The gospel of Luke tells us that when Jesus was twelve years old accompanied Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. The Jerusalem that he saw was the splendid rebuilt Jerusalem of He the Great. To Herod, the rebuilt city provided a splendid setting for ambitious desires. To the Jews, Jerusalem was the holy city, the ancient city of David, the life of which centred around the Temple.

Very many of the people who lived in Jerusalem were directly indirectly connected with the Temple. It has been estimated that they may have been about 7,200 priests connected with the sacrificial w ship, the Temple being the only place where Jews could offer the sacrifice required by the Law. There may have been about 9,600 Levites or mi priests, who performed various duties. Three times a year, thousands of Jewish pilgrims travelled to Jerusalem for the great Festivals of Passover (March-April), the Feast of Weeks (May-June), and the Fe of Tabernacles (September-October). The Passover commemorated liberation of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses. The Feast of Weeks was a thanksgiving festival for the beginning of the grain harvest, and the Feast of Tabernacles was a thanksgiving festival for the fruit harvest, particularly the grape harvest from which wine was made. There were also the Festivals of Dedication (December) and Purim (February; March) and the Day of Atonement (September-October), which attract many participants. Jews would also come to the Temple for individual reasons, such as the dedication of a first-born son; sacrifices offered the individual according to the Law for cleansing or thank-offering, and so on. Every day sacrifice and worship was offered in the Temple the priests and Levites working according to a Rota. All Jews, whether they lived in the homeland or in a distant land, were expected to pay the annual Temple Tax which contributed to the high cost of running the Temple from day to day.

Perhaps 25,000 people lived permanently in Jerusalem but thousand, of pilgrims came in and out of the city, especially at the times of the great festivals. Very many of the permanent inhabitants of the city depended for their livelihood on trades and professions connected with the influx of pilgrims-inn-keepers, shopkeepers, traders of all kinds, craftsmen and artisans of all kinds, caterers.

The leading Pharisees and scribes of the Law were concentrated in Jerusalem. From the New Testament we learn that Paul received his education as a Pharisee in Jerusalem although he grew up in one of the distant Jewish communities of Asia Minor. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish court of justice, of which the High Priest was the presiding official, met in Jerusalem.

It was in Jerusalem that meticulous observance of the Law could be expected in every area of Jewish life, whether relating to food prohibitions, marriage, and circumcision of boy children, trades and professions which a Jew might follow, tithing of income or punishment of wrongdoers. The Roman officials who found it necessary to be in Jerusalem could not fail to be aware that they were in a place where the way of life was very different from their own and where Gentiles were very unwelcome. Gentiles could enter only the outermost court of the Temple complex, and warning inscriptions were put on the walls informing any non-Jew that the penalty for entering the inner courts was death.