Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the most important location in the Bible and the most researched within the realm of biblical studies. Already a Canaanite city of some standing by the Middle Bronze Age period (c. 2000–1550 bce), Jerusalem’s significance for the biblical writers begins in earnest with the portrayal of the city’s acquisition by David around 1000 bce. Jerusalem functions in the Hebrew Bible as the royal center for the House of David and the divine sanctuary for Yahweh, the God of Israel, for the next four centuries until, in 586 bce, the location is conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians. Around 515 bce the Second Temple is constructed and Jerusalem becomes a modest temple-city within the Persian Empire (c. 550–330 bce), during which time a number of biblical texts are written and revised. A century and a half after Alexander the Great’s conquest of the region, a Jewish group called the Maccabees revolted against the Greek rulers of the time (c. 167 bce) and established an autonomous kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital. The independent status of this kingdom ends, however, when the Roman general Pompey took control of Jerusalem in 63 bce and incorporated it and the region of Judea into the Roman Empire. During the reign of Herod the Great (37–4 bce), a client-king of the Romans, the temple in Jerusalem is extensively renovated and a number of other impressive building measures are carried out in the city’s precincts. This large, Roman city is the one referred to at various moments in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts, and it is the location where Jesus of Nazareth is said to have been crucified around 33 ce. Though Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans in 70 ce after the First Jewish-Roman War, a new, heavenly Jerusalem is depicted in the later writings of the Book of Revelation.