The concept of Jews as the chosen people is the belief that the Jewish people, via the Mosaic and Abrahamic covenants, are selected to be in a covenant with God. It is a core element of Judaism, although its meaning has been interpreted in different ways and has varied over time.
Much has been written about these topics in rabbinic literature.
Anti-Judaism denotes a spectrum of historical and contemporary ideologies that are fundamentally or partially rooted in opposition to Judaism. It encompasses the rejection or abrogation of the Mosaic covenant and advocates for the supersession of Judaism and Jewish identity by proponents of other religious, political-ideological, or theological frameworks, which assert their own precedence as the "light unto the nations" or as the chosen people of God. The opposition is often perpetuated through the reinterpretation and appropriation of Jewish prophecy and texts, reflecting a complex interplay of belief systems that challenge Jews' internally and externally conceived distinctiveness. David Nirenberg posits that the theme has manifested throughout history, including in contemporary and early Christianity, Islam, nationalism, Enlightenment rationalism, and in socioeconomic contexts.
Douglas R. A. Hare found at least three anti-Judaisms in history. The first is prophetic anti-Judaism: the criticism of Judaism's beliefs and religious practices. The second is Jewish Christian anti-Judaism: the form taken amongst Jews who believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Jewish Messiah. The third type he defined was gentilizing anti-Judaism, which emphasizes the gentile character of the new movement (i.e., Christianity) and asserts God's formal rejection of Jews as a people. Most scholarly analyses appear concerned with the phenomenon described by his third type.
In the Abrahamic religions, the "Promised Land" (Hebrew: הָאָרֶץ הַמֻּבְטַחַת, romanized: Ha'aretz ha-Muvtaḥat) refers to an area in the Levant that God chose to bestow upon, via a series of covenants, the family and descendants of Abraham.
In the context of the Hebrew Bible, these descendants are originally understood to have been the Israelites, whose forefather was Jacob, who was a son of Abraham's son Isaac. The concept of the Promised Land largely overlaps with the Land of Israel (Zion) or the Holy Land in a biblical/religious sense and with Canaan or Palestine in a secular/geographic sense. Although the Book of Numbers provides some definition for the Promised Land's boundaries, they are not delineated with precision, but it is universally accepted that the core areas lie in and around Jerusalem. According to the biblical account, the Promised Land was not inherited until the Israelite conquest of Canaan, which took place shortly after the Exodus.
Supersessionism, also called fulfillment theology by its proponents, and replacement theology by its detractors, is the Christian doctrine that the Christian Church has superseded the Jewish people, assuming their role as God's covenanted people, thus asserting that the New Covenant through Jesus Christ has superseded or replaced the Mosaic covenant. Supersessionists hold that the universal Church has become God's "New Israel" and thus Christians are the people of God.
Often claimed by later Christians to have originated with Paul the Apostle in the New Testament, supersessionism has formed a core tenet of many Eastern Orthodox churches, Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches for the majority of their history. Many early Church Fathers—including Justin Martyr and Augustine of Hippo—were supersessionist.
Afrikaner Calvinism (Afrikaans: Afrikaner Calvinisme) is a cultural and religious development among Afrikaners that combined elements of seventeenth-century Calvinist doctrine with a "chosen people" ideology based in the Bible. It had origins in ideas espoused in the Old Testament of the Jews as the chosen people.
A number of modern studies have argued that Boers gathered for the Great Trek inspired by this concept, and they used it to legitimise their subordination of other South African ethnic groups. It is thought to have contributed the religious basis for modern Afrikaner nationalism. Dissenting scholars have asserted that Calvinism did not play a significant role in Afrikaner society until after they suffered the trauma of the Second Boer War. Early settlers dwelt in isolated frontier conditions and lived much closer to pseudo-Christian animist beliefs than organised religion.