Did People Live Outside Jerusalem's City Walls? Security and Urban Logic

Historically, people did not typically reside outside Jerusalem's city walls by choice. The walls existed precisely to concentrate and protect the population.

Why Walls Mattered

• Defense: Protection from armies, raiders, bandits
• Control: Gates regulated entry, trade, taxation
• Identity: "Inside" = citizen/community; "Outside" = danger, exile, impurity
• Services: Water (Pools of Siloam, Bethesda), sanitation, markets, courts — all inside

Exceptions: Who Was Outside?

• Necropolises: Burial grounds *had* to be outside (Jewish law) — Kidron Valley, Hinnom Valley, Mount of Olives
• Ritual impurity: Lepers, menstruating women, corpse-contact — temporary exclusion
• Undesirables: Criminals, enemies, "dogs" (metaphorical)
• Suburbs/villages: Bethany, Bethphage, Siloam — separate settlements, not "outside walls" of Jerusalem proper
• Siege camps: Attackers (Romans 70 CE, Babylonians 586 BCE, Crusaders 1099)

Wall Expansions = Urban Growth

• First Temple: City of David (small SE ridge)
• Hezekiah (8th c. BCE): Broad Wall — Western Hill included (refugees from Israel)
• Herod Agrippa I (41–44 CE): Third Wall — northern suburbs (Bezetha)
• Each expansion brought formerly "outside" areas inside

Modern Context

• Old City walls (Ottoman, 1535–1542) enclose 0.9 km²
• 19th century: Overcrowding → Jewish neighborhoods *outside* walls (Mishkenot Sha'ananim 1860, Mea Shearim 1874)
• Today: Jerusalem = 125 km²; Old City = <1%

Living outside walls was necessity (burial, impurity) or catastrophe (siege) — not lifestyle. The city was the wall.