Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)

2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK

Jerusalem the Mother Church

around 30 square metres, was intended to map out the most notable places of the sacred history of Syria, Palestine and Egypt.7 Jerusalem, positioned in the centre, completely surrounded by a wall and lavishly furnished with gates, is larger than any other city. The same is true of its inscription, in large red script: ‘the holy city Jerusalem’. The city is in the shape of a perfect oval, and is clearly typified as the ideal city, the centre of the holy land, the navel of the earth (Ezekiel 38:12, cf. 5:5 and the explanation of Acts 2:9-11, below).8

In what is clearly a Christian representation, not only is the temple itself missing, the whole temple mount is nowhere to be seen. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally the place - originally outside the city wall — of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, has taken over the place of the temple complex in the heart of the city. Perhaps the floor mosaic of Madaba was intended to portray the New Jerusalem, the city of the future, in which there is no temple at all, “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22)

5. Jerusalem as a locus of activity

In Luke’s twin volumes, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, the city of Jerusalem takes a central role. Luke’s gospel, built up geographically, describes the movement of the gospel towards Jerusalem. In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke picks up the thread of the story again, starting in Jerusalem, and going out from there into the world. In this way, Jerusalem forms the geographical centre of Luke and Acts. More than that, the central position of Jerusalem symbolises the theological point that salvation is from the Jews.9 Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, and at the same time the Saviour of the world.

To gain a clearer picture of the centrality of Jerusalem, the enumeration of

7 Herbert Dormer, The Mosaic Map of Madaba. An Introductory Guide (Kämpen: Kok Pharos, 1992); see also http://198.62.75. l/wwwl/ofm/mad/Madaba_Mosaic_Map.html and Yoram Tzafrir’s article on this website: The Holy City of Jerusalem in the Madaba Map.

8 Philip S. Alexander, “Jerusalem as the ‘Omphalos’ of the World: On the History of a Geographical Concept,” Judaism 46.2 (1997): 147-158; Michael Tilly, Jerusalem - Nabel der Welt. Überlieferung und Funktionen von Heiligtumstraditionen im antiken Judentum (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2002).

9 Oskar Skarsaune, In the Shadow of the Temple. Jewish Influences on Early Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), chapter 4 [Jerusalem: The City of the Temple].

2012/3-4 Sárospataki Füzetek 15