About Jewishness

Kingdom of Israel ca 1020 BCE during King Saul
(Note that Israel is red and includes the West Bank and the East Bank of the Jordan River, almost to Amman. Note that Philistine is green.)

DNA studies show us the ancient Israelites were formed from a heterogeneous mix of tribal and ethnic groups, both Semite and non-Semitic in origin. Thus, heterogeneity was there from the very beginning.

The accuracy of the Hebrew Bible as a historical document is the subject of much debate among archeologists. The debate is usually articulated between Biblical maximalists, the assumption that the Bible is historically correct, and Biblical minimalists, the assumption that the Bible is mostly myth.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jebusites were a Canaanite tribe who inhabited and built prior to its conquest by King David; the Books of Kings state that Jerusalem was known as Jebus prior to this event. Between 3000 and 1100BC, Canaanite civilization covered what is today Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon and much of Syria and Jordan.
The people who moved from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean spoke western Semitic languages of which Hebrew is one. The term Hebrew apparently came from the word habiru (also hapiru or apiru), a term that was common to the Canaanites and many of their neighbors. The word was used to designate a social class of wanderers and seminomads who lived on the margins of, and remained separate from, sedentary settlements.

Jonathan Tubbs, a British archaeologist, argued that the Israelites were themselves Canaanites, and that "historical Israel", as distinct from "literary" or "Biblical Israel" was a subset of Canaanite culture. Canaan when used in this sense refers to the entire Ancient Near Eastern Levant down to about 100 AD, including the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. For example, Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (ca. 1200–1000 BC). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period."
Unlike Mesopotamia or Ancient Egypt, where documentation exists that is rich and varied, the documentation about Canaan is very sparse. The only sources that come from inside the region are from Syria – with Bronze Age cuneiform archives of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh and Ugarit. Iron Age materials are even more scarce, because writing then was mostly on papyrus, and unlike in Egypt, none of it has survived the humid climates of the most populous parts of the region.

The Amarna letters contain correspondence from Abdi-Heba, king of Urusalim (the name of Jerusalem in the Late Bronze Age). At this time his entire kingdom may have had a population of fifteen hundred people, and Urusalim would have been a 'small highlands stronghold' in the fourteenth century BCE with no fortifications or large buildings.

According to the Books of Samuel, the Jebusites managed to resist attempts by the Israelites to capture the city, and by the time of King David were mocking such attempts, claiming that even the blind and lame could defeat the Israelite army. Nevertheless, the masoretic text for the Books of Samuel states that David managed to capture the city by stealth, sending his forces through a "water shaft" and attacking the city from the inside. Archaeologists now view this as implausible as the Gihon spring — the only known location from which water shafts lead into the city — is now known to have been heavily defended (and hence an attack via this route would have been obvious rather than secretive).

It is believed by some authorities that the Israelites made their Exodus from Egypt about 1224 B.C., but there is no archeological proof that the Israelites were ever in Egypt, nor in the Sinai. However, Canaan was occupied by Egypt at the time, so they might have been in Canaan. And after wandering forty years in the desert, they, in the psychological moment when everything had gone to pieces, invaded Canaan about 1184 B.C. This was at exactly the same time Tory is believed to have fallen (and odd coincidence little noticed by historians). Of the two foreign invaders, the warlike Philistines, possessing iron weapons and organized with great discipline under a feudal-military aristocracy, were the stronger, for they defeated the bearded Israelites and even put them in Bondage. The Philistines also left a lasting mark, their name, on the crossroads. It ceased to be called Canaan and came in time to be known as Philistine. However, neither the Philistines nor the Israelites were able to establish control over the native inhabitants in their walled cities. Most historians list Egypt as the ruler until the end of the reign of Ramses III, about 1154 B.C. , after which Egyptian rule seemed to become one in name only.
Canaan was in a state of tug-of-war between the two invaders from without, the Philistines and the Israelis until about 1000 B.C. That is the date given for the Israelite King David’s taking of Jerusalem. He defeated the Philistines, conquered Canaan, and went on eventually to conquer the row of small neibghbouring nations east of Palestine (Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Gilead). He set up an independent kingdom, and the crossroads ruler was now a cloaked and bearded warrior poet.

Biblical history

c. 1047 BCE-c. 1007 BCE King Saul
There were four rulers of the United Monarchy – Saul ben Kish (from the tribe of Benjamin), Ishbaal, a son of Saul, David, son-in-law of Saul through his marriage to Michal and from the tribe of Judah, and Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba.
According to the first book of Samuel, due to his disobedience to God, Saul's reign was curtailed and his kingdom given to another dynasty. The Masoretic Text reads that Saul ruled for only two years, although some early manuscripts read forty-two years (cf. the New Testament, which gives him a reign of forty years). The bible portrays Saul as having died in battle against the Philistines.According to the biblical account, the United Monarchy was formed when there was a large popular expression in favour of introducing a monarchy to rule over the previously decentralised tribal confederacy. Increasing pressure from the Philistines and other neighboring tribes is said by the Bible to have forced the Israelites to unite as a more singular state.

1037 BCE-c. 970 BCE King David
David and Saul had earlier become bitter enemies, at least from Saul's point of view, though the sources describe Jonathan, Saul's son, and Michal, Saul's daughter, as assisting David to escape Saul, ultimately leading to brief reconciliation before Saul's death.
Saul's heir, Ishbaal, took over rulership of Israel but, according to Samuel, ruled for only two years before he was assassinated. David, who had become king of Judah only, acted as counter-rebel, ended the conspiracy, and was appointed king of Israel in Ishbaal's place; a number of textual critics and biblical scholars have suggested that David was actually responsible for the assassination, and his position as counter-rebel was a later invention to legitimise David's actions.
In the Biblical account, David finally succeeds in truly unifying Judah and Israel. Some modern archaeologists believe there was a continued and uninterrupted existence of two distinct cultures and geographic entities, one being Judah, the other Israel, and if there was a political union it possibly had no practical effect on the relationship between the two nations.
David embarked on successful military campaigns against Judah's and Israel's enemies, and defeated bitter foes such as the Philistines, thus creating secure borders. Under King David, Israel grew from Kingdom to Empire, and its sphere of influence – militarily and politically – in the Middle East expanded greatly, controlling a number of weaker client states like Philistia, Moab, Edom, Ammon, with a number of Aramaean city-states (Aram-Zobah and Aram-Damascus) becoming vassal states; the imperial border stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Desert, from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River. Of major significance, David conquered from the Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe, the city of Jebus, which controlled the main interior north-south route. The Israelites called this city Jerusalem. (Many Palestinian Arabs claim that Palestinians are direct descendants of the Canaanite people.)

960 BCE Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem completed, according to secular historians
David and Solomon are both portrayed by the Bible as having entered into strong alliances with the King of Tyre. In return for ceding land to Tyre, David and Solomon are said to have received a number of master craftsmen, skilled labourers, money, jewels, cedar, and other goods. David's Palace and Solomon's Temple are described as having been built with the assistance of these Tyrian assets, as well as to designs given by architects from Tyre.
Solomon rebuilt a number of major cities, including Megiddo, Hazor, and Gezer; these have been excavated and scholars attributed elements of the archaeological remains, some of which are rather impressive such as six chambered gates and ashlar palaces, to this building programme. Structures within these remains are identified as the stables for the vast collection of horses that Solomon is believed to have kept, together with drinking troughs.

1001 BCE-c. 931 BCE King Solomon
Following Solomon's death in c. 926 BC, tensions between the northern part of Israel containing the ten northern tribes, and the southern section dominated by Jerusalem and the southern tribes reached boiling point.

(David ruled, in all, forty years (even as a city-king at Hebron and thirty-three years at Jerusalem after the establishment of the kingdom); and his son Solomon ruled for forty years, giving the Kingdom of David and Solomon a complete life span of seventy-three years. Then it ended. After the death of Solomon, about 927 B.C, the kingdom fell apart. The small neighbouring nations on the east got free, and Palestine itself was split into two countries hostile to each other. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the kingdom of Israel on the north. Each one was too weak to stand alone. Egypt came up, invaded Judah, and sacked Solomon’s new temple at Jerusalem. Ben-Hadad of Syria on the north annexed part of Israel’s territory then formed an alliance with Israel against Judah. Desperately, Judah appeared to far-off Assyria. The black-bearded and brutal Assyrians needed no second invitation but came over from the distant north-east, devastated and conquered the whole of Israel in 722 B.C. and carried the Ten Tribes away into captivity. Thus the section of the Hebrews known as Israel disappeared.)

920 BCE: Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judah

930 BCE-c. 910 BCE King Jeroboam
When Solomon's successor Rehoboam dealt tactlessly with economic complaints of the northern tribes, in about 920 BC the united Kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms: the northern Kingdom of Israel, which included the cities of and Samaria, and the southern Kingdom of Judah, which contained Jerusalem; with most of the non-Israelite provinces achieving independence.

920 BCE Split between Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Israel (or Northern Kingdom) existed as an independent state until around 720 BC when it was conquered by the Assyrian Empire; while the Kingdom of Judah (or Southern Kingdom) existed as an independent state until 586 BC when it was conquered by the Babylonian Empire.

832 BCE Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem completed, according to traditional rabbinic sources
According to secular historians, the Temple would have been completed in around 960 BCE and destroyed by the in 587/6 BCE. Traditional rabbinic sources state that the First Temple stood for 410 years and based on the 2nd-century work Seder Olam Rabbah, place construction in 832 BCE and destruction in 422 BCE, 165 years later than secular estimates.

740 BCE-c. 722 BCE Kingdom of Israel falls to Neo-Assyrian Empire. Jewish dispersal.
Many Jews are deported to Khorasan, a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan. The Ten Lost Tribes are those Israelites who were deported by the Assyrians. In Jewish popular culture, the ten tribes disappeared from history, leaving only the tribes of Benjamin, Levi and Judah to become the ancestors of modern day Jews. In historic fact, some members of the Ten Tribes remained in Palestine, where apart from the Samaritans some of their descendants long preserved their identity among the Jewish population, others were assimilated, while others were presumably absorbed by the last Judean exiles who in 597-586 BCE were deported to Assyria. Unlike the Judeans of the southern Kingdom, who survived a similar fate 135 years later, they soon assimilated. For over 2,700 years since, Persian Jews have lived in the territories of today's Iran.

715 BCE-c. 687 BCE King Hezekiah of Judah
The Temple also figures in the account of King Hezekiah, who turned Judah away from idols; when later in the same century Hezekiah is confronted with a siege by the Assyrian king Sennacherib, Hezekiah "instead of plundering the temple treasuries... now uses the temple the way it is designed to be used - as a house of prayer.

597 BCE start of deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon
Although the term Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, typically refers to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 BC, in fact the exile started with the first deportation in 597 BC. The captivity and subsequent return to Israel and rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple are pivotal events in the history of the Jews and Judaism, and had far-reaching impacts on the development of modern Jewish culture and practice.
Historians agree that several deportations took place, that not all Jews were forced to leave their homeland, that returning Jews left Babylonia at various times, and that some Jews chose to remain in Babylonia. This was the first of numerous Jewish communities living permanently in the Jewish Diaspora.

588 BCE After the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon and the deportation of a considerable portion of its inhabitants to Mesopotamia, the Jews had two principal cultural centers: Babylonia and the land of Israel. Although most of the Jewish people, especially the wealthy families, were to be found in Babylonia, a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, , about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad.

586 BCE Jerusalem falls to Nebuchadnezzar and Solomon's Temple destroyed, according to secular historians.
According to the Babylonian Chronicles, in 599 BC, Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lay siege to Jerusalem. Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, died in 598 BC during the siege, and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight or eighteen. The city fell about three months later on March 16 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple, carting all his spoils to Babylon. Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah, numbering about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire. Among them was Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, king of the reduced kingdom, who was made a tributary of Babylon. Babylonian captivity is counted as having started with the first deportation in 597 BC. The exiles in Babylon continued to consider Jeconiah as the rightful king, and not Zedekiah. Jeconiah was counted as the first Exilarch.
Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadrezzar, ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt. In 589 BC, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Judah and again besieged Jerusalem for eighteen months. During this period, many Jews fled to surrounding Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries to seek refuge. The city fell and Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple, after which he destroyed them both. He took Zedekiah to Babylon and made Judah a Babylonian province, called Yehud, putting an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah. In addition to those killed during the siege, over time, some 4,600 Jews were deported after the fall of Judah. The exile to Babylon was a traumatic event in Jewish history, as the destruction of the political independence of the kingdom coincided with the destruction of the monarchy and of the of Jerusalem. Prior to this, several deportations of Judaean nobility and leading citizens occurred.
The Babylonian captivity had a number of consequences on Judaism and the Jewish culture, including changes to the Hebrew alphabet and changes in the fundamental practices and customs of the Jewish religion. Prior to the exile, the Israelites had been organized on a tribal basis, while afterwards they came to be organized by clans, with only the tribe of Levi continuing in its special role. After the Babylonian captivity, there were always sizable numbers of Jews living outside Eretz Israel, thus marking one starting point of the "Jewish diaspora."

539 BCE the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great gave the Jews permission to return to their native land, and more than 40,000 are said to have availed themselves of the privilege.
The Persians had a different political philosophy of managing conquered territories from the Babylonians or Assyrians: under the Persians, local personages were put into power to govern the local populace. There are many theories about the later descendants of early Jewish emigrations. One is that some freed Jews by migrated north following Zoroastrian Persians and established themselves in the and what is now northern Afghanistan, eventually joined by a confederation of semi-nomadic Turk and Mongol tribes from Altay. They intermarried and became known as the Bulgar tribes or "people of mixed blood". Another oft-cited theory is that they became the Khazars, a Central Asian nomadic people.

516 BCE Second Temple of Jerusalem consecrated, according to secular historians
The Second Temple stood between 516 BCE and 70 CE, during which time it was the center of Jewish sacrificial worship. It was the second temple in Jerusalem, built to replace the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon.
The accession of Cyrus the Great of Persia in 538 BCE made the re-establishment of the city of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple possible.
The body of pilgrims, forming a band of 42,360, having completed the long and dreary journey of some four months, from the banks of the Euphrates to Jerusalem, were animated in all their proceedings by a strong religious impulse, and therefore one of their first concerns was to restore their ancient house of worship by rebuilding their destroyed Temple and reinstituting the sacrificial rituals known as the korbanot. The Samaritans made proposals for co-operation in the work. Zerubbabel and the elders, however, declined all such cooperation, feeling that Judea must build the Temple without help.

460 BCE Ezra comes to Jerusalem
Ezra was a Jewish priestly scribe who led about 5,000 Israelite exiles living in Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem in 459 BCE. After his arrival in Jerusalem, Ezra notices that contrary to the Jewish law, even the Jews of high standing and priests, had intermarried with pagan non-Hebrew women. Ezra took strenuous measures against such marriages and insisted upon the dismissal of such wives.

Alexander the Great's Campaigns of Conquest - 336-323 BCE

Post-Biblical history

332 BCE Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) conquered Phoenicia and Gaza, passing by Judea probably without entering the Jewish dominated hill country, on his way into Egypt.
In 333 BCE Alexander took possession of Syria, and most of the coast of the Levant. However, the following year, 332 BC, he was forced to attack Tyre, which he eventually captured after a famous siege. After the capture of Tyre, Alexander crucified all the men of military age, and sold the women and children into slavery.
When Alexander destroyed Tyre, most of the towns on the route to Egypt quickly capitulated, with the exception of Gaza. The stronghold at Gaza was built on a hill and was heavily fortified. At the beginning of the Siege of Gaza, Alexander utilized the engines he had employed against Tyre. After three unsuccessful assaults, the stronghold was finally taken by force, but not before Alexander received a serious shoulder wound. When Gaza was taken, the male population was put to the sword and the women and children were sold into slavery.
Jerusalem, on the other hand, opened its gates in surrender, and according to Josephus, Alexander was shown the book of Daniel's prophecy, presumably chapter 8, where a mighty Greek king would subdue and conquer the Persian Empire. Thereupon, Alexander spared Jerusalem and pushed south into Egypt.


167-161 BCE The Maccabees (Hasmoneans) revolt against the Hellenistic Empire of Seleucids, led by Judah Maccabee, resulting in victory and installation of the Hanukkah holiday.
The Maccabees were a rebel army who liberated parts of the Land of Israel from the rule of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion, expanding the boundaries of Israel and reducing the influence of Hellenism.
Since the rule of Alexander in 336–323 BCE, a process of Hellenization had spread through the near East. When Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ca. 215–164 BCE), became ruler of the Seleucid Empire in 175 BCE, Hellenizing Jews had been long-established in Israel. They had built a gymnasium, competed internationally in Greek games, "removed their marks of circumcision and repudiated the holy covenant".
After Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias killed a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias' place. He and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah. After Mattathias' death about one year later in 166 BCE, his son Judah Maccabee led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory over the Seleucid dynasty in guerrilla warfare, which at first was directed against Jewish collaborators, of whom there were many. The Maccabees destroyed pagan altars in the villages, circumcised children and forced Jews into outlawry. The term Maccabees as used to describe the Jewish army is taken from its actual use as Judah's surname.
The revolt itself involved many battles, in which the Maccabean forces gained notoriety among the Syrian army for their use of guerrilla tactics. After the victory, the Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph and ritually cleansed the Temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship there and installing Jonathan Maccabee as high priest. A large Syrian army was sent to quash the revolt, but returned to Syria on the death of Antiochus IV. Its commander Lysias, preoccupied with internal Syrian affairs, agreed to a political compromise that restored religious freedom.
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple following Judah Maccabee's victory over the Seleucids.