JERITSALEM (Heb. Yerushalm, Gr. Illerousalem, Lat. Iliermolynza ; called also in Arabic, El-Kltud8 or El-Kock " the Holy "), the Jewish capital of Palestine. Its origin and early history' are very obscure. Josephus (Antiq. i.x. 2) identifies it with the " Salem' of which Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18) is called king; but St. Jerome doubts the correctness of this view. Critics are better agreed as to the identity of Jerusalem with Jebusi, the city of the Jebusites (Josh. xviii. 23), and we know that the Jebusites retained possession of the strong positions of the hill of Zion for a considerable time after the conquest of Canaan, and even after the storming of Jerusalem (Jud. i. 8), while the tribes of Judah and Benjamin occupied the lower city. They were finally dispossessed by David (2 Kings v. 7). The name Jerusalem is first mentioned in Joshua x. 1. It lies upon the original border of Judah and Benjamin, the line of which runs through the valley of Hinnom, so that Zion and the northern city lay within the territory of Benjamin. Its historical importance dates from the time of David, who there fixed his residence. calling it by the name of the " City of David," transporting to it the ark of the covenant, and building in it an altar to the Lord. on the place of the apparition of the angel by which the plague was stayed (2 Kings xxiv. 25). The build ing of the temple under Solomon was the consummation of the dignity and holiness of Jerusalem. which was further enlarged, strengthened, and b autified by this king and by his successors. It suffered a diminution of political importance through the revolt and secession of the ten tribes, from• which date its history is identified with that of the kingdom of Judah. It was pillaged (973 n.c.) by Sesac (Shishak) king of Egypt (2 Citron. xii. 9), by Joash king of Israel (4 Kings xiv. 13, 14); and finally (588 n.c.), it was taken, after a siege of three years, by Nabuchodonosor, who razed its walls, and destroyed the temple and palaces by fire (4 Kings xxv.). Having been rebuilt after the captivity (536 c.c.), it was again taken and pillaged under Ptolemy Lagos (820 and under Antiochus Epiphanes (161 n.c.), after the well-known and mysterious repulse of Heliodorus (176 n.c.); and Pompey (63 n.c.) took the city on the anniversary of its capture by Nabuchodonosor, put 12,000 of the inhabitants to the sword, and razed the walls to the ground, sparing, at the same time, the treasures of the sanctuary. However, a few years later, they were pillaged (51 n.c.) by Crassus; and from these beginnings dates the continued series of Roman aggressions. which terminated in the complete destruction of the city and dispersion of the Jewish race, under Vespasian and Titus (70 A.D.). From the description of the contemporary historian, Josephus, we learn that
at this period. Jerusalem, which occupied the four hills, Zion, Acra, Modal. and Bezetha (separated from each other by deep valleys or gorges), consisted of three distinct regions—the upper city, with the citadal of Zion; the lower city, which lay to the n., on the hills of Acva and Modal]; and the new city, still further to the northward. The temple stood On the hill of Moriah, and .John Hyrcanus built, on the north-western angle of this hill, a fortress called Bads, which was strengthened and beautified by Herod. and called "Antonia," in honor of Mark Antony. Herod's own palace stood at the northern extremity of the upper city, and on the eastern angle was an open place called Xystus, surrounded by galleries, and communicating by a bridge with the temple. The environs of the city were adorned with gardens, parks, ponds, and tombs. In the progress of ages, ancient Jerusalem was surrounded by three walls, the direction of which, in sonic portions of their course, is difficult to be determined, although it is upon this that the controversy as to the authentic site of the Holy Sepulcher (q.v.) mainly turns. The first and most ancient wall surrounded the upper city on the hill of Zion, and joined on its northern side the prodromum of the temple. The second wall, or the wall of Ezechias, inclosed the hill Acre, around which stood the lower city. It was connected at the south-western angle with the first wall, from which it ran in a semi-circle to the n. and D.C. surrounding the upper city till it joined the fortress Antonia, described above. The third wall, built by Herod Agrippa, which inclosed the hill Bezetha and the so-called new city, appears to have started in the north-western angle of the first wall, probably at the tower called " Hippicus," and to have taken a northerly and north easterly direction around the new city till it met the north-eastern angle of the temple wall. It thus, for a part of its course, was external to the second wall. The site of the church of the Holy Sepulcher and the hill of Cavalry are thus supposed by the defenders of their authenticity to have been without the wall of Jerusalem as it stood in the days of our Lord—that is, the second wall, although they were taken in by the subsequent extension of the city a short time afterwards, when the third wall was built some dis tance to the w. of the second, by Herod at Agrippa. The investigation of the exact direction of the second wall has long been an object of desire with biblical antiquaries, and it is probable that the excavations now projected or in progress will remove all uncertainty.