Impressions from the Old City

On August 31, I had my first 'Physical Settings of the Bible' class.  Here are my thoughts from that day:

Today we walked the Old City and simply tried to get “the lay of the land.” Dr. Wright says we need to “see Jerusalem with our feet,” and that we did! From Mount Zion and the Hinnom Valley to the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre…from viewing the Mount of Olives at a distance to sitting in the supposed Upper Room…from climbing high places to overlook the whole city or snaking through a dark, damp meat market in the depths of the Muslim Quarter…we walked, lectured, and sweat our way through all four quarters of the Old City.

One thing that really struck me was the juxtaposition of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Dr. Wright illustrated this concept as three trees that appear separate in plain view, but with interconnected roots deep within the soil. Uprooting one tree disrupts all the others; they are inexplicably intertwined. Surprisingly, these connections became very apparent to me as we walked. Passing a Hebrew sign on my way into the Upper Room, I was confronted with Qur’anic inscriptions on the walls. Walking through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, I learned that the building is owned by Muslims and equally shared by the Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks, Romans, Armenians, and Ethiopians. Even in the church’s depths we could not escape the haunting sound of the mid-afternoon call to prayer. Standing on a stone rooftop, I saw a Hebrew inscription in front of both a cross and a minaret on the horizon.

These strange combinations do not only occur with religions; I also noticed them with time periods. Dr. Wright said, “The past here is not dead; in fact, the past is not even past,” and this is so true! Within minutes I walked from a primitive meat market with blood running through the cracked stone streets to a high-class shopping mall with an espresso bar. Old Jewish rabbis with their long robes and curls stood near a group of glitzy European girls who do not understand that they are degrading themselves by wearing tank tops and short skirts. Muslim women covered in black bustled through the market with their children in tow while a tour group from Kenya stopped to take pictures. A turbaned Arab pushed a clattering wooden cart as I leaned against a pillar in my jean capris and free college T-shirt, taking notes. New buildings are attached to ancient limestone walls, and Byzantine-era excavation sites lie parallel to busy marketplace streets. The aroma of incense and spices mixed with the smell of taxi exhaust pipes, and ancient Hebrew prayer-chants were drowned out by sirens and car horns.  

Like nowhere else on earth, the layers of culture and time are alive in the Old City. Jew, Muslim, Christian, ancient, and new all meet here in one beautiful yet tumultuous place. I want to explore, observe, peel back, and understand these rich layers of history. These colliding worldviews and living history has much to teach me, and I am eager to learn all I can from the city of Jerusalem.