Canter Bridge

The trajectory of this thoughtful book begins in the primeval history of Genesis, continues through texts of both Old and New Testaments, and finishes in the heated context of the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the belligerent use that is frequently made of these same biblical sources. Holy Land, Holy City is well suited to the reader who is willing to engage complex argument on her way to a better understanding of the biblical and theological underpinnings of ‘land theology’ and contemporary conflicts over land. R.P. Gordon is the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge and a highly regarded linguist and biblical interpreter.

A first chapter (‘Absent City/Missing Mountains in Genesis 1-11’, pp. 5-16) explains its surprising absentees in terms of the ‘wide range of interest and the partial self-exclusion’ that characterize Israel’s account of origins. Gordon discerns in these texts a concern for historical veracity-Zion was not yet-and perhaps demythologization, the latter a concern not shared by Psalmic and rabbinical renditions of primeval history.

The author’s chapter two (‘The Land Theology of Genesis 4′, pp. 17-26) discerns gradations of distancing from the Lord’s presence as one moves to the first parents’ plight to that of their fratricidal son, this time with a legitimate reference to banishment that anticipates later ‘land theology’. Still, the blossoming of that theology is held in check by the primeval story line and its proto-historical requirements.

In ‘The City of God’ (ch. 3, pp. 27-34), Gordon sketches the special privileges accorded to Jerusalem once that city became recognized as Israel’s cultic centre. Even if the Old Testament does not manifest the ‘omphalos mythology’ that the author considers novel in post-biblical literatures, the restraints discussed in prior chapters are now abandoned and Zion to be celebrated in hyperbolic terms by Psalms and prophets both as witness to her present greatness and as prophetic expectation of grander things to come. ‘How Did Psalm 48 Happen? (ch. 4, pp. 35-45) suggests that hyperbole does not equate to mythic, arguing that the psalm under review is more likely to exalt Zion and its divine defender in the light of historical reminiscence than merely cultic reenactment. Mythic language can be used in portrayal of historical events without dissolving the space-and-time deliverance that in a psalm like this one comes to memory.

Gordon next follows the theme of sacred geography into the New Testament and Christian tradition, hearkening back to his earlier definition of the notion by delineating (‘The Geography of Golgotha’, pp. 47-61) how ‘Golgotha enjoys a Zion-like centrality in theology that leaves literal, physical considerations far behind.’ The Old Testament constructs its view of Jerusalem’s future in terms similar to those by which Christian faith works out is view of Golgotha. In ‘Future Dimensions’ (ch. 6, pp. 63-80), the author traces the elevation, irrigation, sanctification, and extension of Jerusalem as these are developed in the Old Testament and elaborated in post-biblical literature. Such prospects for the holy city-particularly in the light of universalistic associations that attach themselves to various of the texts-give good sense to the practice of pilgrimage to Zion in the meantime. ‘Marching to Zion’ (ch. 7, pp. 81-98) chronicles the development of just such pilgrimage-to-Jerusalem traditions in both Jewish and Christian antiquity.

Gordon brings to a conclusion his consideration of sacred geography per se in his eighth chapter (‘Literalism, Determinism, and the Future’, pp. 99-117). It becomes a platform from which he appeals for reflection upon the dead ends that typically result from literalistic exegesis and the apocalyptic determinism that too often results, the latter wresting from modern hands the strength and desire to do anything about events that are now taken to be simply things as God has ordained them to occur. Gordon brings us up short with his nearly irrefutable claim that ‘bad exegesis claims lives’, a conclusion no doubt nourished by the author’s own frequent sojourns in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The book ends by considering the way the New Testament relativizes the role of place in establishing relationship with the risen Christ, plus an appendix comprising General Charles Gordon’s notes on Eden and Golgotha.