ABSTRACT
Jerusalem holds pride of place in the eschatological imagination of the three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem’s place in eschatological teachings can be seen as kind of an anchor, a stabilizing factor, fixing in present geography events never experienced by human beings. Jerusalem’s preeminence in the eschatological imagination can be traced to the Bible. The strong eschatological inclination of early Christianity made Jerusalem in general, and the Mount of Olives in particular, the imagined stage for future events. Judaism and Islam concurred with Christianity as to the special role of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives at the End of Times. Late Antique and medieval apocalyptic writings follow the biblical foundations in perceiving Jerusalem as the stage for the sealing events of history. Jerusalem was a constant component of religious expectations for the end of history and for a new, heavenly order of things.
