Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/121

83 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

83 it

extended as far as the undetermined port of Ophir,

and brought back for him the cocks, and other luxuries and

gold, silver, apes, peacuriosities of distant

Phenicia was Israel's great trading -mart for thence she secured much of the material and many

climes.

of the



workmen

that

made Jerusalem what

it

was

in

Solomon's reign.

The activity of exchange during the dual kingdom shown on several occasions. When Ahab defeated Ben-Hadad at Aphek, one of the items in the treaty was the granting to Israel of " streets " [bazaars for

Archeology

skins and clay, and carefully preserved their records for later generations. This work was done, how-

by a particular class of men, who were later on designated as scribes. The different kinds of writing ever,

and the tools wherewith this art was executed, were not unlike those of the great contemporaneous nations. See Alphabet, Scribes, Writing. materials,

is

III. Civil Antiquities : The earliest show of authority is seen in the constitution of the family, with the father as head and chief. Several heads made

trading] in Damascus, as Syria had formerly had "streets" in Samaria (I Kings xx. 34). The numerous references in Hosea are evidence that Israel in that period en j oyed the products of all lands. Egypt was likewise on the most intimate commercial terms with Palestine and some of her choicest food and

up the body of



clothing

was purchased by

Israel.

But

it

was not

overthrow as a nation that she seemed almost entirely to abandon husbandry and many of the crafts, and to give her whole life to the pursuit of commerce. See Commerce, Trade. The most convenient exchange was that of commodities for gold or silver or for some other precious This was accomplished at first by means of article. certain standards of weight for the metals, standards of capacity for grains, and the like, and standards of measurement (length, breadth, or thickness) for cloth, until after Israel's

The same tricks of trade as are leather, stone, etc. found to-day the light weight, the small measure, and the short line appear in the charges that follow Late in history the arraignments of the Prophets. the metals were stamped or coined, thus greatly simplifying one of the most common articles of ex-

—

—

See Coin, Monet. growth as a nation was accompanied by a corresponding cultivation of the arts. The first notable exhibition is that seen in the elaborate architecture of the Solomonic era. Whether it was borrowed wholly from one nation or jointly from the leading Israel adopted nations of that day is immaterial. and executed some of the choicest specimens of anchange.

Israel's

The pillars and their ornamenthough executed by Phenicians, were according to the tastes and desires of Israel's Art in king. Plastic art likewise received atIsrael. tention from the leaders in Israel, as is seen in the numerous fragments exhumed from Palestinian soil. Sculpture and fine stone-cutting added their part to the beautifying of Painting is scarcely the great Temple of the Lord. mentioned in the Old Testament (Ezek. viii. 10, xxiii. 14), in strange contrast with the evidence seen in Egyptian tombs. Music, on the contrary, received much attention from the leaders, and even from the common people. The shepherds in the mountains, the prophets on the hills, the singers in the Temple, made frequent and extensive use of cient architecture. tation,

many

kinds of musical instruments.

See Music,

Temple. Writing is almost as old as the race. Every nation around Israel had its method. The people of Israel, kin of these people by blood and language, had their own particular system of writing. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet had each a significance that helped to hold it in mind. The Israelites wrote on

elders, by whose decision affairs affecting several families were administered. Gradually these elders became a regularly established order, by or through whom the entire civil business of the community was conducted. In the time of the

Egyptian bondage a class of men is found termed " officers," who though apparently scribes, were likewise underlings of their Egyptian taskmasters. The appointment of seventy elders in the wilderness was an extension of the earlier and possibly of the bondage scheme on a more elaborate scale. The method of government in vogue during the period of the judges was a modification of the same general plan under which Israel lived in the wilderness. The details of these systems are brought out with due faithfulness in the records of these periods.

See

Elders. The system of government current among the great and small nations of Israel's day was that of monarchy. Every foreign influence that touched this people emanated from the environment of regal administration. These powerful tendencies finally crystallized into a demand by Israel for a king. A king, with all the paraphernalia of a monarchy, was finally established. The prerogatives of the ruler, the law of succession, and the whole administration of government henceforth accorded substantially with those Sufficient events and items of the of other nations. king's conduct are narrated to give a good picture See King. of Israel's monarch. On the return of a body of Jews from the various lands into which they had been scattered, a new method of government was adopted. PostThe province of which Judea was a part was ruled by a Persian satrap. exilian Israel's new territory was ruled by a Governgovernor, Zerubbabel, and later by ment. Ezra and Nehemiah, etc. These subrulers paid tribute to Persia; and only on especial appointments were they granted extraordinary pre-

How

far down into rogatives, for example, Ezra. the so-called inter-Biblical period these conditions

The Macprevailed, it is not yet possible to affirm. cabean revolt against the Hellenizing edicts of the Seleucid rulers was a forcible protest against a violation of the favorable treatment accorded the Jews by Alexander the Great. Nearly one hundred years of practical independence resulted in the downfall of Jewish authority, brought about by Pompey in 63 Thenceforth Palestine as part of a province beu. c. came subordinate to a Roman governor. Information as to the line of demarcation between the rights of the Jews and Roman authority, the methods of administration adopted by Roman appointees, and a multitude of other questions of local interest is abundantly