21st Century Jerusalem 3/10/11

            Israel is an extremely small piece of land, and yet it is the center of one of the most controversial areas in the world.  In May of 2000 the Israeli Army pulled its troops out of Southern Lebanon.  The Israel government also decides to build a large wall between itself and neighboring Palestinian controlled West Bank.  The Palestinians criticize the way the wall was built as a land grab, as the wall goes into parts of the West Bank in an attempt to protect Jewish settlements there. 

            In 2004 the long time leader of the Palestinians, Yasser Arafat, dies and in the 2006 elections, the radical, militant group Hamas defeats his old party, Fatah.  July of 2006 brings about the Israel-Hizbulla war, which took place in northern Israel and consisted mainly of rockets being lobbed back and forth across borders.  The Israelis understand that when it comes to military strength, they will win every time, so they are in no rush for peace because every time they are attacked, they can go out and destroy their attackers.  Most recently, in 2010, Israeli Special Forces boarded a flotilla headed to the Gaza strip with aid, and when fired upon, responded accordingly and killed 9.  To this day Jerusalem is still being fought over, but hopefully a peace agreement can be reached in the near future.       

20th Century Jerusalem 3/8/11

            As nationalism was on the rise in Europe in the early 20^th century, the Jews had no homeland; so many flocked to Jerusalem as they were often persecuted in foreign lands.  After World War One the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and the British took control over the Holy Land.  In the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916, the British and French split up the near east into spheres of influence.  The French got Syria and Iraq, while the Brits took Jerusalem and Palestine.  This British Mandate lasted from 1918 to 1948.  Arthur Balfour writes the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to Lord Rothschild setting in motion a plan for a Zionist state.  A few years later, Winston Churchill writes the “White Paper” to clarify the British position on the Balfour Declaration, that it did not want a Jewish state, but for a Jewish-Palestinian community.

            In 1937, the Peel Commission suggests a plan were the Palestinians and the Jews would have their own state.  The Jews reluctantly agree to it as a bare minimum, but the surrounding Arab nations will not let it pass.  The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, called the war of Independence by the Jews, results in a new Zionist state and the Jordanians gaining land.  In 1967 the “six day war” takes place and the Israelis defeat all of the surrounding Arab nations and take control of the whole city of Jerusalem.  After all this had happened the Palestinians feel cheated because they still do not have their own state, and as a result, many “infitadas” or uprisings occur in the Holy Land.  The Oslo Accords in 1993 bring a relative peace to the region for a short while, but soon after violence returns to Jerusalem.          

Mamluk and Ottoman Jerusalem 3/3/11

            The Mamluk period of Jerusalem lasted from 1244 to 1516, and during this time the City of Jerusalem had no outer walls protecting it.  Without stone barriers acting as protection the population decreases to less than 10,000 people and its economy suffers.  Its attention is turned to a religious city were the focus was spiritual growth and development.  It was no longer a desired city politically or militarily because it had no walls.  If any construction projects began they were for schools, hospitals, and religious centers.  The architecture used was still Islamic in that it mainly built with geometric shapes and images.  During this time period the former temple mount became the Haram.  The Jewish quarter also grows during this time. 

            Beginning in 1516 the Ottoman Turks gain control of the area and hold on to it until 1918.  Sultan Sulieman the magnificent completes many public works projects to help restore Jerusalem to its former glory.  Most important of which, the Sultan rebuilds the walls around the Holy City.  He also encourages the Jews to return and settle again in Jerusalem.  Sulieman gives the Jewish people the western “wailing” wall as a holy place to worship.  Jewish “Zionism” begins to rise to prominence in this time period as well, and Jewish settlements begin to pop in Jerusalem.    

Crusader Jerusalem 3/1/11

            As the Holy Roman Empire emerged as a major power in Western Europe the Christians began to look upon the holy city with longing eyes.  In 1095 CE Pope Urban II gave a speech explaining to the nobility of Europe that the Muslims were holding Jerusalem captive.  This speech lights a fire under the Christians in Western Europe to go liberate the holy land.  The crusades were considered a holy war between the Catholics and the Muslims.  Even though the Pope gave his apparently inspiring speech in 1095 CE the Crusaders, for the most part, did not make it to Jerusalem until 1099 CE.  This is because it took some time for them to collect themselves and gather up enough supplies to make it to the destination.  The Catholic Church offered indulgences to all who either went on a crusade, or if they donated money or supplies to a crusade. 

             This first wave of crusaders was eventually successful in gaining control of Jerusalem in 1099 CE when Godfrey de Bullion broke through the city walls.  The Christians ruled over the Holy City for about 100 years after that.  July 4 1187 CE the crusaders were defeated by Salah-ad-Din at the Horns of Hattin.  With no army left Jerusalem surrenders to the Muslim ruler.  The new Islamic ruler purifies the temple mount, gives the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the Christians, and allows the Jews to come back to Jerusalem.     

Islamic Jerusalem 2/24/11

            The Sasanians take control of Palestine and Jerusalem from 614 to 628 CE, but the Byzantines take it back in 628.  The Sasanians allow the Jews to come back to Jerusalem, but when the Byzantines retake the city they end up massacring many of the Jews.  The Muslim Caliph Umar takes over Jerusalem in 638 CE.  At first he does not allow the Jewish population to return, at the request of the Christians, but later he changes his stance and the Jews slowly come back. 

            The prophet Muhammad was illiterate, and Muslims say that this is proof that what he wrote down was truly the word of God coming out of him.  After he died, there was no heir apparent.  Caliphs were established to lead the Islamic community.  Abu Bakr was his closest friend and was the first Caliph.  Umar was the second and then followed by Uthman.  After Uthman, islam split into two sects.  The supporters of Ali were kinship based and were called shi’ites, while the supporters of Mu’awiya were tradition based and were called sunnis.  The Qibla is the direction of prayer and the Mihrab is the niche pointing the direction of prayer.  Mecca becomes the most holy of all places for Islam, but Jerusalem is in the top three.  The Dome of the Rock is completed in 691 CE.  

Byzantine Jerusalem 2/22/11

            For early Christianity, Jerusalem was more of a symbol, and Christianity as a faith was more spiritual and faith driven.  There was no need for the temple.  The Holy City was still the place where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected and therefore extremely important.  Constantine the Great ruled from 312 to 337 CE and in 313 he issued the Edict of Milan.  This edict legalized the religion of Christianity.  Constantine used this faith to unite his empire.  He commissioned the Council of Nicaea in 324 CE; which set the guidelines for Christianity.  He also moved the capitol to Constantinople. 

            His mother, Helena, went to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage and dedicated the Church of the Nativity and rededicated the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  She supposedly finds the “true cross,” the one that Jesus was crucified on and establishes the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as the new axis mundi in Jerusalem.  On the Madaba Map the center of the map is no longer the temple mount but is instead the Church.  This map is very detailed and shows all the gates surrounding the city of Jerusalem.  Justinian builds the “Nea” Church, or new church, which is to replace the Jewish temple and in its architecture it resembles Solomon’s Temple.       

Jerusalem in Revolt 2/17/11

           When Herod dies, his kingdom is split up into parts and his sons take control.  For the most part, his sons were ineffective and eventually replaced by Roman procurators.  One of these governors was Pontius Pilate.  He governed from 26-36 CE.  He was ineffective and provoked the Jews.  Pilate is the only Roman Governor of Judea mentioned in the Gospel.  During this time period, Jewish nationalism was on the rise and in 66 CE the Jews were in open revolt against Rome.  The Jews minted revolt coins in an attempt to declare their independence.  This first “Great” revolt lasted till about 73 CE when the last holdouts in Masada committed suicide.  The emperor’s son Titus had the second temple destroyed in 70 CE. 

            The second revolt, the “bar-kokhba revolt” was led by simon ben kosiba.  Coins were once again printed but were often misspelled some were overstrikes.  Where they took roman coins and simply struck their new coin over the top of the Roman one.  Literally stamping out Rome.  In the end this revolt ultimately fails and the roman emperor Hadrian banns circumcision and turns Jerusalem into a full Roman city.  He even renames it Aelia Capitolina, and builds a temple to Jupiter there.  The Jews are banned from the city completely.      

Roman, Herodian, Jesus' Jerusalem 2/15/11

            The Romans began ruling over Palestine in 63 BCE when Pompey besieged Jerusalem and annexed it.  Rome ruled the Holy City with client kings.  Herod the Great was one of these rulers.  He had to walk a very fine line between pleasing the Romans in Rome and not upsetting the Jews in Jerusalem.  He is most famous for his massive building projects.  He undertook many construction projects in an attempt to create a legacy and be remembered by history, which sort of worked because he is remembered, mostly by historians, for both these structures as well as being paranoid and impulsive.  The Western Wall on the temple mount that stands today is part of the wall that Herod had built.

            For the most part Herod the Great was an effective ruler, but the Jewish population hated him.  They saw him as only half Jewish and a traitor that sided with Rome in an attempt to hold onto power. 

            The time of Jesus is parallel to that of Herod, there is absolutely no archeological evidence that Jesus existed.  People claimed to have found his boat on Galilee, but that is all that it is, just a claim.   Most likely it is just another boat that was used during that time period.  The closest evidence uncovered so far is proof that the Romans did crucify people in Jerusalem during that time.       

Hellenistic and Hasmonean Jerusalem 2/10/11

          After the reign of the Persians the Greeks began to take over.  It started with Alexander the Great, when he conquered the entire known world at the time.  He died at a relatively young age and his empire was split up.  Ptolemies ruled over Egypt and Selencias was the king of Syria.  The Egyptians captured Jerusalem in 320 BCE, but the Syrians take it from them in 201 BCE.  Throughout this time Jerusalem is Hellenized—made more Greek like.  The Hebrew Bible was even translated into Greek during this time.  The Selencias tried to aggressively Hellenize Jerusalem to a greater extent than the Ptolemies.  Whenever the people of Judah bagan to resist the will of the Greeks, the would simply replace the high priest with a new one that was more favorable to the Greeks. 

            Judas Maccabaeus, the hammer, used guerrilla tactics to successfully get rid of the Greeks by 165/4 BCE.  After this event Hanukah was established.  This revolt started the Hasmonean Dynasty.  Which lasted for about 100 years, and it is the last time Jerusalem is self governed by the Jews till present day Israel.  It is ironic that this dynasty of rulers turned into the very people who they fought so hard to overthrow.  By 63 BCE Jerusalem was conquered by the Romans.       

Persian Jerusalem 2/8/11

               The Persian period of Jerusalem lasted from 539 to 333 BCE.  The Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, as well as second Isaiah were written during this time period.  The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of a once again mobile God.  Now that the Babylonians had destroyed the temple, Ezekiel explains that God is not one with the temple but instead he is back in a similar structure to the Ark of the Covenant in the way that it is ever mobile.  The Persian King Cyrus is seen as a savior by some of the Jews because he frees them from exile, gives them some money to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their city and their temple.  The Cyrus Cylinder announces a general return to homelands from Babylon.  Because of the Persians and King Cyrus’ policies of diplomacies, he is viewed as a liberator. 

                The people of Jerusalem viewed foreign leaders as signs sent from God, therefore when Cyrus sends them back to their homeland some groups see him as the messiah.  During the time of Persian rule the city of Jerusalem was extremely poor, and the second temple was not nearly as glorious as Solomon’s Temple.  Jerusalem struggled to pay the heavy taxes imposed by Persia, and conflicts with Samaria began to pop up.    

Josiah and exile 2/1/11

              During the time of Josiah literacy began to spread to everyday people.  The Lachish Letter 3 demonstrates this because is shows that a common soldier in the army can write for himself and does not need a scribe to record his words.  Another example of literature becoming more popular is the Ketef Hinnom.  Someone had taken the time to have an inscription inscribed upon a necklace.  The fate of Jerusalem closely follows the interpretation of the scripture.

              Babylon rises to power with King Nebuchadnezzar, and his defeat of the Assyrians.  He then moves onto Judah and takes over Jerusalem, where he exiles some of the nobility.  Then later he comes back and destroys the temple in 586 and exiles almost all the skilled or important people to Babylon.  This starts a long and difficult period for many Jews.  Some people abandon all faith in God because they see that his promise has been broken, while others try to reinterpret the promise to David in order to justify what is happening to them.       

Hezekiah and josiah 1/27/11

Jerusalem continued to swell in population as the Assyrians strengthened and conquered.  People fled their villages and moved behind the walled city.  This urbanization forced Jerusalem to expand at a rapid rate.  Part of the reason for Assyria’s success was the fact that they changed from their native tongue, and adopted Aramaic as their official language.  This was beneficial because it was simpler and easier to not only learn, but also use.  The king of Jerusalem, Hezekiah, brought more water to his city by way of Hezekiah’s tunnel.  Without this tunnel the city would have no real water source. 

Hezekiah is credited with the defeat of the Assyrian king Sennacherib.  This greatly added to Jerusalem’s growing fame and reputation, that it held out against and defeated the mighty Assyrian warriors.  After Hezekiah, the next king is Josiah, and he finds the book and religious reforms.  Josiah took control when he was only eight years old, this makes many historians believe that for the most part he was a puppet ruler at the beginning of his reign with the elders and advisors pulling the strings behind the city. 

        

Hezekiah's Jerusalem 1/25/11

            The eras of King David and King Solomon ruling in Jerusalem are often referred to as the “Golden Age.”  David united Israel and built a great palace, while Solomon built the Lord a magnificent temple.  After Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, took control of the kingdom, it split in two.  The Northern tribes were the Israelites, while the tribes in the south were in Judah.  The leader of Israel decided to build alternate places to worship, as Jerusalem was in Judah and he did not want all of his citizens traveling there boosting the economy there. 

            Around 925 BCE Pharaoh Shoshenq invades the land of Canaan, some scholars suspect that he was paid by the king of Judah to invade and help fight Israel.  Both Israel and Judah seem to make a habit of enlisting, and paying for the help of other—stronger—countries to fight their battles.  One of these such countries was Assyria.  Assyria quickly rose to prominence off of its reputation of being militarily dominant and merciless.  When Assyria invaded and took the capital of Israel, Samaria, the population of the city of Jerusalem inflated dramatically.  It was a walled city and many northerners fled there to escape the Assyrians.          

David and Solomon 1/20/11

           After David had taken control of Jerusalem, and built himself a palace he turned his attention to the lord.  The Ark of the Covenant had been sheltered in a tent up until that point.  David intended to build the Lord a great temple for him to live in, and for all his people to worship in.  But through a prophet, the lord told David not to build a temple, and that God would build up David’s family—a dynasty.  This is referred to as “the Promise to David.”  Some believe that the reasoning behind this is that David had spilled too much blood in the conquering of Israel, and he should not be the one to build a home for the Lord. 

            David’s son Solomon would be the one to build the Temple on the Mount for the Lord most high.  Solomon gave a wonderful dedication speech and is known as “wise” King Solomon.  He is accredited to writing the book of proverbs, ecclesiastics, and song of songs.  It is difficult to know for sure if Solomon’s Temple ever truly existed because there is no archeological evidence found, but this does not mean that it did not exist either.  The Bible writes a description of the temple, and it is very similar to other temples built around that time.   

City of David 1/18/11

Historians still debate whether or not David actually existed.  It is estimated that if he were a real ruler, he would have been alive around 1000 BCE.  The only evidence of David is in the Tel Dan Inscription.  This tablet refers to the “House of David,” so it does not mention him personally, but it does show that there was a group of people in Israel that referred to themselves as descendants of David.  Warren’s shaft was discovered and believed to be how the City of David got its water supply, but now some historians are questioning that thought. 

2 Samuel 5:6-9 and 2 chronicles 11:4-8 both write about how the Jerusalem was conquered by David.  When David takes control of Jerusalem he builds the City of David and pitches a tent for the Ark of the Covenant.  The Gihon spring is just out side of the city and was vital to Jerusalem’s survival.  Later, David’s son Solomon would have his coronation ceremony down by the Gihon Spring, and Jesus himself would one day follow his trend and ride to the Gihon on the back of a donkey.         

Canaanite Jerusalem 1/13/11

          The earliest settlement of Jerusalem was during the Chalcolithic period—around 4,000 BCE.  It has possessed continuous settlement till this very day.  Jerusalem has had occupants for over 6,000 straight years, and even during times of exile, the Holy City has had occupants.  Some archeological digs have uncovered remnants over the historical city referenced in the Bible, such as the Fountain Gate mentioned in Nehemiah 2:14.  Not only is Jerusalem written about in the Bible, it is also referred to by non-biblical texts like the Amarna letters. 

            The Bible explains how Joshua took over Jerusalem by force and killed all in Israel that were not aligned with him and his allies.  But, in the book of Judges and Joshua, this idea is contradicted because it refers to the Jebusites being in Jerusalem when in earlier books have them wiped out completely.  There is some debate over how the Israelites got to Jerusalem.  Did they take it over by force, did they immigrate slowly there, or was Canaanite Jerusalem of mixed ethnic background and were they always there?        

Jerusalem as Sacred Space (cont) 1/11/11

           Before Jerusalem could become sacred space for the three major religions in the world, it had to be founded and constructed.  Stories in the bible, such as the tower of babel and beth-el—house of god help to establish the city as the center of the religious world.  It is said that the plans for the temple were of ‘divine origin.’  That the Lord himself directed how it should look.  As all great legends, Jerusalem began to attract other important stories very early into its history.  From Genesis: the Garden of Eden mentions the river Gihon, which is in Jerusalem, therefore Eden is equated with the Holy City.  Mount Moriah is also said to be a part of Jerusalem.  Legends and stories act as positive feedback on this ancient city.  As more important religious facts, dates and places get related to Jerusalem its reputation gets larger, which only attracts more facts, dates, places and stories.

            Two extremely sacred places in Jerusalem are the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  The Dome of the Rock was first completed in 691 CE.  This was the 72^nd year of the Muslim Era. When Crusaders took over the city in 1099CE they also took control of the Dome of the Rock.  The Muslims take it back by the year 1187.  The Tomb of Adam is said to be buried under the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  The Holy Sepulcher is made up of many churches and chapels built on top of each other.  It is complex and there isn’t much room inside the actual building.  The complexities of this church reflect the complexities of the city itself.         

1/6/11 jerusalem as sacred space

Jerusalem is considered one of the most holy places in the world.  It is regarded as sacred space by the three major religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.  It is located up on a hill and is believed this makes it closer to the heavens and the Lord.  There are three surrounding valleys: Kidron Valley to the east, Hinnom Valley to the west, Tyropean Valley directly south.  Because Jerusalem is atop a hill it possesses a natural defense against invasion from foreign armies.  The Holy City may not be located directly on a trade route or major water source, but it has been a central point to the history of the world.  Europe is to the west, Asia is to the east, and Africa is to the south. 

Modern day Jerusalem is split into sections: Christian quarter, Jewish quarter, Islamic quarter, Armenian quarter, and to the east is the fifth quarter where the temple mount was built.  The only source of water locally is the Gihon spring, therefore to satisfy this populated area, water must be brought in from abroad.  There is no other city quite like Jerusalem in the world, with its rich history, religious complexity, and political strife.