Nadene Goldfoot
Like a human baby needs to be developed for 9 months in the mother's womb, so was Jerusalem in the making. It started in the Old Stone Age of mankind, the Paleolithic Period of some 2.58 million years ago when the earliest evidence of man in the area where Jerusalem had appeared; nothing more possibly than a seed of humanity.
The actual foundation of the city started in the Early Bronze Age which was about 3500 BCE to 2000 BCE to the period when the Canaanites first established themselves in the land. Abraham was born in the 2nd millennium, about 1948 BCE. He lived in Ur, an ancient city of Iraq.
Canaan refers to a much broader piece of land, Syria, to be more exact, of the 15th to 13th century BCE and applies to the coastline also of Eretz Yisrael. Before Joshua entered with the people of the Exodus, the country was divided into small city-states. Joshua and others named this land Eretz Yisrael-The Land of Israel, for their common father, Jacob who took the name of Israel. They then called the northern section by another name; Aram, translated is Syria.
Jerusalem appeared as the capital of a Canaanite city state in the ensuing Middle Bronze Age from 2000 to 1550 BCE. It seems to be identical with the Salem that was ruled by Melchi-zedek, the priest of the most high god, who was honored by Abraham in Gen. 14:18-19).
The inhabitants of the land of Canaan were the Canaanites who were traditionally, according to their own legend,descended from Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah of the story of the great Flood. his story has been found in Ur as well on shards of clay tablets.
They were divided into 11 peoples who lived in the land between the Nile River of Egypt and the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia of the East-as recorded in the Torah in Genesis 10:15-19. The name "Canaan" appears in inscriptions from the 15th century BCE, and from the 14th century. The people of Syria used it to describe themselves.
The Hyksos revolution left behind in Jerusalem elements of Hittite and Hurrite habitation. In the Tel el Amarna Period of the 15th century BCE, the city was ruled by a king who was being threatened by the HABIRU invaders, causing him to appeal to his suzerain, the pharaoh, for help. The Egyptians seem to have maintained a Cushite garrison in Jerusalem. This was an Egyptian period where the Hyksos were known to take over ruling in Egypt. Cushites were a Black people. They were from Cush, son of Ham and brother of the Mizraim or Egyptians, like Libya and Morocco and Canaan, tribes found in Africa and southern Arabia. It's when Abraham's father, Terah and his people came to the land from the East, presumably from the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Moses died at age 120 and never made it inside the wall, but his 2nd, Joshua, did, and Joshua led the conquest of Canaan with his 600,000 12 tribes of Jacob (Israel) in about 1320 BE. Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem at the time, was defeated at Aijalon, but his city remained an independent enclave between the tribal areas allotted to Benjamin and Judah, the bigger tribe.
By the 12th century, Jebus-Jerusalem maintained its independence with the enemy, the Philistine's help, until David finally captured it in about 1010 BCE when he was the 2nd king of Israel, having fought for Saul, its 1st king. Jebus was an early name given to the buildings thought to be a city as the early books of the Torah called it originally.
Jerusalem now became the capital of the United Israel as history tells us in II Samuel 5:6-8: and in I chronicals, 11:4-6. This was its birth. 1010 BCE IN DAVID'S HANDS. That's 3,019 years ago at least. David dealt leniently with the JEBUSITES that inhabited it at the time, but established himself in the city, making it his capital. He set about adding the fortress of Zion and also a HOUSE OF HEROES for his guard. He also constructed a tomb inside the city for himself and his future dynasty.
"But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusite, inhabitant of Jerusalem, so the Jebusite dwelt with the children of Benjamin, in Jerusalem."Judges 1: 21: Although Judah had captured and razed Jerusalem, the Jebusite inhabitants took refuge in the city's citadel, from which Judah was unable to dislodge them. Part of Jerusalem was in the province of Benjamin, and that part remained in the possession of the Jebusites. "I shall not chase them out before you, and they will be unto you as thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you." Judges 2: 3.
The Canaanites seem to have been a mixture of Horites, Hittites and Hebrews from this Hyksos period of the 17th century. Horites were an ancient people from the Caucasian mountains, invaders of Syria and Eretz Yisrael of the 17th century. They brought their Akkadian mythology to their own traditions and then mixed this Sumero-Akkadian culture and gave it to the Hittites. Egyptian documents from the 16th century called Eretz Yisrael as HARU. Before this, it was referred to as RUTENU. Hittites were from the Asia Minor area, of the 15th century BCE and their power went southward to Syria. Their main kingdom fell in about 1200 BCE with continuing small kingdoms around the Euphrates River of the east. They were overrun by the Armenians and the Assyrians. Genesis 10:15 connects the Hittites with the Canaanites and indicates that some lived in Eretz Yisrael at an early period. They were living there when Esau, Abraham's son by the Egyptian, Hagar, took wives from them. The Hitties were one of the 7 people that were conquered by by the Israelites.
And what makes the Israelites so special? It is said that we accepted the 10 Commandments while others had turned it down. We were the stiff-necked ones, meaning that once we made a promise, we'd not weaken, a stubborn people. Jacob. Son of Isaac, son of Abraham, who wrestled with his conscious/angel and took the name after winning as Israel. Abraham was a Hebrew, the Ivrim, a descendant of Eber, grandson of Shem, notated in the Torah under Genesis 10:24. They were people who came from the other side of the Euphrates River or ever ha-nahar. Abfraham is called THE HEBREW in the Torah in Genesis 14:13. The term was later used as THE ISRAELITES. in Exodus 9:1, etc. We find the names (PROPER NOUNS) OF HABIRU and HEBREW. Thoughout our history, Jerusalem has played a central feature, being the capital of Israel since king David. It held Solomon's 1st Temple and after that destruction, was rebuilt as the 2nd Temple until it's destruction in 70 CE.
That's over 1,000 years of being central in our religion of Judaism, given to us by Moses, a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of the tribe of Levi. It was Moses who gave us the 5 books of Moses, giving us our history and our destiny as it was given to him by G-d. He was a man so different from most; raised in the Egyptian royal house as a prince, educated, but humble, so humble that he stuttered, and did not want anyone to worship him, dying in an unknown place, unmarked, to prevent such an abomination to himself. He was a teacher, our first rabbi, actually.
Later, David took Hittites into his warrior units. Solomon, to keep the peace, had the practice of marrying women of enemy clans, so also took Hittite wives.
They were almost all wiped out or assimilated by the Israelites of the 13th century Exodus arrival. They were not the only people the Canaanites had fought against and lost, though. The Philistines along the coast were their enemies of the 12th century, and the Arameans from the North fought them in the 11th century. Those that remained became subjects of David, King of Israel and his son, Solomon, so were absorbed into the Hebrew people. David also fought against these same enemies of Canaan who were trying to dominate the land. There was a period of 400 years of blending of people who lived on this land. Later, the name was preserved for history only among the Sidonians and Phoenicians other than what we can read from the Torah.
This mixture of people making up the Canaanites practiced such things as human sacrifice as seen in Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac at G-d's command. This had ended with Abraham's people and his belief that ensued of one G-d, a belief from a culture of polytheism; a whole family of gods.
David had other plans also for the city's importance. He transferred the Ark of the Covenant there, and by doing so made it also have a double purpose. It became the religious center of Israel.
He was a successful conqueror. He made it the capital of an empire that reached from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River, from where Abraham's people had come from.
David's son, Solomon ruled as king from 970 to 930 BCE and enriched the city from his commercial ventures, and heavy taxation of his people, unfortunately, as told about in I King 10:27-9. He also enlarged the city by adding the Palace and the Temple, his main building achievement that was his life-long goal.
"He filled the gap between these 2 structures and David's city with the MILO or filling. The erection of the Temple transformed Jerusalem definitely into the permanent center of the Jewish religion, notwithstanding all later separatist efforts.
Solomon died in 920 BCE . His son continued to tax harshly, causing the secession of the 10 northern tribes. Jerusalem remained as the capital of Judah being their land was part of the holy city's land, and the Davidic dynasty continued to rule from there till Babylon invaded in 586 BCE. So for the longest time there were 2 states; Israel of the north and Judah of the south.
During this period, the 10 northern tribes tried to take over the land since one of the their kings of Israel, JEHOASH (800-785 BCE), made a breach in its wall in 785 BCE. The kings of ARAM had also tried. Jerusalem was plundered by SHISHAK OF EGYPT in 905 BCE. SENNACHERIB OF ASSYRIA surrounded it in 701 BCE. It was in preparation for this siege that HEZEKIAH King of Judah(720-692 BCE) cut a tunnel, which was then named after him, by which the waters of the Gihon river were permanently diverted from SILOAM into the LOWER POOL inside the city.
The city had walls around it for protection. It's walls were strengthened during this time by AZARIAH-UZZIAH, king of Judah (780- 740 BCE) who added towers and engines. JOTHAM, his son and king (740-735 BCE) and Hezekiah made "the other wall" to encompass his pool.
Finally, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian ruler, NEBUCHADNEZZAR in 586 BCE. This was followed by the deportation of most of the population and the destruction of the Temple and Royal Palace. The Jews were taken to Babylon, but some were allowed to return within 50 years and renewed the Temple worship by 519 BCE. Jerusalem thus became the capital of a Persian province that was autonomous in internal matters, and was under the rule of the high priest of the HOUSE OF ZADOK.
In the 5th century BCE, its walls were repaired by NEHEMIAH, while Ezra was the religious guide, getting them back into the Torah. All nobles and 1/10 of the people were brought to the city to populate it once again. A theocratic rule continued into hellenistic times, when the city prospered materially. This was because of the growth of a Jewish Diaspora which looked upon Jerusalem as its spiritual center.
What was now happening was a growing HELLENIZATION because they were under Ptolemaic rule from 312 to 198 BCE. Then they were under the SELEUCIDS, which led to an attempt to establish a Greek city on the western ridge. Their ruler, ANTIOCHUS IV was of course in favor of the Hellenizers which led to the desecration of the Temple and a religious persecution which cause the HASMONEAN REVOLT. JUDAH THE MACCABEE fought for 2 years and then could occupy the Temple Hill (TEMPLE MOUNT) and restored the Temple service by 164 BCE. Acra- the hellenistic fortress, stayed in these alien's hands until 141 BCE, but Jewish rule in Jerusalem itself was restored under Jonathan in 152 BCE.
In this HASMONEAN PERIOD, Jerusalem again became the capital of the WHOLE LAND OF ISRAEL.
By 63 BCE, along came a Roman General, Pompey, who profited from internecine warfare between the Hasmoneans, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, to occupy Jerusalem. It seems that every surrounding power wanted this beautiful city. A troubled period followed during which the city was captured by the PARTHIANS in 40 BCE.
It fell-and a long siege followed, and the city went to Herod of the Romans in 37 BCE. He ruled it as a Roman vassal until his death in 4 BCE. Herod had built a palace in the NW quarter of the city and protected it with 3 great towers.
The base of one of these was the tower Phasael, called THE TOWER OF DAVID, and is still a tower one can see. He also rebuilt THE TEMPLE on a huge scale by erecting a huge surrounding esplanade. Parts of his outer wall are known as THE WESTERN WALL-OR WAILING WALL one goes to today as the special Jewish place to pray. At the NW corner of the esplanade he erected the fortress ANTONIA.
After Herod had died, and the deposition of his son and successor, Archaelaus in 6 CE, the city was ruled by ROMAN PROCURATORS, except during the reign of Agrippa I from 41 to 44 who began to build a 3rd wall to the north.
During Pontius Pilate's rule, as he is the famous procurators, the Jew, Jesus, was crucified in Jerusalem in 29 CE, one of thousands of Jews that had suffered such a fate by the hands of the Romans. Roman rule was always bad, and the people revolted in 66. The people enjoyed 3 years of independence and then were besieged by the Romans again, this time under TITUS but had displayed a heroic resistance.
In 70 CE the worst happened. The Temple and most of the building were destroyed and a Roman garrison was built on its ruins. The city was burned down after starving the inhabitants. The scene was written about by Josephus, a Jewish general who went over to the Roman side and wrote his people's history of that period for them. The horror they went through is unforgivable.
Another revolt by the Jews took place by 132 with General Bar Kokhba leading it. He and his men took Jerusalem and held out for another 3 year period, something needed by the Romans to recapitulate. Kokhba was shot dead in 135.
The Roman emperor HADRIAN rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman colony and called it Aelia Capitolona. He forbid Jews to even come near it under pain of death. The whole Roman Empire was now undergoing a period of Christianization under Constantine. Jerusalem became its holy city for this new religion, probably because many of Jesus's followers had been Jews. The emperor's mother, Helena in 325 made a visit to the city and after that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in 335. By then Jerusalem had become a city of churches and monastaries. Pilgrims were visiting and religious arguments were going on.
In 363 Emperor Julian made a try at restoring the Temple. in 614 it was occupied for some years by the Persians, helped by a Jewish force, but by 628, Byzantine rule had restored it by the emperor Heraclius.
In 638, the city fell to the caliph Omar who set up a place of prayer in the Temple esplanade. This was rebuilt beautifully in 691 as the DOME OF THE ROCK by the Umayyad caliph, Abd-el Malik. Under Arab rule, the Jews were allowed to return, but the city began to decay after the transfer of the center of Abbasid rule in Baghdad in 750. All cities everywhere need upkeep.
The Fatimids in the 11th century built the 2nd principal mosque, El-Aksa on the Temple site.
In 1099, Jerusalem was stormed by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, establishing Jerusalem now as the capital of the Latin Kingdom. They destroyed the Jewish community here, was almost non-existent by the 13th century, and was then reinforced by pious immigrants from many lands fleeing Christianity, such as by 1492 when the Spanish Inquisition was in full force, creeping up through the years previously. Crusaders had entered a learned Jew's home, killed his wife and daughters before his eyes, and left him in shock, just one of the onslaughts that happened to Jews during this period. This is not to forget that the Crusaders slaughtered Jews all the way through Europe on their way to the "Holy land,' holy to them for their newer Christian beliefs.
In 1187, the Ayyubid sultan, Saladin, retook the city for Islam and it remained in Moslem hands, except for a few years in the middle of the 13th century, though the Christians kept trying to retake it in the many following crusades, and thereby managed to kill more Jews in the attempts.
The Mameluke Period of the 14th and 15th centuries came next when many new building were built and the water supply was improved.
The Ottoman Empire held it until World War I's ending in 1917, a total of 400 years. Under Ottoman rule Jerusalem decayed until the 18th and 19th century when the city reached its nadir; its population sank below 10,000 and part of its area lay in ruins.
It turned into swamps full of mosquitoes and sandy deserts, a place where Bedouins rode through on camels, and that was it. The Ottomans restricted the many Jews wanting to enter their ancient land.
It was in 1625 that Jews were brutally injured and killed by the local pasha Muhammad ibn Farukh. However, the European influence in the 19th century and the influx of Jewish immigration brought about a revival of Jewish population from 11,000 people of which 3,000 were Jews in 1838 to 68,000 people, of which 50,000 were Jews in 1910. That's due to the Russian pogroms against Jews, causing many to come in the 1880s and on in groups of 5 alliyote or moves to the Ottoman empire's holdings of Palestine, run by the Turks.
New quarters were built outside the Old City wall and were pioneered by Sir Moses Montefiore from 1855 on. In the 1880s, Jerusalem was connected with the city of Jaffa by a railway line. In 1898, the German emperor, William II, visited the city through a breach made in its wall near the Jaffa Gate in his honor. He was greeted on this occasion by Theodore Herzl on behalf of the Zionist organization. Jerusalem's continued building projects were interrupted by World War I, during which the population fell to 50,000.
December 1917 after the War, and now the city was occupied by the English General Allenby at the head of a British army. They were part of the Allied countries who fought against Germany and their Axis countries. Jerusalem and all of what they called PALESTINE WAS UNDER THE MANDATE, A PERIOD OF 30 YEARS OF THEIR RULE.
The land was to see rapid growth with Jewish immigration increasing in 1946 after World War II. The population of Jerusalem had reached 165,000 of whom 100,000 were Jews. The city expanded and the Hebrew University was erected on Mt. Scopus. This is where Dr. Shalva Weil works, an anthropologist, who studied the Pashtuns and came to the realization that they were indeed carrying the history of their northern Israelite ancestors. "Weil has published extensively on the Ten Lost Tribes historically and in contemporary times. In particular, she has written on the Beta Israel, the Bene Israel, and the Pathans, as well as on Judaising groups all over Africa, China and elsewhere. In 1991, she curated an exhibition at Beth Hatefutsoth: the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora on the Ten Lost Tribes entitled "Beyond the Sambatyon: the Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes". She is on the international board of ISSAJ [International Society for the Study of African Jewry]."
History has continued, but this much has covered a time Jerusalem was in King David's hands as his capital in 1010 BCE to 1946, almost 3 thousand years. Jerusalem is younger than our religion, given to us through Moses who lived from 1391 to 1271 BCE. The last 40 years of his life was his time of teaching while on the Exodus. Our ancestors were fully Jews knowing what they were to know by 1271 BCE, making our religion 3,290 years old this year. This is why Jerusalem means so much to us. We were told never ever to forget her, lest our hands lose their cunning, a good way of putting it over 3,000 years ago. And we never have forgotten her. We were given a value system to live by, and that has been maintained through changing cultures around us and their changing value systems they chose to live by. Every enemy that has come along has not deterred our main body of people caring for our system of life. Our religion has had to fit in with a world in constant growth, and it has maintained, right along with the most ancient of soils.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, 1992
https://www.britannica.com/event/Paleolithic-Period
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalva_Weil
The Source by James Mitchener
Tanakh, (Old Testament)
https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/uncategorized/2019/04/paying-taxes-in-biblical-israel/
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| At the Kotel, called the Wailing Wall in the 1800s and 1900s Jerusalem, City of King David |
Like a human baby needs to be developed for 9 months in the mother's womb, so was Jerusalem in the making. It started in the Old Stone Age of mankind, the Paleolithic Period of some 2.58 million years ago when the earliest evidence of man in the area where Jerusalem had appeared; nothing more possibly than a seed of humanity.
The actual foundation of the city started in the Early Bronze Age which was about 3500 BCE to 2000 BCE to the period when the Canaanites first established themselves in the land. Abraham was born in the 2nd millennium, about 1948 BCE. He lived in Ur, an ancient city of Iraq.
Canaan refers to a much broader piece of land, Syria, to be more exact, of the 15th to 13th century BCE and applies to the coastline also of Eretz Yisrael. Before Joshua entered with the people of the Exodus, the country was divided into small city-states. Joshua and others named this land Eretz Yisrael-The Land of Israel, for their common father, Jacob who took the name of Israel. They then called the northern section by another name; Aram, translated is Syria.
Jerusalem appeared as the capital of a Canaanite city state in the ensuing Middle Bronze Age from 2000 to 1550 BCE. It seems to be identical with the Salem that was ruled by Melchi-zedek, the priest of the most high god, who was honored by Abraham in Gen. 14:18-19).
The inhabitants of the land of Canaan were the Canaanites who were traditionally, according to their own legend,descended from Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah of the story of the great Flood. his story has been found in Ur as well on shards of clay tablets.
They were divided into 11 peoples who lived in the land between the Nile River of Egypt and the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia of the East-as recorded in the Torah in Genesis 10:15-19. The name "Canaan" appears in inscriptions from the 15th century BCE, and from the 14th century. The people of Syria used it to describe themselves.
The Hyksos revolution left behind in Jerusalem elements of Hittite and Hurrite habitation. In the Tel el Amarna Period of the 15th century BCE, the city was ruled by a king who was being threatened by the HABIRU invaders, causing him to appeal to his suzerain, the pharaoh, for help. The Egyptians seem to have maintained a Cushite garrison in Jerusalem. This was an Egyptian period where the Hyksos were known to take over ruling in Egypt. Cushites were a Black people. They were from Cush, son of Ham and brother of the Mizraim or Egyptians, like Libya and Morocco and Canaan, tribes found in Africa and southern Arabia. It's when Abraham's father, Terah and his people came to the land from the East, presumably from the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
By the 12th century, Jebus-Jerusalem maintained its independence with the enemy, the Philistine's help, until David finally captured it in about 1010 BCE when he was the 2nd king of Israel, having fought for Saul, its 1st king. Jebus was an early name given to the buildings thought to be a city as the early books of the Torah called it originally.
Jerusalem now became the capital of the United Israel as history tells us in II Samuel 5:6-8: and in I chronicals, 11:4-6. This was its birth. 1010 BCE IN DAVID'S HANDS. That's 3,019 years ago at least. David dealt leniently with the JEBUSITES that inhabited it at the time, but established himself in the city, making it his capital. He set about adding the fortress of Zion and also a HOUSE OF HEROES for his guard. He also constructed a tomb inside the city for himself and his future dynasty.
"But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusite, inhabitant of Jerusalem, so the Jebusite dwelt with the children of Benjamin, in Jerusalem."Judges 1: 21: Although Judah had captured and razed Jerusalem, the Jebusite inhabitants took refuge in the city's citadel, from which Judah was unable to dislodge them. Part of Jerusalem was in the province of Benjamin, and that part remained in the possession of the Jebusites. "I shall not chase them out before you, and they will be unto you as thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you." Judges 2: 3.
The Canaanites seem to have been a mixture of Horites, Hittites and Hebrews from this Hyksos period of the 17th century. Horites were an ancient people from the Caucasian mountains, invaders of Syria and Eretz Yisrael of the 17th century. They brought their Akkadian mythology to their own traditions and then mixed this Sumero-Akkadian culture and gave it to the Hittites. Egyptian documents from the 16th century called Eretz Yisrael as HARU. Before this, it was referred to as RUTENU. Hittites were from the Asia Minor area, of the 15th century BCE and their power went southward to Syria. Their main kingdom fell in about 1200 BCE with continuing small kingdoms around the Euphrates River of the east. They were overrun by the Armenians and the Assyrians. Genesis 10:15 connects the Hittites with the Canaanites and indicates that some lived in Eretz Yisrael at an early period. They were living there when Esau, Abraham's son by the Egyptian, Hagar, took wives from them. The Hitties were one of the 7 people that were conquered by by the Israelites.
And what makes the Israelites so special? It is said that we accepted the 10 Commandments while others had turned it down. We were the stiff-necked ones, meaning that once we made a promise, we'd not weaken, a stubborn people. Jacob. Son of Isaac, son of Abraham, who wrestled with his conscious/angel and took the name after winning as Israel. Abraham was a Hebrew, the Ivrim, a descendant of Eber, grandson of Shem, notated in the Torah under Genesis 10:24. They were people who came from the other side of the Euphrates River or ever ha-nahar. Abfraham is called THE HEBREW in the Torah in Genesis 14:13. The term was later used as THE ISRAELITES. in Exodus 9:1, etc. We find the names (PROPER NOUNS) OF HABIRU and HEBREW. Thoughout our history, Jerusalem has played a central feature, being the capital of Israel since king David. It held Solomon's 1st Temple and after that destruction, was rebuilt as the 2nd Temple until it's destruction in 70 CE.
That's over 1,000 years of being central in our religion of Judaism, given to us by Moses, a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of the tribe of Levi. It was Moses who gave us the 5 books of Moses, giving us our history and our destiny as it was given to him by G-d. He was a man so different from most; raised in the Egyptian royal house as a prince, educated, but humble, so humble that he stuttered, and did not want anyone to worship him, dying in an unknown place, unmarked, to prevent such an abomination to himself. He was a teacher, our first rabbi, actually.
Later, David took Hittites into his warrior units. Solomon, to keep the peace, had the practice of marrying women of enemy clans, so also took Hittite wives.
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| A bedouin lad of the Negev Desert of Israel |
They were almost all wiped out or assimilated by the Israelites of the 13th century Exodus arrival. They were not the only people the Canaanites had fought against and lost, though. The Philistines along the coast were their enemies of the 12th century, and the Arameans from the North fought them in the 11th century. Those that remained became subjects of David, King of Israel and his son, Solomon, so were absorbed into the Hebrew people. David also fought against these same enemies of Canaan who were trying to dominate the land. There was a period of 400 years of blending of people who lived on this land. Later, the name was preserved for history only among the Sidonians and Phoenicians other than what we can read from the Torah.
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| Canaanites believed in idols such as this of baal. Abraham's father, Terah, was a idol maker in Ur. |
This mixture of people making up the Canaanites practiced such things as human sacrifice as seen in Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac at G-d's command. This had ended with Abraham's people and his belief that ensued of one G-d, a belief from a culture of polytheism; a whole family of gods.
David had other plans also for the city's importance. He transferred the Ark of the Covenant there, and by doing so made it also have a double purpose. It became the religious center of Israel.
He was a successful conqueror. He made it the capital of an empire that reached from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River, from where Abraham's people had come from.
David's son, Solomon ruled as king from 970 to 930 BCE and enriched the city from his commercial ventures, and heavy taxation of his people, unfortunately, as told about in I King 10:27-9. He also enlarged the city by adding the Palace and the Temple, his main building achievement that was his life-long goal.
"He filled the gap between these 2 structures and David's city with the MILO or filling. The erection of the Temple transformed Jerusalem definitely into the permanent center of the Jewish religion, notwithstanding all later separatist efforts.
Solomon died in 920 BCE . His son continued to tax harshly, causing the secession of the 10 northern tribes. Jerusalem remained as the capital of Judah being their land was part of the holy city's land, and the Davidic dynasty continued to rule from there till Babylon invaded in 586 BCE. So for the longest time there were 2 states; Israel of the north and Judah of the south.
During this period, the 10 northern tribes tried to take over the land since one of the their kings of Israel, JEHOASH (800-785 BCE), made a breach in its wall in 785 BCE. The kings of ARAM had also tried. Jerusalem was plundered by SHISHAK OF EGYPT in 905 BCE. SENNACHERIB OF ASSYRIA surrounded it in 701 BCE. It was in preparation for this siege that HEZEKIAH King of Judah(720-692 BCE) cut a tunnel, which was then named after him, by which the waters of the Gihon river were permanently diverted from SILOAM into the LOWER POOL inside the city.
The city had walls around it for protection. It's walls were strengthened during this time by AZARIAH-UZZIAH, king of Judah (780- 740 BCE) who added towers and engines. JOTHAM, his son and king (740-735 BCE) and Hezekiah made "the other wall" to encompass his pool.
Finally, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian ruler, NEBUCHADNEZZAR in 586 BCE. This was followed by the deportation of most of the population and the destruction of the Temple and Royal Palace. The Jews were taken to Babylon, but some were allowed to return within 50 years and renewed the Temple worship by 519 BCE. Jerusalem thus became the capital of a Persian province that was autonomous in internal matters, and was under the rule of the high priest of the HOUSE OF ZADOK.
In the 5th century BCE, its walls were repaired by NEHEMIAH, while Ezra was the religious guide, getting them back into the Torah. All nobles and 1/10 of the people were brought to the city to populate it once again. A theocratic rule continued into hellenistic times, when the city prospered materially. This was because of the growth of a Jewish Diaspora which looked upon Jerusalem as its spiritual center.
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| Antiochus III |
In this HASMONEAN PERIOD, Jerusalem again became the capital of the WHOLE LAND OF ISRAEL.
By 63 BCE, along came a Roman General, Pompey, who profited from internecine warfare between the Hasmoneans, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, to occupy Jerusalem. It seems that every surrounding power wanted this beautiful city. A troubled period followed during which the city was captured by the PARTHIANS in 40 BCE.
It fell-and a long siege followed, and the city went to Herod of the Romans in 37 BCE. He ruled it as a Roman vassal until his death in 4 BCE. Herod had built a palace in the NW quarter of the city and protected it with 3 great towers.
The base of one of these was the tower Phasael, called THE TOWER OF DAVID, and is still a tower one can see. He also rebuilt THE TEMPLE on a huge scale by erecting a huge surrounding esplanade. Parts of his outer wall are known as THE WESTERN WALL-OR WAILING WALL one goes to today as the special Jewish place to pray. At the NW corner of the esplanade he erected the fortress ANTONIA.
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| Crucifictions were common used by the Romans against Jews |
During Pontius Pilate's rule, as he is the famous procurators, the Jew, Jesus, was crucified in Jerusalem in 29 CE, one of thousands of Jews that had suffered such a fate by the hands of the Romans. Roman rule was always bad, and the people revolted in 66. The people enjoyed 3 years of independence and then were besieged by the Romans again, this time under TITUS but had displayed a heroic resistance.
In 70 CE the worst happened. The Temple and most of the building were destroyed and a Roman garrison was built on its ruins. The city was burned down after starving the inhabitants. The scene was written about by Josephus, a Jewish general who went over to the Roman side and wrote his people's history of that period for them. The horror they went through is unforgivable.
Another revolt by the Jews took place by 132 with General Bar Kokhba leading it. He and his men took Jerusalem and held out for another 3 year period, something needed by the Romans to recapitulate. Kokhba was shot dead in 135.
The Roman emperor HADRIAN rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman colony and called it Aelia Capitolona. He forbid Jews to even come near it under pain of death. The whole Roman Empire was now undergoing a period of Christianization under Constantine. Jerusalem became its holy city for this new religion, probably because many of Jesus's followers had been Jews. The emperor's mother, Helena in 325 made a visit to the city and after that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in 335. By then Jerusalem had become a city of churches and monastaries. Pilgrims were visiting and religious arguments were going on.
In 363 Emperor Julian made a try at restoring the Temple. in 614 it was occupied for some years by the Persians, helped by a Jewish force, but by 628, Byzantine rule had restored it by the emperor Heraclius.
The Fatimids in the 11th century built the 2nd principal mosque, El-Aksa on the Temple site.
In 1099, Jerusalem was stormed by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, establishing Jerusalem now as the capital of the Latin Kingdom. They destroyed the Jewish community here, was almost non-existent by the 13th century, and was then reinforced by pious immigrants from many lands fleeing Christianity, such as by 1492 when the Spanish Inquisition was in full force, creeping up through the years previously. Crusaders had entered a learned Jew's home, killed his wife and daughters before his eyes, and left him in shock, just one of the onslaughts that happened to Jews during this period. This is not to forget that the Crusaders slaughtered Jews all the way through Europe on their way to the "Holy land,' holy to them for their newer Christian beliefs.
In 1187, the Ayyubid sultan, Saladin, retook the city for Islam and it remained in Moslem hands, except for a few years in the middle of the 13th century, though the Christians kept trying to retake it in the many following crusades, and thereby managed to kill more Jews in the attempts.
The Mameluke Period of the 14th and 15th centuries came next when many new building were built and the water supply was improved.
The Ottoman Empire held it until World War I's ending in 1917, a total of 400 years. Under Ottoman rule Jerusalem decayed until the 18th and 19th century when the city reached its nadir; its population sank below 10,000 and part of its area lay in ruins.
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| The early Jewish pioneers clearing out the swamps, suffering from malaria from the mosquitoes living there |
It turned into swamps full of mosquitoes and sandy deserts, a place where Bedouins rode through on camels, and that was it. The Ottomans restricted the many Jews wanting to enter their ancient land.
It was in 1625 that Jews were brutally injured and killed by the local pasha Muhammad ibn Farukh. However, the European influence in the 19th century and the influx of Jewish immigration brought about a revival of Jewish population from 11,000 people of which 3,000 were Jews in 1838 to 68,000 people, of which 50,000 were Jews in 1910. That's due to the Russian pogroms against Jews, causing many to come in the 1880s and on in groups of 5 alliyote or moves to the Ottoman empire's holdings of Palestine, run by the Turks.
New quarters were built outside the Old City wall and were pioneered by Sir Moses Montefiore from 1855 on. In the 1880s, Jerusalem was connected with the city of Jaffa by a railway line. In 1898, the German emperor, William II, visited the city through a breach made in its wall near the Jaffa Gate in his honor. He was greeted on this occasion by Theodore Herzl on behalf of the Zionist organization. Jerusalem's continued building projects were interrupted by World War I, during which the population fell to 50,000.
December 1917 after the War, and now the city was occupied by the English General Allenby at the head of a British army. They were part of the Allied countries who fought against Germany and their Axis countries. Jerusalem and all of what they called PALESTINE WAS UNDER THE MANDATE, A PERIOD OF 30 YEARS OF THEIR RULE.
The land was to see rapid growth with Jewish immigration increasing in 1946 after World War II. The population of Jerusalem had reached 165,000 of whom 100,000 were Jews. The city expanded and the Hebrew University was erected on Mt. Scopus. This is where Dr. Shalva Weil works, an anthropologist, who studied the Pashtuns and came to the realization that they were indeed carrying the history of their northern Israelite ancestors. "Weil has published extensively on the Ten Lost Tribes historically and in contemporary times. In particular, she has written on the Beta Israel, the Bene Israel, and the Pathans, as well as on Judaising groups all over Africa, China and elsewhere. In 1991, she curated an exhibition at Beth Hatefutsoth: the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora on the Ten Lost Tribes entitled "Beyond the Sambatyon: the Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes". She is on the international board of ISSAJ [International Society for the Study of African Jewry]."
History has continued, but this much has covered a time Jerusalem was in King David's hands as his capital in 1010 BCE to 1946, almost 3 thousand years. Jerusalem is younger than our religion, given to us through Moses who lived from 1391 to 1271 BCE. The last 40 years of his life was his time of teaching while on the Exodus. Our ancestors were fully Jews knowing what they were to know by 1271 BCE, making our religion 3,290 years old this year. This is why Jerusalem means so much to us. We were told never ever to forget her, lest our hands lose their cunning, a good way of putting it over 3,000 years ago. And we never have forgotten her. We were given a value system to live by, and that has been maintained through changing cultures around us and their changing value systems they chose to live by. Every enemy that has come along has not deterred our main body of people caring for our system of life. Our religion has had to fit in with a world in constant growth, and it has maintained, right along with the most ancient of soils.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, 1992
https://www.britannica.com/event/Paleolithic-Period
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalva_Weil
The Source by James Mitchener
Tanakh, (Old Testament)
https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/uncategorized/2019/04/paying-taxes-in-biblical-israel/
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