Mount Zion: The Importance of Mountains in the Bible

Although there are many more mountains mentioned in the Bible, this will be my last article on the subject. This does not mean that the others are less important but rather there is less information about them or they have become lost over time. Mount Zion, on the other hand, has three different locations.  
 
Traditionally, Mount Zion is a hill in Jerusalem just outside of the Old City. Also known as Har Tsiyyon (Hebrew) and Jabal Sahyoun, it reaches a height of 2,510 feet and belongs to the Judean mountain range. The term “Zion” was first used in the Hebrew Bible as another name for the City of David and later used as an alternative name for Temple Mount. 
 
It is not certain what the term “Zion” means, however, some scholars suggest it is similar to the Hebrew word for castle. This may help to explain why the location of Mount Zion has moved. Rather than being a physical mountain, Mount Zion is a time-honoured name for the focal point of Jerusalem, which shifts to the most appropriate place at the given time. For example, the first Mount Zion was the Jebusite city on the lower section of Jerusalem’s Eastern Hill, also known as the City of David. When the First Temple was erected on the top of the Eastern Hill, which is generally known as Temple Mount, the name Mount Zion migrated there too. The references to Mount Zion in the Book of Psalms are believed to be about this location:

• Psalm 2:6 - "I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain."
• Psalm 48:2 – “Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth, like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.”
• Psalm 48:11 – “Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.”
• Psalm 74:2 – “Remember the nation you purchased long ago, the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed-- Mount Zion, where you dwelt.”
• Psalm 78:68 – “but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved”
• Psalm 133:3 – “It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”

 
Today’s Mount Zion is located on the Western Hill of Jerusalem, which the Jerusalemites have deemed a worthier location for the lost Palace of King David since the first century AD. Nebuchadnezzar II had destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC, which eradicated a lot of historical memories. Although the city was rebuilt to the best of everyone’s abilities, the Romans destroyed it again in 70 AD. By now, no one could identify where the original Mount Zion had been (the locations have been discovered by archaeologists in more recent years), however, the historian Josephus wrote that he believed the location to be on the Western Hill since they were higher and longer than the Eastern. 
 
After the Roman period of rule had ended, a synagogue was built at the entrance to what was believed to be David’s Tomb, where he may have brought the Ark of the Covenant before the construction of the First Temple.
 
There is, however, a fourth unknown location of Mount Zion. In the Bible, particularly in the books of Isaiah and Revelation, Mount Zion represents the Kingdom of God: the heavenly Jerusalem. 

• 2 Kings 19:31 – “For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. "The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this”
• Isaiah 4:5 – “Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy.”
• Isaiah 8:18 – “Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.”
• Isaiah 10:12 – “When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for the wilful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.”
• Isaiah 18:7 – “At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers-- the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD Almighty.”
• Isaiah 24:23 – “The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders--with great glory.”
• Isaiah 29:8 – “as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.”
• Isaiah 31:4 – “This is what the LORD says to me: "As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey-- and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamour-- so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.”
• Isaiah 37:32 – “For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”
• Joel 2:32 –“ And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”
• Obadiah 1:21 – “Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the LORD's.”
• Micah 4:7 – “I will make the lame my remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.”
• Hebrews 12:22 – “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly”
• Revelation 14:1 – “Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.”

 
Apart from the modern landscape of the present-day mountain and Table Mount (see the article on Mount Moriah), there is little else known about Mount Zion. Since 1967, the mountain/hill has belonged to Israel and in 1964 a winding path leading up to Mount Zion was paved in honour of a visit from Pope Paul VI. 
 
There are a handful of important sites for pilgrims and religious communities on Mount Zion including the Abbey of the Dormition, the aforementioned King David’s Tomb, and the Room of the Last Supper. Despite its name, archaeologists do not believe David’s Tomb to be his actual burial place, although some people treat it in this manner. Likewise, the Room of the Last Supper may not be the actual location of the Passover meal and some archaeologists believe the building may have once been a synagogue. Nonetheless, Christians treat the site as the Cenacle or Upper Room mentioned in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. As well as the Last Supper, it is thought that other events from the New Testament took place here. These include Jesus washing the disciple’s feet (Luke 2), the appearance of Jesus to the disciples after the resurrection (Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20), the gathering of the disciples after the Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1), the election of Matthias as an apostle (Acts 1), and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2).
 
The first museum opened in memory of the Holocaust can be found on Mount Zion. The Ministry of Religion inaugurated the Chamber of the Holocaust on 30th December 1949. Whilst small and cave-like, the museum contains ten rooms and many passages on which tombstone-like plaques record the 2,000 Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust. 
 
Two Christian cemeteries can be found on Mount Zion, one Catholic and one Protestant. A handful of notable names can be found here, for example, Oskar Schindler, a “Righteous General” who saved the lives of 1200 Jews during the Holocaust. The Protestant cemetery is also the resting place of many soldiers who fought in the First World War and people killed in the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946.
 
I hope these studies about the important mountains in the Bible have been useful. They should help you to place and visualise many Biblical locations and help you make sense of some of the event in the Old and New Testaments. There are, of course, many more mountains that you could explore, so, just for fun here is a list of some of the other mountains listed in the Bible. If you are interested, perhaps you could look them up and see what you can find out. 

• Mount Gilead
• Mount Sephar
• Mount Peor
• Mount Abarim
• Mount Shapher
• Mount Sion
• Mount Paran
• Mount Halak
• Mount Ephron
• Mount Jearim
• Mount Baalah
• Mount Bethel
• Mount Ephraim
• Mount Naphtali
• Mount Heres
• Mount Baalhermon
• Mount Zalmon
• Mount Samaria
• Mount Zemaraim
• Mount Bashan
• Mount Perazim