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East

regionBoth TestamentsTransjordan18 verses
Today AmmanCountry JordanCoordinates 31.955, 35.934

East is a region mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments, located in the region of Transjordan in modern-day Jordan. Known today as Amman. It appears across 18 verses in Scripture.

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Archaeological Data
Occupation Phases
Iron Age II980 BCE – 539 BCE
Early Roman63 BCE – 70 CE
Roman-Byzantine63 BCE – 638 CE
Late Roman70 CE – 324 CE
Byzantine324 CE – 638 CE
UnitoAssyrianGovernance, Villages to Empires Dataset (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732Uppsala University, ANE Site Placemarks (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.6384044

Biblical History

"The East" functions throughout Scripture as both a geographical direction and a loaded theological symbol, carrying associations with origins, exile, and the movements of divine blessing and judgment. From the beginning, the East is the direction of Eden's location and of humanity's expulsion from it: Cherubim are stationed "on the east side of the Garden of Eden" (Genesis 3:24). Abraham's servants and Lot's descendants become peoples "of the East" (Genesis 25:6; Judges 6:3). The "people of the East", a general term for the Transjordanian and Arabian tribes, repeatedly raid Israel during the period of the Judges. In Isaiah and Jeremiah, exile to the east prefigures judgment, while the return from the east signals restoration. The East holds particular eschatological significance: in Ezekiel's vision, the glory of God that had departed Jerusalem returns "from the east" (Ezekiel 43:2). In the New Testament, the Magi come "from the East" following a star to worship the newborn king (Matthew 2:1), transforming the East once again into a direction of divine seeking. Revelation 7:2 depicts an angel ascending "from the rising of the sun" with the seal of the living God. The East in Scripture thus traces a movement from paradise lost to paradise restored.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

As a directional and regional concept rather than a specific site, the "East" in biblical usage corresponds broadly to the Transjordanian plateau, the Syrian steppe, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, regions well attested in ancient Near Eastern archaeology. The Transjordanian region, centered on modern Amman (ancient Rabbah of the Ammonites), has been extensively excavated and surveyed, revealing Bronze and Iron Age settlement patterns across the plateau. The peoples designated as "children of the East" or "sons of the East" in the Bible are associated with semi-nomadic groups whose material culture is reflected in archaeological finds from the Syro-Arabian steppe. Survey projects in Jordan and Syria have documented the gradual transition from sedentary to semi-nomadic lifestyles throughout the biblical period.

Verse Appearances (18)

References

  1. Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
  2. OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
  3. Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
  4. Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
  5. Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
  6. Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]

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