But perhaps there is more factuality in the picture the book of Nehemiah sketches than is sometimes suggested. Combine a one-year tablet and print subscription to BAR with membership in the BAS Library to start your journey into the ancient past today! Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. . General Allenby famously entered the city through this gate when the British captured Jerusalem during the First World War in 1917. Other than the Tower of David, the city of Jerusalem would remain an open city until its conquest by the Ottoman empire in 1517. In 586 BC the Babylonians left behind a town largely destroyed. ), Judah and Judeans in the Persian Period, Winona Lake 2006, 147166. That the order of the buildings in the text is the same as the order `on the ground' is likely but not certain. Temple Of Jerusalem - Description, History, Of major importance was the rebuilding of the Second Temple begun by Herod the Great, king (37 bce -4 ce) of Judaea. Many Jewish people were disappointed in the second Temple because it didn't even begin to compare with the splendor of Solomon's Temple. [7], At the northwest corner of the Ottoman wall, archaeologists have discovered the meager remains of a large tower, c. 35x35 metres, probably first built in the 11th century during the Fatimid period, that fell to the Franks at the end of the First Crusade in 1099, and was apparently expanded by the Ayyubids after Saladin's reconquest of the city in 1187. The trip continues to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool. This fortress housed the governor of Yehud together with a garrison of soldiers and their families, as well as local service personnel and merchants. Under his leadership and with a small Jewish population, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt to dimensions similar to Solomons day. 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. Hes going to share the risks & the hardships with the people. J.E. How long did it take Nehemiah to rebuild the wall? However, God sovereignly moved in the heart of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to allow Nehemiah to rebuild the walls. In the foreground the wall that she dated to the Persian period with behind it the small tower. JUST WONDERING. the southern kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians, and Solomon's Temple was destroyed. I. Finkelstein, `Jerusalem in the Persian (and Early Hellenistic) Period and the Wall of Nehemiah, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 32 (2008), 501-520. supra. C. E. Carter, The Emergence of Yehud in the Persian Period A Social and Demographic Study (JSOT Supplement Series 294), Sheffield 1999. Today, this water tunnel is known as Hezekiahs Tunnel. The excavations of Kathleen Kenyon. And those interpretations can be quite diverse. How desolate Jerusalem really was, is a matter of interpretation. The book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament of the Bible is more than an account of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Take a video tour atop the walls of the Old City. 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 area where today's Jewish and Armenian Quarter (Jerusalem) Quarters are located. The finds do not disprove my dating of the tower in the Maccabean era. 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. In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, 2 one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. Blessing: Now may you go from this time of worship to serve the God who is ready to forgive, gracious & merciful, slow to anger & abounding in steadfast love. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Around the city several tombs carved into the rock have been found that show a continuity from the Late Iron Age onwards. 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. Often when we face a challenge, information can be plentiful but motivation is lacking. He is a true leader who leads, not one who issues commands from a safe distance. Nehemiah, Cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, returned to Jerusalem with the King's decree to repair Jerusalem's walls and gates which had remained in disrepair and ruin since the time of the Babylonian exile. How far does - or can - archaeology render this plausible? A century after the Roman Empires conversion to Christianity, the city was renamed Jerusalem and its walls were greatly expanded by Empress Aelia Eudocia. 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. When the work does become public, the opposition begins immediately & steadily grows, escalating in intensity to the point of his enemies unsuccessfully plotting his assassination. during the siege led by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at the time of King Zedekiah of Judah. Ltd. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Instagram. I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragons Spring & to the Dung Gate, & I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down & its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then they said, Let us start building! So they committed themselves to the common good. 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. Upon hearing that the wall of Jerusalem was down and destroyed, along with the gates being burned down, Nehemiah cried. The walls contain 34 watchtowers and seven main gates open for traffic, with two minor gates reopened by archaeologists. What Nehemiah lacked in technical knowledge, he more than makes up for with his ability to motivate and unite people to share in the challenge of rebuilding the walls. After Jerusalem fell to the Umayyads in 638 C.E., the citys Byzantine walls saw major repairs, and large parts of the Tower of David and the walls around the Temple Mount were constructed. Nehemiah is commissioned to return to Jerusalem to oversee the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem that still laid in ruin. During the time of Hezekiah, Jerusalems urban population had grown far outside the old walls of the city and were unprotected. May the joy of the Lord be your strength. King Hezekiah fortified the existing walls of the city and built a new wall in a rapid manner to protect those living outside the city walls. ), M. L. Steiner, `The Palace of David Reconsidered in the Light of Earlier Excavations, op, http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/palace_2468.shtml, The Persian Period City Wall of Jerusalem. Some people might think, our church is fine the way it is, why worry about ten years from now? 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. During this time, observant Jews refrain from certain joyful activities and commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other historical tragedies. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). in Esther 3:7, 'in the first month, which is the month Nisan,' cf. Oxford 2014, 24-37. However, much of the southern part of the city walls were omitted in the new construction. In this map the walls surround the southeastern hill and the Temple Mount only; it is assumed that other parts of the Late Iron Age city were not reconstructed. The archaeology of the Temple Mount today confirms this enlargement. cit. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. These are the same walls that surround Jerusalem today. . For the next three centuries, the city remained without protective walls, the Temple Mount/Haram ash-Sharif and the citadel then being the only well-fortified areas. At the top of the slope there was a large tower and a stretch of city wall from the Late Hellenistic period, built by the Maccabees in the 2nd century BC. Nehemiahs life was marked by availability as a servant to an earthly ruler but in a deeper way as a servant of God. Hezekiahs Broad Wall Expansion of the Western Hill. (Courtesy Ancient Jerusalem Project). Nehemiah begins with a moonlit tour of the walls to assess the damage & the scope of the work to be done. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. He was available to God & answered the call to lead in a crisis & he did it effectively. Was it a walled town with a central temple, the seat of the governor, the centre of government, religion and economy? century. Nehemiah's brother came from Judah with bad news: 'The people who returned to Jerusalem are not safe. Next, we learn about Ezra's trip back to Jerusalem to beautify the temple. The Persian king even gives Nehemiah an armed escort and resources to fulfll the project of the walls. Having faith doesnt mean we ignore problems, that were blind to the facts, or that we are ignorant of what has taken place over time. Nehemiah 3:1 in all English translations. By Margreet L. Steiner Sometimes its not seeing the difficulties that prevent our taking action; its a failure to see the resources & means to a creative solution. Reading an ancient text like this one which reflects the tension, division, and hostility over Jerusalem 2,500 years ago should humble anyone who thinks peace is easily made in the Middle East. (Courtesy Ancient Jerusalem Project). 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? in length. The walls were expanded again under Herod the Great (r. 374 B.C.E. [3], The city of Jerusalem has been surrounded by defensive walls since ancient times. It went as far as the royal cemetery, . 16 Nehemiah son of Azbuk ruled half of the district of Beth-Zur, and he rebuilt the next section of the wall. The Persian Empire rose to power, and they overthrew the Babylonians as the world superpower. [4] Also in the Amarna letters, it is called Beth-Shalem, the house of Shalem.[5]. The claim of Nehemiah is, I think, that he gave the city the symbolic appearance of an independent state - underlyingly, that there had been a deal whose terms were: no restoration of the former royal house but governors of the province to be Jewish. These ambiguities renders the reconstructions uncertain, and with it our view of Jerusalem in the Persian period. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer. It was a massive undertaking and measured around 2.5 miles (4 km.) PayPal does not require you to create a PayPal account to use your credit card. The city walls and gates that the Babylonians destroyed have never been rebuilt.' Nehemiah was upset. The tower may thus have been built in the Persian period or (much) later. R. Reich, `The Ancient Burial Ground in the Mamilla Neighborhood, Jerusalem, in H. Geva (ed. M. L. Steiner, `The Persian Period City Wall of Jerusalem, in I. Finkelstein, I and N. Na`aman (eds. 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. The Jerusalem Wall That Shouldnt Be There, Jerusalem Down Under: Tunneling Along Herods Temple Mount Wall, Old, New Banquet Hall by the Temple Mount. Whoever wandered around the old city walls had to climb over a mass of stone and sometimes could not continue at all; large piles of rubble blocked the way. The pagan Roman city, Aelia Capitolina, which was built after 130 by Emperor Hadrian, was at first left without protective walls. Since then, the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was important because it revealed God's blessing, served as a sign to Israel's enemies, and showed God was with His people. Nehemiah 4. 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). Nehemiah is the account of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. He leaves the settlement through the Valley Gate and then rides on his donkey in the direction of the Jackal Well and Dung Gate. The Jews gained their independence from the Seleucid Empire in 164 BC, led by the Maccabees and Hasmoneans. 5I said, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. This paper investigates the facts `on the ground. Although the walls size varies at different points, on average, it stands 40 feet tall and measures 8 feet thick. The book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament of the Bible is more than an account of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. The identification of Jebus with Jerusalem has been disputed, principally by Niels Peter Lemche. 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. And Jerusalem is a symbol of the city of God, God's dwelling place and the center of life for the world. The curving tunnel is 583 yards (533 m.) long and has a fall of 12 inches (30 cm.) It seems obvious that Nehemiah wanted to restore the walls to make the city habitable again. Above the Gichon spring she dug a long trench from top to bottom in order to analyse all layers of habitation of the ancient city. 516 BCE - Cyrus Permits Jews in Babylonian Exile to Return to Jerusalem; 63 BCE - Roman General Pompey captures Jerusalem, 70 CE - Roman Forces Destroy Jerusalem and Demolish, 135 CE - Jerusalem Rebuilt as a Roman City, 1229-1244 CE - Crusaders Briefly Recapture Jerusalem Two Times, 1917 - British Capture Jerusalem in World War I. It also included the reconstruction of the temple and the restoration of the walls. 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. This was some 47 years after the temple was finished. 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. He doesnt play the visiting political official saying, You people are in a mess, & Ive come to help you. Rather he says, You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Because Nehemiah cared so much for God's people, notice how he reacted to the news . 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.