Jerusalem - A Brief History

There are far older cities in the world than Jerusalem. However, our knowledge of them rests on archaeological evidence whereas our knowledge of the biblical world, and therefore of Jerusalem, has been an integral part of the Western cultural memory for almost 2000 years. Maps produced as recently as the 16th century (see “Cloverleaf Map”) locate Jerusalem at the center of the earth. As a physcial place, Jerusalem has been the city of David, of the Solomonic Temple, of the prophets, of Jesus, of Muhammad’s ascent to heaven, location of the final judgment on the day of reckoning, the city of mosques, shrines, synagogues, and churches. It has been multiply destroyed and rebuilt by empires, states, marauding Bedouins, religious fanatics, visionaries, and pragmatic administrators.

Jerusalem also exists as an ideal city: a multi-faceted symbol of monotheism, enshrined in biblical literature, Psalms, poetry, and midrashic flights of fancy; object of desire and mundane reality; icon of political perfection, of the ideal of divine purity and holiness, The modern conflict in the Middle East may be understood as a clash between various messianisms, types of political theology that the city of Jerusalem, like no other city on earth, has helped to inspire. The key to understanding Jerusalem is to distinguish between the city as such and the city as a symbolic construct in the minds, literatures, rituals, and belief-systems of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

This brief history will provide a short, accessible, and lively introduction to Jerusalem. Given the overwhelming scope of more than 3000 years of documentable history, and the limitations of c. 80,000 words, the book will be designed to represent major aspects and factors of this history rather than narrate it in its entirety. It aims to provide a source of basic historical information along with critical analysis focusing on the religious and symbolic meanings of the city in Western imagination and on the impact of this cluster of traditions on modern politics.

Michael Zank, PhD, is Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Boston University where he teaches a course on Holy City: Jerusalem in Time, Space, and Imagination. He has published a number of volumes including: New Perspectives on Martin Buber and The Idea of Atonement in the Philosophy of Hermann Cohen. He has been recognized twice as an outstanding teacher at Boston University.?