A First Century Traveller's Guide to Palestine

By Dennis Hawkes

"A 1st Century Traveller's Guide to Palestine" is a small, easy-to-read ebook, by Professor Hawkes that gives the reader an impression of what it was like in the time of the New Testament part of the Bible. Set in the year AD60 and written as a contemporary guide book it covers topics such as traveling to Palestine, what people eat, politics, what accommodation is like etc. The book is well researched with a comprehensive bibliography ideal for history teachers, bible teachers and bible students as well as a general readership.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dennis Hawkes
• Release date: Jun 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476228600

Dennis Hawkes

Emeritus Professors Dennis and Freda Hawkes live in Wales, UK and have lectured and jointly led a research team at a university until retirement. They are members of an evangelical church where Dennis was a church leader until retiring and have taught the bible for many years, mostly to students and young professionals. Their experience has led them to offer these resources to help other people to start to read and understand the bible.

Book preview

A First-Century Traveller’s Guide to Palestine

Published by Dennis Hawkes at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Dennis Hawkes

ISBN 9781476228600

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Preface

Suppose you lived in the first century AD and were contemplating a journey from Rome, the capital of the Empire, to Palestine, what would you want to know before you made the journey? This Travel Guide is set in AD 60, during the reign of Emperor Nero, when the Temple at Jerusalem is almost finished and before its destruction in AD 70. There are many names for the area covered in this guidebook, for example it has been known as Canaan, Greater Syria, Israel, Judah, Judaea, Palestinia and Palestine. By AD 60 the region was divided into three provinces known by the Roman names Iudaea, Galilee and Perea, (Fig 1). In this guidebook I have used the term ‘Palestine’.

Modern dates and metric units have been used throughout for convenience. Mostly, well-known modern place names have been used. The distinction between villages, towns and cities is difficult to make so far from the time although larger cities above 35,000 inhabitants have been identified. The Great Sea I have called by its modern name The Mediterranean Sea, the Salt Sea is called the Dead Sea and what the Romans call the Sea of Tiberius is called the Sea of Galilee. I have chosen to use the term AD (Anno Domini), the year of our Lord. instead of the increasingly used neutral equivalent CE, Common Era and also I have used BC (Before Christ) rather than BCE (Before the Common Era), since I think these terms may be more familiar to the reader.

The guide has been written by consulting many sources, some ancient like the Jewish historian Josephus writing in the first century and some modern books, journal papers and website articles. In many cases archaeological scholarship is not in agreement over dates of building and of populations and even location of some towns and villages. The year of the death of Herod the Great is assumed to be 4 BC although, as you can find by searching the internet, there is some disagreement about the date, with some putting it at 1 BC. No guarantee can be given for the accuracy of the information used throughout, but where possible sources have been crosschecked and are identified.

There are some references to the bible by the name of the bible book, see the contents page of a bible. This guide is best read as a companion to the Bible and I trust the information in the guide will help the reader understand more about New Testament times.

I am indebted to those friends who have read through the drafts and suggested alterations especially to my wife Freda for her repeated and patient proof reading.

Dennis Hawkes

Cardiff, Wales

April 2012

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CHAPTER 1. Travelling to Palestine

1.1 Why Go Now

AD 60 is a good time to visit Palestine, whether on private business or posted there by the authorities in Rome. Palestine has a distinctive 2,000-year-old culture based on monotheism, an unusual worldview in our time. We live with the ‘Pax Romana’, the peace that has been brought about by the Roman Empire’s civilisation and by its legions. The last major war in the area was the Third Mithridatic War with the ancient Kingdom of Pontus (73-63 BC), a state of Persian origin on the southern coast of the Black Sea. Since then Rome has been in control of Palestine, comprised of Iudaea, Galilee and Perea (Fig 1). The region has been free of major unrest for