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First Civilizations
Africa and Asia
3200 B.C. – 500 B.C.
S.W.B.A.T
Describe the Kingdoms
and religious beliefs of
the Ancient Egyptians.
Geography
 The fertile lands of the Nile Valley attracted Stone
Age farmers. People migrated from the
Mediterranean area, from hills and deserts along
the Nile, and from other parts of Africa.
 Without the Nile river, Egypt would be swallowed
up by the barren deserts that surrounded it. While
the desert protected Egypt from invasion, it also
limited where people could settle.
 In order to try and control the raging Nile River,
people built dikes, reservoirs, and irrigation ditches.
This allowed them to channel the rising river and
store water for the dry seasons.
The Nile River
The Nile is the
longest river in the
world. It is 4,160
miles (6,695
kilometers) long.
This is the distance
from New York to
San Francisco and
halfway back
again.
Mediterranean Sea
The Nile
Egypt
Red
Sea
Without the Nile
there would have
been no civilization
in Egypt because it
is a desert. During
the rainy season,
the Nile River floods
its banks and pours
sand, silt, and
nutrients into the
surrounding desert
soil. Over centuries
the Nile has brought
rich farming soil and
water to the desert.
 Ancient Egyptian history is broken up
into two sections: The Old Kingdom,
and the New Kingdom.
 During the Old Kingdom, Egyptian
rulers called pharaohs organized a
strong, centralized state. Pharaohs
claimed divine support for their rule.
 Egyptians believed the pharaoh was
a living god. The pharaoh thus had
absolute power, owning and ruling all
the land in the kingdom.
Timeline of Egyptian History
Ancient Egyptian history lasted for about 5500 years. Historians
divide Egyptian history into smaller units of time called periods.
There are nine periods of Egyptian history, starting in the Stone
Age and ending in Roman times.
Old Kingdom
New Kingdom
Late Period
Middle Kingdom
BCE
3200
5500
2060
2156
Pre-Dynastic
1640
332
1070
2nd Intermediate
Period
1st Intermediate
Period
BCE
712
1580
3rd Intermediate
Period
GrecoRoman
Period
7
Duties of Pharaoh
• Serve as commander-in-chief of the army.
• Approve public building projects of the various
nomes.
• Approve irrigation projects.
• Find ways to calm civil riots.
• Make appointments to the bureaucracy.
• Consider taxes.
• Listen to and answer requests from foreign kings.
• Make laws.
• Decide in capital cases whether to impose a
death sentence or commute a case (spare the
guilty person’s life).
8
The Pyramids
 During the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians built the
majestic pyramids that still stand at Giza. The
pyramids were tombs for eternity.
 Because Egyptians believed in an afterlife, they
preserved the bodies of their dead rulers and
provided them with everything they would need
in their new lives.
 To complete the pyramids, workers hauled and
lifted millions of limestone blocks, some weighing
two tons or more. The builders had no iron tools
or wheeled vehicles. Building pyramids too so
long that pharaoh’s would often begin building
their tomb as soon as they inherited the throne.
Cairo
Photo of the
pyramids taken
from Earth’s orbit at
202 nautical miles
(374 km) by a
space shuttle
astronaut.
The New Kingdom
 Power struggles, crop failures, and the
massive cost of the pyramids contributed
to the collapse of the Old Kingdom. During
the New Kingdom, powerful and ambitious
pharaohs created a large empire.
 At its height, the Egyptian empire reached
the Euphrates River. This age of conquest
brought Egypt into greater contact with
southwestern Asia as well other parts of
Africa.
Powerful Rulers
 One monarch of the New Kingdom, Hatshepsut,
was a woman who exercised all the rights of a
pharaoh. From 1503 B.C. to 1482 B.C., she
encouraged trade with eastern Mediterranean
lands and along the Red Sea coast of Africa.
 The most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom
was Ramses II. Between 1290 B.C. and 1224 B.C.,
Ramses pushed Egyptian rule northward as far as
Syria.
 After Ramses II, Egyptian power slowly declined.
Invaders, such as the Assyrians and Persians,
conquered the Nile region. Later, Greek and
Roman armies would invade from the north.
Hatshepsut, a Woman Pharaoh
Hatshepsut was the great wife of the
Pharaoh Thutmosis II, who died
without any male heirs.
Hatshepsut took over Egypt. She
maintained peace during her 21
years as Pharaoh of Egypt.
All ceremonies and rites for Pharaoh
were made for men. Hatshepsut had
to wear a false beard to conduct
matters of state. When she died, a
sphinx statue of her was made with a
ceremonial beard.
Hatshepsut’s Temple
Hatshepsut commanded her advisor
and lover, Senmut, to build her
temple. It is one of the most
beautiful temple complexes in all of
Thebes.
Mummified
remains of
Ramses II
Egyptian Religion
 In the sun-drenched land of Egypt, the
chief god was the sun god, Amon-Re. The
pharaoh, whom Egyptians viewed as a
god as well as a monarch, was closely
linked to Amon-Re. Only the pharaoh
could conduct certain ceremonies for the
sun god.
 Egyptians also worshiped Osiris and Isis.
Osiris was the ruler of the underworld, as
well as the Nile River. Egyptians believed
that Osiris controlled the annual flood that
made the land fertile.
 Isis had special appeal for women,
who believed that she had first taught
women to grind corn, spin flax, weave
cloth, and care for children. Isis was
worshipped as the ideal mother as
well as the goddess of nature and
magic’
 Egyptians believed that Osiris and Isis
had promised them eternal life after
death. Belief in the afterlife affected
all Egyptians, from the highest noble
to the lowest peasant.
Belief in An Afterlife
 The Egyptians believed that each soul
had to pass a test in order to win eternal
life. According to Egyptian belief, the
dead soul would be ferried across a lake
of fire to the hall of Osiris.
 There, Osiris would weigh the dead
person’s heart against the feather of
truth. Those he judged to be sinners
would be fed to the crocodile-shaped
Eater of the Dead. Worthy should would
enter the Happy Field of Food, where
they would live forever in bliss.
 Egyptians believed that the afterlife
would be much like life on Earth. As a
result, they buried the dead with
everything they would need for eternity.
 To give a soul use of its body in the
afterlife, Egyptians perfected the skills of
mummification, the preservation of the
dead.
 Skilled embalmers extracted the brain of
the dead person through the nostrils
and removed most of the internal
organs.
Egyptian Pharaohs (Kings) would have
their organs taken out and placed in jars
to be preserved for the afterlife.
 They filled the body cavity with
spices, then later dried and
wrapped the body in strips of
linen. This costly process took
months to complete.
 At first, mummification was a
privilege reserved for rulers and
nobles. Eventually, ordinary
Egyptians also won the right to
mummify their dead.
S.W.B.A.T.
Explain the discovery
of King Tut’s tomb and
Egyptian Society.
The Tomb of Tutankhamen
 Many pharaohs were buried in the desolate
Valley of the Kings. Their tombs, filled with
fantastic riches, were a temptation to robbers
in ancient times. As a result, most royal tombs
were stripped of their treasures long ago.
 Then, in 1922, the British archaeologist Howard
Carter unearthed the tomb of the Pharaoh
Tutankhamen. It had remained almost
untouched for more than 3,000 years. The
tomb and its treasures have provided a
wealth of evidence about Egyptian
civilization.
 The body of the 18-year-old “King Tut” had
been placed in a solid-gold coffin, nested
within richly decorated outer coffins.
 Today, the dazzling array of objects found
in the tomb fills several rooms in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo. They include
chariots, weapons, furniture, jewelry, toys,
games and food.
 Tutankhamen was only a minor king. We
can only imagine what treasures must
have filled the tombs of great pharaohs
like Ramses II.
Egyptian Society
 Like other early civilizations, Egypt had its own
class system. As both a god and an early
leader, the pharaoh stood at the top of
society, along with the royal family.
 Directly under the pharaoh were the high
priests and priestesses, who served the gods
and goddesses.
 Next came the nobles, who fought with
pharaoh’s wars. A tiny class of merchants,
scribes, and artisans developed slowly. They
provided for the needs of the rich and
powerful.
 Egyptian women generally enjoyed a higher
status and greater independence than women
elsewhere in the ancient world. Under Egyptian
law, women could inherit property, enter
business deals, buy and sell goods, go to court,
and obtain a divorce.
 Women’s work was not just confined to the
home. They manufactured perfume and textiles,
managed farming estates, and served as
doctors.
 Women could also enter the priesthood,
especially in the serves of the goddesses. Despite
their many rights and opportunities, few women
learned to read and write.
Written Records
 Like other early civilizations, the ancient Egyptians
developed a form of picture writing. Hieroglyphics
were used to keep important records. Early on,
priests and scribes carved hieroglyphics on stone.
 Inscriptions on temples and other monuments
preserved records of Egyptian culture that have
endured for thousands of years.
 The Egyptians also learned to make a paper-like
writing material from papyrus, a plant that grows
along the banks of the Nile. Writing with reed pens
and ink on the smooth surface of papyrus strips
was much easier than chiseling words onto stone.
The Rosetta Stone
 After the New kingdom declined, Egyptians forgot
the meanings of ancient hieroglyphics. Not until
the early 1800s did a French scholar, Jean
Champollion, unravel the mysterious writings on
Egypt’s great monuments.
 Champollion managed to decipher, or decode,
the Rosetta Stone. This flat, black stone has the
same message carved in three different forms of
script—hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek.
 By comparing the three versions, Champollion
patiently worked out the meanings of many
hieroglyphic symbols. As a result of this, scholars
could now read thousands of records from ancient
Egypt.
Jean
Champollion
The Rosetta Stone is
an ancient Egyptian
granodiorite stele
inscribed with a
decree issued at
Memphis in 196 BC
by King Ptolemy V.
The decree appears
in three languages:
Hieroglyphs,
demotic script, and
ancient Greek.
Because the same
text is used in all
three scripts it
provided the
translation for
Hieroglyphics.
Advances in Medicine and Science
 The ancient Egyptians accumulated a vast store of
knowledge in fields such as medicine, astronomy,
and mathematics. When they had a problem, they
used trial and error to find a solution.
 Like most doctors until recent times, Egyptian
physicians believed in various kinds of magic. Yet,
through their knowledge of mummification, they
learned a lot about the human body.
 They also became skilled at observing symptoms,
diagnosing illnesses, and finding cures. Many
medicines that Egyptian doctors prescribed are still
used, including anise, castor beans, and saffron.
S.W.B.A.T.
Explain Egyptian
contributions to Science
and Mathematics and the
Mesopotamian Culture.
 Egyptian priest-astronomers studied the heavens,
mapping out constellations and charting the
movements of the planets. With this knowledge,
they developed a calendar that had 12 months
of 30 days each and 5 days added at the end of
each year.
 Nile floods forced Egyptians to redraw the
boundaries of fields each year. To do this, they
developed practical geometry to survey the
land.
 Egyptian engineers also used geometry to
calculate the exact size and location of each
block of stone to be placed in a pyramid or
temple.
Egyptian Solar Calendar
The Egyptians were the first people to develop a solar calendar.
The Egyptian solar calendar had 365 and ¼ days. The Egyptians
had twelve months, each with three 10-day weeks. A special fiveday week was added at the end of each year.
Paintings and Sculpture
 The arts of ancient Egypt included statues,
wall paintings in tombs, and carvings on
temples. Painting styles remained almost
unchanged for thousands of years. The
pharaohs and gods were always much
larger than any other human figures.
 Statues often depicted people in stiff,
standard poses. Some human figures have
animal heads that represent special
qualities. The Great Sphinx that crouches
near the pyramids at Giza portrays an
early pharaoh as a powerful lion.
The Sphinx
The sphinx was regarded as a beast of great power and wisdom and may
have been intended to ward off evil.
The sphinx’s beard and the sacred cobra which sits on the headdress of the
Pharaoh have fallen away. The nose is missing because the French army
used the sphinx for target practice.
 Besides the pyramids, Egyptians erected
other great buildings. The magnificent
temple of Ramses II at Karnak contains a
vast hall with towering 80-foot columns.
Much later, the Romans would adopt
building techniques like those used at
Karnak.
 The oldest literature of ancient Egypt
includes hymns and prayers to the gods,
proverbs, and love poems. Other writings
tell of royal victories in battle or, like
Instruction of Ptah-hotep, give practical
advice.
Looking Ahead
 Long after its power declined, Egypt
remained a center of learning and culture
in the African and Mediterranean worlds. It
also retained economic importance as a
source of grain and other riches.
 In later ages, new Egyptian cities like
Alexandria and Cairo would attract
scholars, traders, and other visitors, Yet,
from ancient times to today, foreigners
have gazed in awe at the monuments of a
culture that flourished for 3,000 years.
Mesopotamia
 The first known civilization in the Fertile Crescent
was uncovered in the 1800s in Mesopotamia. The
Tigris and Euphrates rivers define Mesopotamia
which means “between the rivers” in Greek.
 The people that inhabited Mesopotamia were
called Sumerians.
 Just as control of the Nile was vital to Egypt,
control of the Tigris and Euphrates was key to
developments in Mesopotamia. The rivers
frequently rose in terrifying floods that washed
away topsoil and destroyed mud-brick villages.
The Fertile Crescent
Tigris
Euphrates
The land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is part of the
Fertile Crescent. This area includes land from the Persian Gulf to
the Mediterranean coast. Today, the nations of Israel,
Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey are part of the Fertile
Crescent.
 One story in Sumerian history is a
poem called The Epic of Gilgamesh
which tells a story about a great
flood that destroys the world.
 The Sumerians are credited with
creating the first wheeled vehicles. In
addition to this, the Sumerians
divided up their civilization into citystates, where a city controlled the
surrounding countryside.
Historians know so much about the
Sumerians because they wrote
about their beliefs and lifestyle.
The oldest known story of
humankind is called the Epic of
Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was a real
man, ruling in the city-state of Uruk.
The Epic is a tale about his
adventures with his half-brother
Ekindu. He searches for answers
from the gods about the meaning
of life and death.
Gilgamesh
Sumerian Religion
 Like most ancient peoples, the Sumerians
were polytheistic, worshiping many gods.
These gods were thought to control every
aspect of life, especially the forces of nature.
 To Sumerians, their highest duty was to keep
these divine beings happy and thereby
ensure the safety of their city state. Each city
built a ziggurat, a pyramid-temple that
soared toward the heavens.
 To win the favor of the gods, the people
prayed and offered sacrifices of animals,
grain, and wine.
Ziggurat of Ur:
Discovered
Ziggurat of Ur:
Restored
Artist’s depiction
The Sumerians were the first civilization to use the arch to
support large buildings. The Ziggurat of Ur was over ten
stories tall and made entirely of mud bricks.
Civilization: The term comes from the Latin civis, meaning
citizen or townsman.
Advances in Learning
 By 3200 B.C., the Sumerians had invented what
may be the earliest known form of writing. This
type of writing was later called cuneiform, from
the Latin word cuneus, for “wedge” because it
used a reed pen to make wedge-shaped marks
on clay tablets.
 Over the centuries, Sumerian scholars made
advances in mathematics. To measure and solve
problems of calculation, they developed basic
algebra and geometry.
 They based their number system on six, dividing
the hour into 60 minutes and the circle into 360
degrees, as we still do today.
Mesopotamian school tablet
Tablet from the Epic of Gilgamesh
By 3000 BCE, the Sumerians developed
cuneiform writing. Documents, receipts, laws,
and poetry were recorded on clay tablets. It is
thought that students were very tired from
carrying lumps of clay to write their lessons.
Looking Ahead
 Eventually, armies of conquering peoples
swept across Mesopotamia and
overwhelmed the Sumerian city-states.
Often the newcomers settled in the region
and adopted ideas from the Sumerians.
 Building on Sumerian knowledge of the
constellations and planets, later
Mesopotamian astronomers developed
ways to predict eclipses of the sun and the
moon.
Solar
Eclipse
Hammurabi the Lawgiver
 About 1790 B.C., Hammurabi, the King of Babylon,
brought much of Mesopotamia under his control. He
took steps to unite the Babylonian empire. His most
ambitious and lasting contribution was his
publication of a remarkable set of laws known as the
Code of Hammurabi.
 Hammurabi was not the author of the code. Most of
the laws had been around since Sumerian times. He
had his artisans carve nearly 300 laws on a stone
pillar for all to see.
 Hammurabi’s Code was the first important attempt
by a ruler to codify or arrange and set down in
writing, all of the laws that would govern a state.
Code of Hammurabi Examples
 If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
 If anyone steals the minor son of another, he will be put to
death.
 If a man takes a woman as a wife, but has no intercourse with
her, this woman is no wife to him.
 If a man puts out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be put
out (an eye for an eye)
 If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth
will be knocked out.
 If the slave of a freed man strikes the body of a freed man, his
ear shall be cut off.
 If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to
death.
 If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the elders,
and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if a capital
offense is charged, be put to death.
S.W.B.A.T
Describe the empires of the
Middle East and their lasting
contributions
Warfare and the Spread of Ideas
 Later empires shaped the middle East in
different ways. Often, conquerors uprooted
the peoples they defeated. By forcing people
to move elsewhere, these invaders helped
spread ideas. Other conquerors, like the
Hittites, brought new skills to the region.
 The Assyrians, who lived on the upper Tigris,
learned to forge iron weapons. By 1100 B.C.,
they began expanding across Mesopotamia.
For 500 years, they earned a reputation for
being among the most feared warriors in
history.
Assyrian cavalry
Assyria was a military state. The
upper, land-holding class was
made up of military
commanders.
The Assyrians developed or
improved many innovations
including iron swords, lances,
metal armor, and battering rams.
Prisoners being
impaled on
stakes
 Historians are unsure why warfare was so
central to Assyrian culture. Was it to keep
others from attacking or to please their god
Assur by bringing peace and order to the
region.
 Despite their fierce reputation, Assyrian rulers
encouraged a well-ordered society. They
were the first rulers to develop extensive laws
regulating life within the royal household.
 For example, women of the palace were
confined in secluded quarters and had to be
veiled when they appeared in public.
 At Nineveh, King Assurbanipal
founded one of the first libraries.
He ordered his scribes to collect
cuneiform tablets form all over the
Fertile Crescent.
 Those tablets have given modern
scholars a wealth of information
about the ancient middle East.
King
Assurbanipal
Babylon Revived
 In 612 B.C., shortly after Assurbanipal’s death,
neighboring people joined forces to crush the
once-dreaded Assyrian armies.
 An aggressive and ruthless king,
Nebuchadnezzar, revived the power of the old
Babylon. His new Babylonian empire stretched
from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
 Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the canals, temples,
walls, and palaces of Babylon. Near his chief
palace were the famous Hanging Gardens,
known as one of the wonders of the ancient
world.
Nebuchadnezzar
 The Gardens were probably made by
planting trees and flowering plats on the
steps of a huge ziggurat. According to
legend, Nebuchadnezzar had the
gardens built to please his wife, who
was homesick for the hills where she had
grown up.
 Eventually the thick walls that
Nebuchadnezzar built failed to hold
back new conquerors. In 539 B.C.,
Babylon fell to the Persian armies of
Cyrus the Great.
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire
Cyrus (559-530 BCE), the first Persian king, created an
empire extending from Anatolia to the Persian Gulf,
bringing together all of the former empires of Assyria and
Babylonia. He is called Cyrus the Great.
The Persians
 Cyrus and his successors went on to
conquer the largest empire yet seen. The
Persians eventually controlled a wide
sweep of territory from Asia Minor to India,
including present-day Turkey, Iran, Egypt,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
 In general, Persian kings pursued a policy
of tolerance, or acceptance of the people
they conquered. The Persians respected
the customs and religious traditions of the
diverse groups in their empire.
 The real unification of the Persian empire
was accomplished under the Persian
emperor Darius, who ruled from 552 B.C.
to 486 B.C. A skilled organizer, Darius set
up a government that became a model
for later rulers.
 He divided the Persian empire into
provinces, each headed by a governor
called a satrap. Each Satrapy, or
province, had to pay taxes based on its
resources and wealth.
Persian Religion
 Religious beliefs put forward by the
Persian thinker Zoroaster also helped
to unite the empire. Zoroaster lived
about 600 B.C. He rejected the old
Persian gods.
 Instead, he taught that a single wise
god, Ahura Mazda, ruled the world.
Ahura Mazda, however was in
constant battle against Ahriman, the
prince of lies and evil.
 Each individual, said Zoraster, had to choose
which side to support. On Judgment Day,
taught Zoraster, all individuals would be
judged for their actions.
 Those who had done good would enter
paradise. Evildoers would be condemned to
eternal suffering.
 Two later religions that emerged in the Middle
East, Christianity and Islam, stressed similar
ideas about heaven, hell, and a final
judgment day. Today, Zoroastrianism is still
practiced by tens of thousands of people,
mostly in India.
The Phoenicians
 While powerful rulers subdued large
empires, many small states of the
ancient Middle East made their own
contributions to civilization.
Phoenicians, for example, gained
fame as sailors and traders.
 Historians have called the Phoenicians
“carriers of civilization” because they
spread Middle Eastern civilization
around the Mediterranean.
Merchants and Traders
Phoenician man
Phoenician writing
The Phoenicians were known as great merchants, traders, and
sailors. Their small ships traveled as far as Great Britain and
possibly down the southern coast of Africa. They traded with early
Spaniards and Britons for tin to make bronze. By 1200 BCE they
were the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean.
 The Phoenicians made their own
contribution to our world, giving us our
alphabet. Unlike cuneiform or
hieroglyphics, in which each symbol
represents a word or concept, an
alphabet contains letters that represent
spoken sounds.
 In later years, the Greeks adapted the
Phoenician alphabet and added symbols
for the vowel sounds. Form the Greek
alphabet came the letters in which these
notes were written.
S.W.B.A.T
Describe the Roots of
Judaism and how the
Jewish faith expanded.
Early History of the Israelites
 The Israelites were different from the other
people who lived in the Fertile Crescent.
Instead of worshipping many gods, the
Israelites prayed to one God for guidance
and protection.
 The promise of a unique relationship with
God helped shape the history of the
Israelites, later known as the Jews. Their
early religion evolved into Judaism, one of
the world’s main faiths.
 Early in their history, the Israelites, or
Hebrews, came to believe that God was
taking a hand in their lives. As a result, the
recorded events and laws in the Torah,
their most sacred text.
 According to the Torah, a man named
Abraham lived near the town of Ur in
Mesopotamia. About 2000 B.C., he and his
family migrated, herding their sheep and
goats into a region called Canaan.
Abraham is considered the founder of the
Israelite nation.
 The Book of Genesis tells that famine
later forced many Israelites to migrate
to Egypt. There, they were eventually
enslaved by the Egyptians.
 In time, Moses led the Israelites in their
escape, or exodus, from Egypt. After
Moses died, they entered Canaan,
the land they believed God had
promised them.
Michelangelo's
Statue of Moses
 According the Bible, Moses was a
reluctant hero. When God commanded
him to free the Israelites from slavery in
Egypt, Moses said fearfully, “Who am I that
I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons
of Israel out of Egypt.”
 When God insisted, Moses protested, “But I
am slow of speech and of tongue.”
Despite Moses’s doubts about his abilities
as a leader, he accomplished his goal. He
finally freed his people from bondage in
Egypt and led them to Israel.
According to Legend, God parted
the Red Sea so the Jews could
escape to Israel.
The Kingdom of Israel
 By 1000 B.C., the Israelites had set up
a kingdom called Israel. David, a
strong and shrewd king, united the
feuding Israelite tribes into a single
nation.
 David’s son Solomon turned
Jerusalem into an impressive capital,
with a splendid temple dedicated to
God. Solomon won fame for his
wisdom and understanding.
King David of
Israel
According to the Hebrew Bible and Christian
Old Testament, when David was a boy he
bested the giant Goliath with a slingshot.
One God
 The beliefs of the Israelites differed in basic
ways from those of nearby peoples. The
Israelites were monotheistic, believed in
one true god. At the time, most other
people worshiped many gods.
 The Israelites believed that God had made
a covenant, or binding agreement with
Abraham. The Israelites, and later, the
Jews saw themselves as God’s “chosen
people.”
The Ten Commandments
 At the heart of Judaism are the Ten
Commandments, a set of laws that Jews
believe God gave them through Moses. The
first four Commandments stress religious
duties toward God, such as keeping the
sabbath, a holy day for rest and worship.
 The rest of the commandments set out rules
for conduct toward other people. They
include “Honor your father and mother,”
“You shall not murder,” and “You shall not
steal.”
The Ten Commandments
 I am the Lord your God
 You shall not recognize the gods of others in My presence
 You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain
 Remember the day of sabbath to keep it holy
 Honor your father and your mother
 You shall not murder
 You shall not commit adultery
 You shall not steal
 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor
 You shall not covet your fellow's possessions
An Ethical Worldview
 Often in Jewish history, spiritual leaders
emerged to interpret God’s will. These
prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah
warned that failure to obey God’s law
would lead their people to disaster.
 The prophets also preached a strong
code of ethics, or moral standards of
behavior. They urged both personal
morality and social justice, calling on the
rich and powerful to protect the poor
and weak.
Looking Ahead
 Almost 2,000 years ago, many Jews left their
homeland. This Diaspora, or scattering of people,
sent Jews to different parts of the world.
 Wherever they settled, Jews maintained their
identity as a people by living in close-knit
communities and obeying their religious laws
and traditions. These traditions helped them
survive centuries of persecution.
 Judaism is considered a major world religion for
its unique contribution to religious thought. It also
influenced Christianity and Islam, two other
monotheistic faiths that arose in the Middle East.