3. THE ANCIENT JEWISH LEGACY

THE ISRAELITES STRUGGLE TO "KEEP COVENANT" WITH GOD
From the 1900s B.C.(?)
to the Time of Christ

How Ancient Israel inspired the development of young America The Framers of the American Constitution (1787).  Undoubtedly in their look back in history to find guidance in shaping their new American government, the Founding Fathers of the young and rising American nation – one that had come to view itself as being specially covenanted by God to be a "City on a Hill" or a "Light to the Nations" – were also quite knowledgeable about ancient Israel.  It was, after all, the forerunner and major part of the spiritual foundation on which their own Christian faiths stood. They had just gone through a grueling struggle to preserve their political independence from Britain and its king and armies, who materially speaking were far better equipped to win this engagement than were the simple American colonists.  But these Americans were mystics, and knew full well that it was God ("Providence") that had given them the win in this struggle – just as it was God who had been their protector and guide in founding and building this covenant nation a century and a half previously.  Now (the summer of 1787) they were called to put this venture into writing – a fundamental or constitutional law that would carefully define how a newly independent America was at that point to be governed. But getting the 55 delegates to be "reasonable" in developing a relatively short document defining their ongoing union as the United States of America proved to be a very difficult task.  They all had their own good ideas of how this should be done.  And with half of them being experienced lawyers, all the careful legal reasoning they employed to get their own views accepted was getting them nowhere … except into ever-deeper contention. Thus at a point that the convention seemed doomed to failure, the American sage, Ben Franklin, called on the delegates to stop their contentious self-serving political reasoning and instead go to God in prayer – in fact begin each day in prayer in order to get God's counsel in this enterprise of theirs.  He quoted the Biblical passage, "Except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it" (Psalm 127:1).  He warned them that not to look to God in this matter was clearly going to result in failure in their efforts, and possibly the discouraging of any other society from ever attempting to establish a government on human wisdom, and instead leave it to chance, war and conquest.  And that admonition seemed to have sobered them enough to back off from their high reasoning … and find ways to work together – through much compromise of course. ("enlightened" idealists hate the very idea of compromise). Fortunately, besides their own long experience (a century-and-a-half) of self-rule, they also had in front of them (as Franklin clearly demonstrated) the clear example of Israel itself as the very model of what a society that had been covenanted to God was to look like, how under the rule of God's Laws it was to operate … and not operate.  So it was that Biblical Judaism was very instructive on just such matters that these Framers of a new American Constitution themselves were facing. The Puritan-American legacy.  That very moral-spiritual foundation that the Constitutional Framers themselves enjoyed was well laid out in America because of a large number of English Puritans who came to America a century and a half earlier (the early 1600s).  These Puritans were very much into the laws of God ... ones they knew well on the basis of personal experience to be the most reliable instruction set to live by in both their personal and their social affairs.  And these Puritans lived by means of a huge faith that gave them the necessary confidence to move boldly into a previously unexplored world.  Thus it was that by all instinct they were great explorers … even adventurers. Indeed, the Puritans were well-known in their days for how they were the most active in studying carefully the world that seemed to be opening around them … looking for the patterns in all of life, in all of Creation, that God himself had put in place.  Thus not only were the Puritans major experimenters in their days in the fields of math, physics and chemistry (for instance, England's Royal Society, founded in the 1600s, was filled with numerous Puritan "natural philosophers" or scientists), they were also social visionaries, attempting to develop a society founded on God's very Word itself.  They were thus excited to put into place in the new American setting the life patterns that they knew that God himself had set up at the very foundations of the world, of the universe itself – patterns or "natural laws" not only to be discovered in their scientific research, but also, and most importantly, already well-founded on God's very Word – laid out quite clearly in their Bibles.. Ancient Israel and the laws of God.  Thus it was that ancient Israel was well understood in America to be God's "Light to the Nations," revealing to all the peoples, all the nations, how God's social laws worked – have always worked and will always work accordingly – because social experiments, unlike physics and chemistry experiments, do not fit the strict requirements of laboratory experimentation.  You can't conduct social experiments with whole societies the way you can conduct laboratory experiments with objects of a more physical nature! Understanding this, and due to the enormous complexity of the laws directing all social dynamics – especially those concerning the rise and fall of societies – God simply demonstrated through the "Israelite experiment" the all-important laws of society as he made them.  God made them very explicit not only through social example, bad and good, but also through words given directly to Israel by way of the prophets.   God intended for all of this social dynamic to be studied ... and learned from.  And indeed that was a set of lessons that the Founding Fathers would have known in great detail.  And as they themselves affirmed, that was what enabled them to get all the human politics that arise when deep social challenges face a people.  Putting themselves under God's guidance rather than their own self-serving political instincts, they were able finally to make the right decisions in founding America's new Constitutional Republic.

It is very hard to know where to start the Jewish narrative.  Judaism as a mature religion really came into being only with the captivity of the Jewish ruling classes in Babylon during the 500s BC … when, with no Temple to worship at where they could perform the anciently required sacrifices, and thus with their priests unemployed during their Babylonian captivity, the Jews found that to survive they had to reinvent themselves … in the process becoming something of a "People of the Book" (as Muslims would later term them) … that is a people whose religious life now turned around their own well-recorded narrative as a "chosen people" of God … now disciplined and led not by priests but by teacher-preachers or Biblical scholars knows as rabbis – well familiar with that narrative, and on that basis able to give skillful moral-spiritual guidance to the various – and often quite scattered – Jewish communities under their leadership.  Thus the 500s BC certainly would be a good place to start the narrative. But the Jews did not just happen into existence at that point.  Rather, they were one of the tribal components (over the long run however, the most important tribal component) of the multi-tribal Israelite people or kingdom. And that kingdom got its start some 500 years earlier (c. 1000 BC) under Saul, his competitor David, and David's famous son, Solomon.  So, starting up the narrative with the all-important founding of the Davidic monarchy around 1000 BC would be a good starting point. But here too, the Kingdom of Israel had its origins centuries earlier … as a Hebrew people who were led out of Egyptian captivity by the prophet Moses … to establish for themselves in the "Promised Land" a society where they were to live, worship, and prosper under their god YHWH / Yahweh (and have no other gods before him) … against the neighboring tribes that they constantly found themselves up against, and thus having to call on Yahweh constantly to come to their rescue.  That took a lot of faith in Yahweh – a faith which constantly strengthened and then waivered – as a critical lesson in the dynamics of faith put before the Israelite/Jewish generations to follow.  Thus starting with Moses and the early Israelites would be a good place to start. But Moses was himself of a line of Hebrews descending from much earlier patriarchs, Abraham and his offspring – four generations of earlier Hebrews well-known to Abraham's descendants, a family which originated the idea that they were to live in accordance with a very precise "covenant" that Abraham had taken up with Yahweh centuries earlier. So we could start our narrative there.   But the Biblical narrative that served as the Jewish national narrative actually started even before Abraham … going all the way back to a primal couple, Adam and Eve, and their sons Cain and Abel.  Thus we could go all the way back to the "beginning" – the "Genesis" or opening chapters of Jewish scripture! So … just to keep things simple, we will go chronologically, starting with the Genesis account … then bringing us up step by step even to Roman times.  It's a very long story.  So this will have to be presented in very summary form! The Genesis account The Jewish Bible begins with God's creation of the universe, and then the bringing to life of Adam or "Earthman" (from the Jewish Adamah, or "earth") and his wife Eve (from the Jewish Chava or "life").  They lived in full trust in God's providence … until they were lured by the serpent (representing Satan or the Adversary) into eating of the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.  The misleading promise was that this would put God's powers in their own hands … so that God would no longer be needed.  They could live by their own godly powers.  Of course, this was a disastrous deception (one that lives on even today!). This kind of self-serving intellectual-moral power then carries on into their rather "neolithic" offspring, Cain and Abel … in which the farmer Cain jealously puts to death his herdsman brother Abel … and then plays "lawyer" before God, trying to justify this horrible deed.  He suffers the natural consequences of his action … but oddly enough still enjoys God's loving protection nonetheless.   But wickedness merely spreads across the human landscape, especially with the rise of urban Babel (Babylon?) … until God gets fed up with the whole thing and decides to destroy his human creation – with the exception of the faithful Noah and his family … and progenitors of a new animal kingdom … who, by Noah building a massive boat (in the desert no less) survives when God sends a massive flood lasting "40 days" (meaning a very long time) to finish the job! Then there is Job (not part of the Book of Genesis but part of the very ancient narrative), whose full faith in God is put to the test by Satan … and in the face of crushing tragedy after tragedy (even his wife urges him to give up on God) Job holds on to his faith in God … and in the end is rewarded for keeping faith in midst of the turmoil and terror. Abraham and the Covenant with God The narrative focusing on the people of "Israel" themselves actually begins many generations later.  It takes up with the ever-faithful Abram, a man of faith who follows God's command to migrate to a new land – one that God promises him and his descendants.  No one is exactly sure of the time, but a fair guess is anywhere from 1900 BC to 1500 BC.  Abram was a nomadic Hebrew tribal elder or chief who, in following God's instructions, moved his family and herds around the Middle East … migrating from the lower reaches of the Tigris-Euphrates River (in modern-day Iraq) upriver along probably the Euphrates River and arriving at Syria.  Here he then had a call from God to take his people further south along the highlands … into the "Promised Land" (modern Palestine).   Abram is a man who exemplified all the virtues of a "Man of God" … yet experienced all the personal weaknesses that humans have to contend with.  In many ways he is a typical herdsman facing problems of plenty and scarcity … which at one point has him turning to Egypt for relief … where there, to advance his position, he presents his wife Sarai as his sister to Egypt's Pharaoh … having then to return to the Promised Land when the deception becomes known by the Pharaoh.   But mostly he was a "great man" because of his total submission to the will of God.  As a 99-year-old man, he covenanted with God Almighty to be his faithful servant … just as Elohim/El Shaddai/Yahweh was to be his faithful God.1  From this point on Abram was finally to be known as Abraham (father of many people) … a strange irony since at this point, Abraham and his wife were very, very old.  But this new dispensation also led Sarai to becoming Sarah (from a "striving" or "contentious" woman … to now a "princess").  To make Abraham’s faith stand out even more starkly, they then most miraculously had a son … named Isaac (Yitzhak – "he will laugh") – because they both "laughed" when they were told that Sarah, at her old age (90), would have a son. But then Abraham's faith is tested deeply when he comes under divine call to perform the sacrifice of his son Isaac.  Seeing that Abraham is willing to do even this in service to God, God calls off the event.  Abraham has passed the test. The "many" offspring promised by God develops slowly over the generations, Isaac having only two sons, the twins Esau and Jacob – the latter having to live the life of a trickster since he was by mere minutes second-born.  But clearly God's favor falls to Jacob … and through numerous trials and errors Jacob is brought to success in the Promised Land.  In the trip back from his stay in Mesopotamia, he encounters an angel of the Lord – and the two wrestle all night, with Jacob finally able to win the match … and gain the label "Israel" – "he who struggles with God."  Ultimately, Jacob – or "Israel" – is able to father a dozen male offspring (and a daughter) by way of his four wives. But it is the young Joseph who shines among his older brothers – to their great jealousy.  Joseph is spared his life by his angry brothers who instead sell him to a slaver heading to Egypt. But in Egypt Joseph shows himself to be a man of integrity, wisdom and mystical insight … saving himself and ultimately all of Egypt from disaster with his prophetic power, which brings him from prison to Egyptian chancellorship … but also brings him into reunion with his brothers who have had to come to Egypt to the find the food that is lacking across a hungry Middle East.  But the reunion is graceful … and brings Joseph's brothers and his father Jacob and family to Egypt to live – where they will do so over the many generations to follow. Moses and the return to the Promised Land Centuries would go by, and the descendants of Jacob and Joseph would lose their special status in Egypt, even becoming bondsmen or slaves under the Egyptian system.  But these "Hebrews"2 have become a nuisance in the eyes of Pharaoh, and he orders the slaughter of all Hebrew babies in Egypt.  But the baby Moses is hidden in the bulrushes by his sister, is discovered by the Egyptian princess, and is brought to the Egyptian court, and raised as a nobleman … though his Hebrew origins come to haunt him.  One day he finds himself acting on this understanding when he kills an Egyptian overseer beating a Hebrew worker.  He now flees Egyptian justice … into the Sinai wilderness or desert … where he believes that his role in life is to live it out as a lowly shepherd. It is at this point (as Moses finally reached his 80th year) that God appears to Moses in a burning bush, and orders the reluctant Moses to return to Egypt and demand of the Pharaoh to "let his people go."  This he does … which runs into a most resistant Pharaoh … and Pharaoh's priests who engage Moses in a dual to prove which of the two, Moses's or the priests' gods are the more powerful.  Even though YHWH proves himself as the most powerful god of all, the tests continue … until finally God simply calls on Moses to have his Hebrews paint their doorposts with blood so that an angel of death that God is sending to Egypt will pass over (thus the most important Jewish holiday, the Passover) their homes – and strike dead the firstborn males of the rest of the Egyptian population … including the son of Pharaoh. This finally breaks Pharaoh's resolve and he orders the Hebrews to be released to return to their lands in the East … then foolishly changes him mind and has his army chase after them, only to have that army destroyed when the waters of the Red Sea, that God has held back so that the Hebrews can exit Egypt, are released upon the Egyptians, and they are all drowned. But the question of Moses's faith touching deeply the hearts of the Hebrews he is leading now becomes of paramount importance.  Food and water are scarce and the trek is long.  And, at one point, God calls Moses to the heights of Mount Sinai – there to outline the laws that he expects his newly freed Hebrews to live by.  But on his return down the mountain after an absence of "40 days,"3 Moses discovers that the people have set up their own "Golden Calf" to worship … and in his fury smashes the stone tablets containing the all-important Ten Commandments.  But Moses convinces God to give his people a second change … which he does – despite all their moaning and complaining about their situation – claiming that slavery back in Egypt was not this bad. When upon finally reaching the border leading into the Promised Land (or Canaan), God calls for a single person from each of the twelve tribes to be sent as scouts into the land, take careful note of what they discovered, and then report back to the people.  This they did …with ten of the twelve going on about how impossible the idea of entering Canaan happened to be, the Hebrews merely tiny creatures in comparison to these Canaanite giants.  Once again, this set up wailing and bitter complaining by the Hebrews about the dangers of entering the Promised Land.  But Joshua4 and Caleb, two of the scouts, affirmed that the reports of the nature of the Canaanites were correct.  But given that God himself had promised that land to the Hebrews, they were standing with the idea of entering the Promised Land … and taking on whatever challenges they faced, because God would be with them. But those two could not convince the rest of the Hebrews.  As a result, God gave up on them, promising that only Joshua and Caleb would finally enter the promised land.  Thus the complaining Hebrews found themselves stuck there … for another "forty years" … until the youngest of the Hebrews had grown into maturity and the older, faithless generation had died off.   Joshua and the Judges At this point, with Moses also dead, under the leadership of Joshua, the Hebrews or Israelites finally made their entry into the Promised Land.  This was the time (several centuries in duration) that the Israelites found themselves fighting the surrounding tribes, Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Philistines, etc. – when they weren't coming up against each other.  And in all of this, there was always the test as to whose will they would follow, that of their God Yahweh … or would they most humanly and most foolishly "walk in their own counsel" – the former bringing dazzling success, the latter bringing shameful defeat.   Thus Joshua brought down the walls of enemy Jericho by following God's strict orders, Gideon and his small band of warriors produced the destruction of the entire Midianite army, Sampson, though badly wounded and blinded by his Philistine enemies, was able to break from his capture, destroy the Philistine temple to their god Dagon, and bring down 1000 Philistine warriors in his own ultimate battle. And these events would strengthen greatly the faith in Yahweh and consequent strength of Israel … only to be followed a few generations later by the foolishness of Israelite successors who knew little of such powerful faith. And the results for Israel would always be tragic … until God appointed yet another judge (such as also Ehud, Deborah, Jephthah) to once again deliver Israel from its self-inflicted catastrophe! 1All three names in reference to God – Elohim, El Shaddai, and Yahweh – appear in the first few verses of Genesis 17, describing the making of this covenant between God and Abraham. 2Hebrew:  A term indicating "those who came from beyond the river" implying nomadic origins … and, in any case in Egypt, alien status because of not being originally from Egypt.  But it also has in the Biblical narrative the idea of those who have passed through baptismal waters from an old world, old life, to a new one … a covenanted one.  This would have very strong symbolic value in Judeo-Christian spirituality. 3Clearly 40 days or 40 years – the number or figure 40 used very frequently (157 times?) in the Bible – simply means enough time for God to do what he needed to do in a particular matter.  Thus it rained 40 days and 40 nights during Noah's flood.  Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. Moses's life was broken into three 40-year periods ... etc. 4"Joshua" (actually in Hebrew: Yehoshua, but also in Greek, Jesus) probably meaning "YHWH saves," or "YHWH is Lord/Savior."

God showing the fatherless Abraham that one day his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky

God stopping Abraham from offering his only son Isaac in sacrifice to God

Jacob wrestling with God's angel ... thus becoming "Israel" ("struggles with God")

Joseph, now as an Egyptian leader, reunites with his brothers

The burning bush ... and God's command to Moses to return to Egypt to lead his Hebrew people out of bondage

A furious Moses smashes the Stone Tablets of God's Law ... when he discovers that his people have constructed a Golden Calf to worship during Moses's absence on the mountain (there to receive this Law from God)

Joshua leads the Hebrews into the Promised Land

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THE DAVIDIC KINGDOM

But by the year 1000 BC, the Israelites were becoming very envious of the surrounding kingdoms … and began to demand of their spiritual leader, the prophet (and Israel's last "judge") Samuel, to appoint them a king.  Samuel warned them that to do so would cause them to lose their liberties and merely produce a very heavy political load to carry.  But they insisted … and so Samuel bowed to their wishes and had the very popular Saul anointed Israel's first king … although earlier he had followed God's instructions and prophesied that one day the young shepherd David, would lead God's people, the Israelites. And very soon, still the youth that he was, he astonished Israel (and his older brothers) by coming out to take up the challenge by the Philistine monster Goliath to meet in personal combat … and bring down the mighty Goliath – strictly on the basis of David's faith that God was fully with him in this most dangerous enterprise. This brought David both political appointment and public adoration – that he had to carefully navigate in the presence of an increasingly jealous Saul … until it was time for David to flee Saul's wrath.  In his exile, he twice rejected the opportunity to kill Saul when the latter was off guard … understanding that his destiny was to come at the moment of God's choosing, not his own.  And that would finally come when Saul, overstepped his authority, took on Samuel's priestly powers for himself in preparation for a huge battle, and suffered the consequences of his own death and his son Jonathan's in the battle as a result.  David now stepped into the kingship. But even David got caught up in the pride of power when he took for his own sexual pleasure the wife of a very faithful military officer of his, Bathsheba … and made her pregnant.  The betrayal was discovered by the prophet Nathan, who brought David to repentance … but still could not rescue David from the consequences of his action.5  The baby did not survive, though David went on to have a second son by Bathsheba, Solomon … who would actually go on to become a great king.   But he would have horrible troubles from his other sons, Amnon and Absalom … and die a brokenhearted king. But Solomon would bring Israel and its Judaic capital Jerusalem to political greatness … expanding considerably the realm of the kingdom, and through diplomatic alliances, the political reach of Israel to the nations around them.  But in doing so, he would dilute greatly the position of Yahweh in the scheme of things … building a fabulous temple to Yahweh … but also other temples dedicated to the gods of his various foreigner wives (hundreds of them!).  Thus David's political simplicity and directness was replaced by Solomon's highly sophisticated but also highly complex political programming … which in his later years a fairly wise Solomon realized was just thin appearances and not deep reality.  Indeed, his reflections on these matters became the foundations for what was to become the expanded "wisdom literature" of later Judaism (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, etc.). 5Muslims, however, claim that this story of David and Bathsheba is told falsely.  David was one of the true prophets and thus characterized by the principle of ismah (infallibility).  He could not have done this.  Thus Jews and Christians who tell the story as they do are guilty of qazf (falsely accusing a person of adultery) and defaming a prophet, two huge crimes in the eyes of Islam. A young David saves Israel by killing the giant Goliath in a contest with the Philistines David, fleeing with his men from a jealous King Saul, spares Saul when he finds Saul asleep. David will accept Israeli leadership only through the hand of God ... not man! Fully empowerd as Israel's king ... David lets his power go to his head and seduces the wife of a very loyal miliary officer when the latter is away fighting for Israel Solomon is recognized for his wisdom in the way he resolved a conflct between two women over a baby Solomon's Temple to YHWH A cutaway view of the Temple DIVISION ... AND DECLINE

Israel-Judah around 830 BC
Wikimedia Commons

Division and decline The North-South split.  After Solomon, the Davidic kingdom split between Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, and the Israeli General Jeroboam.  The larger and much wealthier northern portion, which Jeroboam set up as an independent kingdom, would continue to enjoy the use of the name Israel, and construct smaller temples at Bethel (the original Israelite worship center) and at Dan ... and locate its capital at Samaria. The Southern portion would be known from that point on as Judah (from the southern tribal region it was largely built on) with its Davidic Capital and Temple still at Jerusalem.   The two Hebrew states often fought – or sometimes allied with each other – usually in response to what was going on around them in Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq).  They continued to act as if they were the major power they had become under Solomon ... though Judah tended to be a bit more realistic about this than Israel and thus a bit more cautious in its diplomatic and military diplomacy. Perhaps because of the location of the Temple in Judah at Jerusalem – and the strong influence of the Zadokite (Greek: "Sadducee") priesthood there – Judah stay more closely in line with its religious focus on YHWH ... whereas the Israelite kings tended to be more "inclusive" – (much like Solomon had been) in erecting temples to even the Canaanite gods. Ahab, Jezebel, Elijah and Elisha.   This became especially the case when King Ahab (r. 871-852 BC), in his bid to widen the power of Israel, married the Phoenician princess Jezebel.  But she in turn brought her priests of Baal and Asherah with her to Israel – and set about killing whatever Yahwist priests she could get her hands on. Finally she and her prophets of Baal were challenged by the bold Yahwist prophet Elijah – resulting in the humiliation and subsequent slaughter of the priests of Baal ... and also Asherah.6 King Ahab subsequently died in battle, was succeeded by his sons Ahaziah and then Jehoram. But Jehoram was challenged by the Israelite General Jehu, whom the prophet Elisha (Elijah’s successor) had anointed as the new king.  Then Jehu (under Elisha’s instructions) set about purging Israel of the family line of Ahab-Jezebel – including Jezebel herself, who was thrown from her palace window to dogs below. Meanwhile Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, had married King Jehoram of Judah (so many Jehorams!) and also introduced her mother's Baal worship to Judah.  Jehoram’s rule in Judah was generally catastrophic ... and he and most of his family died at the hands of Philistine, Arabian and Ethiopian raiders. Athaliah survived as queen mother ... who when Jehu killed off her family in Israel then responded by turning on the descendants of David in Judah, nearly wiping out the entire Davidic line. Only the baby Jehoash survived when he was hidden from the vengeful Athaliah.  But finally, Athaliah was overthrown and executed ... and Jehoash (although only seven at the time) crowned as King of Judah.  Jehoash – according to his Yahwist chroniclers – subsequently gave Judah 40 years of righteous government. The rise of Assyria ... and the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel In the meantime, a northern Mesopotamian people, the Assyrians had challenged much of the Middle East with their ruthless military domination, begun in earnest in the early 800s BC by Ashurnasirpal II ... who conquered cities everywhere, executing or enslaving his defeated enemies and leveling their cities to the ground.  But eventually the Assyrian danger seemed to subside ... as Assyria subsequently came under a number of weak rulers. Then in 745 BC Assyrian general Tiglath-Pileser III seized power and put Assyria back on the path of dominance through destruction ... striking terror in the hearts of the people throughout the region. The kings of Israel and Syria appealed to King Ahaz of Judah to help them fight the Assyrians ... but Ahaz refused (Judah’s relations with both countries had not been good, especially with the Syrians), and Israel and Syria foolishly attacked Judah upon Ahaz’s refusal.  But equally foolishly, King Ahaz put himself at the mercy of Tiglath-Pileser and appealed to him to come to his aid against Syria and Israel ... which Assyria immediately did, in 732 BC crushing both Syria and Israel – and placing them also under Assyrian control. Then King Hoshea of Israel stopped paying tribute to Assyria (and its next King Shalmaneser) and instead appealed to Egypt for help ... which naturally infuriated the Assyrians, who laid siege to the Israelite capital-city Samaria for three years.  The Assyrians finally (724/723 BC?) captured the city and carried off to captivity the inhabitants of all ten northern tribes of Israel.  The Israelites would be scattered widely across the Assyrian Empire, soon lose their identity as YHWH’s people (not that they had been that loyal to him in the first place) and neither they nor any of their descendants would ever return again to the land of Israel.   In their place the Assyrians brought in various other subject peoples from around their vast empire and settled them in the vacated Israelite territory ... thus creating the "Samaritans" – who took up some of the religious ways of the Israelites who had once lived there, but were themselves not descendants of Abraham nor possessing any part of the all-important Israelite tribal lineage. Thus it was that the Kingdom of Israel simply disappeared.  About all that was left of the "true" covenant people of Abraham or Israel at this point was the southern tribe or kingdom of Judah ... that is, the land of the "Jews."  Judah and Israel were now one and the same thing. Now it’s Judah’s turn Hezekiah and Isaiah.  Nonetheless, Judah itself was not free of the Assyrian threat … which under a new Assyrian King Sennacherib (ruled 705-681 BC), overran Judah.  Sennacherib then sent an emissary to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, demanding massive tribute in silver and gold … and warned Hezekiah in front of his own people of what the Assyrians would do to him (and his people) if he were to continue to rely on Egypt for help.  He even scorned them with the claim that their God YHWH was not in a position to protect them. But the prophet Isaiah informed Hezekiah (who had always been amazingly faithful to YHWH – and him alone) that indeed YHWH would actually make short work of Assyria because of its arrogance … and as a sign, Judah would revive immediately from the devastation caused by Assyria.  And indeed, this happened when Sennacherib’s own sons assassinated their father … seriously weakening Assyria in the face of a rising regional power centered on the ancient city of Babylon … thus a rising "Babylonian" power.7  In 626 BC under Nabopolassar, these "Babylonians" had secured their independence from the greatly weakened Assyrian power to the North.  This then also became the opportunity for Egypt, Syria and others to try to secure their own independence – in various alliances with each other. Judah defeated by the Babylonians.  But eventually Judah too got caught up in the politics of the bigger players – especially as the regional power structure seemed so undetermined.  But most tragically for Judah, step by step, things went from bad to worse – as Judah got caught up in the middle of an Egyptian-versus-Babylonian contest.  Ultimately, in 597 BC, an angry Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar assaulted and conquered the Jews at Jerusalem … consequently carting off the Judaic royal court, high priests and upper classes to Babylon as hostages.     But not long thereafter (ten years) – against the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah not to do so – Judah's king Zedekiah joined with the Egyptians in a revolt against Babylon. But this merely led Nebuchadnezzar to again attack Jerusalem (587 BC) … this time destroying the Temple, tearing down Jerusalem's walls, burning the city to the ground, and carting off another – but now quite huge – group of the citizens of Judah (possibly as many as 20,000) to captivity in Babylon. 6Sadly, the enormous courage of the prophet Elijah would give way to deep fear – and Elijah's flight into the desert – in the face of Jezebel's death threats aimed at Elijah for what he had done to her priests, a Biblical lesson in spiritual dynamics, demonstrating that true spiritual courage comes directly as a gift from God – and not from well-designed human intentions. 7These Babylonians were actually "neo-Babylonians," for they had no connection with the Babylonian Empire built up by the great Hammurabi about twelve-hundred years earlier – other than both having the city of Babylon serve as their capital-cities. The Jews being led into captivity at Babylon (in two waves - early 500s BC) THE "BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY" ... AND ITS LEGACY Judaism is born in Babylon.  Thankfully, the Jews were not scattered around the Babylonian kingdom as the Assyrians had done to the Israelites.  The Jews were allowed to live in Babylon in their own communities … where they actually would come to prosper.  But therein was a huge danger – that of losing their offspring to Babylonian culture.  But what were they to do as Jews?  There was now no Temple where they could bring their sacrifices to the priests in accordance with Jewish tradition.  In fact, the priestly class, the Levites, were rather unemployed in Babylon. But what they did have was their strong religious traditions … and most importantly, their own Jewish narrative, the Mishnah, as a chosen people to inspire them.  Thus they gathered on a regular basis, the Shabbat, to "worship" … prayers, songs, even dances, being offered in Jewish worship at these gathering centers or synagogues.  But most importantly, as something like sermons, they were told and retold the stories of the Mishnah by their elders or teachers (eventually "rabbis") … narratives about their ancestors which they began to gather carefully … thus beginning the assembly of their Jewish Bible, the Torah.   Thus it was that they grew as a religious unit, dependent – unlike the world around them – not on priests and temple sacrifices … but on a sense that as a people they possessed a very special "Word" from God about how, as his chosen people, and by the example of their ancestors before them, they were to live … amidst a "Gentile" (non-Jewish) world.  Thus as a Jewish people they not only survived.  They prospered. They still had some theological questions that needed to be answered in all of this.  How was it that, as a people of God, they found themselves captives in Babylon?  Was the god of the Babylonians, Marduk, greater than their god Yahweh?  The answer came in the form of a new understanding that in fact there was only one God responsible for the creation of the universe … in fact, of all that there was in life.  There was only one god, Yahweh.  But he had to bring the Jews to their present circumstances (as he had done so many times previously with their ancestors) to get them to see what exactly he had in mind for his "chosen people" to be doing in this larger human realm.  In a sense, they were brought to Babylon to be "awakened" from their human political-social obsessions and consequently be brought into God's higher spiritual realm.  Thus as his "chosen people," they were to serve Yahweh as a priestly people.  As Isaiah put it (Isaiah 49:6), they were to be a "light unto the nations." They were thus called to bring all humankind to worship God in Zion … to demonstrate to the larger world how to "walk in His ways" (Psalm 128:1). The return of the Jews Rebuilding life in the Promised Land.  When in 539 BC, the Persians – under the rule of King Cyrus – overran the Babylonians, Cyrus allowed the captive nations, including the Jews, to return to their homelands … if they chose to return.  In fact only a portion of the Jewish community in Babylon found their way back to their Jewish homeland … although even then, the group that returned was reported to number over 40,000 – although it is believed today that this did not occur as a single event, but involved a continuing movement of such returnees over the years.  Indeed, a second great migration occurred almost a century later under the direction of the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah.   Yet at the same time, most Jews chose to remain in the city of Babylon – where life there was fairly comfortable and where their community structure and its unity was generally under no deep danger (some exceptional occasions however). In any case, on their return to the Promised Land, these returnee Jews encountered a much-changed Judah – even though only the oldest of this group were able to remember what life in Judah was like before they were carted off to Babylon.   The local population that had been left behind in Judah had, over the leaderless years, wandered from their Jewish religious-political ways – and did not recognize any special relationship with the returning Jews.  Coupled with the fact that the Assyrian program of resettling foreigners in the lands they had conquered had also filled the land with "Samaritans" – there was actually considerable local hostility aimed at these returnees.   The first order of the day for the returned Jews was to rebuild, under the direction of Zerubbabel, the Temple as a matter of great importance.  It would take some 20 years – with some serious disruptions in the process – to complete the build.  And sadly for those able to remember the original Temple before its destruction by the Babylonians, this reconstructed Second Temple fell way short of the grandeur of the First or Solomon's Temple.  Eventually, the Jews then looked to the second order of the day, the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (under the direction of Nehemiah) ... in very short order in 445 BC.     Rabbinical Judaism continues.  Yet even with the Temple rebuilt in Jerusalem and the sacrifices commenced again under the direction of the restored temple priesthood, the rabbis or teachers continued to operate much as they had in Babylon. Not only in Jerusalem but also in the various towns of the rest of restored Judah/Israel, the rabbis continued to preserve their Biblical scholarship as a major undergirding of the Jewish nation.  Jews would visit Jerusalem on very special religious occasions.  But their Jewish faith and social-spiritual life was actually built on their involvement with the local synagogue, where they gathered on a regular weekly basis, the Shabbat or Sabbath, to follow closely their rabbi's teachings or sermons – giving powerful social structure to their lives. The Jewish "diaspora."  But as already noted, the majority of the Jews however opted to remain in Babylon, where life was good, and their Jewish religious life was in no danger of being extinguished in doing so.  And thus began the Jewish "diaspora" … the reality that Jews required no particular homeland to identify themselves by … though certainly Judea and its capital Jerusalem still held special interest to them as a people.  But what ultimately identified them was their lives built around the Sabbath practice of regular worship, instruction, fellowship … and a set of social-moral rules to live by – and be identified by as a distinct people.  And this would take place not only in Babylon … but among the huge number of Jews living in Egypt. Earlier, many Jews had accompanied the prophet Jeremiah to Egypt rather than face the Babylonian captivity – and then when the Alexandrians took over Egypt and made Alexandria a spectacular city, many more Jews found good reason to choose to live there.  It was a great place to live out Jewish life.  It was after all the Greek Ptolemies of Egypt that had offered them the invaluable gift of translating their Torah into Greek … allowing them to fit easily into Egyptian society – and retain their strong Jewish identities. The reading of and commentary on  the Torah (the "sermon") ... actually a picture of Jesus doing this in his day FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN JUDEA With the coming of the Greeks by way of Alexander's conquests of the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean, Judah or Israel as it tended to call itself, found Greek culture becoming deeply invasive of its traditional Jewish culture ... especially among the rising generations.  Indeed, Greek views on sex were deeply shocking to Jewish sensitivities. Nonetheless, Greek culture was making deep inroads into Jewish culture ... even becoming the preferred language of scholarship - although ancient Hebrew remained central to Jewish worship.  But the two worlds of scholarship and worship were becoming rather separate.   Then with the arrival of the Romans to the region in the 100s BC, Jewish culture feared an even deeper absorption into "Gentile" (non-Jewish) ways.  Thus a spirit of rebellion found itself growing among many (though by no means all) of the Jewish people.  They needed an Anointed One, a Messiah, to deliver them from this Gentile bondage. The Maccabean resistance to Hellenism Antiochus IV "Epiphanes" (r. 175-164 BC).  Within the larger Greek Seleucid realm – which included the Jewish lands of Judea and Galilee – when Seleucid King Antiochus III died in 187 BC, he was eventually (175 BC) succeeded by his son Antiochus IV ... a truly insane individual who called himself "Epiphanes" ("God in appearance").  Nonetheless, being very ambitious, Antiochus was able to take control of the neighboring – and much-weakened – Ptolemaic Egypt in 170 BC … but found the Romans blocking his attempt two years later to firm up his control there. This political failure of Antiochus's in Egypt delivered by the Romans was interpreted in Judea as a sign of serious Seleucid weakness … which in turn inspired in Judea a political reaction ... one which expelled the Seleucid appointed (and very Hellenistic or pro-Greek) high priest, Menelaus.  This act then angered Antiochus in his return from Egypt (168 BC) to the point of attacking, pillaging and slaughtering Jerusalem and its inhabitants (carrying off 10,000 survivors as prisoners) ... and supporting the party  of the Hellenized Jews (who had adopted Greek culture and its very un-Jewish ways) by suppressing the religious culture and practices of orthodox Judaism.  The Maccabean Revolt. Then Antiochus rededicated the Temple to himself and forced the Jews to perform sacrifices to him personally, burning or crucifying those that refused.   In 167 BC, Jewish priest Mattathias refused, in fact killed a Jew who was about to offer just such a sacrifice ... and then did the same to the Seleucid general supervising the event.  He and his sons then fled to the mountains ... and there began to gather a following of Jews ready to face martyrdom in defending Judaism from the intrusion of Greek pagan culture into their homeland.   The rebels under the leadership of Mattathias's son Judah "Maccabee" (the "Hammer")8 were finally able in 164 BC to take Jerusalem ... and cleanse the Jewish temple of the Greek statues and adornments (the event celebrated as Hanukkah) – the first step towards a growing independence from Seleucid authority.  This revolt then spread quickly around much of the region of old Judea – aimed as much against Hellenized Jews as against Seleucid authority itself.   But Seleucid General Nicanor was able to retake Jerusalem ... and then lose it again to Judah Maccabee – who executed Nicanor.  But once more, the Seleucids made a comeback and Judah and a small group of followers who had not deserted the cause were defeated (Judah actually killed) in 160 BC. Jonathan and Simon.  However, the ongoing dynastic rivalry within the Seleucid dynasty once again offered opportunity to the Maccabees (now under brother Jonathan) to overwhelm the Jewish Hellenized party ... and take and rebuild Jerusalem, cleanse its Temple – and restore conservative Judaism. But at the same time, clever political maneuvering by Jonathan resulted eventually actually in his Seleucid appointment as Jewish High Priest (153 BC) ... the Seleucids, most strangely, even promising him protection against the Hellenized Jews.  Then in 150 BC Jonathan was in effect made governor of Judea. But the civil strife between the Hellenized and Orthodox Jewish parties continued … with Jonathan gaining ground for the Orthodox Jews.  In 145 BC Jonathan saw the opportunity to press forward politically even more – because of a dispute involving both the Ptolemies and the Seleucids.  But in 143 BC Jonathan was drawn into a Seleucid diplomatic trap, imprisoned (soon executed), and his army destroyed. At this point, Jonathan's brother Simon took over the Orthodox cause ... and in 141 BC the Hasmonean family was officially recognized by a Jewish assembly as the rightful rulers of Judea.  Two years later the Roman Senate confirmed that decision. Judea was now officially an independent kingdom. This official status however did not exempt Judea from involvement in the dynastic struggles of the Ptolemies and Seleucids ... or the interests of the expanding Roman Empire ... or their own dynastic conflicts.  The Hasmoneans themselves got caught up in much of the military and diplomatic maneuvering that would go on for another century. John Hyrcanus (r. 134-104 BC).  In 134 BC Simon was assassinated by a son-in-law at a banquet ... and nearly all his family executed.  Only Simon's son John (Yohanan) escaped the slaughter ... and would eventually make a comeback as a conqueror (and High Priest) ... and also as a clever diplomat playing on the difficulties of the Greeks caught up in their continuing dynastic rivalries, plus both the rising power of Parthians (Persians) to the East and Romans to the West.  By allying with the Egyptian Ptolemies and the Romans, John was able to extend his Jewish kingdom's boundaries considerably (earning him the title "Hyrcanus"9) ... at the same time rebuilding the defenses of Jerusalem.  Also, as High Priest, he relaxed some of the strict rules of Judaism ... in opposition to the Pharisees – and in support of the more "pragmatic" (or secularist) Sadducees. The last days of the Maccabees (or Hasmoneans) When John Hyrcanus died in 104 BC, the behavior of his sons revealed clearly how much Greek culture had made its way into Jewish culture.  Aristobulus, after imprisoning his mother and three brothers, declared himself Jewish king (unacceptable to the Pharisees because he was not of Davidic lineage).  His wife Salome Alexandra then convinced him that the one brother he favored, Antigonus, was conspiring against him and he had him murdered ... and then he himself immediately fell ill and died – only one year into his reign.  Salome then (103 BC) released the remaining brothers from prison and placed his brother Alexander Jannaeus on the Jewish throne ... soon becoming even his wife.   However, although Salome was a supporter of the Pharisee party, Alexander hated them.  The Pharisees were very critical of his sadistic and cowardly behavior and his use of Greek mercenaries, which in 93 BC he turned on his people, slaughtering thousands.  But this served only to undercut his own rule – even forcing him to flee to the Judean hills.  But he regained his throne ... and once again turned on his people, killing thousands of them over a devastating six-year civil war.  At one point he was even able to enjoy having his crucified enemies being forced to watch their wives and children being slaughtered prior to their own deaths. His ferocious personality however did bring considerable expansion to the kingdom of Judea ... before he himself died of alcoholism in 76 BC.  At this point, Salome again took charge ... and in the nine remaining years of her life finally brought both peace and economic development to the kingdom ... as well as the advancement of the Pharisee party.    The Hasmonean Civil War ... and the arrival of the Romans.  With her death in 67 BC, the intense rivalry between the "modernizing" Sadducees and the conservative Pharisees took the form of a bitter war between Salome's two sons, the older brother Hyrcanus II, who stepped up as King and High Priest – and supporter of the Pharisee party – and his younger brother Aristobulus II, supporting the Sadducees … and far more popular among the people.   The feuding Jews appealed to the Roman general and political leader Pompey to help them sort out their civil war.  Pompey eventually moved strongly against Aristobulus and his Sadducee supporters when the latter foolishly turned against Pompey.  Pompey's forces attacked Jerusalem, destroying its walls and massacring much of the population inside.  Pompey then formally ended the Hasmonean monarchy, but at least confirmed Hyrcanus as Jewish Chief Priest ... and Hyrcanus's Idumaean ally, Antipater, as governor of the recently Judaized Edomites or Idumaeans.   And then Pompey returned to Rome. The rise of the Herodians The Edomite governor Antipater proved to be a skilled political maneuverer and eventually chose to support Julius Caesar in his war with Pompey.  Consequently, in 47 BC, Antipater was given the position of Roman procurator of Judea by Caesar.  And Antipater in turn named his sons Herod governor of Galilee (the Judean north) and Phasael governor of Jerusalem (the Judean south).   But when Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, the new Roman ruler in the East, Cassius, forced the payment of tribute to Rome so heavy that it plunged the Jews into poverty.  Antipater's official collector of the tribute, Malichus, was so enraged by his duties (but also personally ambitious) that the following year he had Antipater poisoned. But in agreement with Caesar's successor, Octavian Caesar, Octavian's friend Marc Antony was assigned the Eastern half of the Roman Empire ... and Antony in turn in 41 BC awarded Antipater's sons Herod and Phasael the rank of tetrarch in their two jurisdictions (Galilee and Jerusalem). Herod.  When in 40 BC Parthians from the east of the Seleucid Empire raided west all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, the Herodians were deposed and the Hasmonean Antigonus was appointed by the Parthians as Judean king. But now the Hasmonean Antigonus (grandson of Salome) made an attempt to gain the throne against Herod and Phasael, calling on Parthian support in the endeavor … the Parthians bringing a huge army to Jerusalem in 40 BC.  Tragically, Phaseal was lured into negotiations with the Parthians over the matter, but was seized … and then killed himself.    But Herod escaped to Rome and convinced the Senate to support him in his effort to overthrow the pro-Parthian Hasmoneans.  With considerable Roman help, it took him until 37 BC (or 36 BC) to take full command of Judea ... before beginning 34 years of rule as Judean King (under Roman sponsorship).   In those years he would rebuild Jerusalem extensively ... including its walls (that Pompey had destroyed).  But most importantly, he would construct a new and much grander Jewish Temple and Temple Mount.  This would please the people ... though his taxes needed to pay for these projects did not.  In the end, the people's view of Herod weighed strongly to the negative side ... despite his efforts to show himself to be a strong supporter of Judaism.  His dependency on Roman power did not help his standing with the people ... nor did his reputation for cruelty (to even his immediate family). Herod would die in 4 BC (or 3 BC?) ... soon after a calendar-changing event occurred:  the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. 8The Hasmonean family or dynasty would be known popularly as the "Maccabees" after Judah took the lead in the family. 9It is not clear today what exactly that title meant! Simeon Maccabee being anointed (Greek style) as both Jewish High Priest and King - 143 BC Go on to the next section:  The Formation of Christendom   Miles H. Hodges