A Bible Reader’s Website

Zion

“Zion” is a biblical word. Therefore, it has a place in our understanding of Jesus Christ and the Bible. However, it also used for purposes which have nothing to do with the pursuit of Jesus, and we don’t want those usages to confuse us. First, I want to give you a basic understanding of the term. Second, I’ll describe very briefly how it’s used in ways that we want to avoid. Third and last, I’ll show how it figures in the true understanding of Christ.

Basic Meaning

Zion was the name of one of the hills on which the ancient city of Jerusalem was built. The name of that hill later came to be used for the entire city as well. Therefore, Zion is synonymous with Jerusalem, the city of God, the holy city, the city of David, and so on.

The first time we find “Zion” in the Bible is when Israel’s King David captures the city of Jebus from the Jebusites and makes it Israel’s capital. It was quite a feat because the Jebusites had considered their city impregnable. Thereafter until late in the 1st century, it was occupied by the Israelites, the names listed above were used interchangeably. Sometimes, the name Zion appears as “Mount Zion,” but this does not change the meaning.

Prior to the Jebusites, in the time of Abraham, the city had been called Salem (see Melchizedek in Gen 14:18-20).

References to Zion, Mount Zion, and Jerusalem are found in both Old and New Testaments. In the Psalms, we find Zion mentioned 45 times and Jerusalem mentioned 19 times. This reflects the fact that Zion (Mount Zion) is the more poetic or picturesque term, while Jerusalem is the more mundane term – but we should not assume this to be a hard and fast distinction.

I’ll have more to say about the term Zion and how it applies to our study of Jesus Christ and the Bible after I dispense with a couple of ways the term is used that are outside the scope of our interest.

Zionism

“Zionism” is a political ideology, emerging in the late 19th century, that called for the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East. In this sense, the term Zion is expanded beyond the city of Jerusalem and is considered to apply to all of Israel. The goal of this movement was achieved in 1948 when the modern nation of Israel came into existence. Prior to that, Israel not had existed as a functioning nation since 70 AD when the Romans conquered and burned Jerusalem.

Zionism continues today as an ideology for people who support the nation and policies of modern Israel. Anti-Zionism describes opposition to one or both of those . That opposition runs the gamut from opposing this or that policy to calling for the elimination of Israel as a nation state. Summing up, Zionists support modern Israel while anti-Zionists oppose modern Israel. Anti-Zionism is very different from anti-semitism (which is opposition to Jews no matter which country is their home); nevertheless, many people conflate the two issues.

I should mention also the following points:

  • Citizens of ancient Israel were called Israelites; citizens of modern Israel are called Israelis.
  • Jews are physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Modern Jews can be secular or religious. And there are varieties of religious Jews.
  • Not all Jews are Zionists; some are even anti-Zionists, but, of course, not anti-semitic.

Summing up, Zionism as well as these related perspectives – whether supportive of, or antagonistic to, Zionism – are outside the scope of my interest. I hope it’s obvious why none of these matter to the pursuit of Jesus Christ and the Bible. But if it’s not, the next section will make it even more obvious.

Christian Zionism

Unconnected to Zionism (which had not yet been formulated), the Christian doctrine of dispensationalism arose in the early to mid-19th century. It was a new interpretation of the Bible popularized by an Irish minister named John Nelson Darby. It quickly spread throughout Great Britain and to the United States. It was based on the assumption that the Second Coming of Christ was an event still in the future, and that God had different roles for the church and Israel in the end times. This teaching was spread even more widely by the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. For dispensationalists, the existence of Israel in the modern world was a key stepping stone to the Second Coming of Christ.

The intersection point for Zionism (a Jewish movement) and Dispensationalism (a Christian movement) was the nation state of Israel. Both movements saw the need for such a state in the Middle East, but for different reasons. Jews wanted it for a better life; Christians wanted it for the fulfillment of prophecy. The partnership of Zionism and Dispensationalism was one of convenience; it produced a lot of talk about “Judeo-Christian” values, partnership, and so on. Hence the term “Christian Zionism” – which is, generally speaking, Christian dispensationalists in favor of a modern Israel in the Middle East.

If we believe that the Second Coming occurred when Jesus said it would (the late 1st century), then neither Zionism nor Christian Zionism hold any spiritual interest for us. This is because neither has anything to do with biblical prophecy. All biblical prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (If this truth is new to you, see the essays linked below.)

I don’t mean by any of this that the fate of modern Israel is unimportant. It’s as important as the fate of any other nation on earth…including our own. Christ is the One judging the nations, deciding their times, their rise and their fall. It’s just that every nation today is being judged by the same standards of righteousness, as all the biblical prophecies of ancient nations were fulfilled in ancient times.

Zion in the Bible

At the beginning of this essay, I gave you the basic meaning of Zion in the Bible. On that foundation I will now build.

The New Testament gives us Jesus’ interpretation of the Old Testament. Among other things, this means that the New Testament exposes a spiritual dimension to Old Testament concepts. This includes geographical references. To be specific, we come to see that corresponding to the earthly Zion we see depicted in the Old Testament, there is a spiritual Zion – which exists in heaven. The earthly place is a shadow, a type, a copy of the heavenly (unseen) reality.

Paul, in Galatians 4 and Hebrews 12, compares and contrasts the physical and spiritual Jerusalem (Zion, Mount Zion). As the 1st century progressed, earthly Zion was passing away while heavenly Zion was being established for eternity.

In the book of Revelation, this heavenly city comes down to earth, indicating that the kingdom of God has come and is accessible to all those willing to live according to its municipal code – an oasis in the middle of a desert, a civilized clearing in the middle of a jungle.

Our long-term future is in the unseen realm. By comparison, life in the flesh is incredibly short. Therefore, we should not yield to lust of any kind for instant gratification, but rather plan for our long-term well-being. We were designed to be citizens of heaven; life down here is just a couple of weeks at summer camp.

As you read the Bible and come across the words Zion, Mount Zion, Jerusalem, or any of its other synonyms, be sensitive to both the physical and spiritual dimensions of those words – especially the spiritual dimension. Jesus Christ came to open this unseen world to us. Let us squeeze all the juice possible out of this orange.

Related Essays:

11/26/25