Names Of Places In The Bible

I still remember the first time a place name in the Bible actually stopped me in my tracks. I was reading through the Gospel of John, minding my own business, when I hit the word Bethany and suddenly realised I had no idea what it meant. It turns out it means "house of affliction" or possibly "house of figs", depending on which scholar you ask. That tiny discovery sent me down a rabbit hole I have never really climbed out of. These days, whenever I read a passage, I find myself pausing over the names of towns, wells, mountains and valleys, because so many of them are quietly telling a story underneath the story.

What I love most is that biblical place names were rarely chosen at random. In the ancient world, a name was a label, a memory and sometimes a whole sermon crammed into two or three syllables. A town called Bethel means "house of God". A city called Jericho is often linked to the idea of fragrance or moon city. Bethlehem, the little town everyone knows from Christmas carols, means "house of bread" — which feels almost too perfect given who was born there. Once you start noticing this, reading the Bible becomes a bit like walking through a neighbourhood where every street sign has a backstory.

Why the Geography of the Bible Still Matters to Me

バリアフリー法とは｜新法との違いや2025年改正を分かりやすく解説 - BuildApp News【住宅DX】