PART 2. PALESTINE1. RELIEF AND CLIMATE1. Extent and NameWhat we know as "The Holy Land" extends over the present countries ofIsrael, parts of Jordan and Lebanon. The most-used name for this area, in theOld Testament, was Canaan. By naming their fatherland after their enemies, theIsraelites commemorated the fact that they, nomads from the desert, had onceconquered through military struggle the land that God had given them. TheHebrew tribes occupied the land of Canaan about 1200 years before Christ.They exchanged their nomadic existence for gradual settlement in fixedhabitations: these events occurred at the same time as great political andethnological changes in the countries at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean.God's promise to Abraham dates from this time: "Go from your country andyour kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I willmake of you a great nation" (Gn.12:1).For the Jews of Jesus' time this name was not limited to the laughably smallarea of 2000km² which remained to them after the return of Zerubbabel. No,the Holy Land was all that which had been subject to the mighty kings ofbiblical history, David and Solomon (1000-930 BC): it reached from "Dan toBeersheba" (Jgs.20:1), that is, from Hermon to the Wadi Ghazza, and to the eastof the plains of Moab. Later, it was considerably reduced. In 930 BC it wassplit up to become the kingdoms of Israel and Judea. During the followingcenturies, both were to lose their political independence and to become,successively, parts of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Romanempires.Two centuries before the birth of Jesus, 2 commanders, John Hyrcanus andAlexander Janneus, had restored the previous kingdom. In 63 BC the Romansoccupied Palestine. But even in its heyday, Palestine remained a small countryof only 25.124 km². It took a week, on foot, to travel from Nazareth toJerusalem, and one day from Jerusalem to Jericho. In Christ's time, the area ofPalestine was even smaller than Kera...