Kwa zaidi ya miaka elfu mbili, Palestina imekuwa kivutio cha dini tatu za Mungu mmoja. Wapo wanaume na wanawake waliotoa sadaka, kukusanya masalia, na kuomba, na wengine walisoma, kupigana, kuhubiri, kuchimba au kushinda. Ikiwa ghala tajiri la nafaka katika Mpevu wa Rutuba, hakuna ardhi iliyowahi kuwa kitovu cha utalii wa kidini na ucha Mungu, hija na ukoloni kama Palestina. (Matar 2013: 913)

For over two millennia, Palestine has been the destination of the three monotheisms. While some of these men and women offered sacrifices, collected relics, and prayed, others studied fought, preached, excavated or conquered. A rich granary in the Fertile Crescent, no land has been as much the focus of religious tourism and piety, pilgrimage and colonization as Palestine. (Matar 2013: 913)

Wasafiri wa Ulaya wa kisasa, mahujaji, waandishi, wachora ramani, wanajiografia, wataalamu wa Biblia wa Mashariki na watafutaji wa mapenzi hawakuwa na ushahidi wa kihistoria, kijiografia wala kiakiolojia, wala sababu nzuri, ya kuitaja Palestina ya kisasa kuwa ‘Kanaani’. Walinakili kimantiki ramani za kale za Palaestina, ramani zilizotokana na zaidi ya miaka elfu moja na mia tano ya Ustaarabu wa Kale wa Kigiriki na Kirumi na Ukristo wa Kibyzantini. Pia walitegemea kumbukumbu na urithi wa majina ya mahali nchini humo kutoka enzi za Ukigiriki, Kirumi, Ukristo wa mwanzo, Ubyzantini na Uislamu wa Kiarabu.

Modern European travellers, pilgrims, writers, cartographers, geographers, biblical Orientalists and romance seekers had no historical, geographic or archaeological evidence or good reason to refer to modern Palestine as ‘Cana’an’. They logically reproduced ancient maps of Palaestina, maps derived from more than a millennium and a half of Classical Antiquity and Byzantine Christianity. They also relied on the Hellenistic, Roman, early Christian, Byzantine and Arab Islamic toponymic memory and heritage of the country.

Katika karne ya 17 na 18, shauku ya Waorientalisti wa Kiulaya wa kimapenzi na ya "jiografia ya Biblia" ya Palestina iliongezeka kwa kasi kubwa, na machapisho mengi kuhusu jiografia ya kihistoria ya Palestina yakaanza kutokea, si kwa Kilatini tu bali pia katika lugha za Kiulaya za kienyeji. Hili lilijumuisha kazi za Hadrianus Relandus (1676‒1718), Mwanaorientalisti maarufu wa Kiholanzi, mchora ramani na mwanafilolojia aliyetoa mchango wa kudumu katika utafiti wa jiografia ya Kimaandiko ya Palestina (Pailin 1984: 212). Kazi yake ilikuwa ya kifilolojia-kitheolojia kwa kiasi kikubwa, na ilijumuisha Antiquitates Sacrae veterum Hebraeorum (1708) na Palaestina ex monumentis Veteris illustrata (1714), zilizoandikwa kwa Kilatini, ambamo alijaribu kuelezea jiografia ya "Palestina ya Kibiblia".

In the 17th and 18th centuries European romantic Orientalist and ‘biblical geography’ of Palestine increased phenomenally and voluminous publications on the historical geography of Palestine began to appear not only in Latin but in vernacular European languages. This included the works of Hadrianus Relandus (1676‒1718), a prominent Dutch Orientalist, cartographer and philologist who made a lasting contribution to research on the scriptural geography of Palestine (Pailin 1984: 212). His work was mainly philological-theological in character and included Antiquitates Sacrae veterum Hebraeorum (1708) and Palaestina ex monumentis Veteris illustrata (1714), written in Latin, in which he sought to describe the geography of ‘biblical Palestine’.