This lecture was shorter then usual but very informative. Class was cut short today which was amazing :) thank you professor!
This lecutre is about proving Jerusalems history with Architecture and Bible passages.We compare them inorder to make conclusions. We started off by talking about the agricultural settlements of Jerusalem before David. Settlements were somewhere around 2000BC. There were three main Settlement factors; water (Gihon spring), agriculture: (emek refa'im), and communication and trade (watershed highway).
We then talked about the bonze age of Jerusalem. The cliams made by the bible are not backed up by science. This make the bible considered false and imfaliable.Some people think we should just disregaurd it and others think that it is perfect. Professor Cargil thinks that it is somewhere in the middle. There is archiological evidence. He then showed us some pots from 3200BC that helps prove there was a long standing settlement. Jerusalem is also in the earliest non-biblical texts. For example they were showin in execreation text. Scholars found some in 1900 in hirogliphic. What they were was that you wrote you enemys names on the clay figurenes and then you smashed it. It was considered to be a curse. It refers to why we dont write the name of God, becasue if it is erased or torn it is a bad thing and a curse. He then refrensed that we can spell suck wihtout USC (which made me really happy i abosluely hate USC). If we did this and then ruined the picture of it, it would curse them. Besides text, there is archiological evidence. they found a wall near the gihon Spring. This could be the fountain gate in the book of Nehemiah. He shows us pictures to help us see the evidence of what was left behind.One picture was used to protect the Gihon spring. It was the pool tower. Another was the pool near Gihon Spring. It is evidence becasue people took the time to cave and protect he spring its not just ruble.
There are writings about Jerusalem before the bible. For instatnce in the Amarna Letters.They are written from rulers in Canaan to Egyptian Pharoahs. They did this becasue they were asking for help. The same reason we ask for finacial aid. They were a place of refuge because they needed the help. Egypt gets to decide who they want to be king by sending money to a certain group. This set assurance that these kings would back up the Egyptians Pharoahs.He then gave us an example of a text sent to one of the Pharoahs. It was from Jerusalem King Abdi-Kheba to Pharaoh. It states that you are so great, blah blah blah( just saying nice things), but i cant praise you if im not king so please send me money. He was basically bribing the Pharaoh.small nations couldnt defend themselves so they made deals with the biggest countries in order to protect them in exchange for money.
However there were problems with the "conquest". Problems? When you go in and kill EVERYONE, is it considered geniside? Why dont we think of it the same way now? Is it fair to take modern ethics and use them back in the day. In Joshua 21, again they whiped everyone out. In Joshua 24, they destroyed everyone. But in the same book, we find a different story, in Joshua 15 it says that they cant drive out the Jebusites, in Joshua 24, it says they defeated them. This is what makes scholars think that there are many different authors. Also in Judges 1, it says that Canaanites need to be faught, but wait didnt you already defeat them. There are a couple of contradictories in the book. It contradicts itself.
Then we are forced to ask the question how did Israelites get there? We have different stories so it leades to different theories. So what to do with the conquest.1) you except the story of the bible. 2) we have imagration storeis. people starting coming and they gradually moved in and they made up great stories of how they came to be there. 3) (which is becoming more and more popular), the isrealites are of mix ethnic orgin, in otherwords they were always there, they used to be canaanites and then intermarried and became a different society, that or they became a different society and started to drift apart. or people joined them and a group broke off.
Professor finished with two passages about the "Jubusite City". And then he ended class early because he did not want to start a new lecture and only get a little into it. But it was the perfect day to do it:)
Next blog coming soon!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Lecture 3: Jan 11
For some reason I felt like professor Cargil didn't spend as much time on each slide today, almost like he was rushing, and yet he still did a fantastic job explaining everything!
We started the lecture by talking about why people choose to build a temple when building sacred spaces for worship. People did not use pyramids because they were used for burying the dead, where as a place like a temple was used for worship. Information about the plans for the temple were lowered down and given by divine beings. An example of this was given from "Sacred Space" (Eliade) in Revelations 21:1-5. It was said to be the divine decree sent from above. This example concluded the section of building a place to make it sacred. Once a construction is made, the next step is to consecrate it. This is the creation or re-creation of the sacred space. The consecration normally takes place with a ceremony or the act of prayer. After it is consecrated, people can continue to build on to it, but really it is the reputation of the sacred place that gets the attention of visitors. The reputations are created by stories and their connection to that sacred place. This is what happened to Jerusalem: for example, the Garden of Eden. The story goes that man is formed last after the earth, plants and animals. Since Adam was the first man created and was in the Garden of Eden he becomes an important part of the story. It is told that Adam is buried under the Dome of the Rock, explaining how Jerusalem is tied to the story and making it a sacred place. We next talked about how Jerusalem became affiliated with the Hebrew God. Professor Cargil made it very clear that it is extremely disrespectful to say the LORDs name. However, he felt it was important that as scholars we need to know it. It is written as YHWH. However, over time people would replace Gods name with the word LORD (it is important that it is in all caps because it means that it has been substituted for the actual name). As time went on, people also started replacing it with four dots .... because it was no longer acceptable to write it. In Genesis 14:17-20, the LORD comes out and blesses Abram, which is how they are connected. The next connection we talked about was Mr. Moriah. It is brought up in multiple passages making the connection between it and Jerusalem very strong. The passages we talked about were Genesis 22:1-14 and 2 Chronicles 3:1.
Although it is important to have Sacred Space, it is also important to have Sacred Time. The first example is the creation of the Sabbath (every sunday in which you are supposed to spend relaxing and worshiping God). In Exodus, one can see time and space together. The reason being is that if a sacred space was destroyed, how do you know if your Jewish. With sacred time, they don't have to go to the temple, but you could keep the Sabbath and pray and do things outside the sacred space. When talking about sacred time, the Ten Commandments are brought up three times. Each of which explain the importance of keeping the Sabbath, but for different reasons. In Exodus 20, one must keep the Sabbath because God rested on the 7th day of creation. However, in Deuteronomy 5 the reason for keeping the Sabbath is to remember that they were once slaves and are now free, they must give thanks on the Sabbath for their freedom.
After the sacred space has been consecrated, it becomes the center of the world or Axis Mundi. The places that make it so special are the Temple, Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Axis Mundi is the connection between heaven and earth, and earth and the underworld. Some places in which we can find signs of how these places are connected are the Garden of Eden, the Cosmic Mountain, Place of Prayer, and Place of the Underworld. These contains stories like the burning bush, which is where the name of God is presented, Come up the Mountain, which is where the Ten Commandments are given, THreshing Floor of Araunah, which is were God answered to the building of the alter with the fire of heaven and Gehenna, when is a valley like is a good representation of hell.
Lastly we went over the Sacred Spaces related to the three religions in Jerusalem. Judaism has the Temple of the Mount and the Western Wall, Christianity has the Holy Sepulcher, and Islam has the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque. Professor finished class with pictures of these places from google earth. My favorite was the picture of the Western Wall with all the papers shoved in the stone. I think it is a very interesting and unique concept! that was about it for this lecture.
I love the fact that Professor uses pictures. It makes it so much better! ill be posting my next blog soon!!!
We started the lecture by talking about why people choose to build a temple when building sacred spaces for worship. People did not use pyramids because they were used for burying the dead, where as a place like a temple was used for worship. Information about the plans for the temple were lowered down and given by divine beings. An example of this was given from "Sacred Space" (Eliade) in Revelations 21:1-5. It was said to be the divine decree sent from above. This example concluded the section of building a place to make it sacred. Once a construction is made, the next step is to consecrate it. This is the creation or re-creation of the sacred space. The consecration normally takes place with a ceremony or the act of prayer. After it is consecrated, people can continue to build on to it, but really it is the reputation of the sacred place that gets the attention of visitors. The reputations are created by stories and their connection to that sacred place. This is what happened to Jerusalem: for example, the Garden of Eden. The story goes that man is formed last after the earth, plants and animals. Since Adam was the first man created and was in the Garden of Eden he becomes an important part of the story. It is told that Adam is buried under the Dome of the Rock, explaining how Jerusalem is tied to the story and making it a sacred place. We next talked about how Jerusalem became affiliated with the Hebrew God. Professor Cargil made it very clear that it is extremely disrespectful to say the LORDs name. However, he felt it was important that as scholars we need to know it. It is written as YHWH. However, over time people would replace Gods name with the word LORD (it is important that it is in all caps because it means that it has been substituted for the actual name). As time went on, people also started replacing it with four dots .... because it was no longer acceptable to write it. In Genesis 14:17-20, the LORD comes out and blesses Abram, which is how they are connected. The next connection we talked about was Mr. Moriah. It is brought up in multiple passages making the connection between it and Jerusalem very strong. The passages we talked about were Genesis 22:1-14 and 2 Chronicles 3:1.
Although it is important to have Sacred Space, it is also important to have Sacred Time. The first example is the creation of the Sabbath (every sunday in which you are supposed to spend relaxing and worshiping God). In Exodus, one can see time and space together. The reason being is that if a sacred space was destroyed, how do you know if your Jewish. With sacred time, they don't have to go to the temple, but you could keep the Sabbath and pray and do things outside the sacred space. When talking about sacred time, the Ten Commandments are brought up three times. Each of which explain the importance of keeping the Sabbath, but for different reasons. In Exodus 20, one must keep the Sabbath because God rested on the 7th day of creation. However, in Deuteronomy 5 the reason for keeping the Sabbath is to remember that they were once slaves and are now free, they must give thanks on the Sabbath for their freedom.
After the sacred space has been consecrated, it becomes the center of the world or Axis Mundi. The places that make it so special are the Temple, Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Axis Mundi is the connection between heaven and earth, and earth and the underworld. Some places in which we can find signs of how these places are connected are the Garden of Eden, the Cosmic Mountain, Place of Prayer, and Place of the Underworld. These contains stories like the burning bush, which is where the name of God is presented, Come up the Mountain, which is where the Ten Commandments are given, THreshing Floor of Araunah, which is were God answered to the building of the alter with the fire of heaven and Gehenna, when is a valley like is a good representation of hell.
Lastly we went over the Sacred Spaces related to the three religions in Jerusalem. Judaism has the Temple of the Mount and the Western Wall, Christianity has the Holy Sepulcher, and Islam has the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque. Professor finished class with pictures of these places from google earth. My favorite was the picture of the Western Wall with all the papers shoved in the stone. I think it is a very interesting and unique concept! that was about it for this lecture.
I love the fact that Professor uses pictures. It makes it so much better! ill be posting my next blog soon!!!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Lecture 2: Jan 6, blog 1
So basically I have never blogged before this so dont judge me if its not that great:)
Today was the first lecture in which our professor started teaching the information about Jerusalem. We started off talking about what makes a certain area sacred or profane. In other words, is something special or common. To make a place sacred, a supernatural being must come to that sight, a significant event must occur there, or an important being was born there. Another reason a place could be sacred would be because of the routes that lead to a space. Two major routes in Jerusalem are the The Via Maris and The King's Highway. We were then shown a map of Jerusalem and how everything is connected together. These two routes connect three major continents together, Asia, India and Egypt. Other geographical features are the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point located on Earth. I think its interesting that out of the entire earth something like the Dead Sea would be the lowest thing on Earth. The Dead Sea gets its water from the heights mountain in Jerusalem. This river is known as the Jordan river. There are also three main valleys located in Jerusalem, the Kidron, Tropean, and Hinnom Valleys, each of which are considered sacred places. Some other sacred places we discussed were Jaffa Gate, the Dome of the Rock, Hebrew University and Sultan's Pool. To help us understand these concepts further, Professor Cargill showed us pictures from google map. The only time I had used google map was to try to find my house one day because I didnt believe my friend. The fact that I got to fully see parts of Jerusalem was exciting because I have a solid picture in my head, not just my imagination of what it might look like.
We next discussed if Jerusalem's features suggest a great city. In Jerusalem, you are surrounded by valleys (which is looked at as bad because it is the farthest point away from the sky or heaven), routes (to get to Jerusalem you must go out of your way to get there), and water shortages. Because of the water scarcity, they had to dig tunnels in order for water to come out of a spring. The spring in which they would pull water from was Gihon Spring. Getting water was the biggest problem in which Jerusalem faced because everything revolved around it. Another location in which people started getting water from was the Siloam Pool, exit of Hezekiah's Tunnel and location of John 9 miracle. This sight however has causes problems because people built a house upon it. In order to expand it, Israelites knocked down the houses built by the Palestinians. This then created problems between the two groups, causing archeology to be considered a weapon. Professor Cargill kept stressing that water has always been the biggest problem in Jerusalem and to me its obvious because it causes multiple problems everywhere.
The reason for Jerusalem's holiness was because of its physical attributes. After these attributes were discovered, people started building on so that people can come and view the holy sites and the consecration of the Sacred Space takes place. Once there were places to visit, stories start beging told and connecting to other places in order to draw more attention. This is when it becomes the center of the world, or Axis Mundi. In Jerusalem the Axis Mundi consists of the Temple, the Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Lastly, Professor Cargill went over some passages from the Eliade and the important events of the Jewish Temple. The temple is obviously extremely holy and important to Jerusalem because of how many times it was destroyed and rebuilt.
Thats the gist of how much we covered in class. I'll be posting another blog about next lecture soon!!!
Today was the first lecture in which our professor started teaching the information about Jerusalem. We started off talking about what makes a certain area sacred or profane. In other words, is something special or common. To make a place sacred, a supernatural being must come to that sight, a significant event must occur there, or an important being was born there. Another reason a place could be sacred would be because of the routes that lead to a space. Two major routes in Jerusalem are the The Via Maris and The King's Highway. We were then shown a map of Jerusalem and how everything is connected together. These two routes connect three major continents together, Asia, India and Egypt. Other geographical features are the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point located on Earth. I think its interesting that out of the entire earth something like the Dead Sea would be the lowest thing on Earth. The Dead Sea gets its water from the heights mountain in Jerusalem. This river is known as the Jordan river. There are also three main valleys located in Jerusalem, the Kidron, Tropean, and Hinnom Valleys, each of which are considered sacred places. Some other sacred places we discussed were Jaffa Gate, the Dome of the Rock, Hebrew University and Sultan's Pool. To help us understand these concepts further, Professor Cargill showed us pictures from google map. The only time I had used google map was to try to find my house one day because I didnt believe my friend. The fact that I got to fully see parts of Jerusalem was exciting because I have a solid picture in my head, not just my imagination of what it might look like.
We next discussed if Jerusalem's features suggest a great city. In Jerusalem, you are surrounded by valleys (which is looked at as bad because it is the farthest point away from the sky or heaven), routes (to get to Jerusalem you must go out of your way to get there), and water shortages. Because of the water scarcity, they had to dig tunnels in order for water to come out of a spring. The spring in which they would pull water from was Gihon Spring. Getting water was the biggest problem in which Jerusalem faced because everything revolved around it. Another location in which people started getting water from was the Siloam Pool, exit of Hezekiah's Tunnel and location of John 9 miracle. This sight however has causes problems because people built a house upon it. In order to expand it, Israelites knocked down the houses built by the Palestinians. This then created problems between the two groups, causing archeology to be considered a weapon. Professor Cargill kept stressing that water has always been the biggest problem in Jerusalem and to me its obvious because it causes multiple problems everywhere.
The reason for Jerusalem's holiness was because of its physical attributes. After these attributes were discovered, people started building on so that people can come and view the holy sites and the consecration of the Sacred Space takes place. Once there were places to visit, stories start beging told and connecting to other places in order to draw more attention. This is when it becomes the center of the world, or Axis Mundi. In Jerusalem the Axis Mundi consists of the Temple, the Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Lastly, Professor Cargill went over some passages from the Eliade and the important events of the Jewish Temple. The temple is obviously extremely holy and important to Jerusalem because of how many times it was destroyed and rebuilt.
Thats the gist of how much we covered in class. I'll be posting another blog about next lecture soon!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)