Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [96]
“Anti-Semitism,” as most people will readily acknowledge, does not mean hatred of Semites, who include Arabs and other Near Eastern groups. As historian Peter Schafer explains in Judeophobia, “Its literal meaning, ‘hostility against Semites,’ reveals its absurdity, since it aims, in its original racist context, not precisely at all ‘Semitic peoples,’ but solely at the Jews.” Greatly worsened in the Christian era by the widely preached sentiment—one of the great bloodstains on Christian history—that Jews were “Christ-killers,” there was a powerful anti-Jewish feeling among both the Greeks and Romans. Scholars have long debated whether that sentiment is essentially religious, as opposed to social or political. But none of those explanations ultimately satisfies a question pointedly phrased by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. “What is it about this small group of people that can unite the far left and the far right, rich and poor, religious and anti-religious in opposition to them?” (Jewish Literacy, p. 468)
While the hateful idea of “anti-Semitism” may be ancient, the expression is not. The phrase itself is only about a century old and was coined by a Jew-hating German agitator named Whilhelm Marr who wanted to purge Jewish influences from German culture. Marr formed the League of Anti-Semites, as a more socially acceptable way to say “Jew-haters,” in 1879.
MILESTONES IN BIBLICAL TIMES III
1000 BCE-587 BCE
1005 David unites the tribes of Israel and breaks the power of the Philistines. The Ark of the Covenant is brought to Jerusalem, “David’s City,” capital of a united Israel.
c. 965-960 David dies and his son Solomon assumes the throne in Israel. He reigns until 928, making treaties of alliance with Egypt and Phoenicia. Under his rule, ancient Israel reaches the height of its power and civilization.
• Solomon begins building the Great Temple of Jerusalem to house the sacred Ark of the Covenant; Solomon also builds a new palace and city walls using forced labor and introduces taxation to finance these projects.
945 Egypt’s throne is usurped by the Libyan Sheshonk, beginning the 22nd Dynasty that rules Egypt for the next two hundred years. 928 Solomon dies and is succeeded by his son Rehoboam I; ten northern tribes balk at taxation and establish a kingdom (Israel) with Jeroboam I as king. The southern kingdom is known as Judah.
884 Assyria’s King Ashurnasirpal II begins a twenty-four-year reign in which he will defeat Babylonia and revive the Assyrian empire.
853 Israel’s King Ahab defeated by Assyria’s Shalmaneser.
850 The Iliad and The Odyssey are composed by Homer.
841 King Jehu of Israel pays tribute to Shalmaneser III.
814 Carthage is founded in North Africa by Phoenicians (“Punians”).
776 Greece’s first recorded Olympic Games are held at Olympia.
760-690 The Hebrew prophets Amos and Hosea in Israel; Isaiah and Micah live and prophesy in Judah.
753 Rome is founded, according to legend, on a wooded hilltop overlooking the Tiber.
745 Assyria’s Tiglath-pileser III begins a seven-year reign in which he will conquer Syria and Israel.
722 Fall of Samaria, capital of Israel, to Assyrian forces after a three-year siege. The victory belongs to Sargon II, who succeeds Shalmaneser V; thirty thousand Israelites are taken prisoner and deported to central Asia; they will disappear from history (the “Lost Tribes of Israel”).
710 Ethiopian invaders conquer Egypt.
705 Assyria’s Sennacherib begins a twenty-three-year reign during which Nineveh becomes a great city.
701 Lachish, a stronghold in Judah, falls to Assyria’s Sennacherib.
693 Babylon is destroyed by Assyria’s Sennacherib.
670 Judah’s King Manasseh pays tribute to Assyria’s Esarhaddon.
626 Assyria’s King Ashurbanipal dies after a forty-three-year reign that had brought prosperity to the country; his empire will crumble over the next twenty years.
621 Athenian lawgiver Draco