Who are the Holy Land Christians?

Most Christians in the Holy Land today descended from communities that have lived in the region for thousands of years. Christ’s earliest followers were Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Christianity quickly spread among Assyrians, Greeks, Edomites, Romans, Phoenicians, Arabs and others. The Bible  mentions the conversion of an Ethiopian Gentile to Christianity in those early days (Acts 8:26-39). Ethiopia became one of the first countries to adopt the Christian faith.

By the time of the first Pentecost, those assembled were speaking many languages. Acts 2 describes them as “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs.” Yet the Scripture still refers to them as “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.”

We are told that Peter stood before the crowd, addressing them as “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem,” and saying, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Verse 41 tells us, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”

For 2,000 years the descendants of these early Christians have formed the foundation of the Holy Land’s Christian community.

 What are Christians of the Holy Land called?

The indigenous Christian communities of the Holy Land are called Palestinian Christians. They include Christians living in present-day Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), as well as those who fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries when Israel was established.

The term Palestine was applied to the region long before Christ was born. An ancient Greek historian named Herodotus may have been the first writer to use the term in the 5th century before Christ, in Book 3 of his Histories, when he referred to a "district of Syria, called Palaistinê" between Phoenicia and Egypt.  It is thought to have originated with the term Philistia, which is referred to in both Genesis and Exodus. (Genesis 10:14, Genesis 21:32–34, Exodus 13:17, Exodus 23:31) as well as later books of the Bible. The Psalmist David  referred to “Philistia” in Psalm 87:4. However, Herodotus is said to have applied it to a wider region than the coastal region of Philistia in the Bible, including inland regions like Judea and the Jordan Valley as well.* According to the World History Encyclopedia,  “After Herodotus, the term `Palestine' came to be used for the entire region which was formerly known as Canaan.”

Early Palestinian coins, maps of the world, references in literature, passports, newspapers, and photographs document a thriving society that has played a prominent role in the history of the Middle East. The people living in this region, regardless of their faith, have long been known as Palestinians.

How many Christians live in the Holy Land today?

In Israel: At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Palestinian or other Arab Christians (Source: Israeli Bureau of the Census, 2022). Less than a quarter have come from the US, Europe and other parts of the world.

In the West Bank: Approximately 1.6% or 45,000 out of the West Bank’s Palestinian population of 2.7 million are Christian. The number has decreased dramatically as conditions of life for both Christians and Muslims in the area have become more difficult. Christians are more likely than their Muslim neighbors to have connections outside the region that can help them relocate.

In the Gaza Strip: Before the outbreak of the current war on Gaza around 1,000 Christians lived in Gaza (0.05% of the population). This is less than a third of the number of Christians in Gaza before Israel placed the area under a crippling blockade in 2009.

Note: About 145,000 Christians, or 9% of the overall population, lived in all of British Mandate Palestine in 1945 (before Israel’s creation). This encompassed what is now Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jordan (Source: Reuters News Agency).

*(See The History of Ancient Palestine from the Paleolithic Period to Alexander’s Conquest by Gosta Werner Ahlstrom, Gary Orin Rollefson, and Diana Vikandder Edelman.)