A Semitic-speaking
people, the Phoenicians lived in the area of Palestine along the Mediterranean coast on a
narrow band of land 120 miles long. Their newfound political independence after the
demise of Hittite and Egyptian power helped the Phoenicians expand the trade that was
already the foundation of their prosperity. The chief cities of Phoenicia—Byblos,
Tyre, and Sidon—were ports on the eastern Mediterranean, but they also served as
distribution centers for the lands to the east in Mesopotamia. The Phoenicians themselves
produced a number of goods for foreign markets, including purple dye, glass, wine, and
lumber from the famous cedars of Lebanon. In addition, the Phoenicians improved their
ships and became great international sea traders. They charted new routes, not only in the
Mediterranean, but also in the Atlantic Ocean where they reached Britain and sailed south
along the west coast of Africa. The Phoenicians established a number of colonies in the
western Mediterranean, including settlements in southern Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia.
Carthage, the Phoenicians' most famous colony, was located on the North African coast.
Culturally, the
Phoenicians are best known as transmitters. Instead of using pictographs or signs to
represent whole words and syllables as the Mesopotamians and Egyptians did, the
Phoenicians simplified their writing by using twenty-two different signs to represent the
sounds of their speech. These twenty-two characters or letters could be used to spell out
all the words in the Phoenician language. Although the Phoenicians were not the only
people to invent an alphabet, theirs would have special significance because it was
eventually passed on to the Greeks. From the Greek alphabet was derived the Roman alphabet
that we still use today. The Phoenicians achieved much while independent, but they
ultimately fell subject to the Assyrians and Persians.
To the south of the
Phoenicians lived another group of Semitic-speaking people known as the Hebrews.
Although they were a minor factor in the politics of the region, their religion—known
as Judaism—influenced both Christianity and Islam and flourished as a world
religion. The Hebrews had a tradition concerning their origins and history that was
eventually written down as part of the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old
Testament. The Hebrews' own tradition states that they were descendants of the patriarch
Abraham who had migrated from Mesopotamia to the land of Palestine, where they became
identified as the "Children of Israel." The Hebrews were a nomadic people,
organized along tribal lines, who followed a lifestyle based on grazing flocks and herds
rather than farming. According to tradition, because of drought the Hebrews migrated to
Egypt where they lived peacefully until a pharaoh enslaved them. Thereafter, they remained
in bondage until Moses led his people out of Egypt in the well-known "exodus."
Some historians believe this would have occurred in the first half of the thirteenth
century B.C.E. The Hebrews then wandered for many years in the desert until they entered
Palestine (possibly around 1220 B.C.E.), where they became involved in a lengthy conflict
with the Canaanites, who were already settled there. Around 1000 B.C.E., under the
pressure of the ongoing struggle with the Philistines, the Hebrews embarked upon the
establishment of a monarchy.
The creation of a
monarchy was not an easy task because many Hebrews were still accustomed to tribal life
and tribal organization. By the time of King Solomon (c. 971-931 B.C.E.), however, the
Hebrews had established control over all of Palestine and made Jerusalem into the capital
of a united kingdom. The formerly nomadic Hebrews had become a settled community based
on farming and urban life, and centralized political organization had replaced the
independent ways of the twelve Hebrew tribes. Solomon did even more to strengthen royal
power. He expanded the political and military establishments and was especially active in
extending the trading activities of the Hebrews. Solomon is best known for his
building projects, of which the most famous was the Temple in the city of Jerusalem. The
Hebrews viewed the Temple as the symbolic center of their religion, and hence of the
Hebrew kingdom itself. The Temple now housed the Ark of the Covenant, the holy chest
containing the sacred relics of the Hebrew religion and, symbolically, the throne of the
invisible God of Israel. Under Solomon, ancient Israel was at the height of its power, but
his efforts to centralize royal power along the lines of Mesopotamian despotism led to
dissatisfaction among his subjects, who believed that his actions threatened the old
Hebrew tribal ties.
After Solomon's
death, the tension between the northern and southern Hebrew tribes led to the
establishment of two separate kingdoms—a kingdom of Israel, composed of the ten
northern tribes with its capital at Samaria, and a southern kingdom of Judah, consisting
of two tribes with its capital at Jerusalem. By the end of the ninth century, the
independence of the kingdom of Israel was increasingly threatened by the rising power of
the Assyrians. In 722 B.C.E., the Assyrians destroyed Samaria, overran the kingdom of
Israel, and deported many Hebrews to other parts of the Assyrian Empire. These
dispersed Hebrews (the "ten lost tribes") merged with neighboring peoples
and gradually lost their identity.
The southern
kingdom of Judah was also forced to pay tribute to Assyria but managed to retain its
independence as Assyrian power declined. A new enemy, however, appeared on the
horizon. The Chaldeans brought the final destruction of Assyria, conquered the kingdom of
Judah, and completely destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. Many upper-class Hebrews were
deported to Babylonia; the memory of their exile is still evoked in the stirring words
of Psalm 137:
By the rivers of
Babylon, we sat and wept when we
How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign
If I forget you, 0 Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not
remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
But the Babylonian
captivity of the Hebrew people did not last. A new set of conquerors, the Persians,
destroyed the Chaldean kingdom and allowed the Hebrews to return to Jerusalem and
rebuild their city and temple. The revived kingdom of Judah remained under Persian
control until the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E. The
people of Judah survived, eventually becoming known as the Jews and giving their name to
Judaism, the religion of Yahweh, the Jewish God.
The spiritual outlook
of the earliest ancestors of the Hebrews was polytheistic, but by the time they had
returned to Palestine after their captivity in Egypt, the Hebrew version of monotheism had
begun to emerge. According to the Hebrew conception, there is but one God, whom the
Hebrews called YHWH, which by convention is written Yahweh. God is the creator of the
world and everything in it. Indeed, Yahweh means "he causes to be." All the gods
of all other peoples were simply idols. The Hebrew God was totally sovereign and ruled the
world; he was subject to nothing. All peoples were his servants, whether they knew it or
not. This God was also transcendent. He had created nature, but was not in nature. The
stars, moon, rivers, wind, and other natural phenomena were not divinities or suffused
with divinity, but God's handiwork. All of God's creations could be admired for their
awesome beauty, but not worshiped as God.
This omnipotent
creator of the universe was not removed from the life he had created, however, but was a
just and good God who expected goodness from his people. If they did not obey his will,
they would be punished. But he was also a God of mercy and love: "The Lord is
gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he
has compassion on all he has made."
The Hebrew
spiritual perspective also emphasized individual worth. Each person, possessed of moral
freedom, had the ability to choose between good and evil. But an important condition was
attached to this freedom. People could not simply establish their own ethical
standards. Through Moses and other holy men, God had made known his commandments, his
ideals of behavior. True freedom consisted of accepting God's ethical norms voluntarily.
If people chose to ignore the good, then suffering and evil would follow. Despite the
awesome dimensions of God as creator and sustainer of the universe, the Hebrew message
also emphasized that each person could have a personal relationship with this powerful
being. As the psalmist sang: "My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and
earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber."
The Hebrew
conception of God was closely related to three aspects of the Hebrew religious tradition
that have special significance: the covenant, law, and the prophets. During the exodus
from Egypt, when Moses led his people out of bondage into the promised land, a special
event supposedly occurred that determined the Hebrew experience for all time. According
to tradition, God entered into a covenant or contract with the tribes of Israel who
believed that Yahweh had spoken to them through Moses (see the box above). The Hebrews
promised to obey Yahweh and follow his law. In return, Yahweh promised to take special
care of his chosen people, "a peculiar treasure unto me above all people."
This covenant
between Yahweh and his chosen people could be fulfilled, however, only by Hebrew
obedience to the law of God. Law became a crucial element of the Hebrew world and had a
number of different dimensions. In some instances, it set forth specific requirements,
such as payments for offenses. Most important, since the major characteristic of God was
his goodness, were the ethical concerns that stood at the center of the law. Sometimes
these took the form of specific standards of moral behavior:
"You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal." But these concerns were also expressed in
decrees that regulated the economic, social, and political life of the community since
God's laws of morality applied to all areas of life. These laws made no distinctions
between classes and emphasized the protection of the poor, widows, orphans, and slaves.
The prophets were
"holy men" who supposedly had special communion with God and felt called upon to
serve as his voice to his people. In the ninth century B.C.E., the prophets were
particularly vociferous about the tendency of the Hebrews to accept other gods, chiefly
the fertility and earth gods of other peoples in Palestine. The prophets warned of the
terrible retribution that God would exact from the Hebrews if they did not keep the
covenant to remain faithful to him alone and just in their dealings with one another. The
golden age of prophecy began in the mid-eighth century and continued during the time when
the Hebrews were threatened by Assyrian and Chaldean conquerors. The "men of
God" went through the land warning the Hebrews that they had failed to keep God's
commandments and would be punished for breaking the covenant: "I will punish you for
all your iniquities." Amos prophesied the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to
Assyria; twenty years later, Isaiah said the kingdom of Judah too would fall.
Out of the words of
the prophets came new concepts that enriched the Hebrew tradition, including a notion of
universalism and a yearning for social justice. Although Hebrew religious practices gave
Jews a sense of separateness from other peoples, the prophets transcended this by
embracing a concern for all humanity. All nations would someday come to the God of Israel:
"all the earth shall worship thee." A universal community of all people under
God would someday be established through Israel's efforts, this vision encompassed the
elimination of war and the establishment of peace for all the nations of the world. In the
words of the prophet Isaiah: "He will judge between the nations and will settle
disputes for many people. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears
into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train
for war anymore."
The prophets also
cried out against social injustice. They condemned the rich for causing the poor to
suffer, denounced luxuries as worthless, and threatened Israel with prophecies of dire
punishments for these sins. God's command was to live justly, share with one's neighbors,
care for the poor and the unfortunate, and act with compassion. When God's command was
not followed, the social fabric of the community was threatened. These proclamations by
Israel's prophets became a source for universal ideals of social justice, even if they
have never been perfectly realized.
The Hebrew religion
was unique among the religions of western Asia and Egypt. The most dramatic difference was
the Hebrews' belief that there is only one God for all peoples (a true monotheism), but
the Hebrews also differed in other significant ways. In virtually every religion in
ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, priests alone (and occasionally rulers) had access to the
gods and their desires. In the Hebrew tradition, God's wishes, although communicated to
the people through a series of special holy men, had all been written down. No Hebrew
spiritual leader could claim that he alone knew God's will. It was accessible to anyone
who could read Hebrew. Judaism was a religion initially of the spoken word and eventually
of the written word. Finally, although the Hebrew prophets eventually developed a sense
of universalism, the demands of the Hebrew religion (the need to obey their God)
encouraged a separation between the Hebrews and their non-Hebrew neighbors. Unlike most
other peoples of the Middle East, the Hebrews could not simply accept the gods of their
conquerors and their neighbors and be amalgamated into a community. To remain faithful
to the demands of their God, they might even have to refuse loyalty to political leaders.