Ikki ming yildan ortiq vaqtdan beri Falastin uchta tavhid dinining maqsadi bo‘lib kelmoqda. Bu erga kelgan erkaklar va ayollarning bir qismi qurbonliklar keltirgan, muqaddas qoldiqlarni yig‘gan va ibodat qilgan; boshqalari esa o‘rgangan, urushgan, va'z aytgan, qazishmalar olib borgan yoki zabt etgan. Hosildor Hilol bo‘ylaridagi boy don ombori bo‘lgan bu yer, diniy ziyorat va taqvo, hajga sayohat va mustamlakachilikning diqqat markazi bo‘lganidek, hech bir boshqa zamin bo‘lmagan. (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)

Zamonaviy Yevropaning sayyohlari, ziyoratchilari, yozuvchilari, kartograflari, geograflari, Injil sohasidagi sharqshunoslari va romantika izlovchilari zamonaviy Falastinni "Kan'on" deb atashga hech qanday tarixiy, geografik yoki arxeologik dalil va asosli sabab topa olmas edilar. Ular mantiqan ravishda qadimgi Palaestina xaritalarini, ya'ni bir ming besh yuz yildan ortiq davom etgan Klassik antik davr va Vizantiya nasroniyligidan kelib chiqqan xaritalarni qayta ko'chirdilar. Shuningdek, ular mamlakatning Ellinistik, Rim, ilk nasroniy, Vizantiya va arab islom davridagi toponimik xotirasi va merosiga tayandilar.

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.

XVII–XVIII asrlarda Yevropada romantik sharqshunoslik va Falastinning "Injil geografiyasi"ga bo'lgan qiziqish benihoya ortdi, va Falastinning tarixiy geografiyasiga oid keng ko'lamli nashrlar nafaqat lotin tilida, balki Yevropaning milliy tillarida ham chop etila boshladi. Bularga gollandiyalik taniqli sharqshunos, kartograf va filolog Hadrianus Relandus (1676–1718) asarlari ham kiradi; u Muqaddas Yozuvlardagi Falastin geografiyasini o'rganishga doimiy hissa qo'shgan (Pailin 1984: 212). Uning ishi asosan filologik-teologik xarakterga ega bo'lib, u lotin tilida yozilgan "Antiquitates Sacrae veterum Hebraeorum" (1708) va "Palaestina ex monumentis Veteris illustrata" (1714) asarlarini o'z ichiga olgan, unda u "Injildagi Falastin"ning geografiyasini tasvirlashga intilgan.

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’.