Jaffa > Tel Aviv-Yafo Israel Israel

Jaffa's natural harbor on the Canaanite coast grows in importance as a commercial seaport from 2000 BCE.

Egypt assumes control of the Canaanite seaport of Jaffa, whose natural harbor has been occupied since the Bronze Age.

It is mentioned in an Ancient Egyptian letter from 1470 BCE, glorifying its conquest by Thutmose III two years earlier, who had hidden armed warriors in large baskets and given the baskets as a present to the city's governor.

Thutmose has made the city a provincial capital.

The Canaanite seaport of Jaffa is mentioned in an Egyptian letter from 1440 BCE, glorifying its conquest by Pharaoh Thutmose III, whose general, Djehuty had hid armed Egyptian warriors in large baskets and sent the baskets as a present to the city's governor.

Egypt has made the city a provincial capital.

The city is also mentioned in the Amarna letters under its Egyptian name Ya-Pho, (Ya-Pu, EA 296, l.33).

The Philistines expand, several decades settling in Canaan and after the collapse of Egyptian authority here, into surrounding areas such as the Yarkon region to the north (the area of modern Jaffa, where there are Philistine farmsteads at Tel Gerisa and Aphek, and a larger settlement at Tel Qasile).

The Denyen may have split up after the retreat from Egypt, some entering the Jordan valley, then settling on the coast around Jaffa.

Some scholars argue for a connection with the Greek Danaoi—alternate names for the Achaeans familiar from Homer.

Greek myth refers to Danaos who with his daughters came from Egypt and settled in Argos.

Through Danaë's son, Perseus, the Danaans are said to have built Mycenae.

A minority view first suggested by Yigael Yadin attempted to connect the Denyen with the Tribe of Dan, described as remaining on their ships in the early Song of Deborah, contrary to the mainstream view of Israelite history.

It was speculated that the Denyen had been taken to Egypt, and subsequently settled between the Caphtorite Philistines and the Tjekker, along the Mediterranean coast with the tribe of Dan subsequently deriving from them.

Sennacherib also captures Jaffa, a vassal of Ashkelon.

…marches down the coast to take Jaffa, then …

The conversion of Cornelius only comes after yet another vision given to Simon Peter (Acts 10:10-16) himself.

In the vision, Simon Peter sees all manner of four-footed beasts and birds of the air being lowered from Heaven in a sheet.

A voice commands Simon Peter to eat.

When he objects to eating those animals that are unclean to Mosaic Law, the voice tells him not to call unclean that which God has cleansed or purified.

When Cornelius' men arrive, Simon Peter understands that the vision permits the conversion of the Gentiles.

When Cornelius himself meets Simon Peter, Cornelius falls at his feet in adoration.

Simon Peter, picking Cornelius up, welcomes him.

After the two men share their visions, and Simon Peter tells of Jesus' ministry and the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit falls on everyone at the gathering.

The Jews among the group (presumably they were all Jews if Cornelius was the first gentile convert) are amazed that Cornelius and other uncircumcised should begin speaking in tongues, praising God.

Simon Peter thereupon orders that Cornelius and his followers be baptized.

The controversial aspect of Gentile conversion will taken up later at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), but has its roots in the concept of "proselytes" in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) and Jewish Noahide Law.

Jewish rebels driven out of Galilee rebuild Joppa (Jaffa), which had been destroyed earlier by Cestius Gallus.

Surrounded and cut off by the Romans, they rebuild the city walls, and use light flotilla to demoralize commerce and interrupt the grain supply to Rome from Alexandria.

Vespasian’s army in 68 destroys Jaffa and punishes other rebel cities as he pushes southward toward Jerusalem.

Zenobia’s armies also invade Palestine, taking the vital trade routes in these areas from the Romans.