Entries Tagged 'Bible History' ↓

The city of Jerusalem in the Bible, a brief history.

The city of Jerusalem carries so much history it would need a full library to disclose all the history associated with this ancient city. The name itself carries strong connotations for even the most ignorant of oriental and Bible history.

The name of Jerusalem is a good place to start on our brief journey. The Hebrew form Jerusalem or Yerushalayim as it is found in current Israeli maps, means Possession or foundation of Twofold Peace. There are other translations based on the Akkadian rendition of the city’s name that provides the meaning City of Peace. Logically though the Hebrew rendition must take precedence and we will keep the Hebrew meaning.

Early History of Jerusalem.
The first historical mention of the city of Jerusalem is found between the years 1943 and 1933 B.C.E when Abraham’s meets Melchizedek, who is called “king of Salem”. Who composed the city of Salem and the origins of Salem are as obscure as the origin of the king-priest that ruled it, Melchizedek.

Interestingly the location where Abraham offered his son Isaac on “one of the mountains” in the land of Moriah seems to have been located within the mountainous region around Jerusalem. We don’t know if Melchizedek was still alive, but it is very likely that Salem remained friendly territory for Abraham.

Another historical mention of Jerusalem is found in the Amarna Tablets, a series of letters from Canaanite rulers to their Egyptian overlord. These tablets include 7 letters from the king of Urusalim (Jerusalem). By this time the city was the possession of pagan Hamitic Canaanites, under the power of the Hamitic Egyptian Empire.

Interestingly the king of Jerusalem was among the confederate kings that attacked Gibeon, his name was Adoni-zedez meaning My Lord is righteousness with is similar to the meaning of Melichizedec, which means King of Righteousness.
After the conquest of the Promised Land the city of Jerusalem was on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin. Judah is credited with conquering it in Judges 1:8 but then seems to have lost it as the invading force continued as it is said that the Jebusites continued dwelling with them in Jerusalem.

This situation continued until David conquered Jerusalem when an attack spearheaded by Joab which gained entry through a water tunnel or gutter. After this David moves his capital here and the city began to be known as the city of David and also as Zion.
After this David began an ambitious building program of the city. There is no record of the city falling in battle during the entire rule of David. He did choose to retreat from it when his son Absalom rebelled against him and began a civil war.
Towards the end of David’s rule he prepared the city for the construction of the Temple. A task that would be left to his son Salomon.

Once the kingdom of Israel was divided the city of Jerusalem became the capital of the Two tribe nation of Judah under King Rehoboam. Throughout the remainder of Jerusalem’s history a pattern of blessings for the city when true worship was practiced and of apostasy and grave problems when the city turned away from true worship.

King Uzziah made significant additions to the city, especially in the form of defenses and fortifications. This did not stop Babylonian forces from conquering the city from King Zedekiah in 607 B.C.E

This sets a natural pause n the history of this magnificent city. We encourage you to continue an analysis of this city as part of your personal study of the Bible.

Study the bible by subject, key to understanding.

Studying, like the Bible is a two edged sword. Studying can be boring and monotonous or it can be exciting and productive. It can just be a waste of time or it can help you get a job or improve your quality of life. Just reading the Bible can be just hard work. You might have tried to start reading the Bible just for the sake of completing the whole Bible. I have seen programs that help you read the entire Bible in just 90 days. Although these programs are great and if you can concentrate and meditate on so much material in such a short period of time they can be very beneficial, it is much better to take small bites and digest them.

So how can you take bite size pieces of the Bible and still make it meaningful? One way is to study the Bible by subjects. Let’s take one example so you can see the benefits of studying the Bible by topic.

One of the big questions of the history of humanity is: If there is a God that loves us, why does he allow suffering? This timeless question has baffled theologians and thinkers since the beginning. To get a nice overview of the subject you could read the book of Job which deals with the issue in detail. Job suffers terribly without known reason and asks God why he can’t just put him to death. A feeling many today can understand. After this three false friends of Job go on to say all the explanations people and religions have expressed throughout history: it is God’s will, you suffer as a punishment of your sins and many other false teachings.

The answer of why God allows us to suffer is an interesting study that will take us all over the Bible.

1) A nice place to start is by reading James chapter 1, especially verse 13 that teaches us that Jehovah God does not tempt us or place problems and tribulations in our way.

2) Then we can read 2 Corinthians chapter 4, specifically verse 4 and also 1 John 5:19 that tells us who the ruler of the world really is. And therefore, who is truly responsible for the troubles of mankind.

3) Now we know the main culprit of humankind’s pitiful state we can find out other culprits. Ecclesiastes 8:9 helps us to see that mankind’s attempts to govern others are also at the heart of the problem.

4) Ecclesiastes 9:11 rounds up the issue by explaining that time and unforeseen occurrence befall us all and that sometimes it really isn’t anybody’s fault, just the consequence of living in a world that is not controlled by God.\

5) Finally we could look up Revelation 21:1-4 to see what promises God has made for the future when the terrible suffering of this world, the things of the past, will be forgotten and the earth will become a wonderful paradise full of happy and perfect humankind.

Did you notice how this brief study of the topic of suffering has taken us all over the Bible, from Job to 1 John, from the letters of Paul to the writings of Solomon. The Bible combines harmoniously to provide answers to our deepest questions.