Baruch 4:8

Deuterocanon

6 It was not for destruction that you were sold to the nations, but you were handed over to your enemies because you angered God. 7 For you provoked the one who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God. 8 You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up, and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you. 9 For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God, and she said: Listen, you neighbors of Zion, God has brought great sorrow upon me; 10 for I have seen the exile of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them.

Galatians 4:26

New Testament

24 These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written:“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,because the children of the desolate woman are more numerousthan those of the woman who has a husband.” 28 But you, brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac.

 Notes and References

"... Jerusalem was the city of salvation in the eschatological age where God would take up his residence again and inaugurate his royal rule. The hope that the Diaspora would return to the lofty city was kept alive. For all Jews, in Palestine and in the Dispersion, Jerusalem is the ‘holy city’ or the ‘mother-city’. Mount Zion is called the ‘midst of the navel of the earth’ (Jubilees 8:19; compare also Josephus, Bellum judaicum 3, 52). In apocalyptic apocrypha, Zion-Jerusalem is called the mother of all Israelites (4 Ezra 10:7, 38–44; compare also 2 Baruch 3:1–3) who has brought up her children (Baruch 4:8–10). The Jews, though scattered throughout the ancient world, maintained the bond with the motherland and the holy city ... The earliest indication that Christians regarded themselves as aliens and pilgrims on earth is found in the letters of Paul. Paul believes that Christians belong to the Jerusalem above, or the heavenly community (Galatians 4:26; Philippians 3:20). They are not at home on earth but pertain to that heavenly domain where the glorified Lord dwells (compare 2 Corinthians 5:1–5, 6–9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:17). In the polemical passage of Galatians 4:25–26, Paul is clearly attacking his opponents who claim that the present Jerusalem is their mother, probably suggesting that their views emphasizing the observance of the Law were supported by Jerusalem ..."

van de Sandt, Huub "Was the Didache Community a Group Within Judaism? An Assessment on the Basis of Its Eucharistic Prayers" in Poorthuis, Marcel, and Joshua Schwartz, (eds.) A Holy People: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Religious Communal Identity (pp. 85-107) Brill, 2006

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.