Lecture 6 - Hezekiah's Jerusalem

We started class with Professor Cargill talking about the requirements (or guidelines) to make a golden age. David and Solomon's reigns were considered a golden age in Jerusalem. In order to create a golden age, you have to die, build great palaces, create a united kingdom, and build a great temple. However when Solomon died, the golden age ended and the kingdom was divided. The cause for the division was attributed to Solomon's son Rehoboam. Rehoboam listened to his peers rather than his father's advisors on how to deal with his peoples' plea for lower taxes. Rehoboam basically wants to show that his more manly than his father stating that his small thing is bigger than his dad's "loins." So by ignoring his father's advice, ten tribes in the north left to form Israel. The remaining two tribes become Judah. Although the north didn't really do anything wrong, the Bible is written in the perspective of the south so the north is viewed as rebellious.

Later we went back to discussing the vassal-king contract. During  the 8th century, Assyria rose and conquered many lands. Jerusalem was so insignificant back then that the Assyrians didn't bother to capture it. However when this happened, the people from the north rushed to Jerusalem to seek shelter. This caused the Assyrians to focus on Jerusalem. Hezekiah planed that something fishy might happen so he fortifies the walls of Jerusalem. This lecture was pretty easy to follow because it had some action (I don't mean to detract from the other amazing lectures, but this one was more interesting for some reason).

Lecture 5 - Broken Promises and Solomon

Class started with a discussion of God's promise to David that his legacy will all be kings of Jerusalem. The biblical passage was 2 Samuel 7 (remember this for a possible research quote). Even though David was promised this, it is noted that the Babylonians came later on and took over. Because of this Babylonian take-over, the text was later reinterpreted so that God did not lie. After this we focused on Solomon and what he did during his reign as king.

Solomon was a very wise king and a loyal servant of God. There was a story about how he figured out the mother of some kid which demonstrated his wisdom. He also was anointed at Gihon (remember this too). He also built a temple for God in Jerusalem known as Solomon's Temple or the First Temple. Whether Solomon's Temple actually existed is still in debate. Archaeologists are unable to locate the temple because some king decided to clear the whole foundation of the temple and rebuild something over it. This is very frustrating because it is basically removing all evidence of its existence. Prior buildings during ancient times just built over the structure, preserving it, but not in this instance.  

Lecture 4 - David, Solomon, THE ARK!

Lecture was pretty interesting today because I think I found out what my research paper is going to be on (I'll mention that later on). First off, we discussed the Tel Dan inscriptions. These inscriptions provided evidence that people in ancient times referred to a house of David, but this did not prove the existence of David. Scholars do not believe that David and Solomon existed, but the Tel Dan somewhat supported their existence. 

Then we had some slides of certain geographical stuff like Warren's shaft and the Gihon spring. It was nice to see the picture of shaft instead of just learning about it. When we learned about the importance of water, I prematurely decided that a paper on the importance of water to Jerusalem would be my research paper. Water helped with anointments (like for Solomon) and is a device used to show some royalty. The little kid in me jumped and screamed when I saw Indy's Ark. I'm pretty sure there isn't another picture of the Ark that would be fitting (unless it was actually a picture of the Ark). The idea that it can be referred to an idol sounded very interesting. Learning about the Ark was very exciting because I love Raiders (Last Crusade > Raiders > ToD > Crystal Skull) and the story of Uzzah was somewhat sad. I mean Uzzah was going to die no matter what happened to the Ark. When he touched it, he got smote; but if let it fall and become opened, a bunch of womanly ghosts would've escaped and melted his face.

Lecture 3 - Canaanite Jerusalem and David's Jerusalem

The past two weeks have been hell. If UCLA was Jerusalem, I would consider South Campus to be Hinnom. One of the MCDB professors was a total dick to me at office hour because I had some questions so I dropped that class and enrolled in an MIMG one and had to catch up. Anyways, back to the Jerusalem.

We learned about settlements in Jerusalem before David in class. Previous lectures mentioned how Jerusalem was basically in the middle of nowhere, but we get some information on why the city might have came up. Water, agriculture, communication, and trade all helped with people settling there first. Then we delved into the history of Jerusalem's existence through archaeological texts. One of them, the Armarna letters was pretty interesting. It was basically the king of Jerusalem begging for money from Egyptian pharaohs written on cuniform tablets. I was more interested on what currency was back then, wouldn't Jerusalem be better off asking for protection rather than money at the time? 

Then we got into David's juicy story. The dude who killed the big dude with a slingshot. Interesting note, I went to Florence back in 2007 and saw the real David. We weren't supposed to take pictures because it might "degrade" the statute or something but I went behind some old dude and took a snapshot of the David.Various structures in the City of David were introduced such as the Millo, the house of Ahiel, and the house of Bullae.

 

ANE 10W Lecture 2

Got a pretty decent seat to this lecture.

So we started off learning about the events of the Jewish temple and again explain how Jerusalem was considered a sacred city to millions. A brief history of Mt. Zion left us with important dates and biblical references. The temples were built with any design as long as one mentions that God directed how the temple should look. Talks about how Jerusalem coming down from Heaven upon the rock brings up another example of Jerusalem as the axis mundi. 


Jerusalem is the axis mundi of the old world to millions of people and probably is still the center of the world today. In class we discussed how it was the contact point between heaven and hell. Being on top of a hill, Jerusalem is closer to God than any other place (even though there were other mountains near it that were higher, Jerusalem is higher in a spiritual sense). The hell entry point (usually caves back in the day) could be the souther part of the city, in the valley of Hinnom. Hinnom valley was Jerusalem's garbage pit and stuff was burned there emitting smells and sulfur. So in that sense it's like a hell.

Lecture was pretty interesting that day and we were shown how Jerusalem borrows concepts from other traditions and incorporates them into itself. Like how the Dome of the Rock is the burial site of Adam.

Random Note #3:
The key to the Holy Sepulcher Church is in the possession of a Muslim family.

Things to remember:

o   691 CE – completed by Abd al-Malik

o   1099 CE – crusaders conquer Jerusalem and convert Dome of the Rock into a church

o   1187 CE – Saladin re-conquers Jerusalem

ANE 10W Lecture 1 (actually lecture 2)

The first lecture helped provide us with a sense to why Jerusalem is considered a "sacred place." It's actually sacred to three big religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. But what makes a place sacred? According to some class answers, something supernatural either happened there or someone important was born there. 

Next we moved onto how the geography helped make Jerusalem a sacred place. The routes provided communication that helped city. Jerusalem had Via Maris on the east and the King's Highway from the west. Although one would have to make an effort to visit Jerusalem, I guess this ties in with the idea that Jerusalem is the axis mundi because it is in the center of two great trade routes. In addition to routes, the physical features of Jerusalem make it unique in a sense that it doesn't have the natural conditions of a great city. It rests on a hill and has three valleys protecting all sides but the north. The valleys are the Kidron on the east, Hinnom on the south, and the Central which goes through... the center. 

Random Note #1: The western wall is NOT the western wall of the temple, it is the wall of the temple retaining wall (temple mound). 

Water was scarce, but people got water in Jerusalem through the Gihon spring. Water had been the biggest issue in settling in Jerusalem. Water is also sacred by sharing a river in Eden (the Gihon) with the Gihon spring in Jerusalem. The city now has been segregated into specific "quarters" even though some may argue that there are five quarters (wouldn't make it quarters...). The north west houses the Christians, the south west has the Armenians, the north east has the Muslim, and the south east houses the Jews. The fifth quarter is the temple mound (on the eastern side).

Random Note #2: Book of Revelation.

Overall it was a really interesting lecture. I thought I would sleep over a topic like this, but gladly I didn't.