Israelites

The Israelites were an ancient group of people who lived in a land called Canaan during a time known as the Iron Age. They were part of a larger group called Semitic-speaking people and spoke a language known as Biblical Hebrew. In stories from long ago, the Israelites were thought to be made up of twelve different tribes and later formed two kingdoms named Israel and Judah.

Scholars believe that the Israelites came from local Canaanite people and others from nearby areas. They believed in a god named Yahweh, who was important to them but not as well known in the religions around them. Over time, these kingdoms faced big changes. The kingdom of Israel was taken over by a powerful empire called the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE, and the kingdom of Judah was taken over by the Neo-Babylonian Empire around 586 BCE. Even though many people were moved away, some were allowed to return to their homeland later on.

In the stories of the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites were said to be descendants of a man named Jacob, who was later called Israel. Because of hard times in their land, Jacob and his family moved to Egypt, where they grew in number and were eventually freed and led out by a leader named Moses. After that, a leader named Joshua helped them settle in Canaan. Over time, they set up a way of governing themselves and later formed a united kingdom that eventually split into two. Many people today, including Jews and Samaritans, trace their roots back to these ancient Israelites.

Etymology

Further information: Israel (name)

The earliest known mention of Israel comes from the Merneptah Stele, dating back to around 1209 BCE. This ancient inscription simply states, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not." It refers to a group of people living in central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria, not a single nation or state.

In the Hebrew Bible, the name Israel is first used in Genesis 32:29, where an angel changes Jacob's name to Israel after Jacob wrestles with him. The Bible explains that the name Israel comes from the words for "to struggle with" and a name for a powerful being. Scholars think the name might actually mean "God rules" or "God struggles," based on ancient language roots. Over time, the name shifted from referring to the people called Israelites to the term "Jews," a change that is clear in the Book of Esther from the Tanakh.

Biblical timeline

See also: Who is a Jew? and Jewish identity

Genesis of the Israelite people

In the Bible, the Israelites were the descendants of Israel. They called themselves the sons of Israel, which might have meant being a citizen rather than being related by blood. The Israelites believed their ancestor was Jacob, who came from Abraham. Abraham lived in a place called Ur Kaśdim, which might have been in lower Mesopotamia or upper Mesopotamia, near Syria or Turkey.

Before the United Monarchy

The Israelites were named after Jacob, also called Israel. They were grouped into twelve tribes, each named after one of Jacob’s twelve sons. After a shortage of food, Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt, where their family grew into a large group. The Egyptians treated them unfairly, but they escaped with the help of Moses. After leaving Egypt, they followed laws given by Moses and later moved into a land called Canaan, fighting with nearby groups until they formed a country.

During the United Monarchy

The tribes were united under leaders like Saul, David, and Solomon. Saul and David led the Israelites in battles and helped them grow stronger. Solomon built a special temple to store an important item called the Ark of the Covenant. This time was mostly peaceful, and Solomon worked with allies from Phoenicia.

Division of Israel and Judah

The country split into two parts, Israel and Judah, because of arguments about rules and leaders. Both places faced difficult times when big empires like Assyria and Babylon attacked them. The Bible says these attacks happened because the leaders and people did not follow the rules.

Exilic period

After Babylon attacked Judah, many people were taken away to live in Babylon. Later, a new ruler named Cyrus allowed them to return home. The place they returned to was called the Province of Yehud.

Persian period

A man named Zerubbabel began building a new temple, but it stopped for a while. Later, two leaders encouraged the people to finish it. Another group returned with permission from a ruler named Artaxerxes. One leader named Nehemiah helped fix the temple and keep the community strong. Some people chose to stay in Persia.

Historical timeline

See also: History of ancient Israel and Judah, History of Israel, and History of Palestine

Emergence of the Israelite culture

Efforts to confirm the stories about Israel's beginnings using archaeology have mostly stopped, as they haven't been very helpful. Many scholars think these stories are national myths with little historical value, but some suggest a small group of Egyptians might have added to the story of the Exodus. William G. Dever links this group to the Tribe of Joseph, while Richard Elliott Friedman connects them to the Tribe of Levi. Josephus quoting Manetho ties them to the Hyksos. Other scholars believe the Exodus story was a "collective memory" of several events from the Bronze Age.

Archaeological evidence shows it’s unlikely the Israelites took over the southern Levant by force. Instead, they grew out of the local Canaanite peoples who had lived in the area for a long time, including Syria, ancient Israel, and the Transjordan region. Their culture focused mainly on worshipping Yahweh (or El), but after being taken away by Babylon, it changed to focus only on one god, influenced partly by Zoroastrianism. The Israelites used the Canaanite script and spoke a language called Biblical Hebrew, which is the only surviving type of the Canaanite languages today. Genetic studies show that people in the Levant today, like ancient Israel, had unique cultures because they came from a common ancestor.

There are several ideas about where the historical Israelites came from. Some think they were groups of raiders, nomads like the Habiru and Shasu, or poor Canaanites who had to leave rich cities and live in the hills. Gary Rendsburg says some old biblical stories and other clues point to the Israelites coming from the Shasu and other nomads from deserts south of the Levant, later settling in Canaan’s highlands. Most scholars today think the Israelites were a mix of people mostly from Canaan, with some influence from Egyptian groups, which likely inspired the Exodus story. Israel’s population was similar to that of Ammon, Edom, Moab, and Phoenicia.

Israelite identity was tied to sharing the story of the Exodus. They marked their culture through special rituals like male circumcision, not eating pork, and observing the Sabbath. These practices were shared with nearby west Semites, except the Philistines, who came from Mycenaean Greek people. Intermarriage with other Semites was common. But what made Israelite circumcision special was the timing, and it served as a reminder to behave differently in certain matters.

Genealogy was also important. Though Israelite identity wasn’t only about family ties, they used family history to notice small differences and to criticize themselves, since their ancestors included people who made bad choices, like Jacob. Both these attitudes showed the "complexities of the Jewish soul."

Names were very important in Israelite culture, showing a person’s destiny and character. Changing a name meant a ‘divine transformation’ in that person’s destiny, character, and nature. This idea fit with the culture of the Near East, where names were very connected to a person’s identity.

In looks, rabbis described Biblical Jews as being “midway between black and white” and having the color of the boxwood tree. If Yurco’s claim that the Israelites are shown in carvings from Merneptah’s temple at Karnak is right, early Israelites might have worn the same clothes and hairstyles as non-Israelite Canaanites. But Anson Rainey argued the Israelites in the carvings looked more like the Shasu. Biblical writings suggest Israelites differed from groups like the Babylonians and Egyptians by not having long beards and chin tufts, though these were upper-class styles.

Early highland settlements in Canaan

Further information: Israelite highland settlement

In the 12th century BCE, many Israelite settlements appeared in the central hill country of Canaan, which had been open land before. These settlements didn’t show signs of eating pork, unlike Philistine settlements. They had four-room houses and lived by a shared way of life, shown by the lack of big tombs, fancy houses, or houses that were bigger than others. They followed a mixed way of living, focusing on being self-sufficient, growing crops, raising animals, and making things on a small scale. New ways of farming like terraced farming, storing grain in silos, and collecting rainwater in cisterns were introduced.

These settlements were built by people from the “general Southland” (modern Sinai and southern parts of Israel and Jordan), who stopped their nomadic life. Canaanites living outside the central hill country were loosely called Danites, Asherites, Zebulunites, Issacharites, Naphtalites, and Gadites. These people don’t have much history of moving around except the Danites, who may have come from the Sea Peoples, especially the Dan(an)u. Still, they mixed with the former nomads because of economic and military reasons. Their interest in worshipping Yahweh and caring for the less fortunate was another reason. Possible hints of this history in the Hebrew Bible include the mentioned tribes, except Issachar and Zebulun, coming from Bilhah and Zilpah, who were seen as “additional” to Israel.

Worship of El was important in early Israelite culture, but how many people worshipped him isn’t known. It’s more likely that different places had different ideas about El and had their own small sacred spaces.

Historicity of the United Monarchy

Main article: Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)

The truth about the United Monarchy is debated a lot among archaeologists and biblical scholars: biblical maximalists and centrists (Kenneth Kitchen, William G. Dever, Amihai Mazar, Baruch Halpern and others) argue that the biblical account is more or less accurate, while biblical minimalists (Israel Finkelstein, Ze'ev Herzog, Thomas L. Thompson and others) argue that Israel and Judah never split from a single state. The debate hasn’t been settled, but recent archaeological finds by Eilat Mazar and Yosef Garfinkel show some support for the existence of the United Monarchy.

From 850 BCE onwards, a series of inscriptions mention the "House of David". They came from Israel's neighbors.

Kingdoms of Israel and Judah

Main articles: Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Judah, and Expulsions and exoduses of Jews

Compared to the United Monarchy, the existence of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah is widely accepted by historians and archaeologists. Their destruction by the Assyrians and Babylonians is also confirmed by archaeological evidence and other sources.

Christian Frevel argues that the worship of Yahweh began in the culture of the Kingdom of Israel, who brought it to the Kingdom of Judah through Ahab’s expansions and political ties, which were started by Hazael’s attacks. Frevel has also argued that Judah was like a state under Israel, led by the Omrides. This idea is disputed by other scholars, who say archaeological evidence shows Judah was an independent political group for most of the 9th century BCE.

Avraham Faust argues that people kept following the old ways of sharing and simplicity in the Iron Age II (10th-6th century BCE). For example, there’s little proof of temples and fancy tombs, even though Israel and Judah had more people than in the Late Bronze Age. Four-room houses were still common. Also, royal writings were rare, as were imported and decorated pots. According to William G. Dever, Israelite identity in the 9th-8th centuries BCE can be seen through a mix of archaeology and cultural traits that made them different from neighbors. These traits include being born and living within Israel or Judah’s borders, speaking Hebrew, living in certain types of houses, using local pots, and having specific burial customs. Israelites were also part of a rural society based on families, and they followed the worship of Yahweh, though not always as the only god. Their material culture was simple but unique, and their society was organized around families and inheriting property. These traits, while shared with some nearby groups, were uniquely Israelite in how they all came together.

Wars with Assyria and Babylonia

The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE. Records of Sargon II of Assyria say he moved some of the people to Assyria. Some Israelites moved to the southern kingdom of Judah, while those who stayed in Samaria, mainly around Mount Gerizim, formed a new group called Samaritans. The Assyrians also settled foreign groups in the land of the conquered kingdom. Research shows only some of the remaining Israelites mixed with Mesopotamian settlers. In their own Samaritan Hebrew, the Samaritans call themselves "Israel", "B'nai Israel" or "Shamerim/Shomerim" (meaning "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers"). Even so, the idea of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel came about because many Samarian people mixed with others.

Towards the end of that century, the Neo-Babylonian Empire defeated the Assyrians, making Judah a vassal state. In the early 6th century BC, uprisings in Judah led the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II to attack and destroy Jerusalem and the First Temple, ending the kingdom. After this, some of the people from Judah were taken to Babylon in several groups. Those from Judah were the ancestors of the Jewish people, who practiced Second Temple Judaism during the Second Temple period.

Persian period

Main article: Yehud Medinata

With Babylon’s fall to the growing Achaemenid Persian Empire, king Cyrus the Great announced the Edict of Cyrus, saying exiles could return to their homeland after the Persians made it an autonomous Jewish-governed area named Yehud. Under the Persians (around 539–332 BCE), the people who returned rebuilt the city and the Temple in Jerusalem. The Cyrus Cylinder is sometimes cited as proof Cyrus let the Judeans return, though this is debated. Those who returned felt a stronger sense of their identity and avoided marrying outside their group, which had been more common in Babylon. Circumcision wasn’t as important a sign anymore, with more focus on family ties or belief in Yahweh. Jason A. Staples says most Jews at the time, no matter their beliefs, wanted the northern Israelites and southern Jews to reunite and didn’t fully claim the Israel identity for themselves.

Hellenistic period

Main article: Hellenistic Palestine

In 332 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire fell to Alexander the Great, and the area later became part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom (around 301–200 BCE) and the Seleucid Empire (around 200–167 BCE). The Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid rule led to a time of independence for the Jewish people under the Hasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE). At first working within the Seleucid area, the Hasmoneans slowly became fully independent through military action and diplomacy, becoming the last Jewish rulers before a long break in Jewish control of the area. Some scholars think Jews also tried to encourage people in the Greco-Roman world to join them, leading to some conversions.^{[page needed]} Several scholars, such as Scot McKnight and Martin Goodman, dispute this but agree conversions sometimes happened. There was also a diaspora of Samaritans, but we know little about them.

Roman period

Main article: Roman Palestine

In 63 BCE, the Roman Republic took over the kingdom. In 37 BCE, the Romans made Herod the Great king of a vassal Judea. In 6 CE, Judea became fully part of the Roman Empire as the province of Judaea. During this time, the main Jewish areas were Judea, Galilee and Perea, while the Samaritans lived mostly in Samaria. Unhappiness with Roman rule and unrest led to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), which ended with Jerusalem and its Temple destroyed. This event was a big change for Jewish history, leading to new ways of Jewish identity and practices to keep going. Stopping Temple worship and the end of Temple-based groups helped Rabbinic Judaism grow from the Pharisaic group of the Second Temple time, focusing on communal synagogue worship and Torah study, and it became the main form of Judaism. At the same time, Christianity began to separate from Judaism, becoming mostly a Gentile religion. Decades later, the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE) reduced the Jewish presence in Judea, moving Jewish life to Galilee and Babylonia, with smaller groups across the Mediterranean.

Genetic studies and descendants

Further information: Genetic history of the Middle East and Canaan § Genetic studies

See also: Genetic studies on Jews and Samaritans § Genetic studies

Only one study has looked at ancient Israelite DNA, and it showed that one person from the time of the First Temple belonged to a specific group of DNA sequences that started in the Caucasus or Eastern Anatolia. Other DNA found in this person linked to groups in the Mediterranean, Near East, or perhaps Arabia.

Some modern groups, like Samaritans and ethnic Jews, are thought to be descendants of the ancient Israelites. Some Palestinian people might also be descended from Israelites who stayed in the area and later followed Christianity and then Islam.

Many groups outside the Middle East, such as Mandaeans, Pashtuns, and Black Hebrew Israelites, have claimed Israelite ancestry, especially after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.