HIST110 Lecture : The Rise Of Greece.docx
24 Feb 2013
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Assryians emerged in middle east, notable for military success, vicious towards enemies. Jews established state 1000bc to guard against outsiders, had a king, state religion, monotheistic. Assyrians didn"t enslave jews, but made them contribute to military and paid taxes. Babylonians rounded up all jews, shipped to babylon as slaves for 2 generations. Yahweh, in old jewish tradition was a fearsome god, emphasized human weakness, more sins = more angry god was, god was perceived as harsh god, that demanded conformity. 5th century, after babylonian captivity, reformed message about god, prophets saw god as sympathy/forgiveness/kindness, if men did attempt to do good = god would recognize new testament. Old testament: afterlife = place of darkness, jews didn"t think much of afterlife. Scribes instructed by god to write torah . Jews avoided contact with outsiders to avoid contamination/influence of others. Persians emerged as warrior people, liberated babylon and in the process liberated jews under cyrus. Cyrus ii, great strategist, philosopher, army leader.
