Holy Land:
The State of Israel is a sacred site for people of many faiths
By CNN Interactive writer Richard Shumate
Sprawled out over rugged, limestone hills at the edge of a barren desert in a remote part of the world, Jerusalem would not seem, in and of itself, to be a prize worth fighting over for thousands upon thousands of years.
But the city has been and remains an object of perpetual tug-of-war between adherents of three of the world's great religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Together, those religions have more than 3 billion adherents, holding sway over more than half of the world's population. For each, Jerusalem and environs are an integral part of their faith's history and theology.
And for those who believe, Jerusalem and the Holy Land hold a place in the heart and psyche that can, and often does, eclipse reason.
The land is the ancient ancestral home of the Jewish people, as recounted in the most sacred Jewish text, the Torah, or the Five Books of Moses.
The Torah teaches that the land was given by God to the Jews' patriarch, Abraham, and his descendants as a birthright for his faithfulness. In 1000 B.C., David, the Jewish king, established Jerusalem as his capital. His son, Solomon, built a temple in the city, for the faithful to worship and make sacrifices.
Four centuries later, the Jews were conquered and forced into exile in Babylon, their temple left in ruins. They were allowed to return in 538 B.C. and built a second temple. But the Holy Land remained under non-Jewish rule and eventually fell into the orbit of the Roman empire. After a series of Jewish rebellions, the Romans again destroyed the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. and forced them into exile.
Jews would not hold sway again in Palestine until the founding of modern Israel in 1948. During nearly two thousand years of exile, persecution and genocide, the land of Israel remained the home of their heart. For example, the hopeful ending to the Seder -- the traditional meal of the Passover celebration -- is "Next Year in Jerusalem."
It was during the Roman occupation of Palestine that Jesus was born to Jewish parents in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. For Christians, he is the Son of God, the Messiah whose coming was prophesied in Jewish scripture.
Jesus' ministry through various places throughout the Holy Land is chronicled in the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament.
Charged with apostasy against the religious order of his day, Jesus was crucified near Jerusalem. Christians believe he was resurrected from the dead three days later, and tradition holds that the tomb was located where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is today, completing an atonement for the sins of the world.
Though the Holy Land gave birth to Christianity and remains central to its history, the faith went elsewhere, particularly Europe, to take root. Christians are a minority religion in the Holy Land, and, compared to Jews and Muslims, have ruled the area for a relatively short amount of time.
After the Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity in 313 A.D., the Holy Land was subject to Christian rule for three centuries. But in the 7th century, shortly after the death of Mohammed -- who established Islam and whom Muslims believe was a prophet of Allah, their name for God -- Muslims conquered Jerusalem.
Except for short periods in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries when Crusaders from Europe conquered parts of the Holy Land, Muslim forces held power in the area until the Turkish Ottoman Empire disintegrated after World War I and the British took over administration.
Muslims, though last on the scene, exercised hegemony in the Holy Land for more than 14 centuries. They, too, claim an inheritance through the patriarch Abraham, though through a different lineage. And though the life and ministry of Mohammed was centered in the Arabian peninsula, Jerusalem holds a particular religious significance for Muslims.
Muslim tradition holds that in 622 A.D., 10 years before his death, Mohammed took a journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, where he then ascended through seven layers of heaven on a winged steed to converse directly with Allah -- an event called the Miraj. Mohammed then returned to Earth to impart heavenly wisdom to his followers.
Muslims erected the Qubbat Al-Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock, a shrine built in 691 A.D., atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is the place from which Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven. It is considered the third holiest site in Islam, after the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina.
At the base of Temple Mount is the Western Wall, the last remnant of the Jews' second temple that was sacked by the Romans. It is the holiest site in Judaism.
Less than a mile away is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which Christian tradition holds as the site of Christ's burial and resurrection.
The walled Old City of Jerusalem, the part of the city where these sites are located, is divided into Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Armenian quarters. (The Armenians were the first to collectively adopt Christianity as a nation, and they claim one of the oldest continuous presences in the Holy City.)
And yet, the divisions aren't exact. There are churches in the Muslim quarter; synagogues in the Armenian quarter; mosques in the Christian quarter; and an Armenian church in the Muslim quarter. Jerusalem, then, serves as an illustration of how Jerusalem and Israel truly remain a mosaic of faiths. And while each side may not necessarily agree to whom God, or Allah, actually gave this place, they would agree that the Almighty ordained for it an importance that has left the Holy Land in the spotlight during eras both ancient and modern.