Land of Israel
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Land of Israel (ʼÉreṣ Yiśrāʼēl, Eretz Yisrael) is a name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant (also known in English as Canaan, Palestine, the Promised Land, or simply the Holy Land). The Jewish religious belief that the area is a God-given inheritance of the Jewish people is based on the Torah, especially the books of Genesis and Exodus, as well as the Prophets. According to the Book of Genesis, the land was promised by God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. A literal reading of the text suggests that the land promise is (or was at one time) one of the Biblical covenants between God and the Israelites. This belief is not shared by most Christians for whom the entitlement of any one ethnic or religious group to territory in the Middle East is not supported by Scripture. With the exception of Christian Zionists, it is the position of most Christians that the land promises of the Old Covenant were expanded in the New Testament to show the universal dominion of Jesus Christ.
See also
- History of the Middle East
- History of Israel
- History of Palestine
- History of the Jews in the Land of Israel
- Canaan
- Greater Israel
- Holy Land
- Jewish history
- List of Jewish leaders in the Land of Israel
- Promised land
