Did God really promise the Holy Land to the Jews?
Why Zionism is not Scripturally sound
“There is so much wrong with this interpretation of Scripture that it is difficult to unpack, and so the Biblical dimensions of the Muslim-Israeli conflict are seldom examined critically, especially by secularists.”
Dear Friends,
The following article was published by my friend Crow Qu’appelle yesterday, May 15—the day after Israel commemorates it’s founding as a nation state. Many Christians see the establishment of Israel as a fulfillment of ancient prophecy. But for the Palestinian Arabs it represents a catastrophe—in fact, THE Catastrophe, Al Nakba—the violent dispossession and appropriation of their lands.
Who are the Arabs and who are the Jews? And why this conflict? According to tradition, both are descended from Abraham. So can one group descended from the patriarch dispossessing their own cousins be considered a fulfillment of an ancient promise to their common ancestor? (And is God so petty and unjust as to wish eternal enmity and war upon the descendants of the wandering patriarch he so favored?)
Hey Folks,
Yesterday was Israel’s national holiday, which commemorates the date on which the Israeli state declared independence - May 14th, 1948.
To Israelis, May 14th is celebrated as the day that the forever beleaguered Jewish people attained their long-held dream of having their own homeland.
Today is May 15th, which is marked annually by Palestinians as a day of mourning, named as Nakba day. The word “Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic, making it clear that Arabs and Israelis remember the events of 1948 very differently.
WHAT WAS THE NAKBA?
During the Nakba in 1948, approximately half of Palestine's predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people,[7] were expelled from their homes or made to flee, at first by Zionist paramilitaries through various violent means, and after the establishment of the State of Israel, by the Israel Defense Forces. This occurred in the wake of dozens of massacres targeting Palestinian Arabs and the depopulation of 500 Arab-majority towns and villages,[8] with many of these being either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jews and given new Hebrew names. By the end of the war, 78% of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine was controlled by Israel and at least 15,000 Palestinian Arabs had been killed.[9][10]
The fact that Israelis celebrated their independence this year whilst Gazans die in droves day after day must surely add salt to the wound.
DID GOD REALLY PROMISE THE HOLY LAND TO THE JEWS?
The Zionist belief that the land of Israel rightfully belongs to Jews is based on the Book of Genesis.
In Genesis 15, God says to Abram (Abraham):
“To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
It is worth noting that this definition extends to a far greater geographic area than the current borders of the state of Israel. The Euphrates river, runs through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.
The “River of Egypt” refers to the Nile, which extends into Sudan between forking into two rivers, known as the Blue Nile and the White Nile.
Greater Israel, which Zionists believe was given to the Jewish people by God, contains parts of Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, as well as the entirety of Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and Jordan. It should go without that saying that this belief does not bode well for the possibility of peace in the Middle East.
There is so much wrong with this interpretation of Scripture that it is difficult to unpack, and so the Biblical dimensions of the Muslim-Israeli conflict are seldom examined critically, especially by secularists.
It is my purpose here to explain why the Zionist claim to the Holy Land is not rooted in any sane interpretation of Scripture.
“ISRAELITE” AND “JEW” ARE NOT SYNONYMOUS TERMS
The Bible does not record God giving the Promised Land to “the Jews”. Indeed, Jews did not yet exist. Jews trace their lineage to Judah, the great-grandson of Abraham and Sarah.
In Genesis 15, God does not promise the Holy Land to the Jews, but to the descendants of Abraham, which includes Arabs.
[Genesis 15:18–21] seems to define the land that was given to all of the children of Abram (Abraham), including Ishmael, Zimran, Jokshan, Midian, etc.
This is important, but to interpret this information, you need to know something about Scripture.
ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE, ARABS ARE DESCENDED FROM ABRAHAM
For those of you who don’t know, both Arabs and Jews trace their ancestry to the same father (Abraham), but different mothers. Jews believe themselves to be descended from Abraham’s wife Sarah, whereas Arabs believe themselves to be descended from Hagar.
According to the Book of Genesis, Hagar[a] was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as Sarai),[2] whom Sarah gave to her own husband Abram (later renamed Abraham) as a wife to bear him a child. Abraham's firstborn son, through Hagar, Ishmael, became the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, generally taken to be the Arabs.
IS THIS REALLY ALL ABOUT ANCIENT BABY MAMA DRAMA?
If you want to understand how deep the beef between Arabs and Jews goes, it is worth knowing something about some ancient baby mama drama.
In the Book of Genesis, Sarah gives Abraham her slave because she is too old to bear children. After miraculously conceiving, she then exiles Hagar and her son Ishmael to the desert.
According to the Bible, Hagar was the Egyptian slave of Sarai, Abram's wife (whose names later became Sarah and Abraham). Sarai had been barren for a long time and sought a way to fulfill God's promise that Abram would be father of many nations, especially since they had grown old, so she offered Hagar to Abram to be his concubine.[7]
Hagar became pregnant, and tension arose between the two women. Genesis states that Sarai despised Hagar after she had conceived and "looked with contempt" on her. Sarai, with Abraham's permission, eventually dealt harshly with Hagar and so she fled. [8]
Hagar fled into the desert on her way to Shur. At a spring en route, an angel appeared to Hagar, who instructed her to return to Sarai and submit to her mistress.[9] Then she was told to call her son Ishmael. Afterward, Hagar referred to God as "El Roi" (variously "god of sight"; "god saw me"; "god who appears").[10] She then returned to Abram and Sarai, and soon gave birth to a son, whom she named as the angel had instructed.[11]
Later, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, and the tension between the women returned. At a celebration after Isaac was weaned, Sarah found the teenage Ishmael mocking her son (Genesis 21:9).[13] She was so upset by the idea of Ishmael inheriting their wealth, that she demanded that Abraham send Hagar and her son away. She declared that Ishmael would not share in Isaac's inheritance. Abraham was greatly distressed but God told Abraham to do as his wife commanded because God's promise would be carried out through Isaac; Ishmael would be made into a great nation as well because he was Abraham's offspring. Before Abraham died, he gave gifts to Ishmael and his other sons and sent them away from Isaac (Genesis 25:6).[14] Ishmael and Isaac buried Abraham together (Genesis 25:9).[15]
Before the death of Abraham, in Genesis 21:9, Sarah came to believe that Hagar's son Ishmael was mocking her son Isaac.[16] She insisted Abraham send them both away. Abraham brought Hagar and Ishmael out together. Abraham gave Hagar bread and water then sent them into the wilderness of Beersheba. She and her son wandered aimlessly until their water was completely consumed. In a moment of despair, she burst into tears. God heard her son crying and came to rescue them.[17] The angel opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well of water. He also told Hagar that God would "make a great nation" of Ishmael.[18] Hagar found her son a wife from Egypt and they settled in the Desert of Paran.[19]
On their entry for Ishmael, Wikipedia states:
After roaming the wilderness for some time, Ishmael and his mother settled in the Desert of Paran, where he became an expert in archery. Eventually, his mother found him a wife from the land of Egypt.[8] They had twelve sons each of whom became a tribal chief in one of the regions from Havilah to Shur (from Assyria to the border of Egypt).[9]
Ishmael went on to sire twelve sons, whose names were:
Nebaioth (נְבָיוֹת Nəḇāyōṯ)
Kedar (קֵדָר Qēḏār), father of the Qedarites, a northern Arab tribe that controlled the area between the Persian Gulf and the Sinai Peninsula. According to tradition, he is the ancestor of the Quraysh tribe, and thus, ancestor of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[11]
Adbeel (אַדְבְּאֵל ʾAḏbəʾēl)
Mibsam (מִבְשָֽׂם Mīḇsām)
Mishma (מִשְׁמָע Mīšmāʿ)
Dumah (דוּמָה Ḏūmā)
Massa (מַשָּֽׂא Massāʾ)
Hadad (חֲדַד Ḥăḏaḏ)
Tema (תֵימָא Ṯēmāʾ)
Jetur (יְטוּר Yəṭūr)
Naphish (נָפִישׁ Nāfīš)
Kedemah (קֵדְמָה Qēḏəmā)
Ishmael also had one known daughter, Mahalath or Basemath, the third wife of Esau.[12]
It was only later, when Abraham and Sarah’s grandson was given the name Israel, that we can speak of Israelites. And again, there were Twelve Tribes of Israel, of which the Tribe of Judah was only one. Even if God had specifically promised the Holy Land to the Israelites, that still wouldn’t justify the Zionist position that Israel rightfully belongs to the Jews.
As the Wikipedia page for “Twelve Tribes of Israel” helpfully explains:
Jacob, later called Israel, was the second-born son of Isaac and Rebecca, the younger twin brother of Esau, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. According to biblical texts, he was chosen by God to be the patriarch of the Israelite nation.
To complicate things further, Abraham also sired six sons with a third woman, Keturah. This is quite the impressive feat, given that Abram was already 86 years of age when Ishmael was born.
According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah. Abraham and Keturah had six sons.[2] According to Jewish tradition, she was a descendant of Noah's son Japheth.[4]
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ISRAELITE AND A JEW?
To understand the Zionist claim to the Holy Land, one must also know the difference between an Israelite and a Jew.
There were twelve tribes of Israel, of which the Tribe of Judah was just one. According to Scriptures, these twelve tribes controlled different territories.
The Israelites were the descendants of twelve sons of the biblical patriarch Jacob. Jacob also had at least one daughter, Dinah, whose descendants were not recognized as a tribe. The sons of Jacob were born in Padan-aram from different mothers, as follows:[4]
Deuteronomy 27:12–13 lists the twelve tribes:
Reuben (Hebrew רְאוּבֵן Rəʼūḇēn)
Simeon (שִׁמְעוֹן Šīməʻōn)
Levi (לֵוִי Lēwī)
Judah (יְהוּדָה Yəhūdā)
Issachar (יִשָּׂשכָר Yīssāḵār)
Zebulun (זְבוּלֻן Zəḇūlun)
Dan (דָּן Dān)
Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי Nap̄tālī)
Gad (גָּד Gāḏ)
Asher (אָשֵׁר ’Āšēr)
Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִן Bīnyāmīn)
Joseph (יוֹסֵף Yōsēp̄), later split into two "half-tribes":
Later, ten of these tribes vanished from history, and are now known as the “Lost Tribes of Israel”. Wikipedia explains:
The Ten Lost Tribes were the ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire c. 722 BCE.[1][2] These are the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, and Ephraim — all but Judah, Benjamin, and some members of the priestly Tribe of Levi, which did not have its own territory.
So, if one accepts that the author of the Book of Genesis accurately records what God said to Abraham, and that God specifically promised a specific geographic area to his descendants, there is still no reason to believe the Zionist claim that the Holy Land was promised to Jews in particular.
Even if you believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that the ultimate authority in contemporary geopolitical disputes should be the Bible, the claim that God promised the Holy Land to the Jews simply does not hold up under scrutiny.
In the Book of Genesis, Jehovah promises Abraham that the Holy Land will be the homeland of his descendants. Given that Arabs are the descendants of Abraham, it makes no sense for Jews to justify their dispossession of Arabs with reference to Scripture.
Simply put, all Zionist justifications for the expropriation of Palestinian land are nothing more than flimsy, transparent lies.
THE TERM “ANTI-SEMITISM” IS A SEMANTIC ABOMINATION
One of the most annoying things about the current state of political discourse vis-a-vis the Israeli-Arab conflict is that the term “anti-semitism” is used to delegitimize critics of Zionism. The use of this term is egregious because Arabs are much more Semitic than Israelis are.
According to Abrahamic tradition, the term “Semite” refers to the descendants of Shem, one of the sons of Noah, who repopulated the Earth after the Great Flood.
The term “Semitic” also refers to cultures which speak Semitic languages. Arabic is a Semitic language. Ergo, Arabs are Semites. It really is that simple.
Nevertheless, the Western media constantly portrays critics of the Israeli regime as anti-semites, even if they happen to be Arabs. But this is clearly nonsensical. How could Hamas fighter be anti-semitic if they themselves are Semites? The conclusion is inescapable - Hamas is not anti-semitic. They are pro-semitic. They are anti-Zionist.
“Okay”, you might be thinking, “but you said that Arabs are more Semitic than Israeli Jews are. How does that make sense? That infographic you just posted shows that the twelve tribes of Israel are descended from Shem, meaning that Jews are Semites. Plus, Hebrew is a Semitic language. According to your own criteria, Jews are Semites. How can you say that Arabs are more Semitic than Jews are?”
Good question. The answer is that the majority of the world’s Jews are not primarily descended from the ancient Israelites, but Eastern Europeans who converted to Judaism over a thousand years ago. These are the Ashkenazi Jews, who today represent the vast majority of the world’s Jews.
To understand this, I will have to explain some obscure history about the ancient Khazar Empire, which ruled a vast area in the Caucausus back in the days of the Byzantine Empire.
Stay tuned!
Tobin Owl is an independent researcher/writer. Over the past four years he’s conducted in-depth investigation focusing on the history of modern medicine, medical science, geopolitical conspiracy and the environment. Articles written prior to his move to Substack are found on his website Cry For The Earth
Super helpful & much easier to understand now. Thank You.