Jerusalem

Today Jerusalem is considered a holy site for three of the world's foremost religions. In all stages of the Hebrew Bible Jerusalem and its surrounding features are repeatedly mentioned as the establishing it as the holy center for Judaism, Islam and Christianity. I intend to give three main examples of Jerusalem in the Old Testament and illustrate through these examples why Jerusalem is so important to the people of these three faiths. The first mention of something relating to Jerusalem in the Bible is in Genesis 2. A general description of Eden is being made when the Bible mentions the rivers of Eden. “The name of the second river is Gihon”(NRSV, Genesis 2-13). The main water source for Jerusalem was the Gihon Spring. The first thing this does is acknowledge something around the city of Jerusalem. In the first book of the Bible a piece of Jerusalem is described, this foreshadows the city's importance to the faithful. This also shows that part of Eden is also a part of Jerusalem making that piece of Jerusalem Holy. In the first book of the Bible something in the vicinity of the great city is already shown as a sacred place, thus giving potential for the whole city to be considered holy. The references to the Gihon in Genesis 2 show not only that Jerusalem is important but that it already has a case to be…

The Dome of the Rock is one of the most sacred buildings for Muslims in Jerusalem and around the world. It’s situated in the heart of the old city, on the site of Solomon’s Temple and the second Temple. In early Islamic Jerusalem, the a number of members in the declined Jewish population of the city were once permitted to pray on Temple Mount (Peters 194). After the construction of the Dome of the Rock, however, the atmosphere of the area changed (Peters 194). Jews who were temporarily allowed…

Religious spaces, characterized by Thomas Tweed, are “differentiated”, “kinetic” and “interrelated”. As a sacred city with spiritual significance in three religions, Jerusalem is depicted thoroughly and illustrated in the Hebrew Bible as one of the spaces Tweed defined. The biblical portrayal of Jerusalem emphasizes that the land was chosen by God and honored by Israelites, which differentiates it as a special, singular space; the description of Solomon’s Temple shows that Jerusalem is…

Jerusalem is one of the holiest cities in the entire world. Home to holy places, synagogues, mosques, and churches, millions of people visit the city of Jerusalem. It is also a place of conflict as the three major world religions view Jerusalem as one of the sacred places for their religion. In addition, history has shown that each of these religions wanted to take control of Jerusalem, and destroyed the holy sites belonging to the others. Finally, none of the religions want others to control…

The city of Jerusalem is a religious and holy space to many who live there or simply visit, but what about Jerusalem makes religious or holy in the first place? There are buildings with an empty meaning until it is labeled, buildings with an unacknowledged history that can or cannot be proven, and people confused with their purpose in life. Jerusalem has carried many of these characterizations and factors and yet no one truly understood how the religious and holy space was formed in the city.…

Ancient Israel was a nation in a state of constant flux. From thousands of years ago up to the present, the region has changed drastically, affecting the lives of millions. At the center of this discord lies the city of Jerusalem. Throughout its history, Jerusalem has been attacked, defended, destroyed, and rebuilt over its long history. Of the thousands of cities in the world, Jerusalem is lauded as one of the holiest, holding significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Thousands of years…

Religion plays a vital role in Jerusalem and more specifically, in understanding it. Although, people of different religions do live their own lives, there has been recorded tension between them. One example is that they all believe to be the heirs of God’s legacy to Abraham (1). He granted His “everlasting favor” to Abraham and his descendants, and with that, all three religions believe that they are just that. With different people of different faiths, all together in one place, the city is…

Jerusalem is a city that spans around 60 kilometers, located at the coordinates of 31°47′N, 35°13′E. The city is elevated at around 760 meters, and it lies on the southern spur of a plateau in the Judaean Mountains, which includes Mount of Olives to the east and Mount Scopus to the northeast. Also called the “Old City,” Jerusalem lies north of Bethlehem, west of Abu Dis, east of Tel Aviv, and south of Ramallah. It is surrounded by valleys and dry riverbeds. The three most known valleys are the…

Vaibhav Thakkar 104163889 AN E 10W Dis 1D Jerusalem as a Holy City Jersualem, the city, for nearly three thousand years, has been considered to be one of the most influential and integral spiritual centers in the world for three of the largest Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Chrsitianity, and Judaism. Given Jerusalem’s rich, deep cultural connections and diverse historical and religious past, it becomes very simple to infer that this city has become sanctified and venerated to such an extent that it…

1099, when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and began to expand the Church (Wilkinson, 1978, p. 11-12). Rebuilding and increasing the size of the Church allowed the conquering Christians to reestablish their dominance in Jerusalem after the Muslims had built their holy buildings on the Temple Mount. Ousterhout notes that while the location of the Tomb of Christ was immutable, the architecture of the building was not (2003,…