The Temple Mount as the Navel of the World
About This Entry
Jubilees, like the Babylonian Talmud, evinces a concern with sacred geography. It expresses a theology in which the center and holiest part of the world is the holy of holies in the Temple.
He knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of holies and is the residence of the Lord; [that] Mount Sinai is in the middle of the desert; and [that] Mount Zion is in the middle of the navel of the earth. The three of them—the one facing the other1—were created as holy [places].
Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation.
[That is, each one of the three facing another.—Ed.]
Credits
Jubilees 8:19, trans. James C. VanderKam, in James C. VanderKam, Jubilees: A Commentary in Two Volumes, vol. 1, ed. Sidnie White Crawford, Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018), p. 358. Used with permission of 1517 Media.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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Jubilees, like the Babylonian Talmud, evinces a concern with sacred geography. It expresses a theology in which the center and holiest part of the world is the holy of holies in the Temple.
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You may also like
The Temple Mount as the Foundation of the World
b. Yoma 54b
The Altar as Source of Life
The Universe as a Temple
On the Special Laws 1.66–67
Philo on the Symbolism of the Tabernacle
On the Life of Moses 2.102–124 (selections)
Josephus on the Symbolism of the Tabernacle
Jewish Antiquities 3.179–187
Josephus on the Symbolism of the Temple
The Jewish War 5.212–214, 217–218