of the Hebrews. There was never a First Century Palestine, nor did the Romans  conduct a war with Arabs in this period; the Romans went to war with Judea, land of the Jews, with the  Arabs enlisted as Roman mercenaries in its war legions. 

The Roman naming was derived when a Greek mentioned the ancient enemies of the Hebrews and it  was thereby adopted by Hadrian; it fully negates any description of ‘First Century Palestine’ and  renders Judea’s connection with Syria as a historical fiction.

It is thereby a modern political manipulation directing Herodotus’ remark to an Arab group that never  called themselves as Palestinian before 1964; the re-allocation of this name to another group 2,000  years later thereby affirms the political manipulation of history it seeks to impose. 

Numerous anti-Israel scholars and theologians have embraced this historical mendacity, including the  media, history books and encyclopedias that call First Century Judea as Palestine via this Herodotus  usage. 

The Greek and Roman Empires were conquering and invading forces and both were thus establishing  Judea, along with Syria (‘Syria-Palaistinê), as their own war spoil in cohesion; yet both these empires  referred to Judea as the land of the Jews, a people both empires were closely interacted with by  numerous battles and philosophical exchanges. 

The Philistines were conquered by King David six centuries earlier than Herodotus and they never  appeared again as a force in history; namely, there were no such Philistine or Palestinian people in  Herodotus’ time, as is incorrectly inferred by some authors and media publications. Josephus wrote in  his ‘Against Apion’ response, correcting Herodotus and negating any confusion this was the homeland  of the Jews, not of his Philistine Greek kin: 

• “Nor, indeed, was Herodotus of Halicarnassus unacquainted with our nation, but mentions it after a  way of his own.”–(Josephus, “Against Apion” Book 16). 

Although the name of Judea was changed to Palestine in the 2nd Century by the Roman Emperor  Hadrian, its reference thereafter was exclusively directed to the land of the Jews and remained so up to  the 20th Century in the British, French, American and Jewish documents. 

Rome was not at war with Syria or the Philistines but the Jews in this juncture of history. The name  anointing of Palestine occurred after the obsessive extent of Jerusalem’s destruction, in the aftermath  of a war with heavy casualties on both sides in Hadrian’s battles with the Bar Kochba Jewish revolt. It  was followed by Rome’s barring of the Hebrew belief and language and forbidding Jews from  Jerusalem. However, the Jews did not leave and continued living in Jerusalem, as is seen with the  Crusader and Islamic invasions of this land with the Jews who remained. The misplacing of the term  Palestine and Palestinian away from Israel and the Jews in modern times is an anti-historical and anti Israel premise, with the Herodotus example as its justification: 

• “It seems clear that by choosing a seemingly neutral name – one juxtaposing that of a neighboring province (Syria) with the revived name of an ancient geographical entity (The Philistines), Hadrian  was intending to suppress any connection between the Jewish people and that land” – [Historian, Ariel  Lewin]. 

A Palestinian Jesus. 
Prior to Rome, the previous Greek Empire also attempted to change the name of Jerusalem; it was a  failed attempt, this city’s name being too famed in the region to be negated. Rome later emulated the  Greek’s name erasing scheme on Judea in the second century; thus quoting ‘first century Palestine’ is a  fiction, in like manner by the premise of a Palestinian Jesus. ‘First Century Palestine’ is an over-kill to  further seek to erase the name of Israel from the historical radar, as was done by Rome; it is bearing  false witness and incurring poor baggage on scholars and the Christians and Muslim peoples via  falsified Anti-Israel premises disguised as history. 

The often stated reference of a ‘Palestinian Jesus’ upon the revered figurehead who lived in first  century Judea is a historical impossibility, also aligned with the misrepresentation of the Herodotus  alignment. The name Palestine was applied to Judea by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the second  century (135 AD/CE), a hundred years after Jesus was killed [circa 30-31 AD/CE). No Jews or any  other people in Judea could thus be called Palestinians in the first century.

Thereby, its alignment with 20th Century Arabs is un-historical, as is any reference to Jesus or anyone  else who lived in first century Judea as a Palestinian. It is a negation doctrine of the Jewish and  Christian history and their faiths. Jesus was not a Palestinian but a Jew living in first century Judea a  hundred years before Rome’s name change occurred. Similarly, Arab Palestinians is a 20th Century  phenomenon, not a historical people cited by Herodotus 2,500 years ago. 

Here are links to previous installments of the 12 Deceptions:

Deception 1: The Name Deception

Deception 2: The Balfour Deception

Deception 3: The White Paper Deception

Deception 4: The Jordan Deception

Deception 5: The ‘West-Bank’ Deception

Deception 6: The Time Immemorial Deception

Deception 7: The Refugee Deception

Deception 8: The Arafat Deception

Deception 9: The “Palestinian-Jesus” Deception.

Deception 10: The Zionism Deception

Episode 11: The The Occupation Deception.
[See Next week]

Link to the book on Amazon:
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