Jerusalem, an ancient city in the modern nation of Israel, is considered sacred by people of many faiths, including Christians, Jews and Muslims. As a result of this, the city has been fought over for thousands of years. Jerusalem first became a key city when David, who was then king over the southern portion of Israel, consolidated his power and became king over all of Israel. Jerusalem was a central location and it had not chosen sides during the fighting between King David and the son of the previous king. Therefore, it seemed a perfect location for David to name as the capital of the reunited country. David built a palace in Jerusalem expanded its territory and strengthened its walls. Then he brought to Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant. This made Jerusalem not only the political capital, but also the focus of the nation’s worship. David wanted to build a permanent temple there for YAHVEH’s Ark, but YAHVEH prevented him from doing so. His son Solomon instead built the temple, a fixed building that replaced the movable tabernacle where the ark had been kept.

THE FACTS

MEANING OF THE NAME

1.) Egyptian Meaning: The earliest mention of Jerusalem is found in the texts known as the Egyptian Execration Texts from the 19th and 18th centuries before HaMashiach, in the form Urusalimum.

2.) Semitic Meaning: In the 14th century BC, the name appears as Urusalim. Later it is found as Ursalimmu. The two Hebrew root-words, uru (city) and salim (a divine name), produced the compound word “the city of the god Salim.” Salim or Shalem (Akkadian, Shulmanu; perhaps Solomon), was a god worshiped by the Amorites (compare Ezekiel 16:3).

3.) Hebrew/Aramaic Meaning: In the Hebrew Old Testament, Jerusalem is written Yerushalayim and in the portions of the Old Testament written in the Aramaic language, the name is written Yerushalem. It contains the root words Yarah (“to found,” see Job 38:6) and Shalem (a divine name), which gives us “the foundation of [the god] Shalem.”

4.) Greek Meaning: In the New Testament, the word “Jerusalem” is a translation of Ierousalem and Hierosoluma. The first of these is simply the way that Greek authors wrote the Old Testament Aramaic word; the second reflects the Greek word hieros (holy).

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION

Jerusalem is found at 31º 46’ 45” north latitude and 35º 13’ 25” east longitude. The city rises to just over 2,500 feet (762 meters) above sea level and rests some 14 miles (22.5 kilometres) west of the northern end of the Dead Sea and approximately 33 miles (53 kilometres) east of the Mediterranean coast. Jerusalem’s climate is typical of the Mediterranean area: the rainy season lasts from October to May, with an annual accumulation of about 25 inches (63.5 centimetres). Throughout January and February the rains are often driven by winds and the temperature drops to near freezing (see Ezra 10:9); the coldest weather happens on the days of heaviest rainfall. Snow falls two years out of three. There is no rain between May and September and a high percentage of solar radiation produces harsh heat. Like Rome, Jerusalem is a city set on hills.

A cluster of five hills makes up the bare, four-sided landmass roughly one mile (1.6 kilometres) long and one-half mile (.8 kilometres) wide, bordered on all sides, except the north, by deep canyons. Jerusalem is an important city for commerce, since it is located at the crossroads of the route connecting Hebron, Bethlehem, Shechem (Nablus) and other northern cities with the route from the Jordan Valley and the several smaller routes to the Mediterranean. Water, a lifeline for all cities, has always been in short supply at Jerusalem. The only natural source of permanent water was the spring at Gihon, today sometimes called the Virgin’s Fountain, located in the Kidron Valley immediately east of an ancient fortress conquered by David. Tunnels were burrowed to provide access to the Gihon when Jerusalem was at war. Later, another tunnel-the Siloam Tunnel-was cut through nearly 1,800 feet (548.6 meters) of limestone, allowing the waters of the Gihon to pass through the hill of Zion to the pool of Siloam. Farther south, at the meeting point of the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys, there was another spring, called En-rogel in the Bible (modern Bir Eyyub). It has since been turned into a well. These two sources were not enough for Jerusalem’s large population. Hence, many cisterns, reservoirs and channels of water have been made since ancient times.

THE HISTORY

THE PRE-ISRAELITE PERIOD

Nearly four thousand years before HaMashiach’s birth, the south-eastern hill of Jerusalem was first occupied by a settled group. By 1800 BC, a small makeshift wall had been built on the top of the south-eastern hill. From the Bible one learns that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, king of Salem (Genesis 14:17-20). Again (Genesis 22) the great father of Israel visited an area that later became part of Jerusalem, Mount Moriah, where Isaac was nearly sacrificed. Second Chronicles 3:1 says that Mount Moriah was the site of the temple in Jerusalem. In the 15th century BC or thereabouts the Hurrians (possibly the biblical Horites) went into Palestine. About the same time at Jerusalem, many buildings were begun and better methods of protecting the city from outside attack were introduced. Most writers connect these projects in Jerusalem with the Hurrian infiltration into Palestine.

CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT PERIOD

Upon learning that Gibeon had made a deal with the Jewish army of Joshua (Joshua 9), Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, got together with the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon and attacked Gibeon. In response, Joshua led his army and defeated them, killing all five monarchs at Makkedah (10:16-27). It appears that the tribe of Judah temporarily took over the city of Jerusalem and burned it after this victory (Judges 1:8). However, the Jebusites took over the area once again (Joshua 15:63; 1 Chronicles 11:4-5). It appears that the Jebusites stayed in control of Jerusalem until the time of David. The city also acted as a boundary separating the areas inherited by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. After the Philistine victory atop Mount Gilboa, where Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle (1 Samuel 31), David became the ruler of the tribe of Judah, while Saul’s son Ishbosheth ruled over the other, northern tribes of Israel from Mahanaim.

Over the next two years, David grew stronger while the forces of Ishbosheth grew weaker (2 Samuel 3:1). This struggle ended when Ishbosheth was killed and had his head cut off and his army was beaten back. David became the undisputed king of all Israel. During the 33 years David was king, he made the city into the centre of an empire that stretched from Egypt to the Euphrates River. He built up and expanded the city. He strengthened the city’s walls, which had been built by the Canaanites and planned to extend the city, possibly along the east slope of Zion. David also built a palace, learning building methods and taking many materials from Hiram, king of Tyre (2 Samuel 5:11). Nehemiah 12:37 suggests that this palace also may have been near the east side of the south-eastern hill. It was from a window of this house that Michal, Saul’s daughter, saw David dancing wildly (2 Samuel 6:16-23) as the Ark of the Covenant was brought in.

From the roof of this palace David gazed upon Bathsheba as she bathed (11:2-5) and from this residence he plotted the murder of her husband, Uriah (14-25). By bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:1-15); which meant that YAHVEH would live in the city; David showed his greatest leadership. Jerusalem became a royal city and a holy city; the centre of worship. As a result, the city would be known as the “city of David” (5:7) as well as the “city of YAHVEH” (Psalm 46:4). Adult male Jews would make long journeys, called “pilgrimages,” to Jerusalem to take part in the feasts and offerings. David wanted to bring YAHVEH and Jerusalem together forever by building a temple (2 Samuel 7), but YAHVEH responded that a son of the king would have to finish the building.

THE FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD

Solomon turned Jerusalem into a major city. The money from trade with cities from Egypt to Babylonia as well as with Elath, the Red Sea and Ophir passed through his royal capital. Solomon’s navy travelled as far as Tarshish, an island near Spain. Every three years, these boats would return with apes, peacocks, silver, iron, tin, ivory and gold from all over the area. Visitors and residents made the city huge and Solomon’s fame became legendary (1 Kings 10). Solomon’s most famous accomplishment was the first temple. It took seven years to construct, from April/May 966 (1 Kings 6:1) to October/November 959 (1 Kings 6:38). Hiram again provided both the technology and the cedar beams. Under Solomon, silver became as common in Jerusalem as stone and cedar as common as sycamore. Through taxes, as much as 17 million dollars a year may have crossed into Jerusalem. But money problems ultimately hurt Solomon’s kingship. He spent so much that he had to collect high taxes (1 Kings 4:7-19) and force some Israelites to work for him (1 Kings 5:13-18; see 1 Kings 9:20-23). After his death, Israel soon became a divided country again. The city was completely destroyed by Babylon in 588 BC. Fire engulfed the temple and Solomon’s mighty palace; the city walls were demolished. The treasures in the temple were carried off and the residents of Jerusalem were forced out.

THE SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD

The prophet Jeremiah had predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the 70-year captivity of Israel (Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10; compare 2 Chronicles 36:21; Daniel 9:2). In 538 BC, after the fall of Babylon, Cyrus, king of Persia, allowed some Jews to return (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4; compare Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). A small number of Jews returned to Jerusalem with Sheshbazzar, a prince of Judah (Ezra 1:8-11) and Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2). In 515 BC, the doors of a new, second temple were opened and the Passover feast was again observed from Jerusalem (6:15-18). Ezra came to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7), probably around 458 BC Again, only a small number of Jews felt the need to make the hard journey back to Jerusalem. Around 445 BC, when he heard about the troubles facing the Jews who had returned (Nehemiah 1:3-4), Nehemiah left his job as the king’s cup-bearer and went to Jerusalem. Under his leadership and example, the people rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15).

THE ROMAN PERIOD

In 40 BC, with the aid of the Parthians, Antigonus attacked and seized Jerusalem, forcing the city’s ruler Herod, to escape by night. He made his way to Rome, where the Roman Senate made him “king of the Jews” (compare Matthew 2:1). Herod joined with two Roman units of soldiers and in 37 BC he rousted the Parthians. This was the beginning of the long, infamous rule of Herod, who reigned at Jerusalem for 33 years (37-4 BC). It must be admitted that Jerusalem enjoyed prosperity and peace under Herod’s rule. He brought the city up-to-date, moving the seat of government to the south-western hill, where he erected a lavish palace, a sports arena, a theatre and a vast network of runways for water. Herod turned an old fortress in the city into a much larger structure and named it Antonia, in honour of Mark Antony, a Roman ruler. He reconstructed the temple in 20 BC, but it wasn’t completed until AD 64, just six years before Titus destroyed it (see John 2:20). Jerusalem’s history continues up to the present, but since the time of Yeshua its history has been marred by constant fighting over its control. In this city more than any other, we see the results of ongoing religious conflict.

NEW JERUSALEM

This phrase represents one of the great promises of John’s revelation at the end of the New Testament (Revelation 3:12; 21:2). In the first of the great visions of that book, the risen HaMashiach speaks to His people in the midst of their conflict in this world. Among His promises to those who conquer is that they will one day be citizens of the New Jerusalem. The last of the book’s visions shows the fulfilment of this promise. There we see not only the victorious people of YAHVEH but also the city that is to be their home in a new world. This does not of course, answer the question “What is the new Jerusalem?” A description of what it is like would be relatively simple. An explanation of what it is would be more complicated.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY

In John’s vision, an angel takes him to a mountaintop to show him the New Jerusalem. In the account that follows (Revelation 21:10-22:5), the first thing John notes is the light, the glory of YAHVEH, that lights the city like a great jewel-like lamp (Revelation 21:11). Then he describes its walls and gates (21:12-14). The twelve gates bear the names of the tribes of Israel and the wall between each gate and the next forms a single “foundation” or block, bearing the name of one of the twelve apostles of HaMashiach. Next, the measurements of the city are given (Revelation 21:15-17). It is 1,400 miles each way; not only in breadth and in length but also in height; and its wall is 216 feet. By working out these equivalents in miles and feet however, we miss what John would probably have thought much more important. According to the biblical units of measurement, the city is 12,000 stadia broad and its wall is 144 cubits thick.

These numbers are symbolic; as multiples of twelve, they signify perfection, as do other occurrences of twelve in Revelation (7:4-8). John describes the materials of which the New Jerusalem is built (Revelation 21:18-21). The wall is of jasper; its foundation layers are encrusted with other precious stones; its gates are pearls; and the streets and buildings within are made of “transparent gold.” As for the city itself, John notes a series of things that it does not have (Revelation 21:22-27); no temple, no sun or moon, no night, no closing of its gates and no evil. Finally, there are the three wonderful things that it does have (Revelation 22:1-5); the river of the water of life, the tree of life and the throne and presence of YAHVEH Himself. Such is the New Jerusalem as John describes it. But he wants us not so much to picture what the city looks like as to understand what it means.

BACKGROUND OF THE CITY

Old Testament history presents the city of David, old Jerusalem, as the place where YAHVEH’s rule over His people and His presence among them was centred. In that Jerusalem stood both the temple, where the priests served and the throne of the kings who governed as YAHVEH’s deputies. It was the metropolis or “mother city” of Israel, the people of YAHVEH. But the whole Bible is about YAHVEH’s redeeming a people for Himself out of all nations, in all ages; a greater Israel of which Old Testament Israel is only the forerunner. So it is natural that the last revelation the Bible gives should be a vision of that greater people; home at last in the true mother city, a new and greater Jerusalem. The Old Testament prophets witnessed the decline of old Jerusalem. They watched with grief and anger as it disappointed the hope that it would live up to its high destiny. As it became infected with sin and folly and as its kings and priests increasingly betrayed their calling, two of these prophets in particular began to look forward to a Jerusalem that one day would be what it was meant to be.

Ezekiel (Ezekiel 40-48) foresaw the city and its temple reconstructed in detail; Isaiah (Isaiah 52, 60-66) described this latter-day Jerusalem in even more glowing terms. The vision of both prophets ties in closely with the vision John records in Revelation 21-22. In the period between the Old Testament and New Testament, Jewish writers became yet more disillusioned with the state of their nation and they encouraged their readers not so much with hopes of the renewal of the earthly Jerusalem as with imaginative descriptions of the heavenly one. This they reckoned, existed already; at the end of the age it would come down from YAHVEH out of heaven, the metropolis of His people, populous and beautiful, the place of His temple and throne. In fact, what was imagined by these apocalyptic writers is in many respects very like what would in due course actually be seen by John. Yeshua develops all these lines of thought in quite a remarkable way. It is not simply that he foretells the final destruction of Jerusalem and its temple (Luke 19:41-44). If that were all, it would leave a great question unanswered. Old Jerusalem existed for a purpose, as we have seen; and if it is to be destroyed, how can that purpose then be fulfilled? Where will YAHVEH’s people then find His throne and His temple?

Yeshua’s answer is that, since the Incarnation, YAHVEH’s rule and YAHVEH’s presence are to be found in Himself (Matthew 28:18). Yeshua Himself is the “New Jerusalem”; an entirely new kind of Jerusalem. This is borne out by the word for “new” that John uses in Revelation. There are two distinct Greek words translated in English Bibles as “new.” Sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the emperor Hadrian built a “new” Jerusalem; that was the kind of “new” that simply meant the latest in a series of cities on the same site. But John’s vision is of a Jerusalem that is “new” in the sense of being fresh, clean and different. The New Testament speaks in the same way of the new covenant and the new commandment (John 13:34; Hebrews 8:8), the new creation and the new man (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:15). John’s vision brings out the same truth by telling of seven things that will exist “no more” in the new heaven and earth: no more sea, death, sorrow, crying, pain, curse or night (Revelation 21:1, 4; 22:3-5). In these respects all will be new and different. There are five passages elsewhere in the New Testament that help to fill in the background to Revelation 21. In Galatians 4:26 Paul speaks of “Jerusalem above,” the mother city of all who receive salvation by faith, as opposed to the old Jerusalem, where those belong who seek to please YAHVEH by trying to obey the Law (Galatians 4:25).

In Ephesians 5:25-32 he speaks of the bride of HaMashiach, by which he means the church; in John’s vision the “bride” is the “city” (Revelation 21:9-10). In Philippians 3:20 we are told that the heavenly city is not simply the future home of believers but also the place of their present “citizenship.” Hebrews 12:22 makes the same point: those who believe have arrived already at the “heavenly Jerusalem.” In other words, this Jerusalem is the home of all YAHVEH’s believing people, Jew and Gentile, from Old Testament and New Testament times and it seems not only to be future but also to exist already, in some sense, in the present. What then, are we to make of John’s vision?

MEANING OF THE CITY

In understanding the end of the world and the coming of YAHVEH’s Kingdom some expect a future Millennium: a thousand-year earthly reign of HaMashiach, between His second coming and final defeat of Satan. They believe that the New Jerusalem belongs to this Millennium because of certain conditions that seem to suit the thousand-year period better than the eternal state that will follow it (Revelation 21:24-26; 22:2). In this way of thinking the New Jerusalem is a literal, material city. It will presumably then, be in the shape of a cube or perhaps a pyramid and some even picture it hovering like an immense spaceship above the surface of the earth. Many others however, think that John is describing the new city as it will be in eternity. They may take the descriptions literally or they may think that giving the literal details in these chapters; the city’s measurements, materials and so on; is the only way in which John could describe something that is in fact indescribable in earthly terms (though real).

In line with the message of the entire book of Revelation, many take the New Jerusalem to be the ideal city of YAHVEH, which belongs not only to the future but also to the present. It exists here and now because it is a spiritual truth, not a material one. It is always “coming down...out of heaven” precisely because it comes to men “from YAHVEH” (Revelation 21:2). The fact remains of course, that everything John records in the last two chapters of Revelation belongs to a world that will only appear after the first heaven and the first earth have passed away; a world that is (to us, at any rate) still future. Taking into account all these Scriptures, we may come closest to understanding the New Jerusalem if we see it as the community of HaMashiach, which will appear in its perfection only when this age has come to an end. Yet in another sense, Christians belong to it already and it gives them both an ideal to strive for in this world and a hope to anticipate in the next.