Judaism - World History

Judaism ( 575 ) The Jews are deported to Babylon.

The deportation policy initiated by Assyria and continued by Babylon had succeeded in destroying many national identities, and everything seemed to indicate that the same would happen with Jewish nationalism. However, it was not. Jewish culture survived in Egypt and in Babylon itself. Nebuchadnezzar II was an enlightened monarch. He limited himself to doing what he considered necessary to stop the Jews from being a threat, but, once installed in Babylon, he treated them with complete leniency. He did not in any way prohibit or discourage the worship of Yahveh. Despite everything, the exile must have been traumatic for the Jews, since their belief that the Temple in Jerusalem was inviolable had crumbled. Even more, the last trend of Yahvism had been to inculcate that the Temple was the only place where Yahveh could be worshiped. The Jews believed that Yahveh only had power over his territory, and that by being uprooted from him he had completely removed them from his god. These beliefs had to be quickly modified. They soon discovered that, in reality, Yahveh was everywhere, and that he could be prayed to and worshiped anywhere in the world. They had written texts with part of their traditions, and they formed congregations (in Greek The Jews believed that Yahveh only had power over their territory, and that by being uprooted from it they had been completely removed from their god. These beliefs had to be quickly modified. They soon discovered that, in reality, Yahveh was everywhere, and that he could be prayed to and worshiped anywhere in the world. They had written texts with part of their traditions, and they formed congregations (in Greek The Jews believed that Yahveh only had power over their territory, and that by being uprooted from it they had been completely removed from their god. These beliefs had to be quickly modified. They soon discovered that, in reality, Yahveh was everywhere, and that he could be prayed to and worshiped anywhere in the world. They had written texts with part of their traditions, and they formed congregations (in Greek and that he could be prayed to and worshiped anywhere in the world. They had written texts with part of their traditions, and they formed congregations (in Greek and that he could be prayed to and worshiped anywhere in the world. They had written texts with part of their traditions, and they formed congregations (in Greeksynagogues ) to study them and continue worship.

In the synagogues, the Jewish tradition underwent strong transformations. Many Jews accepted the Babylonian myths with interest, so that the priests had to end up accepting them too, duly modified so that they were compatible with the cult of Yahveh. The Jews knew vague versions of the Mesopotamian myths about creation, the flood, etc., long before, but now they discovered first-hand the original versions, which they incorporated into their beliefs in a much more precise and faithful way, except for the sieve that he eliminated almost all reference to strange gods. For example, the goddess Tiamat (the chaos that Marduk destroyed) became tehom (the deep) in the Hebrew version of Genesis, that is, in the depth over which the spirit of God was. The ancient legend about the Tower of Babel must have made a great impact on them, especially since they were able to witness the construction of a magnificent ziggurat dedicated to Marduk that had been left unfinished long ago due to the wars with Assyria, but which Nebuchadnezzar II ordered to be completed. Probably, the impressive vision of an army of priests going up and down the immense structure must have ended up deforming until it became a strange passage from Genesis, where Jacob sees angels going up and down from heaven by a great staircase. Jewish myths were also affected. Probably Abraham's original homeland had been Harran, but now it became what Genesis anachronistically calls "Ur of the Chaldeans," when the Chaldeans did not appear until many centuries after Abraham. Undoubtedly, the Chaldean culture so impressed the Jews that they assumed their patriarch had to be of Chaldean origin.

Also in exile, the Jews adopted the Mesopotamian custom of resting on Saturday. The Chaldeans divided time into periods of seven days in correspondence with the seven celestial bodies they knew (apart from the stars): The Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They also associated them with gods, an idea that the Greeks transmitted to the West. For example, the planet Venus was associated with Ishtar, goddess of beauty and love. This was also the origin and meaning of some sacred seven-branched candelabra used by the Chaldeans and which the Jews incorporated into their cult objects. Gradually, the Jews were forgetting their language, Hebrew, which was replaced by Aramaic, the language that the Syrians spread through Assyria when they were exiled.

But the most significant change that the Jewish religion underwent in exile was not the incorporation of new myths and traditions. The Jews assumed that exile was divine punishment for their many sins, but at the same time they were convinced that if they changed their attitude and held on to their beliefs, God would forgive them, return them to their land, and send them offspring. of David to reoccupy the throne. Now, on this point they should have been cautious. Nebuchadnezzar II did not object to their maintaining his religion, but he would never have tolerated their waiting for a king to take away part of his territory. Therefore this crucial part of their beliefs had to be expressed in a more obscure or ambiguous way. The ritual to occupy the throne of Judah required that the priest anoint the new king with sacred oil, as a sign of divine approval. Thus, instead of saying that they were waiting for a king, they said that they were waiting for an "anointed one", which could also pass as a politically innocuous religious leader. We are best familiar with the Hebrew and Greek versions of "anointed," which are instead of saying that they were waiting for a king, they said that they were waiting for an "anointed one", which could also pass as a politically innocuous religious leader. We are best familiar with the Hebrew and Greek versions of "anointed," which are instead of saying they were expecting a king, they said they were expecting an "anointed one," which could also pass as a politically innocuous religious leader. We are most familiar with the Hebrew and Greek versions of "anointed," which areMessiah and Christ, respectively. They predicted that the prophet Elijah (who had not died, but had ascended body and soul to heaven) would return to anoint the messiah, who would rebuild the kingdom of Judah. Many passages of the pre-biblical texts available to the Jews were taken out of context to be reinterpreted as messianic prophecies.

Thus was formed what we can really consider as a new religion, Judaism, very different from the preceding Judeo-Israelite religion. Ezekiel, a priest who was taken to Babylon along with King Joachim in the first deportation , is often considered the father of Judaism . Ezekiel believed in the restoration of the kingdom and described in detail a reconstruction of the Temple, along with the rituals that followed the restoration.

Meanwhile, in Canaan some changes were taking place. An Arab people, the Nabateans, occupied Edom and established their capital at Petra. From there they controlled various trade routes, especially the Red Sea. In turn, the Edomites expelled by the Nabataeans advanced north and invaded southern Judah, which could offer no resistance, and there they settled in the region later called Idumea by the Greeks. Another nerve center of the Red Sea trade route was the region that the ancients called Happy Arabia,Where is Yemen now? There were several very old kingdoms there that had achieved great prosperity and wealth thanks to trade. The most famous was the kingdom of Sheba, whose origin seems to date back to the third millennium BC. c.

On the other hand, Chinese politics were increasingly turbulent. The struggles for hegemony no longer only took place between the different states, but internally there were clashes between the nobles, and this gradually weakened them all.

In 574 , Nebuchadnezzar II had been unsuccessfully holding the siege of Tire for thirteen years. Finally, the city decided to negotiate peace. The Chaldean king was also looking forward to finishing his campaign, so the terms of surrender were soft. Tire was not going to be occupied or sacked, it would retain its autonomy, King Etbaal III would renounce the throne, but his son Baal I would succeed him,who would swear allegiance to the Chaldeans. Although Tire had thus remained unscathed, the truth is that the siege weakened it so much that it lost control of its colonies. From this moment on, it was Carthage that regulated Phoenician foreign policy, although an emotional link to the metropolis continued to exist. The western Mediterranean was gradually divided between the Carthaginians, Etruscans and Greeks.

In 572 Solon, who had held his position as archon in Athens for 22 years, resigned from it. They proposed to keep it for life, but he was already sixty-five years old and he did not want to accept. "It's about time," he said, "that I start studying something." After getting a promise from his fellow citizens that they would uphold his law system for at least ten years, he set out for the east.

But the war against Megara continued. It had faded with Theagenes' death, but it continued. Now the most contentious point was the island of Salamis, located near the coast, opposite the border between Attica and Megara. The Athenians cited some verses from the Iliad (which the Megarenses considered spurious) to argue that Salamis belonged to Attica. The Athenian attempts to occupy it had failed, to the point that it was already considered lost, but in 570 a cousin of Solon named Pisistratus was polemarch (archon in charge of war) .who managed to take the island. Megara surrendered and thus ended the war. By then the city had been divided into three parties: the one in the plain, headed by Miltiades, brought together the old aristocracy who hoped to recover their former power; The one on the coast brought together merchants and shipowners and, in general, the bourgeoisie, which accepted Solon's democratic system and was led by one of the Alcmaeonids. Solon had allowed them to return, but the nobles did not admit them among themselves, so they became democrats. Finally, the party of the mountain It was made up of the urban and peasant proletariat, eager for more reforms, headed by Pisistratus himself, who undoubtedly harbored ambitions for power and understood that the best way to achieve it was to gain the trust of the least favored.

Meanwhile, Pharaoh Haibria ran into trouble in the west. The Greek colony of Cyrene had expanded at the expense of the neighboring Libyan tribes, and they asked Egypt for help. Haibria could not afford to have disgruntled barbarians to the west if Nebuchadnezzar II attacked him from the east, so he decided to send an army against Cyrene. Now, the bulk of the Egyptian army was made up of Greek mercenaries, and it was not wise to send Greeks to fight Greeks, as they might change sides. So he sent an army made up of natives. Said army considered that Pharaoh favored the Greeks over the Egyptians, since he assigned them command posts and, instead, he was sending them to face a Greek army, against which they had little chance of victory. So the native soldiers rebelled and Haibria had to sendAhmés, a native officer who enjoyed great popularity among the troops, to speak with the mutineers. However, Ahmés was too popular with the troops, who proposed that he become their new pharaoh. Ahmés accepted and led his men against Haibria, defeated the Greek army that he sent against him, executed the former king and took the throne as Ahmés II. He soon married a daughter of Psameticus II (Haibria's sister or half-sister), thus officially being considered a member of the XXVI dynasty.

After settling the conflict with Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar II might have been expected to deal with Egypt, but he was already tired and decided not to undertake a new campaign. Despite this, the new pharaoh continued to prepare the country for a possible clash with the Chaldean Empire. He increased the number of Greeks in his army, allowed the colony of Naucratis to grow into a great city, and made numerous alliances with the Greeks.

In 562 Nebuchadnezzar II died and was succeeded by his son Amel-Marduk. The Bible mentions him because he apparently released the overthrown King Joachim from prison.

In 561 Pisistratus appeared before the Athenians showing a wound. He affirmed that it had been caused by "enemies of the people" who wanted to assassinate him, and requested permission to hire a personal guard of 50 men, something prohibited by Solon's laws. The hesitant Athenians called to Solon, who apparently said to them:

Listen well, Athenians: I am wiser than many of you, and more courageous than many others. I am wiser than those who do not see this man's malice and his hidden ends; and more courageous than those who, even seeing it, pretend not to see it to avoid problems and live in peace.

But Pisistratus had the party on the mountain in his favor and Solon had the party on the plain against him, so they ignored him. They say that upon realizing it he added:

You are always the same: each of you, individually, works with the cunning of a fox, but collectively you are a flock of geese.

Pisistratus' request was accepted, but instead of 50 men he hired 400, took the Acropolis and became tyrant of Athens. His position was weak, so he was quick to earn the trust of the citizens of him. He had Homer's works edited in the way we know them today, he instituted festivals in honor of the god Dionysus, in which "songs of goats" were sung in praise of the god. In Greek they were called tragedies. At first they were boisterous, happy choruses, but later the poets began to write serious verses for the party. At one point, a poet named Thespis he had the wit to silence the chorus from time to time and let a solo actor tell and perform a story taken from the old myths. It was the first step in a complex evolution that the genre would experience in the following centuries.

Pisistratus built temples on the acropolis and began the process of beautifying Athens that would end up making it the great capital it became. He instituted the Panhellenic Games, which brought together in Athens not only the athletes, but also the most important politicians of Greece. As for foreign policy, he got Athens to have colonies in strategic places. He was particularly concerned with protecting trade routes to the Black Sea. He reconquered the position of Sigeo on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, which Pittacus had wrested from Athens long before.

In 560 Solon died, and the Chaldean king Amel-Marduk was also assassinated in a palace intrigue. The throne passed to his brother-in-law From him Neriglissar. The Lydian king Alyates also died, and was succeeded by his son Croesus. Unlike his father, Croesus admired Greek culture, he consulted the Greek oracles, especially the one in Delphi, to which he sent much more valuable gifts than any Greek city could send. For this reason Croesus acquired the fame of being extraordinarily rich.

In Sparta Quilon was elected ephor , who disapproved of the tolerance that Sparta was having with the cities of Arcadia and demanded a strong policy. The Spartans had no difficulty in defeating the Arcadians, who hastened to submit. The city of Tegea was allowed to retain its independence, and from then on it was the most loyal city to Sparta in all of the Peloponnese, which was now dominated by Sparta almost entirely (except for the Argolis).

Meanwhile, a new ruler appeared in the Anshan region. This region was north of what had been Elam, and was populated by Medes who were incorporated into the Empire by Cyaxares, although they retained local governors. The new prince was called Cyrus II, and he traced his rank back to an ancestor named Achaemenes, who had ruled a century and a half earlier, thus his dynasty is known as Achaemenid. Anshan was part of a larger region called Fars by the natives, but known to us by the Greek version of its name: Persia. In 559 Cyrus II declared Anshan independent of Media. Astyages sent an army that was easily defeated by Cyrus. At the place of victory he ordered the construction of the city of Pasargadas (fortress of Persia), which became his new capital.

In 556 the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus organized an expedition to help the natives of the Thracian Chersonese (present-day Gallipoli peninsula, on the European side of the Hellespont). As head of the expedition he chose Miltiades, the head of the party of the plain, his main political rival. (Perhaps it was a way to get rid of him.) The expedition was a success and Miltiades ended up being tyrant of the entire peninsula. Now Athens controlled both sides of the Hellespont.

That same year the Chaldean king Neriglissar died. His son was quickly dethroned and various parties disputed the throne. Apparently no one in the winning party wanted to take the risk of becoming king, so they assigned the throne to a character they judged easy to manipulate. The new king was Nabonidus, who showed no interest in politics. Instead, he devoted himself to studying ancient relics. He unearthed and restored ancient cuneiform tablets, neglected Babylonia, and instead became interested in older cities such as Ur and Larsa. To make matters worse, Nabonidus was not born in Babylon, but was a native of Harran (currently under Median rule), the son of a priestess of Sin, god of the Moon, for which reason he also neglected Marduk and, instead, was interested in Sin and the cities that worshiped him. It is evident that all this caused great discontent at court. In everything related to politics he delegated to his son Baltasar.A puppet king was the least convenient thing for Babylon when Cyrus II was expanding his domain. Nabonidus believed that Media and Persia would engage in a long civil war and thus leave his Empire alone. He even encouraged Cyrus II to attack Astiages, and took advantage of his troubles to seize Harran from him in 553. However, the conflict between Media and Persia was not long. Cyrus II used more diplomacy than force and managed in a short time to have almost the entire Medo Empire on his side. Finally, in 550 he marched on the Median capital, Ecbatana, took it and made it the capital of his new empire, known asPersian Empire.

Around this time, the Ionian city of Focea began the colonization of Corsica and Sardinia, which would soon come into conflict with Etruscan interests.

Thank You