Page 13 - Life of Christ - textbook (3)

Herod the Great

Jerusalem

No visitor seeing Jerusalem for the first time could fail to be impressed by its visual splendor. The long,
difficult ascent from Jericho to the east up to the Holy City ended as the traveler rounded the Mount of
Olives and suddenly caught sight of a vista like few others in the world. Across the Kidron Valley, set
among the surrounding hills, was Jerusalem, "the perfection of beauty," in the words of Lamentations,
"the joy of all the world”.

The view from the Mount of Olives was dominated by the gleaming, gold-embellished Herod’s Temple
which was located in the most holy spot in the Jewish world. The Temple stood high above the old City
of David, at the center of a gigantic white stone platform.

A high, thick, gray stone wall encircled Jerusalem. It had been damaged, repaired and enlarged over the
centuries, and in Jesus' day it was about 4 miles in circumference, bringing about 25,000 people into an
area of about a square mile. At intervals along the wall were massive gateways. Just inside each gate
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was a customs station, where publicans collected taxes on all goods entering or leaving the city.
During feasts or festivals, the enormous crowd of pilgrims into the Holy City inflated its population of
25,000 to at least four or five times that number. This brought an important stimulus to the city's
economy. This created a huge demand for food, lodging and sacrificial animals.
The overcrowding and the excitement of the festivals frequently led to outbreaks of violence and anti-
Roman rebellion. On more than one occasion the huge mass of pilgrims had been stirred up by zealous
nationalists or would-be Messiahs. For this reason, the Roman governor made a point of being present
during these occasions, and extra soldiers were stationed at strategic locations throughout the city.

7 https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/ancient-jerusalem/

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