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JERUSALEM: Jerusalem was referred to 40 times in the Old Testament as the ‘city of David’.
Jerusalem was a Jebusite city that David captured and made his capital when he consolidated power after being proclaimed king over the northern tribes (see 2 Samuel 5).
Solomon further consolidated power at Jerusalem through his construction projects, particularly the Temple (see 2 Chronicles 3).
Worship and sacrifice were no longer permissible in the “high places,” the tribal shrines in places like Shechem and Bethel.
The reason given was because of the idolatry that easily made its way into these places. The reign of Solomon, however, made it clear that idolatry could and did take root even in Jerusalem.
The real reason for the centralization was concentration of power and wealth. Not only were sacrifices brought to the worship sites, providing food for the Levites serving at them, but also the tribal tithes, which were essentially the Israelite form of taxation.
Mandating that the Temple was the only place to bring sacrifices enriched the power structures already in place in Jerusalem.
And while this might have worked out fine for Solomon and subsequent kings, it did not work out so well for the common person living in the far reaches of the kingdom.
In addition, there was the forced labor that required each man to leave his own fields or herds for one out of every three months to work on the king’s projects in Jerusalem (see 1 Kings 5).
This was more than the tribes outside of Judah could take. After Solomon’s death, they rebelled and anointed their own king.
Moving forward to Jesus’ day, Jerusalem still represented the consolidation of power.
The Temple, rebuilt after the Babylonian exile, had been essentially torn down and greatly enlarged by Herod in the first century B.C.
This was an effort to establish himself as the true king of the Jews, even though he was not of the line of David.
It was in Jerusalem where the high priest led the Sanhedrin, an assembly of Jewish leaders providing guidance to the nation of Israel.
In the minds of the common person, Jerusalem was the seat of religious and political power.
In the same way, Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect residing at Caesarea, knew that on important Jewish holy days he needed to be in Jerusalem.