The Early History of Jerusalem - (Before A. D. 71)

First Jewish Revolt

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Upon this occasion the High Priest Helcias found in a hall of the sanctuary an old copy of the Law of Jehovah given by Moses 2 Kings Actuated by a scruple of conscience , the good king attempted to bar the way against his suzerain's adversary, and met his death at the battle of Mageddo 2 Kings Joachas, or Sellum, his successor, after reigning three months, was deposed by Nechao, and sent as a captive to Egypt , while Eliacim, to whom the conqueror gave the name of Jehoiakim D. Joakim , was put in his place In Nabuchodonosor Nebuchadnezzar entered Judea to consolidate his father's power.

He carried away as captives to Babylon certain notables of Jerusalem , together with the young Prophet Daniel. Joakim revolted against the Babylonian yoke, but his son Joachin Jehoiachin , surrendered to Nabuchodonosor. The city was given over to pillage and 10, inhabitants, including the king, were carried off to Babylon 2 Kings Sedecias, third son of Josias, succeeded his nephew Urged by the Egyptian party, he, too, rebelled against his suzerain.

Nabuchodonosor returned to Syria and sent his general, Nabuzardan, against Jerusalem with a formidable army. The city surrendered after a siege of more than eighteen months. The Temple, the royal palaces, and other principal buildings were given to the flames, and the city was dismantled. The sacred vessels , with everything else of value, were carried away to Babylon; the Ark of the Covenant alone could be hidden by the Jews. Sedecias, who, at the last moment, had fled with his army by the southern gate, was overtaken in the plain of Jordan, and his eyes were put out.

The high priest , the chief military officers, and the notables of the land were massacred, and the remainder of the inhabitants were transported to Babylon with their blind king. Only husbandmen and the poor were left in the country, with a Jewish governor named Godolias Gedaliah , who took up his residence at Maspha 2 Kings From the return out of Captivity to the Roman domination In B. The first convoy, consisting of 42, Jews , was dispatched under the leadership of Zorobabel, a prince of Juda. They hastened to restore the altar of holocausts , and in the second year the foundations were laid for another temple, which, however, owing to the difficulties raised by the Samaritans and other neighbouring peoples, was not completed until the sixth year of the reign of Darius The old men could not restrain their tears when they saw the unpretentious character of the new building.

In , under Artaxerxes I, Esdras came to Jerusalem with Jews as governor of Judea and completed the political and religious restoration of Israel. Thirteen years later Nehemias, with the authorization of Artaxerxes, completely restored the Holy City. The High-Priest Jaddus, believing that resistance would be useless, went out to meet the great conqueror, and induced him to spare the Jews Antiq.

After Alexander, Jerusalem suffered much from the long struggle between the Seleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt. When, in , it fell once more into the power of Scopas, a general of Ptolemy Epiphanes, the Jews helped the troops of Antiochus, who had just defeated Scopas's army, to definitively drive the Egyptian garrison out of the citadel of Jerusalem Antiq. The Seleucids conceived the unfortunate idea of introducing hellenistic-that is, pagan -notions and manners among the Jewish people, especially the sacerdotal and civil aristocracy.

The high-priesthood had become a venal office; Jason was supplanted by Menelaus, and Menelaus by Lysimachus. These unworthy priests at last took up arms against each other, and blood flowed freely on several occasions in the streets of Jerusalem 2 Maccabees 4. Under pretence of stifling these turmoils, Antiochus Epiphanes in entered the Holy City, stormed the fortifications of the Temple, plundered it of its most sacred vessels , massacred 40, persons , and carried off as many more into bondage 1 Maccabees 1: Two years later he sent his general Apollonius to suppress the Jewish religion by force and replace it at Jerusalem with Greek paganism.

The city was dismantled, and the Acra, the citadel which commanded the Temple and served as a garrison for the Syrians and an asylum for renegade Jews , was reinforced. The statue of the Olympian Jupiter was set up in the Temple of the Most High, while a cruel and bloody persecution everywhere broke out against those Jews who were faithful to their traditions 1 Maccabees 1: The priest Mathathias of Hasmon and his five sons known as the Machabees, organized an heroic resistance.

Judas , succeeding on the death of his father , gained four victories over the Syrian armies, occupied Jerusalem , purified the Temple, strengthened the fortifications, and erected a new altar of holocausts. He also repaired the walls of the city. After various repulses and victories he made an alliance with the Roman Empire 1 Maccabees 8. Jonathas succeeded and maintained the struggle with no less heroism and success. He built a wall between the upper city and the Acra, as a barrier against the Syrians. Simon took the place of his brother when Jonathas fell by treachery Three years later, he drove out the Syrian garrison of Acra, razed the fortress, and even levelled the hill on which it had stood-a gigantic undertaking which occupied the entire population for three years Antiq.

Demetrius II and after him Antiochus Sidetes finally recognized the independence of the Jewish people. Simon, with two of his sons, was assassinated by his son-in-law, and his third son, John Hyrcanus I , succeeded him on the throne. Antiochus Sidetes, with a formidable army, came to besiege Jerusalem , but consented to withdraw for a ransom of talents, and Hyrcanus took that sum from the treasures of the royal sepulchre Antiq.

Hyrcanus I was succeeded by his son Aristobulus I, who combined the title of pontiff with that of king, reigning however only one year. His brother and successor, Alexander Jannaeus , considerably enlarged the boundaries of the kingdom by his many brilliant victories. Upon his death Alexandra, his widow , took the reins of government into her hands for nine years, after which she entrusted the high-priesthood and the kingship to her son Hyrcanus II 69 , but his brother Aristobulus took up arms to dispute the possession of the throne. The partisans of Hyrcanus opened the gates of the city to the Romans, but those of Aristobulus entrenched themselves within the fortifications of the Temple, and could not be dislodged until after a siege of three months.

Their resistance was at last overcome on a Sabbath Day; as many as 12, Jews were massacred, and Aristobulus was driven into exile. Pompey restored Hyrcanus to the high-priesthood , with the title of ethnarch, and declared Jerusalem a tributary of Rome Antiq. Under the Roman domination; until A. When Antipater died 43 , Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus II, seized the throne, sent Hyrcanus II into exile among his allies, the Parthians and imprisoned Phasael, who killed himself in despair Antiq.

Herod fled to Rome , where the Senate proclaimed him King of the Jews But it was three years before he wrested Jerusalem from Antigonus, and only after bringing conflagration and bloodshed upon the city. Antigonus, the last of the Hasmonean dynasty, was condemned to death Antiq. He also built a theatre and an amphitheatre for gladiatorial combats. He also enlarged the sanctuary by extending the galleries to the fortress of Antonia, on the north, and connecting it, on the south, with the site of Solomon's palace, so as to erect there a superb stoa, or basilica. The opening of the new Temple took place in the year 10 B.

He built a second strong castle at the northwest angle of Mount Sion, and flanked it with three superb towers--Hippicus, Phasael, and Mariamne. He also opened the tomb of the kings of Juda, in quest of treasure, after which, to allay the popular indignation aroused by his sacrilege, he erected a monument of white marble at the entrance of the tomb Anti. A few months after the visit of the three Wise Men of the East, and the massacre of the Innocents he died of a hideous malady, hated by all his people 4 B.

Archelaus, his son, took the title of king, but in the course of the same year Rome left him with only the title of Ethnarch of Judea , Samaria , and Idumea. Ten years later, he was deposed, and Judea was reduced to the status of a Roman province. Pilate occasioned several seditions, which he stifled with extreme brutality.

Under the administration of Pontius Pilate , Jesus Christ was arrested and put to death. The enthusiasm with which, after the Day of Pentecost, thousands of Jews declared themselves disciples of Jesus Christ provoked a violent persecution of Christians , in which the deacon Stephen was the first martyr Acts 6: Pontius Pilate having one day seized the funds of the Corban to pay for the construction of an aqueduct, a violent uprising of the Jews was thus occasioned Summoned to Rome to give an account of his conduct, he was banished by Caligula Antiq.

Two years later, the emperor made Herod Agrippa I , grandson of Herod , tetrarch of the countries beyond Jordan; in 41 Claudius made him king of Judea. Agrippa undertook the construction of the third wall, to the north of the city Antiq. To please the Jews , he caused St. James the Greater to be beheaded, and intended the same lot for St. Peter, when an angel came and delivered the Prince of the Apostles from his chains Acts Soon afterwards, early in 44, the king died miserably at Caesarea Acts At this epoch there came to Jerusalem Saddan, who was called among the Greeks Helen, Queen of Adiabene, a country situated on the Adiabas, which is an eastern tributary of the Tigris.

Converted to Judaism , together with her numerous family , she comforted the poor with her bounty during a terrible famine cf. It was she who caused to be excavated, for herself and her family , to the north of the city, the imposing sepulchre known as the Tomb of the Kings Antiq. At this time the Blessed Virgin died, and was buried at Gethsemani.

He finished the third wall, which had been commenced by his father , and brought the work upon the sanctuary to a termination in A. Cuspius Fadus, Tiberius Alexander, and Cumanus were successively procurators, from 44 to Then came Felix, Festus, and Albinus, from 52 to With the last four, disorders and massacres occurred incessantly. Gessius Florus 66 surpassed the wickedness of his predecessors, and drove the people to revolt against the Roman domination; Agrippa and his party advocated patience, and appealed to Rome against the procurator ; but after several days of civil war , the insurgent party triumphed over the pacific, massacred the Roman garrison, and set fire to the palaces.

Cestius Gallus, President of Syria , arrived on 30 October, 66, with the Twelfth Legion, but only met with repulses, and had to retire Antiq. The Christians , recalling Christ's prophecies Luke Epiphanius, "De mensuris", xiv, xv. Nero commanded his general, Vespasian , to suppress the insurrection, and Vespasian , accompanied by his son Titus, invaded Galilee , in A.

Most of the strong places had been captured, when the death of the emperor occasioned a suspension of hostilities. After the ephemeral reigns of three emperors, aggregating eighteen months, Vespasian was raised to the throne in November, Titus received from his father the command of the Army of the East, and in the following year, at the season when the Holy City was crowded with those who had come to the Feast of the Passover , he began to lay siege to it.

On the 14th day of Kanthic Bell. On the other side, John of Giscala held the Temple, the Antonia, and the new town at Bezetha, with 11, men, and Simon, the son of Giora, held the upper and lower city, on the southwestern hill, with 10, men. Attacking the third wall, on 9 April, the legions captured that line of defences after fifteen days' fighting. Once master of the new town, Titus took up a position to the west, on the ground known as "the Camp of the Assyrians " Bell.

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Jerusalem (A.D. )

An attack upon the second wall immediately followed. Five days later, the Romans gained entrance by a breach, but were repulsed, and mastered it only after five days of fierce and incessant fighting. Titus could then approach the Antonia, which offered the only way of access to the Temple, and the citadel of Herod , which covered the first wall to the north of Mount Sion. After three days given to repose, the causeways and movable towers were made ready against the Hippicus tower and the Antonia.

But on 17 May the works raised against the Antonia were ruined and destroyed by the soldiers of John of Giscala, and two days later the movable towers which threatened the Hippicus were set on fire by Simon's men, while a heroic struggle was being maintained on both sides.

The Roman general then employed his whole army for three days in surrounding the city with an earthwork of circumvallation, designed to cut off all communication with the city, and so to reduce the place by famine. This soon produced terrible results Bell. After three weeks of fresh preparations, the battering-rams effected a breach in the wall connecting the Antonia with the Temple, near the Pool of Struthius, but in vain. Two days later, the wall crumbled to pieces above a mine prepared by John of Giscala, and a handful of Roman soldiers gained entrance to the Antonia by surprise, at three o'clock in the morning of 20 June Bell.

Titus at once had the fortress demolished, in order to use the materials in constructing mounds against the Temple. For three weeks the Jews desperately defended first the outer porticoes and then the inner, which the Romans entered only at the cost of enormous sacrifices. At last on 23 July, a Roman soldier flung a blazing torch into one of the halls adjoining the Holy of Holies.

In the midst of frightful carnage the fire spread to the neighbouring buildings, and soon the whole platform was one horrible mass of corpses and ruins Bell. The Romans then set fire to the palace in the hollow of El Wad, and to the Ophel; next day they drove the Jews out of the Acra and burned the lower city as far as the Pool of Siloe Bell. There still remained the third rampart, the formidable stronghold of the upper city, where the defenders of the Acra, laden with booty, had joined Simon's men. Eighteen days were devoted to the preparation of the aggeres mounds to the northwest and northeast of the fortress, but scarcely had the battering-rams breached the walls when John and Simon fled secretly with their troops.

On the eighth day of Elul 1 August the city was definitively in the power of the Romans, after a siege of days. To those who congratulated him Titus replied: God , in His wrath against the Jews , has made use of my arm" Bell. The walls of the Temple and those of the city were demolished. But Titus wished to preserve the fortress of the upper city, with the three magnificent towers of Herod's palace.

Besides, the upper city was needed as a fortified station for the Tenth Legion, which was left to garrison Jerusalem. The survivors died in gladiatorial combats or were sold into slavery. Development of the city and its chief monuments Sion, or the City of David, according to tradition "David took the castle of Sion" and "dwelt in the castle, and called it, the city of David: When Solomon had completed the Temple and the House of the Forest of Lebanon, cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, with a porch 30 cubits by 50, he erected the palaces and other buildings.

Lower down, towards the south, in the locality which figures in the post-Exilic texts as the Ophel, we find the Gabaonites Joshua 9: Did Sion, the City of David, occupy the eastern hill or that situated to the southwest? Before the exile, the Jews could not have been ignorant of the location, for the boundary wall of Sion enclosed the sepulchres of the prophet-king and fourteen of his successors; the last two Books of Kings repeat this thirteen times 1 Kings 2: On their return from exile, the old men Ezra 3: Hyrcanus I and Herod the Great even opened these tombs of the kings to find treasure in them Antiq.

The white marble monument erected by the latter seems to have remained standing until A. At any rate the tomb of David was well known among the Jews and the disciples of Christ in the time of St. Now Josephus , an eyewitness, says that the Jebusite city, which became the City of David, occupied the high western plateau of the southwestern hill, which is now known as Mount Sion. In his time it was called "the upper city" Antiq. The word Millo in D. Mello is always translated Acra in the Septuagint and Josephus , and, according to the latter, the Millo, or Mello, occupied the high plateau on the northeast side of the same hill, and was in his time called Acra, "lower city" and "lower market" Antiq.

It was this hill, commanding the Temple, that was levelled by the Hasmoneans Antiq.

Topography

The Talmudists agree with the Jewish historian as to the position of the two markets Neubauer, "La Geographie du Talmud", p. Eusebius of Caesarea Onomasticon, s. Sion on Ophel During the last fifty years many writers have rejected tradition and sought information from the Bible alone, giving some twenty different topographical theories. The theory which places Sion upon Ophel is the only one which apart from certain discrepancies as to the sites of the Mello, the Acra, the palaces of Solomon, etc.

The partisans of this theory, base it upon the following passage: They maintain that Sion was at Ophel for the following reasons: In former times, as now, the Fountain of the Virgin was the only spring which flowed in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Now it was Ezechias who made the tunnel of Siloe. By this passage the king brought the waters of the Fountain of the Virgin to the west of Ophel, that is, of the City of David.

The following objections are made: In the sixth century, Cyril of Scythopolis Vita S. The Bir Eyub, therefore, is no Chanaanean fountain, and the En Rogel must necessarily be the Fountain of the Virgin, the natural peculiarities of which must have made it famous in the country and fitted it to serve as a boundary mark between the tribes of Benjamin and Juda. The grotto of this spring, too, would have afforded a good place of concealment to David's two spies, who hid at En Rogel 2 Samuel Josephus relates that when Titus was besieging Jerusalem many springs flowed so abundantly that they sufficed, not only to give drinking water to the Romans but to irrigate the gardens Bell.

West of the city the ground was covered with gardens Bell. Here Titus pitched his camp and here the officers of Sennacherib halted 2 Kings Cyril of Scythopolis loc. Several fragments of ancient aqueducts have been discovered under the Jaffa Gate and about the Hammana el Batrak, commonly called the Pool of Ezechias. But David , apprised of the plot by the Prophet Nathan, sent Solomon, with the Prophet and the royal guard to Gihon, there to receive the sacred unction without Adonias's knowledge , and to be proclaimed king to the sound of trumpets 1 Kings 1: This has been identified by Clermont-Ganneau with the stone of Zoheleth "Quart.

Wilson and Warren are of the same opinion The Recovery of Jerus. Conder supports the identification upheld "by the common opinion of the learned" "Quart. If the City of David had been on Ophel, would Adonias have held his treasonable banquet under the windows of the royal palace? Would David have been ignorant of this large and noisy gathering until Nathan's arrival?

Would he have sent Solomon into the Valley of Cedron , at the foot of Zoheleth? Would not the partisans of Adonias have heard the sound of trumpets and the shouts of the people before the royal procession had returned to Sion 1 Kings 1: The fact appears to be that, while Adonias had withdrawn to a spot in the Valley of Cedron near En Rogel, Solomon was sent from the opposite side, where was the source of Gihon. On the other hand, Isaias , in the reign of Achaz, the father of Ezechias, speaks 8: The Hebrew inscription found in on the wall of the tunnel is, according to Sayce "Fresh Light", London, , p.

Conder, Maspero, Stade, Renan, and others hold that it antedates the time of Ezechias. Now Ezechias brought the waters of Gihon to a cistern within the city 2 Kings The Hebrews never divided the cardinal points of the compass. But in the poetic books Sion becomes, by metaphor, a synonym for the Temple Ps. Sion sometimes designates the people of Israel Isaiah In the days of the Machabees the City of David, to the west of the Temple, has become the resort of infidels 1 Maccabees 1: Symbolically , the name of Sion was transferred to the Temple and its fortress, which had become the only remaining stronghold of Israel's faith.

But Ophel was always excluded from this symbolical Sion 1 Maccabees The text of the Bible , studied and interpreted on the spot, indicates the same hill for the locality of the holy Sion, the City of David, as does tradition. Archaeology, too, positively confirms tradition. Sion the Upper City The sides of the traditional Mount Sion contain a great many dwelling-places wholly or partly excavated in the rock.

These were, according to the common opinion, the houses of the aboriginal inhabitants. While constructing the Gobat School and the Protestant cemetery, in , to the south of the western plateau of Sion, Maudslay discovered the line of an ancient fortress. Its base is a scarp cut vertically in the rock, about feet in length, and feet in height. To the west and east of this colossal scarp are salients hewn out of the rock, their sides measuring feet.

These are the rock bases of flanking towers. The first is 20 feet in height, and rests upon a plateau of rock rudely shaped into a talus. Along the scarp runs a ditch, which is also dug out of the living rock, having a depth of from 5 to 10 feet and an average width of 18 feet Conder, "The Rock Scarp of Zion" in "Quart. In Bliss took up and continued the work of exploration. From the eastern tower the scarp turns toward the northeast, following the outlines of the high plateau, and the ditch follows uninterruptedly in the same direction.

On account of some houses which are grouped about the Holy Cenacle, the exploration has only been carried on to a length of feet. The scarp was once crowned by a wall some of the stones of which, cut and bevelled, were found in situ , rises to a height of feet above the bed of the Ennom Hinnom see Bliss. This fortress, which was originally isolated, and was constructed with marvellous art, and which was so solid as to defy every attack, occupied the high city indicated by Josephus , "upon much the highest hill, straight along its length, which, by reason of its strong position, had been named by David the citadel" Bell.

It was about feet in length and in breadth. To the north, where it was protected by valley of no great depth, Herod caused a strong castle to be built, which made the position almost impregnable, even against the Roman legions. Thanks to the dimensions and other indications supplied by Josephus , it is thought that the Tower of Phasael may be recognized in the first courses of masonry of the actual Tower of David, and that of Hippicus in the tower to the northwest of the city citadel; that of Mariamne ought to flank the western wall.

On the same side the Gate of the Valley formerly opened 2 Chronicles The high city, which, according to Josephus , was the aristocratic quarter, contained the Cenacle, according to tradition, on the south, next, the palace of Caiaphas , farther on, that of Annas , and, at the southeast angle of Herod's palace, the prison where St. James the Greater was beheaded. From the Tower of Phasael the wall descended, from west to east, upon the southern slope of Mount Sion, and ended at the enclosure of the Temple.

An important fragment of this rampart has been discovered to the east of the Tower of David, and, farther on, another piece, feet long, flanked by two towers, the stone facing of which, on the side towards the valley, remains intact to a height of 39 feet Warren, "Quart. This wall was pierced by the ancient Gate of Ephraim 2 Kings According to tradition, St. Peter was cast into prison in the suburb of Ezechias; after being delivered by the angel , he made his way to the city proper, where he found the iron gate open Acts As early as the sixth century a church marked the site of the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, fifty paces south of this wall Acts This hill, according to Josephus , is the lower city, the Akron of the Syrians, which was levelled by the Hasmoneans Antiq.

It contained the palace of the Hasmoneans and that of Helen of Adiabene Bell. To return to the south of the primitive fortress, a wall of later construction descends from the outer angle, southeast of the eastern tower, towards the pool of Siloe. It is a work of the kings of Juda, if not of Solomon, but, as Bliss has remarked, it has been restored again and again--on the last occasion, by the Empress Eudocia A. At a point feet from the beginning of the wall, exploration has brought to light the remains of a gate with three superimposed floorings of successive periods.

It opens upon a street under which passes a drain leading to Ennom. This is the Dung Gate Nehemiah 2: Here Mount Sion is crossed by two ancient aqueducts of different heights, which bring water from south of Bethlehem Bliss, op. About feet from this gate, Guthe, in , and, later, Bliss, have proved the existence of another gate, also containing three floors and protected by a tower.

This is the Gate of the Fountain Nehemiah 2: Starting from the tower, the wall takes a northwesterly direction and then turns abruptly to the north, leaving the Pool of Siloe outside the city, in accordance with what we are told by Josephus Bell. To the south of the Pool of Siloe the valley is crossed by a great dam, feet long, a vast rain-water reservoir. The dam is 20 feet thick and is finished off, at about half its height, by a wall 10 feet thick, flanked by seven buttresses of equal strength.

In spite, however, of successive reinforcements, it was unequal to resisting the pressure of the water. The Empress Eudocia had a second dam built, fifty feet to the north of the former one. This is "the king's aqueduct" or pool of II Esd. Bliss followed the eastern wall of Mount Sion for only feet, that is, as far as feet north of the Pool of Siloe.

According to Nehemias Nehemiah 3: The wall then formed an angle and then a re-entrant angle Nehemiah 3: On the eastern flank of Ophel it has ascertained that a small fragment of a wall exists, running from southwest to northeast and, feet farther on, a remarkable hydraulic structure anterior in date to the tunnel of Siloe. The latter is a gallery, hewn in the rock, leading to a wall which goes down to the surface level of the Fountain of the Virgin, whence water could be drawn by means of buckets and ropes Wilson and Warren, op.

Beyond doubt , "the water gate" and "the tower that stood out" Nehemiah 3: The wall has been found again at a distance of feet in the same direction; it then turns to the north for a length of 70 feet and runs into the southeast angle of the Temple enclosure. At the elbow formed by this wall, there rose a tower, the "great tower that standeth out" Nehemiah 3: In course of time the kings of Juda prolonged the wall of Ophel so as to protect the eastern enclosure of the Temple. This line was pierced by numerous gates: Lastly, there is the Sheep Gate D.

Of the ancient Temple nothing is now to be seen but the holy rock and a number of cisterns. The Harami esh Sherif is four-sided, and has right angles on the southwest and northeast. The southern wall measures feet and is pierced by three entrances: The eastern and the northern walls are each feet in length; the western The stones are carefully shaped and bevelled, 3 and a half feet in height, the longest of them 20 to 39 feet long, while on the south there is one course, feet long, in which the stones are 7 feet high. Jerusalem became the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Godfrey of Bouillon , was elected Lord of Jerusalem on 22 July , but did not assume the royal crown and died a year later. Christian settlers from the West set about rebuilding the principal shrines associated with the life of Christ. It is during this period of Frankish occupation that the Military Orders of the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar have their beginnings.

Both grew out of the need to protect and care for the great influx of pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem in the 12th century. The Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted until ; however, Jerusalem itself was recaptured by Saladin in see Siege of Jerusalem , who permitted worship of all religions. The story is told that a German-speaking Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. Thus when the knights of the First Crusade came to besiege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to the German city of Worms to repay the favor.

In Benjamin of Tudela visited Jerusalem. He described it as a small city full of Jacobites , Armenians , Greeks , and Georgians. Two hundred Jews dwelt in a corner of the city under the Tower of David. In the walls of the city were razed by order of al-Mu'azzam , the Ayyubid sultan of Damascus. This rendered Jerusalem defenseless and dealt a heavy blow to the city's status. The Ayyubids destroyed the walls in expectation of ceding the city to the Crusaders as part of a peace treaty. In , after a ten-year truce expired, he began to rebuild the walls; these were again demolished by an-Nasir Da'ud , the emir of Kerak , in the same year.

In Jerusalem came again into the power of the Christians, and the walls were repaired. The Khwarezmian Empire took the city in and were in turn driven out by the Ayyubids in In the Mongols under Hulagu Khan engaged in raids into Palestine. It is unclear if the Mongols were ever in Jerusalem, as it was not seen as a settlement of strategic importance at the time. However, there are reports that some of the Jews that were in Jerusalem temporarily fled to neighboring villages.

In the Jewish Catalan sage Nahmanides travelled to Jerusalem. In the Old City he established the Ramban Synagogue , the second oldest active synagogue in Jerusalem, after that of the Karaite Jews built about years earlier. In the middle of the 13th century, Jerusalem was captured by the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate. The first provincial or superior of the Franciscan religious order, founded by Francis of Assisi , was Brother Elia from Assisi.

In the year the founder himself visited the region in order to preach the Gospel to the Muslims, seen as brothers and not enemies. The mission resulted in a meeting with the sultan of Egypt , Malik al-Kamil, who was surprised by his unusual behaviour. From Cyprus , where they took refuge at the end of the Latin Kingdom , the Franciscans started planning a return to Jerusalem, given the good political relations between the Christian governments and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. Around the year the French friar Roger Guerin succeeded in buying the Cenacle [35] the room where the Last Supper took place on Mount Zion and some land to build a monastery nearby for the friars, using funds provided by the king and queen of Naples.

The friars, coming from any of the Order's provinces, under the jurisdiction of the father guardian superior of the monastery on Mount Zion, were present in Jerusalem, in the Cenacle, in the church of the Holy Sepulcher , and in the Basilica of the Nativity at Bethlehem.

Their principal activity was to ensure liturgical life in these Christian sanctuaries and to give spiritual assistance to the pilgrims coming from the West, to European merchants resident or passing through the main cities of Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, and to have a direct and authorized relation with the Eastern Christianity Oriental communities. For the same reason the party guided by Brother Giovanni di Calabria halted in Jerusalem on his way to meet the Christian Negus of Ethiopia In , the visiting Dominican priest Felix Fabri described Jerusalem as "a dwelling place of diverse nations of the world, and is, as it were, a collection of all manner of abominations".

Christians and Jews alike in Jerusalem lived in great poverty and in conditions of great deprivation, there are not many Christians but there are many Jews, and these the Muslims persecute in various ways. In the Friars were expelled by the Turks [39] from the Cenacle and from their adjoining monastery. In , Jerusalem was taken over by the Ottoman Empire and enjoyed a period of renewal and peace under Suleiman the Magnificent , including the construction of the walls of what is now known as the Old City of Jerusalem although some foundations were remains of genuine antique walls.

The rule of Suleiman and subsequent Ottoman Sultans brought an age of "religious peace"; Jew, Christian and Muslim enjoyed freedom of religion and it was possible to find a synagogue, a church and a mosque on the same street. The city remained open to all religions, although the empire's faulty management after Suleiman the Magnificent meant economical stagnation. His disciples built the Hurva Synagogue , which served as the main synagogue in Jerusalem from the 18th century until , when it was destroyed by the Arab Legion. Between and , Jerusalem's Muslim religious leadership and the majority of its inhabitants revolted against the Ottoman governor of the district, Mehmed Pasha Kurd-Bayram in what became known as the Naqib al-Ashraf Revolt.

During the course of the revolt, Jerusalem's residents administered their own affairs, engaging in virtual self-rule, until the central Ottoman authorities restored their control over the city. In the midth century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the city was a backwater, with a population that did not exceed 8, Nevertheless, it was, even then, an extremely heterogeneous city because of its significance to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Tensions between the groups ran so deep that the keys to the shrine and its doors were safeguarded by a pair of 'neutral' Muslim families. At the time, the communities were located mainly around their primary shrines. The Muslim community surrounded the Haram ash-Sharif or Temple Mount northeast , the Christians lived mainly in the vicinity of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre northwest , the Jews lived mostly on the slope above the Western Wall southeast , and the Armenians lived near the Zion Gate southwest.

In no way was this division exclusive, though it did form the basis of the four quarters during the British Mandate — Several changes with long-lasting effects on the city occurred in the midth century: The first such immigrants were Orthodox Jews: At the same time, European colonial powers began seeking toeholds in the city, hoping to expand their influence pending the imminent collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This was also an age of Christian religious revival, and many churches sent missionaries to proselytize among the Muslim and especially the Jewish populations, believing that this would speed the Second Coming of Christ.

Finally, the combination of European colonialism and religious zeal was expressed in a new scientific interest in the biblical lands in general and Jerusalem in particular. Archeological and other expeditions made some spectacular finds, which increased interest in Jerusalem even more.

By the s, the city, with an area of only one square kilometer, was already overcrowded. Thus began the construction of the New City, the part of Jerusalem outside of the city walls. Seeking new areas to stake their claims, the Russian Orthodox Church began constructing a complex, now known as the Russian Compound , a few hundred meters from Jaffa Gate. The first attempt at residential settlement outside the walls of Jerusalem was undertaken by Jews, who built a small complex on the hill overlooking Zion Gate, across the Valley of Hinnom.

This settlement, known as Mishkenot Sha'ananim , eventually flourished and set the precedent for other new communities to spring up to the west and north of the Old City. In time, as the communities grew and connected geographically, this became known as the New City. In , around Jewish families arrived in Jerusalem from Yemen. Initially they were not accepted by the Jews of Jerusalem and lived in destitute conditions supported by the Christians of the Swedish-American colony, who called them Gadites. By the time General Allenby took Jerusalem from the Ottomans in , the new city was a patchwork of neighborhoods and communities, each with a distinct ethnic character.

This continued under British rule, as the New City of Jerusalem grew outside the old city walls and the Old City of Jerusalem gradually emerged as little more than an impoverished older neighborhood. Sir Ronald Storrs , the first British military governor of the city, issued a town planning order requiring new buildings in the city to be faced with sandstone and thus preserving some of the overall look of the city even as it grew.

British rule marked, however, a period of growing unrest. Arab resentment at British rule and the influx of Jewish immigrants by one in six Jews in Palestine lived in Jerusalem boiled over in anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem in , , and the s that caused significant damage and several deaths. In July members of the underground Zionist group Irgun blew up a part of the King David Hotel , where the British forces were temporarily located, an act which led to the death of 91 civilians.

Each state would be composed of three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroads, plus an Arab enclave at Jaffa. Expanded Jerusalem would fall under international control as a Corpus Separatum. Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem during British demolition of recent construction obscuring the historic city walls.

The Jerusalem boundary in and the proposed boundary of a Corpus Separatum. After partition, the fight for Jerusalem escalated, with heavy casualties among both fighters and civilians on the British, Jewish, and Arab sides. By the end of March , just before the British withdrawal, and with the British increasingly reluctant to intervene, the roads to Jerusalem were cut off by Arab irregulars, placing the Jewish population of the city under siege. The siege was eventually broken, though massacres of civilians occurred on both sides, [ citation needed ] before the Arab—Israeli War began with the end of the British Mandate in May According to Benny Morris, due to mob and militia violence on both sides, 1, of the 3, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Old City evacuated to west Jerusalem as a unit.

The comparatively populous Arab village of Lifta today within the bounds of Jerusalem was captured by Israeli troops in , and its residents were loaded on trucks and taken to East Jerusalem. Wasson , was assassinated outside the YMCA building. The United Nations proposed, in its plan for the partition of Palestine , for Jerusalem to be a city under international administration. The city was to be completely surrounded by the Arab state, with only a highway to connect international Jerusalem to the Jewish state.

Following the Arab-Israeli War, Jerusalem was divided. The Western half of the New City became part of the newly formed state of Israel, while the eastern half, along with the Old City, was occupied by Jordan. According to David Guinn,. Concerning Jewish holy sites, Jordan breached its commitment to appoint a committee to discuss, among other topics, free access of Jews to the holy sites under its jurisdiction, mainly in the Western Wall and the important Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives , as provided in the Article 8.

Jordan permitted the paving of new roads in the cemetery, and tombstones were used for paving in Jordanian army camps. The Cave of Shimon the Just became a stable. According to Gerald M. Steinberg , Jordan ransacked 57 ancient synagogues, libraries and centers of religious study in the Old City Of Jerusalem, 12 were totally and deliberately destroyed. Those that remained standing were defaced, used for housing of both people and animals. Appeals were made to the United Nations and in the international community to declare the Old City to be an 'open city' and stop this destruction, but there was no response.

On 23 January , the Knesset passed a resolution that stated Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. The Moroccan Quarter containing several hundred homes was demolished and its inhabitants expelled; thereafter a public plaza was built in its place adjoining the Western Wall. However, the Waqf Islamic trust was granted administration of the Temple Mount and thereafter Jewish prayer on the site was prohibited by both Israeli and Waqf authorities.

Most Jews celebrated the event as a liberation of the city; a new Israeli holiday was created, Jerusalem Day Yom Yerushalayim , and the most popular secular Hebrew song, " Jerusalem of Gold " Yerushalayim shel zahav , became popular in celebration. Many large state gatherings of the State of Israel take place at the Western Wall today, including the swearing-in of various Israel army officers units, national ceremonies such as memorial services for fallen Israeli soldiers on Yom Hazikaron , huge celebrations on Yom Ha'atzmaut Israel Independence Day , huge gatherings of tens of thousands on Jewish religious holidays , and ongoing daily prayers by regular attendees.

The Western Wall has become a major tourist destination spot. Under Israeli control, members of all religions are largely granted access to their holy sites.

Constantine and the holy places (312-337)

The major exceptions being security limitations placed on some Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from accessing holy sites due to their inadmissibility to Jerusalem, as well as limitations on Jews from visiting the Temple Mount due to both politically motivated restrictions where they are allowed to walk on the Mount in small groups, but are forbidden to pray or study while there and religious edicts that forbid Jews from trespassing on what may be the site of the Holy of the Holies. Concerns have been raised about possible attacks on the al-Aqsa Mosque after a serious fire broke in the mosque in started by Denis Michael Rohan , an Australian fundamentalist Christian found by the court to be insane.

Riots broke out following the opening of an exit in the Arab Quarter for the Western Wall Tunnel on the instructions of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , which prior Prime Minister Shimon Peres had instructed to be put on hold for the sake of peace stating "it has waited for over years, it could wait a few more". Conversely, Israeli and other Jews have showed concerns over excavations being done by the Waqf on the Temple Mount that could harm Temple Relics, particularly excavations to the north of Solomon's Stables that were designed to create an emergency exit for them having been pressured to do so by Israeli authorities.

The status of East Jerusalem remains a highly controversial issue. The international community does not recognize the annexation of the eastern part of the city, and most countries, including the US, maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv.

History of Jerusalem

The United States Congress has pledged to move its embassy to Jerusalem, subject to Presidential approval, which has not been forthcoming as the peace process continues. The United Nations Security Council Resolution declared that the Knesset's " Jerusalem Law " declaring Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal and indivisible" capital was "null and void and must be rescinded forthwith". This resolution advised member states to withdraw their diplomatic representation from the city as a punitive measure. Since Israel gained control over East Jerusalem in , Jewish settler organizations have sought to establish a Jewish presence in neighborhoods such as Silwan.

The suspicion arose that some of the transactions were not legal; an examination committee See Jewish Quarter Jerusalem.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. History of ancient Israel and Judah. This article uncritically uses texts from within a religion or faith system without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them. Please help improve this article by adding references to reliable secondary sources , with multiple points of view.

March Learn how and when to remove this template message. April Learn how and when to remove this template message. Jerusalem during the Achaemenid period. Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. History of Jerusalem Middle Ages. History of Jerusalem during the Crusader period.

Jewish life in the Land of Israel under Ottoman rule. Kollel Halukka Montefiore Judah Touro. History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel. Departure from the walls. No other city has played such a dominant role in the history, culture, religion and consciousness of a people as has Jerusalem in the life of Jewry and Judaism. Throughout centuries of exile, Jerusalem remained alive in the hearts of Jews everywhere as the focal point of Jewish history, the symbol of ancient glory, spiritual fulfillment and modern renewal. This heart and soul of the Jewish people engenders the thought that if you want one simple word to symbolize all of Jewish history, that word would be 'Jerusalem.

Each of them appropriated different regions that overlapped in time and competed for sovereignty and land.

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Others, such as Ancient Egyptians , Hittites , Persians , Babylonians , and Mongols , were historical 'events' whose successive occupations were as ravaging as the effects of major earthquakes Like shooting stars, the various cultures shine for a brief moment before they fade out of official historical and cultural records of Palestine. The people, however, survive. In their customs and manners, fossils of these ancient civilizations survived until modernity — albeit modernity camouflaged under the veneer of Islam and Arabic culture.

Acutely aware of the distinctiveness of Palestinian history, the Palestinians saw themselves as the heirs of its rich associations.

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