The history of ancient israel to modern day

The word Israel is used in scripture to represent three specific things:

1. The ten northern tribes that were led by Ephraim. (Judah led the southern tribes)

2. An individual man, Israel, son of Isaac

Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the brother of Esau. Jacob was also the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. The narratives in relation to Jacob in the book of Genesis take place throughout what is known as the Ancestral era. Jacob was a person known for deception. The Bible says that he came out of the womb clutching his brother Esau's heal.

As time progressed, Jacob conned his brother Esau out of his birthright. Later he tricked his father, Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau. Jacob being afraid of what his brother may do fled to the safety of his uncle Laban’s home. During his travel to his uncles, Jacob had a dream. In this dream, he saw a ladder that extended to heaven. The ladder had angels ascending and descending.

While at his uncles, he married Leah and Rachel, two sisters. Jacob also had two concubines named Zilpah and Bilhah. Between these women, Jacob had 12 sons. Jacob also became a very wealthy man. Jacob soon fled back to the land of Canaan disregarding his fear of Esau and while on the way wrestled with an angel all night long. He wrestled with the angel to have his name changed and in the morning, the angel changed his name to Israel. Jacob, now Israel, became the father of the nation Israel. Israel’s 12 sons gave name to the 12 tribes of Israel.

Israel, the land, began some 4000 years ago with the Canaanites or patriarchs. This is the beginning of Jewish history.

The Canaanites/Patriarchs began the history of Israel around the 17th century B.C. with Abraham, his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. The book of Genesis narrates how Abraham was beckoned from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan to bring about the development of a people having just one belief in one God. When the famine spread throughout Canaan, Jacob (later named Israel), his sons (12) and their families settled in Egypt, where their descendants were forced to slavery.

After some 400 years of bondage, the Israelites followed the lead of Moses to freedom. The Exodus and settlement of the land took place around the 13th to 12th centuries B.C. God’s chosen people wandered in the Sinai desert for 40 years forming a nation and receiving the Torah or Pentateuch including the Ten Commandments. The Exodus from Egypt left an ineradicable impression on the nationalized remembrance of the Jewish people and became a common emblem of freedom and liberty. The Jewish people celebrate the Passover (Pesach), Pentecost (Shavout) and Feast of Tabernacles (Succot) every year to commemorate the events of that era.

Throughout the following 2 centuries, the Israelites dominated the majority Israel’s land. The people walked away from their nomadic life becoming craftsmen and farmers raising the standard of social and economic life in the nation. There were times of war and peace over the years with the people joining forces with leaders that would be known as judges. These leaders were chosen because of their military skills, leadership abilities and political expertise. The flaw intrinsic in this ancestral society facing threats by the Philistines eventually gave need for a ruler that would join to unite the various tribes into a permanent nation that would carry forward through inheritance thus leading to the next stage of Israel’s history—the Monarchy.

The Monarchy under its first king, Saul, around the year 1020 B.C., spanned the time between careless tribal groups and the beginnings of a total monarchy with Saul’s successor, King David around 1000 B.C. Kind David would establish Israel in the region as a major force successful in defeating the Philistines and making alliances with the kingdoms surrounding Israel. King David’s authority became known across the land from the Red Sea to Egypt. King David brought about the union of the tribes of Israel into one nation with Jerusalem as the capital.

Solomon the son of King David succeeded his father around 965-930 B.C. Solomon made pacts with the kings of the neighboring territories reinforcing the political unions of marriages, trade and domestic prosperity. The economic growth was of great importance and Solomon’s accomplishments were greatly enhanced by the building the Jerusalem temple. The Temple in Jerusalem became the Jewish center of religious and public life.

The next era in the timeline of Israel falls with the charismatic people, sages and prophets claiming to walk with divine gifts of revelation. These people went about prophesying and preaching until a century or more after the fall of Jerusalem around 586 B.C. The prophets were led by a need for justice and life with God and held fast the matters of religion, politics and ethics. The prophets instilled a new form of morality upon the public life of the Jewish community.

At the end of Solomon’s reign, the monarchy was divided and blemished by disgruntlement with the people. After Solomon died in 930 B.C., open rebellion led to the division of the ten northern tribes from the southern tribes of Judah’s kingdom and Benjamin’s. This kingdom of Israel with its capital of Samaria would stand for more than 200 years and would see 19 kings. The Kingdom held by Judah ran for 350 years and saw at least 19 different kings from the line of David. The empires of Assyria and Babylon brought first Israel and shortly Judah under unfamiliar power. The Assyrians in 722 B.C. trampled the Kingdom of Israel and carried the people away into exile and ultimately nothingness. Nearly 100 years later Babylon conquered the Kingdom of Judah destroying the Temple of Jerusalem and the city in 586 B.C.

The conquest by Babylon brought about the end of the 1st Jewish Temple period, 586 B.C. The conquest though did not end the Jewish people’s relationship with Israel. The Jewish Diaspora began at this time developing a framework of religious life and spiritual identity as a nation. This was the 1st exile and it would be followed by the return to Zion around 538-143 B.C.

The Persian King Cyrus put forth a decree, which allowed over 50,000 Jews to begin their return unto the holy land of Israel. A descendant of the House of David, Zerubabel, led them. It would be less than a hundred years later when a scribe, Ezra, would lead them in their second return. The next four hundred years would find the Jewish people under unstable levels of self-governance, first under Persia, then under Hellenistic rule around 332-143 B.C. This began the building of the second temple and the refortifying of the walls of Jerusalem.

Over the next hundred years, Israel would see the Hasmonean rule and Roman rule. It would be under the Roman rule that Herod became ruler and lost the trust and support of the people of Israel. The Jewish throng moved from Herod’s rule and ten years after his death, Judea surfaced and anger grew suppressing the Jewish way of life even more bringing eventually into play the Byzantine era.

The Byzantine rule ran from 313-636 and by the end of the 4th century, the land of Israel was primarily Christian. Christian churches were constructed in Bethlehem, Galilee and Jerusalem. Monasteries were set up throughout the country also. The Jewish people were forbidden to enter Jerusalem except for one day of the year to mourn the destruction of the temple. This day was the Tisha b’Av- ninth of Av. The Jewish people were also forbidden to hold positions of public importance and had virtually lost their independence.

The Jews assisted the Persians during their invasion in 614 feeling encouraged by messianic desires for liberation. The Persians, to show their appreciation for their help, granted the Jewish people the government of Jerusalem. This Jewish rule of the Holy City lasted 3 years. In 629, the Byzantine army recaptured the city and expelled the Jewish people again.

After the death of Muhammad in 632, the Arabs conquered the land and their rule lasted for more than centuries, 636 to 1099. The Jewish people began settling again in Jerusalem during the Islamic rule and they were placed under the protection of the Islamic, non-Muslim, rule. Under this rule their property, lives and freedom to worship was protected. A tax was placed upon them though as a form of payment for this protection. By the end of the 11th century, Jewish population had greatly decreased and the Jewish religious populace was loosing its unity.

From 1099 to 1291, the crusaders ruled the country and the Pope sent an appeal from Europe to have the land recovered from the ‘infidels’. Massacres took place and destruction of buildings and property was rampant in the land. The Jewish people found themselves sold into slavery or burnt to death in their temples. Toward the end of the crusades, the Jewish people were returning to the Holy Land. In 1187, Saladin overthrew the crusaders and the Jewish people received more freedom and the right to live in Jerusalem. The crusaders were finally totally overthrown in 1291 by a Muslim military, the Mamluks.

The Mamluk rule ran from 1291 to 1516. Toward the end of the middle ages the land was in ruins, Jerusalem was mostly deserted, and what remained of the city was an indigent society. The Mamluk rule was a time of devastation plagued by economic and political confusion, invasions of insects and devastation from earthquakes. In 1517 the land was conquered and put under the Ottoman rule. This rule lasted until 1917.

During the Ottoman rule the land was put into four divisions and appended to Damascus. The ruling body came from Istanbul. The main population of the land at this time was said to be mostly descendants of Jews and immigrants from Europe and North Africa, with only around a thousand Jewish families. By the middle of the 16th century, the Jewish populace grew to around 10,000. The Ottoman rule was slowing declining and by the 18th century, landlords and farmers occupied most of Israel. The taxation on the land was astounding and nearly brought the land to destruction again.

During the 19th century, some progress was seen and missionaries entered the land and Western countries tried to gain power of the land. By mid 19th century, the Jewish population of Israel was greatly increased. The land of Israel was ready for the next stage—Zionism.

The national movement of freedom from the people came from the word Zion, and became synonymous with the word Jerusalem and land of Israel. Zion stood for the redeemed people of Israel—the Jewish people restored to their ancestral land. The land of Israel would go through more obstacles over the years but continued to regain in Jewish population. At the start of WWI, 85,000 Jewish people lived in the land.

In 1917, the British took control of the land. Jewish immigration would be restricted during the coming years due to Arab anti-Jewish riots and Nazi persecution. The start of WWII brought many Jewish people to volunteer service. Over 26,000 Jewish men and women joined the British forces to come against the Nazi’s. During WWII 6 million Jewish people, over 1 million being children were murdered. The Nazi plan to liquidate all Jewish people was attempted and nearly accomplished. The Holocaust is one of the greatest horrors of all times.

On May 14th 1948, the state of Israel was on its way to independence. In 1949, the United Nations saw the flag of Israel raised. Israel was bound for independence, but the road would not be smooth. In 1956, the Sinai campaign began. A treaty with Syria, Jordan and Egypt was signed in 1956. In 1967, the Six-Day war brought new changes to the land. Judea, Samaria, the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza, and the Golan Heights were under the rule of Israel. Many wars would follow over the coming years bringing many changes to the land of Israel.

In 1973, Israel saw the Yom Kippur war or Day of Atonement war, which is the holiest Jewish day of the year. Egypt and Syria attacked Israel by surprise. War would continue between Egypt and Israel over the years ending in 1979.

Over 700,000 immigrants from Eastern Europe, Ethiopia and the Soviet Union had come to the land of Israel during the 80’s and 90’s. The 1990’s would also see the onset of the bilateral talks and the signing of many agreements. On December 10, 1994, in acknowledgment of efforts by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Minister Shimon Peres and Chairman Yasser Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded.

Talks would continue over the years between Israel and Jordan, Israel and Syria and other countries. In 1995 Israel saw the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The state of Israel faces many governmental challenges still today. A continuing regime towards peace rallies the people forward and a steady flow of immigration into the country should bring a positive affect on the land of Israel—God’s holy land.