An Interesting Map

I downloaded the free sample of a Kindle book -- Charles Freeman's "A New History of Early Christianity"
today,

and there is a VERY interesting map in the first chapter, showing where the two indigenous peoples, during the Roman occupation, the Samaritans and the Jews, lived. Of course, the period of Jesus' life and the early Church was a good 700 years before Mohammad so there were no Muslims or "Palestinians" in the area.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Jews inhabited what is today the Galilee -- and the area known as the West Bank [we don't call it Judea without reason] It is very striking. I invite you to do the same as I did, and then ponder on where, exactly, is the Jewish heartland. It isn't Tel Aviv. And how fraudulent Arab claims really are.

I can accept that the farther into the past one goes, the chances of mythology swallowing up historical evidence increases. I too am somewhat skeptical of the existence of the Biblical Abraham [but not a tribal leader, or series of them, who did what Abraham is supposed to have done; I think that's quite real] and even of there having been a real individual named Moses [although I do think there was an Exodus, probably of a small enough band that the Egyptians didn't get too upset about it]. But by the Roman period there is no doubt whatsoever of the Jewish presence in what is now Israel and the West Bank. Indeed, predominantly the West Bank.