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University of Copenhagen Jerusalem Judaism Christianity Islam Strange, John Publication date: 2014 Document version Early version, also known as pre-print Citation for published version (APA): Strange, J. (2014). Jerusalem: Judaism Christianity Islam. Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet Vol. 55 No. 55 Download date: 02. okt.. 2021 ISBN 978-87-91838-92-7 John Strange JOHN STRANGE Jerusalem Judaism Christianity Islam JOHN STRANGE Jerusalem. Judaism Christianity Islam Jerusalem Judaism Christianity Islam Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet 55 ISBN 978-87-91838-92-7 John Strange JOHN STRANGE Jerusalem Judaism Christianity Islam JOHN STRANGE Jerusalem. Judaism Christianity Islam Jerusalem Judaism Christianity Islam Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet 55 Jerusalem Judaism Christianity Islam 1 Jerusalem Judaism Christianity Islam John Strange This English edition is dedicated to my Christian friends in Jerusalem Det Teologiske Fakultet Afdeling for Bibelsk Eksegese Københavns Universitet 2014 2 Jerusalem. Judaism Christianity Islam Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet 55 Licensed under CreativeCommons John Strange ISBN: 978-87-91838-92-7 (pdf) Udgivet af Det Teologiske Fakultet Københavns Universitet Købmagergade 44-46 1150 København K 3 Contents Preface 1 Introduction p. 8 2 Jerusalem in the Bronze Age p. 15 3 Jerusalem in the Iron Age p. 25 4 Jerusalem from the Babylonian conquest to Herod p. 41 5 From Herod to Constantine p. 58 6 Christian Jerusalem p. 69 7 Islamic Jerusalem p. 83 8 Crusaders and Ayyubids p. 96 9 Jerusalem from the Mamluks to Napoleon p. 103 10 Modern Jerusalem p. 109 11 The Mandate and Jerusalem under Jordan p. 114 12 Epilogue p. 123 13 Further reading p. 127 Important years p. 134 List of literature p. 135 4 Preface This small book has grown out of many years of work. I visited Jerusalem for the first time in 1958 when I worked as a volunteer at Kibbutz Ayyelet Hashachar in Galilee, when I also had the opportunity to work as a volunteer at the excavations of Hazor under Yigael Yadin and Trude Dothan. Visiting Jerusalem I could stand on the roof of Notre Dame de France where the green line cut through the middle of the building, and like the crusaders on Mount Scopus get a view of the Old City; but it was closed country to me, Jerusalem was part of Jordan. Later, from April 1963 to April 1964, after my theological studies in Copenhagen, I studied Semitic languages and archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During this time I had, as a foreign resident, the opportunity to obtain a laissez-passer and visit the Old City three days at Christmas time. In 1964, from July to November, I became attached to Kathleen M. Kenyon’s Jerusalem- excavations as a site supervisor. She taught me archaeological field-work and but also love of Jerusalem, its history and archaeology. We worked from 5 am until 1.45 pm. In the afternoon I either visited the Rockefeller Museum to study pottery or the École Biblique to study the history and archaeology of Jerusalem in the library there, the best in Jerusalem, Jordan. I worked as site supervisor beneath Macalisters tower on the south east hill, Ophel, where I was lucky enough to find the oldest Iron Age house in the city. A couple of years later, in 1967, this time from August to November after the 6-Day War and the Israeli occupation, I worked with Douglas Tushingham in the Armenian Garden in the southwestern corner of the Old City, and again I studied the archaeology of Jerusalem in the afternoons. Since then I have conducted several tours to Jerusalem for students of theology as well as for pilgrims and ordinary tourists; each time it has been a great and moving event. And several times also I have troubled my students with lectures and seminars on the archaeology and history of Jerusalem. 5 So this book is the fruit of many years of study and travel. It is not an academic book, part of the scientific discourse, also in the sense that the book does not contain proper documentation in notes; but of course much academic work lies behind the text. It is a personal view of the history of Jerusalem and the meaning of this history, and I pray the reader to take it as such. The book is – of course – a product of my profession as teacher in Biblical Archaeology at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen and is primarily an archaeological-historical work, but it is certainly also influenced by my theological engagement, both as a teacher at the theological faculty and as a pastor in the Danish Lutheran Church and padre in the army. I wish to give my thanks to all the students of the archaeology and history of Jerusalem who have, by their published research on which I have drawn, contributed to the book. I apologize and hope to be forgiven that I do not name them and acknowledge them in detail, the list of literature at the end of the book shows how many they are. Also I thank my collegues, both at my university but also abroad at congresses, where I have lectured and learned a lot from their criticism. And I feel a gratitude to my students at university and at the Open University who through the years have forced me to rethink the problems of the history of Jerusalem again and again. Special thanks are due to Kay Prag who let me use an unpublished MS on early Jerusalem, and my collegue Mogens Müller who read the Danish version and found numerous errors and inconsistencies. And thanks are due to the institutions and scholars who gave permission to use texts or pictures, these thanks go especially to the Danish Bible Society for their permission to use maps from the Bible Atlas. But first and foremost I wish to thank my wife Lisbeth. We fell in love in Jerusalem more than 30 years ago, and she has with generosity and hard work contributed to the making of this book over the years. Finally I owe thanks to all my friends in Jerusalem, especially my Christian friends to whom I dedicate the book. Copenhagen March 2008 6 The book was written in Danish and issued at the Danish publisher "Multivers" in Copenhagen in 2007 (ISBN 978-87-7917-130-5). I ventured to make an English translation myself. It proved, however, impossible to find a publisher willing to publish it in English, and I laid the MS aside. Recently I was made aware of the possibilities on the web-net, so I now venture to publish it in this form. I have, for reasons of copyrights, omitted most of the illustrations in the Danish edition, only some maps and plans, necessary for the reading of the book, are given, for which I thank Det Danske Bibelselskab for permission to bring. I have not altered the text to bring it up to date, except additions to chapter 13: Further Reading. All additions are clearly marked as such to indicate that I have not used insights from these books and papers in the proper text. I beg the possible reader to indulge my English. I thank The Theological Faculty of the University of Copenhagen for giving me the opportunity to publish this work on its web-site. Copenhagen 2014 7 1 Remember the days of old, Think of the many generations long ago: ask your father to recount it and your elders to tell you the tale.1 Introduction The city of Jerusalem is unique in the sense that three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all claim it as one of its most important holy places, in Judaism together with Hebron and Sefat, in Christianity together with Bethlehem and Rome, and in Islam together with Mecca and Medina and Hebron. The political situation is complex with an ideology of nationalism among the Jews of Israel, claiming the city and its surroundings as the capital of Israel, a claim supported by Jews in the whole Western world as well as many others; on the other hand the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the occupied territories claim the city as their capital in a future state, a claim supported by the Arabs and most Muslims of the world. Both parties thus claim sovereignty over the city. On the other hand the claim of Christianity on Jerusalem is today more spiritual, but the city is still regarded as the Holy City, although such a claim to my mind is contrary to a universalistic and monotheistic religion and may be regarded as religious atavism. This may be seen alone from the Gospel of John where Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman: “Believe me, said Jesus, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship without knowing what you worship, while we worship what we know. It is from the Jews that salvation comes. But the time approaches, indeed it is already here, when those who are real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Such are the worshippers whom the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4, 21-24). But certainly it was not always so, also Christians have conducted bloody wars for the possession of Jerusalem, and between the Christian communities there has habitually been strife for the possession of the various holy places like the Holy Sepulchre. Accordingly the thought of some 1 Deuteronomy 32,7. 8 kind of internationalisation of Jerusalem is still voiced by the large churches.
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