Marc Turnage: The Land Is A Character

If you've ever read a Bible passage and skimmed past the place names, you've missed one of its main characters. The land of Israel shapes how biblical events unfold and sits at the center of God's covenant with His people. When you learn to ask where and when a passage takes place, the text starts to make more sense.

Why does the land matter when you read the Bible?

The land matters because it influences what happens in the story, not just where it happens. Bible scholar Dr. Marc Turnage of Biblical Expeditions put it plainly in a Beyond Sunday conversation with Pastor Sean Sloan. The land of the Bible is as much a character as Abraham and David or Peter and Paul.

Most of us read Scripture for its people. We follow Abraham's call, David's rise, Peter's denial, Paul's travels. The hills, valleys, rivers, and borders feel like scenery. But the biblical writers set their message inside a real physical world. That world affected the way events played out.

At Calvary we say it this way: read the Bible in its world before you apply it to ours. Reading the Bible in its world means learning what a passage meant to its first readers in their time and place. Knowing what a passage said to its first readers is how you learn what it is saying to you now. That world includes the culture, the technology of the era, the people, and their religion. It also includes the land.

What are the two ways the land shows up in Scripture?

The land shows up as a physical setting and as historical geography. Both help you read more accurately.

The physical setting

The first is the physical world itself: hills and valleys, bodies of water, plants and animals, geology, and even climate. The difficulty is that the biblical authors assume you already know all of it. They don't stop to explain the terrain or add an appendix. They just name the place and keep going, because their first readers knew it. Dr. Turnage noted that the land runs through the narratives, the prophets, and the poetry of the Psalms alike.

Historical geography

Historical geography is the study of how people interacted with a physical place at a specific point in time. This matters because the borders of Israel change across the Bible.

Under David and Solomon, the united kingdom covers the territory of the twelve tribes. After Solomon's son Rehoboam takes the throne, the ten northern tribes break away and form the northern kingdom of Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah is made up mainly of Judah and Benjamin. The same word, "Israel," can point to different territory depending on the century.

So whenever a place is named, ask two questions: where is this, and when is this?

Why was land part of God's covenant with Israel?

Land was part of the covenant because, in the ancient world, faith touched every part of life. Land was bound up with family, worship, and identity.

To see this, Dr. Turnage says we first have to notice something about ourselves. In the modern West, even the most faithful person tends to treat faith as private, inward, and personal. We keep it separate from politics or economics. He points out that this way of thinking has emerged only in about the last two hundred years.

In antiquity, religion covered worship, liturgy, custom, law, and family. No part of life was untouched by it. Family meant more than the people alive today. It meant your ancestors and your descendants, the customs and laws you inherited, and the God your family worshiped.

Land fit into that picture. The Greek idea of a fatherland was the land where your fathers are buried. Gods were often tied to a people and a place. Athens takes its name from the goddess Athena, and the Athenians saw themselves as her worshipers. Their identity was framed by all of it at once: family, law, custom, worship, their goddess, and the land.

Against that background, God's relationship with Israel is defined by three things that belong together:

• His exclusive claim on His people.
• The land He promised to their fathers.
• The laws, customs, and covenant He gave them.

The promise of land goes back to Abraham, called Abram at the time.

The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 12:7

How does this help you read the prophets?

It helps because the prophets always call the people back to the whole covenant. That means land, law and custom, and worship of the God who made the covenant. When a prophet challenges or rebukes Israel, those threads run through the message together.

It also explains something that can be confusing. Israel is both a people and a place. Sometimes the prophets speak to Israel while the people are living in Babylon, far from the land, and they are still addressing Israel. As Pastor Sean noted, it's not only a geopolitical label. It's also the chosen people. When you read a prophet, notice who the audience is and where they are living.

How does the land shape the Gospels?

The land shapes the Gospels because Jesus and the people around Him lived in a land that was divided and under foreign rule. That raised a hard spiritual question.

When we hear "Roman rule," we think of politics. For a first century Jew, being ruled by Rome meant being ruled by idol worshipers. If our God is the supreme God and we are His chosen people, why are we under pagan rule?

Dr. Turnage says that if you understand that question, you understand a great deal about the hopes for redemption people held in Jesus' day. Read a Gospel scene with that tension in mind. You'll hear the crowds' questions and expectations differently.

Common questions

Why is the land of Israel important in the Bible?

The land is part of God's covenant with Israel, together with His exclusive claim on His people and the laws and customs He gave them. The physical setting also shapes how biblical events unfold, so understanding it helps you understand the text.

What is historical geography?

Historical geography is the study of how people interacted with a physical place at a specific time. In the Bible, the borders and makeup of Israel change across the centuries, so knowing the time period helps you read a passage correctly.

Why did the prophets talk so much about the land?

In the ancient world, land, law, custom, worship, and family were bound together. The prophets called Israel back to the whole covenant, and the land was one part of that relationship with God.

Why did Roman rule matter so much to Jews in Jesus' day?

For a first century Jew, Roman rule meant being governed by idol worshipers. That raised the question of why God's chosen people were under pagan rule, and it shaped the different hopes for redemption people held when Jesus came.