HOW THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE EARLY HEBREWS

No APA or Source Please The book I am using is Traditions and Encounters – Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler – Global Perspective on the Past Fifth Edition Discussion: Physical Environments and World (Religious) Please follow the instructions and answer the questions – Please examine these two and number them one and two separate: 1. Early Hebrews 2. Egyptians, Describe and evaluate the influence of their physical environment on their world (theological) views; put another way: how did the realities of the physical environment affect the ways in which these early civilizations understood their world, which is often expressed in religious views? Examples of a world view include both religious and philosophical views that the people of a civilization had. The best way to think about this question is to ask how did the physical environment of a civilization impact their religious/theological views? Chapter 3 Early African Socities and the Bantu Migrations (Egypt): Online Readings for Chapter Three (Egypt): 1. Hymn to the Nile: http://www(dot)fordham(dot)edu/halsall/ancient/hymn-nile.html 2. Pyramid Construction: http://www(dot)pbs(dot)org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/explore/ 3. The Dead Pharaoh Ascends to Heaven:http://www(dot)mircea-eliade(dot)com/from-primitives-to-zen/166.html 4. Herodotus: Mummification, from The Histories: http://www(dot)fordham(dot)edu/halsall/ancient/herodotus-mummies.html 5. Egyptian Love Poetry: http://www(dot)fordham(dot)edu/halsall/ancient/2000egypt-love.html Other Civilizations in the Region: The Hebrews were a smaller civilization who lived in what is modern Palestine/Israel. Technically, a Hebrew is one who spoke the ancient Hebrew language, while Israelites were Hebrews who lived in Palestine and Jews were Hebrews who lived in the Kingdom of Judea. The ancient Hebrews interacted with the Mesopotamians; for example the ancient Hebrew story of Abraham tells that he was from the Sumerian city of Ur and later migrated to Palestine (@1850 BCE). Historians also argue that many Mesopotamian stories, like that of the great flood, were brought into Hebrew culture through interactions with the Mesopotamians. Two major Hebrew kingdoms (Israel and Judea) existed until their defeat by the Assyrians. The Hebrews' eventual development (at first they believed in many gods) was influential in later monotheistic religions like Islam and Christianity. To the north of the Hebrews were the Phoenicians, who lived in what is now modern Lebanon. They spoke a Semitic language and were most likely Greeks. While we know them as Phoenicians, they called themselves Canaanites and their state was called Canaan. Unlike other military empires, the Phoenicians were a commercial empire that developed a vast trading network that extended as far as Celtic England and West Africa. As merchants, the Phoenicians needed to record many facts, which helped encourage them to develop a basic alphabet by 1500 BCE. Their alphabet had no vowels, but the Greeks added in vowels and through the Romans, this alphabet became the standard alphabet used in Western Europe.