Palestinian Arabs as Co-Heirs of the Abrahamic Promise: Revisiting a Literal, Unconditional Interpretation

Abstract

A majority of American evangelicals interpret God’s promise to give a certain land to Abraham’s descendants both literally and unconditionally (see Gen 12:2–3 and Gen 15). Because the promise is literal, Abraham’s living descendants are the rightful heirs of the promised land; because it is unconditional, this right belongs to Abraham’s biological descendants regardless of their behavior, beliefs, or other changeable factors. Evangelicals who support Israel as a Jewish nation-state do so largely in response to this way of reading the biblical Abrahamic promise. Meanwhile, others express alarm at what this implies for Arabs who live there, as well as for those who have been compelled to leave. The result is an impasse in Christian political posture toward the role of Arabs in the modern state of Israel, seemingly with no hope of resolution apart from a seismic shift in approaches to biblical hermeneutics. This article argues, however, that even a literal, unconditional reading of the Abrahamic promise, when followed to its logical end, leads necessarily to the welcoming of modern Arabs in the promised land. Without minimizing the importance of hermeneutical differences among Christians, the article shows that these do not need to be resolved before an unqualified advocacy for the welcoming of Arabs, both in Israel and elsewhere, can become standard among all Christians.