The expression The Holy Land (Hebrew: ארץ הקודש, Standard Éreẓ haQodeš Tiberian ʾÉreṣ haqQāḏēš ; Latin: Terra Sancta ; Arabic: الأرض المقدسة, al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah; Ancient Aramaic: ארעא קדישא Ar'a Qaddisha) generally refers to the historic geographical region of Israel. It concerns the areas that hold significant religious importance to the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Part of its sanctity stems from the religious significance of Jerusalem and its importance as the Land of Israel.

The Crusades were launched on the pretext of recovering the Holy Land from the Muslims. More recently, the region is at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Judaism

The Holy Land, or Palestine, showing the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel in which the 12 Tribes have been distinguished, and their placement in different periods. Tobias Conrad Lotter, Geographer. Augsburg, Germany, 1759

Main articles: Land of Israel, Four Holy Cities, Jerusalem in Judaism, and Zion

In the Hebrew Bible (otherwise called the Tanakh or Old Testament), the term Holy Land never occurs. Nevertheless there are terms like Land of Israel and Promised land.

Judaism's holiest cities are Jerusalem, Hebron, Tzfat and Tiberias. Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE.^[1]

Jerusalem has long been embedded into Jewish religious consciousness. Jews have studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Jewish temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs.

Jerusalem appears in the Tanakh 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) appears 154 times. The first section, the Torah, only mentions Moriah, the mountain range believed to be the location of the binding of Isaac and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and in later parts of the Tanakh the city is written explicitly. In Judaism, the Tanakh it is considered the Written Law, the basis for the Oral Law (Mishnah, Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh) studied, practiced and treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia.^[2] The Talmud elaborates the Jewish connection with the city.

The core reason why Jews view the land as holy is due to the special status that the Hebrew Bible gives it with regard to Jewish religious observance, the fact that Jerusalem was the site of the Temple, and most of all, the fact that the Hebrew Bible refers to it as a divine gift.

Jewish kingdoms and states existed intermittently in the region for over a millennium.

Under foreign conquests, Jewish presence in the province dwindled due to forced mass expulsions and persecution by Romans and, later, Christian Crusaders. In particular, the failure of the Bar Kokhba Revolt against the Roman Empire resulted in widescale expulsion of Jews. It was at this time that the Romans changed the name Syria Palaestina to the geographic area, in an attempt to erase Jewish ties to the land, even changing Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but with little success as it had had with changing Judea to Palestine. The Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud, two of Judaism's most important religious texts, were composed in the region during this period.

Christianity

The origin of the Holy Land concept is found in the renaming of the Land of Canaan as the Land of Israel (e.g. Genesis 15:18-21).^[3]

The concept of the land being holy is especially prominent in the Book of Numbers. Horst Seebass argues that the book is "indeed pervaded by the theme of the holy land."^[4] The land is also considered holy in the Hebrew Bible because God's "holy people" settle there.^[5]

The Holy Land is significant in Christianity, mainly because it is the place of birth, ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour or Messiah to Christianity.

Holy cities for Christians of all denominations:

• Jerusalem is believed to be the site of some of Jesus's teaching, the Last Supper, the subsequent institution of the Holy Eucharist as well as his entombment; Christians believe he was crucified on a nearby hill, Golgotha (sometimes called Calvary). It contains the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of All Nations.

Sea of Galilee

• Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus.
• Nazareth is Jesus's hometown and the site of many holy places, including the Church of the Basilica of the Annunciation and Mary's Well.

During the Crusades, Christian pilgrims often sought out the Holy Places in the Outremer, especially early in the 12th century immediately after Jerusalem was captured. ^[6] The Holy Places included sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem as well as:

• Sephoria, where the Virgin Mary was said to have spent her childhood
• The River Jordan, site of Christ's baptism
• Cave dwelling of John the Baptist
• Sea of Galilee
• Mount Tabor, site of the Transfiguration of Jesus
• Jericho, along the road to which was the location of the Good Samaritan's charity.

Islam

See also: Religious significance of Jerusalem in Islam.

Sharing similar religious beliefs with Jews and Christians, Muslims consider the land west of (but not limited to) the Jordan River to be sacred as mentioned in the Qur'an, (5:20-21).

The Quran also says, Moses said unto his people "O my people, enter the Holy Land ("al-arda-l-muqaddasata"), which Allah hath decreed you." (The Qur'an, 5:21).

"And We rescued him and Lout (Lot) to the land which We have blessed for the 'Alamîn (mankind and jinns)."[21:71]

The "land which We have blessed", according to Abdullah Yusuf Ali refers to the land of Syria, which includes Palestine and the cities of Tyre and Sidon.^[7]

Early Islamic tradition by Az-Zujaj describes Holy Land as "Damascus, Palestine, and a bit of Jordan"^{[citation needed]}, and by Qatada as "the Levant (ash-Sham)" and by Maad ibn Jabal as "the area between al-Arish and the Euphrates", and by Ibn Abbas as "the land of Jericho".

Muslims also consider the depression below Mount Sinai, also known as the Tuwa, to be sacred as mentioned in the Qur'an (20:12). This place is usually referred to as the "Holy Valley" (الوادي المقدس).

For a few months, Jerusalem was the first qibla (direction of prayer) in Islam, before the Kaaba in Mecca. In Islam it is widely considered the third holiest city. In Arabic, the city of Jerusalem is commonly known as "al-Quds", meaning "the Holy".

"Al-Aqsa Mosque" is considered the third holiest mosque in Islam. Muslims believe that prophet Muhammad was taken by the flying animal that do not resemble any animal found on earth Buraq to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, where he prayed, and then ascended to heaven, in a single night in the year 620. The Qur'anic verse (17:1) is interpreted by widely used tafsirs (commentaries) as referring to this journey, with the term "the farthest Mosque" (al-masjid al-Aqsa) which lies in the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem.

The term "Holy Land" is also sometimes used by Muslims (although not in the Qur'an) in reference to the Hijaz, land of the holy cities Mecca and Medina.

Notes

1. Since the 10th century BCE:
   • "The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists." Leslie J. Hoppe. The Holy City: Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament, Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6. ISBN 0814650813
   • "For Jews the city has been the pre-eminent focus of their spiritual, cultural, and national life throughout three millennia." Yossi Feintuch, U.S. Policy on Jerusalem, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987, p. 1. ISBN 0313257000
2. List of Jewish prayers and blessings
3. "The uniqueness of the Land of Israel is thus 'geo-theological' and not merely climatic. This is the land which faces the entrance of the spiritual world, that sphere of existence that lies beyond the physical world known to us through our senses. This is the key to the land's unique status with regard to prophecy and prayer, and also with regard to the commandments." The Land of Israel: National Home Or Land of Destiny, By Eliezer Schweid, Translated by Deborah Greniman, Published 1985 Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, ISBN 0838632343, p.56.
4. Horst Seebass, "Holy Land in the Old Testament: Numbers and Joshua," VT 56 (2006), 95. One perspective represented in Numbers is that the land becomes holy if it is the result of holy war, or Cherem. Seebass postulates that land taken in holy war is always holy. (ibid.)
5. "At the end of Joshua, the land has been distributed among the tribes, the patriarchal promise is fulfilled and the land becomes the holy land." John Goldingay, Theological Diversity and the Authority of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 68.
6. Sean Martin, The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order, 2005. ISBN 1-56025-645-1
7. Ali (1991), p.934

References

• Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1991). The Holy Quran. Medina: King Fahd Holy Qur-an Printing Complex. 
• Hanan Isachar, Ceremonies in the Holy Land, Melzer 2005

• Jesus in Holy Land Page [[1]]

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Holy Land". Image Credit.

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