Bible Dictionaries
Island

Holman Bible Dictionary

Tract of land surrounded by water. Modern translations sometimes replace the island or isle of the KJV with the terms coast, coastline, or coastland (compare Genesis 10:5; Esther 10:1; Psalm 97:1; Isaiah 11:11; Jeremiah 2:10 ). “Islands” frequently appears in parallel to peoples/nations (Isaiah 41:1; Isaiah 51:5; Isaiah 66:19; Jeremiah 31:10 ) and to the earth (Isaiah 42:4 ). Often the idea of distant peoples and places is stressed by the parallelism (Isaiah 41:5; Isaiah 49:1 ). The Hebrews were not a seafaring people and so easily equated the Mediterranean islands with the ends of the earth.

Scripture mentions many islands by name: Arvad (Ezekiel 27:8 ,Ezekiel 27:8,27:11 ) is an island two miles offshore from northern Phoenicia. Clauda or Cauda (NRSV) is a small island off Crete (Acts 27:16 ). Chios (Acts 20:15 ) is an island off the coast of Ionia. Coos or Cos (Acts 21:1 NIV) is an island 50 miles northwest of Rhodes. Crete (the Old Testament Caphtor, Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7 ) is an island 152 miles long located to the southeast of Greece (Titus 1:5 , Titus 1:12 ). Cyprus (home of the Old Testament Chittim, Jeremiah 2:10; Ezekiel 27:6 ) is an island 75 miles long located toward the eastern end of the Mediterranean (Acts 4:36; Acts 11:19-20 among others). Melita or Malta (NAS) is an island located 50 miles southwest of Sicily ( Acts 27:39-28:10 ). Patmos is an island off the coast of Ionia west of Samos (Revelation 1:9 ). Rhodes is an island southwest of Asia Minor (Acts 21:1 ). Samos is an island located off the Ionian coast twelve miles southwest of Ephesus (Acts 20:15 ). Sardinia is a western Mediterranean island south of Corsica. Tyre (Ezekiel 26:2 ) was a famous Phoenician island city.