May 30, 2024
Troy D. Smith
“A History of Israel and Palestine, Part 2”
Last time I defined The Levant: modern Israel, the
Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and part of Syria… basically, the
lands along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. I introduced you to the
people of Canaan (basically The Levant), who were part of a larger language
group called Semitic. There were several groups living in Canaan in the years
between 2000 and 1500 BCE, all with similar culture and language. There were
Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and other -ites. To the east there were
Amorites, Semitic people who founded the original Babylonian Empire (east of
The Levant, in modern Iraq). To the
south, in modern Saudi Arabia, there were Arabic tribes, sometimes called
Ishmaelites, who were also Semitic. And eventually, there were Hebrews -whose
ancestors, according to tradition, had come from the Semitic city-state of Ur.
To the north of Canaan there were two major non-Semitic
kingdoms and empires: Assyrians (northeast, their principal cities being Assur
and Nineveh) and the Hittites (due north). To the south lay Egypt. By 1500 BCE,
Egypt dominated Canaan/The Levant and made it part of their empire. They built
a fort near an abandoned city that had been inhabited off and on since 3000
BCE… the fort and the revived city, which became an important stop for Egyptian
caravans, became the headquarters for Egyptians in Canaan.
It was called Gaza.
I’m sure you all know the Bible stories. According to them, around
2000 BCE Abram/Abraham and his family left Ur, directed by God to the land of
Canaan which was promised to his descendants. Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph
was later sold into slavery by his jealous brothers (to a caravan of passing
Arabs/Ishmaelites) and ended up in Egypt. He rose to prominence there, and was
joined by his father and his whole family. Eventually, though, all the
Israelites were made into slaves by the Egyptians. 450 years later, Moses led
their descendants -two or three million of them -out of bondage in Egypt (so
this would have been roughly 1300 BCE) and back to the Promised Land of Canaan…
where they conquered most of the Canaanite peoples, took the land, and
eventually established the Kingdom of Israel (circa 1000 BCE) and, later, the
breakaway southern Kingdom of Judah. At its height (biblically), the Kingdom of
Israel would have covered all of modern Israel and the Palestinian territories,
much of modern Jordan, and the southern half of Lebanon. The only unconquered
part was a strip of land in the south, along the Mediterranean shore, which
included Gaza. That land was Philistia, home of the Philistines.
Except… most historians, archeologists, and Bible scholars
don’t think it happened quite that way. There is no historical or archeological
evidence of millions of Hebrews living in Egypt at that time, serving as
slaves, or appearing suddenly in Canaan. Scholars believe the Israelites never
LEFT Canaan. There is plenty of evidence, however, of something else major
happening in the region at around the same time the Bible tells us the
Israelites were fighting and conquering their Canaanite neighbors… around 1200
BCE.
As we discussed, Egypt had been in control of Canaan for
about 300 years at that point -so biblical stories of Egyptian oppression have
the ring of truth to them, just not taking place in Egypt itself. In the 12th
century BCE, though, Egypt was attacked by a fierce group of “sea people”
arriving by ship from the Mediterranean (probably from the Aegean Sea area). In
the intense wars that followed, Egypt lost much of their possessions outside
their own country, and was greatly weakened. Because of the intricate trade
system in place, this caused a chain reaction- and almost all the major players
in the region toppled, including Babylon and the Hittites, as well as (farther
away) Troy and Mycenae (this is called the Late Bronze Age collapse). This led
to a free-for-all in Canaan among the various peoples living there -and that is
when the Israelites enter the historical record, eventually establishing their
kingdom.
Some of the defeated Sea People settled in the area now
known as Gaza, and probably intermarried with the Canaanites already there… and
became known as Philistines. The word that we pronounce “Palestine” in English,
by the way, is pronounced in Hebrew and Arabic more like fill-is-teen. Much
later, in the fifth century BCE, Greek historian Herodotus would call the land
Palaestine.
Hey, look at us, we covered another thousand years this
week! The stage is now fully set. To be continued.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee
Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE
