Israelites
The Israelites, also known as the Children of Israel, were an ancient Semitic-speaking people who emerged in Canaan during the Iron Age. They were a Hebrew people that spoke an archaic Hebrew language commonly called Biblical Hebrew through association with the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical myth, the population was divided into the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The group went on to form the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanite populations and other peoples of the ancient Near East. The Israelite religion revolved around Yahweh, who was an ancient Semitic god with less significance in the broader Canaanite religion. Around 720 BCE, the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, triggering the Assyrian captivity; and around 586 BCE, the Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, triggering the Babylonian captivity. While most of Israel's population was irreversibly dispossessed as a result of Assyrian resettlement policy, Judah's population was rehabilitated by the Achaemenid Empire following the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites were the descendants of Jacob, who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Due to a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his twelve sons migrated to Egypt, where each son became the progenitor and namesake of an Israelite tribe. These tribes came to constitute a distinct nation, which was enslaved by "the Pharaoh" before being led out of Egypt by the Hebrew prophet Moses, whose successor Joshua oversaw the Israelite conquest of Canaan. After taking control of Canaan, they established a kritarchy and eventually founded the United Monarchy, which split into independent Israel in the north and independent Judah in the south. Scholars generally consider the Hebrew Bible's narrative to be part of the Israelites' national myth, but believe that there is a "historical core" to some of the events in it. The historicity of the United Monarchy is widely disputed. In the context of Hebrew scripture, Canaan is also variously described as the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, Zion, or the Holy Land.
Historically, Jews and Samaritans have been two closely related ethno-religious groups descended from the Israelites; Jews trace their ancestry to the tribes that inhabited the Kingdom of Judah, namely Judah, Benjamin, and partially Levi, while Samaritans trace their ancestry to the tribes that inhabited the Kingdom of Israel and remained after the Assyrian captivity, namely Ephraim, Manasseh, and partially Levi. Furthermore, Judaism and Samaritanism are fundamentally rooted in Israelite religious and cultural traditions. There are several other groups claiming affiliation with the Israelites, but most of them have unproven lineage and are not recognized as either Jewish or Samaritan.
Etymology
The first reference to Israel in non-biblical sources is found in the Merneptah Stele in. The inscription is very brief and says: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The inscription refers to a people, not an individual or nation state, who inhabit central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria. Some Egyptologists suggest that Israel appeared in earlier topographical reliefs, dating to the Eighteenth Dynasty or Nineteenth Dynasty , but this reading remains controversial.In the Hebrew Bible, Israel first appears in, where an angel renames Jacob to Israel after Jacob fought with him. According to the folk etymology given in the text, Israel is derived from yisra, "to prevail over" or "to struggle with", and El, a Canaanite-Mesopotamian creator god that is tenuously identified with Yahweh. However, modern scholarship interprets El as the subject, "El rules/struggles", from sarar 'to rule', which is likely cognate with the similar root sara "fought, strove, contended". Dr. Tzemah Yoreh clarifies that Israel is a combination of 'to strive with' and 'God' and that Jacob's name alternates between Jacob and Israel in the biblical narrative, even after his renaming, due to the authors having different opinions about Jacob's moral character. The gradual ethnonymic shift from "Israelites" to "Jews", regardless of their descent from Judah is made explicit in the Book of Esther of the Tanakh.
Biblical timeline
Genesis of the Israelite people
Biblically, the Israelites referred to the direct descendants of Israel, a view that was reinforced by Second Temple Judaism. They referred to themselves as the sons of Israel.'''', gentiles could fully assimilate into the Israelite community.Some scholars interpret sons of Israel as citizens of the Israelite community, especially after Israel's biological family transitioned from a clan to a society. In fact, there is evidence of gentiles assimilating into the Israelite community.
Whilst the Israelites called themselves the sons of Jacob, some scholars interpret this as citizens of the Israelite community, especially after Israel's biological family transitioned from a clan to a society. Contemporary ethnicities in the ancient Near East similarly named themselves this way. Likewise, tribal membership in Israel was likely based on one's self-declared allegiance or residency within an assigned tribal territory.
Alternatively, the Israelites were a religious group that adhered to Yahwism and that their ethnic identity was based on 'covenantal circumcision' rather than ancestry.
The Israelites trace their ancestors to Jacob, who in turn descended from Abraham. Abraham was formerly a native of Ur Kaśdim, whose location is hotly contested. Some scholars argue that it is located in lower Mesopotamia whilst others locate it further north in upper Mesopotamia, around northern Syria or southeastern Turkey.
Theologians suggest that Canaan always belonged to the Israelites but was initially usurped by the descendants of Canaan, resulting in their conquest by Israel as divine punishment. Israelite presence in Canaan was also established before Joshua's conquests according to a few biblical traditions.
The history of the Israelite people can be divided into these categories, according to the Hebrew Bible:
Before the United Monarchy
During the United Monarchy
Division of Israel and Judah
Exilic period
Persian period
File:Stiftshuette Modell Timnapark.jpg|thumb|Model of the Tabernacle constructed under the auspices of Moses, in Timna Park, Israel|upright=1.15Historical timeline
Emergence of the Israelite culture
Efforts to confirm the biblical ethnogenesis of Israel through archaeology have largely been abandoned as unproductive. Many scholars see the traditional narratives as national myths with little historical value, but some posit that a small group of exiled Egyptians contributed to the Exodus narrative. William G. Dever cautiously identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph, while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with the Tribe of Levi. Josephus quoting Manetho identifies them with the Hyksos. Other scholars believe that the Exodus narrative was a "collective memory" of several events from the Bronze Age.In addition, it is unlikely that the Israelites overtook the southern Levant by force, according to archaeological evidence. Instead, they branched out of indigenous Canaanite peoples that long inhabited the region, which included Syria, ancient Israel, and the Transjordan region. Their culture was monolatristic, with a primary focus on Yahweh worship, but after the Babylonian exile, it became monotheistic, with partial influence from Zoroastrianism. The latter decisively separated the Israelites from other Canaanites. The Israelites used the Canaanite script and communicated in a Canaanite language known as Biblical Hebrew. The language's modern descendant is today the only surviving dialect of the Canaanite languages. Genetic studies show that contemporary ethnicities in the Levant were, like Israel, distinguished by their unique cultures, due to their descent from a common ancestral stock.File:Canaanites and Shasu Leader captives from Ramses III's tile collection; By Niv Lugassi.png|thumb|Ramesses III prisoner tiles depicting precursors of the Israelites in Canaan: Canaanites from city-states and a Shasu leader.|upright=0.7
Several theories exist for the origins of historical Israelites. Some believe they descend from raiding groups, itinerant nomads such as Habiru and Shasu or impoverished Canaanites, who were forced to leave wealthy urban areas and live in the highlands. Gary Rendsburg argues that some archaic biblical traditions and other circumstantial evidence point to the Israelites emerging from the Shasu and other seminomadic peoples from the desert regions south of the Levant, later settling in the highlands of Canaan. The prevailing academic opinion is that the Israelites were a mixture of peoples predominately indigenous to Canaan, with additional input from an Egyptian matrix of peoples, which most likely inspired the Exodus narrative. Israel's demographics were similar to the demographics of Ammon, Edom, Moab and Phoenicia.
Besides their focus on Yahweh worship, Israelite cultural markers were defined by body, food, and time, including male circumcision, avoidance of pork consumption and marking time based on the Exodus, the reigns of Israelite kings, and Sabbath observance. The first two markers were observed by neighbouring west Semites besides the Philistines, who were of Mycenaean Greek origin. As a result, intermarriage with other Semites was common. But what distinguished Israelite circumcision from non-Israelite circumcision was its emphasis on 'correct' timing. Israelite circumcision also served as a mnemonic sign for the circumcised, where their 'unnatural' erect circumcised penis would remind them to behave differently in sexual matters. Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen suggests that Israelite identity was based on faith and adherence to sex-appropriate commandments. For men, it was circumcision. For women, it was ritual sacrifice after childbirth.
Genealogy was another ethnic marker. While it was likely that Israelite identity was not exclusively based on blood descent, the Israelites used genealogy to engage in narcissism of small differences but also, self-criticism since their ancestors included morally questionable characters such as Jacob. Both these traits represented the "complexities of the Jewish soul".
Names were significant in Israelite culture and indicated one's destiny and inherent character. Thus, a name change indicated a 'divine transformation' in one's 'destines, characters and natures'. These beliefs aligned with the Near Eastern cultural milieu, where names were 'intimately bound up with the very essence of being and inextricably intertwined with personality'.
In terms of appearance, rabbis described the Biblical Jews as being "midway between black and white" and having the "color of the boxwood tree". Assuming Yurco's debated claim that the Israelites are depicted in reliefs from Merneptah's temple at Karnak is correct, the early Israelites may have wore the same attire and hairstyles as non-Israelite Canaanites. Dissenting from this, Anson Rainey argued that the Israelites in the reliefs looked more similar to the Shasu. Based on biblical literature, it is implied that the Israelites distinguished themselves from peoples like the Babylonians and Egyptians by not having long beards and chin tufts. However, these fashion practices were upper class customs.