Empires and Theology in the Near East

“The Lord our God made a covenant, not only with our
fathers, but with all of us living today…. The Lord said, ‘I
am the Lord your God… Worship no God but me.”
- The Bible

 The Near East between the Nile valley and the Sumerians soon
became a region of cultural overlap and interchange.
 One people and then another would take command of a portion
of the region for a century or more, only to fall under the sway
of the next onslaught of newcomers.
 Kingdoms arose whose very names are sometimes forgotten but
whose contributions to the ascent of civilization in this region
were impressive.

 The Assyrians were a Semitic tribal group who emerged from
nomadism in what is now northern Iraq in the twelfth century
B.C.
 They entered history about 900 B.C. as challengers to other
Semites in the Tigris valley.
 Their chief town, Nineveh, lay in the upper valley of the Tigris and their
chief god was the very fierce Assur, from whom the people derived their
name.
 By 800 B.C., through their own ferocity and cunning in war, the
Assyrian kings had conquered much of the Tigris-Euphrates
region and were fighting the Babylonians for the southern
portion.

 The Assyrians displayed great talent in military affairs.
 Their army was large and seemingly irresistible, using new tactics
to negate the traditional advantage of charioteers over foot
soldiers.
 By this epoch, the horse and the chariot were widely used in
warfare.
 It is believed that the chariot was introduced to Near Eastern warfare by
the Hyksos invaders of Egypt in the 1500s.
 For centuries, leather-clad warriors armed with short swords had
fought from chariots drawn by two or three horses.

The
Chariot
This bas-relief
shows King
Assurbanipal
charging the
enemy in his war
chariot,
accompanied by
picked spearmen
who thrust away
the hostile
infantry as the
monarch loads his
bow.

 The chariots would split the loose ranks of the enemy foot
soldiers and the momentum of the horses combined with the
raised platform gave the swordsmen an almost irresistible
advantage over opposing infantry.
 The early Assyrian kings took away this advantage:
 The tight-knit infantry formations were fielded with long spears and
swords.
 The flanks were protected by bands of horsemen who engaged the enemy
charioteers while they were still far off.
 The infantry were so heavily armored and so disciplined that they would
stand up to a chariot charge without breaking.
 The Assyrians were also experts in siege warfare and no enemy
fort could withstand their artillery of stone-throwing catapults
and rams.

 Anyone who resisted the Assyrians and lost suffered a terrible
fate:
 wholesale slavery, execution, pillage, and rape.
 Once conquered, the enemy was closely supervised and any
effort to spring free the Assyrian yoke was immediately
suppressed.
 The chronicles left by the Assyrians delight in telling of the huge
piles of dead left by the triumphant armies of kings such as
Tiglath-Pileser III who reigned in the seventh century B.C.

Tiglath-
Pileser III
Under the reign of
Tiglath-Pileser III,
Assyria experienced
its last and greatest
phase of expansion.
He subjected Syria
and Palestine to his
rule and later
merged the
kingdoms of Assyria
and Babylonia.

 “Like the Thunder, I crushed corpses of their warriors in the
battle. I made their blood flow over into all the ravines and over
the high places. I cut off their heads and piled them at the walls
of their cities like heaps of grain. I carried off their booty, their
goods, and their property beyond all reckoning. Six thousand, the
remainder of their troops who had fled before my weapons and
thrown themselves at my feet, I took away as prisoners and added
to the peoples of my country [that is, slaves].

 The Assyrians were perhaps the most hated conquerors in
ancient history.
 Only their expertly calculated plans for “divide and conquer” and
mass deportations of subject peoples enabled them to remain in
power as long as they did.
 At one point their empire reached from the upper Tigris to
central Egypt.
 It was governed from Nineveh by a network of military commanders who had no
mercy for rebels and held large numbers of hostages for the good behavior of he
rest of their people.
 But less than a century later, Nineveh was in total ruins and the
Assyrians were swept from the pages of history as though they
had never existed.

 Their many enemies and rebellious subjects, led by the Chaldees
of New Babylon, finally united against their oppressor and took
full revenge for Assyrian atrocities.
 When they captured Nineveh in 612 B.C., the victors even salted
the fertile irrigated lands that ringed the city to prevent the site
from ever being inhabited again.
 It was indeed forgotten until the middle of the nineteenth century when
Nineveh’s ruins were unearthed by some of the earliest archaeological
expeditions to the Middle East.

 Another small but significant Semitic people were the unwarlike
Phoenicians, who originally inhabited a strip along the coast of
what is now Lebanon.
 They became the greatest maritime traders and colonizers of the
ancient Near East.
 Their trade in luxury wares such as copper and dyes took them through the
Mediterranean and into the Atlantic as far as the coast of Britain.
 The Phoenicians also apparently spread the art of iron making to
the Greeks and westward into Africa.
 They established a whole series of colonies in the western portion of the
Mediterranean Sea.

 The rich city-state of Carthage became the great rival to Rome
until its final defeat around 200 B.C.
 The Phoenicians themselves were absorbed into the Assyrian and
succeeding empires but remained the paramount Mediterranean traders
and seafarers until the rise of Greece in the 600s B.C.
 The Phoenicians’ most notable contribution came in the linguistic
field.
 They were the first to use a phonetic alphabet , a system of twenty-two
written marks (letters), each of which corresponded to a
specific consonantal sound of the oral language.
 The alphabet, which emerged about 1000 B.C., was a definite advance in
written communications over the Sumerian’s cuneiform and the Egyptian’s
hieroglyphs.

Lion
Attacking
a Youth
This marvelous
carved ivory
plaque dates
from the eighth
or ninth century
B.C. Phoenicia.

 Until the twentieth century, present-day Iraq was called Persia,
which was ruled by the most powerful peoples in western Asia
from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.
 The Persians were an Indo-European speaking people who had
migrated slowly south from the central Asian steppes into Iran.
 As of 1000 B.C., they were still nomadic and knew nothing of agricultural
or civilized crafts and techniques.
 They did, however, possess large numbers of horses and their
skill of cavalry tactics enabled them to gradually overcome their
rivals and begin a sedentary life.
 Through war and trading contacts with their Mesopotamia neighbors to the
west, they learned the basics of agriculture and civilized life.

 In the mid-sixth century B.C., the Persians united under a brilliant
warrior king, Cyrus the Great, and quickly overcame their
Iranian cousins and neighbors, the Medes.
 In a remarkable series of campaigns between 559 and 530 B.C., Cyrus
extended his domains from the borders of India to the Mediterranean
coast.
 By 525, his son and immediate successor, Cambyses, had
broadened the empire to include part of Arabia and the Nile
valley.
 The main Persian cities were at Susa, Persepolis, and Ecbatana in
Iran, not in Mesopotamia.
 The gradual decline of Mesopotamia’s importance can be dated to this
time.

Cyrus
the Great
Cyrus II of Persia
created the
largest empire
the world had
yet seen. The
Bible cites him
as a tolerant and
ideal monarch
who liberated
the Jewish
captives of
Babylonia.

Hall of a
Hundred
Columns
This is the great
assembly and
banquet hall
erected by Darius
I in Persepolis
and burned to the
ground by the
triumphant
conqueror,
Alexander the
Great.

 Cyrus had a concept of imperial rule that was quite different
from that of the Assyrians.
 He realized many of his new subjects were more advanced in many ways
than his own Persians and that he could learn from them.
 Accordingly, his government was sort of an umbrella, sheltering
many different peoples and beliefs under the supervision of the
“King of Kings” at Persepolis.
 The Persian subjects were generally allowed to retain their own
customs, laws, and religious beliefs.
 Their appointed Persian supervisors (satraps) only interfered when the
central government’s policies were threatened or disobeyed.

 In the provinces, satrapies were kept in power after conquest so
long as they swore obedience to the monarch, paid their
(relatively light) taxes, provided soldiers, and gave aid and
comfort to the Persians when called upon.
 Religion was totally free and all sorts of beliefs flourished from the
Hebrews to the fire worshippers of the Indian borderlands.
 Most remarkably, the initial move toward an ethical religion seems to have
come with the teaching of Zarathustra.
 Darius I (522-486) was the third great Persian ruler, following
Cyrus and Cambyses.
 During his reign, the empire reached its maximal extent.

Darius
the Great
Darius I is noted for
his administrative
genius and for his
great building
projects. He
attempted several
times to conquer
Greece: his fleet was
destroyed by a storm
in 492 and the
Athenians defeated
his army at Marathon
in 490.

 Darius introduced a law code that was a more advanced and
refined distillation of earlier codes from Mesopotamia and
Egypt.
 Additionally, a stable coinage in gold and silver and a calendar
that was commonly used throughout the Near East was
introduced.
 For the next century, the peoples of the empire flourished under
enlightened Persian leadership.
 The Persian kings eventually made the mistake of biting off more
than they could chew.
 Darius and his successor, Xerxes, invaded the European mainland in an
attempt to extend their power and it would cost them dearly.

Xerxes
the Great
In 465, Xerxes and
his eldest son fell
under the blows of
the murderous
court led by
Artabanus, the
commander of the
royal bodyguard
and the most
powerful official in
the Persian court.

 What we know of the ancient Twelve Tribes of the Hebrews is
derived in large part from the poetic history of he Old
Testament.
 The Hebraic tradition of Abraham leading his people out of the
wilderness and into the land of Canaan refers to what is accepted
as historical fact:
 Nomadic, primitive Semitic tribes departed from someplace in northern
Mesopotamia in the twelfth century B.C. and wandered for a lengthy time
through what is now Saudi Arabia.
 By the 1500s B.C., they were established in Canaan, the southern
part of Palestine.
 Here they came under Egyptian rule and a good portion of the Twelve
Tribes became coerced slaves in the Nile delta.

 The Hebrew’s Exodus from Egypt under the legendary leader
Moses occurred during the thirteenth century B.C.
 The exact reasons for the Exodus are not clear but it is entirely possible
that the Old Testament story of brutal treatment by the pharaoh is true.
 In any case, under Moses, the Hebrews resolved to return to the
“land of milk and honey,” the Promised Land of Canaan,
whose memory had been kept alive by their leaders in Egypt.
 Escaping pharaoh's wrathful pursuit, the Hebrews wandered
across the Sinai peninsula until they encountered the Canaanites
and the Philistines, who were already settled in coastal Palestine.
 By about 1000 B.C., the Hebrews overcame the Canaanites and established
their own small kingdom with Saul as the first king.

Moses
Moses our Teacher is
revered as the most
important prophet in
Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, and numerous
other faiths. Upon his
120th birthday, Moses
pronounced a blessing
over his people and
died: God Himself
buried him
somewhere in a valley
in the land of Moab
(Deuteronomy 34:6).

 Saul carried the war to the Philistines, and his work was carried
on by his lieutenant and successor, David.
 David was a great warrior hero and he was successful in conquering
Jerusalem, which then became the Hebrew’s capital.
 David’s son, Solomon, was the most renowned king of the
Hebrews.
 During his reign, the Hebrews briefly became a factor in Near
Eastern affairs, serving as trading intermediaries between Egypt
and the Mesopotamians.
 The famous Temple of Jerusalem, constructed of stone and cedarwood
and decorated inside and out with gold, became a wonder of the ancient
world.

David
beheads
Goliath
David is central to
Jewish, Christian,
and Islamic
doctrine and
culture. He is
depicted as a
righteous king, an
acclaimed warrior,
musician, and poet
traditionally
credited for
composing many of
the psalms
contained in the
Book of Psalms.

 When King Solomon died, a revolt against his successor split the
Hebrew kingdom in two:
 Judea and Samaria or as they are sometimes called, Judah and Israel.
 Although ethnically very close, the two kingdoms were quite
hostile to one another.
 As time passed, Samaritans and Judeans came to look on one
another as different peoples.
 Their differences arose as the Judeans (Jews) came under the influence of
the Egyptian empire while the Samaritans came under the influence of
Mesopotamia.
 The kingdom of Samaria/Israel was ended by a rebellion against
the Assyrian overlords.

 This defeat resulted in the scattering of the populace far and
wide, the first Diaspora or scattering .
 Judea, however, survived under the Assyrians until their defeat in
612 B.C., when it fell under Babylonian over-lordship.
 The ill-fated attempt to throw off this yoke led to the crushing
defeat by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 and the ensuing
Babylonian Captivity (586-539 B.C.), when thousands of Jews
were taken off to Babylon as hostages for the good behavior of
the rest.
 The great temple of Solomon was demolished.

 The Judeans continued under Persian rule from 539 B.C. until
Alexander the Great toppled the King of Kings in the 330s.
 They lived under the Hellenistic successors of Alexander until
the gradual extension of Roman power reached Palestine.

 From the time of the kingdom of Saul, a great god known as
Yahweh (Jehovah) was established as the Hebrew’s chief deity but
was by no means the only one.
 In Samaria, Yahweh was regulated to an inferior position.
 In Judea, Yahweh’s cult gradually triumphed over all rivals and
this god became the only deity of the Jews of Jerusalem.
 Monotheism was so rare that we only know of one pre-Jewish experiment
with it – Akhanton of Egypt.
 The Judeans Jews, under the influence of a whole series of great
prophets including Amos, Hosea, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, came by
the 600s B.C. to believe themselves bound to Yahweh by a sacred
contract, the Covenant, given to Moses during the Exodus.

 The contract was understood to mean that if the Jews remained
constant in their worship of Yahweh and kept the faith he
instilled in them, they would eventually triumph over all their
enemies and be a respected and lordly people on Earth.
 The faith that Yahweh desired was supported by a set of rigid
rules given to Moses by Yahweh on Mount Sinai, from which
evolved a whole law code that governed every aspect of Hebrew
daily life.
 Coming to be known to later Jews and Christians as the Ten
Commandments, these moral regulations have been adapted to much
different social circumstances.

 The Ten Commandments were the property of the Jews, given to
them as a mark of favor by their lord and protector Yahweh.
 The Jewish faith was one of the earliest attempts to formalize an
ethical system and to link it with the worship of supernatural
deities.
 Ethics is the study of good and evil and determining what is right and
wrong in human life and conduct.
 To Yahweh’s followers, those who did evil on Earth would be
made to suffer, if not in this world, then in the one to come.
 Additionally, the laws of Yahweh assured that the good would be rewarded
– again, if not in this life, then in the eternal one to come.

Mount
Sinai
Some modern
biblical scholars
believe that the
Israelites would have
crossed the Sinai
Peninsula in a direct
route, rather than
detouring to the
southern tip. With
this belief, scholars
look for the biblical
Mount Sinai
elsewhere.

 When the kingdom was founded under Saul, most Hebrews were
still rural herders and peasants, living as Abraham had lived.
 Over the next half millennium, however, many Hebrews made
the transition from rural to town life.
 As many people shifted from subsistence farming to wage earning, social
tensions dividing rich and poor began to appear.
 Most than most, the Jews divided all humanity into “we” and
“they.”
 They recognized themselves as the Chosen and all non-Jews as Gentiles.
 Jews looked upon non-Jews as distinctly lesser breeds and
intermarriage with nonbelievers was considered treasonous.
 Ancient Judaism was almost never open to converts.

Saul
Saul was the first
king of the united
Kingdom of Israel.
Appointed by the
prophet Samuel, Saul
fell on his sword to
avoid capture in the
battle against the
Philistines at Mount
Gilboa. There three
of his sons would
suffer death and
David would prepare
for his succession.

 The nuclear family was the basic unit of Hebrew society, with the
father enjoying very extensive rights.
 The married state was strongly preferred while bachelors were
looked upon as failures.
 Young men were to marry no later than the age of twenty-four while girls
were thought to be ready at thirteen.
 As in every ancient society, marriage was arranged by the parents, usually
after the negotiation of a dowry (bride-price).
 Children were the whole point of marriage – the continuation of
the family was the primary duty of both husband and wife.

 In the centuries after the fall of the monarchies of Samaria and
Judea, the Jew’s concept of Yahweh changed in several significant
ways.
 The Babylonian Captivity was a particular low-point and many Jews
never returned to the faith after having been seduced into the
worship of false gods.
 Those who returned were “tried and true” believers who rebuilt
the Temple and restructured their theology based on the new
interpretations of the Covenant, the Talmud.

 Not only was Yahweh the only god, he was the universal god of
all.
 Yahweh was a just god, who would reward or punish according to
his ethical principles, but he was also a merciful god who would
not turn a deaf ear to the earnest penitent.
 Yahweh was an omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing)
master, who could do whatever he desired, always and
everywhere.
 There were no other opposing forces that could frustrate his will or
wisdom.
 Yahweh granted Man free will, who allowed the principle of evil
to arise in the form of the fallen angel Lucifer.

 Man could ignore conscience and the Law and choose evil, but if
he did, he would face a Last Judgment that would condemn him
to eternal punishment and deprive him of the fate that Yahweh
desired and offered: salvation in blessed.
 Finally, Yahweh gradually came to be a personal deity, in a way in
which no other ancient god had been.
 He could be prayed to directly; he was observant of all that affected a
man’s or a woman’s life.
 His actions were not impulsive or unpredictable.
 Yahweh wanted Man not as a slave but a friend.
 The relationship between God and Man is meant to be one of
mutual love.

 This was a vision of the relationship between the deity and his
creature man that no other people had:
 A mutually dependent, ethical, just but also merciful on the Lord’s side.
 A submissive but not slavish on man’s side.
 It was a relationship between a stern but loving father and an independent,
sinful, but dutiful child.
 The mold for the evolution of Christianity had been formed.
 All that was needed was the appearance of the long-rumored
messiah who would fulfill the promise that the Chosen would
enter glory, some day.

Empires and Theology in the Near East

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Empires and Theology in the Near East