Israelites

The Israelites (/ˈɪzrəlaɪts, -riə-/; Hebrew: בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Bənēy Yīsrāʾēl, transl. 'Children of Israel') were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.

The name of Israel first appears in the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt, dated to about 1200 BCE. Modern archaeology suggests that the Israelites branched out from the Canaanites through the development of Yahwism, a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion centred on the national god Yahweh. Because of this, they can be described as an ethnoreligious group. They spoke an archaic form of the Hebrew language, which was a regional variety of the Canaanite language, known today as Biblical Hebrew. In the Iron Age, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged. The Kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Samaria, fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE; while the Kingdom of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. Some of the Judean population was exiled to Babylon, but returned to Israel after Cyrus the Great conquered the region.

According to the Bible, the Israelites are the descendants of Jacob, a patriarch who was later renamed as Israel. Following a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his twelve sons fled to Egypt, where they eventually formed the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Israelites were later led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses and conquered Canaan under Joshua's leadership, who was Moses's successor. Most modern scholars agree that the Torah does not provide an authentic account of the Israelites' origins, and instead view it as constituting their national myth. However, it is supposed that there may be a "historical core" to the narrative. The Bible also portrays the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as the successors of an earlier United Kingdom of Israel, though the historicity of the latter is disputed.

Jews and Samaritans both trace their ancestry to the ancient Israelites. Jews trace their ancestry to tribes that inhabited the Kingdom of Judah, including Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi, while the Samaritans claim their lineage from the remaining members of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Levi who were not deported in the Assyrian captivity after the fall of Israel. Other groups have also claimed affiliation with the Israelites.

Etymology

The first reference to Israel in non-biblical sources is found in the Merneptah Stele in c. 1209 BCE. The inscription is very brief and says: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The inscription refers to a people, not an individual or nation state, who are located in central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria. Some Egyptologists suggest that Israel appeared in earlier topographical reliefs, dating to the Nineteenth Dynasty (i.e. reign of Ramesses II) or the Eigteenth Dynasty, but this reading remains controversial.

In the Hebrew Bible, Israel first appears in Genesis 32:29, where an angel gives the name to Jacob after the latter fought with him. The folk etymology given in the text derives Israel from yisra, "to prevail over" or "to struggle with", and El (god). However, modern scholarship interprets El as the subject, "El rules/struggles", from sarar (שָׂרַר) 'to rule' (cognate with sar (שַׂר) 'ruler', Akkadian šarru 'ruler, king'), which is likely cognate with the similar root sara (שׂרה) "fought, strove, contended".

Afterwards, Israel referred to the direct descendants of Jacob and gentiles who partially or fully assimilated in the Israelite community. Hebrew is a similar ethnonym but it is usually applied whenever Israelites are economically disadvantaged or migrants. It might also refer to their descent from Eber, the grandson of Noah.

During the period of the divided monarchy, "Israelites" referred to the inhabitants of the northern Kingdom of Israel, but eventually, included the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah in post-exilic usage.

In literature of the Second Temple period, "Israel" included the members of the united monarchy, the northern kingdom, and eschatological Israel. "Jew" (or "Judean") was another popular ethnonym but it might refer to a geographically restricted sub-group or to the inhabitants of the southern kingdom of Judah. In addition, works such as Ezra-Nehemiah pioneered the idea of an "impermeable" distinction between Israel and gentiles, on a genealogical basis. Other scholars argue that the distinction is based on religion.

In Judaism, "Israelite", broadly speaking, refers to a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites. In legal texts, such as the Mishnah and Gemara, ישראלי (Yisraeli), or Israelite, is used to describe Jews instead of יהודי (Yehudi), or Jew. In Samaritanism, Samaritans are not Jews יהודים (Yehudim). Instead, they are Israelites, which includes their Jewish brethren, or Israelite Samaritans.[full citation needed]

Biblical narrative

Israelites 
Mid-20th century mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel, from the Etz Yosef synagogue wall in Givat Mordechai, Jerusalem

The history of the Israelite people can be divided into these categories, according to the Hebrew Bible:

    Exilic Period (c. 597–538 BCE)
    Israelites 
    Map of the twelve tribes of Israel (before the move of Dan to the north), based on the Book of Joshua
    After the Babylonians invaded Judah, they deported most of its citizens to Babylon, where they lived as "exiles". Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and established the First Persian Empire in 539 BCE. One year later, according to traditional dating, Cyrus permitted the Judahites to return to their native homeland. This homeland was re-named as the Province of Yehud, which eventually became a satrapy of Eber-Nari.

The Jewish Encyclopedia[obsolete source] describes the biblical Israelites as being racially Hebrew, with "recorded instances of racial amalgamation". They are also described as being "fundamentally Aramean", with Babylonian admixture. Some tribes, such as Judah, have Canaanite admixture whilst other tribes, such as Gad, Naphtali, Asher and Dan, have "predominately foreign origins", which is implied by their descent from Bilhah and Zilpah and geographic habitation.

Christian theologian Matthew Poole argues that the Israel and Judah distinction existed even before the split. He cites verses like Joshua 11:21–23 and attributes it to Judah's "eminency" as a tribe.[self-published source?]

Israelites 
Model of the Tabernacle constructed under the auspices of Moses, in Timna Park, Israel

Historical Israelites

Efforts to confirm the biblical ethnogenesis of Israel through archaeology has largely been abandoned as unproductive. Many scholars see the traditional narratives as national myths with little historical value but some posit that a small group of exiled Egyptians contributed to the Exodus narrative, for instance. William G. Dever cautiously identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph, while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with the Tribe of Levi. Josephus identifies them with the Hyksos. Other scholars believe that the Exodus narrative was a "collective memory" of several events from the Bronze Age.

In addition, it is unlikely that the Israelites overtook southern Levant by force, according to archaeological evidence. Instead, they branched out of indigenous Canaanite peoples that long inhabited the region, which included Syria, ancient Israel, and the Transjordan region. Their culture was monolatristic, with a primary focus on Yahweh (or El) worship, but after the Babylonian exile, it became monotheistic, with partial influence from Zoroastrianism. The latter decisively separated the Israelites from other Canaanites but they retained the Hebrew language, which is the only surviving dialect of the Canaanite languages.

Origins

Israelites 
Ramesses III prisoner tiles depicting precursors of the Israelites in Canaan: Canaanites from city-states and a Shasu leader.

Several theories exist for the origins of historical Israelites. For example, scholars believe they descended from raiding groups, itinerant nomads such as Habiru and Shasu or impoverished Canaanites, who were forced to leave wealthy urban areas and live in the highlands. The prevailing academic opinion is that the Israelites were a mixture of peoples predominately indigenous to Canaan, with additional input from an Egyptian matrix of peoples, which most likely inspired the Exodus narrative. Ancient Israel's demographics were similar to the demographics of Ammon, Edom, Moab and Phoenicia.[page needed]

Besides their focus on Yahweh worship, Israelite cultural markers were defined by body, food and time. To elaborate, the Israelites differentiated themselves based on male circumcision, their avoidance of pork consumption and their perceptions of time (i.e. marking time based on the Exodus, the reigns of Israelite kings, Sabbath observance etc.). The first two markers were observed by neighboring west Semites besides the Philistines, who were of Mycenaean Greek origin. This might explain the frequent references to Israelite intermarriage in the Hebrew Bible, which usually occurred with other Semites.

Israelites 
The Mount Ebal structure, seen by many archeologists as an early Israelite cultic site

Genealogy was another factor that differentiated the Israelites. It was a matter of cultural self-identity rather than biological descent. For example, foreign clans could adopt the identity of other clans, which subsequently changed their status from "outsider" to "insider". This applied to Israelites from different tribes and gentiles. Although the Israelites used genealogy as an excuse to practice narcissism of small differences, they emphasized the sins of their ancestors, such as Jacob. Both these traits embody the "complexities of the Jewish soul", according to Ronald Hendel.

In terms of appearance, the Hebrew Bible records figures, such as David, Esau and the lovers in the Song of Songs, as being "ruddy", "white and ruddy" and "clear as the moon", which aligned with descriptions of Levantine phenotypes in ancient Egyptian and Greek sources. Rabbis, on the other hand, described the Biblical Jews as being "midway between black and white" and having the "color of the boxwood tree".

Israelite men, like other western Semites, have full, round beards according to Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions. In contrast, their neighbors, such as Babylonians and Egyptians, have long beards and chin tufts respectively but this was an upper-class custom. Joseph's act of shaving (Genesis 41:14) was thought to resemble the Egyptian custom. Merneptah's Karnak reliefs indicate that the early Israelites dressed like other Canaanites, in terms of attire and hairstyle, compared to other groups like the Shasu.

Early Israelite settlements

In the 12th century BCE, many Israelite settlements appeared in the central hill country of Canaan, which was formerly an open terrain. These settlements lacked evidence of pork consumption, compared to Philistine settlements, have four-room houses and lived by an egalitarian ethos, which was exemplified by the absence of elaborate tombs, governor's mansions, certain houses being bigger than others etc. They followed a mixed economy, which prioritized self-sufficiency, cultivation of crops, animal husbandry and small-scale craft production. New technologies such as terraced farming, silos for grain storage and cisterns for rainwater collection were simultaneously introduced.

These settlements were built by inhabitants of the "general Southland" (i.e. modern Sinai and the southern parts of Israel and Jordan), who abandoned their pastoral-nomadic ways. Canaanites who lived outside the central hill country were tenuously identified as Danites, Asherites, Zebulunites, Issacharites, Naphtalites and Gadites. These inhabitants do not have a significant history of migration besides the Danites, who allegedly originate from the Sea Peoples, particularly the Dan(an)u. Nonetheless, they intermingled with the former nomads, due to socioeconomic and military factors. Their interest in Yahwism and its concern for the underprivileged was another factor. Possible allusions to this historical reality in the Hebrew Bible include the aforementioned tribes, except for Issachar and Zebulun, descending from Bilhah and Zilpah, who were viewed as “secondary additions” to Israel.

Monarchic period

United Monarchy

Israelites 
Part of the gift-bearing Israelite delegation of King Jehu, Black Obelisk, 841–840 BCE.

The historicity of the United Monarchy is heavily debated 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, biblical minimalists (Israel Finkelstein, Ze'ev Herzog, Thomas L. Thompson and others) argue that Israel and Judah never split from a singular state. The debate has not been resolved but recent archaeological discoveries 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

Israelites 
"To Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah" – royal seal found at the Ophel excavations in Jerusalem

Compared to the United Monarchy, the historicity of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah is widely accepted by historians and archaeologists.: 169–195  Their destruction by the Assyrians and Babylonians respectively is also confirmed by archaeological evidence and extrabiblical sources.: 306 

Later history

Many scholars believe the Cyrus Cylinder confirms the biblical narrative of Cyrus initiating the Return to Zion but others disagree. That said, the returnees showed a "heightened sense" of their ethnic identity. The Judeans who stayed in Babylon similarly experienced a "national awakening". For example, many Judeans in Nippur suddenly gave their children theophoric names in the mid 5th century BCE.

This marked the time where Second Temple Judaism and Samaritanism split from Yahwism and by extension the split between Jews and Samaritans as ethnoreligious groups. Samaritanism became the religion of Samaritans, who were loyal to the temple at Mount Gerizim. Their ethnonym originated from Guardians/Keepers/Watchers [of the Law/Torah], or the region of Samaria. Second Temple Judaism became the religion of the Jews, who were loyal to the temple at Jerusalem. Their ethnonym originated from the Kingdom of Judah and the region of Judea. Some scholars prefer the older ethnonym of "Judean", since they see it as a more precise and ethical translation of Ioudaios, but others differentiate between the two. I.e. Judean refers to inhabitants of Judea whilst Jew refers to Israelites who adhere to Judaism and their descendants. Converts are included.

Despite significant overlap in material evidence between Jews and proto-Samaritans, Samaritans were commonly believed to be descendants of foreign settlers who arrived after the Assyrians conquered Israel. Most scholars affirm the Samaritan tradition that they were indigenous northern Israelites but acknowledge that some of them intermarried with the settlers. Jews, on the other hand, show evidence of being influenced by Idumeans (or Edomites), in terms of religion. The Idumeans significantly assimilated in Judean society during the Hasmonean era and later, founded the Herodian dynasty, who shaped Judea, Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The Jews also re-populated Galilee, which was devastated by the Assyrians, but there is evidence of other ethnicities, including northern Israelites, Assyrians and a population associated with the Phoenicians, living there. Nonetheless, the issue on whether Jewishness was strictly a matter of religion or nationality/ethnicity, and whether converts could be truly Jewish, was notably divisive, which was believed to cause the split between Christianity and Judaism.

Genetics

Israelites 
A Samaritan elder participates in Passover prayer services held on Mount Gerizim

A 2004 study (by Shen et al.) comparing Samaritans to several Jewish populations (including Ashkenazi Jews, Iraqi Jews, Libyan Jews, Moroccan Jews, and Yemenite Jews) found that "the principal components analysis suggested a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in what is today identified as the paternally inherited Israelite high priesthood (Cohanim), with a common ancestor projected to the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel."

A 2020 study (by Agranat-Tamr et al) stated that there was genetic continuity between Bronze Age and Iron Age southern Levantines, which included the Israelites and Judahites. These southern Levantines could be "modeled as a mixture of local earlier Neolithic populations and populations from the northeastern part of the Near East (e.g. Hurrians, Caucasians etc.)". Reasons for the continuity include resilience from the Bronze Age collapse, which was mostly true for inland cities such as Tel Megiddo and Tel Abel Beth Maacah.

See also

Notes

References

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Israelites EtymologyIsraelites Biblical narrativeIsraelites Historical Israelites GeneticsIsraelites SourcesIsraelites Further readingIsraelites

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