Mesopotamiaand Judaism

Theme: Order Through Law

Lsn 16

Part 1: Mesopotamia

ID & SIG:

• Babylon, Code of Hammurabi, cuneiform, Epic of Gilgamesch, lex talionis, metallurgy, temple communities, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, wheel

Mesopotamia• Greek for “land

between the rivers”– Tigris and Euphrates– Modern-day Iraq

Social Hierarchy

Social Hierarchy

• Kings and nobles originally won their positions by community election based on valor and success as warriors– Soon royal status become hereditary– Nobles were mostly members of the royal family

• Closely allied with the ruling elites were priests and priestesses, many who were younger relatives of the rulers– Lived in temple communities

Social Hierarchy

• Free commoners worked mostly as peasant cultivators in the countryside on land owned by their families, although some worked in cities

• Dependent clients usually worked on agricultural estates owned by others– Both free commoners and dependent clients

paid taxes to support the ruling classes, military, and temple communities

Social Hierarchy

• Slaves came from:– Prisoners of war– Convicted criminals– Heavily indebted individuals who sold themselves into

slavery to satisfy their obligations

• Patriarchal society– Authority over public and private affairs vested in

adult men– Law recognized men as heads of households and had

disproportionate punishments for men and women

Religion and Education

Religion and Education• Polytheism

– The ancient Mesopotamians worshipped hundreds of gods, each with his/her own name and sphere of activity.

– Every city had its own patron god or goddess, and there were also deities connected with various professions such as scribes and builders.

– Individual people also had their own personal god who protected them and interceded for them with the great deities.

 

Enki, god of water

Religion and Education

• Kings often portrayed as offspring of gods or gods themselves

• Priests intervened with the gods to ensure good fortune for their communities– In exchange, priests and priestesses lived in

temple communities and received offerings of food, drink, and clothing from the city inhabitants

– Temples also generated income and work

Ziggurats

• Ziggurats were huge stepped structures with a temple on top– Built in honor of the

city’s god (other gods might have smaller temples)

– Intended to reach nearer to the heavens

Tower of Babel

Epic of Gilgamesh

• Classic example of Mesopotamian literature• Began in the Sumerian city-states, but the entire

epic represents the work of compilers during the days of the Babylonian empire

• Originally written on 12 clay tablets in cuneiform script

• Recounts experiences of Gilgamesh and Enkidu– Gilgamesh was the legendary king of Uruk, ca. 3000

B.C., and Enkidu was a wild-man, raised by animals that became the friend of Gilgamesh after they fought.

Epic of Gilgamesh

• Principle vehicle for Mesopotamian reflection on moral issues– Friendship– Relations between humans

and the gods– The meaning of life and

death

• Taught there is no afterlife– Death is dark, dank, and

inert

Code of Hammurabi• Hammurabi (King of

Babylonian Empire from 1792 to 1750 B.C.) maintained control of empire by a code of law

• Claimed the gods had chosen him “to promote the welfare of the people,… to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and evil, [so] that the strong might not oppress the weak, to rise like the sun over the people, and to light up the land.”

Code of Hammurabi

• High standards of behavior and stern punishments for violators

• Death penalty for murder, theft, fraud, false accusations, sheltering of runaway slaves, failure to obey royal orders, adultery, and incest

• Civil laws regulating prices, wages, commercial dealings, marital relationships, and the conditions of slavery

Code of Hammurabi

• Relied on lex talionis– the law of retaliation– Offenders suffered punishments resembling

their violations• If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye

shall be put out. [ An eye for an eye ] (196)

• If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken. (197)

• If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. [ A tooth for a tooth ] (200)

Part 2: Judaism

ID & SIG:

• Abraham, Canaan, covenant, diaspora, Joshua, Kingdom of David, Kingdom of Solomon, Moses, Passover, Talmud, Temple, Ten Commandments, Torah, Yahweh, Yom Kippur

Abraham

• Originally from the Sumerian city of Ur• Migrated to Palestine around 1850 B.C. on God’s

command (Genesis 12:1)• God established a covenant with Abraham (Genesis

17:7-8)– “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between

me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

• It is from this passage that modern Jews claim Israel belongs to them

Moses

• Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt to Canaan, the land God had promised them (Exodus 12: 31)

• Along the way, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 1-17)

Statue of Moses by Michelangelo

Ten Commandments

• I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

• II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

• III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

• IV. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

• V. Honor thy father and thy mother.

• VI. Thou shalt not kill.• VII. Thou shalt not

commit adultery.• VIII. Thou shalt not

steal.• IX. Thou shalt not bear

false witness against thy neighbor.

• X. Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor's.

Yahweh

• The God of the Abraham and Moses was Yahweh– The only god; all others were false imposters

(monotheism)– A personal god who expected the Israelites to

worship him alone and to observe high moral and ethical standards

Torah

• Between 1000 and 400 B.C., Israelite religious leaders compiled Yahweh’s teachings into the Torah– What Christians call the Old Testament

• Yahweh would punish or reward both the individuals and the community based on how well they observed his commandments– Many would see the exile imposed by the New

Babylonian Empire in 586 B.C. as an example of Yahweh’s punishment

Rabbis

• Rabbi means teacher or master

• They are Jewish religious officials trained in Jewish law, ritual, and tradition

• The synagogue is the Jewish place of assembly for prayer and study– It is not required for a synagogue to have a

rabbi, but if it does, he is appointed by the lay leadership

Talmud• An authoritative record of

rabbinic discussions on Jewish laws, Jewish ethics, customs, legends and stories

• Fundamental source of legislation, customs, case histories and moral exhortations – For example, the Torah

does not prohibit pronouncing the name of God, but the Talmud does (Talmud, Sanhedrin 90a)

Joshua• Joshua succeeded Moses as

the one who will lead the Israelites into the Promised Land

• A series of battles occurred between the invading Israelites and the native Canaanites: – Jericho (Joshua 5:13–6:27) – Ai and Bethel (Joshua 8:1-

29) – Against an alliance of

southern cities (Joshua 10:1-43)

– Against an alliance of northern cities (Joshua 11:1-15)

Conquest of Canaan

• Formative event in Israel’s history– Now the Israelites could describe themselves

as the inhabitants of the land God had promised to their forefathers.

• Israel is now a land, not just a people– But this event will also set up continuing

conflict between the Jews who claim the land is given them by God and the Palestinians who are displaced from it

Kingdoms

• Kingdom of David (1000-970 B.C.)– Extended the kingdom

by war– Made Jerusalem the

political capital– Drew up plans for the

Temple

• Kingdom of Solomon (970-930 B.C.) – Asserted “federal

power” over “tribal power”

• Divided the country into 12 taxable units

– Preserved the kingdom by peace (David had extended it by war)

Temple• Under King Solomon, the

Jews built an elaborate temple in their new capital of Jerusalem– Housed the Ark of the

Covenant and the Ten Commandments

• Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D.

• In 638 A.D., Muslim invaders captured Jerusalem and eventually built two mosques on the site of the old Jewish temple, including the Dome of the Rock

Jerusalem: A Divided City

• The Dome of the Rock is the holiest Islamic shrine in Jerusalem.

• It stands over the rock from which Muslims believe Muhammad rose to heaven.

• For Jews, the shrine stands on the traditional location of the first Jewish temple, the Temple of Solomon.

• Jews believe the site to be where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Diaspora

• After King Solomon, tribal tensions led to a division of the larger kingdom into Israel in the north and Judah in the south

• Eventually both Israel and Judah came under foreign domination

• As a result of these various conquests, the Jewish people were displaced from their homeland

• Babylonian, Archaemenid, Alexandrian, Seleucid, and Roman regimes all ruled over the Jewish Diaspora

Diaspora

• All these regimes embraced many different ethnic and religious groups and mostly tolerated the cultural preferences of their subjects so long as the communities paid their taxes and refrained from rebellion

• However they sometimes created state cults which honored their emperors as gods

• This created a problem for the monotheistic Jews

18th Century icon of Shadraeh, Meshaeh, and Abed-nego in the furnace (Daniel 3:8-12) and Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:10-13)

Major Jewish Holy Days

• Rosh Hashanah – First of the year– Begins the Days of Awe which are a time of

introspection culminating in Yom Kippur

• Yom Kippur– “Day of Atonement” for sins man commits

against God

Major World ReligionsSource: About, Inc

http://christianity.about.com/library/weekly/blreligiontop.htm

Religion Members

Christianity 2 BillionIslam 1.2 Billion Hinduism 785 Million Buddhism 360 Million Judaism 17 Million Sikhism 16 MillionBaha‘i 5 MillionConfucianism 5 MillionJainism 4 MillionShintoism 3 MillionWicca .7 MillionZoroastrianism .2 Million

Divisions of Judaism Today

• Orthodox– Jewish law comes from God and cannot be changed– Torah is the fundamental text

• Conservative– Accepts the binding nature of Jewish law but believes

that the law can change– Use the Talmud along with the Torah

• Reformed– Most liberal (i. e., open to change)– The process of reinterpretation of the Torah to the

language of today is ongoing, and that every Jew has a stake and a role in that restatement and extension.

Ideas Unifying Judaism

• One people (Abraham is their forefather)

• The Chosen People (holy people)

• Covenant relationship (Promised Land)

• Temple/synagogue

• Torah and Talmud

Jewish Concept of the Messiah

• Hebrew word is moshiach (annointed)• The moshiach will be chosen by God to put an

end to all evil in the world, rebuild the Temple, bring the exiles back to Israel, and usher in the world to come.

• “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the moshiach, and though he may tarry, still I await him every day.” (Principle 12 of Rambam’s 13 Principle’s of Faith) – Rambam is Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, one of the

greatest medieval Jewish scholars

Afterlife

• Olam Ha-Ba is Hebrew for “the World to Come” and also the term used to refer to the spiritual afterlife.

• When the moshiach comes to initiate the perfect world of peace and prosperity, the righteous dead will be brought back to life and given the opportunity to experience the perfected world that their righteousness helped to create. The wicked dead will not be resurrected.

• Jews prepare for the Olam Ha-Ba through study of the Torah and good deeds

Next

• Christianity