Zion

/zuy"euhn/, n.

1. a hill in Jerusalem, on which the Temple was built (used to symbolize the city itself, esp. as a religious or spiritual center).

2. the Jewish people.

3. Palestine as the Jewish homeland and symbol of Judaism.

4. heaven as the final gathering place of true believers.

5. a city in NE Illinois. 17,861.

Also, Sion (for defs. 1-4).

[bef. 1000; < Heb siyyon; r. ME, OE Sion < LL (Vulgate) Sion < Gk (Septuagint) Seión < Heb, as above]

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Easternmost of the two hills of ancient Jerusalem, where David established his royal capital.

In the Old Testament, the name Zion frequently refers to Jerusalem as a whole; it is overwhelmingly a poetic and prophetic designation. Mount Zion is the place where Yahweh (God) dwells and is the scene of his messianic salvation. The name came to mean the Jewish homeland, symbolic of Judaism or Jewish national aspirations, and thus was the source of the term Zionism. Though the name is rare in the New Testament, it has been frequently used in Christian literature and hymns as a designation for the heavenly city or for the earthly city of Christian faith and fraternity.

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▪ Illinois, United States

      city, Lake county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies along Lake Michigan (Michigan, Lake), near the Wisconsin border. The area was originally inhabited by Potawatomi Indians. Zion was founded in 1900 by John Alexander Dowie (Dowie, John Alexander), an evangelist originally from Scotland, as the headquarters of his Christian Catholic Church (originally the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church). Dowie envisioned that the city, founded on principles of racial equality, would be run in accordance with Christian ethics. The massive 8,000-seat Shiloh Tabernacle was completed in 1900 and became Zion's religious centre until it burned in 1937. Settlement began in 1901, and from its origins the city was theocratically governed, with the church controlling all business activities. With few exceptions, streets in the city were named for biblical figures. Financial difficulties eventually led to Dowie's ouster as general overseer; his successor was Wilbur Glenn Voliva. In 1907 the city and the church were forced into bankruptcy, but over the next 15 years the church reacquired much of its prior holdings in the city. Voliva and the church remained in firm control of Zion until the mid-1930s, when Voliva was removed from power, and the city subsequently welcomed new churches and industry. The Christian Catholic Church schools were closed in 1939, after which a modern educational system was developed. Early industry included a lacework factory; the baking industry was also important. Zion is now primarily residential. A popular local event has been the performance of the Passion play, which has been organized since the 1930s by the Christian Catholic Church (now the Christ Community Church). Jubilee Days, held over Labor Day weekend, celebrates the harvest. Illinois Beach State Park is adjacent to the north and south. North Point Marina in nearby Winthrop Harbor is the largest marina on the Great Lakes. Inc. 1902. Pop. (1990) 19,775; (2000) 22,866.

▪ hill, Jerusalem

      in the Old Testament, the easternmost of the two hills of ancient Jerusalem. It was the site of the Jebusite city captured by David, king of Israel and Judah, in the 10th century BC (2 Samuel 5:6–9) and established by him as his royal capital. Some scholars believe that the name also belonged to the “stronghold of Zion” taken by David (2 Samuel 5:7), which may have been the fortress of the city. The Jewish historian Josephus (Josephus, Flavius), in the 1st century AD, identified Zion with the western hill of Jerusalem, where most of the city lay in his day. This incorrect identification of the site was retained until the late 19th or early 20th century, when the site of Zion was identified as the eastern hill (modern Ophel). The site was not included in the walls of Jerusalem's 16th-century fortifications.

      The etymology and meaning of the name are obscure. It appears to be a pre-Israelite Canaanite name of the hill upon which Jerusalem was built; the name “mountain of Zion” is common. In biblical usage, however, “Mount Zion” often means the city rather than the hill itself. Zion appears in the Old Testament 152 times as a title of Jerusalem; over half of these occurrences appear in two books, the Book of Isaiah (46 times) and that of Psalms (38 times). It appears seven times in the New Testament and five times in quotations from the Old Testament.

      In the Old Testament, Zion is overwhelmingly a poetic and prophetic designation and is infrequently used in ordinary prose. It usually has emotional and religious overtones, but it is not clear why the name Zion rather than the name Jerusalem should carry these overtones. The religious and emotional qualities of the name arise from the importance of Jerusalem as the royal city and the city of the Temple. Mount Zion is the place where Yahweh, the God of Israel, dwells (Isaiah 8:18; Psalm 74:2), the place where he is king (Isaiah 24:23) and where he has installed his king, David (Psalm 2:6). It is thus the seat of the action of Yahweh in history.

      In the Old Testament the city of Jerusalem is personified as a woman and addressed or spoken of as “the daughter of Zion,” always in a context charged with feeling aroused by either of two ideas that stand in opposition to each other: the destruction of Jerusalem or its deliverance. After Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, the Israelites could not forget Zion (Psalm 137), and, in the prophecy after the Babylonian Exile of the Jews, Zion is the scene of Yahweh's messianic salvation. It is to Zion that the exiles will be restored (Jeremiah 3:14), and there they will find Yahweh (Jeremiah 31). Bearing all these connotations, Zion came to mean the Jewish homeland, symbolic of Judaism or Jewish national aspirations (whence the name Zionism for the 19th–20th-century movement to establish a Jewish national centre or state in Palestine).

      Although the name of Zion is rare in the New Testament, it has been frequently used in Christian literature and hymns as a designation for the heavenly city or for the earthly city of Christian faith and fraternity.

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