Where is the Holy Land?
The Holy Land is located in Israel, on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is bordered by Syria and Lebanon to the north, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest. The river Jordan forms the border between Israel and Jordan—it flows between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Explore this map to get a sense of this part of the world.
Jerusalem (where Jesus suffered, died, and rose; also where the Temple was located) and Bethlehem (where he was born) are very close together, only a few miles away. If you zoom in on the map link above, you’ll see Bethlehem emerge to the southeast of Jerusalem. Notre Dame has a Global Gateway in Israel—on a campus called Tantur, which is located between the two.
Jerusalem is close to the center of Israel, which is why it has served as a capital city for millennia—there are no other particularly distinguishing features about the city that made it desirable (in fact, its water supply is inadequate). The land south of Jerusalem is very arid, and the land to the north is more temperate and holds many farms and orchards.
Israel is a divided land—some areas are under the clear sovereignty of the state of Israel, and other areas are occupied by Israel but under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. One of these “occupied territories” is the West Bank (so-named because it sits on the west bank of the Jordan River); Bethlehem is a Palestinian town in the West Bank—it is pictured here, and you can see the wall that divides it from Israel. Jerusalem itself is split between Israeli and Palestinian authority.
This video will give you a sense of the landscape and geography of the area around Jerusalem. It was taken from a prominent place just outside of Jerusalem; Bethlehem appears on the hillside at the end of the video.
As you can see, it is a dry climate. Much of the rock in that region is a brightly-colored limestone, which is soluble in water. There are many natural caves in this region, which plays a large role in both Jesus’ birth and his burial.
Historical Context
Before we begin, a few historical notes are in order to properly situate the places we will visit. The Holy Land has undergone many different waves of invasions and rebuilding, and the holy sites there changed with each new conquest. One thing remained constant, though—the memory of the Christian community. As we encounter these sacred sites, we’ll be peering through layers of history as it has been preserved by a living community of faithful Christians.
From the time Jesus died in 33 AD until 313, Christianity was not tolerated in the Roman Empire. The emperor Constantine changed that when he converted to Christianity with his household, which included his mother, Helen. Helen visited the Holy Land from 326-328 to rediscover places of importance in Jesus’ life and mark them with churches for pilgrims. So the earliest architectural structures associated with Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are still separated from those moments by 300 years—longer than the United States has been in existence.
This distance does not mean that we can know nothing about what things were like in Jesus’ time, however. During her visit, Helen relied upon the Christian community in the Holy Land, which had been continuous since the time of Jesus. That community did not forget these places—they continued to visit them and use them in celebrations. They passed on a collective, shared memory of these sacred places in much the same way the Christian community passed along the oral tradition of the Gospel stories until they were written down.
The church buildings Helen erected over these holy sites were mostly destroyed by invading Persians in 614, which prompted Europeans to respond with the Crusades beginning in the 1100s. Crusaders rebuilt churches in their own style, but later Muslim invaders again destroyed many. This pattern of building, destroying, and rebuilding forces the question of whether or not we can have confidence that the places marked by these churches are the actual places where these events took place.
In the case of the Church of the Nativity, the answer is maybe—it could very well be this specific cave where Jesus was born, or the birth might have happened in one very much like it nearby. In the case of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the answer is almost for certain—historical records, geography, and Scriptural accounts all agree, giving scholars a lot of confidence that this is the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and risen.
For a more in-depth encounter with the Holy Land, we recommend the book Jesus: A Pilgrimage by Father James Martin, SJ. Father Martin visited the places we speak of here, as well as others, and connects the places to Scriptural accounts and his own rich reflections. For more detail about the history and archeology of sacred sites in the Holy Land, consult The Holy Land: An Oxford Archeological Guide, by Father Jerome Murphy O’Connor, OP.