A portion of this "broad wall" still stands in today's Jewish Quarter. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. These are the same walls that surround Jerusalem today. In the 19th century, many building updates were made to the Old City, including the construction of New Gate and the filling in of the moat that surrounds the Tower of David. That provided an opportunity to look underneath and behind the tower. (Courtesy Ancient Jerusalem Project). The excavations of Kathleen Kenyon. At the bottom of the slope she found the city walls from the Middle Bronze Age (18th century BC) and the Late Iron Age (around 700 BC). [4] Also in the Amarna letters, it is called Beth-Shalem, the house of Shalem.[5]. Israel Finkelstein (2008), for example, sees Jerusalem of Persian and Early Hellenistic times as a small village without walls, with at most a few hundred inhabitants. During the First Temple period the city walls were extended to include the northwest hill as well, i.e. The rebuilding and repair of the wall was a miracle. He sees not only the reality of what is, but what can be. It went as far as the royal cemetery, . What is the Dung . Rebuilding the Wall of Jerusalem -These are the people who helped rebuild the wall and gates of Jerusalem:The high priest Eliashib and the other priests rebuilt Sheep Gate and hung its doors. In the darkest days of World War Two when Great Britain stood alone against the Nazis, Winston Churchill came into leadership as Prime Minister at arguably the lowest & most difficult time in his nations history. Agrippa I (r. 4144 CE) later began the construction of the Third Wall, which was completed just at the beginning of the First JewishRoman War. 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Ready to walk around Jerusalems incredible walls yourself? For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. Its not enough to know what needs to be done; we also need the motivation to make it happen. LOVE THE VIDEOS OR PHOTOS OF JERUSALEM or WHATEVER PHOTOS YOU MAY HAVE. Diana Edelman, who made an in-depth study of Jerusalem in Persian times based on biblical texts, archaeological finds and information on the Persian empire, sees Jerusalem as a birah, a small fortress used by the Persians (Edelman 2005). In 1981, the Jerusalem walls were added, along with the Old City of Jerusalem, to the UNESCO World Heritage Site List. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. He points out that Persian material was found only on the southeastern hill, the City of David, and not in other parts of the site that were inhabited in the Late Iron Age. First, he describes himself as one of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The pottery she found there originated in the Persian period, which, according to her, proved that the tower itself was Persian in date and therefore part of the fortifications mentioned in Nehemiah 3. My interpretation (and that of others) was that there had been a building on top of the hill in those periods, of which the remains, together with the pottery, had been swept down the slope when a fortification was built on that spot. Nehemiahs life was marked by availability as a servant to an earthly ruler but in a deeper way as a servant of God. Despite the detailed description of walls and gates, scholars debate the actual size of the settlement in Persian times and even question whether the walls were really reconstructed. They were completed in 1538 and are the walls that exist today. Such tombs belonged to wealthy families, who buried their dead there for centuries. How large was Nehemiahs Jerusalem and how did it function within the Persian empire? The conclusion must be that no Persian city walls have actually been found. Suffice to say there is hardly any archaeological evidence of a large population growth as a result of immigration. Who destroyed the wall that Nehemiah rebuilt? Nehemiah 1:3, "They said to me, 'Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The first one to announce that she had found part of the Persian city wall was the English archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon. Even today, numerous sections of Hezekiahs wall remain visible. He returns to Jerusalem with a group of exiles and begins rebuilding the wall, meeting opposition along the way. Nehemiah 2:1-11. The walls of the Old City encompass an area of roughly 250 acres and extend for more than 2.5 miles. An accurate analysis of the finds I made shows, however, that the tower and the wall date from the Late Hellenistic period and are part of the fortifications described above (for an extensive analysis see Steiner 2011). Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library, The Unexpected History Behind Jerusalems Street Names, Richard the Lionheart Accepts Saladin's Peace, British Mark Capture of Jerusalem from Turks, Supreme Moslem Council Recognizes Jewish Temple Mount, Jerusalem's Military Government Abolished, 1998 - 2023 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 1800 BCE - Construction of First City Wall, 586 BCE - Babylonian Forces Destroy Jerusalem and Demolish. In 54 bce, however, Crassus plundered the Temple treasury. These ambiguities renders the reconstructions uncertain, and with it our view of Jerusalem in the Persian period. Was it a walled town with a central temple, the seat of the governor, a centre of administration, religion and economy? But did he do it? Although eight gates can be seen along the walls, only seven are in use today. ), Ancient Jerusalem Revealed, Jerusalem 1994, 111-118. Nehemiah 3 is even more specific. The Persian material included a bronze mirror, silver rings, an Egyptian jar made of faience and an Attic jug - all luxury items, probably imported. October 2021. . Although the Persian town walls have not been found, there are indications that they may be hidden under the later Maccabean fortifications. It was King Artaxerxes I who would have moved the capital of the province from Mitzpa to Jerusalem because the later site was more strategically located and had a better water supply. Or was it an unimportant, undefended settlement, in which only the local temple still had any meaning? An international recognition that this was the Land of the Jews, even if the people of the land thought otherwise, would have been emphatically achieved. God instructed Nehemiah to build a wall around Jerusalem to protect its citizens from enemy attack. People didn't just eat what the land nearby yielded; fish bones were found from sea bream and mullet from the Mediterranean Sea and catfish from the river Jordan or Lake Tiberias (Lernau 2015). the walls in 586. He was able to rebuild . The book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament of the Bible is more than an account of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Since their walls were still broken, their enemies can easily come and destroy them. Many Arabic inscriptions found throughout the Old City record the dates that various gates and sections of the wall were rebuilt. Many biblical scholars have been allured by these texts to sketch a map of the city based on the descriptions therein - see for instance https://medium.com/@chrisvonada/the-courage-and-calling-of-nehemiah-1b64df490373. He is a leader with vision, the ability to tell people the truth, commitment to doing Gods work & getting the job done successfully. The church faces a similar challenge. . 4, 8, 'The first month, which according to the Macedonians is called Xanthicus, but according to us Nisan.' Its meaning is uncertain; according to some its root-idea is . Submitted by Jason Silverman on Sun, 11/28/2021 - 12:20. He also made weapons and shields in abundance. Nehemiah knows there will be opposition so he waits to share what God has put on his heart to do. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.". God has provided what is needed to get the job done. (Perhaps it is noteworthy that TAD A.7 makes no mention of where in Yehud Bagavahya was but mentions priests in Jerusalem). Some attention, but how much? Hes a leader who leads by example & calls people to follow him. He took the expansion of the Hasmonean Temple Mount and extended it on three sides, to the north, west, and south. By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. King Solomon might have added to the defensive fortifications, OnSite: Bethlehems Church of the Nativity. This fortress housed the governor of Yehud together with a garrison of soldiers and their families, as well as local service personnel and merchants. The walls surrounding the Old City encompass an area of barely a third of a square mile (1 sq. D. Edelman, The Origins of the Second Temple: Persian Imperial Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem, London 2005. Today, this water tunnel is known as Hezekiahs Tunnel. The Persian Empire rose to power, and they overthrew the Babylonians as the world superpower. He can see that rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem is a restoration job on several levels. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). The walls of Jerusalem were once again destroyed during the Crusader conquest of the city in 1099. Nehemiah is the account of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. The walls were still in ruin 140 years later when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem. The walls were extensively renewed by the Empress Aelia Eudocia during her banishment to Jerusalem (443460). Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon levied to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. Hezekiah also built a water tunnel in order to keep the water from the Gihon Spring inside the city walls so the Assyrians couldnt cut off the water supply (2 Chron. PayPal does not require you to create a PayPal account to use your credit card. The Persian kings allowed exiles from many countries to return to their lands, and some made use of that, others did not; many Judeans continued to live in Babylonia. He stands before them, knowing what the problems are, but ready to begin the hard work of rebuilding & this encourages & gives hope to the people. But when Nehemiah arrives to Jerusalem, he faces opposition from the people who had already been living in Jerusalem because Nehemiah had made clear that all those living outside Jerusalem had no part in the new city. The city walls and its fortress provided additional protection. Nehemiah 1:13: Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. The work took some four years, between 1537 and 1541. In the Late Hellenistic period that construction then was rebuilt or restored and the older wall was not visible anymore. Spoiler alert: there are as many opinions as there are scholars, and the archaeological evidence is meagre. 3 And they said to me, "The remnant . Supporting his case, every non-biblical mention of Jerusalem found in the ancient Near East refers to the city as 'Jerusalem'. Dig into the illuminating world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access membership. But when Sanballat the Horonite & Tobiah the Ammonite official, & Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked & ridiculed us, saying, What is this that you are doing? Did the Ancient Israelites Think Children Were People. The length of the walls is 4,018 meters (2.497 miles), their average height is 12 meters (39 feet) and the average thickness is 2.5 meters (8.2 feet). H. Lernau, `Fish Bones, in E. Mazar (ed. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace. Nehemiah is one of them. Herod the Great added what Josephus called the Second Wall somewhere in the area between today's Jaffa Gate and Temple Mount. the southern kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians, and Solomon's Temple was destroyed. G. Barkay, Excavations at Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem, in: In: H. Geva, (ed. Families and professional groups take on the responsibility for repairing stretches of the wall, while gates are provided with attics, doors, bolts and bars, and towers are rebuilt. The identification of Jebus with Jerusalem has been disputed, principally by Niels Peter Lemche. Just like their builder, however, the modern walls can only be described as magnificent. Nehemiah's brother came from Judah with bad news: 'The people who returned to Jerusalem are not safe. In the 16th century, during the reign of the Ottoman Empire in the region, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent decided to rebuild the city walls fully, partly on the remains of the ancient walls. During the time of Hezekiah, Jerusalems urban population had grown far outside the old walls of the city and were unprotected. Other than the Tower of David, the city of Jerusalem would remain an open city until its conquest by the Ottoman empire in 1517. They had to be rebuilt by the Fatimids, who left out the southernmost parts that had been previously included: Mount Zion with its churches, and the southeastern hill (the City of David) with the Jewish neighborhoods which stood south of the Temple Mount. Rebuilding The Walls Of Jerusalem Nehemiah 4:16-18 KJV Nehemiah Chapter 4 16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem like so many challenges we face in life, including growing a church, is a two sided problem. There would have had to be some economic and some military activity and so a population more than negligible, so at least some attention to fortifications. No other biblical text is as explicit about the walls of Jerusalem as Nehemiah 3. Although little has been found of the town itself, some finds suggest the presence of wealthy inhabitants, such as the rich elite graves that have been uncovered. Jerusalems walls were largely neglected by the Crusader kingdom, although moderate rebuilding activities attempted to close breaches in the walls. Then, Artaxerxes I or possibly Darius II allowed Ezra and Nehemiah to return and rebuild the city's walls and to govern Judea, which was ruled as Yehud province under the Persians. As cupbearer it was his duty to taste wine from the kings cup before handing the cup personally to the king, a guarantee that the wine was not poisoned. The walls were still in ruin 140 years later when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem. Although I came to the conclusion that Kenyon was wrong and that the wall and the tower did not date to the Persian period, it is quite possible that a Persian wall was once built there, now hidden under the later Maccabean constructions. 3They replied, The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire., August 3, 2014 The Old City is home to three major shrines of the world\\'s religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 2006. The walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. See, e,g,, Holman Bible Dictionary, op. The conquest brought some destruction followed by reconstruction, as did the reconquest by Saladin in 1187. This meant building new defenses. during the siege led by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at the time of King Zedekiah of Judah. 1 The first exiled people, who came back seventy years later with Zerubbabel on the first order of return (Cyrus' 2 ), found only ruins and rubbles. Josephus, Ant. Hes not afraid to use words like trouble, ruins, disgrace. No good comes from minimizing the difficulties of a task or situation that lies before us whether it is physical, relational, spiritual, financial, emotional, political or something else. The Jews gained their independence from the Seleucid Empire in 164 BC, led by the Maccabees and Hasmoneans. If HolyLandSite.com is helpful to you, and you would like to support our work, we would be deeply grateful. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 15201566), the city of Jerusalem regained its splendor and recovered from centuries of neglect. Why did Nehemiah rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? The archaeology of the Temple Mount today confirms this enlargement. 10 And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him. Jerusalem was, certainly in the later Persian period, more than a sparsely inhabited settlement or just a temple city without any economic or administrative significance. Source: Chronological Reference Points,Middle East Insight, January-February 1999. Indeed, the walls that surround the Old City of Jerusalem today are only around 500 years old, having been constructed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the mid-16th century. who destroyed the walls of jerusalem When Titus conquered and destroyed Jerusalem, he was putting an end to many decades of rebellion that had erupted long before his time. Others conclude from the archaeological finds (or rather, the dearth thereof) that Jerusalem in Persian times was a very small settlement, not including the western hill, impoverished, unwalled, insignificant. Then they said, Let us start building! So they committed themselves to the common good. The Bible's grand narrative about Israel's Exodus from Egypt is central to Biblical religion, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim identity and the formation of the academic disciplines studying the ancient Near East. Ironically, rather than raising peoples feelings of fear & anxiety; facing the brutal facts can have a remarkable impact on peoples confidence & motivation. Long before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the Jebusites lived securely within the walls of Jerusalem. And so Nehemiah travels west to Jerusalem. An example of these records are the Amarna letters which are dated to the 14th century BCE, several of which were written by the chieftain of Jerusalem Abdi-Heba and call Jerusalem either Urusalim (URU -ru-sa-lim) or Urualim (URU -ru-a10-lim) (1330s BCE). Nehemiah receives His Commission 1. By Margreet L. Steiner But hes motivated by Gods vision for Jerusalem & his love for his people. Then I got up during the night, I & a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. 2011). Because Nehemiah cared so much for God's people, notice how he reacted to the news . Nehemiah 4. The answer was given during the July 20th the television program 60 Minutes which included a fascinating segment on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. [6] Some remains of this wall are located today near the Mandelbaum Gate gas station. O. Lipschits, Y. Gadot et al., `Palace and Village, Paradise and Oblivion: Unraveling the Riddles of Ramat Rael, Near Eastern Archaeology 74 (2011), 1-49. IF WE GET THIS BIBLE HISTORY DAILY, DO WE HAVE TO PAY FOR THAT? Not only nine gates are mentioned, but also other characteristic parts of the town such as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hanael, the Broad Wall, the Pool of Siloam, the Kings Garden, the steps going down from the City of David, the tombs of David, the artificial pool, the House of the Heroes and many more. The job is bigger than he first suspected. between its two ends. Perhaps it rather encompasses all the destroyed city gates of Jerusalem, including those around the western hill. ), Media, Video and Lectures From The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Arizona, Teaching the Bible in Public Schools and Higher Ed, Scholars, Frauds, the Media and the Public, Essays on Minimalism from Bible and Interpretation, Final Reports on the Yehoash Inscription and James Ossuary from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Essays on the James Ossuary and the Temple Tablet from Bible and Interpretation, University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies, Department of Archaeology and Art History, University of Evansville. Yet in 1219, the Ayyubids, fearing the Crusaders would regain the city, demolished the walls of Jerusalem to keep such a fortified position from falling into Crusader hands. Hold up one of the paper bricks and explain the following: The wall of Jerusalem is about 40 feet high and 2.5 miles long! After this destruction the wider area was largely, but not entirely, abandoned. Nehemiah taught us how to battle discouragement (Neh. JUST WONDERING. If Persian pottery was found underneath the tower, this means that the tower itself was built later. Indeed, the walls that surround the Old City of Jerusalem today are only around 500 years old, having been constructed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the mid-16th century. Since the project involved the reparation of older constructions, this text gives information about the town at the end of the Iron Age, just before its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC, as well. R. Reich, `The Ancient Burial Ground in the Mamilla Neighborhood, Jerusalem, in H. Geva (ed. . He was born in exile and grew to become the Cupbearer of King Artaxerses of the Medo-Persian empire. The high priest Eliashib, for example, rebuilds the Sheep Gate together with his fellow priests, while the sons of Hassenaah tackle the Fish Gate. He said, The risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all. Thats why were doing what were doing because the risk of doing nothing is the greatest risk of all. 8 And David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul. Therefore, it is said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. This is true in our lives as well as for Nehemiah. The walls of Jerusalem have shifted many times throughout history and today large sections of the ancient city lie outside the current Ottoman-era fortifications. If we are sure (are we, absolutely?) added to the walls of Jerusalem again with the construction of the Third Wall, which was completed shortly before the First Jewish Revolt, during which the walls were almost completely destroyed by the Romans. 3. We will soon discover that Nehemiah has a position of authority in the empire, being the 'cupbearer . The walls surrounding the Old City encompass an area of barely a third of a square mile (1 sq. This is not the last time that happened on a construction job. There is the technical side & the human side. Nehemiah decides that the fortifications have to be rebuilt. Later - in Persian times - the temple would have been provisionally restored and Jerusalem would have been a non-walled, largely empty settlement where some priests lived who maintained the temple services. , in I. Finkelstein, I and N. Na`aman (eds. In 1033, most of the walls constructed by Eudocia were destroyed by an earthquake. The biblical sources are largely silent on what happened in Judah and Jerusalem after the Babylonian destruction. Nehemiah has a very difficult task to accomplish: rebuilding a ruined city with opposition all around & a frightened, discouraged population, fortunately Nehemiah knows how to lead in a crisis. Recent ones include Finkelstein 2008, Lipschits 2009, Ristau 2016, and Ussishkin 2006. `The Borders and de Facto Size of Jerusalem in the Persian Period, in O. Lipschits and M. Oeming (eds. However, much of the southern part of the city walls were omitted in the new construction. ), Judah and Judeans in the Persian Period, Winona Lake 2006, 147166. 3 They replied, 'The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great . K. A. Ristau, Reconstructing Jerusalem: Persian Period Prophetic Perspectives, University Park, Pa, 2016. So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. Often when we face a challenge, information can be plentiful but motivation is lacking. You see, God is NOT against building walls! The biblical books Nehemiah 2 and 3 relay the story of Nehemiahs trip around the destroyed town of Jerusalem and of the rebuilding of its fortifications. Click here to take a video tour atop Jerusalems ancient walls. 1 The words of a Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.. Now it happened in the month of b Chislev, c in the twentieth year, as I was in d Susa the citadel, 2 that e Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. All in all, archaeological research has not found any actual Persian fortifications but at most indirect evidence for their construction. Although the Temple had been rebuilt, the unwalled city of Jerusalem was not safe because of the hostility of Israel's neighbors. Nisan] See note on Nehemiah 1:1.This name only occurs elsewhere in the O.T.