Nadene Goldfoot
It was Abraham, born in Ur, in today's Iraq, who was married to Sarah, his niece, who brought monotheism to the world. Up to then, people believed in many gods who controlled all the elementary forces of nature and man's needs. They could go to whatever god was important to them at that moment and plead for help. These gods were depicted for them in idols and statues. They belonged to large god-families.
Abraham saw that there was only one force-one God in the world. He even carried on a conversation with G-d and knew it was in his place to continue this opening up of his mind and that his children were to carry on his new belief.
All around him were people that believed in multiple gods used for multiple problems, so, since the world was far less populated than it is now, he left, taking his father, Terah, who was the son of Nahor I and Iyoska, and family with him and struck out for open spaces where he could control the environment of people and their beliefs. He couldn't wait to have children and form a new culture depending on one true G-d.
Sarah was old by standards of those days and still hadn't produced a child. Abram, as he was originally called, grew anxious. He was getting older. Sarai, her original name, allowed him to take her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to start the family growing as she was afraid her child-bearing days might be over, too. She could have even been 40, going through the menopause as we know it today. Sure enough, right off the bat Hagar was pregnant. The child, according to their law, was a product belonging to Sarai, but Hagar was so proud of becoming a mother, actually being an Egyptian princess herself and thinking that this gave her more status now other than having to obey Sarai's every wish, that she started snubbing Sarai and not doing her chores. After all, she had Abram's baby!
Ishmael grew and followed his mother's behaviors, having half of her genes and as she was the one discipling him, and he was spoiled, doing as he wished, being very headstrong. He didn't even listen to Abram. This pregnancy of Hagar's triggered Sarah's hormones and lo and behold, she was finally pregnant! She bore another boy-child and they named him Isaac. Isaac was a carbon copy of Abraham AND Sarai. He was quiet and introspective. He noticed things and filed it away in his mind. Ishmael was very jealous of his father's new attention going to his tiny new brother, and often he tried to hit the baby. This continued with Ishmael always trying to interfere with Isaac and tease him.
We know the story and it plays out in many families today with the problem of jealousy among siblings unless the parents really work at keeping all the children happy. This jealousy within Abram's family caused Hagar to leave with Ishmael and she went off to live with her own people. Sarai had insisted she and Ishmael had to leave their compound, so Abram took them away.
Isaac married, and his wife was also a relative. It was Rebekah, his 1st cousin once removed. Her father was Bethuel and her brother was Laban. Bethuel's father was Nahor II, also born in Ur of the Chaldees, father of many men.
1 Isaac b: in Negev
.. +Rebekah b: in Aram
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| Abraham with Lot back in 1948 BCE, his nephew who was the son of Haran, Abraham's brother. He had traveled with Abram from Aram-Naharaiam to Canaan and wound up with their shepherds being at odds with each other over pasture-land, so they parted with Lot settling at Sodom, and that's another story. |
Abraham saw that there was only one force-one God in the world. He even carried on a conversation with G-d and knew it was in his place to continue this opening up of his mind and that his children were to carry on his new belief.
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| Terah, the idol-maker of Ur and father of Abram, Nahor and Haran |
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| Sarai gives Hagar to Abram |
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| Abram,on foot, with camels, in the heat in the 2nd millennium BCE, over 3,000 years ago recorded in the Torah by the scribe, Moses 631 years later, who also made his own journey at age 80 to return to Egypt to argue with the Pharoah, son of his old step-brother and insisted on releasing 6 million Jewish slaves. |
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| The Torah relates the story of Abram being asked by G-d to sacrifice his son, Isaac which he complies with in preparation but is stopped, and had been tested to see if he would obey. This was to be the last time that man was to sacrifice another human according to the beliefs in Judaism and this was the lesson to be had. NO MORE HUMAN SACRIFICES. |
Isaac married, and his wife was also a relative. It was Rebekah, his 1st cousin once removed. Her father was Bethuel and her brother was Laban. Bethuel's father was Nahor II, also born in Ur of the Chaldees, father of many men.
1 Isaac b: in Negev
.. +Rebekah b: in Aram
Isaac and Rebekah had twins; Esau and Jacob. Esau emerged into the world first of these fraternal twins. He was completely different in coloring and behavior. He didn't like to listen to his father's lectures about life and belief in one G-d., but Jacob listened intently and was most intrigued. Finally, as a teenager, Esau ran off to find Ishmael and his family, for that is what pleased him, a more active lifestyle. He wanted action.
Abraham now had only Jacob to carry on the family belief in one G-d, but he didn't realize this as he lay dying. He thought both sons were near him and would follow his beliefs. It had been Jacob who had tricked Esau into selling him his birthright as the first born. ." The birthright was two-fold. First, it included a double portion of the inheritance from the father. Second, it included a special ceremonial blessing from the father" . As it was, both Jacob and Esau buried Isaac. Then Esau took Caananite wives for himself. Esau and his large family clan moved away from Isaac to Mt Seir. He is later referred to as the people of Edom. Before the days of King Saul, there were kings who reigned in the land of Edom. Esau had become the father of Edom.
All this has been recorded in the Torah, written by Moses b: 1391BCE and who died at age 120 in 1271 BCE. He was in communication with G-d who dictated it to him while on the Exodus, traveling from Egypt back to Canaan which took him 40 years, traveling with the freed slaves of Egypt of over 6 million people.
Those people, Jacob's descendants, are the remnant of his 12 sons, being the tribe of Judah had remained in existence all these years under the name of THE JEWISH PEOPLE. They have been the true inheritors of Canaan, later called Palestine, named by the Romans who had destroyed Solomon's 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. The Romans named the land "Palestine" after the Jews' worst nightmare-the Philistines, who had come to their shore from Asia Minor and Greek islands who came in waves of groups on ships.
They did not enter in peace but were warlike, fighting right away Abraham and son Isaac. Then others had entered from the island of Crete after being kicked out of Egypt by Rameses II in 1194 BCE. They took over the southern coastal area. and founded GAZA, ASCALON, ASHDOD, EKRON AND GATH. It was the Greeks from the time of Herodotus that called the land Palestine in honor of the Philistines. The Greek name was Syria Palaestina, and so when the Romans under Hadrian had conquered the Jews, they gave the name officially to the former land belonging to the tribe of Judah.
For it was the Jews that had carried on true Monotheism as Abram had seen it, through his descendant, Moses,who had been instructed through G-d himself, Moses had added, not only the belief in ONE G-d, but all the values of behavior that went along with this belief. The values were so different from the surrounding native beliefs, that they also needed to go back to their origins to have the same visions to bring it about.
The Philistines were conquered by King David who reigned from 1010 BCE to 970 BCE. The Canaanites were conquered when Joshua had battled them who were made up of some city-states. The Israelites called the land Eretz Yisrael THE LAND OF ISRAEL, a name still in use , and if not all were killed, they married into the new inhabitants and became one people, the Israelites. THE NORTHERN PART was called Aram (ie, Syria.
The Israelites had taken an oath while on the Exodus to follow the laws that Moses taught them. Out of the 6 million present, only the tribe of Judah had been present through the 2,000 years up to the time of the destruction of the 2nd Temple by the Romans. The 10 other tribes of the North were lost to them after Assyrians had taken them in 721 BCE. Their one-G-d belief was now called Judaism for the tribe of Judah. It must be remembered that along with the change from believing in a multiple of gods being part of a pantheon of gods, they also had 613 laws given to them by Moses through G-d that were to reshape their way of thinking towards G-d and their fellow man. For they were to believe in life in a different way. The 1st 10 laws were the most important and have lasted through the ages with the 1st 5 about G-d and the last 5 about our treatment towards other people. People today still have problems with a few of these laws.
It was around this period that Jesus emerged to be the founder of Christianity which was a break-away belief from Judaism. It would take another 500 some years for Islam to come into the world, an offshoot from Judaism through the teachings of Mohammed. His city of Medina had been full of Jewish tribes who taught Judaism on the streets with readers reading to large crowds. Mohammed (570-632) couldn't read or write but he could listen and remember the stories.
More on Birthright:
Resource: Tanakh, The Stone Edition (Old Testament)
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
More on Birthright:
The Birthright
This all important and strongly coveted birthright consisted of several benefits. They were:
- The leadership in worship and the head of the family.
- A double portion of the family inheritance.
- Right to the covenant blessings that God promised Abraham in which all nations would be blessed
Resource: Tanakh, The Stone Edition (Old Testament)
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
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