Reading Response 3

Chapters 5-7

In this section, Armstrong continues to delve deeper into the history of the city of Jerusalem and begins to become more in depth as to the different leaders that represented the Judaeans.  In chapter five, Armstrong includes the quote "the people of God were scattered in alien territory," (79), referring to the land of Jerusalem after the Temple was destroyed.  This sentence made me think of the discussion in class when someone pointed out that the reason humans want something on Earth that relates to divinity is because the divine world seems so far away and it's human nature to want tangible evidence of the divine existence.  The destruction of the Temple must have been Earth shattering to the Jewish people of Jerusalem who spent a majority of their time worshipping and reflecting there.  Also, Armstrong later says that "the history of religion shows that in times of crisis and upheaval, people turn more readily to myth than to more rational forms of faith," (82).  This quote again brought me back to our discussion of the word 'myth' and gave me a better understanding of what Armstrong means when she uses the word.  She doesn't mean something negative, like most Western readers would think, but something that can't be explained through commonplace actions, such as attending a service or reading a religious book.  Instead, she says that the majority of people in history are more apt to turn to prayer, reflection and meditation, all acts which are encompassed in her use of the word 'myth.'  This portion of the reading was vital to my understanding of her reference to the word and gave me more insight to her understanding of the word.
I also found it somewhat of a foreshadow that Haggai's statement, "don't rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so that the city can account for the vast amount of people who would shortly flock to live there," (94).  Reading this in the present day, it seems that no amount of extending the area within the walls of Jerusalem would have been enough to satisfy the needs of the groups of Muslim, Jewish and Christian parties.  I recognize that the modern boundaries of Jerusalem are much larger than those of the earlier times but could any amount of space actually end the turmoil in modern Jerusalem?
It is interesting to read Armstrong's description of the Greek influences on ancient Syria as comparable to the current appeal of Western culture to the modern developing world.  I find it interesting that the heavily cultured Jewish man named Joseph was able to not only collect taxes on behalf of the Greek world, but also to transform that foreign wealth into Jewish prosperity as well.  It is also interesting to read of the divide between the Jewish parties that embraced the Greek influence against those who clung to their "old traditions centered on the temple," (106).  This divide continues to show itself as the Greek visitors to Jerusalem were only allowed to the outer court, usually preserved for the unclean, because the Jews of Jerusalem did not believe that these outsiders were 'clean' and therefore were forbidden from areas of direct contact with 'holiness.'
I also find it interested that once the Greeks decided to create a polis out of Jerusalem, they placed the gymnasium so close to the Temple, knowingly disappointing the conservative Jews who considered the Temple invalid unless completely surrounded by a holy and clean Jerusalem.  However, Armstrong states that most of the people of Jerusalem temporarily began to see Greek culture as something that could mesh with Jewish ideas, rather than as a harmful intrusion upon the city.  Then the Temple was raided by an angry king who forever lost the trust and respect of the Jewish people.  Antiochus then proceeded to outlaw the practice of Jewish faith in Judah, an act that could not be forgiven.  Examples of this king's harm to the religion occur again and again throughout the book and lead me to understand the fear that must have captured the Jewish people and once again allowed them to cling to their faith.