I checked out what the Wiki said about the alleged church. Nothing in there matches all my history books from 1947 on. And the notion that the Greeks controlled any part of Canaan in the fifth century is way off the chart. They mention the “Old City” which makes me think they mean someplace else. Nobody else talks about Gaza having an “Old City?”. At best, if there’s a modern stone church there now it’s a mosque and there’s no way that pictured masonry is 1600 years old.
In the area now known as Gaza my pics from the ‘47 and ‘67 wars show, at most, a palm grove there. Weird?
I checked out what the Wiki said about the alleged church. Nothing in there matches all my history books from 1947 on. And the notion that the Greeks controlled any part of Canaan in the fifth century is way off the chart. They mention the “Old City” which makes me think they mean someplace else. Nobody else talks about Gaza having an “Old City?”. At best, if there’s a modern stone church there now it’s a mosque and there’s no way that pictured masonry is 1600 years old.
In the area now known as Gaza my pics from the ‘47 and ‘67 wars show, at most, a palm grove there. Weird?
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from The Encyclopedia Britannica:
“The area contained the five cities (the Pentapolis) of the Philistine confederacy—Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron and was known as Philistia, or the Land of the Philistines.
From this designation, the whole of the country was later called Palestine by the Greeks.”
[I remember them on maps on the fly leaves of a family Bible.]
Also, because the present Church of St. Porphyrius is from the Crusader era, the oldest parts are a mere 900 years old. It underwent a major renovation in the nineteenth century. [see:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Porphyrius]
Map showing the location of Church of Saint Porphrius, Gaza
https://english.alarabiya.net/features/2018/12/25/Church-of-Saint-Porphyrius-The-man-who-performed-miracles-and-fought-pagans-in-Gaza
The problem with information from Wikipedia is that anyone can post there.