Lecture 1: Jerusalem as a Sacred Place
· Jerusalem as a Sacred Place
o 3000 year legacy (lots of bloodspill)
o How does place become sacred?
§ Something (usually supernatural) significant happens at the site
§ Someone important is born at the site
· How is Jerusalem a great city?
o Middle E. Geo Context
§ Routes (communication)
· The Via Maris (“Route by the Sea” / Great Trunk Road)
o From Egypt to Mesopotamia
o The Land of Caaan/Israel/Palestine is the landbridge between Africa and Asia
· The King’s Highway (Transjordan)
o From Red Sea (Arabia to Mesopotamia
· Between the Mediterranean Sea an dht eDesert
· On Earthquake Fault between Africa and Asia
§ People stay on the Fertile Crescent (along Euphrates and Tigris)
· Connects Africa, India, Europe, and Asia à valuable for trade
· Major trade routes (Via Maris and King’s Highway) along fertile crescent
o Physical Features
§ Topography (on a hill à key location for defense)
· Valleys
o Kidron Valley (East)
o Hinnom Valley (West)
o Tyropean (Central)
§ 4 quarters (with Temple Mount as fifth quarter)
· Christian (Northwest), Islamic (Northeast), Armenian (Southwest), and Jewish (Southeast)
· Temple Mount: West Wall = holiest site in Judaism because it’s the closest to the temple you can get
§ Jerusalem on hill for defense
· North = weak spot and where it is usually attacked
§ Mount Zion
· Mounts = symbolic of Lord’s protection
· Jerusalem will be tallest mountain à closer to God à significance (as opposed to valley which is farthest from God and thereby closer to death
· Water = number one needed resource (sea for trade, water for defense, and resources/fertility)
o Jerusalme = no harbor, river, trunk road; not many resources but still considered Holy City
§ Water scarcity = BIGGEST PROBLEM IN JERUSALEM
§ Gihon Spring (also en. Rogel, Siloam Pool, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, Sheep/Israel Pool, Hezekiah’s Pool)
· Next to the City of David
· King Hezekiah digs tunnel to transfer water form Gihon Spring; water moves into the city via Warren’s Shaft
o Compromise for water scarcity
o Tunnel dumpes into the Siloam Poll
o Current Political conflict:
§ Houses now on top of Siloam Pool
· Israelis want to excavate Pool à Muslim houses on top are destroyed à “Misuse of Archaeology as a weapon”
o Jerusalem become holy city because of physical attributes of the city à recurring them = history/myth magnet
o Water as Sacred
§ Gen 2 “Rivers of the Garden of Eden”
· River flows out of Eden to water Garden, splits to 4 branches: Picchon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates (magnet for legends); story associated with Jerusalem’s location
§ Ezekiel 47 “Water Under the New Temple”
· Prophecy of Water out of Temple
o Water makes place sacred à ritually purifying
§ Holy Water in Christianity (baptism)
§ Bronze Sea in Judaism
§ Fountains to clean oneself in Muslim
§ Revelation 22 “The River of the New Jerusalem”
· River of the water of life
§ Quran mentions rivers of water, milk, drink, honey
o Why is Jerusalem the center of the world? (“Access Mundi”)
· “Sacred Space”
o Construction of Sacred Space
§ Sacred Space must be founded
· “Tower of Babel”
o Men want to be closer to Heave à build tall building; Lord comes down and scattered them by making the languages they speak different so they couldn’t come together to build tower; felt that without doing so, men could have actually built a tower tall enough to reach Heaven
§ Etiology of multiple languages
· Etiology: attempt to explain naturally occurring phenomena
· Genesis “Beth-el and Jacob’s Ladder”
o Jacob claims the land he lies on is the House of God because he dreams of angels ascending and descending ladder à God claims that his children will be fertile and many à fertility blessing
§ Jacob names land “Bethel”
§ To show it is House of God, he sets up pillar and anoints it with oil
o Events of Jewish Temple
§ Solomon’s Temple
· Built 950 BCE
· Destroyed by Babylonians 586 BCE
§ 2nd Temple
· Rebuilt 515 BCE
· Aggrandized 20 BCE
o Western/Wailing Wall
· Destoryed 70 CE by Romans
§ Dome of the Rock: First build 691 CE
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