The Liberation of the Land

In Scripture, “earth” signifies more than just physical land; it functions as a literary sign that opposes human oppression. The biblical narrative presents the land both as a silent witness against human civilization and as one of its victims. In this context, the recurring phrase “heavens and earth” serves as a merism, expressing the totality of creation and affirming God’s sovereign authority and judgment:

“Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them.” (Deuteronomy 31:28)

Poet Mahmoud Darwish echoes this Abrahamic outlook by portraying the land as a woman—“the lady of the earth”—a figure of both suffering and resilience. Through this personification, Darwish critiques the domination of land by human civilization, portraying earth not as property but as a noble matriarch. His vision resonates with the biblical sabbatical and jubilee traditions, in which the land itself is granted rest and release from exploitation (Leviticus 25).

In the Old Testament, Galilee is often marginalized or conquered. Yet, in Isaiah—and later in the New Testament—it is repurposed as the launching point for God’s mission to liberate the land from human abuse.

In contrast to Jerusalem or Rome, which embody imperial tyranny cloaked in Hellenistic pluralism, Jesus reclaims Galilee as the new hub for Biblical Shepherdism—a direct challenge to the ideology of Hellenistic urban empire. Galilee becomes a scriptural threshold: a place of refuge, instruction, and mission. It embodies God’s cause, where divine law transcends political borders, and the land becomes a witness to divine justice against human violence, not a possession of empire.

اللَّهُ مَالِكُ الْمُلْكِ
allāhu māliku al-mulk
“God is the Owner of Sovereignty”

This week I discuss Luke 8:26.

Show Notes

χώρα (chōra) / ע-ר-ץ (ʿayin–resh–ṣade) / أ-ر-ض (ʾalif-rā-ḍād)

The biblical Hebrew אֶרֶץ (’ereṣ) can denote:

• The entire inhabited earth, as in Genesis 1:1 (“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”), is typically rendered in the Septuagint (LXX) as γῆ (gē).
• A specific territory, region, or localized land, such as “the land of Canaan,” or the land surrounding a city.
• The pairing of שָּׁמַיִם (šāmayim)“heavens” and אֶרֶץ (’ereṣ) earth in scripture functions as a merism, a literary device expressing totality.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
(Genesis 1:1)

“May you be blessed of the Lord, Maker of heavens and earth.”
(Psalm 115:15)

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.”
(Isaiah 65:17)

• In the Qur’an, أرض “arḍ” also appears frequently in the same manner in phrases like “السماء والأرض” (al-samāʾ wa al-arḍ) – “the heavens and the earth.”

بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَاتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمْرًۭا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ
badīʿu al-samāwāti wa al-arḍi. wa idhā qaḍā amran fa-innamā yaqūlu lahu kun fa-yakūn.
[He is] the Originator of the heavens and the earth. When he decrees a matter, he only says to it, “stand forth,” and it stands forth.

In his poetry, Mahmoud Darwish uses the Semitic function أ-ر-ض in line with the anti-civilizational tradition of Abrahamic literature:

عَلَى هَذِهِ ٱلْأَرْضِ
ʿalā hādhihi al-arḍ
on this earth

Darwish refers to the earth (ٱلْأَرْض) both as a practical reality, literally, “on this earth,” this “ground,” and as the shared heritage of those who live on this ground, who