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The RISE of JUDAISM

Solomon to the Prophet Amos

While the Greeks were involved in their ritual sacrifices, scapegoating, purification rituals and reverence for high places, so too was the community of Hebrews around Jerusalem. Regarding sacrifices, according to Old Testament during the reign of King Solomon, "The people were still sacrificing on the high places" because there was yet no temple "built for the Lord". Solomon sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. And [he] went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place." (1 Kings 3:2-4)

According to the Old Testament,  Solomon had temples built for his wives who worshiped other gods. As for Yahweh, to give him a home and to put Yahweh worship under his domination, Solomon had the temple constructed that his father had intended to build, a temple described in the Old Testament as "the House of the Lord." The temple was built on property on a hill north of Jerusalem that David had purchased, property that the Amorites had used as a huge threshing floor. The temple's design resembled the temples of other religions. It was decorated with sculptures and other works of art, and in the inner sanctum of the temple was the Ark of the Covenant. And to run the temple in his behalf he appointed as high priest the court priest who had performed religious duties for David, a priest named Zadok, who was the first of a hereditary priesthood that would last for centuries to come.

It is written that Solomon died around 922 BCE and that he died of old age. According to the First Book of Kings, 12:11, the people of Israel said to Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam: "Lighten the heavy burden which your father put upon us and we will serve you." Rehoboam responded by asking the crowd to return in three days. And when the crowd did so, Rehoboam said to them: "Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."

Many of the people of Israel rebelled, and the rebellion turned into a bloody civil war. The leader of the revolt was a man called Jeroboam. The north became an independent state, maintaining the name Israel. The state to the south, which included Jerusalem, was smaller and less commercially advanced, and it became known as Judah.

Following Jeroboam's death in 901, Israel suffered from drought and an economic depression. With these came bitterness, intensified social unrest and the rise to prominence of a man called Elijah. Described in the First Book of Kings, Elijah was from a rural, cattle-raising region in Gilead, east of the Jordan River. He preferred the rustic simplicity of Gilead to the cosmopolitanism that he found in Israel's cities. And, according to the Old Testament, Elijah was outspoken and acquired a following among Israel's rural people. He protested against land tenure and the enslavement of the poor by the rich. He called for worship of Yahweh and opposed the worship of Ba'al, the god worshiped by Israel's new king, Ahab and his wife Jezebel, and worshipped by Israel's wealthy elite. According to 1 Kings 18:1, Yahweh told Elijah that if he, Elijah, confronted king Ahab, rain would come giving relief from drought. When Elijah presented himself before Ahab, Ahab recognized him as the "troubler of Israel." Elijah replied that it was not he who troubled Israel but Ahab, because Ahab had "forsaken the commandments of the Lord" by his Ba'al worship. Elijah challenged Ahab to arrange a gathering on Mount Carmel, and Ahab, according to the Old Testament, did so.

Mount Carmel was where Ba'al ritual dances were staged, and there Elijah is reported to have spoken to the people of Israel and to have challenged them to make a choice between the supremacy of Yahweh and the gods of the Canaanites. The drought had reflected badly on Ba'al, a god of fertility. The miracles performed by Elijah were impressive. Elijah convinced the crowd, and called upon them to "seize the prophets of Ba'al," and he and those who followed him went on a murderous rampage. According to 1 Kings 18:40, they took the priests of Ba'al, presumably Israelites, "down to the brook of Kishon and slew them there." Then Elijah fled into the wilderness to escape from the agents of Queen Jezebel, who was angry over the murders of the priests.

King Ahab died in battle. One of Ahab's generals, Jehu, wished to succeed him, and, in the often bloody business of succession, Jehu enlisted the support of the god Yahweh and Elijah's movement, now led by Elijah's companion, Elisha. According to the Second Book of Kings, Jehu and Elisha murdered more priests of Ba'al. They burned the temple of Ba'al worship and converted it to a latrine. They murdered the remaining members of the Ahab family, including Jezebel, who is said to have been thrown from a window, run over by Jehu's chariot and left to be torn apart by dogs. And Jehu murdered others he saw as possible rivals.

In 842, Jehu became king of Israel, and during his reign economic conditions improved and hatreds subsided. The movement begun by Elijah faded, and Jehu lost interest in Yahweh worship and began worshiping other gods, as expressed in the Second Book of Kings (10:31-32), where it was written that Jehu "...did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam."

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