“I Will Multiply Them and They Shall not be Few”

2021 ◽  
pp. 179-211
Author(s):  
John Howard Smith
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
The Dead ◽  
American Society ◽  
The City

The communal impulse has been a feature of Christianity since its inception, one model for which was the apocalyptic Essene community at Qumran on the shore of the Dead Sea. The Gospels and the Book of Revelation put forth a vision of heaven on Earth that Christians have sought to create in microcosm ever since, convinced that it will ultimately come to pass according to prophecy. The English Puritans who migrated to America did so in the hopes of creating a holy commonwealth, which the Bay Colony pious called the “city on a hill.” Small and nascent denominations, as well as sectarian movements, emerged and grew without fear of legal repercussions and the 1790s and early 1800s saw an explosion in Christian diversity. One idea in particular—perfectionism—which had once been equated with dangerous fanaticism, gained respectability and fueled campaigns for the perfection of American society.

From Shalem to Jerusalem

2019 ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Robert R. Cargill
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Genesis Apocryphon ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The City ◽  
Unknown Region ◽  
Original Reference

This chapter presents evidence that demonstrates, in a manner similar to Moriah detailed in the previous chapter, that the city of Shalem was relocated in a two-step redactional process. First, Shalem was moved from being “a city of Shechem” (Gen. 33:18) to being located in an unknown region. In Jer. 41:5, a reference to Shalem was replaced outright with a reference to Shiloh so as to obscure its mention, but not before the LXX preserved the original reference to Shalem. Later, Shalem was associated explicitly with Jerusalem, using texts from the Second Temple period like Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the works of Josephus. The location of the Valley of Shaveh was also relocated from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem to correspond to the relocation of Shalem to Jerusalem.

scholarly journals Art. II.—On the Lake Phiala—the Jordan and its Sources

1856 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 8-31
Author(s):  
Captain Newbold
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

In Josephus we find the following account of the sources of the Jordan, and the Phiala lake: “The head of this celebrated river [the Jordan] has been thought to bo Panion; but in truth it passes hither underground; and the source of it is Phiala, an hundred and twenty furlongs [stadia] from Cæsarea [Philippi], a little on the right hand, and not much out of the way to Trachonitis. It is called Phiala (that is, the Vial) from the round figure of it; and its water stands always at a stay, the basin being brimful, without either shrinking or overflowing. The first discovery of this secret was from Philip, the Tetrarch of Trachonitis, by casting straws into Phiala, that came out again at Panion, which, till that time, was taken for the head of the Jordan. This river, thus, as to appearance, taking its origin from the Cave of Panion, afterwards crosses the bogs and fens of the lake Semechonitis; and after a course of an hundred and twenty furlongs farther, passes under the city of Julias [or Bethsaida], and so over the lake Genezareth; and then running a long way through a wilderness or desert, it empties itself at last into the lake Asphaltitis, or the Dead Sea.”

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