Update on the Temple Mount

There were three important developments on the Temple Mount this past week.  It has been a time of relative peace (or absence of struggle) on the mount since its closure last week because of the coronavirus.  For the first time in 17 years, the area has been closed to Moslems, Jews, and Christian visitors and worshipers.  The Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher have been closed.  Nonetheless, there have been a couple of other interesting developments on the mount.  The closure of the mount has not prevented the Waqf from working and digging on the mount.  Another story is a group of Temple Mount activists, citing the example of King David, sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requesting that they might be allowed to offer the ritual Passover on the mount to end the pandemic.    

 (Photo: Flash 90)

Photo Credit: دائرة الاوقاف الاسلامية في القدس on Facebook

Jerusalem as the Navel of the World

Jerusalem as the Navel of the Earth 

Borrowing from a saying from James Joyce, the navel of us all leads us back from whence we came.  In the ancient world, locations such as Delphi[1] and Zion[2] were sometimes called the “navel of the earth.”  It is not too surprising to see an ancient map that looks a little different than the ones seen today.  To my surprise, I took the above picture on a map I saw in Jerusalem.  Its center can easily be identified and the trifold symmetry is evident.  Its simplicity is remarkable, especially in light of the complexity of the maps today that represent the many nations, tongues, tribes, and kingdoms.  Perhaps we have come to a bottleneck and we will soon return and rediscover where all of us have come from.  

      

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[1] Pausanias, Gr. Descr. 10.16.2; Strabo, Geography 9.3.6. 

[2] Jubilees 8.19.

Update from Jerusalem

Because of the coronavirus, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher will close its doors for a week.  This comes after a meeting between Israeli police and church leaders following the Israeli government’s plan to help prevent the spread of the virus.  The church was built in the 4^th century during the rule of the Emperor Constantine the Great after he converted to Christianity.  The Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches are custodians of the building.  In other developments this week, Jewish, Christian, and Moslem leaders gathered in Jerusalem to pray during the pandemic.  Franciscan Father Francesco Patton said,

We will be together to pray to the Almighty God that this pandemic may stop.... It is important...because we are all believers with the same roots; and thanks to this same root we can express with faith and...confidence our prayer to God the Almighty.

Door to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Visit to Israel 2018).  Notice what looks like three trees above the door.

One of the altars in the church.  This was located on a lower level (Visit to Israel 2018).

I saw this door that captured my attention (Israel Trip 2018).

Traces of Trinitas (Jerusalem 2018)

Plagues in Ancient Israel

What are the causes of plagues?  The ancient Hebrews, like the Greeks, had their accounts.  The answers might surprise you.  For example, the LORD afflicted the house of Pharaoh because Pharaoh desired to take Sara as his wife (Gen 12:17-20), or when the LORD sent ten plagues upon Egypt in part because Pharaoh would not let Israel go and worship (Ex 7:14-11:10).  There also is the account when David was incited to take a census of the people of Israel that resulted in the LORD sending a plague on Israel (2 Sam 24:15; 1 Chron 21:1-17).  After David had realized that he had sinned, he is presented with three options: 1) three years of famine; 2) three months of war; or 3) three days of pestilence.  David decides to trust the LORD, because of his great mercy, rather than going to war and falling into human hands.  So the LORD sent a plague on Israel and 70,000 died.  As the disaster approached Jerusalem, the LORD held back his hand near the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.  Soon after, David purchased the threshing floor from Ornan, built an altar to the LORD, and offered up whole burnt offerings (עֹל֖וֹת) and peace-offerings (שְׁלָמִ֑ים).  David then called upon the LORD, who answered from heaven with fire.  The plagues ceased. This location would become the future site of the Jerusalem temple on Mount Moriah built by Solomon (2 Chron 3:1), the Second Jewish Temple, and the present-day Temple Mount in Jerusalem.           

Plagues in Ancient Greece - Redux-Saga

In the 2^nd century CE, the Cynic philosopher Oenomaus of Gadara criticized the Athenians who murdered Androgeus, Son of King Minos of Crete, who were then struck with a severe pestilence.  The Athenians sought a divine oracle for direction to stop the plague.  They are told to send seven grown youth and seven maidens to Crete to be sacrificed in Minos. 

Of plague and famine, there shall be an end,

If your flesh and blood (female and male) you send,

By lot assigned to Minos, you shall send forth,

Upon the mighty sea, for recompense you set course,

Of evil deeds; so shall the god forgive.

Oenomaus mocks the oracle and rebukes the Athenains for not saying, “Would it not have been better to repent?”

Runes from Palace of King Minos, Knossos, Crete 

Islamic Waqf closes Temple Mount in Jerusalem to all worshipers and visitors.

WORLD ISRAEL NEWS:  The Islamic Waqf Council announced Sunday it is closing the entire area of the Al Aqsa Mosque to prevent to worshipers from praying there “for their own health safety,” Jordan’s Petra News Agency reported.

A Moslem worshiper wearing a mask against the coronavirus at the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (Facebook - AlHayat) 

God’s Three Arrows: “wars, pestilence, and famines” or “faith, hope, and love”?

I have been thinking about the recent pandemic.  When I was teaching in an old Cistercian monastery in Austria, I remember seeing a representation of the “Grim Reaper” in the small rural town of Gaming.  It made me think about Europe’s history and her dreadful encounter with various plagues.  I wondered to myself, “What would it have been like to live in times such as those?”  History has had its moments of such tragedies such as the Plague of Athens (5^th century BCE), the Plague of Justinian (6^th century CE), and the Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague (14^th century).    

I also asked myself, “How would I react if I ever lived through something like that?”  “Would I be afraid?”  Or “Would I be a sense of comfort for others?”  One way to approach the question is to engage an argument that the pandemic is sent from God.  For an atheist, this would be a moot point.  For those who believe in an Almighty God, however, the premise would be welcome to some, questioned by another, and rejected by others. 

In the 17^th century, William Gouge published a work entitled God’s Three Arrows: Plague, Famine, and Sword.  I do not intend to give a general or exhaustive account of this work, but only to borrow the title to raise the question “does God sent forth plague, famine, and war?”  There is evidence that the Hebrew prophets indeed did express views on such matters (Jer 28:8).  Furthermore, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of the LORD letting loose on the people sword, famine, and pestilence (Jer 29:17).  Moreover, the LORD sent a plague against the people who rebelled against Moses and Aaron, but in the end, Moses and Aaron made atonement for the people and the plague stopped (Num 16:41-50).  However, the clearest reference is found in the prophetic book of Ezekiel that refers to the LORD God who sends forth judgment (Ezk 14:21), which elsewhere are likened to deadly arrows (5:16-17; 6:11-12).  So yes!  According to prophetic writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, God sent forth these kinds of judgments.  This view appears in Second Temple Judaism (Sir 39:25-35; Sib. Or. 3.295-349; esp. 330; Pss. Sol. 15:5-11) and Jewish Christian apocalyptic literature (Rev 6:8; see also Lk 21:10-11).  Eventually, the Jews miserably suffered under the Romans with the destruction of the Second Temple during the First Jewish Revolt (CE 66-70).  Ultimately, Jerusalem was raised to the ground and all of Judah became desolate after the Second Jewish Revolt (CE 132-135).  The Roman historian Lucius Cassius would later describe how Jews perished by famine, disease, and war (Dio Cassius, Rom. Hist. 69:12:1-13:2).

On a more positive note, the Hebrew Scriptures also clearly express the hope that the people should and could stop these disasters through repentance and turning to God (1 Kgs 8:37-40).  If the people would humble themselves, seek and pray, and turn from their evil ways, God would hear from heaven, forgive them and heal their land (2 Chron 7:13).  Even to this day, Jews and Christians hold to this promise.  

Is the coronavirus one of God’s arrows sent in judgment?  As a human being, some could respond “yes” to others “no” and still others merely laugh.  What might be a better and alternative response?  There are “arrows” or perhaps better yet “olive branches” that we humans can offer Faith, Hope, and Love!”  Let us not be afraid!  In our hearts and minds, let us turn to God.  Let us turn away from what is evil to the Good.