Abstract
Has knowledge of the Old Testament - strongly internalized over the centuries - influenced the current upsurge in Swiss nationalistic feeling and therefore Swiss territorial consciousness? This article aims to test this hypothesis. First the possible limits of this comparison are considered. Insofar as correspondences exist between the Bible and the territory of Switzerland, they could be duplicated in other countries of the world. Above all, these correspondences could be replicated in European countries, but to varying degrees of exactitude. Second, the argument is justified by claiming that it is much more than formal analogy that approximates Switzerland to biblical Israel and it is an awareness of being “special” which in turn legitimates its will to be identified as a race apart. The major - paradoxical - convergence between the two springs from a current country-wide trend towards secularization which is strongly influencing Switzerland's development. This trend is responsible for the growth of a historical territorial consciousness similar to that which shapes the country of Jacob's descendants.