Back to the Top of the Mountain: A Syrian Protological Theme in the Late Antique and Medieval Representations of the World to Come

Back to the Top of the Mountain: A Syrian Protological Theme in the Late Antique and Medieval Representations of the World to ComeSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/MHTFNRI6/tei

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2024-08-15-04:00

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.ZinaïdaYurovskayaBack to the Top of the Mountain: A Syrian Protological Theme in the Late Antique and Medieval Representations of the World to Comehttp://syriaca.org/cbss/MHTFNRI6https://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/MHTFNRI6https://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/MHTFNRI6JelenaBogdanovićIcons of Space: Advances in HierotopyLondonRoutledge2021317-342And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East; and there he put the man that he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – so the Book of Genesis describes the creation of Paradise (Gen 2:8–9). After these few verses, all we know about the site of this magnificent garden is that it is situated somewhere in the East 1 ; it is a garden pleasing to God, as he comes here to walk in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8). According to another tradition, however, represented for example in the prophesy of Ezekiel, Paradise is not only a garden planted at the dawn of creation to shelter the first man but also God’s dwelling situated on the top of the highest mountain: it is the holy mountain of God (Ez. 28:13–15). 2 A similar idea is stressed in the book of Psalms, where the mountain of God’s holiness is associated with Mount Zion (Ps 48:1–2), 3 though here we do not find a direct parallel between the Garden of Eden and the place of God’s dwelling. Indeed, although the theme of the Holy Mountain of God is undoubtedly very significant in many books of the Old Testament – see, for example, the importance of Mount Zion in the prophecy of Isaiah, or the role of Mount Sinai as a place of theophany in the Pentateuch – the idea that the Garden of Eden, Adam’s first household and the abode of God, is situated on the top of a Holy mountain is not commonly encountered in these books. This theme was truly elaborated only in the literature of the Second Temple period and some later Jewish and Christian pseudepigraphal texts. Yurovskaya, Zinaïda. “Back to the Top of the Mountain: A Syrian Protological Theme in the Late Antique and Medieval Representations of the World to Come.” In Icons of Space: Advances in Hierotopy, edited by Jelena Bogdanović, 317–42. London: Routledge, 2021. Zinaïda Yurovskaya, Back to the Top of the Mountain: A Syrian Protological Theme in the Late Antique and Medieval Representations of the World to Come, in Icons of Space: Advances in Hierotopy, ed. Jelena Bogdanović (London: Routledge, 2021), 317–42.IV-VII CEParadisearteschatologyiconographymountain