The Mediterranean Coast
The Mediterranean Sea got its name from the Romans. The name is born of two Latin words and it means "middle of the land." It could reflect an observation that the Sea was surrounded by land. Or it could reflect a feeling that that Sea was at the center of the Earth. It was surely at the center of Rome's empire. And we see it is also at the center of a map of the biblical world.
In Scripture, the Mediterranean is referred to sometimes as "the Great Sea" (e.g., Joshua 1:4, Ezekiel 47:20). While we know that it is dwarfed in size by the Atlantic and the Pacific, it was surely the biggest body of water that the ancient Israelites had known. At any given point, you can see across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or the Dead Sea. But the Mediterranean stretched out as far as their eyes could see. Meanwhile, the other title for the Mediterranean that is found in the Bible is "the western sea" (e.g., Deuteronomy 34:2, Zechariah 14:8). This name owes itself to the fact that the Mediterranean was the western border for the land of Canaan (a.k.a., Promised Land, Israel, Palestine, etc.). To Israel's southwest, Egypt occupied the coastline along the southeast corner of the Mediterranean. To Israel's northwest, it was the large landmass that we know of as Turkey the held the northeast coastline. Egypt is prominent in the Old Testament story, while the region of modern Turkey does not figure much into the story until the New Testament. Meanwhile, closer to Israel itself, it was the Philistines who lived along the southern coast and the Phoenicians who occupied the northern coast. The Mediterranean does not play a large role in the story of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, meanwhile, the coastal cities of Caesarea, Joppa, Tyre, Sidon, and Antioch are all significant. In terms of topography, the Mediterranean coast is, naturally, near sea level. The one dramatic exception is toward the northern part of Israel, where Mt. Carmel juts out into the Sea (near the modern city of Haifa today). The climate is temperate, and the land approaching the coast is fertile and habitable. |