The Story of YHWH, Israel and the Jews
23 Aug '10 23:31Please correct any incorrect facts.
The city states of the Canaanites, such as Jericho, Jerusalem, Sodom, Gomorrah, etc grew to power first in the modern day Israel region, then called Canaan. The Canaanites were merchants; trade in the Levant has been happening since civilization began at least and they were the first merchant princes.
The Akkadian Empire was the first empire to conquer the region under Sargon the Great around 2200 BCE. They referred to the Jews as "tent dwellers" and came from modern day Iraq.
The Akkadians were defeated back in their homeland within a few hundred years by the Gutians, a "barbarian" people.
There may have been a period of independence, but soon the Egyptian Empire took Canaan and enslaved the Jews.
Then the Egyptian empire started to fall apart as the Pharoahs rose to power.
Simultaneously, the god of the Sun had been steadily rising to power. He was known by several names in Egypt, but the name that became dominant was Aten, and he ruled from Heliopolis. He was the first, or one of the first, to assume the mantle of the One True God around 1300 BCE. He provided the Pharoahs with the Divine Right of Kings.
Interestingly, all through early human history, overgrazing had produced a permanent, increasing drought effect that created the Sahara; a drought so powerful as to force abandonment of cities. This may have been seen as Aten, the Sun, exerting his dominance.
Soon afterward, the Jewish slaves under Moses escaped through Medea in southern Jordan, where Moses encountered YHW, a god of a nomadic ethnic group called the Shasu who had also been conquered by the Egyptians, in a burning bush. Their ranks swollen into a "mixed multitude" by acceptance of other refugees from empires and city states, they returned to Canaan and conquered it back arond 1200 BCE. Inspired by the Egyptians and needing to unify for defense, they soon declared THEIR god YHW the One True God, and unified into a Kingdom of Israel under sole Jewish monarch David, after he led them to victory over the Philistines, who lived in the Gaza Strip area.
Civil war led to the conquest of the region by Akkadian/Assyrian/Babylonian Empire again ~700-500 BCE, followed by Alexander the Great and then Rome etc.
The city states of the Canaanites, such as Jericho, Jerusalem, Sodom, Gomorrah, etc grew to power first in the modern day Israel region, then called Canaan. The Canaanites were merchants; trade in the Levant has been happening since civilization began at least and they were the first merchant princes.
The Akkadian Empire was the first empire to conquer the region under Sargon the Great around 2200 BCE. They referred to the Jews as "tent dwellers" and came from modern day Iraq.
The Akkadians were defeated back in their homeland within a few hundred years by the Gutians, a "barbarian" people.
There may have been a period of independence, but soon the Egyptian Empire took Canaan and enslaved the Jews.
Then the Egyptian empire started to fall apart as the Pharoahs rose to power.
Simultaneously, the god of the Sun had been steadily rising to power. He was known by several names in Egypt, but the name that became dominant was Aten, and he ruled from Heliopolis. He was the first, or one of the first, to assume the mantle of the One True God around 1300 BCE. He provided the Pharoahs with the Divine Right of Kings.
Interestingly, all through early human history, overgrazing had produced a permanent, increasing drought effect that created the Sahara; a drought so powerful as to force abandonment of cities. This may have been seen as Aten, the Sun, exerting his dominance.
Soon afterward, the Jewish slaves under Moses escaped through Medea in southern Jordan, where Moses encountered YHW, a god of a nomadic ethnic group called the Shasu who had also been conquered by the Egyptians, in a burning bush. Their ranks swollen into a "mixed multitude" by acceptance of other refugees from empires and city states, they returned to Canaan and conquered it back arond 1200 BCE. Inspired by the Egyptians and needing to unify for defense, they soon declared THEIR god YHW the One True God, and unified into a Kingdom of Israel under sole Jewish monarch David, after he led them to victory over the Philistines, who lived in the Gaza Strip area.
Civil war led to the conquest of the region by Akkadian/Assyrian/Babylonian Empire again ~700-500 BCE, followed by Alexander the Great and then Rome etc.
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