20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements, and Beliefs

Jerusalem

Jerusalem. Shemaryahu Talmon I n Hebrew Scripture the very name Jerusalem indicates that the city was built as a "foundation [for the deity] Salem," who can be identified with Shalmon or Shulmanu, a deity known to us from Assyrian sources. In view of the theophoric character of the name Jerusalem , that is, its being based on the divine appellation of Salem, it may be considered as highly probable that the nomen locus Salem mentioned in Genesis 14, in the well-known tradition connected with the patriarch Abraham , can also be identified with what was destined to become the Holy City of Israel-Jerusalem, Zion. Indeed, a tripartite equivalence of Salem, Jerusalem , and Zion is taken for granted in biblical literature, as may be deduced from the employment of Salem and Zion as synonyms in Psalm 76:3: "Salem became His abode; Zion, His den." By means of a popular etymology , the theophoric component Salem in Jeru-Salem was equated with the Hebrew word shalom (peace). This paved the way for the elevation of Jerusalem to the proverbial City of Peace, a concept that found its most stirring expression in Psalm 122: "Pray for the well-being of Jerusalem! ... may those who love you be at peace." Even more expressly, Salem and shalom 496 JERUSALEM are identified in the New Testament, where in the Epistle to the Hebrews (7: 1-2) the aforementioned passage from Genesis 14, in which Abraham meets Melchizedek, is paraphrased: "For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of God Most High, went to meet Abraham, who was on his way after defeating the kings, and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth of all he had; by the interpretation of his name, he is first 'King of righteousness ,' and also King of Salem, that is, 'King of Peace.'" Alas, this popular etymology, which, indeed, has clearly discernible roots already in Hebrew Scriptures, cannot be considered to have either a philological or a historical basis. In actual history Jerusalem seldom ceased being a city of bloodshed and war. In II Kings 21:16, for instance, it is noted that "Menasseh put so many innocent persons to death that he filled Jerusalem with blood from end to end." And in Matthew 23:29-30, we read, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you built the sepulchres of the prophets and garnish the tombs of the righteous, saying, had we lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been joined with them in shedding the blood of the prophets." There is no need to enumerate the many references to wars about and around Jerusalem from the days of her conquest by David (II Sam. 5:4-9) to the battles in which it is to be embroiled according to late eschatological vision (for example, Zech. 14). The pre-Israelite temple-city Jerusalem that had been ruled by the priestking Melchizedek, who officiated at the shrine of EI Elyon, God Most High, was Hebraized, as it were, by locating the hieros logos of Isaac's sacrifice by his father, Abraham (Gen. 22), on Mount Moriah, which from days of old was associated with Jerusalem. It may further be assumed that the above two traditions, which linked Abraham with Salem/Jerusalem, like many other patriarchal traditions, in fact reflect concepts of monarchic times that were retrojected into the days of the forefathers. Thus Abraham is portrayed exclusively dealing with none but kings and rulers. And it can hardly be a coincidence that the two main cities in which he appears, Jerusalem and Hebron (Gen. 23), would in the future serve King David, each in succession, as the metropolis of his realm (II Sam. 5: 1-5). The twofold association of Abraham with Jerusalem-one set in a political context arising out of the war against the five foreign kings who had invaded Canaanite territory to fight against the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their associates (Gen. 14), the other illustrating the religious character of the city where the patriarch had built an altar on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22)-projects the twofold significance of Jerusalem in the days of David. Initially inhabited by indigenous Canaanites, as we know from the Tel el Amarna letters of the fourteenth century B.C.E. and from chapter 10 JERUSALEM 497 of the Book of joshua, jerusalem was later ruled by another ethnic group, the jebusites, as...