Jerusalem, Oh, JERUSALEM
(This subject is purely seen from my own viewpoint. Corrections to inaccuracies or misintrepretations are welcome and will be graciously acknowledged. I truly understand and accept that not every one will see this subject the same way I do.)
Jerusalem is one of the hottest real estate properties on the earth. How did it come to attract the attention of so many? What importance do they assign to this arid, rocky region? What do they hope to gain from the destructive behavior they exhibit towards one another? I don't get it.
Looking back, Genesis 14:18 makes one of the earliest references to Jerusalem wherein the Holy Bible makes mention of Melchizedek, king of Salem (meaning "peace"). Sometime later in the Holy Bible it becomes known as Jerusalem (meaning "founded peaceful). And not surprising, for those who make claim to it as "God's home on earth," it was not originally part of the Jewish holdings. King David of the Old Testament claimed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital only about 1000 BC, after capturing it from the Jebusites, and since then no one has rested peacefully. The Jewish race claims it for themselves as having historical beginnings, Christians believe it is where Jesus will return, and the Muslims believe it is a holy place based on the revelations of Mohammed.
Here is just some of Jerusalem's turbulent history: In 946 BC, Solomon built a magnificent Temple to the Lord. By 900 BC, the Jewish kingdom slip into two groups, the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Israel. Jerusalem remained as the capital of Judah only. Around 587 BC, the Babylonians conquered Judah, taking many captives back to Babylonia, and destroying the Temple. In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem after he conquered Babylonia. The Jews then rebuilt the Temple. By 400 BC, control of Jerusalem had passed to the priests of the Temple, and it was at that time that Jerusalem became a thriving religious center.
One of the kings during this period was the well-known Alexander the Great of Macedonia. Other kings of the period were Ptolemies of Egypt, and the Seleucids of Syria.
King Antiochus IV (called Epiphanes) of Syria tried to force the Greek way of life on the Jews. He was frightened by Rome’s growing power and, trying to stiffen resistance against the Romans, in 168 or 167 BC, he built an altar in the Temple to Zeus, the major Greek god, and tried to force the Jews to give up their one and only God. The Jews revolted, led by the priestly Hasmonean family. In 165 BC, the Jews recaptured the Temple. Their leader, Judah Maccabee, rededicated the Temple to God, and in 142 BC, after over 500 years of being ruled by others, the Jews finally won complete independence for a very brief period of time.
Rome was moving through the area on their way to conquer the known world around 63 BC, and while disagreements between the Pharisees and Sadducees weakened the small nation, Jerusalem was swept into the Trojan train. Crassus and the Romans named Herod the Great as the King of the Jews and in 37 BC the Temple was rebuilt.
Mary was born shortly thereafter and brought forth a son, named Jesus, who revolutionized religion to its present state of affairs.
For approximately 1,000 years, the Jewish people wandered. Then in 1946, after almost certain extinction, they once again became a nation and took partial control of the Temple and the fighting continues over a nearly 2,000 year old city.
It's enough to confuse and confound the heartiest of souls. There are many who say the Temple belongs to the Eastern Orthodox Catholics, there are many who say the Temple belongs to the Roman Catholics, there are still many more who say the Temple belongs to the Muslims, and the mother group strongly and justifiably believes it belongs to the Jews. There is a schedule in place so all groups have an opportunity to worship in their own format, and incidental to that practice is another practice of ridicule, aggitation and even violent attacks for the sole purpose of one-upping the other during their scheduled time.
And because we are coming up on the Gregorian calendar year of 2000, many way-out-there Christian groups are migrating to Jerusalem in order to be in what they believe to be the right place at the right time according to their interpretations and calculations, much to the bemusement of the rest of us.
It seems we have all missed the point. The only truth that will save us from total destruction in the end is the "Golden Rule," which by the way did not originate in the Holy Bible, but that is another essay. However, the Golden Rule is a consistent theme in every religion, except it never applies to one's enemies.
Maybe we should consider renaming Jerusalem ("founded peaceful"), and call it Erratumadamantine (meaning"stumbling block"). Then we could understand better the irresponsible behavior of mankind in that region of the world. Love is always the answer over hate.