How big was Jerusalem at the time of Jesus?

[DudleySmith]

Certain times of the year and certain holidays the population would sometimes reach over 10 times the normal residential population. 25,000 or so wouldn't be out of line during Jesus's last days there.

 

[surada]

I checked it out. It was just a wee bit smaller than Los Angeles.

10-12 acers and a thousand people.

Ancient Jerusalem: The Village, the Town, the City

Ancient Jerusalem made such an enormous impact on Western civilization that it’s hard to fathom how small its population really was.

www.biblicalarchaeology.org

 

[surada]

There was just a small contingency in Jerusalem. They were stationed in Syria.. and they were joined by foreign garrisons from the Roman empire.

Ancient Jerusalem: The Village, the Town, the City

Ancient Jerusalem made such an enormous impact on Western civilization that it’s hard to fathom how small its population really was.

www.biblicalarchaeology.org

 

[DudleySmith]

10-12 acers and a thousand people.

Ancient Jerusalem: The Village, the Town, the City

Ancient Jerusalem made such an enormous impact on Western civilization that it’s hard to fathom how small its population really was.

www.biblicalarchaeology.org

People also lived outside the walls, so the urban region itself would have been higher.

 

[surada]

People also lived outside the walls, so the urban region itself would have been higher.

Wasn't too safe outside the walls.. it was bandit territory.

 

[DudleySmith]

Wasn't too safe outside the walls.. it was bandit territory.

All cties had suburbs then, and most were not walled in that region, in any case. Sometimes the burbs had more people than the cities themselves.

 

[surada]

All cties had suburbs then, and most were not walled in that region, in any case. Sometimes the burbs had more people than the cities themselves.

Remember the story about the eye of the needle? The large gate was closed at dusk. If pack animals arrived after dark they had to be unloaded because they couldn't get through the small doors that could be opened after dark.

Google Image Result for https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECQrTlvXsAEtK0y.jpg:large

images.app.goo.gl

 

[DudleySmith]

Remember the story about the eye of the needle? The large gate was closed at dusk. If pack animals arrived after dark they had to be unloaded because they couldn't get through the small doors that could be opened after dark.

Google Image Result for https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECQrTlvXsAEtK0y.jpg:large

images.app.goo.gl

Which means nothing. Cities grow beyond their walls, it's inevitable, and a lot of workers and poor people couldn't afford rents inside the walls. Look at London, Paris, and oh, about a zillion other cities and towns of all sizes around the world for that fact. Most of the outer settlements would be tents and wood and hides, so they wouldn't leave much evidence of existing. Walls protected storehouses and homes of the wealthy and garrisons, and of course temples and govt buildings. Most caravansarais would be outside the walls.

 

[surada]

Which means nothing. Cities grow beyond their walls, it's inevitable, and a lot of workers and poor people couldn't afford rents inside the walls. Look at London, Paris, and oh, about a zillion other cities and towns of all sizes around the world for that fact.

The area around Jerusalem is arid and stoney. Do you have evidence of a population outside the walls or is this assumption?

 

[DudleySmith]

The area around Jerusalem is arid and stoney. Do you have evidence of a population outside the walls or is this assumption?

Do you have any evidence there wasn't? I never heard of any ancient city that didn't have suburbs.

 

[surada]

People also lived outside the walls, so the urban region itself would have been higher.

I meant to say acres.. senior moment.

 

[surada]

Do you have any evidence there wasn't? I never heard of any ancient city that didn't have suburbs.

I have no idea. There's no mention of suburbs in scripture.

 

[DudleySmith]

The area around Jerusalem is arid and stoney. Do you have evidence of a population outside the walls or is this assumption?

In Solomon's day the hills were covered in forests.

 

[surada]

In Solomon's day the hills were covered in forests.

Nope. They burned dried dung for fuel.

Dung – Encyclopedic Dictionary of Bible and Theology

www.biblia.work

 

[DudleySmith]

Nope. They burned dried dung for fuel.

Dung – Encyclopedic Dictionary of Bible and Theology

www.biblia.work

They burned dung nearly everywhere, even in Germany and England. Solomon's wealth came from selling wood to Egypt.

 

[surada]

They burned dung nearly everywhere, even in Germany and England. Solomon's wealth came from selling wood to Egypt.

Solomon got his wood from Lebanon.

The cedars of Lebanon and the Temple of Solomon

How the wood of the cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) was used to construct the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

arboriculture.wordpress.com

 

[surada]

DudleySmith I stand corrected.

Trees in Ancient Israel, Way of Life Literature

Trees in Ancient Israel, Way of Life Literature

www.wayoflife.org

 

[DudleySmith]

DudleySmith I stand corrected.

Trees in Ancient Israel, Way of Life Literature

Trees in Ancient Israel, Way of Life Literature

www.wayoflife.org

No problem. Not all woods are good for fires and cooking, and dung has historically been used by peoples with llarge animal herds. It's an assumption I made myself until I read more.

 

[surada]

Even today, Jerusalem is not that big geographically, but I suspect in the first century its population was more than a few hundred. The Great Revolt there claimed hundreds of thousand of lives. Tacitus estimated the casualties from this clash at 600,000 (Histories V, 13). Josephus estimated them at 1.1 million (Wars 6.9.3). Some current estimates determine the casualties to be at more than 1.3 million, an estimate that includes civilians such as moderate Jews visiting the city to celebrate Passover.

The casualties included Romans, too, but a couple hundred Jewish soldiers could not have killed a million Roman soldiers.

Exaggeration is the norm. The population of Palestine never exceeded 800,000.

 

[surada]

DudleySmith I stand corrected.

Trees in Ancient Israel, Way of Life Literature

Trees in Ancient Israel, Way of Life Literature

www.wayoflife.org

Because of Israel’s sin and idolatry, God closed the heavens and the land became a desolation.

Isaiah prophesied that God would consume the glory of his forest “and the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them” (Isa. 10:18-19).

This is exactly what happened.

I remember looking at black and white photos of the Holy Land in old family Bibles when I was a kid and how impressed I was at Israel’s barrenness!

Following is a description of the land at the coming of the first immigrants from the Russian Zionist societies in the 1880s:

“Centuries of war, neglect, and destruction had left ugly scars on the land once so lavishly praised by biblical scribes. The coastal plain and other lowlands were filled with swamps. A combination of blazing sun and heavy rains had eroded the hillsides, long since stripped of their soil and thick woodlands” (Michael Bar-Zohar, Ben-Gurion: A Biography).