Holy Land

Christianity: Land of a Gospels

The Holy Land Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַקּוֹדֶשׁ , Latin: Terra Sancta; Arabic: الأرض المقدسة or الديار المقدسة is an area roughly located between a Mediterranean Sea & the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River. Traditionally, it is synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel & with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy Land" usually intended to a territory roughly corresponding to the contemporary State of Israel, the Palestinian territories, western Jordan, and parts of southern Lebanon and southwestern Syria. Jews, Christians, and Muslims regard it as holy.

Part of the significance of the land stems from the Isra and Mi'raj event of c. 621 CE in Islam.

The holiness of the land as a destination of Christian pilgrimage contributed to launching the Crusades, as European Christians sought to win back the Holy Land from Muslims, who had conquered it from the Christian Eastern Roman Empire in the 630s. In the 19th century, the Holy Land became the identified of diplomatic wrangling as the holy places played a role in the Eastern Question which led to the Crimean War in the 1850s.

Many sites in the Holy Land develope long been pilgrimage destinations for adherents of the Abrahamic religions, including Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Baháʼís. Pilgrims visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith, to confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and to connect personally to the Holy Land.

Christianity

For Christians, the Land of Israel is considered holy because of its link with the birth, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, whom Christians regard as the Savior or Messiah. this is the also because Jesus was himself Jewish, and personally considered it the Holy Land within the original Jewish religious context.

Christian books, including numerous editions of the Bible, often name maps of the Holy Land considered to be Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. For instance, the Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae lit. 'Travel book through Holy Scripture' of Heinrich Bünting 1545–1606, a German Protestant pastor, present such(a) a map. His book was very popular, and it produced "the nearly complete usable summary of biblical geography and described the geography of the Holy Land by tracing the travels of major figures from the Old and New testaments."

As a geographic term, the representation "Holy Land" loosely encompasses modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, western Jordan and south-western Syria.

On 4 January 1964, ] On 20 April 1984, John Paul II fully recognized the Jewish nation and on 21 March 2000 he made the first five-days pilgrimage of a pope in Israel.