![\"Jericho](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/05\/Jericho2.jpg\")
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Bill Hamblin and I published this article in Salt Lake City\u2019s Deseret News<\/em> on 30 April 2015:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAfter this there was a feast of the Jews,\u201d reports\u00a0John 5:1<\/a>, \u201cand Jesus went up to Jerusalem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That notion of \u201cgoing up\u201d to Jerusalem is much more interesting than it might at first appear. Indeed, it\u2019s a very rich idea, and an ancient one.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s partly a matter of literal, physical climbing. The city of Jerusalem rests at approximately 2,500 feet above sea level on a relatively high mountain ridge; Nazareth sprawls between 1,000 and 1,500 feet lower, to the north. So Jesus would really have been climbing up to Jerusalem.<\/span><\/p>\n And so would virtually every other visitor to the city. The Mediterranean coast is 37 miles west of Jerusalem, and the even deeper Jordan River Valley and Dead Sea sit 22 miles to the east \u2014 forming a part of the overall Great Rift Valley that extends for 3,700 miles from Lebanon in the north down to Mozambique, in southeastern Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n Thus, when, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, \u201ca certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves\u201d (Luke 10:30<\/a>), he was really going down. At 1,200 feet below sea level, Jericho is fully 3,700 feet lower than Jerusalem, although it\u2019s only about 17 miles away. And anybody who\u2019s ever driven the road from Jericho to Jerusalem \u2014 in very low gear for buses and trucks \u2014 knows how steep the upward grade is.<\/span><\/p>\n The Book of Mormon, incidentally, gets things exactly right when \u2014 clever boy, that Joseph Smith! \u2014 Lehi and the members of his family continually go down from Jerusalem into the wilderness and then return up to Jerusalem when they\u2019re sent back (as at\u00a01 Nephi 2:5<\/a>;\u00a03:9-29<\/a>;\u00a05:1<\/a>;\u00a07:2-5<\/a>,\u00a015<\/a>,\u00a022<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n But it\u2019s not merely geography: Jerusalem was the site of the temple of God, \u201cthe Mountain of the Lord\u2019s House.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In medieval and modern Arabic, Jerusalem is known as \u201cal-Quds,\u201d \u201cthe Holy One,\u201d which refers not to streets, hotels, intersections, office buildings, gas stations and cafes, but to the temple. It\u2019s a shortened form of the still earlier Arabic name \u201cBayt al-Maqdis\u201d or \u201cBayt al-Muqqadas\u201d (\u201cthe Holy House\u201d), which, in turn, reflects the ancient Hebrew term \u201cBayt ha-Miqdash.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWho shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?\u201d asks the Psalmist, \u201cor who shall stand in his holy place?\u201d He then proceeds to cite some of the characteristics of those permitted to enter the temple (see\u00a0Psalm 24:3-5<\/a>; compare\u00a0Psalm 15<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, 15 of the biblical\u00a0Psalms<\/a>\u00a0(120-134) bear the label \u201csong of ascent\u201d or, as the King James Version puts it, \u201csong of degrees.\u201d (They\u2019ve also been called \u201csongs of steps\u201d and \u201cpilgrim songs.\u201d) Many scholars believe that these psalms were sung by worshippers walking up the road to Jerusalem for the three great pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Tabernacles and Pentecost, or by priests as they climbed 15 steps for their service in the temple \u2014 symbolically ascending to God. Some have suggested that they were composed for Solomon\u2019s dedication of the temple.<\/span><\/p>\n Lingering traces of the notion of \u201cascending\u201d to Jerusalem persist. Still today, for example, nearly 2,000 years after the Romans destroyed the temple, even secular Jews who immigrate to Israel are said to be \u201cmaking \u2018aliyah,\u2019\u201d where \u201caliyah\u201d means \u201cascent.\u201d (Think of the Israeli national airline, \u201cEl Al,\u201d which means \u201cto the skies\u201d or \u201cskyward.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n And, for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, there are more than merely lingering traces. In modern temples, for instance, the initial ordinance of entry into God\u2019s kingdom, baptism, is performed on a lower floor, \u201cin a place underneath where the living are wont to assemble\u201d (Doctrine and Covenants 128:13<\/a>). Thereafter, worshippers typically climb ever higher in the temples as they receive the ordinances of the Lord\u2019s house, symbolically approaching the presence of God.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, too, the notion of temple-related ascent forms part of the prophesied future:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord\u2019s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem\u201d (see\u00a0Isaiah 2:2-3<\/a>; compare\u00a0Micah 4:1-2<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Posted from Jericho, Palestinian Territory<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 Bill Hamblin and I published this article in Salt Lake City\u2019s Deseret News on 30 April 2015: \u00a0 \u201cAfter this there was a feast of the Jews,\u201d reports\u00a0John 5:1, \u201cand Jesus went up to Jerusalem.\u201d That notion of \u201cgoing up\u201d to Jerusalem is much more interesting than it might at first appear. Indeed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n