RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Isidore of Seville Israel, History of
Neander, Christian Church, iii. 151-153 et passim; Schaff, Christian Church, iv. 662-669 et passim; KL, vi. 969-976; DCB, iii. 305-313. The first two volumes of the edition of his works by Arevali gather up the varipus accounts of the life and add critical comments.
ISIDORIAN DECRETALS. See Pseudo-Isidoeian Decretals.
ISIDORUS MERCATOR. See Isidore Mer-
CATOR.
ISKANDARUNAH. See Phenicia, Phenicians, I. §2.
ISLAM. See Mohammed, Mohammedanism.
I. Biblical History.
Primitive History (§ 1).
The Abrahamic History (§ 2).
The Sojourn in Egypt (§ 3).
The Exodus and the Giving of the
Law (§ 4). The Conquest of Canaan and the
Judges (§ 5). The United Kingdom (§ 6). The Divided Kingdom (§ 7). Judah to the Exile (§ 8). The Exile (§ 9). The Persian Period (§10). The Greek Period (§ 11). The Maccabean and Roman Periods
(§ 12).
ISRAEL, HISTORY OF.
II. Post-Biblical History.
1. General Survey.
2. The Early Period.
Conditions after the War; Jabneh
(§ 1). The Last Insurrections (§ 2). Rise of the Babylonian School (§ 3). The Two Talmudic Collections ; The
Masorah (§ 4).
3. The Middle Period.
In the Orient and Italy (§1).
In Spain; Rise of Jewish Culture
(§ 2). Jewish Scholars in Spain (§ 3). Temporal Situation in Spain to
1469 (§ 4).
The Inquisition in Spain (§ 5).
Jews in France (§ 6).
In England (§ 7).
In Italy (§ 8).
In Germany (§ 9).
Revival of Messianism (§ 10).
Jews in Poland (§ 11).
4. The New Period.
5. Jews in America. Early Settlements (§ 1).
In the United States, 1800-80 (§ 2).
Reform, Educational, and Charitable Movements (§3).
The New Immigration Since 1880 (§4).
The Press; General Conditions (§ 5).
tive History.
I. Biblical History: Primitive history as set forth in Genesis takes the form of the history of families. In Semitic nomadic life the family is 1. Primi- tjje unjt from which the tribe is conceived as developing. Consequently the Hebrews regarded the nations of the world as the results of ramifications from a single stock. It is debated how far the history of families as given in Genesis is to be taken as historical, and how far the genealogical scheme depends upon observed ethnographic relationships. In the story of the different stocks, while in general little of personal life appears, the forms of the patriarchs stand out full of individuality, and the attempt is not successful to read the experiences attributed to them in certain situations and in individualistic form as the doings of a tribe or a people. Moreover, the sobriety and exactness of detail in these narratives is such as to differentiate them from the poetizing sagas in which folk-lore celebrates the eponymous ancestors to whom the origins of the peoples are traced. It lies on the face of these narratives that they are only fragments of traditions which had for a long time been transmitted orally, and in the course of this transmission the lesser figures have dropped from the account and only the great personalities have remained. But the memory of such personalities as Abraham (q.v.), the father of the nation with whom is associated the migration from the Euphrates to Canaan, or Jacob (q.v.), who endured hard service in the Aramaic territory and earned the blessing of God as the father of a numerous progeny, or Joseph (q.v.), through whose vicissitudes the settlement in Egypt was brought about, remained a permanent possession essentially constant in form. For the historicity of the person of Abraham it may be said that his history is not discordant with what Assyrian-Babylonian history demands, and the story of Joseph is accordant with what is known of Egyptian history.
In Genesis Abraham is the descendant and spiritual heir of Shem. According to Gen. x. 21 sqq. he shares this descent with a group of nations, all of VI.— 4
whom (except Elam and Lud) are related in language and blood to the Hebrews and are still known as Semites. In Gen. xiv. 13 Abraham 3. e Jo- is caned " the Hebrew," and according History. to *^e Biblical representation the Israelites were in early times called Hebrews by other peoples, especially by the Egyptians. The connotation of this term Hebrew is narrower than that of Semite, but broader than that of Israelite, though its exact meaning is not established. It can hardly mean " those who dwell beyond the Jordan " (Stade and E. Meyer), but is better brought into relation with the river Euphrates and related to the Assyrian expression " across the river." The equating of the Hebrew form 'Ibhrim with the Egyptian 'Apriu is questionable; more likely is the equivalency of the Hebrew form with the Habiri of the Amarna Tablets, though the signification of Habiri must not be restricted to the forefathers of the Hebrews. The existence of the Hebraic nomadic family life in Canaan was arduous, according to the concordant testimony of the sources. The people often had to change their dwelling-places to secure pasturage. Still more difficult was their situation in times of famine, as when they had to transfer themselves to Egypt, at that time the granary of the region, and found themselves subject to oppression and placed under disabilities (Gen. xx. 11). It was a necessity of this kind which brought about the settlement of the entire Jacob clan in Egypt, in the northwestern part known as Goshen, the later " Arab nome district " about Phakusa, the present Saft el-Henneh, a region not yet definitely marked out (E. Naville, Goshen and the Shrine of Saft el Henneh, London, 1887). While little is known of the people during their stay there, the circumstances were so favorable that they developed into a nation which yet was not politically organized in national form, but lived under the patriarchal government of tribal sheiks. On the religious side much must have been borrowed from the orderly state in which they were. While a part of the people followed pastoral occupations, another part settled down to agricultural life (Num.
Israel, History of