Mount Kenya is Mount Zion
Mount Kenya is Mount Zion
For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation
(Psalms 132:13)
The realisation that Mount Kenya is the biblical Mount Zion and that the Most High abides in a geographical location on earth should not be too surprising for the avid Bible reader, who would have noted Jacob’s words: of astonishment: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:17) What is most difficult for Christians from the east and west to accept is that He and His angels have chosen to abide in Africa.
The name Kenya means ‘God’s resting place’ in all three of the original languages of the indigenous people of the area. The Gikuyu and Embu (Bantu Tribes) believed that God lived on Mount Kenya when he came down from the sky and therefore they build their houses with the doors facing the mountain. The Masai also say their ancestors originally descended from the mountain. Mount Zion is mentioned many times in the ancient texts, and the term is used interchangeably for His land, His people and His Mountain.
Mount Kenya is situated in one of the most remarkable landscapes in Kenya to the east of the Great Rift Valley and at 5,199m the mountain is the second highest peak in Africa. The mountain is an awe-inspiring sight best seen at dawn and is reputed to be an awe-inspiring sight with its ragged series of peaks crowned with snow, and its slopes are thick with forest.
It was a Kenyan woman who informed Promise2bless that the Mountains of the Moon also known as the Renzwori was not the only holy mountain in Africa, and that there is a river between Mombasa and Lamu the natives call the river Zion.
This river which is known today as the River Tana, flows from Mount Kenya. The implications are far-reaching, when we consider that the land we know today as Israel is believed by all to be the true site of Mount Zion (Hebrew: הַר צִיוֹן, Har Tsiyyon; Arabic: جبل صهيون, Jabel Sahyoun) until research brings to light, that there are three separate hills in the land of Israel called by that name.
City of David
The Jebusite fortress on Jerusalem’s Eastern Hill, which David conquered around 1000 B.C. (City of David) was said to be the original site of Mount Zion and is described in the book of Samuel as the stronghold of Zion.
Temple Mount
On a hill north of the City of David, (upper eastern hill) King Solomon is said to have built the First Temple (1004 BCE) and his palace. The Temple of Solomon and the Second Temple built by Herod the Great were situated on the Temple Mount (Hebrew: הַר הַבַּיִת, Har HaBáyit, “Mount of the House [of God, i.e. the Temple]”) where the Islamic shrine, the Dome of the Rock now sits. This Temple Mount is believed to be Mount Moriah (elevation 2438) where Abraham attempted the sacrifice of his son Isaac, and was later associated with Mount Zion.
Western Hill
Today the modern location of Mount Zion is the Western Hill (elevation 2534). The Western Hill became populated during the westward expansion of the City of David. Herod’s palace was built along the west wall on the Western Hill, as were many of the wealthy residences of New Testament Jerusalem.[i] One commentator says Jesus would have been brought to the Western Hill to appear before Annas and Caiaphas, and it is quite possible that the Upper Room, used during the Last Supper and on the Day of Pentecost, was also on this Western Hill.
It becomes evident to the researcher in pursuit of the location of a mountain named Mount Zion, that if one looks to Jerusalem, Jewish scholars from the ancient and modern eras are unable to arrive at a credible conclusion.
In the first-century A.D. historian Josephus is alleged to have identified Mount Zion as being the Western Hill but had referred to it as the Tyropoeon Valley but never as Mount Zion.[ii] Contemporary scholar Bargil Pixner believes naming the Western Hill Mount Zion is erroneous, but that Jerusalem’s Eastern Hill is correctly named the City of David therefore Mount Zion resembles a moving mountain.[iii]
Noah knew the location of Mount Zion saying it was at the centre of the navel of the earth and was created facing the Garden of Eden and Mount Sinai which were created as holy places facing each other.[iv]
Noah knew the location of Mount Zion saying it was at the centre of the navel of the earth and was created facing the Garden of Eden and Mount Sinai which were created as holy places facing each other.[i] The equator in central Africa is the centre of the navel of the earth, not Jerusalem, since it is there we find the Garden of Eden and Mount Zion to the east, and the Desert of Seth and Nazareth in the west where the Messiah lived under the shadow of the Almighty, and the company of an innumerable number of angels reside.
[i] The Book of Jubilees, Chap.9:18-19
[i] Western Hill (or, Mount Zion) //www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/14-western-hill-mount-zion.html
[ii] Ibid Pixner, p. 320-322
[iii] Bargil Pixner, Paths of the Messiah and sites of the early church from Galilee to Jerusalem,Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2010 p.321
[iv] The Book of Jubilees, Chap.9:18-19
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