Damascus, an ancient city in Biblical events. Damascus is a very ancient city of Syria (present day, Aram), one of the oldest continuously occupied cities of the world. Syria and Israel have had many conflicts over the millenniums of time. It is first mentioned in Scripture in Genesis 14:15 when Abram pursued the forces that invaded Sodom and had capture Abram’s brother Lot. Abraham and his servants defeated the captors and drove them to Hobah, near Damascus, also it was called “the slaugher of Chedorlaomer.” Abraham’s trusted servant and potential heir was Eliezer of Damascus (Genesis 15:2,3). Around 1475 BC, Damascus is called “Timasku” in the annals of Pharaoh Thutmose III. His victorious conquest of Megiddo and Syrian city-states were preserved in the Karnak temple of Amun at Thebes. Damascus is also mentioned in the “Amarna Letters” (about 1375 BC) discovered in 1886 in Egypt records the conflicts between Egypt and the city-states of Syria but the faithfulness of Damascus to Egypt. One tablet contains this tribute: “O Sire, as Damascus in the land of Upe is faithful to the pharaoh, so Qatna (another city-state) is likewise loyal. (EA 53:63-65). David conquered Damascus (Syria region) and killed 22,000 Syrians (2 Samuel 8:5,6). He place an Israeli garrison in Damascus and took the gold and much brass to Jerusalem, which David dedicated to the LORD which was later used by Solomon in the building of the temple and its furnishings. Syria (Armenia) was included in the David-Solomon kingdom. After Solomon’s death, Syria would reestablish it’s Armenia power under Rezon (1 Kings 11:24) and Benhadad (1 Kings 15:18). These events were confirmed by the discovery of the Benhadad Stele discovered in 1940 in north Syria which included the conflicts with king Asa (of Judah) and king Baasha (of Israel, northern 10 tribes), 1 Kings 15:16-22, about 930-879 BC). The decline of Judah and the southern kingdom into idolatry was dramatically influenced by the evil king Ahaz (about 735-715 BC) as recorded in 2 Kings 16:10 ff: “And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria and saw an altar …king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it … and when the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar … burned his burnt offering ….” Tiglath-pileser expanded the Assyrian Empire by a long siege of Damascus until it and the whole region was subjugated (733,732 BC). Assyrian records detail a terrible destruction: “sixteen districts of Aram, I destroyed like the mounds left by a flood.” (ARAB 1.177; and 2 Kings 16:9). Later, Samaria (the northern 10 tribes) were conquered by Sargon II (721 BC). Damascus continued to endure ups and downs during the Babylonian and Persian Empires, the Seleucids until Rome made it the capital of the Nabatean kingdom in 85 BC. When Paul came to Damascus (Acts 9:2-8), the city was an independent city, coined its own money, was autonomous and boasted of having the largest temple in Syria dedicated to Jupiter. Damascus became a center for Christianity and after the persecution ended, the Emperor Theodosius converted the ancient temple of Jupiter into the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist (391 AD). When Islam invaded and captured Syria (634 AD), the church was converted into the Umayyad Mosque (Great Mosque of Damascus), supposedly enshrined is the “head of John the Baptist.” The Islamic historian Ibn al-Faqih of Persia records between 600,000 and 1,000,000 dinars were spent on the conversion of the basilica into a monumental mosque. Coptic artisans led the Persian, Indian, Greek and Moroccan 12,000 laborers in the conversion. Legends says the workers discovered a box containing the head of John the Baptist in a cave-chapel. The box was examined and placed under a specific pillar in the temple and inlaid with marble. The mosque was completed in 715 AD by Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. Below is a photo of the Umayyad Mosque. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StJohnInUmmayad.jpg
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 12:09:58 +0000
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