Jerusalem from Genesis to Revelation

The LORD dwelling in its midst: “Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain” (Zechariah 8:3).

The city over which Jesus Christ moaned: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-39).

Trodden down by the Gentiles: “…Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24b).

The New Jerusalem: “In the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” (Revelation 21:10,11).

Addendum This writing was sent to some persons at an earlier date. During these days when talks on the Middle East are being resumed in earnest the typical question comes to mind: Will the ambition of the U.S. president succeed in settling the greatest quandary of history? What will be the future of Jerusalem? Coupled with this article I suggest you read the title “Ishmael and his Father” at our website, www.cosmades.org.

Our world abounds with unending conflicts which cannot be settled by the most ingenious leaders. The horrendous acts which shocked the world and brought great grief upon the bereaved people of the USA is an extension of the events in the Middle East. Inarguably, the Iraqi war is a prolongation of the same conflict. It must be remembered that Israel's presence is always a disturbing factor to the Muslim mind. Since its inception as a nation in 1948, Israel has been in a continuous state of war.

The cardinal hurdle in this quandary happens to be Jerusalem. It is a burning religious issue. Muslims throughout the world adamantly insist that Jerusalem is designated by Allah for them. This claim has become the determined objective of over a billion strong of our race. Naturally, the Jewish aspiration is diametrically opposed to this stance. Archeologists with keen interest to unearth valuable information regarding the past history of the place are hindered from this pursuance.

This archaic Biblical hill inhabited in perpetuity, was the glowing chunk of land throughout Old Testament times. The city was captured by King David and turned into the capital of the young kingdom. His son Solomon built the renowned temple on top of this commanding hill. The appellation Jerusalem appears in the Hebrew O.T. versions 635 times. Another name employed for the same place is Sion (the hill). This word appears 161 times in the O.T.

Nebuchadrezzar’s captain Nebuzaradan burned the house of JAHWEH in 586 B.C. (cf. II Kings 25:8; II Chronicles 36:19). Jeremiah (c. 621-580 B.C.), the weeping prophet, expressed his deep agony for the city and the devastated temple. He embodies the profound anguish of his people in his Lamentations, “Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; yea, she herself groans, and turns her face away. The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; yea, she has seen the nations invade her sanctuary, those whom thou didst forbid to enter thy congregation. All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. ‘Look, O LORD, and behold, for I am despised.’ Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger” (1:8, 10-12). Today many Jews anguish for the absence of their temple from Mt. Zion.

At the return from captivity the city and the temple were rebuilt during Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s remarkable leadership. Later it was polluted (168 B.C.) by Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175-163 B.C.), who sacrificed a pig on the altar, forbade the circumcision of the Jews, etc. The Maccabeans rededicated it (165 B.C.). Following this, the Romans took over with Herod tactfully launching the refurbishment of the temple. This is the temple mentioned in New Testament times. After being completed, it was once again totally devastated by Titus—Roman general—in 70 A.D. The Roman occupiers were so repugnant that they renamed Jerusalem Colonia Aelia Capitolina, erecting a temple in honor of Venus. The Byzantines to whose suzerainty Jerusalem eventually passed, built a church in close proximity to the ancient temple which they called Naos tis Anastasis, i.e. Church of the Resurrection.

Then came Islam--an entirely new phenomenon in mankind’s tortuous history (622, l A.H.) Their prophet died in 632, having established total control of the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. Abu-Bakr was their first Khalifa (successor), Omar was the second. Omar conquered Jerusalem in the name of Allah and of course the temple site in A.D. 638—at the time a heap of rubble (cf. Micah 3:12). The Muslims refer to the temple mountain as Kubbat-al-Shakhra (shrine). They did not build anything on the site until the fifth Umaiyad Khalifa Abd-al-Malik (685-705), whose aim it was to establish a sacred site for Islam in close proximity to Damascus, the Umaiyad seat. These were not on the best of terms with the Meccan Muslims. The mosque came to be known as Masdjid al-Aksha.

Islam has greatly exaggerated the place with a profusion of legendary shift from all originality. Some of these concocted presumptions show Islam’s capability of imagination in stretching ordinary realities to speculative contrivance. As the Romans had done, they ‘unnamed’ Jerusalem, converting it to Al-Kuds. Of course, this appellation is being used until our time. Here are some of their far-fetched imaginations: Adam is buried here. Noah’s Ark rested on this hill. All fresh waters on earth spring from beneath this city. The souls of the departed assemble here twice each week. Other romantic legends contributing to para-religious beliefs are firmly held by many uninformed Muslims, who hardly know anything about Israel’s history.

Many battles were fought here. Walls were built and torn down. Numerous gates served the city. The East Gate is perpetually walled, to be opened at the appearance of the Messiah! Celebrated stories continue to circulate. Back to real history: The Crusaders captured Jerusalem on July 14, 1099, and devastated it--a hard blow to Islamic rule. They converted Kubbat-al-Shakhra to a magnificent church, TEMPLUM DOMINI. Baldwin I was investitured as king of Jerusalem on November 11, 1100. A ferocious Kurd, Saladdin Eyyubi, retook Jerusalem (1187), destroying all traces of the church. The Crusaders repossessed the city for a season (1229-1244). So it continued, with Jerusalem changing hands until the British marshal, Edmund Henry Allenby, captured it from the decadent Ottomans (1917) who had conquered the city in 1517. Islamic domination was finally terminated. It is said that Allenby refused to enter the city on horseback, remarking, “My Lord entered here on a donkey. I can do nothing less than walk.”

The fledgling army of Israel seized the new part in 1948, leaving the old city under Jordanian rule. During the Six-Day War (1967), the Israeli army captured the old city with the government unequivocally declaring it the eternal capital of Israel. We have entered the twenty-first century witnessing the exertion of universal pressure on Israel to relinquish Jerusalem to Muslims who say, “It is Allah’s gift to us!” The ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of such a dissention needs consideration.

Against the hundreds of references to Jerusalem in the Old Testament, the Quran nowhere mentions the city by name. There is a sole verse in Sura XVII, v.1, The Night Journey, which says, “Glory be to Him who carried his servant by night from the sacred temple of Mecca to the temple that is more remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him of our signs. For He is the Hearer, the Seer.” Masdjid al-Aksha, i.e. the remotest sanctuary. The remote temple certainly refers to that in Jerusalem, in total ruins at the time. The new religion endeavoring to bring about for itself some legacy in the O.T. city established a very far-stretched assumption around this single verse. Tradition has it that on a certain night the angel Gabriel brought to the prophet of Islam a winged white horse named Burak and carried him to the site of the Jewish temple or to a place of prayer in heaven, all the way from Mecca. Such a belief is widespread among ordinary Muslims. To this day, some Muslims even go so far as to name their sons Burak!

Along the way the prophet of Islam met Abraham, Moses and Jesus! He led them in Salat (prayer). The extra-Quranic legends expand to a wide range of figments of imagination: From the site of the temple, Allah’s last prophet mounted Burak with Gabriel leading, was carried to the seventh heaven where he met Allah at his throne. At that point Allah gave him the Quran. Another far-fetched tradition has Abraham mounted on Burak visiting Ishmael who had been banished to Mecca. Most of the Islamic interpreters, seeking to save the Meccan prophet from such speculative embarrassment, claim that their prophet saw this in a dream. But others maintain that only a corporeal being can carry a physical person. Incidentally, the event occurred in the ninth month (Ramadan), so was designated the month when all Muslims are obliged to fast. The legend regarding the ascent (originally called ‘ladder’) is known as Miradj. Such usurpations regarding Jerusalem make the city theirs. Al-Kuds is Islam’s third holy site; therefore it should not be contested.

Furthermore, present-day Islamic insistence centers on the notion that the Israelites conquered the land as intruders, taking it over from the original dwellers, vanguards of the present-day Palestinians. The strife over Jerusalem’s ownership emanates from historic facts as well as numerous legends. In the meantime, the Jews sing, “If I forget you O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither” (Psalm 137:5, cf. v.6). The rejected Messiah bewailed the future of the city (cf. Matt. 23:37, 38; Luke 13:34,35) for rebuffing His salvation. He made some spirited pronouncements along with His compassionate lamentation. Unknown to most people, there is a triumphant day ahead, when both Jews and Muslims will acknowledge the Christ (cf. Zechariah 12:10,11), in His rightfully possessed Capital. “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3c). “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” (Psalm 122:6; 102:12-17).