02.11. Regal ambitions

Regal ambitions

Jerusalem was the city David established as Israel’s capital, but it was not his first capital. For seven years he had reigned in Hebron, a leading city of Judah thirty kilometres south. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all lived in Hebron at some time and were all buried in a piece of ground Abraham bought for a family burial place.¹ Hebron today, like David’s own ancestral town of Bethlehem, is largely populated by Palestinian Arabs.

David saw that if he took the apparently invincible Jerusalem from its enemy occupants, he would unite all Israel behind him and have a capital that gave no cause for tribal jealousies. The commanding hill of the city, Zion, was the enemy’s stronghold, but once David’s men overthrew it, they soon controlled all Jerusalem. Zion, the city of David, gave its name to the entire city and even to the temple that David planned to build there.²

Solomon, David’s son and successor, built the temple, but almost four hundred years later the Babylonians destroyed it, along with the rest of Jerusalem (587 BC). Seventy years later the Jews rebuilt the temple, though in more modest style, and it lasted five hundred years. Herod the Great rebuilt it again, this time on a grand scale, and it was still not finished in the time of Jesus.³

Two other impressive buildings of Herod were a palace for himself and a governor’s headquarters, or praetorium, which he named the fortress of Antonia.⁴ The remains of these and other buildings, or the structures later built over them, are still evident today.

Also evident today are some of the channels and pools used to carry and store Jerusalem’s water.⁵ Not so evident are the sites of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. The important issue, however, is not the identification of the sites, but the acceptance of the facts. Jesus died, was buried, was raised again and is alive for evermore.

1. Genesis 23:17-20; Genesis 25:9; Genesis 50:13 2. 1 Kings 8:1; Psalms 2:6; Psalms 9:11; Psalms 48:12 3. John 2:20. It was finished in AD 64, but destroyed by Rome in AD 70.

4. Matthew 27:27; Luke 23:7 5. 2 Kings 20:20; John 5:2; John 9:7

View of Jerusalem towards the Citadel