Today, the capital city of Israel is known as Jerusalem in English and Yerushalayim in Hebrew. Jewish tradition teaches that Jerusalem has seventy-two different names and we are going to explore some of these names in the following lines…
Names of Jerusalem from the Bronze Age
The Jebusite fortress in the city of Jerusalem is the Bronze Age core of the city and in Biblical times this became known as the City of David. Rusalim is the name of a city found in Egyptian texts from the 19th century BCE and it is commonly thought to be referring to Jerusalem.
In the 1330s, Jerusalem was referred to as Urusalim in diplomatic letters of the local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period.
Jerusalem was referred to as the capital of the Kingdom of Judah in the older parts of the Bible whereas in the younger parts, it is mentioned in connection to its being the city of the Second Temple period.
In the Book of Genesis, we learn of the King Melchitzedek who reigned over a place called Shalem. The word Shalem has a Semitic root of s-l-m, which means whole, at peace and complete- reflected in the Hebrew word “Shalom” which means peace. In Psalms 76:2, Salem is used as a parallel for Zion, the citadel of Jerusalem, thus providing evidence that the name Salem refers to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is, without a doubt, the most commonly-used Biblical name, used by the Jewish people and the Western world. The Biblical Hebrew form is actually Yerushalayim. The name also contains root s-l-m as described above in the name Shalem as well as the first part of the name which is connected to the Hebrew word for city, “Ir.” The name is therefore commonly interpreted as “The City of Peace.”
Mount Zion was the name of the hill on which the Jebusite fortress stood and later came to refer to the Temple Mount which is north of the fortress. In the Second Temple period the name was applied to a hill south-west if the walled city and this hill is known as Mount Zion until this day. From the time of the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE, Zion was used a synonym of the entire city of Jerusalem.
Mount Moriah is known today as Temple Mount and was originally part of the Jebusite city. The City of David is the biblical name for the walled fortress form the Iron Age. Nowadays it is the name of the corresponding archaeological site to the south of Temple Mount.
In the Book of Judges, Jerusalem is referred to as the City of Yevus. Greco-Roman names of Jerusalem Herodotus referred to Jerusalem as Cadytis. After the destruction of the Second Temple, Jerusalem was known by a Roman name, Aelia Capitolina, named after Hadrian’s family and the hill temple of Jupiter that was built on the remains of the Temple.
Islamic Names of Jerusalem
The Arabic name of Jerusalem is al-Quds and is used by many cultures that are influenced by Islam. Bayt-al-Maqdis is a less-commonly used Arabic name of Jerusalem and is in direct reference to the Hebrew name for the Jewish Temple that stood and will eventually stand again in Jerusalem, the Beit Hamikdash.
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Rivkah Abrahams, writes for Ajudaica blog. Visit Ajudaica.com to shop for presents and Judaica gifts from Israel.