Arab-Israeli Conflict
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Fall and the Promise
1. The Fall
a. Before the fall, man had the “image of God” and was able to perfectly honor God, manage His creation, and serve his fellowmen.
b. After the Fall, man was totally corrupted and an enemy of God, doomed to eternal punishment.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Fall and the Promise
2. The Promise
a. The promise was that a descendent of the woman would restore the damage done by Satan. This is what Eve understood.
b. This was also the understanding of the people of Israel.
c. Islam does not believe that God sent or will send a Savior. Allah will save or not save at his own discretion according to the “will of Allah.”
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Abram
1. Family of Shem
a. Shem was a son of Noah. The word “Semite” comes from the name Shem. The Hebrew letter ש can be pronounced either as “s” or “sh.”
b. The Bible gives us the lineage between Shem and Abram. We do not know whether the lineage is complete.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Abram
2. Family of Terah
a. Abram, Nahor, and Haran were sons of Terah.
b. Sarai was the wife of Abram and the daughter of Terah but had a different mother than Abram.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Call of Abram
1. The LORD called Abram to move from Haran to Canaan.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Call of Abram
2. The three-fold Promise
a. The LORD would make Abraham great.
b. The promise of the Savior, a blessing for all nations.
c. The land of Canaan.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Fighting for the Land
1. The capture of Lot, a member of Abram’s family who had foolishly moved into Sodom, forced Abram to enter battle to rescue him.
2. Abram acted as a type of Christ who will come to rescue foolish mankind from the life of sin which they entered through the actions of their first parents.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Melchizedek
1. The details of Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek
a. Melchizedek brought Abram bread and wine.
b. He blessed Abram.
c. Abram gave him a tithe of the booty because he was a priest of the LORD.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Melchizedek
2. The significance of Melchizedek
a. Jesus was a high priest, just as Melchizedek, who was called directly by God.
b. Jesus, as Melchizedek, had no priestly lineage and will endure forever.
c. Melchizedek was greater than Abram whom he blessed.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Dramatic Ceremony
1. Abram’s Concern
a. Abram had followed God’s command and moved from Ur to Canaan.
b. He had been in Canaan 10 years, but he still did not have a son who would be the beginning of the great nation that the LORD had promised to make him into.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Dramatic Ceremony
2. Serious covenants require serious commitments
a. The divided animals indicated that the party that broke the covenant was liable for serious punishment.
b. Only God passed between the animal halves, indicating that He was making a one-side covenant with Abram, in which he was guaranteeing Abram the promised blessings.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Alternative Plan
1. Sarai’s fear for her situation
a. To get a son, Abram might become desperate enough to marry a second wife which, even if he did not divorce Sarai, would put her into an unfavorable position as the son grew to manhood.
b. Adoption would not fulfil God’s promise that the child would be his descendant.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Alternative Plan
2. Surrogate motherhood
a. Sarai opted to offer her servant as a surrogate mother for Abram’s child, which was hoped to be a son. God could have frustrated this plan by giving Hagar only daughters.
b. There was no medical means available to conceive surrogate children; it had to be done through sexual intercourse.
c. Because Hagar was Sarai’s slave and Abram was the child’s father, Sarai could adopt the child as her own.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Circumcision
1. The covenant of circumcision
a. Circumcision was a covenant of blood. Blood was sacred in the sight of God, so this shedding of blood indicated that the one being circumcised was being dedicated to the LORD.
b. With circumcision, Abram also received a renewal of the promise that he would have a son by Sarai.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Circumcision
2. Name changes cemented this appearance of God
a. Abram became Abraham, the father of many nations.
b. Sarai became Sarah, who would no longer be barren but fruitful and joyous.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Birth of Isaac
1. Ishmael, the heir
a. Since the time of his birth, Ishmael had been regarded as Abraham’s heir. His position had been accepted by Abraham’s considerable group of herdsmen, and they had probably treated him as their future leader.
b. Islam teaches that Ishmael was the child of promise. As the oldest son of Abraham, he was entitled to the blessing promised to Abraham, including the land of Canaan (i.e., Palestine).
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Birth of Isaac
2. Isaac, the new heir
a. Isaac was born when Abraham was a hundred and Sarah was ninety.
b. Sarah began to see the danger her adopted son posed to the inherence of her natural son and herself if Abraham should die in the near future. She demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be expelled from Abraham’s community.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Birth of Isaac
2. Isaac, the new heir
c. Islam teaches that Sarah conspired against Ishmael out of jealousy. After he was driven out, they believe that he went to Arabia where he became the father of the Arabs. Based on the promises that God made to Abraham, they believe that they are the rightful and exclusive owners of Palestine.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Sacrifice of Isaac
1. The incomprehensible faith of Abraham
a. Abraham accepted God’s request to sacrifice his most valuable possession, his heir, without a complaint.
b. Abraham fully believed that God would somehow bring Isaac through the sacrificial process unharmed to produce the great family that God had promised.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Sacrifice of Isaac
2. The providing of a substitute
a. God waited until the last moment to provide a substitute for Isaac. He could have acted sooner, but God wants us to realize that He knows the correct times and seasons.
b. The offering was one of God’s sheep, it did not come from the flocks of Abraham, so this rescue was completely God’s work as is our salvation.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Sacrifice of Isaac
2. The providing of a substitute
c. The choice of the mountains of Moriah is significant as the place for God to ask Abraham to make the sacrifice. In Jewish tradition it was the place for the altar of burnt offerings in the temple. It could just as easily have been Mount Calvary.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
The Sacrifice of Isaac
3. Muslims and this sacrifice
a. Muslims believe that it was Ishmael that Abraham was ordered to offer, not Isaac.
b. They therefore also covet the place where the sacrifice was allegedly offered and have built the Dome of the Rock over it.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
A Wife for Isaac
1. Remaining Faithful
a. It was imperative that Isaac remain faithful to the LORD because he had been chosen as the ancestor of the promised Savior.
b. Because the number of believers in Canaan was limited to Abraham’s household, a bride from the neighboring peoples might facilitate leading the servants and finally Isaac into idolatry.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
A Wife for Isaac
2. Ownership of the land
a. The promise to Abraham to receive the land of Canaan was a promise whose fulfillment was in the distant future. If Isaac’s descendants merged into the people of the land, his claim would become questionable.
b. Isaac’s family needed to be constantly aware that they were not to put down roots. The LORD was going to send them into exile for 400 years, so they needed to maintain the mindset of a sojourner.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Jacob and Esau
1. The competition between Jacob and Esau
a. Esau was born first, and Jacob coveted Esau’s birthright.
b. Jacob took advantage of Esau to have Esau give him the birthright.
c. Jacob then tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing of the firstborn.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Jacob and Esau
2. The result of the conflict
a. Jacob fled to live with his uncle Laban.
b. When Jacob returned, he and Esau made peace.
c. Esau left the land of Canaan to Jacob.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Jacob and Esau
3. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel
a. Jacob was forced to wrestle with God in human form to dramatize his life’s mission.
b. Israel means one who wrestles with God.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Abraham and his Legacy
Jacob and Esau
┌─────────────────┴───────────┐
┌───┴───────┐ │ │ Ishmael Zimran
│ │ │ │ (Arabs) Jokshan
Lot Milcah ‒ ‒ ┬ ‒ ‒ Nahor │ Medan
│ │ │ Midian
├─────┐ ├───────┐ │ Ishbak
D1 D2 Laban Rebecca ‒ ‒ ┬ ‒ ‒ Isaac Shuah
│ │ │ │
Moab Ammon ┌───┼───────────┐ └───────────┬─────────┐
Arab-Israeli Conflict
End of Lesson 1
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Leaving the Land of Canaan
1. Abraham warned
a. During His great covenant ceremony, the Lord not only gave Abraham the promise of the land of Canaan, but He also told him that his family would have to endure exile for 400 years before it received the right to the land.
b. Abraham recognized the importance both of his family not becoming absorbed into the Canaanite culture and of their not leaving Canaan without God’s permission.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Leaving the Land of Canaan
1. Abraham warned
c. Isaac also realized the danger of the heir of the promise becoming absorbed into the local people, but he took the risk of sending Jacob to the land of Haran for safety and to find a wife.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Leaving the Land of Canaan
2. Jacob’s move to Egypt
a. Jacob realized the need to return to Canaan after his 20-year stay in Haran to claim the promise of the land.
b. Jacob’s son slaughtered the men of Shechem because of an incident involving Dinah.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Leaving the Land of Canaan
2. Jacob’s move to Egypt
c. Like Abraham and Isaac, Jacob was drawn to go to Egypt in times of famine in Canaan, where they were dependent on wells and streams for the survival of their herds.
d. Nevertheless, Jacob feared leaving Canaan until he received the assurance from the Lord that such a departure was in harmony with His plan.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Exodus from Egypt
1. The long ordeal in Egypt
a. The time in Egypt was equivalent to 16 generations, giving the Israelites the opportunity to multiply in a land where the danger of intermarriage was less than in Canaan.
b. After a while they became enslaved to the government, which felt threatened by their growing numbers.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Exodus from Egypt
2. The hearts of the Israelites
a. Despite their slavery, the Israelites became accustomed to their environment and the relative abundance of food.
b. While the Israelites cried out to the Lord and perhaps other gods for deliverance, they had forgotten much about the nature and the worship of the Lord.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Forty Years of Wandering
1. The lack of food and water
a. The desert east of the Red Sea was completely different than the watered lands of Egypt.
b. The people complained about their lack of familiar food and of readily available water.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Forty Years of Wandering
2. The lack of trust in the Lord
a. Although the Lord was visibly present in pillar of cloud & fire, the people continually acted as if He were not concerned about them and suffered His punishments.
b. When they refused the opportunity to enter Canaan, the Lord finally had had enough. He decided to kill all those who came out of Egypt in the desert over 40 years.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Blessings and Curses
1. The blessing for obeying the Lord’s commandments
a. The blessing would extend to the crops of the fields, to the wombs of women and cattle, to all forms of industry, and to the goods in their storehouses.
b. The Lord would cause Israel’s enemies to be defeated and be scattered. Everyone would see that the Lord was blessing his people and be afraid to harm Israel.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Blessings and Curses
2. The curses that would negate even the promise of the land of Canaan
a. The Lord would curse their fields, their herds, their industry, and their wives. Nothing they applied their hands to would prosper.
b. The people would be afflicted with every disease. There would be no relief from their personal and national misfortune.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Blessings and Curses
2. The curses that would negate even the promise of the land of Canaan
c. Israel’s enemies would overrun them, and all their military plans would fall apart as they ran from the neighboring nations.
d. If all this failed to bring them to worship the Lord, He would drive them out of Canaan.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Taking the Land
1. East of the Jordan
a. The Israelites fought the Amorite kings, Og and Bashan, took their land, and added it to the land that they had been promised west of the Jordan.
b. Although they were acting at the Lord’s command, their complete destruction of all the people in the lands they conquered has been used as an excuse for genocide ever since.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Taking the Land
2. West of the Jordan
a. Joshua’s conquest of the land of Canaan began with the destruction of Jericho and continued through the south of Canaan when the local kings joined forces against Israel.
b. The campaign in the north of Canaan quickly yielded similar results.
c. Most of the Israelite tribes, however, failed to continue the struggle to rid the land of foreign people.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Times of the Judges
1. The period of Israel’s faithfulness
a. Joshua challenged the Israelites to be faithful to the Lord.
b. While Joshua’s contemporaries remained alive, the people did continue to be faithful because they had seen the mighty works of the Lord.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Times of the Judges
2. The repeated cycle of falling away and rescue
a. The Israelites abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths.
b. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel. He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them.
c. The people of Israel cried to the LORD for help.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Times of the Judges
2. The repeated cycle of falling away and rescue
d. The Lord raised up judges. The Lord was with each judge and saved them from their enemies during all the days of that judge.
e. After the death of a judge, the Israelites would turn back and become more corrupt than their fathers. Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The United Kingdom
1. Saul
a. Saul was a man initially “small in his own eyes,” but he eventually became arrogant.
b. He would not wait for the Lord, but Saul rushed in without Him. The Lord deserted him, and he turned to spiritists. The Lord destroyed him by the hand of the Philistines.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The United Kingdom
2. David
a. David was called to shepherd God’s people as he had cared for his father’s sheep. During his whole life he remained faithful to the Lord in the big things.
b. He, however, continued to fall prey to serious sins which often caused harm to himself, his family, and the nation of Israel.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The United Kingdom
3. Solomon
a. Solomon gained the kingship after a struggle with his brothers, but he built a temple for the Lord, and the Lord gave him tremendous blessings.
b. His involvement with foreign women, however, led him into idolatry and caused the Lord to allow the Israelites to split into two nations—Israel and Judah.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Apostacy of Israel
1. The “sin of Jeroboam”
a. Jeroboam I, fearing that if people went to Jerusalem to worship, they would return to the house of David, made calf idols and placed them at Bethel and Dan to be Israel’s gods.
b. All the kings after Jeroboam I followed his practices and over time added more false gods to their pantheon.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Apostacy of Israel
2. Chaos in Israel
a. Murder to gain the throne became common, and the whole nation wallowed in grievous sins.
b. The Lord sent Elijah and Elisha to call the people back to Himself, but the people remained dedicated to their gods of convenience.
c. The Lord finally gave up on Israel and allowed Assyria to scatter the people of Israel throughout the Middle East and to repopulate the land with heathen people from elsewhere.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Apostacy of Judah
1. The House of David
a. All the kings of Judah were descendants of David, although a daughter of Ahab from Israel temporarily seized the government for several years.
b. The kings of Judah were a mixed bag, with some of them remaining generally faithful to the Lord and others following idols. Idolatry continued to be practiced throughout Judah.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Apostacy of Judah
2. The fall of the House of David
a. Even the good kings of Judah began to rely on alliances with foreign nations for their protection rather than on the Lord.
b. Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, created mayhem in Jerusalem, killing many innocent people. His reign was so awful that the LORD decided that He would let Judah fall.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Babylonian Captivity
1. A “license to sin”
a. The people of Judah believed the Lord would always preserve them because His temple was in Jerusalem.
b. Their love of pleasure was so wanton that religion was unimportant.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Babylonian Captivity
2. Crushing the reliance on self
a. God needed to so beat them down that they could not dream of raising themselves up.
b. God was setting the stage for an “impossible” restoration of the Jews.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Unfaithful Remnant
1. The decree that permitted the return
a. It was the Lord’s doing as part of the plan of salvation.
b. Most of the people were not interested in returning.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Unfaithful Remnant
2. The people were not driven to serve the Lord
a. They built their houses in preference to the temple and the city walls.
b. They enslaved the poor among their own people.
c. They intermarried with the neighboring peoples.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
The Curse of Silence
1. When people stop listening to the Word of God, He has indicated that He will stop giving it. The Jews were left to their own counsels when they rejected those of the Lord.
2. Those who did believe needed to trust God the way like Abraham had and wait patiently. Instead, many developed their own theology and their own military strategy for survival.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
A People Unprepared
1. A political savior
a. The common people desired a savior from the Romans, and this shaped their ideas of the Messiah.
b. The religious leaders had a greater concern over the preservation of their positions. While embracing liberation, they were not willing to bet on the wrong leader.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
A People Unprepared
2. A religious Messiah?
a. While some people understood the need for a Savior from sin, many undoubtedly thought that their justification before God was taken care of by the temple rituals.
b. The religious leaders were concerned that the “prophet” predicted by Moses would change the religious organization and cost them their positions.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Old Testament Israel
Crucifixion of the Messiah
1. People see things in the context of what they expect to see or hope to see. Jesus was too poor and had no standing in the religious community, so He could not be the Savior.
2. False messiahs could cause division and rebellion within the Jewish community, thereby giving a reason to the Romans to assume a greater role in the governance of Jewish society. Such people needed to be eliminated.
Arab-Israeli Conflict
End of Lesson 2
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Priests’ Behavior
1. The unstable religious environment
a. The kings of Judah were unsteady in supporting the worship of the LORD.
b. Priests could fall out of favor and even be killed by the kings if they opposed worship innovations.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Priests’ Behavior
2. The priests became worldly
a. With the unfaithfulness of the people, there were fewer offerings from the people to sustain the priests’ income.
b. The priests not only became involved in commercial dealings, but they took advantage of their position to cheat, steal, and commit other crimes.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Manufacturing of Doctrine
1. Lack of priestly leadership
a. The fewer the number of people attending festivals, the smaller the audience the priests had for teaching God’s Word.
b. The sacrificial role of the priests became so mundane that people were ready to look elsewhere for the new and exciting.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Manufacturing of Doctrine
2. The false prophets
a. When the priests failed to do their duty and the kings strayed, the LORD sent prophets to warn the people of God’s wrath.
b. Some saw “profit” in the prophet business and joined without any call from the LORD. These people used alleged dreams and visions to peddle their ideas, including “enhanced” religious practices.
c. Kings were always looking for yes-men, and false prophets filled the role nicely.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Sadducees
1. Who they were
a. The Sadducees came largely from the priests and Levites.
b. They controlled the office of high priest and therefore were the people that the Romans felt that they had to deal with.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Sadducees
2. What they believed
a. Priestly power came from the writings of Moses. They therefore accepted only the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
b. They rejected the prophets who, after all, frequently attacked the laxity of the priests.
c. They did not believe in the resurrection and a heavenly kingdom.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Pharisees
1. The prophets of the captivity
a. Self-appointed prophets had arisen before Judah fell. The market for such prophets increased during the captivity because the religious establishment was in disarray.
b. Laymen arose as teachers during the captivity, first of their families and then of their neighbors.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Pharisees
2. The rise of the synagogue
a. Jews in the diaspora could not readily come to the new temple once it was built, so they set up their own schools called “synagogues.”
b. The teachers in these synagogues were called “rabbis.”
c. Leading rabbis developed cult followings by establishing higher standards of behavior. These gradually grew into the religious party called the “Pharisees.”
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Rise of Christianity
1. The coming of the Messiah changed everything
a. Even for the Jews who did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, his coming threatened the Jewish establishment because it made people reexamine what they were being taught.
b. That Jesus’ followers hung together after his crucifixion meant that there would be no return to business as usual.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Rise of Christianity
2. The fear of competition
a. To the old school Sadducees, the loss of the temple rituals would diminish their wealth and influence. They feared that the Romans would begin dealing with another group.
b. To the Pharisees, Judaism was about regulations. The promise of free salvation would attract many and cost them disciples.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Efforts to Halt Christianity
1. Threats
a. Because synagogues were community centers, religious leaders threw people out of the synagogues to socially isolate them.
b. Verbal threats of physical punishment or actual beatings were used to try to erode Christian influence by discouraging weaker members from staying the course.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Efforts to Halt Christianity
2. Hunting down Christians
a. The religious leaders had temple police and sanctified goon squads that they could send out to round up and torture Christians and their sympathizers.
b. They enlisted the help of the local authorities and the Romans.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Efforts to Subvert Christianity
1. Enforcing Jewish customs
a. Circumcision dated back to the time of Abraham and was a strong lever to force Jews to remain loyal to Judaism.
b. By pressuring Jews to keep the Law of Moses even after they converted to Christianity, Jewish religious leaders hoped to win them back for Judaism.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Efforts to Subvert Christianity
2. A more complete “gospel”
a. Jewish “Christians” tried to pressure Gentile Christians into adopting Jewish customs (Judaizers).
b. Jews claiming to have a more complete gospel than Paul tried to win converts to a message with more pizzazz than Christianity (the beginnings of Gnosticism).
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Fall of Jerusalem
1. The First Jewish Rebellion
a. Jews irritated the Romans by failing to pay taxes and attacking Roman citizens.
b. The Romans responded by plundering the temple to compensate for the taxes.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Fall of Jerusalem
1. The First Jewish Rebellion
c. The Jews began an open revolt across Palestine in AD 66. The Romans crushed the revolt in the north, leading to civil war as the northerners fled to Jerusalem.
d. The Romans surrounded Jerusalem and wore down the divided resistance.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Fall of Jerusalem
2. The loss of the temple
a. The Roman commander Titus wanted to permanently end Rome’s troubles with the Jews by destroying their center of worship.
b. Many of the Sadducees and the priestly class perished in Jerusalem, which allowed the synagogue-based Pharisees to become the dominant Jewish sect.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The New Testament
1. The Jews lost their Roman allies
a. The Jewish revolt cost the Jewish leadership their ability to label the Christians “troublemakers” who the Romans needed to destroy.
b. The lack of unity in the Jewish revolt weakened the Jewish spiritual arguments against Christianity as the logical development of Judaism.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The New Testament
2. “People of the book”
a. The Jewish claim to being the chosen people relied heavily on their ability to appeal to a written document they could claim came from God.
b. As the New Testament took shape and much of it became universally accepted in the church, the Christians had a unifying book of their own written by Jewish authors, which was appealing to displaced Jews.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Mishnah
1. The purpose of the Mishnah
a. The destruction of the temple left the Jews with no uniting element. The Pharisees, who had become the dominant party in Judaism, needed to create such an element.
b. They concluded that reviving the Mosaic worship practices was impossible, so they needed to refocus the Jewish culture on some element that would make Judaism special.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Mishnah
2. The content of the Mishnah
a. The Mishnah contains the “secret” oral teachings that are alleged to have been given to Moses. Like the secret knowledge of the Gnostics, it was supposed to be the real way to God.
b. Some of the Mishnah is commentary on the Hebrew Bible, some fills in apparent gaps in the Old Testament teachings, and some is completely new material.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Mishnah
2. The content of the Mishnah
c. This knowledge of God’s will that the Christians did not have, even though they had the Old Testament, was claimed to be what showed that the Jews were truly God’s chosen people.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Church Councils
1. The Arian heresy
a. Arius claimed that the Son of God was God the Father’s first creation and therefore not eternally God.
b. This claim divided Christians and strengthened the Jewish position that Jesus was not really God but a liar and not the real Messiah.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Church Councils
2. The Nicene Creed
a. The creed of Nicaea supported the claim of Jesus that He was indeed the Son of God from eternity and therefore the Messiah.
b. Jews certainly encouraged the Arian and other heresies in an effort to weaken the Christian appeal among Jews. This effort became even more urgent when Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire in AD 394.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Church Councils
2. The Nicene Creed
c. The Jewish leaders realized that they need a stronger platform than the Mishnah to prevent gradually having all the Jews sucked into Christianity or other “pagan” religions.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Babylonian Talmud
1. The limitations of the Mishnah
a. The Mishnah gave the Jews laws which were subject to local interpretation. Like Christianity, Judaism developed into a number of different sects in the diaspora.
b. The unifying effects of the ecumenical councils on Christianity made the Mishnah inadequate to show the Jewish vision of the godly life.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Babylonian Talmud
2. The creation of the Talmud
a. After the Mishnah had been compiled, another document, called the “Gemara,” was created to apply the teachings of the Mishnah to all aspects of Jewish life.
b. To create the official standard of Judaism, religious scholars worked to pull the Mishnah and the Gemara together and fill in what might appear to be gaps.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Babylonian Talmud
2. The creation of the Talmud
c. The Babylonian Talmud was divided into 22 volumes because the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters (all consonants), and this is regarded as a special number in Judaism.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Persecution of the Jews
1. The persecutions
a. The Romans viewed the Jews as suspicious because they only worshiped one God and as troublemakers because they were rebellious, resisting assimilation.
b. Roman Catholic states viewed Jews as pagans and restricted their freedoms. Periodically there were pogroms, often ignored by secular authorities, aimed at killing or pillaging the Jews.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Persecution of the Jews
1. The persecutions
c. Jewish culture was more rigorous and better adapted to the creation of wealth. This caused people to suspect them of dishonesty and to discriminate against them.
d. The Dreyfus affair convinced many Jews that there was no way for them to assimilate and become accepted members of society.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Persecution of the Jews
1. The persecutions
e. The Holocaust was the culmination of a pan-European movement to blame problems with the Jews on racial rather than cultural issues. When Britain rejected Hitler’s request to deport all the Jews to Palestine, he pursued the “final solution.”
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
Persecution of the Jews
2. Zionism
a. Jews had been defying the British and immigrating to Palestine since World War I.
b. Numerous nations used World War II as a cover to exterminate Jews in Europe. Surviving Jews did not feel safe anywhere, so they wanted their own state.
c. Enough Jews finally reached Palestine to revolt against the British, who had a protectorate over Palestine, triggering the Jewish war of independence in 1948.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Modern State of Israel
1. The nominal state of Israel
a. Israel has an elected, parliamentary form of government.
b. About 80% of the Jewish population is secular rather than religious.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Modern State of Israel
2. The reality of Israel
a. The parliamentary districts are heavily gerrymandered to reduce Arab representation and to give representation to minor Jewish sects.
b. About 21% of the population is Arab, and these people have less extensive rights than Jews.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Christianity and Jewish Revisionism
The Modern State of Israel
2. The reality of Israel
c. Some laws, such as those regarding marriage and divorce, are in the hands of religious Jews.
d. An ultra-Zionist minority wants to reclaim all the land in Palestine for Israel and push out all the Arabs.
Arab-Israeli Conflict
End of Lesson 3
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Biblical References to Arabia
1. The ill-defined south
a. The people of the Old Testament generally regarded “Arabia” as the desert land to the south of Judah.
b. The Sinai peninsula was sometimes considered part of Arabia because of its dry climate. Political control of the whole area was always tentative.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Biblical References to Arabia
2. Land of raiders
a. Arabia was not the place that strong tribes chose as a homeland. The agriculture was poor, so tribes raiding northward and then fleeing southward for safety was common.
b. The LORD marked the tribes of Arabia for punishment as he did the other people who had attacked Israel and Judah.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Land of Arabia
1. The forbidding landscape
a. The greatest problem in Arabia is the lack of water in the form of streams and lakes. This prevents largescale agriculture.
b. Mountains and large arid regions make travel difficult. Travelers without knowledge of where to find water and food will not survive.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Land of Arabia
2. The lack of permanent settlements
a. Merchants travel to where there are customers and from where goods can be obtained. The lack of population centers discouraged outside merchants from venturing into Arabia where they might be attacked by locals.
b. Kings invade countries where there are people to tax and where they can find resources.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Mecca
1. Location
a. Mecca is located about 40 miles from the Red Sea in a place where enough water could be found for a permanent settlement.
b. It was conveniently located to act as a trading center for the nomadic tribes in southwestern Arabia, but far enough from the sea to discourage pirates from raiding it.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Mecca
2. A place of worship
a. Nomadic tribes found Mecca a convenient place to have their center of worship. The worship centered about the Ka’bah (Kaaba or “Cube”), which supposedly was the home of the gods they worshipped.
b. Religious activities meant money, so part of the population of Mecca lived off the worshippers who came at designated times during the year for religious festivals.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Mohammed
1. Biblical prophets
a. The great biblical prophets were all well-educated men, from Moses to Paul. They had a wide worldview for their era.
b. They had an accurate understanding of their mission from the time they were called. They recognized that they were part of God’s greater plan, and they respected that they were only messengers.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
Mohammed
2. Mohammed, the man
a. Mohammed was illiterate and relied on his memory to absorb things which he had heard. Because he was orphaned early and was moved around among family members, he was not educated and became an apprentice caravan trader.
b. Although he was poor, he was an honest worker, and he was proposed to by the rich twice-widowed businesswoman Khadija, who was his employer and 15 years his senior.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Prophet
1. The Jewish influence
a. Mohammed was greatly impressed by the Jews because they had a book which told them the word of God. He called them the “people of the book.”
b. He met Christians early in his travels and learned that they too had a book which guided their teachings. These “Christians,” however, did not accept the Nicene Creed.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Prophet
1. The Jewish influence
c. Mohammed came to believe in monotheism and concluded that the Arabs needed to become monotheistic and that they needed a book to bring this about. It did not occur to him that being illiterate, he was hardly the man to produce such a book.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Prophet
2. The influence of “Gabriel”
a. Mohammed had learned that prophets were called by God, so he knew that he required such a call, and he claimed that his call came from the Angel Gabriel.
b. The things supposedly related to him by Gabriel, however, showed that either his memory was faulty or that more likely he modified the biblical stories he had heard to give them a more Arabic flavor. In particular, he claimed that Ishmael, the alleged father of the Arabs, was Abraham’s true child of promise.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Prophet
2. The influence of “Gabriel”
c. While strongly stated, the initial suras (i.e., revelations) Mohammed supposedly received were intended to bring people to believe in a single god, whom Mohammed called “Allah.”
d. Mohammed found few followers in Mecca because he had no religious standing and because Mecca heavily depended on the polytheism of the nomads for its prosperity. When his uncle and protector died, he was forced to flee to Medina.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Warlord
1. The new start
a. The people of Medina were more willing to listen to Mohammed’s teachings, and he helped them settle their internal disputes.
b. A lack of funds, however, forced him to become a caravan raider. While he gained followers from the smaller tribes, his position was still precarious.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Warlord
2. The break with the Jews
a. Mohammed had initially believed the Jews would support his efforts as a prophet to the Arabs because it would bring Arabs to worship their God. He even had his followers initially pray facing Jerusalem.
b. The Jews regarded Mohammed as they regarded the Samaritans, that is, as someone who mixed God’s truth with his own ideas. He became hostile to the Jews as shown in the later suras he proclaimed.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Warlord
3. The use of force for religious purposes
a. Mohammed’s raids on caravans and his growing band of armed followers who were pressuring people from various tribes to join the Muslim faith were beginning to place economic pressure on Mecca. The Meccans sent an army to capture Medina and kill Mohammed. By a clever defense strategy, Mohammed saved the city.
b. With his reputation enhanced, Mohammed began to be bolder against those who rejected Islam. His band of armed warriors grew, and they dominated the region around Medina.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
His Final Years
1. The capture of Mecca
a. Although increasing, Mohammed’s followers were still not strong enough to attack Mecca or other strongly held positions. He therefore cut an alliance with the “infidels” that they could join his forces and keep the plunder they obtained from defeating his foes.
b. After a strategic truce, Mohammed marched on Mecca and took the city. He removed the foreign gods from the Kaaba. Most of the citizens of Mecca felt they had little choice but to accept Islam. In return, Mohammed made Mecca the center of pilgrimage for Muslims.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
His Final Years
2. The capture of Arabia
a. With bands of “infidels” as well as his faithful Muslims eager for more booty and converts, Muslim forces were sent to attack other cities in Arabia.
b. By the time of his death two years after the fall of Mecca, all of Arabia was at least nominally in the hands of Mohammed’s followers. Many of the infidels also officially joined Islam, although for most it was probably a marriage of convenience.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Rashidun Caliphates
1. The first four successors to Mohammed (called “caliphs”) were Abu Bakr (632-634), Omar (634-644), Uthman (644-656), and Ali (656-661).
2. The Rashidun Caliphate rapidly overran the Levant, the Transcaucasus, North Africa from Egypt to Tunisia, and Iran.
3. The caliphate then fell into civil war over who should succeed Uthman.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Umayyad Caliphates
1. Mu'awiya objected to the rule of Ali and began a civil war which ended in Ali’s death in 661. Mu'awiya then established the Umayyad Caliphate as a hereditary caliphate which lasted to 750.
2. The capital of the Muslim empire was moved to Damascus.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Umayyad Caliphates
3. The wars of expansion against the Byzantines resumed at the beginning of the 8th century. Muslims overran all North Africa, Hispania, western India, and Transoxiana.
4. The caliphate collapsed after numerous episodes of internal strife.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Shia
1. The Shia believe that Ali, the fourth caliph, was the first true caliph because he had been named by Mohammad to succeed him as Islam’s political and spiritual leader. The Sunnis disagree.
2. After Ali was killed, his followers were scattered throughout Islam but established their own rule where they had sufficient strength. Today they primarily occupy Iran and Iraq.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Qur’an
1. It is a disorganized collection of statements (suras) by one man.
a. Mohammad spoke them and required people to memorize them. However, many of the suras were spoken when Mohammad had few followers, so there is no check on what he said.
b. The suras were gathered from whoever came forth to say what he thought he had heard from Mohammad. It is uncertain whether all of them were collected and whether they are contaminated by hearer’s bias.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Qur’an
2. The suras have no historical roots.
a. No context for any of them is given in the Qur’an.
b. Some restrict others, but it is unknown which restrict which because the sequence is unknown.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Theology of Islam
1. Shahada (Profession of Faith) – “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.”
2. Salah (Prayer) – Prayers are said five times a day, at set strict times, with the individual facing Mecca. Muslims must wash before prayer. The prayer is accompanied by a series of set positions.
3. Zakat (Almsgiving) – Muslims have to contribute a certain amount of their income to support the Islamic community, and it usually about 2.5% of an individual’s income. This practice is not found in the Qur’an but rather in the Hadith.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Theology of Islam
4. Sawn (Fasting) – Fasting takes place during the month of Ramadan. The fast occurs from dawn to sunset each day during which time believers are expected to prohibit themselves from any food, drink, sexual intercourse, or smoking.
5. Hajj (Pilgrimage) – During one’s life, a Muslim is required to make one pilgrimage to Mecca during the 12th month of the lunar calendar. This ritual consists of making the journey to Mecca wearing only two white sheets, so all pilgrims are identical and there is no class distinction among them.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Crusades
1. The reason for the Crusades
a. The popes wanted to unify Christianity under their leadership by showing their determination to fight the enemies of Christ.
b. They wanted to guarantee that Christians would always have access to the holy places of Jesus’ life, although this was not an immediate issue.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Crusades
2. The results of the Crusades
a. The Crusaders were badly organized, which made their efforts ineffective and resulted in a terrible cost in the lives of those who went.
b. They inflicted murder and mayhem throughout the Middle East, against Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Sacred Land of Palestine
1. Both sides claim a religious justification for ownership of the land of Palestine.
a. Both sides appeal to the promise given to Abraham, but they differ over which son Abraham transmitted the promise to.
b. The religious issue is phony because both sides lost any claim to the land due to their long history of idolatry and disobeying God’s commandments.
Arab-Israeli Conflict�Mohammed and Islam
The Sacred Land of Palestine
2. Both sides point to the atrocities committed by the other.
a. Atrocities by both sides date back to the return of the Israelites from Egypt.
b. Numerous atrocities have been committed by both sides since Zionism became a force among the Jews at the end of the 19th century.
Arab-Israeli Conflict
End of Lesson 4