About 2,000 and 400 years ago, God called Abraham to leave the Mesopotabian plains and cross the Euphrates and Jordan rivers from the city of Ur in the Mesopotamia basin to a The Promised Land - Canaan (a land flowing with milk and honey, now called Palestine). Therefore Abraham was called the Hebrew (the one from beyond the river). Abraham's old wife Sarah was barren, so she asked her maid Hagar to bear a son for Abraham, Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs. The Bible predicted that this son would be like a wild ass, hostile to others everywhere, and humans would also be hostile. he. He was to be separated from his relatives and live alone (Genesis 16:12). The Bible records that at the time promised by God, the barren Sarah also gave birth to a son, Isaac. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to Him, so Abraham took his son up Mount Moriah. When he raised the knife to kill his son, God stopped him and sacrificed a sheep instead of Isaac. God blessed Isaac. The Koran records that Abraham sacrificed Ishmael.
Later, Isaac gave birth to twins Esau and Jacob. Jacob exchanged a bowl of red bean soup for the title of eldest son (one day, Jacob was cooking red bean soup and Esau was hunting. When he came back, he was hungry and wanted to drink. Jacob took the opportunity and said, "Give me your eldest son's birthright." The elder brother replied, "I'm starving to death. What's the use of a eldest son?" Therefore, he was chased by his brother, hid in his uncle's house, and was plotted by his uncle in every possible way. One night, Jacob wrestled with God and received a new name, "Israel," which means "the one who wrestles with God" (Genesis 32:28). Israel gave birth to twelve sons, which are the later twelve tribes of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (this tribe is the priest chosen by Jehovah and is supported by other tribes, so it does not participate in the distribution of land. ), Judah (King David, Jesus belongs to this tribe), Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph (although Joseph himself Counted as one tribe, however, because Israel adopted Joseph’s second sons Ephraim and Manasseh in his later years; therefore these two and a half tribes also participated equally in the distribution of the land), and finally Benjamin (the apostle Paul came from this tribe) . The suspicious and cunning character of the Jews probably comes from the cunningness of their ancestor Jacob.
Because his son Joseph became prime minister in Egypt, Israel moved his family from Canaan to ancient Egypt and received preferential treatment. But a hundred years later, the Egyptian dynasty changed and the children of Israel became slaves. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and came to Canaan, driving out the Canaanites and occupying the land. In other words, about 4,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Jews obtained this land through fighting.
The twelve tribes of Israel kept giving birth to children, and they transformed from one family into a nation. They defeated other nations in the land of Canaan and occupied their places. It was in the 10th century BC that the greatest king of Israel, King David, emerged from the tribe of Judah. ??He established a powerful nation of Israel and made Jerusalem its capital. King David stole the wife of one of his men and gave birth to King Solomon, the wisest king in human history. After Solomon succeeded to the throne, he carried out a large-scale construction project. It took ten years to build the magnificent "Solomon's Temple" or the "First Temple". Judaism regards Jerusalem as a holy city and the Temple Mount where the temple is located as a holy place.
However, after King Solomon died, the second generation of emperors succeeded to the throne. The second generation of the emperor was not kind to people, made careless friends, and only knew how to make money. Solomon's servant Jeroboam was dissatisfied with the new king's taxes and led the ten northern tribes to revolt and established the country "Israel" to compete with them. Because in the north, it was also called the "Northern Kingdom" and its capital was Samaria; the remaining two southern tribes (Judah) , Benjamin), called "Judah" or "Southern Kingdom", and Israel was divided into two. The Northern Kingdom has always been intermarrying with foreign races. Under the influence of his wife, he followed his wife to believe in gods other than God. He was soon wiped out by the Assyrian Kingdom. The subjugated Israelites were gradually assimilated by the foreigners. In the end, they could not figure out who their father, mother, and mother were. You lose your identity as an Israelite.
The southern kingdom of Judah has been ravaged by various occupations by Babylon, Macedonia, and Rome for more than 500 years starting from the 6th century BC. The temple was burned down by the Babylonians.
However, the Jew Nehemiah was the popular man around the Persian emperor and was responsible for pouring wine for the emperor. Therefore, the Jews received the support of the Persian emperor and rebuilt the Temple, thus creating the "Second Temple Period." Good times don't last long. After Judah was colonized by Rome, it changed from the Kingdom of Judah to the Roman Province of Judea. How can a Jew be a fuel-efficient lamp? The national restoration movement continues to rise, just like the anti-Qing and Ming Dynasties in China. Finally, in 135 AD, the Roman Empire couldn't bear it anymore and suppressed the final uprising of the Judahs. They destroyed the temple, took away the gold vessels, and ordered all Judahs to be expelled. In order to make the Jews forget their homeland, the province of Judah was renamed "Palestine". Jerusalem was also renamed Aelia Capitolina, and Jewish people were even prohibited from entering the city for fear of their restoration (see the Masada section for details). At this point, the people of Judah lost their homeland and became subjugated slaves, scattered throughout the world.
See my Israel travel notes for details:
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