Bible Dictionary
Coele-Syria
Coele-Syria means “hollow Syria” and denotes the long valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. The term was used with varying boundaries in ancient times.
Definition
Coele-Syria, meaning “hollow Syria,” was the long valley between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges. The valley extends about one hundred miles and continues northward from the Jordan valley.
Biblical Usage
The region is associated with the biblical valley of Lebanon. The name itself is Greek and is not found in Scripture as a separate biblical place-name.
Historical Background
The term did not always describe the same territory. Different ancient writers included varying areas, sometimes extending it east of the Jordan, toward Damascus, Phoenicia, or the Euphrates and Egypt.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Hollow Syria, the name (not found in Scripture) given by the Greeks to the extensive valley, about 100 miles long, between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon range of mountains.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>se-le-sir'-i-a (the King James Version Celosyria; Koile Suria, "hollow Syria"): So the Greeks after the time of Alexander the Great named the valley lying between the two mountain ranges, Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. It is referred to in the Old Testament as Biq`ath ha-Lebhanon, "the valley of Lebanon" (Jos 11:17), a name the echo of which is still heard in el-Buqa`, the designation applied today to the southern part of the valley. This hollow, which extends about 100 miles in length, is the continuation northward of the Jordan valley. The main physical features are described under LEBANON (which see). The name, however, did not always indicate the same tract of territory. In Strabo (xvi.2) and Ptolemy (v.15), it covers the fertile land between Jebel esh-Sharqy and the desert presided over by Damascus. In 1 Esdras 2:17; 2 Macc 3:8, etc., it indicates the country South and East of Mt. Lebanon, and along with Phoenicia it contributed the whole of the Seleucid dominions which lay South of the river Eleutherus. Josephus includes in Coele-Syria the country East of the Jordan, along with Scythopolis (Beisan) which lay on the West, separated by the river from the other members of the Decapolis (Ant., XIII, xiii, 2, etc.). In XIV, iv, 5, he says that "Pompey committed Coele-Syria as far as the river Euphrates and Egypt to Scaurus." The term is therefore one of some elasticity.</p><p>W. Ewing</p>