Holy Land

Map of "The Holy Land" by German geographer Tobias Conrad Lotter in 1759.

Dead Sea View, the greatest depression of the earth — up to 400 meters below sea level — and the main stage of monotheistic revelations.

The Holy Land is the geographical territory that includes all the places where biblical scenes took place in both the Old and New Testaments. The concept has an evolution evidenced in the same Scriptures. For some biblical sources it is limited to the Promised Land, a term that in turn has different interpretations; for others, it refers to all the territories in which some biblical scenes took place.

Name

The name "Holy Land" refers to a historical and religious fact of the sacredness of the land, according to the Judeo-Christian concept. The "earth" becomes "holy" when it enters into the divine plan of salvation, in the same way that we speak of "holy men", "holy women" and "holy places". In such a case, holiness does not have its origin in the object or subject, but in divinity.

History

The history of the Holy Land is intended to satisfy spiritual needs, fortify beliefs (gives an idea of the Hebrew people and summarizes the life and preaching of Jesus Christ), and establishes the Holy Places. According to the definition of History as the teaching of life, the history of the Holy Land is based exclusively on the religious teaching of religion and the Holy Places.

Geography

Contemporarily, the Holy Land is understood as all the places in which biblical scenes from both the Tanakh (Old Testament) and the New Testament took place. Such a definition creates a fairly wide range, which in turn has different divisions. In such a case, The Holy Land comprises territories to a lesser or greater degree of the following modern countries:

• Palestine, especially the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).
• Israel.
• Egypt, territory of the people's stay chosen for 400 years and later territory of the rise of the Christian monastic.
• Iraq, the ancient Caldea, Abraham's homeland and later many other biblical scenes.
• Syria, territory of ancient national rivalries against Israel (the Assyrians), land of refuge of the prophet Elijah in Serapta, land of the conversion of Paul of Tarsus and headquarters of one of the first historical churches: the Syrian Church of the East.
• Turkey, Greece and Crete; i.e., the Hélade or territory of ancient Greek civilization, headquarters of one of the first historical churches: Antioch.

Other territories to a lesser extent could be considered biblical, but they have more of a relationship by extension such as the Italian peninsula, the fundamental center of the Roman Empire and where tradition says that the apostles Peter and Paul died, the first Christians suffered martyrdom and innumerable Jews, and there was the rise of prominent Church Fathers and rabbinism. But the Italian territory belongs more to the development of the two sister religions of our era than to the biblical accounts themselves and, therefore, does not strictly fall into the category of Holy Land.

Featured Sites

Within the territory, the so-called Holy Places stand out, which are the most important regions of the Holy Land:

• Jerusalem: Also known as Holy City for the three monotheistic religions—Jewish, Christian and Muslim—is perhaps the most important site in the Holy Land. It is the philosophical, historical and poetic center of Christianity. In this place religion was born. Sion, Lebanon, Cedron and Jordan stand out in this region.
• Bethlehem: The birthplace of King David and Jesus. It is the most visited place for missionaries.
• Nazareth: City where Jesus grew up.
• Mount Sinai: Mount of divine revelation to Moses and choice of Israel.
• River Jordan: It has to do with many biblical facts and characters such as Joshua, Elijah and Jesus. It also divides the strictest concept of the Promised Land to the west and divided the Roman colony of "Palestine" of the so-called Decapolis.
• Sea of Galilee: Also called Lake Genesaret or Lake TiberíadesIt has to do with the first events of Jesus' public life and the election of the twelve apostles.
• Desert of Judea: Like the Jordan River, it has to do with many biblical scenes and characters, battles, divine manifestations, prophets and other events.

This land is a symbol for Christianity; In addition, it is the Promised Land of Judaism, and according to Islam where the Dome of the Rock is located and the place where Muhammad rode in a dream on a winged horse up to heaven over Jerusalem. For this very reason, it has always been a source of religious and cultural conflict. Today, the population of Christians in the Holy Land is only 5% (the majority is Palestinian).

Around the 11th century, the Turkic tribes converted to Islam and set out to conquer the Holy Land; they conquered the Holy Places from their Muslim natives and closed them to Christian pilgrimage because they wanted to show the world that they were more Muslim than the Arabs themselves.

Due to the inclemencies and dangers of traveling by land from Western Europe, all pilgrimages used to be made by sea. It was in 1018 that King Saint Stephen I of Hungary granted safe passage to pilgrims overland through his domain. From that moment on, millions of people and several crusader armies crossed into the Holy Land from France, Germany, Italy and England through the Kingdom of Hungary, making it a heavily traveled transit state after Constantinople.

At the end of the 11th century, Pope Urban II, upon hearing the news of the danger facing the Holy Land, became unnerved. This was in the hands of infidels since the 7th century, but, furthermore, now it could not even be visited by Christians. Urban called for the Holy War and the First Crusade was formed at Clermont-Ferrand. The hearts of the knights gathered there were touched by Urbano's words and they shouted in unison Deus Volt: "God wants it, God wants it", and after a few months masses of poor and peasants set out with their rustic weapons to conquer the Holy Land. This was not what Urbano had planned, but he did not stop it. Thus, together with Peter the Hermit, they marched by land using the pilgrimage routes, but many of them plunged into hunger, and others who only sought loot and robbery, began to wreak havoc in the kingdom of Hungary. At this, King Coloman of Hungary organized his armies to defend his lands, and soon held off the raiding invaders, many of whom were exterminated. Others returned to their land, and others led by more respectable French nobles signed agreements with the Hungarian king, passing without causing chaos.

The popular Crusade was a disaster, but then another was formed, the so-called First Crusade, made up of feudal nobles. They crossed Europe and in 1099 they conquered the Holy Land by taking Jerusalem, Antioch, Saint John of Acre, Ashkelon, Tiberias, Edessa, Tire and other cities located from southern Turkey to Sinai in a chain of states called the Overseas Lands, the Crusader Kingdoms or the Latin Kingdoms.

Seven more crusades followed, all far less successful than this one.

Currently, the conflict over Jerusalem and the Holy Land is not between Muslims and Christians, but between Israelis and Arabs.