Bible and Qur’an Recognize Canaan as a Promised Land to the Hebrews
by Eusebio A. Tanicala. PhD
Introduction
Few places on earth have inspired as much debate as the land of Israel. Every headline seems to raise the same question: Who has the stronger historical claim? My purpose here is not to settle every political argument. Instead, I want to trace one specific claim back to its earliest scriptural sources. Both the Bible and the Qur’an contain passages that many believers understand as referring to Canaan as a land promised by God to the descendants of Abraham.
Consider these texts:
Warsh Qur’an, Surah 5:21: “O my people! Enter the sacred land that Allah has prescribed for you; do not turn back [out of fear of her rulers], or you will suffer damage.”
Hafs Qur’an, Surah 5:21: “O my people! Enter the holy land (Palestine) which Allah has assigned to you and turn not back (in flight); for then you will be returned as losers.”
Genesis 13:12, 14–15: “Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan... And the LORD said to Abram... Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”
Genesis 15:18: “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates....’”
From my perspective, these passages point to the same conclusion. They present Canaan as a land that God assigned to the descendants of Abram, later known as Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob.
But here’s the question that naturally follows: How did this promise unfold throughout history? To answer that, we need to begin at the beginning.
Genesis 11:27–32 introduces Abraham’s family and homeland. The story then moves to Genesis 12:1–3, where God calls Abram and promises that, through him, all the families of the earth will be blessed through the coming Redeemer. By Genesis 12:5–7, Abram and his household have entered Canaan, a land then occupied by the Canaanites. There, Yahweh makes a direct promise: “To your descendants I will give this land.”
And the promise grows even broader.
Genesis 13:14–18 records Yahweh telling Abram to look in every direction. Everything within his view, God declares, will belong to Abram’s descendants forever. For the Israelites, that word—forever—has long been understood as an everlasting inheritance granted by Yahweh, the Creator.
Because chronology matters, Genesis 15 deserves careful attention. According to the biblical timeline, the covenant with Abram took place around 2000 B.C., before the Philistines appear in the narrative.
Genesis 15:20–21: “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates’—the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
According to this interpretation, the Philistines were not living in Canaan when that covenant was established. The biblical record instead presents them as a people who later migrated from another part of the Mediterranean and settled along the coastal region.
That sequence forms an important part of the author’s argument.
The story then turns to Abraham’s family. Although Abraham and Sarah were well advanced in age—100 and 90, respectively—they became the parents of Isaac. Genesis 21 identifies Isaac’s descendants, rather than Ishmael’s, as the family line through which God’s covenant blessings would continue. The same chapter recounts Hagar and Ishmael’s departure into the Wilderness of Paran, a region generally associated today with part of the Sinai Peninsula.
Later, God reaffirmed His covenant with Isaac (Genesis 26:24–25).
Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Scripture follows Jacob’s family, who eventually settled in Egypt, where the Israelites remained for about four centuries. Joseph arrived in Egypt around 1950 B.C., and the Exodus began approximately 1445 B.C.
Fast-forward several centuries.
At the height of King David’s reign, around 1000 B.C., Israel’s kingdom stretched from the Tigris-Euphrates region in the north to Ezion-Geber and Elath on the Red Sea in the south, reaching from east of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean coast. According to this interpretation, those borders correspond closely with the territory described in Genesis 15. Readers interested in the geography can compare these descriptions with maps in standard Bible atlases.
The Philistines and Later History
Who were the Philistines?
According to the biblical record, they came from Caphtor, commonly identified with the island of Crete. In other words, they were migrants who crossed the Mediterranean before establishing settlements along the coastal plain of western Canaan.
The prophet Jeremiah refers to this connection:
“Because of the day that comes to plunder all the Philistines... for the LORD shall plunder the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor...” (Jeremiah 47:4)
One detail stands out. Gaza was already a recognized city during Jeremiah’s lifetime in the seventh century B.C.
History, however, did not stand still.
In 586 B.C., Babylon conquered the Kingdom of Judah and carried many of its people into exile. Decades later, Zerubbabel led the first major group of returning exiles after receiving permission from Cyrus the Great of Persia. Because Judah was the leading tribe among those who returned—together with Benjamin and Levi—the people gradually became known simply as “Jews,” a name derived from Judah.
Another empire soon emerged.
Alexander the Great swept across the ancient world before his death in Babylon in 323 B.C. His empire was divided among four generals, leaving Judea under successive Greek rulers based in Syria and Egypt.
Then Rome arrived.
Pompey conquered the region in 63 B.C., bringing Judea under Roman authority. Jewish resistance eventually erupted into open revolt in A.D. 66. Rome responded with overwhelming military force. Vespasian and his son Titus marched from Egypt, besieged Jerusalem, and captured the city in A.D. 70. The Temple was destroyed, much of Jerusalem was reduced to ruins, and thousands of Jews were taken into captivity, although many continued living in Judea.
Another rebellion in the second century A.D. scattered still more Jewish communities across the Middle East and North Africa.
Meanwhile, Christianity continued to spread. Born in Jerusalem around A.D. 33, the new faith expanded throughout the Mediterranean world despite repeated persecution. By the fourth century, Emperor Constantine had legalized Christianity and later moved the imperial capital to Constantinople, creating the familiar division between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.
Judaism had also reached Arabia by this period. Acts 2:11 even mentions visitors from Arabia who heard the apostles preach on the Day of Pentecost.
The seventh century brought another turning point.
According to the historical narrative presented here, Waraqa, a Christian associated by some historians with the Nestorian tradition, translated Jewish and Christian writings into Arabic. He was related to Khadija, the wealthy widow who later married Muhammad.
The account continues with Muhammad’s reported experience in a cave in A.D. 610, an event that Islamic tradition identifies as the beginning of his prophetic mission. After his death in A.D. 632, leadership passed first to Abu Bakr and then to Umar. Around A.D. 640, Arab forces entered Jerusalem, and Arab settlement in the region steadily increased.
By about A.D. 650, Judea and Jerusalem had become home to three major faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
And the demographic picture continued to change. As more Arabs settled in Canaan, known on Roman maps as Palestina, they eventually came to outnumber the Jewish and Christian populations living there.
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