Week4

So, this week we learned about a few kings, the split of Israel and the big bad Assyrians.
  Basically in the reading I was getting frustrated mainly because I thought I was reading the same thing over and over and over again. "there was a king who rule for this long, his mothers name was this, and he did evil in the eyes of the LORD...he did evil in the eyes of the LORD...he did evil in the eyes of the LORD"...you would think these kings would start to learn and STOP doing evil. When David and Solomon die this was supposedly the end of the GOLDEN AGE. The rule under Solomon's son Rehobam split Israel into a North and South because Rehobam wouldn't appease the North. The North is most of Israel but the South has Jerusalem. Also the South has the main perspective in the Bible so...the North ditched and the South was good and stayed under their ruler.
  But either way the big bad Assyrians come in. This huge army that brags about the horrible killings and murder of thousands on art all over. So basically the Assyrians conquer the North and the people of Israel start fleeing to the South to hid in Jerusalem and Jerusalem grows big time. At this point Hezekiah is the king (the good king as he is later refereed to because he did good so he received good). The Assyrians and Rabshaken come to the wall of Jerusalem (like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail- awesome movie!) and taunt the city. Hekekiah asks question for God what he should do and God says do nothing. An angel strikes down most of the Assyrian troops and then they run away. So Jerusalem is not over taken because it is defended by God (so people see Jerusalem as sacred). Hezekian then centralizes the faith and worship of Israel. His son Manasseh undoes all of Hezekiah's work so they say Manasseh is the bad king. BUT the next ruler Josiah is a good king again and re centralized the worship (but he has a short rule because he is killed in battle). Also during Josiah's rule the Assyrian power declines (but as they fall the Babylons rise. PROBLEM!).

Week3

   David, real or not! Seriously, the story of David and Goliath is epic. Its in the Bible but has been made into a classic story of the small destroying the big guy. Even I knew the story. I didn't even know there was more to David than just that story of him as a child (to be honest I didn't know that was a Bible story). But David was a King of Jerusalem supposedly during the 9th c. I say supposedly because there actually hasn't been archaeological evidence found to support he ever existent. However there is a lot of righting of him in the Bible. He said in the Bible to be a great warrior also was depicted as a righteous man. Also there is a City of David in Jerusalem.
   So supposedly also David wanted to make a temple for God and a house for himself, but God told him not to. God told David that he was not to build them, Davids son was to build them. God said He would make the temple and thus the rule of David would go on forever, and his line would never die. Davids son Solomon supposedly built Solomon's Temple that had the room Holy of Holies which houses the Ark of the Covenant. However, all though all of this is mentioned in the Bible in great detail, there is once again no archaeological evident of Solomon and Solomon's Temple that was supposedly destroyed. All very strange.

Week2

      We began class talking about the idea of sacred space and axis mundi. Sacred space is a the "Navel of the World" supposedly this is where all the universe began from. and sacred space is where people can go to worship God. Not worship of the dead like the pyramids of ancient Egypt but a place to the divine heaven and LORD. Place that have been suggested to be sacred are Beth-le "the house of god" and the Temple Mount that houses the Dome of the Rock and the Wailing Wall. The Dome of the Rock supposedly has the original skull of Adam (in the creation story of the Bible) buried underneath the Rock. We cant really check though because of the sacred Rock in the way.
     The writing of the ultimate divine God you cant say his real name. I never knew that God wasn't the name of the all powerful person or thing that created the universe. In the writings it is referred to mainly as a he. Also written as the LORD in all caps signifying the Hebrew name. They also say God out of respect. The belief is once the true name of the LORD or God is written it can never be erased so the replaced it.
    Plus there is a theory that the original inhabitants of Jerusalem were either entirely wiped out, not defeated, or that they continued to live there and people just separated themselves or years of inhabitants. Based on pottery there doesn't appear to be a change in residence though.

Week1 ANAEA10W

So before January 4, 2011, I knew nothing to little about Jerusalem. I didn’t even know that there are three faiths residing in Jerusalem. No only is there Judaism but also Christianity and Islamic! Who knew!? Also, I knew Jerusalem was a place, I just didn’t know what was so special about it. I mean really, when I learned there was no direct water sources or trade routes for the city it just didn’t seem to make sense. It’s not in a very populated area except for the Holy City its self. Sure it’s cool that it’s well protected being on a hill and everything but that just adds to the seclusion of the city.

            However, after the second lecture in class I learned a lot about the geographic significance and other interesting stuff. Like the city is the shape of the Star Trek Spock hand sign (live long and prosper) upside down with the palm facing you. So it isn’t exactly the same hand sign but it’s a good little trick to look at the land shape. Also they have a spring that goes directly into the city (Gihon Spring) that directly fed fresh water to the city. The old architecture of it was pretty cool. Push there are these shrines (Solomon’s Temple, Holy of Holies, dome of the Rock), special quotes from the Bible (Genesis:2, Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22) suggesting the Holiness of the city. Plus the J-man (Jesus) did some cool stuff in that area.