Supplementary

SACRED SCRIPTURE CONTEXT:

Geography, Topography, and
History
Where is this?

?
 Hatti

Mesopotamia
Land
Bridge
DESERT

Egypt
 Hittites

Assyria

Israel
 Babylon

Egypt
• The Coastal Plain
• Central Mountain
Range
• Jordan Rift Valley
• The Coastal Plain
• Central Mountain
Range
• Jordan Rift Valley
• The Coastal Plain
• Central Mountain
Range
• Jordan Rift Valley
 DEAD SEA
•also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and
Israel and the West Bank to the west. The Dead Sea is the deepest
hypersaline lake in the world. With 33.7% salinity, it is also one of the
world's saltiest bodies of water. This salinity makes for a harsh
environment in which animals cannot flourish, hence its name.
The sea is called "dead"
because its high salinity
prevents macroscopic aquatic
organisms, such as fish and
aquatic plants, from living in
it, though minuscule
quantities of bacteria and
microbial fungi are present.
Jordan River is a 251 kilometres (156 miles) long river
in West Asia flowing to the Dead Sea
SEA OF GALILEE or SEA OF TIBERIAS
is the largest freshwater lake in Israel
• The Coastal Plain
• Central Mountain
Range
•Jordan Rift Valley
• Trans Jordan
• The Valley of
Jezreel
• The Valley of
Jezreel
• The Yarmuk River

Gilead
• The Valley of
Jezreel
• The Yarmuk River
• The Jabbok River
Gilead
• The Valley of
Jezreel
• The Yarmuk River
• The Jabbok River
Gilead
• The Arnon River

Moab
• The King’s
 Megiddo
Highway
• The Way of
the Sea (the
Jericho
Way of the 
Philistines)
CLIMATE OF CANAAN
•Mediterranean Climate
•Dependent upon winter rains
• Early Rains: October
• Later Rains: April
 PALESTINE
The land that the
Israelites had
made their home
• means
“Philistine land”
 PALESTINE TODAY
• In the broad geographical
sense, Palestine refers to
an area that includes
contemporary Israel and
the Palestinian territories,
parts of Jordan, and parts
of Lebanon and Syria
Wheat
Vineyard
Olive Trees
Pomegranates in Jericho
AGRICULTURE
•Livestock was reared everywhere
•Sheep and goats produced meat, milk, leather and wool
•Temple consumed a vast number of cattle for sacrifices
•Donkeys, camels, horses (a rich man’s animal)
Sheep
Goats
 Camel

Donkey
Trade fostered by Israel’s key location
on the Mediterranean Sea
• Consisted mainly of barter
• Foreign trade
• Imports were chiefly luxury
goods: cedar, incense, aromatics,
gold, iron and copper, spices
• Exports – food, perfume, skins
and bitumen from the Dead Sea
• Palestine could have been a land
flowing with milk and honey, had
it not been for taxation and the
unjust distribution of wealth
•FISHING – in the rivers and
in Lake Tiberias which
marketed smoked or dried
fish all over the country
ST. PETER’S FISH
END