Transcript The People of One God: The Hebrews 1500- 900

The People of One God:
The Hebrews 1500- 900 B.C.
A Jealous God
Yahweh’s “Chosen People”
A Vengeful God
A Jealous God
 Unlike the Mesopotamians the
Hebrews moved out of the
fertile crescent with their
flocks to Canaan
 2000 B.C. Abraham a
shepherd was told by Yahweh
(God) to move to Canaan and
worship him there
 Around 1,500 B.C. Israel “he
who prevails with God” came
to prominence as a leader of
the Hebrews
A Jealous God
 Birth of Israelites begins
with Israel (1500 B.C.)
 Believed that several clans
eventually wandered to
Egypt and assisted with
Egyptian construction
projects
 It is believed that Israelites
started out as voluntary
labor but forced to stay and
build Ramese II projects
A Jealous God
 Moses (1500-1200 B.C. ?) lead this group from
Egypt during Exodus “journey out” which
transformed Israelites into a nation with a religious
calling
 Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) recorded
Israelite laws, wisdom, literature and history
 Stories in Bible have some historical proof because
we have found ancient Hebrew cities, other
people’s histories verify Biblical stories like
Egyptian conquest of Israel in 1200 B.C.
Yahweh’s “Chosen People”
 During the Exodus (1500-1200 B.C. ?) Moses entered into
a covenant with Yahweh
 This covenant, a special agreement, made the Israelites
Yahweh’s “chosen people” on the condition of undivided
worship to him and that they follow the Ten
Commandments (moral laws)
 Following the Ten Commandments, scripture, eating strict
diet and exclusive worship of Yahweh separated Jews from
others as well
 Yahweh was a jealous and vengeful God who punished his
followers
A Jealous God
Yahweh’s “Chosen People”
 1200-1050 B.C. Israelites
changed from tribal leaders
to judges- charismatic
leaders who united the
Israelis against threats
 Eventually the people felt
that a king should lead the
people
 One of these famous kings
would be King David
(1000-961 B.C.) who makes
Jerusalem the Israelite
capital
Yahweh’s “Chosen People”
 King Solomon (961-922
B.C.) embarked on several
construction projects like
The Great Temple
 In order to build the Great
Temple Solomon taxed the
Israelite kingdom and
angered the people
 Judah splits from Israel and
both will become enemies at
times
The Prophets
 Prophets common men who
urged Jews to return to
honoring the covenant and
traditional Jewish law
 They emerge as Israel’s
conscience teaching Jews to
follow their conscience to
create a more ethical world
 This belief of following a
conscience to create a more
ethical world is called
Judaism
A Vengeful God
 Numerous examples of
God’s punishments
 King Ahab built a temple
to another God and later
they were enslaved by the
Babylonians, this was the
“Babylonian Captivity”
 Origin of Jezebel
 This lead to the Diaspora
were many Jews would
now be living outside of
their home country
A Vengeful God
 538 B.C. the Persians
conqueror the Babylonians
and are tolerant towards
Judaism
 Jews build another temple
to worship but Diaspora
Jews do not return to Israel
 This led to birth and focus
of synagogues for Jews
A Vengeful God
 Judaism ushered in a new
religious belief that there
was a single God of justice
who interacted with
humans in a personal and
spiritual way
 They believed that there
was distance between them
and Yahweh, and that
individuals nonetheless
still took more
responsibility for the world
around them