Jerusalem
Scripture first
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The city enters Israel's story here. David takes the Jebusite stronghold of Zion, it is named the City of David, and from this point Jerusalem carries the , and later , that the rest of Scripture keeps returning to.
The other passages, in full
2 Samuel 6:12-19
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1 Kings 8:22-30
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Psalm 48:1-3
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Psalm 122:1-9
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Isaiah 2:1-4
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Micah 4:1-4
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Jeremiah 7:1-11
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2 Kings 25:8-12
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Ezra 3:10-13
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Nehemiah 6:15-16
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Zechariah 8:3-8
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Matthew 21:1-13
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Matthew 23:37-39
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Luke 19:41-44
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Luke 21:5-6
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Luke 23:33-34
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Luke 24:44-49
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John 2:13-22
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Acts 1:4-8
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Acts 2:1-4
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Galatians 4:24-26
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Hebrews 12:22-24
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Revelation 21:1-4
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Jerusalem is in Scripture long before it is Israel's. Joshua 10:1-5 names a of Jerusalem leading a coalition; Joshua 15:63 says Judah could not drive out the Jebusites living there; Judges 19:10-12 still calls it Jebus, a city of foreigners. It sat on the seam between Benjamin and Judah and belonged fully to neither.
David took the stronghold and made it his own in 2 Samuel 5:6-10, and brought the ark up in 2 Samuel 6:12-19, so the city held both the and the worship of Israel. Solomon built on the hill above the old city, on ground David had bought in 2 Samuel 24:18-25 and 2 Chronicles 3:1 identifies as Moriah.
For four centuries the city was the capital of Judah and the target of the prophets. Isaiah promises deliverance from Sennacherib in 2 Kings 19:32-34; Jeremiah stands in gate in Jeremiah 7:1-11 and tells the crowd that the building will not protect a people who oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. In 586 BC Babylon burned , the palace and every great house, and broke down the walls: 2 Kings 25:8-12.
Under Persia the exiles returned. Ezra 3:10-13 describes the foundation of the second , with shouting and weeping mixed together, and Ezra 6:14-16 its completion. Nehemiah rebuilt the wall in fifty-two days, Nehemiah 6:15-16, and the prophets kept the city's future open: Zechariah 8:3-8 sees old men and women in its streets again.
The Gospels bring Jesus repeatedly to this city. He is found in as a boy, Luke 2:41-49; he clears the courts, John 2:13-22 and Matthew 21:12-13; he sets his face to go there, Luke 9:51; he weeps over it, Luke 19:41-44; he is outside it, Luke 23:33-34, buried in a garden tomb nearby, John 19:41-42, and raised. Acts 1:4-8 keeps the disciples in the city until the Spirit comes at Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4, and the mission then moves outward from it.
Rome destroyed the city and the second in AD 70. Jesus had spoken of the stones being thrown down in Luke 21:5-6. The New Testament's last words about Jerusalem are of another order: the heavenly Jerusalem of Hebrews 12:22-24 and the new Jerusalem of Revelation 21:1-4, which the visions present as God dwelling with his people rather than as a report about the city on the ridge.
The city David captured and made his capital, where the ark was brought, where Solomon built the temple, which Babylon destroyed and the returning exiles rebuilt, where Jesus taught, was crucified and was raised, and where the church began.
- Jerusalem, Jebus, Zion, the City of David, the city of the great King, Salem
- Hierosolyma (Greek and Roman writers), Aelia Capitolina (the Roman refounding after AD 135), al-Quds (in Arabic)
- Jerusalem · Israel, Palestinian territories
Jerusalem stands about 750 metres above sea level on a limestone ridge in the hill country, away from the coastal trade road. It was never a merchant city. Its value was defensive and, once David took it, political: a stronghold that had belonged to no tribe, lying between Judah in the south and Benjamin in the north.
Valleys wrap it. The Kidron falls away on the east, between the city and the of Olives; the Hinnom runs round the south and west; a central valley divides the ridge inside. Only the north is open ground, which is why almost every siege in its history came from that side.
Its one dependable water source, the Gihon spring, lay outside the wall at the foot of the eastern slope. That single fact explains Hezekiah's tunnel in 2 Kings 20:20: water brought inside the city before Assyria arrived.
Going to Jerusalem is uphill from nearly everywhere, which is why Scripture says going up to Jerusalem and going down to Jericho. Jericho lies about 250 metres below sea level, so the road between them drops roughly a kilometre in around twenty-seven kilometres. The Songs of Ascents, Psalm 122 among them, are pilgrim songs for that climb.
The of Olives is higher than the city and directly across the Kidron from platform, so anyone standing there looks down on the whole temple area. That is the vantage point behind the entry in Matthew 21:1-13 and the lament in Luke 19:41-44, and behind the disciples looking back at the stones in Luke 21:5-6.
- 2 Samuel 5:6-10 The city enters Israel's story here. David takes the Jebusite stronghold of Zion, it is named the City of David, and from this point Jerusalem carries the kingship, and later the temple, that the rest of Scripture keeps returning to.
- Genesis 14:18-20 Melchizedek, king of Salem, brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram. Whether Salem is Jerusalem is an identification, not a statement of the text
- Joshua 10:1-5 Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, leads five Amorite kings against Gibeon
- Joshua 15:63 Judah could not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem
- Judges 1:8 Judah fights against Jerusalem and takes it, though the Jebusites remain in the land
- Judges 19:10-12 The city is still called Jebus, a city of foreigners, in the days of the judges
- 2 Samuel 5:6-10 David takes the stronghold of Zion; it becomes the City of David
- 2 Samuel 6:12-19 The ark is brought up to the city with rejoicing
- 2 Samuel 24:18-25 David buys the threshing floor of Araunah and builds an altar there
- 1 Kings 8:10-13 The glory fills the house; Solomon says the Lord has chosen to dwell in thick darkness
- 1 Kings 8:27 Solomon himself says heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain God, much less this house
- 2 Chronicles 3:1 Solomon builds on Mount Moriah, at the threshing floor David bought
- 2 Kings 18:13-17 Sennacherib comes up against Judah and sends his officers to Jerusalem
- 2 Kings 19:32-34 Isaiah's word: the king of Assyria shall not come into this city
- 2 Kings 20:20 Hezekiah made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city
- 2 Kings 22:8-13 The book of the law found in the temple in Josiah's reign
- Jeremiah 7:1-11 Standing in the temple gate: do not trust in deceptive words, the temple of the Lord
- 2 Kings 25:8-12 Nebuchadnezzar's captain burns the house of the Lord and the city, and breaks down the walls
- Lamentations 1:1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people
- Psalm 137:5-6 If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill
- Ezra 1:1-4 Cyrus of Persia charges the exiles to go up and build the house in Jerusalem
- Ezra 3:10-13 The foundation laid: some shout for joy, the old men who saw the first house weep
- Ezra 6:14-16 The second temple finished in the sixth year of Darius
- Nehemiah 1:1-4 Nehemiah hears that the wall is broken down and the gates burned, and weeps
- Nehemiah 6:15-16 The wall finished in fifty-two days
- Psalm 48:1-3 Great is the Lord in the city of our God: the city is praised for who dwells in it
- Psalm 122:1-9 A song of ascents for pilgrims going up: pray for the peace of Jerusalem
- Isaiah 2:1-4 The mountain of the house of the Lord raised up, and nations going up to it
- Micah 4:1-4 The same vision in Micah, ending with every man under his vine and fig tree
- Zechariah 8:3-8 Old men and women again in the streets, and children playing in them
- Luke 2:41-49 The boy Jesus in the temple at Passover, in his Father's house
- John 2:13-22 Jesus drives out the traders and speaks of the temple of his body
- Luke 9:51 He set his face to go to Jerusalem
- Matthew 21:1-13 The entry from the Mount of Olives, and the cleansing of the temple courts
- Matthew 23:37-39 Jerusalem, Jerusalem: how often would I have gathered your children
- Luke 19:41-44 He wept over the city because it did not know the time of its visitation
- Luke 21:5-6 Of the temple stones: not one will be left on another
- Luke 22:7-20 The Passover meal prepared in a room in the city
- Luke 23:33-34 The crucifixion at the place called The Skull
- John 19:41-42 A garden near the place where he was crucified, and a new tomb
- Luke 24:44-49 Repentance and forgiveness preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem
- Acts 1:4-8 Wait in Jerusalem; you will be my witnesses here, in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth
- Acts 2:1-4 Pentecost: the Spirit poured out on the disciples in the city
- Acts 15:1-2 The question of the Gentiles taken up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem
- Galatians 4:24-26 Paul's argument uses two Jerusalems, one present and one above. This is interpretation of the city, not description of it
- Hebrews 12:22-24 You have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem
- Revelation 21:1-4 The holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven: a vision of God dwelling with his people, not a report about the historical city
God chooses a place for his name without being confined to it. Solomon says so in the same prayer that dedicates the house.
God ties the city's safety to justice rather than to building, and says so through the prophets before the fall, not only after it.
God keeps promises past the ruin: the same prophets who announce judgment describe the streets full again.
God begins the worldwide mission at the place of the greatest failure, sending witnesses out from the city where Jesus was condemned.
Religious privilege can be trusted in place of God. The crowd in gate repeats the name of the building while ignoring the widow and the stranger.
People can welcome and reject in the same week. The city that spreads its cloaks in Matthew 21 is the city that condemns in Luke 23.
Grief and joy can sit together in a rebuilt life: the same foundation brought shouting from some and weeping from others.
What we know
Certain
- Scripture presents Jerusalem as David's capital and as the site of the temple built by Solomon.
- The city was destroyed and the first temple burned by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. This is stated in Scripture and attested in Babylonian records.
- Exiles returned and rebuilt the temple under Persian rule, and this second temple stood, later greatly enlarged under Herod, until AD 70.
- The Gospels present Jesus as crucified at Jerusalem and buried nearby, and Acts presents the church as beginning there at Pentecost and spreading outward from it.
- Rome destroyed the city and the temple in AD 70; the event is described at length by Josephus and left visible destruction in the archaeological record.
- The Gihon spring, the Siloam pool and the rock-cut water tunnel with the Siloam inscription exist in the City of David, matching the account of a conduit bringing water into the city in 2 Kings 20:20.
Probable
- The great platform of the Temple Mount preserves the Herodian expansion of the second temple's courts; its retaining walls are widely accepted as Herodian work.
- The temple stood somewhere on that platform, and the traditional identification places it near the present Dome of the Rock, though the precise footprint is argued.
- The Holy Sepulchre lies outside the city wall of the first century, which fits the requirement that the crucifixion and burial were outside the wall.
- The stepped stone structure and adjacent remains on the eastern ridge belong to the earliest fortified city, though which king or period they belong to is debated.
Disputed
- The line and dating of several city walls in different periods, and which gates named in Nehemiah correspond to which excavated remains.
- The exact site of Golgotha and the tomb. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre carries the older and better supported tradition; the Garden Tomb is a nineteenth century proposal.
- The route Jesus was taken through the city on the day of the crucifixion. The traditional Via Dolorosa is a devotional route of much later date, not a documented itinerary.
- Whether Salem in Genesis 14:18 is Jerusalem, and how far Genesis 22's Moriah and 2 Chronicles 3:1's Mount Moriah should be treated as the same place.
- The location of several buildings named in the Gospels, including the house of Caiaphas and the praetorium where Jesus was tried.