What people have the strongest roots on our planet? Perhaps this question is relevant for any historian. And almost every one of them will answer with confidence - the Jewish people. Despite the fact that humanity has inhabited the Earth for hundreds of thousands of years, we know our history at best for the last twenty centuries of our era and about the same number BC. e.
But the history of the Jewish people originates much earlier. All events in it are closely intertwined with religion and consist in constant persecution.
First mention
Despite their considerable age, the first mention of the Jews dates back to the time of the construction of the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs. As for the recordings of themselves, the history of the Jewish people from ancient times begins with its first representative - Abraham. The son of Shem (who, in turn, is the son of Noah), he was born in the vastness of Mesopotamia.
As an adult, Abraham moves to Canaan, where he gets acquainted with the local population, subject to spiritual decay. It is here that God takes this husband under his protection and concludes an agreement with him, thereby putting his mark on him and his descendants. It is from this moment that the events described in the Gospel stories, which are so rich in the history of the Jewish people, begin. Briefly, it consists of the following periods:
- biblical
- ancient;
- antique;
- medieval;
- new era (including the Holocaust and the return of the Jews of Israel).
Travel to Egypt
In the lands of Canaan, Abraham starts a family, his son Isaac appears, and from him Jacob. The latter, in turn, is born Joseph - a new bright figure in the gospel stories. Devoted by his brothers, he ends up in Egypt as a slave. But nevertheless he manages to free himself from slavery and, moreover, to become an approximate of the pharaoh himself. This phenomenon (the finding of a miserable slave in the retinue of the supreme ruler) is promoted by the near-sightedness of the very pharaoh’s family (Hyksos), who came to the throne due to the vile and cruel actions that led to the overthrow of the previous dynasty. This genus is also known as shepherd pharaohs. Once in power, Joseph transports his father to Egypt with his family. Thus begins the strengthening of Jews in a particular area, which contributes to their rapid reproduction.
The beginning of persecution
The history of the Jewish people from the Bible shows them as peaceful shepherds engaged exclusively in their own business and not getting into politics, despite the fact that the Hyksos dynasty sees them as a worthy ally, giving them the best land and other conditions necessary for the economy. Before entering Egypt, the Jacob clan consisted of twelve tribes (twelve tribes), which, under the auspices of the shepherd pharaohs, had grown to a whole ethnic group with their own culture.
Further, the history of the Jewish people tells of deplorable times for him. An army emerges from Thebes to the capital of Egypt with the goal of overthrowing the self-proclaimed pharaoh and establishing the power of a true dynasty. This she soon succeeds. They nevertheless refrain from reprisal against the Hyksos favorites, but at the same time turn them into slaves. Jews (210 years of slavery in Egypt) endured the long years of slavery and humiliation before the arrival of Moses.
Moses and the withdrawal of the Jews from Egypt
The history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament shows Moses as coming from an ordinary family. At that time, the Egyptian authorities were seriously alarmed by the growth of the Jewish population, and a decree was issued - to kill every boy born in the family of slaves. Miraculously surviving, Moses gets to the daughter of the pharaoh, who adopts him. So the young man finds himself in the ruling family, where he reveals all the secrets of government. Nevertheless, he remembers his roots that he begins to torment him. It becomes unbearable for him how the Egyptians treat his brothers. On one of the walking days, Moses kills the warden who brutally beat the slave. But it turns out to be a devotee by the same slave, which leads to his flight and forty years of hermitage in the mountains. It was there that God turned to him with a decree to withdraw his people from the lands of Egypt, while endowing Moses with unprecedented abilities.
Further events include various miracles, which Moses demonstrates to Pharaoh, demanding the liberation of his people. They do not end even after the Jews left Egypt. The history of the Jewish people for children (gospel stories) shows them as:
- ten executions of Egypt ;
- the discharge of the river before Moses;
- the fall of manna from heaven;
- split rocks and the formation of a waterfall in it and much more.
After the Jews came out of the control of the pharaoh, the lands of Canaan, which were allotted to them by God himself, became their goal. This is where Moses and his followers go.
Israeli education
Forty years later, Moses dies. Right in front of the walls of Canaan, where he gives his power to Joshua. For seven years he conquers one Canaanite principality after another. Israel is formed on the occupied land (translated from Hebrew as “the God of the Gods”). Further, the history of the Jewish people tells about the formation of the city - both the capital of Jewish lands, and the center of the world. Such famous personalities as Saul, David, Solomon and many others appear on his throne. A huge temple is erected in it, which is destroyed by the Babylonians and which is restored again after the liberation of the Jews by the wise Persian king Crete.
Israel is divided into two states: Judea and Israel, which are subsequently captured and destroyed by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
As a result, several centuries after Joshua conquered the Canaanite lands, the Jewish people scattered throughout the land, having lost their home.
Subsequent times
After the collapse of the Jewish and Jerusalem states, the history of the Jewish people has several branches. And almost every one of them comes to our times. Perhaps there is not a single side wherever the Jews went after the loss of the promised land, like there is not a single country in our time where the Jewish diaspora would not exist .
And in every state they met “God's people” in different ways. If in America they automatically acquired rights equal to those of the indigenous population, then closer to the Russian border they would face mass persecution and humiliation. The history of the Jewish people in Russia tells of pogroms, starting with the Cossack raids and ending with the Holocaust during the Second World War.
And only in 1948, by the decision of the United Nations, were their Jews returned to their "historical homeland" - Israel.