Editing Mount of Olives (section)

==Religious significance==

===Hebrew Bible references===
====David and Absalom====
The Mount of Olives is first mentioned in connection with [[David]]'s flight from [[Absalom]]
([[Books of Samuel|II Samuel]] 15:30): "And David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up." The ascent was probably east of the [[City of David (historic)|City of David]], near the village of [[Silwan]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

====Site of "the glory of the Lord"====
The sacred character of the mount is alluded to in the [[Book of Ezekiel]] (11:23): "And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city."<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

===="Mount of Corruption"====
The biblical designation Mount of Corruption, or in Hebrew ''Har HaMashchit'' ([[Books of Kings|I Kings]] 11:7–8), derives from the [[Idolatry in the Bible|idol worship]] there, begun by [[King Solomon]] building altars to the gods of his [[Moab]]ite and [[Ammon]]ite wives on the southern peak, "on the mountain which is before (east of) Jerusalem" ({{bibleverse|1 Kings|11:7}}), just outside the limits of the holy city. This site was known for idol worship throughout the [[First Temple]] period, until King [[Josiah]] finally destroyed "the high places that were before Jerusalem, to the right of Har HaMashchit..."([[Books of Kings|II Kings]] 23:13).

====Apocalypse, resurrection, and burials====
An apocalyptic prophecy in the [[Book of Zechariah]] states that [[YHWH]] will stand on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will split in two, with one half shifting north and one half shifting south ({{bibleverse|Zechariah|14:4}}). According to the [[Masoretic Text]], people will flee through this newly formed valley to a place called [[Azal (Bible)|Azal]] (Zechariah 14:5). The [[Septuagint]] (LXX) has a different reading of Zechariah 14:5 stating that a valley will be blocked up as it was blocked up during the earthquake during King [[Uzziah]]'s reign. Jewish historian [[Flavius Josephus]] mentions in ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'' that the valley in the area of the [[King's Garden (Jerusalem)|King's Gardens]] was blocked up by landslide rubble during Uzziah's earthquake.<ref>[[Flavius Josephus]], ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', book 9, chapter 10, paragraph 4, verse 225, [[William Whiston]]</ref> Israeli geologists Wachs and Levitte identified the remnant of a large landslide on the Mount of Olives directly adjacent to this area.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Daniel |last1=Wachs |first2=Dov |last2=Levitte |title=Earthquake Risk and Slope Stability in Jerusalem |journal=Environmental Geology and Water Sciences |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=183–86 |year=1984 |doi=10.1007/BF02509912 |bibcode=1984EnGeo...6..183W }}</ref> Based on geographic and linguistic evidence, [[Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau]], a 19th-century linguist and archeologist in Palestine, theorized that the valley directly adjacent to this landslide is Azal.<ref>[[Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau|Charles Clermont-Ganneau]], Archaeological Researches in Palestine, Vol. 1. p. 420, 1899; Charles Clermont-Ganneau, [[Palestine Exploration Fund]] Quarterly Statement, April 1874, p. 102</ref> This evidence accords with the LXX reading of Zechariah 14:5, which states that the valley will be blocked up as far as Azal. The valley he identified (which is now known as Wady Yasul in Arabic, and Nahal Etzel in Hebrew) lies ''south'' of both Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.<!-- removed original research - repost with attribution only. "If Clermont-Ganneau is correct, the notion of people fleeing ''east'' through the split Mount of Olives to Azal is impossible because"-->

Many Jews have wanted to be buried on the Mount of Olives since antiquity, based on the Jewish tradition (from the Biblical verse Zechariah 14:4) that when the Messiah comes, the resurrection of the dead will begin there.<ref>[http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Tourist%20Information/Jewish%20Themes/Jewish_Sites/Pages/Mount%20of%20Olives%20Jewish%20Cemetery%20jew.aspx Mount of Olives description, from www.goisrael.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320181105/http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Tourist%20Information/Jewish%20Themes/Jewish_Sites/Pages/Mount%20of%20Olives%20Jewish%20Cemetery%20jew.aspx |date=2012-03-20 }}, retrieved January 4, 2012.</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=May 2015}} There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount. Notable [[rabbi]]s buried on the mount include [[Chaim ibn Attar]] and others from the 15th century to the present day. Tradition wrongly identifies Roman-period tombs at the foot of the mount as those of [[Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)|Zechariah]] and [[Absalom]], and a burial complex of the same period on the upper slope as the [[Tomb of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi]].

===New Testament references===
[[File:Enrique Simonet - Flevit super illam 1892.jpg|thumb|''[[Flevit super illam]]'' (He wept over it); by [[Enrique Simonet]], 1892]]

The Mount of Olives is frequently mentioned in the [[New Testament]]<ref>{{bibleref|Matthew|21:1}}; 26:30, etc.</ref> as part of the route from Jerusalem to [[al-Eizariya|Bethany]] and the place where [[Jesus]] stood when he wept over Jerusalem (an event known as ''[[Flevit super illam]]'' in [[Latin]]).

Jesus is said to have spent time on the mount, teaching and prophesying to his disciples (Matthew 24–25), including the [[Olivet Discourse]], returning after each day to rest ([[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] 21:37, and John 8:1 in the additional section of John's Gospel known as the ''[[John 8#Pericope adulterae|Pericope Adulterae]]''), and also coming there on the night of his betrayal.<ref>{{bibleref|Matthew|26:39}}</ref> At the foot of the Mount of Olives lies the [[Gethsemane|Garden of Gethsemane]]. The New Testament tells how Jesus and his disciples sang together – "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" [[Gospel of Matthew]] 26:30. Jesus [[Ascension of Jesus|ascended to heaven]] from the Mount of Olives according to Acts 1:9–12.

===Gnostic references===
Again, the story of Jesus with his disciples on the Mount of Olives can be found in the [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] text [[Pistis Sophia]], dated around the 3rd to 4th century CE.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[G. R. S. Mead]]|title=Pistis Sophia|url=http://www.gnosis.org/library/pistis-sophia/ps006.htm|publisher=Jazzybee Verlag|year=1963|chapter=2}}</ref>