Names of Jerusalem

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    Names of Jerusalem refers to the multiple names by which the city of Jerusalem has been known and the etymology of the word in different languages. According to the Jewish Midrash, "Jerusalem has 70 names".[1] Lists have been compiled of 72 different Hebrew names for Jerusalem in Jewish scripture.[2]

    Today, Jerusalem is called Yerushalayim (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‎) and Al-Quds (Arabic: اَلْـقُـدْس). Yerushalayim is a derivation of a much older name, recorded as early as in the Middle Bronze Age, which has however been repeatedly re-interpreted in folk etymology, notably in Biblical Greek, where the first element of the name came to be associated with Greek: ἱερός (hieros, "holy"). The city is also known, especially among Muslims, as Bayt al-Maqdis (Arabic: بَـيْـت الْـمَـقْـدِس, lit. 'Holy House'), referring to the Temple in Jerusalem, called Beit HaMikdash in Hebrew.[3]

    Early extra-biblical and biblical names[edit]

    Jerusalem[edit]

    Further information: Abdi-Heba, Amarna letter EA 287, and Amarna letter EA 289
    F40 G43 M8 G1 G17 G17 N25
    ꜣwšꜣmm[4]
    in hieroglyphs
    Era: Middle Kingdom
    (2055–1650 BC)

    A city called Ꜣwšꜣmm in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 19th century BCE) and typically reconstructed as (U)Rušalim is usually identified as Jerusalem.[5][6][7] Nadav Na'aman proposed that the name should instead by understood as r'š (head) + rmm (exalted), meaning 'the exalted head', and so not referring to Jerusalem, but Na'aman withdrew this objection in 2023.[8][9]

    Jerusalem is called either Urusalim (URU ú-ru-sa-lim) or Urušalim (URU ú-ru-ša10-lim) in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba (1330s BCE).[10]

    The Sumero-Akkadian name for Jerusalem, uru-salim,[11] is variously etymologised to mean "foundation of [or: by] the god Shalim": from West Semitic yrw, ‘to found, to lay a cornerstone’, and Shalim, the Canaanite god of the setting sun and the nether world, as well as of health and perfection.[12]

    Jerusalem is the name most commonly used in the Bible, and the name used by most of the Western World. The Biblical Hebrew form is Yerushalaim (ירושלם‎), adopted in Biblical Greek as Hierousalēm, Ierousalēm (Ιερουσαλήμ), or Hierosolyma, Ierosolyma (Ιεροσόλυμα), and in early Christian Bibles as Syriac Ūrišlem (ܐܘܪܫܠܡ) as well as Latin Hierosolyma or Ierusalem. In Arabic, this name occurs in the form Ūrsālim (أْوْرْسَـالِـم) which is the Arabic name promoted by the Israeli government.[13]

    The name "Shalem", whether as a town or a deity, is derived from the same root Š-L-M as the word "shalom", meaning peace,[14][15] so that the common interpretation of the name is now "The City of Peace"[16][17] or "Abode of Peace", indicating a sanctuary.[18][19]

    The ending -ayim indicates the dual in Hebrew, thus leading to the suggestion that the name refers to the two hills on which the city sits.[20][21] However, the pronunciation of the last syllable as -ayim appears to be a late development, which had not yet appeared at the time of the Septuagint.[citation needed] In fact, in the unvocalized Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible the yod that would be required for the -ayim ending (so that it would be written ירושלים‎, as in post-biblical Hebrew, rather than ירושלם‎) is almost always absent. It is only the much later vocalization, with the vowel marks for a and i squeezed together between the lamed and the mem, that provides the basis for this reading. In extra-biblical inscriptions, the earliest known example of the -ayim ending was discovered on a column about 3 km west of ancient Jerusalem, dated to the first century BCE.[22]

    In Genesis Rabbah 56:10, the name is interpreted as a combination of yir'eh, "He will see [to it]," and Shalem, the city of King Melchizedek (based on Genesis 14:18). A similar theory is offered by Philo in his discussion of the term "God's city."[23] Other midrashim say that Jerusalem means "City of Peace".[24]

    In Greek, the city is called either Ierousalēm (Ἰερουσαλήμ) or Hierosolyma (Ἱεροσόλυμα). The latter exhibits yet another re-etymologization, by association with the word hieros (Greek: ἱερός, "holy").[25][26] In early Greek manuscripts, Ἱερουσαλήμ is presented as a "holy name": ΙΛΗΜ.[citation needed]

    Shalem[edit]

    The name Shalem/Salem (שלם šālêm) is found in the account of Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18: And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God (El Elyon).

    That the name Salem refers to Jerusalem is evidenced by Psalm 76:2 which uses "Salem" as a parallel for "Zion", the citadel of Jerusalem. The same identification is made by Josephus and the Aramaic translations of the Bible.

    Language Name Translit.
    LXX Σαλήμ[27] Salēm
    Greek (variant) Σόλυμα[28] Solyma
    Biblical Latin Salem
    Arabic سَـالِـم Sālim
    Hebrew שָׁלֵם Šālēm

    Shalem was the Canaanite god of dusk, sunset, and the end of the day, also spelled Shalim.[29] Many scholars believe that his name is preserved in the name of the city Jerusalem.[30] It is believed by some scholars that the name of Jerusalem comes from Uru + Shalem, meaning the foundation of Shalem or founded by Shalem or city of Shalem, and that Shalem was the city god of the place before El Elyon.[31]

    Zion[edit]

    Main article: Zion

    Mount Zion (Hebrew: הר צִיּוֹן Har Tsiyyon) was originally the name of the hill where the Jebusite fortress stood, but the name was later applied to the Temple Mount just to the north of the fortress, also known as Mount Moriah, possibly also referred to as "Daughter of Zion" (i.e., as a protrusion of Mount Zion proper).

    From the Second Temple era, the name came to be applied to a hill just to the south-west of the walled city. This latter hill is still known as Mount Zion today. From the point of view of the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), Zion has come to be used as a synonym of the city of Jerusalem as a whole.

    Other biblical names[edit]

    • Mount Moriah (now usually identified with the Temple Mount) was a part of Jebus (Judges 19:10), a city inhabited by the Jebusites. According to the Bible, this land was sold to King David by Ornan the Jebusite for six hundred shekels of gold (1Chr 21:26) in order to build in the threshing floor an altar for sacrifice to stop the plague God had sent upon Israel. Solomon later built the Temple there. The Jebusite stronghold at that time was called Zion which David took by force, and it afterward began to be called The City of David. (2 Sam 5:7–10)
    • City of David: The City of David (Hebrew Ir David עיר דוד Tiberian Hebrew עִיר דָּוִד ʿîr Dāwiḏ) is the biblical term for the Iron Age walled fortress; now the name of the corresponding archaeological site just south of the Temple Mount
    • Jebus (Jebusite city) in Judges 19:10
    • The Lord sees, Hebrew Adonai-jireh, in Vulgate Latin Dominus videt. In the opinion of some Rabbinic commentators, the combination of Yir'eh (יראה) with Shalem (שלם) is the origin of the name Jerusalem (ירושלם).
    • Oasis of Justice, Hebrew Neveh Tzedek (נווה צדק), Tiberian Hebrew נְוֵה-צֶדֶק Nəwēh Ṣeḏeq (Jeremiah 31:23).
    • Ariel (אֲרִיאֵל) in Isaiah 29:1–8[32]
    • City of the Holy Place/Holiness, Hebrew Ir Ha-Kodesh / Ir Ha-Kedosha, (עיר הקודש) in Isa 48:42, Isa 51:1, Dan 9:24 Neh 11:1 and Neh 11:18.
    • City of the Great King
      • Hebrew: kiryat melekh rav (קרית מלך רב) as in Psalm 48:2.
      • Koine Greek: polis megalou basileos (πόλις μεγάλου βασιλέως) as in Matthew 5:35.
      • Tiberian Hebrew קִרְיַת מֶלֶךְ רָב Qiryaṯ Meleḵ Rāḇ

    Middle Persian[edit]

    According to "Shahnameh", ancient Iranian used "Kangdezh Hûkht" کَـنْـگ دِژ هُـوْخْـت or "Dezhkang Hûkht" دِژ کَـنْـگ هُـوْخْـت to name Jerusalem. "Kang Diz Huxt" means "holy palace" and was the capital of "Zahhak" and also "Fereydun's" kingdom.[33] [34] Another variant of the name is Kang-e Dozhhûkht (Dozhhûkht-Kang), which is attested in Shahnameh. It means "[the] accursed Kang".[35]

    Greco-Roman[edit]

    Aelia Capitolina was the Roman name given to Jerusalem in the 2nd century, after the destruction of the Second Temple. The name refers to Hadrian's family, the gens Aelia, and to the hill temple of Jupiter built on the remains of the Temple. During the later Roman Era, the city was expanded to the area now known as the Old City of Jerusalem. Population increased during this period, peaking at several hundred thousand, numbers only reached again in the modern city, in the 1960s.

    From this name derives Tiberian Hebrew אֵילִיָּה קַפִּיטוֹלִינָה‎ ʼÊliyyāh Qappîṭôlînāh. The Roman name was loaned as Arabic: إِيْـلْـيَـاء, romanized: ʼĪlyāʼ, early in the Middle Ages, and appears in some Hadith (Bukhari 1:6, 4:191; Muwatta 20:26), like Bayt ul-Maqdis.

    Islamic[edit]

    Jerusalem fell to the Muslim conquest of Palestine in 638. The medieval city corresponded to what is now known as the Old City (rebuilt in the 2nd century as Roman Aelia Capitolina). The population at the time of the Muslim conquest was about 200,000, but from about the 10th century it declined, to less than half that number by the time of the Christian conquest in the 11th century, and with the re-conquest by the Khwarezmi Turks was further decimated to about 2,000 people (moderately recovering to some 8,000 under Ottoman rule by the 19th century).

    The modern Arabic name of Jerusalem is اَلْـقُـدْس al-Quds, and its first recorded use can be traced to the 9th century CE, two hundred years after the Muslim conquest of the city. Prior to the use of this name, the names used for Jerusalem were إِيْـلْـيَـاء Īlyā' (from the Roman era name) and بَـيْـت الْـمَـقْـدِس Bayt al-Maqdis (after the Temple), alternatively vocalized as بَـيْـت الْـمُـقَـدَّس Bayt al-Muqaddas.[36]

    Al-Quds is the most common Arabic name for Jerusalem and is used by many cultures influenced by Islam. The name may have been shortened from مَـدِيـنَـة الْـقُـدْس Madīnat al-Quds, a calque of the Hebrew nickname for the city, Ir HaKodesh (עיר הקודש "the Holy City" or "City of the Holy Place"). The variant اَلْـقُـدْس الـشَّـرِيْـف al-Quds aš-Šarīf ("Al-Quds the Noble") has also been used, notably by the Ottomans in the Turkish form Kudüs-i Şerîf.

    • Azerbaijani – Yerusəlim, Qüds, or Qüdsi-Şərif
    • Kurdish – ئۆرشەلیم/ Orşelîm or قودس/Quds,
    • Persian – قدس, Qods
    • Standard Hebrew – הַקֹּדֶשׁ‎, HaKodesh
    • Tiberian Hebrew – הַקֹּדֶשׁ‎, HaQodhesh lit. "The Holy"
    • Turkish – Kudüs[37] or Yeruşalim
    • Urdu – قدس, Quds, قدس شریف, Quds Śarīf or یروشلم, Yaroślam

    Bayt al-Maqdis or Bayt al-Muqaddas is a less commonly used Arabic name for Jerusalem though it appeared more commonly in early Islamic sources. It is the base from which nisbas (names based on the origin of the person named) are formed – hence the famous medieval geographer called both al-Maqdisi and al-Muqaddasi (b. 946) This name is of a semantic extension from the Hadiths used in reference to the Temple in Jerusalem, called Beit HaMikdash (בית המקדש "The Holy Temple" or "Temple of the Sanctified Place") in Hebrew.[3]

    Arabic: اَلْـبَـلَاط al-Balāṭ is a rare poetic name for Jerusalem in Arabic, loaned from the Latin palatium "palace". Also from Latin is إِيْـلْـيَـاء ʼĪlyāʼ, a rare name for Jerusalem used in early times Middle Ages, as in some Hadith (Bukhari 1:6, 4:191; Muwatta 20:26).


    Ṣahyūn (Arabic: صهيون, Ṣahyūn or Ṣihyūn) is the word for Zion in Arabic and Syriac.[38][39] Drawing on biblical tradition, it is one of the names accorded to Jerusalem in Arabic and Islamic tradition.[39][40]

    Sign languages[edit]

    Jewish and Arab signers of Israeli Sign Language use different signs: the former mimic kissing the Western Wall, the latter gesture to indicate the shape of the Masjid Al-Aqsa (i.e. the Dome of the Rock).[41]

    See also[edit]

    References[edit]

    1. ^ Numbers Rabbah, 14, 12; Midrash Tadsha (Baraita Phinehas ben Jair 10; Midrash Zuta Song of Songs 3,1; Midrash ha-Gadol Genesis 46, 8;
    2. ^ Ilana Caznelvugen lists the 72 names in her two articles "Many names for Jerusalem" and "70 Names for Jerusalem", Sinai 116, Mosad Harav Kook, 1995. The Jerusalem municipality website lists 105 Hebrew names.
    3. ^ a b Carrol, James. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How The Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World", 2011. Retrieved on 24 May 2014.
    4. ^ M. Vygus. Middle Egyptian dictionary, p. 547
    5. ^ David Noel Freedman; Allen C. Myers; Astrid B. Beck (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 694–695. ISBN 978-0-8028-2400-4. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
    6. ^ G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren (eds.) Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (tr. David E. Green), William B. Eerdmann, Grand Rapids Michigan, Cambridge/UK 1990, vol. VI, p. 348.
    7. ^ Zellig Harris (1939). Development of the Cannanite dialects: an investigation in linguistic history. American Oriental Society. p. 34. Ꜣwšꜣmm 'Jerusalem' (Ächtungstexte f 18)
    8. ^ Nadav Naʼaman, Canaan in the 2nd Millennium B.C.E., Eisenbrauns, 2005 p. 177ff.
    9. ^ Nadav Na'aman (2023). "Locating Jerusalem's Royal Palace in the Second Millennium BCE in Light of the Glyptic and Cuneiform Material Unearthed in the Ophel". Tel Aviv. 50 (1): 111–125. doi:10.1080/03344355.2023.2190284. S2CID 259120316.
    10. ^ Urusalim e.g. in EA 289:014, Urušalim e.g. in EA 287:025. Transcription online at "The El Amarna Letters from Canaan". Tau.ac.il. Retrieved 11 September 2010.; translation by Knudtzon 1915 (English in Percy Stuart Peache Handcock, Selections from the Tell El-Amarna letters (1920).
    11. ^ See Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-17, p. 410 (1990). Hamilton also asserts that Sumerian uru is yerû, meaning "city."
    12. ^ Anchor Bible Dictionary "SHALEM (DEITY) – the Anchor Bible Dictionary". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-11.; Holman Bible Dictionary, http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbd/print.cgi?n=3384 ; National Geographic, http://education.nationalgeographic.com/media/file/Jerusalem_ED_Sheets.FasFacts.pdf Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine ("As for the meaning of the name, it can be assumed to be a compound of the West Semitic elements "yrw" and "s[h]lm," probably to be interpreted as "Foundation of (the god) Shalem." Shalem is known from an Ugaritic mythological text as the god of twilight.").
    13. ^ "Why Is Jerusalem Called Jerusalem?". Haaretz. 2015-05-17. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
    14. ^ Elon, Amos (1996). Jerusalem. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-00-637531-6. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2007. The epithet may have originated in the ancient name of Jerusalem—Salem (after the pagan deity of the city), which is etymologically connected in the Semitic languages with the words for peace (shalom in Hebrew, salam in Arabic).
    15. ^ Ringgren, H., Die Religionen des Alten Orients (Göttingen, 1979), 212.
    16. ^ Binz, Stephen J. (2005). Jerusalem, the Holy City. Connecticut, USA.: Twenty-Third Publications. p. 2. ISBN 9781585953653. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
    17. ^ Hastings, James (2004). A Dictionary of the Bible: Volume II: (Part II: I -- Kinsman), Volume 2. Honolulu, Hawaii: Reprinted from 1898 edition by University Press of the Pacific. p. 584. ISBN 1-4102-1725-6. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
    18. ^ Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (2007). Historic cities of the Islamic world. The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. pp. 225–226. ISBN 978-90-04-15388-2. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
    19. ^ Denise DeGarmo (9 September 2011). "Abode of Peace?". Wandering Thoughts. Center for Conflict Studies. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
    20. ^ Wallace, Edwin Sherman (August 1977). Jerusalem the Holy. New York: Arno Press. p. 16. ISBN 0-405-10298-4. A similar view was held by those who give the Hebrew dual to the word
    21. ^ Smith, George Adam (1907). Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70. Hodder and Stoughton. p. 251. ISBN 0-7905-2935-1. The termination -aim or -ayim used to be taken as the ordinary termination of the dual of nouns, and was explained as signifying the upper and lower cities. (see here)
    22. ^ Yuval Baruch, Danit Levi & Ronny Reich (2020). "The Name Jerusalem in a Late Second Temple Period Jewish Inscription". Tel Aviv. 47 (1): 108–118. doi:10.1080/03344355.2020.1707452. S2CID 219879544.
    23. ^ With Letters of Light: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism, Magic and Mysticism, eds. Daphna Arbel and Andrei Orlov
    24. ^ Bar Ilan University, Prof. Yaakov Klein
    25. ^ Alexander Hopkins McDannald (editor), The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 16, Americana Corporation, 1947, entry Jerusalem
    26. ^ Gerhard Kittel (editor), Gerhard Friedrich (editor), Geoffrey W. Bromiley (editor),Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume, Eerdmans, 1985, entry Sion [Zion], Ierousalem [Jerusalem], Hierosolyma [Jerusalem], Hierosolymites [inhabitants of Jerusalem]
    27. ^ E.g. found in the Septuagint and the writings of Philo; cf. Melchizedek as "king of peace" (Σαλήμ) in Heb. 7.1–2, based on Gn. 14.18; cf. also Philo, leg. all. 3.79.
    28. ^ Cf. e.g. Flavius Josephus, Ant. J. 1.180.
    29. ^ Shalem; Shalim.
    30. ^ E.g., L. Grabbe, "Ethnic groups in Jerusalem", in Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition (Clark International, 2003) pp. 145-163; John Day, Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan, Sheffield Academic Press 2002, p. 180; see also Shalim.
    31. ^ Yisrael Shalem Archived 2007-01-17 at the Wayback Machine, "Jerusalem: Life Throughout the Ages in a Holy City", Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, Bar-Ilan University (2012). See also Karel van der Toorn, et al., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, under entry ZEDEQ, p. 931.
    32. ^ See Encyclopedia Judaica: Ariel.
    33. ^ مولایی, چنگیز (2014). "کنگ دز هوخت و کلنگ دس حت (تحقیقی دربارة نام ایوان ضحّاک در شاهنامه و سنی ملوک الارض و الانبیاء)". جستارهای نوین ادبی. 47 (3). doi:10.22067/jls.v47i3.44857.
    34. ^ C.Mowlā'i /Kang Diz Huxt and Kuling Dus-Hut (An Investigation into the Name of Żahhāk's Palace in the Shāh-nāma and in Sanī Mulūk al-Arż v-al-Anbiyā’) / Journal of Research Literary Studies, 2014, 47(3):145-156
    35. ^ Lurje, Pavel. "KANGDEZ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
    36. ^ El-Awaisi, Khalid. "From Aelia To Al-Quds: The Names Of Islamic Jerusalem In The Early Muslim Period", 2011. Retrieved on 16 June 2019.
    37. ^ See 'JERUSALEM', Engraved by Lodge in George Henry Millar, The New & Universal System Of Geography (London: Alexander Hogg, 1782)
    38. ^ Palestine Exploration Fund (1977). Palestine Exploration Quarterly, Volumes 109–110. Published at the Fund's Office. p. 21. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
    39. ^ a b Gil, Moshe (1997). A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Cambridge University Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-521-59984-9.
    40. ^ Freund, Richard A. (2009). Digging Through the Bible: Modern Archaeology and the Ancient Bible. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-7425-4645-5.
    41. ^ Siroa, Sammy. "כיצד נותנים כינויים ושמות בשפת סימנים? סמי סירואה אצל אורלי וגיא- תוכנית רביעית". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 15 February 2021.

    Bibliography[edit]

    External links[edit]

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