“Atheist” History of Israel – Part 3/3

In 605 BC the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians and Nebuchadnezzar, who became king of Babylon, regained control of Judea, which was at that time still loyal to the Egyptians. Nebuchadnezzar replaced the king of Judea with Zedekiah, who rebelled. This rebellion triggered pillaging and destruction carried out by the Babylonians throughout Judea and Jerusalem. The aristocracy and clergy had already been exiled when Zedekiah was appointed. The last king of Judea was killed and the temple was destroyed. An additional part of the population of Judea was exiled to Babylon.

The Pentateuch underwent modifications over time both in Jerusalem and in Babylon by new authors, some of whom mentioned the exile.

There was a gradual return of the exiles from Babylon to Judea. The Israelites were called Yehoud in Aramaic from the name Yehuda in Hebrew (in Latin Judah and Judea). Emerging Judaism focused on the Bible and became a religion.

A notable French Israelite requested during the French Revolution that the term Jew relating to the tribe of Judah be replaced by Israelite which is linked to the twelve tribes of Israel, that is to say in Hebrew: “Bnei Israel”. A few years later, Napoleon I, created the” Consistoire Israélite de France”, responsible for managing the religious principles of the Israelite community and in 1860 the important “Alliance Israélite Universelle” was created. In some foreign languages, the reference is made to Hebrew to designate the Israelites, for example εβραϊκός (ebraïcos) in Greek, which seems less divisive than the reference to the tribe of Judah alone.

In Jerusalem, a dispute with the Babylonian authorities led some Israelites to take refuge in Egypt. In 539 BC, the Persians took back the empire from the Babylonians and Cyrus the victor decided to restore Judea and the Temple. The exiled Israelites returned to Judea in several waves. The construction of the second temple was completed in 516 BC. The interest of the Persians in promoting local cults was to ensure the loyalty of their vassals by leaving autonomy to the local elites. Cyrus decided to authorize also the return of the exiled Israelites from Babylon and Egypt. The clergy continued to write and modify the Tanakh so that the Judeans would follow rules that distinguished them from other peoples and respect the temple while maintaining the hope of a future messianic era. Thus Shemot (Exodus) and Bamidbar (Numbers) could have been inspired by several exiles and returns followed by the construction of two temples.

Judea remained Persian for two centuries until its conquest by “Alexander the Great” in 322 BC, then was integrated into the empires created by the successors of “Alexander the Great” who were the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria. The Seleucid Empire, named after one of Alexander the Great’s generals, stretched from Syria to the border of India. The set of Empires that came from “Alexander the Great” and his generals stretched from Greece to Indian border, including the Middle East and Egypt and represented the largest Hellenistic group comparable to the future Roman Empire. All the regions under Hellenistic influence allowed an immense expansion of Greek culture.

From 167 to 143 BC a Hasmonean dynasty was established in Judea which opposed the Hellenization of the Israelites since the revolt of the Makabim (Maccabees). They took back Jerusalem and the temple and represented a current of great religious fervor in opposition to the Hellenizing Israelites.

Judea then included Samaria, the Golan, Beersheba and Gaza, a region larger than Davidic Judea.

The conquest of Judea by the Roman general Pompey in 66 BC put an end to its independence. After taking Syria, Pompey was forced to arbitrate a succession battle in Judea between two Hasmonean princes. Pompey favored Prince Hyrcanus II and exiled his rival Aristobulus II. In 40 BC, Hyrcanus II lost his title as king of Judea, which became a Roman protectorate. After two revolts by Aristobulus II’s son, the Roman Senate appointed as king of Judea, “Herod I, the Great” of the Hasmonean dynasty. In 40 BC, “Herod the Great “modified the temple by giving it a monumental appearance” which seems to correspond to the wall (the western wall) remaining today.

On the death of “Herod the Great” in 4 BC, Judea was divided by the Romans between his three sons, who lost the title of king: Herod Archelaus governed a restricted Judea as ethnarch, Herod Antipas governed Galilee and the region of Gilead as tetrarch, and Herod Philip II governed Transjordan also as tetrarch. Israelites from Judea and Samaria complained about the tyranny of Herod Antipas and as a result he was exiled to Gaul. Judea eventually became a Roman province ruled by a Prefect residing in Caesarea and traveling to Jerusalem for official ceremonies.

The Israelites had already begun to disperse throughout the Greco-Roman world, attaching themselves to the Hebrew Bible to define their common identity.

In the year 66 AD, the first Judean revolt against the Romans took place. Herod’s descendants sought a compromise that was rejected by the high priest of Jerusalem. Thus, the revolt turned into a war of independence and the Romans were defeated twice. In 67 AD, Flavius ​​Vespasian (Roman general who became emperor) was charged with retaking Judea. Vespasian began by regaining control of northern Judea while the Zealots seized Jerusalem and appointed a high priest. The Zealots killed the elites and priestly families. Vespasian headed south and stopped at the gates of Jerusalem upon hearing of Nero’s death. Vespasian was elected Roman Emperor by the Senate. His appointment was based on his military successes in Britanny and Judea. His son Titus took over the conquest of Judea. In 70 AD Titus seized Jerusalem and destroyed the second temple. In the year 73 AD the new Roman governor of Jerusalem reduced the last pocket of resistance at Masada.

Despite this strong Roman domination, a second Judean revolt took place against the Romans from the year 132 to 135 AD, led by Bar Kokhba who planned to give Judea back its independence and to build a third temple.

The Romans had changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina where a temple dedicated to Jupiter was built, in addition they banned circumcision for all peoples. These measures notably led to the second Jewish-Roman war. Bar Kokhba’s strategy was efficient, but the Romans sent eight legions who practiced the scorched earth policy. In the year 135 AD, the revolt ended with the massacre of those who had participated in it. In 2023, Roman swords were found at Ein Gedi dating from this second war. Thousands of villages were destroyed by the Romans and many Judeans were killed. Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem) and its region extending from Samaria to the Dead Sea and Hebron “called Roman Chora” were forbidden to the Judeans. The population of Jerusalem was replaced by Roman veterans, Greeks and Syrians. After the year 135 the Judean religious center moved to Galilee.

It is worth noting that the name Palestine, which means land of the Philistines, was given to Judea as a “punitive step” by the Roman emperor Hadrian because of the Bar Kokhba revolt in the year 135. The reason was that the Philistines were known as the worst enemies of the Judeans. This anachronistic and insulting name should finally be changed today by the international community which knows its origin. The Arabs continue to use the word Philistine (Arabic translation of Palestinian). Yet in the Jewish and Christian tradition, the word Philistine remains pejorative and assimilated to barbarian. The Philistines are peoples of Aegean, Anatolian and Cypriot origin speaking an Indo-European language and therefore have no connection with the Arabs and more generally with the Semitic peoples. According to Hadrian, Palestine was first to correspond to an extended Judea and, strictly speaking, the name Canaan would have been closer to reality than small Philistia. Since 1948, the name has changed to “Israel” for a part of Israel and Judean Kingdoms, however the name of Palestine given by Emperor Hadrian is still in use.

The majority of the Judeans went into exile and then formed the diaspora that had already begun gradually since the attempts of Hellenization. At the same time, the expansion of the Judean movement of Jesus, initially marked according to the testimonies of his disciples by benevolence and tolerance, became, at the initiative of multiple councils of the Church, a malevolent and intolerant religion with regard to its religion of origin. Christianity freed itself from the rigorous rules of Judaism to facilitate proselytism among pagans. At the Council of Constantinople in 381, the Church adopted the principle of the Trinity, that is to say the representation of God in three distinct persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) having the same divine substance (or consubstantial) which is opposed to monotheism. Furthermore, according to the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Jesus would have both a divine and human nature. According to the Council of Nicaea, the Church authorized the worship of images. For converted pagans, the representation of Jesus is naturally that of God and resolves the difficulty of adopting an invisible and intangible God. From the 3rd century onwards, the cult of Mary (mother of God) was added to this theological assembly and was recognized at the Council of Trent in the 16th century. According to various historians, Mary fulfills the cult of the Greek goddess Cybele, mother of the Gods. In this pagan orientation of Christianity, Judeophobia was easily inserted because it opened the way to the paradoxical notion of deicide since this god, although eternal, would also have a human nature (through his son) while the consubstantiality of the Trinity makes this impossible.

As a matter of fact, Judaism prohibits mixing with others through marriage as well as proselytizing and therefore advocates an isolation. In addition, Sheol, which resembles the Greek Hades, is a place where souls fall into oblivion and which does not give much hope for the future after death. Christianity and Islam have instead created Paradises that are much more attractive for proselytism. This desire for self-isolation combined with that of the gentiles to isolate the Israelites by Judeophobia built a persistent isolation. Judeophobia first was born for paradoxical sin of deicide because if one can kill God this means that he is not God but a human being. If God is a human being this also means that all human beings are Gods and, in this case, it might generate the basis of an “atheistic Universal Humanism”. As a matter of fact, Humanism is growing in Western countries meanwhile Christianity is disappearing. The Judeophobic movement initiated by Christianity has marked Israelite history until today and is now reinforced by that of Islam in particular since the independence of the State of Israel. From the 19th century onwards, the Judeophobic movement was illustrated by a series of massacres (Pogroms) and in the 20th century Judeophobia became a pseudoscientific racism of French and German origin. This evolution in Germany gave birth to the principle of a total extermination of Jews. Two third of European Jews were thus exterminated during the WW2 despite the main leading countries were duly informed of the process of extermination.

In the 19 and 20th century, the idea of a return to Israel was born and grew generally secular or atheist basis due to both intellectual developments and thereafter the observed absence protection by any God at the time of extermination.

Since 1948, Israel has wanted to be a modern and democratic nation. However, the followers of theological and magical domination are increasingly represented in the Knesset (Parliament) and are an obstacle to the humanism which is essential to the proper functioning of a healthy democracy. This is due firstly because the law allows religion to leave its private domain and enter political life. In addition, the “H’aredim” (fervent religious) are in favor of very large families that unbalance the demographic and the initial aspect of Israel as desired by his main founders.

The “H’aredim” participate only weakly in the necessary economic growth of the country as well as in national defense and are often a burden for the nation and its free functioning. Pious Jerusalem and free Tel Aviv illustrate still the opposition between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea.

Immense progress has been made and helps human beings to see further and therefore to better understand the extent of their limits. This must guide them towards humility without resorting to magical thinking to veil their faces by having faith in any deity.

Israel should be able now to understand that facing of the worst tragedies as Shoah, that the belief in a magic deity is vain. In the 20th century, there was also no God for the Armenians, Cambodians and Tutsis…

In a theocratic state, human beings are second-class citizens after God and this is not consistent with a modern democracy, which only makes sense if it is first and foremost humanist.

Approximately half of the Jewish population lives in North America with an often a flexible and open tradition towards others due to expansion of Reform without renouncing their identity even in the case of marriage with a non-Jewish person. If Israel persists in imposing a rigid orthodox religious, this could lead to a distancing with the Jewish diaspora once again as between the Kingdoms of Judea and Israel.