Zion: Meaning & Where to Read

Pronunciation: ZY-un

The Definition

The Lord said to Achee: “Zion is the Community of the righteous / The establishers of the Covenant / Those who turn aside from walking in the way of the people” (I Achee 12:70). The Handbook notes this is the only ancient definition of Zion that has been found, from a Dead Sea Scroll fragment published by Kobelski (Handbook, p. 54). It gives the definition again with the covenant named: “the community of the righteous, the establishers of the covenant (Shabuwa), those who turn aside from walking in the way of the people” (Handbook, p. 211). The Melchizedek volume quotes the same fragment from Cave 11 and adds, “Simply put, Lot had to leave Sodom and Gomorrah” (Melchizedek, p. 597).

Its Original Names

Maween (Ma’een) — “the original name of Zion which means ‘the dwelling place of God'” (Enoch, Seth 1:54, note 18). Zion “was called Maween in the days of Adam” (I Achee 3:82) — “Ma’een in the days of Yaatsekawd” (Moses 4:91).
Eerkodesh — “The word Eerkodesh was the original word for Zion” (I Achee 2:91, note 50). It means “a city of holiness,” and was also the name of one of Adam’s sons (I Achee 3:58).

The Land of Maween

In the brook Baca the Lord told Yaatsekawd that He would raise up one who would establish a City of Holiness, and would call the people there “the people of Maween because they see eye to eye in their love of God,” of one heart and mind, with no poor among them (Enoch, Seth 1:54). The Book of Remembrance of Enoch takes place “in the geographic area east and south of the Aral Sea, which land they called Maween” (Grandmothers, p. 13). The Lord told the Seer that the encampments of Enoch’s people “are called Maween in the ancient tongue … because it is the dwelling place of my Father Anokeesed” (Grandmothers 1:10). Speaking to the Eerkodeshiy assembled in their sorrow, the Voice of the Lord said, “And you also will be the leaders of a city / even the dwelling place of Anokeesed in the temporal world / And that city is called Ma’een” (Melchizedek 3:101, note 23: “Zion”).

In Maween a language of feelings took root, while in the land of Qatar a spoken language developed. Enoch gave the people of Maween the Ten Guidances for Happy Living, and priesthood authority there was called “orders of service” (Grandmothers, pp. 15–16). Yet “Maween is only one of the places where the righteous dwell in the loving kindness of Anokeesed” (Grandmothers 11:106).

The Three Names of Enoch’s Holy City

The Lord told Enoch to prepare a place of safety and refuge for the righteous, and said it would have three names: Maween, “because it is my abode and the place where I may live with man and the Eerkodeshoi”; Yahad, because of the sweet effect of Yawd in the lives of those who dwell together in community; and Bethel, as the Eerkodeshoi would call it (Enoch, Bedal 9:25–27). As the footnote puts it, “Zion, the Community, and the temple were all the same place originally” (note 124).

Why They Are Called Zion

Those who love repentance and live among the Eerkodeshoi become communities of righteousness and receive the inheritance of Melchizedek — “And because of this they are called Zion” (I Achee 2:26–27).

Mocked by the Fallen Ones

In vision, Moses watched the Decadarchiy mock each of the waymarks in turn. At the last waymark, Zion, Asael said, “We will establish collections of people who will be called cities,” and Moses knew they would name the first city after Enoch the son of Kenneh “in order to mock Ma’een under the leadership of Enoch the Scribe of Righteousness.” In future days they would turn all their evil powers “to fight against Ma’een to no avail because of the power of the Lion of Judah” (Moses 2:88–102).

Zion Is Fled

Enoch used the element of marriage purity to join the righteous unto Zion, and his people joined so completely with the Eerkodeshoi that they were translated into their midst — “so that it was said of them, Zion is fled.” Even so will the gathering of the elect be done in the last days (I Achee 2:91–92). By his divisions Enoch “protected all the waymarks of the holy pathway to Eden (Zion),” and “Ma’een was successful and it prospered under his hand / and the people there did indeed return to Eden” (Moses 2:140). Methuselah, Enoch’s firstborn, was left behind “when Enoch fled with Zion” (I Achee 3:53).

Lamech’s company, travelling home past the empty grasslands of Anach, “beheld that indeed all the inhabitants of Maween had returned to Eden,” but “no one knew how it had taken place” (Grandmothers 12:29–30). The Tablet of the Guidance of God, written by Enoch, “had not been seen by man since Zion fled” until the Lord restored it to Moses (I Achee 4:90).

Mount Zion

The righteous called Mount Pethach “Mount Zion,” though the wicked called it Hermon (I Achee 13:2). It was known as Mount Zion to the early Israelites (Deut. 4:48) because it was their beacon of declaration for Shabuot; later, some men of power applied the name Mount Zion to their temple to enhance its importance (Enoch, Bedal 9:27, note 125).

The Twelfth Waymark

Zion was the twelfth waymark — the twelfth gift — that Messiah gave to His Father, so that by keeping the Law His people could dwell with God in Community, and the Holy City could be their resting place (Moses 4:90–91; I Achee 3:81–82). The seventh branch of the Tree of Life carries the seventh foundation of Shabuwa, righteousness and charity, together with the eleventh and twelfth waymarks, “endurance and Zion” (Moses 7:21). As the Moses volume sums it up: “The twelfth waymark is that we can achieve to be true Israel and establish Zion/Ma’een and participate in gathering the elect from all the world” (Moses, p. 571).

The People of Zion in Achee’s Vision

Achee saw that “the people of Zion walked in holiness,” thrust out the Decadarchoi, and renewed Shabuwa year by year with the trump, the element of righteousness and the song of the dance. They so loved Messiah that they “were loath to use even that which the fallen ones produced,” and were “clothed in righteousness” (I Achee 12:73–74). In the separation of the righteous from the wicked, “there were people in Zion from every nation and language” (I Achee 12:95).

The Gathering

At the end of days “the righteous are gathered unto Zion” (Melchizedek 3:60). The Lord told Moses that the ministry of the Holy Order “can bring Zion and the Great Gathering” (Moses 10:80), and that “the Great Gathering and the establishment of Zion / which is properly named Ma’een / will not come into fruition” unless generations of the Holy Order are raised up among the Israelites (Moses 10:125). The Law, the Tablet of Gabriel, the Urim of Ben Elim and the Tablet of the Holy City are “the treasure of the righteous in Zion” (Moses 17:86). The Handbook explains that the space between the fall of Babylon and the Second Coming “is called Zion; the great Gathering” (Handbook, p. 22).

The Culture of Zion

The Handbook gives a section to the culture of Zion. “Zion is composed of relationship oriented cultures,” and the Religion of Shabuwa “is the most highly developed of Zionic cultures.” In Zion “each and every person is expected to know the Lord for themselves. No one hears the Spirit of God for you, they hear it with you” (Handbook, pp. 209–210). “People in Zion are very forgiving and they learn to love repentance,” and the Dead Sea Scrolls call such people “the mourners of Zion” (Handbook, p. 211). “When you come to Zion, you are a voluntary refugee” (Handbook, p. 214). In the Handbook’s layout of the City of Secacah, the Sixth World Pool “represents Zion and oneness with God, being the pool designated for those who are of one heart and mind” (Handbook, p. 569).

Zion of Old and of the Last Days

The Zion of Enoch began to blend with the Zion of the last days (I Achee 13:65), and at the Second Coming “the inhabitants of the holy city of Zion will fall upon the necks of those of Zion of old in their joy and love for one another” (Moses 17:91).