Jerusalem: “That Great City”

 

Revelation 14:8:  “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

            See also Revelation 11:8 which mentions “that great city… where also our Lord was crucified.”

            The question is: Could Jerusalem be called “that great city”?  In the first century AD Jerusalem could well be called “that great city” because of her population, her wealth, and her power.  Josephus describes it as “the royal city” and at her downfall: (Wars 3.3.5).

This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind, (7.1.1).

 

Her Population:

            It is hard to estimate the population of Jerusalem in the first century because the resident population was so often increased by the influx of those Jews of the dispersion who came to Jerusalem to worship three times in the year.  Although we do not know the exact numbers, we do know that when Titus laid siege to Jerusalem that it was filled with those who had come to celebrate the Passover.[1]  The number of people who perished in the siege were “eleven hundred thousand”, or one million one hundred thousand, (1,100,000)!  Josephus says:

Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege, eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation, [with the citizens of Jerusalem,] but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which at the very first, occasioned so great a straitness among them, that there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine as destroyed them more suddenly.  And that this city could contain so many people in it is manifest by that number of them which was taken under Cestius, who being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation, entreated the high priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole multitude.  So these high priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices from the ninth hour to the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves,) and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred: which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy, (6.9.3).

           

            We see from this that “the greater part” of these were not residents.  However, it is obvious that there had to be accommodations for these tourists which would have required a considerable infrastructure.  At the Passover feast when Cestius was attempting to get an estimate of the number, there were, by a conservative estimate two million seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons, (2,700,200).  If the crowds were only half as big at the other two required feasts, (Pentecost and Tabernacles), then the city would have contained more than a million people at these times.

            By way of comparison, Rome‘s population was estimated at about one million people in the time of Augustus, (Cary and Scullard, 382).  Alexandria, Egypt was probably the second largest city in the empire in the first century and had a population of almost a million people, of whom about 40%, (400,000) were Jews.[2]  Thus we see that Jerusalem ranked ahead of the top two cities of the empire in population at those times of the feasts.

 

Her Wealth:

            Jerusalem was a very wealthy city as witnessed by the amount of the Temple tax and other revenues that came in to her as well as the great profits from money changing and merchandising.

            The Temple tax was collected from all Jews in the whole empire and amounted to a half-shekel a year from each.  There was an estimated 5 million Jews in the empire.  The shekel amounted to approximately a day’s wages for the average working man.  To compare that to today’s money, if we take a day’s wages to be about $70, then half of that would be $35.  Multiplying that times 5 million gives annual revenue of about $175 million!  The Jews living in Babylon deposited their half-shekel tax in two small cities, Neerda and Nisibis that were encompassed by the Euphrates River and so were easily defended:

There was a city of Babylonia called Neerda; not only a very populous one, but one that had a good and large territory about it; and besides its other advantages, full of men also.  It was, besides, not easily to be assaulted by enemies, from the river Euphrates encompassing it all round, and from the walls that were built about it.  There was also the city Nisibis, situate on the same current of the river.  For which reason the Jews depending on the natural strength of these places, deposited in them that half shekel which every one, by the custom of our country, offers unto God, as well as they did other things devoted to him; for they made use of these cities as a treasury, whence at a proper time they were transmitted to Jerusalem; and many ten thousand men undertook the carriage of those donations, out of fear of the ravages of the Parthians (Ant., 18.9.1).

 

This passage clearly shows the great value of the Temple tax just from Babylon alone.

            We know from the New Testament that the money changers in the Temple were making it a “den of thieves.”[3]  The priests taught that the Temple tax could only be paid in shekels, so these money changers exploited the worshippers who came to Jerusalem by getting the Jewish money from the priests and exchanging it for the other currencies and making a liberal profit (ZPBD, 555).  The word used in Matthew 25:27 is translated “banker” by the RSV and denotes one who lends money at interest.  These ‘bankers’ and ‘money changers’ were often the same people.[4]

            Further evidence of the wealth of Jerusalem is found in the revenues received by the rulers.  In about 4 B.C. Archelaus, son of Herod the Great received 400 talents from the countries over which he had been made Ethnarch (Wars, 2.6.3, p. 475).  A talent was equal to 3,000 shekels and a shekel was approximately equal to an average day’s wage (ZPBD, 551), therefore the revenue amounted to about 1,200,000 shekels or day’s wages for an average man.

            Agrippa I, who reigned under Caligula and Claudius, received revenues “no less than twelve million drachmae” (Ant., 19.8.2).  The “drachmae” was the Greek word for the same amount as a shekel (ZPBD, 553).  So you see that Agrippa’s revenues were about ten times that of Archelaus.  Agrippa knew well how to spend such wealth for he gave parties for all the kings round about:

There came to him Antiochus, king of Commagena, Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa, and Cotys, who was king of the lesser Armenia, and Polemo, who was king of Pontus, as also Herod his brother, who was king of Chalcis.  All these he treated with agreeable entertainments, and after an obliging manner, and so as to exhibit the greatness of his mind, – and so as to appear worthy of those respects which the kings paid to him, by coming thus to see him (Ant., 19.8.1).

 

            Jerusalem was also a center for the international Jewish merchants.  The synagogue system that sprang up during the Babylonian captivity made an ideal system for Jewish international merchants.  With the rise of Roman power to enforce international law and its system of roadways, Jewish international commerce was greatly enhanced.  Their merchant ships, “ships of Tarshish“, were truly “upon many waters.”  Some sources say that the Jews were international merchants from the time of Solomon.[5]  The Jewish community in Alexandria became so prosperous and powerful through commerce that they aroused the jealousy of the Greek community resulting in war in about AD 41.[6]  In Babylonia, the Jews supported Rome in her internal struggles, winning for themselves the political power to protect their international trade (ibid., 60).  The wealthy Jewish merchant residing in Jerusalem has been immortalized by the historical fiction account Ben Hur.

            The great wealth of these merchants required a safe deposit box and the Temple became their stronghold for depositing their wealth.  In the final conflagration Josephus says:

They also burnt down the treasury-chambers, in which was an immense quantity of money, and an immense number of garments, and other precious goods, there reposited; and, to speak all in a few words, there it was that the entire riches of the Jews were heaped up together, while the rich people had there built themselves chambers (Wars, 6.5.2).

            Indeed, Antiochus Epiphanes had invaded the Temple because of the great wealth it contained at that time (Ant., 12.5.3).  Hyrcanus, of the Maccabees, opened David‘s tomb and took out 3,000 talents to use it for military expenses (ibid., 13.8.4).  In AD 70 when the Temple was destroyed, the Roman soldiers helped themselves to the gold:

And now all the soldiers had such vast quantities of the spoils which they had gotten by plunder, that in Syria a pound weight of gold was sold for half its former value (Wars, 6.6.1, p. 583).

 

Her Power:

            “Mystery Babylon” is said to be “that great city that rules over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:18).  The term “kings of the earth” is used in various ways in the book of Revelation.  Christ is said to be the “Prince of the kings of the earth” in 1:5, and the saints are said to have been made “kings and priests” in 1:6 and again in 5:10.  In 15:3 Christ is said to be “King of saints,” (who are themselves Kings).  Again in 17:14 and 19:16 Christ is said to be the “King of kings“, i.e., “King of the Saints.”

            Are these “kings of the earth“, ruled by Christ, the same as those over which Mystery Babylon reigns in 17:18?  These other “kings of the earth”, when the stars are falling and the sky is rolling up, cry out for the rocks and mountains to fall on them (Revelation 6:15-16).  In 16:14 the “kings of the earth” are called to the battle of Armageddon.  In 17:2 and 18:3 they commit fornication with the Great Whore.  In 18:9 they lament her destruction.  Who are these “kings of the earth” over which Mystery Babylon reigns?

            In Rabbinic usage the Jews who were descended from Abraham through Isaac were called “kings of the earth” by their interpretation of Genesis 17:6, 16 and 35:11, where God promised Abraham that his seed through Sarah would be “kings of the people.”  In light of this usage, the saints of the book of Revelation were claiming this heritage through Christ and those who rejected Christ were, therefore, the “kings of the earth” under the rule of Mystery Babylon, i.e., the fallen city of Jerusalem.

            In the Rabbinic view, “God created the world for the sake of Israel” and therefore they had “eternal security.”[7]  Their hubris was such that they interpreted Isaiah 40:15 to mean that all the nations were only as weighty in God’s sight as the dust on the scales in comparison to Israel.  In their religious jargon, Rome was “Kittim”, i.e. Cyprus, just a mere island in the sea.

            How did Jerusalem rule over the “kings of the earth”?  In the Rabbinic sense that the Jews were the “kings of the earth“, she ruled over them through her religious pronouncements.  One of these pronouncements was enforced taxation.  Jerusalem assessed a Temple tax upon the entire Jewish population of the Roman Empire.  Even the large Jewish community of Babylon, which were “many ten thousands” (Ant., 15.3.1), and those of Alexandria, about 400,000 strong, were diligent in paying this tax, as were the smaller populations of other cities.  Another religious pronouncement was that they reserved the right to be the residence of the High Priest which office was as powerful as that of a king.  They also reserved the right to declare the times, such as the New Moons and the Feasts.

            By every measure, population, wealth and power, Jerusalem could be described as “that great City that rules over the kings of the earth“.