medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Jim
Interesting passage from the Life of Constantine. However, I think
that Eusebius needs to be read here in a more literal than
"figurative" sense (the figurative sense being what the earlier
discussion was about, it seems to me; i.e. churches as the "New
Jerusalem" plus refs to texts in the Apocalypse). I'm writing this
without looking anything up, but if I recall correctly, the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre faced the abandoned and destroyed (with ruins still
there) Temple site. So "New' (read Christian) Jerusalem literally
faced "Old" (read Jewish) Jerusalem that was in ruins. On the Madaba
map the C. of the HS is even rendered architecturally in 3 dimensions,
with the the old Temple site well off to the side of the Roman cardo
(well represented with columns) and the one major parallel "side"
street.
I'll add more when I have a chance to look at the Madaba map and think
a bit more.
I may be off on a tangent, but I do think Eusebius is thinking in very
"concrete" (with the Romans, perhaps not a pun, given their building
with concrete) terms, with the new Church and the demolished Temple.
best
Grover
Grover A. Zinn
William H. Danforth Professor of Religion (emeritus)
former Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH 44074
440-775-8866 (department)
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On Jan 27, 2008, at 6:44 PM, jbugslag wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> In relation to the recent thread on the New Jerusalem, I believe I
> may have run across the
> earliest reference to a church as the New Jerusalem. In his Life of
> Constantine, Eusebius
> describes Constantine's new Church of the Holy Sepulchre as just
> that: "New Jerusalem was
> built at the very Testimony to the Saviour [i.e. the Sepulchre],
> facing the famous Jerusalem of
> old, which after the bloody murder of the Lord had been overthrown
> in utter devastation, and
> paid the penalty of its wicked inhabitants." (translation of Averil
> Cameron and Stuart G. Hall).
> This is certainly older than any surviving consecration rite.
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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