The Meaning of Palestine

The Meaning of Palestine

The Roman Occupation of Jerusalem

Shortly after the Roman consul known as Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) successfully concluded the Third Mithridatic War, he began his eastern campaign which resulted in the creation of the Province of Syria. Later, after his supporter Aulus Gabinus lead a force to take Jerusalem, the Roman allies who were already inside the city refused to allow his troops entrance. In anger, Pompey decided to do the job himself. As he approached the city he realized that the campaign would be more difficult than expected.

Flavious Josephus writes:

“for he [Pompey] saw the walls were so firm, that it would be hard to overcome them; and that the valley before the walls was terrible; and that the temple, which was within that valley, was itself encompassed with a very strong wall, insomuch that if the city were taken, that temple would be a second place of refuge for the enemy to retire to. “The Wars of the Jews 1:141

Luckily for Pompey, his Roman supporters decided to open the northwestern gates to his army. Pompey allowed Judea to remain autonomous but required them to pay tribute to the Roman government in Syria. The Jews were forced to give up their access to the Mediterranean Sea as well as parts of Idumea and Samaria. Later, Harod I, known as Herod the Great, became the Roman client king of Judea with the support of the first Roman emperor, Augustus.

Herod’s rule over Judea was tyrannical. He was said to have despised his subjects although he publicly identified himself as a Jew. He was known as the greatest builder in Jewish history and greatly expanded and beautified the Second Temple.

He ruled from 37 BC to his death at 1 BC and was replaced by his son, Herod Archelaus.

During the rule of Archelaus’ successor, Herod Antipas, Jesus of Nazareth stood at the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and prophesied its destruction:

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, Luk 19:41-43

Jesus also prophesied the destruction of the Second Temple:

And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Mar 13:1-2

In 70 AD Titus (Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus) led a force of 70,000 soldiers to Jerusalem to end the resistance of the Judean Zealots. He laid siege to the city, which ended with the destruction of the Second Temple.

The Arch of Titus commemorates the victory and depicts the spoils taken showing the Golden Menorah, the Gold Trumpets and the Table of Shew bread. This event is mourned annually as the Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av (9th of Av).

Hierosolyma Est Perdita!

The Jews again were allowed to remain in Jerusalem until the Roman Emperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus) brutally crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt in the summer of 135 AD. According to Roman historian Cassius Dio (155 – 235AD), the Romans slaughtered more than half a million Jews. In the rest of Judea, more that 1000 villages were razed to the ground.

Hadrian attempted to wipe Judaism and the Jews off the face of the earth. He executed Judaic scholars, prohibited the Torah and the Hebrew calendar, salted the farmland and ceremonially burned the sacred Torah Scrolls on the Temple Mount.

A pagan temple to Jupiter was erected on the site of the former Second Temple, with Hadrian’s equestrian statue being placed in the area of the Holy of Holies. A sanctuary honoring Aphrodite was set on the place where Christians had venerated the tomb of Jesus, and at the southern gate of that the Romans named Aelia (meaning “the sun,” after Aelius Hadrian), they mocked the Jews by erecting marble pig statue – a symbol of the Tenth Legion of Fretensis.

Hadrian replaced the name for the land of Judea on every map with Syria Palaestina and renamed Jerusalem, Aelia Capitolina, prohibiting any remaining Jews from ever entering again.

This calamity also fell on the 9th of the month of Av (which falls in July or August in the Western calendar)

Hadrian, whose full name (Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus) means “Sacred -belonging to the shining sea,” chose a Nachashian inspired name for the land that God promised and delivered to the people He rescued from Egyptian slavery.

The word Syria means “sun or bright, glowing” and is a variant of Siria or Sirius (the Dog Star).

It has been theorized that the word Palaestina was a variation of the term that the Israelites used for the people who occupied the Promised Land before they entered after the Exodus. In Hebrew, Philistine means “immigrant” which is derived from Philistia meaning “land of sojourners,” which is from palash, meaning “to roll in ashes or dust (as an act of mourning).”

But looking a bit further, the Latin word Palest, (Pălaestīnă (Pălest- ), ae, and Pă-laestīnē – see Perseus Digital Library for definition) is an alteration of the name for the Roman god Pales, the shepherd’s god and a feminine form of Pan. The feast of Pales was also the birthday of Rome. In accordance with the Etruscan ritual of pomerium (post “first” and moerium “wall”) Romulus, who was born on the 21st day of the month of Thoth (aka Hermes) went to Palatine (palātum “heaven” ) Hill on April 21 in 753 BC and began digging a ditch.

Pale’s symbol was the Hyades star cluster in the head of Taurus.

Her festival was celebrated by driving cattle through bonfires.

Aegipan, who was nurtured by Amalthea with the infant Zeus was associated the Hyades star cluster according to the English astronomer John Flamsteed (1646 –1719). He called them the Parilicium from the Roman Palilia, the feast of Pales.

The Parthenon, Athena’s temple on the Greek Acropolis in Athens was aligned to the rising of the Hyades star cluster, which appears in the constellation Taurus. Its brightest stars along with the bright red giant Aldebaran (although not a part of the cluster) form a Lamda (Λ) or triangle.

In mythology, the Hyades (Greek Ὑάδες) meaning “the rainy ones” or “weeping ones” were daughters of Atlas.

The daughters wept for the loss of paradise, symbolized by their father’s condition after the end of the Titanomachy (war of the Titans) whose punishment was to forever keep the heavens separate from earth. The Greeks who worshiped Athena understood that she was the key to the reestablishment of earthly paradise through her association with the shining god of many names (Pan, Apollo, Helios, Attis, Sol Invictus, Hermes the Thrice Great) whose aegis she wore as protection.

Aelia Capitolina means literally, “the high place of the shining sun,” a reference to same many named god whose mystical world religion has sought to carry out the plan of the Nachash since the time of the fall at the Garden of Eden.

This Nachashian insult ended of course in 14 May 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel and the reclamation of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount at the end of the Six-Day War in 1967.