QuAesTio : How different were the Israelites from their neighbors?

1. QuAesTio:How different were the Israelites from their neighbors? NuncAgEnda:Compare bullet point notes on the Persians with combined group members (same groups as end of the period on Friday). You have no more than five minutes to share information!

2. Disclaimer: Religion as History • As historians, we study religion in terms of: • Beliefs and Practices • Origin and Development • Influence on History • As historians, we neither affirm nor deny the existence of gods, miracles, or divine revelation because they are beyond the scope of historical inquiry

3. Origins of Judaism • The Jewish religion originated with a people called the Hebrews, nomadic pastoralists who settled in Fertile Crescent between 2000 and 1500 BCE • The main source for the history of the Hebrews is the holy book of Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, a collection of religious texts compiled over many centuries and finished around 100 CE

4. Origins of Judaism • The Hebrew Bible is generally NOT a primary source, as it was written later about past events • Outside the Bible, there are few historical sources that support the Biblical history • Historians today debate over how much of the religious story can be considered history

5. Origins of Judaism • Monotheism, the belief in only One God, set the Hebrews apart from their polytheistic neighbors in the Ancient World. The name for God in Hebrew is Yahweh, which means “The One that Always Exists.” • Proto-Monotheism outside Judaism • Atenism: Religion created by Pharaoh Akhenaten, worship of only Aten, the Sun Disc, over all other gods, but may still have believed in other gods • Zoroastrianism: Persian religion, founded by Zoroaster, which taught belief in supreme god of good, Ahura Mazda, but may have given equal power to a god of evil, Ahriman

6. Traditional Narrative – The Covenant • Jews believe that a man named Abraham, who lived in Mesopotamia, was chosen by God to be a prophet, someone who speaks to God and preaches God’s message to others. • God instructed Abraham to leave his home and made a covenant, or agreement, with Abraham: as long as Abraham obeyed God’s commands, God would bless him and his descendants and give them the land of Canaan (in the Southern Levant) as a new home.

7. Traditional Narrative – The Covenant • Like other peoples of the Levant, Abraham’s grandson Jacob and his twelve sons migrated to New Kingdom Egypt to escape famine in Canaan. • Jacob was also known by the name Israel, so his descendants were called the Israelites.

8. Traditional Narrative – The Exodus • As their population in Egypt grew, the Pharaoh saw the Israelites as a threat and enslaved them. Jews believe that a new prophet named Moses was chosen to free the Israelites. • With God’s help, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, a migration known as the Exodus, celebrated by Jews today during the holiday Passover.

9. Traditional Narrative – The Exodus • The Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years before returning to Canaan. During this time, God spoke to Moses and taught him the Torah (Hebrew for “Instruction”). • This included the Ten Commandments, the first being that no god be worshipped except Yahweh. • Some of the Israelites disobeyed monotheism by praying to an Egyptian bull god instead of God, but they atoned for their sins and God forgave them. • The holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is based on this story.

10. Kingdom and Conquest • The Israelites fought with other Canaanites for the land and eventually created the Kingdom of Israel in the 900s BCE. • The two most famous kings from the tradition were also seen as prophets: David, who made the holy city of Jerusalem his capital, and his son Solomon, who built the First Temple of Jerusalem, where priests made sacrifices to Yahweh. • However, the short-lived kingdom spilt into the larger Northern Kingdom of Israel and the smaller Southern Kingdom of Judah, who were later called Jews.

11. Kingdom and Conquest • The Israelites fought with other Canaanites for the land and eventually created the Kingdom of Israel in the 900s BCE. • The two most famous kings from the tradition were also seen as prophets: David, who made the holy city of Jerusalem his capital, and his son Solomon, who built the First Temple of Jerusalem, where priests made sacrifices to Yahweh. • However, the short-lived kingdom spilt into the larger Northern Kingdom of Israel and the smaller Southern Kingdom of Judah, who were later called Jews.

12. Kingdom and Conquest • The powerful Assyrian Empire conquered the Middle East, including the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in 772 BCE and kicked many of the Israelites out of the land. • In 586 BCE, the Chaldeans (aka Neo-Babylonians) conquered the Kingdom of Judah, destroying the Temple and taking thousands of Jews to Babylon to uproot them from their history.

13. Kingdom and Conquest • About 50 years later, the Persians under King Cyrus conquered the region, and because of their religious tolerance, they allowed the Jews to return to Judah and begin rebuilding the Temple. • According to Jewish tradition, the Torah as given to Moses is recorded as the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which historians believe was written down during this period.

14. Code of HammurabiVSLaw of the Torah • In pairs, read the excerpts from the Code of Hammurabi and the Law of the Torah • Compare and contrast each pair of laws, and explain their similarities and differences in the column on the right • At the end, discuss the Quaestio with your partner and write a paragraph answering it

15. PENSAStudents will read Chapter 3 Section 1 in the textbook and complete the “Indus and Aryan Civilizations” worksheet