The Books of Chronicles date from c. 400 BC;33 they re-tell the story of Israel from the beginning (actually from the beginning of the world) to the restoration of the exiles at the hand of Cyrus. 5-7; cf. By that time, settlement also extended northward outside the city walls, all of which expanded the city further. Bright, op. The three elements mentioned can all be found in Ps. cit., 161f., 196; G.W. Furthermore, the theology of 'servanthood' is relevant to the discussion. 19-23). The water issuing from beneath the threshold belongs (like the Holy War of 38f.) Eze. At that time, Jerusalem became the capital of Israel. There is, therefore, in the arrangement of the Christian Old Testament, an interpretative bias towards an open, expectant Old Testament. Though both existed apart from each other for many centuries, during the last 3, 000 years they have been intertwined. 21:4-7). As already noted, the term 'Zion' is never used. Is Hell eternal torment or eternal death. 5 For Hezekiah's tribute to Assyria, see 2 Kgs. Zion/Jerusalem in the Book of Isaiah, The prophet Isaiah is often held to be the other great exponent of the Zion-tradition. This includes Daniel, which in general builds but little on covenantal theology, and therefore on the Zion-tradition, though Daniel 9 forms an important exception. Combine a one-year tablet and print subscription to BAR with membership in the BAS Library to start your journey into the ancient past today! One of our central concerns, therefore, in the following, will be to see how the Old Testament interacts with this alleged 'Zion-tradition'. 64:13, 14.). Similarly, the eschatological note struck in chapters Eze. Bright, op. ; cf. jerusalem in the old testament does it is the foundations on the capital and great. : A Closer Look At A Popular Tradition, Audio of "Church Leaders and the Use of Honorific Titles", The Nativity Story - Download A 16min Edited Version for Christmas, Binding and Loosing (Matthew 16:19) - w/audio, What does "God blesses those who bless Israel really mean? Our Old Testament emphasis walk through Jerusalem began in the Jewish quarter of the old city with a stop at the broad wall. This is the thinking of a hypothesis that I started to work on when I was a M.A. 29:10). Yerushelaim). Deuteronomy is, in my view, cool in its attitude to dynastic kingship (Deut. Most population data pre-1905 is based on estimates, often from foreign travellers or organisations, since previous census data usually covered wider areas such as the Jerusalem … 41-48) is the climax of this theme. 89:1-37, however, become highly uncomfortable in the light of the closing sections of the Psalm (Ps. The shared prophetic vision of a restored Israel is of an entity that is qualitatively different; in the terms of the New Covenant, this is based in turn on an act of God that is qualitatively different. The choice was intended to unite an Israel that might at any time be pulled apart by the Judean-Benjaminite rift. The example of Shiloh, formerly the place which enjoyed the privileges now Jerusalem's, but which had disappeared from history, is appealed to as sombre evidence of the truth of Jeremiah's words (vv. The City of David, which was Biblical Jerusalem, is located on a low, narrow spur south of the Temple Mount and today's Old City.A settlement existed here in the Bronze and Iron Ages, of which remains of fortifications and buildings have been found (see Archeological Sites in Israel No.1, pp. 55:1, 6); the Zion that is restored, then, is presumed to be a faithful Zion. 12 In taking the view that Zion takes over from Sinai a conditional covenantal theology I leave aside the contentious question of the historical development of covenantal theology in Israel; see E.W. The Great Lie: What about the Immortal soul? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. (In comparison, Rome in the century before Jesus lived is estimated to have had a population of 400,000 tax-paying males—so the entire population must have been about a million. The mere intoning 'This is the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD' (v. 4) avails nothing if the weightier matters of the law are neglected. Perhaps most important in this connection, Psalm 132 pictures the arrival of the Ark in Jerusalem as God's election of Zion (Ps.132:13―an extension of the idea formerly applied to the patriarchs and the whole people in Gen. 12:1-3 and Exod. Find this in the Old Testament: Exod 12:1–30. The idea is that the ancient cities of the Levant served the function of a “temple precinct,” which was where a central authority consolidated their rule, religious ritual was located, and store houses of grain, etc. 47:1-12) involves a highly poetic portrayal of the Temple as the source of it. 45 Such a position is outlined in greater detail in ch. Ps. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 7). 20, Josh. Tyre This was an important commercial and seaport city in Syria. 43:10. With Brad Harris, Ivano Staccioli, Franca Parisi, Mara Lane. The Old Testament and Modern Jerusalem. Geva, always the population minimalist, estimates the number at 20,000. Share to Facebook. In the New Testament, the phrase is found twice—although, in the New Testament, the phrase refers to Bethlehem, where David was born. The situation in modern Jerusalem, and in the land of which it is part, is one of those in which different groups seem to have clear rights, yet these rights exactly contradict each other. For the exile witnessed the destruction of the Temple, and indeed was defined by this (1 Kgs. Exod. Jerusalem's gates have witnessed some of the most remarkable events in the history of man. For Israel, in its truest fulfilment of its mission, is a servant (note the identification of the servant with Israel, Isa. In this connection the promises of re-possession of land in Jer. While Jerusalem is most often talked about as the "eternal" capital of Israel, a claim at the center of bitterly contested modern geopolitics, the history is much more complicated. Nehemiah was a man of patience, and it is one of the reasons he is regarded as one of the greatest God-centered leaders of the Old Testament. Hanson, The Dawn of Apocalyptic (Philadelphia, Fortress 1979); O. Ploger, Theocracy and Eschatology (Richmond, John Knox 1968). In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 40:2, 41:27, 49:14, 51:17). In other words, its redemption is now put on a plane which seems less in imminent history than in a great culmination of it. 25:12, 29:10). Holy Spirit In The Old Testament. It is not easy to turn such prophecies into a vision for the historical city of Jerusalem. Jebusites dwell in the “hill country”. Find this in the Old Testament: Gen 21:12. 44:3). As Geva reminds us, even then Jerusalem “was the center of an important territorial entity.” From this period, the area includes a massive fortification system that has recently been excavated. 21:7), it was, in my view, not always so (see Jer. Eze. The Old Testament Foundation for the New Jerusalem Isaiah saw a future kingdom in which Jerusalem will be the religious, political, and economic center of all the earth. Indeed, though the altar-law clearly came at a certain point to be interpreted of Jerusalem (e.g. - Darryl M. Erkel, Church Leaders and the Use of Honorific Titles, Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats - Charles Spurgeon, House-Churches? The Old Testament patriarch Abraham anticipated dwelling in this city. Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1973) 315-20. 66:1, contrast Ps. The promises of restored, and permanent, institutions are in the context of a new kind of covenant, in which Israel's faithfulness will, in some mysterious new way, be possible, where in the past her hardness of heart had frustrated it (Jer. For the contrary view, see M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford, Clarendon 1972) and R.E. 32 The 'seventy years' can be reckoned in either of two different ways: as from c. 605 BC (the time of Nebuchadnezzar's first raids on Jerusalem, when, according to Dan. The call-narrative itself prepares prophet and reader for a hardness of the people to the message, and consequent judgment (Isa. Does The Bible Provide an Adequate Answer to Suffering? In David’s time, the borders of the city did not change from the previous period. Hillel Geva, “Jerusalem’s Population in Antiquity: A Minimalist View,” Tel Aviv 41 (2014), pp. His language, furthermore, owes much to that set of concepts which we found in the 'Zion Psalms': Zion is Yahweh's holy hill, the place where he dwells (Isa. 5. During King David’s reign, the Israelites conquered the city. It is time to ask whether the observations we have already made about Zion in the Psalms are a sufficient guide to its understanding there. Nicholson, God and His People (Oxford, Clarendon 1986) for a recent defence of the view that covenant is a relatively late arrival, the first scent of which may be detected only with Hosea. The contrast between the order of the books there and in the Hebrew Bible is interesting in regard to this issue. 8-11 relate the departure of the Glory of Yahweh from the Temple (Eze. Hebrews 6:4-8 on Apostasy - This is the essential condition of witness to Christ in Jerusalem and a truly Christian contribution to the peace of that city. Mic. As Hebrews 11:10 notes, Abraham “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” It is vitally important to understand that Revelation 21 teaches us that New Jerusalem is a very real city that will actually come down to this earth in the future. Of course, I’m talking about Jerusalem. In the New Testament we have (Hierousalem), particularly in the writings of Luke and Paul, and (ta Hierosoluma) elsewhere. 35 The contention that Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah form a theological and compositional unity is a commonplace of Old Testament criticism, represented, for example, by M. Noth, The Chronicler's History (Sheffield, JSOT 1987). Growing Up With Two Moms: The Untold Children’s View. 48:8-22), and is conceived, in a twist on the traditional allocation of cities within the tribal lands to the Levites, as a hm;ZrH an offering to Yahweh (Eze. 14 The view that Deut. Clements, 'Deuteronomy and the Jerusalem Cult Tradition', Vetus Testamentum 15 (1965) 300-12; E.W. It has become common, however, to suppose that the post-exilic community became sharply divided. 24). Bringing the wider context of the book to bear, that people is one which can be expected to be faithful because of the theology of New Covenant.31. Jeremiah's consistent burden, indeed, could be called the insecurity of Zion. 13 For instance, in Ps 48:2, Jerusalem is said to be the “exultation of all the earth” (#r,a'h'-lK' fAfm. 25:22). Overall, however, the area comprises only about 11–12 acres. The fulfilment of Jeremiah's prophecy, however, is not the last word in the story, and as we shall see, the status of the city as the centre of a small religious community in a large Empire, was capable of different theological constructions. Ezra 1:1), with a reference to Jeremiah's prediction of a seventy-year exile (see Jer. Back to Bible History Online. So why the big deal over Israel declaring Jeusalem do be its undivided capital? - Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. Christian interpreters already stand in a tradition of choice-making on the subject that goes back as far as the form of the Old Testament canon which we find in the Christian Bible. A number of others estimated between 25,000 and 75,000. Introduction The purpose of the present paper is to consider the topic of Jerusalem in the Old Testament both in its own terms and from the perspective of Christian interpretation. How? 22:15, 16). Pilgrims from three major religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each of which is heir to Old Testament theological tradition - flock to Jerusalem where many of their most sacred memories are centered. If the Psalms furnish evidence of a Zion-tradition in something like von Rad's terms, a tradition which provided the axioms of Psalm 89:1-37, the Psalter itself questions it in a devastating way.16. The theology of Zion in Isaiah 40-55 in particular is thus no mere declaration of imminent events, but much more a vocation to the people who are redeemed. In time the former term came also to apply to the Temple-mount, perhaps because of the transfer of the ark thither; indeed in many Biblical writings there is virtual synonymity between 'Zion' and 'Jerusalem'. On the contrary, the new beginning at Isaiah 40 declares precisely that her 'warfare is ended' (Isa. Join Andrew Ollerton as he shows us King David’s Palace, Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the famous walls built after the exile by Nehemiah. Like that of Jeremiah, therefore, Ezekiel's prophecy has an important place for the literal restoration of God's people to the historic land, and therefore to Jerusalem. By the 10th–11th centuries C.E., the city was confined to the area of the present Old City. In 637 C.E. This study of ancient Israel's sacred literature on the topic of Jerusalem is not a speculative exercise. 24:19-22) an imperative to be ready to relinquish that to which one appears to have a perfect right. He is the author of Law and Theology in Deuteronomy and Judgement and Promise: Interpreting the Book of Jeremiah. The extravagant vision of life and fruitfulness in the land (Eze. 2:1-4) is often attributed to Isaiah of Jerusalem (cf. The perplexity of this anguished utterance is explicable only in terms of the Zion-tradition with the assumption of Yahweh's dwelling on his holy hill, and the idea of his kingship there.22. Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update. The fictitious setting of Ecclesiastes in the mouth of a king in Jerusalem is far from an affirmation of the Zion-tradition, but rather a device which serves the theme of the futility of all things.42. Later, David marched on Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6–10, c. 1000 BC), and he “captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David” from the Jebusites (verse 7). and Ezra 1. 31 See above on Jeremiah; cf. Geva’s population estimate: 8,000. His number and the Talmud’s of 2,500,000 pilgrims at the festivals is supported by the stones on the ground. Jeremiah's announcement of Jerusalem's doom is the hallmark of his prophetic work. the Muslims besieged Jerusalem; the period of Islamic Jerusalem commenced. The great closing vision of Yahweh dwelling among his people in a new Temple (Eze. 38 Note Isa. 38 f. may be thought to set the context for the picture in Eze. Paradoxically, the Book of Psalms, though perhaps more intimately associated with Jerusalem and its Temple than any other book, ultimately shows that their significance is only relative. The Christian & Politics: Has the Contemporary Church Become Obsessed With Political Solutions? David's coup, however, could not permanently overcome Israel's centrifugal tendency. Melchizedek, in the Old Testament, a figure of importance in biblical tradition because he was both king and priest, was connected with Jerusalem, and was revered by Abraham, who paid a tithe to him. But, like Jeremiah, he knows that the idea of a mere restoration is misguided. Jerusalem Archaeology: Exposing the Biblical City. 132:7, 13). Champions of Conditional Immortality in History, Conditional Immortality - Its Relation to Final Retribution, Conditional Immortality - Samuel M. Ohmart, Fallacies In The Annihilationism Debate: A Critique Of Robert Peterson, Important Forgotten History - Roots of Opposition to Conditionalism, Life in Christ - A Summary of Conditional Immortality, Summing Up the Case for Biblical Conditionalism - Froom, The Hypothesis of Conditional Immortality - William R. Huntington - 1878, Why I Believe In Conditional Immortality - by Sidney A. Hatch, Death and the Afterlife by Robert A. Morey - A Review by Edward Fudge, Martin Luther & William Tyndale On the State of the Dead, Near Death Experiences - Samuele Bacchiocchi. 43:22-24, 48:3-5). 21 For accounts of the theology of Isa. 'Jerusalem' often stands for the people themselves (Isa. The denouement of the Book of Isaiah in Isa. By laying its accent on the prophets, Christian expectation regarding Jerusalem is governed by the sorts of considerations we outlined in our treatment of the main prophetic corpora. First, the returned exiles still toil under foreign domination;37 secondly, the laying of the foundations of the new Temple has a decidedly mixed reception from those who had seen that of Solomon (Ezra 3:10-13); thirdly, the sin in the community (i.e. At its height, the population of Jerusalem at the end of the eighth century B.C.E., according to Geva, was 8,000. Jerusalem continued as the capital of the southern kingdom until its fall in 587 BC. 90:1, 91:1, 2, 4, 9), are reminiscent of Psalm 46 (one of the great 'Zion Psalms') ―yet here without any allusion to Zion. We shall therefore have to reckon with all the ordinary hermeneutical questions that are faced in the study of ancient texts in general, as well the special ones which arise when Christians read the Old Testament.1. This indeed is the central focus of these chapters: Jeremiah's purchase of a field from his cousin (told at length in Jer. The language of Isaiah 40-66 makes this clear. Hiram of Tyre sent cedar and gold and workmen to aid Solomon in building his temple ( 1 Kgs. The terms of this promise are plainly adopted in Isaiah 55:3, in which it is now addressed to all those (the verb is plural) who will hear the message of deliverance. 37:22-26). Jerusalem was impressive by anyone’s standards. Josephus is rejected but he wrote to people who were there and knew the truth. The period has been the subject of considerable speculation about the shape of its theological development, because of large gaps in our knowledge of its history, and because the texts often tell us less than we would wish. Dig into the illuminating world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access membership. 37:33-38). 89:38-52), in which the familiar tones of the Psalm of Lament arise specifically from the anguish not only because of the loss of the city, but because the event has laid a certain understanding of God 's promise about Jerusalem in ruins. Where did the large numbers go? 37) turns out to be only a secondary climax in the composition of the book; for its sequel in chapters 38f. 15 B.S. What I want to know is how does he get his numbers, basically. 20:1 Q, illustrates the strains within Israel which were only temporarily eclipsed by the brilliance of David's star within the oriental world. There can be no 'proof-texting' solution to this problem of interpretation, because disagreements originate at a more fundamental level. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles (London, Marshall, Morgan and Scott 1982) 15f. down to about the eighth century B.C.E.). The restoration of at least some of the next generation of exiled Jews by the Persian Cyrus after his accession in 539 BC is remarkable enough as a historical event, though quite in line, apparently, with that king's policy regarding subject peoples (see Ezra 1, and the so-called 'Cyrus Cylinder').6 This return to Jerusalem is hailed as a fulfilment of prophecy in 2 Chronicles 36:22 (cf. According to the Gospels, Jesus preached and healed in Jerusalem, especially in the Temple courts. 46:4), but the motif is derived in turn from mythological ideas, according to which the mountain of the gods was a place from which rivers flowed (cf. Our study of some of the major blocks of Old Testament literature has shown that Jerusalem's fall in 587 BC and the exile that ensued had a massive impact upon Israel's thinking about itself and its destiny. and who still require to bring their theological traditions to bear upon it. The picture is then completed with the theology of the election of David. 2 Sam. If, however, a selection of Zion-Psalms celebrate the dwelling of Yahweh there, the Book of Psalms as a whole does not present us with that perspective in an unqualified way. Williamson, Israel in the Books of Chronicles (Cambridge, CUP 1977), has been influential, but the case for unity has been defended again by D.J.A. It seems likely that the first procession of the Ark to Jerusalem was subsequently remembered in the Temple liturgy, in which it is depicted precisely as a march from Sinai to Zion (Ps. https://sites.google.com/site/thecampaignerunbound/home/babylon-to-jerusalem-the-genesis-of-the-old-testament 59:20, 62:1, 6, 7, 11, 66:13). 60-62). For Christians, this translates very well into the presence of God with his people the Church in Christ. 2 Sam. 39:28 a), yet also suggests, anticipating aspects of apocalyptic literature, a grander and final conflict (see e.g. By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. 50:5; cf. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (23–79 C.E.) 58). They gather their forces, and return to drive out their oppressors. The city was referred to as Melchizedek, who was then the King of Salem. (Middle Bronze Age II to Iron Age I, in archaeological terms), the period before the arrival of the Israelites. This is so in spite of the fact that they come from a later and wholly different period in Israel's history, and have a quite different message. In Eze. 4. Having survived that siege, it continued as the capital of the vassal-state of Judah for a further century, subject first to Assyria and then to the new power Babylon. 1. Deut. 40-48, moreover, 'David' is reduced to a 'prince', who plays a minor role (Eze. While David could exploit this, it also posed a theological problem: how could Jerusalem be accepted as a centre of Yahwism? to the Zion-tradition (cf. Against it, on the other hand, stands the fact that Ezekiel nowhere uses the name 'Zion'. The article states that “the “city of Jerusalem was not as central to Islam as to Christianity.” An accurate statement. Deut. Though the name 'Zion' does not occur in the Book of Ezekiel, the Zion-tradition is central to its message. For many, Christian as well as Jewish, the Old Testament promises about Jerusalem have been gloriously vindicated in events of the present century in modern Israel, while for others; the same events seem to threaten their very existence. 30-33 should be noticed. 24:3-8). Learn more about the biblical story of Melchizedek in this article. 84, 122) with their expressions of longing to be in Jerusalem; others have simply been called 'Zion Psalms', because they celebrate the presence of God there with his people (e.g. I have argued from a study of the Old Testament books themselves that passages like these cannot be interpreted 'literally', as fixed promises concerning a remote future.
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