Jerusalem,

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Jerusalem \Je*ru"sa*lem\ (j[-e]*r[udd]"s[.a]*l[e^]m), n. [Gr.
     'Ieroysalh`m, fr. Heb. Y[e^]r[=u]sh[=a]laim.]
     The chief city of Palestine, intimately associated with the
     glory of the Jewish nation, and the life and death of Jesus
     Christ.
     [1913 Webster]


  
     {Jerusalem artichoke} [Perh. a corrupt. of It. girasole i.e.,
        sunflower, or turnsole. See {Gyre}, {Solar}.] (Bot.)
     (a) An American plant, a perennial species of sunflower
         ({Helianthus tuberosus}), whose tubers are sometimes used
         as food.
     (b) One of the tubers themselves.
  
     {Jerusalem cherry} (Bot.), the popular name of either of two
        species of {Solanum} ({Solanum Pseudo-capsicum} and
        {Solanum capsicastrum}), cultivated as ornamental house
        plants. They bear bright red berries of about the size of
        cherries.
  
     {Jerusalem oak} (Bot.), an aromatic goosefoot ({Chenopodium
        Botrys}), common about houses and along roadsides.
  
     {Jerusalem sage} (Bot.), a perennial herb of the Mint family
        ({Phlomis tuberosa}).
  
     {Jerusalem thorn} (Bot.), a spiny, leguminous tree
        ({Parkinsonia aculeata}), widely dispersed in warm
        countries, and used for hedges.
  
     {The New Jerusalem}, Heaven; the Celestial City.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Jerusalem
       n : capital and largest city of the modern state of Israel; a
           holy city for Jews and Christians and Muslims; was the
           capital of an ancient kingdom [syn: {capital of Israel}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Jerusalem
     called also Salem, Ariel, Jebus, the "city of God," the "holy
     city;" by the modern Arabs el-Khuds, meaning "the holy;" once
     "the city of Judah" (2 Chr. 25:28). This name is in the original
     in the dual form, and means "possession of peace," or
     "foundation of peace." The dual form probably refers to the two
     mountains on which it was built, viz., Zion and Moriah; or, as
     some suppose, to the two parts of the city, the "upper" and the
     "lower city." Jerusalem is a "mountain city enthroned on a
     mountain fastness" (comp. Ps. 68:15, 16; 87:1; 125:2; 76:1, 2;
     122:3). It stands on the edge of one of the highest table-lands
     in Palestine, and is surrounded on the south-eastern, the
     southern, and the western sides by deep and precipitous ravines.
     
       It is first mentioned in Scripture under the name Salem (Gen.
     14:18; comp. Ps. 76:2). When first mentioned under the name
     Jerusalem, Adonizedek was its king (Josh. 10:1). It is
     afterwards named among the cities of Benjamin (Judg. 19:10; 1
     Chr. 11:4); but in the time of David it was divided between
     Benjamin and Judah. After the death of Joshua the city was taken
     and set on fire by the men of Judah (Judg. 1:1-8); but the
     Jebusites were not wholly driven out of it. The city is not
     again mentioned till we are told that David brought the head of
     Goliath thither (1 Sam. 17:54). David afterwards led his forces
     against the Jebusites still residing within its walls, and drove
     them out, fixing his own dwelling on Zion, which he called "the
     city of David" (2 Sam. 5:5-9; 1 Chr. 11:4-8). Here he built an
     altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite
     (2 Sam. 24:15-25), and thither he brought up the ark of the
     covenant and placed it in the new tabernacle which he had
     prepared for it. Jerusalem now became the capital of the
     kingdom.
     
       After the death of David, Solomon built the temple, a house
     for the name of the Lord, on Mount Moriah (B.C. 1010). He also
     greatly strengthened and adorned the city, and it became the
     great centre of all the civil and religious affairs of the
     nation (Deut. 12:5; comp. 12:14; 14:23; 16:11-16; Ps. 122).
     
       After the disruption of the kingdom on the accession to the
     throne of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, Jerusalem became the
     capital of the kingdom of the two tribes. It was subsequently
     often taken and retaken by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and by
     the kings of Israel (2 Kings 14:13, 14; 18:15, 16; 23:33-35;
     24:14; 2 Chr. 12:9; 26:9; 27:3, 4; 29:3; 32:30; 33:11), till
     finally, for the abounding iniquities of the nation, after a
     siege of three years, it was taken and utterly destroyed, its
     walls razed to the ground, and its temple and palaces consumed
     by fire, by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25; 2
     Chr. 36; Jer. 39), B.C. 588. The desolation of the city and the
     land was completed by the retreat of the principal Jews into
     Egypt (Jer. 40-44), and by the final carrying captive into
     Babylon of all that still remained in the land (52:3), so that
     it was left without an inhabitant (B.C. 582). Compare the
     predictions, Deut. 28; Lev. 26:14-39.
     
       But the streets and walls of Jerusalem were again to be built,
     in troublous times (Dan. 9:16, 19, 25), after a captivity of
     seventy years. This restoration was begun B.C. 536, "in the
     first year of Cyrus" (Ezra 1:2, 3, 5-11). The Books of Ezra and
     Nehemiah contain the history of the re-building of the city and
     temple, and the restoration of the kingdom of the Jews,
     consisting of a portion of all the tribes. The kingdom thus
     constituted was for two centuries under the dominion of Persia,
     till B.C. 331; and thereafter, for about a century and a half,
     under the rulers of the Greek empire in Asia, till B.C. 167. For
     a century the Jews maintained their independence under native
     rulers, the Asmonean princes. At the close of this period they
     fell under the rule of Herod and of members of his family, but
     practically under Rome, till the time of the destruction of
     Jerusalem, A.D. 70. The city was then laid in ruins.
     
       The modern Jerusalem by-and-by began to be built over the
     immense beds of rubbish resulting from the overthrow of the
     ancient city; and whilst it occupies certainly the same site,
     there are no evidences that even the lines of its streets are
     now what they were in the ancient city. Till A.D. 131 the Jews
     who still lingered about Jerusalem quietly submitted to the
     Roman sway. But in that year the emperor (Hadrian), in order to
     hold them in subjection, rebuilt and fortified the city. The
     Jews, however, took possession of it, having risen under the
     leadership of one Bar-Chohaba (i.e., "the son of the star") in
     revolt against the Romans. Some four years afterwards (A.D.
     135), however, they were driven out of it with great slaughter,
     and the city was again destroyed; and over its ruins was built a
     Roman city called Aelia Capitolina, a name which it retained
     till it fell under the dominion of the Mohammedans, when it was
     called el-Khuds, i.e., "the holy."
     
       In A.D. 326 Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, made a
     pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the view of discovering the places
     mentioned in the life of our Lord. She caused a church to be
     built on what was then supposed to be the place of the nativity
     at Bethlehem. Constantine, animated by her example, searched for
     the holy sepulchre, and built over the supposed site a
     magnificent church, which was completed and dedicated A.D. 335.
     He relaxed the laws against the Jews till this time in force,
     and permitted them once a year to visit the city and wail over
     the desolation of "the holy and beautiful house."
     
       In A.D. 614 the Persians, after defeating the Roman forces of
     the emperor Heraclius, took Jerusalem by storm, and retained it
     till A.D. 637, when it was taken by the Arabians under the
     Khalif Omar. It remained in their possession till it passed, in
     A.D. 960, under the dominion of the Fatimite khalifs of Egypt,
     and in A.D. 1073 under the Turcomans. In A.D. 1099 the crusader
     Godfrey of Bouillon took the city from the Moslems with great
     slaughter, and was elected king of Jerusalem. He converted the
     Mosque of Omar into a Christian cathedral. During the
     eighty-eight years which followed, many churches and convents
     were erected in the holy city. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
     was rebuilt during this period, and it alone remains to this
     day. In A.D. 1187 the sultan Saladin wrested the city from the
     Christians. From that time to the present day, with few
     intervals, Jerusalem has remained in the hands of the Moslems.
     It has, however, during that period been again and again taken
     and retaken, demolished in great part and rebuilt, no city in
     the world having passed through so many vicissitudes.
     
       In the year 1850 the Greek and Latin monks residing in
     Jerusalem had a fierce dispute about the guardianship of what
     are called the "holy places." In this dispute the emperor
     Nicholas of Russia sided with the Greeks, and Louis Napoleon,
     the emperor of the French, with the Latins. This led the Turkish
     authorities to settle the question in a way unsatisfactory to
     Russia. Out of this there sprang the Crimean War, which was
     protracted and sanguinary, but which had important consequences
     in the way of breaking down the barriers of Turkish
     exclusiveness.
     
       Modern Jerusalem "lies near the summit of a broad
     mountain-ridge, which extends without interruption from the
     plain of Esdraelon to a line drawn between the southern end of
     the Dead Sea and the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean."
     This high, uneven table-land is everywhere from 20 to 25
     geographical miles in breadth. It was anciently known as the
     mountains of Ephraim and Judah.
     
       "Jerusalem is a city of contrasts, and differs widely from
     Damascus, not merely because it is a stone town in mountains,
     whilst the latter is a mud city in a plain, but because while in
     Damascus Moslem religion and Oriental custom are unmixed with
     any foreign element, in Jerusalem every form of religion, every
     nationality of East and West, is represented at one time."
     
       Jerusalem is first mentioned under that name in the Book of
     Joshua, and the Tell-el-Amarna collection of tablets includes
     six letters from its Amorite king to Egypt, recording the attack
     of the Abiri about B.C. 1480. The name is there spelt Uru-Salim
     ("city of peace"). Another monumental record in which the Holy
     City is named is that of Sennacherib's attack in B.C. 702. The
     "camp of the Assyrians" was still shown about A.D. 70, on the
     flat ground to the north-west, included in the new quarter of
     the city.
     
       The city of David included both the upper city and Millo, and
     was surrounded by a wall built by David and Solomon, who appear
     to have restored the original Jebusite fortifications. The name
     Zion (or Sion) appears to have been, like Ariel ("the hearth of
     God"), a poetical term for Jerusalem, but in the Greek age was
     more specially used of the Temple hill. The priests' quarter
     grew up on Ophel, south of the Temple, where also was Solomon's
     Palace outside the original city of David. The walls of the city
     were extended by Jotham and Manasseh to include this suburb and
     the Temple (2 Chr. 27:3; 33:14).
     
       Jerusalem is now a town of some 50,000 inhabitants, with
     ancient mediaeval walls, partly on the old lines, but extending
     less far to the south. The traditional sites, as a rule, were
     first shown in the 4th and later centuries A.D., and have no
     authority. The results of excavation have, however, settled most
     of the disputed questions, the limits of the Temple area, and
     the course of the old walls having been traced.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Jerusalem, vision of peace
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Jerusalem, AR
    Zip code(s): 72080
  Jerusalem, OH (village, FIPS 39130)
    Location: 39.85219 N, 81.09532 W
    Population (1990): 144 (66 housing units)
    Area: 0.7 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
    Zip code(s): 43747

From U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000) [gaz-place]:

  Jerusalem, OH -- U.S. village in Ohio
     Population (2000):    152
     Housing Units (2000): 74
     Land area (2000):     0.251001 sq. miles (0.650090 sq. km)
     Water area (2000):    0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
     Total area (2000):    0.251001 sq. miles (0.650090 sq. km)
     FIPS code:            39130
     Located within:       Ohio (OH), FIPS 39
     Location:             39.852261 N, 81.095146 W
     ZIP Codes (1990):     43747
     Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
     Headwords:
      Jerusalem, OH
      Jerusalem