A Biblical Journey Through the Bible Lands: Israel (Part 7 of 10)

Jerusalem

The city of Jerusalem is about 30 miles (48 km) east of the Mediterranean Sea and approximately 21 miles (34 km) west of the Jordan River, built on the Judean Hills of Israel’s Central Mountain Range. Inspiring the poetic description, “As the mountains surround Jerusalem …” (Psalm 125:2a), most notable are the peaks of Mount Zion and Mount Moriah (a.k.a. the Temple Mount), with the Mount of Olives just to the east. Land travel to the city from any direction would involve an uphill climb to nearly 2,500 feet (754 meters) above sea level.¹

Once called Salem (meaning “peaceful”), in Abraham’s day the area was ruled by the priestly king Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18-20; Heb. 7:1-2). Since then the city and surrounding region have been anything but peaceful, conquered and controlled by Canaanite-Jebusites, Israelites, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Islamic Arabs, European Crusaders, Ottoman Turks, the British, and Israeli Zionists. While orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Christians all regard the city as holy, its legal status continues to be fiercely contested.  

Biblical Significance

Mount Moriah is where Abraham was instructed to offer his son Isaac before the Lord provided a sacrificial ram (Gen. 22:1-14). The city built here was called Jebus when inhabited by the Jebusites (Josh. 18:28; 1 Chron. 11:4-7), defeated by the armies of Joshua, conquered by the tribe of Judah, and occupied by the tribe of Benjamin, though many Jebusites stubbornly refused to leave (Josh. 11:1-13; 12:7-10; 15:8, 63; 18:16; Judg. 1:8, 21).

David erected an alter on Mount Moriah at the threshing floor purchased from Ornan the Jebusite, where the first Jewish temple was later built by Solomon (1 Chron. 21:18-28; 2 Chron. 3:1). When David had reconquered the city, it was claimed as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel and called the City of David (2 Sam. 5:6-10; 6:10, 12, 16; etc.). One of the mountain peaks upon which the city and a Jebusite fortress were built was called Zion, a name applied to the entire city and sometimes to the entire nation.²

After the kingdom divided, Jerusalem remained the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 12:1 – 2 Kings 23:37) until its destruction by the Babylonians in the early 6th century BC (2 Kings 24:8–25:27). The city and temple were rebuilt about seven decades later (Ezra-Nehemiah), renovated and enlarged by Herod the Great (cf. John 2:20), and razed yet again by the Romans in AD 70, just as Jesus had foretold (Matt. 24:1-34; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 21:5-38).

Old City Foreground, Mount of Olives Background

In the meantime Christ spent a considerable portion of his ministry in Jerusalem, where he was eventually tried, tortured, led through the streets, and then executed just outside the city wall (Luke 22:54–23:49; Heb. 13:12). Nearby was the tomb in which his corpse was buried and from which he emerged alive (John 19:41-42). 

A few weeks later the church he had promised to build (Matt 16:18) began in Jerusalem, with thousands of penitent baptized believers, and from here spread throughout the world (Acts 1:8–28:31; Col. 1:5-6), fulfilling prophecies like Isaiah 2:3, “… For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (NKJV).

Beyond the New Testament

During the destruction of Jerusalem in mid-70, the Jewish inhabitants either died of starvation within its walls, were killed by the Romans, or were captured as slaves (recounted in Josephus’ Wars of the Jews). Except for a Roman garrison, the area remained unpopulated until another Jewish revolt was crushed in 132-135. The city was then rebuilt as a Roman colony named Aelia Capitolina, and the layout of its walls remains in the present walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Jews were forbidden to enter the city except once a year for Tisha B’Av, a day of fasting and mourning.

When emperor Constantine I embraced Christianity in the 4th century, he restored the name Jerusalem, demolished pagan monuments, and erected Christian shrines and church buildings at a number of sacred sites. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, while the Eastern Byzantine Empire maintained control of Jerusalem. 

The Islamic, Ottoman, and British Periods

Western Wall Foreground, Dome of the Rock Background

In the 7th century, combined forces of Persians and Jews conquered Jerusalem, killed multiplied thousands of Christians and destroyed churches and monuments. About 15 years later the Byzantines reconquered the city, only to lose it again to Arab Muslims, who believed their prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to receive the directive of five daily prayers. Where the Jewish temple once stood, an Islamic shrine called the Dome of the Rock was built and remains to this day. 

Over the next few centuries, control of the city alternated between various sects of Islamicists and Crusaders, while Jews, Christians, and Muslims were persecuted, expelled, and/or killed under different regimes. The Ottoman Turks took control from 1517 to 1917, then the British captured the city, and in 1922 the League of Nations entrusted them with administrative authority over the entire region. Between 1922 and 1948 the population grew, consisting of roughly two-thirds Jews and one-third ethnic Arabs (both Muslim and Christian), with persistent civil unrest.  

The Israeli Period

When war broke out in 1948 and the British withdrew, Israel declared independence and seized West Jerusalem, while the country of Jordan controlled East Jerusalem, along with the so-called West Bank. Both Jewish and Arab residents were displaced, and a number of historic and religious sites were destroyed on either side. In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the West Bank. The Temple Mount remained under Islamic administration, while the Western Wall was considered a sacred site for the Jewish people. 

Jerusalem now has a population of around 800,000. The Old City is subdivided into the southwest Armenian Quarter, the northwest Christian Quarter, the southeast Jewish Quarter, and the more heavily populated northeast Muslim Quarter. Israeli control of the extended territory, plus the naming of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, has been an unending dispute between Israelis, Palestinian Arabs, and respective allies.

Reflections

While we should never forget all that has happened in Jerusalem over the centuries, from a biblical standpoint the physical city has long ago served its purpose as a special place for God’s name and God’s people. On more than one occasion Jesus wept over Jerusalem because of the sordid history of defiance and rebellion and consequent judgment (Matt. 23:37-39; Luke 13:34-35; 19:41-44).

When it was known as Salem (“peaceful”), Abraham still anticipated a greater city “whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). All who manifest this kind of faith desire a better, heavenly, divinely-prepared city (v. 16). Rather than a single earthly location, anywhere in the world the Lord’s people assemble to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:20-24), God dwells among them as his holy temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17) and New Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22-24; Rev. 21:2-5).³ Like the faithful who have gone on before us, we long for “an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4).

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ See Matt. 20:17-18; Mark 10:32-33; 15:41; Luke 2:42; 18:31; 19:28; John 2:13; 5:1; 7:8, 10; 11:55; Acts 11:2; 13:31; 15:2; 21:4, 12, 15; 24:11; 25:1, 9.

     ² E.g., 2 Sam. 5:7; 1 Kings 8:1; 2 Kings 19:31; Psa. 48:2; 51:18; 74:2; 78:68; 102:21; 128:5; 135:21; 137:1; 147:12; 149:2; Isa. 4:3-5; 10:12, 24, 32; 30:19; etc.

     ³ See K. L. Moore, “The New Jerusalem,” Moore Perspective (30 Jan. 2019), <Link>.

Related Posts: Name of Jerusalem, Israel Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Palestinian West Bank, Jordan Part 1, Jordan Part 2

 

Image credits:

Jerusalem from Mt. Olives <https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/05/13/npr-understanding-the-map-of-jerusalem--or-trying-to>

Old City Mt. Olives Background <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_of_Jerusalem#/media/File:2014-06_Israel_-_Jerusalem_090_(14936890061).jpg>

Western Wall/Dome of Rock <https://www.ucanews.com/news/archaeologists-race-against-time-in-jerusalem/100480>

Old Jerusalem Map <https://www.britannica.com/place/Jerusalem>