Es considerado el lugar más sagrado del planeta. Y conocido como "La tierra prometida". Para los judíos, es la residencia del Rey David y donde Abraham eligió vivir en paz. Para los cristianos es el punto exacto donde regresará Jesús el día que vuelva al planeta. Hoy, sin embargo, Jerusalén permanece bajo el control musulmán y posee una de las mezquitas más sagradas. ¿Por qué hay tanta tensión religiosa en esta ciudad histórica?.
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00:00This program explores the mysteries of the Bible
00:04from a wide range of historical and theological perspectives
00:07that have been debated for centuries.
00:13It is considered to be the most sacred place on the planet,
00:17the Holy Land, the land that yields milk and honey, Zion.
00:24God promised that the descendants of Abraham
00:27would be the owners of this land.
00:30A land divided and divided,
00:32for which the three great religions of the world
00:36have fought for thousands of years.
00:42All kinds of people have fought for this piece of land.
00:46But did God really give this area, known as the Promised Land,
00:50to a chosen people?
00:54And is there proof in the pages of the Old Testament?
01:00When it is considered a sacred place, it is forever.
01:06It is one of the most important books ever written.
01:09Its content has aroused studies, discussions,
01:12and fights for thousands of years.
01:17But does the Bible also contain secrets?
01:20Secret prophecies?
01:23Secret characters?
01:26Secret texts?
01:29Today, for the first time,
01:31we will see an extraordinary series
01:34that will challenge everything we think,
01:37everything we know,
01:40and everything we believe
01:43about the Bible.
01:47The secrets of the Bible.
01:55The Promised Land.
02:03Israel, 2013.
02:08For the citizens, this is sacred ground.
02:17And Jerusalem, its largest city,
02:20is its epicenter, its heart.
02:25It is the place where a child named David was made king,
02:29and where the powerful Solomon built his great temple.
02:35But it is not the Jews who see this land as sacred.
02:40For the Christians, it is the land of Jesus,
02:43the birthplace of their faith.
02:49And for the Muslims, it is the land of Mahoma,
02:52the place from which he ascended to heaven.
02:56For all this, the most sacred place in the world
02:59is also one of the most disputed,
03:04coveted,
03:08and dangerous.
03:13We are talking about a narrow strip of land of less than 240 km,
03:17comparable in size to New Jersey.
03:21It is not an extensive area,
03:24but it has attracted the attention of many cultures
03:27over the centuries.
03:30God made the promise
03:32that this land would bear milk and honey,
03:35a kind of earthly paradise.
03:39It is ironic that at least in the last thousand years
03:42no one has fought ferociously and brutally for it.
03:47The holy land that we know today has bullet holes,
03:51barbed wire that divides it,
03:54and patrols of armed soldiers.
03:58Conflicts have caused the beauty of its landscape to be lost,
04:03full of scars of bloody wars.
04:07But why?
04:10Some say that the answer is on the first pages of the Holy Bible,
04:14in what is known as the Old Testament.
04:20According to the book of Genesis,
04:23God sent a great flood to erase sin and corruption from the ancient world.
04:30When it was over, God called a merchant named Abraham
04:34to found a new kingdom on earth,
04:37a supposed promised land,
04:40where he and his descendants could prosper and live in peace.
04:46Judaism was created when religions were associated with countries.
04:53Each country had its own God.
04:58The Jews were the first to believe in this omnipotent deity.
05:03And this omnipotent deity quoted Abraham and said,
05:07Abandon this country and go on to a different land,
05:11which I will show you.
05:14And that land was the land of Canaan,
05:17which became the promised land,
05:20which we know today as Israel.
05:24God tells Abraham that his descendants will possess the land
05:28between the River of Egypt and the Euphrates.
05:33He understands the area that today would be Israel,
05:36a part of Egypt,
05:38another of Jordan,
05:40and another of Syria.
05:44But if we examine the Bible,
05:46we find many surprising passages.
05:49In this one, God orders his chosen people,
05:52the Jews or Israelites, as they were known then,
05:55to take control of the promised land
05:58by the means necessary,
06:00not peacefully.
06:03Canaan is already inhabited,
06:05but God promised that the only owners of that land
06:08would be the descendants of Abraham.
06:13God's command to the Israelites
06:16was not only to conquer the lands of Canaan,
06:19but to massacre all its inhabitants.
06:23The Lord says that all men,
06:25women and children must be destroyed,
06:28all oxen and goats,
06:30all farms,
06:32even the last grain of grass,
06:34as an offering to God
06:36before it can be purified and given to the Jews
06:39as their promised inheritance.
06:42Did an all-powerful God really force the Jews
06:45to a violent conquest of the land?
06:49And could this be the reason
06:51why there are so many disputes today
06:54over what we know as Israel?
07:02Mount of the Temple, Jerusalem.
07:06Mount of the Temple, Jerusalem.
07:09Mount of the Temple, Jerusalem.
07:12The Bible says that it was near this picturesque hill,
07:16where Abraham and his descendants settled.
07:20But God continued to test his followers,
07:23even asking for the unimaginable.
07:28The biblical scholars believe that this is the place
07:31called Mount Moriah in the book of Genesis,
07:35where Abraham was ordered to kill his son Isaac
07:38as a sacrifice to God.
07:42According to the text,
07:44it was here that Abraham tied his son's hands
07:47and placed him on an altar of sacrifice
07:50at the top of the mountain.
07:52But when Abraham raised his hand to sacrifice Isaac,
07:56a divine angel appeared and stopped him.
08:01God tested Abraham's faith,
08:03and he passed the test of faith
08:06by fulfilling the divine will,
08:08as they say we should all do.
08:10And thanks to this, Isaac was allowed to live.
08:16The story of Abraham's absolute faith
08:20makes this place, also called Mount of the Temple,
08:24the most sacred of Judaism.
08:28Mount Moriah is the place where,
08:30according to Genesis 22,
08:32Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son.
08:37This established Mount Moriah
08:39as the center of the universe.
08:42The idea that there was a place of connection
08:45between heaven, earth, and the underworld
08:48is particularly strong.
08:56But Genesis also tells us that Canaan
08:59was not always a land of milk and honey.
09:03The drought forced the Israelites,
09:05the descendants of Abraham,
09:07to seek refuge in the fertile delta of the Nile.
09:11There, according to the Old Testament,
09:13they lived 400 years enslaved by the pharaohs.
09:19In Exodus, the second book of the Bible,
09:22God appears to the prophet Moses
09:24in a bush of flames in the desert,
09:26and orders him to free his people from slavery,
09:29to guide them to the promised land.
09:33So Moses goes to Egypt and confronts the pharaoh.
09:36He is not just any ruler.
09:39He confronts someone who is considered
09:41the reincarnation of God.
09:45He stands before the pharaoh
09:47and demands that he set his people free.
09:52The pharaoh refuses to release him.
09:56According to history,
09:58Moses' request to free the Israelites is rejected.
10:03Moses returns with the pharaoh
10:05and launches a series of 10 deadly plagues on Egypt.
10:11God attributes powers to Moses
10:13to launch plagues on the Egyptians.
10:16The pharaoh gives in and allows the people to leave.
10:19This showed that Israel was the people chosen by God
10:22and that it would act in his favor when necessary.
10:27But in the book of Exodus,
10:29we see that the journey from Egypt to the promised land
10:32is not easy.
10:35During the hard journey,
10:37God allows Moses to perform miracles
10:39so that they have food, water, and shelter.
10:44Although it seems that God has set them free from all evil,
10:47the Israelites doubt their strength
10:49to conquer the territory of the Canaanites.
10:52The story that is told in the fourth book of the Bible,
10:55the book of Numbers,
10:57says that Moses sent a group
10:59to explore the promised land.
11:03God ordered Moses to send 12 spies
11:06to inspect the land and decide on its conquest.
11:10But the result was that of the 12,
11:12there were 10 who said it was impossible to conquer those lands
11:15because their inhabitants were too dangerous
11:17and did not believe that God could conquer them.
11:21According to the traditional interpretation of Exodus from Egypt,
11:25God forced his chosen people
11:27to wander through the desert for 40 years
11:29as a test of their faith.
11:33But there are biblical heralds
11:35that point to a different interpretation,
11:37that the 40 years were actually
11:39a death sentence imposed by God,
11:42a punishment for those who doubted God.
11:46The Israelites are not 40 years
11:48wandering through the desert because they have been lost.
11:51Their itinerary through the desert is a divine punishment
11:54for not having enough faith to take the promised land
11:57when they had that opportunity.
12:00It was necessary to purge that generation,
12:03it was necessary to eliminate it
12:05so that a new and strong generation of believers and soldiers
12:08could take its place.
12:10It is a terrible moment.
12:14Was it the exile of 40 years of the Israelites,
12:17forced by God,
12:19to make sure that their children
12:21would arrive at the supposed promised land?
12:25Or behind this epic,
12:27there is an even greater secret
12:29that may reveal that in reality
12:31the Exodus did not take place.
12:35Moab plains, at the foot of Mount Ebo,
12:38in what is now Jordan.
12:42This picturesque plateau, with views of the Dead Sea,
12:45could have been the first thing the Israelites saw
12:48of the so-called promised land.
12:52But it was not the first time
12:54that the Israelites saw the promised land.
12:58It was not the first time
13:00that the Israelites saw the promised land.
13:05This is where, after 40 years of wandering through the desert,
13:09Moses finally puts his people safe.
13:14Or was it not so?
13:17If we examine the fourth book of the Bible,
13:20the book of Numbers,
13:22we see a little-known fact.
13:24Moses would never set foot in that sacred territory.
13:30But why?
13:34Because the Israelites are wandering through the desert
13:37and they need water.
13:39They are desperate.
13:41They are going to die of thirst.
13:43God tells Moses to make water flow from a rock.
13:46God explicitly tells him to speak to the rock,
13:49not to strike it.
13:51But Moses strikes the rock with his silence.
13:55And for this act of disobedience,
13:57by not treating God as sacred before the people,
14:00Moses is closed to the doors of the promised land.
14:04The only vision that Moses had of the promised land
14:07was from the top of Mount Nebo,
14:10when he saw the hills of the promised land before him.
14:19But why would God punish Moses so severely
14:22after he had been his faithful servant for many decades?
14:28Was it because God considered that error as disobedience?
14:34In that case,
14:36what other secrets about the Exodus from Egypt
14:39can be hidden in the pages of the Holy Bible?
14:43And could modern archaeology shed light on this biblical account
14:47and also on the right of the Jews to the promised land?
14:52The Sinai Peninsula, Egypt.
14:56Although the Erudites have debated and speculated a lot
14:59about the exact route of the Israelites
15:02during their 40 years in the desert,
15:05in the book of Exodus,
15:07it is indicated that Moses
15:09took the Jewish slaves freed by the south of Egypt
15:12through the Red Sea
15:14and then to Egypt,
15:16where they were buried.
15:18And then to the east,
15:20to Mount Sinai and the desert.
15:26But although archaeologists and biblical Erudites
15:29have excavated and explored this area for centuries,
15:32no physical evidence of the Exodus has been found.
15:40One of the major discrepancies
15:42between archaeology and biblical text
15:45is about Israel.
15:47But when we look at the archaeological evidence,
15:50the question arises whether or not there was really an Exodus.
15:57The number offered by the Bible
15:59is that of 2 million people who enter the desert.
16:02And the normal thing would be to find camps
16:05and other traces of their passage.
16:08In the excavations carried out in the Sinai,
16:11indications of nomadic groups have been found
16:14dating back to 10,000 BC,
16:16but nothing of the time of the Exodus,
16:18absolutely nothing.
16:22The problem arises when our faith tells us one thing
16:25and the evidence, the data and the facts
16:27tell us something different.
16:29Do I cling to faith and deny the reality,
16:32the experience, the facts and the evidence,
16:35or do I give myself up to my experience of reality
16:38and rethink what I think of God?
16:42For some scholars,
16:44the lack of evidence neither confirms nor denies
16:47the validity of the texts on the Exodus.
16:50And they believe that there may be a simple explanation
16:53for this lack of physical evidence.
16:56It is not realistic to expect, as some do,
16:59evidence to appear about Israel in the desert.
17:02The containers they would have used,
17:05the stores they would have occupied,
17:08all of this leaves no permanent traces of their presence.
17:11I don't believe there are archaeological remains
17:14even if there was an Exodus,
17:16because they are people who roam the desert
17:19and that has been done for thousands of years.
17:22It is not a type of activity that leaves an archaeological trace.
17:25Is it possible that the 40-year-old Exodus,
17:28as described in the Old Testament,
17:31did not really happen?
17:35Or can we find the answer
17:38if we examine the current religious texts?
17:43We are told that there were 600,000 men prepared for war.
17:46If we add the women and the children,
17:49there are 2.5 million or 3 million people.
17:52It is impossible for 3 million people to leave Egypt
17:55who were enslaved.
17:58In fact, the total population of Egypt would not exceed 3 million.
18:04It is most likely that it was a small group
18:07who left Egypt,
18:10who saw their liberation as miraculous,
18:13arrived in Israel and somehow created
18:16this new society based on ancient traditions.
18:27But even if there are people who think
18:30that the story of the Exodus was exaggerated,
18:34wouldn't it show the discovery of a physical proof
18:37that they were wrong?
18:40A relic of their journey,
18:43widely detailed,
18:46wouldn't it show the veracity of the biblical accounts?
18:49And wouldn't it validate the right to possess Israel
18:52over the so-called Promised Land?
18:55The Ark of the Covenant plays a very important role
18:58in Judaism,
19:01and above all, it welcomed the Ten Commandments,
19:04the laws on which Judaism is built.
19:07It is the holiest object that exists in the Jewish tradition,
19:10and there are people who feel the need
19:13to confirm their beliefs
19:16with something tangible and physical,
19:19as if that somehow demonstrated
19:22God's will in this world.
19:26The Ark of the Covenant
19:29was supposed to be an itinerant symbol
19:32of God's presence on the journey of the Israelites
19:35to the Promised Land.
19:38But if there was such an important and sacred object,
19:41where is it?
19:44According to the Hebrew Bible,
19:47when they arrived at the Promised Land,
19:50the Ark of the Covenant was kept in a secret sanctuary
19:53in Jerusalem.
19:56But it is said that around 586 B.C.,
19:59the temple was destroyed in a battle,
20:02and the trail of the Ark of the Covenant
20:05was lost.
20:08One traditional and simple explanation
20:11is that the Babylonians destroyed it when they set fire to the temple,
20:14and that's where it all ended.
20:17However, since the Ark did not reappear,
20:20many wonder what happened to the Ark.
20:23The search for the Ark of the Covenant
20:26has occupied archaeologists and biblical scholars for centuries.
20:29If it were found,
20:32it would show that Moses' biblical accounts
20:35were based on historical facts,
20:38and that there was the covenant of the Israelites with God.
20:41I am a firm supporter of the idea
20:44that the Ark of the Covenant
20:48is the source of the Bible.
20:51I am a firm supporter of the search for archaeological remains
20:54of the facts told in the Bible
20:57as a way of validating them,
21:00as long as it is done with intellectual honesty.
21:03Some things will be proven, others will be refuted,
21:06and many more we will never know.
21:09But given the controversy that arouses
21:12the claim of the Jewish people on the Holy Land,
21:15it is possible that the Ark was not stolen,
21:18but was deliberately hidden,
21:21protected from those who would destroy it,
21:24or out of reach of those who could exploit its power.
21:27But the Ark is not the only biblical object
21:30that arouses great interest.
21:33Every day, sacred objects and relics are found,
21:36objects that would not only reinforce the Jewish rights
21:39on the Holy Land,
21:43but also those of Christians and Muslims.
21:46They are claims that feed the ethnic and religious tension
21:49with each new discovery.
22:02Sinop, Turkey, August 2013.
22:08In the excavations of a church of the 18th century,
22:11archaeologists found a surprising object,
22:14a small box containing a piece of wood
22:17that for some would be the same cross
22:20on which Jesus was crucified.
22:27According to ancient historical accounts,
22:30the remains of the so-called Vera Cross
22:33were first found in Jerusalem
22:36in the year 326,
22:39by Helena Augusta,
22:42mother of Emperor Constantine the Great.
22:45Constantine's mother was a devout Christian,
22:48and it is believed that she discovered, among others,
22:51the place where Jesus was crucified.
22:54While she was excavating,
22:57she found a piece of what she believed
23:00to be the authentic cross of Jesus.
23:03She took it to Constantinople.
23:06Legend has it that pieces of the cross
23:09were distributed among the churches of Constantinople,
23:12what is now Istanbul, in Turkey.
23:15The primitive Christian church,
23:18eager to preserve any physical evidence of life
23:21and the teachings of Jesus,
23:24enthusiastically scoured the Holy Land
23:27in search of similar relics,
23:30including drops of the blood of Jesus,
23:34and even the shroud of his burial.
23:38But we don't have any individual object
23:41that we can associate, without a doubt, with Jesus.
23:44The Holy Grail,
23:47the chalice he drank at the last supper,
23:50or the robe he put on.
23:53We might have a chalice that Jesus drank,
23:56but we'll never know.
23:59But this kind of objects also corroborate
24:02the importance of the Holy Land
24:05as the epicenter of Christian worship.
24:08It was here, according to the New Testament,
24:11where Jesus was born, where he walked,
24:14where he was baptized, and where he was executed.
24:17But of all the places related to Jesus,
24:20perhaps none is more important or sacred
24:23than Jerusalem.
24:27Jesus was raised, was crucified,
24:30and ascended from Jerusalem.
24:33Jerusalem was for centuries the capital of Christianity.
24:36We can affirm that there is a kind of gravitating attraction
24:39of the Christian faith towards the city of Jerusalem.
24:44And so for the Christians, Jerusalem becomes
24:47a kind of navel of the world,
24:50the sacred space from which the spirit of God
24:53comes to humanity.
24:57According to the four Gospels of the New Testament,
25:00Jesus was crucified on the side of Mount Calvary,
25:03known in the Bible as Golgotha,
25:06outside the walled city of Old Jerusalem.
25:09And it was here, in the year 326 AD,
25:12just after the discovery of the supposed Veracruz
25:15by his mother,
25:18where Emperor Constantine raised the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
25:21The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
25:24is considered the most sacred place in Christianity.
25:27It is located in the place where it is believed
25:30that Jesus was crucified and buried,
25:33where he rose from the dead.
25:36In fact, the mountain in which Jesus was crucified
25:39is enclosed in the church itself.
25:42The church, rebuilt in the year 1149,
25:45is shared in different Christian confessions.
25:49This is a place very coveted by the Christian sects
25:52to set up the tent, so to speak.
25:55We have the presence of six Christian sects
25:58that have parts of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
26:02The Greek Orthodox control most of the Church,
26:05followed by Roman Catholics and other Christian groups.
26:10The relations between these Christian groups are not entirely good
26:13because they are very territorial.
26:17And so we can see a Roman Catholic priest
26:20cleaning a part of the ground
26:23that enters the area controlled by the Greek Orthodox.
26:26And there is already a war of brooms.
26:29This rivalry between religious groups
26:32in the holiest place of Christianity
26:35raises a lot of questions.
26:38If these groups can't get along, who can?
26:42But the Holy Sepulchre
26:45is only one of the many religious places
26:48that are mentioned in the biblical accounts of the life of Jesus.
26:52The Mount of Olives,
26:54located on a hill that was covered with olives,
26:57is on the eastern border of ancient Jerusalem.
27:01According to the Acts of the Apostles,
27:04a book of the New Testament,
27:07this is where Jesus ascended to heaven.
27:10And there are many faithful who believe that it will be here
27:13where Jesus will appear first when he returns on the day of the final judgment.
27:18If you look at Jerusalem,
27:21we see a hill full of tombs on the Mount of Olives,
27:24on the outskirts.
27:27Because according to Orthodox beliefs,
27:30when the Messiah returns, he will appear here first.
27:33And so those who are buried there will come out of their tombs there.
27:36And that's actually what St. Matthew says.
27:39We have everything,
27:42even a second coming of Jesus
27:45There are some who consider it
27:48something more than a symbolic return.
27:51But it is very difficult to unify
27:54these divergent points of view.
27:57Jesus clearly says that he will return.
28:00He does not give details of when it will take place.
28:03In fact, he warns us not to give him a date.
28:06Although Christians, like Jews,
28:09claim their rights over Jerusalem,
28:12the New Testament does not mention a promised land.
28:15Jesus himself never mentioned it.
28:18On the contrary,
28:21he affirmed that his kingdom was not of this world,
28:24but celestial.
28:30However, in the 11th century AD,
28:33the Christian armies of Western Europe
28:36launched a series of crusades to save Jerusalem
28:39from Muslim control.
28:42It was believed that Christians had to recover
28:45that territory for Christianity,
28:48specifically Jerusalem.
28:51But in the scriptures nothing is mentioned.
28:54Christians said,
28:57Muslims are the power of evil and we are the divine people.
29:00We are going to destroy the Muslims and recover Jerusalem for God.
29:03That was the beginning of the first crusade.
29:06But despite three centuries of bloody and brutal battles,
29:09the Holy Land was still under Muslim control.
29:15But what is so important in this area
29:18for Muslims to fight so fiercely for their control?
29:21Especially if Mecca, in Saudi Arabia,
29:24is their most sacred place?
29:27The answer may be on the pages of the Bible.
29:37Mount of the Temple.
29:40Here are the remains of the wall of lamentations.
29:43The oldest wall of the Hebrew temple,
29:46built by Herod the Great
29:49in the first century BC.
29:52It is the most sacred site of Judaism.
29:55It was here that Jesus
29:58expelled the merchants of the temple,
30:01which led to his arrest and crucifixion.
30:04For this reason,
30:07it is also a sacred place for Christians.
30:10However, since the Crusades,
30:13this 14-hectare plain
30:16has remained under Muslim control.
30:19And in it is one of the most sacred places
30:22of the Islamic world.
30:25It is the place where Jesus was crucified.
30:28For Muslims, Jerusalem is important
30:31because the dome of the rock
30:34rises over the place
30:37from which Muslims believe
30:40that Muhammad ascended to heaven
30:43to meet God.
30:46Muslims used to pray to Jerusalem face to face.
30:49According to the Koran,
30:52the prophet Muhammad prayed to Jerusalem
30:56and made a miraculous journey
30:59from Mecca to Jerusalem
31:02in one night.
31:05He reached the first rock
31:08from which he ascended to heaven
31:11to meet God.
31:14He goes from Mecca to Jerusalem
31:17and from Jerusalem to heaven
31:20on the back of his winged horse, Burak.
31:23He makes a journey through the universe
31:26and returns to Mecca all in one night.
31:29He knows all the great prophets of the Bible,
31:32including Jesus,
31:35from whom he becomes successor.
31:38In a sense, what is achieved in this way
31:41is to physically connect Muhammad and Islam
31:44with this holy land.
31:47Can the Muslim connection with this place
31:51the rock known as the first stone,
31:54or the Islamic faith and its association
31:57with the promised land,
32:00be based on what for some
32:03is a well-known biblical story?
32:06According to the Muslim tradition,
32:09God gave the Koran to the prophet Muhammad
32:12two decades after the 7th century
32:15through the angel Gabriel.
32:19But to the surprise of many,
32:22the Koran tells many of the same stories
32:25found in the Old and New Testaments.
32:32There is a direct relationship with the biblical text.
32:35There is also a direct relationship with the New Testament text.
32:38Jesus, John the Baptist, Mary,
32:41all of them important figures of the Koran.
32:44Muslims are considered a continuity of Jews and Christians.
32:48How is it possible that these three religions,
32:51so confronted today,
32:54could have so much in common?
32:57If we examine Genesis,
33:00the first book of the Bible,
33:03we find an interesting answer.
33:06The origins of Judaism,
33:09Christianity and Islam
33:12point to a very famous biblical figure.
33:16First there is Judaism,
33:19then Christianity and then Islam.
33:22They are all related through the Abraham family.
33:25Muslims, Jews and Christians
33:28are considered part of the Abrahamic tradition.
33:31They all go back to Abraham and his family,
33:34which is the bloodline that unites the traditions.
33:37In Genesis, when they give Abraham the promised land,
33:40his wife Sarah cannot have children.
33:44But Jewish tradition establishes
33:47that there must be a male child to inherit the property.
33:50Without a legitimate heir,
33:53the promised land could not continue to belong to the Abraham family.
33:59When Sarah saw that she would never get pregnant,
34:02she gave her maid, Agar, to Abraham.
34:05Abraham married Agar and Ishmael was born.
34:08Agar is not the young slave that makes diamonds.
34:12It is a kind of replacement for Sarah,
34:15a way of legitimizing her offspring.
34:21Later in Genesis,
34:24God miraculously blesses Sarah with a son of his own,
34:27named Isaac.
34:30But only the firstborn, Ishmael, the son of an Arab slave,
34:33would be the heir to the promised land,
34:36according to Jewish law.
34:40This posed a conflict between Abraham and Sarah.
34:45Sarah, who had first placed Abraham in Agar's store,
34:48when she gave birth to her own child,
34:51wanted him to be the main recipient
34:54of Abraham's blessings.
34:57She convinced her husband to expel Agar and his son
35:00so that they could die in the desert.
35:04Although repudiated by his father,
35:07Ishmael survived.
35:10He created his own family,
35:13and tradition says that the prophet Mahoma
35:16was one of his direct descendants.
35:19Is it through Ishmael
35:22that Muslims relate their origin to Abraham?
35:25And is it through Isaac
35:28that Jews relate their origin to Abraham?
35:32Jews, Christians, and Muslims
35:35all claim their rights over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount
35:38because it is one of the most sacred places
35:41for each of these traditions.
35:44They also venerate it because it is a place
35:47that was chosen for its connection to Abraham.
35:51But although the biblical origins of the rights of Jews,
35:54Christians, and Muslims over the Holy Land
35:57are so profound,
36:00is it possible that in the Bible
36:03there is a clue about the future of the region?
36:06A territory of religious tensions
36:09and endless wars?
36:12Could it become a promised land of peace?
36:15Could it become a promised land of peace?
36:24Practically throughout the history of the area
36:27known as Canaan, the promised land,
36:30there have been religious disturbances.
36:38The Bible itself describes it as a place
36:41full of violence, war, and suffering,
36:44only with the hope that one day
36:47God will bring harmony to this land.
36:50But when?
36:54Many Jews and Christians point to the book of Daniel
36:57from the Old Testament,
37:00which prophesies that a last battle will be fought
37:03before the Kingdom of God is reinstated on earth.
37:09Some scholars believe that the last book of the New Testament,
37:12the Apocalypse, identifies the real place
37:15in which this battle will be fought.
37:18100 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
37:21According to the Apocalypse,
37:24the final battle between good and evil,
37:27between God and Satan,
37:30will take place in a place called Armageddon.
37:33In Hebrew it is Ar-Megiddo,
37:36which means Mount Megiddo.
37:39Today Megiddo is a beautiful and quiet valley of Israel,
37:42and it is difficult to imagine that one day,
37:45there will be a catastrophic battle.
37:48But it is precisely what is described in the Bible.
37:53We wonder why this place became so important
37:56in the first accounts of Christianity and Judaism
37:59as a place for the final battle
38:02between the forces of God and the forces of evil.
38:10The ancient settlement of Megiddo,
38:13inhabited for the first time 7,000 BC,
38:16was a large walled city.
38:19It was located in a narrow valley surrounded by mountains
38:22that guards an access to the sea.
38:27It is a strategic place with agricultural wealth,
38:30known as the Valley of Jezreel.
38:35Over the centuries,
38:37many battles have been fought for the control of Megiddo.
38:40It seems to be related to this idea
38:43that it is the place of the final battle that will put an end to history.
38:49According to religious experts,
38:52there is this idea of a final battle
38:55in the three great monotheistic religions of the world.
38:58Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
39:03There are many who believe that,
39:06as described in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel,
39:09Matthew, Thessalonians and Apocalypse,
39:12this great battle will be fought
39:15after the temple of Jerusalem is rebuilt.
39:21For Christians, the temple has to be there before Jesus returns.
39:26And it is a problem because that temple no longer exists.
39:29It was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70.
39:34If we do it, God may send the Messiah.
39:37This is what the movements that want to rebuild the temple think.
39:42It is a long history of destruction, reconstruction,
39:45destruction, reconstruction,
39:48but what it shows is that when a place is considered sacred,
39:51it is forever.
39:55Jews, Christians and Muslims
39:58are seen as heirs of this land.
40:01The consequence is that they have fought brutally for it
40:05and they have massacred the members of the other groups.
40:09This dispute for the Holy Land is an irony
40:12because it would have to be paradise.
40:18Is it possible that the promise that God made to Abraham
40:21of a home for the Israelites
40:24did not refer to a geographical location but to a goal?
40:28A challenge?
40:31A place where the determination of the Jewish people would be put to the test?
40:40The fact that there are so many disputes over the territory of Israel
40:43makes it a perfect place for a promised land,
40:46as if God said,
40:49if you manage to settle here, you can do it anywhere.
40:53The key to the promised land
40:56is to understand it as a testing ground of faith.
41:00Sometimes we are asked to behave in such a way
41:03that we transcend our being.
41:07And it may be that the place to do it is,
41:10God willing, the Holy Land.
41:14The promised land is also a mental state.
41:17It is something that gives us hope for the future.
41:20It gives us an identity,
41:23a sense of belonging to the land, to the home.
41:30Perhaps the promise of God
41:33was not only to Abraham,
41:36but to all of humanity.
41:40And the promise of a land that yields milk and honey,
41:43a promised land,
41:46was not a gift, but a conquest.
41:50If so, we will only be aware
41:53of the true gift of God
41:56when the whole world puts aside its differences
41:59and believes that it is possible, not a holy land,
42:02but a holy world,
42:05a world like the one that is predicted
42:08on the pages of the Bible.