Western Civilizations and The Miraculous Survival of the Hebrew Nation
The Hebrew people, a small monotheistic civilization, risen up from Ur, has survived since 2000 BC to this day. However, their survival was no easy feat. They were enslaved, killed, and relocated by plenty of other stronger, militaristic civilizations in the very beginning. Some of these civilizations have changed and are known as present day countries while the others are only alive on the history pages. Therefore, being so small, so different, and not having much of a military at all, how did they have the impact and strength to be a current group today?
“The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation…”. This line quoted from the NIV Bible parallels with what was the beginning of the Hebrews. A man named Abram (or Abraham) moved his family towards the mediterranean sea to the place set forth by God. This place is commonly referred to as the Land of Milk and Honey or Canaan.[1] So, Abram took his family and set across the Arabian Desert to reach this land, called the Levant. The Levant is a stretch of land that touches the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Desert. They were peacefully until a brute force decided to split them up in what felt like no time at all. Through this shift and travel back north, started the next enslavement by the Egyptians around 2500 BC.
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The Egyptians conquered and enslaved the Hebrew people early in their history for construction of the great monuments and other slave labor. Interestingly, they were not responsible for the pyramids but much rather the construction of the city of Ramses, which can be found in the book of Exodus. They were mistreated by some pharaohs, even to the point of having to cast their male children into the Nile to stunt population growth. This instance is part of the story in Exodus of Moses. Moses was a notable leader for the Hebrew slaves in Egypt for his miracles and the way he spoke out for the freedom of the slaves. He demanded that his people be let go, and if not then there would be holy wrath from God. The “holy wrath” he speaks of alluded to the 10 plagues. Whether the belief of these trials were actually miracle or nature, these were the threats to the pharaoh, Ramses II. Only until his oldest son… died by the foretelling of the final plague, and not celebrating the Passover, did he finally decide to let them go. And so, this was the first freeing of the Hebrews, or so they believed, they were later warned that Ramses II was enraged by their fleeing and that he had sent his army to go and recapture them, which they failed to do at the Red Sea. Moses, as told in Exodus, was given by God to part the sea and let the Hebrews walk through it, but not the Egyptians. As the Egyptians attempted to drive through the muck at the bottom, the Red Sea reclosed and they were lost.[1][2] Then the Hebrews made their march back towards Canaan, which took 40 years across the desert to complete. This is labeled by historians as the Mosaic Period.
The Assyrians or Babylonians had such power in the 700s BC that it was no surprise when they conquered 10 of the 12 Tribes of Israel. Now, it was a key characteristic of the Assyrians to move a conquered people to another part of their empire to live. Why they did this was actually an excellent strategy for control and warfare. This alienation tactic causes discomfort and disconnect from natural life before the move, giving the conquerors the upper hand over the Hebrews. After the dispersion and the fall of the empire, the people tried to find a way back into their promised land, some being as far south as Egypt and as far west as Rezin of Aram.[3]Then the Hebrews made their march back towards Canaan, which took 40 years across the desert to complete. This is labeled by historians as the Mosaic Period.
Following this period, was the Period of Judges. At this point in their history, which lasted 355 years, they were rebuilding community after 40 years in the desert. The Judges’ roles were to protect the people from enemies and to establish judgment.[4][5] During this time there was not a larger empire attempting overtake them until the Persians. Cyrus the Great did something for the Hebrews that was almost unfathomable: he allowed them to return back to their land and rebuild the Temple, which had been destroyed in previous years. This is so absurd because the Persians were a people that with every civilization they conquered would enforce their religion, Zoroastrianism, without fail. So why, in this case, this was unenforced, is a mystery. Which is partly to give credit towards for why the Hebrew civilization didn’t “go-under”. So during this time they thrived enough for the community to survive until the next empire to overtake them from this example of “God’s grace”. After that they Hebrews went into a period of hatred by those around them to the point of exile and discretion, but in turn also had great blessing of peace.
In Rome, the Jews were an outcast people in the very beginning, because of their monotheistic religion rather than the ever popular paganism. They were imprisoned by the Romans and used in their Gladiatorial battles. These events were not directly gladiatorial but they were based off of their idea when as late as the 1940s these battles were put on by the Nazis in Buchenwald Concentration Camp. They would throw the prisoners to bears.[6] Then there was the man called Jesus of Nazarene. Though seen as the Messiah as the Christians of the time he was labeled as a profit to the Jews, similar to the likes of Isaiah. He was crucified on Calvary with 2 other men. The point that leads back to the Jews here is what they hung on the cross above his bloodied crown of thorns. “King of the Jews” a mockery to those who followed him and a laugh to those who wanted to watch him die. Afterwards, the ladder years of the empire brought forth something new for the Jews that appeared a little in the Persian Empire: acceptance. In Rome it wasn’t always a threatening situation thriving in the community with trade connections from Jerusalem they were more respected than ever. Their special trade advantages still worked even through the trials of before. Even to the point in Julius Caesar’s rule when he made Judaism a legal religion in the empire. They lived in Jewish communities that they even made up to 10% of the population near the end[7]. The decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Catholic Church made a large turning point for the Jews in the West.
The Catholic Church demanded that Jews either be baptised anew as a Christian, which some did, or be exiled. This is also referred to as anuism. With so much power that the popes had over the main government, there wasn’t much questioning of why the Jews needed to change to the Catholic religion. This was a dangerous time and was even more fatal in the year 1095 CE. This year, the Crusades began. Although the intent of the Crusade, at least the intent expressed aloud to the people by Pope Urban III, was to take back the Holy Land for the Church from the Muslims and restore it, this was not exactly what happened. This was probably due to the fact that Jews were still not quite respected and that the Crusaders were untrained, their “practice” consisted of slaughtering small towns and communities along the way, and most of the people in those places were Jews. One of the “great” people of the crusade was Peter the Hermit. Peter went on crusade but instead of regaining the Holy Land, he led the Rhineland massacres against the Jews. the horrid thing was that this wasn’t even the only times he slaughtered Jews who did no harm unto him.[8] This is only one minute part of the unfair treatment of the Jews in the Middle Ages. They were blamed for the Great Famine, the Black Death, and even the crude murder of a young Christian boy.
The boy, William, was found brutally murder in 1144 CE and to fuel anti-Jew feelings throughout, Thomas of Monmouth wrote a scathing account about how they used young William as a blood sacrifice. He wrote them out to be disgusting, deceiving the boy with cunning words and blatantly mocking him as a Christian a crucifying him like Jesus was on Calvary. This made Christians more afraid and angry at the Jews than before and caused a swell of aggression among the people at the time.[9] This hatred still held relevance with new conflicts that arose past these events and into news struggles in more modern Europe.
As the years went on the hatred for the Jews and blaming them for the problems of the world stayed with the people in the West. It was a deep-rooted thing, a sort of thing that grows through generations like vernacular or culture. So when Adolf Hitler overtook Germany in and sentenced the Jews to what could arguably be the biggest feat for the Jews to overcome and survive through in their entire history. By placing the blame and hatred he had on them, it was no surprise to why so many people followed his beliefs to eradicate the Jews. It’s because of the hatred and dislike of all the previous civilizations balled up into this overlaying cloud that is “normal” and still influences people today in society and decisions. Is there still hatred for them today? Of course. Anti-Semitism is the term used for discrimination against Jewish people. And they’re targeted simply by being them, no person should be afraid to express their faith in public, especially not after having to spend centuries fighting to keep it alive and to pass it down proudly through generations and generations of people to proudly pass on as well. As well as the anti-Semitism, those who take part in it try to divert and to diminish the fact of the Holocaust. This has become so out of hand that people are actually calling for the delegitimization and destruction of Israel.[10] So, even the world today with all of its peace organizations and education on how to use impartiality in the world rather than turn a blind eye to those who are unlike them, they still abuse them in the media and in everyday experiences.
The Hebrew Civilization, although small, survived for almost too long some could say, and still live today. But why and how have they come this far? The answer: the diaspora. The diaspora was the idea that even separated by any force or people, they would still be connected through faith in Yahweh, or God. They also had a strong faith in God and what power he possessed to protect his “chosen people”. Although some may say that they were fading at the rise of Christianity and other religions or that they were so depleted at the end of WWII, could it even be said that they are thriving anymore? The fact is that with all the supporting evidence here, they are very much still thriving and through the hardships that brought them to today has only made them stronger in their faith and God. If it were not for this expression of faith and the abstract idea of the diaspora, Lord knows what would have become of their beliefs and culture if they did not have this. It truly is quite ironic though to examine the biggest and “baddest” empires of the West faded into nothing more than ruins of buildings and influences. The Babylonians are no longer in charge and Rome definitely fell. Through it, tossed by every way of doctrine, was a tiny civilization without a military that has outlasted them all. So it will be no surprise when they pull through and conquer the trials and hardships of today’s nasties. If any civilization or group can make it, it will be the Hebrews.
Bibliography
- Shurden, Walter B. The Bible. Smyth & Helwys, 1994.
- “Egypt: New Find Shows Slaves Didn't Build Pyramids.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, https://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/01/12/egypt-new-find-shows-slaves-didnt-build-pyramids.
- “Timeline of Jerusalem.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Jerusalem#Canaanite_and_New_Kingdom_Egyptian_period.
- “Biblical Judges.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Nov. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_judges.
- “Ancient Israel.” Israel, http://www.israel-a-history-of.com/ancient-israel.html.
- “Damnatio Ad Bestias.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Nov. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_ad_bestias.
- “History of the Jews in the Roman Empire.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Nov. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Roman_Empire.
- “Peter the Hermit.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_the_Hermit.
- Lualdi, Katharine J. Sources of the Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. Bedford/St. Martins, 2019.
- “Anti-Semitism Rising Even in Countries with No Jews at All, Secretary-General Tells Event on Power of Education to Counter Racism, Discrimination | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases.” United Nations, United Nations, https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sgsm19252.doc.htm.
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