Both John the Baptizer and Jesus of Nazareth thus seem to have incorporated Jerusalem and the temple in positive ways as part of their missions, and especially as part of their prophecy of the coming Kingdom. They had good biblical reasons for doing so. Those passages in scripture that speak of God’s Kingdom also foreground Jerusalem, and specifically har bayit Adonai, the “mountain of the Lord’s house,” that is, of God’s “house,” the temple. Isaiah, for example, foresees the day when all humanity, both Israel and the nations, will gather there to worship God. “I am coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory,” God says, speaking through the prophet. Assembling on “this mountain,” the mountain of the Lord’s house in Jerusalem, all of these peoples will feast together on a meal made by God himself. “Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,” God says of the last days, concerning the foreign-born who have joined themselves to Israel, “for my house”—that is, the temple—“will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” When the Kingdom comes, sing these biblical traditions, it comes in Jerusalem. - Paula Fredricksen