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Jerusalem's role infirst-century Christianity, during theministry of Jesus and theApostolic Age, as recorded in theNew Testament, gives it great importance, both culturally and religiously, in Christianity.[2] Jerusalem is generally considered the cradle ofChristianity.[3][4][5]
According to theNew Testament, Jerusalem was the city to which Jesus was brought as a child, to bepresented at the Temple (Luke 2:22) and to attend the festival ofPassover (Luke 2:41). According to thegospels, Jesus Christ preached and healed in Jerusalem, especially in the courts of the Temple. The events ofPentecost in theActs of the Apostles also took place at this location. There is also an account of thecleansing of the Temple, where Jesus Christ was expelling traders and money changers out of the sacred precincts (Mark11:15, see alsoMark 11). At the end of each of the gospels, there are accounts of theLast Supper in an "Upper Room" in Jerusalem, Jesus Christ's arrest inGethsemane, histrial, hiscrucifixion atGolgotha, hisemtombment nearby, hisresurrection andascension, and hisprophecy to return.[citation needed]
The Acts of the Apostles and thePauline epistles showJames the Just, the brother of Jesus, as a leader of the early Jerusalem church.The fourth-century church fathersEusebius andEpiphanius of Salamis cite a tradition that before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 the JerusalemJewish Christians had been warned to flee to Pella in the region of the Decapolis across the Jordan River.[6] After the destruction of Jerusalem, they came back to the city. James and his successors were the focus of Jewish Christians until thedestruction of the city by EmperorHadrian in 135.
Christian tradition holds that the place of the Last Supper is the Cenacle, on the second floor of a building onMount Zion whereDavid's Tomb is reportedly on the first floor.Biblical archaeologistBargil Pixner[7] claims to have found three walls of the original structure still extant today. The place of Jesus' anguished prayer and betrayal, Gethsemane, is probably somewhere near theChurch of All Nations on theMount of Olives. Jesus' trial beforePontius Pilate may have taken place at theAntonia Fortress, to the north of the Temple area. Popularly, the exterior pavement where the trial was conducted is beneath theConvent of the Sisters of Zion. Other Christians believe that Pilate tried Jesus atHerod's Palace on Mount Zion.
TheVia Dolorosa, or way of suffering, is the traditional route to Golgotha, the place of crucifixion, and is an importantpilgrimage. The route ends at theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre. The Holy Sepulchre is traditionally believed to be the location of Golgotha andJesus' nearby tomb. The original church was built in 336 byConstantine I. TheGarden Tomb is a popular pilgrimage site near theDamascus Gate. It was suggested byCharles George Gordon that this site, rather than the Holy Sepulchre, is the true place of Golgotha.[citation needed]
Jerusalem historian Dan Mazar reported in a series of articles in theJerusalem Christian Review on the archaeological discoveries made at this location by his grandfather, ProfessorBenjamin Mazar, which included the 1st-century stairs of ascent, where Jesus and his disciples preached, as well as themikvaot used by both Jewish andChristian pilgrims.[citation needed] Much of this area was also uncovered by the excavations conducted by the elder Mazar.
The exclusion of Jews from the new city ofAelia Capitolina meant thatgentile bishops were appointed under the authority of theMetropolitans ofCaesarea and, ultimately, thePatriarchs of Antioch.
Origen, a prominent early Christian thinker, posited in his treatise "On the First Principles" (c. 230 CE) that Jerusalem was an entity with transcendental features:[8]
If Israel belongs to the sphere of souls and the city of Jerusalem is in heaven, it follows that the metropolis of the cities of Israel is Jerusalem in the heavens, and likewise the whole ofJudaea. If we listen toPaul's divinely inspired wisdom, whatever has been prophesied and spoken of Jerusalem is of the heavenly city and it is of the place that contains the cities of the Holy Land that we must understand what Scripture announces.[9][8]
The general significance of Jerusalem to Christians outside theHoly Land entered a period of decline during thePersecution of Christians in the Roman Empire but resumed again c. 325 when EmperorConstantine I and his mother,Helena, endowed Jerusalem with churches and shrines, making it the foremost centre ofChristian pilgrimage. Helena is remembered as thepatron saint ofarchaeologists and (according to the church historianSocrates of Constantinople[10]) claimed to have found (with the assistance of bishopMacarius of Jerusalem) theTrue Cross, after removing a temple toVenus that had been built over the site. Jerusalem received special recognition in Canon VII ofNicaea in 325, without yet becoming ametropolitansee.[11]
The traditional founding date for theBrotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre (which guards theChristian holy places in the Holy Land) is 313 which corresponds with the date of theEdict of Milan which legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire.
TheCouncil of Chalcedon in 451 raised theBishop of Jerusalem to the rank of thepatriarch, together with Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. However,Byzantine politics meant that Jerusalem simply passed from the Syrian jurisdiction of Antioch to the Greek authorities in Constantinople. For centuries,Greek clergy dominated the Jerusalem church. Meanwhile, theRoman church never accepted the Pentarchy and instead claimed primacy. On the other hand, the ancient notion of the primacy of the Church of Jerusalem was preserved in several texts, like the early medieval list known as theLimits of the Five Patriarchates (Greek:Γνώσις και επίγνωσις των πατριαρχών θρόνων).
In 638,Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, handed over the keys of the city toCaliphUmar's Muslim forces. The Muslim authorities in Jerusalem were not kind to their Christian subjects, forcing them to live a life of "discrimination, servitude, and humiliation".[12]
The mistreatment of Christians would only worsen as the armies of theFirst Crusade approached Jerusalem. Fearing that the Eastern Christians had been conspiring with approaching crusaders, the Muslim authorities of Jerusalem massacred much of the city's Christian population, seeing the fortunate escape the city in terror.[13] While the Crusaders hoped to protect Christian pilgrims who had been attacked and killed by the Turks, to protect the Christian holy places which had been destroyed by CaliphAl-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and in fact, were coming in response to pleas for help from theEastern Christian Byzantine EmperorAlexios I Komnenos, there is no evidence for any conspiracy.
On 15 July 1099, the army of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem. Most of the city's population was killed, with the exception ofEastern Christians. They were, however, exiled from the city, as their newLatin rulers believed they were conspiring with the Muslims.[14] Jerusalem became the capital of a 'Latin Kingdom' with a Latin church and aLatin Patriarch, all under the authority of thePope. The city's first Latin ruler,Godfrey of Bouillon, was elected in 1099.[15] Out of humility and deference to Jesus, he refused to be called king in a city where he thought only Jesus had the right to be called king; he would only call himself Jerusalem's protector. Throughout his short reign as protector, Godfrey struggled to increase the population of Jerusalem until his death in 1100. In 1100 he was succeeded by his brotherBaldwin I who, unlike Godfrey, was willing to take the title ofKing of Jerusalem. With Jerusalem's population dwindling Baldwin I, as early as 1115, offered the Christians ofTransjordan a section of Jerusalem. These Christians were often the target of Muslim aggression and therefore promptly accepted Baldwin's proposal.[16] In 1187, whenSaladin captured the city, the Holy Sepulchre and many other churches were returned to the care of Eastern Christians.
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From the 17th to the 19th century, various Catholic European nations petitioned theOttoman Empire for Catholic control of the 'holy places'. TheFranciscans are the traditional Catholic custodians of the holy places. Control swung back and forth between the western and eastern churches throughout this period. SultanAbd-ul-Mejid I (1839–1861), perhaps out of despair, published afirman that laid out in detail the exact rights and responsibility of each community at the Holy Sepulchre. This document became known as theStatus Quo, and is still the basis for the complex protocol of the shrine. The Status Quo was upheld by the British Mandate andJordan.
After the1967 Arab-Israeli War, and the passing of the Old City into Israeli hands, theKnesset passed a law protecting the holy places. Five Christian communities currently have rights in the Holy Sepulchre: the Greek Patriarchate, Latins (Western Rite Roman Catholics),Armenians,Copts andSyriac Orthodox.
In Christianity, Jerusalem is sometimes interpreted as an allegory ortype for the church of Christ.[17][18] There is a vast apocalyptic tradition that focuses on theheavenly Jerusalem instead of the literal and historical city of Jerusalem. This view is notably advocated inAugustine of Hippos'sThe City of God, a popular 5th-century philosophical opus that was written during thedecline of the Roman Empire.
