{"id":9271,"date":"2023-11-27T22:48:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T22:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elbespurling.com\/salvation\/?page_id=9271"},"modified":"2025-11-11T01:41:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:41:58","slug":"01-ancient-israel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elbespurling.com\/salvation\/?page_id=9271","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 1: Ancient Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Chapter 1<\/mark><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ancient Israel<\/mark><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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The Origin of the Israelites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of one of the Sea Peoples making landfall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The invaders came from the sea. After a long and prosperous golden age, the great nations of the day\u2014Egypt, the Early Greek city states, the Hittites, and the Assyrians\u2014were blindsided and nearly wiped out. Countless coastal and interior cities were looted and burned by a loose confederacy of attackers known simply as The Sea Peoples.3<\/a><\/sup>Kitano, B. (2015 December 17). The Late Bronze Age Collapse: The Climate Change Hypothesis, a Review. Yale University<\/em>. https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/21094145\/The_Late_Bronze_Age_Collapse<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Map of cities destroyed during the Late Bronze Age Collapse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This catastrophic destruction of 1200 BCE is known as the Late Bronze Age Collapse, and it nearly brought civilization to its knees. In its wake, the entire Eastern Mediterranean and Near East fell into a dark age. Only the Egyptian and Assyrian cultures survived, though in a severely weakened state.4<\/a><\/sup>Cline, E. H. (2015). 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.<\/em> United Kingdom: Princeton University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of a shepherd in the highlands of the Levant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Across the region, the survivors now fled vulnerable cities for the safety of sparsely populated hill country.5<\/a><\/sup>Tubb, J. (2002). Canaanites. United Kingdom: British Museum Press<\/em>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0003598X00065340<\/a><\/span> Up to this point, the entire Levant area (a long stretch of land corresponding to today\u2019s Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine) had been ruled by Egypt. But their drastically diminished power now afforded opportunities for the formation of several small independent nations in this region. By 850 BCE a people known as the Israelites emerged in the Levantine hill country known as Samaria (today\u2019s northern Israel).6<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts<\/em>. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Map of Samaria and the burgeoning state of Israel between Egypt and Assyria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of an Assyrian war chariot supplied by the kingdom of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Israelites eventually made a name for themselves as horse traders and chariot trainers, selling their services and goods to larger regional powers like Assyria. But even at the height of their wealth and influence, they never rose beyond the status of a minor regional power. For much of its existence, the Israelite nation was compelled to pay tribute to the weakened but still far more powerful Assyrians to the northeast.7<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts<\/em>. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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King Jehu of Israel bows down before the Assyrian emperor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In fact, history\u2019s earliest known image of an Israelite is found on a carved obelisk from about 840 BCE depicting King Jehu of Samaria bowing down in obeisance and offering his tribute of gold, silver, and weaponry to Assyria\u2019s King Shalmaneser III.8<\/a><\/sup>Kuan, J. K. (2016). Neo-Assyrian Historical Inscriptions and Syria-Palestine: Israelite\/Judean-Tyrian-Damascene Political and Commercial Relations in the Ninth-Eighth Centuries BCE<\/em>. Wipf and Stock Publishers.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Kingdom of Israel at its greatest extent, with its hinterlands to the south<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ethnically, the Israelites were kin to their surrounding neighbors in the Levant such as the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Phoenecians,9<\/a><\/sup>Laden, J. Jews and Arabs Descended from Canaanites. Biblical Archaeology Society. 15 November 2023. https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/ancient-cultures\/ancient-near-eastern-world\/jews-and-arabs-descended-from-canaanites\/<\/a><\/span>  and their cultural and religious practices were very similar.10<\/a><\/sup>Dever, William G. (2008) Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel<\/em> (paperback edition). Cambridge: Eerdmans<\/span> The notable exception was the neighboring Philistine people who first arrived on the scene as one of the Sea Peoples. The Egyptians had managed to subdue them, and forcibly settled them on the Mediterranean coast of what is today Gaza.11<\/a><\/sup>Killebrew, Ann E. (2005). Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300-1100 B.C.E.<\/em> Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the relatively refined Philistine culture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to their unfair reputation as uncivilized dullards, the Philistines had come from the Island of Crete and were heirs to a significantly more refined culture than the relatively less developed ancient Israelites. Interestingly, the Philistines did not hold to their ancestral religion, but quickly adopted the religion of their new home in the ancient Near East.12<\/a><\/sup>Sauter, M. Who Were the Philistines, and Where Did They Come From? Biblical Archaeology Society. 16 April 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ancient Near Eastern Religion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of a Sumerian city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All the religions of the ancient Near East have their ultimate roots in the pantheon of gods and goddesses worshiped by the first human civilization, the Sumerians who built their cities 5,000 years ago in what is today Southern Iraq where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers empty into the Persian Gulf. We know a great deal about their religion because the Sumerians invented writing and many of their carved tablets have survived to be deciphered in modern times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of a Sumerian ziggurat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the top of their pantheon\u2019s hierarchy was Enlil (\u201cLord Wind\u201d), a storm god who was also credited with having created humankind. He was the consort of the weather goddess Ninlil (\u201cLady Breeze\u201d). Most popular among the female deities was Inanna (\u201cLady of Heaven\u201d), a goddess of love, sexuality, and war who was married to the god Dumuzid (\u201cRighteous Son\u201d). The Sumerian sun god was Utu and their moon goddess was named Nanna.13<\/a><\/sup>Bott\u00e9ro, J. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. 2001. University of Chicago Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of Sumerian deities finding humans unbearably noisy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Sumerians wrote several mythic sagas about the exploits of their deities that set forth a cosmology and set of stories that would influence other civilizations up to the time when the Bible was written nearly 2,500 years later. Famously in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the tale is told of a man named Utnapishtim who is told by the gods to build a large boat and to bring aboard animals so as to survive a great flood that would kill off all other living things. While not every detail was retained in the Bible\u2019s story of Noah\u2014for instance, in the Sumerian version the gods are motivated to drown all humankind simply because they are too noisy\u2014most of the details and sequence of events are shockingly similar.14<\/a><\/sup>Gardner, J., Maier, J. Gilgamesh: translated from the Sin-leqi-unninni version<\/em>. 1984. New York, New York: Random House<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ancient depiction of the goddess Inanna flanked by lions and owls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In another story with parallels in later cultures including Christian myth, the story is told of the goddess Inanna who attempts to conquer the underworld, but fails and is killed there.15<\/a><\/sup>Penglase, C. (2003). Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod<\/em>. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.<\/span> Her corpse is then hung up for three days and nights.16<\/a><\/sup>Inana’s descent to the nether world: translation. (1997). The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature<\/em>. https:\/\/etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk\/section1\/tr141.htm<\/a><\/span> The god Enki, moved by her plight, sends agents to revive her with the food and water of life. Despite her resurrection, Inanna is decreed unable to leave the underworld, though she eventually manages to force her unfaithful husband Dumuzid to take her place in the underworld, remaining dead for half the year.17<\/a><\/sup>Wolkstein, D., Kramer, S. (1983). Descent Of Inanna<\/em>. http:\/\/people.uncw.edu\/deagona\/myth\/Descent%20Of%20Inanna.pdf<\/a><\/span> Inanna and Dumuzid are thus considered the first known dieties to fit the trope of the dying-and-rising god. The rites of his worship of Dumuzid include the ritual mourning of his descent and death in the fall and the celebration of his resurrection in spring, clearly paralleled by yearly agricultural cycles.18<\/a><\/sup>Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, February 26). Tammuz<\/em>. Encyclopedia Britannica. https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Tammuz-Mesopotamian-god<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of priestesses at a Temple of Ishtar in Babylon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the Sumerians were eventually succeeded by the civilizations of the Babylonians and then the Assyrians to the north, their pantheon was largely retained with only minor adjustments. Inanna became even more popular as Ishtar. Dumuzid became Tammuz. The head god Enlil became Marduk in Babylon and Assur in Assyria. Utu the sun god became Shamash. Another storm god named Hadad was adopted as Adad.19<\/a><\/sup>Mark, J. J. (2011,February 25). The Mesopotamian Pantheon. World History Encyclopedia. https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/article\/221\/the-mesopotamian-pantheon\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the sacred idol of Marduk in Babylon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Babylonians took Sumerian worship practices and further developed the use of religious idols\u2014physical representations of gods fashioned out of wood, stone, or metal, given a place of prominence in temples. Believed to hold the essence of the god within them, it was considered only appropriate to treat them with the utmost care, respect, and devotion.20<\/a><\/sup>Hurowitz, V. (2003). The Mesopotamian God Image, from Womb to Tomb. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 123(1), 147\u2013157. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/3217848<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ancient Israelite Religion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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El statue, 1400-1200 BCE, Megiddo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To the southwest of Assyria in the northern Levant (in today\u2019s Syria), stood the once-prosperous city state of Ugarit.21<\/a><\/sup>Spar, I. (2009 April). The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/em>. http:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/toah\/hd\/cana\/hd_cana.htm<\/a><\/span> Among the many surviving writings from just before the Late Bronze Age Collapse are several that describe a pantheon that is nearly identical to that which was later to be adopted by the ancient Israelites. The chief creator and father of the gods is yet another iteration of the Sumerian god Enlil, known in Ugarit as El (simply \u201cgod\u201d). His consort is Asherah (\u201cQueen of Heaven\u201d), the local variant of Inanna\/Ishtar.22<\/a><\/sup>El. Paleo-Hebrew Dictionary<\/em>. https:\/\/www.paleohebrewdictionary.org\/glossary\/al\/<\/a><\/span> Third most important in the Ugaritic pantheon is El\u2019s son Baal (\u201cLord\u201d), a shortened form of the storm god originally worshiped as Baal Hadad in Assyria. Baal is said to have eventually usurped prominence from his father El.23<\/a><\/sup>El. Paleo-Hebrew Dictionary<\/em>. https:\/\/www.paleohebrewdictionary.org\/glossary\/al\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hadad idol carried by four men<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the time of the ancient Israelites a few hundred years later, another god\u2014not mentioned in ancient Ugarit\u2014was added to the mix. At the southernmost tip of the Levant lived a people known as the Kenites who worshiped their own local variant of the storm god Baal Hadad they called Yahweh. This Yahweh was seen as the head of their pantheon,24<\/a><\/sup>Kelly, J.(2009). Toward a New Synthesis of the God of Edom and Yahweh. Antiguo Oriente.<\/em> 7 : 255-280. https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/211171\/_Toward_a_New_Synthesis_of_the_God_of_Edom_and_Yahweh_Antiguo_Oriente_7_2009_255_280<\/a><\/span> and over time merchants traversing trade routes, and immigrants moving into the hill countries to the north popularized their traditional deity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reconstruction of urn from 800 BCE reading: \u201cI bless you by Yahweh and his Asherah\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like any respectable chief god, Yahweh was seen as the consort of Asherah,25<\/a><\/sup>Dever, W. (1984). Asherah, Consort of Yahweh? New Evidence from Kuntillet \u02bfAjr\u00fbd. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research<\/em>, 255, 21\u201337. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/1357073<\/a><\/span> and he eventually took on the role of creator deity as well. The ancient Israelites worshiped other members of the traditional pantheon as well. Cakes were ritually baked for the Queen of Heaven, holy standing stones were erected to Baal, Asherah poles and sacred trees aided worship of the goddess, and open air hill shrines known as “high places” dotted the landscape.26<\/a><\/sup>Brown, W. (2017 July 13). Ancient Israelite & Judean Religion. World History Encyclopedia<\/em>. https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/article\/1097\/ancient-israelite–judean-religion\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of women worshiping Asherah on a hill outside Jerusalem<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Israelite women yearly mourned the death of Tammuz in autumn and celebrated his resurrection in the spring.27<\/a><\/sup>Ezekiel 8:13-15. The Bible<\/em>. New International Version. Bible Gateway: https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Ezekiel%208%3A13-15&version=NIV<\/a><\/span> Small household idols were used to pray on a daily basis,28<\/a><\/sup>Noll, K.L. 2001. Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction<\/em>. Sheffield Academic Press.<\/span> and occasional trips were made to various temples to sacrifice animals to the deities in supplication29<\/a><\/sup>Adler, R.L. 15 February 2022. Where did the ancient Israelites encounter God? The Jerusalem Post<\/em>: https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/christianworld\/article-696569<\/a><\/span>\u2014a practice at least as old as the Sumerians. Even human sacrifice\u2014specifically the offering of children by burning\u2014was almost certainly practiced in times of desperation as it was in surrounding cultures.30<\/a><\/sup>Dewrell, H.D. Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel<\/em>. 2017. Penn State Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of ancient Israelites skirmishing with a neighboring nation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By its very nature, ancient Near Eastern  polytheism was synonymous with tolerance, and no one god or goddess demanded exclusive allegiance and loyalty.31<\/a><\/sup>Kirsch, J. God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism<\/em>. 2005. Penguin. <\/span> That said, there was rivalry between people of various lands that could be expressed as enmity between national gods (local pantheon chiefs). The ancient Israelites were surrounded on all sides by rival small neighboring nations all of whom engaged in border skirmishes with them, wars of dominance, and occasional alliances of protection or aggression.32<\/a><\/sup>Doak, B.R. 2020. Ancient Israel’s Neighbors<\/em>. Oxford University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photograph of the ancient Moabite Stone (or Mesha Stele)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One fascinating relic from this time is a carved monumental stone that records the words of an ancient Moabite king. The king declares that his people have made their national god Chemosh (local variant of Shamash the Assyrian sun god) angry, and that is why they have long suffered under the oppression of the king of Israel. But he praises Chemosh, and boasts of building a place of worship on a high hill to his god who has now saved him and his subjects from all their enemies.33<\/a><\/sup>Lemaire, A. What Does the Mesha Stele Say?<\/em> Bible History Daily: https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/biblical-artifacts\/inscriptions\/what-does-the-mesha-stele-say\/<\/a><\/span> As seen throughout the stories of the Old Testament, ancient Near Eastern gods were seen as temperamental and capable of both severely punishing their own worshipers and delivering them from their travails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fate of Israel in the North<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of Jerusalem as a village of about 1,000 people<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At its greatest extent, the nation of ancient Israel expanded outward from its capital of Samaria to control westward to the Mediterranean coast, eastward past the Jordan River into Syrian lands, northward to the border with Phoenicia, and southward to the hinterlands of the undeveloped southern hill country known as Judah\u2014where at this time Jesusalem was but a fledgeling village.34<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition<\/em>. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of a troubled Israelite king<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All the small nations that developed in the Levant in the 900s to 700s BCE developed an increasing sense of existential dread as the regional superpowers Egypt and Assyria recovered to their former great strength. For each local king, it became a tightrope walk. Send lavish gifts of gold and silver to stay in their good graces? Form an alliance with several other small nations to fend off their increasing aggression? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo of an ancient Assyriant relief depicting their siege engines and army overrunning a city’s defenses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fight, knowing that a loss will mean the devastation of the entire nation with tens of thousands killed or captured into slavery? Or simply surrender in the face of overwhelming might and become a subject nation at the whim of a foreign king? The wrong choice could be, and often proved, utterly disastrous. So it was that the last Israelite kings tried various tactics to hold back the ever more hostile ambitions of the Assyrian Empire.35<\/a><\/sup>Becking, B. (1992)The Fall of Samaria: An Historical and Archaeological Study. Brill.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of an Israelite being crowned king of Judah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Their efforts were hamstrung at this time by civil revolt. Possibly as a result of Assyrian machinations, the southern Israelite highlands surrounding Jerusalem installed their own king independent from their kinspeople to the north, and declared  their loyalty to Assyria, virtually spelling the doom of their fellow Israelites in the north.36<\/a><\/sup>Magee, M.D. How Persia Created Judaism: The Divided Monarchy Part II. https:\/\/www.cais-soas.com\/CAIS\/Religions\/non-iranian\/Judaism\/Persian_Judaism\/book4\/pt5.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the Assyrian army destroying the city of Samaria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the massive Assyrian armies arrived at their capital, the Northern Israelite defenders proved no match. Samaria was burned to the ground. Thousands were killed, and tens of thousands of those in the skilled and noble class were forcibly relocated to far flung areas of the empire. Soon after, the Assyrians would bring new foreign settlers to the region of Samaria and establish them as a new local ruling class loyal to the empire. This was the standard policy of not just the Assyrians but their succeeding Near Eastern empires as well. Detachment from one\u2019s ancestral land was found to reliably put a damper on subjects’ enthusiasm for revolt.37<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Rise and Fall of Ancient Judah<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of thousands of refugees from Israel flooding into Jerusalem<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In advance of the Assyrian destruction, thousands of refugees fled from northern Israel to the safety of Assyria-allied Jerusalem, ballooning its previously-sparse population to up to 10 times its previous numbers.38<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span> A significant number of northern Israelites in the countryside, however, stayed in their ancestral homes, having neither fled south nor been deported. The northern kingdom of Israel as a political entity, however, came to an end in 720 BCE, leaving Judah in the southern highlands as the last bastion of ancient Israelite sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of worshipers at a shrine to Chemosh and temple of Anat in Jerusalem<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Religious life in Judah was much the same as in northern Israel and their surrounding neighbors, with the notable exception that the god Yahweh\u2014originally imported from lands just south of Judah\u2014held a more prominent position in the pantheon. But worship of Yahweh was by no means exclusive at this time, and it is quite possible that in Jerusalem stood shrines or even temples dedicated to Asherah, Baal, Chemosh, and others as well.39<\/a><\/sup>Smith, M.S. (2002). The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. William B. Eerdmans Publishing<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the next hundred years, Judah survived as a vassal state paying regular tribute to the Assyrians, and was of value to the empire especially for its olive oil production. But by 620 BCE, the power of Assyria had begun to wane.40<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the ancient Egyptian army<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Observing this, the new king of Judah now made the decision to take his chances and switched his allegiance to the powerful Egyptians.41<\/a><\/sup>Kahn, D. (2015). Why Did Necho II Kill Josiah? Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts. https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/19430481<\/a><\/span> Indeed, just 20 years after this, the Assyrian empire fell\u2014but not at the hands of their longtime enemies in Egypt. Instead it was the resurgent nation of Babylon that threw off the yolk of Assyrian oppression, and then burned their capital, the great city of Nineveh.42<\/a><\/sup>Jursa, M. (2014) The Neo-Babylonian Empire. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/5779614\/The_Neo_Babylonian_Empire<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the Egyptian and Persian armies battling it Carchemish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not content to merely inherit Assyria\u2019s lands to form an empire of their own, the Babylonians were hungry to consume the lands of the Levant and subdue Egypt as well. Hoping to fend them off before they could proceed with their plans, the Egyptian army traveled north to Syria and engaged the enemy at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE. But the Egyptians were disastrously defeated, taking heavy losses. When King Jehoiakim of Judah learned of this outcome, he and other neighboring nations decided to forsake Egypt and began paying tribute to the Babylonians instead.43<\/a><\/sup>Leick, G. The Babylonian World. (2009) Routledge.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of King Nebuchadnezzar and his army<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon brought his armies south in an attempt to take Egypt, but this time the Egyptians dealt the invaders a heavy blow. Repulsed, the Babylonian army now switched its focus to conquering the small states of Levant, one by one, incorporating them directly into their growing empire. 44<\/a><\/sup>Leick, G. The Babylonian World. (2009) Routledge.<\/span>When King Johoiakim saw what was happening to his neighbors, he desperately pivoted his allegiance once again, hoping for Egyptian military assistance that never came. Johoiakim died during the Babylonians\u2019 successful 3 month siege of Jerusalem. With all of Judah now firmly in Babylonian\u2019s hands, Nebuchadnezzar put Johoiakim\u2019s seemingly more pliable brother Zedekiah on the throne as a puppet ruler and then departed.45<\/a><\/sup>Critchlow, J.R. (2013) Looking Back for Jehoiachin: Yahweh’s Cast-Out Signet. Wipf and Stock Publishers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of Zedekiah forced to watch the execution of his sons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But at Egypt\u2019s prodding, just three years later, King Zedekiah made the fateful choice to once again try an alliance with Egypt. His plan failed catastrophically. Nebuchadnezzar returned with his armies and now besieged Jerusalem for over a year. Inside the city mass starvation wreaked horrors on the population, rendering the city indefensible. Zedekiah attempted an escape to Egypt with his family and retinue, but they were swiftly captured. For his foolhardy defiance, Nebuchadnezzar forced Zedekiah to witness the slaughter of his sons in front of him, then had both his eyes put out. He was then put in chains and taken off to Babylon where he died.46<\/a><\/sup>Critchlow, J.R. (2013) Looking Back for Jehoiachin: Yahweh’s Cast-Out Signet. Wipf and Stock Publishers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the destruction of Jerusalem and deportation of a portion of the people to Babylon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To severely punish the nation for revolting, the Babylonians utterly destroyed Jerusalem, burning it, and razing it to the ground, together with nearly all significant cities in Judah. Many thousands of Judahite skilled tradesmen and nobles were rounded up and forcibly resettled in Babylon and surrounding lands. As with northern Israel, however, not all of the Israelites were removed from the land, with a significant number of peasant farmers and herdsmen left behind.47<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of Babylon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This disaster marked the end of ancient Judah. Those relocated to Babylon would remain there all their days, as would their children, and their children after them. Many of them made this great city of the ancient world their family\u2019s new permanent home. But 70 years after the destruction of Judah, Babylon itself would fall to a new rising power. As a result, the fate of Judahites would be forever changed, and the first major steps toward eventual Christianity would be taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How the Bible Tells It<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Photo of man reading the Bible<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The above history of the ancient Israelites has been carefully pieced together by modern scholars\u2014especially by secular experts who are free of the biases that lead many religious scholars to attempt to confirm the accounts of history presented by the Bible, for such secular scholars generally have no stake in any outcomes of their inquiries other than uncovering the truth, whatever it may be. Collectively, what all of their findings have shown us, above all else, is that the Bible is an extremely unreliable narrator of actual history, and that its claims should never be taken at face value unless significantly supported by non-Biblical evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the Beginning…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of the first two humans and a talking snake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For those who haven\u2019t read the Bible recently, a quick recap: at the very start, we are told that Yahweh created the world about 6,000 years ago.48<\/a><\/sup>Numbers, R. (2006). The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. Harvard University Press.<\/span> That the first human was created from dirt49<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 2:7<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span>, and the first woman from a rib bone.50<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 2:22<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> We are introduced to a talking snake,51<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 3:1-5<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> told that the \u201cSons of God\u201d once had sex with the “daughters of men” and produced a race of giants,52<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 6:1-4<\/a>, The Bible, New English Translation<\/span> and that early humans lived lives of up to 969 years.53<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 5:3-31<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> A rueful Yahweh is said to have regretted creating humans, and drowned all life on Earth to start over.54<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 6:6-7<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> A man named Abraham finds Yahweh\u2019s favor by being willing to murder his own child.55<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 22:1-10<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> Yahweh sends fireballs down from heaven to destory a city56<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 19:24-25<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> after its residents seek to gang rape a visiting angel.57<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 19:4-5<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> Abraham\u2019s grandson Jacob spends a whole night wrestling with Yahweh and somehow bests him, and is given the new name Israel.58<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 32:24-28<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> Israel\u2019s 12 sons are said to be the progenitors of 12 tribes, and one of his sons is claimed to have been put in charge of all of Egypt.59<\/a><\/sup>Genesis 41:41-44<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> And all of this is in the first book of the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of an Israelite man in charge of all Egypt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Except to those blinded by enough faith to believe the absurd, it should go without saying that science has shown that the earth is not merely thousands, but billions of years old. Humankind evolved over the course of hundreds of thousands of years with no dirt or rib bone magic involved. Snakes do not talk. Sons of God do not exist, much less have their way with humans. Archeology has found no evidence of giants. Humans have never lived for centuries, and there was never a worldwide flood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of Jacob wrestling with Yahweh all night and besting him<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The many instances of the Bible attributing the founding of whole nations to a single man who bears the name of that nation is obvious folk history with no possible basis in reality. And the colorful story of an Israelite ruling over Egypt is unsupported by any evidence and entirely implausible on the face of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is, in fact, very little\u2014perhaps nothing\u2014in the entire book of Genesis that can be considered actual history. It is crucial, when attempting to create an accurate reconstruction of the history of Christianity, to establish from the very start this one unshakeable fact: the Bible shows itself to be an utterly untrustworthy historian at every turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Exodus and Conquest of the Promised Land<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of Moses bringing a plague of flies against the Egyptians<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Continuing its wildly historically-inaccurate account of the Israelites in the books of Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Joshua, the descendants of Israel in Egypt are said to greatly multiply60<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 1:6-7<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> to upward of 2 million people61<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 12:37<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> before all of them become enslaved to the Egyptians for the next 400 years.62<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 12:40<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> Yahweh then takes notice of their plight,63<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 2:23-25<\/a>, The Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible<\/span> and raises up the prophet Moses to save his people.64<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 3:1-4<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> With divine assistance, he unleashes ten gruesome and deadly plagues against the Egyptians,65<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 7:14-12:12<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> while Yahweh forces the Pharaoh to stay too stubborn to allow the Israelites their freedom.66<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 7:3<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> Finally they escape by miraculously parting the Red Sea67<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 14:15-30<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> and traveling into the Sinai desert where Moses meets Yahweh face-to-face68<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 33:11<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> and is given the tablets of the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God himself.69<\/a><\/sup>Exodus 31:18<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> He is instructed to lead his people to a land that Yahweh had promised Abraham many hundreds of years before. A land that has already long been settled by many other peoples.70<\/a><\/sup>Deuteronomy 7:1<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of Israelites falling into a chasm in the earth opened by their god<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the Israelites are portrayed as fickle complainers as they travel through the desert for 40 long years, and Yahweh punishes them repeatedly with fire,71<\/a><\/sup>Numbers 11:1<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> poisonous snakes,72<\/a><\/sup>Numbers 21:4-6<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> tainted meat,73<\/a><\/sup>Numbers 11:31-34<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> and earthquakes that swallow people whole.74<\/a><\/sup>Numbers 16:31-35<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> Eventually Yahweh announces that none of the Israelites who left Egypt will live to see the promised land.75<\/a><\/sup>Numbers 14:32-34<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> This includes Moses who is allowed to view the land of milk and honey from a mountain top, but then dies.76<\/a><\/sup>Deuteronomy 34:1-5<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the slaughter of children, women, and men<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Moses\u2019s top general Joshua is selected by Yahweh to lead the people into the land by parting the Jordan River.77<\/a><\/sup>Joshua 3:7-14<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> The Bible then describes in detail how the Israelites attack and slaughter all of the citizens and animals in the city of Jericho.78<\/a><\/sup>Joshua 6:20-21<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> At Yahweh\u2019s behest, they continue this complete genocide of the local population in city after city after city79<\/a><\/sup>Joshua 11:10-18<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> until the land is relatively emptied and secured. The Israelites then move into these existing slaughtered cities to establish their new lives. Yahweh, however, is not satisfied and castigates the people for leaving a small number of the native people and their animals alive.80<\/a><\/sup>Judges 2:1-4<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ancient desert Roman camp discovered by archeologists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of these events are claimed to have occurred before the Late Bronze Age collapse of 1200 BCE, despite the fact that archeology has uncovered no trace of the Israelites as a distinct people until at least 300 years later. It is clear that all of this is not history but storytelling. No evidence supports the notion of any mass exodus of a people out of Egypt at this or any time. Experts have been able to detect signs of even small numbers of ancient people traversing the Sinai and Arabian deserts in ancient times, but have uncovered zero evidence for what the Bible claims was more than 2 million Israelites making desert camps for 4 decades. Furthermore, during the whole period surrounding the supposed time of the Exodus, Egypt was in firm control of the Levant, so the Israelites would have essentially been traveling from one part of the Egyptian empire to another, hardly freeing themselves. 81<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of the Bible’s fictional conquerer Joshua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Archeology also shows no support for the notion of a violent invasion of Palestine by outsiders anything like the Bible describes. Several of the cities the Bible claims were captured by the Israelites did not exist until much later. And genetic studies have shown that the ancient Israelites were local to the region all along, arising in the northern hill near Samaria, not entering the land from elsewhere.82<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Judges and Kings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Artist depiction of the Israelites enslaved by a neighboring nation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The book of Judges describes a supposed period of a few hundred years during which local Israelite heroes from various tribes became temporary rulers in the time preceding the Israelite monarchy. The cycle of stories presented here all follow the same pattern again and again. The fickle Israelite people sin by befriending a neighboring people,83<\/a><\/sup>Judges 3:5-6<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> worshiping another god,84<\/a><\/sup>Judges 3:7<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> or otherwise forsaking or offending Yahweh.85<\/a><\/sup>Judges 4:1<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> In response, their god punishes them by having a neighboring nation conquer and enslave them,86<\/a><\/sup>Judges 4:2-3<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> or by sending a deadly plague against them.87<\/a><\/sup>Numbers 25:8-11<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> In each case, at long last the people cry out for help from Yahweh,88<\/a><\/sup>Judges 6:6<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> and a hero is sent to rescue them,89<\/a><\/sup>Judges 3:15<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span> and a short-lived period of peace follows before the cycle begins anew.90<\/a><\/sup>Judges 3:11<\/a>, The Bible, New International Version<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of Yahweh as an angry and jealous god<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

None of this tracks with actual history. The ancient Israelites, like all other Ancient Near Eastern peoples were polytheists, happily worshiping an entire pantheon of gods and goddesses.91<\/a><\/sup>Smith, M. S. (2002). The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.<\/span> Monotheism was unknown to the world at this time save for the far flung Persian Zoroastrians living east of the Caspian Sea.92<\/a><\/sup>Boyce, M. (1989). A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. 1: The Early Period. Brill.<\/span> Even the Bible\u2019s portrayal of Israelite henotheism\u2014in which Yahweh seems to acknowledge that other gods and goddesses exist, but commands his people worship him alone\u2014is nothing but a retrojection of later theology back into the mythic past.93<\/a><\/sup>Magee, M.D. How Persia Created Judaism. Academia. https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/22882969\/How_Persia_Created_Judaism<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of David as a bandit leader of a raiding party<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Bible presents King David ruling a sprawling kingdom94<\/a><\/sup>The frontiers of the Kingdoms of David and Solomon (2018). The Map as History. https:\/\/www.the-map-as-history.com\/bible-and-history\/the-frontiers-of-the-kingdom-of-david-and-solomon<\/a><\/span> headquartered in Jerusalem at a time when that city was little more than a village, while in fact it was the northern Israelites in Samaria who established a modest nation at this time.95<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I., Silberman, N. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. United Kingdom: Free Press.<\/span> The incredible wealth of David\u2019s successor King Solomon is just that\u2014not credible. As we have seen, Jerusalem did not become a significant regional player until the much later destruction of Samaria and other prosperous cities of Northern Israel. If a historical David existed at all, his domain and power must have been extremely marginal. In certain Bible stories, he is portrayed in his younger years as a leader of a party of bandit raiders who prey on undefended cities in neighboring nations as well as those of his own people.96<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I. and Silberman, N.A. (2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist depiction of Yahweh allowing Jerusalem to be burned to the ground<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This description of David, who at one point even joins the hated Philistines as they make war against Israel, may have a hint of truth to it, or may simply have been a character type later applied to a fictional founder of the Judahite dynasty of kings.97<\/a><\/sup>Finkelstein, I. and Silberman, N.A. (2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the Bible\u2019s long telling of its version of history, the ultimate and catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem and Judah is, unsurprisingly and anachronistically, blamed squarely on the Judahite people for failing to carry out all of Yahweh\u2019s laws and orders\u2014especially their \u201cinfidelity\u201d in continuing to worship of other deities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Tectonic Shift Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In our next chapter we shall reveal how the surviving polytheist Israelites in both Judah and Samaria returned to prominence and took on a remarkably new religion\u2014the earliest form of what we know today as Judaism. And we will see how in this same period the stage became set for the eventual birth of Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Continue Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 2: The Persian Period<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Footnotes<\/h3>