Ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible

2000 B.C.E. – 1st Century C.E. (Before the Common Era – Common Era)

Ancient Israel

• On the intersection of multiple ancient cultures : egyptian, mesopotamian, foinician, etc.

• Borders:

• W: Medditeranean Sea

• E: moving boundaries according to the cultivated area x desert

• N: the city of Dan and Hermon mountain chain

• S: Negev Desert and the city of Beersheba

• Before the arrival of the Israeli tribes this territory was settled by principally the semitic Canaanites and other smaller ethnical groups such as the Philistines that came here from the greek area

• Canaan - under egyptian influence

1250 B.C.E. Arrival of Israeli (Hebrew) tribes

Five Books of Moses - what happened before the arrival of Israelis to Canaan

= Torah (hebrew) = teaching/ law

= Pentateuch (greek) = Five Books

= a saga describing the destinies of the forefathers of the Israeli tribes (Abraham, Isac, Jacob, Joseph et al.) that were semi-nomadic and travelled in the Middle East

Ancient Israel

Abraham – forefather of Israelis

- Told by God to lead Israelis from Mesopotamy to Canaan

- God promised him and his descendents, Isaak and Jacob (Israel) the Holy Land

- Jacob (Israel) had 12 sons

A part of Israelis settled in Egypt - became enslavend – freed by Moses = founder of the Jewish religion = Judaism

Moses

• Born in Egypt

• His parents were from the Levi tribe

• Killed the egyptian tyrant – escaped – the Lord appeared to him in a burning bush and told him to lead his nation from Egypt to Canaan, the promised land

• They wandered 40 years in the desert where the Lord revealed himself to Moses on the mount Sinai and gave him the God´s Law and made a covenant, a religious treaty with the people of Israel – it became the people of God and God became their Lord

• Monoteism = trust in existence of one God

Moses – Ten Commandments Deuteronomy 5:4-21

4 The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, 5 while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said: 6 “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 7 “‘You shall have no other gods before[a] me. 8 “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands[b] of those who love me and keep my commandments. 11 “‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave[c] in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 16 “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 17 “‘You shall not murder.[d] 18 “‘And you shall not commit adultery. 19 “‘And you shall not steal. 20 “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 21 “‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’ • http://www.biblegatew

ay.com/audio/mclean/esv/Deut.5.4-Deut.5.21

Ancient Israel - Bible

• Exodus from Egypt

• Different Israei tribes arrived to Canaan in multiple waves

• United by a faith in one God

• With time became a prevailing ethnicity in the country that they called the land of Israel ( = God fights/ God reigns)

• Judges = destinies of the leaders of the Israeli tribes

• Tribal system evolved in a kingdom

• Saul

• David, about 1000 B.C.E. – Books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles

• United the Israeli tribes

• Jerusalem – capital of his new kingdom

• Fortified and rebuilt the city

• Wrote Psalms

• Solomon

• Built a Jerusalem Temple (destroyed 70 C.E. By the Roman Emperor Titus)

• Wise man : wrote Proverbs, Kohelet and the Song of Songs

Jerusalem Temple, reconstruction

Ancient Israel - Bible

• God יהו ה ha-Shem = the Name / Adonaï = Lord

• Contrasts with the Middle East polytheism

• Eschatology

• Monoteism : basis of judaism, christianity and islam

• Bible – „ta biblia“ (greek) = books

• Old Testament – written mainly in hebrew – recognised as canonical by the Jews

• New Testament – written in greek – tradition about life and teaching of Jesus Christ

• Hebrew bible = Tanakh

• Torah - Five Books of Moses

• Naviim (Prophets) : Isaiah, Jeremy, Ezechiel, small prophets...

• Ketubim (Scriptures): Psalms, Song of Songs (love poetry), Job, Kohelet, Proverbs, Ruth, Daniel...

• Written since the 2nd c. B.C.E. till 1st c. C.E.

Shema Israel

Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your capability. And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart and you will teach them to your sons and you will pronounce them while you dwell in your house, while you are on your way and while you lie down and while you rise up. And you will bind them to your hand and they will be among your eyes and you will write them on your the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Babylonian Exile

• 6th c. BCE

- Babylonia conquered the kingdom of Juda

- 587 BCE Destruction of the 1st Temple of Jerusalem

- Ended with the Persian conquest of Babylonia

- Diaspora – Jewish communities living outside of Israel

Rabbinic Judaism and Talmud

1st C. – 5th C. CE

Talmudic Times

• 70 CE : Destruction of the 2nd Jerusalem Temple

• Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Court) continued to work but was allowed only to deal with religious matters

– Formulation of the Canon of the biblical books

– Oral Law- adaptation of Torah to the actual problems

• United Jews in Diaspora

• Rabbi Akiva – Romans tried to interrupt the Jewish traditions – uprising of Bar Kochba, 132 CE – Romans reconquered Jerusalem

Talmud

• Galilee – new center of the Jewish litteracy and the High Court http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6475-galilee

– Jehuda ha-Nasi – Mishna – oral law • Law regulating the agriculture, holidays, marriage, civile

law, cult, ritual purity

– Mishna based on Torah and halakha, religious law

• Babylonia – grew in importance – Extensive commentary to Mishnah = Gemara

MISHNA + GEMARA = TALMUD

Talmud

• Besides the religious law and disputations (halakha), the Talmud contains different narrative stories (aggada)

• God rules the world through His love and justice and He dwells in the world in the form of shekhina (God´s presence)

Talmudic Ethics

• Rabi Shimon, son of Gamliel says: The world consists in three things: the truth, the justice and the peace

• Rabi Natan says: Don´t reproach to another person your own mistake.

• Hilel says: Don´t do to another person anything that you don t like yourself! That is the entire law and everything else is just an explanation. Go and learn!

Talmudic Times

• Formation of a synagogue = place of gathering

– Religious service and school

– Oldest synagogues in Galilee, Bet Alpha, 6th c. CE

• Mosaic floor

– Place of reading of Torah written on parchemin kept in a sanctuary, wrept in precious, often embroidered cloth

Mosaic floor in Bet Alpha, Galilee