Is the Prophet Jeremiah's tomb in Ireland?

Jim1999 said:

The hymn does not say that Jesus walked on England's shores, but poses the question,,,,And did those feet..........?

Right. It's a rhetorical question, however; the answer is supposed to be "no way!" Blake wasn't a big fan of the Industrial Revolution, and as the last question of the first stanza implies, he couldn't see the City of God being built amongst "these dark satanic mills."

As much as I love Blake, I have never studied this poem as closely as I would like. It seems to me that the second stanza, about working to establish the New Jerusalem on English soil, can either be taken "straight" or "ironic." Given the tone of the first stanza, I favour the latter at this time, but I can see also how Blake might be saying, "The way things are in England today, if we want heaven on earth, we are going to have to work for it."

 

That's the operative phrase - it is folklore with no historical basis. Irish folklore also tells us about little people who live under cabbage leaves in the West of Ireland! This is British Israelism, no more no less, it is the same logic that takes the place names of towns such as Dundalk, Dungannon, Dundonald, Dundee and suggests these are actually derivatives of Dan after the so called lost tribe (i.e Dandalk, Dangannon, Dandonald, Dandee etc). It is not a credible theory.

[ January 17, 2003, 05:03 AM: Message edited by: D Moore ]

 

rsr said:

The introduction to the poem

Thanks rsr! I knew that it was part of a larger body of work, but I have never read "Jerusalem" except in isolation. Even the redoubtable Norton Anthology of English Literature doesn't provide that kind of context.

 

Jesus never traveled more then a 100 miles from home and yet some how we got Jeremiah in Ireland. PLEASE.

SheEagle, The bible doesn't say I can't fly does that mean there are people out there who can. Silly logic.

This is what happens when you start chopping up the bible into this bit and that bit and call it "rightly dividing" the Word of God. You get heretics like Armstrong suddenly becoming deep bible scholars

 

SheEagle9/11 said:

Now about that Coronation Stone in England.....

Don't you love all these old British mythologies? Arthur and the Grail have been done to death, but if I ever get around to writing that fantasy novel, it's going to focus around supposed biblical artifacts like the Coronation Stone (a/k/a the Stone of Scone or the Stone of Destiny) and the Spear of Longinus.

As for the Stone itself, British-Israel tradition says that it supposedly is the stone that Jacob used as a pillow when he had the dream of angels ascending the ladder, and subsequently set up as an altar at Bethel. Legend has it it made its way to the British Isles where it became part of the Coronation Throne in Westminster Abbey, thus "proving" that the King of England is the true heir to the Davidic throne.

However, according to a 1970 book published by Richard Marson, a former Worldwide Church of God member and debunking the British-Israelism taught by the WCG and its founder, Herbert W. Armstrong: "The stone in Westminster Abbey has been analyzed and shown to be a calcareous type of red sandstone of Scottish origin." (This is a secondary quote; I am endeavouring to locate a primary source.)

 

rsr said:

Ransom, here's a link to the full text of "Milton," from which the famous passage is in the preface:

Ohhhh yeaaahhh. Thanks a lot!

I have seen photographic reproductions of some of Blake's illuminated texts, particularly Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. I wonder if Milton is likewise available?