Ancient Israel, the Temples and the exile
The Israelites emerge in the hills of Canaan, build kingdoms and the Temple in Jerusalem, and after defeats by Babylon and Rome are scattered into a diaspora that keeps the land at the heart of its faith.
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
- The Oxford History of the Biblical World — Michael D. Coogan (ed.), Oxford University Press (1998)
- Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations — Martin Goodman, Allen Lane (2007)
The first mention of “Israel” outside the Bible is on a victory stele of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah, around 1208 BCE, which names Israel as a people in Canaan. In the following centuries hundreds of small villages appeared in the central hill country; their material culture was largely Canaanite, but without pig bones, a hint of an emerging identity.
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
- The Oxford History of the Biblical World — Michael D. Coogan (ed.), Oxford University Press (1998)
Kingdoms and Temples
The Bible tells of a united monarchy under Saul, David and Solomon, around 1000 BCE, which split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Archaeologists debate how large and grand that early kingdom was. What is clear is that by the ninth century BCE the northern kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Samaria, was a significant regional power, and Judah, centred on Jerusalem, grew strong later.
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
- The Oxford History of the Biblical World — Michael D. Coogan (ed.), Oxford University Press (1998)
Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom around 720 BCE. In 586 BCE the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple and took much of Judah’s elite into exile. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137) became the song of every later exile. Much of the Hebrew Bible took its final shape in this period.
- The Oxford History of the Biblical World — Michael D. Coogan (ed.), Oxford University Press (1998)
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
Under Persian rule exiles returned and rebuilt the Temple. In the second century BCE the Maccabees revolted against the Greek Seleucid kingdom, an event remembered at Hanukkah, and founded the Hasmonean kingdom. Herod, a Roman client king, rebuilt the Temple on a vast scale; the Western Wall is a retaining wall of its compound.
- Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations — Martin Goodman, Allen Lane (2007)
- The Oxford History of the Biblical World — Michael D. Coogan (ed.), Oxford University Press (1998)
Rome and the dispersal
A Jewish revolt against Rome ended in 70 CE with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple; the last rebels fell at Masada in 73 or 74 CE. After a second great revolt led by Simon bar Kokhba (132–135 CE) was crushed, Emperor Hadrian refounded Jerusalem as a pagan city, barred Jews from it and renamed the province Syria Palaestina.
- Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations — Martin Goodman, Allen Lane (2007)
Jewish life continued in Galilee, where rabbis compiled the Mishnah around 200 CE, but over the centuries most Jews lived in the diaspora, in Babylonia, the Mediterranean, Europe and the Islamic world. Rabbinic Judaism made the memory of the land portable: prayers facing Jerusalem, the breaking of a glass at weddings, “next year in Jerusalem” at Passover. Small Jewish communities remained in the land throughout, notably in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron.
- Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations — Martin Goodman, Allen Lane (2007)
- Israel: A History — Anita Shapira, Brandeis University Press (2012)
Modern Zionism drew on this past selectively, turning Masada and Bar Kokhba into symbols of Jewish strength, and Israeli archaeology became a national passion. That is why the ancient story is never only ancient in Israel.
- Israel: A History — Anita Shapira, Brandeis University Press (2012)
God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants. The Israelites, freed from slavery in Egypt under Moses, conquered Canaan; David made Jerusalem his capital around 1000 BCE and Solomon built the First Temple. Exile followed sin, and return was promised.
- The Oxford History of the Biblical World — Michael D. Coogan (ed.), Oxford University Press (1998)
There is no archaeological evidence for the Exodus as described, and most scholars think the Israelites emerged largely from within the Canaanite population around 1200–1000 BCE. Whether David and Solomon ruled a large united kingdom is debated, but Israel and Judah are well attested as real kingdoms from the ninth century BCE, and a "House of David" appears on the Tel Dan inscription.
- The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts — Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Free Press (2001)
- The Oxford History of the Biblical World — Michael D. Coogan (ed.), Oxford University Press (1998)
Many Palestinians object to ancient history being used to justify modern dispossession, and see themselves as heirs of all the land's ancient peoples, Canaanites included. Islam reveres David and Solomon as prophets, though some Palestinian officials have questioned that a Jewish Temple stood on the Haram al-Sharif, a claim historians reject.
- Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness — Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University Press (1997)
- The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace — Dennis Ross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
Why it matters today
This is the root of the Jewish claim to the land and of Israeli identity: the Hebrew language, the holidays, the names of towns and children all come from it. The destruction of the Temples is still mourned on Tisha B'Av, and Masada, Jerusalem and the Bar Kokhba revolt were made into national symbols.