1900 BC | An Egyptian baked brick sherd mentions Urushalem! This is the first mention of Jerusalem4. In the same century, according to the Bible, Abraham met Melchizedek, king of Salem5.
1560 B.C. | The Tell-el-Amarna archives reveal that Prince Abdihipa of Jerusalem complained about the Habiru (Hebrews) invading his territory.
1000 BC. King David takes Jerusalem.
950 BC. Solemn consecration of the first temple.
587 BC. Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem and destroyed the first temple.
538 BC – Ezra rebuilds a new temple.
515 BC – Consecration of the second temple.
445 B.C. | Nehemiah, as Persian governor, rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem with money from Cyrus.
332 B.C. | Alexander the Great conquers the Near East.
168 BC King Antiochos IV sits in the temple and destroys the city.
65 BC – Rome conquers the Near East.
37 BC Herod became one of Jerusalem’s greatest builders. It was during his reign that Jesus was born.
Year 26-36 | Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea, and Christ’s crucifixion took place during his reign.
Year 33 | Easter events disrupt city life. The death and resurrection of Christ leave no resident indifferent.
After rising from the dead and showing himself to the disciples and early Christians, Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. As the disciples looked up into the sky, two men dressed in white appeared to them, saying: ” This Jesus, who has been taken up from among you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven”.6 Ever since this event took place near Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, every generation of believers has been asking the same question: when will he return?
What’s more, every time we take communion, or the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim the death, resurrection and return of Jesus Christ. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death, until hecomes7. It’s a legitimate question: theologians, pastors and believers would like to know the hour, the moment of his return. The place is known thanks to the prophecies of Zechariah. On that day, his feet will rest on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem from theeast8. Luke, the author of the epistle to the Acts of the Apostles, gives a very precise indication: the re-establishment of the nation, indeed of the kingdom of Israel, 9 is an inescapable sign.
After receiving the dispensation of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the church in Jerusalem fell prey to numerous persecutions. For a Christian, going up there meant being arrested, tried or even condemned to death10.
For first-century Christians, it was all about approaching the heavenly Jerusalem.11 The apostle John, in his revelation of the seven churches, writes: … you have kept my word, you have not denied my name, I have set before you an open door that no one can shut … Whoever overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, … I will write on him the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem …12. And this divine, marvelous and holy Jerusalem will descend from heaven ,13 when God and his Son Jesus will dwell among the resurrected faithful.
For the early Christians, the earthly city of Jerusalem had lost its attraction.
The destruction of Jerusalem
Year 67 | The Roman legions commanded by Titus sweep through the land of Canaan like locusts. No one could resist them. The Zealots on Mount Arbel near Tiberias were driven from their caves and massacred. By the time they had moved to Jerusalem, the siege had been organized and the population starved. Resistance was thus diminished. It took them a few years to overcome the City of Peace, which fell to the Romans in 70 AD. Jesus’ prophecy is fulfilled: As they approached Jerusalem, Jesus saw it and wept over it … they will destroy you and your children, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another,…14.
Massada
Masada was one of Herod’s palaces, located near the Dead Sea on a mountain plateau. The buildings could accommodate large crowds, and the site was equipped with huge underground cisterns. 960 Zealots took refuge there, and for years resisted the invaders, who filled in a 150-meter-deep ravine to bring the assault towers up to the height of the fortress. Seeing themselves caught, the besieged committed mass suicide, hoping to escape slavery, the massacre of their children and the rape of their wives.
The year 73 AD marked the beginning of a long period of persecution for the Jewish people. The climax of this persecution came during the Second World War.
The revolt in Judea
135 | Bar Kochba, with a group of Jewish men, revolts against the invading Romans. Within three years, the insurrection was crushed by the Roman emperor Hadrian, and the troublemakers were beheaded.
In the year 135, the name Palestine, land of the Philistines, was used for the first time. Not content with having eradicated the Jewish presence in Judea (a presence that had lasted for over 1,500 years), not content with having destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, not content with having driven out the last Jews, Hadrian persuaded himself that all traces of Jewish civilization in the country had to be annihilated by unbaptizing it in favor of a name derived from the Jews’ ancient enemies, the Philistines.
The Philistines were the people to whom Goliath belonged and whom the Hebrews had defeated centuries earlier. For the Romans, this baptism was a way of adding insult to injury. The Romans forbade the Jews to go to Jerusalem, which they renamed Aelia Capitolina.
Palestine, as an autonomous entity, has never existed in history!
Jerusalem forbidden to the Jews! The period of exile or diaspora begins. Throughout the years of banishment, ritual prayers contained the phrase: If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither.15 To remember the City of Peace, a greeting at Pesach reads: Next year in Jerusalem.
Monasteries
150 | Scholars want to protect the Holy Scriptures. They retreat to places far from civilization – Hebron, Tiberias on the shores of Lake Galilee, Safed in the mountains of Galilee, the Chouf mountains in Lebanon and Saint Catherine in the Sinai desert – to continue their work, copying and disseminating the sacred texts.
313 | The Edict of Milan, or Edict of Toleration, grants every man the right to follow the religion of his choice.
325 | Emperor Constantine puts an end to the persecution of Christians. The new status of Christianity as the state religion prompted him to sever the Church’s Jewish roots, such as changing the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, separating Jewish and Christian feast days and much more. Emperor Constantine gave funds to his mother Helena to rebuild Jerusalem. This may seem paradoxical, but it was done from an exclusively Christian perspective. This was the period of construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Garden of Gethsemane and various churches and monasteries to accommodate pilgrims.
Jerome of Antioch moved to Bethlehem to translate the sacred writings into Latin. As the texts were made accessible to anyone who could read, this translation of the Bible became known as the Vulgate.
527 | Jerusalem is the mystical capital of Christianity. As the center of the known world, the emperor Justinian brought it to the height of its influence. He enlarged the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Pilgrims flocked from far and wide. Numerous buildings, monasteries and biblical sites were built.
The Church of the Nativity was built in Bethlehem.
614 | Persian Sassanid troops invade Jerusalem. The city is burned, the inhabitants executed, the women raped, the children kept alive to become slaves.
637 | On his way back from Damascus to Medina, Caliph Omar, a friend of the late Mohamed, seized Jerusalem. The city was fortified by the Muslims. The conquest also led to the signing of the Convention of Omar in 637, outlining the rights and restrictions of Christians and Jews living under Muslim rule, and conferring on them the status of dhimmis (slaves).
691 | The Dome of the Rock, with its golden dome, built on the site of Solomon’s temple, was erected in 691 by Sultan Abd-al-Malik, and is improperly called the Mosque of Omar, as it never functioned as a mosque. Later, in the 8th century, the Al-Aqsa mosque (black dome) was built nearby, to give meaning to that obscure verse in the Koran about a very distant mosque from which Mohamed would have set off on his celestial journey (Al Aqsa means very distant).
800 | Numerous apocryphal texts, sometimes close to, sometimes totally opposed to the faith, sow doubt in the churches. It was in the monastery of Tiberias that Jewish and Christian sages studied, analyzed, defined and selected the sacred texts that are today in our Bibles.
The Crusades
1096 The fever to free Jerusalem from the impure takes hold of Central Europe. The announcement of the Crusades begins with persecution of the Jews. In Rouen, Metz, Spire, Worms, Mayence, Ratisbonne and Prague, hundreds of Jewish families fell victim to pogroms. The ringleaders were priests and princes committed to the cause of liberating Jerusalem from the Arab infidels and deicides, the Jews.
1099 | Not wanting Jerusalem to be inhabited by infidels, various European kings set out to liberate the holy city with large armies. On July 19, 1099, after fierce fighting and the massacre of its defenders, Jerusalem was liberated by the Christians and remained the Crusader capital for 88 years.
The invasions
1187 | Situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe, the Promised Land was a key passageway for caravans and merchants alike. The economy also means money and wealth. The latter attracted groups of criminals, armed revolutionaries and even the troops of various conquerors. Numerous invasions took place. Jerusalem was finally conquered by the Muslims in October. All Christian prisoners were executed, with the terrible Sultan Salan-ad-Din (Saladin) admiring the spectacle from his cushions. It was Saladin who confirmed Jerusalem as Islam’s third holiest site.
Over the centuries, Jerusalem was built and destroyed twenty-four times. With the exception of the brief period when it was the capital of the Crusaders, Jerusalem will never be the capital of any nation other than the Jews.
1193 | Saladin’s son renovates the mosques on Mount Morija, on the site of Solomon’s temple. Omar’s mosque is located near the Holy of Holies, the place where God revealed Himself to the priests of the temple. For the Jews, this building is an insult that must be destroyed, otherwise the reconstruction of the 3rd Temple will not be possible. Muslims hold their holy place dear. It’s a place of constant religious tension.
1198 Pope Innocent III gains power not only in the church, but also in politics. He asserted himself through swift decisions. He ordered the fight against the Cathars, imposing the Inquisition with its ecclesiastical tribunal of exception. He was the guest speaker at the Lateran Council in 1215. He dehumanized Jewish society by authorizing its persecution. Jews can be employed as slaves of kings. They were easily distinguished by a distinctive sign: a pointed hat, a headdress, etc. Religious and political authorities united to restrict Jewish rights.
1256 | From the Ayyubid sultan’s servile guard, the Mamelukes, mercenaries of Egyptian and other sultans, are of Kurdish origin and Muslim faith. After a victory over the Mongols, they attacked and took numerous cities in the Near East, including Beït-Shean, Saint Jean d’Acre and Antioche. They ruled Egypt and Syria for 3 centuries.
1259 The pious Louis IX imposes the rouelle on Jews. This is a round piece of yellow cloth, worn on the back under pain of a heavy fine. It helped differentiate between Jews and Christians, prevent mixed marriages and prevent proselytizing. Since the Lateran Council in 1215, the Pope and clergy have been preaching separation, forcing Jews to take up residence elsewhere. This marked the beginning of Jewish ghettos.
1348 The plague ravages Europe. Precariousness is present in all nations. It was imperative to find someone to blame for this dramatic situation. The Jew, Christ’s murderer, was singled out as the culprit. The authorities forbade them to farm, and only Christians dared to tend the land. They were accused of poisoning wells, charging too much interest on loans, and even sucking the blood of Christian children after slitting their throats. Total nonsense, since the Torah forbids the consumption of blood. Many Jews were massacred, and some ended up at the stake.
The reform
1520 | In the Middle Ages, rejection of Jews was commonplace. In Cologne, for example, to be allowed into the city, a Jew had to pay the same tax as an ox taken to the slaughterhouse. Other cities required Jews to wear a special hat, either pointed, flat triangular or yellow.
The Reformation is a change in the understanding and reading of the New Testament. This spiritual revolution would divide Europe for centuries. It had no influence on Jewish spirituality. Having failed to win their support, conversion or adherence to the Reformation, Martin Luther rejected them and wrote infamous monstrosities about them: The Jews are an abject race, they are disgusting earthworms, send them to forced labor, let their synagogues and houses be burned down.16 His drift is regrettable and leaves a murky shadow hanging over the Reformer’s courageous person.
The Inquisition
1685 | The abrogation of the Edict of Nantes, or Edict of Toleration, enabled the French authorities to arrest Protestants, imprison them, execute them or send them to the galleys. Obviously, Jews were not spared; they were treated worse than thieves.
Always justly tolerated, the Semitic community paid a heavy price. It is estimated that several million Jews, Protestants and heretics fell victim to the exactions of Inquisition troops.17