"To your offspring I will give this land" (Genesis 12,7). The theme of the Promised Land in the Biblical tradition

Although the English designation "Promised Land" is not used as such in the Old Testament, the theological motif of the Land being promised by God to Israel is undoubtedly one of the main themes that connects most books of the Old Testament. However, due to the fact that these books have been composed by various authors in very different historical contexts, there is no single uniform treatment of this motif within the Bible. Whereas some biblical pericopes speak about an unconditional gift of the land by God’s grace, others stipulate that not obeying God’s commandments will lead to the loss of the Promised Land, a land that originally was not Israel’s own. Moreover, even if promised to be possessed by Israel, several texts accentuate that, in the end, it remains God’s land: Israel can make use of it, but the land itself belongs to God. The present paper deals with both literary and historical questions with respect to this theological motif, that is ubiquitous within the Old Testament. It pertains respectively to the way in which the Old Testament presents the theme of the Promised Land, and to the different presentations of its taking into possession as well as to its varying dimensions.