The Christian communities in Jerusalem were the exclusive populace of the city until its conquest by the Muslims. They were organized in groups according to political, ethnic, cultural and political association, and their relations to specific churches. The largest and most dominant amongst the Christian communities in Jerusalem was the Greek Orthodox community. This community was diophysite, fierce opponents of the monophysites, and continued to worship icons even during the iconoclastic controversies of the eighth and ninth centuries CE. The Orthodox Church was affiliated with the Imperial Church, and thus they were loyal to the Empire's authorities. This loyalty was problematic under the Muslim rule, which was hostile to Byzantium.

The hegemony of the Orthodox Church is best seen in their control of the sacerdotal hierarchy of the Jerusalem patriarchate. Until the Muslim rule the Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem was head of the Christian hierarchy in the whole of the country, superior to the bishops of the three major ecclesiastical provinces: Caesarea, Bet She'an (Scythopolis) and Petra. This hierarchical structure of organization was sorely affected by the Muslim capture of the city: the whole of the country was turned into one diocese subordinate to the Jerusalem patriarch. The Patriarch of Jerusalem thus won an official position in the Muslim administration.