Any academic program that studies the Bible and theology must include a tour of the Land of the Bible as a necessary element to enable the connection between the student and biblical thought. This essential meeting with the foundation of the Bible is an invaluable experience for every biblical scholar.
We at Amiel Tours are very proud to offer a special opportunity for university students of Biblical Studies. The Bible College Study Tour is headed by Dr. Yosef Paz and has given hundreds of students the opportunity to study the Bible - its history and theology - in the land where it all happened, Israel the Holy Land.
The Land of the Bible is now the modern State of Israel. Throughout the generations there have been many names for this thin strip of land that runs from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, from the hills of the Galilee to the Negev Desert: In the time of Abraham it was dubbed Canaan, hundreds of years later under the rule of King David, it was called the United Kingdom of Israel. After the Persian conquest it was called the land Judea – the province of the Jews, and during the Roman Period, from the time of Hadrian, the land was called Palestine, after the Philistines - a sea-faring people who inhabited the land at that time. This is the accepted historical name.
In 1948 the descendents of the early Children of Israel returned to dwell in the Land of the Bible, they named the land after their forefather Jacob. Just as Jacob himself was re-named "Israel", the land named for him was also re-named the State of Israel.
The Land of the Bible, besides being the heart of holiness and worldwide religious sentiments, is central to what is happening in the modern geopolitical arena. In ancient times, the Holy Land stood on an extremely vital crossroad between Mesopotamia and Egypt, and today the State of Israel remains at the center of world events – the crucial junction between Africa and Asia in the East and Europe in the West.
Theology has always strived to connect the truth of belief with the truth of history. Indeed Christianity, a product of events of the days of the Land of the Bible, is an historical religion. The core of Christian belief is derived from the life of one man, which was revealed at a certain point in history, a specific point filled with relevance in time and in place. Why was Jesus sent precisely to the site of the Land of the Bible?
The answer seems clear: this was the valley of vision for the Israelite prophets of the Old Testament, and Jesus, as the embodiment of the New Testament, saw himself as their natural successor. But why was Jesus sent specifically during the year 4 BC? Why was this precise time in history chosen as the right time for him to be revealed as the son of God? The vast number of different answers to this question has brought forth entire schools of thought that follow the pattern of the birth of Christianity in the Land of the Bible and its circulation throughout the Mediterranean basin.
Most schools emphasize the beginning of “Pax Romana” in the year 6 BC, with the final establishment of indirect Roman rule over the land of Israel. This coincided with the apex of the Roman Empire that spread its wings over the Holy Land. Thus, with the improved network of Roman roads, the security and trade of the “Roman Peace”, Messianic ideas were able to make their way from the far and forgotten corners of the empire, from the Sea of Galilee to the heart of the Roman Empire, and from there to the entire world.
This connects the religious-messianic belief system to the geopolitical reality of the Holy Land, and creates the largest, most important and widespread religion in the world. Hundreds of archaeological sites tell the story of the exciting meeting between messianic faith and Christian history: sites connected to Caesar’s Rome, Herodian buildings, synagogues that were converted into churches, and of course sites linked to the life of historical Jesus. The very sites to which scientific research points and says “Jesus was here…”