Ancient Palestine had the misfortune of being the land bridge caught between warring, aggressive empires to the north and east, and those from the south and west.
The land is a "bridge" in the sense that it offered the best passageways of the ancient world - international trade routes bottlenecked between the vast Arabian desert and the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, this one narrow band of fertile and desolated acreage barely the size of New Jersey has had inordinate impact upon the history of mankind.Much of the Holy Land's rich history is a chronology of the ebb and flow of ancient power. The empires of Arabia and Egypt on the south, and the Assyrian, Syrian and Babylon empires to the north and east often sought control of this strategically important land.
Of course, the international routes also brought trade advantages. Cities flourished as they supplied caravans and bartered in goods. These cities along important trade routes became stages upon which biblical scenes were played, over which battles were fought, and in which civilizations rose and fell.
Running through the land were two of the most important trade routes of the known world. Upon these, trade goods of empires flowed at a camel's pace.
On the seaward side was the major path for caravans, "The Way to the Sea," or "Via Maris." This path followed the coastline from Egypt through Gaza to Joppa and Megiddo. From there, branches lead north to Damascus and to Asia Minor. On the interior was the "King's Highway," leading from Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula and then north to Damascus, where it joined the other route for connection to Mesopotamia and Babylonia. This route added important branches to Arabia.
Palestine's cities were also webbed together by a network of local paths, or ways. The most important, the "Way of the Patriarchs," linked the central cities, including Beersheba, Jerusalem, Samaria and Dothan. The trail runs through the center of the land following the ridge of the coastal plain that overlooks the Jordan River valley.
Many of the important travels of the Old Testament followed these ways. The following are a few highlights of events that occurred on the three routes:
- Abraham, born in Ur of the Chaldees, journeyed from Damascus to Canaan on the King's Highway.
- After reaching Canaan, Abraham crossed from the King's Highway to Shechem, and continued south on what would be known as "Way of the Patriarchs."
- After returning to Canaan from Egypt, Abraham traveled on the Way of the Patriarchs where he met Melchizedek, to whom he paid tithes.
- Jacob traveled up the Way of the Patriarchs to escape Esau's rage, and returned along the same trail many years later.
- Joseph was at the Plain of Dothan, where the Way of the Patriarchs approaches a branch of the Way to the Sea, when he was tossed into a cistern by his brothers and sold as a slave to caravaners passing to Egypt.
- As Moses led the children of Israel to their land of promise, they eventually arrived in Palestine. Here, the spies traveled part of the Way of the Patriarchs to survey the land. They returned on the same route, bearing figs and grapes.
- The Israelites were not allowed to enter the Promised Land at that time, instead were led to wander in the wilderness. When they were led back to the Land of Promise nearly 40 years later, they traveled along the King's Highway. Moses pled to pass in peace but his promise to "not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards" was refused by the king of the Ammonites and Amorites. The results were disastrous for the king who was subsequently slain. (Num. 21:22.)
- Both David and Solomon used the routes frequently in their many travels.
- Elijah fled from Jezebel, probably along the Way to the Sea.
- Assyrian armies, in their battles with the Israelites, followed the Way to the Sea as they entered Palestine.
Travelers along the trails found water where they could in deep cylindrical wells, in muddy springs, in oases, or in streams or rivers. Often they paid for water. Travelers walked, or rode zebus - the humped ox - or sure-footed donkeys. The fastest caravaners were mounted on camels. The camels carried such goods as papyrus, cedar wood, gold, copper, ivory, dyes, grain, olive oil, and cloves.
During their journey, travelers could find refreshment sipping on fermented sheep's milk, and eating coarse breads. In the cities, they could trade their wares as well. One of the busiest trade cities was Damascus, where the two international trade routes met. Here the world's most skilled artisans worked copper and brass, glass and mosaics and wood, and wove native silk threads with gold and silver thread.
But opulence was the exception along these routes. Travelers were more likely to see a people doing backbreaking labor to win a meager subsistance. They might see such things as women carrying enormous bundles of brush, roped to their padded foreheads, or men thrashing grain beneath the ox's hoof and winnowing it in the dry wind. Most homes of the day were thick-walled of rock or adobe brick with little furniture.
The Israelitish men typically dressed in short wrap-around skirts girded with a belt, and a sleeved cloak that served as a blanket. A woman wore a long skirt, tunic and cloak, with a narrow scarf that framed her face and wrapped back to the tunic's hem. They wore sandals of camel hide or wood.
Sources: Everyday Life in Bible Times, by the National Geographic Society, Atlas of the Bible, by the Reader's Digest, and the Macmillan Bible Atlas.