good question... I am not knowledgeable enough to offer any evidence...
I get the impression that I am far too caught up in current events of the last several hundred years to have proper distinction for events that happened thousands of years ago...
Our words I expect are nowhere near the same, and I think we have forced current meanings on ancient words that maybe do not fit all that well.
And I am reluctant to take a book of Gospel as literal truth, but instead as useful allegories...