And then there’s the problem with the story of David and Goliath. First Samuel 17:54 claims that after killing Goliath for King Saul, the boy “David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem.” The problem quickly becomes obvious: Saul is still king; Saul is still ruling from Giv‘ah (Gibeah), not Jerusalem; and the soon-to-be King David hadn’t yet conquered Jerusalem, which doesn’t happen until 2 Samuel 5! Why would the text say that David took Goliath’s head back to Jerusalem? Some scholars, like James Hoffmeier, have argued that David took Goliath’s head to Jerusalem to serve notice that it was “next,”11 but most scholars see this as an anachronistic error, in which the author mistakenly assumed that David would have returned with Goliath’s head as a trophy (as was done through the ancient Near East following battles) to his capital, Jerusalem. This story’s editor forgot that David had not yet conquered Jerusalem.
We can therefore see from the accounts in Joshua, Judges, and 1 and 2 Samuel that there are internal biblical contradictions regarding the conquest of Jerusalem. The question for scholars is not, “Are there contradictions?” but rather, “Why are these contradicting accounts preserved in the text?” Either the text is wrong in Joshua 10:40 when it claims that “Joshua defeated the whole land” and that “he left no one remaining” and “utterly destroyed all that breathed” because Joshua had not actually taken the Jebusite city (Jerusalem), or Joshua had done those things to Jerusalem, but for some reason the editors of the Bible wanted Jerusalem to remain unconquered.
Given the story of David still to come, I suggest that the conquest of Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 5 (and again in 1 Chron. 11) is Jerusalem’s foundation myth, just as Virgil’s story of Romulus and Remus was the foundation myth for Rome (see Chapter 11). The later redactors of the Bible had in their possession the Joshua and Judges tradition of the conquest of Jerusalem, but may have wanted to reserve credit for Jerusalem’s conquest for David, which they tell in 2 Samuel 5, so that the “City of David” could become God’s chosen city in the same way that David—the “man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14; cf. Acts 13:22)—became God’s chosen king.
Now let’s turn to how the newly conquered Jerusalem became the city of God.
HOW JERUSALEM BECAME THE HOLY CITY FOR THE ISRAELITES
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
The Bible states that once David was happily ensconced in his new capital of Jerusalem, he wanted to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem (see 2 Sam. 6). The ark had been parked safely in Shiloh, which had been the worship center of Israel up until this point. So in one of the more odd scenes in the Bible, David embarks on the task of bringing the ark to Jerusalem.
From the outset, things do not go as smoothly as planned. First, in 2 Samuel 6, while they were transporting the ark and “David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might” (6:5), the oxen pulling the cart carrying the ark stumbled and shook the ark, which appeared as if it were going to fall over. ‘Uzza’ (Uzzah), one of the drivers of the ox cart, reached out his hand to steady the ark, and for his efforts God struck him dead on the spot (6:7) for violating the command not to touch the ark (Num. 4:15). David became angry and terrified that the ark would damage him as well, so he detoured it to the house of ‘Obed ’Edom the Gittite for three months (6:11).
Seeing that the presence of the ark at ‘Obed ’Edom’s house caused him to prosper, David once again formed a processional and took the ark to Jerusalem, making sure to stop every six paces to sacrifice an ox and a calf to God just to assuage any potential anger (2 Sam. 6:13). Once the ark reached the tent that David had pitched for it in Jerusalem, David offered sacrifices and threw a party for everyone in attendance (6:18–19).
Bringing the ark to Jerusalem was important because it symbolizes the moment that Jerusalem became the city of God. It is from this point forward that Jerusalem would be touted above all other Israelite cities, especially Shiloh, Shechem, and Samaria, which were the chief rivals of the Jerusalem priesthood when many of these biblical materials were being edited and collected. That is to say, the placement of the ark in Jerusalem during the reign of David symbolized to the readers of the Bible that it was Jerusalem, and not Samaria and its alternative Samaritan Temple atop Mt. Gerizim (cf. John 4:20), that was the true place of worship, the true city of God.
THE TEMPLE
The ark would ultimately be housed within and replaced by the Temple in Jerusalem. The tale of the building of the Temple was discussed in Chapter 1. There is some debate about whether a temple already existed in Jerusalem prior to David’s arrival. Given the references to the Jebusite city and given that most cities had functioning temples, this is highly likely. So we must ask whether David, following his conquest of Jerusalem, took control of an established temple and Solomon perhaps refurbished and rededicated it,12 or whether Solomon did in fact construct the “house of the LORD” in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6).
Either way, we know that the floor plan of the Temple described in 1 Kings 6–7 closely resembles the floor plans of other regional temples, such as the tenth-century BCE temple in ‘Ain Dāra in the northwest corner of modern Syria, the nearby ninth-century BCE temple in Tel Ta‘yinat in southernmost modern Turkey, and the mid-seventh-century BCE “House of YHWH” at Tel ‘Arad south of Jerusalem in southern Judah. This suggests that regardless of who built the Temple, it was built according to plans that characterized many of the temples of Iron Age Cana‘an.
And once the ark of the covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies inside the Jerusalem Temple (cf. 1 Kings 8:21), all of the power that was once attributed to the portable ark of the covenant while the Hebrews were nomads in the desert was transferred to the stationary Temple, now that Israel was a people with a land. From this point on, the ark of the covenant is rarely mentioned in the Bible. In fact, Jeremiah 3:16–17 states:
They shall no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one be made. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will.
The author of this portion of Jeremiah implies that the ark is no longer the representation of God to his people; rather, the city of Jerusalem itself has become the seat of God and the hope of the dispossessed peoples of the earth. And it is this ideal—this symbol of Jerusalem as the city of God and the hope of humankind—that persisted long beyond the ark and the Temple.
EZRA, NEḤEMIAH, AND THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
We have already discussed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple at the hands of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II’s army in 587 BCE (see Chapter 4). One of the lowest points in Jewish history, it also resulted in the exile of the nobility to Babylon. Given what the Temple meant to the people of Jerusalem, we can understand just how catastrophic this event was; both the people and their faith would be fundamentally altered forever.
But the rise of the Achaemenid Persians and their conquest of the Babylonians in 540 BCE provided new hope for the members of the exiled Jewish community, who may have seen the shift in overlords as an opportunity to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. In fact, they would do so with the endorsement and sponsorship of the Persian Empire.
The books of ‘Ezra’ (Ezra) and Neḥemiah record the rebuilding of Jerusalem, at least in literary form. You should know that Ezra and Neḥemiah are considered one book in the Hebrew Bible, not two, as we see in the Christian Bible. They were typically written on the same scroll, as they deal with the same subject: the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Persian administration of the newly established province of Yehud (later Judea).
Following the so-called Edict of Cyrus as recorded in Ezra 1:2 (“Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, . . . has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah”), Ezra recounts the animosity encountered by the retur
ning Jewish exiles from those Jewish residents who had been left behind in Jerusalem. Those left behind had hoped to assist in the rebuilding of the Temple (4:1–2), but the leader of the coalition of Persian repatriates stated, “You shall have no part with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us” (4:3).
This led to constant hostilities between the Persian-sponsored Jews and those who had remained in Jerusalem. In fact, the locals’ resistance to the rebuilding of the Temple became so obstinate that they wrote to the king of Persia in Aramaic, asking him to stop funding the process, which he did for a time. This is why Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26 are written in Aramaic: they preserve the claimed correspondence between Jerusalem and Persia.
Neḥemiah, cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, petitions the king to be allowed to return to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:5) and receives permission. Once there, he tells everyone, “Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace” (2:17). Of course, the Jews who had been left behind in Judah resisted this request, as they did not want to see the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt, lest the Persian-sponsored Jewish returnees gain control over the city.
Interestingly, there is very little archaeological evidence of Jerusalem from the Persian period. Only now are archaeological excavations in Israel beginning to reveal something about this little-known period in Jerusalem’s history. However, one incredible archaeological discovery demonstrates that Jerusalem’s residents were already placing their faith and hope in God, and specifically through blessings invoking YHWH that would later be included as a central text of the Bible: the Ketef Hinnom Inscriptions.
THE OLDEST KNOWN WRITTEN TEXT FROM THE BIBLE
The Ketef Hinnom Inscriptions, presently on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, were discovered by the Hungarian-born veteran Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay in a tomb in 1979. Ketef Hinnom (Heb., “shoulder of Hinnom”) is an archaeological site to the southwest of Jerusalem’s Old City at the junction of the Hinnom Valley (“Gehenna”) and the Valley of Repha’im (see Josh. 15:8; 18:16).
Inscribed on the two tiny silver scrolls are early versions of the famous priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24–26 (a blessing I pronounced over my daughter, Talitha, each night as I put her to bed when she was a child). The biblical blessing reads, “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Lines 12–18 of the first Ketef Hinnom inscription read:
For YHWH is our restorer [and] rock. May YHWH bles[s] you and [may he] keep you. [May] YHWH make [his face] shine.13
Like the first inscription, the second Ketef Hinnom inscription preserves the well-known portion of the Aaronic blessing toward the end of the inscription:
-h/hu. May be blessed h/sh- [e] by YHW[H,] the warrior/helper and the rebuker of [E]vil: May bless you, YHWH, keep you. Make shine, YH [W]H, His face [upon] you and grant you p- [ea]CE.14
The tiny silver Ketef Hinnom Inscriptions, which date from between the mid-seventh to the early sixth centuries BCE, were worn as amulets and contain an inscribed blessing that is similar to the Aaronic blessing in Num. 6:24–26. Image courtesy Israel Museum.
In his book The Priestly Blessing in Inscription and Scripture,15 Jeremy Smoak argues that the tiny silver scrolls date from between the mid-seventh and the early sixth centuries BCE, just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, and were worn as amulets to help ward off evil. One of the scrolls (KH2, lines 4–5) even refers to YHWH as the “Rebuker of Evil,” suggesting that the scrolls were worn as jewelry and had a protective function.16
We should also be careful not to see the Ketef Hinnom Inscriptions as proof that the Bible had already been written by the sixth century BCE. In fact, the opposite is likely true; Smoak and others argue that many of the words and phrases present in the blessing on the Ketef Hinnom Inscriptions were incorporated into the text of the biblical book of Numbers by its editors. This means that the Bible is a collection of the thoughts and practices of worshippers of YHWH from an earlier time, which were later assembled, edited, and preserved for generations of believers to come. The evidence from the Ketef Hinnom Inscriptions indicates that what became the Bible began as the very real faith and practices of Israelites and Judeans, who quite literally wore these verses around their necks.
Thus, it was during this Persian period that the texts that would become the Hebrew Bible were collected, written down, and edited into the earliest versions of it. We can trace the roots of modern Judaism to this Persian period, when the reconstituted Jerusalem Temple and priesthood thrived as the sole religious authority under Persian sponsorship. The Davidic king had been replaced with Persian-appointed governors, but still, the memory of ancient kings—David, Solomon, Ḥezekiah, and Josiah—and he glory of Israel and Judah led by an anointed king, a true Jewish messiah, lingered in the minds of the Jews. And the continued absence of an anointed Davidic king caused Jews to begin looking to the heavens for a new kind of messiah, one who would restore the glory of Israel.
THE MAKING OF THE MESSIAH(S)
After King David is said to have established Jerusalem, the Bible makes it clear that Solomon and every subsequent king of Judah were to be anointed king at the Giḥon Spring in the Qidron (Kidron) Valley, which forms the eastern boundary of the City of David. Thus, Jerusalem plays an important role as the place where all new kings of Judah were anointed as God’s chosen king.
First Kings 1:32–39 establishes the practice:
King David said, “Summon to me the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king, the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. There let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” . . . So the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and led him to Gihon. There the priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!”
Note here that in the inauguration ceremony Solomon rides the royal mule down to the Giḥon Spring in the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem and is anointed king. Then there is a blowing of trumpets and a cheer that literally reads, “Let live King Solomon!” (which the NRSV translates colloquially as “Long live King Solomon” and the KJV translates quite Britishly as “God save King Solomon!”).
This same custom is mentioned in Zechariah 9:9, which says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you, triumphant and victorious (lit., having been saved) is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Thus, the coronation of the kings of Israel and later Judah appear to have followed this same pattern, where the king rides on the royal mule from the Giḥon Spring uphill and westward into Jerusalem, while the shofar is blown and the people yell, “Save the king” and “Long live the king.”
Of course, we know of one additional example of this very coronation ceremony; it is the staged reenactment of it by none other than Jesus of Nazareth, commonly called the “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem. Mark 11:1–11 and its Gospel parallels17 tell the story of a prearranged attempt to act out the coronation scene of Israel’s kings on the part of Jesus. I say “staged” and “prearranged,” because the first parts of each of the Synoptic accounts (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) describe Jesus instructing two of the disciples to go into the city and retrieve a young colt that has never been ridden (11:2); if anyone asks, they are to say, “The Lord needs it,” and the owner of the colt will let them have it (11:3).18
Mark 11:7–10 then goes on to say:
Then they brought the colt to J
esus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
In order to understand the significance of this passage, we must know something about the geography of Jerusalem. Note that the story begins with Jesus and his disciples approaching Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Remember that the Kidron Valley and the Giḥon Spring lie between the Mount of Olives to the east and the Jerusalem Temple to the west. This means that in order for Jesus and his disciples to get from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, Jesus must ride his donkey down past the Giḥon and up into Jerusalem—roughly the same route as the ancient kings of Israel.
Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem was not an instance of “humble” donkey-powered transportation into Jerusalem. Far from it! Jesus was choreographing a Jewish coronation ceremony, complete with a prearranged ride from the Mount of Olives, through the Kidron Valley, past the Giḥon Spring, and up into Jerusalem on the back of a representative royal donkey in the midst of people shouting the royal praise, “Hosanna, Son of David!” Jesus was portraying himself as the new king of the Jews!
JESUS AND JERUSALEM IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Many people forget that Jesus was not from Jerusalem. He was from Nazareth (or Bethleḥem, depending on which Gospel you read. We’ll get to that in Chapter 10). But all of the Gospels unanimously record Jesus as having been tried and crucified in Jerusalem. In the Gospel of Luke, the adult Jesus never enters Jerusalem until the final week of his life.19 This is different from the way Jesus is depicted in the Gospel of John, which has Jesus entering and departing from Jerusalem on multiple occasions.
The Cities That Built the Bible Page 18