2/22/11 Tuesday Lecture

Byzantine Jerusalem (Christian city)

- Western expansion of Christianity: Jerusalem --> Babylon --> Turkey --> Greece --> Rome
- New center has been shifted to Rome from Jerusalem which leads to tensions

• Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple
• NT Apocalypses about Jerusalem in Mark 13:1-2 and Luke 21:20-24
• Spiritualization
• John 4:19-26
• Jerusalem is where Jesus was said to have been crucified, buried, and resurrected
• Temple = Jesus' body
• 
  
• Byzantine History

1. 285 CE - Emperor Diocletian splits Rome Empire into West and East
2. Augustus Diocletian & Caesar Maximian
3. WEST: Augustus Maximian & Caesar Constantius
4. EAST: Augustus Diocletian & Caesar Galerius
5. Constantine
• Changed the way Orthodox Christianity was practiced
• Rallied people to fight for Jesus, who was a pacifist
• Legalized Christianity
6. New churches and Pilgrimages
• Constantine's mother, Helena, went on the first Christian Pilgrimage
• Dedicated Church of Nativity (Bethlehem), Church of the Ascension (Mount of Olives), Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Chapel of Helena, the new Axis Mundi)
• Based on unsound evidence of Jesus' whereabouts (Mark Twain)
• Pilgrimages become important
7. Julian "The Apostate" rejected Christianity 361-363
8. Theodosius names Christianity as state religion 391
9. Empress Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II goes on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem 438 CE
10. Justinian expands Jerusalem 527-565 CE
11. Madaba Map mosaic on church floor accurately depicts Jerusalem during that time
• Damascus Gate, Hadrian's Gate, St. Stephen's Gate, Dung Gate, Zion Gate, Jeffa Gate, Golden Gate
• Temple Mt is not the center of Jerusalem in Christian minds anymore
• The Cardo which runs down the center
• Church of the Holy Sepulcher is in the center of map
• Edicule, Golgotha (rock where Jesus was crucified), Sepulcher (where Jesus was buried), and the Basilica.
• Myths migrated to this church
• Nea (new) Church (very similar to Solomon's Temple)

• Vision of the "New" Jerusalem

I always thought having a monotheistic religion was being upright.  You worshipped the one true God.  I am now seeing this concept under a different light.  I still believe there is only one true God, but the monotheistic aspect does leave room for religious persecution, such as the Zionism of Jews practicing violence on the Palestinians in Israel today.