Scripture and the Holy Land

This chapter considers the idea of the Holy Land, focusing on the scriptural bases for it. Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim attitudes to the Holy Land, as reflected in their respective scriptures, are surveyed. A number of debates surrounding ‘scripture’ within and between these religious communities are highlighted: Which book(s) make up the scriptures? How are these scriptures to be read? And with what consequences? It is shown that the answers to these questions bear directly on each tradition’s attitude to the Holy Land, with Christians tending towards a spiritualization of the Holy Land and Muslims tending towards a transferal of the temporal Holy Land to the Arabian Peninsula.