New Discoveries Make the Dome of the Rock a New Center for Inter-Religious Sharing
Hope and New Dialogue
for
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity
The Dome of the Rock is the exquisite golden dome in Jerusalem, atop the elevated area known as al-Aqsa, or, the Temple Mount. It is thought that one or both of the ancient temples of the Israelites were on this site, and for the last 1332 years, the Dome of the Rock has overlooked Jerusalem from here, along with al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Dome of the Rock can be a place of great inter-religious dialogue between the 3 religions of Abraham.
Why?
Why is the Dome of the Rock a potential place of great meeting and sharing between the three religions of the West (and the globe), the three religions of Abraham, the three religions of the Word?
The Dome of the Rock brings together three great pathways between heaven and earth from our three Faiths: Jacob’s Ladder of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament); Jesus Christ’s Ascension of the New Testament; and the Night Journey of Muhammad (PBUH), the Mi’raj of the Qur’an. New discoveries in our Scriptures will amplify and deepen this dialogue between our Traditions. There is much to discuss!
Part I
Judaism and Jacob’s Ladder
Section I-A: Genesis 28
Jacob’s Ladder is a stunning event in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. In Chapter 28, Jacob is fleeing from his home, because he’s just stolen the birthright from his older twin brother, Esau. Esau, a hunter and fighter, strikes enough terror into Jacob to cause him to run for his life.
Jacob arrives, at the end of his first day’s journey, to a place in the wilderness. He chooses a rock for a pillow. What happens next has generated much art in our world. “And he dreamed that there was a ladder (sulam) set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac….’” (Genesis 28:12-13a)
This is Jacob’s Ladder. Surprisingly, it is the only appearance of the word ‘ladder’ in the Hebrew Scriptures. ‘Sulam’ can mean ‘ladder’ or ‘stairway’, as in the stairs of an ancient ziggurat, or temple. Almost every house in the ancient Middle East had a ladder to get to the roof of the house, which was used to store items and, in the hot summer, people would sleep on the roof. So the fact that this daily item, the ladder, only appears once in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is noteworthy.
Jacob is stunned by his dream. “Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’” (Genesis 28:16-17)
“The house of God,” and “the gate of heaven.” This ladder is very important.
Comments of the Jewish Midrashic Experts
A ‘midrash’ is a Scripture commentary, and many midrashim are ancient. Rashi, a great medieval Jewish thinker, lived in France and cultivated his vineyards, and has given us wonderful reflections on the Hebrew Scriptures. While the story of Jacob’s Ladder from Genesis happened at a place called ‘Bethel’, which means “house (beth) of God (El),” Rashi develops this significantly.
Rashi states that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which would later be the foundation for the First Temple and the Second Temple (which Jesus visited), actually moved that night, to Bethel, and Jacob’s Ladder touched the temple mount.
Yes, this small mountain in Jerusalem moved to the wilderness near Bethel to provide a base upon which Jacob’s Ladder could rest and touch the earth. Such is the teaching of the wise and inspired Rashi. (Please see Rashi on Genesis 28:17; also, Genesis Rabbah 69:7) This physical connection of Jacob’s Ladder to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is important.
Section I-B: The Mystical Psalm Structures
Genesis gives us precious little description of Jacob’s Ladder. The ladder, we are told, connects heaven and earth. And upon this ladder, plural angels are ascending and descending. God is standing somewhere in the picture. This is the information we are given.
However, God decided to place amazing Mystical Structures in the Book of Psalms, another book in the Hebrew Scriptures. One of the Structures hidden in the Psalms is a ladder. The Mystical Psalms Ladder has 2 sides, 12 steps, and a mathematical formula that generates the flight of the angels upon the ladder, in precise choreography. The angels are both ascending and descending, true to the text of Genesis 28. And also true to Genesis 28, the Mystical Psalms Ladder connects and joins heaven and earth.
This is the introduction for a forthcoming book that presents and discusses the Mystical Psalm Structures: https://www.academia.edu/85547714/The_Mystical_Psalm_Structures_Revised
The Mystical Psalms Ladder seems similar to Jacob’s Ladder. Or does it develop Jacob’s Ladder further?
Part II
Christianity: Jesus Is the Ladder, and the Way
Section II-A: John 1:51
In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus directly alludes to Jacob’s Ladder. This is the only time that Jacob’s Ladder is overtly brought into focus in the New Testament. However, hidden references to the Mystical Psalms Ladder are quietly placed on almost every page of the New Testament. This is a new discovery.
Here’s what happens at the end of the first chapter of John: Philip has become a follower of Jesus. We are told that he is from Bethsaida, “the city of Andrew and Peter.” (John 1:44) With this mention of brothers, we are mildly reminded of Jacob and Esau. However, Jacob will become more prominent in a few verses.
Philip goes to tell Nathanael about Jesus, and Nathanael retorts, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46a)
When Philip succeeds in bringing Nathanael to meet Jesus, Jesus has a response for him. Recall that Jacob stole the birthright from his brother, Esau. Jacob was very efficient in looking out for himself. Later, once tricked by his uncle Laban, Jacob had the last laugh and tricked Laban back. Then, years after leaving his homeland originally, he outfoxed his brother Esau once again as he returned to the Canaan region. Jacob could be crafty and devious. God later gave him another name, Israel.
Nathanael approaches Jesus: “When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said to him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit’!” (John 1:47) Nathanael is intrigued, but not yet convinced. “Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you’.” (John 1:48)
When Jesus mentions that he saw Nathanael “under the fig tree,” this is a reference to students performing deep study of the Torah. So what follows this will be especially important, and powerfully related to Sacred Scripture itself: “Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man’.” (John 1:49-51)
Genesis 28 never mentioned heaven being opened. Yet Jesus speaks of the opening of heaven. And true to the text of Jacob’s Ladder, we have plural angels ascending and descending. The ladder, however, has either been replaced by, or is, “the Son of Man.”
Section II-B: The Mystical Psalms Ladder Hidden in Almost Every Page of the New Testament
The Mystical Psalm Structures are secretly present throughout the New Testament. We have just considered the end of John 1, where Jesus alludes to Jacob’s Ladder. The beginning of John 2 is the Wedding of Cana. Mathematically, John here begins to build the Mystical Psalms Ladder before our eyes (a future book will discuss this).
John 5, in the episode of the lame fellow who has been waiting 38 years for the angel to descend and stir up the healing waters, has more allusions to the Mystical Psalms Ladder.
Section II-C: The Mystical Psalms Ladder in Revelation
The final image of the Bible, the miraculous river-street-fruit tree of Revelation 22, is a depiction of the Mystical Psalms Ladder.
Additionally, the beautiful list of the 12 Tribes of Israel at Revelation 7:5-8, is a powerful word-picture of the Mystical Psalms Ladder. The mathematics of this discussion are also precisely parallel to the Mystical Psalms Ladder.
The Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament are in profound dialogue with each other. The Mystical Psalm Structures are a newly rediscovered part of this dialogue. This bodes well for Jewish-Christian conversations for the present and for the future.
Section II-D: The Ascension of Jesus
Luke wrote the third of the four canonical Gospels, and he wrote Acts of the Apostles. While these 2 sacred books can each stand alone, together, his Gospel and Acts form a single beautiful Scripture.
The Ascension of Jesus occurs 40 days after his Resurrection, and it is Luke who gives us the most information about it. At the end of Luke’s Gospel, and at the beginning of Acts, there is discussion of the Ascension of Jesus.
Bethany is less than a mile from the Temple Mount, across the Kidron Valley. The two locales easily see each other. The Mount of Olives is at Bethany, and Jesus, in his final days on earth, spent much time here with his disciples. Bethany is considered to be “a Sabbath day’s walk” from the Temple Mount, meaning that, at about 2/3 of a mile, a religiously observant Jewish person could walk to the Olivet (Mount of Olives) from the Temple Mount on the Sabbath without transgressing the Torah.
Part III
A Ladder and Vertical Journeys in the Qur’an and Hadith
Section III-A: The Mi’raj, or Ascent, of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
The Mi’raj is a miraculous night journey undertaken by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Surah 17 of the Qur’an briefly describes the Mi’raj. The title of this Surah is “The Israelites,” or, “The Children of Israel.” This is one of many connections shared between the Qur’an and the Hebrew Scriptures, and from the Muslims to the Israelites; it also connects with Jacob/Israel, who saw Jacob’s Ladder in Genesis. Additionally, the Arabic word “mi’raj” literally means “ladder,” although it is commonly used to refer to the Prophet’s vertical night flight.
The Hadith are collections of statements of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), or accounts of actions and practices ascribed to him. Some Hadith are considered to have extremely reliable authenticity, others less so. Multiple Hadith speak of the Mi’raj at greater length than the Qur’an does.
The Mi’raj occurred in the year 621 or 622. The Archangel Jibreel (Gabriel) appeared one night to the Prophet Muhammad at the Great Mosque in Mecca. He gave the Prophet the Buraq, a winged steed, which quickly flew and bore him to al-Aqsa, the Temple Mount. This horizontal journey from Mecca to Jerusalem (al-Quds) is called the Isra’.
Arriving at the al-Aqsa (the Temple Mount), the Prophet began the vertical portion of his journey. This is called the Mi’raj. The Rock within the Dome of the Rock marks the spot where his flight through seven heavens began. During his journey, he met Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus (whom Muslims call Isa).
This picture depicts the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) climbing the ladder during the Mi’raj. The picture is from the Book of Muhammad’s Ladder, in French. Notice that the ladder has precisely 12 steps, like the Mystical Psalms Ladder. (Numbers in medieval art and writing are never accidental.)
Some claim that Dante’s greatest work, the Divine Comedy, was inspired by this book.
Section III-B: The Psalm Structures in the Architecture of the Qur’an
New discoveries show that the Book of Psalms, which the Qur’an refers to three times as the Zabur (and two of these three times it is called “the Zabur of Dawood,” or, “the Psalms of David”), is very much connected to the architecture of the Qur’an. This essay demonstrates the newly discovered reality: https://www.academia.edu/33048365/The_Dialogue_between_the_Quran_and_the_Psalms
The Qur’an has 114 Surahs, or Chapters. This essay shows that there is a direct relationship between each Surah and the Psalm of the same number. The clearest way to quickly see this new discovery is to compare Psalm 1 and Surah 1. They share a raft of vocabulary terms.
Scholars who have worked on connections between the Qur’an and the Psalms, or between Islam and Christianity, include Angelika Neuwirth, Walid A. Saleh, and John Andrew Morrow. This field is happily growing.
Additionally, the Mystical Psalm Structures are also found in the Qur’an, especially the Mystical Psalms Ladder. This essay considers that finding: https://www.academia.edu/32717037/The_Mystical_Ladder_of_the_Quran
This essay treats of friendship between the Prophet Muhammad and Saint John Climacus, and deals more with the Mystical Psalm Structures:
Just as every page of the New Testament is in conversation with the Hebrew Scriptures, so too does the Qur’an engage in constant exchange with the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The deep sharing between them is yet another new realm to explore.
Reflection
In what we have seen, there is a tremendous amount of shared material between the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament, and the Qur’an. Our understanding of these connections is just beginning to register, and it is already growing. This bodes well for the growth of dialogue between our three great traditions.
Regarding mystical journeys and ladders to heaven: Jacob’s Ladder, Jesus’ Ascension, and the Prophet’s Mi’raj all happen at or near the Temple Mount, or al-Aqsa.
The Mystical Psalm Structures, with their Mystical Ladder, also move through our three sets of Sacred Scriptures. The Psalms were written by many individual Psalmists in Hebrew, and came together in a long, slow process that modern Psalm scholars are doing a fine job in discovering and charting. Almost all of the human authors of the New Testament have conscious knowledge of the Mystical Psalms Ladder, and give many hints about it. As we have seen, the very structure of the Qur’an is connected to the Psalms. And the Qur’an is also flowing with references to the Mystical Psalm Structures. All of this is stunning new ground for people of our three Faiths to explore and study.
Again, the Mystical Psalm Structures themselves are imbued with inter-religious dialogue in their very formation, deployment, and discovery:
-The Psalms were written in Hebrew by Israelites in different times and places. Yet these many authors did not know that their individual Psalms formed a set of larger units/ tapestries in the Mystical Psalm Structures, which were formed long after any of the individual Psalms were composed.
-The process by which the Psalms came together is imbued in mystery; however, some think that the final redaction (editing) of the Book of Psalms happened as late as 70 C.E., due west of Jerusalem, on the shores of the Mediterranean. This means that Christians were involved in the final shaping of the Book of Psalms, and helped preserve and finish the Mystical Psalm Structures.
-The inspired authors of the New Testament had conscious knowledge of the Psalm Structures, and give plentiful hints about them.
-Both the Psalms and the Psalm Structures are omnipresent, again quietly, in the Qur’an.
-The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) may have been friends with Saint John Climacus. They may have discussed the Mystical Psalm Structures. (The Qur’an speaks favorably of Christian monks.)
-These new discoveries are being shared by a Christian author who has friends and teachers in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities.
There is a great deal for us to discuss. Obviously, Allah God wants us to dialogue with each other.
Fundamentalists of Various Kinds
Fundamentalists don’t like dialogue. They claim to have the entirety of the truth, and force people to fit into their own pattern of seeing things. If someone cannot fit themselves into their model of reality, then that person is shunned and treated as an enemy.
Opposed to fundamentalists are the great open-minded people of our faiths. Rashi produced such brilliant commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures because he was always searching for the truth—he didn’t claim to know it all already. Let us strive to be like Rashi.
I’m sorry to report that there have been many Christian fundamentalists. An infamous small church group in the southern U.S. has been insisting that gay people will go to hell. May God teach this group that Jesus is about love, not hate. And there is the kkk, which is simply an absurd outfit. The kkk hates Catholics and Jews, and racial minorities. In the U.S., this means that they have been brutal and cruel especially to African Americans. I would rather die than have my faith in Christ represented by the kkk.
There have also been Muslim fundamentalists. However, I want to note that in the last century, Western powers have been interfering a lot in Muslim nations, and some of the fundamentalist groups around Islam have been created and cultivated, intentionally, by the West.
And there is also Jewish fundamentalism. There is a group that wants to destroy the Dome of the Rock, which is considered to be the most beautiful building in the Holy Land, and also destroy al-Aqsa Mosque. In their place, these fundamentalists would build a “third temple.” This temple would have blood sewers for the constant animal sacrifices that would be offered there. They have already chosen the red heifer that will be the first sacrifice. Shockingly, these fundamentalists now hold greater sway than ever before in Israel, under the new government that has been in power for just over a year.
(Anecdotally, the two ancient Israelite temples in Jerusalem had blood sewers. The sacrifices at the Second Temple were so numerous that the water table under Jerusalem was polluted. The Romans had to build an aqueduct from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to supply the city with fresh water.)
There are reports of new tunnels being hewn inside the Temple Mount. Some claim that this is intended to foster the collapse of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque. The destruction of the Dome of the Rock would further endanger regional stability and global peace.
It would be a shame if they destroy the Dome of the Rock, which should be a place of great inter-religious dialogue and sharing. Let’s pray that that does not happen, and let’s work to ensure the survival of the Dome of the Rock.
Conclusion
Let’s admit and celebrate this truth: The three Abrahamic religious are meant to find their way to great friendship and camaraderie. Such religious friendship has happened in the past (for example, the golden age of Cordoba and Andalusia), and can certainly happen again.
Vertical journeys in our three Faiths have occurred in Jerusalem, on or near al-Aqsa, the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock is a great living symbol to celebrate a shared motif of our religions.
New discoveries are adding to our understanding of these truths right now.
Let the dialogue proceed.
(Photograph credit for picture of the Dome of the Rock goes to Levi Meir Clancy)
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