Biblical Researches in Palestine

Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea (1841 edition), also Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions (1856 edition), was a travelogue of 19th-century Palestine and the magnum opus of the "Father of Biblical Geography", Edward Robinson. The work was published simultaneously in England, the United States (dedicated to Moses Stuart) and Germany (dedicated to Carl Ritter).

The work identified numerous Biblical localities for the first time, as well as significant Jerusalem archaeological sites such as Robinson's Arch (subsequently named for the author), and undertook the first scientific surveys of other sites such as the Siloam tunnel.

Robinson received a Royal Geographical Society Patron's Medal as a result of his work.

The work was accompanied by the Kiepert maps of Palestine and Jerusalem.

Field work
Robinson made two journeys to Palestine. The first began on 12 March 1838 in Cairo, reached Jerusalem on 14 April, toured Arabia Petrea in May, arrived in Nazareth on 17 June, and ended in Beirut on 27 June; The second began on 5 April 1852 in Beirut, where he arrived back again 19 June 1852 having explored much of Northern Palestine.

Legacy
The work has been described as a "cornerstone of nineteenth century Palestine exploration". Earlier descriptions had relied on the accounts of travellers and legends, whereas Robinson and his guide and translator Eli Smith relied on only what they saw for themselves.

Albrecht Alt described the work as "epoch-making", and in describing the influence of the work in dispelling previously accepted knowledge of the region, stated: "he was able definitively to disprove a large part of what his predecessors had thought and had written. In Robinson's footnotes are forever buried the errors of many generations".



Professor Thomas W. Davis noted that "all later archaeological research in Palestine is in some way indebted to [Robinson]. His geographical study marked a new era". In a study of nineteenth century Biblical Studies in the United States, Jerry Wayne Brown described Robinson's work as "the most significant piece of American Biblical scholarship before the Civil War".

Professor Rana Issa of the American University of Beirut notes that the work relied on phonology as anthropological archaeology: Phonology here works as a kind of anthropological archaeology. However, instead of excavating the land, Robinson excavated from the lips of the natives. Phonology also turns the natives into a landscape. Unlike Thomson, this landscape does not feed into a poetic imagination; rather it is a landscape that must be made to reveal the traces of the Bible scientifically. For Robinson and Smith, the natives unwittingly carry the "divine dialect" of the land. Based on information from their lips, Robinson turns Ain Shams into the Bible's Beit Shemesh, Ain and Beit being so seemingly common as to be interchangeable. 'Akir is Ekron, while Dura is the biblical Adora because "dropping of the first feeble letter in not uncommon." Robinson records what the natives say only to correct their pronouncements about the place names against the Bible. What they have to say is important as raw material, which will ultimately be made to take the shape of a word that occurs in the Bible.

First edition

 * Also at Göttinger DigitalisierungsZentrum

Second edition

 * Also at Göttinger DigitalisierungsZentrum
 * Also at Göttinger DigitalisierungsZentrum

Maps

 * Set of maps of Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petraea (Accompanying the first edition)
 * [1] Sinai / H. Kiepert del ; H. Mahlmann
 * [2] Temple-area : ancient vaults / F. Catherwood del.
 * [3] Tomb of Helena
 * [4] Plan of Jerusalem : sketched from Sieber and Catherwood, corrected by the measurements of Robinson and Smith / drawn by H. Kiepert
 * [5] Environs of Jerusalem : from the routes and observations of Robinson and Smith / drawn by H. Kiepert
 * [6] Map of the peninsula of Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea : from the itineraries of E. Robinson and E. Smith / constructed and drawn by H. Kiepert ; engr. on stone by H. Mahlmann.