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What happened to Jesus in Jerusalem?
For Christians, Jerusalem's place in the life of Jesus gives it great importance, in addition to its place in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible.
Jerusalem is the place where Jesus was brought as a child, to be 'presented' at the Temple (Luke 2:22) and to attend festivals (Luke 2:41). According to the Gospels, Jesus preached and healed in Jerusalem, especially in the Temple courts. There is also an account of Jesus' 'cleansing' of the Temple, chasing various traders out of the sacred precincts (Mark 11:15). At the end of each of the Gospels, there are accounts of Jesus' Last Supper in an 'upper room' in Jerusalem, his arrest in Gethsemane, his trial, his crucifixion at Golgotha, his burial nearby and his resurrection and ascension.

Jerusalem at the Time of Jesus

by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, O.P.
Jesus paid his first visit to Jerusalem in the arms of his mother when he was a month old (Luke 2:22). It was to be 12 years before he visited again, this time as a Galilean pilgrim (Luke 2:42).
The fatigue of the four- or five-day walk from Nazareth would have fallen from him when he reached the summit of the Mount of Olives and looked down upon the city. Its power and beauty would have swept aside all emotions save wonder and immense pride.
When Jesus first saw it that spring day, Jerusalem had been a Jewish city for a thousand years, during which it had been laid waste many times. The last had been the summer of 37 B.C. when the catapults of Herod the Great and his Roman allies had pounded the city for 55 continuous days. After having broken through the two north walls, the troops murdered and pillaged at will. Herod found himself with a capital of ruined buildings and a decimated population.
Herod's Palatial Residence
Some 40 years later, from the Mount of Olives, Jesus' eye would have been first caught by the splendor of the Temple just on the other side of the Kidron valley; its impressive mass balanced on the far side of the city by the three great towers of the royal palace. These dominant structures sat on hills divided by the Tyropoean (Cheesemakers) valley on whose slopes were more houses than Jesus had ever seen. The whole was surrounded by a high wall with towers at regular intervals. The city into which Jesus walked was Herod's achievement.
Fully aware that he had very few friends, Herod's primary concern was his own security. His first monumental building was the fortress Antonia, named for his friend Mark Antony, at the northwest corner of the Temple. It is described by the Jewish historian Josephus, an eyewitness, as having four towers, that on the southeast corner being 30 feet higher than the others (War 5.238-46). Nothing remains now except a section of the 12-foot-thick south wall.
After Rome assumed direct control in A.D. 6, it was garrisoned by Roman troops. They were preparing to interrogate Paul under torture there before he revealed his Roman citizenship (Acts 22:22-29).
Such soldiers, or their predecessors under Pompey in 63 B.C., were probably responsible for the pagan healing sanctuary that has been excavated in the grounds of St. Anne's Church. In the first century it was outside the walls of Jerusalem. There Jesus healed a man who had been ill for 38 years (John 5:2-9).
No sooner was the Antonia nearing completion than Herod initiated an even more grandiose project, a new palace at the highest point of the city, today the area just south of Jaffa Gate. Words fail Josephus as he tries to describe its wonders (War 5.161-181). What struck him, as it did every visitor, were the three great towers named Hippicus for Herod's friend, Miriamme for his murdered wife, and Phasael for his brother. Originally the tower was 150 feet high, greater than the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
This palace was Pontius Pilate's residence when he came to Jerusalem, and it was here that Jesus was condemned to be crucified (John 19:13). Jesus would have seen the great blind stones of the solid base of Phasael (which still survives) towering above him as he began the way of the cross, which brought him out through the Gennath Gate to Golgotha.
Such investment in construction brought prosperity. To ensure that his supporters had the means to enjoy themselves, Herod built a theatre just outside the city to the south and a hippodrome or amphitheatre whose location is unknown. The games they hosted had all the trappings of pagan festivals and, in consequence, gave great offense to pious Jews. These, however, were too important a constituency to be ignored. To placate them Herod offered to rebuild the much-repaired temple. His plans were so grandiose that he had to prove he had the money and material in hand before the religious authorities permitted him to begin work, probably in 23 B.C.
The Temple
The original temple area was a square—812 feet to a side. In the second century B.C. the Maccabees extended it to the south in order to appropriate the little eminence on which the hated Syrian Akra had stood (1 Mc 1:33; 13:49-53). Herod enlarged this area on three sides (north, west and south) creating an immense platform whose sides measured 1035 (N) x 1536 (E) x 912 (S) x 1590 (W) feet.
Since he had to build out over three slopes, this involved gigantic retaining walls to hold the fill within. Many of the huge stones are still visible on the south and in the tunnel along the western wall.
There were two gates on the south, four on the west facilitating access from the center of the city, and one on the north, by which animals were brought in from the countryside for sacrifice; this was the Sheep Gate of John 5:2.
We know from the detailed description of Josephus that magnificent cloisters ran around the north, west and east sides (War 5.184-225). In these the teachers sat with their pupils. One winter's day Jesus walked with his disciples in the eastern cloister called Solomon's Portico (John 10:23). Later the apostles preached there (Acts 3:11; 5:12).
The place of a cloister along the south wall was taken by the Royal Portico, so called from its majestic proportions. Columns 50 feet high divided it into three aisles. Each was 30 feet wide, and the center aisle was twice as high as the lateral aisles. Much of the commercial business of the city took place here. This is probably where the money changers had their tables. No wonder that Jesus reacted as he did (John 2:13-16).
The limits of the original square Temple were marked by a waist-high wall at each of whose gates was a notice forbidding entrance under pain of death to all non-Jews. Pagans had access only to the Court of the Gentiles, the northern and southern parts of which were linked by a narrow passage along the west side.
All the specifically religious buildings were within the square. Entered from the east there were successive courtyards of increasing holiness—women, Israel, priests—and then, within a building, the sanctuary (Luke 1:9) and, finally, the holy of holies.
The facade of the sanctuary was covered with gold. Instead of a door there was a curtain embroidered with blue, scarlet and purple. This was the veil that was torn in two at the death of Jesus (Mark 15:38). The response to such beauty was lyricism. For Josephus the sanctuary appeared like "a snow-clad mountain, for all that was not overlaid with gold was of purest white" (War 5.223).

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David Golan
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