re food for thought on tyre king ctron com john e king writes not exactly the prophesy clearly implies that people would still be living in the area but by the same token it would never be rebuilt obviously if people are still there they would live in houses correct their nets implies a fishing village this is exactly what it has become a far cry from its original position of stature looking at we find that during roman times tyre vied with sidon for first place in the intellectual life of the period that tyre was the seat of a christian bishop eventually with dioceses under it that the most magnificent church of its kind in all phoenecia was the basilica built in tyre ca that tyre was well known for its exports of glassware wine white marble and dyed cloth that tyre along with other seaports provided outlets for south arabian indian and even chinese trade that tyre had to accomodate its growing population by following a perpendicular rather than horizontal line of growth because it was running out of land to build on that tyre established colonies of its own none of this sounds like a small fishing village by any stretch of the imagination centuries later under the abbasids tyre had opulent and flourishing bazaars and buildings of stories during this period tyre was noted for its export of sugar beads and as of old glassware during the crusades tyre was the second most flourishing city held by franks there is a lot more but i got tired of writing in we read the following description of modern lebanon other major cities in lebanon include tripoli sidon tyre baalbek and zahlah my emphasis this source also discusses the impact of the lebanese civil war and the israeli military actions on the trading ports of tyre and sidon it notes that after israel s withdrawel in tyre appeared to enjoy a revival of its local economy if tyre is such an insignificant little fishing village at present why is it always called a city or above a major city why does it show up on all the maps when population figures for cities in lebanon are given why is tyre always one of the cities on the list even if the list is only a dozen cities long philip k hitti lebanon in history from the earliest times to the present ny st martins federal research division library of congress lebanon a country study edited by thomas collelo in the early s tyre had over people so far i ve seen stated figurers ranging from to let s assume the latter one is correct by modern standards we are talking about a one horse town a one horse town sounds like a lot of work for one horse anyway tyre is connected by roads to the mainland they may even use cars these days the encyclopedia britannica says pop est most other references give figures in the thousand range one atlas gives the population of tyre as the same source give comparatively high figures for sidon and beirut also so i doubt that it is a typo perhaps these were figures for the cities and their surrounding areas i don t doubt that the population of tyre has fluctuated over the last few decades in particular the israeli military action hurt tyre quite a bit after alex the g it fell once more in the s i believe what other times did it fall that you were thinking of to egypt bce to the seleucids bce rome bce after rome it fell to various arab contingents until ce when it was captured in the crusades it was then recaptured again by the muslims in ce and subsequently pillaged then the french turks british and today lebanon i thought you were talking about times that tyre was destroyed don t most if not all of these apply not just to tyre but to the other cities in the area sidon for example can you make a case for tyre having been singled out well it recovered enough to have a thriving commerce in the dye tyrian purple in roman times this is correct but they were under roman domination and the majority of the created wealth was siphoned off the prophesy hold true they had a good deal of autonomy under the seleucids from tyre receiv ed the rights of autonomy from antiochus ephiphanes and from bc onward enjoy ed complete autonomy she started a large series of coins occasionally in gold the descriptions of tyre under the romans don t seem to fit your characterization either and under the abbasids it seems to have been allowed to flourish i still think you are stretching when you try to describe tyre as having been nothing but a small fishing village who is josh mcdowell a christian apologist whose standards of scholarship are quite low he happens to quote the same source you quote nina jidejian tyre through the ages beirut dar el mashreq publishers the same sentence in fact he defends the fulfillment of the prophecy using the same argument you are using an argument that i haven t seen in print anywhere else which is why i jumped to the conclusion that you were quoting josh i tried to find the jidejian book but it isn t listed in books in print can you tell me more about it her descriptions are so much at odds with everything else i ve read i m curious to know why dj
