Herodotus 484 - 424 BC (Greek Geographer/historian)

1. Here are two maps based directly upon the writings of a Greek geographer and historian named Herodotus who lived in 450 BC. Like Hesiod and Hecataeus his predecessors, he possessed a shallow concept of Israel and has a vague understanding of the Red sea as a single finger of water. Apart from the Bible's clear references to Arabia as a geographic place in 1000 BC (2 Chronicles 9:14) Herodotus is the oldest secular historian who records the region of Arabia, some 550 years after the Bible.
2. Herodotus called the land of Israel "Palestine" (ie. Philistines) in 450 BC. Herodotus did write of "palaistine" in Greek, however, he was not referring to "palestine".  "Palaistine" referred to the land of the Philistines.  He wrote of "palaistine syrine"--the Philistines of Syria--which was a limited area near the southwestern coast of Israel.  Modern "palestine" is the result of a series of transliterations from the Hebrew "Peleshet" to the Roman Latin "palaestina" History shows that it was Hadrian who renamed the land of Israel "Palestine" in 135 AD. Hadrian's intent was to wipe out all traces of the Jews. The fact he gave Jerusalem a new name, "Colonia Aelia Capitolina" and the land a new name "Palestine". This proves above all that the land of the Jews was not called Palestine in the first century in a formal sense, for if it was, Hadrian would never have used a name already associated with the Jews. The apostolic fathers reflect this change in their writings. Herodotus used the term Palaistinê to describe not just the geographical area where the Philistines lived, but the entire area between Phoenicia and Egypt, including the promised land of Israel. Herodotus actually tells us that he did not travel personally to either Egypt or Israel and relied upon second hand accounts of others. He was aware of the Jews, though, since he says that the inhabitants of "Palaistinê" were circumcised. This can only refer to the Jews. He also discusses how God destroyed Sennacherib's army confirming the text of 2 Kings 19:35-36. Although he wrote his six books in 450 BC, the earliest actual manuscripts of Herodotus are dated 900 AD. That means there is a span of 1350 years between when the book was written and the earliest actual hard copies that are extant. There are 8 different manuscripts of Herodotus, the oldest being dated from 900 AD. We need to remember that the manuscripts of Herodotus' history likely contain changes as do other ancient works. For example, Agatharchides of Cnidus wrote, "On the Erythraean Sea" in 169 BC, has been reconstructed from three other ancient authors: Diodorus (49 BC), Strabo (15 AD), Photius (897 AD). The original script of Agatharchides, often has three widely varying readings or "fragments". This is instructive because Photius, who lived in 900 AD (the same time as the oldest manuscript of Herodotus) greatly changed and embellished with his own comments of Agatharchides words when compared to the older versions of Diodorus and Strabo. Of course none of the three agree and contain many differences. This contrasts with the Bible, where we have a complete copy from 325AD and over 50,000 manuscripts. The variation between all the manuscripts is very slight. What this means, is that there is a good chance that later copyists inserted the post 135 AD name of "Palaistinê" into Herodotus' work. In any case, it is clear that Herodotus used "Palaistinê" to refer to everything from Syria to Egypt, including Israel. Other ancient geographers said that Arabia was directly next to Goshen in Egypt because after 106 AD Caesar annexed the modern Sinai Peninsula and renamed it "Arabia. Probably both the words "Arabia" and "Palaistinê" were glosses added to reflect post third century AD geography and terminology.
3. Herodotus is called the "Father of History", who was also an ancient geographer who made a lot of major mistakes. However, he is one of the oldest known geographers. Although we do not have any actual maps of Herodotus, people have gone to great lengths to create maps based directly on his writings. Below are a few examples. Looking at these modern reconstruction's, we immediately notice two glaring problems with his geography. First the Red sea is a single finger of water that does not split into the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba. Second, there is no reference to Israel, Judah or the Jewish nation anywhere in Herodotus' writings. The map reflects this and only notes Phoenicia. Herodotus being a pagan Roman living in modern Italy, must have deliberately ignored Israel for some unknown reason.
4. He tells us that his map is based upon a report from another and not first hand experience: "Thus I give credit to those from whom I received this account of Egypt" (2:12) "Concerning the nature of the river [Nile], I was not able to gain any information either from the priests or from others." (2:19)
5. Herodotus made a triple error in incorrectly viewing Egypt as a narrow band of land adjacent the length of the Nile with Libya on the west and Arabia on the east. "So said the oracle. Now the Nile, when it overflows, floods not only the Delta, but also the tracts of country on both sides the stream which are thought to belong to Libya and Arabia, in some places reaching to the extent of two days' journey from its banks, in some even exceeding that distance, but in others falling short of it. Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any information either from the priests or from others." (Herodotus 2:19)
6. Herodotus incorrectly sees everything east of the Pelusian Branch of the Nile as part of Arabia. (2:8, 12, 15, 19, 30, 75, 124, 158) As one proceeds beyond Heliopolis up the country, Egypt becomes narrow, the Arabian range of hills (2:8) "I went once to a certain place in Arabia, almost exactly opposite the city of Buto, to make inquiries concerning the winged serpents." (2:75) Some were required to drag blocks of stone down to the Nile from the quarries in the Arabian range of hills (2:124) "Necos started a canal to the Red Sea, which was finished by Darius ... four days' journey long... The water is derived from the Nile" (Herodotus 2.158) "Psammetichus left a son called Necos, who succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea - a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian - the length of which is four days' journey, and the width such as to admit of two triremes being rowed along it abreast. The water is derived from the Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis, near Patumus, the Arabian town, being continued thence until it joins the Red Sea. At first it is carried along the Arabian side of the Egyptian plain, as far as the chain of hills opposite Memphis, whereby the plain is bounded, and in which lie the great stone quarries; here it skirts the base of the hills running in a direction from west to east, after which it turns and enters a narrow pass, trending southwards from this point until it enters the Arabian Gulf. From the northern sea to that which is called the southern or Erythraean, [Gulf of Suez] the shortest and quickest passage, which is from Mount Casius, the boundary between Egypt and Syria, to the Gulf of Arabia, is a distance of exactly one thousand furlongs. [200 km, yet the actual distance is 150 km] But the way by the canal is very much longer on account of the crookedness of its course. A hundred and twenty thousand of the Egyptians, employed upon the work in the reign of Necos, lost their lives in making the excavation. He at length desisted from his undertaking, in consequence of an oracle which warned him "that he was labouring for the barbarian." The Egyptians call by the name of barbarians all such as speak a language different from their own. Necos, when he gave up the construction of the canal, turned all his thoughts to war, and set to work to build a fleet of triremes, some intended for service in the northern sea, and some for the navigation of the Erythraean. These last were built in the Arabian Gulf where the dry docks in which they lay are still visible." (2.158-159)
7. Herodotus, however, did correctly understand that the first version of the Suez Canal was fed by water from the Nile: "Necos started a canal to the Red Sea, which was finished by Darius ... four days' journey long... The water is derived from the Nile" (Herodotus 2.158)
8. Herodotus incorrectly views the Red Sea as a single finger of water with little or no distinction between the two gulfs of Suez and Aqaba. The only indication we have of two distinct gulfs, is where he says, "the two gulfs ran into the land so as almost to meet each other, and left between them only a very narrow tract of country" (2:11). Herodotus seems to visualize that the two gulfs come together as if you were to leave a 1/4 inch between your thumb and forefinger. He had no concept of the 250 km distance between the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, but instead thought they came together near the Gulf of Suez. "In Arabia, not far from Egypt, there is a long and narrow gulf running inland from the sea called the Erythraean, of which I will here set down the dimensions. Starting from its innermost recess, and using a row-boat, you take forty days to reach the open main, while you may cross the gulf at its widest part in the space of half a day. In this sea there is an ebb and flow of the tide every day. My opinion is that Egypt was formerly very much such a gulf as this - one gulf penetrated from the sea that washes Egypt on the north, and extended itself towards Ethiopia; another entered from the southern ocean, and stretched towards Syria; the two gulfs ran into the land so as almost to meet each other, and left between them only a very narrow tract of country. Now if the Nile should choose to divert his waters from their present bed into this Arabian gulf, what is there to hinder it from being filled up by the stream within, at the utmost, twenty thousand years? For my part, I think it would be filled in half the time. How then should not a gulf, even of much greater size, have been filled up in the ages that passed before I was born, by a river that is at once so large and so given to working changes?" (Herodotus 2.11)
9. If your take the map and remove the modern Sinai Peninsula, you too would think Arabia was beside the Nile like Herodotus. Herodotus was only partially correct on two different elements of his geography. He correctly understood that the Red sea was near the Nile, and that Arabia was east of the Red Sea. He was simply unaware of the missing the 250 km! Since he didn't fully understand the Gulfs due to lack of first hand experience, he erred by placing Arabia beside the Nile. This fully explains how Herodotus incorrectly viewed Arabia as being beside Egypt.
10. In conclusion, it is clear why those intent on making the traditional Sinai Peninsula as Arabia in order to harmonize Mt. Musa with Gal 4:25 cannot use Herodotus as their proof. Arabia was no more directly east of the Nile as Lybia was direct west of the Nile. In fact both countries were hundreds of miles away in opposite directions.

(Click on photo for high resolution)

The Suez Canal was first completed in 500 BC: "Psammetichus left a son called Necos, who succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea - a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian - the length of which is four days' journey, and the width such as to admit of two triremes being rowed along it abreast. The water is derived from the Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis, near Patumus, the Arabian town, being continued thence until it joins the Red Sea. (Herodotus 2.158-159, 484 BC) No concept of the Gulf of Aqaba, but a strange forked tongue at the top of the Gulf of Suez: "the two gulfs ran into the land so as almost to meet each other, and left between them only a very narrow tract of country. (Herodotus 2.11, 450 BC)

 

 

 

By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.

 

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