Civilizations of Holy Land

230 Pages·1979·25.007 MB·English

by  Paul B. Johnson

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ISBN 0-689-10973-3 Illustrated S14.95
It is remarkable that the three great "Religions
of the Book," Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
should all have been nurtured in that Middle
Eastern region we know today as Palestine or
Israel. Geographically the Holy Land stood at
the crossroads of many cultures, bounded as it
was by the opulence of Egypt, the grandeur of
Babylon, the lands of the desert dwellers and
the eastern Mediterranean. However, many
aspects of the history and development of the
religions in question, as well as their subsequent
influence on civilization, extended into a far
wider area. Moreover, a history of the Holy
Land involves considerations apart from those
falling within the realm of belief. Therefore
Paul Johnson's impressive synoptic skills are
well deployed in untangling a formidable skein
of cultural, religious and historical considera­
tions and weaving them into a supple, absorbing
narrative.
Johnson begins in the eighth millennium B.C.,
with a fascinating glimpse into Neolithic
Jericho, then, ns now, Palestine's eastern gate
into the desert. Only within the last twenty five
years have excavations and carbon datings
established its claim to being the first civilized
urban area, its massive walls and tower repre­
senting the first true example of architecture as
we know it. From thence we move into the
Bronze Age and the Canaanite culture, whose
crucial contribution to civilization was the in­
vention of alphabetic writing, and then to the
Phoenician coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre.
Hebrew history begins with the migration of
Abraham from Ur into Canaan, and Johnson
uses the findings of modern scholarship and
scientific archaeology to demonstrate that the
Old Testament is no longer to be considered a
collection of myths, but is in fact a valuable
record of the age of the patriarchs.
Johnson continues to use archaeological evidence
as well as ancient text to illustrate the impact of
Hellenism and then Christianity, which in turn
was rivaled by Islam. The Crusades, that tragic
episode in the continuing religious and political
conflict in the Middle East, forms the basis of
Johnson's final chapter.
Within the broad sweep of his historical
narrative, Paul Johnson continually gives the
reader a concrete and vivid picture of the pattern
of living-and dying-in the Holy Land.
Photograph ofJ erusalem by Michael Busse/le
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CIVILIZATIONS
OFT HHEO LLYA ND
The hills stand about Jerusalem: even
so standeth the Lord about his people,
from this time for evermore.
Psalms r25
:2
ENDPAPERS
A mosaic of loaves and fishes in the
Byzantine Church of the Multiplication.
ABOVE
A Philistine sarcophagus lid.
OVERLFAF
The wilderness of Sinai.

C
ILVIIZATIONS
OFTHE
H L
0L Y AD N
Paul Johnson
ATHENEUM
Nc\v York 1979
TO l\IY SISTER ELFRIDE
Copyright© 1979 by Paul Johnson
All rights reserved
Library of Congress catalog card number 78-73358
ISBN 0-689-10973-3
Printed in Great Britain
Designed by Charles Elton
First American Edition
Contents
Canaanites and Phoenicians 7
1
The Civilization of the Bible 31
2
3 Greeks and Maccabees 87
4 The Age of Herod and Jesus 109
5 Byzantine Christianity 145
6 The Coming of Islam 169
7 Pilgrims, Crusaders and Saracens 18 5
Bibliography 216
Acknowledgments 217
Index 218
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Canaaannidt es
Phoenicians
'c1v1L I ZATION s o F THE HOLY LAND' is an expression not easily defined in either
space or time. By the Holy Land, n1ost of us mean the stretch of Near-Eastern
territory, the nucleus of which is modern Palestine or Israel, intin1ately associated
with the great 'Religions of the Book', Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Many of
the events crucial to the origin and early development of these three faiths took
place outside this geographical nucleus but cannot for that reason be ignored in
this account. Equally, not all the cultures which have flourished in this region
have been directly linked to the beliefs which, to us, make it holy but they are part
of its history nonetheless, and must be brought into the story. The truth is that the
history of this corner of the world is extrerr1ely complicated and does not easily
accommodate itself to the straitjacket of a strictly systematic treatment. In telling
it we shall sometimes find ourselves digressing both in chronology and
geography before resuming the main thread of our narrative. In short, ,ve shall
be closer to the methods of Herodotus than those of Thucydides - with a dash of
Pausanias and Strabo thrown in. No matter: what the tale loses in clarity it may
gain in colour.
A glance at the map helps to explain why the history of the Holy Land has been
so complex. It is small in itself, but fate placed it on the n1ain highway of
antiquity. It has always been a part of great events which it has rarely, if ever,
been able to dominate. Son1ewhat unwillingly, and often helplessly, it has been
close to the centre of the historical stage and has been exalted and battered by its
dramas. Pre-historians are no longer quite so confident as they used to be that the
origins of civilization are to be found in the plains fonned and irrigated by the
three great river syste1ns of the Tigris-Euphrates, the Niles and the Indus. There is
accumulating evidence from recently explored sites of innovatory early societies
dwelling in the hills and mountains of Anatolia, Baluchistan and else,vhere in this
huge region. All the san1e, the old theory holds good to the extent chat ,ve can still
truthfully say that Mesopotan1ia produced the first un111istakable city-
The round stone watchtower of Jericho is Neolithic and
7
dates from It is part of a ring of fortifications
7000 BC.
excavated by Dame Kathleen Kenyon.