Earlier this month, the Church of Scotland issued a report titled “The Inheritance of Abraham? A Report on the ‘Promised Land.’”

The essence of the report is that according to the Bible, Jews have no more attachment to the land of Israel than anyone else. Hence “promised land” is in quotation marks in the report’s title — because there is no promised land.

In the report’s words: “The New Testament contains a radical re-interpretation of the concepts of ‘Israel,’ ‘temple,’ ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘land.’ When the Bible mentions ‘Israel,’ it does not mean Israel; when it says ‘temple,’ the Bible does not mean the Jewish temple; ‘Jerusalem’ does not mean the city of Jerusalem; and ‘land’ does not mean land.

“Promises about the land of Israel,” the report continues, “were never intended to be taken literally, or as applying to a defined geographical territory.”