Palestine is Not the Promised Land

The Arabic culture has the oldest mythological heritage in the world. Unfortunately limited knowledge is available. Arab educators include western civilizations and mythology in their Arabic educational curricula, while their own culture has an in-depth mythology abundantly obtainable from limited archeological research that took place on certain parts of the western part of the Arabian Peninsula based on place-names of the Hebrew biblical stories.

Mythology tells us that gods enjoy power and force. They like to dwell on the highest mountains. Zeus, the god of the Greek mythical narratives abode on Olympus. Greek gods were used to relate to the earlier gods of the Orient and even Europe itself is named after the eloped daughter of the king of Tyre (the City of Soor in south Lebanon). Curiosity and interference were inherent qualities in gods, in spite of the fact that each god is expected to fulfill a specific purpose in the field of his intended qualification. We use to have a god of power, god of wisdom, god of knowledge, god of life, god of beauty, god of love, god of perfection, as well as gods for seduction, or deceive, for tricks and treason. There were also gods to present every natural characteristic, such as Neptune, god of the sea.

Gods have their own ways to intermingle with humans, and some had sexual relations that produced heroes such as Hercules, son of Zeus. Struggle for survival among gods took place, and each god was pushing the fate of humans to suit his own intention and bring more admirers and believers to his side to worship him. An inquisitive process grew out of such conflicts. What kind of super and unseen power does exist in the universe?

The curiosity to know what comes after death brought the metaphysical expectations to life, and the exploration of such mysteries created human environments that allow for various spiritual and ritual interpretations to grow and prosper. Rituals involving different gods brought devoted allegiance to the strongest among them. Through the ages, the changing attitudes and expectations for the omnipotent, most powerful creator brought intellectual understandings for religions to build their own basis of beliefs and affiliations.

High mountains, similar to Olympus, are not found in Europe alone. The Mexican Mountains and the South American Heights were used as a suitable ground for the struggle among gods. The Inca Empire of the Quechuan peoples in Peru flourished for centuries. They were rich with ancient rituals, maintained its presence until the Spanish conquest, as a result of the Europeans discovery of the "new" world. But the richest location for religious growth took place in the Middle East, in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula in particular, where its ancient civilizations historical development are recorded in the Hebrew biblical stories.

In the land of ancient ‘Asir, a number of mountain gods were famous such as Yahweh, Sabaoth, Shalom, Shaddai, Elyon and others, came to be identified with one another and eventually recognized as one supreme deity. The Hebrew biblical stories of some local West Arabian tribes called the Israelites brought in the recognition of monotheism into a highly thoughtful religion with set of scriptures, involving a sophisticated notion of divinity and an exceptionally refined social and ethical content. The development of a religion with a book by a literate people facilitates its spread and recognition.

Current survival of place-names in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula recorded in the Hebrew biblical stories allow toponymic analysis to make sense for archaeologists. Geographical place-names are more articulate than mute archeological findings without inscriptions to interpret. Place-names tell us about the nature of the location and how the name is pronounced. They provide information that at least has the virtue of absolute or relative certainty. What is surprising indeed is the fact that in-spite of an extremely long period of at least 3000 years that separates between the Biblical forms of these names from their present counterparts, for most part, they are so readily recognizable in their present Arabic form.

To ascertain whether or not Biblical history could have run its course in the western parts of the Arabian Peninsula rather than in Palestine, matters relating to topography, geology, and minerals, hydrology, flora and fauna must be considered. For example, if King Solomon had his palace built out of ‘costly stones’, which were ‘hewn according to measure, sawed with saws, back and front’. And were also ‘huge stones, stones of eight to ten cubits’ (1 Sam. 7:9-10), the building material indicated could hardly have been the common limestone of Palestine. More likely it was granite, which is still found and quarried in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula. The same material must have been used in building the structure round the walls of Solomon’s temple. Considering that this structure was made ‘with stone prepared at the quarry’, so that ‘neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple, while it was being built’ (1 Sam. 6:7).

In West Arabia, we find similar stories about gods and peoples as the stories we find in the Hebrew Bible. Stories that mix mythology with legends, relating to specific geographical locations, told by storytellers and relaters, generation after generation. Through such a process, a number of changes may have occurred to serve different purposes. In the Genesis (6:1-24), Yahweh is one of the gods who were presented in tribes similar to human tribes. But Yahweh has distinguished himself from the rest of gods, by being full of pride and respect, never seen among humans, or engaging himself in sexual intercourse with a human to produce a special tribe or tribes related to him.

At the time Yahweh created man, about six other gods were equally known in Arabia. Both Al Da’ya (god of knowledge), and Al Hayat (god of life) were well known allies who had two holly trees planted in the Garden of Eden or "Al Junaynah" at the lower part of Wadi Bishah. Yahweh created man from the earth of Wadi Adam, next to Wadi Bishah, and brought him to the Garden where he planted special trees, originally belonging to other gods; and let the man take care of the garde