02.09. Ancestral homeland

Ancestral homeland

Hundreds of years after the time of Abraham, his descendants saw the fulfilment of God’s promise that Canaan would be their homeland. By this time they were numerous enough to be called a nation, but were held captive in Egypt. Moses, however, led them out of Egypt, and forty years later Joshua led them into Canaan.¹ The territory Joshua conquered spread beyond Canaan. Canaan was the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and this was occupied by nine and a half Israelite tribes. A large region east of Jordan was occupied by the other two and a half tribes. The people of Israel lived in their land for several hundred years, till they were conquered and taken into foreign captivity.² After Persia released the captives, many returned home and rebuilt the nation. In due course the Persian Empire gave way to the Greek, and the Greek to the Roman. In New Testament times Judea was under Roman rule, but when it rebelled, Rome responded by destroying Jerusalem and bringing Israel’s national life to an end.³

Jews were scattered once more but, as usual, they maintained a distinct identity through their devotion to religious traditions, family relationships and synagogue services. Rome’s rule over Palestine changed with the emergence of an Eastern Roman Empire based in Byzantium (Constantinople), but this changed again with the birth of Islam and the subsequent conquest of Jerusalem by Muslim Arabs.⁴ Apart from a period of control by Christian Crusaders in the twelfth century, Islamic people, mostly Turkish, ruled Palestine till 1917. This was the year of the Balfour Declaration, which called for the re-establishment of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. As Jews migrated to their ancestral homeland, conflict arose with the local people, who considered Palestine to be their ancestral homeland. Hostility and violence intensified with the declaration of the modern state of Israel in 1948. The dispute is still unresolved.

1. 1240 BC 2. Israel into Assyria (722 BC), Judah into Babylon (605-587 BC) 3. Destruction of Jerusalem: AD 70; abolition of the nation: AD 135.

4. Islam’s official starting point is AD 622.

Mosque over Abraham’s traditional burial place, Hebron