Words for Board: Canaanite, Philistine, Palestine, Moses, YHWH (Yahweh), Baal, Semitic, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, Israel, Judah, Assyria, Amos, Exile-Babylonian Captivity

There were people living in between Egypt and Sumeria. They were usually desert nomads and in little groups. They borrowed culture from both. By the year 1000 BC, there were no great powers in the world anymore. Sumeria had been overrun and Egypt was getting beaten up. It was the Era of Small Nations. With no big powers, small groups could take over areas and become powers for a while.

The Canaanites lived in the eastern area. By the edge of the Mediterranean Sea is Canaan. They were farmers. But they got squeezed out of their country and went north. They changed to traders and became the best sailors at the time. They changed their name to Phoenicians. They traded everywhere, maybe even up to Iceland.

Another small group was the Philistines. They raided Canaan from the sea. They may have been an early group of Greeks who were trying to conquer Egypt and missed. They named the area Palestine (have you heard of it?).

The Israelites/Jews came out of the Arabian Desert. They were trying to push Canaan out too. Canaan was surrounded, which is why they eventually went north. The Jews were never a great power. They were survivors. They had no real culture, art, or literature or anything that makes them neat people. They were famous for their religion cuz they developed monotheism. (I need to insert a note here. This is a secular school. That means not religion-oriented. Stockmyer teaches a secular class. If he says anything that strikes you as particularly heretical, ask him about it. If you can't resolve it with him, ask your minister. You are expected to know the facts. He will never claim things happened by miracle and expect you to know it. If you want to believe miracles, it's ok. You'll only get facts and logic out of him!!) The Jews started about 2,000 BC. They were coming out of the desert. They were desert nomads in small groups who followed water holes. In the beginning, they were polytheists. They settled outside of Canaan. There was more than one tribe but they were all connected religiously.

Around 1600 BC, one of the tribes wandered into Egypt. They may have been invited in to help the Egyptians beat out the Hyksos. Eventually the Egyptians gained control and had no use for the Jews. Finally, Moses became the leader of the Jews and lead them out of Egypt. On the way out, they picked up a new god named YHWH (pronounced "Yahweh"–In the King James Version of the Bible, he's called "Jehovah" by mispronunciation). Moses got the 10 Commandments for YHWH, who was a war god.

By the time the Jews got to Canaan, all 12 tribes had united. They started picking on the Canaanites who were already weak from being attacked by the Philistines on the sea side. The Jews started winning, which proved that YHWH was on their side. They picked up the Canaanite culture including farming. The Jews had never farmed. They'd always been sheep herders and other desert jobs. In those days, farming was at least 50% religion. The Jews had their new god YHWH who could help them win battles. But could he grow crops? The Canaanites had a god of agriculture named Baal who obviously knew about farming. Baal was a dying/rising god. The farmers started worshiping Baal and split the Jews. Eventually the Jews found out YHWH knew how to grow crops and returned to him.

By the year 1000 BC, the Canaanites had been squeezed out. Now the Jews and Philistines face each other. The Jews started losing. The Philistines were big people, with iron. They had chariots and a professional army which was led by kings (a new government structure). The Jews were led by committees (ugh) but there were a lot more Jews.

Stockmyer just remembered a word he forgot . . . Semitic is the name of the people of the near east. It's a racial classification really. It's all the people in the general area he's talking about now.

The Jews have to get it together and modernize. They started a professional army which was expensive (soldiers eat lots). The tribes wanted a king. The prophets didn't want kings. Prophets were the general leaders of the tribes–usually committee heads who listened to god and pronounced his will. They knew as soon as they would get a king, the king would begin listening to god directly and they'd be out of work. There were gobs of prophets–both false and true. How do you know the true prophets? Wait around 200 years and see who told the truth. The false prophets don't show up in the Old Testament cuz is was written after the fact and editors weeded out the falsies. But there were just as many, if not more, false ones giving out the word of god as they knew it.

Samuel was the biggie prophet of the time. He was supposed to pick the first king. He picked a man named Saul who became king of the 12 tribes in 1020. As soon as the Jews got a king they started winning cuz they were organized. And who do you know, but Saul began listening to god directly and ignoring Samuel. Samuel put a curse on Saul to lose the next battle. The army heard the curse and only ½ of them showed which caused Saul to lose the battle. (Saul was killed in battle, too.) Obviously, Samuel was a true prophet–Saul lost, didn't he?

The Jews still wanted a king. Samuel appointed David around 1000 BC. David wasn't of the royal family and was probably picked by Samuel cuz he thought he could boss him. David was a very good military leader and successful king. Eventually he, too, quarreled with the prophets but he was so good they couldn't pull him off the throne.

In case you haven't been watching, YHWH moved! He started out on top of a mountain. Now, he's down in a little box called the Ark of the Covenant. Only the prophets could touch the box. The Jews would take the box to war with them and set it up on the hill to inspire the troops. One time the Philistines captured the box and it had to be ransomed back. (It has to be embarrassing to have your god captured!!)

Back to the king. David's son by Bathsheba, Solomon succeeded him. Solomon had over 700 wives. That doesn't mean he was sexually aggressive cuz most of the wives came with treaties to foreign countries. He also had lots of concubines and mistresses (which does prove he was sexually aggressive!!). All those ladies were expensive to feed. He also decided god need a neato bandito house for the box and spent gobs of money building a huge temple. When he died he left the country bankrupt. The tribes went to his son (Rehoboam) and asked if he intended to carry on in his father's spending ways and he said, you bet. The tribes said, good luck and 10 of them seceded and split the country into 2 parts: Israel (the northern part made of 10/12 tribes) and Judah (the southern 2 tribes). They started fighting amongst themselves as well as the surrounding states which wasn't bright and really weakened them.

A big power was forming up in the northeast at the head of the Tigris-Euphrates. It was Assyria. About 722 BC, the Assyrians rolled over Israel (Northern 10 tribes). Have you ever heard of the "Lost Tribes of Israel"? The Assyrians lost them. It was Assyrian policy to slaughter lots of the conquered peoples and/or redistribute them throughout the empire so they wouldn't lump up and lead rebellions. They managed to lose 10 tribes though integration. Probably the people settled down and intermarried and lost their nationality. But there are other theories as to what happened to the Lost Tribes. Garner Ted Armstrong (a pretentious religious leader of today who was excommunicated from his church by his own father for too much womanizing thereby forcing Garner Ted to found his own church so he could still crank out the "Truth" as he knows it) says that the Lost Tribes went north into Europe and eventually crossed over to England. That makes them our ancestors (since most of the 1st settlers were English). So every prophecy made in the Bible about the Lost Tribes or the Jews could be applied to America of today cuz we're related. Another theory, according to the Mormons, says that the Lost Tribes went East to China and crossed over to America becoming the American Indians

Back to the Assyrians: They were attacking the southern kingdom (Judah). The Assyrians knocked over 46 cities but Jerusalem managed to hold out. According to the Bible, Jerusalem was under siege and one night the Angle of the Lord smote thousands of the Assyrians one night, causing them to give up. According to the Assyrian account, Jerusalem was already paying tribute which the Assyrians raised when they couldn't capture the capital city. The Bible doesn't mention the 46 lost cities or the tribute they were paying. The Assyrians don't mention that they never managed to take Jerusalem. (Actually, the Assyrian army probably caught a disease or something that spread throughout the army which is what killed them.) You have to read history carefully.

There were new prophets coming. Amos was one who had new ideas of what it took to please god. Before, all it took was performing the ceremonies and sacrifices. Amos said YHWH was the only god of all people who just happened to love the Jews best (tee hee!). YHWH wasn't pleased with sacrifices. He wanted good behavior. Amos was spouting something called Ethical Monotheism. The Jews ignored him. Amos said if they didn't straighten up, that somebody would come and capture the Jews in a big sack and take them away. 350 years later the Babylonians (Assyrians under new management) captured the Jews and caused the Exile or Babylonian Captivity. The Jews remembered what Amos had said and decide that maybe Ethical Monotheism was the right idea. (See? Just Stay around long enough and you'll see the true prophets!! Apparently, they had no time limit on the truth.)

YHWH sure has changed. He went from a mountain to a box, and from a battle god who was a real killer to a god of all people who wanted good morals. Why did he change? There are at least 3 possibilities: 1. God changed his mind. That's kind of shaky to have a god that's not consistent. 2. Religious people say the theory of "Continuing Revelation." God had always wanted moral behavior–he just had trouble communicating it to the prophets. God would be whispering to Samuel: "Let's have peace!" and Samuel would say: "Right! And the only peaceful Philistine is a dead Philistine!!" Or 3. If you study lots of cultures, you'll find that people make gods like themselves. Barbarians have barbaric gods and as they get more civilized, so do their gods. One of these options is probably the truth–it's your decision.

NOTE: I hope you've been reading your syllabus!! And making notes from it. There's lots of stuff in there you have to know. For instance, there are more words on page 56 that Stockmyer doesn't cover n class that you must know. (I.e. Nineveh, Nebuchadnezzar, "Hanging Gardens," Astrology, Croesus, Cyrus the Great, etc.) And for good measure, try answering the questions (in the syllabus) after each lecture. If you don't know the answers, find out cuz those questions could appear on the test in some form. Stockmyer will be happy to talk to you about anything you need to know.