The Israelites were a Semitic people of the Ancient Near East, who inhabited part of Canaan
during the tribal and monarchic periods, and lived in the region in smaller numbers after
the fall of the monarchy.
The term "Israelites" is the English term for the Hebrew biblical term Bnei Yisrael
which properly translates as either "Sons of Israel" or "Children of Israel", and refers
both to the direct descendants of the patriarch Jacob as well as the historical populations
of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah.
In the post-exilic period, beginning in the 5th century BCE, the two known remnants of
the Israelite tribes came to be referred to as Jews and Samaritans, inhabiting the territories
of Judea, Galilee and Samaria.
Other terms sometimes used include the "Hebrews" and the "Twelve Tribes".
The Jews, which includes the tribes of Judah, Simeon, Benjamin and partially Levi, are named
after the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah.
This shift of ethnonym from "Israelites" to "Jews", although not contained in the Torah,
is made explicit in the Book of Esther, a book in the Ketuvim, the third section of
the Jewish Tanakh.
The Samaritans, whose religious texts consists of the five books of the Samaritan Torah,
do not refer to themselves as Jews, although they do regard themselves to be Israelites,
as per the Torah.
The Kingdom of Samaria contained the remaining ten tribes, but following Samaria's conquest
by Assyria, these were allegedly dispersed and lost to history, and henceforth known
as the Ten Lost Tribes.
Jewish tradition holds that Samaria is named so because the region's mountainous terrain
was used to keep "Guard" for incoming enemy attack.
According to Samaritan tradition, however, the Samaritan ethnonym is not derived from
the region of Samaria, but from the fact that they were the "Guardians" of the true Israelite
religion.
Thus, according to Samaritan tradition, the region was named Samaria after them, not vice
versa.
In Jewish Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, while in Samaritan Hebrew they
call themselves Shamerim.
In Judaism, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious
group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites.
In texts of Jewish law such as the Mishnah and Gemara, the term יהודי, meaning Jew,
is rarely used, and instead the ethnonym ישראלי, or Israelite, is widely used to refer to Jews.
Samaritans commonly refer to themselves and Jews collectively as Israelites, and describe
themselves as the Israelite Samaritans.
Etymology
The term "Israelite" comes from the Greek Ισραηλίτες, which was used to translate
the Biblical Hebrew term "b'nei yisrael".
The name "Israel" first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 32:29.
It refers to the renaming of the biblical patriarch Jacob, who, according to the Bible,
wrestled with God who gave him a blessing and renamed him "Israel" because he had "striven
with God and with men, and have prevailed".
The Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra "to prevail over" or "to struggle/wrestle
with", and el, "God, the divine".
The name "Israel" first appears in non-biblical sources c. 1209 BCE, in an inscription of
the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah.
The inscription is very brief and says simply: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not".
Terminology
According to the Hebrew Bible, prior to a meeting with his brother Esau, the biblical
patriarch Jacob wrestles an angel on the shores of the Jabbok river and is given the name
Israel.
Throughout the rest of the Torah, Jacob is referred to at times as both Jacob and Israel.
In modern Hebrew, B'nei Yisrael can denote the Jewish people at any time in history;
it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity.
From the period of the Mishna the term Yisrael acquired an additional narrower meaning of
Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites and Aaronite priests.
In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of
Israel, regardless of religion or ethnicity.
The term Hebrew has Eber as an eponymous ancestor.
It is used synonymously with "Israelites", or as an ethnolinguistic term for historical
speakers of the Hebrew language in general.
The Greek term Ioudaios historically refers to a member of the tribe of Judah, which formed
the nucleus of the kingdom of Judah.
The Samaritans, which includes the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, are named after the
Israelite Kingdom of Samaria, but the Jews, until modern times, contested that assertion,
and deemed them to have been conquered foreigners who were settled in the Land of Israel by
the Assyrians, as was the typical Assyrian policy to obliterate national identities.
Among Jews, the dispute was as to whether or not Samaritans, having been deemed foreign
converts, were valid converts.
Eventually it was determined that they were not.
Today, Jews and Samaritans both recognize each other as communities with an authentic
Israelite origin The government of Israel officially deemed Samaritans to be part of
the Jewish people and granted them the right to make Aliyah under the law of return during
the presidency of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who founded the Yad Ben-Zvi institute in part to do research
on Samaritan studies.
The terms "Jews" and "Samaritans" largely replaced the title "Children of Israel" as
the common used ethnonym for each respective community.
Historical Israelites
Several theories exist proposing the origins of the Israelites in raiding groups, infiltrating
nomads or emerging from indigenous Canaanites driven from the wealthier urban areas by poverty
to seek their fortunes in the highland.
Various, ethnically distinct groups of itinerant nomads such as the Habiru and Shasu recorded
in Egyptian texts as active in Edom and Canaan seem to be related to the later Israelites,
which does not exclude that the majority may have had their origins in Canaan proper.
The name Yahweh, the god of the later Israelites, may indicate connections with the region of
Mount Seir in Edom.
The prevailing opinion today is that the Israelites, who eventually evolved into the modern Jews
and Samaritans, are an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanites who had resided in the area since
the 8th millennium BCE.
The language of the Canaanites may perhaps be best described as an "archaic form of Hebrew,
standing in much the same relationship to the Hebrew of the Old Testament as does the
language of Chaucer to modern English.
"The Canaanites were also the first people, as far as is known, to have used an alphabet.
The name Israel first appears c. 1209 BCE, at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the
very beginning of the period archaeologists and historians call Iron Age I, on the Merneptah
Stele raised by the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah.
The inscription is very brief Plundered is Canaan with every evil,
Carried off is Ashkelon, Seized upon is Gezer,
Yenocam is made as that which does not existIsrael lies fallow, it has no seed;
Ḫurru has become a widow because of Egypt.
As distinct from the cities named which are written with a toponymic marker, Israel is
written hieroglyphically with a demonymic determinative indicating that the reference
is to a human group, variously located in central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria.
Over the next two hundred years the number of highland villages increased from 25 to
over 300 and the settled population doubled to 40,000.
By the 10th century BCE a rudimentary state had emerged in the north-central highlands,
and in the 9th century this became a kingdom.
The kingdom was sometimes called Israel by its neighbours, but more frequently it was
known as the "House of Omri."
Settlement in the southern highlands was minimal from the 12th through the 10th centuries BCE,
but a state began to emerge there in the 9th century, and from 850 BCE onwards a series
of inscriptions are evidence of a kingdom which its neighbours refer to as the "House
of David."
After the destruction of the Israelite kingdoms of Judah and Samaria in 586 BCE and 720 BCE
respectively, the concepts of Jew and Samaritan gradually replaced Judean and Israelite.
When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, the Hasmonean kingdom was established
in present day Israel, consisting of three regions which were Judea, Samaria, and the
Galilee.
In the pre-exilic first Temple period the political power of Judea was concentrated
within the tribe of Judah, Samaria was dominated by the tribe of Ephraim and the House of Joseph,
while the Galilee was associated with the tribe of Naphtali, the most eminent tribe
of northern Israel.
At the time of the Kingdom of Samaria, the Galilee was populated by northern tribes of
Israel, but following the Babylonian exile the region became Jewish.
During the second Temple period relations between the Jews and Samaritans remained tense.
In 120 BCE the Hasmonean king Yohanan Hyrcanos I destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount
Gerizim, due to the resentment between the two groups over a disagreement of whether
Mount Moriah in Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim in Shechem was the actual site of the Aqedah,
and the chosen place for the Holy Temple, a source of contention that had been growing
since the two houses of the former united monarchy first spit asunder in 930 BCE and
which had finally exploded into warfare.
190 years after the destruction of the Samaritan Temple and the surrounding area of Shechem,
the Roman emperor Titus launched a military campaign to crush the Jewish revolt of 66
CE, which resulted in the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, and the
subsequent exile of Jews from Judea and the Galilee in 135 CE following the Bar Kochba
revolt.
Biblical Israelites
The Israelite story begins with some of the culture heroes of the Jewish people, the Patriarchs.
The Torah traces the Israelites to the patriarch Jacob, grandson of Abraham, who was renamed
Israel after a mysterious incident in which he wrestles all night with God or an angel.
Jacob's twelve sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar,
Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, become the ancestors of twelve tribes, with the exception of Joseph,
whose two sons Mannasseh and Ephraim, who were adopted by Jacob, become tribal eponyms.
The mothers of Jacob's sons are: Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,
Zebulun Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin
Bilhah: Dan, Naphtali Zilpah: Gad, Asher
Jacob and his sons are forced by famine to go down into Egypt, although Joseph was already
there, as he had been sold into slavery while young.
When they arrive they and their families are 70 in number, but within four generations
they have increased to 600,000 men of fighting age, and the Pharaoh of Egypt, alarmed, first
enslaves them and then orders the death of all male Hebrew children.
A woman from the tribe of Levi hides her child, places him in a woven basket, and sends him
down the Nile river.
He is named Mosheh, or Moses, by the Egyptians who find him.
Being a Hebrew baby, they award a Hebrew woman the task of raising him, the mother of Moses
volunteers, and the child and his mother are reunited.
At the age of forty Moses murders an Egyptian, who he discovers beating a Hebrew to death,
and escapes as a fugitive into the Sinai desert, where he is taken in by the Midianites and
marries Zipporah, the daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro.
When he is eighty years old, Moses is tending a herd of sheep in solitude on Mount Sinai
when he sees a desert shrub that is burning but is not consumed.
The God of Israel calls to Moses from the fire and reveals his name, YHWH, and tells
Moses that he is being sent to Pharaoh to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt.
YHWH tells Moses that if Pharaoh refuses to let the Hebrews go to say to Pharaoh "Thus
says YHWH: Israel is my son, my first-born and I have said to you: Let my son go, that
he may serve me, and you have refused to let him go.
Behold, I will slay your son, your first-born".
Moses returns to Egypt and tells Pharaoh that he must let the Hebrew slaves go free.
Pharaoh refuses and YHWH strikes the Egyptians with a series of horrific plagues, wonders,
and catastrophes, after which Pharaoh relents and banishes the Hebrews from Egypt.
Moses leads the Israelites out of bondage toward the Red Sea, but Pharaoh changes his
mind and arises to massacre the fleeing Hebrews.
Pharaoh finds them by the sea shore and attempts to drive them into the ocean with his chariots
and drown them.
YHWH causes the Red Sea to part and the Hebrews pass through on dry land into the Sinai.
After the Israelites escape from the midst of the sea, YHWH causes the ocean to close
back in on the pursing Egyptian army, drowning them to death.
In the desert YHWH feeds them with manna that accumulates on the ground with the morning
dew.
They are led by a column of cloud, which ignites at night and becomes a pillar of fire to illuminate
the way, southward through the desert until they come to Mount Sinai.
The twelve tribes of Israel encamp around the mountain, and on the third day Mount Sinai
begins to smolder, then catches fire, and YHWH speaks the Ten Commandments from the
midst of the fire to all the Israelites, from the top of the mountain.
Moses ascends Mount Sinai and fasts for forty days while he writes down the Torah as YHWH
dictates, beginning with Bereshith and the creation of the universe and the earth.
He is shown the design of the Mishkan and the Ark of the Covenant, which Bezalel is
given the task of building.
Moses descends from the mountain forty days later with the Sefer Torah he wrote, and with
two rectangular lapis lazuli tablets, into which YHWH had carved the Ten Commandments
in Paleo Hebrew.
In his absence, Aaron has constructed an image of YHWH, depicting him as a young golden bull,
and has presented it to the Israelites, declaring "Behold O Israel, this is your god who brought
you out of the land of Egypt".
Moses smashes the two tablets and grinds the golden bull into dust, then throws the dust
into a stream of water flowing out of Mount Sinai, and forces the Israelites to drink
from it.
Moses ascends Mount Sinai for a second time and YHWH passes before him and says: 'YHWH,
YHWH, a god of compassion, and showing favor, slow to anger, and great in kindness and in
truth, who shows kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving wrong-doing and injustice
and wickedness, but will by no means clear the guilty, causing the consequences of the
parent's wrong-doing to befall their children, and their children's children, to the third
and fourth generation' Moses then fasts for another forty days while YHWH carves the Ten
Commandments into a second set of stone tablets.
After the tablets are completed, light emanates from the face of Moses for the rest of his
life, causing him to wear a veil so he does not frighten people.
Moses descends Mount Sinai and the Israelites agree to be the chosen people of YHWH and
follow all the laws of the Torah.
Moses prophecizes if they forsake the Torah, YHWH will exile them for the total number
of years they did not observe the shmita.
Bezael constructs the Ark of the Covenant and the Mishkan, where the presence of YHWH
dwells on earth in the Holy of Holies, above the Ark of the Covenant, which houses the
Ten Commandments.
Moses sends spies to scout out the Land of Canaan, and the Israelites are commanded to
go up and conquer the land, but they refuse, due to their fear of warfare and violence.
In response, YHWH condemns the entire generation, including Moses, who is condemned for striking
the rock at Meribah, to exile and death in the Sinai desert.
Before Moses dies he gives a speech to the Israelites where he paraphrases a summery
of the mizwoth given to them by YHWH, and recites a prophetic song called the Ha'azinu.
Moses prophesies that if the Israelites disobey the Torah, YHWH will cause a global exile
in addition to the minor one prophesied earlier at Mount Sinai, but at the end of days YHWH
will gather them back to Israel from among the nations when they turn back to the Torah
with zeal.
The events of the Israelite exodus and their sojourn in the Sinai are memorialized in the
Jewish and Samaritan festivals of Passover and Sukkoth, and the giving of the Torah in
the Jewish celebration of Shavuoth.
Forty years after the Exodus, following the death of the generation of Moses, a new generation,
led by Joshua, enters Canaan and takes possession of the land in accordance with the promise
made to Abraham by YHWH.
Eventually the Israelites ask for a king, and YHWH gives them Saul.
David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem would succeed Saul.
Under David the Israelites establish the united monarchy, and under David's son Solomon they
construct the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, using the 400 year old materials of the Mishkan,
where YHWH continues to tabernacle himself among them.
On the death of Solomon and reign of his son, Rehoboam, the kingdom is divided in two.
The kings of the northern Kingdom of Samaria are uniformly bad, permitting the worship
of other gods and failing to enforce the worship of YHWH alone, and so YHWH eventually allows
them to be conquered and dispersed among the peoples of the earth; and strangers rule over
their remnant in the northern land.
In Judah some kings are good and enforce the worship of YHWH alone, but many are bad and
permit other gods, even in the Holy Temple itself, and at length YHWH allows Judah to
fall to her enemies, the people taken into captivity in Babylon, the land left empty
and desolate, and the Holy Temple itself destroyed.
Yet despite these events YHWH does not forget his people, but sends Cyrus, king of Persia
to deliver them from bondage.
The Israelites are allowed to return to Judah and Benjamin, the Holy Temple is rebuilt,
the priestly orders restored, and the service of sacrifice resumed.
Through the offices of the sage Ezra, Israel is constituted as a holy nation, bound by
the Torah and holding itself apart from all other peoples.
See also Assyrian captivity of Israel
Babylonian captivity Biblical archaeology
Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites Hebrew Bible
Israeli Jews Kingdom of Israel
Lachish relief Masoretic Text
Samaritan Pentateuch Tribal allotments of Israel
Who is a Jew?
References
Bibliography