1. From Land of Canaan to Land of Israel
“And when Abram {father of a single nation] was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God…
I will make my covenant…give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee…ALL the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
my covenant will I establish with Isaac [and Jacob / Israel” (Genesis 17:1-21, 28:10-13)
Let’s review what “all” the land of Canaan comprises according to Genesis 10:19.
“the border / boundary lines of the Canaanites was
- at the north from Sidon / belonging to Phoenicia,, currently the southern border of Lebanon,
- at the west as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza / belonging to the Philistines, currently the Gaza strip home of Palestinians – NOT all the way to the Mediterranean Sea
- at the east as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha / at that time belonging to Amorite giants, currently the West Bank home of Palestinians
- at the south the unnamed natural boundary of Sinai desert, currently belonging to Egypt..”
Hmmmm. That is a lot less territory than Greater Israel claims.
2. Let’s double check against the land grant given through Moses.
“And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him
- the land of Gilead, unto Dan – northern border
- And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea / Mediterranean – central section
- And the south(ern border) – same as above with natural border of the desert
- and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar – western side of the Dead Sea.
Keep reading! There are some restrictions!
“command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through
- the coast of your brethren the children of Esau / Edom, [Isaac’s brother who married a daughter of Ishmael] which dwell in Seir; meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.
- The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them.
- Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession.
- The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites called them Emims.”
- And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession.
- That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims…but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:
- And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor [the Philistines] destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.
- By this we understand that the Philistines were rewarded with the land they captured from the giants, i.e. the coastline called the Gaza Strip. Sound impossible, especially with Goliath in mind? Remember that salvation is an individual choice, not a set national destiny.
- I have given into THINE hand Sihon the Amorite, [giant] king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.” (Deuteronomy 34)
“the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes.“ (Deuteronomy 2)
So there we have two witnesses to truth in a judgment – Abraham and Moses.
3. From Land Of Israel to Israel And Judah
“And it came to pass after this [the death of the first king of Israel, King Saul] that…the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah…But Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and…made him king over…all [the majority of] Israel.” (II Samuel 2:1-8)
“This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families;
- even to the border of Edom the wilderness of Zin southward was the uttermost part of the south coast
- the east border was the salt [Dead] sea, even unto the end of Jordan.
- And their border in the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the uttermost part of Jordan [River]…up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of…Jerusalem: and the border went up to the…end of the valley of the giants northward…
- And the border compassed from Baalah westward unto mount Seir, and passed along unto the side of mount Jearim, which is Chesalon, on the north side, and went down to Bethshemesh, and passed on to Timnah: And the border went out unto the side of Ekron northward: and the border was drawn to Shicron, and passed along to mount Baalah, and went out unto Jabneel; and the goings out of the border were at the sea. And the west border was to the great sea, and the coast thereof.” (Joshua 15:1-12)
4. Back to United Israel
“David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.” (II Samuel 5:4-5)
During this time King David both fought and made peace with the Philistines, which did not lose their national identity until the same time that Judah’s capitol city was also destroyed and Jews taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
Name change #4 Back to Israel And Judah
“[David’s son] Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD…Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods…Wherefore…the LORD…rent Israel from the house of David;” (I Kings 11:6-13, II Kings 17:20-21)
5. From Israel to Samaria by Assyria
“the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria…For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel…And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the [outlying] cities of [the capitol city of] Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.” (II Kings 17:23-24)
The modern Israeli government chooses to use “Judea and Samaria” instead of “the West Bank” to designate the area west of the Jordan River which had been apportioned for Arab rule by the United Nations when it established the state of Israel in Palestine. In 1967, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took control of the West Bank and established a military administration over it, which remains in place today.
6. From autonomous nation of Judah to international province of Judea by Persia
“Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” (II Chronicles 36:23)
“Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews [note, not Israelites] that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel [note, the Jews are a remnant of the entire nation of Israel]…Tatnai, governor on this side the river…sent a letter unto…Darius the king…we went into the province of Judea.” (Ezra 5:1-8)
7. From Judea to Palestine by Rome
The province of Judea had .maintained its nationalistically significant name throughout the changing empires into the early Roman period until the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136, the Third Jewish-Roman War.
To quell any further Jewish resistance and to solidify Roman authority in the region 985 Jewish villages were destroyed and most of the Jewish population wiped out or scattered throughout the empire, remaining Jews banned from residing in the vicinity of Jerusalem, which the Romans rebuilt into the pagan colony of Aelia Capitolina. It was not until 638 that Jews were allowed back into Jerusalem – not by Christians, but by the Islamic Caliphate.
The last strategic move aimed at suppressing Jewish identity, and reshaping the region’s future was changing the national name to the identity assigned by the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus’ atlas of world geography Syria Palaestina, pronounced in Semitic languages as “Philistine Syria” for its most memorable inhabitants – hybrid giant warriors from Caphtor in the Mediterranean.
Jerusalem achieved a Jewish-majority character at the turn of the 20th century under the Ottoman Empire’s control of the region, grounded on shared monotheism and in obedience to their shared covenant of faith through Father Abraham.
See the relevant posts on Islam for more information not provided in American politics’ demonization of Islam.
8. Palestine to Zion / Stronghold for war by Zionism
Theodor Herzl, an Austrian journalist, founded the modern Zionist movement in 1897, while urging assimilation of Jews into Christian European society. Between 1903-14 over 85% of the 2,367,000 Jews who left Europe at that time immigrated to the US where they did assimilate. About half of the ethnic Jews who immigrated to America,reported having no, or a non-Jewish, religious affiliation.
Of those identifying religiously as Jewish, the largest group – about 1/3 of the total – is Reform Judaism which, the modern version of Pharisaism, believes that the Bible and other sacred Jewish writings contain historical and cultural Law that may be legitimately discarded in modern times.
