PALESTINE
Book
of
Joshua.
According
to
the
older
tradition
preserved
in
Jg
1,
they
entered
the
country
without
an
individual
leader,
as
a
number
of
more
or
less
in-dependent
tribes
or
clans,
and
effected
only
a
partial
conquest,
being
bafHed
by
the
superior
strength
of
certain
specified
cities.
This
account
is
more
in
accord-ance
with
the
events
as
related
by
the
Tell
el-Amarna
tablets,
but
further
discoveries
must
be
made
before
the
very
obscure
history
ot
the
Israelite
immigration
can
be
clearly
made
out.
The
Israelite
occupation
was
only
partial.
The
im-portant
Maritime
Plain
was
in
the
hands
of
a
totally
distinct
people,
the
Philistines.
The
favourite,
and
most
probable,
modern
theory
regarding
the
Phihstines
is
that
they
were
of
Cretan
origin;
but
everything
respect-ing
that
mysterious
race
is
veiled
in
obscurity.
As
above
mentioned,
it
is
not
likely
that
the
change
of
ownership
affected
the
peasants
—
the
Gibeonites
were
probably
not
the
only
'hewers
of
wood
and
drawers
of
water'
(Jos
9'')
that
survived
of
the
older
stock.
And
lastly,
we
cannot
doubt
that
an
extensive
Canaanite
occupation
remained
in
the
towns
expressly
mentioned
in
Jg
1,
as
those
from
which
the
various
tribes
'drave
not
out'
their
original
inhabitants.
So
far
as
we
can
infer
from
excavation
—
an
inference
thoroughly
con-firmed
by
a
consideration
of
the
barbarous
history
of
the
Judges
—
the
effect
of
the
IsraeUte
entrance
into
Canaan
was
a
retrogression
in
civiUzation,
from
wliich
the
country
took
centuries
to
recover.
The
history
of
the
development
of
these
incoherent
units
into
a
kingdom
is
one
ot
ever-fresh
interest.
It
Is
recorded
for
us
in
the
Books
of
Judges
and
1
Samuel,
and
the
course
of
events
being
known
to
every
reader,
it
is
unnecessary
to
recapitulate
them
here.
It
is
not
unimportant
to
notice
that
the
split
of
the
short-Uved
single
kingdom
into
two,
after
the
death
of
Solomon,
was
a
rupture
that
had
been
foreshadowed
from
time
to
time
—
as
in
the
brief
reign
of
Abimelech
over
the
northern
province
(Jg
9),
and
the
attempt
of
the
northerners
to
set
up
Ish-bosheth
as
king
against
David
(2
S
2.
3),
frustrated
by
Ish-bosheth's
ill-timed
insult
to
Abner
(2
S
3'):
Abner's
answer
(v.")
recognizes
the
dichotomy
of
Judah
and
Israel
as
already
existing.
This
division
must
have
had
its
roots
in
the
original
peophng
of
the
country
by
the
Hebrews,
when
the
children
of
Judah
went
southward,
and
the
children
of
Joseph
northward
(Jg
l^-^'-
»-m).
Space
will
not
permit
us
to
trace
at
length
the
fortunes
of
the
rival
kingdoms,
to
their
highest
glory
under
the
contemporary
kings
Uzziah
and
Jeroboanj
ii.,
and
their
rapid
dechne
and
final
extinction
by
the
great
Mesopotamian
empires.
We
may,
however,
pause
to
notice
that,
as
in
the
case
of
the
Canaanites,
many
remains
of
the
Israelite
dominion
await
the
excavator
in
such
towns
as
lay
within
IsraeUte
territory;
and
the
Siloam
Tunnel
epigraph,
and
one
or
two
of
minor
im-portance,
promise
the
welcome
addition
of
a
few
inscrip-tions.
On
the
other
hand,
the
remains
of
the
population
are
scantier
—
for
it
need
hardly
be
said
that
the
modern
Jewish
inhabitants
of
Palestine
are
all
more
or
less
recent
importations.
The
Northern
Kingdom
fell
before
Assyria,
and
was
never
heard
of
again.
Tangible
remains
of
the
Assyrian
domination
were
found
at
Gezer,
in
the
shape
of
a
couple
of
contract-tablets
written
there
in
the
Assyrian
lan-guage
and
formulee
about
b.o.
6S0;
and
the
modern
sect
of
Samaritans
is
a
Uving
testimony
to
the
story
of
the
re-settUng
of
the
Northern
Kingdom
under
Assyrian
auspices
(2
K
17*'-").
The
Southern
Kingdom
had
a
different
fate.
It
was
extinguished
by
Babylon
about
135
years
later,
in
b.c.
586.
In
S38
the
captives
were
permitted
to
return
to
their
laud
by
Cyrus,
after
his
conquest
'of
Babylon.
They
re-built
Jerusalem
and
the
Temple:
the
Books
of
Ezra
and
Nehemiah
are
the
record
of
this
work
of
restoration.
PALESTINE
In
B.C.
333
Syria
fell
to
Alexander
the
Great
after
the
battle
of
Issus.
After
his
death
followed
a
dis-tracting
and
complicated
period
of
conflict
between
his
successors,
which,
so
far
as
Palestine
was
concerned,
had
the
ellect
of
opening
the
country
for
the
first
time
to
the
influence
of
Greek
culture,
art,
and
religion.
From
this
time
onward
we
find
evidence
of
the
foun-dation
of
such
buildings
as
theatres,
previously
quite
unknown,
and
other
novelties
of
Western
origin.
Al-though
many
of
the
Jews
adopted
the
Greek
tongue,
there
was
a
staunch
puritan
party
who
rigidly
set
their
faces
against
all
such
Gentile
contaminations.
In
this
they
found
themselves
opposed
to
the
Seleucid
princes
of
Syria,
among
whom
Antiochus
Epiphanes
especially
set
himself
deliberately
to
destroy
the
reUgion
of
Judaism.
This
led
to
the
great
revolt
headed
by
Mattathias
the
priest
and
his
sons,
which
secured
for
the
Jews
a
brief
period
of
independence
that
lasted
during
the
second
half
of
the
2nd
cent.
B.C.,
under
John
Hyrcanus
(grandson
of
Mattathias)
and
his
successors.
The
kingdom
was
weakened
by
family
disputes;
in
the
end
Rome
stepped
in,
Pompey
captured
Jerusalem
in
B.C.
63,
and
henceforth
Palestine
lay
under
Roman
suzerainty.
Several
important
tombs
near
Jerusalem,
and
elsewhere,
and
a
large
number
of
remains
of
cities
and
fortresses,
survive
from
the
age
of
the
family
of
Mattattiias.
The
conquest
of
Joppa,
under
the
auspices
of
Simon
Maccabeus,
son
of
Mattathias
(1
Mac
13n),
was
the
first
capture
of
a
seaport
in
S.
Palestine
through-out
the
whole
of
Israelite
history.
The
Hasmonaean
dynasty
gave
place
to
the
Idumaean
dynasty
of
the
Herods
in
the
middle
of
the
1st
cent,
b.c,
Herod
the
Great
becoming
sole
governor
of
Judaea
(under
Roman
suzerainty)
in
b.c.
40.
It
was
into
this
poUtical
situation
that
Christ
was
born
b.c.
4.
Remains
of
the
building
activities
of
Herod
are
still
to
be
seen
in
the
sub-structures
of
the
Temple,
the
Herodian
towers
of
Jerusalem,
and
(possibly)
a
magnificent
tomb
near
Jerusalem
traditionally
called
the
Tomb
of
Mariamme.
Herod
died
shortly
after
Christ's
birth,
and
his
domin-ions
were
subdivided
into
provinces,
each
under
a
separate
ruler:
but
the
native
rulers
rapidly
declined
in
power,
and
the
Roman
governors
as
rapidly
advanced.
The
Jews
became
more
and
more
embittered
against
the
Roman
yoke,
and
at
last
a
violent
rebellion
broke
out,
which
was
quelled
by
Titus
in
a.d.
70,
when
Jerusalem
was
destroyed
and
a
large
part
of
the
Jews
slain
or
dispersed.
A
remnant
remained,
which
about
60
years
later
again
essayed
to
revolt
under
their
leader
Bar
Cochba:
the
suppression
of
this
rebellion
was
the
final
deathblow
to
Jewish
nationahty.
After
the
de-struction
of
Jerusalem
many
settled
in
Tiberias,
and
formed
the
nucleus
of
the
important
GaUleean
Rabbinic
schools,
remains
of
which
are
still
to
be
seen
in
the
shape
of
the
synagogues
of
Galilee.
These
interesting
buildings
appear
to
date
from
the
second
century
a.d.
After
the
partition
of
the
Roman
Empire,
Palestine
formed
part
of
the
Empire
of
the
East,
and
with
it
was
Christianized.
Many
ancient
settlements,
with
tombs
and
small
churches
—
some
of
them
with
beautiful
mosaic
pavements
—
survive
in
various
parts
of
the
country:
these
are
reUcs
of
the
Byzantine
Cliristians
of
the
5th
and
6th
centuries.
The
native
Christians
of
Syria,
whose
families
were
never
absorbed
into
Islam,
are
their
representatives.
These,
though
Aramaean
by
race,
now
habitually
speak
Arabic,
except
in
Ma'lula
and
one
or
two
other
places
in
N.
Lebanon,
where
a
Syriac
dialect
survives.
This
early
Christianity
received
a
severe
blow
In
611,
when
the
country
was
ravaged
by
Chosrofis
ii.,
king
of
Persia.
Monastic
settlements
were
massacred
and
plundered,
and
the
whole
country
reduced
to
such
a
state
of
weakness
that
without
much
resistance
it
fell
to
Omar,
the
second
Caliph
of
Islam.
He
became
master
of
Syria
and
Palestine
in
the
second
quarter
of
the
seventh
century.
Palestine
thus
became
a
Moslem
