Damascus

Damascus, the capital of ancient Aram (Syria), is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, set in a fertile, well-watered plain east of the Anti-Lebanon range about 130 miles north of Jerusalem. Its rivers — the Abana and Pharpar, which Naaman prized above all the waters of Israel (2 Kings 5:12) — made it a green oasis and a hub of caravan trade between Mesopotamia, Arabia, and the Mediterranean.

The city appears early in Scripture: Abraham pursued the kings who captured Lot as far as Hobah, north of Damascus (Genesis 14:15), and his trusted servant Eliezer was “of Damascus” (Genesis 15:2). David garrisoned it after defeating the Arameans who came to Hadadezer’s aid (2 Samuel 8:5-6). Through the divided-monarchy period Damascus was chiefly Israel’s rival and oppressor under a line of kings named Ben-hadad and Hazael (1 Kings 20:1; 2 Kings 8:7-15), though Elisha’s ministry reached even there. Under Ahaz, King Rezin of Damascus allied with Israel against Judah in the Syro-Ephraimite war (Isaiah 7:1-9).

The prophets pronounced judgment on the proud city: Amos foretold exile for Aram (Amos 1:3-5), and Isaiah declared, “Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins” (Isaiah 17:1) — fulfilled when Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria captured it and deported its people in 732 BC (2 Kings 16:9).

Damascus gains its greatest significance in the New Testament as the scene of Saul of Tarsus’s conversion. Traveling there with letters to arrest believers, he was met by the risen Christ in blinding light — “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” — and rose a new man, baptized by Ananias and at once preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 9:1-22). When the Jews plotted to kill him, the disciples lowered him over the wall in a basket, an escape Paul himself recalled (Acts 9:23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32-33). Thus the ancient city of Israel’s old enemy became the birthplace of the apostle to the Gentiles.