"From Dan to Beersheba of 1867", Mark Twain's Favorite Comment About Palestine

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                                                                         

                   What Mark Twain talked about  as Palestine-on his trip in 1867.  

   Palestine April 24,, 1920  At the northern tip is Lake Hula.  

Restored Bronze Age gate at Tel Dan:  Mark Twain took an excursion trip to the Holy Land and Egypt along with other places on a first-class steamer ship in February 1867 and wrote about this trip as only Mark Twain could do. What he saw:  Some of is shocking to our ears today. 

Dan (Hebrew: דן) is an ancient city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, described as the northernmost city of the Kingdom of Israel, and belonging to the tribe of Dan.  The city is identified with a tell located in the modern Golan Heights, known as Tel Dan (תל דן‎; "Mound of Dan") in Hebrew.  The American naval officer William F. Lynch was the first to identify Tell el-Qadi as the site of the ancient city of Dan in 1849. Three years later, Rev. Edward Robinson made the same identification, and this identification is now securely accepted. 

Robinson, biblical scholar,  was born in Southington, Connecticut, and raised on a farm. His father was a minister in the Congregational Church of the town for four decades. Robinson traveled to Palestine in 1838 in the company of Rev. Eli Smith.

Tel Dan is the modern Israeli name for the site, based on the original Biblical name

The Tel Dan Nature Reserve was first declared on 39 hectares surrounding the tel in 1974. 9 hectares were added to the reserve in 1989. The Dan River is one of the three water sources of the Jordan River which meet in the northern part of the Hula Valley. Notable points of interest include Paradise Springs, the Abraham or Canaanite Gate and the Israelite Gate.                                

                        Tel Dan, site of the Biblical city.  

Dan was the northern and Beersheba the southern limit of Palestine.  It's like the American saying of "from Maine to Texas."

                                              

                   Israelite outer gate

      Mark Twain's excursion was made on the ship, Quaker City."

 He had thought of Palestine as large as the USA when young, and said he now had to unlearn such ideas as its size and about kings.  Here in Ain Mellahah (a village This site is located in northern Israel, 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of the Sea of Galilee, and is in an area surrounded by hills and located by an ancient lake, Lake Huleh. At the time of its Natufian inhabitance, the area was heavily forested in oak, almond, and pistachio trees.,) after coming through Syria, and after  serious study to the character and customs of the country, all this "kings" loses its grandeur.  It suggests only a parcel of petty chiefs-ill-clad and ill conditioned savages much like our Indians, who lived in full sight of each other and whose "kingdoms" were large when they were 5 miles square and contained 2,000 souls.  The combined monarchies of the 30 "kings" destroyed by Joshua on one of his famous campaigns, only covered an area about equal to 4 of our counties  of ordinary size. 

The poor old sheik we saw at Cesarea Philippi  (is one of several names under which an ancient city located at the southwestern base of Mount Hermon was known during the Roman period, after being previously known during the Hellenistic period as Paneas.with his ragged band of  100 followers, would have been called a "king")  in those ancient times.....Alas, there is no dew here, nor flowers, nor birds, nor trees.  there is a plain and an unshaded lake and beyond them some barren mountains.  the tents are tumbling, the Arabs are quarreling like dogs and cats, as usual, the campground is strewn with packages and bundles, the labor of packing them upon the backs of the mules is progressing with great activity, the horses are saddles, the umbrellas are out, and in 10 minutes, we shall mount and the long procession will move again.  The white city of the Mellahah, (Mallaha (Arabic: ملاّحة) was a Palestinian Arab village, located 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) northeast of Safed, on the highway between the latter and Tiberias. 'Ain Mallaha is the local Arabic name for a spring that served as the water source for the village inhabitants throughout the ages. It is also one of the names used in English to refer to the ancient Natufian era settlement at the site.) resurrected for a moment out of the dead centuries, will have disappeared again and left no sign.                           

We traversed some miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds-a silent, mournful expanse, wherein we saw only 3 persons-Arabs, with nothing on but a long coarse shirt like the "tow-linen" shirts which used to form the only summer garment of little negro boys on Southern plantations.  Shepherds they were...

      Today's Hula Lake Nature Reserve , Hula Valley in Israel 

                             Waters of Meron                                            

        Jordan River                                                                    

     Sea of Galilee taken in 1900

"At noon we took a swim in the Sea of Galilee-- a blessed privilege in this roasting climate--and then lunched under a neglected old fig-tree at the fountain they call ain-etTin, a hundred yards from ruined Capernaum.  Every rivulet that gurgles out of the rocks and sands of this part of the world is dubbed with the title of "fountain," and people familiar with the Hudson, the great lakes and the Mississippi fall into transports of admiration over them,.."..

"We had hardly begun to appreciate yet that we were standing upon any different sort of earth than that we had always been used to, and see how the historic names began already to cluster!  Dan-Bashan-Lake Huleh-the sources of Jordan-the Sea of Galilee.  They were all in sight but the last, and it was not far away.  The little township of Bashan was once the kingdom so famous in  Scripture for its bulls and its oaks.  Lake Huleh is the Biblical "Waters of Meron."  

It took Mark Twain and others about an hour's ride over a rough rocky road, half flooded with water and through a forest of oaks of Bashan that brought them to Dan.  

He described a little mound in the plain that issued a broad stream of limpid water, forming a large shallow pool and then rushing onward, as a puddle.  He said that the puddle was an important source of the Jordan River.  It's banks and those of the brook were adorned with blooming oleanders.  Evidently he had read Syrian books of  travel which said that such beauty would throw a well-balanced man into convulsions, which he thought to be so untrue.  

Tiberias:  We were camped...just within the city walls of Tiberias.  We went into the town before nightfall and looked at its people---we cared nothing about its houses.  Its people are best examined at a distance.  They are particularly uncomely Jews, Arabs, and negroes.  Squalor and poverty are the pride of Tiberias.  The young women wear their dower strung upon a strong wire of silver coins which they have raked together or inherited....They say that the long-nosed, lanky, dyspeptic-looking body-snatchers, with the indescribable hats on, and the long curl dangling down in front of each ear, ae the old, familiar, self-righteous Pharisees we read of in the Scriptures.  Verily, they look it, judging merely by their general style, and without other evidence, one might easily suspect that self-righteousness was their specialty." 

 Today's Tiberias, Israel:  August 25, 2022  is 100/75.  I imagine this is F,  The weather in Tiberias in August is very hot. The average temperatures are between 73°F and 93°F, drinking water regularly is advisable.   There shouldn't be any rainy days in in Tiberias during August. Having said that, the days are very hot in August so hanging out outside is more recommended during the afternoons and evening time.  Our weather forecast can give you a great sense of what weather to expect in Tiberias in August 2022.

   Beersheva, 1901, mostly an Arab town.  

Beersheva aerial view in 1917. Photo courtesy of American Colony - Matson Archive/US Library of Congress   Beersheba is located on the northern edge of the Negev desert 115 kilometres (71 mi) south-east of Tel Aviv and 120 kilometres (75 mi) south-west of Jerusalem.   In summer, the temperatures are high in daytime and nighttime with an average high of 34.7 °C (94 °F) and an average low of 21.4 °C (71 °F). Winters have an average high of 17.7 °C (64 °F) and average low of 7.1 °C (45 °F). Snow is very rare; a snowfall on February 20, 2015, was the first such occurrence in the city since 2000.                                      

Resource:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1787272385367494897/6715434749954466520  weather

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_(ancient_city)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robinson_(scholar)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallaha

Tiberias, To Be Scene of Final Redemption

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

  Kinneret or Kineret is the Hebrew name of the Sea of Galilee, the largest freshwater lake in Israel.  I visited Tiberias sometime between 1981-1985.  We sat outdoors in the open cafe and watched boats in the huge lake with fishermen.  Of course we had a fish dinner.  It was lovely.  

As early as Roman times, this thriving recreation spa, built around 17 natural mineral hot springs more than 600 feet below sea level, welcomed visitors from every part of the ancient world. Built by Herod Antipas (one of Herod the Great's three sons who divided up Palestine after their father's death), the city was named Tiberias in honor of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.     

Tiberias plays an important role in Jewish history. It was part of the land bequeathed to Naphtali (Joshua 19:35). The Sanhedrin (the High Court of Israel during the period of the Second Temple) relocated to Tiberias from Sepphoris (Safed). In the Mishnaic and Talmudic period, Tiberias was an important spiritual center. The Mishna was completed in Tiberias in 200 C.E. under the supervision of Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi ("Judah the Prince"). The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in 400 C.E.

Tiberias was founded in 18 CE so it was a new city when the Sanhedrin made the decision in 29 CE to convene in Tiberias in our last days or final redemption.  It was King Herod Antipas who founded it and named it in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius who reigned from 14 to 37 CE.                             

In the year 3789 (29 CE), the moral character of the Jewish people had declined to the point that the great Jewish court, the Sanhedrin, removed themselves from their respectful place on the Temple Mount and went into exile. This automatically downgraded their spiritual and legal status and they were no longer authorized to judge cases involving capital punishment. That had become the duty of the Romans. 

                                             

I don't know about the  moral decline, but the Romans had been occupying Jerusalem and everything was in question.  After the destruction of the Second Temple in 586 BCE and the failure of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE), the Great Sanhedrin moved to Galilee, which became part of the Roman province of Syria Palaestina.                             

   Sanhedrin: Supreme Court and legislators of 71 rabbis, led by the Nasi, usually a descendant of Rabbi Hillel and an Av Bet Din-a Cohen. Despite what people may think, there is no evidence for the existence of it being a political body except during the troubled decades which preceded the destruction of the Temple. The Sanhedrin ended before the end of the 4th century CE, probably due to the declarations of the Roman rulers, outlawing Judaism.  The Romans saw Judaism as a competitor to their new religion, ,switching from polytheism to worship of Jesus.  

The Sanhedrin traveled to ten different places in exile, the last being Tiberias. According to tradition, in the final redemption, the Sanhedrin will first reconvene in Tiberias, and only from there will they will proceed to the Temple. May it be speedily in our days! Little did they know that the Temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed by fire within 41 years.                         

Herod Antipas (20 BCE-39 CE), son of Herod and Malthace of Samaria  

After his father's death, he became a tetrarch of Galilee and Perea.  He married Herodias, wife of his brother, Herod. This was an offense against the Mosaic Law as Antipas had John put to death.  This marriage led to a disastrous war in 35-36 against Aretas IV, king of the Nabateans, who was the father of Antipas's 1st wife now divorced by him.  During emperor Caligula's reign, Antipas was accused of plotting against Rome and was exiled to Gaul, where he died. Gaul was today's  France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, and parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, particularly the west bank of the Rhine.  That's a big swatch of land!  

The emperor, Tiberias, expelled the Jews from Rome in the year 19 on account of a fraud perpetrated on a Roman matron sympathetic to Judaism.  4,000 young Jews were sent to Sardinia to fight the brigands. Palestine was harshly administered under his rule.  It was during his rule that the crucifixion of Jesus occurred.  So Herod honored him with a city.  Oy vey!                                  

Tiberias, the city, soon became the principal Jewish city on the lake.  Its inhabitants took part in the war with Rome but without enthusiasm, surrendering to Vespasian, a Roman emperor from 69 to 79 at the 1st opportunity.  Vespasian was sent by Nero in 67 to subdue the Judean rebellion and by 68 he had conquered Galilee, Transjordan, and the Judean coast before suspending operations on receiving the news of Nero's death.  In 69 he became emperor, and the campaign was concluded by his son, Titus.

Vespasian patronized Josephus, the Jewish general who was captured and given a chance to live if he wrote the history of that period which he did, being a main reference for the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple in 70.  The Talmud speaks of Vespasian's favorable treatment of Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai.  

The seat of the patriarchate was transferred to Tiberias in the 3rd century, and the town was a center of Talmudic scholarship and also was the capital of Jewish Palestine until the transfer of the academy to Jerusalem in the 7th century.  It was then known as Maaziah and was a main center of the activity of the Masoretes, those who preserved the body of traditions regarding the correct spelling, writing and reading of the Hebrew Bible..                  

  Israel Facthe Sea f Gali shaped like a harp, kinnor in Hebrew, but this is not where the name of the lake comes frm.           Israel Fache Sea of Galilee is apeke a harp, kinnor in Hebrew, but this is not where the name of the lake comes from.

The Sea of Galilee is shaped like a harp, kinnor in Hebrew, but this is not where the name of the lake comes from.  Israelis call the Sea by the biblical name Kinneret.  This was the name of a city on the northwestern edge of the lake during the Canaanite and Israelite periods. The reference to the Sea of Tiberias is attributable to the newer riparian city.

In 1099, Tiberias was taken by the Crusaders and after the 13th century, remained a fishing village until it was rebuilt in the 18th century by the emir Dahir el-Omar. North of the Roman site, a previous attempt by Joseph Nasi to re-establish it as a Jewish center had failed.  

After his death in 1204, the great Jewish sage Maimonides was buried in Tiberias. His tomb is on Ben Zakkai Street, a short distance from the town center. The street's namesake, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, is also believed to be buried nearby. Yet another shrine is the Tomb of Rabbi Akiva.                                           

         Shopping area in Tiberias

A Samaritan center existed in Tiberias in the middle of the 4th century. The Crusaders later captured the city and made it the capital of the Galilee, but Saladin retook the city for the Muslim Empire in 1187. The city suffered a decline until it was revived by the Ottoman Turks. After the city was built up over a period of about a century, it was devastated by an earthquake in 1837.

As a result of the big earthquake of 1837, part of the population of Safed moved to Tiberias, as it lay down the mountain below Safed,  which thereafter had a Jewish majority.  The development of Jewish colonies around the Sea of Galilee and of the hot springs south of the city has enhanced its importance. The early Zionist pioneers established some of Israel's first kibbutzim at the turn of the century in this area. After the establishment of the state, newcomers flocked to the city and the population quadrupled. Today, it is home to about 30,000 people. The population in 1990 was 31,200.  I visited a Safed home that had been dug out of the earthquake and bought by an American couple who were able to bring it to the 21st century.  It was beautiful and a rarity, for the common accommodations were apartments.  To live in a house was rare.                                        

The Talmud tells us that Tiberias, or Tiveryah (טבריה) in Hebrew, is related to the Hebrew word for navel, tabur (טבור), and is so named for its location in the center of the Land of Israel. Others cite a tradition that the name “Tiveryah" stands for the words tovah re'iyatah (טובה ראייתה), “her sight is goodly,” and is so named due to both its physical beauty—its beautiful gardens and orchards, and its location at the banks of the Kinneret—and its spiritual beauty, as it was a major center of Torah learning.

Tiberias is a city that is 2,003 years old, and very much a Jewish city now after being a Muslim center.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3656661/jewish/Four-Holy-Cities-of-Israel-What-and-Why.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/tiberias

Aramaic Found in Galilee Cemetery: In competition with Hebrew

Nadene Goldfoot                                                      

Above includes Targum which is the Aramaic translation of the Bible.  The Talmud concludes from Nehemiah 8:8 that the custom of adding an Aramaic translation to the public reading of the bible goes back to Ezra, well-established custom in the 2nd Temple Period.  All Targums are written in a somewhat artificial Aramaic, half-way between biblical Aramaic and the spoken language of Judah.  

                                                                                               

Aramaic 

The Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology has found in a cemetery in the Galilee some inscriptions both in Greek and Aramaic in the old capital city of Zippori.  Zippori was the 1st capital of the Galilee from the time of the Hasmonean dynasty until the creation of the city of Tiberias in the 1st century CE.  Zippori continued to be important later.  Christians get excited over Aramaic and the Galilee because Jesus ministered around the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum most of his time. He spoke in Aramaic.""Capernaum was a fishing village in the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1,500. Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other.  

This find was in the city of Zippori (Sepphoris), described by the first century CE Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, as "the ornament of all Galilee," is located on a hill in the Lower Galilee, midway between the Mediterranean and Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), with abundant spring water and a fertile valley around it. Zippori is mentioned in many Jewish sources of the first centuries of the common era. Founded in the Hellenistic era, it was named the administrative capital of Galilee by Gabinius, the Roman governor, in the mid-first century BCE. The city did not join the revolt against Rome in 66 CE; it opened its gates to the legions of the Roman Emperor Vespasian and was thus saved. On coins minted in Zippori at that time, the city is named Eirenopolis, "city of peace." Later, its name was changed to Diocaesarea in honor of Zeus and the emperor."  Archaeologist found many beautiful mosaics in Tzippori (another spelling)  that people used to say it might have been a regional catalogue store for the ornate floors that the Romans loved!.                                   Talmud with section of Mishnah in center surrounded by commentaries from illustrious scholars  In Jewish tradition, it is best known as the hometown of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi (Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi) (135-220 CE) son and successor of Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel II.  He was known as "our holy teacher".   who codified the Mishnah (the first book of the Talmud) here in the late second century CE. Visitors feel close to Jewish history and practice in Tzipori’s synagogue, with its magnificent fifth-century mosaic whose motifs symbolize longed-for redemption. The MIshnah is the legal codification containing the core of the Oral Law.  Yehuda arranged it all logically. Most of his life was spent in the Galilee, first at Bet Shearim and then at Sepphoris.  His household spoke pure Hebrew and gave the language new life.  He was buried in the family tomb at Bet Shearim, which has been excavated. "Judah was supposedly of the royal line of King David, hence, also  the title "Prince."  Nasi was a title of being head of the Sanhedrin (the ruling Jewish Council.). "

Four words have been decoded in Zippori, an ancient capital of the Galilee in Israel.  One word is Greek for Jose.  No, the Spaniards weren't in the Galilee 2,000 years ago.  It was actually a common Jewish  name ."The  name Jose (as translated by the Christian website)  is probably an truncated form of the name Ιωσης (Joses), which in turn comes from the Hebrew name Joseph (in Hebrew: יוסף, and transliterated into Greek: Ιωσηφ), but many people insist it's a form of the name Ιησους (Jesus), which in turn comes from the Hebrew name Joshua (in Hebrew: יהושע, and transliterated into Greek: Ιησους), which is obviously a completely different name."   The other 3 words were Aramaic for:
1. The Tiberian
2. Forever
3. rabbi
These were words in a cemetery, like what might be found on a headstone.  The Tiberian had to be the man who was buried and had come from the city of Tiberias.  Tiberias was founded in about 18 CE by Herod Antipas and named in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius. who reigned from 14 to 37 CE.  It was in 19 CE that he expelled the Jews from Rome on account of a fraud perpetrated on a Roman matron sympathetic to Judaism.  4,000 young Jews were sent to Sardinia to fight the brigands.  Israel and Judah were harshly administered under his rule, during which the crucifixion of Jesus happened.

Most likely deceased in the cemetery  was a rabbi, but scholars are unsure precisely what this meant at the time of its inscription. Forever meant that the deceased's burial place will always belong to him.   This is what Motti Aviam of the Kinneret Institute has said about the find.

"The Aramaic script was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to both the Arabic and modern Hebrew alphabets. Accordingly, Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity, spoke the Aramaic dialect during his public ministry.  There is sort of a long running battle between the Pope and Netanyahu about what language was used in the 1st century CE in Judah;  Aramaic or Hebrew.  Hebrew was still spoken, but Aramaic was also used.  It was a North-Semitic language known by some as Chaldaic, and still is spoken by a few.

Aramaic is closer to Hebrew than the other Semitic languages and has influenced Hebrew considerably.  It came on the scene as an international language like English has been.  Commerce from the period of the late Assyrian and Persian kingdoms of the 6th century BCE was the reason it was used as evidenced by the many inscriptions that have been found in Asia Minor, Egypt, India and in other places where it was never native.  Aramaic was for many centuries the Palestinian vernacular, and biblical readings were translated into Aramaic in the synagogues for the benefit of  congregants who did not understand Hebrew, as we find English today.  It was the literary tongue and was the language of  the Zohar and of later kabbalistic poetry.

Ancient Aramaic was used on inscriptions of the 1st millennium BCE and in the Elephantine papyri and used at times in the Bible such as Daniel .2::4-7:28:   Ezra 4:8-6:18:  7:12-26:  Jeremiah. 10:11.

Then Western Aramaic was the language of the Palestinian Talmud, the aggadic Midrashim, Targum Jonathan, and the Samaritan translation of the Pentateuch.

Eastern Aramaic includes Syriac and the Aramaic of the Babylonian Talmud.

New Aramaic is still spoken by the Nestorian Christians in the Kurdish districts of Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Persia (Iran) and Russia and also by Jews who have settled in Israel from these regions.

The city of Zippori must have been named for Zipporah, wife of Moses and daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian.  When Zipporah traveled to Egypt with Moses, she saved her son's life by circumcising him as told in Exodus 4:24-6.  Later, she returned to her father with her 2 sons, Gershom and Eliezer.  Then she rejoined Moses at Mount Sinai, told in Exodus 18:1.

As for the ancient city of Zippori, it had many ritual baths discovered in the excavation.  Roman culture was also evident in the findings such as the design of the town with paved streets, colonnaded main roads, theater and bathhouses.  There were many inscriptions found in the cemeteries which attests to the strong Jewish presence and the city's social elite in this late Roman period.
                                                                           

An interesting point about Hebrew is that it was being used in Israel before the Israelite conquest. This could be documented by the fact that Abraham of the 2nd  millennium BCE had entered Canaan with his wife, Sarah and others, and they most likely spoke Hebrew. They lived there until the drought that drove their family,  now with Jacob as the head of 70 into Egypt.   It was one of the Semitic languages used, the others being Moabite and Phoenician, which were all part of the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages.  The 1st Hebrew spoken was then a pre-exilic Biblical Hebrew.  After the exile, Biblical Hebrew continued to be used for over 500 years, but started to falter because of the influence of Aramaic when from 539 BCE to 331BCE was the language of officialdom  and was being spoken by many Jews.  The emergence of mishnaic Hebrew as a new colloquial language from about 200 BCE  caused the uncertainty in Hebrew usage also.  Mishnaic Hebrew was not from biblical Hebrew but probably from some pre-exilic colloquial dialect and had become a literary language through the tannaim in the 1st century CE.  It's spoken use then declined after the wars of 66 to 70 CE and again in 132-135 when Aluf Bar Kokhba made his stand against the Romans.  It was a more sober, simple and brief language than biblical Hebrew and better suited for precise expression.

Prayers during the Tannaitic Period combined Biblical Hebrew vocabulary with Mishnaic Hebrew grammar.  Almost all later styles mixed the 2 dialects.  After 200, even the Jews of Judah and Israel  almost stopped using Hebrew and wrote in Aramaic and Greek.  In about 500, a literary revival began which led to the use of Hebrew again in its written form throughout the Middle Ages.

Today Ashkenazim speak Hebrew differently from the Sephardim and Mizrahim.  Ashkenazis disregard nearly all the gutturals and all the emphatics of Hebrew.  For instance, a kametz is pronounced as an a by the Sephardi but as an o by the Ashkenazi and o by the Yemenite.  A Holam is prounounced as an o by the Sephardi but as an au, oi, etc by Ashkenazi and the Yemenite prounce it as an e or ei.   The Israel pronunciation has the vowel sounds of the Sephardi Hebrew but the consonants of the Ashkenazim except for tav.  The fact is that the Yemenite pronunciation of Hebrew has continued the Babylonian tradition whereas the Ashkenazi and Sephardi pronunciations reflect the Tiberian and  Palestinian pronunciation respectively.   Jews were taken to Babylonia in 597 and 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar as slaves, so it's a much older form of Hebrew.
.
Update: 2/4/16 about Abraham (in red). 
Resource:  Christianity.com@crosswalkmail.com, "Israel Insights"  Israel:  Archaeologists Uncover Inscriptions in Jesus' Language.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/israelexperience/history/pages/archaeological%20sites%20in%20israel%20-%20zippori.aspx
http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Articles/Sites/Pages/Tzippori.aspx
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Judah_haNasi
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/03/Jesus-and-the-Sea-of-Galilee.aspx
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Jose.html#.VrJKFtIrJkh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capernaum