Meaning of PHOENICIA

Three explanations are given to the meaning of this name, derived from Greek:
(a) Country of the palms ("phoinix"; cp. "Palmira").

(b) Country of purple ("phoinos" means "red blood"). In Tire they dyed a lot purple with the mollusk «Murex trunculus»

(c) Country of men with brown, copper skin (that is, of the Phoenician sailors).

Narrow strip of territory limited between the Mediterranean to the west, the peaks of Lebanon to the east, and its branches to the south. The city of Arvad was probably its northern limit.

When the Israelites settled in the south, on the coast, the southern limit of Phenicia was at the Scale of Tyre, about 22 km south of Tyre. But the Israelites did not drive the Phoenicians out of Aco or Achzib (Judg. 1:31).

At the time of Christ, Phenicia reached Dor, almost 26 km south of Carmel.
From Arvad to the Shooting Range there are more than 200 km.

Main cities: Tire and Sidon, Byblos (Gebal), Arvad. In ancient times, the Israelites called Phenicia "Canaan" (Is. 23:11), and its inhabitants the name Canaanites (Gen. 10:15).

According to this passage, the Canaanites were primarily descendants of Ham. They settled along the narrow strip of territory that linked Egypt to the great Semitic empires of the Fertile Crescent.

Already at the beginning, they succumbed to the influence of linguistic and racial mixing with the Semites, thereby losing their distinctive ethnic characteristics. This is how it is explained that in the end the Canaanites were more Semites than Hamites.

The Phoenicians themselves relate that they left the coasts of the Persian Gulf, passed into Syria, settling on the sea coast of Canaan (Herodotus 1:1; 7:89).

The territory where the Phoenicians settled had good natural ports. Lebanon had inexhaustible reserves of wood, with which the Phoenicians undertook the construction of ships.

This nation stood out in the art of navigation. They launched trade with more remote Mediterranean regions, also establishing colonies in places that were convenient for their trade.

Some of these points later became large shopping centers. The most important Phoenician colony, Carthage (located near modern Tunisia), long rivaled Rome itself, which eventually destroyed it.

During the Punic Wars, certain Carthaginian leaders had Phoenician names that recalled the Hebrew language. Hannibal means “favor of Baal”, Hasdrubal “Baal is help”. The territory of Tire and Sidon that Jesus traveled through was in Phenicia (Mt. 15:21; Mark 7:24, 31).

The persecution that followed Stephen's martyrdom forced many Christians to seek refuge in Phenicia (Acts 11:19).
On their way from Antioch to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas passed through Phenicia (Acts 15:3). During his final journey to Jerusalem, Paul embarked on a Phoenician ship that took him to Tire (Acts 21:2, 3).