Editing Promised Land (section)

==Interpretations==
===Jewish interpretation===
The concept of the Promised Land is a central religious belief of the [[Jews|Jewish people]] and a key tenet of [[Zionism]], the Jewish national movement which established the [[Israel|State of Israel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewfaq.org/land_of_israel|title=The Land of Israel}}</ref><ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Haberman
 | first1 = Bonna Devora
 | title = Rereading Israel: The Spirit of the Matter
 | date = October 2014
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HAG5BQAAQBAJ
 | edition = reprint
 | location = Jerusalem
 | publisher = Urim Publications
 | publication-date = 2014
 | page = 151
 | isbn = 9789655242027
 | access-date = 8 November 2020
 | quote = Both Maccabean and modern Zionism seek to ensure the security of the Jewish People to exist, practice freely, and continue to develop our gifts to humankind.
}}</ref>

Mainstream Jewish tradition regards the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as applying to anyone [[Who is a Jew?|a member of the Jewish people]], including [[Conversion to Judaism|proselytes]] and in turn their descendants<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.convert.org/Welcome_Converts.html|title=Conversion to Judaism Resource Center|access-date=13 March 2016}}{{dead link|date=March 2025}}</ref> and is signified through the [[Brit milah|''brit milah'' (rite of circumcision)]].

===Christian interpretation===
[[File:Frans pourbus il vecchio, yahweh mostra a mosè la terra promessa, 1565-80 ca.jpg|thumb|Imagined painting by [[Frans Pourbus the Elder]] (c. 1565–1580) depicting the [[Israelite]]'s [[National god|God]] showing [[Moses]] the Promised Land|309x309px]]In the [[New Testament]], the descent and promise is reinterpreted along religious lines.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Gary M. Burge|first=Gary M|last=Burge|chapter=The New Testament and the land|title= Christians and the Middle East Conflict|editor1=Paul S Rowe |editor2=John H.A. Dyck |editor3=Jens Zimmermann|publisher=Routledge|date=2014|isbn=9781317801115|quote=Thus if you were a child of Abraham by race you inevitably were heir to the great land promises in the Holy Land ... Paul challenges the exclusivity of racial descent from Abraham. Children of Abraham consist of people - Jews and Gentiles - who share Abraham's faith. And the promise of God, he notes, comes to Abraham and his seed (singular) and this seed is Christ (Gal. 3:16). Thus Christ is the true heir of Abraham and his promises. And if we belong to Christ, we too are attached to Abraham and the promises given to him. Again, for the non-Jewish Christian, it is hard to imagine the impact of this theological subversion. Paul has upended one of the chief arguments for exclusive Jewish privilege in the Holy Land ... If you want a glimpse of just how striking Paul's rethinking of this could be, just look at Romans 4:13. Here Paul refers directly to the inheritance of Abraham. This was the gift of Canaan, the Holy Land, and Israel! And yet look at what Paul actually says: the promise to Abraham was that he would inherit the entire world. How can that be? This is not in Genesis. But it can be true in only one way: the family of Abraham now includes the Gentiles - Gentiles living throughout the world: Romans, Greeks, Cappadocians, Arabs - and they now, inasmuch as they belong to Christ, also belong to Abraham. God's new claim is not for the restoration of Judaea. It is not for a political rebuilding of the Holy Land. God's new claim is for the entire world; His people in Christ will be instruments of that claim.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j7vcAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40}}</ref> In the [[Epistle to the Galatians]], [[Paul the Apostle]] draws attention to the formulation of the promise, avoiding the term "seeds" in the plural (meaning many people), choosing instead "seed," meaning one person, who, he understands to be [[Jesus Christ|Jesus]] (and those united with him). For example, in [[Galatians 3:16]] he notes: 
: "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ."<ref>{{bibleverse|Galatians|3:16|NIV}} NIV</ref>

In [[Galatians 3:28]][[Galatians 3:29|–29]] Paul goes further, noting that the expansion of the promise from singular to the plural is not based on genetic/physical association, but a spiritual/religious one: 
:"There is neither Jew nor [[Gentile]], neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."<ref name=sizer>{{cite book |last=Sizer|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Sizer|date=2007 |title=Zion's Christian Soldiers? The Bible, Israel and the Church}}</ref>

In {{bibleverse|Romans|4:13|KJV}} it is written: 
:"It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith."
German [[Lutheran]] [[Old Testament]] commentator [[Johann Friedrich Karl Keil]] states that the covenant is through Isaac, but notes that [[Ishmael]]'s descendants have held much of that land through time.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Keil |first1=Carl Friedrich |last2=Delitzsch |first2=Franz |date=October 3, 1866 |title=Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6NkmPGJKvIC&dq=%22keil%22++ishmael&pg=PA216 |publisher=T. & T. Clark |via=Google Books}}</ref>

==== American colonialism ====
Many [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonists]] saw America as the "Promised Land", representing a haven from [[European wars of religion|religious conflicts]] and [[Religious persecution|persecution]]. For instance, [[Puritan]] minister [[John Cotton (minister)|John Cotton]]'s 1630 sermon [[wikisource:God’s Promise to His Plantation|God's Promise to His Plantation]] gave colonizers departing [[England]] to [[Massachusetts]] repeated references to the Exodus story, and later [[German immigrants in the United States|German immigrants]] sang: "America ... is a beautiful land that God promised to Abraham."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-12 |title=America as the Promised Land |url=https://www.museumofthebible.org/book-minute/america-as-the-promised-land |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314193508/https://www.museumofthebible.org/book-minute/america-as-the-promised-land |archive-date=2023-03-14 |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=[[Museum of the Bible]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

In a sermon celebrating [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|independence in 1783]], [[Yale University|Yale]] president [[Ezra Stiles]] implied [[American exceptionalism|Americans were chosen]] and delivered from bondage to a Promised Land: "the Lord shall have made his American Israel 'high above all nations which he hath made',"<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDougall |first=Walter A. |date=1997 |title=Promised Land, Crusader State |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mcdougal-promised.html |access-date=2023-12-09 |via=The New York Times |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=0-395-83085-0}}</ref> reflecting language from Deuteronomy of the promise.

[[Shawnee]]/[[Lenape]] scholar Steven Newcomb argued in his 2008 book ''Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newcomb |first=Steven T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HeDKUXsOC9cC |title=Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery |date=2008 |publisher=Fulcrum Publishing |isbn=978-1-55591-642-8 |language=en}}</ref> that [[Christendom]]'s [[discovery doctrine]] was also the same claim of "the right to kill and plunder non-Christians" found in this covenant tradition, whereby "the Lord" in Deuteronomy told his chosen people how they were to "utterly destroy" the "many nations before thee" when "He" brought them into the land "He" had discovered and promised to "His" "Chosen People" to "possess", and that this "right" was woven into US law through the 1823 [[Johnson v. McIntosh]] [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruling.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Newcomb |first=Steven |date=2020-08-22 |title="God's" Gift of a Right of Domination |url=https://originalfreenations.com/gods-gift-of-a-right-of-domination/ |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=ORIGINAL FREE NATIONS |language=en-US}}</ref>

===== Mormonism =====
{{Main article|Mormonism#America}}
[[Mormonism]] teaches that the [[United States]] is the Biblical promised land, the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] divinely inspired, and [[Mormons]] God's chosen people.

=== Muslim interpretation ===
{{Main article|Ishmael in Islam#Genealogy and association with Arabs|Quraysh#Origins|Family tree of Muhammad}}

1st century [[History of the Jews in the Roman Empire|Roman–Jewish]] historian [[Flavius Josephus#Impact on history and archaeology|Flavius Josephus]] postulated that Ishmael was the founder of the Arab race.<ref>{{harvnb|Millar|2011|loc=Chapter 14: "Hagar, Ishmael, Josephus, and the origins of Islam"}}: "Josephus is thus alluding to a proposition, not yet established in his narrative, that Ishmael was the founder (''ktistēs'') of the race (''ethnos'') of the 'Arabes' and offers this as his explanation of a custom currently observed by them."</ref> And according to Muslim tradition, [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|Islam's founding prophet]] [[Muhammad]] was a [[Hanif]] (true monotheistic believer of the religion of Abraham). His tribe, the [[Quraysh]], traces its ancestry to [[Ishmael]].

==== Palestinian interpretation ====
{{See also|Origin of the Palestinians}}
Some [[Palestinians]] claim partial descent from the Israelites and [[Maccabees]], as well as from other peoples who have lived in the region.<ref name="Khalidi">"(With reference to Palestinians in [[Ottoman empire|Ottoman]] times) Although proud of their [[Arab]] heritage and ancestry, the [[Palestinians]] considered themselves to be descended not only from Arab conquerors of the seventh century but also from [[indigenous peoples]] who had lived in the country since time immemorial, including the ancient [[Hebrews]] and the [[Canaanites]] before them. Acutely aware of the distinctiveness of Palestinian history, the Palestinians saw themselves as the heirs of its rich associations." [[Walid Khalidi]], 1984, ''Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876–1948''. Institute for Palestine Studies</ref>

=== African-American spirituals ===
African-American [[Spiritual (music)|spiritual]]s invoke the imagery of the "Promised Land" as [[heaven]] or [[paradise]]<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Beaulieu Herder
 | first1 = Nicole
 | last2 = Herder
 | first2 = Ronald
 | title = Best-loved Negro Spirituals: Complete Lyrics to 178 Songs of Faith
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FdsVXYkMTJEC
 | series = Dover Books on Music
 | date = January 2001
 | location = Mineola, New York
 | publisher = Courier Corporation
 | pages = 1, 10, 33, 58
 | isbn = 9780486416779
 | access-date = 8 November 2020
}}
</ref> and as an escape from [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], which could often only be reached by death.{{Citation needed|date= December 2019}} The imagery and term also appear elsewhere in [[popular culture]], in sermons, and in speeches such as [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s 1968 "[[I've Been to the Mountaintop]]", in which he said:

<blockquote>I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.<ref>{{cite speech|url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm|title=I've Been to the Mountaintop|date=3 April 1968|first1=Martin Luther|last1=King, Jr.}}</ref></blockquote>