The Teaching Corner

Aside from being a popular name for Lutheran churches, Zion is most famously the name of the hill on which the temple of ancient Israel was built.  Often called “Mount” Zion, as the site of the temple, God’s place of dwelling on earth, it was considered the holiest place in all of Israel.  The name “Zion” is also used metaphorically in scripture which adds confusion to exactly what is being talked about when the word “Zion” is mentioned in the Bible and in our hymns.  Since Zion was the location of the center of worship in Jerusalem and Jerusalem was the center of worship for all of Israel, Zion is often used as a metaphor for the city of Jerusalem.  The wordplay in scripture also goes farther to talk about “Zion” as the holy city of God, not necessarily referring to the Jerusalem on earth now, but an idealized and perfected version of what Jerusalem was supposed to be.  So when you see the word “Zion” mentioned in a hymn or a verse of scripture, it could be referring to a number of different things:  the actual temple hill of that name, the temple itself, the city of Jerusalem, the people of Jerusalem as a community, the soul of Israel, the holy mountain of God, the holy city of God, or a combination of these meanings.  Only context can determine exactly what a particular reference to “Zion” may refer to.  “Zion” is a rich metaphor, one of those charged words with powerful religious connotations.  This one simple four-letter word conveys some powerful sentiment and ideas about God, ideas that would take pages to try and explain without the word “Zion.”