Palestine A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha

The structure of the Palestine Church created during this period is still preserved in the structure of the Palestine Church today. The Church in Palestine became an independent body in the 5th century (autocephaly), no longer an appendage of the empire of Byzantium, an important stage in developing the polity of Palestine. Also, the religio-cultural‒geographic memories of Provincia Palaestina (greater Palestine) under the Byzantines have been kept alive by the local churches of Palestine. Today the shared memories and indeed actual institutional continuities of the ‘Three in One’ Palestine is represented in the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, or the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (Arabic:

Kanisat Al-Rum al-Ortodoks fi-Quds), the Byzantine Orthodox Church of al-Quds. Originally the Patriarchate of Aelia Capitolina, it is regarded by many Christians as the ‘mother’ church of all Christendom. Today it exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the predominantly Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians of Palestine, Israel and Jordan. The headquarters of the Palestine Orthodox Patriarchate is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The church dates back to 4th century Palestine. The name Church of the Holy Sepulchre is derived from the Latin Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri. The Israeli name, Knesiyat ha-Kever, is derived from the same European tradition which began with the Latin Crusaders. Yet the Arabic name used by Palestinian Christians and Muslims, the Church of the Resurrection, Kaneesat al-Qiyamah, is directly derived from the Orthodox Greek toponym of Byzantine Palestine: Church of the Anastasis (Ναός της Αναστάσεως), named after the ‘resurrection’ of Jesus. This is another way of showing how Palestinian toponyms and local toponymic memory managed to preserve some of the social and historic memories of 4th century Palestine and the dominant religious traditions of the ‘Three Palestines’ of Late Antiquity.

Moreover, the religious authority over the Orthodox Christians of Palestine, Israel and Jordan is derived directly from its autocephaly, independence and jurisdiction over the ‘Three Palestines’ of Late Antiquity.

This social memory of historic Palestine is also reflected by the fact that the Church celebrates its liturgy in the Byzantine Rite, whose original language is Koine Greek, the official language of the ‘Three Palestines’ during the Byzantine period.

Also, today the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III of Jerusalem is represented as ‘Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine’; ‘all Palestine’ of today, then, is a modern reformulation of the ‘Three Palestines’ of the Byzantine era. Elected in 2005, Theophilos III could trace his office in Jerusalem to the Council of Chalcedon in 451, an office with historical ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Provincia Palaestina (Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda and Palaestina Salutaris). The Patriarch of Aelia Capitolina is also the religious leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land/Palestine/Israel and Jordan, who are predominantly Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs. The election was endorsed by Jordan on 24 September 2005, as one of the ‘three governments’ whose endorsement is apparently required. Two years later, the Israeli government officially recognised his election on 16 December 2007.