Ancient Israel

1. Ancient Israel The children of Abram

2. 5 themes of geography: Location/Region: Israel is in the Middle East. It is NE of Egypt and SW of Mesopotamia. It borders the Mediterranean Sea on its western coast. Place: hot, arid, desert climate with rolling hills. Jordan River flows through it, and it has access to the Sea of Galilee, Mediterranean Sea, and Dead Sea. Vegetation-short, dry scrub brush and grasses, limited trees. People-known as Israelites and Jews Speak- Hebrew Religion-Judaism (monotheistic, God is Yahweh); Hebrew Bible consists of Torah and other writings, including Psalms (poems), proverbs (advice), and the 10 Commandments. Human-environmental Interaction-many were fishermen, due to proximity to seas. Irrigated to farm. Movement-people & goods moved by boat, donkey, camel, or foot. Ideas spread through their writing, which used an alphabet and through spoken word.

3. Israel The Empire of King David and King Solomon

4. Abram-Father of Many Nations • Abram, a Sumerian man from Ur in Mesopotamia, comes from a family that is monotheistic. • His god, Yahweh, tells him to move his wife and children to another land and establish his home there. • Abram arrives in a region of rolling hills, valleys, and coastal plains known as Canaan around 2000 BC, where he made a covenant, or special agreement, with Yahweh. • He promised to be faithful to the one true god, who in return promised to give the land of Canaan to Abram’s descendants as their home country. Abram changed his name to Abraham (father of many nations in Hebrew) to mark this covenant. Even today, he is known as the father of the Jewish people through his son Isaac, and the father of the Arabic people through his son Ishmael. • His grandson Jacob, also knows as Israel, raised 12 sons in Canaan. His descendants would become the 12 tribes of Israel.

5. Hard times come to the Israelites • A 100-year drought forced many Israelites to flee Canaan for Egypt. • Why would a drought force people to leave their homes? Eventually, the Egyptianpharaohs would enslave the Israelites that lived in Egypt. After many years of slavery, a prophecy began to spread than a Jewish leader would be born to lead the Jews out of slavery. To prevent this, the pharaoh ordered that all Jewish baby boys be killed. • To save her son, one Israelite woman put her baby boy in a reed basket and sent him floating down the Nile River. As luck would have it, the pharaoh’s daughter found him and decided to adopt him. She called the boy Moses. • When Moses became a teenager, he worked as a herdsman in the hills. One day he saw a burning bush and heard the voice of Yahweh telling him to lead his people (the Jews) out of Egypt.

6. Moses leads the Israelites to freedom • The Hebrew Bible says that when the pharaoh refused to release the Jewish people from slavery, Yahweh sent 10 plagues against the Egyptians. • The final plague killed all first-born children in the land. In order to separate themselves from the Egyptians, Jewish families marked their doors with lamb’s blood. • Finally, after losing his own son to the last plague, the pharaoh agreed to release the Israelites. However, he changed his mind as soon as they left and sent his army after them. • The Israelites fled toward their ancient home of Canaan, heading east to the Red Sea. According to the Bible, the Red Sea parted and allowed the Jews to flee, but drown the entire Egyptian army that followed them. • As a punishment for sins, the Jews wandered the desert for 40 years before reachingCanaan. During the wandering time, Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai and received a series of 10 Commandments, or laws, from Yahweh. These 10 Commandments are known as the Torah, which became the first part of the Hebrew Bible. The 10 Commandments are important in human history because they form the basic moral law of many nations. • Where do you think Mount Sinai is located?

7. The 10 Commandments • Do not worship any god except me. • Do not...bow down and worship idols. • Do not misuse my name. • Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it sacred. • Honor your father and your mother. • Do not murder. • Be faithful in marriage. • Do not steal. • Do not tell lies about others. • Do not want anything that belongs to someone else. What influence do these laws have on the cultures that come after them? Do any of these laws show up in our legal system?

8. Fighting for the Promised Land • Moses died before the Israelites reached Canaan, so they selected Joshua to lead them. • When they arrived in Canaan, the people who had settled on the land after the Israelites left were NOT willing to give it up without a fight. • Joshua led the Israelites into battle against the Canaanites at the Battle of Jericho. • To take the walled city of Jericho, God told the Israelites to march around the city while blowing trumpets. On the 7th day, the army stopped marching, one last trumpet volley sounded, the army shouted, and the walls of Jericho fell, allowing Joshua’s army to defeat Jericho. • After the Battle of Jericho, Joshua led the Israelites in 3 more wars. He divided the land among the 12 tribes of Israel.

9. Who were the judges? • Following the death of Joshua, judges took over leadership of the 12 tribes. A judge was a military leader. Usually they only led 1 or 2 tribes, not all 12. • The Hebrew Bible tells about many judges, including Barak, Samuel, Eli, Gideon, Samson, and Deborah. • Deborah was a female judge. Although judges were military leaders, she did not fight. Instead she acted as an advisor to Barak on the battlefield. • Eventually, the Israelites won control over the hilly region of central Canaan. The Canaanites kept the flat, coastal areas. To protect their newly won territories, the Israelites built walled cities and towns.

10. Alphabet soup The Israelites borrowed their alphabet from a group of Canaanites called the Phoenicians, who were skilled sailors and traders. Because they traded all along the Mediterranean Sea, their idea of an alphabet also spread to far-away places like Greece.

11. The Kings of Israel • The prophet & Judge, Samuel, chose a warrior-farmer named Saul to be the 1st king of Israel. • Saul was a successful warrior-king, but he disobeyed God, so God told Samuel to appoint a young shepherd boy named David to be the new king. • David was a friend of Jonathan, Saul’s son, and became a famous warrior. As a young man, he killed the Philistine giant, Goliath, with just a slingshot and some rocks. • When Saul is killed in battle, David became king. As a king, he expanded Israel into an empire, but he also made the Israelites pay high taxes to expand its capital, Jerusalem.

12. More kings of Israel Upon David’s death, his son Solomon inherited the throne. Solomon was not a popular king because he forced the Israelites to pay even higher taxes than his father, and he forced the young men of northern Israel to work in his mines. As an older man, Solomon was considered very wise. He wrote the proverbs, which are a collection of wise sayings that are part of the Hebrew Bible.

13. Divide and Be Conquered • Upon the death of Solomon, the northerns rebelled and fighting broke out. 10 tribes set up a kingdom in the north called Israel. • 2 tribes formed a kingdom to the South called Judah. • During the division of the two kingdoms, a group of religious teachers called prophets taught the Israelites to work for a just society by leading moral lives, and gave them hope for the future. • While the Israelites were dividing into 2 kingdoms, the Assyrians and Chaldeans were building their empires in Mesopotamia. • In 722 BC, the Assyrians conquered Israel. As with all the lands they conquered, they forced many of the Israelites to leave their homes and move to Mesopotamia. They also destroyed many of the towns and temples of Israel. • The Assyrians who moved into Israel mixed with the remaining Israelites and assimilated many of the cultural traits of Israel, including their God. This culture was different from that of the Israelites, and came to be known as the Samaritans.

14. The 2 Kingdoms of Abraham’s People: Israel Judah

15. What did the prophets teach the Israelites? Elijah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, & Ezekial

16. Persian, Chaldean, Egyptian Empires

17. Judah falls... • After the fall of Israel to the Assyrians, Judah held out for a while. • In 620 BC, the Egyptians conquered Judah and forced them to pay tribute. • The Chaldeans (New Babylonians) conquered Egypt, so Judah fell under their control. Against the advice of the prophet Jeremiah, the Jews rebelled. The Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, was furious and punished them by capturing Jerusalem, destroying Solomon’s temple, and exiling the Jews to Babylon. This 50 year period of exile is known as the Babylonian Captivity.

18. A scattered people with a growing religion... During the Babylonian Captivity, the Jews kept their religion alive by meeting every Sabbath in synagogues. When the Persians conquered Mesopotamia, including the Chaldeans, Persia’s King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Judah. The Jews that returned to Judah rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple. Cyrus appointed officials to rule the country and collect taxes, but allowed Jewish religious leaders to rule their society.

19. The Greeks Take Over Alexander the Great-the Macedonian Greek who conquers the Persian Empire and down into India. His Greek army also conquers Judah, bringing with them Greek math, architecture, literature, and language. The Diaspora refers to the scattering of Jews away from their homeland. It began under the Assyrians and continued through the time of the Greeks. Initially, the Greeks let the Jews have their own religion. However, Antiochus decided in 168 BC to force the Jews to adopt Greek polytheism. An army led by the priest Judas Maccabeus rebelled and drove the Greeks out of Judah.

20. And now the Romans... In 63 BC the Romans took over Judah and renamed it Judaea. At first the Romans allowed Jews to rule Judaea. King Herod was a famous Jewish king of this time period. He is known for the incredible additions he made to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Upon Herod’s death, Roman officials took over running Judaea, which displeased the Jews.

21. How shall I think? 3 groups dominated Jewish thinking at the time of Roman rule: Pharisees-taught the Torah & how to apply its laws to everyday life, especially within the home and family. Taught the oral traditions of Judaism, as well as the written. Popular with common people. Sadducees-Also followed the Torah, but applied it more to temple priests. They emphasized written law and commandments, rejecting the oral traditions taught by the Pharisees. Mostly scribes and priests. Essenes-a group of priests who broke away from the temple in Jerusalem and moved into the desert to pray for God to deliver them from the Romans. Essenes strictly followed the written law, like the Sadducees.

22. Jewish Revolts Against the Romans • AD 60s-Jews are waiting for a messiah to deliver them from the hated Romans. • A group of men knows as Zealots want to fight against the Romans and drive them out of Israel. They were successful in AD 66, but the Romans retook Jerusalem 4 years later. • During their reconquest of Jerusalem, the Romans destroyed the temple. Today, only the Western Wall remains. • After another attempt at rebellion, the Romans kicked all Jews out of Jerusalem and renamed it Palestine, after the Philistines that the Jews had defeated centuries before.

23. How to maintain your identity in exile: 1) study your religious documents in school • Yohanan ben Zaccai was a famous rabbi who founded Jewish schools in Judaea for studying the Torah. Other rabbis followed his example in places as far away as Babylon and Egypt. 2) maintain your unique cultural traits, like your language, sabbath, food prohibitions, rules about clothing, and headwear (yarmulkes for men and shawls for women).

24. For the next 2000 years... • Most Jews lived outside of Palestine. • They made very notable contributions to commerce and many professions, such as medical science. • They faced centuries of hatred, oppression, and persecution in many of the places they settled across Europe, Asia, and Africa. • Under the Nazi Party of Germany, over 6 million Jews were rounded up, forced to live in ghettos (ethnic neighborhoods) and work in labor camps before being murdered by the Nazis. • 1948-a new Jewish nation called Israel was created after the horrors of the Holocaust.