Three religions that have Abraham as their patriarch: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They all have their own collection of holy texts. These holy books have had an incredible influence on the history of the world, but many people today lack knowledge about them. In Museumpark Orientalis visitors are able to learn more about the background and contents of these books.

Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible)

The Tanakh is the Bible that is used in Judaism, also known as the Hebrew Bible. The word ‘Tanakh’ is an acronym of the first Hebrew letter of each of the Bible’s subdivisions: Torah (Teachings), Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). It is not known exactly when the Tanakh was finished in its form as we know it now, but probably around the epoch of our era. How is the Tanakh used by Jews in the synagogue? What does a Torah scroll look like? What is a yad and what is it used for?

The New Testament

The stories about Jesus were written between 50 and 100 A.D. They are the four gospels, which tell of Jesus’ life; the Acts of the Apostles, about what happened shortly after Jesus’ death and the journeys of the Apostle Paul; the letters of the Apostles; and the book of Revelation. Together we call them the New Testament. It is the foundation of Christianity and has been of great importance to the development of Western culture. Why do we call this book the New Testament? Where do our Christian holidays come from and do we still know their meanings?

The Quran

The history of Islam begins around 610 CE, when the prophet Muhammad received his first revelation. This and the next revelations were written down over the years and compiled into one book: the Quran. The final version of this book came to be relatively quickly, around twenty years after the death of Muhammad. According to the Islamic tradition the Quran is the literal word of God. Beside the Quran there are a lot of stories about the sayings and actions of Muhammad, called hadiths. How is the Quran structured? Why is it forbidden to make visual depictions of Muhammad? Does this have to do with any holy texts?

The Holy Land geographically

The Holy Land is originally located, according to the Western Christian tradition, in ancient Palestine, because many of the important events described in the Bible take place in this region. The Holy Land covers what we call Israel and Palestine today. Sometimes small parts of Libanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt along the Israeli-Palestinian border are also seen as part of the Holy Land.

For the location of the reconstructed Holy Land in the Netherlands, the founders chose the township De Ploeg near Groesbeek, because the land here is equally uneven as in the actual Holy Land.