The Times of the Old Testament Marshall High School Mr. Cline Western Civilization I: Ancient Foundations Unit Two DC * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • Historical Interpretation of Jewish Texts • Modern historians are at odds as to what to make of the Torah. • On the one hand, there is no evidence that the Hebrew people were ever in Egypt; and though the Hebrews attributed these books to Moses, modern scholars have identified as many as four different authors of the Torah. • On the other hand, the authors of the Torah were still quite ancient, some of them dating back as far as 900 BC; and while the Torah's account might not be accurate from a strictly historical perspective, it certainly tells us a great deal about the ancient Hebrews and their beliefs. • There is less ambiguity about some of the later books in the Tanakh. • The Nevi'im, or books of prophets, recount the history of the Jewish people after entering the Promised Land. • Unlike the Torah, many of these stories can be backed up with archaeological evidence. * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • Historical Interpretation of Jewish Texts • For instance, the book of Joshua records the conquest of Israel under the leadership of Moses' successor, Joshua. • The account mentions several cities that archaeologists have since uncovered, including the famous walled city of Jericho, which remains one of the oldest walled cities we've ever found, though we've yet to find any trumpets. • The books of Samuel and Kings record the ascent of the first kings of Israel (Saul, David and Solomon), and there is evidence that King David at least might have actually existed. • Several books of the Nevi'im record the oppression of the Hebrews by various peoples, pretty much all of whom have been matched to real civilizations, whose own records often validate the Hebrew account. * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • The Jewish People: A History of Oppression • Between the books of the Nevi'im and the efforts of modern archaeologists, we know that the Hebrews fell under the control of many empires over the years, including the Babylonians, Assyrians, Philistines, Moabites, Syrians and Romans. • Some of these conquerors were quite intent on wiping out the Hebrew people and their faith. • Both the Assyrians and Babylonians made a practice of relocating conquered peoples from their homelands into somewhere deep within the empire. • By doing so, they hoped to break down those people's cultural identity and assimilate them as Assyrians or Babylonians. • Yet, the faith and identity of the Hebrews withstood these attempts. • The Hebrews considered these periods of oppression and captivity as God's punishment for their disobedience. * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • The Jewish People: A History of Oppression • They maintained their faith despite the best efforts of their oppressors. • In a time when so many other faiths and peoples were absorbed into great empires, the survival of the Hebrews and their faith as a distinct people is actually quite remarkable. • The persistence of the Jewish faith can be directly attributed to the factors we noted at the beginning of this lesson. • The Hebrews had one God and refused to worship the gods of their conquerors. • The Hebrews refused to conform to the society of their conquerors. • Their steadfast faith in a single God kept their religion untainted, and their refusal to marry non- Jews helped them maintain their ethnic identity. * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • The Jewish People: A History of Oppression • Yet, most importantly, the Jews had a holy book containing all the wisdom, laws and beliefs of their culture. • While other, less literate religions might change with the times, the Jewish religion was preserved in writing. • The Impact of Jewish Oppression on the Modern World • Yet, this constant oppression did not leave Judaism totally unchanged. We can see its mark in the continued Jewish desire to reclaim their homeland, a movement known today as Zionism. • We can read the tale of oppression in Jewish rituals, like the Passover Seder, commemorating their slavery in Egypt, and the Hanukkah menorah, which recalls the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire. * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • The Impact of Jewish Oppression on the Modern World • Yet, perhaps the clearest impact of oppression upon the Jews is the Jewish prophesy of the Messiah, a savior who would rescue the Jews from oppression and restore them to the glory God promised Abraham so long ago. • In the beginning of the Common Era, many Jews thought they'd found their Messiah in Jesus and established the Christian religion. • Later, the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula would further adapt the Jewish faith to found Islam. • Yet, the majority of Jews remained true to the original covenant between God and Abraham, preserving the ancient faith of Judaism to this day. * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • United under a single monarch, King Saul, the Israelites slowly conquered their neighbors; Canaanites, Hittites and Philistines. • By 1004 BC, Saul's successor, King David, had carved out the borders of the kingdom of Israel and established Jerusalem as its capital. David's son, King Solomon the Wise, built an amazing temple to hold the Ark of the Covenant. • After centuries of wandering, the Ark finally had a home. • Yet stability would prove short-lived. • Around 950 BC, ten of the twelve tribes of Israel rebelled against their extravagant kings, breaking the kingdom in two. • To the north, the ten tribes formed the Kingdom of Israel, while to the south, Solomon's dynasty continued to rule the Kingdom of Judah. • This division could not have come at a worse time, for it left the Israelites vulnerable to the new empires emerging to the east. * The Kingdoms of the Bible Lands • The Hebrews had been fortunate that their rise to statehood had taken place during a time of weakness for Egypt and Mesopotamia, however this period came to an end in 924 B.C. when the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq invaded and imposed tribute on Israel and Judah. • In the next century, both kingdoms were rebellious vassals of Assyria. Israel was destroyed in 722, but Judah survived for about another 150 years longer. • In the next century, both kingdoms were rebellious vassals of Assyria. Israel was destroyed in 722, but Judah survived for about another 150 years, when the Babylonians captured it (The Babylonian Captivity), tore down the temple, and deported the inhabitants to Mesopotamia. • This began a 3,000 year period in the Jewish history where the search for a homeland for Jewish people began, and the Jewish people were scattered across the globe. This is known as the Jewish Diaspora * The Phoenicians • One of the first great seafaring peoples of history, the Phoenicians pioneered trade routes across the Mediterranean, creating new links between Europe and the Near East. Their voyages of exploration may have taken them as far as the British Isles and tropical Africa. • The Phoenicians were descended from the Canaanites, a Semitic speaking people who inhabited the Levant during the Bronze Age • Although they were mostly under the domination of Egypt, and never formed any large states of their own, they have a major place in history because of what you read here (they invented the alphabet) • As it was much easier to learn than other early writing systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform, it made possible the growth of literacy that is the foundation of western civilization • The homeland of the Phoenicians was the coast of modern Lebanon and Syria, where there are the best natural harbors in the eastern Mediterranean. Small ports began to develop here in around 2000 B.C. trading cedar, wood, ivory and purple dye with Egypt and Mesopotamia * The Phoenicians • The purple dye was obtained from the murex shellfish, and was such an important export that it probably gave the Phoenicians their names, derived from the Greek word for red (phoinix) • The Phoenicians established trading colonies throughout the Mediterranean and possibly even in coastal Europe, where they may have been the cause of the break off from Proto German from the Proto Indo European language • These colonies became independent city states, ruled by hereditary kings, like Hiram of Tyre, who supplied King Solomon with the timber craftsmen necessary to build the Temple in Jerusalem. But, by the 6th century B.C., these cities had changed their government to rule by elected magistrates. • The most important of these colonies/ city states was Carthage in northern Africa (modern day Tunisia) • The Phoenicians travels were very influential on the Greeks who adopted their alphabet, and much of their religion, and learned and traded with the outside world through them * The Phoenicians • In the 8th century, the explosive growth of the Assyrian empire and its demand for metals and exotic products, led to the increase and farther travels of the Phoenicians, but also led to the domination of them by the Assyrians who regulated their trade and exacted high tributes for the privilege of trading. • After the fall of the Assyrian empire, Phoenicia first passed to control under Babylon, and then Persian control before being conquered by the Greeks and becoming Hellenized, losing their distinctive cultural identity. • 2 Chronicles 2:14—The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold, silver, brass, iron, stone, timber, royal purple(from the Murex), blue, and in crimson, and fine linens; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him... * The Phoenicians • Many of the fraternal societies of the 19th century, including the freemasons, trace their origins to the Knights Templar, whose headquarters, while Jerusalem was the capital of an European Christian kingdom, was Solomon’s temple.