Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
IV. History. — The Jerusalem of our Lord and of his apostles is buried from 20 to 80 feet beneath the ruins and rubbish of centuries; the "City of David" lies still deeper below the surface of modern Jerusalem. In the 15 centuries from Joshua to Titus, the city was besieged not less than 17 times; twice it was razed to the ground, and twice its walls were destroyed. There is no trace on the surface now to be seen of the city in its glory. The
ancient streets, walls, and buildings have long since disappeared, and the old sites and historical places have long been the subject of speculation and most bitter controversy. The topography of ancient Jerusalem, even since the valuable discoveries of Robinson, Warren, Wilson, and others, is more confused and unsettled by new theories and speculations than ever before. It will be convenient to treat of the history of the city under successive
periods; as Jerusalem of the Jebusites; of the Kings; of the Captivity, including that of the Ptolemies and the Maccabees; the Jerusalem of N.T. times; of the Romans and the Christian emperors; of the Saracens and the Crusaders; the Jerusalem of the Turks; and modern Jerusalem. The Jebusite Period. — In respect to the identity of Salem, of which Melchizedek was king. Gen 14:18, with Jerusalem, the weight of authorities is about equally divided
in favor of and against it. An incidental proof in favor of this theory is supposed to be found in Ps 76:2, and it was held by Josephus, Eusebius, and many later scholars. The earliest definite notice of Jerusalem is found in the description of the boundaries of Judah and Benjamin, where it is called Jebusi, after the people who inhabited it. See Josh 15:8; Josh 18:16, Josh 18:28. The Jebusites still held the city after the conquest of the land
under Joshua, Josh 15:63, but soon after his death the children of Judah besieged the city, took it and burned it, and destroyed its king, Adoni-bezek, Jud 1:7-8; yet it would appear from Jud 1:21 that the entire city was not subdued, and Josephus states that the siege lasted some time, that the lower city only was taken, and that the upper city was so strong, from its walls and the nature of the place, that they abandoned the attempt of
completing the capture. Compare Jud 19:10-11. Through the rule of the Judges and the reign of Saul the stronghold continued in the possession of the Jebusites. After David became king of all Israel he made Jerusalem his capital, and the city of the Jebusites was taken by his chief captain, Joab; it was called "the stronghold of Zion," or "the city of David." 2 Sam 5:7; 1 Chr 11:6. From this time the rising grandeur and glory of Jerusalem as the
seat of one of the noted empires of the East caused the city to take rank along with Nineveh, Babylon, and Tyre. Under the Kings. — David began immediately to strengthen and to fortify the city by building a wall around it, and to increase the strength of the stronghold by connecting it with the city. This citadel he made his residence. He also brought the ark from Kirjathjearim to the house of Obed-edom, and thence to the "city of David," 2
Sam 6:2-16, thus making it the political and religious capital of the Israelitish nation. This choice of a capital was made by David, as elsewhere declared, under divine direction, Deut 12:5-21; 1 Kgs 11:36. It was the place where the Lord had chosen to put his name, Ps 78:68, as he may have done with the earlier spiritual capitals, Gilgal, Bethel, Shiloh, and Gibeon. The city of Zion also became the sepulchre of David and of the kings who
succeeded him, and his royal gardens were in the valleys below. Under Solomon the city reached its greatest magnificence. His three important additions to the capital as founded by his father, David, were the temple, with its massive east wall, the royal palace, and the extension and strengthening of the walls of the city. The temple was built on the site which David purchased of Araunah the Jebusite, 2 Sam 24:20-25; 1 Chr 21:22-28; 2 Chr 3:1,
and which was in Mount Moriah. David had also gathered a large portion of the wealth and of the materials required for erecting this magnificent sanctuary to the Lord, and had designed to build it himself, but was forbidden of the Lord because he had been a man of war. 1 Kgs 8:18-19. In this vast work Solomon was aided by Hiram, king of Tyre, who furnished timber out of Lebanon, and cunning workmen in every kind of metal, and those skilled, no
doubt, in the mechanical arts, as the Tyrians are known to have been unsurpassed in their day in this class of work. In seven years the temple was completed and dedicated, and thus Jerusalem became the one central place of all the world to the true worshipper of Jehovah. See Temple. A palace of grandeur corresponding to the extent and power of his empire, Solomon erected for himself within the chosen capital, taking 13 years for its construction;
he also built another royal edifice to beautify the city, and which is called the "house of the forest of Lebanon," perhaps from the "pillars of cedar" around it, 1 Kings 7:2-7; a palace was likewise built for the queen, the daughter of Pharaoh. 1 Kgs 7:8. He extended the walls of the city probably around the newly-built portions, added towers, and increased the height of the walls made by David; so that the Jerusalem of that period, with the
splendor of Solomon's court, was unsurpassed for magnificence and brilliancy by any of the noted capitals of the East. The fame of it reached unto Sheba, whose queen came to behold it; and she declared that the half of the glory of the kingdom of which Jerusalem was the centre had not been told her, 1 Kgs 10:7; 2 Chr 9:1-12. The division of the kingdom under Rehoboam, which followed the death of Solomon, exposed the city to attack from foreign
foes. Shishak, jealous of the glory of Jerusalem, which had for two generations excelled that of Egypt, tempted by the treasures of the famous city, and perhaps influenced by Jeroboam, who had been an exile in Egypt and was the leader of the revolting tribes, invaded the land and made the southern kingdom tributary to the Pharaohs, bearing away the accumulated treasures of the temple, including 500 golden shields, computed to represent $720,000
— a vast sum for those days. Thirty years later, under Asa, Jerusalem regained her independence after the great battle with Zerah at Mareshah. 2 Chr 14:9-15. As the fruit of this victory, Asa replaced the vessels of the Lord's house taken by Shishak, rebuilt the altar, and probably added a new court to the temple, 2 Chr 15:5, 2 Chr 15:8; these treasures were soon after granted to the king of Syria to secure his aid in a war against Baasha, king
of Israel. 2 Chr 16:1-2. In the idolatrous and troubled times which followed the alliance of the house of Jehoshaphat with that of the wicked Ahab, the glory of Jerusalem fell into a decline, but it revived for a time under Joash, who repaired the temple, only to despoil it when Hazael of Syria invaded the country and threatened the capital. 2 Chr 24:10-14, 2 Chr 24:23; 2 Kgs 12:17-18, Later, under Amaziah, a large portion of the walls of
Jerusalem was broken down by the armies of the northern kingdom of Israel. 2 Chr 25:23. Uzziah repaired the walls and renewed the fortifications of the city, which were still further strengthened by his son Jotham, especially that part of the city on Moriah, Zion, and Ophel. It again declined under the wicked Ahaz, but was improved and made to approach the former magnificence attained in the days of Solomon by the extensive and remarkable works
of Hezekiah. 2 Chr 32:30; Isa 22:9-11. Manasseh built a wall outside of the city of David, enclosing Zion, and raised the tower of Ophel to a great height. 2 Chr 33:14. With the ample supply of water provided by Hezekiah through the pools and conduits which he built, and the towers of defence constructed by Manasseh, the city was regarded as very strong, if not impregnable. Compare 2 Kgs 20:20; 2 Chr 33:14; Lam 4:12. The kingdom was, however,
subject to Assyria. The subject king revolted; the capital was attacked, and was compelled to surrender to the forces of Nebuchadnezzar, who carried away all the treasures of the temple and the palace, and took as captives the princes, men of wealth, and the skilled artisans, numbering 10,000, so that only the poorest of the people were left in the land, over whom Zedekiah was made king. Trusting to the aid of Pharaoh-hophra, Zedekiah rebelled,
and Nebuchadnezzar again laid siege to Jerusalem, erecting forts, mounds, and engines of war to batter down the walls. This siege was temporarily raised by the approach of an Egyptian army, but the Assyrians speedily returned to the city, and invested it more closely than ever. Its inhabitants, shut up within its walls, suffered from all the horrors of famine, pestilence, and war for a year and a half, when the walls were broken and the place
taken b.c. 586, the temple, palace, and chief buildings burned, the walls thrown down and the city made a "heap of rubbish" by order of Nebuchadnezzar. The dreadful horrors of this siege and destruction are vividly portrayed by Jeremiah. Lam 2 and Lam 5. For 50 years the city lay in ruins. Jerusalem of Ezra and the Ptolemies. — Under the decree of Cyrus the captives returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the temple, and made the city again habitable;
and later, under Nehemiah, the city was fortified, and the walls, which had been broken for 140 years, were re-constructed, notwithstanding the opposition of Sanballat and Tobiah. Neh 4:7-22; Neh 6:1-16. The extent of the walls built by Nehemiah is clearly indicated in Neh 3, and they must have enclosed a far larger space than the reduced population could require. The following description of the city and its extent is from Baedeker's Handbook of
Syria (1876): "The wall extended up the hill from the pool of Siloam toward the north. On the highest point of Ophel rose a bastion, which was also intended to protect the horse-gate, an entrance of the temple toward the east. Near the horse-gate, and within the precincts of the temple, were the dwellings of the priests. On the east side it is commonly supposed that there was a second gate, called the water-gate. There were also fortifications at
the north end of the temple terrace, the most important being the Bira, a large bastion restored by Nehemiah, afterward the site of Baris. The city was further defended on the north side by the tower of Hananeel. There was also the tower of Mea, about 50 yards south of the other; but the site of both seems to be far from being even approximately determined. . . . The wall which enclosed the upper city ran toward the west and had two gates — the
gate of the centre, which led from one pairt of the city to the other, and, to the extreme west, the valley-gate, afterward called Gennath, situated to the east of the present Jaffa-gate, where Uzziah once erected a tower of defence. In the suburb to the north was, first, the corner-gate, which was probably the same as the old gate, and perhaps also the gate of Ephraim, the site of which, however, is quite uncertain. From the upper part of the
city a gate led west toward the valley of Hinnom, called the dung-gate, where a rock staircase has been discovered. To the south a wall ran across the Tyropoeon, at the outset of which lay the spring-gate, or the valley between the two walls. The situation of the potters' gate, leading to the valley of Hinnom, is a matter of mere conjecture." The city prospered under Nehemiah as a Persian governor. In b.c. 366, Jeshua was murdered by his brother,
Johanan, through rivalry for the high priesthood, and Bagoses, the Persian general, entered the sanctuary, and imposed a tax of 50 darics or drachmas for every lamb offered during the lifetime of Johanan, which was 7 years. The two sons of Johanan, Jaddua and Manasseh, held the high priest's office jointly until after their father's death, when Manasseh joined the Samaritans, and became the first high priest of their temple on Mount Gerizim. See
Samaritans. In b.c. 332, Alexander the Great, after the famous battle of Issus, in which he gained a decisive victory over the Persians, visited Jerusalem, according to Josephus, and the high priest read to him the writings of Daniel, predicting the overthrow of Persia by the Greeks. This secured to the Jews various favors, among them an exemption from tribute during the sabbatical year. In b.c. 320, Ptolemy Soter captured Jerusalem because the
Jews would not fight on the Sabbath, and large numbers of the people were transported to Africa. In b.c. 300, Simon the Just, a favorite hero among the Jews, became high priest, and added deep foundations to the temple, probably to gain greater surface on the top of the hill, sheathed the great sea with brass, strengthened and fortified the walls, and sustained the temple-service with great pomp and ceremony. Ptolemy Philadelphus, under whose
direction the Septuagint Version of the O.T. is reputed to have been made, at Alexandria, also made rich gifts to the temple and its service. Jerusalem soon after became the prey of rival parties; was visited by Ptolemy Philopator, who attempted to offer sacrifice in the temple, but was prevented by Simon, the high priest, and by a supernatural terror, which caused him to fall paralyzed upon the floor of the court. He afterwards showed great
hostility to the Jews. Jerusalem was taken by Antiochus the Great, b.c. 203, and retaken by Scopas, the Alexandrian general, b.c. 199, but a year later was opened by the Jews to Antiochus, who rewarded them with large presents of money and materials for repairing the temple, and with considerable remission in taxes, declaring their temple inviolable. The city again had great apparent prosperity. After the death of Antiochus the Great, b.c. 187,
and under the reign of the infamous Antiochus Epiphanes (since b.c. 175), it became again the scene of commotion through strifes and disgraceful Greek customs, young men being trained naked in a new gymnasium set up by Jason the high priest, to whom Antiochus had sold the office; bribery, fraud, pillage, and riot were common; the holy place of the temple was polluted; a foreign garrison was placed in the hill of David, overlooking the temple;
heathen worship was ordered to be celebrated in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and the Jews not slain were forced to submit to every species of indignity. Many of them resisted the efforts of Antiochus to destroy their religion, and suffered torments and bitter persecutions. See 1 Mace. 1:13; 2 Mace. 4:9, 12; 6:10-31; 7. The Jews finally made a general revolt against the monstrous tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes. A large army was raised under Judas
Maccabaus, who gained a victory over Lysias, the Antiochian general, and the Jews re-entered Jerusalem, b.c. 165. 2 Mace. 8. At the death of Judas Maccabseus, b.c. 161, the city again had a period of disturbance and trouble, caused by the dissensions of local rulers, until the time of John Hyrcanus, b.c. 135, when it was attacked by the king of Syria, who encircled it with seven camps, erected on the north a hundred towers of attack, each three
stories high, and partially undermined the wall. A truce was, however, secured; the Syrians were induced to end the siege, and the walls were carefully repaired. After the death of Hyrcanus the city was the scene of murderous strifes and bloody wars between the petty rulers and the two leading sects, the Pharisees and Sadducees, no fewer than 50,000 persons having fallen in these feuds in six years. The city was captured, b.c. 63, by the Roman
Pompey, who left the valuable treasures of the temple intact; Crassus, in b.c. 54, however, plundered the temple and city of the treasures which Pompey had spared, amounting, it is computed, to 10,000 talents, or from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000. The city was captured by the Parthians under Antigonus, b.c. 40, but the next year Herod, afterward the Great, laid siege to Jerusalem, supported by a Roman army; the outer walls and lower city were taken
in less than 60 days, and after prolonging the siege for five months the citadel and temple were captured by storm. Later, Herod was made king by the Romans. He speedily began to improve and beautify the city, one of the chief of his works being the enlarging of the temple, which occupied 46 years. Under his rule the city was restored to something like its ancient magnificence. Jerusnlem in N.T. Times. - Jerusalem, in the time of our Lord, stood
in all the strength and grandeur to which it had been brought by Herod. This king died a few months after the birth of Jesus, but the royal palace, the renewed temple, the fortress of Antonia, built from the older Baris tower, the grand theatre where games were instituted in honor of Caesar, the three great towers of Hippicus, Phasaelus, and Mariamne, the bridge of Herod, between the upper city and what had been a portion of Solomon's palace, -
these magnificent structures of Herod remained. The ruin Robinson's Arch. now known as "Robinson's Arch" is a part of the bridge of Herod. Except the aqueduct built under Pilate for the better supply of the city with water, no important improvements were made from the time of Herod the Great until the reign of his grandson, Herod Agrippa, a.d. 41. The second wall enclosed the northern part of the central valley of the city; beyond this lay
Bezetha, or "new town," which Agrippa enclosed by a third wall, that doubled the size of the city. After his death Judaea again became simply a Roman province, ruled by reckless and oppressive procurators, and Jerusalem was the scene of discontent, insurrections, riots, and petty rebellions, until Vespasian and Titus began a war to put down the insurrection. Jerusalem was besieged. The terrible sufferings and agony of the Jews shut up in the
invested city, the loss of upward of 1,000,000 lives in the siege, the complete destruction of the city, a.d. 70, form one of the darkest pages in the history of this remarkable people. The rebellion was kept up for about 3 years after the fall of the city, when the Jewish power was completely destroyed and the Jews denied access to their ancient capital. Jerusalem under Roman and Christian Emperors. - The city and kingdom having been destroyed
by Vespasian and Titus, a new Roman Jerusalem was founded by Hadrian upon the site of the ancient city, and called AElia Capitolina; a temple of Jupiter was erected on the ruins of the temple of Jehovah. The Jews were not allowed to enter the city, and this law continued until the country came under the rule of the Christian emperors of the Eastern empire. Constantine restored the old name Jerusalem, and his mother, the empress Helena, devoted
herself to re-discovering the lost sites of importance to Christians, erecting costly churches to commemorate some of the supposed holy places. In the reign of Julian - commonly called the Apostate - an attempt was made to rebuild the temple, but an earthquake and other supernatural occurrences caused the work to be abandoned, and the event has been regarded as a judgment of God upon an impious attempt to falsify the words of Christ. Ammianus
Marcellinus, a heathen historian, philosopher and a soldier of Julian, thus describes the failure of this attempt to rebuild the temple: "Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged with vigor and diligence the execution of the work, 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." Chrysostom declares that persons of his time were witnesses of this defeat of the effort to rebuild the temple, and that the above occurrences were the reason assigned for the failure of the project. This view has been strongly advocated by Bishop Warburton. The emperor Justinian founded a fine church in
honor of the Virgin, a.d. 529, which some would locate upon the site of the mosque el-Aksa. In a.d. 614 the Persians, under Chosroes II., captured Jerusalem, slew thousands of the monks and clergy, and destroyed the churches. Jerusalem of the Crusaders and Turks.— In a.d. 637 the city fell into the hands of Caliph Omar, and Christians were allowed to worship there, but not to erect churches. After unusual severities upon Christians by a Turkish
ruler, the Crusaders captured the city in a.d. 1099; it was reconquered, 1187, by the Mohammedans under Saladin. Thrice afterward it was in Christian hands; in 1517 it came into the possession of the Osmans, and has remained in the hands of the Turks until the present time. (A description of modern Jerusalem will be found near the close of the article.) V. Topography. — The Jerusalem of to-day is built upon the ruins of several successive
cities, each erected and destroyed upon the same site, and each adding to the debris of some former town. The foundations of the Jerusalem of the O.T. and of Christ and his apostles, so far as they exist, are far below the surface of the present town. "The city shall be builded upon her own heap," said Jeremiah, Jer 30:18; and this we know has been fulfilled many times. Owing to this repeated burial of the Jerusalem of the various periods
described above, the precise location of the biblical sites and ancient holy places in and about the city has led to long and sharp controversy. Even the location of Zion and Moriah has been disputed with great ability and learning. The energetic and successful explorations of the English Palestine Fund proved that remains of the ancient enclosing walls about the temple still exist, about 80 feet below the present surface. Upon these immense
stone blocks, lying at that depth upon a rocky foundation, there were discovered Phoenician quarrymarks. The shafts sunk by Captains Warren and Wilson have since been filled up, and Jerusalem topography is still confused by the mazes of many conflicting opinions. A brief statement of the general divisions and features of Jerusalem has already been given under Physical Features, p. 434. The theory of Mr. Fergusson, in Smith's Dictionary, which
would identify Zion with the hill on which the temple stood, has been generally rejected by scholars. The lower eastern hill, known as Mount Moriah, is the site of Solomon's temple; west of it was the higher hill of Zion, called also the city of David. Bezetha was on the north of Zion, according to Josephus. Walls of David and of Nehemiah. — As the walls of the old city rebuilt by Nehemiah were, it is believed, upon the old foundations, the
city, as renovated after the great captivity; must have been upon the same site, and have covered nearly the same area as the Jerusalem of David and Solomon. Dr. Howard Crosby, in Johnson's Cyclopedia, says of the city as restored by Nehemiah: "Eliashib the high priest is first mentioned as leading the workers at the sheep-gate, and at the wall as far as the tower of the Hundred (Ho Meah) and the tower of Hananeel. These places we must, of
course, find in the templeregion. . . . The description in Nehemiah follows the wall from the centre of the east side of the city northward. The sheep-gate must have been in the centre of the temple-precinct wall. . . . If the probatika of John 5:2 be the sheep-gate, and the Pool of Bethesda be the Fountain of the Virgin, with its intermittent flow, then we should suppose the sheep-gate to be farther south; but the Pool of Bethesda may have been
within the temple-precinct, and the present Fountain of the Virgin may receive to-day the intermittent effects which in former times showed themselves in another pool, now filled up. We are inclined to think that this sheepgate is the same as the Mishneh, or 'second gate,' of Zeph 1:10, and the 'college' of 2 Kgs 22:14, where the prophetess Huldah lived. In this case the fish-gate would be the first gate (see Zeph 1:10), and would represent the
north-eastern corner of the city, opposite the Mount of Olives. Between the fish-gate and the sheep-gate would stand the tower of Hananeel and the tower of Meah (or the Hundred). The 'old gate' would be found next as we follow the north wall north-westward. The course would be along the 'second wall' of Josephus, for the first or old wall seems to have been the northern fortification of Zion. The 'old gate' may be really the Jeshanah gate. 2 Chr
13:19. . . . The 'gate of Ephraim' comes next in Nehemiah (not in his account of the building, but in his record of the dedication, Neh 12:39), and may have occupied the site of the present Damascus gate. Then follows the 'broad wall' (some local peculiarities of the wall, perhaps for defence), and then we reach the 'Tower of the Furnaces,' which may have stood over the western valley, as the towers of Hananeel and the Hundred overlooked the
eastern. The 'valley-gate' would correspond with the present Jaffa-gate. Near this was the 'Dragon-well.' Neh 2:13. The 'dung-gate' (if our suppositions above are correct) would be 1000 cubits south of the Jaffa-gate, Neh 3:13 — that is, on the south-western part of Zion, over against the Birket es-Sultan (Pool of the Sultan). The 'fountain-gate' would lie on the opposite side of Zion, facing the Pool of Siloam. The 'stairs' that go down from
the city of David would be found between the fountain-gate and the south-western temple-corner. They were probably an ascent from the king's gardens to the Davidian palace on Zion. The sepulchres of David, the 'king's pool,' Neh 2:14, and the house of the mighty were probably at the corner of Zion, over against the south-western temple-corner, where the wall crossed the Tyropceon. The 'armory' is in this neighborhood, at the very corner where the
wall turns abruptly southward to encircle Ophel. The 'house of the high priest' and the 'house of Azariah' are near this. After turning the extreme corner of Ophel southward we reach the 'tower which lieth out from the king's high house,' which may be the extra tower discovered by Capt. Warren's subterranean explorations (Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 229). As he himself suggests, it may have been built out in order to guard the fountain of the
Virgin. The 'water-gate' would be so called in relation to this fountain. By this watergate, on Ophel, was a broad street or square, where assemblies could be held in the immediate vicinity of the temple. Neh 8:1, Num 1:3, Ex 17:16. Near by was the 'horsegate,' famous as the spot where Athaliah was put to death. . . . The gate 'Miphkad ' may mark some angle of the walls connected with the division, as a special corner is here mentioned, Neh 3:32,
before we reach the sheepgate again." The next important view of Jerusalem topography is that during our Lord's day, and until its destruction by the Romans, a.d. 70. The only full description of the city near that date which has come down to us is found in Josephus. The city was defended on the east, south, and west by a single wall; upon the north three walls were successively built, the second outside of the first, and the third outside of the
second. The position of these walls is one of the disputed questions in Jerusalem topography. In reconstructing the city as it appeared in our Lord's day the reader must remember that the third wall, which enclosed the new city, Bezetha, on the north, was built by Herod Agrippa, about a.d. 42, and therefore after the crucifixion and ascension of Christ. All the three walls noticed by Josephus are upon the north of the upper city, or Zion, but
there is much controversy respecting the course of these walls, particularly the second and the third wall. It must be further borne in mind that the ancient walls probably included the southern portions of the hills of Zion and of Ophel, which are outside the present walls of the city. The following description of the city before its destruction by Titus is condensed from Josephus, Jewish War, v., 4; several of his points in the course have not
been identified. "1. Jerusalem was fortified with three walls on such parts as were not Eastern Wall of Jerusalem and Muslim Tombs. (After Photograph by Bonfils.) There are many cemeteries, sepulchres, and tombs about Jerusalem, but the favorite burying-place of the Muslims is along the east wall, adjoining the Haram esh-Sherif, since, according to their traditions, the general judgment will take place in this locality. They say that all men will
then assemble in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (at the left of the picture). A thin wire rope will be stretched across the valley to the Mount of Olives. Christ will sit on the wall and Mohammed on the mount, as judges. All men must pass over the intervening space on the rope. The righteous will be kept by the angels from falling, while the wicked will be precipitated into the abyss of hell. Near the centre of the picture can be seen the Golden Gate,
which has been kept closed from a very early period. The Interior of the Jaffa-Gate. (After Photograph by Bonfils.) The Jaffa-gate, called also "Yafa-gate," "Hebron-gate," and by the Arabs Bab el-Khalil, is on the west side of Jerusalem. It consists of a massive square tower, the entrance to which from without is on the northern side, and the exit within on the eastern. All the roads from the country south and west converge to this gate. One
street — and it is generally the one first trodden by Western pilgrims — leads from the Jaffa-gate eastward past the space by the citadel, and down the side of the ridge and across the valley to the principal entrance of the Haram. This street is called by some the "Street of David." Outside the Jaffa-gate is the usual camping place of all travellers reaching Jerusalem by way of Jaffa and from Hebron or Bethlehem. encompassed with impassable
valleys; in such places it hath but one wall. The city was built upon two hills. Of these hills, that which contains the upper city is much higher, and was called the citadel by King David, but it is by us called the upper market-place. The other hill, which was called Acra and sustains the lower city, is of the shape of a moon when she is horned. Over against this there was a third hill, but naturally lower than Acra, and parted formerly from
the other by a broad valley. However, in those times when the Asmoneans reigned they filled up that valley with earth, and had a mind to join the city to the temple. They then took off part of the height of Acra, that the temple might be superior to it. Now, the Valley of the Cheesemongers, which distinguished the hill of the upper city from that of the lower, extended as far as Siloam, a fountain that hath sweet water. But on the outsides these
hills are surrounded by deep valleys; and by reason of the precipices to them belonging on both sides, they are everywhere impassable. "2. Now, of these three walls, the old one was hard to be taken, both by reason of the valleys and of that hill on which it was built. But besides that great advantage as to the place where they were situated, it was also built very strong, because David and Solomon and the following kings were very zealous about
this work. Now, that wall began on the north at a tower called Hippicus, and extended as far as the Xistus, and then, joining to the council-house, ended at the west cloister of the temple. But if we go the other way westward, it began at the same place, and extended through a place called Bethso to the gates of the Essenes; and after that it went southward, having its bending above the fountain Siloam, where it also bends again toward the east
at Solomon's Pool, and reaches as far as a certain place which they called Ophlas, where it was joined to the eastern cloister of the temple. The second wall took its beginning from that gate Gennath which belonged to the first wall; it only encompassed the northern quarter of the city, and reached as far as the tower Antonia. The beginning of the third wall was at the tower Hippicus, whence it reached as far as the north quarter of the city and
the tower Psephinus, and then was so far extended until it came over against the monuments of Helena, queen of Adiabene, the daughter of Izates; it then extended farther to a great length, and passed by the sepulchral caverns of the kings, and bent again at the tower of the corner, at the Monument of the Fuller, and joined to the old wall at the valley called the Valley of Cedron. Agrippa added to the old city, by this wall, a fourth hill, called
Bezetha, or 'new city.' It lies over against the tower Antonia, but is divided from it by a deep valley, which was dug to strengthen the tower. The father of the present king, Agrippa, began the third wall, but he left off building it when he had only laid the foundations, out of the fear he was in of Claudius Caesar, lest he should suspect that so strong a wall was built in order to make some innovations in public affairs; for the city could no
way have been taken if that wall had been finished in the manner it was begun, as its parts were connected together by stones 20 cubits long and 10 cubits broad, which could never have been either easily undermined by any iron tools or shaken by any engines. The wall was, however, 10 cubits wide; after that it was erected with great diligence by the Jews as high as 20 cubits, above which it had battlements of 2 cubits, and turrets of 3 cubits'
altitude, insomuch that the entire altitude was 25 cubits." This third wall is said to have been defended by 90 towers. The strongest of these was the Psephinus tower, at the north-western angle, which was upward of 100 feet in height and stood on the highest ground in the city (2572 feet above the sea). The First Wall. — In respect to the course of the first wall there is, in the main, greater agreement among scholars than in respect to either
of the other two. This wall began at the tower of Hippicus on the west, ran to the south around the pinnacle of the hill, enclosing Siloam, and extended to the eastern wall of the temple-precincts. South of this north wall stood the palace of Herod, the Xistus, and the bridge which crossed the Tyropoeon to the temple. Another wall ran down on the western margin of the Tyropoeon to defend the upper part of the city. The Second Wall and Site of
Calvary. — No certain traces of the second wall have been discovered. Respecting the course of this wall there has been sharp dispute, for upon it depends the question of the genuineness of the "holy sepulchre" and of the site of Calvary. Robinson, Tobler, Hupfeld, Arnold, John Wilson, Thomson, Barclay, Bonar, Fergusson, Porter, Meyer, Ewald, Schaff, Crosby, Conder, and others, dispute the traditional site of the holy sepulchre, since in their
view the second wall included its site within the city. On the other hand, Roman Catholics, as De Vogue, De Saulcy, and Sepp, and able Protestants, as Rev. Geo. Williams, Krafft, Ritter, Schultz, Rosen, Von Schubert, Raumer, Furrer, F. A. Strauss, and Lewin, argue that the second wall excluded the site of the holy sepulchre, and therefore they accept the old tradition that it is the true site of the crucifixion. From the account in the Gospels it
is clear that the place of the crucifixion was outside the city. Matt 28:11; Mark 15:20-21; Luke 23:26; John 19:17; Heb 13:12-13, but it was also nigh to the city, John 19:20, and near a common thoroughfare frequented by many, Matt 27:39; Mark 15:22; John 19:20; and again, it was on a conical elevation (hence called "Place of a Skull" or Calvary, but not Mount Calvary, for which there is no Scripture warrant). Matt 27:33; Mark 15:22; Luke 23:33;
John 19:17; and lastly, it was in a garden which had a sepulchre hewn in a rock, where Christ was buried. Matt 27:60; John 19:38-42. Several writers of the fourth and fifth centuries ascribe the discovery of the site of Calvary to Helena, mother of Constantine, who found three crosses there, and who also discovered which was the true cross of our Saviour by a miracle of healing which its touch produced upon a sick woman. Helena caused a splendid
church to be erected on the spot, a.d. 335. It has since been several times destroyed and rebuilt, but tradition has fixed upon this spot as the place of Christ's crucifixion and burial. The advocates of this tradition must prove that the old city excluded this site. The Rev. Geo. Williams sums up the arguments in favor of the traditional view, and Robinson presents, with marked ability, the objections to it. Dr. Schaff, in Through Bible Lands,
says: "The old city was much larger and more densely inhabited than the present, and consequently more likely to include the site of that church [Holy Sepulchre] than to exclude it. ... The champions of the tradition, therefore, are bound to prove that the location of the city has greatly changed, and that the second wall of Josephus (which ran circuitously from the gate Gennath — i.e. the garden-gate, near the tower of Hippicus — to the
fortress of Antonia, on the north of the temple-area) excluded the church of the Holy Sepulchre. This has not been proved. It is possible, but very improbable. Diligent search for wall foundations has failed so far. The ruins near the church of the Holy Sepulchre, which have been supposed by Williams and others to be fragments of the second wall, have proved to be portions of a church, and the old arch called the gate Gennath is a comparatively
recent building." See Calvary. The precise course of the second wall can only be unquestionably settled by further excavations, and this, if settled, would decide whether the church of the Holy Sepulchre covers the true site of Calvary, as tradition claims, or whether Calvary must be sought elsewhere, as the weight of scholarship now seems to require. Some of those who reject the traditional site locate Calvary a few minutes' walk north of the
present Damascus-gate, not far from the Grotto of Jeremiah. Here is a skull-shaped, rocky elevation, about half a mile from the fortress Antonia (Pilate's judgment-hall), and the same distance from Mount Zion (Herod's palace) and on the highway to Damascus. The spot is encircled by rock-caverns and tombs. It answers all the requirements of the Gospel narratives, and is accepted by Bishop Gobat of Jerusalem, Conrad Schick, Schaff, and others, and
a similar view was advocated by Fisher Howe of Brooklyn, 1871, and more recently by Conder, 1878. The Third Wall -situation of the third wall is likewise disputed by topographical writers. Some, as Kiepert, Fergusson, Wilson, and others, make it reach to, and possibly include, the so-called royal tombs and the whole northern mountain-plateau, on which many ruins and cisterns lie scattered. Robinson places the third wall about the middle of this
locality; to this Baedeker objects on strategical grounds. Others suggest that this third wall occupied about the same site as the present north wall of Jerusalem, which view is claimed to accord with the distances given by Josephus (4 stadia to the royal tombs, 7 stadia to the Scopus), but Josephus is not always accurate. Capt. Warren advocates this latter view, that the positions of the third wall and of the present northern wall are identical,
though he acknowledges that he found no decisive evidence on the subject. The reader will not be surprised at the general uncertainty which prevails in regard to the ancient walls and sacred sites in the Holy City when he remembers that it has been 27 times besieged and 17 times conquered, and often desolated. The present walls are of recent date, being built by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1542. Plans of the City, — Mr. Besant, secretary of the
Palestine Exploration Fund, received 18 different reconstructions of ancient Jerusalem, by as many eminent scholars, yet all based on the authors' views of the statements in the Bible, Josephus, and by late explorers. The most important plans are those of Robinson, Schultz, Williams, Furrer, Barclay, Van de Velde, Tobler, British Ordnance Survey, and Schick. Fergusson's plan (Smith's Bible Dictionary), although the view of a distinguished
architect, is too untenable to be of value or interest to the ordinary student. The chief of these plans are given upon another page. The Temple-site. — The site of the temple has long been a subject of controversy among scholars, but nearly all agree that it was on Mount Moriah, which is at present occupied by the Haram, wherein stands the mosque of Omar. Some place it in the south-western corner of the area now known as the Haram esh-Sherif,
but the discovery of immense stones at the base of the south-eastern corner of the present Haram wall, lying in place on a rocky foundation cut out to receive them, 80 feet below the present surface, and bearing Phoenician quarry-marks, seems to confirm the earlier view that remains of the buildings of Solomon still exist there, and that Solomon's temple stood upon the centre of the Haram area or the site of the mosque of Omar, and shows the
fallacy of Mr. Fergusson's view that the temple-area reached only 600 feet east from the south-western corner of the present Haram area, since these discovered stones at the southeastern corner are 900 feet eastward. The explorations of Capts. Wilson and Warren prove that the south-eastern corner is unchanged, while the southwestern has undoubtedly been added, probably by Herod. Beneath the Haram area there are aqueducts, subterranean passages,
and tanks, some of them constructed, doubtless, for proper drainage and use of the temple; hence the inference from recent discoveries is that the present Haram area very nearly coincides with that of the old temple area. Zion and the Tyropaeon. — Two other places of interest in the Holy City besides Calvary — which has been noticed under the second wall — are the hill of Zion and the Tyropaeon Valley. Zion is a broad hill with an abrupt
front nearly 400 feet high at one point above the southern valley, the hill having a length of 2400 feet to the Jaffa-gate, and from the Tyropaeon to the western valley a breadth of about 1600 feet. The "first wall" was built along the northern brow of Zion. The plateau of Zion included about half the ancient city. Zion is scarcely 200 feet lower than Olivet. The Tyropaeon valley, known also as the "Valley of the Cheesemongers," extended from the
junction of the Hinnom and Kedron valleys northward, dividing Zion from Moriah, and, according to one view, continued northward toward the present Jaffa-gate, but, according to another view, turned toward the present Damascus-gate; while a third view supposes that it covered the two branches reaching to the two gates above named. The portion of the valley between Zion and Moriah increased rapidly in depth as it extended southward, and at the
south-western corner of the temple-area the bed of the valley was 90 feet below the present surface, giving an entire altitude of wall amounting to 150 feet, and in Herod's time to over 200 Plans of Ancient Jerusalem. The five plans given above indicate the views of some of the best authorities in regard to the topography of ancient Jerusalem. The first wall enclosed the old part of the town, or "upper city," upon Mount Zion, and extending to the
Walls of the temple-enclosure. The second wall enclosed the old suburb, or "lower city," upon Acra. The plan of Sepp (Roman Catholic) puts the site of the present church of the Holy Sepulchre outside that wall, in accordance with the traditional view. The other plans include that site within the second wall, in which case it cannot have been the place of the crucifixion, which took place outside of the city. The third wall was built by Agrippa,
eleven years after the death of Christ. Date of plans: Robinson, 1841-1856; Sepp, 1873; Tobler, 1849-1858; Schick. 1876; Conder, 1879. For the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the genuine Calvary are: De Vogue, De Sauley, Sepp (Roman Catholic), Williams, Ritter, Krafft, Schultz, Strauss (Protestants); also Furrer, in Schenkel's Bibellexikon, ii. 506. Against the traditional view: Robinson, Tobler, John Wilson, Thompson, Barclay, Bonar, Fergusson,
Porter, Van de Velde, Meyer, Ewald (all Protestants); also Schaff, Through Bible Lands, p. 259, and Conder, in Handbook of the Bible, p. 350. feet; so that the statement of Josephus no longer seems a foolish exaggeration: "If any one looked down from the top of the battlements, he would be giddy, while his sight could not reach to such an immense depth." The gates, pools, and environs of the Holy City may be appropriately noticed under the
description of modern Jerusalem.