Israel: A Chosen People In A Promised Land - Part 5
Historical Israel
The biblical narrative continues to cover the nation of Israel and the plight of its people from the book of Joshua (where they conquer the Canaanite lands) all the way through the Davidic kingdoms, the subsequent split of the nation, and the return of the people from exile. But then there was a period of time when the Bible falls silent until the writings and events of the New Testament period in the 1st Century AD. However, the Jewish people’s plight and the events that they experienced have been recorded over time until the present. In this section those events will be outlined and explored, including the harsh realities of the generations of trauma and violence that the Jewish people have experienced over the past 2,500 years.
POST EXILE ISRAEL:
After the death of King Solomon around 945BC[1], there was significant internal strife within the nation of Israel and in the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam the nation split (1 Kings 12). Israel became the northern nation and encompassed 10 of the 12 tribes. Most of the tribe of Benjamin and all of the tribe of Judah formed the southern nation of Judah.
Around 720BC the Assyrian empire invaded the northern kingdom of Israel and after besieging major settlements controlled the whole region – the result was that most of the Israelite nation was taken into captivity[2]. This captivity would end up in what is commonly known as the diaspora, where Jews were spread across the known world. Many of whom would end up in Europe, which would have profound impacts on Jewish history over the next 2500 years.
Whilst there is a belief that the entire nation was carried off to slavery by the Assyrians, some believe that some from the ten tribes remained in the land and still lived in the land[3]. There is evidence in the Bible of this 2 Chronicles 30:1, which says, “Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel.” This verse shows that the Judean king Hezekiah and the kingdom of Judah still engaged with the remnant of Israel and could have included Jews who lived in the region of Samaria.
The Assyrian captivity was not the only captivity that would impact on the Jewish people. 2 Kings 25 informs us of the captivity of many from the kingdom of Judah. This occurred around 597BC, and differed from the Assyrian captivity in that it was predominantly the wealthy elite and ruling class that were taken[4]. This can be found in the biblical record.
Jeremiah 29:10 “This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.”
The prophet Daniel references this scripture in Daniel 9:2 which says…
“…in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.”
After the return of the Judean captives the Second Temple was built around 520BC[5]. This would be the same temple that Jesus engaged with (after it had been refurbished by Herod the Great).
From that time onwards the Jewish people and their lands would be inhabited, controlled and dominated by the following empires and regional powers[6]:
Alexander the Great - Macedonian/Greeks around 333BC.
The Seleucids and Ptolemaic – Egyptian/Greek kingdoms that stemmed from the collapse of Alexander’s kingdom after his death - around 320-168BC.
Maccabean – Jews who revolted against the desecration of the temple around 166-160BC.
Hasmonean – a Jewish family that ruled from 142-129BC.
Roman Empire – influenced the region from 230BC and took control of Judea in 63BC and remained there until 400AD. This included the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD. The name changed from Judea to Palestine in 135AD and will be discussed in a later section).
Islamic Rule – 600AD till 1100AD.
European Crusades -1100BC till 1258AD.
Islamic Rule including Mamluks – 1258AD until 1500AD.
Turkish Ottoman Empire – 1500AD till 1918AD.
British Mandate – 1918AD until 1948AD.
During each of these successive empires and kingdoms that ruled over the lands of the Jewish people, they experienced brutality and economic hardships. It didn’t matter whether it was rampaging Islamic hordes invading the ‘Holy Land’ or their enemies the Crusaders, or the all-conquering Alexander the Great, or the much-vaunted Roman Empire and its ever-present legions – all of them murdered the Jews, abducted them for the slave markets of the world, and took their lands from them. It was a pattern that repeated itself over and over again.
ANTI-SEMITISM & POGROMS:
The Jewish people have undergone generation upon generation upon generation of violence, forced exiles and oppression. The term ‘antisemitism’ wasn’t developed until the late-1800s[7] when the focussed racism that was being endured by the Jewish people across Europe – both wealthy and poor – was heading towards a fevered pitch that hit its heights in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s.
Not all of this can be explained by the prevailing perspectives, especially after Christianity was made legal within the Roman Empire, that the Jews were the ones who killed Jesus – leading to rampant antisemitism throughout the Mediterranean region and Europe in general. Vicious lies were spread that they used the blood of children (non-Jewish children) for religious ceremonies and the like – these were called ‘blood libels’[8].
The rampant antisemitism in Europe led to actions against the Jewish people called pogroms. These were violent antisemitic riots aimed at the destruction of property and violence against individuals. The first instance of the name ‘pogrom’ which means ‘to wreak havoc and demolish violently’ in Russian – occurred in the early 1800’s[9]. These events occurred (but not limited to mainly Eastern Europe and lasted well into the 1900’s.
However, just because the term ‘antisemitism’ didn’t originate until the late 1800’s, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a festering evil that had been passed down through the ages. Many nations whose antisemitism boiled up would end up forcefully expelling Jews from their lands, these events include - but are not limited to the following[10]:
· 1290AD – Jews were expelled from England and were not able to return until after 1650AD.
· 1306AD and again in 1394 – Jews were expelled from France and were not able to return until after 1789AD.
· 1492-1497 – Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal.
· 15th Century until the late 1700’s – Jews were not welcomed in Russia and were pushed out. Even as late as 1891AD, the Jews were being expelled out of Moscow.
· Over the same period of time as the nations mentioned above, Germany had a series of expulsions, but allowed the Jews back from time to time.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews were forcefully moved around Europe because of these and other expulsions. Violence, hatred, oppression followed them wherever they went.
In response to centuries of European hatred, many Jews started to move back into the region now known as Palestine (ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire) in the late 1800’s.
It should be no wonder then that the Jewish people around the world wanted a return to their divinely granted homeland. The term for the growing movement for a Jewish homeland was called ‘Zionism’ because it was a return to Zion (Jerusalem) and the lands around it that Yahweh had promised to their forefathers thousands of years earlier.
In Part 5 we explore the rise in the belief amongst Jews that they should have a ‘homeland’ to call their own, one that is linked to their biblically mandated lands that their forefathers resided in for millennia.
[1] Jewish Virtual Library, (nd), The Two Kingdoms, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-two-kingdoms-of-israel
[2] As above.
[3] Wikipedia, (nd), Assyrian Captivity, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_captivity
[4] Jewish Virtual Library, (nd), The Babylonian Exile, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-babylonian-exile
[5] Jewish Virtual Library, (nd), Timeline of Jewish History, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-of-judaism-after-the-babylonian-exile-538-bce-70-ce
[6] As above.
[7] US Holocaust Memorial Museum, (nd), Antisemitism, Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism
[8] As above.
[9] US Holocaust Memorial Museum, (nd), Pogroms, Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/pogroms
[10] Jewish Virtual Library, (nd), Expulsion of Jews, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/expulsions