Shroro

The Syriac Orthodox Christian Digest - January, 2005

Bible Study - Matthew Chapter 2
Commentary: Jerusalem

It is uncertain when this city was established. “The Salem” city ruled by MELCHIZEDEK , during the time of Abraham ( c 2000 BC), could be Jerusalem. (Genesis 14:18). Messages on clay plates, sent by the king of Jerusalem to the king of Egypt on BC 1450, has been discovered. About 2500 BC, the Canaanites inhabited the city. Later, Jerusalem became a Jebusite citadel. When the Israelites entered Canaan they could not capture it. But later David captured the city (c.1000 BC); the Jebusites were absorbed into the Jewish people. David made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom. Then it was known as David’s city (2 Samuel 5:7, 6:12). It was also called Zion. His son Solomon built the first Temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. (1 Kings 9:15). In 586 BC, the Babylonian Nebuchadneszzar destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylonia. (Babylon exile) Fifty years later (537 BC), Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylonia and he permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple under the leadership if Nehemiah in BC 444. . Persia held the city until 333 BC, when Alexander the Great added Palestine to his empire. In 323 BC, Ptolemy 1 of Egypt took Palestine into his kingdom. About 198 BC, the Seleucid (Greek) king Antiochus III conquered Judea (of which Jerusalem was a part), making it tributary to Syria. The Jews later revolted under the leadership of Maccabees and defeated the Syrians. The Temple was re-consecrated in 165 BC, and the Maccabean, or Hasmonean, dynasty ruled until Rome took the city in 63 BC. The Romans set up a local dynasty, the house of Herod, to rule most of Palestine; Herod the Great (r. 40-4 BC) rebuilt much of Jerusalem, including the Temple. Roman governors, however, retained ultimate control; one of them, Pontius Pilate, authorized the execution of Jesus Christ. While suppressing a major Jewish revolt, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in AD 70. From the early 4th century, under Greek emperor Constantine the Great beatified many Christian holy places including the tomb where our Lord was buried. In AD 637 the Muslims conquered Jerusalem. The Arabs built (688-91) the Dome of the Rock mosque on the site of the Temple. Except for a little time, they ruled it till 1917, when it came under British. The 1948 United Nations partition plan for Palestine called for internationalization of the city. From 1949, Jerusalem was divided into an Israeli and a Jordanian sector. The city remained divided until 1967, when Israel took the entire city following the Six Day War. The city is reunited today under Israel.

To the east of mount Jerusalem - is Mount of Olives. In between the two is valley of Kidron. Pool of Bethesda and Seelohom and Mount Moria are also in Jerusalem.

Map:
New Testament's Jerusalem