Research

INTRODUCTION

According to the Holy Land Christian community’s religious beliefs and traditions, these Christians are descendants and heirs of the first Christian community, which lived during the first century AD. This community experienced the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the coming of the Holy Spirit and it believed in Jesus Christ as the community member’s Saviour. These were the first people Jesus referred to as “living stones” in the First Epistle of Peter and “salt of the earth” in the Gospel of Mathew. These early Christians originated from Jewish, pagan, and Arab communities. In addition, every nation and civilisation that came to, settled in, and eventually departed from the Holy Land, left behind some of their traditions, beliefs and culture. These merged with, and melded into, the traditions, beliefs and culture of the Holy Land Christian community. Additional Christians, from outside the Holy Land, later came to serve and protect its Christian shrines and churches. For example, Byzantine Emperor Constantine I had churches erected on many Christian holy sites. He also had monasteries built in many parts of the country. Later, in the 12th century, Pope Urban II commissioned the Crusaders from Europe to take over the Holy Land and rebuild churches that had been destroyed, especially the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After Saint Francis visited the Holy Land in 1219, many monks who were his followers also visited the Holy Land and its holy sites. These monks served the existing Christian communities as clergy, and some established their own parishes and churches. The local Christian community consists of 13 different denominations and churches today, each with a different place of origin and ethnicity, e.g., Armenian, Greek, Russian and Syrian. The local Palestinian Arab Christians, from all of these denominations, are descendants of the first Christian community, which began after the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down to the disciples, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.

For Christians, the Holy Land refers to all the territories associated with Jesus Christ’s life, including his birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. These are the cities and other places where Jesus lived, travelled, and visited, as well as the roads that connected these places. These territories were part of the Roman Empire in Jesus’ time. Today they are part of the Israeli and Palestinian political territories. The Holy Land consists of four distinct geographical regions: the Coastal Plain, Central Chain of Mountains, Jordan Rift Valley, and Negev Desert. The New Testament of the Bible clearly refers to the geography of the country during Jesus’ time. For example, the Gospel of Luke described Jesus’ travel from Nazareth to the Galilee, while the gospels of Mathew and Mark identified Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan, possibly near Bethany-across-the-Jordan. The Gospel of Mark also chronicles time Jesus spent in the Judean desert, or wilderness, where Satan tempted Him three times. The New Testament presents clear geographical information about Jesus’ travels and the places he visited. read more...