Return and redemption
The religious Origins of Modern Zionism
--
I attended a talk entitled above given by a local Rabbi.
What I learned.
What God said to Abram was around 1800 BC
Genesis 12:1–7 NIV: New International Version
“The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.”
What he said to Moses was 1200 BC
“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.”
Genesis 6: 2 -8 NIV: New International Version
which, if you do the Maths, was 600 years apart.
And then I hear that the conquering of Canaan ( the promised land) took a further 250 years.
Israel as a United Kingdom lasted about 100 years estimated by some to be between 1020 to 921 then divided into the Northern and South Kingdoms.
Twenty-four hours later the thought goes through my mind, “Is it credible to base your claim on a land based on a religious text? It only takes another to say, “But my God said it was mine” or indeed the atheist may say “I am taking it as it is mine.”
Do any of us claim God’s approval for taking land and displacing people in the process referred to by Palestinians as Nakba? See the below articles on the Nakba.
I understand the anti-Semitism that Jews experienced and the Holocaust created a need for a place of safety but at the uprooting of others?
g
