Judaism: Religion or Tribal history?
In Christian tradition the Wandering Jew was condemned to a homeless existence until Judgment Day for having mocked Jesus Christ, and in botany the Wandering Jew was a name given to a trailing plant with colourful foliage -- even though its native origin was tropical America rather than the Middle East -- and as silly as these meanings are they are nevertheless apt, in a way, because before and after the Jewish tribes formed the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1050 BCE, they had both a colorful and a wandering history which is not just reflected in Judaism but forms the basis of it.
Starting with Abraham, he and his extended family had to flee to Canaan from his home in Ur, modern day Iraq, because his beliefs clashed with those of the ruling elites, and his grandson Jacob (later called Israel, the father of twelve sons/tribes) was even called a "wandering Aramaean" because he travelled back to the land of his ancestors to obtain a wife and generally led a transitory life -- as was common in those days, and still is in that part of the world. Traveling to Egypt, however, was a bad mistake for the descendants of Israel because they became enslaved and had to wait for a charismatic leader like Moses to facilitate their freedom c. 1250 BCE.
After leaving Egypt, the Israelites wandering in the desert for a generation until Joshua emerged to lead them in the invasion of Canaan, which they then took as their own.
Starting with Abraham, he and his extended family had to flee to Canaan from his home in Ur, modern day Iraq, because his beliefs clashed with those of the ruling elites, and his grandson Jacob (later called Israel, the father of twelve sons/tribes) was even called a "wandering Aramaean" because he travelled back to the land of his ancestors to obtain a wife and generally led a transitory life -- as was common in those days, and still is in that part of the world. Traveling to Egypt, however, was a bad mistake for the descendants of Israel because they became enslaved and had to wait for a charismatic leader like Moses to facilitate their freedom c. 1250 BCE.
After leaving Egypt, the Israelites wandering in the desert for a generation until Joshua emerged to lead them in the invasion of Canaan, which they then took as their own.
At that time and place in history, there were several great empires -- the Egyptian, the Hittite, the Babylonian and the Assyrian (a land between the Hittite and Babylonian Empires) -- and vibrant new migrant colonies of Indo-European Sea People at Gaza, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Ashkelon that became known as 'the Way of the Philistines', after the name of the principle tribe.
Constant trouble with the Philistines led the Israelites to form the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1050 BCE but by then very few of the Israelites were direct descendants of Abraham and true to the Covenant he had made with Yahweh. They were largely of Canaan ethnicity, with a mixture of Hittite, Aramaean and Egyptian, and they practised many faiths. Very much like today's multicultural nations.
By 1010 BCE King David ruled the United Kingdom of Israel and the mythology of the Israelite nation became established. This United Kingdom of Israel lasted until c. 920 BCE when Jeroboam led the revolt of the wealthy northern tribes who were economically better developed than the southern tribes, had better rainfall and agricultural systems. The united kingdom split into the Kingdom of Israel in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the South (which had Jerusalem as its capital and was led by Rehoboam).
The northern Kingdom of Israel became more powerful under Omri (c. 885-874 BC) who, with the support of the Phoenician city of Tyre, founded a new dynasty with its capital city at Samaria. Omri's successor, Jehu, linked through dynastic marriage with Tyre, joined other nations to fight and defeat the Assyrian Shalmaneser III at Qarqar in 853 BC. Twelve years later, with assistance from the Kingdom of Aram, he organised a coup in which his own kin, Ahab and his family, were put to death.
Because the northern Kingdom of Israel was falling under the influence of Damascus, losing all cultural and religious ties with the southern Kingdom of Judah, the Judaeans treacherously appealed to Assyria for intervention and ultimately, in 720 BC, Israel fell and became incorporated into the Assyrian empire. The capital Samaria was destroyed, the ruling elites were deported to other lands in the Assyrian empire and a new nobility was imported by the Assyrians. To avoid captivity or exile, thousands of Jews from the northern kingdom of Israel fled south to the southern kingdom of Judah and it is said that its capital city, Jerusalem, grew in population size by over 500%.
Judah itself fell to the Babylonians in 587 BCE, the Temple was destroyed and its ruling elites taken into captivity to Babylon. Another massive diaspora took place in which the Jews escaped slavery by fleeing to Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Persia.
In 539 BCE the Babylonian Empire fell to Persia under Cyrus and he magnanimously freed the Jews and allowed them to return to Jerusalem -- which was now a Persian province. They were allowed to take with them the Temple vessels that the Babylonians had stolen, and construction of the Second Temple started.
In 331 BCE the Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great of Greece, and all was well under Greek rule until 174-163 BCE when Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to Hellenize the Jews which led to the Maccabees's Rebellion, and the rise of John Hyrcanus, Ethnarch and High Priest of Jerusalem, 134-104 BCE, under whom the Jewish nation experienced a resurgence, annexing Trans-Jordan, Samaria, Galilee and Idumea and forcing the Idumeans to convert to Judaism.
By 63 BCE, Pompey conquered Jerusalem and it fell under Roman rule. In 66 BCE, the First Jewish-Roman War broke out. The entire Jewish garrison at Yodfat was massacred after a two month siege, and in 70 BCE the Romans destroyed the Second Temple. Those Jews that were not massacred -- or able to flee to Mesopotamia (Iraq) and other countries around the Mediterranean -- were taken to Rome as slaves. By 73 BCE the last Jewish resistance at the mountain fortress of Masada was crushed and 900 defenders committed suicide rather than be captured and sold into slavery.
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai escaped from Jerusalem and obtained permission to establish a center of Jewish learning, the Sanhedrin, in the outlying town of Yavneh. At this center, Rabbinic Judaism took root and the Sanhedrin became the supreme religious, political and judicial body for the 'wandering Jews'.
In 132 Simon bar Kokhba led a final revolt against the Romans, declaring an independent state in Israel, and was crushed by Rome. Seeking to suppress the Jewish place-names and humiliate the defeated Jews, the Romans renamed the area Palaestina (Latin for the Philistines, the traditional enemies of the Jews) and the Christians went one step further, after they had taken over Roman government, by forcibly disbanding the Sanhedrin in 425 CE and persecuting them forever after.
Like the early Christians in pagan Rome, the Jews went underground and survived -- moving from place to place to escape slavery and persecution, changing their religion to Christianity or Muslim according to whichever elite was in power, but never forgetting their tribal history, their roots and their self-appointed anointment as God's chosen people.
So accustomed had the Jews become to a wandering existence, that even the re-establishment of their homeland in the post WWII period did not attract the expected mass return. As with the earlier United Kingdom of Israel, divisions are appearing between the rich and the poor and the devout and the secular -- and the ancient turf war between the Philistines (Palestinians) and the Jews continues.
Ethnically, modern Jews are now more European than Semitic and it is odd they can lay claim to land on the basis of where their religion was born -- especially since it is based upon a tribal history that would make the Arabs more likely to be the true descendants of Abraham than they are -- but pointing this fact out to an Israeli would be far too confronting.
This article first appeared as Wandering Jews
Constant trouble with the Philistines led the Israelites to form the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1050 BCE but by then very few of the Israelites were direct descendants of Abraham and true to the Covenant he had made with Yahweh. They were largely of Canaan ethnicity, with a mixture of Hittite, Aramaean and Egyptian, and they practised many faiths. Very much like today's multicultural nations.
By 1010 BCE King David ruled the United Kingdom of Israel and the mythology of the Israelite nation became established. This United Kingdom of Israel lasted until c. 920 BCE when Jeroboam led the revolt of the wealthy northern tribes who were economically better developed than the southern tribes, had better rainfall and agricultural systems. The united kingdom split into the Kingdom of Israel in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the South (which had Jerusalem as its capital and was led by Rehoboam).
The northern Kingdom of Israel became more powerful under Omri (c. 885-874 BC) who, with the support of the Phoenician city of Tyre, founded a new dynasty with its capital city at Samaria. Omri's successor, Jehu, linked through dynastic marriage with Tyre, joined other nations to fight and defeat the Assyrian Shalmaneser III at Qarqar in 853 BC. Twelve years later, with assistance from the Kingdom of Aram, he organised a coup in which his own kin, Ahab and his family, were put to death.
Because the northern Kingdom of Israel was falling under the influence of Damascus, losing all cultural and religious ties with the southern Kingdom of Judah, the Judaeans treacherously appealed to Assyria for intervention and ultimately, in 720 BC, Israel fell and became incorporated into the Assyrian empire. The capital Samaria was destroyed, the ruling elites were deported to other lands in the Assyrian empire and a new nobility was imported by the Assyrians. To avoid captivity or exile, thousands of Jews from the northern kingdom of Israel fled south to the southern kingdom of Judah and it is said that its capital city, Jerusalem, grew in population size by over 500%.
Judah itself fell to the Babylonians in 587 BCE, the Temple was destroyed and its ruling elites taken into captivity to Babylon. Another massive diaspora took place in which the Jews escaped slavery by fleeing to Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Persia.
In 539 BCE the Babylonian Empire fell to Persia under Cyrus and he magnanimously freed the Jews and allowed them to return to Jerusalem -- which was now a Persian province. They were allowed to take with them the Temple vessels that the Babylonians had stolen, and construction of the Second Temple started.
In 331 BCE the Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great of Greece, and all was well under Greek rule until 174-163 BCE when Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to Hellenize the Jews which led to the Maccabees's Rebellion, and the rise of John Hyrcanus, Ethnarch and High Priest of Jerusalem, 134-104 BCE, under whom the Jewish nation experienced a resurgence, annexing Trans-Jordan, Samaria, Galilee and Idumea and forcing the Idumeans to convert to Judaism.
By 63 BCE, Pompey conquered Jerusalem and it fell under Roman rule. In 66 BCE, the First Jewish-Roman War broke out. The entire Jewish garrison at Yodfat was massacred after a two month siege, and in 70 BCE the Romans destroyed the Second Temple. Those Jews that were not massacred -- or able to flee to Mesopotamia (Iraq) and other countries around the Mediterranean -- were taken to Rome as slaves. By 73 BCE the last Jewish resistance at the mountain fortress of Masada was crushed and 900 defenders committed suicide rather than be captured and sold into slavery.
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai escaped from Jerusalem and obtained permission to establish a center of Jewish learning, the Sanhedrin, in the outlying town of Yavneh. At this center, Rabbinic Judaism took root and the Sanhedrin became the supreme religious, political and judicial body for the 'wandering Jews'.
In 132 Simon bar Kokhba led a final revolt against the Romans, declaring an independent state in Israel, and was crushed by Rome. Seeking to suppress the Jewish place-names and humiliate the defeated Jews, the Romans renamed the area Palaestina (Latin for the Philistines, the traditional enemies of the Jews) and the Christians went one step further, after they had taken over Roman government, by forcibly disbanding the Sanhedrin in 425 CE and persecuting them forever after.
Like the early Christians in pagan Rome, the Jews went underground and survived -- moving from place to place to escape slavery and persecution, changing their religion to Christianity or Muslim according to whichever elite was in power, but never forgetting their tribal history, their roots and their self-appointed anointment as God's chosen people.
So accustomed had the Jews become to a wandering existence, that even the re-establishment of their homeland in the post WWII period did not attract the expected mass return. As with the earlier United Kingdom of Israel, divisions are appearing between the rich and the poor and the devout and the secular -- and the ancient turf war between the Philistines (Palestinians) and the Jews continues.
Ethnically, modern Jews are now more European than Semitic and it is odd they can lay claim to land on the basis of where their religion was born -- especially since it is based upon a tribal history that would make the Arabs more likely to be the true descendants of Abraham than they are -- but pointing this fact out to an Israeli would be far too confronting.
This article first appeared as Wandering Jews
Labels: abraham, assyrians, christianity, israel, jacob, jehu, joshua, judah, judaism, omri, palestinians, philistines, religion, Sanhedrin, Simon bar Kokhba, tribal history, wandering jew
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