God Originated “From the River to the Sea.” But He Gave That Land to the Jewish People.

In the aftermath of October 7 2023, pro-Palestinian activists worldwide have been chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” But in Deuteronomy 11:24, it is the Jewish people who are told by Moses that “Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.” (HCSB). 

“Palestine” is not a Bible name. The Bible never refers to Israel as Palestine. In New Testament times, the Holy Land was divided into three parts: Galilee in the north, Samaria in the center, and Judea in the south. Back then, Ioudaía (“Judea”) was a Roman province that included Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. (Idumea was south of Judea.) 

“Palestine” is a name given to the Holy Land by the Roman emperor Hadrian in the wake of the Bar Kochba revolt.  In 135, the Romans merged Galilee and Judea and named the enlarged province Syria Palaestina. The Roman name “Palaestina” is derived from a Latinized corruption of the Greek “Philistia,” and Philistia was the land of the Old Testament Philistines, an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age. The giant Goliath was a Philistine. Hadrian used the name Palaestina in order to sever all Jewish connection to the geographical area covering current Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the western part of Jordan. Hadrian then renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and turned it into a pagan city.

As for me, I really don’t mind hearing people say “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” I believe it will be free.  It will be a part of the Holy Land.  It will be a part of Israel.

Margot Armer