High place

High Place, in the English version of the Old Testament, the literal translation of the Hebrew "bamot".

This rendering is etymologically correct, as appears from the poetical use of the plural in such expressions as to ride, or stalk, or stand on the high places of the earth, the sea, the clouds, and from the corresponding usage in Assyrian; but in prose "bamah" is always a place of worship. It has been surmised that it was so called because the places of worship were originally upon hilltops, or that the "bamah" was an artificial platform or mound, perhaps imitating the natural eminence which was the oldest holy place, but neither view is historically demonstrable. The development of the religious significance of the word took place probably not in Israel but among the Canaanites, from whom the Israelites, in taking possession of the holy places of the land, adopted the name also. In old Israel every town and village had its own place of sacrifice, and the common name for these places was "bamah".

Old Testament

From the Old Testament and from existing remains a good idea may be formed of the appearance of such a place of worship. It was often on the hill above the town, as at Ramah (; Isaiah to sqq.). Hosea stigmatizes the whole cultus as pure heathenism—Canaanite baal-worship adopted by apostate Israel. The fundamental law in prohibits sacrifice at every place except the temple in Jerusalem; in accordance with this law Josiah, in 621 BC, destroyed and desecrated the altars ("bmoth") throughout his kingdom, where Yahweh had been worshipped from time immemorial, and forcibly removed their priests to Jerusalem, where they occupied an inferior rank in the temple ministry.

In the prophets of the 7th and 6th centuries the word "bamot" connotes "seat of heathenish or idolatrous worship"; and the historians of the period apply the term in this opprobrious sense not only to places sacred to other gods but to the old holy places of Yahweh in the cities and villages of Judah, which, in their view, had been illegitimate from the building of Solomon's temple, and therefore not really seats of the worship of Yahweh; even the most pious kings of Judah are censured for tolerating their existence. The reaction which followed the death of Josiah (608 BC) restored the old altars of Yahweh; they survived the destruction of the temple in 586, and it is probable that after its restoration (520-516 BC) they only slowly disappeared, in consequence partly of the natural predominance of Jerusalem in the little territory of Judaea, partly of the gradual establishment of the supremacy of the written law over custom and tradition in the Persian period.

It may not be superfluous to note that the deuteronomic dogma that sacrifice can be offered to Yahweh only at the temple in Jerusalem was never fully established either in fact or in legal theory. The Jewish military colonists in Elephantine in the 5th century BC had their altar of Yahweh beside the highway; the Jews in Egypt in the Ptolemaic period had, besides many local sanctuaries, one greater temple at Leontopolis, with a priesthood whose claim to "valid orders" was much better than that of the High Priests in Jerusalem, and the legitimacy of whose worship is admitted even by the Palestinian rabbis.

Modern Judaism

In Jewish synagogues, the "High Place" ("bemah") is the elevated platform from which the Torah is read. It traditionally had its origin from the platform erected in the Temple in Jerusalem at which the king would read the Torah during the Hakhel ceremony every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles (). The "bemah" is located in the center of Orthodox synagogues, and in the front of Reform synagogues.

Eastern Orthodoxy

In the Eastern Orthodox Church the "High Place" is the name used for the location of the cathedra (episcopal throne), set in the center of the apse of a temple's sanctuary, behind the Holy Table (altar). In larger temples there may be a literal elevation, but there is often not room for this in smaller temples. The cathedra is surrounded on both sides by the "synthronos", a set of other seats or benches for the use of the priests. Every Orthodox temple has such a High Place even if it is not a cathedral.

The term "High Place" also refers to the central portion of the Holy Table, where the antimension and Gospel Book are normally kept. The only other objects that are permitted to occupy this place on the altar are the chalice and discos (paten) for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. On the various Feasts of the Cross, a tray covered by an aër (liturgical veil) holding a Cross and branches of basil is placed on the High Place of the Holy Table until it is taken in procession to the center of the nave. On Good Friday, the Epitaphion is set on the Holy Table until it is taken to the "tomb" in the center of the nave for veneration by the faithful. During the Paschal Vigil, this Epitaphion is taken through the Holy Doors and placed again on the High Place of the Holy Table, where it will remain until the Ascension.

References

*Baudissin, "Hohendienst," "Protestantische Realencyklopadie" (viii. 177-195)
*A. van Hoonacker, "Le Lieu du culte dans la legislation rituelle des Hebreux" (1894)
*V Gall, "Altisraelitische Kultstadle" (1898).

External links

* [http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/pictures/3chicagpast_5.jpgOrthodox bishop seated at the High Place]
* [http://www.ekatontapyliani.org/part4/image1BIG.html Synthronon] ancient church in Paros