My dear brother:
Today I want to come back to a historical topic. In fact, we will speak on some
part of Old Testament history, but it is important to know these facts, to be
able to understand what the New Testament relates us on Jesus.
As you know, the country of Canaan, today known as Palestine, was gradually
populated by several nomadic tribes, which eventually managed to absorb and
replace the ancient peoples, which inhabited the area, such as the Jebusites,
the Amorites, etc. Those nomads were the Hebrews.
The Bible tells us of the twelve tribes of Israel (the Hebrews) and their origin
in Jacob’s (called Israel) twelve sons. But you understand that this is only
the intent of giving a mythological explanation for the beginnings of this
people.
I also desire to state on this occasion that an exodus, such as the Old
Testament describes it, never happened. Perhaps we will find time in the future
to talk about this subject.
After a few centuries of peaceful coexistence, and also of warlike conquests,
these tribes joined together under one single king, called Sha’ul (Saul) in
the Bible. However, this union was not stable. Even under Sha’ul, his own son
established another independent Kingdom in the north of the country. It is
interesting to observe that king Sha’ul came from Binyamin (Benjamin), a weak
and scarcely important tribe, and only for that reason he was acceptable for the
more
powerful tribes.
The reason why the tribes decided to join their forces, were the constant
threats from the Philistines, a people who lived along the southern coast of
Palestine, approximately in that area that is now known as the Gaza Strip. This
people, of a non Semitic origin, was very advanced in their technology of iron
elaboration, inflicting this way many painful defeats to the Israelites, who
only counted with weapons of much softer brass.
But finally, the successor of Sha’ul, David, was able to definitively subject
those terrible opponents. This happened around the year 1000 before Christ, this
is very easy to memorize. Finally, there was no necessity any longer for the
tribes of living in a single country, recognizing a general king from another
tribe. But during David’s reign, the internal conflicts did not grow very
noticeable, partly due, to be sure, to his politics of expansion, which
transformed Israel into a powerful country, extending its domain up to the city
of Damascus.
David’s son, the legendary King Shlomo (Solomon), famous for his riches and
wisdom, dedicated himself more to trading than to warring. Of course, his wealth
was fabulous, but not everything was the product of his successful joint venture
expeditions with the neighboring king of the Phoenicians, but also of the high
tributes, which embittered the life of his subjects. Shlomo definitely was an
orient-style despot and tyrant.
With Shlomo’s death, people hoped to find an opportunity to persuade the new
king, Rekhav’am, Shlomo’s son, to rectify his father’s excesses. He,
however, paid no attention at all to the petition, which lead to the rebellion
of most of the tribes, and finally to the formation of a new independent state
in the northern part of David’s old empire. Now, there were two states in
Palestine, the southern state, Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem and the king
Rekhav’am, and Israel in the north, with its capital in Shekhem, and the king
Yarov’am.
The Old Testament of the Bible may give you the wrong impression that the
dominant religion in Palestine in that time was that monotheism, which today is
known as Judaism. However, this is not correct. Monotheism did exist, but as the
religion of an elite minority, backed strongly by the diverse prophets. But
especially on the country, the cult places for Baal, Moloch and Ashtoreth
abounded.
The ancient religion of the Hebrews had cult centers all over the country, in
the so-called high places, on the summits of the mountains and hills, in order
to be nearer to heaven. The construction of the first Temple in Jerusalem, under
the king Shlomo, was the attempt of centering the cult in the capital city, and
this met fierce resistance.
David, Shlomo and all the kings of Judah that followed him, belonged to the
tribe of Judah, one of the most powerful tribes. And that caused the resistance
among other powerful tribes, especially of the northern tribes of Efrayim
(Ephraim) and Menasheh (Manasseh), who continued with their customs and local
cult places.
The breaking between the two countries, in fact, was the consequence of rivalry
between dominant tribes, which little by little would absorb their weaker
neighboring tribes, as in the case of the tribe of Shim’on (Simeon), that had
disappeared even before the formation of the kingdom under Sha’ul, having been
absorbed completely by their powerful neighbor, Judah.
What followed were centuries of mostly wars and a few alliances between both
countries, which really behaved like bad neighbors.
Finally, after approximately 200 years of independence, the king of Israel, the
northern country, made the terrible mistake of provoking the powerful Assyrians,
who in turn conquered the country and destroyed its capital, Shomron (Samaria),
the ancient city of Shekhem. Today you know this city under the name of Nablus (Neapolis),
in the West Bank.
The Assyrian king, Sargon II, took almost thirty thousand Hebrews as prisoners
of war, mainly among the inhabitants of Shomron and of the neighboring villages.
It was very common in the old times, and partly it is still practiced, to remove
the educated stratum and the population’s rulers, all the intellectuals,
priests, administrators, etc., and to replace them with citizens loyal to the
system. And this was exactly, what Sargon did. He took away the “high
society,” and replaced it with administrators from other parts of his empire,
among others, people from Cus. This is why the Talmud calls the Samaritans
“Cussim” or Cutheans. Therefore, in the year 722 before Christ, the state of
the northern tribes, Israel, disappeared definitively from the map.
To show you the antiquity of these events, I would like you to recall that in
that same year, the “city” of Rome had just a few decades of existence, and
it consisted of a few miserable shacks of straw and adobe.
Well, my brother, I see that you are wondering if this is a history lesson. Yes,
in some way it is. But my intention is different: Put the following title to
this message: “The Samaritans, Part 1.”
Tomorrow, if you concede me the time, we will continue. I want to explain, who
the Samaritans were and are, and I wish to put an end to some commonly accepted
falsehoods.
God bless you.
Judas
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