VII. History of Jerusalem. This may be briefly noticed under seven periods.
1. The Patriarchal Period (B.C. 2000-1300). The earliest mention of Jerusalem is that in Gen. 14:18, which, taken with Psa. 76:2, seems to indicate the place, though the identity is questioned by some scholars. In the time of Abraham, B.C. 1918, according to the common chronology, Jerusalem was the seat of a kingdom under the priest Melchizedek, who received homage and tithes, as God's representative, from the patriarch. At that time it was a centre, not only of political power, but of a religious worship which was recognized by Abraham as divine and spiritual.
2. The Jebusite Period (B.C. 1300-1003). The next reference to Jerusalem (and the earliest certain account) is at the time of the conquest, B.C. 1210. At that period it was held by the Jebusites, a race of Canaanite origin, small in numbers, but of indomitable courage and resolution, since they were able to hold their city for four centuries against all the power of Israel. Their king, Adoni-zedek (Josh. 10:1), may have been a descendant of the pious Melchi-zedek, as the names are similar; but the ancient purity of the people's worship had been lost in the idolatry of the surrounding races. The little city of Jebus, as it was then called, formed a confederation with the other clans of the south to resist Joshua's invading host. But in the decisive battle of Beth-horon the Canaanites were routed, their five kings were slain (among them the king of Jerusalem), and the alliance was broken up. For the present, Jerusalem was not attacked, but its territory was assigned to the tribe of Benjamin. (Josh. 18:28.) Soon after the death of Joshua, however, it was besieged by the united tribes of Judah and Simeon, as dangerous to the northern frontier of the former. From Judges 1:8, and the history of Josephus, we learn that the lower city (perhaps on Acra) was taken and burned; but the fortress was found impregnable "by reason of its walls and also of the nature of the place." (Josephus.) The city was soon rebuilt (Judges 19:11), and remained in Jebusite hands through all the age of the Judges and the reign of Saul.
NATURAL FEATURES OF JERUSALEM.
3. The Royal Period (B.C. 1003-587). With the accession of David a new era began in Israel, and every part of the kingdom soon felt the strong hand of its new master. He was not one to brook a foreign fortress in the centre of his realm, and in the first year of his reign over united Israel he marched against it, and demanded its surrender. Trusting to their strong situation, the Jebusites refused, and, as an insult, placed "the blind and the lame" on its walls in mockery of his attempt. But, under the valiant Joab, the height was scaled, the fortress was taken, and Jerusalem was thenceforth "the city of David." (2 Sam. 5.) David made it his capital, brought thither the ark of the covenant, and surrounded it with a new wall. Solomon enriched it with treasures, and with its greatest glory, the Temple on Mount Moriah. After the division it remained the capital of Judah, though close to the border of the Ten Tribes. It was taken without resistance from Rehoboam, by Shishak, the king of Egypt, and robbed of its wealth, 930 B.C. In the reign of Jehoshaphat it was restored to something like its former prosperity; but under his son Jehoram, B.C. 840, it was taken by a sudden attack of the Philistines and Arabians, and again plundered. Under Athaliah it became a shrine of abominable Baal worship, but was reformed by Jehoiada in the earlier days of the reign of Joash. Joash, however, in his later years allowed the people to relapse into idolatry, with the usual result; for, about B.C. 800, the powerful Hazael, king of Syria, overran the Shefelah, defeated the Judaites, and was only kept from entering the city by a gift of its treasures. Amaziah, the next king, elated by a victory, offered battle at Beth-shemesh to Joash, king of Israel, then the most powerful state between Egypt and Assyria. He was defeated; and, as a result, Jerusalem was entered by the Israelites, its wall was thrown down, and it was again plundered. The city suffered during the wicked reign of Ahaz, but was restored and divinely protected from its Assyrian besiegers in the good reign of Hezekiah. After the death of Josiah it was entered by the Egyptians under Necho; but its final destruction was wrought by Nebuchadnezzar, of the Babylonian empire. Twice he visited it with a heavy hand, setting up one king after another; and, when his vassal Zedekiah again rebelled, he besieged it for more than a year, with some intermissions, and at last, in B.C. 587, made a breach in its walls and took it by storm. Then, for the first time, the city was absolutely destroyed, and made a heap of ruins, while its people were carried into captivity.
4. The Period of Restoration (B.C. 587-70 A.D.). After lying desolate for 50 years, the city was again occupied under Zerubbabel, by the decree of Cyrus, B.C. 536. For nearly a century it remained unwalled and was thinly inhabited, until its wall was rebuilt by Nehemiah, B.C. 445. Thenceforward it grew rapidly, and soon became again the metropolis as well as the capital of the Jewish state. Alexander the Great visited it, B.C. 332, and gave the Jews certain privileges in his empire. The city was taken by Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt, B.C. 320, because the Jews would not fight on the Sabbath. In B.C. 203 it was taken by Antiochus, the king of Syria, and, after a revolt, again by his son, Antiochus Epiphanes, in B.C. 170 and B.C. 168. The latter capture was followed by a bitter persecution of the Jewish religion, in which thousands of lives were sacrificed. But a deliverer arose, in the family of the priest Mattathias, whose son, Judas Maccabeus, rescued the city and restored the worship in the Temple. Under the Maccabean princes Jerusalem was generally prosperous, though with occasional reverses. The Romans first besieged and took the city under Pompey, B.C. 65. Herod the Great beautified the city, erected many buildings, and rebuilt the Temple throughout. But the most terrible of all scenes in Jerusalem's annals, were those which took place in the revolt of the Jews against the Roman empire, and the destruction of the city by Titus, A.D. 70. For years it was the arena of riot, of the bloody strife of factions, and of massacre, which scarcely ceased during the final siege. At last the city and Temple were taken by Titus, demolished and burned, and for a second time Jerusalem was left an utter desolation.
5. The Roman Period (A.D. 70-637). For fifty years after its destruction Jerusalem is not mentioned, and probably remained uninhabited. But, after the attempt of the false Messiah Bar-cocheba to rebuild the city and Temple, and restore the independence of the Jews,—an attempt which was only quelled by calling forth all the power of the empire,—the emperor Hadrian resolved to establish a heathen city upon its site. He named it Ælia Capitolina, built on Moriah a temple to Jupiter, and allowed no Jews to enter the walls, a prohibition which remained until the empire became Christian. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, restored the ancient name; and his mother, Helena, made a pilgrimage to the city, A.D. 326, which now began to be regarded as a sacred place by Christians. At this time the first Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built, over the place where Helena discovered the tomb of Jesus. The emperor Julian, A.D. 362, out of hatred to the Christians, undertook to rebuild the Temple, and make it once more a Jewish centre; but was defeated in his plans by earthquakes and the leaping forth of subterranean fires, as is related by Ammianus Marcellinus, himself a heathen, the friend and companion in arms of the emperor. He states: "Horrible balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place from time to time inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and, the victorious element continuing in this, obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was abandoned." In 529 A.D. the emperor Justinian founded a church upon the site where now is the Mosque el Aksa, and a tide of pilgrims, increasing with each generation, began to pour upon the holy places. In 614 A.D. the city was taken by the Persian king, Chosroes II., the churches were destroyed, and multitudes of priests and monks were slain; but 14 years afterward it was retaken by the emperor Heraclius, and held, though but for a short time, by the Christians.
6. The Mediæval Period (A.D. 637-1517). In 637 Palestine and Jerusalem passed under the dominion of the Moslems, then ruled by the Caliph Omar; but the holy places were respected, and the Christians were allowed to retain their churches. Under the Fatimite caliphs of Cairo the Christians were persecuted, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was several times destroyed and rebuilt. The pilgrims from Europe brought trade and tribute, so that the city flourished, in spite of frequent pillagings and captures by various Arab and Turkish hordes. On July 15, 1099, it was taken by the Crusaders, after a terrible assault, and for 88 years was the seat of a Christian kingdom. Saladin reconquered it in 1187; and various changes in its government and several sieges followed, until 1517, when it finally passed under the rule of the Turks, who have since been its masters.
7. The Modern Period, from A.D. 1517 until the present, has witnessed comparatively few changes in the city's condition. The present wall was built by the sultan Suleiman in 1542. In 1832 it was seized by Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt, but was again restored to the sultan, through the interference of the European powers. It is now a city of a population variously estimated at from twenty to fifty thousand.