 Synopsis This book is a combination of two subjects; interwoven and treated simultaneously. It will be seen that there is no possibility of separating them. The first subject involves the historicity of that part of the Old Testament that is usually treated as pure mythology and the second is a serious historical subject, connected to the changes of ethnicity in peoples. The main questions in the subject of the historicity of the first 32 chapters of the Old Testament were:
It is obvious that the first subject involved people who lived more than 4000 years ago; did not belong to the rulers, so finding direct evidences was slim in the extreme. Despite that difficulty, there were sufficient non-Biblical sources to prove that the conditions of the area and the period were consistent with the biblical stories. In fact, the analysis has shown that some of the stories could not have been later inventions, because the contents of the stories were unknown until very modern times. The answer to the second question is more difficult. There is no doubt that the stories were of ancient origin and that they were part of the official canon of the Old Testament. There is also no doubt that in the long history of the Jewish people, it was always accepted that the stories told the history of their ancestors. However, it is only conjectural evidence. The connecting link between the two stories, one of the Patriarchs and the second of historical Israel and Judah, of which there are plenty of historical evidences, is the sojourn in Egypt and the story of the Exodus. There is no known non-Biblical evidence at this stage to prove the connection. Until conclusive non-Biblical sources are found, the answer to the second question should remain conditional. The second subject involves a most serious historical process, which probably shaped the world, as we know it today, more than any other processes. The story of the Patriarchs as it was told in the Book of Genesis is probably the only detailed evidence of that process. After the settling down of the climate of the world to the recent pattern after the termination of the last Ice Age, the continent of Eurasia, between the northern tundras in the north and the deserts in the south, was separated into two distinct climatic belts. The southern belt, between the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the west to Manchuria in the east, was the belt of agriculture. To the north of it was the belt of husbandry. The continent of Europe, although according to latitude it belonged to the northern belt, was peopled by farmers, because its climate was considerably warmed by the Gulf Stream. The climatic separation, which caused separation of their ways of life, causing a major change in world history, affecting it probably more than any other factor. People in the southern belt became farmers in settled communities. Farmers are peace loving by nature. They have nothing to gain by engaging in military adventures; at the most they exchange one land for another. Sometimes, there is no choice, as climatic catastrophes compel them to look for new lands. It is thought that the attempt of the Cymbri and Teutones to settle in Italy at the end of the second century BC was connected with the Baltic inundating their previous homes. It was certainly the desiccation of Lybia that caused the invasion of the Delta of the Nile in the 12th century BC by the Lybians and the Peoples of the Sea. So, if farmers did engage in wars, it was usually a defensive war, to save and keep what they have. Those on the north became nomads, constantly moving around with their herds, in search of pasture. They became experts in managing large number of animals; they had military expertise and were adept in traveling large distances, with or without their families. Moreover, the farmers were more or less self-sufficient, while the nomads lacked many things, mainly grains and other agricultural products. This imbalance was instrumental in future developments. The nomads had to trade, or lacking trade, had to take what they needed. Since the 6th or 5th millennium BC until the middle of the 2nd millennium AD, there was a constant stream of cattle-nomads to the south, for trade or for raid. Eventually, they reached the inevitable conclusion that it is better to conquer the farmers and turn them into serfs, than to raid them from time to time and carry back the loot. This process became a catalisator to the creation of urban civilizations. The mythology of the world is full of myths referring to that period and the invasions. However, there is only a single detailed description of that process and it is in the first 32 chapters of the Book of Genesis. It seems that the family of Abraham, who came to Canaan from somewhere in the north, under a divine instruction, was either from the Hittites or from the Hurrians. The Book of Genesis describes in detail their invasion, eventual settling there, and their transformation into a Semitic people, even though traces of their previous ethnic roots remained with them until late historic times, and some even until today. The description of the Book of Genesis probably can serve as a tool to understand the mechanism of other invasions and raids which ended in ethnic and cultural transformations. Last Update: October 2000 |
