Wildlife of the Holy Land: Lions in ancient Jerusalem
'Because Judah was the tribe from which the royalty would emerge, the lion has come to symbolize Judah'
Ancient Israel was once home to a number of lions, and though the animals have since vanished from the area, their influence on the land can be seen throughout religious texts and across the city of Jerusalem.
Natan Slifkin, founder and director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History, explained to i24NEWS the animal’s connection to the Holy Land.
“The significance of the lion in the Bible - tremendous significance - has to do with its stature as the king of beasts,” Slifkin said.
“The tribe of Judah is compared to a lion, and that’s again reflecting back to the idea of the lion being the king of beasts."
"So because Judah was the tribe from which the royalty would emerge, the lion has come to symbolize Judah," he told i24NEWS.
As a result, lion motifs can be observed throughout the city of Jerusalem in the form of ancient statues and other pieces of art - but their real-life inspiration no longer resides across the Holy Land.
https://x.com/i/web/status/1455323775826857985
This post can't be displayed because social networks cookies have been deactivated. You can activate them by clicking .
Asiatic lions - a species once observed across the ancient Middle East - have since disappeared from the region, although populations still exist today in India’s Gir Forest.
The Jerusalem Zoo houses three such lions from India as part of a conservation program aimed at preventing the extinction of the species should disease or other disasters strike the Gir population.