New Jerusalem

northern Kingdom of Israel, Judah had to prepare for an Assyrian annexation and tried to differentiate itself from their northern neighbors. In order to do so King Hezekiah and King Josiah both created religious reforms attempting to centralize the Jerusalem cultic practice and unite the people against both Assyrian and Babylonian aggression. High places became an easy target in the reforms of both kings. A high place is an elevated cultic installation where religious rites were performed. They could be in either a rural or an urban setting and were sometimes found on naturally higher areas or were sometimes artificially built up. These High Places could possibly represent the oldest Yahwistic cultic practices in Israel. Originally, Biblical passages supported…

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 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…

In the year 1096, the First Crusade launched on a three year long campaign towards the Holy Lands. In that Crusade the Carolingian Empire was called to partake by the words of Pope Urban II, who proposed sending troops to fight the Seljuk Turks and take back Jerusalem. The Seljuk Turks started gaining power and territory in 1030 and took over Jerusalem in 1071, kicking out the Byzantines. The First Crusade had created tension between the Muslim Turks and the western Romans. In this essay, I will…

Map of the Holy Land (see attached sheet) All the parts are labeled according to the required colors. Most of the information for it came from pages 49, 54, and 224 in Halley’s Handbook, as well as some notes from class. The rest was found on the “Canaan – The 12 Tribes” map page and was confirmed by yet other maps. Important Cities and Physical Features Beer-Sheba was a location in Genesis in which Abraham had a disagreement with Abimalek. There was an important well nearby, and though Abraham…

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…

city wall and ramparts were thought to have included the acclaimed “Great Western Gate.” The Western Gate is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a fairly small section of an extended ancient retaining wall. Theoretically, it was thought to have been raised as part of the development of the Second Jewish Temple by Herod the Great. According to Unger,…

Mount Zion from the so-called Hill of Evil Counsel. It forms the southern border of ancient Jerusalem and is mentioned several times in the Bible. It's original Hebrew name is Gei ben-Hinnom which means Valley of Son of Hinnom. Nobody really knows who Hinnom or his son were but the name stuck through the ages. The earliest mention of the valley of Hinnom is in the Book of Joshua 15:8, where the boundary line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin is described as passing along the bed of the…

God called David to be the “shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel” (New Revised Standard Version, 2 Samuel 5:2). David replaced King Saul, the first king of Israel because he had lost favor with the Lord. As king, David conquered the previous inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jebusites. After David and the Israelites settled in Jerusalem, the Philistine people tried to conquer them. However, the Lord delivered a victory to David, which allowed him to obtain the Ark of the…

Jerusalem is mainly associated with Jewish customs and being known as the birthplace of Judaism, but the city is also enriched with other religions like Christianity and Islam and influenced by the cultures of Christians and Muslims. One religious site that is entwined with all three of these religions is the Dome of the Rock located on the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock which was finished under Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik around 692 was not a mosque but a shrine. This structure is significant not…