Roman Jerusalem

Herodian Temple Mount

Roman Rule began in Palestine around 63 BCE. Pompey besieged Jerusalem and annexed it for Rome. Rome backed Herod as the King of Judea through Parthian invasion. From here the rise of Herod the Great starts, 37 BCE Herod gets Jerusalem from Parthians after siege. Herod now walks a thin line between pleasing the Jews and Romans. He is known as a "client king", meaning he wanted to please everyone on both sides. Herod the Great ultimately ruled from 37 to 4 BCE, and through this time was known to be extremely paranoid and impulsive. He murdered masses of people, even his own sons. In light of that Herod conducted many epic building projects. Among them lie the Herodian Temple Mount, 15 football fields long, with retaining walls 80 ft. tall, and stones thats were 40 plus ft weighing 100 tons.

Herod the Great although a good king constructively and economically got a bad wrap from the Jews who essentially hated him. Working both sides of the field did not fly with the Jews.

Good Herod: offered relief during famine, inanimate objects on coins, employed Jews through his building projects. Bad Herod: killed his own sons, family forcibly judaized , half worked for the jews and half for romans.

Hellenistic Jerusalem/Hasmonean Jerusalem

Alexander the Great coin

The persians for the first time in history started to use gold, silver, and bronze coins as currency and propaganda, hence Alexander the Great on a coin. 336-323 BCE, Alexander the Great defeats conquers everything including PAlestine. In 333 BCE, alexander the GReat also defeats King Darius at the Battle of Issus, followed by his death in 323 BCE. With all of his vast land his kingdom divides into the Ptolemies (Egyptains), and the Seleucids (Syrians). In short the Ptolemies captured Jeruslaem in 320 BCE, but then were beat by Antiochus III in 201 BCE. He advocated Hellenism and to "speak greek". 

The Hellenization of Jerusalem took place between 201-164 BCE. Every aspect of JEwish life was affected in that it conflicted with hellenizaton. The joining of the two is evident in Jewish funerary inscriptions which were done in Greek or In jewish homes were mosaics of Greek stories and characters.  The zodiac symbols were even assimilated into Jewish place of worship. Greeks basically took over in every way and turned the temple into a temple for Zeus! Some Jews welcomed it and other didn't and caused a REVOLT!

As the conservative Jews rebelled it was dubbed the Maccabean Revolt due to its leader Judas Maccabeus. They were finally successful by 165 BCE, and regained control of Jerusalem and the temple. The sacrificial system was resumed and in celebration they lit a candle which they had enough oil for one and by a miracle of God it lasted eight days to which established Hanukkah. Leaders descendants of "hasmon" restored the Golden Age! Hasmonean Rulers increasingly became hellenized to which they assumed office of high priest and King. They forcibly judaized surrounding regions. This caused a resurgence in Jerusalem's size and became a major urban center again. To conclude the Roman's came along and conquered by 63 BCE, this marks the end of Jewish self rule.

Persian Jerusalem

Cyrus' Cylinder

Persian Jerusalem includes the building of the second temple, 539-70 BCE. 

King Cyrus, ruler of the Persians, conquered the Babylonians, while the Judians were in exile. During this time of non-Davidic Kings, it was important to the "temporary" kings to portray themselves as liberators and not conquers. With all the change in JErusalem there consisted of three camps in Jerusalem. 1. The Jews who stayed in Jerusalem that had no skills and were poor. 2. The Jews who wanted to go back to Jerusalem. 3. Jews that wanted to stay in Babylon. This conflict between these groups made Jewish people turn against fellow Jewish. 

Biblically speaking there has to be a rationale for the break of David's Promise. In Isaiah, it states that King Cyrus was a foreign king that was anointed but was NOT a son of David. With this confusing time came the introduction of an evil counterpart as part of a rationalization for what was taking place. Satan begins to take blame for all BAD! Cyrus interpretation for his ruling was that God told him to take over...

Eventually a THIRD Temple was rebuilt between 520-515 BCE under Darius 1. Even with the temple rebuilt Judaism while in exile adapted ways to keep their faith even with the absence of the temple, through laws and holidays. Therefore was the temple even necessary? Poverty took over Jerusalem in this period and its population was small, but luckily a high priest comes and takes control and changes the understandings of Jerusalem since the first temple. 

Josiah's Jerusalem:Centralization of Religion

Josiah reigned from 640-609 BCE. During this time Jerusalem grew in prosperity and population due to the victory over the Assyrians. With this new found growth there also existed political and religious unrest with the new people who moved to Jerusalem. Meanwhile Josiah aided by his court advisors found a scroll known as "The Law". From here on out Josiah embarks on religious reform just like Hezekiah did but in a different way. While Hezekiah tore shrines for the Hebrew God because he wanted one place of worship, Josiah shrines had different Gods. "The Law" was to be commanded and obeyed, this marked the transition of Cult of Yahweh to the Law, text, and tradition. 

Society was transitioning just as much as religious form. There started to be a lost of astricas (receipts) and unofficial literature popping up. For example a Lachish letter from a soldier stating he knows how to read and write. Written in 587 BCE, is evidence that it might of been a societal expectation to know how to read and write, during Josiah's Jerusalem society know was one of literacy.

Hezekiah's Jerusalem

Hezekiah's Tunnel

Hezekiah's Jerusalem is known as "The growth of the city", many changes took place and in turn Jerusalem went through a Golden Age. 

Leading up to that point Jerusalem went through some rough patches. Rehoboam, Solomon's son who reigned from 930-913 BCE, wanted to show people that he was entirely more superior than his father. In turn the North people rebelled and became Israel, while Rehoboam was leader over the 2 tribes in the South, becoming Judah. In response to the separation of the North and South, the North set up two shrines to which the people could worship so they would have to leave to the South to support their economy. In the midst of their differences, pacts and alliances and battles are taking place. In short, the rise of the Assyrian Empire begins, but eventually they fall to the reign of the Babylonians in 609 BCE. 

The North now starts to flee to the South causing Urbanization. They also change their language to Aramaic. Jerusalem drastically changes in the realms of family structures, religious movements, centralization of power, social justice issues, and urban vs, rural. In prep for these changes Hezekiah starts to fortify and increase water supply, hence Hezekiah's tunnel. From this archaeological evidence we conclude he was preparing for war against Assyria. Hezekiah was successful in his feat and went on religious reform, which was only to be turned over by successor Josiah. 

Eliade: Theopanies and Signs

The Last Judgment by Gislebertus exemplifies Eliades described threshold that separates the spaces of the profane and the religious. It is the boundary that distinguishes and opposes two worlds while at the same time represents the place where passage from the profane to the sacred is possible (Eliade 25).This essentially is the judgment place where God in the middle decides if you rise to heaven or sink to hell, as represented by the weighing of souls. This idea of judgment acting as a threshold to the entrance of the church stems from earlier times in Babylon, Egypt, and Israel.

Again this idea of profane space being separated from religious space is still prevalent in todays society. Such as the faith of catholicism. With the entrance into the church, one uses holy water and blesses themselves, symbolic of purifying themselves. It is representative of passage from one space to another, the church. For a believer, the church shares in a different space from the street in which it stands (Eliade 25). This is a concept in which to keep in mind when thinking of sacred space and its symbolic rituals. 

David's Jerusalem: Part 2

Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant, representation of the presence of God, is one of the five points where Jerusalem derives its sacredness. Along with God choosing Jerusalem, creation and the sabbath, Mt. Moriah, and Melchizedek's Salem. The Ark of the Covenant is notable in that it is central to all conquest stories, but once in the Temple it was not mentioned after that, because the Temple now became the central of importance. Keeping with this idea once the temple was destroyed the Ark once again became the center of importance. Biblical references to the ark of the Covenant lie in the Book of Exodus and Samuels. 

Lamassu from Khorsbad

 In relation to the Ark of the Covenant, a cherub is often found on top of an Ark in resemblance of protection. Often misinterpreted as baby angels, they were more along the lines of Babylonian Lamassus, a human headed winged lion. They are protectors and guardians, such as put in front of gates and entrance ways throughout the Ancient Near East consistent with Biblical text. In biblical texts these protectors can be relayed back to the story of the protection of the  gates of the Garden of Eden.