Hezekiah's and Josiah's Jerusalem

In the beginning of class, Professor Cargill continued to talk about the reign of Hezekiah on Jerusalem.  As talked about before in class, Hezekiah had prepared a "barrier" around Jerusalem for them to survive.  He created a Tunnel that enabled for the citizens to retrieve water, and built a barrier around the walls of Jerusalem.  Thus, as the prosperity of Jerusalem expanded, the powerful Assyrians began to feel threatened.  Thus, the Assyrians attempted to attack.  Most specifically, there was a number of attacks from Sennacherib's Army, but for some odd reason, the entire army got sick and their mission was left uncompleted.  Jerusalem, under Hezekiah's reign, was victorious.  Their "immunity" from ambush from the Assyrians, as Professor Cargill theorized, "was the single greatest catalyst for the snowballing legend of the inviolable Jerusalem."  In other words, the fact that the Assyrians could not defeat them caused the introduction of the Zion myth.  Jerusalem's sanctity was enforced, because the people assumed that Jerusalem must be sacred if it survived such turmoil.  In addition, under Hezekiah's reign, he enforced a religious reform, where he removed foreign deities from the Temple and called for worship of God of Israel.

After Hezekiah's reign, Professor continued to focus on the reign of Josiah.  Josiah's reign took place during the decline of the Assyrians.  During his time, he, like Hezekiah, started a number of new religious reforms.  These include: Discovery of the “book of the law/covenant/Torah,” "Deuteronomistic” reform, and the elimination of foreign cults.  Furthermore, he suggested the textualization of religion, providing historians of evidence of their literacy levels.

The Reign of Assyria

Today Professor Cargill began class talking about the era after Solomon.  The era of Solomon is called "The Golden Age," from 970 BCE-930 BCE.   Solomon's son, Rehobam, took reign of this era, dividing the kingdom between the North and the South, Israel and Judah.  Jerusalem then becomes the capital of Judah, the southern state.  As time continues, different kings take the throne, the power of Assyrians grow, and they continue seizing all land and killing all protesters that stand in their way.  They use intimidation as a deterrent from rebellion.  They did obscene things to people, making sure to publicize their cruelty towards rebels.  Resultingly, as people grow a sense of fear from the Assyrians, they begin to flee into Jerusalem.  Thus, the growth of Jerusalem consequently grows.  Jerusalem begins a period of urbanization, expanding their city through industrialization, and farm cultivation.  There was a 400% increase in the population of Jerusalem during the reign of Assyria, calling for a quick dissipation into the cities, leaving a void in the countryside.  There was a development of social justice issues, including craft specialization and social class.  It seemed like Jerusalem was doing very well due to the scare tactics of the Assyrians. Professor Cargill ended the class with a discussion of Hezekiah, saying that he plotted a massive attack on Jerusalem, fortifying their resources for his benefit.  Its super interesting to see the story of Jerusalem from a historical standpoint rather than a religious standpoint.  We'll see where this story goes..

Era after David: Solomon.

Today Professor Cargill continued onto a new topic, talking about King Solomon and Jerusalem.  He started about, speaking about Jerusalem as a Sacred Space, once again emphasizing the idea of Jerusalem as the axis-mundi, the center of the world.  He implies that Jerusalem is the linkage between heaven and earth.  Its geographical location on Mount Moriah as well as its religious context (ie. the Temple of Solomon) dubs it the "link between heaven and earth."  Inhabitants believe that they can communicate to the heavens from Jerusalem.  There are many biblical accounts about the actual existence of the Temple.  However, Professor Cargill challenges us to think like archaeologists--questioning everything.  Turns out, although there are Biblical accounts about the existence of Solomon's Temple, there is no artifactual evidence that supports the claim of the existence of the Temple.  There is nothing substantial about the excavations.  Like Professor Cargill said, "is the absence of evidence, evidence of absence?"  Did the Temple of Solomon actually exist?  And, if followers have been aimlessly searching for the existence of a faux temple, what does that tell us about all the world religions of today?  I agree with the theory of Professor Cargill.  I believe that the Biblical accounts of Solomon's Temple was modeled after other Near Eastern Temples of Syria and Turkey.  He listed a number of temples, including "Tel-Ta'yinar" and "'Alin Darat," mentioning that they all have physical things as depicted in the Biblical description of Solomon's Temple.  I am suggesting that perhaps Solomon's temple did not rest on top of Mount Moriah, maybe it was on another mountain.  In spite of all this confusing and discrepancy, one thing remains certain.  We know that Solomon's Temple is patterned after existing surrounding Temples.  Hopefully future excavations magically call for new discoveries :)

City of David

On Tuesday, we learned about archaeological evidence that supported the existence of David.  These included things like The Stepped Stone Structure, the House of Ahiel, and the Tel Dan Inscription. The Tel Dan Inscription was the most interesting.  Basically, it is a small inscription that references the existence of David.  However, it is important to note that the existence of this inscription doesn't mean that David as King was in fact real, but it is substantial evidence that he was an influential person.  It reaffirmed the historical connotation that David existed.  Professor Cargill continued onward, talking about the creation of Solomon's Temple and questioned whether it was actually built at all.  He made an extremely intriguing argument, saying that in Biblical texts, there is a reason why David did not build the Temple.  He noted that David did a number of other things, conquering Jerusalem, bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, and on some Biblical accounts, built the Palace for the Lord's residence (2 Samuel 6:2-19).  I found this to be interesting because in other Biblical accounts, David did not build the Temple.  The Bible contradicts itself, with some accounts saying he did not build the Temple because God did not feel he was fit for the job.  However, despite the small "discrepancy," according to 2 Samuel 7, the Lord made a promise to David, providing to him a prophecy that "the Lord himself will make [him] a house, establishing the throne of his kingdom forever."  I found this to be extremely interesting because, as we know, the Babylonians eventually conquered the throne.  Thus, believers believe that there is perpetually a king of Jerusalem.  This leads to the belief that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.  He claimed to be "son of David" and "King of the Jews."  I found this entire concept to be super intriguing, as I am a devote Catholic.  It was crazy to understand how Jesus' claims fit in historical terms.  It was David's promise that sparked a whole era of claimed apocalyptic messianism.

Early Jerusalem

Today, in class, we discussed Jerusalem in its early contexts of the Bible.  Professor Cargill started out speaking about early settlements in Jerusalem, starting from roughly 6000 years ago, which in my opinion, is a huge amount of time.  He continued to elaborate on why Jerusalem was an ideal place to reside, as the ideal factors of water, trade, and agriculture, were accommodated through nearby natural landscapes.  We then examined Jerusalem in the context of early Biblical texts.  He continued to provide us examples of execration, fortifications, and Amarna Letters.  All of these works reached back to 1900 BCE.  I found the Amarna Letters to be particularly interesting, as they were written from rulers in Canaan to Egyptian Pharaohs.  These letters are referencing to Jerusalem for aid in times of need.  It was extremely interesting to see how influential Jerusalem was in past times, especially on Egyptian culture. 

Professor Cargill continued to discuss a discrepancy within the book of Joshua.  In Joshua 10:40-42, the Bible implies that everyone in the city of Jerusalem was wiped out due to a military invasion.  However, this claim was negated in Joshua 15:63, which suggested that the invaders were unable to abolish all inhabitants, and the two societies were forced to be cohabitants.  This is clearly contradictory, and Professor Cargill attempted to make justifications as to how the Israelites got to Jerusalem, suggesting immigration, conquest, and assimilation.  He introduced the idea of a Caananite City, where the people were of mixed origins.  This theory, in my opinion, is a very reasonable way to explain how the Israelites came to exist in Jerusalem, as it is not far-fetched and is very plausible. 

Sanctity and Eliade

One of the required texts for this class is called The Sacred and the Profane by Mircea Eliade.  A compelling read, I must say.  It focuses on this idea of two realms of life: the sacred, or holy, and the profane, or common.  Eliade argues that these two realms are interconnected by this idea of an axis mundi, the center of the world. He suggests that Jerusalem is the center of the world, and is thus a sacred space.  In addition, he states that people of all religions, not just Jewish people, strive for a common goal--that is, to get closer to God.  That being said, he correlates the issue that living in the center of the world enables individuals to get closer to God.  Historically, especially in the purpose of this class, Jerusalem is considered the axis mundi of our "profane" world.  In the second lecture, Professor Cargill started to talk about the construction of Jerusalem as a sacred space.  That is, he emphasized a series of events that led to the growth of the "New Jerusalem."  Perhaps the first most important landmark is Solomon's temple.  Professor Cargill makes a good point that a place that is considered a "sacred space" requires tradition for it to be special.  Thus, in order for tradition to be upheld, a space needs to be built and consecrated.  And voila, Solomon's Temple is built in 950 BCE.  Over a period of time, Solomon's temple was destroyed, rebuilt, aggrandized, and again destroyed.  Finally, the Dome of the Rock was built in 691 CE (Dome of the Rock is known to be where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, but thats a completely different story).  Anyways, Solomon's Temple, in my opinion, is the first huge landmark that seemed to spark the construction of other sacred spaces (ie. The Tower of Babel, the creation of the tabernacle, ("a portable temple") and the Arc of the Covenant).  Like Eliade stated, it is as if, by divine decree, places of sacred worship are pre-designated by God; everything happens as it should, since everything has a divine origin.  In addition to the concept of a sacred space, Professor Cargill (as well as Eliade) suggested this idea of a sacred time and space.  For example, the Sabbath.  The Sabbath is rooted in the story of Creation as told in Exodus 20:8 and Genesis 1: 1-24.  The Sabbath suggests that followers should rest on the Sabbath, designating this day for rest and renewal with God.  In total, Jerusalem, among other things, in all that it is sacred, (places, time, and space) are all created and consecrated. These consecrations all in the while connect heaven and hell, providing an outlet for communication between both the sacred and the profane.

Holy Water!

Prior to taking this class, my religious views were seemingly skewed.  Born and raised a Roman Catholic, my religious ideologies generally were closed off to any new ideas except Jesus.  Having attended Catholic school for 13 years, I've taken a number of religion courses that kind of told me what to believe.  Naturally, this Jerusalem class struck me as particularly interesting--I mean, after all of those references to Jerusalem in the Bible, I wanted to know where the root of all these ideologies branched from.  The first day was nothing too special, Professor Cargill cracked a few jokes, introduced the course information, introduced the TAs, and went over the monotonous logistical stuff, as in every first day of lecture.  The second day, however, we started talking about the topography of Jerusalem, focusing on the religious importance of Jerusalem's location.  Turns out, the landscape of Jerusalem resembles that one alien-esque sign that ignited me to think the words, "I come in peace."  It sits on a mountain (with Mount Moriah being a central place of worship), emphasizing that a heightened location puts the city closer to God.  There is a wall that surrounds Jerusalem, the Western Wall, for added protection.  In addition, it was compelling to learn that the whole city of Jerusalem thrives off of water; residents are continuously finding ways to retrieve a constant flow of water. In the religious sense, water is generally considered holy; Catholics believe there is Holy water that cleanses and purifies you, Muslims believe that water also acquires a cleansing power.  Thus, it is unsurprising that the locations from which the water is produced becomes a religious landmark.  These locations include: the Gihon spring, Hezekiel's Tunnel, and the Siloam Pool.  All of these landmarks are mentioned in Scripture, and it was super interesting to realize that the part of the stigma attached to water as "sacred" was correlated to Jerusalem's effort to get water.  Their location causes water to be a scarcity, and thus water is difficult to acquire, making it "sacred" and a novelty, in a sense.