Banias, Syria, 1935

As Keeper of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, Iliffe went to great lengths to represent the history of different cultures in Palestine equitably. There is no record of him openly claiming that Palestine was the traditional national home of the Jews, as did many British and American officials and archaeologists. However, Iliffe did use quotations from the bible as titles for two of his three photographs (above) of the Crusader castle at Banias in Syria; The Rust and the Moth (Matt. 6:19-24) and What mean ye by these stones? (Josh. 4:6).