Images Of Zion

Zion did not spring up by chance along a rolling river or upon a hilltop. The land in which Zion City planted its roots was sought out by a surveying team and then purchased by Dr. John Alexander Dowie for the sole purpose of building a religious utopia. Before the first spade of soil was turned, attention was given to every detail, from utilities to commercial areas and educational institutions and (most importantly) the temple. In less than a decade, Dowie and his followers built a self-sufficient theocracy that sheltered its inhabitants from the outside world. Indeed, Zion boasts a unique history and is a most intriguing study in the successes and failures of a planned city of God.

This study, unparalleled in recent scholarly writing, sets out to examine the broad sweep of the biblical theological tradition about Jerusalem/Zion as the antecedent to Revelation's depiction of the New Jerusalem. In the Old Testament, Jerusalem/Zion is depicted in both its ideal form and its actual manifestation. In the Psalms (and seminally in the Pentateuch), Zion is depicted as similar to the holy mountains of the gods in Ugaritic religion. But it is not only a dwelling-place of the deity: it is also an earthly city inhabited by humans, and so it becomes a place of community of the divine and the human. The historical books of course make no secret of the realities of life in the far from holy Jerusalem, and, in the prophets also, the city of Jerusalem is the site of wrongdoing and corruption, a place attracting judgment; but equally it is the focus for eschatological anticipations of a renewed community that does fulfil the ideal. In the New Testament, by its rejection of the Messiah earthly Jerusalem forfeits its role as the true Jerusalem/Zion, which is taken over by Jesus and the church. Occasionally we get glimpses of the belief that the true Jerusalem is in heaven (a development begun in Second Temple literature). The book of Revelation picks up as well from Second Temple literature the theme of the identity of Jerusalem with the Garden of Eden, combining this idea with renewal-of-Zion passages from the prophets to depict the final state of God's people as a place of blessedness, community, life and safety, as well of intimacy with God.

While most treatments of biblical metaphor examine individual metaphors in isolation, Sarah J. Dille presents a model for interpretation based on their interaction with one another. Using Lakoff and Johnson's category of "metaphoric coherence", she argues that when nonconsistent or contradictory metaphors appear together in a literary unit, the areas of overlap (coherence) are highlighted in each. Using the images of father and mother in Deutero-Isaiah as a starting point, she explores how these images interact with others: for example, the divine warrior, the redeeming kinsman, the artisan of clay, or the husband. The juxtaposition of diverse metaphors (common in Hebrew prophetic literature) highlights common "entailments", enabling the reader to see aspects of the image which would be overlooked or invisible if read in isolation. Dille argues that any metaphor for God can only be understood if it is read or heard in interaction with others within a particular cultural context.

How does a Christian render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's? This book is the result of the Bingham Colloquium of 2007 that brought scholars from across North America to examine the New Testament's response to the empires of God and Caesar. Two chapters lay the foundation for that response in the Old Testament's concept of empire, and six others address the response to the notion of empire, both human and divine, in the various authors of the New Testament. A final chapter investigates how the church fathers regarded the matter. The essays display various methods and positions; together, however, they offer a representative sample of the current state of study of the notion of empire in the New Testament.

An extraordinary, deeply inspirational photo essay follows elite wheelchair racer and wrestler and Netflix documentary star Zion Clark. This stunning photographic essay showcases Zion Clark’s ferocious athleticism and undaunted spirit. Cowritten by New York Times best-selling journalist James S. Hirsch, this book features striking, visually arresting images and an approachable and engaging text, including pieces of advice that have motivated Zion toward excellence and passages from Zion himself. Explore Zion’s journey from a childhood lost in the foster care system to his hard-fought rise as a high school wrestler to his current rigorous training to prepare as an elite athlete on the world stage. Included are a biography and a note from Zion. This first in a trilogy of books to be written by world-class athlete Zion Clark.

Our theology does not exist in a vacuum but must relate to the world we inhabit and must influence our moral and ethical actions. This is especially true when discussing theology of "the land" in the context of a violent territorial conflict. The Holy Land has seen so much bloodshed that the earth itself is crying out to God. The chapters presented in this book form a unique collection of voices speaking from different perspectives on the issue of the theology of the land. These voices include Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian theologians and scholars who live in the Holy Land, as well as others from around the world. The various chapters reflect a wide spectrum of opinion and reveal how much disagreement still exists among followers of Christ. However, the dialogue generated by having these opposing voices side by side, speaking to each other rather than past each other, is encouraging. This book is both challenging and inspirational, and contributes in an innovative way to this important discussion.

An award-winning study which analyzes the phenomenon of textual analysis in ancient Israel, exploring the tradition of exegesis prior to the development of biblical interpretation in early classical Judaism and the earliest Christian communities.