The Crescent On The Temple Analysis
ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs 3 2013
Review Essay
Jerusalem Obscured
The Crescent on the Temple: The Dome of the Rock as Image of the Ancient Jewish Sanctuary
Pamela Berger. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012. 393pp.
.
Curtis Hutt
To begin with, what is it? In order to answer this question one must, of course, qualify it by asking—to whom? Pamela Berger in The Crescent on the Temple: The Dome of the
Rock as Image of the Ancient Jewish Sanctuary has done a great service by supplying us with a history of the iconographic representation of Jerusalem 's Dome of the Rock (the
Qubbat al-Sakhrah). While no publication could ever exhaustively summarize the countless visual and literary portrayals of this world …show more content…
What it is—for
Muslims, Jews, and Christians today—is simply not the same as it was for their forebears. Many may pause at this last sentence. How could this be? But this simple conclusion, which causes the reader of The Crescent on the Temple to ask questions previously considered unnecessary and test unchallenged assumptions, is Pamela Berger 's most important contribution. Her central thesis that the Dome of the Rock has regularly served as a representation of Solomonic, Herodian, and future Messianic Jewish temples over the last thousand years in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic iconography is startling given present-day prejudices. It is also, given Berger 's detailed historical research, indisputable. The Crescent on the Temple—to quote Nohad Ali, an expert on contemporary religious fundamentalism in Islamic and Jewish communities in Israel—elicits “shock” from the faithful and academics alike. This is not only because the evidence presented by
Berger is convincing. The implications of her research are extremely troubling for several different reasons. Just a quick glance at the front cover of the book, where an image …show more content…
Daily sacrifices, amongst multiple sacerdotal and administrative activities, were performed there. This is the case not only for the most famous Solomonic and Herodian temples, but also for that of the often forgotten Zerubbabel. These Jewish temples as shown by Berger, however, were by no means identical structures performing “the same” religious/social functions. Zerubbabel 's and Herod the Great 's temples did not contain the Ark of the
Covenant in the Holy of Holies. As rulers and priestly administrators changed, so did the reputation of the temple in Jerusalem. Jeremiah and Jesus famously questioned the leadership of the temples existing during their times and efficacy of their sacrifices.
Berger might have mentioned that some Jews, as evidenced by the ancient Temple Scroll discovered along the shores of the Dead Sea at Khirbet Qumran, believed that not even
Solomon had constructed the perfect Jewish temple. On the ninth of the Jewish month of
Ab when supposedly Babylonians and then Romans destroyed the temples occupying
Review Essay
Jerusalem Obscured
The Crescent on the Temple: The Dome of the Rock as Image of the Ancient Jewish Sanctuary
Pamela Berger. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012. 393pp.
.
Curtis Hutt
To begin with, what is it? In order to answer this question one must, of course, qualify it by asking—to whom? Pamela Berger in The Crescent on the Temple: The Dome of the
Rock as Image of the Ancient Jewish Sanctuary has done a great service by supplying us with a history of the iconographic representation of Jerusalem 's Dome of the Rock (the
Qubbat al-Sakhrah). While no publication could ever exhaustively summarize the countless visual and literary portrayals of this world …show more content…
What it is—for
Muslims, Jews, and Christians today—is simply not the same as it was for their forebears. Many may pause at this last sentence. How could this be? But this simple conclusion, which causes the reader of The Crescent on the Temple to ask questions previously considered unnecessary and test unchallenged assumptions, is Pamela Berger 's most important contribution. Her central thesis that the Dome of the Rock has regularly served as a representation of Solomonic, Herodian, and future Messianic Jewish temples over the last thousand years in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic iconography is startling given present-day prejudices. It is also, given Berger 's detailed historical research, indisputable. The Crescent on the Temple—to quote Nohad Ali, an expert on contemporary religious fundamentalism in Islamic and Jewish communities in Israel—elicits “shock” from the faithful and academics alike. This is not only because the evidence presented by
Berger is convincing. The implications of her research are extremely troubling for several different reasons. Just a quick glance at the front cover of the book, where an image …show more content…
Daily sacrifices, amongst multiple sacerdotal and administrative activities, were performed there. This is the case not only for the most famous Solomonic and Herodian temples, but also for that of the often forgotten Zerubbabel. These Jewish temples as shown by Berger, however, were by no means identical structures performing “the same” religious/social functions. Zerubbabel 's and Herod the Great 's temples did not contain the Ark of the
Covenant in the Holy of Holies. As rulers and priestly administrators changed, so did the reputation of the temple in Jerusalem. Jeremiah and Jesus famously questioned the leadership of the temples existing during their times and efficacy of their sacrifices.
Berger might have mentioned that some Jews, as evidenced by the ancient Temple Scroll discovered along the shores of the Dead Sea at Khirbet Qumran, believed that not even
Solomon had constructed the perfect Jewish temple. On the ninth of the Jewish month of
Ab when supposedly Babylonians and then Romans destroyed the temples occupying