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Jerusalem's
Ancient Times
Ancient times. Jerusalem's origin dates back about 4,000 years. About
1,000 B.C., King David captured the city from a people called the
Jebusites and made it the capital of the Israelites. David's son, King
Solomon, built a magnificent place of worship, the First Temple, in his
capital city. Solomon also built a great palace complex consisting of
many buildings. After Solomon died in about 928 B.C., his kingdom split
into a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called
Judah. Jerusalem remained the capital of Judah.
In 587 or 586 B.C., the Babylonians conquered Judah,
destroyed Solomon's
Temple, and took many Jews to Babylonia as captives. In 538 B.C.,
Cyrus
the Great, king of Persia, allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem after
he conquered the Babylonians. The returning Jews then rebuilt their
center of worship, the Second Temple.
By about 400 B.C., priests and scribes of the Temple had established
laws governing Jerusalem. They helped the city recover as a religious
center. Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered King Darius III of
Persia in 331 B.C. and took control of Judah in 332 B.C. Alexander and
the kings who succeeded him granted administrative power to the priests
and allowed the Jews to follow their own religion. But in 168 or 167
B.C., King Antiochus IV tried to stop the practice of Judaism. He
angered the Jews by dedicating the Temple to the Greek god Zeus. The
Jews, led by the warrior Judah Maccabee, overthrew Antiochus. About 165
B.C., the Jews recaptured the Temple and rededicated it to God. Judah
Maccabee's family, the priestly Hasmoneans, established an independent
state that lasted about 80 years.
Roman rule. In 63 B.C., the Roman general Pompey the Great
captured
Jerusalem and made it part of the Roman Empire. In 54 B.C., the Roman
general Marcus Licinius Crassus stole the Temple's funds. The Romans
named Herod the Great king of the Jews, and he took control of Jerusalem
in 37 B.C. Herod began a huge building program and made major
architectural changes in the city. He also restored the Temple.
Beginning in A.D. 6, Judea (the Roman name for Judah) had no king.
Jerusalem was ruled by a Roman procurator (administrator). Roman rule
was generally peaceful, but riots were sometimes set off by leaders who
claimed to be sent by God to preserve Judaism. The Romans arrested most
of these leaders, who were called Zealots, and crucified them.
Jesus of
Nazareth arrived in Jerusalem in about A.D. 28 and declared the coming
of the Kingdom of God. His followers believed He was the Messiah. But
Jewish leaders said He had blasphemed (insulted God).
They forced the
Romans to accuse Him of treason and brought Him before the procurator,
Pontius Pilate, who sentenced Him to be crucified.
Roman rule became harsh, and the Jews, led by the Zealots, began a major
revolt in A.D. 66. They seized Jerusalem and held it until the Roman
general Titus retook it in A.D. 70. The Romans destroyed the Temple and
much of the city's fortifications. Only part of the Western Wall of the
Temple Mount remained. Many Jews died during the siege. Survivors were
either executed or enslaved and exiled.
Jerusalem remained largely uninhabited until about 130, when the Roman
emperor Hadrian announced plans to build a Roman city on the site. He
renamed the city Aelia Capitolina and built temples to Roman gods,
including one to the god Jupiter on the Temple Mount. The Jews, led by a
warrior named Bar Kokhba, rebelled again in 132 and recaptured the city.
Hadrian drove out the rebels three years later and tried to end all
Jewish hope of regaining Jerusalem by prohibiting Jews from visiting or
living there. But the city's importance as a spiritual center continued.
By the early 300's, the ban against Jews visiting the city was no longer
strictly enforced. After Constantine the Great became the sole emperor
in 324, he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.
He replaced Jerusalem's Roman structures with Christian monuments and
built several churches there, including the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher. He also restored Jerusalem as the city's name.
In 395, the Roman Empire split into the West Roman Empire and the East
Roman Empire, also called the Byzantine Empire. Jerusalem became part of
the Byzantine Empire.
Muslim rule. In the early 600's, control of Jerusalem changed three
times. First, Persian troops captured the city and held it from 614 to
629. Byzantine forces regained control but lost Jerusalem again in 638,
this time to Muslim Arabs. The Caliph Abd al-Malik constructed the Dome
of the Rock, which was completed in 691.
During the 900's and 1000's, a number of Muslim groups fought for
control of Jerusalem. In 1099, the Crusaders, who were European
Christians, captured Jerusalem from the Muslims
in the First Crusade.
The Crusaders killed both Muslims and Jews and established a Crusader
state called the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Jerusalem served as capital of
the kingdom until 1187, when the Muslim leader Saladin reconquered the
city. Saladin repaired the city walls, and Muslims and Jews returned to
the city in large numbers. Except for a brief period in the 1200's,
Jerusalem remained under Muslim control for more than 700 years. The
city was controlled by the Mamelukes, Muslims from Egypt, from 1250 to
1516. Then the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim empire centered in what is now
Turkey, took the city.
Under the Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem began to grow. At first, most of the
city's population were Muslims, and even Christians greatly outnumbered
Jews. However, increasing numbers of Jews immigrated to the city. By
about 1870, Jews had become the majority group.
By the mid-1800's, construction had spread outside of the walls of the
Old City. New communities in West Jerusalem included Yemin Moshe,
constructed in 1860 with the financial assistance of Sir Moses
Montefiore, a Jewish philanthropist from England. Orthodox Jews built
several neighborhoods north and west of the Old City, particularly Mea Shearim, established in the mid-1870's. Many haredim still live there.
Christian and Muslim groups also built new communities
outside the
walls.
British rule. In December 1917, during World War I, British troops under
General Edmund Allenby captured Jerusalem and ended Ottoman control over
the city. A month earlier, the British government had issued the Balfour
Declaration, an official document supporting a national homeland for
Jews in Palestine. The League of Nations, a forerunner of the United
Nations, made Palestine a mandated territory--that is, an area
administered by Britain, under the League's supervision, in preparation
for self government. The British administration of Palestine centered in
Jerusalem. As a result, many new houses and government buildings were
erected.
Jewish immigration to Jerusalem increased during the 1920's and 1930's.
Two factors stimulated immigration. One was the increasing strength of
the Zionist movement, which advocated a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
The other was the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany, which had
anti-Jewish policies. Many new Jewish neighborhoods, such as Rehavia and
Beit Hakerem, were established, primarily in West Jerusalem.
Anti-Zionist feelings developed among the Arabs in Palestine who wanted
to create an independent Arab state. By the 1930's, severe anti-Jewish
riots had broken out in Jerusalem. In 1947, the British turned over the
question of Palestine's future to the United Nations (UN). The UN voted
to end the British mandate and divide Palestine between the Arabs and
the Jews. Jerusalem would be an international city under UN control.
Arabs quickly responded to the UN resolution by attacking the Jews.
In
May 1948, British control ended and Israel declared its independence.
Arab armies invaded the new state. Jerusalem's Old City came under heavy
shelling, and many civilians were killed. By the end of 1948, Israeli
soldiers held West Jerusalem, and Jordanian troops controlled East
Jerusalem and the Old City. The loss of the Western Wall and other
Jewish shrines bitterly disappointed the Israelis. Armistices between
Israel and neighboring Arab countries ended the war in 1949.
In an agreement that Jordan (then called Transjordan) and Israel signed
in 1948, the two countries established a border called "no man's land."
This strip of land formed the frontier between Israeli and Jordanian
territory. The border ran along the west wall of the Old City and
extended north and south of the wall. Israel established its seat of
government in West.
Israeli control. War again broke out between the Arabs and Israelis in
June 1967. After a brief conflict that Israelis call the
Six-Day War and
others call the June War, Israel captured the Old City and East
Jerusalem. Huge crowds of joyful Jews entered the Old City for the first
time in 19 years to pray at the Western Wall. Israel extended the
boundaries of Jerusalem to make East Jerusalem, the Old City, and nearby
villages part of the city. The people of East Jerusalem were granted the
same rights and responsibilities that all other Israeli residents had,
and were given the opportunity to apply for Israeli citizenship.
In 1980, the Knesset passed a law restating Israel's position that
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The law also guaranteed protection
for the holy places of all religions and continued free access to them.
The future of Jerusalem remains one of the most complex and delicate
issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Palestine Liberation
Organization, the political body that represents the Palestinian people,
would like to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem
as its capital. The Israeli government remains committed to keeping
Jerusalem as both the Israeli capital and an undivided city.
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• Exactly 2520 years from the exile
of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.
•
The first tribe to be
conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh,
in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.
• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant,
(A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt
- page 25
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