Damascus #44

Damascus is the capital of modern Syria and one of the oldest cities of the Near East. In the Bible it appears first as a distant northern city, then as the center of the Aramean kingdom that repeatedly clashed with Israel, and finally as the place where Saul of Tarsus was transformed from persecutor into apostle.

Biblical Significance

Damascus is mentioned as early as the time of Abraham, whose servant Eliezer is called a man of Damascus (Genesis 15:2). In the days of David, Israel fought the Arameans of Damascus and placed garrisons there (2 Samuel 8:5-6). Under Solomon the adversary Rezon established himself as king in Damascus (1 Kings 11:23-25), and for generations it was Israel’s chief northern rival. Elijah was told to anoint Hazael as king over Syria there (1 Kings 19:15). The Syrian commander Naaman, cured of leprosy through Elisha, dismissed the Jordan River at first by pointing to the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar (2 Kings 5:9-14). The prophets foretold the city’s downfall (Isaiah 17:1; Amos 1:3-5), and the Assyrians took it in the eighth century BC (2 Kings 16:9).

Its greatest role comes in the book of Acts. Saul set out for Damascus with letters authorizing him to arrest followers of Jesus, and near the city he was struck down by a light from heaven and heard the voice of the risen Christ (Acts 9:1-9). He was led into the city blind, and Ananias, a disciple, was sent to the house of Judas on the street called Straight to restore his sight and baptize him (Acts 9:10-19). Saul began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues and had to escape when opponents plotted against him, being let down in a basket through an opening in the city wall (Acts 9:20-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32-33). Paul later mentions a period in Arabia and a return to Damascus (Galatians 1:17).

Today

Damascus remains a major city and is often described as among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. In the old walled city, a long east-to-west Roman-era thoroughfare is identified with the Straight Street of Acts 9:11. Visitors have been shown a chapel of Ananias and a gate window traditionally connected with Paul’s escape by basket. These are traditions of considerable age, but they are not confirmed by archaeology. The great Umayyad Mosque, completed in the early eighth century, occupies the site of an earlier church and, before that, a Roman temple, and a shrine within it is traditionally said to hold the head of John the Baptist. Political conditions in Syria have limited access for visitors and researchers in recent years.