Jerusalem: The Holy City

[Music] [Music] [Music] Jerusalem City with nearly 40 centuries of history founded in the Stone Age fortress beside a trade route of the ancient world garrison city of the Pharaohs of Egypt captured by David the Israelite destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt by Nehemiah conquered by Alexander the Great desecrated by Pompeii made a new city by Herod governed by Pontius Pilate Jerusalem holy city of three religions to enter the ancient city as to enter a historic meeting ground of the peoples of the east and the west it is to walk among shrines men have held sacred through the ages near this garden is said to have lived one kfs the high priest and in the palace of Caiaphas price was imprisoned to await his trial of the events that came past within these gates it was and they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest where the scribes and the elders were assembled but Peter followed him afar off unto the high priests palace and went in and sat down with the servants to see the end [Music] the garden of gethsemane and rising beyond the Mount of Olives it was under the Mount of Olives that Jesus and the disciples went following the Last Supper and in the writings of Matthew then cometh Jesus with them into a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples sit ye here while I go and pray on this was the night before the crucifixion [Music] such is the heritage shared by all the Christian faiths buried as maybe the churches and monasteries established in Jerusalem near the historic site sacred to tradition [Music] here as the members of Holy Orders walk the grounds of their monasteries it is with the belief that in these same precincts Christ and the disciples walked and talked together [Music] in the Jerusalem of the time of David of Solomon of Greek conquers of Roman governors in the Jerusalem of the time of Christ women carried pitchers to the well for water and in the Jerusalem of today the women of the ancient city continued the age-old practice the scene may have been much like this when in the time of Abraham Rebecca came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder and went down unto the well in the water threading its way laborious lead toward the place called Golgotha is the Via Dolorosa the street of sorrow which many believe Christ trod on his way to the crucifixion as it is the scene of the events from which Christianity took its origin Jerusalem is the scene - of rituals and ceremonies cherished by a multitude of Christian faiths [Music] [Music] among the rituals common to Greek Orthodox Roman Catholic Coptic Armenian and other churches are the daily pilgrimages to the Church of the Holy on this spot where Christ is thought to have been entombed constantine emperor of rome built this church in 326 ad nine centuries later when the crusaders held jerusalem the church was rebuilt and enlarged by men who had marched from the west the bells of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre yet well within the reach of their sound Rises the Dome of the rock a shrine sacred to the followers of Muhammad the prophet of Allah so is one reminded of the variety of faiths that hold Jerusalem sacred even as he walks among the towers and walls of this ancient Christian Church [Music] the wall centuries-old are threatened with decayed but a tradition and heritage live on amid the storied reminders of a body of belief the pillar of holy fire from which flames are said to have issued during an Easter service within these doors of stone held in veneration and awe as the one on which Christ was laid after his death upon the cross [Music] how long a history has this burial-ground sacred to the Jewish this at least we know that in the days of the years of Solomon centuries before the Christian era Jerusalem was the center of a great Hebrew Kingdom for the Jews sacred ties stretched back to Solomon and beyond Soloman the wires he it was who brought to Jerusalem a glory wealth and luxury befitting a capital city today there are only memories and a Wailing Wall where there was once a lavish royal dwelling and the imposing Temple of Solomon God is the splendor at the great Hebrew kings but the religion of Solomon of David of Moses of Abraham the worship of Jehovah and the honouring of his Commandments this endures in a living faith kingdoms have passed but the law and the prophets live on in a city that is holy to the Jew [Music] and the to him to Jerusalem is a holy city he too has known an earlier age of splendor when Muslims ruled Jerusalem and erected their sacred shrines from early in the seventh century until recent years muhammadans controlled the city with only brief interruptions during the time of the Crusades builds upon the very same ground where the Temple of Solomon stood the Dome of the rock stands as a shrine of the world and when the Muslim built this towering structure he not only raised a shrine to the greater glory of Allah but gave to the world a work of architectural beauty around the walls below the tapering dome runs an Arabic inscription this dome was built in the year 691 by Abdul Malik commander the faithful and servant of God may God accept this gift of him and bless him amen three faiths differing in origin in history and in creed but each for its own reasons holding sacred the historic plot of ground that is Jerusalem the holy city [Music]