Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CITY

City plan of Iron Age II Beer-sheba (stratum II, 8th century b.c.e.) (following Zeʾev Herzog)

Two kinds of cities appear in the world of the Bible, one ancient Near Eastern (Heb. ʿîr), the other Hellenistic (Gk. pólis). The peoples of Syria-Palestine established ancient Near Eastern cities like Jericho and Megiddo as early as 3000 b.c.e. Hebrew cities in this tradition have been excavated at Dan, Hazor, Lachish, Arad, and Beersheba. After conquering Syria-Palestine in 333, Alexander the Great of Macedonia established its first Hellenistic cities. The cities of Samaria (Gk. Sebastos) and Caesarea Maritima built by Herod (73-4 b.c.e.) follow this tradition, as do Jerusalem, Jerash, and Beth-shean.

Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic cities have been defined both by architectural design and economic structure. Architecturally, a city is a settlement where people live physically close together around a complex of monumental buildings surrounded by a wall. Economically, a city or state is a centralized system for producing and distributing goods and services. This centralized system is also called a “surplus economy,” because it produces more basic goods and services than its own people need to survive. This surplus is used to trade with other cities for luxuries.

Farmers and herders make up less than 50 percent of a city’s population. The remaining households specialize in skills like writing and in the manufacture of trade goods like wine at Gibeon or dyed textiles at Debir. Cities controlled not only land used for farms and pastures, but trade routes as well. The first known written documents deal with the administration of cities.

The sanctuary is the primary architectural expression of a city’s authority to feed its people. Here priests tax herds and harvests as sacrifices, which are processed, stored, and redistributed. The palace with its wall and gate is the primary architectural expression of a city’s authority to protect its people. Here monarchs resolve disputes between households, trade with their covenant partners, and command their soldiers. The style and arrangement of these buildings in an ancient Near Eastern city varied. Most Hellenistic cities were laid out according to the plan of Hippodamus of Miletus described in the Politics of Aristotle (2.1267b-1268a). The land of a Hellenistic city was surveyed in rectangles divided by a main street (Lat. cardo) running north-south and a main street (decimanus) running east-west. These streets intersected at the geographical center of the city where the market (Gk. agorá) or forum was located. It was surrounded by a walk (stoá) lined with columns supporting a roof. Temples, a meeting hall (bouleutḗrion), a banquet hall (prytaneíon), theaters, gymnasium, stadium, and palaces were placed in predetermined positions on this Hippodamian grid.

Some traditions of ancient Israel and early Christianity in the Bible challenge the economic systems which cities support. Jericho and Ai are placed under interdict (Josh. 5:13–6:27). Bethel is sentenced for breach of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel (Amos 7:10-17). Sodom (Gen. 19), Jerusalem (Isa. 5:1-7; Jer. 34–35; Ezek. 16), and Samaria (Amos 4) are indicted for social injustice. The cities of Jerusalem and Rome martyr Jesus and Paul. This prejudice, which considers ancient Israel and early Christianity to be a nomadic or village way of life which cities threaten to destroy, is ancient and ingrained. For example, the Yahwists, whose traditions (J) are the backbone of the books of the Pentateuch, lived in the city of Jerusalem. Nonetheless, their traditions deny cities were ever a proper home for the Hebrews. For the Yahwists, the Creator gives the Adam a garden, not a city (Gen. 2:4-17). Cities are the homes of murderers like Cain (Gen. 4:3–5:32), of braggarts like the citizens of Babel (11:1-9), and of savages like the people of Sodom (19:1-38). The Yahwists’ story is the exodus of Abraham from the cities of Mesopotamia (Gen. 11:27–25:18), the exodus of Moses from the cities of Egypt (Exod. 1:7–13:16), and the victory of Joshua over the cities of Canaan (Josh. 1:1–Judg. 21:25). They portray the Hebrews as a people who either abandon cities or destroy them.

Nonetheless, the traditions of ancient Israel and early Christianity in the Bible also endorse the economics which cities support. Bethel is the first land deeded to the Hebrews by Yahweh (Gen. 11:27–13:18; 28:10-22) and the setting of the ark stories (1 Sam. 4–6; 2 Sam. 6). Jerusalem is celebrated as the dwelling place of Yahweh (Ezek. 40–48; Rev. 21:1–22:7). Some of the most significant words and deeds of Jesus and Paul take place in the cities of Caesarea Philippi, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Caesarea Maritima, Antioch, and Rome. In the traditions of the Exodus, the Settlement, the Monarchy, and the Exile, cities play an important positive role in Israel’s understanding of itself and of Yahweh. At times, the Hebrews were migrant, itinerant, or pastoral, but they were always going somewhere. Even when the Hebrews were without land, they were never without a promise of land, and the core of this land, with which their destiny is so closely tied, is the city. Not only were cities fit places for the people of Yahweh to dwell, but the city was a fit symbol of Yahweh.

Anthropologists and sociologists today continue to provide evidence that a dichotomy between the values and the lifestyle of people living in cities and people living in the country appears only after the industrial revolution in western Europe. In the world of the Bible, cities and villages were two parts of a single economy. Cities depended upon farmer’s and herders to provide them with goods to maintain themselves and to provide a surplus. Cities protected the farmer’s crops, offered farmers homes and markets for their harvests, and provided the benefits of other skills, such as metal work, pottery making, and weaving, which farmers and herders no longer had time to practice. There may have been divisions between rich and poor, between the powerful and the powerless, between military and civilian, between governing and governed, but there was no dichotomy between people who lived in cities and those who lived in villages.

Bibliography. D. C. Benjamin, Deuteronomy and City Life (Lanham, Md., 1983); F. Frick, The City in Ancient Israel. SBLDS 36 (Chico, 1977); V. Fritz and P. R. Davies, eds., The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States. JSOT Sup 227 (Sheffield, 1996); Z. Herzog, “Social Organization as Reflected by the Bronze and Iron Age Cities of Israel,” Comparative Studies in the Development of Complex Societies 2 (London, 1986); J. E. Stambaugh and D. L. Balch, The New Testament in Its Social Environment. Library of Early Christianity 2 (Philadelphia, 1986).

Don C. Benjamin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CITY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)