The Israelites
A Brief History
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, principles of free will and democracy, all have come in some part from the Israelites, they form one of the foundations of western society. However, the Israelites and their descendants the Jews have also suffered from persecution for thousands of years. The story of the Israelites and the Jewish people is vital to understanding the world we live in today.
The people who would become known as the Israelites were a group of semitic people who most likely came from Northern Arabia and settled somewhere in the Fertile Crescent. According to the Torah the founder of the Israelites was Abraham, who was from the Sumerian city of Ur. He was told by god to travel from Mesopotamia to an area known as Canaan, which is modern day Israel. Eventually, the Hebrews would move into Egypt.
Unfortunately, there is little historical corroboration for the biblical accounts of the Israelites. However, historians have been able to place many of the biblical accounts in historical context. For instance, Abraham's journey from Ur to Egypt happened around the time that Ur was conquered by the Amorites. Furthermore, the events surrounding Moses, who can be considered the founder of Judaism as we know it, can also be historically placed.
The people of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia worshipped many gods. However, the Israelites were monotheistic and because of this they were different from every other group of people in the ancient Mediterranean world, except for one heretical Pharaoh.
Amenhotep IV, who came to be known as Akhenaton, ruled Egypt beginning in about 1370 B.C.E. As Akhenaton, he radically changed the official religion in Egypt from the worship of many gods, to the worship of just one. This god was Ra, the sun god, shown as Aton, the sun disk. Akhenaton died mysteriously around age thirty, and his religion officially died with him. The Pharaoh's that would follow Akhenaton, including Tutankhamen and Ramses II, would eliminate the monotheistic type worship of Aton. However, during the reign of Ramses II, another monotheistic religion would become known, that of Moses and the Israelites. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for lord is "Adon", very similar to "Aton".
According to the Bible, as a baby, Moses was found in a basket floating in the Nile river and raised by an Egyptian princess. Historians have placed his life during the reign of Ramses II. By Moses' time the Israelites had been enslaved within Egypt and were being used on monumental building projects. Again, according to the Bible Moses had a battle of wills with the Pharaoh in which god repeatedly visited plagues upon Egypt,until the Pharaoh let the Israelites leave. Moses then led the Egyptians through the wilderness. Historically, there is little evidence of the Exodus from Egypt, however the Israelites did settle in the promised land not long afterwords.
While most of the events of Moses' life can not be independently corroborated, the laws that he is said to have brought to the Israelites would guide Hebrew/Jewish life until the present day. They are also a foundation of Christian belief and western philosophy, and can still cause controversy today.
The most famous of these laws are the Ten Commandments, which Moses is said to have brought down from Mount Sinai. These laws lay out how the Jewish people should live, they are rules for interaction with both god and people. In addition to the Ten Commandments, Moses is responsible for giving a host of other laws to the Israelites, and thus to the western world. Because of the laws that Moses brought to the Israelites, he is known as the "Law giver."
Once Joshua had led the Israelites out of the wilderness, they settled in Canaan. Historically, we know that the Israelites settled in Canaan somewhere in the area of 1200-1100 B.C.E. The first known king of the Israelites was Saul, he was followed by David who made Jerusalem the Capital of the Kingdom. In the mid 900's B.C.E. the Kingdom was divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah, containing Jerusalem, in the south. Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in about 720 B.C.E. and Judah was captured by Babylonia in 586 B.C.E. At this time Jerusalem and the First Temple were destroyed and the first Jewish 'diaspora ' began.
The exile of the Jews at this time was known as the Babylonian Captivity. Some of the Jews themselves were brought to Babylon as captive. However most were not "captive" but their land, that of Judah, was captive. This exile of the Jews would be the first in a long line of expulsions of the Jews from their homeland, the first of many Diasporas.
The Babylonian Captivity was not long lasting, Babylon was conquered by the Persians and the Jews were allowed to return to Judah and Jerusalem, at this time the city and the temple were rebuilt.
Although the Persians allowed the Jews to return to their homeland not all did so, many remained in Babylon or spread to other areas in the Mediterranean.
In 331 B.C.E. Alexander the Great conquered Judah, he did not exile the Jews, he allowed them to stay and prosper. Although the Jewish people were not exiled, there way of life was transformed. Many Jews spread throughout Alexanders Empire learned to read, write, and speak Greek, they became Hellenized. More importantly, their writings were translated into Greek, and their ideas and beliefs spread throughout the Mediterranean world.
The Jews under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus would eventually drive the Greeks from Judah, and the Jews would rule their own nation for about 100 years, until the Romans arrived.
In 63 B.C.E. Judah was once again conquered, this time by the Roman general Pompey the Great, and renamed Judaea. The Romans at first allowed the Jews to remain in control, however they remained mistrustful of the Jewish belief in one god, and several revolts occurred from 1-132 C.E.
The Jews revolted in both 66 and 132 C.E., the first revolt was crushed after 4 years of Jewish rule of Jerusalem, and the Jews were allowed to continue living in Jerusalem. The second revolt in 132 C.E. was much more severe, and the Jews were forbidden to return to Jerusalem, thus began the final phase of the ancient Jewish Diaspora. During this time the Jewish people would spread throughout much of the Roman Empire, even as far north as England. In addition, the Romans changed the name of Judaea to Palestine after the Philistines who lived in the area, the Philistines became the people we know as the Palestinians.
During the Roman occupation of Judea another momentous event in the history of the Jewish people occurred, the birth of Jesus.
Jesus was born and died Jewish, however from his death a new religion would be born, Christianity. The followers of Jesus believed him to be the Christ, or Messiah the person promised in the the Bible to save the Jews. Jesus was convicted of trying to overthrow the Roman government in Judea, as he was proclaimed King of the Jews. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate essentially allowed the Jewish judges to convict Jesus and have him crucified. From this would come the belief that the Jews killed Jesus, a belief that would be repeated throughout the years as a reason to discriminate against the Jewish people.
The death of Jesus and the subsequent blaming of the Jews for his death would change the way that the Jews were treated for the next 2,000 years.
The Romans did not fully trust the Jews, and would persecute them from time to time for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods, but they did not discriminate against them for being Jewish, life in the Roman empire was not terrible for the Jews.
Christianity was not widespread in the Empire for several hundred years. Once it became the official religion of the Romans, the persecution of the Jews began.
During the middle ages or medieval times in Europe, the Catholic church was dominant. One of the laws of the Church was that Catholics could not commit usury , however people needed money for building projects and waging war, and the Jews were willing to lend it. Because of this project, the Jews were labeled as money hungry and cheap. However, when the borrowers did not want to pay, they would simply run the Jews out of town. Another serious charge against the Jews was the "Blood Libel", Jews were accused of using the blood of Christian children in their rituals, Jews were now known as children killers as well as Christ killers.
Continuing from Medieval times to the present day, the Jews have been persecuted. Their story is one of constant movement, heartache, and the search for a home. Through all of the trials and tribulations they have managed to keep their religion and culture intact until their dream of a homeland was fulfilled in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust. However, the story of the Jews does not end there, they still face persecution and discrimination in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. In addition they are involved in one of the most complicated international issues of today, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Jewish story is the story of the Western world, their history is a part of our heritage, and must be remembered.