"The Lord will come and he will not delay.  He will illumine what is hidden in darkness and reveal himself to all the nations" (Entrance Antiphon).

Tisha B’Av

 

This past weekend Jews commemorated Tisha B’Av, which is a fast day that remembers the destruction of the First Jewish Temple by the Babylonians, and the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple at the hands of the Romans.  There was a report in The Times of Israel that over the weekend the Israeli police were allowing Jews to visit the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif and pray quietly.  One of the readings from the 16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (7/18/2021) was Jeremiah 23:1-6 that speaks of the remnant being gathered back from the lands to which they were scattered.

Why does Ezekiel’s temple contain representations of created things such as palm trees (40:14-16)?

 “With various decorations, which relate to the creation of the world, so that the Creator can be understood from his creatures and may show the universe running on in an orderly and rational fashion in the variety of the world” (Jerome, Commenatary on Ezekiel, bk. 12).

Recent Events on Temple Mount Since Cease-fire

 

Just hours after the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Israeli Police and Palestinian demonstrators clashed on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif this past Friday.  Following noon prayer, Palestinians began to celebrate as they waved flags and banners—some supporting Hamas.  At some point the Israeli police were called to the mount.  It is uncertain what exactly triggered the conflict.  The confrontation ended within an hour.  For a video that does not show what prompted the confrontation, but shows the Israeli police forcing individuals off the mount click here.    

The Temple Mount reopened on Sunday morning to Jews, following its closure to Jewish visitors during the final days of Ramadan and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.  Although a number of rabbis and ministers of the Knesset approved, Moshe Gafni, chairman of the United Torah Judaism Party, called on President Netanyahu not to reopen the site. He said, “the Temple was destroyed because of our sins, and those who go up to the Temple Mount are liable for spiritual excommunication….Not going up to the mount is the deepest proof of our association with this holy place to which we turn from all over the world when we pray.”

Jews visit Temple Mount on Sunday
(photo: Or Nehemiah Aharonov)

Two Accounts about Two Events - which one is right?

It is interesting to read two different accounts about the same events, yet both make different arguments.  An article by Morgan Winsor, Nasser Atta and other contributors state that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire under two conditions: 1) Israeli forces must stop “incursions into the Al-Aqsa compound [Temple Mount] and respect the site” and 2) Israel must stop forcing evacuations of Palestinian residents in the Sheikh Jarah neighborhood.  Another article by Neville Teller argues that the Temple Mount and the Sheikh Jarrah issue are “a convenient and long-awaited smoke screen behind which deeper incentives hide.”  For example, Hamas wants to become the dominant voice in Palestinian politics in the place of Mahmoud Abbas.  The leaders of Hamas want to be seen as the champion of the Palestinian cause.  However, this is only a “vital step toward their ultimate aim – the destruction of Israel.”

Jewish Knesset member thought to be responsible for ongoing Jewish-Arab riots.

 

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that extreme-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir is responsible for ongoing riots in Jewish-Arab cities, Israeli TV reported Thursday.

 

During a briefing, Shabtai said that every time police appear to be getting an area under control, Ben Gvir, the Kahanist member of the Religious Zionism party, shows up to fan the flames, Channel 12 and Channel 13 news both reported.

 

“The person who is responsible for this intifada is Itamar Ben Gvir. It started with the Lehava protest at Damascus Gate,” Shabtai said, referring to far-right demonstrations around Jerusalem’s Old City. “It continued with provocations in Sheikh Jarrah, and now he is moving around with Lehava activists.”….

 

Ben Gvir ceremoniously moved his office earlier this month to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where there has been international outcry due to Israeli plans to evict Palestinian families and hand over the homes to Jews who had proven their pre-1948 ownership….

Fire on the Temple Mount: Updated 5.16.2021

The conflict, violence, and fighting happening in Israel grieve me deeply.  Both sides certainly have pointed fingers at each other.  One thing that stands out in my mind was the call by Hamas to ratchet up antics and violence against Israel.  At one point, I heard it said that if Israel would keep Jews off the Temple Mount/Harem al-Sharif, there would not be any attacks.  I learned that Israel decided to keep Jews off the mount.  Then I heard Hamas (and perhaps Islamic Jihad) still launched airstrikes against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  They evidently want Israeli police off the mount too.  As the tensions have escalated, the image that stands out in my mind is from a video that shows a fire burning on the mount near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, while Jews are singing and dancing at the Western Wall.  At first glance, someone could be cynical and explain the celebration as a result of the fire on the mount.  However, it was Jerusalem Day and the celebration appears to be going on before the fire broke out.  The irony!  The fire may have been started by protestors on the mount who had been throwing rocks and fireworks at Israeli security forces.    

There are huge cedar trees on the mount and at least one of them caught fire.  I have included a link to videos of the Temple Mount fire here and here.   

Updated: 5/16/2021

According to Yair Wallach, the young Israelis who were singing at the Western Wall—during Jerusalem Day, as the fire broke out on the Temple Mount—were singing a Hassidic rock song associated with Rabbi Meir Kahane based on the biblical story of Samson: “O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”  The Israeli youth who were jumping and singing were shouting “May their name be effaced!” 

Meir Kahane is a controversial figure.  While some consider him a hero others consider him a “criminal racist.” He founded the anti-Arab Kach political party, which calls for the annexation of all conquered territories and the removal of all Palestinians.  He approved the use of violence and was imprisoned.  While in prison he wrote his work They Must Go (1981), in which he expressed his negative views of Arabs and Jews living side-by-side in Israel. 

It is not hard to imagine a group of zealot religious youth, combined with a radical/racist mindset, could be highly problematic and a source of contention for both Israel and the Arab community that lives there.  I just hope that is not the case.        

Yom Yerushalayim (יוֹם יְרוּשָׁלַיִם)

 

It is bitter/sweet that I share this blog today, especially in light of the recent and growing tensions and conflicts in Jerusalem.  Today is Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), which commemorates the reunification of the city of Jerusalem after the Six-Day War on June 7, 1967.  It is celebrated on the 28^th of Iyar.  Before the war portions of the Old City were under Jordanian control and Jews were not allowed to enter.  Today, Jerusalem is part of Israel and people generally are allowed to visit the holy city and her sacred sites that are significant to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, though there are exceptions.  Both Jews and Christians are presently not allowed to visit the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, though again there have been exceptions to this rule.  When I visited Israel in 2017, I was allowed to visit the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, but not the Dome of the Rock.  However, in 2015 Pope Francis was permitted to visit the Dome of the Rock. In a more recent account, a none Muslim was allowed to visit and capture a video of his tour of the Dome.        

Among the tensions in Jerusalem today, the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif seems to produce some of the highest tensions in the city of Jerusalem.  Some Palestinians accuse Israel of wanting to tear down the Dome of the Rock and build the Third Temple on the mount.  Not all Jews wish for this to happen, but some groups advocate the building of the Jewish Temple, groups such as the Temple Mount Faithful, which was founded in 1967 by an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) officer named Gershon Salomon, whose goal is “the building of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in our lifetime in accordance with the Word of G-d and all the Hebrew prophets and the liberation of the Temple Mount from Arab (Islamic) occupation so that it may be consecrated to the Name of G-d.”

However, this apparently was not the view of everyone following the Six-Day War.  On June 7, 1967, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan stated,

This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again. To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour - and with added emphasis at this hour - our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples' holy places, and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and to live there together with others, in unity.

Moshe Dayan is also known for a pivotal decision during the Six-Day War.  During the war, Mordechai (Motta) Gur and his paratroops were the first to visit the Western Wall and the Temple Mount during which time he became know for his recorded words, !הר הבית בידינו‎, Har HaBayit BeYadeinu! “The Temple Mount is in our hands!”  Ezra Orni, the chief communications officer for the brigade, hung an Israeli flag over the Dome of the Rock.  However, Dayan was watching through binoculars from nearby Mount Scopus and radioed Gur saying, “Do you want to set the Middle East on fire?”  As a result, the flag was taken down.  Later, Dayan visited the site with Yitzhak Rabin to commemorate the return of the city of Jerusalem and the sacred site to the Jews.  At the Western Wall, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the IDF’s chaplain, blew the shofar to honor the event. 

For more information, see The Six-Day War: Background & Overview.    

Israeli Paratroopers at the Western Wall (Photo: Rubinger)

Violence on Temple Mount Following Last Friday Prayers of Ramadan

 

THE JERUSALEM POST: Violent clashes broke out at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Friday between worshipers and security forces, just as tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers gathered to mark the last Friday prayers of the Ramadan month of fasting….

Following the incident, Netanyahu met with numerous security heads on Saturday afternoon.

"Israel is acting responsibly to keep law and order in Jerusalem while protecting the right to worship in the Holy sites," Netanyahu said during the meeting….

Israel Police reported that "police troops began using riot control measures a while ago, in an attempt to restore order after violent riots broke out at the Temple Mount, during which hundreds of suspects started throwing rocks, bottles and other items toward our forces."

Conflict at the Damascus Gate

 

When I visited Israel in May 2018, I stayed at the Jerusalem Hotel on Nablus Road.  The road begins near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem and heads northward.  I often entered the old city through the gate.  I have included a few pictures.

In recent days, the Damascus Gate has been the center of intense conflict between Palestinians, Israelis, and the Israeli police.  This comes during Ramadan, which draws large numbers of Muslims to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif for prayer.  According to The Times of Israel, “dozens of people were injured when violent clashes erupted at the Damascus Gate…late Thursday as Palestinian protesters confronted a group of some 300 extreme-right Jewish activists who marched to the scene chanting ‘Death to Arabs.’”  The Israeli police intervened to keep the two groups apart but clashed with Palestinians who threw rocks at them. 

DAY 8 – Jesus Has Risen: the Offering of the Firstfruits and Pentecost

Early in the morning on the first day of the week, as the sun had risen, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome arrive at the tomb to anoint Jesus only to learn that he has been raised (ἐγείρω, egeiro) and was no longer there.  They were to tell his disciples that he is going ahead of them to Galilee, where they will see him (Mk 16:1-8). 

Jesus was raised the day after the Sabbath.  On this day the priest would offer up the sheaf (עֹ֫מֶר;ʿōmer) of the firstfruits (רֵאשִׁית; rēʾ šît) before the Lord (Lev 23:9-11).  Jesus is not only the Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7) but also the first fruits of those raised (ἐγείρω, egeiro) from the dead (15:20). 

In Second Temple Judaism, the fifty days between the Jewish Feast of Passover and the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks) came to be known as the Feast of Pentecost.  In Early Christianity, the time between Easter and Pentecost Sunday was also fifty days.  Pentecost was not an isolated feast day.  The fifty days from the resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the firstfruits (Rom 8:23) is Pentecost. 

DAY 7 - Jesus Sabbath Rest

 

DAY 6 - Death of the Messiah and the Temple Curtain Torn in Two

 MARK 15:1-47

Today Jesus will appear before Pilate.  He eventually will be handed over to be crucified, mocked by the soldiers, and derided by those who passed by saying, “you who would destroy the temple (ναός, naos) and build it in three days” come down from there.  However, when Jesus gives out a loud sound and breathed out, the Temple (ναός, naos) curtain is torn (σχίζω, schizo) in two.  This leads the Roman Centurion who stood facing him confessing, “truly this man was God’s Son.” In the distance, there were women including Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and Joses, and Salome.  Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of the council and waiting for the Kingdom of God, provided a linen cloth, wrapped Jesus’ body, and laid it in a tomb hewn out of the rock, then a stone was rolled against the door of the tomb. Remarkably, this pericope ends with two women, Mary Magdalene and Mary of mother of Joses, who endure and saw where the body was laid.

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What is the significance of the Temple veil being torn in two?  Raymond Brown provides this analysis:

Twice before, both times in the [Passion Narrative], Mark has spoken of naos, “the sanctuary.” Before the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin, there was given against Jesus false testimony, namely, that he had been heard saying, “I will destroy this sanctuary made by hand, and within three days another not made by hand I will build” (14:58). As Jesus hung on the cross, those who passed by were blaspheming him, “Aha, O one destroying the sanctuary and building it in three days …” (15:29). Part of the import of the present narrative, which constitutes a third reference to the sanctuary, must be that Jesus is vindicated: Rending the veil of the sanctuary has in one way or another destroyed that holy place. (Another almost identical sequence of three passages deals with the issue of Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God—14:61; 15:32; 15:39: at the Sanhedrin, on the cross, after death—and there too the last one vindicates Jesus.) Nevertheless, Mark does not explain exactly how rending its veil destroys the sanctuary, and so we must analyze the image, as to both the rending and the sanctuary veil.

(1) The rending. Clearly the passive “was rent” makes God the agent. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry the heavens were “rent” so that the voice of God could speak from them and declare of Jesus, “You are my beloved Son” (1:10–11); now God from heaven intervenes again, rending the veil of the sanctuary so that the centurion in the next verse will be brought to confess, “Truly this man was God’s Son.” In 15:34 Jesus with a loud cry screamed out his sense of being forsaken by God, only to be mocked by those standing there. By the violent rending (schizein) God responds vigorously, not only to vindicate Jesus whom God has not forsaken, but also to express anger at the chief priests and Sanhedrin who decreed such a death for God’s Son. Several early Christian witnesses confirm this interpretation of the rending as an angry act. In Test. Levi 10:3, when God can no longer endure Jerusalem because of the wickedness of the priests, the veil of the Temple is rent so that their shame can no longer be covered. In GPet the signs that surround the death of Jesus, including the veil of the sanctuary being torn in two (5:20), show that he is just (8:28) and lead the Jews, the elders, and the priests to say, “Woe to our sins. The judgment has approached and the end of Jerusalem” (7:25). Indeed, that same gospel, by using the verb “tear” (as noted above), suggests a connection between the high priest’s tearing of his clothes before the Sanhedrin as he demanded Jesus’ death (Mark 14:63) and God’s rending of the veil at Jesus’ death, with the latter as an angry response to the former. After all, at that very moment in the Sanhedrin trial Jesus warned the high priest that he and his fellow judges would see the Son of Man coming (14:62)—a coming in judgment that has commenced at the cross.^[1]

Church of the Holy Sepulcher: traditional burial site for Jesus (Israel Trip 2017) LFL

Stone of Anointing associated with the place where Christ's body was laid and prepared for burial (Israel Trip 2017) LFL

Alternative site associated with the burial of Jesus: it is located just outside the Old City of Jerusalem (Israel Trip 2018) LFL 

Replacement Theology (or supersessionism) is the view that Christianity has replaced or superseded Judaism.  Although there are ancient texts and writers that might appear to lend support to such an argument, beginning in the 1960s the Catholic Church has made it clear that such a view is unacceptable.   The Church has its roots and continued continuity with Israel; Jews are not to be thought as rejected or accursed by God; the Church rejects hatred, persecution, and anti-Semitism that are targeted at Jews at any time and by anyone (Nostra Aetate 4).   The Jewish people and Israel remain “most dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues” (Lumen Gentium 16).  Israel remains a chosen people.  They are “the pure olive on which were grafted the branches of the wild olive,” that is the Gentiles (Catholic Church, Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, VI. 1).  More recently Pope Francis has reaffirmed in Evangelii Gaudium that we hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”

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^[1] Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah and 2: From Gethsemane to the Grave,  a Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels (vol. 1; New York; London: Yale University Press, 1994), 1099–1101.

DAY 5 – Passover, Last Supper, and the Son of the Blessed One

Jesus and his disciples eat the Passover and Jesus institutes the Last Supper.  The disciples learn that they will all abandon Jesus and that one of them will even betray him.  Peter is told that he will deny Jesus three times. After spending time in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is arrested and appears before the council and the High Priest.  Many gave false witness against him, though their testimony did not agree.  “We heard him say, “I will destroy this temple (ναός, naos) that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.”  The High Priest asks, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”  Jesus responds, “I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power,” and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mk 14:12-72).

DAY 4 – The Chief Priests and Scribes Seek the Death of Jesus: and who is that woman? (Mk 14:1-11)

 

Earlier in Mark’s Gospel Jesus had “cleansed the Temple” and admonished the temple authorities and scribes saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations,” and rebuked them for making it “a den of robbers” (11:15-17).  Even that day the authorities were “looking for a way to kill him” (v. 18).  Later, they want to arrest him when they realize the Parable of the Wicked Tenants was spoken against them (12:12).  Now two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests, and the scribes are looking for a way to arrest him through treachery and kill him before the feast (14:1-2).  While they seek to destroy him, an unnamed woman in Bethany anoints Jesus before his death and burial; Jesus says, “wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in the remembrance of her” (v. 9).  In the meantime, Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests to hand him over to them (vv. 10-11). 

 

My question is who is that woman?  She is remarkable!  Matthew’s parallel account is also nameless (Matt 26:6-13).  In a close parallel account in the Gospel of John, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ feet (12:3).  In Luke’s Gospel, which appears to be an entirely different account, happening at a different point in Jesus’ ministry, and takes place in a different home, a sinful woman anoints and bathes Jesus, “kissing his feet and anointing them with ointment” (Lk 7:37-38).  In the 6^th century, Gregory the Great associates the woman in Luke 7 as Mary Magdalene (Homily 33.1).

Jerome argues that the woman in Mark 14 is not the same woman in Luke 7.  He also points out a dichotomy.  It was not the priest and scribes in the temple who had ointment to anoint Jesus, rather it is the woman in Mark 14 who is outside the temple who carries a jar of ointment for anointing Jesus (Homily 84).  

People gathered outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel (2017 Israel Trip) LFL

Day 3: Jesus and Lessons from the Fig Tree and from the Mountain (Mk 11:20-25)

Jesus had cursed the fig tree the day before because it was not bearing fruit.  Today the tree has withered away to its roots (Mk11:20-21).  An irony has been noted that this time of the year was not the season for a fig tree to bear fruit.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, the fig tree is used as a metaphor for Israel among the prophets (Hos 9:10: Jer 24:1-10; see also 8:13, Micah 4:4).

Morna Hooker has argued, “the incident of the fig tree is a difficult one. It is the only ‘negative’ miracle in the gospels....The story is dismissed by some commentators as out of character for Jesus....Whatever its origins...the story is certainly used symbolically by Mark and probably had this symbolic significance from the beginning. The fig tree represents Israel, which has failed to produce the appropriate fruits when her Messiah looked for them” (The Gospel According to Saint Mark, 261).

Raymond Brown notes, “to curse the tree because it had no fruit seems to many irrational since, as Mark reminds us, this time just before Passover was not the season for figs. However, the cursing is similar to the prophetic actions of the OT whose very peculiarity attracts attention to the message being symbolically presented (Jer 19:1–2, 10–11; Ezek 12:1–7). The barren tree represents those Jewish authorities whose failures are illustrated in the intervening action of cleansing the Temple, which has been made a den of thieves instead of a house of prayer for all peoples (Jer 7:11; Isa 56:7). In particular, the chief priests and the scribes seek to put Jesus to death, and their future punishment is symbolized by the withering of the tree. The miraculous element in the cursing/withering becomes in 11:22–25 the occasion for Jesus to give the disciples a lesson in faith and the power of prayer. (The instruction to the disciples to forgive in order that God may forgive them resembles a motif that Matt 6:12 places in the Lord’s Prayer.)[1]

N.T Wright makes this unique observation:

In Mark and Matthew, Jesus’ Temple-action is closely linked with the cursing of the fig tree. As has often been remarked, this has the effect of using one acted symbol to interpret another. In this case, though, the symbol is further interpreted by a riddling saying:

Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea’, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will happen for him.

We have already commented that ‘this mountain’, spoken in Jerusalem in the vicinity of the Temple, would naturally refer to the Temple mount itself. There is, however, a biblical allusion which suggests that the saying was also a cryptic messianic riddle. Zechariah 1–8 is all about the return from exile, the restoration of Jerusalem, the return of yhwh to Zion, and the rebuilding of the Temple; and, not surprisingly, about the coming anointed ones, the priest and the king. Zerubbabel is the Davidic figure on whom the prophet rests his hopes for the rebuilding of the Temple, despite all opposition; and, to symbolize that opposition, he uses the image of the great mountain, perhaps (as in other passages in Zechariah 1–8) echoing Isaiah 40, which speaks of the mountains and hills being flattened at the coming of yhwh:

He said to me, ‘This is the word of yhwh to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says yhwh of hosts. What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring out the top stone amid shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’

I suggest, therefore, that the saying about the mountain has a double thrust. First, it emphasizes that Jesus’ action signified the overthrow of the Temple; second, it pointed to Jesus as the one who would at last do what Zerubbabel was supposed to do, that is, to be the true anointed one who would build the true Temple. Whatever the ‘mountain’ may have signified in Zechariah’s   prophecy, it was clearly something that stood in the way of the building of the Temple. Thus, in Jesus’ riddle, (a) the present Temple is seen as in opposition to the true one, (b) the present Temple will be destroyed, to make way for the true one, and (c) Jesus is the true anointed one, who will bring out the top stone of the building and thus complete it. Once again, the Temple-action lays claim to royalty.^[2]

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^[1] Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 142–143.

^[2] N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God; London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1996), 494–495.

Temple Mount in the Background (2017 Israel Trip) LFL

Day 2: Jesus and Second Temple Judaism: The so called "Cleansing of the Temple" and the saying "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations."

 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves;  and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.  He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, 

    ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? 

    But you have made it a den of robbers.” 

And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.  And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city (Mk 11:15-19: NRSV). 

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This action in the Temple has been interpreted in a variety of ways—for example, a symbol of coming destruction, the symbol of coming restoration, and a forerunner of the coming new institution.  Dominic Crossan argued that the action in the Temple is “a deliberate symbolic attack.  It destroys the Temple by stopping its fiscal, sacrificial, and liturgical operations...[This] symbolic destruction simply actualized what he had already said in his teachings, affected in his healings, and realized in his mission of open commensality.”[i]  N. T. Wright holds the view that Jesus’ action was a prophetic critique of the present Temple, and that the action symbolized its imminent destruction.[ii]  E. P. Sanders argued that Jesus’ action both “symbolized destruction” and also looked “toward restoration.”[iii]  According to Sanders, Jesus “did not wish to purify the temple, either of dishonest trading or of trading in contrast to ‘pure’ worship. Nor was he opposed to the temple sacrifices which God commanded to Israel. He intended, rather, to indicate that the end was at hand and that the temple would be destroyed, so that the new and perfect temple might arise.”[iv]  Like Sanders, who tried to move beyond the theme of destruction, several scholars have suggested the movement beyond desolation towards the establishment of the new institution of the Eucharist.[v] 

After looking at the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and Exodus 30:16, Jacob Neusner realizes that the money-changers performed a vital service for the daily whole-offering to be offered up in the name of the Jewish community in the Jewish Temple.  This has a remarkable significance for understanding Jesus’ action in the Temple.  When Jesus enters the Temple and overturns the table of the money-changers, this action is a prelude to a later event in the life and ministry of Jesus.  Jesus overturns one table to establish another.  The place of sacrifice for the atonement of sins will no longer be centered on the Jewish Temple; rather, the place of sacrifice will focus on the person of Jesus.[vi]  According to Neusner,

“It was to be the rite of the Eucharist: table for table, whole offering for whole offering. It...seems to me that the correct context in which to read the overturning of the money-changers’ tables is not the destruction of the Temple in general, but the institution of the sacrifice of the [E]ucharist, in particular.”[vii]

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[i] Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 131, 133.

[ii] N. T. Wright, Jesus and The Victory of God, 417-418.

[iii] Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, 69-71.

[iv] Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, 75.

[v] The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (trans. J. Bowden; ed. G. Theissen and A. Merz: Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998 [Ger. 1996]), 431-439;* Jacob Neusner, “Money-Changers in the Temple: The Mishnah’s Explanation,” NTS 35.2 (1989): 287–90; Bruce Chilton, The Temple of Jesus: His Sacrificial Program within a Cultural History of Sacrifice (University Park, Pennsylvania:  1992), 92- 154; A Feast of Meanings: Eucharistic Theologies from Jesus through Johannine Circles (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1994); Jostein Ådna, “Jesus’ Symbolic Act in the Temple (Mark 11:15-17): The Replacement of the Sacrificial Cult by His Atoning Death,” Gemeinde ohne Tempel: Community without Temple (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 118; ed. B. Ego, A. Lange and P. Pilhofer; Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1999), 461-476.*

[vi] Jacob Neusner, “Money-Changers in the Temple: The Mishnah’s Explanation,” NTS 35.2 (1989): 287–290.

[vii] Neusner, “Money-Changers in the Temple,” 290.

Day 1: Jesus and the Second Jewish Temple: Last Week in Jerusalem According to Gospel of Mark (Sunday)

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”  They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.  Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.  Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.  Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, 

    “Hosanna! 

    Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 

    Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! 

    Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 

Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve (Mk 11:1-11: NRSV). 

Eastern Gate to the Temple Mount in the upper right corner of the picture (Israel Trip 2017)

You Must Wait for Me (1 Nisan 5781) Fourth Sunday of Lent March 14, 2020

 Edited March 16, 2021

I was thinking and praying about God’s signs and wonders among all peoples, nations, tongues, and tribes.  I hear a still small voice, “you must wait for me.”  I later hear the simple word “wedding.”  I searched out the saying, “you must wait for me” and found it in Hosea 3:3 (Douay-Rheims Bible; see also NJB).  The Hebrew text has the verb יָשַׁב (yāšab), meaning “sit, remain, dwell” (TWOT 411).  The NRSV has the following:

The Lord said to me again, “Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine.  And I said to her, “You must remain as mine for many days; you shall not play the whore, you shall not have intercourse with a man, nor I with you.”  For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim.  Afterward the Israelites shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; they shall come in awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days (Hos 3:1-5).

I see parallels between what is above and Habakkuk.

        O Lord, I have heard of your renown,

and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.

   In our own time revive it;

in our own time make it known;

in wrath may you remember mercy (3:2). 

Finally, I recall the prayer to God of Pope John XXIII in 1962 that began, “Renew Your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost….” 

It seems then that there are two important dimensions: 1) the individual who seeks, watches, and prays for God’s renewal/revival; 2) the Almighty God who brings it about in his timing.    

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Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane 

What looks like a heart sitting within a heart among the olive trees east of the Temple Mount/Harm al-Sharif in Jerusalem, Israel.  

Jordanian Crown Prince Cancels Pre-planned Temple Mount Visit

 

THE JERUSALEM POST: Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah canceled a pre-planned Wednesday visit to the Temple Mount after Jordan failed to uphold the agreed security arrangement with Israel, KAN 11 reported. 

The Jordanians were limited to a set number of security guards but eventually decided to bring a larger number.

When Israel insisted they stick to the agreed upon number, the Jordanians decided to cancel the visit.

The security of diplomatic guests visiting a country is on the shoulders of the hosting nation, in this case, Israel. 

The Hashemite Kingdom has a historic relationship with Jerusalem and its holy sites, including the Temple Mount, known as al-Haram al-Sharif. Jordan controlled east Jerusalem from 1948-1967, including the Old City.

Drawing by L. Gummadi, Agamim Academy 

Update from the Temple Mount: Snow Fall in Jerusalem

 

In a rare event, snow fell in the Old City of Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif on Feb 18, 2021.  This happens on occasions.  On February 6, 1950, Jerusalem recorded nearly 24 inches of snow; of more recent memory is December 13, 2013, when Jerusalem was covered with 12 inches of snow.

As the recent cold arctic blasts have brought down the snow to areas such as Jerusalem, Israel, and even Texas, USA, there is something wonderfully hidden in the geometry of the snowflake.  Sometimes you can see what looks like the holy of holies.  Structures that come from above down to earth, structures not made with human hands.  

Snow is seen over Jerusalem and on the Dome of the Rock, located on the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount on Feb 18, 2021.
(Photo: Reuters/ Ronen Zvulun)

Source: https://somathread.ning.com/groups/art/forum/the-sacred-geometry-of-snowflakes 

First International Day of Human Fraternity (Feb 4, 2021)

Today the moon is passing through the constellation of Libra (justice), just below the feet of Virgo (Virgin).  It is also the first International Day of Human Fraternity.  Make of it what you will, but it grew out of the inter-religious dialogue between Muslims, Christians, and Jews beginning in 2007 when Muslims contacted Pope Benedict XVI and requested open intellectual exchange and mutual understanding.  In his 2012 Post-Synodal Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, Benedict XVI encouraged interreligious dialogue.  He wrote,

May Jews, Christians, and Muslims find in other believers brothers and sisters to be respected and loved, and in this way, beginning in their own lands, give the beautiful witness of serenity and concord between the children of Abraham. Rather than being exploited in endless conflicts which are unjustifiable for authentic believers, the acknowledgment of one God – if lived with a pure heart – can make a powerful contribution to peace in the region and to respectful coexistence on the part of its peoples (Ecclesia in Medio Oriente 19).

Meetings and conferences took place for several years leading up to Pope Francis and Ahmad al Tayyeb, Islamic scholar and Grand Imam of al-Azhar signing the document Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019.  The document was controversial with some praising it and others criticizing it.  I will list two paragraphs below.  Those who wish to read and study the entire document may click here. 

The first and most important aim of religions is to believe in God, to honour Him and to invite all men and women to believe that this universe depends on a God who governs it. He is the Creator who has formed us with His divine wisdom and has granted us the gift of life to protect it. It is a gift that no one has the right to take away, threaten or manipulate to suit oneself. Indeed, everyone must safeguard this gift of life from its beginning up to its natural end. We therefore condemn all those practices that are a threat to life such as genocide, acts of terrorism, forced displacement, human organ trafficking, abortion and euthanasia. We likewise condemn the policies that promote these practices.  

Moreover, we resolutely declare that religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood. These tragic realities are the consequence of a deviation from religious teachings. They result from a political manipulation of religions and from interpretations made by religious groups who, in the course of history, have taken advantage of the power of religious sentiment in the hearts of men and women in order to make them act in a way that has nothing to do with the truth of religion. This is done for the purpose of achieving objectives that are political, economic, worldly and short-sighted. We thus call upon all concerned to stop using religions to incite hatred, violence, extremism and blind fanaticism, and to refrain from using the name of God to justify acts of murder, exile, terrorism and oppression. We ask this on the basis of our common belief in God who did not create men and women to be killed or to fight one another, nor to be tortured or humiliated in their lives and circumstances. God, the Almighty, has no need to be defended by anyone and does not want His name to be used to terrorize people.