Mount Zion (Hebrew: הר צִיּוֹן, Har Tsion; Arabic: جبل صهيون, Jabel Sahyoun) is a place name for a site in Jerusalem, the location of which has shifted several times in history.[1] According to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Samuel, it was the site of the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion" that was conquered by King David, becoming his palace in the City of David.[1] On the eastern hill of two hills extending south of the Old City of Jerusalem, archaeological excavations by Yigal Shiloh uncovered an Iron Age building identified as the remains of "fortress Zion", thus indicating this to be the original location of Mount Zion.[1]
Sometime during the biblical period after the construction of King Solomon's Temple, Mount Zion was the term used to refer to the Temple Mount, as according to the Book of Isaiah (60:14), the Book of Psalms, and the first book of the Maccabees (c. 2nd century BC).[1] Just before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple, its location shifted once again: Josephus located the Jebusite town on the lower eastern hill, but used Mount Zion to refer to the higher hill across the valley to the west, seemingly a more suitable site for David's palace.[1] Thus, the western hill extending south of the Old City came to be known as Mount Zion, and this has been the case ever since.[1]
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The etymology of the word Zion (ṣiyyôn) is uncertain.[2][3] [4] Mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Samuel (2 Samuel 5:7) as the name of the Jebusite fortress conquered by King David, its origin likely predates the Israelites.[2][3] If Semitic, it may be derived from the Hebrew root ''ṣiyyôn ("castle") or the Arabic root ṣiyya ("dry land") or the Arabic šanā ("protect" or "citadel").[3][4] It might also be related to the Arabic root ṣahî ("ascend to the top") or ṣuhhay ("tower" or "the top of the mountain").[4] A non-Semitic relationship to the Hurrian word šeya ("river" or "brook") has also been suggested.[4]
Sayhun (Arabic: صهيون, Ṣahyūn or Ṣihyūn) is the word for Zion in Arabic and Syriac.[5] A valley called Wâdi Sahyûn (wadi being the Arabic for "valley") seemingly preserves the name and is located approximately one and three-quarter miles from the Old City of Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate.[5]
The name Har Tzion (Mountain Tzion) appears nine times in the NaKh part of the Tanakh.[6] It is spelled with a Tzadi and not Zayin.[7] The commonly used form "Mount Zion" is an adopted mis-transliteration in English based on the Protestant German orthography use,[8] where z is always pronounced [t͡s] (e.g. "zog" [t͡soːk]), hence Tsion in German literature. A tz would only be used if the preceding vowel is short, and hence use of Zion in 19th century German Biblical criticism works. This orthography was adopted because in German the correct transliteration can only be rendered from the one instance of HaTzion in Kings II 23:17, where the a vowel is followed by a double consonant tz.
The Tanakh reference to Har Tzion (Mount Tzion) that identifies its location is derived from the Psalm 48 composed by the sons of Korah, i.e. Levites, as "the northern side of the city of the great king", which Radak interprets as the City of David "from the City of David, which is Zion (1 Kings 8:1-2; 2 Chron. 5:2)".[9] 2 Samuel 5:7 also reads, "David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David," which identifies Mount Tzion as part of the City of David, and not an area outside today's Old City of Jerusalem. Rashi further identifies the location as the source of "joy" mentioned in the Psalm as the Temple Courtyard, the location of atonement offerings in the northern part of the Temple complex.[10] This further identifies Har Tzion as a spiritual height of the Land of Israel that offered elevation of the soul to the People of Israel, and therefore synonymous with Mount Moriah. The location of the City of David in a valley is symbolic of the Egyptian Exile told in parsha Shemot, with a homiletic reference in the 23 Psalm's "in the valley overshadowed by death" that characterizes exile from Light, another allusion to the Temple. Har Tzion in rabbinic literature is therefore identified as a metaphor for the journey by David and Solomon from the darkness of exile to the enlightened pinnacle of the Temple's building.
The topographic elevation sought in the literature of Biblical criticism is based on the literal interpretation and Biblical archaeology as its predecessor in Europe. This literature finds the above interpretation problematic for two reasons. First, the literal reading of the Temple construction narrative suggests that it was built somewhat outside the City, at the time, the City of David; however, most of the passages we have suggest that Tzion or Mount Tzion is in the city or is part thereof. Second, the narrative in 2 Chronicles 5 of the inauguration of the Temple says that the ark was carried out from Mount Zion to the Temple Mount, strongly implying that the two are not the same.
The hill currently called Mount Zion (see below) was identified as such in the Middle Ages. This identification has been disputed by several scholars. No other concrete identifications have been proposed, but many archaeologists in Israel believe that it must refer to a hill in or closer to the actual City of David.
Some Biblical commentators have also proposed that, since the City of David lies in a valley, the term refers to the City of David as a metaphorical mountain rather than a geographic one.
Later the name became associated with a hill just outside the walls of the Old City, at the southern end of that elevation. The identification dates from the Middle Ages. As mentioned, other biblical archaeologists dispute this identification.
Between 1948 and 1967, when the Old City was under Jordanian rule, Israelis were forbidden access to the Jewish holy places. Mount Zion was a designated no-man's land between Israel and Jordan.[11] Mount Zion was the closest accessible site to the ancient Jewish Temple. Until East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, Israelis would climb to the rooftop of David's Tomb to pray.[12] The winding road leading up to Mount Zion is known as Pope's Way (Derekh Ha'apifyor). It was paved in honor of the historic visit to Jerusalem of Pope Paul VI in 1964.[11]
According to local legend, the two engineers who planned the restoration of the Old City walls in 1538 mistakenly left Mt. Zion and King David’s tomb outside the walls. The Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, was so enraged that he had the two put to death.[13]
Important sites on Mount Zion (as currently defined) are Dormition Abbey, King David's Tomb and the Room of the Last Supper. Most historians and archeologists today do not regard "David's Tomb" there to be the actual burial place of King David. The Chamber of the Holocaust (Martef HaShoah), the precursor of Yad Vashem, is also located on Mount Zion. Another place of interest is the Catholic cemetery where Oskar Schindler, a Righteous Gentile who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews in the Holocaust, is buried.[14] Notable burials in the Protestant cemetery on Mt. Zion include the architect Conrad Schick.