Susan L. Graham: Two Mount Zions: Fourth-Century Christian Anti- Jewish Polemic

By the early sixth century, the pilgrim Theodosius could call the church on Mount Sion in Jerusalem the “mother of all the churches.” However, two centuries earlier, the southwest hill was far less important; it was not even included in Emperor Constantine’s building program. The rapid Christian development of this area, and especially its principal church, Hagia Sion, starting in the mid-fourth century, has been attributed to its “expediency” as undeveloped space in Jerusalem. However, development on the southwest hill in that period is likely to have been less accidental. This paper argues from the contemporary literature a line of argument Christians were shaping to claim that the southwest hill was the prophesied “new Zion” to supersede Jewish Zion, based on biblical prophecies. It also demonstrates how the interplay between the development of the southwest hill, in tandem with escalating biblical rhetoric, advanced Christian anti-Jewish polemics and further claims to the city and its history.