The Jewish People-History

Abraham

Abraham is the patriarch or forefather of the Jewish people

Lived around 2000 BCE

He was a herder in the city of Ur who migrated with his family to the land of Canaan

Existence cannot be proven or disproven

The Covenant of the Pieces

Abraham was worried about being childless; God told him his descendants would be a great nation and the land of Canaan would be theirs

Two important takeaways: The Israelites are God’s chosen people

The land of Canaan was given to them by God

Abraham’s Children

Abraham and his wife Sarah didn’t believe they could be parents at their ages (100 and 90), so Abraham had a child by Sarah’s slave Hagar, called Ishmael

Eventually, Sarah became pregnant and had a child named Isaac

Ishmael and Isaac would both father great nations

Abraham’s Children

God told Abraham that Isaac, not Ishmael fulfilled his promise to Abraham

Isaac’s descendants would inherit the land of Canaan, not Ishmael’s

Ishmael’s birth was a natural event; Isaac’s was supernatural

Isaac became a patriarch of the Jewish people; Ishmael became the patriarch of Arabs and Muslims

Jacob

One of Isaac’s sons was Jacob

God renamed Jacob “Israel” after he wrestled with an angel

Israel=“He who wrestles with God”

Jacob had twelve children, each forming one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel

Leaving Canaan

Jacob and his sons were forced to flee Canaan because of a famine

They settled in Egypt, where they were eventually enslaved by the Pharaohs

Moses

After 400 years of slavery, God sent the prophet Moses to liberate the Israelites

God sent the 10 plagues of Egypt to convince the Egyptians to let the Israelites go

Moses led the people out of Egypt by parting the Red Sea-when the Egyptian army tried to follow, the Sea crashed down on them

There is no archeological evidence supporting this

Return to Canaan

After leaving Egypt, the Israelites wandered the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years

While they wandered the desert, Moses delivered the laws of Judaism, the Ten Commandments

Finally, they reconquered the land of Canaan

The Exodus

Saul

The Twelve Tribes were ruled by judges before being united under a king, Saul

Around this time, Israel was attacked by a number of groups, including the Philistines

Saul was unable to defeat the Philistines, so he was rejected by God and replaced as king by David

David

David is chosen by God to defeat the Philistines

David defeated Goliath, the greatest warrior of the Philistines, and cut off his head for all to see

David ruled Israel for 40 years and made its capital Jerusalem

Great warrior, musician, and poet (wrote most of the Book of Psalms)

Solomon

David was succeeded as king by Solomon

Israel enjoyed great prosperity, but Solomon levied heavy taxes and used force labor to build a temple to God

This is known as the First Temple Period in Jewish history

The Split

After Solomon’s death, anger about taxes and forced labor split the kingdom of Israel in two.

The ten tribes to the north became Israel.

The two tribes to the south became Judah.

Fighting between the two kingdoms weakened them, leaving them vulnerable to outside invasion.

Conquest Part I

The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC

The kingdom is destroyed; the people are slaughtered or deported across the Middle East

They become the ten “Lost Tribes of Israel”

Was Jerusalem conquered? The Bible says no, the Assyrians say yes

Conquest Part II

The Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC

The Jewish people were sent to Babylon to be enslaved

This is known as the Babylonian Captivity, and the end of the First Temple Period

The End of the Captivity

The Persians conquer the Babylonians, allow the Jews to return to Judah

The Jews are permitted to keep their culture

They rebuild the temple; this is known as the Second Temple Period

The Maccabees

The Greeks later conquered Judah and used the temple for their religion

The Maccabee family defeated the Greeks

This revolt is celebrated during Hanukkah; a menorah is lit and stays lit for 8 days on one vial of oil

Roman Occupation and Diaspora

The Romans occupied Judah in 63 BC

The Jews revolt several times and are defeated

Final revolt 135 AD-Romans destroy the temple and exile the Jews across the Middle East and Europe

The Diaspora-The scattering