All children of Abraham claim

Temple of Jerusalem

Faith & values: All children of Abraham claim Temple of Jerusalem
By ELIZABETH MCNAMER
For The Gazette

The Temple of Jerusalem is of importance to all three Western religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three claim it as a religious site although no temple exists there at this time.

The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. when the Roman general Titus conquered Jerusalem. The historian Josephus, who witnessed the event, tells that it was set on fire by an overly enthusiastic soldier. The crowds tried to stamp out the fire, as indeed did Titus himself, but to no avail. The temple was razed.

All that is left was the foundation wall, now called the Wailing Wall.

Abraham (the progenitor of the three Western religions) declared that the temple of God would be on Mount Moriah, where he had been prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac. David laid the foundations of the temple by purchasing the hilltop and bringing the Ark of the Convenant there. Solomon built the first temple on Mount Moriah (also known as Zion) in the 10th century B.C. That temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 B.C.

Ezra and Nehemiah built the second temple after the return from the exile, Four hundred years later, it was added on to and beautified by Herod the Great. This second temple not actually completed until 44 A D., 26 years before it was destroyed.

The temple was the center of Jewish life. Through the sacrificial system, the relationship between God and humankind was kept alive and renewed. Sacrifice offered in the temple was meant to be an act of purification for all humanity.

Isaiah chapter 2 reads:

In the days to come

The mountain of the Lord's house

Shall be established on the highest mountain

And raised above the hills.

All nations shall stream towards it

Many people shall come and say, "Come let us climb the Lord's mountain

To the house of the god of Jacob

That he may instruct us in his ways

And we may walk in his paths

From Zion shall go forth instruction

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem

Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares

And their spears into pruning hooks

One nation shall not raise the sword against another

Nor shall they train for war again.

With the destruction of the temple, Judaism moved to worship in synagogues, and the reading and interpretation of scripture replaced temple sacrifice.

The Romans expelled the Jews from Jerusalem in 135 B.C after the Bar Kohaba rebellion, and Jews lived in the diaspora until Israel was restored to them in 1948. Now every Friday evening at the beginning of the Sabbath, hundreds of devout Jews can be seen praying at the Wailing Wall.

The temple was often associated with the actions of Jesus. Many passages in the New Testament portray him as teaching or walking there. Luke's gospel has him presented to God in the temple when he was an infant and, when he was 12, interacting with the temple scholars.

John's Gospel suggests that it was the throwing out the moneychangers from its precincts that precipitates Jesus' death. Jesus referred to the temple as his father's house.

The Acts of the Apostles shows the early Christians worshipping in the temple. Jesus' brother James met his death there. Paul was arrested there and put into prison.

Today, although there are dozens of Christian churches in Jerusalem none was built on the temple ground itself. Nonetheless, the temple ground is revered by Christians because of its connection to Jesus.

Islam appeared on the world scene with Muhommet in 620, and this new religions took over the holy land soon after.

In 691 a beautiful mosque knows as the Dome of the Rock, was built on the temple ground. Muhommet himself had never visited Jerusalem, but the story goes that he had ascended to heaven in a dream from that place. Thus, it became a holy place in Islam. Hundreds of Muslims worship daily at the Dome of the Rock.

All of the children of Abraham lay claim to this sacred place, and it has caused much consternation in recent years. Perhaps now the time has come for all siblings to respect the rights of the others and for Isaiah's prophecy to be brought to realization, beating their swords into pruning hooks and their spears into plowshares and no longer warring against each other.

Elizabeth McNamer is adjunct professor of religion at Rocky Mountain College.

The Faith & Values column appears regularly in the Saturday Life section of The Billings Gazette.

Pastors, ethicists, educators or other experts who would like to write a column about faith, ethics or values for the section, should contact: Susan Olp; Billings Gazette; 401 N. Broadway; Billings, MT 59101. Or call her at 657-1281; fax to her attention at 657-1208; or e-mail to solp@billingsgazette.com.

Published on Saturday, January 28, 2006.

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