The autumn 2008 Harvard Divinity Bulletin published a criticism of a Holy Land theme park in Florida by Joan Branham. Ignoring the Bible kitsch, which is unavoidable, and the trivializing of the Gospel, I would like to focus on a couple of paragraphs representative of her, and others’, discomfort with the project.
The mixture of Jewish and Christian symbolism carries over to
the original nomenclature used for the Holy Land Experience’s
Temple as well. “Temple of the Great King” creates several levels
of ambiguity, leaving open the question: are we referring to yhwh,
divine King of Israel, King Herod the Great, builder of the Second
Temple, or the “Christian King” who worshipped there, namely
Jesus? …
The Temple is the fulcrum of the park’s layout and the literal
backdrop to Christian dramas performed daily. While the Temple
acts as a historical stage set for events that took place in Jerusalem,
the real backdrop being presented is the authoritative sacred
space of the Temple itself. In the actual Herodian Temple, the
presence of sacrificial blood on a large and central four-horned
altar took center stage and defined the layout and function of
the space itself. At the Holy Land Experience’s Temple show,
“Ancient Festivals of the Biblical World,” the centrality of blood
and sacrifice is recapitulated in a dramatic presentation with the
high priest, where gestures of sacrifice take place but a giant red
silken cross literally replaces the animal blood on a smoking fourhorned
altar (Fig. 13). This strange juxtaposition of cross on altar,
both instruments of sacrifice, acts to convert the actual physical
structure of the Jewish Temple and its accoutrements into a
Christian understanding of the death of Jesus as the definitive
blood sacrifice.
I am sensitive to the Jewish perspective of the Christian appropriation of Jerusalem and Jewish imagery. I think that, were I Jewish, I would be quite easily offended, and yet I don’t have much I can say other than that, somehow, it’s my temple too. Best not to press the matter.
Suffice it to say, a Christocentric interpretation of the Temple cultus is entirely appropriate, and so the producers of this “Temple show” should be allowed artistic license to play with the imagery. That there is a certain historiographic trespass here should be overlooked since it is quite clear that this is religious theatre. Yes, I suppose it may not be as clear to the audience, but there is only so much one can do about that, and only so much one can expect from a theme park. The primary issue is the billing, “Ancient Festivals of the Biblical World,” not the content, but let’s not belabor the point.
The real issue, for Christians, anyway, is finding the point at which Christ-centeredness begins to cause myopic interpretation. Holistic theology, which is proper and necessary, must be fed by biblical theology, and though the interaction goes both ways the dialectic consumes itself if systematic theology pushes too hard. Is “the Great King” YHWH or Jesus? If it is Jesus, in what way is the Temple his? For some, painting with broad brushstrokes doesn’t matter; but each careless stroke conceals something.
It would be nice to simply let the NT writers’ appropriation of the Hebrew Scriptures adjudicate among our own options, but that gets complicated. What I would aver is that, even at their most creative, they are not Christogenic. Jesus’ first-century disciples stand squarely in their Jewish tradition, and modern disciples should resist the temptation to let go of those roots entirely.
