An Introduction TO THE STUDY OF The Hebrews, Phoenicians AND The Medes and Persians BY EUGENE FAIR Kirksville, Missouri Journal Printing Company 1907 PREFACE. The writing of this pamphlet has been brought about wholly by the needs of the writer's classes in Oriental History. So far as he knows there is no outline of this subject that is suitable to his purposes. The usual works are either too extensive or out of date. There is no attempt made at originality. The facts have been drawn largely from such works as Cornill's History of the People of Israel; Ottley's Short History of the Hebrews;Day's Social Life of the Hebrews; Duff's Theology and Ethics of the Hebrews; Paton's Early History of Syria and Palestine; Milman's History of the Jews; Maspero's Struggle of the Nations and the Passing of the Empires; Clay's Light on the Old Testament from Babel; The Old Testament; Perrot and Chipiez's History of Art in Sardinia Judaea Syria and Asia Minor; Todd's Politics and Re­ ligion in Ancient Israel; Rawlinson's Story of Phoenicia; Jack­ son's Persia Past and Present; and Bury's History of Greece. In the body of the text Cor. stands for Cornill's History of the Peo­ ple of Israel, J. for Jackson's Persia Past and Present and R. for Rawlinson's Story of Phoenicia. Special thanks are due to President John R. Kirk, Professor E. M. Violette and Mrs. Fair for consultation, aid and encourage­ ment in many ways. The uniform courtesy and patience of the Journal Printing Company through its manager, Mr. Link, has been much appreciated at all times. THE HEBREWS. CHAPTER I. NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND THE PEOPLE. The land occupied by the Hebrews while they were acting their chief part in history, as a united people, is almost wholly mountainous. Roughly speaking, its northern limit was about thirty-three degrees north latitude, its southern about thirty-one degrees north latitude, its western the Mediterranean, and its eastern the Arabian desert. We are accustomed to call it Palestine a name given it by the Greeks, which means Land of the Philis­ tines (the Greeks had entered the country from the coast and so naturally came in contact with the Philistines first). The inhabi­ tants themselves, during the best period of Hebrew history, called the land west of the Jordan Kenaan. Etymqlogically this word means "lowland" and so must have originally applied only to the Philisto-Phoenician coast lands. During this same period the land east of the Jordan was called Gilead. But modern histor­ ians speak of Palestine as including the land on both sides of the Jordan. Even then Palestine is a very small country, about 180 mUes long and 30 to 60 miles broad, with an area of about 8500 square miles. Two mountain ranges, spurs of the Lebanon and Anti- Libanus, run nearly parallel to the coast on each side of the Jordan valley. "From the foot of Mt. Hermon the valley of the Jordan rapidly sinks below the level of the Mediterranean; in the sixty miles between the lake of Galilee (680 ft. below sea-level) and the Dead Sea (1290 ft. below sea-level) the river falls some 600 feet" (Ottley p. 94). The mountainous country east of the Jordan is divided into three natural parts; the plateau of Bashan north of the river Yarmuk, the hill-country around the river Jabbok and the table-land south of this which extends to the Arnon river. The mountains west of the Jordan are broken into in only one place, the great plain of Esdraelon drained by the river Kishon. This plain has always afforded an excellent means of outlet from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. South of this plain the range has a westward extension in Mt. Carmel, but the main portion extends on southward. The average height of the mountainous reigon of Palestine is between 2000 and 3000 feet above the sea, but Mt. Hermon is about 9000 feet. Palestine as a whole is almost entirely shut out from the outside world. There are deserts on the east and south, on the west the Mediterranean which has no good harbor along this part of its coast, and which was almost unnavigable by the ships of the ancients because of the strong trade-winds. The country on the north is more accessible, though even here are the Lebanon and Anti-Libanus mountains. The various parts of Palestine are also isolated. The mountains have deep gorges which greatly impede intercourse; the Jordan has few fords and can not be navigated to any extent, instead of being a convenient means of transportation it is an almost impassable barrier. But the isolation was not enough to produce a narrow and boorish provincialism. Palestine is a bridge between the Tigro- Euphrates and Nile valleys; it formed the same commercial link between the Phoenician cities and the Arabian Gulf. Generally speaking the soil of Palestine is not ^•ery fertile in comparison with that of the great valleys we have studied. Its productivity is wholly dependent upon the winter rains and the dews of summer. There are almost all extremes of climate. Mt. Hermon is covered with perpetual snow. In the vallej' of the Jordan, a temperature as high as 109 F. in the shade, has been noted in May. Since the climate is so varied, there aj-e naturally great variations in plant and animal life. All kinds of grain, figs, olives, grapes and pomegranites thrive, if enough labor is expended. In the sub-tropical regions are the balsam and the palm. Cedar grows on the mountain slopes. Some 2000 species of flowers have been noted. The cimmon domestic ninmals were used, so lar as IL- knovvn, irom the earliest times. " In early times wild beasts such as the lion find boar, the wolf and the panther, the jackal and the hyena, must have lived there in great numbers; and even to this day, serpents are a great pest, Palestine having more than twenty species, among them five very dangerous and poisonous ones" (Cor. p. 15). Such were the natural conditions that the Hebrews had to face. It meant a contest at every step. But the Hebrews were not the first, it is thought, to struggle with these adverse environ­ ments. Most scholars think the Hebrews migrated into the country from the Tigro-Euphrates valley; at any rate they were Semites and were akin to the Amonites, Arameans and Edomites. Having these facts in mind we may now attempt to trace the his­ tory of this people who made such a wonderful contribution to the development of world-civilization. CHAPTER II. THE HEBREWS BEFORE THE FOUNDING OF THE KINGDOM (FROM ABOUT 2250 B. C. TO ABOUT 1000 B. C.) Of the original sources for the study of Hebrew history the Old Testament is of primary importance. There are three parts of it which were ranked as canonical Scriptures "sometimes be­ tween the beginning of the fifth and the close of the third century B. C." (Ottley p. 3). The Law (Torah), includes the Pentateuch with its five books. This portion carries the account of the Hebrews back to their remote origins and closes with the end of the wanderings in the wilderness of Paran. ^'arious legislative codes are also found in the Pentateuch. Much of this legal mat­ ter is arranged in the form of an historical narrative. But whether these enactments were made in the way the scriptures have it, is open to question. The most valuable source materials found in the Old Testa­ ment are the Prophets. "The name 'former prophets' was in fact applied by the Jews to four historical books: those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. The title 'latter' prophets' includes the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets (these last forming in the Jewish canon a single book). 5 The prophetical literature contains a considerable amount of actual history, but it is chiefly important in so far as it bears un­ designed testimony to the moral and religious condition of the Hebrews during the particular epochs when the various prophets lived, taught and wrote. These writings lay bare those currents of national thought and feeling which issued in the public actions, measures, or lines of policy adopted by Israel's kings or states­ men. They throw a vivid light upon the dangers, external or internal, which threatened Israel's welfare at different periods between the eighth and third centuries B. C. (Ottley p. 3). The third section of the Old Testament may be called the "Writings." They were likely collected at a comparatively late date in Jewish history. Generally speaking they are concerned with the Hebrews after the period of exile. Few of the Writings are historical in character— Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah may be looked upon as such. The form of Estliei- and Ruth is histor­ ical, but no+ the content, and none of the books can be used as complete sources. The Hebrews themselves have supplied us T\-ith p'-actically no other sources besides the Bible, but the inscriptions and vari­ ous records o^other people help us here. From the Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians we learn much about the Hebrews, in fact this knowledge gained has brought about great changes in the study of the scriptures. On the 300 years between the death of Nehemiah (about 430 B. C.) and the time of the Maccabees, very little source ma­ terial remains. Something, however, can be gained from the writings of Josephus, the extra-canonical writers-and from classi­ cal literature.