Jerusalem The Golden

Jerusalem The Golden is a history of some of the many persons who visited Jerusalem over the centuries.The author describes his two tours of Jerusalem and its environs in 1978 and 1985, accompanied by fellow members of his church and led by their pastor. It is also a history of the political changes and conflicts in the Middle East, and how the land changed hands from the Canaanites to the Israelites, to the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greek successor empires, the Romans and the Ottoman Turks –– and finally, after World War I how the modern Arab nations were created and the modern state of Israel came into being.   

After two Christian tours of the Holy Land led by his pastor, The Rev. Frederick R. Gutekunst, in 1978 and 1985, Thomas Fisher decided to write this chronicle of some of the many persons great and small who visited Jerusalem over the course of thirty-eight centuries. Thomas made his living before retirement in a technical field, but in the research for this book he drew on his studies of world history at Fairleigh Dickinson University, from Bible studies, and from every book he could find about Jerusalem. Although most historians probably don't regard the Bible as reliable history, Dr. Werner Keller's 1963 landmark book, "The Bible As History In Pictures," contains an historical account of the Assyrians' siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E. that seems to corroborate exactly the depiction of the event in II Kings 18:1-19:37. Thomas also found valuable resources in the magazines "Biblical Archaeology Review" and "Archaeology."