PJS in Fearnan

The Bible

Up or Down?

Trips to Jerusalem are a common feature of Bible narratives. Worship required all Israelite men to go there for the three annual festivals. But they always went ‘up’ to Jerusalem. Why? The usual explanation refers to the fact that Jerusalem is situated around 2,500 feet above sea-level on Mount Moriah, so any journey involves going up, literally. If it started at the Dead Sea an additional 1,300 feet makes the journey a veritable Munro. This going up is a topographical description and, as such, is quite correct.

However any railway enthusiast will offer an additional explanation. Inter-city services run between cities of differing sizes and importance. A service from a bigger city to a smaller or lesser city is a ‘down’ service. The return leg is an ‘up’ service. The biggest UK city, and most important of all, is London. All services originating in London are ‘down’. This is true regardless of whether the train is going down the map, down south, or up the map to the north. Ee it’s grim oop narth! And irrespective of altitude. Take as an example services from London to Birmingham. The latter is on a plateau at an elevation of around 140m. London is almost at sea-level. Yet still one goes down to Birmingham and up to London. In Scotland too, the 'up' direction is always towards Edinburgh, the capital, even when travelling towards the much larger Glasgow. Northbound, Perth to Inverness is 'down'. Jerusalem was the capital city of Israel, so in both senses, one always went up. Other noted journeys:

Jacob went down to Egypt, Samson down to Timnah.

Having turned water into wine, Jesus proceeded to go down to Capernaum. There is some doubt as to the location of Cana. It was likely in the Galilean Hills. At almost 700 ft below sea-level, traveling to Capernaum was definitely downhill.

In the Good Samaritan parable certain characters were going down to Jericho, hence away from Jerusalem in both senses.

Philip went down to Samaria, Peter down to Lydda. Quite a few went down to Caesarea. Samaria was on a hill but, at only 1,500 ft, a lower one than Jerusalem’s. Caesarea was a seaport. There was a desert road down to Gaza.

The apostle Paul was up and down like a fiddlers elbow. In Acts 18:22 he went down to Caesarea (from Ephesus), up (to Jerusalem) and down to Antioch. Indeed he began his first missionary journey by going down to Seleucia, the seaport for Antioch some 20 miles inland. He went down from Perga to Attalia (seaport), down to Mysia and Troas (seaport) from Galatia, down from Macedonia to Corinth (well, Silas and Timothy) and down to Ephesus.

In fact, the only up journeys I can find in the Greek Scriptures are to Judea/Jerusalem, the sole exception being Joseph going up to Bethlehem in Luke 2:4, a city at a similar altitude as Jerusalem. But then again, it’s in Judea so maybe it’s not an exception.

One starts to suspect that the up and down possibly has something to do with altitude but more likely is the fact that Jerusalem was the centre of Christianity and therefore the most important destination with respect to Bible history.
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