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Lay Leader Events

The NJ Synod invites you to a zoom class on

Sunday, May 4,   7:00 – 8:30pm

 

To Whom Does the Holy Land of Israel/Palestine/Canaan Belong?

An Old Testament Perspective

 

A conversation with The Rev. Dennis Olson, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey

For many Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel/Palestine were and are sacred ground where God is understood to have worked powerfully at the origins of their faith stories. As a result, one important dimension of the current military and political conflict struggle in the Middle East is religious and biblical in nature.  

 

This Zoom presentation will consider four questions:  

  1. What are some of the key Old Testament texts related to the people of Israel and the land of Canaan/Palestine and how have they been used on various sides of the conflict? 

  2. How do some Palestinian Christian scholars read and interpret the Old Testament promises of the land to Israel? 

  3. What are some Old Testament texts that seem to reject the notion that Israel alone is God’s chosen people or that the land of Canaan rightfully belongs to them?

  4. What are other Old Testament texts that might contribute to work toward peaceful or multi-state solutions for this conflicted land?

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Following the presentation, Professor Olson will invite Zoom participants to converse with him and one another about the ways in which these biblical texts have been used and misused in the current struggle and might be used in the interests of peace-making going forward.

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DOWNLOAD the flyer:    Zoom Event with D. Olson

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Register today by clicking here.

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MAY 1, 2025

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“Our synod office is located on land which is part of the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape, called “Lenapehoking.” The Lenape People lived in harmony with one another upon this territory for thousands of years. During the colonial era and early federal period, many were removed west and north, but some also remain among the continuing historical tribal communities of the region: The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation; the Ramapough Lenape Nation; and the Powhatan Renape Nation, The Nanticoke of Millsboro Delaware, and the Lenape of Cheswold Delaware. We acknowledge the Lenni-Lenape as the original people of this land and their continuing relationship with their territory. In our acknowledgment of the continued presence of Lenape people in their homeland, we affirm the aspiration of the great Lenape Chief Tamanend, that there be harmony between the indigenous people of this land and the descendants of the immigrants to this land, “as long as the rivers and creeks flow, and the sun, moon, and stars shine.”

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