A gunman opened fire in the Roman theater of Amman, Jordan on Monday, killing one and wounding six other tourists. Attacks on tourists in moderate Arab nations are usually motivated by a desire to hurt the government and economy by scaring tourists away. A similar episode, but larger in scale, was the terrorist take-over of the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt in 1997.
Amman was the capital of the biblical Ammonites and was known as Rabbath-Ammon. The Bible describes David’s capture of the city during the time of his sin with Bathsheba (2 Sam 11:16-17). Uriah was killed when he came too close to the walls. By the New Testament period, the site was known as Philadelphia, and it was a large and impressive city of the Decapolis.
Roman theater in Amman
3 thoughts on “Terrorism in Ancient Theater”
I didn’t realize Amman was where Uriah died, or even that David had besieged it. Thanks!
I didn’t know that Amman was later to become known as “Philadelphia”, the city of brotherly love — I’m teaching a class on the Book of Revelation (or rather, the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John), and that is an interesting connection — Uriah’s murder…city of brotherly love…
Amman was known as Philadelphia, but this is not the same Philadelphia mentioned in Revelation. The letter in Revelation was sent to a church which is located in modern Turkey.