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b-hebrew - Re: On using the term "Palestine"

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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: On using the term "Palestine"
  • Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 07:35:44 -0700


George Athas suggested:
> - Cisjordan & Transjordan
> - Southern Levant

If we really have to get so touchy about what the place is called,
how about "that strip of land more or less located around the
eastern end of the Mediterranean"?

Forgive me, but the whole matter seems silly to me. I don't know
of a whole lot of scholars who have any particular political ax to
grind. In my own experience, the words used for a region are a
matter of convenience, little more. If someone chooses to impute
political undertones to one or two of them, the scholar has no
control over that. But if we spend our lives casting about for some
"politically correct" term for every acre of land in the ancient near
east, it seems to me that our time and efforts (to say nothing of our
lives) are being wasted.


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
Psalm 86:11




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