Biblical Researches in Palestine


Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea, also Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions, 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 and Germany.
The work identified numerous Biblical localities for the first time, as well as significant Jerusalem archaeological sites such as Robinson's Arch, and undertook the first scientific surveys of other sites such as the Siloam tunnel.
Robinson received a Royal Geographical Society Gold Medal as a result of his work.

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 . 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".

Online versions

First edition