The Chapters 5-7 gave me a slightly better understanding to why the Jewish Zion movement chose Jerusalem as their settlement. In chapter 5, Second Isaiah focused his Zion for Yahweh in Jerusalem and the main focus was the rebuilding of the temple. The people became focused on building this temple back in Jerusalem. Then in chapter 6, Armstrong talks about how the teachings of apocalypse became fundamental to the religions of the days. The teachings of the End of History centered around Jerusalem as well.
“God would gather the twelve tribes of Israel together from all the lands of their dispersion and bring them to Jerusalem…Now the people of Israel would eliminate all their enemies, who incarnated the evil of chaos and destruction, and create a better world…The setting for this final act of redemption was always Jerusalem” (115).
This gave me a greater understanding of the connection present Jews have to this land. It seems to be an integral part of the religion; the apocalypse brings the people back to Jerusalem so clearly it is a holy land in their hearts.
I am not saying that this is the basis for justifying Israel’s position. As we said in class, we are to look at this history to get an understanding of how things became important to these people. These chapters definitely aided my understanding of the importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish community.
I definitely agree with you... to a point... but like I have mentioned in my blogs before I believe that people tend to misinterpret the words of god. Sometimes I believe that people tend to have such a tight grip on one favorable law or teaching that we forget the rest of the teachings that make up the religion its self.
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