"It's A Tale of Two Cities"
Dec 21, 2023 17:01:08 GMT -8
Post by The Ninevite on Dec 21, 2023 17:01:08 GMT -8
The Bible is kind of like Tale of Two Cities, or rather, Charels Dickens' book by the same title was named and written to reflect the idea that there are a Jerusalem and some other city. He means that literally, as do Hillsdale College, who teach a class called "Athens and Sparta", which are in separate locations. Jerusalem is in a separate location than, specifically, Cairo, which is the capitol of Egypt there on the Nile delta.
This is not to say that there is no metaphysical connotation to the statement that there are two cities. Just and Jerusalem and Cairo are two cities, so too are Jerusalem and Ai. The proportional and comparative difference between the two statements about Jerusalem is that Cairo is separated from it geographically, but Ai is separated from it temporally and in civic thought. Jerusalem and Ai as described in the Bible are collocated in the same regional place, but one is foreign and heathen, the other is Hebrew and contains the Temple of Solomon.
The religious meaning of this metaphysical fact is explicated in the book "City of God" by Augustine. There is also a "City of Man". The author intended to refine the reader's notional understanding of the difference between the two by explaining Jerusalem under the rule of the kings in the Biblical six books of history, and Jerusalem under the Babylonian occupations of Nebuchadnezzar, Pilate, Herod, Belshazzar and so forth.
Augustine's works can be extrapolated from to parallel the rise, fall, and rise again of other towns which have had the same experience, and an outstanding example of widespread not and world importance is the dual, dueling, and dualistic condition of Berlin, also known as Nuremburg, in twentieth century Germany.
This is not to say that there is no metaphysical connotation to the statement that there are two cities. Just and Jerusalem and Cairo are two cities, so too are Jerusalem and Ai. The proportional and comparative difference between the two statements about Jerusalem is that Cairo is separated from it geographically, but Ai is separated from it temporally and in civic thought. Jerusalem and Ai as described in the Bible are collocated in the same regional place, but one is foreign and heathen, the other is Hebrew and contains the Temple of Solomon.
The religious meaning of this metaphysical fact is explicated in the book "City of God" by Augustine. There is also a "City of Man". The author intended to refine the reader's notional understanding of the difference between the two by explaining Jerusalem under the rule of the kings in the Biblical six books of history, and Jerusalem under the Babylonian occupations of Nebuchadnezzar, Pilate, Herod, Belshazzar and so forth.
Augustine's works can be extrapolated from to parallel the rise, fall, and rise again of other towns which have had the same experience, and an outstanding example of widespread not and world importance is the dual, dueling, and dualistic condition of Berlin, also known as Nuremburg, in twentieth century Germany.