THE FASCINATION FOR THE HOLY LAND DURING THE CENTURIES

C.H.J. de Geus

Every visitor to the Holy Land quickly realizes that he is not the first traveller to Palestine. Many thousands have made this same journey during the centuries before us. The old churches, the Western Wall that Christians call the Wailing Wall, the remnants of hospices, the pilgrims crosses in the churches at Bethlehem and Jerusalem, yes even the remarkable continuity of olive wood souvenirs still sold today in the Holy Land, are all persistent reminders to the modern visitor of the many that came here before him. Why have so many before us set out for the Holy Land? What attracted them to that land, far away at the eastern end of the Roman Empire? Or, later, at the far end of the Christian world? And still later under the rule of “unbelievers” in that land? Why did this land preoccupy their meditations, prayers and studies of the Scriptures, in their churches, monasteries and convents, in their schools, synagogues and at home? I will address these questions, but with two restrictions. In the first place, I am aware of the fact that the expression “Holy Land” appears only after the Crusades, in the thirteenth century. But the idea behind this expression, i.e., a land consecrated and purified by God and given a spe- cial status, is much older. Wefind this notion already in the biblical books of Numbers and Joshua. Also expressions such as “Holy City” (Jerusalem) or “Holy Place/Ground” go back to biblical times. Secondly, I will deal exclusively with the Western fascination. Seen from Jerusalem, people drawn to Palestine came from the East, the North, and the South as well. Several European pilgrims have expressed their astonishment over meet- ing with so many pilgrims from so many unknown countries: Christians from Armenia or Ethiopia, Jews from as far as Persia and Yemen. In this paper, I will primarily restrict myself to the Dutch situation. During the Byzantine period, the Netherlands barely existed as such, and “Palestine” denoted an area much larger than nowadays. The Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem still bears the title “Head of the three Palestines.” And for centuries it was normal for travellers to Palestine to include in their journeys, if they could afford to do so of course, places such as Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, or Aleppo and Edessa in Syria. But the  c.h.j. de geus main destination was always Jerusalem. More or less systematic Christian pilgrimage started with the work of Eusebius of Caesarea (†). His Onomastikon was meant for pilgrims and for the study of the Bible. The greatest importance of Eusebius for my subject is that he succeeded in turning the interest of a typical Western emperor, Constantine, born in our parts, at Trier, firmly to the East and to Jerusalem. Eusebius would not have written his Onomastikon if pilgrimage to the biblical lands was not already a standing tradition. For Jewish Europeans the trek to the Holy Land was much older still. Before the destruction of the Temple in ce they were used to coming to Jerusalem in great numbers to attend the High Festivals. Even though it became increasingly difficult for them to travel to Israel after the destruction of the Temple, and Jerusalem itself was out of bounds for a long time (after ), they still came; to Hebron or Tiberias and later to Sefat too. We are reminded of these earliest pilgrims by the many ampullae, small bottles made of clay, sometimes glass, used to bring home holy oil from the Holy Land. Some of these ampullae have been stamped with Christian or Jewish symbols. What did they come for? What were their motives? There are two differences between the pilgrimages of Jews and Chris- tians. For Jews the land is literally the terra promissionis,tolivethereisa mizwe. As a consequence many of them did not bother to return, whereas returning was very important for the Christian pilgrim, as we shall see. Secondly, the land of Israel is the only place where the Torah can be lived completely.ForpiousJewsthisisalsotodayaveryemotionalsubject. Their main destination was the land, and Jewish life, while for the Chris- tian pilgrim the main purpose was the mystic experience, as is still the case with many travellers to Israel. The early Christian pilgrims, therefore, already came for the same rea- sonasalltheirsuccessors:tobeasphysicallycloseaspossibletotheplaces where it all happened. They came to see, to touch, to feel, to smell. They came not only for the life and passion of Jesus Christ, but at first per- haps even more for the remains of the martyrs and confessors of the Holy Church. Wemust realize that the persecution of Christians under Diocle- tian took place at the beginning of the fourth century, only two decades before Nicaea (ce)! This persecution was much more severe in Africa and in the Near East than it was in Western Europe. When Egeria trav- elled through Palestine at the end of that century she was not successful in meeting a living confessor, but only their children or grandchildren and many people who claimed to have known one, long ago. During the next centuries a very important motive was to bring home relics of the