Hebrews
Last Updated        11/18/2007      10/11/2007      10/10/2005

The Hebrews originated in UR, along the Euphrates River (Sumeria).

Yahweh
Story of the Hebrews and their god is is written in the Bible.
Yahweh was the one true god.
Yahweh was different from humans.  He did what was just and right.
He was powerful and he could do what he wanted.

Abraham
1900 BC, Abraham went to Canaan from UR about        
1800 BC, Settled in Canan raising sheep and growing wheat, figs, and olives.
Abraham became unhappy with the city so he left with some people to Palestine.
Abraham's son, Jacob had 12 sons.
Formed the 12 Hebrew tribes.
Hebrews stayed in Canan for about 100 years.
1700 BC, Drought came and the Hebrew people went to Egypt.


Moses and the Ten Commandments
Moses was a Hebrew who had been found in a reed cradle by an Egyptian princess in the Nile. 
The Pharaoh had decided to make the Hebrews less dangerous.
He killed the Hebrews male children at birth. 
Moses had been raised as an Egyptian prince by his own mother.
She was chosen to raise him.
Moses killed an Egyptian guard for hurting a slave.
He found out that he was a Hebrew. 
Moses left Egypt, married, and began a new life.
He returned to seek the release of the Hebrew people from Pharaoh Ramses II.
When Ramses refused Moses said God would punish the Pharaoh and Egypt.
The Pharaoh didn't believe him. 

Plagues
God punished Ramses and Egypt by the following plagues.
Turning water to blood.
Frogs.
Lice.
Flies.
Boils.
Hail.
Locusts.
Three days of darkness.
Killing the first born son of all Egyptians. 

Exodus
Pharaoh finally let the Hebrew people go.
He then changed his mind and sent an army to bring them back. 
Moses parted the Red Sea so the Hebrews could cross.
The following Egyptians were killed when the sea engulfed them.
This escape in 1290 BC is called the Exodus.

Ten Commandments
Moses led then to Mount Sinai.
It is said Moses received a message from Yahweh.
Yahweh is the god of the Israelites and JUST the Israelites.
He returned with the Ten Commandments.
Moses wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because of disobedience of the Ten Commandments.
He never entered the promised land. 

FOOTNOTE ON THE PARTING OF THE RED SEA
Translation of Red Sea actually means "Sea of Reeds" a marshy area near the Red Sea.  At times the wind blows so hard in this area that the sea actually rolls back from the land which could contribute to the "parting of the Red Sea story."   Egyptian history records show no reference of an entire army being lost "at sea."  No record of the release of Hebrew slaves at this time period exist.

FOOTNOTE ON THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT
The pfisteria theory provides one explanation of the first six plagues. In 1999 an environmental catastrophe happened in the town of New Burn, North Carolina. The residents woke up to find the waters of their river - the Neuse - had turned red. More than a billion fish died. People working near the river found that they were covered in sores.  The cause of this was found to be pollution. The pollution had come from a pig farm further up the river. Millions of gallons of pig-waste had found its way into the river, causing a genetic mutation in a marine micro-organism called pfisteria; turning it from harmless into lethal. The river had been poisoned.John Marr, an epidemiologist specializing in environmental disasters, believes pollution in ancient Egypt could have caused the first six plagues. Pfisteria, or something like it, caused the fish to die, thus turning the river red; the pollution would have driven the frogs onto the land, on land the frogs would die, causing an explosion of flies and lice. The flies could then have transmitted viral diseases to livestock, killing them.

Promised Land
The people that already lived there built walled cities on top of hills.
Joshua was the new leader of the Hebrews that led them into Canaan.
They became farmers and shepherds.
Copied Canaanites' tools and alphabet.

Food
Used stored water to grow olives, flax, barley, wheat, and grapes.
The Seven Species: Olives, Grapes, Wheat, Barley, Figs, Dates, Pomegranates.
Seasonings included salt, garlic, aniseed, coriander, cumin, dill, thyme, mint, nuts and honey.
Cow’s milk was known but it was not used very much. 
Sheep and goats were preferred and their milk could also be used to make butter or cheese. 
Honey was the most common sweetener, but juice from grapes or dates could also be used. 
A special treat was a meal of locusts.  When boiled in salted water they tasted somewhat like shrimp.  
If dried in the sun they could be kept for use at some other time of the year.
They could be ground into a powder and mixed with wheat flour for biscuits or simply moistened with honey or vinegar.

Houses
Houses were made mud brick or stone plastered with mud and the whitewashed.
Floors were beaten clay.
Wooden beams supported a thatched roof which was then covered with clay.
Four-room house: Central Activity Area, Stable Area, Storage Room, 2nd Floor Sleeping Area,
During the day people cooked and lived in the Central Area
At night goats and donkeys bedded down in the house and the family slept in the upper level.

Family Life
3 generations would live together: Father, married sons, grandchildren.
Spinning of thread was done in the home.
Most people were identified by a single name.
Names were often theophoric -- including the name of a god or goddess within them.

Clothing
Most made of wool or linen.
Most of the clothing worn in biblical Palestine was made of wool or linen.
Men wore a loincloth and a tunic that reached to the ankles and was close-fitting at the neck.
A mantle or outer garment was worn over the tunic.
People of the better class also wore a sort of undershirt.
The garments for women were much the same as those worn by men.
Hair and beards were worn long by Hebrew men of Bible times.
they abhorred baldness.
Women also wore their hair long and already practiced artificial curling.
The headdress developed in the form of a folded square cloth.
It was worn as a veil for protection against the sun, or wrapped as a turban. 


Government
After Joshua died the 12 tribes split apart.
Tribes led by a Council of Elders
Tribes had a temporary leader called a judge.
Judge settled disputes and led troops into battle.

Saul
First king, a warrior king
Philistines killed 3 of Saul's sons and Saul killed himself by falling on his sword.
Philistines beheaded Saul and displayed it in their temple.
Fastened Saul's body to a town's wall.
Saul's son became king and he fought and was defeated by David (slayer of Goliath).

David
David defeated Philistines (Canaanites).
Built Jerusalem, the capital of the Hebrew Kingdom, on the site of a defeated Canaanite fortress.
Called himself the "Son of Yahweh"
May have worshipped Canaanite god Ba-al. His son was given a Canaanite name.
David worshipped in Canaanite style, dancing and whirling.
Created "Golden Age of the Hebrews"
King David delivered them to Jerusalem, the center of their people, c. 900 BC. He brought the Holy Ark (Ten Commandments). The Ark has since been lost.

Solomon
The Hebrew kingdom reached its height of power and prosperity under the rule of Solomon.
They had slaves and high taxes, but were prosperous.
Solomon’s temple was built by Phoenician master craftsmen.
They worked alongside Hebrew workmen and 30,000 unskilled workers forced to work by Solomon.
They worked for a month on and two months off in shifts of 10,000 at a time.
They used wood, stone and metal from Lebanon and worked by Phoenician craftsmen.
960 BC The temple was finished, taking seven years to build.
King Solomon built himself a palace and called it Forest of Lebanon
Built his Egyptian wife another palace using the Phoenician craftsmen and the materials of Lebanon.

After Solomon’s reign, the unified kingdom split into two, Israel in the north, and Judah (from which we get the names Judaism and Jew) in the south.

Prophets
Persons claiming to have messages from God
Prophets reminded Hebrews of their duty to God, and to one another
586 B.C. Judaeans forced to move to Babylon; Met on Sabbath (day of rest)
Ezra: Law of Moses, 5 books called Torah; became part of the Old Testament


Major Contributions
Believed in one god.
First to believe in a just god.

Hebrew Time Line