One on One: Lift up your gates and sing – a new book about Jerusalem – The Coastland Times

By DG Martin

The city of Jerusalem is once again the focus of global attention. Today it is the capital of a contested country, Israel, which is at war with its neighbor Gaza and is coming into increasing conflict with forces along and within its borders supported by powerful nations.

It is also an important sanctuary and holy site for three of the world’s major religions, all of which have a claim to Jerusalem, its history and some of its holy sites.

In North Carolina, as elsewhere around the world, churchgoers will sing about Jerusalem on Sunday morning.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Lift up your gates and sing: Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna to your King!”

Preachers in North Carolina and around the world will remind congregations of Jesus’ activities in Jerusalem: He preached, healed, found followers, and was eventually executed and buried there before resurfacing and inspiring others to follow his teachings and example.

With Jerusalem at the centre of the action and Jesus’ activities so important to so many, a book on the city’s history and its changing makeup is welcome. Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades is published by Oxford University Press, which claims the new book is “a comprehensive survey of a city’s physical presence and the historical record it reveals.”

The book is written by Jodi Magness of UNC-Chapel Hill, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Excellence in Teaching in Early Judaism. Magness is a scholar and author of other books on biblical times, including Ancient Synagogues in Palestine, Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine.

The story of Magness begins with David’s conquest of a small village near a spring called Gihon around 1000 BC (or in modern parlance, BCE).

After David’s conquest, the “little village” became the “City of David” and a united monarchy ruled by David and his son Solomon. Magness describes the temple that Solomon built on the hill in Jerusalem called the “Temple Mount.”

Magness then takes her readers through 2,000 years of Jerusalem’s history, focusing on changes in the physical landscape, such as the construction of important buildings, walls, towers and monuments, or the destruction of such values ​​through war or neglect.

An important early loss occurred in 586 B.C., when Babylon conquered the Kingdom of Judah, destroyed Solomon’s Temple, and exiled many Jews to Babylon.

After King Cyrus and the Persians defeated Babylon in 539 B.C., the exiled Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and city walls.

Magness writes: “Thanks to the rebuilding of the Temple, the Persian period laid the foundation for the increasing importance of Jerusalem in Jewish religious life in the centuries that followed…”

In 332 BCE, Jerusalem came under the rule of Alexander the Great and a period of Hellenization began. When Greek leaders attempted to ban Jewish religious practices, a Jewish revolt led by the Hasmoneans arose. Their success led to an independent Jewish kingdom.

Magness writes: “Jerusalem’s rise from the tiny and impoverished center of a provincial hinterland to the capital of the Hasmonean kingdom had significant implications.”

Magness describes the influence of the great architect Herod the Great, followed by the direct rule of Rome and a series of rebellions that led to the total destruction of the Temple and most of Jerusalem.

Things changed dramatically. Magness writes: “Constantine’s legalization of Christianity in 313 AD had a profound impact on the Holy Land in general and Jerusalem in particular, which was transformed from a small and insignificant colony on the fringes of the Roman world into one of its most important cities.

There is much more, but for those who want a quick summary, Magness has included a three-page timeline in the appendix. For those traveling to Jerusalem, she has included walking tours of the places she mentions in her book.

DG Martin, a retired lawyer, was vice president of the UNC system for public affairs and hosted PBS-NC’s North Carolina Bookwatch.

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