Church of Zion, Jerusalem
The Church of Zion, also known as the Church of the Apostles on Mount Zion, is a presumed
There have been attempts at identifying the lower, possibly
Theory
Ancient sources
The reference to such a Jewish-Christian congregation comes from the
Emmanuel Testa's support for Bagatti's view led to the "Bagatti-Testa school", with the thesis that a surviving Jewish-Christian community existed in Jerusalem, and that many Jewish-Christians returned from
Bagatti's theory is supported by
Archaeological interpretations
Connected with the Bagatti-Testa theory is the 1951 interpretation by archaeologist
Criticism
According to Edwin K. Broadhead, the problem with the thesis of Bagatti, Testa, Pinkerfeld and Pixner is that the layers indicate a Crusader structure built directly on top of apparently perfectly preserved Roman walls.[7] Still, the fact that the alleged Roman walls align perfectly with Byzantine structures excavated in the same area is one argument in favour of dating Pinkerfeld's walls to the Byzantine period.[7] Another one is that the Holy Zion basilica was truly huge (it is the largest church depicted on the Madaba Map, and the architect of the Dormition Abbey concluded from his 1899 excavations that it measured 60 by 40 metres), making it is more likely that the walls at "David's Tomb" were part of the basilica.[7] Thirdly, the huge size of the earliest blocks from the walls, very likely recycled from Herodian buildings, fit much better with the basilica than with a small synagogue.[7]
See also
References
- ^ Gentile Christian congregation, the majority, had its home at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while a Jewish Christian congregation centred on Mount Zion, represent no more than pointers.
- ^ Studia Hierosolymitana in onore del P. Bellarmino Bagatti: Volume 1. Bellarmino Bagatti, Emmanuele Testa, Ignazio Mancini - 1976. However, not the biblical Mount Zion, but rather the "Christian" Mount Zion will be explored in this study. ... B. Bagatti and others think that the "synagogue" referred to must have been a Judeo-Christian one...
- ISBN 9780198147855. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
According to the Bagatti-Testa school, the Jewish-Christian church was centred in Jerusalem and headed first by Peter ... Many Jewish-Christians then returned to Jerusalem after the war ended and established themselves on Mount Zion.
- ^ Pixner BAR article, May 1990 Archived 2018-03-09 at the Wayback Machine
- ISSN 0169-9962. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
Channels of Communication: Essenes in Jerusalem? In a long series of publications since 1976 the Dominican archaeologist Bargil Pixner has been arguing the case for an Essene quarter in Jerusalem located on the southern part of the western hill, now called Mount Zion. ... headquarters of the early Jerusalem church, understood to have been the site of the Last Supper... This geography is held to support a close relationship between the Essenes of Jerusalem and the earliest Christian community.
- ^ Elizabeth McNamer, Bargil Pixner Jesus and First-Century Christianity in Jerusalem p6 8, 2008 "In 1951, archaeologist Joseph [sic] Pinkerfield found on Mount Zion the remains of a synagogue ... Pinkerfield also found pieces of plaster with graffiti scratched on them that came from the synagogue wall. "
- ^ ISSN 0512-1604. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
Finally, Pixner claims that the Madaba map (6th century) indicates that the Byzantine Hagia Sion was built alongside the Church of the Apostles, not over it. A key problem in the theory of Bagatti, Testa, Pinkerfeld, and Pixner is the sequence of layers. If the walls identified by Pinkerfeld are Roman era, one is left with a Crusader structure built directly on top of Roman walls. This would require that no part of the Byzantine structure remained or was used, but that the Roman walls were "remarkably well preserved."