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  The Jews’ Civil War

  When Solomon died in 931 B.C.E., his son Rehoboam went to Shechem—the administrative headquarters of the northern tribes—to secure their support for his rule, but he refused to redress their grievances. This prompted a new rebellion, led again by Jeroboam, who returned from exile. Rather than seek compromise, Rehoboam used force to try to quell the revolt, but his army was defeated.

  The 10 northern tribes then declared Jeroboam their king, causing a split in the Israelite nation. Now Jeroboam ruled the new kingdom of Israel, while Rehoboam remained sovereign over the two tribes predominant in the land of Judah: Benjamin and Judah. This did not end the matter, however, and a civil war continued for the next century.

  The Divided Kingdom, tenth–sixth centuries B.C.E.

  The Lost Tribes

  The northern kingdom of Israel became a regional power under King Omri, who made Samaria his capital. External threats were on the horizon, but internal divisions were the first danger to Israel’s survival. When Omri’s son Ahab married Jezebel, she tried to incorporate the belief in the Phoenician god Melkarth into Jewish practice, an act that provoked widespread dissension. After Ahab’s death, Jezebel and her children were slaughtered, and a new series of kings assumed power.

  While the people of Israel were fighting among themselves, the shifting sands of the region led to the ascendance of an Assyrian empire, which emerged in southern Mesopotamia. The prize sought by the Assyrians was Egypt, and the path led through the Jewish kingdoms. For more than a century, the kings of Israel succeeded in holding off the Assyrians, alternating between paying their enemies for peace and defeating them in battle. Finally, in 722 B.C.E., Sargon II succeeded in overrunning Israel and deporting its population. The 10 northern tribes subsequently disappeared and came to be known as the Lost Tribes.

  The Last Jewish King

  During the kingdom of Judah’s first 100 years of independence, the kings enjoyed mixed success. At first, they were able to greatly expand the country by conquering its neighbors, but ultimately they were unable to prevent rebellions from reducing the kingdom to its original size. As in Israel, the Assyrians provoked a split within Judah between those favoring the appeasement of the enemy and those who wanted to fight. Like its northern neighbor, Judah tried to do a little of both but ultimately couldn’t stop the superior forces of Assyria. The Assyrians besieged Judah in 701 B.C.E. and were on the verge of overwhelming Jerusalem when they mysteriously withdrew, leaving Judah independent.

  Before the Assyrians could attack again, they were conquered by a new power that burst on the scene—the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. While the former kingdom of Israel fell under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, Judah remained defiant. When an expeditionary force failed to quell the unrest, Nebuchadnezzar led his army into Jerusalem and captured the city in 597 B.C.E. He deported thousands of Jews who had been part of the ruling elite and who might have been tempted to lead a future rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar appointed 21-year-old Zedekiah, a descendant of King David, to serve as king.

  Instead of being the puppet Nebuchadnezzar wanted, Zedekiah mounted a new revolt. This time Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the countryside and, after an 18-month siege, razed Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s Temple. In the typical grisly fashion of the time, Zedekiah’s sons were murdered in front of him, and then Zedekiah’s eyes were gouged out. A handful of Judeans fled to Egypt; some poor, elderly, and sick peasants remained in Judah; and the rest of the population was deported to Babylon. It was 586 B.C.E.: Judah had outlived Israel by 136 years, but the days of the Jewish kingdoms were over—or were they?

  Exile from Main Street

  The Book of Lamentations (1:1,4) records the grief of the Jews after the Babylonian victory:

  How lonely sits the city that was full of people!

  How like a widow she has become

  She that was great among the nations!

  The roads to Zion mourn,

  for none come to the appointed feasts;

  all her gates are desolate,

  her priests groan;

  her maidens have been dragged away

  and she herself suffers bitterly.

  With the destruction of their political structures and their own deportation to distant lands where they were pressured to assimilate, the Jews might well have gone the way of the Phoenicians, Sumerians, Assyrians, and so many other ancient civilizations that have disappeared. Thanks largely to the influence of the prophets, however, the Jewish culture survived.

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  Hieroglyphics

  Prophets are believed to be individuals chosen by God to disclose God’s will and arouse the people to repentance and observance of God’s laws.

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  Growth of Synagogues

  After the fall of Judah, the prophets, particularly Isaiah and Ezekiel, began to deemphasize the ritualistic elements of Judaism, which were largely based on sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem. They maintained that God was more interested in morality than sacrifices. This helped make the God of Israel a “portable” God who was not tied to a particular time and place, and it helped the Jews to survive through centuries of exile. More immediately in Babylonia, the Jews began to build synagogues as places of assembly where they could offer prayers to God and where the Jewish laws could be read and taught. The traditions and laws of the Israelites also were written down in what ultimately became the Bible.

  Hope Through the Messiah

  The prophets also told the Jews that they were forced to suffer because of their sins, but if they repented, God would return them to their homeland. Isaiah also introduced the notion of the Messiah, a descendant of David who would restore the nation of Israel and usher in a new era in which “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.” This helped give the Jews hope for redemption during their captivity in Babylonia.

  There Goes Another Empire

  The Babylonians ruled the world in the sixth century B.C.E. Yet, afterward, in the course of about half a century, they ceased to exist. This is remarkable enough, but it is even more astounding that their successors, the Persians, had not existed before! In 560 B.C.E., Cyrus the Great became king of Persia, a small state in the Middle East, and within 30 years had replaced the Babylonian empire with his own.

  Cyrus also unexpectedly told the Jews that they could return to their homeland. Although he was probably motivated primarily by the desire to have someone else rebuild the land of Israel and to make it a source of income for the Persian Empire, the impact on the Jews was to reinvigorate their faith and stimulate them to reconstruct the Temple in Jerusalem. The second Temple was completed on the very site of the first Temple in 516 B.C.E.

  Though Cyrus allowed the Jews freedom to practice their religion, he would not permit them to reestablish their monarchy. Instead, Cyrus sent Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, along with 42,360 other exiles, to establish what essentially became a theocracy, with Zerubbabel as high priest.

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  Hieroglyphics

  Theocracy comes from the Greek theokratia, “government by a god.” Countries that view God as the source of all law and legitimacy, often with these laws interpreted by religious authorities, are theocracies.

  * * *

  Over the next 150 years, Judah flourished as the Jews rebuilt Jerusalem and developed the surrounding areas. The Persians resisted any Jewish efforts to restore the monarchy, but allowed them a high degree of autonomy under the high priest, whose power was partially checked by the Sanhedrin and the popular assemblies.

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  Hieroglyphics

  The Sanhedrin were Jewish courts located in every city in ancient Judah. The Great Sanhedrin was a kind of Supreme Court that had 71 members and met in the Temple in Jerusalem. This was the highest religious and legal authority in Jewish life at the time.

  * * *

  During this period, Judaism’s written law took its final form. One of the key changes in the history of Judaism was the im
position at this time of a ban on intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews. Although adherence to this rule has never been universal, it is one of the central tenets of Judaism and perhaps the most important reason for the survival of the Jewish people. Unlike many other peoples, they did not disappear through assimilation and intermarriage.

  It’s All Greek to the Jews

  By the time the Jews had finished rebuilding their homeland, a new power emerged on the scene: the Greeks. Once again, the Middle East saw a change in power as Alexander the Great swept across the region. We’re not sure why, but rather than fight him as they did virtually every other invader, the Jews welcomed Alexander in 332 B.C.E. Perhaps equally perplexing is the fact that the Macedonian king took a liking to the Jews and gave them political and religious freedom.

  Hellenism—as Greek culture and ideals came to be known—influenced most of the world, and the Jews didn’t escape its pull. Jews began to travel throughout the Greek Empire, from the great new city of Alexandria in Egypt to Alexander’s home islands in the Black Sea. They learned Greek and translated the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses) into the language (which is known as the Septuagint) for the growing numbers of Jews who could not read it in the original Hebrew.

  After Alexander died in 323 B.C.E., three of his generals fought for supremacy and divided the Middle East among themselves. Ptolemy secured control of Egypt and Palestine, Seleucus grabbed Syria and Asia Minor, and Antigonus took Greece.

  Once again, the land of Israel was in the middle of rival powers and, for the next 125 years, Seleucids and Ptolemies battled for the prize. The Seleucids finally prevailed in 198 B.C.E. when Antiochus III defeated the Egyptians and incorporated Judah into his empire. Initially, he continued to allow the Jews autonomy. After a stinging defeat at the hands of the Romans, however, he began a program of assimilation that threatened to force the Jews to abandon their monotheism for the Greeks’ paganism. Antiochus backed down in the face of Jewish opposition to his effort of introducing idols in their temples. But his son Antiochus IV, who inherited the throne in 176 B.C.E., resumed his father’s original policy without excepting the Jews. A brief Jewish rebellion only hardened his views and led him to outlaw central tenets of Judaism, such as the Sabbath and circumcision, and defile the holy Temple by erecting an altar to the god Zeus, allowing the sacrifice of pigs, and opening the shrine to non-Jews.

  The Jewish Hammer

  Though many Jews had been seduced by Hellenism, the extreme measures adopted by Antiochus helped unite the people. When a Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a sacrifice to a pagan god, the Jew murdered the man. Predictably, Antiochus began reprisals, but in 167 B.C.E., the Jews rose up behind Mattathias and his five sons and fought for their liberation.

  Like other rulers before him, Antiochus underestimated the will and strength of his Jewish adversaries and sent a small force to put down the rebellion. When those soldiers were annihilated, he led a more powerful army into battle, only to be defeated again. In 164 B.C.E., Jerusalem was recaptured by the Maccabees and the Temple purified—an event that gave birth to the holiday of Hanukkah.

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  Hieroglyphics

  The family of Mattathias became known as the Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for “hammer,” because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. Jews refer to the Maccabees, but the family is more commonly known as the “Hasmoneans.”

  * * *

  It took more than two decades of fighting before the Maccabees forced the Seleucids to retreat from Palestine. By this time Antiochus had died, and his successor agreed to the Jews’ demand for independence. In the year 142 B.C.E., after more than 500 years of subjugation, the Jews were again masters of their own fate.

  The Least You Need to Know

  According to tradition, God told Abraham that his descendants would be the Chosen People and promised them a homeland.

  Abraham’s illegitimate son Ishmael is considered to be a patriarch for the Arabs.

  The Jews were freed from bondage in Egypt and conquered the Promised Land, where King David established Jerusalem as his capital and his son Solomon built the Temple, making the city the focus of Jewish veneration from then on.

  The Jewish kingdom was divided by a civil war into rival monarchies in Israel and Judah. Both were defeated by more powerful empires.

  The Maccabees regained Jewish independence in 142 B.C.E.

  Part 2

  Religion and

  Politics Mix

  Here you’ll find the story of the end of Jewish independence in Palestine and the rise of three great new empires—first the Roman, then the Muslim, and finally the Ottoman. Two new religions—Christianity and Islam—also appear on the scene, and within a few centuries dominate the politics and lifestyles of the people of the Middle East.

  While Christianity’s influence spreads throughout Europe, Muslims conquer the Middle East and North Africa, and their empire ultimately reaches as far as Spain. What is called the Muslim Empire is too vast for any one person or dynasty to control and really consists of a series of smaller empires, which are gradually defeated before being reunited by the Ottoman Turks.

  Part 2 ends with the introduction of the concept of nationalism to the Middle East and the birth of the Zionist movement and a more fragmented Arab nationalism.

  Chapter 3

  Welcome to the Empire

  In This Chapter

  Jewish divisions lead to disaster

  Rome envelops the Middle East

  Jews revolt: Jerusalem is destroyed

  The rise and growth of Christianity

  When Mattathias died, his son Judas—or Judah Maccabee, as he is often called—spearheaded the revolt that eventually led to Jewish independence. By the end of the war, Simon was the only one of Mattathias’s five sons to survive, and he ushered in an 80-year period of Jewish independence in the land of Israel. Simon never actually became king. He was only governor and high priest of Judah. Nevertheless, the Hasmonean dynasty (the Maccabees were also known as the Hasmoneans) he founded not only claimed the throne of Judah, but also the post of high priest. This assertion of religious authority conflicted with the Jewish tradition that their priests come from the descendants of Moses’ brother Aaron and the tribe of Levi.

  It didn’t take long for rival factions to develop and threaten the unity of the Hasmonean kingdom. Ultimately, internal divisions and the appearance of yet another imperial power were to put an end to Jewish independence in Israel for nearly two centuries.

  A House Divided

  Although the Hasmoneans (the Maccabees) succeeded in winning religious freedom, the Jews themselves began to have profound differences among themselves with regard to their faith. One faction, known as the Pharisees, believed the oral law was given to Moses by God at Sinai along with the Torah. This oral tradition was subsequently codified in the Talmud. Modern Judaism evolved from the Pharisees.

  A faction known as the Sadducees had a competing vision of Judaism. They wanted to maintain the priestly caste, but were more liberal in their willingness to incorporate Hellenism into their lives, something the Pharisees opposed. The Sadducees did not accept the idea of an oral law and insisted instead on strict interpretation of the written law (Torah).

  The fractious nature of Judean society increased when Simon was murdered and his son John Hyrcanus succeeded him both as king and high priest. After the brief reign of Hyrcanus’s son Aristobulus, a second son, Alexander Janneaus, assumed the throne and succeeded in a series of conquests that expanded the borders of Judah to what they had been at the height of David’s power. He was successful largely because his rule coincided with the decline of the Seleucids and preceded the rise of the Romans. The absence of any great empire in the region allowed the Hasmoneans to fill the vacuum.

  Janneaus also further exacerbated the splits within the Jewish community by rejecting many customs and associations with Hellenic influences. At the Feast of Tabernac
les in Jerusalem, he refused to perform one of the prescribed rituals and was pelted with lemons. He responded by brutally slaughtering thousands of Jews and provoking a six-year civil war.

  * * *

  Ask the Sphinx

  Today Israel continues to have one of the highest literacy rates in the world, 95 percent.

  * * *

  The war ended with Janneaus still in power. When he died in 76 B.C.E., his wife, Alexandra, took over. During her nine-year reign, she introduced what was probably the first-ever compulsory education for boys and girls. Thus, at a time when illiteracy was the norm elsewhere, Alexandra ensured that the Jews got an education.

  Because a woman could not serve as high priest, she appointed her oldest son, Hyrcanus II, to the post. When Alexandra died, he seized the throne. This didn’t sit well with his brother Aristobulus II. In the grand tradition of sibling rivalries dating back to Cain and Abel, the two fought for power.

  Aristobulus succeeded in briefly deposing his brother. Hyrcanus solicited the aid of the neighboring Nabateans and took back the crown. Aristobulus in turn appealed to the newest power on the Middle East scene, the Romans. That turned out to be a big mistake.