007. IV. The Early Palestinian Background

IV The Early Palestinian Background

I.Data Concerning Early Syria and Palestine. Until very recently the early history of the third great centre of Semitic culture (Palestine and Syria) has been known simply from occasional references in the monuments of Babylonia and Egypt. These still remain the chief sources of information. This fact is in itself indicative of the dependent position held by this intermediate land. Recent excavations in Palestine, at ancient Lachish, Gezer, Taanach, Megiddo and Jericho, have yielded only two or three inscriptions, but they and the archaeological remains have confirmed and supplemented the testimony of the monuments, and made it possible to trace, in outline, the early history of the land which is the immediate background of the Bible.

II.Early Babylonian Influence. Lugalzaggisi, one of the earliest conquering kings of ancient Babylonia, states that about 3900 B.C.. his army reached the Mediterranean. It is probable that the point gained was simply northern Syria, and that the expedition was little more than a raid; but it means that even at this early date the leaven of Babylonian culture had entered the west-land. About two centuries later Sargon I followed with the conquest of the land of Martu, which is identified in later tablets with the land of the Amorites. In the Assyrian inscriptions Martu is the designation of Syria and Palestine. These early expeditions are significant, for their primary aim was apparently to open the highways for commerce, which was a far more important agent for the spreading of Babylonian civilization and ideas than the march of conquering armies. It is probable that from the days of Sargon I these influences were felt in the more favored centres on the western Mediterranean coast.

III.Pre-Semitic Inhabitants of Palestine. The excavations in Palestine indicate that before the Semites entered it, the land was inhabited by a race of short stature, living in caves. The Bible also refers to an ancient people, east of the Jordan, whose name, Horites, apparently means cave-dwellers. They may well be survivors of the earlier prehistoric people, who were otherwise expelled or absorbed by the larger and more energetic Semitic immigrants.

IV.The Amorite Migration. Doubtless, Palestine attracted tribes from the Arabian desert at a very early date, but the first traces of an extensive Semitic invasion came from about 2200 B.C. The Babylonian, Egyptian, and Northern Israelite records agree in calling this people the Amorites. The recurrence of the same proper names in contemporary writings coming from Syria and Babylonia, together with other indications, support, although they do not establish, the conclusion that the wave of Semitic invasion which swept from Arabia westward into Palestine about 2200 B.C., also carried the ancestors of Hammurabi, the founders of the first great dynasty of Babylon, eastward across the Euphrates. Certainly, from the days of Hammurabi, the frequent references in the Babylonian tablets to the Amorite country and the Amorites are indicative of the close relation which henceforth existed between the two lands and peoples. This close and continued relation alone explains the fact that a few centuries later the Babylonian language and cuneiform characters were employed by the governors of Syria and Palestine in writing even to their Egyptian sovereign. It was during the centuries following 2200 B.C. that Babylonian institutions, ideas, and customs were indelibly stamped upon the Semitic peoples in Palestine.

I.Story ofSinuhit. From Egypt there comes a popular romance, the Story of Sinuhit, which throws interesting light upon conditions in Palestine about 2000 B.C. The hero, a princely Egyptian refugee, fled eastward past the “Wall of the Princes,” which guarded the northeastern frontier of Egypt. On the borders of the desert he was found by a Bedouin herdsman who introduced him to the hospitality of his tribe. These “sand wanderers,” as they are called in the story, send him on from tribe to tribe until he reaches the land of Kedem east of the Dead Sea. Here he remains for a year and a half, until he is invited by the king of Upper Tenu to share with the other Egyptian refugees already there the hospitality of his court. The king of Upper Tenu appears to have been one of the Amorite rulers of central Palestine. Although the story is a romance, it gives the earliest detailed picture of the ancient Amorite civilization. Every possible honor was heaped upon the hero by the king of the land:

“He placed me at the head of his children, and married me to his eldest daughter. He let me choose from amongst his lands, from amongst choicest possessions on the frontier of another country. This was the beautiful land of ’Eva; figs and vines grew there, there were many sorts of wine and it was rich in honey, its olive trees were plentiful and all kinds of fruit grew on its trees. There was corn there and barley and herds without number. And there was yet more that happened to me from love to me, for he made me prince of a tribe of his country.

Then I had as much bread as I wanted, and wine for every day, boiled meat and roast goose, irrespective of the game of the country that I caught and carried off as spoil, and irrespective of what my own hands brought me. . . . Thus I spent many years and my children became heroes, each the protector of his adopted tribe. The messenger who came from the court or went thither stayed with me; I gave hospitality to every one, and I gave water to the thirsty. . . . I subdued each people against whom I marched, I drove them from their pastures and from their wells; I captured their cattle and carried off their children.”

II.Origin of the Canaanites. Contemporary Egyptian inscriptions indicate that by the fourteenth century B.C. Semitic people called the Kinahni, or Canaanites, were firmly established on the coast plains of the eastern Mediterranean and in the valleys of central Palestine. This fact accords with the statement of the Northern Israelite historian in Numbers 13:29 regarding conditions before the conquest, The Amorites were dwelling in the hill-country and the Canaanites by the sea and along beside the Jordan.Deuteronomy 3:9 also calls attention to a difference between the dialects of these two races. Although closely related and later blended, the two peoples appear to have been originally distinct. The references in the inscriptions favor on the whole the conclusion that the Canaanites represented a later wave of Semitic immigration similar to the earlier Amorite invasion. It seems exceedingly probable that the great western movement in the latter part of the eighteenth century B.C., which carried the Kassites into Babylonia and the Hyksos into Egypt, bore the ancestors of the Canaanites to Palestine. Possibly they were closely connected with the Hyksos conquerors who, when defeated, retired to southern Palestine.

III.Egyptian Conquest of Palestine. The pursuit of the retreating Hyksos led the kings of the powerful eighteenth Egyptian dynasty to the conquest of Palestine. After a siege of five years they captured Sharuhen, the Hyksos stronghold in southern Canaan. Thutmose I carried the standards of Egypt to the Euphrates, laying tribute upon the peoples of Palestine and Syria; but it was Thutmose III who made this territory an integral part of the empire. In an inscription on the walls of one of the temples at Thebes he has given a detailed account of his campaigns, which furnishes a vivid picture of conditions in Palestine at that time. The decisive battle with the Canaanites was fought about 1480 B.C. at Megiddo on the plain of Esdraelon. The Egyptian record reveals the spirit of the conquerors and the cowardice of the natives:

“On the twenty-first day of the month, even the same as the royal coronation, early in the morning command was given to the entire army to advance. His Majesty went forth in his chariot of electrum, adorned with his weapons of war. His Majesty was in the midst of them, the god Amon being the protection to his body and strength to his limbs. When his Majesty prevailed over them, they fled headlong to Megiddo, as if terrified by spirits; they left their horses and chariots of silver and gold and were drawn up by hauling them by their clothes into this city, for the men shut the gates of this city upon them. The fear of his Majesty entered their hearts, their arms failed, their mighty men lay like fishes on the ground. The great army of his Majesty drew round to count their spoil. The whole army rejoiced, giving praise to Amon for the victory that he had given to his son, and they glorified his Majesty, extolling his victories.”

IV.Egyptian Rule in Palestine. The city of Megiddo itself was soon captured. In the same campaign the king of Egypt completed the conquest of Palestine. The tribute brought to him by the conquered peoples reveals their prosperity and culture. Flocks and herds, slaves, horses, chariots, armor, weapons, gold and silver vessels, embroidered garments, and inlaid furniture of wood and ivory are mentioned in the lists. On the plain of Esdraelon alone the king reaped a harvest of one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of grain. For the next three centuries, with only occasional lapses, the rule of Egypt was maintained in Palestine. Armies were frequently sent to put down local rebellions and little mercy was shown. Egyptian garrisons were stationed at strategic points. These were supported by the local princes who continued in most cases to rule over their petty states as vassals of Egypt. While they remained loyal, supplied troops to aid in putting down rebellions, paid the regular tribute, which was far from small, little else was required. The rivalry between them was intense, and when Egypt showed any signs of weakness, they were each ready to improve the first opportunity to revolt. In the cities on the coast plains, which were most open to Egyptian influence, the civilization of the Nile valley took root, but throughout the rest of Palestine it made little impression. Instead, Babylonian and local Semitic customs, laws, and ideas held undisputed sway.

V.Testimony of the el-Amarna Letters. During the reign of the reformer king of Egypt, Amenhotep IV (1375-1358 B.C.), remarkably clear light is shed upon conditions in Palestine by the famous el-Amarna letters, sent to the king by his vassal princes and governors. Although written in the Babylonian language and script, they abound in words and expressions familiar to the Bible student because they reflect the dialect of Canaan which was later used by the Hebrews. Like the inscriptions of Thutmose III, they show that many of the towns which figure in later Hebrew history were already in existence. The Canaanite-Phoenician cities of Gebal, Beruta (Beirut), Tyre, Sidon, Joppa, and the inland towns of Hazor, Gezer, Ajalon, Jerusalem, Gath, and Lachish are among the most important (cf. map., opp. p. 73). Altogether nearly one hundred and fifty towns are mentioned, of which two-thirds can be identified.

X.Letters from Jerusalem. The letters written by Abdi-heba, the vassal king of Jerusalem, state that he had been raised to that position by Amenhotep, and that his authority extended over the adjacent territory, which was called the country of Jerusalem. Like many of the Palestinian governors of the period, he had been accused of treachery by his colleagues ruling in other cities, and while he strongly protests his own innocence he accuses them in turn. The chief burden of his letters is the request that the king of Egypt send an army at once to deliver his people and land from the insistent attacks of an invading people called the Habiri.

XI.The Habiri. The letters of the other Palestinian governors contain similar references to these invaders. Notwithstanding the similarity in name, they can hardly be identified directly with the Hebrews. Rather they appear to be the vanguard of that new western migration from northern Arabia and Mesopotamia which included the Aramean or Arabian ancestors of the Hebrews, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites.

XII.Decline of Egyptian Power. After the death of Amenhotep IV, Egypt lost control of Palestine and Syria for fully fifty years. The ambitious kings of the nineteenth dynasty, however, recovered Palestine in 1313 B.C. and held it for a century. An inscription of Mernephtah, one of its last kings, contains the first contemporary reference to Israel. From the context it is clear that Israel represents a people, apparently without a definite country, but then living within or near the bounds of Palestine. Mernephtah mentions them simply to record his victory over them. Ramses III (1198-1167 B.C.), of the twentieth dynasty, also re-established the rule of Egypt over Canaan and the coast-land; but by the middle of the twelfth century B.C. all foreign barriers to the advance of the Hebrews were removed. With this date Israel’s history as a nation begins.

XIII.Israel’s Heritage. This brief outline suffices to suggest how broad and significant is the historical background of early Hebrew history. Many great kingdoms and empires had flourished for centuries and fallen into decay before the Israelites appeared in Canaan. Through all the centuries each important nation and civilization had left its deep imprint upon the land that was destined in divine Providence to be the home of the people through whom a unique message was to come to humanity. The roots of Israel’s life run back to the beginnings of human society and civilization. All ancient history is a unit, of which the Bible records the later and, in many ways, the more important chapters.