Apostolic Age - Apostolic Church in Jerusalem

Apostolic Church in Jerusalem

See also: Apostolic see, Jerusalem in Christianity, and Bishop of Jerusalem

In 66, the Jews revolted against Rome. Rome besieged Jerusalem for four years, and the city fell in 70. The city was destroyed, including the massive Temple, and the population was mostly killed or removed. Though, according to Epiphanius of Salamis, the Cenacle survived at least to Hadrian's visit in 130. A scattered population survived. Traditionally it is believed the Jerusalem Christians waited out the Jewish–Roman wars in Pella in the Decapolis. The Sanhedrin (of Judaism) reformed in Jamnia. Prophecies of the Second Temple's destruction are found in the synoptics, and are part of the argument for Supersessionism. After the Bar Kokhba revolt, Hadrian barred all Jews from Jerusalem which was renamed Aelia Capitolina, hence the subsequent Jerusalem bishops were gentiles.

Jerusalem received special recognition in Canon VII of Nicaea in 325, without yet becoming a metropolitan see, and was later named as one of the Pentarchy, but the later was never accepted by the Church of Rome.