In our sermon text this week, Isaiah 52, the city of Jerusalem features prominently. Isaiah is making predictions about the restoration of the Israelites from exile in Babylon, an event which begins with the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, destroyed by the armies of Babylon in 586 BC. The description of the restored Jerusalem that we read in this passage is glorious—it is a place of perfect holiness and beauty, a place of constant rejoicing, where God dwells in the midst of his people. As I said in my sermon, when the actual restoration occurred (about 150 years after Isaiah is writing), it falls far short of this description. The rebuilt Jerusalem is a shadow of its former self. What explains this discrepancy between prophecy and reality?
Interpreting these promises as he looks into the future, John applies them not to the physical Jerusalem, but to a future city that awaits us in the new heaven and new earth which will come following the return of Christ and judgment of the world. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. All throughout this description of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22, John is drawing directly upon Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 49-55.
For my blogpost today, I thought it might be helpful to go into a bit of the history of the city of Jerusalem, and try to discover its meaning in our theology. In many parts of the American church, the present city of Jerusalem is weighted with significance and will play a major role in world events as we move towards the return of Christ and the end of the world. I do not think the city has any theological significance any longer, interpreting what Jesus says about its overthrow in AD 70 to be decisive. But let’s move straightforwardly through its history. A lot of what I will share comes from Simon Sebag Montefiore’s recent history of Jerusalem, a book I would highly recommend!
Jerusalem’s Origins and Biblical Importance
Jerusalem is sometimes called the City of David in the Old Testament, but it was not founded by him. Shortly after he is anointed as king (sometime in the late 11th century BC), he conquered the city from its original inhabitants, the Jebusites. They were a Canaanite people, one of many conquered and displaced by the Israelites during their conquest of the Promised Land. But the Jebusites were probably not the original builders of the city. It’s origin may stretch back as far as 3000 BC, nearly two thousand years before David conquers it. But it is with David that the city moves into a position of prominence in history, for David makes it his capital and moves the ark of the Lord from its previous home to the highest point of the city. A good general date to keep in mind is that this happens around 1000 BC.
Jerusalem was an excellent place for a capital city because of the strength of its walls, its strategic location, and the presence of an independent water source (the Gibson Spring). It naturally dominated the landscape around it. Crucially, it was also exceedingly difficult to capture—armies would repeatedly struggled to invest it for a siege right on down to the modern era.
Jerusalem remained an important city and the capital of a regional kingdom of great strength all throughout the years in which the House of David ruled over the nation of Judah. The city was never seriously threatened until 701 BC, when it was besieged by the Assyrians for over a year. In the end, for reasons that historians still struggle to explain (but which the Bible states pretty clearly), Assyria abandoned their siege and left the city unconquered. It wasn’t until 586 BC when another siege resulted in the city being depopulated and destroyed. For the most part, Jerusalem ceased to exist, and its status as the capital of an independent kingdom under the House of David. Even when the Judahans are allowed to return back to their land by Cyrus, the kingdom is not restored. Jerusalem is instead a regional capital of a province within Persia. After Alexander conquered Persia, Jerusalem is ruled over by various Greek successor kingdoms (absent a short 50-year period in which an independent statelet was established by the Hasmoneans, a Jewish family).
In the days of Jesus, Jerusalem had been a part of the Roman Empire since around 63 BC, when Pompey intervened in an internal power struggle with the Hasmonean family. Later, in 37 BC, the Herodians would be appointed local client kings. Neither the Hasmoneans nor the Herodians laid claim to the throne of David. For the most part, all through the long period that followed the Babylonian exile, Jerusalem was the capital of a client state under some overlord or other—first the Persians, than various Greek rulers, and finally the Romans.
The Destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70
In the days of Jesus, Jerusalem had become a large and influential city, one of the most significant in the Roman Empire. Because of how the Jews had scattered following the Exile, the religion of Jerusalem was a significant minority in many sectors of the Roman Empire, and a regular flow of pilgrims ensured that the city was prosperous and wealthy. Under Herod, a magnificent new Temple had been built, and the peace of the Roman Imperial period led to a general prosperity. And yet, beneath this, roiling tensions split the Jewish people; national ambitions that had never dampened and a eschatological passion that would lead to large-scale revolt in AD 70, about forty years after Jesus’ resurrection and well into the establishment of the church.
The revolt was poorly timed for a few reasons. One was that Roman Empire was at perhaps the zenith of its power. A minor regional power like Jerusalem was never going to threaten Rome. But more significantly, the revolt came in the midst of a short period of political instability that followed the death of Emperor Nero. When the revolt broke out, the commanders tasked with subduing it were the father-son team of Vespasian and Titus. In AD 69, Vespasian lays claim to his military successes in Judah and goes to Rome to lay claim to the throne. Titus is left in charge of the campaign and besieges Jerusalem in AD 70.
The best way to establish legitimacy to rule in Rome was military success. This underlay the Julio-Claudian claim to power, and when a new family, the Flavians under Vespasian take control, it was urgent that they “prove” the divine sanction of their new dynasty through some spectacular military victory. The Jewish rebellion gave Titus an opportunity to do just that. As a consequence, his conquest of Jerusalem was far more brutal and total than it may have otherwise been. The city is destroyed as thoroughly as it had been by the Babylonians. It was completely depopulated and the temple destroyed. The city was left abandoned an empty for several years.
This is the end of Jerusalem as a Jewish city. The Romans would re-found the site of Jerusalem and name it Aelia Capitolina. Jews were forbidden from entering the city and it became a typical pagan Roman city for several hundred years, including a large temple to Jupiter. After the Christianization of the Roman Empire, it once again was named Jerusalem, but became an entirely Christian city, with only a nominal Jewish presence. Major churches were build throughout the city.
Islamic, Crusader, and Modern Jerusalem
Three other periods of the city’s history should be briefly mentioned. First, in 683 BC, the city is conquered from the Romans by the new Muslim Caliphate. Jerusalem was already an important city in the bastardized Jewish-Christian mythology of the Quran, and the Temple Mount was the supposed site of a magical (and obviously invented) “Night Journey” by Muhammed. Therefore, when the Muslims captured the city they built a new place of worship on the site of the Temple Mount. Jerusalem every since has been a holy city for Muslims, exceeded only by Mecca and Medina. The Mosque on the site of the old Temple is a place of pilgrimage for Muslims.
For the next 1500 years, various Muslim empires would rule Jerusalem with a brief interlude that is significant. In 1099 AD, Crusader armies from Europe, in a near-miraculous victory, managed to capture Jerusalem and established it as the capital of a new Christian kingdom that for a while ruled over large swathes of the old Promised Land of the Jews. Although the Crusader kingdoms lasted for several hundred years, they were able to control Jerusalem for less than a hundred. Saladin captured it back in 1187 AD.
Throughout the Muslim period, the city was occupied by a diverse mix of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian groups. Generally speaking the Muslim influence predominated, but especially under the Ottomans, the groups interacted peacefully. The last period we should discuss follows World War I when the region came under the control of the British. The British planned to transition their territory to two states, Jewish and Arab, with the city of Jerusalem controlled by an international council. Following the independence of Israel however, the city was partitioned between Israel and Jordan, and finally captured totally by Israel following the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel’s control of it is very tenuous, and it remains divided between Muslim, Jewish, and Christian sectors.
Theological Significance
If you are keeping track at home, therefore, the city of Jerusalem had a long pagan prehistory; a relatively short and interrupted Jewish control (ca 1000 BC-70 AD), a few hundred years of Christian rule (300 AD-683 AD, 1099-1187 AD); and a much longer period of Muslim control, down to the present day (before 1967 AD). Both Muslims and Jews today claim it as a holy city, and many Christians see it as a significant place because of its history. But does it have theological significance?
It is my opinion that in terms of the purposes of God, the city of Jerusalem’s importance in God’s plans ceases with the destruction of the temple in AD 70. The Jerusalem of the biblical prophecy is not that physical city or some future iteration of it, but something entirely new. This lines up with the perspective of the author of Hebrews: For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. While the history of the city is rich and complex, its ultimate significance is not found in early struggles, but in the promise of a heavenly city prepared by God for his people.