Written by archimandrite assoc. prof. Pavel Stefanov, Shumen College “Bishop Konstantin Preslavski” – Bulgaria
The sight of Jerusalem bathed in a blinding religious mild is thrilling and distinctive. Located amongst increased mountains on the banks of a deep gorge, town radiates a continuing imperishable glow. Even when it had no specific historic significance, it could nonetheless arouse robust emotions with its uncommon look. Seen from the peaks of Skopos and Eleon, the horizon is plagued by medieval fortifications and towers, gilded domes, battlements, crumbling stays from Roman and Arab instances. Round it are valleys and slopes, reworked into spacious, inexperienced lawns that change even the properties of sunshine. The view is fascinating.
In accordance with the traditions of King David, he’s referred to as Jebus. In Hebrew, Yerushalayim means “metropolis of peace” (this etymology isn’t fairly specified – p. r.), which is a paradox, as a result of in its thousand-year historical past it has recognized only a few durations of peace. In Arabic, its identify is al-Quds, which suggests “holy”. It’s an historic Center Japanese metropolis on the watershed between the Mediterranean and the Lifeless Sea at an altitude of 650-840 m. It represents an unimaginable combination of monuments of historical past, tradition and peoples with an enormous quantity of sights. From historic instances, this small provincial metropolis was referred to as the “navel” or “middle” of the world due to its distinctive non secular significance (so it is usually referred to as within the prophet Ezekiel 5:5 – b. r). [i] At completely different instances, Jerusalem was a possession of the Kingdom of Judea, the State of Alexander the Nice, Seleucid Syria, the Roman Empire, Byzantium, the Arab Caliphate, the Crusaders, the Ayyubid State, the Tatar-Mongols, the Mamluks, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire.[ii]
The age of Jerusalem exceeds 3500 years.[1] Archaeological analysis of this metropolis, which occupies an distinctive place on the planet’s religious historical past, started in 1864 and continues to at the present time.[2] The identify Shalem (Salem) was first talked about in 2300 BC. within the paperwork of Ebla (Syria) and within the inscriptions of the XII Egyptian dynasty. In accordance with one model, it’s a possible predecessor of Jerusalem.[3] Within the nineteenth century BC point out is fabricated from Melchizedek, king of Salem. In accordance with the Bible, he met Abraham and the king of Sodom after a victorious battle and offered him with bread and wine, taking a tithe of them (Gen. 14:18-20). Within the New Testomony epistle to the Hebrews (5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1, 10-11, 15, 17, 21) St. Apostle Paul proves the priestly dignity of Jesus Christ within the order of Melchizedek.
Within the XIV century BC. throughout excavations by the Franciscan Fathers across the “Dominus Flevit” (“Lament of the Lord”) chapel, ceramic and earthenware gadgets courting again to the sixteenth century BC, in addition to an decoration within the type of a scarab beetle from Egypt, have been found. An opportunity discover, a set of cuneiform tablets from Inform el-Amarna in Higher Egypt (ca. 1350 BC), sheds mild on the royal archive of Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten. Amongst some 400 notices on clay of princes and chiefs in Palestine, Phoenicia and southern Syria are eight by one Abdu Heba, ruler of Jerusalem and vassal of Egypt. In his anxious letters to the pharaoh, Abdu Heba begs for reinforcements, which he doesn’t obtain, and loses the pharaoh’s land “from habiru”. Who have been these “habiru” tribes? The connection between them and the traditional Jews stays a matter of conjecture.
The historical past of Jerusalem begins with the proto-urban interval, to which a number of burials refer. With its first settlement within the Late Bronze Age, it grew to become a metropolis of the Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe. It’s positioned on Mount Ophel (on the southeastern outskirts of present-day Jerusalem). “However the sons of Judah couldn’t drive out the Jebusites, residents of Jerusalem, and due to this fact the Jebusites stay with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem even to at the present time” (Isa. Nav. 15:63).[4]
From 922 to 586 BC. Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish kingdom. Town was captured by the Jews, led by King David (within the final decade, the opinion prevailed that town was not captured by pressure – b. r.). David discovered an historic sanctuary present right here and renamed town Zion.[5] He constructed a palace (2 Kings 5:11), however its foundations haven’t but been found. The king renovated town and the partitions, together with the so-called Milo (1 Chronicles 11:8). The which means of this time period is unclear, however it’s thought to discuss with the terraces and foundations of the acropolis. Solomon turns Jerusalem right into a lavish capital. He doubled the dimensions of town and constructed a temple complicated on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1).[6] The pious king Hezekiah (727-698) rebuilt the fortress partitions and dug a water provide tunnel.[7] The Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem in 701, however an angel of the Lord killed 185,000 of his troopers and the invaders retreated.
In 598 BC. the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem, which falls, and the Judean king Jeconiah is taken captive to Babylon. Zedekiah was positioned on the throne as a vassal. He rebelled, hoping for assist from Egypt. In 587, the Babylonian military returned and destroyed Jerusalem. Virtually all of the inhabitants have been taken as captives to Babylon. In 539 BC the Persian king Cyrus the Nice defeated the Babylonians and issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.[8]
The yr is 332 BC. The inhabitants of Jerusalem surrendered with out resistance to Alexander the Nice, who confirmed the privileges given to town by the Persian rulers.[9]
Underneath the management of the Maccabee brothers, a revolt of the Jews broke out, which lasted from 167 to 164 BC. The Syrian occupiers of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who have been imposing paganism, have been pushed out.[10]
Roman troops below the management of Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BC. Town grew to become the executive middle of the Roman protectorate of Judea.[11] The fashionable plan of Jerusalem dates from the time of Herod the Nice (37-34 BC).[12] This satrap is the best builder within the historical past of town. He rebuilt the Hasmonean partitions and added three massive towers, constructed a palace-administrative complicated on the western hill, later referred to as the “praetorium”, and rebuilt the temple. Diaspora Jews lengthy for town, led by eminent intellectuals corresponding to Philo of Alexandria.[13]
Roman oppression fueled the key liberation motion of the Zealots. Christ’s apostle Judas Iscariot in all probability belongs to them.[14] In 66-70, the Jews led a revolt towards the Romans. After a protracted siege, Jerusalem falls. The failed rebellion goes down in historical past because the Jewish Warfare. Regardless of the order of the Roman common Titus to protect the temple, it was burned and destroyed on 9 Aug 70.[15] Later, by order of the emperor Hadrian, the development of a metropolis referred to as Elia Capitolina in honor of the emperor (Elius Hadrian) and the Capitoline triad (Jupiter, Juno and Minerva) started on the ruins of Jerusalem. Town was constructed on the mannequin of a Roman army camp – a sq. during which the streets intersect at proper angles. A sanctuary of Jupiter was constructed on the location of the Jewish temple.
Outraged by the imposition of the pagan cult, the Jews raised a second revolt towards the Roman conquerors. From 131 to 135, Jerusalem was within the arms of the Jewish rebels of Shimon bar Kochba, who even minted his personal cash. However in 135 the Roman troops recaptured town. Emperor Hadrian issued a decree banning all circumcised individuals from getting into town. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine interval started and town step by step took on a Christian look.[16]
On the location of Golgotha, the Romans erected a temple to Aphrodite. In 326, St. Helena and Bishop Macarius led the development of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from everywhere in the world started to flock right here over the centuries.
In 1894, a well-known mosaic depicting St. George was found within the Orthodox Church of St. George in Madaba (now Jordan). Earth and Jerusalem. It dates from the 6th century and at the moment measures 16 x 5 m. The biggest and most detailed picture within the middle of the work is of Jerusalem and its landmarks.[17]
In 614, town was captured and looted by the Persian Shah Khozroi, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was burned. After 24 years, St. Patriarch Sophronius opened town’s doorways to a brand new conqueror – the Arab caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab, and Jerusalem step by step started to accumulate a Muslim look. A little bit later, Mu’af I, founding father of the Umayyad dynasty, was proclaimed caliph in Jerusalem. A mosque was constructed on the location of the destroyed Jewish temple, which for Muslims is the third holiest after these in Mecca and Medina.
In 1009, the insane caliph al-Hakim ordered the whole destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This sacrilege causes a wave of protest within the West and prepares the age of the Crusades. In 1099, the individuals within the first marketing campaign below the management of Rely Gottfried of Boulogne captured Jerusalem, massacred all Muslims and Jews and turned town into the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem headed by King Baldwin I. In 1187, after a protracted siege, the troops of the Egyptian Sultan Salah-at -din (Saladin, 1138-1193) conquered Jerusalem. All of the church buildings within the metropolis besides the Ascension Church have been transformed into mosques. [18]
However Western Christians didn’t despair and in 1189-1192 organized the Second Campaign below the management of the English king Richard the Lionheart. Town once more falls into the arms of the Crusaders. In 1229, Friedrich II Hohenstaufen grew to become king of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, who managed to quickly restore the facility of the Crusaders in Jerusalem by profiting from the contradictions between the Muslim states. Nevertheless, in 1244, the Mongol-Tatars conquered town. In 1247, Jerusalem was captured by an Egyptian sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mamluks got here to energy – bodyguards of the Egyptian sultans, whose military was recruited from slaves of Turkic and Caucasian (primarily Circassian) origin. In 1517, the military of the Ottoman Empire, after a victory in Syria over the Mamluks, conquered the land of Eretz-Israel (the territory of Palestine) with out bloodshed.
Throughout World Warfare I, Britain established management over Palestine .[19] From 1920 to 1947, Jerusalem was the executive middle of the British mandated territory of Palestine. Throughout this era the Jewish inhabitants elevated by 1/3 primarily as a consequence of migration from Europe. UN Normal Meeting Decision No. 181 of November 29, 1947, referred to as the Decision on the Partition of Palestine, assumed that the worldwide neighborhood would take management of the way forward for Jerusalem after the tip of the British Mandate (Might 15, 1948). ).[20] In 1950, Israel declared Jerusalem as its capital and all branches of the Israeli authorities have been positioned there, though this determination was not accepted by the world neighborhood. The jap a part of town grew to become a part of Jordan. [21]
After its victory within the Six-Day Warfare in 1967, Israel gained management of your complete territory of town, legally separated East Jerusalem from the West Financial institution and declared its sovereignty over Jerusalem. With a particular regulation of July 30, 1980, Israel declared Jerusalem to be its single and indivisible capital. All state and authorities places of work of Israel are positioned in Jerusalem. [22] The UN and all its members don’t acknowledge the unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem. Virtually all international locations have their embassies within the Tel Aviv space, apart from a number of Latin American international locations, whose embassies are positioned within the Jerusalem suburb of Mevaseret-Zion. As early as 2000, the US Congress handed a call to maneuver the embassy to Jerusalem, however the American authorities continually postponed the implementation of this determination. In 2006, the Latin American embassies moved to Tel Aviv, and now there aren’t any international embassies in Jerusalem. East Jerusalem homes the consulates of the USA and another international locations which have contact with the Palestinian Authority.
The standing of Jerusalem stays a hotly contested matter. Each Israel and the Palestinian Authority formally declare Jerusalem as their capital and don’t acknowledge that proper to every other nation, though Israeli sovereignty over a part of town isn’t acknowledged by the UN or most international locations, and the Palestinian Authority’s authorities have by no means they weren’t in Jerusalem. The Arabs even utterly deny the Jewish interval of Jerusalem’s historical past, thereby disputing the Bible, accepted as revelation of their Koran. After the victory of the Islamic revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini established a brand new vacation on October 5 – the day of al-Quds (Jerusalem). Yearly on this date, Muslims pray for town to be free of the Israeli army presence.[23]
In accordance with the most recent figures, the inhabitants of Jerusalem quantity 763,800, whereas in 1948 they have been solely 84,000. There are 96 Christian, 43 Islamic and 36 Jewish shrines positioned on the territory of the previous metropolis, which covers just one sq. km. He’s related to peace by his identify. It’s a medium-sized, provincial, in some ways modest and but irresistibly enticing metropolis that evokes awe and surprise. Two world religions have been based in Jerusalem, and the third, Islam, adopted its varied traditions in its creed. However as an alternative of being like its identify “metropolis of peace”, Jerusalem seems to be an area of confrontation.
The violence continues as acts in an limitless historic drama, however during which there is no such thing as a catharsis. From the identical partitions climbed by the Romans in AD 70 and the Crusaders in 1099, Palestinian youths armed like David with slings pelt passing armored police vehicles with stones. Helicopters circle above, dropping tear gasoline canisters. Close by, within the slim streets, the sounds of the three faiths that maintain town sacred rise incessantly – the voice of the muezzin calling the Muslim trustworthy to prayer; the ringing of church bells; the mantra of Jews praying on the Western Wall – the one preserved a part of the traditional Jewish temple.
Some name Jerusalem a “necrocracy” – the one metropolis the place the deciding vote is given to the useless. All over the place right here one feels the heavy burden of the previous weighing on the current. For Jews, it’s all the time the capital of reminiscence. For Muslims it’s al-Quds, ie. The sanctuary, from the emergence of Islam within the 7th century to at the moment. For Christians, it’s the epicenter of their religion, related to the preaching, loss of life and resurrection of the God-man.[24]
Jerusalem is a metropolis the place the spirit of historical past is each day relentlessly and superstitiously invoked by rival international locations. Jerusalem is the embodiment of the affect of reminiscence on the minds of males. It’s a metropolis of monuments which have their very own language. They awaken mutually contradictory reminiscences and construct its picture as a metropolis pricey to a couple of individuals, sacred to a couple of religion. In Jerusalem, faith mixes with politics. He lives too deeply engrossed within the fascination of highly effective non secular beliefs and religions.[25] The reverence and fanaticism of the religions and nationalities coexisting right here work together. There was by no means a single non secular reality in Jerusalem. There have all the time been many truths and mutually contradictory photographs of town. These photographs replicate or distort one another and the previous flows into the current.
In our time, males have set foot on the moon in the hunt for new promised lands and new Jerusalems, however to date the previous Jerusalem has not but been changed. He retains a rare maintain over the creativeness, holding for 3 faiths directly close to and much a worry and hope of an Apocalypse expressed in fully interchangeable phrases.[26] Right here, the non secular battle to beat territories is an historic type of worship. Nationalism and faith have all the time been intertwined in Jerusalem, the place the concept of a promised land and a selected individuals was first revealed to the Jews 3,000 years in the past.
The Jerusalem scribes and prophets challenged the prevailing historic notion that historical past essentially strikes in circles, repeating itself again and again. They categorical the overarching hope for irreversible progress towards a greater and extra precious life. Sorts of the Pentateuch and the books of Joshua, Samuel, and Kings circulated in Jerusalem as oral traditions within the early 7th or 9th century BC. Archaeological and epigraphic proof repeatedly confirms with outstanding accuracy the factual particulars of the biblical sources. Right here King David composed the poems of the Psalms, and Solomon constructed the temple and loved his lots of of wives. Right here Isaiah cries out within the wilderness, and Jesus wears the crown of thorns and is crucified with the robbers. Christians gathered after His loss of life on this metropolis and within the identify of hope conquered the Roman Empire and your complete Mediterranean world. Right here, in line with Islamic legend, Muhammad comes on a mysterious winged white horse and ascends to heaven on a ladder of sunshine. For the reason that twelfth century, Jews have been praying on the Western Wall 3 times a day, in order that they will “return by mercy to Your metropolis of Jerusalem and stay in it, as You promised.”
4 thousand years of historical past, numerous wars and intensely robust earthquakes, a few of which brought about the whole destruction of buildings and partitions, have left their mark on the topography of town. It has skilled 20 devastating sieges, two durations of full desolation, 18 restorations and a minimum of 11 conversions from one faith to a different. Jerusalem stays holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, to all individuals of the world. “Ask for peace for Jerusalem” (Ps. 121:6)!
Notes:
[i] Wolf, B. Jerusalem und Rom: Mitte, Nabel – Zentrum, Haupt. Die Metaphern «Umbilicus mundi» und «Caput mundi» in den Weltbildern der Antike und des Abendlands bis in die Zeit der Ebstorfer Weltkarte. Bern u.a., 2010.
[ii] Encyclopedic dictionary. Christianity. T. I. M. 1997, p. 586. Cf. Otto, E. Das antike Jerusalem. Archaeologie und Geschichte. München, 2008 (Beck’sche Reihe, 2418).
[1] Elon, A. Jerusalem: Metropolis of Mirrors. London, 1996, p. 30.
[2] Whiting, C. Geographical Imaginations of the “Holy Land”: Biblical Topography and Archaeological Observe. – Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 29, 2007, Nos. 2 & 3, 237-250.
[3] Elon, A. Op. cit., p. 54.
[4] For the traditional historical past of town, see Harold Mare, W. The Archeology of the Jerusalem Space. Grand Rapids (MI), 1987; Jerusalem in Historical Historical past and Custom. Ed. by T. L. Thompson. London, 2004 (Copenhagen Worldwide Seminar).
[5] Cogan, M. David’s Jerusalem: Notes and Reflections. – In: Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Research in Honor of Moshe Greenberg. Edited by M. Cogan, B. L. Eichler, and J. H. Tigay. Winona Lake (IN), 1997.
[6] Goldhill, S. The Temple in Jerusalem. S., 2007.
[7] The e-book Jerusalem in Bible and Archeology: The First Temple Interval is dedicated to the biblical historical past of Jerusalem. Ed. by A.G. Vaughn and A.E. Killebrew. Atlanta (GA), 2003 (Symposium Sequence, 18)
[8] Encyclopedic dictionary. Christianity. T. I. M., 1997, 587. Cf. Ritmeyer, L. Jerusalem within the time of Nehemiah. Chicago, 2008.
[9] Ameling, W. Jerusalem als hellenistische Polis: 2 Makk 4, 9-12 und eine neue Inschrift. – Biblische Zeitschrift, 47, 2003, 117-122.
[10] Tromp, J. The Non secular Significance of Jerusalem for Jews within the Greco-Roman Interval. – In: À la recherche des villes saintes. Actes du colloque franco-néerlandais “Les Villes Saintes”. Ed. A. Le Boulluec. Turnhout, 2004 (Bibliothèque de l’École des hautes études. Sciences religieuses, 122), 51-61.
[11] Mirasto, I. Christ is Risen (In God’s Land throughout Holy Week). S., 1999, p. 9.
[12] Julia Wilker, Fuer Rom und Jerusalem. Die herodianische Dynastie im 1. Jahrhundert n.Chr. Frankfurt am Fundamental, 2007 (Studien zur Alten Geschichte, 5)
[13] Pearce, S. Jerusalem as “Mom-Metropolis” within the writings of Philo of Alexandria. – In: Negotiating Diaspora: Jewish Methods within the Roman Empire. Ed. by J.M.G. Barclay. London and New York, 2004, 19-37. (Library of Second Temple Research, 45).
[14] Hengel, M. The Zealots: Investigations into the Jewish Freedom Motion in tho Interval from Herod I till 70 AD. London, 1989.
[15] Rives, J.B. Flavian Non secular Coverage and the Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. – In: Flavius Josephus and Flavian Rome. Eds. J. Edmondson, S. Mason, and J. Rives. Oxford, 2005, 145-166.
[16] Belayche, N. Déclin ou reconstruction? La Palaestina romaine après la révolte de ‘Bar Kokhba’. – Revue des études juives, 163, 2004, 25-48. Cf. Colbi, P. A Brief Historical past of Christianity within the Holy Land. Jerusalem, 1965; Wilken, R. The Land Referred to as Holy: Palestine in Christian Historical past and Thought. New York, 1992.
[17] Damyanova, E. Jerusalem because the topographical and religious middle of the Madaba mosaic. – In: Theological Reflections. Assortment of supplies. S., 2005, 29-33.
[18] Shamdor, A. Saladin. A noble hero of Islam. St. Petersburg, 2004. Cf. L’Orient au temps des croisades. Textes arabes offered et traduit par A.-M. Eddé et F. Micheau. Paris, 2002.
[19] Grainger, J. The Battle for Palestine, 1917. Woodbridge, 2006.
[20] The Christian Heritage within the Holy Land. Ed. By A. O’Mahony with G. Gunner and Okay. Hintlian. London, 1995, p. 18.
[21] Keay, J. Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Battle within the Center East. New York, 2003.
[22] Tessler, M. Historical past of the Israeli-Palestinian Battle. Bloomington (IN), 1994. Cf. Kailani, W. Reinventing Jerusalem: Israeli’s Reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter After 1967. – Center Japanese Research, 44, 2008, No. 4, 633-637.
[23] Emelyanov, V. What to do with the issue of al-Quds – Jerusalem? In Moscow, they celebrated a memorial date established 27 years in the past by Imam Khomeini. – http://www.portal-credo.ru/website/?act=information&id=57418&cf=, October 8, 2007.
[24] The Christian Heritage.., p. 39.
[25] Kalian, M., S. Catinari, U. Heresco-Levi, E. Witztum. “Religious Hunger” in a Holy Area: a Type of “Jerusalem Syndrome”. – Psychological Well being, Faith & Tradition, 11, 2008, No. 2, 161-172.
[26] Elon, A. Op. cit., p. 71.
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