History of Jerusalem

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 Jerusalem  by the Ages

 "I was glad when they said to me, Allow us go up to the household of the Lord

When our feet stood inside of thy gates, O Jerusalem

O Jerusalem, builded as a city that is compact jointly ....

... Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that really like thee

Peace be within thy walls and prosperity in thy palaces ...

... Peace be inside of thee."  (Psalm 122, The Holy Scriptures, Sinai Publishing)

  

Jerusalem is brought up over a person hundred times in 20 of the thirty six books of the Hebrew Scriptures and thirty occasions in the New Testament. (NIV Review Bible).  Apart from a brief point out of the meeting among Abraham and Melchizedek, king of Salem, (Gen 14:eighteen) it is not outlined in the Torah (Pentateuch) in which the historical narrative ends with the death of Moses prior to the entry of the Twelve Tribes of Israel into the land of Canaan, the Promised Land.

 

Even though we are advised in Judges (one:eight) that "the small children of Judah had fought versus Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it" and that it was to Jerusalem that David brought the head of Goliath (I Sam 17:54), it was only following ruling from Hebron, (burial position of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs), for 7 and a 50 percent decades that David was able to conquer Canaanite Jerusalem and make it his capital. 

 

The ongoing excavation of David's City has exposed the previously mysterious, formidable Canaanite walls, tunnels and multiple water techniques heading back more than three thousand years. Though even now too early to say whether or not the monumental construction now being excavated is indeed King David's palace innumerable bullae (seals)  are inscribed with names which seem in the biblical narrative.

 It was David's son, Solomon, who made the Temple on Mount Moriah, which was not in the walls of David's metropolis. Substantially of I Kings describes the Temple, its architecture, the supplies made use of and the accoutrements, the two practical and ornamental. The culmination was the 7 day feast attended by "all the guys of Israel" when "the ark of the covenant of the Lord" was brought from the town of David, and when, for the to begin with time, sacrifices had been made available.

 

Following serving as the religious middle for the small children of Israel for pretty much five hundred years, throughout the rule of  Nebuchadnezzar,  "the captain of the guard came to Jerusalem and he burnt the property of the Lord, and the king's residence, and all the houses of Jerusalem … and brake down the walls of Jerusalem  … and the rest of the consumers that were left in the metropolis did the captain of the guard carry away."

 

Archeological excavations Jerusalem have uncovered biblical Jerusalem, its walls and buttresses, which include the Broad Wall made by king Hezekiah where one particular can plainly see the partially destroyed residence described by Isaiah, "Ye have numbered the homes of Jerusalem, and the homes have ye broken down to fortify the wall". (Is 22:10).

 

In the course of the next fifty decades, whereas Jerusalem lay abandoned and desolate, Babylon faded from heritage and was changed by the Persian Empire. "In the first yr of Cyrus, king of Persia" Cyrus proclaimed "The Lord God of heaven hath presented me all the kingdoms of the earth and he hath charged me to make him an property in Jerusalem, which is in Judah". A clay cylinder with the words of the proclamation, found in 1879 the in the foundations of the foremost temple of Babylon, can be viewed  in the British museum.

 

This proclamation heralded the return of the Jewish exilees from "the waters of Babylon" (these days the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq) where they "wept when they remembered  Zion" and promised "If I overlook thee, O Jerusalem, let my most suitable hand neglect its cunning If I do not do not forget thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I choose not Jerusalem previously mentioned my chief joy".

 

These words from Psalm 137 are browse at each and every Jewish wedding ceremony ahead of the conventional breaking of the glass by the groom. The yearning for Jerusalem hardly ever ceased to be a piece of the Jewish psyche.

 

In equally Ezra and Nehemiah we learn of the challenges the returnees experience. Little by little Jerusalem and the Temple ended up rebuilt.

 

"And all the most people shouted with a good shout, when they praised the Lord, considering that the basis of the home of the Lord was laid. But countless of the priests and Levites and chief of the father, who were historic guys then, that had noticed the number one residence, when the basis of this home was laid ahead of their eyes, wept with a loud voice and countless shouted for joy". 

 

The Persian Empire as well faded from background, changed by the Greek Hellenist Empire. Desecration of the Temple by the Seleucids in 165 BCE led to the Hasmonean (Macabean) revolt and the rededication of the Temple, which was enlarged and enriched by the Hasmonean dynasty, rulers of an autonomous Judea.

 

The Greek Hellenist Empire also faded from historical past, changed by the Roman Empire and, just after the conquest by Pompey, Judea became a vassal Roman kingdom. The Hasmonean dynasty arrived to an finish with the appointment of Herod as king of Judea.

 

As Herod was not a Jew he was not allowed entry to much of the Temple region alone but, in accordance to the Roman historian Josephus Flavius, he was established to make the entire complicated a monument to himself.  Josephus describes the considerable work undertaken and the products made use of. He describes the gates, the colonnades, the southern platform, the sector location, the northern citadel, the bridges to the upper city and ends "for the period of the time that the Temple was putting together , it did not rain in the day time, but that showers fell in the nights, so that the get the job done was not hindered".  (Antiquities of the Jews, guide XV, chapter XL)

 

Josephus, who was quite possibly witness to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, on the identical day that the Initially Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, the ninth day of the month of Av, describes how the city burnt for days. (War of the Jews, book VI, chapter IX).

 

Indicators of this destruction can be looked at in excavations through the Old Metropolis, specially in the Herodian and Burnt Homes and the Southern measures and also in the excavations in David's City. In the Western Wall tunnel the splendor of the Hasmonean and Herodian setting up is breathtaking. The Kotel, also acknowledged by some as the Wailing Wall, is but element of the Herodian assistance wall for the expanded Temple Mount platform.  Around the centuries Jews have prayed at the Kotel and mourned the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem. 

 

All archaeological remains of the Temple alone and the arched entrance from the southern measures to the Temple Mount, under the El Aqsa mosque have been systematically destroyed by the Moslem Wakf who deny there ever before was a Jewish Temple. For Christians, this of program raises the query: where by then did Jesus sit between the elders where he shown his know-how and understanding and where did he overturn the tables of the dough-changers? (Luke two: 41-49 Mat 21:twelve)

 

For alot more details of the unsupervised archaeological destruction make sure you see two content on my website   -  No. 3) "Temple Mount Excavations" and No. eight) "Ramp to the Temple Mount".

 

For the period of most of the Roman and then Byzantine rule Jews were not allowed accessibility to Jerusalem and for the most portion the Temple Mount lay desolate as soon as once again. The rock on which the Dome of the Rock was constructed in 691 by the Caliph Abd El Malik, sixty several years right after the Arab conquest, is in all probability component of the Temple by itself, if not the Holy of Holies.

 

Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran but a later custom tells that it was from this rock that Mohammed ascended to heaven on his horse, Buraq.  While Churches during the land had been destroyed for the duration of the Arab  conquest, no damage arrived to the Dome of the Rock throughout the Crusader period of time.

 

With the departure of the Crusaders, and the essentially complete destruction of their churches, Moslem rule returns, to start with below the Mamelukes and then as aspect of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. In accordance to detailed description of the Holy Land printed in 1716, Palaestina ex Monumentis, most of the population, Jewish and Christian, was to be seen in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Jaffa. The Moslem population consisted of nomadic Bedouin.  

Interestingly, regardless of the present-day Palestinian historical claims, absolutely nothing had altered when Mark Twain visited Palestine in 1867. (See Innocents Overseas by Mark Twain). Even though the Jews were the bulk, their freedom was minimal by the Moslem rulers. 

 

This continued when the British Mandate rule commenced following the conclude of WWI.  Jews were even now not permitted to pray freely at the Kotel. When the British forces left in 1948 the Jewish Palestinians declared the State of Israel. The Arab Palestinians, who did not consider the option to do the exact same, now glance back again on what was for them the Arab Nakb'a, disaster.

 

Jerusalem became a divided town, one element beneath Israeli manage, the other component, with most of the Holy destinations, gradually annexed by the Jordanians jointly with the West Financial institution, an annexation absolutely rejected by the UN and hence not identified by international law.

 

Throughout nineteen years of Jordanian rule neither Israelis nor Jews were permitted to have a look at Jordan, not Jerusalem and without doubt not the Kotel. Even though not politically proper to point out right of entry to Christian holy sites was not as unrestricted as it now is. Cost-free entry to all Hoy Locations did not exist.

 

The shift came in June 1967. Ignoring international diplomatic calls not to join Egypt and Syria in their war in opposition to Israel, Jordan opened fire on Israeli metropolitan areas, together with Nathanya, Herzliah, Tel Aviv and divided Jerusalem. Jordan lost the war she had begun. In six days the entire West Financial institution arrived below Israeli manage and the wall dividing Jerusalem was taken down. As soon as far more Jerusalem was builded as a city that is compact together ....

 

Even with the joyous simply call "the Temple Mount is in our hands" and contrary to all expectations, Israel made a decision to leave the de facto handle of the Temple Mount area and its mosques to the Jordanian Wakf  (Moslem religious authorities).

 

Over a person hundred thousand Israelis, my family members and I amid them,  went up to Jerusalem to pray at the Kotel, freely for the number one time in centuries. All restrictions on all holy places, Jewish and Christian alike had been removed.

 

That is what we are celebrating tonight and tomorrow.  In the words of Zechariah (8:3-eight)

 

"As a result saith the Lord I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem …

… There shall nevertheless aged guys and old ladies dwell in the streets of Jerusalem …

… And the streets of the shall be complete of boys and girls taking part in …

… I will conserve my customers from the east country and the west region,

And I will deliver them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem."