The Holy City
Jerusalem is an important place to a great many people, especially followers of three of the world's major religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is a city that conjures up a sense of the holy. Pilgrims flock to it every year to come closer to the foundations of their faith. For Jews, the entire city is holy, but especially the Western Wall, which is all that remains of the great Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Muslims come to the Dome of the Rock, a shrine that is the third-holiest place in the Islam faith. Christians make pilgrimages to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which marks the spot where Jesus is said to have been crucified, buried and rose again from the dead, and the Via Dolorosa, the path Jesus is said to have traveled carrying his cross.
My husband and I recently returned from a tour of Israel and the most inspiring part for me was the six days we spent in Jerusalem. Now that we are home, all I can do is think about returning.
Jerusalem is often referred to as “the city on a hill.” It occupied a coveted strategic high ground at the crossroads of three continents, and because of this, it was besieged, plundered, captured and recaptured throughout the ages. It is still being fought over today. But when people dream of Jerusalem, they do not see the modern, politically controversial Jerusalem, but rather the holy, biblical, historical city.
Historically it is a gold mine for archeologists. Stone houses and artifacts dating back 7,000 years have just recently been discovered in Jerusalem, demonstrating that the settlement existed even longer than had been supposed. But its archeological sites are revered not just because of their antiquity, but because of the history they bring to life. They tell God’s story recorded in the Old Testament, a story all three faiths share. For Christians, they also tell about a man called Jesus, God incarnate, who actually walked among his people in this place.
For most religious pilgrims, the remains that connect to their faith are the most meaningful. In my case, this included standing on the top of the Mount of Olives looking across the Kidron Valley and realizing that Jesus probably stood here too looking at this same sight as he wept and said:
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Luke 13:34).
But Jerusalem today is also a vibrant, pulsating, multicultural, Middle Eastern cauldron of unrest and anarchy. I could not help but be aware of the competing factions sharing space in this one small city. I realized not much has changed in this regard from Jesus’ time.
First-century Palestine was also a multiracial, multilingual society with political, economic and religious persecution. Tensions were heightened by frequent uprisings by zealots spoiling for a fight against the controlling enemy power and by a growing impatience for the fulfillment of national aspirations—just like today.
This is also the place where the Bible says Jesus will come again:
For the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously (Isaiah 24:22-23).
Apparently, there is a strange, but well documented, phenomenon connected to this holy city, one I had not heard of before. It seems that foreign visitors with no previous history of mental illness, fall victim to a psychotic episode while in Jerusalem. They believe that they are figures from the Bible or harbingers of the End of Days. It has even been given a name—“Jerusalem Syndrome.”
An Irish schoolteacher who came to a Jerusalem hospital convinced she was about to give birth to the Baby Jesus when in fact she was not even pregnant.
A Canadian tourist who believed he was the Biblical strongman Sampson and tried to tear stone blocks out of the Wailing Wall.
An Austrian man who flew into a rage in his hotel kitchen when staff refused to prepare the Last Supper for him.
The majority of those who are hospitalized suffered mental health problems in their own countries and came to Jerusalem deliberately on what they saw as a mission from God. They are mostly harmless but occasionally sufferers become violent.
Israel’s health ministry records around 50 cases a year where a tourist’s delusions are so strong that police or mental health professionals are forced to intervene. Many more incidents go undocumented on the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Apparently, this phenomenon is common enough that as holy holidays like Easter approach, the city’s hospitals routinely prepare for expected fresh cases as tourists flock to Jerusalem. Protocol includes alerting foreign embassies that one their citizens believes he is John the Baptist or King Solomon.
There is another subtype of Jerusalem Syndrome which is perhaps the most fascinating. This group consists of people with no known history of mental illness who also become overwhelmed by the holy city and temporarily lose their minds. Most recover fairly spontaneously, and then, after leaving the country, apparently enjoy normality. Psychiatrists are skeptical of this “pure” form of the syndrome, however, and most believe there is probably an underlying dormant psychiatric condition. This group also seems to be people who are extremely devout, and some might say, hyper-religious. Interestingly, evidence of the Jerusalem Syndrome dates back to medieval times and observers throughout the centuries have claimed that they noted an air of madness that seemed to hang over the city. J.E. Hanauer, a British traveler and Anglican vicar, wrote in around 1870: “It is an odd fact that many Americans who arrive at Jerusalem are either lunatics or lose their mind thereafter.”
Of note, this affliction has been recorded among Jews and Christians but not Muslims. A study from 1999 found that “Although Jerusalem is sacred to all three major monotheistic religions….no documentation regarding the syndrome among Muslims was found.”
Is there something about ancient Jerusalem, a disputed city that is so important to people of three faiths, that attracts - or perhaps even causes - a special kind of madness?
My own reaction to being there was certainly not madness, but it did affect me in ways I had not anticipated. Is this place touched by God in some way, even today? It is, after all, the holy city. It was here that Jesus worshiped in the temple, taught on the temple steps, healed the lame man in the Pool of Bethesda, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and carried his cross to the place of his crucifixion. I felt closer to him just standing in these sacred places.
And if any further distinction is needed, Jerusalem is the only city that exists twice—in heaven and on earth.
And I John saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband (Revelation 21:2).
The best way I can describe my reaction to my visit to the Holy City is to say my heart was overflowing with emotion and gratitude and joy- to the point where I was near tears.
It was, I believe, just the experience of being in Jerusalem…
My husband and I recently returned from a tour of Israel and the most inspiring part for me was the six days we spent in Jerusalem. Now that we are home, all I can do is think about returning.
Jerusalem is often referred to as “the city on a hill.” It occupied a coveted strategic high ground at the crossroads of three continents, and because of this, it was besieged, plundered, captured and recaptured throughout the ages. It is still being fought over today. But when people dream of Jerusalem, they do not see the modern, politically controversial Jerusalem, but rather the holy, biblical, historical city.
Historically it is a gold mine for archeologists. Stone houses and artifacts dating back 7,000 years have just recently been discovered in Jerusalem, demonstrating that the settlement existed even longer than had been supposed. But its archeological sites are revered not just because of their antiquity, but because of the history they bring to life. They tell God’s story recorded in the Old Testament, a story all three faiths share. For Christians, they also tell about a man called Jesus, God incarnate, who actually walked among his people in this place.
For most religious pilgrims, the remains that connect to their faith are the most meaningful. In my case, this included standing on the top of the Mount of Olives looking across the Kidron Valley and realizing that Jesus probably stood here too looking at this same sight as he wept and said:
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Luke 13:34).
But Jerusalem today is also a vibrant, pulsating, multicultural, Middle Eastern cauldron of unrest and anarchy. I could not help but be aware of the competing factions sharing space in this one small city. I realized not much has changed in this regard from Jesus’ time.
First-century Palestine was also a multiracial, multilingual society with political, economic and religious persecution. Tensions were heightened by frequent uprisings by zealots spoiling for a fight against the controlling enemy power and by a growing impatience for the fulfillment of national aspirations—just like today.
This is also the place where the Bible says Jesus will come again:
For the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously (Isaiah 24:22-23).
Apparently, there is a strange, but well documented, phenomenon connected to this holy city, one I had not heard of before. It seems that foreign visitors with no previous history of mental illness, fall victim to a psychotic episode while in Jerusalem. They believe that they are figures from the Bible or harbingers of the End of Days. It has even been given a name—“Jerusalem Syndrome.”
An Irish schoolteacher who came to a Jerusalem hospital convinced she was about to give birth to the Baby Jesus when in fact she was not even pregnant.
A Canadian tourist who believed he was the Biblical strongman Sampson and tried to tear stone blocks out of the Wailing Wall.
An Austrian man who flew into a rage in his hotel kitchen when staff refused to prepare the Last Supper for him.
The majority of those who are hospitalized suffered mental health problems in their own countries and came to Jerusalem deliberately on what they saw as a mission from God. They are mostly harmless but occasionally sufferers become violent.
Israel’s health ministry records around 50 cases a year where a tourist’s delusions are so strong that police or mental health professionals are forced to intervene. Many more incidents go undocumented on the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Apparently, this phenomenon is common enough that as holy holidays like Easter approach, the city’s hospitals routinely prepare for expected fresh cases as tourists flock to Jerusalem. Protocol includes alerting foreign embassies that one their citizens believes he is John the Baptist or King Solomon.
There is another subtype of Jerusalem Syndrome which is perhaps the most fascinating. This group consists of people with no known history of mental illness who also become overwhelmed by the holy city and temporarily lose their minds. Most recover fairly spontaneously, and then, after leaving the country, apparently enjoy normality. Psychiatrists are skeptical of this “pure” form of the syndrome, however, and most believe there is probably an underlying dormant psychiatric condition. This group also seems to be people who are extremely devout, and some might say, hyper-religious. Interestingly, evidence of the Jerusalem Syndrome dates back to medieval times and observers throughout the centuries have claimed that they noted an air of madness that seemed to hang over the city. J.E. Hanauer, a British traveler and Anglican vicar, wrote in around 1870: “It is an odd fact that many Americans who arrive at Jerusalem are either lunatics or lose their mind thereafter.”
Of note, this affliction has been recorded among Jews and Christians but not Muslims. A study from 1999 found that “Although Jerusalem is sacred to all three major monotheistic religions….no documentation regarding the syndrome among Muslims was found.”
Is there something about ancient Jerusalem, a disputed city that is so important to people of three faiths, that attracts - or perhaps even causes - a special kind of madness?
My own reaction to being there was certainly not madness, but it did affect me in ways I had not anticipated. Is this place touched by God in some way, even today? It is, after all, the holy city. It was here that Jesus worshiped in the temple, taught on the temple steps, healed the lame man in the Pool of Bethesda, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and carried his cross to the place of his crucifixion. I felt closer to him just standing in these sacred places.
And if any further distinction is needed, Jerusalem is the only city that exists twice—in heaven and on earth.
And I John saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband (Revelation 21:2).
The best way I can describe my reaction to my visit to the Holy City is to say my heart was overflowing with emotion and gratitude and joy- to the point where I was near tears.
It was, I believe, just the experience of being in Jerusalem…
