J10-2: Jerusalem Was Already An Ancient City By The Time The Israelites Arrived

“When Adoni-Tzedek king of Yerushalayim heard how Y’hoshua had taken ‘Ai and utterly destroyed it — he had done the same to ‘Ai and its king as he had done to Yericho and its king — and how the inhabitants of Giv‘on had made peace with Isra’el and were living among them”.-Joshua 10:1

The current situation is that everyone and his grandmother knew that Israel had entered into a peace treaty with the Gibeonites.

This had really shaken the enemy tribes and nations of Israel who were living in the Land of Canaan because Gibeon was actually quite a powerful nation.

Notice in verse 1 we’re told that a man named ADONI-ZEDEK was the king who was ruling over Jerusalem at the time.

So this is as good a time as any to let you know that Jerusalem was not originally founded by the Israelites.

No, it was captured by King David during one of his holy conquests and then turned into the capital city of Israel (a fact that Trump reinstated during his presidency).

The earliest and most accurate historical records show that the city was originally founded by a people called the Jebusites.

We’re not exactly sure where the Jebusites came from but many believed they were a smaller tribe who branched out from the Amorites.

Before Jerusalem came to be called “Jerusalem”, it was called Jebus.

This makes sense because “Jebus” is a Canaanite word.

That’s why the people who were living in Jebus were called Jebusites.

However, in Aramaic and Arabic, Jebus went by a different name altogether.

It was called Salem.

Therefore, again, before Jerusalem came to be known as “Jerusalem”, it was called Jebus and Salem.

And by the way, the name Salem should ring a bell for you.

Why?

Because way back in the book of Genesis, we read of the curious appearance of a fellow called Melchizedek who was considered both a king and a high priest over a region called Salem (which we now know is Jerusalem).

This encounter occurred about two centuries before Joshua and the Israelites ever set foot in the Promised Land.

The conclusion is crystal clear.

There is more than an abundance of historical evidence backed up by Scripture that Jerusalem was already an old city way before the Israelites arrived.