1000 BCE – David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites
586 BCE – The Babylonians destroy the city.
440 BCE – The Persians let the Jews rebuild the city.
330 BCE – Alexander the Great takes the city.
167 BCE – Antiochus Epiphanes sacks the city.
164 BCE – the Maccabees take the city.
160 BCE – the Seleucids take the city back. (and this goes back and forth for awhile)
133 BCE – the Hasmoneans take the city back.
20 BCE – Herod the Great rebuilds Jerusalem around his massive temple complex.
70 CE – Titus’ Roman legions burn the place to the ground.
130 CE – Hadrian rebuilds the city as Aelia Capitolina with three pagan temples as its main features.
326 CE – Constantine rebuilds Aelia as a Christian city, with the Church of the Resurrection as its central feature.
614 CE – Jews take the city with the aid of the Persians; they kill 50,000 Christians and try to rebuild the temple.
628 CE – The Byzantines take the city and kill the Jews.
637 CE – The Arabs take the city and try to balance the demands of the other religions in the city.
1099 CE – Crusader armies take the city and destroy mosques, expelling the Muslims.
1187 CE – Muslim armies retake the city, destroy churches and expel the Christians.
1244 CE – Khwarezm mercenaries on their way to Egypt sack and destroy the city. The Muslims think about rebuilding the city walls, but decide it isn’t worth it.
1536 CE – Suleiman the Magnificent has the city walls rebuilt, even though cannons have made walls obsolete
1922 CE – the British take over the city as a mandate
1948 CE – the Jordanians get the city from the British and it is theoretically “internationalized”
1967 CE – the Israelis stampede the Jordanians and take the city. They bulldoze anything they don’t like.
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The history of Jerusalem has been a bit tumultuous to say the last. Control of the city has been passed around more than a re-gifted fruitcake. Valleys become streets. Streets become markets. Church become mosques, which become churches and then mosques again. The place is pretty much chaos.
Anyone who thinks that God’s kingdom is fully realized or is even closed to being fully realized in our present day or any age previous has not studied Jerusalem.
There will be no peace in this earthly Jerusalem until its King – Jesus Christ – returns and brings in the New Jerusalem. Today, we see this only in foreshadowings but one day it will be a reality.
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