HISTORY OF JERUSALEM

 HISTORY OF JERUSALEM

And now we can tell of the hebrews, A Semitic people not so important in their own time as their influence about the later history of the world they were Settled in Judea long before 1000 BC and their capital city after that time was Jerusalem their stories interwoven with that of the great empires on either site of them Egypt to the south and changing empires of Syria assyria and Babylon to the north there country was inhabitable high road between these later power and shift their importance in the world is due to the fact that they produced the literature world history a collection of loss chronicles , Psalms books of the poetry and fiction and political attraction which will be came at last watch Christians know as the old testament the Hebrew Bible this literature appears and history in the 4th or 5th century BC. Probably literature was first put together in Babylon. We have already told how the pharaoh necho II invaded the assyrian Empire while assyria was fighting for life against medicine and joshia king of judea opposed him and was defeated and slain at magiddo (608 BC) judea became a tributary to Egypt and when nebuchadnezzar the great the new chaldean king in Babylon roll back into Egypt he attempted to manage judea by setting up puppet kings in Jerusalem the experiment failed the people massacred his babylonian officials and he then determined to break up this little state all together which had long been playing off Egypt against the northern Empire Jerusalem was set and burnt and remnant of the people was carried of captive to babylon.There they in remained until Cyrus took Babylon 538 BC. he then collected them together and sent them back to resettle their country and Rebuild the walls and temple of Jerusalem. before that time the Jews do not seem to have been a very civilized or United people. probably only a very few of them would read or write. in their own history one never hears of the early books of the Bible being read, the first mention of a book is in the time of Josiah . the Babylonian captivity civilized them and consolidated them. they returned aware of their own literature and acutely self conscious and political people. their bible at that time seems to have consisted only of the pentateuch, that is to say the first five books of the old testament as we know it.n addition as separate books they already had many of the other books that have since been incorporated with the pentateuch into the present Hebrew Bible, chronicles, the Psalms and proverbs for example. The accounts of the creation of the world , of Adam and Eve and of the flood , with which the Bible begins, run closely parallel with similar babylonian legends, they seem to have been part of the common believes of all the Semitic peoples. so too the stories of Moses and of the Samson have sumerian and babylonian parallels but with the story of Abraham and onward begins something more special to the Jewish race.Abraham may have lived as early as the days of hammorabai in Babylon. he was a patriarchal Semitic Nomad. To the book of genesis the reader must go for the story of his wandering for the stories of his sons and grand children and how they became captive in the land of Egypt. he travel through canaan and the god of a Abraham says the Bible story promised this smiling land of prosperous cities to him and to his children. and after a long sojourn in Egypt and after 50 years of wandering under the leadership of Moses, the children of Abraham grown now to a host of 12 tribes invaded the land of canaan from the Arabian desert to the east. they may have done this someone between 1600 BC and 1300 BC there are no Egyptian records of Moses nor of canaan at this time to help out the story.but at any rate did not succeed in conquering any more than the hilly backgrounds of the promise land. the coast was now in the hands not of Canaanites but of new comers those aegen peoples , the philistines and their kindred tribes about them. for many generations the children of Abraham engaged incessant and bickering with philistines. For most of this period the Hebrews were ruled , so far as there was any rule among them by priestly judges is selected by the elders of the people but at last some when towards 1000 BC they chose themselves a king saul to lead time in battle but sauls leading was no creative improvement up on the leading of the judges. he perished under the attack of philistines narrows at the battle of mount gill Goa his arm went into the temple of philistine Venus, and his body was nail to the wall of Beth shan.His successor David was more successful and more politics with David dawned the only period of prosperity the Hebrew peoples were ever to know. it was based on a close alliance with the phoenician city of tyre , whose king Hiram seems to have been a man of the great intelligence and enterprise. he wished to secure a trade route to the red sea through the Hebrew hill country. normally phoenician trade went to the red sea by Egypt , but Egypt was is it was in a state of profound disorder at this time there may have been other obstructions to phoenician trade along this line and any rate hiram established the very closest relation with both the David and with his son and successor Solomon. under hiram's auspicious the walls , palace and temple of Jerusalem arose. and in return hiram built and launched his ships on the Red sea. a very considerable trade passed northward and South ward through Jerusalem. and Solomon achieved a prosperity and magnificence unprecedented in the experience of his people . he was even given a daughter of pharaoh in marriage. But it is well to keep the proportion of things in mind at the climax of his glories solomon was only a little subordinate king in the little city. His power was so transitory that within a few years of his death, shishak the first pharoah of the 20 second dynasty had taken Jerusalem and looted most of his splendors. the account of solomon's magnificance given in the books of kings and chronicles is questioned by many critics they say that it was added to and saturated by the patriotic pride of laters but the Bible account create carefully is not overwhelming as it appears at the first reading.The prosperity of the Hebrew people was short lived. Hiram died and the help of Tyre ceased to strengthen Jerusalem. Egypt grew strong again. the history of kings of Israel and the kings of Judea becomes history of two little States ground between first Syria and then assyria and then Babylon to the north and Egypt to the south. it is a tale of disasters and of Deliverances that only delayed disaster. it is a tale of barbaric kings ruling barbaric people in 721 BC the king of Israel was swapped away into the captivity by the assyrian and its people at early lost to history. Judea struggled on until 64 BC as we have told it share the fate of Israel. their maybe details upon open criticism to the Bible story of hebrew history. from the days of the judges onward, but on the whole it is evidently true story which is squares with all that has been learnt in the excavation of Egypt and a assyria and Babylon during the past century. Reference: a short history of world- HG WELLS