Download 3-1 The First Israelites

3-1
The First Israelites
“FAITH OR FACT”
• **DISCLAMER: This chapter deals a lot with religion
and religious beliefs that are still active today.
Much of what is covered can be difficult to
understand and prove because it is based on FAITH,
meaning a person’s personal religious beliefs, not
FACT. These beliefs are important to us as
historians because what people believe causes
their actions, therefore effecting history. It is not
necessary that your believe what others believe,
but it is important to understand others’ beliefs.
Essential Questions
1) How have Jewish religious beliefs, such as the
Ten Commandments, effected modern
governments, like that of the United Sates?
2) Explain the importance of the creation of the
alphabet by the Phoenicians.
3) Explain how the Israelites’ faith and beliefs
affected their lives.
Vocabulary
Monotheism – the belief in one God
Torah – Jewish holy book
Covenant – an agreement between two groups
Alphabet – a system of writing in which letters
represent sound and are combined to create
words
Who were the Israelites?
• Around 1000BC they built a kingdom in Canaan
(present-day Israel, Lebanon and Jordan).
• The Israelite religion focused on only one God, making it
the one of the first monotheistic religions.
• The Israelite religion became known as
Judaism. This religion has influenced
many other major religions and societies.
• Spoke a language called Hebrew
From the Beginning
• The Israelites story begins around 1800 BC with a man who
lived in Mesopotamia named Abraham.
• According to the story, he was told by God (monotheism) to
go with his followers to Canaan, which would become the
Jewish “Promised Land”
• A long drought forced many of the Israelites to move to Egypt,
where they are enslaved.
• **Though this is a popular story, there is no archeological
evidence of Hebrew slaves living in Egypt.
Exodus
• Moses leads the Hebrew and works to free them.
• God sends the 10 Plagues to trouble Egypt, forces the
pharaoh to free the Hebrews.
• The escape from Egyptian slavery is known as the
EXODUS (celebrated in the Jewish Holiday Passover)
Ten Commandments
• Laws that were received by Moses on the top of Mt. Sinai
• 15?
• Very influential on
modern western
government, which
were formed by
Christians.
The Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that
they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
The Covenant
• The deal the Israelites
make with God
• Said that if the
Israelites followed
God’s laws that God
would protect the
Israelites and make
sure that they have
Canaan as their home
land.
The Promised Land
• After a long and difficult 40 year journey, the Israelites finally
reach Canaan (their Promised Land) only to find the Canaanites
living there.
Phoenicians
• Group that lived along the Mediterranean Sea.
• Skilled traders and sailors.
• Created the world’s first alphabet, which influenced the Greeks
and Romans.
• Invented purple dye. The Phoenicians discovered that
crushed shellfish oozed a wine-colored goop. Cloth
soaked in this substance turned shades ranging from
deep pink to rich purple. Royalty soon chose purple as
their favorite hue, so every king and queen needed
purple dye.
Exit Questions
• Judaism was one of the world’s first _____________
religion, meaning they believed in only ONE God.
1) Polytheistic
2) Monotheistic
3) Dendrocronolistic
• The Exodus is the story of the Israelites escape
from slavery in _______________, led by
Moses.
1) Canaan
2) Mesopotamia
3) Egypt
• The __________________ were a list of laws that
Moses was given by God. Not only did they lay out
rules for Judaism, but also would effect the
______________, which lays out the rules of
America.
1) Ten Commandments / Magna Carta
2) Ten Commandments / U.S. Constitution
3) Five Commandments / Defenestration Pact
• The Phoenicians created the world’s first
_____________, which would influence those of
the Greeks, Romans, and therefore us.
1) Alphabet
2) Pyramid
3) Religion