Ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible

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

Ancient Israel• On intersection of multiple ancient cultures :

egyptian, mesopotamian, foinician, etc.

• Settled by semitic Canaanites and Philistines (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 (semi-nomadic) = abstract complex of God´s will

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

Ten Commandments http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Deut.5.4-Deut.5.21

Ancient Israel - Bible

• Exodus (Shemot) from Egypt• Different Israeli 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

• A tribal system evolved into a kingdom• Saul• David• Solomon

Ancient Israel - Bible

• Saul

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

• Unified the Israeli tribes• Jerusalem – capital of his new kingdom

• Fortified and rebuilt the city

• Wrote Psalms• Solomon

Rembrandt, David

playing for Saul

• David• Commanded his son

• Salomon• to build a Jerusalem Temple on Mount Moriah • Israel´s first permanent sanctuary• Wise man : wrote Proverbs, Kohelet and the Song of

Songs ( השרים (שר

Ancient Israel - Bible

Kingdom

• The Kingdom split in two parts– North – Israel kingdom – Samaria

• The cult of Baal was allowed• Asyria conquered Samaria in the 8th c. BCE

disintegration of the Kingdom of Israel

Kingdom– South – Kingdom of Judea – Jerusalem

• Among two mighty states : Egypt and Neo-Babylonian realm

• 587 Nabuchodonozor conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the 1st

Temple Babylonian captivity of the elites the end of the Kingdom and of the dynasty of David

• Ended with the Persian conquest of Babylonia : the Persian king Kyros permitted Jews to go back to Judea

• Ezdra, Nehemia : Persian province Jehud

• Since 518 BCE renewal of the Temple – already without Aron ha-kodesh; only the Menorah survived from the 1st Temple

Jerusalem Temple, reconstruction

Judea

Greeks• 164 BCE Juda Makkabe´s

uprising against Antiochos IV Epiphanos who tried to force Jew to hellenisation– Jerusalem was reconquered

and the Temple reconsecrated

Romans• The Hasmonean dynasty

(from Makkabes) was superated by the Romans (63 BCE Pompeius conquered Jerusalem)

• The Jewish society polarized in the times the Roman rule– Sadducees– Pharisees– Essenes– Zealots

Judea• Sadducees

– wanted to maintain the priestly caste

– open to incorporate Hellenism into their lives (something the Pharisees opposed)

– rejected the Oral Law and insisted on a litteral interpretation of the Written Law

– Focused on the rituals associated with the Temple

– disappeared around 70 CE after the destruction of the Second Temple

• Pharisees– the spiritual fathers of

modern Judaism– Oral Law– Believed that God gave

Moses on Sinai a written law and the knowledge of what these laws meant and how they should be applied ( Talmud)

Judea

• Essenes– lived a monastic life in

the desert– may have been the

Temple priests who went into self-imposed exile in the 2nd c. BCE

• Zealots– Advocated violence against Romans

and the Sadducees– Criticised in Talmud for their blind

militarism– The leading role in the Jewish

Revolt of 66: took over Jerusalem and held it until 70, when the son of Roman Emperor Vespasian, Titus retook the city and destroyed the Temple.

– After the destruction of the Temple took refuge in the fortress Masada – committed a group suicide when the fortress was conquered by the Romans

Exile

- Diaspora – Jewish communities living outside of Israel

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

Ancient Israel - Bible

• God יהוה ha- Shem Adonaï• Contrasts with the Middle East polytheism• Eschatology• Monoteism : judaism, christianity, islam• Bible: „ta biblia“ (greek) = books

– Old Testament – mainly in hebrew – canonical for Jews– New Testament – in greek – tradition about life and teaching

of Jesus Christ

• Written 2nd c. BCE – 1st c. CE

Ancient Israel - Bible• Hebrew bible = Tanakh

• Torah - Five Books of Moses: Bereshit (Genesis), Shemot (Exodus), Vayikra (Leviticus), Bemidbar (Numbers), Devarim (Deuteronomy)

• Divided in 54 parashiyot for every Shabbat – starts again on Simchat Torah• Naviim (Prophets) : Isaiah, Jeremy, Ezechiel, small prophets...• Ketubim (Scriptures): Psalms, Song of Songs (love poetry), Job, Kohelet, Proverbs,

Ruth, Daniel...

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 capacity. 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 the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Rabbinic Judaism and Talmud

1st C. – 5th C. CE

Talmudic Times

• Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Court) continued to work after the destruction of the 2nd Temple in the year 70 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

Talmud• Jehuda ha-Nasi (2nd c.) codified Mishna (teaching) – oral

law– Mishna based on Torah and halakha, religious law which

originates in the Written and Oral Torah

• Babylonia – Extensive commentary to Mishnah = Gemara

MISHNA + GEMARA = TALMUD

Talmud Jerushalmi – 5th c.Talmud Bavli – 6th c. – more authoritative

Talmud

• Stimulates to raise questions• Besides the religious law and disputations

(halakha), the Talmud contains different narrative stories (aggada)– Jerusalem Talmud 2/3 aggada, 1/3 halakha– Babylonian Talmud 5/6 halakha

Talmud

– to narrate; to put on the table in individual = הגידdetails

– Aggada – collected fragments on individual rabbis• Creative filling of biblical gaps

– Aggada : everything that is not halakha (law)– Halakha is superior to aggada

Talmudic Ethics

• Rabi Shimon ben Gamliel says: "The world is sustained by three things, by justice, by truth and by peace.„

• Rabi Natan says: „Do not blame others for your own mistake.“

• Hilel says: “Don’t do unto others what you would not want do to you – that is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and learn!“

• "Do not say 'I will study when I have the time', for perhaps you will never have time." Pirkei Avot 2:5

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