Where Did Israel Come From?

Thanks so much for this post. I had always wondered, if not Moses and Joshua, what?? Certainly, the last explanation makes the most sense. The faith had to have come from something else.

Bart,
I know you “moderate” responses to your blog, so I thought it would be okay to include this communication here. To be honest up front, it’s a bit of a plug for me and the archeological dig going on at Biblical Tamar Park.
I think I mentioned the uniqueness of the place to you last November when I was working there with Drs. DeWayne Coxon, James Tabor and Yigal Israel. I even suggested you might want to stop by on your most recent visit to the Holy Land. (Given the number of emails you must receive, I can only hope you remember.)
Since then, we are on the threshold of promoting the wonders of the park as a tourist destination for Israeli citizens and Americans. (It’s already been designated a historic landmark by the IAA and a “must see” for Israeli school children.)
I thought you and your fellow bloggers would like to hear about it, so I’m attaching the text of a brochure for your/their consideration. As yet it has not been released, which means you will be getting in on the ground floor. It’s about 2500 words and has been pieced together much like the site itself, in separate segments.
If you decide to use the material, you have my gratitude and my permission to share it whenever and wherever you can, with whomever you like — all at once, in pieces, or not at all. Just remember, it’s not a scholarly treatise, but a historical enticement to visitors and potential tourists. 

All best,
D.C. Smith

____________

Wide Angle Photo of the Park
Close up of Dr. DeWayne Coxon and Blossoming Rose Volunteers

Welcome to Biblical Tamar Park! On behalf of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, the Sapir Regional Council and many hard-working friends, we invite you to take a short walk through time into a desert oasis called “the Jewel of the Arava.” Without a doubt, it is the oldest and most unique place in southern Israel, a towering fortress of such importance to world trade that it still remains as a showpiece of Hebraic heritage.
The Tamar pathway stretches back across 4,000 years from Abraham, to Moses, to Kings David and Solomon, on down through many centuries of foreign conquests, into more recent times with Israel’s rebirth as a sovereign nation. It is one of the few ancient cities that have had a Jewish presence for such an extended period of history.
Excavations began in 1986 by Blossoming Rose, a non-profit philanthropic group from Michigan (USA), functioning as the Park’s lease holder and curator. These dedicated men and women not only coordinate archeological restorations and related educational programs, but they also provide the staff who help beautify and maintain this important site.
Digs sponsored by Blossoming Rose and supervised by the IAA have been taking place for over twenty-five years, the most recent occurring in May 2013. Rare and priceless treasures were unearthed from several layers of occupation, and are now being stored for future display.
People from all walks of life, and from all parts of the world, volunteer their time and talents at Tamar. Within the Park’s 55 acres, there are rustic accommodations, including air-conditioned caravans with 50 beds, a dining hall, the tel itself, a sukkah, and an attractive kiosk. These facilities are available for tour groups, conferences, and any number of other activities.
Please feel free to join us in this worthwhile enterprise. Shalom!

SEVEN HISTORIC PERIODS
“If only these rocks could speak” is a phrase often heard in Israel. But the rocks do speak at Tamar, and they tell us about the place and the people who lived there, only faintly remembered and recorded in biblical writings. They are a visible reminder of what happened when nomads first wandered across the region, followed by Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs and other Semitic tribes who settled the land, and who left behind distinct layers of sediment and stone to form the Seven Periods of archeological history we see today.
What we find in this desert oasis are ancient roadways converging near the tip of the Dead Sea at Ein Hazeva (or “strong spring”), located at the base of a giant Jujube tree where its cool waters quenched the thirst of weary travelers as the demands of commerce gave employment to local residents and taxes to kings, princes and emperors. Whether by design or accident, it was a convenient stopover for camel caravans carting trade goods along the now famous “Spice Road,” a commercial enterprise reaching from the Far East, on down to the port city of Gaza and beyond. But it was much more important than that. Major figures of the Hebrew Bible were also part of the picture.
Now, of course, new highways run beside the old ones, but Biblical Tamar Park stands as a monument to the past and a resting place for modern travelers. It is an active tel designed as an educational center for Israeli students and tourists.
Our goal has always been to use interactive displays to show who was there, what actually happened and when. You will see the oldest Israelite four-room house ever found, dating to the days of Abraham, huge openings where Solomonic gates once stood, Roman baths, aqueducts and fortress walls, as well as evidence of earthquakes and the all-too-frequent foreign military conquests. Reconstructions reveal information about people living at Tamar during the critical Seven Periods. As the site is analyzed and slowly rebuilt the truth slowly emerges. We begin to see what life was like at Tamar, from the times when early Hebrews first arrived, to present-day Israelis now living in the Land of Israel.

As you walk from site to site, think of yourself as one who belongs in this ancient place, and then decide which period of history you feel most connected to.

The Abrahamic Period
About four thousand years ago Biblical Tarmar Park could have been an Amorite village. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the places conquered by invading armies just as Abram had ended his sojourn in Egypt and returned to the Land of Canaan. After reentering the land and making a sacred covenant with the Lord of Creation, he received a new name, Abraham, after which he sired two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, both of whom begat children of their own.
Stories about Abraham and his offspring include descriptions of desert places in the wilderness of Paran and Beersheva, located just slightly to the north and to the south of Tamar. For a period of time their descendents lived together as friends and neighbors, planting palm groves for shade, sharing food and family ties, or sipping water from the nearby spring at Ein Hazeva.
These and other Genesis stories provide the basis for the core monotheistic beliefs of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Mosaic Period
Whether or not they were escaped slaves led by a Jewish/Egyptian prince named Moses, or Habiru nomads wandering in the wilderness seeking some place safe to live, these wanderers were said to have settled in what they saw as the Promised Land. According to the Book of Numbers, they camped on the outskirts of Tamar (biblical “Oboth”) before entering Canaan.
Legend has it that Moses received “words from heaven,” saying, “I will give you the Land as a heritage” (Ex. 6:8). This proclamation and similar commandments became priestly teachings for the new inhabitants, instructions informing them how to build God’s Tabernacle and how to live.
Rather than conquering the land by force of arms, Joshua may have led his people in settling less populated areas where pitched battles and wars of extermination were unnecessary. Contrary to biased narrations, it was a gradual settlement with only intermittent conflict and considerable exchanges of religious practices. Over the next ten generations they had no kings, but were governed by a motley collection of tribal chieftains called Judges.

The Israelite Period
As always, Tamar remained a perennial source of water to be enjoyed by everyone, including Edomites and Moabites, as well as the “Children of Abraham,” known to their neighbors as Israelites, because Jacob’s name had been changed to Israel centuries beforehand.
But in the south it was the tribe of Judah who became “Jews” to the rest of the world and heirs to the most memorable of all Jewish kingdoms, ruled, it seems, by none other than David and Solomon. Under their leadership, within the boundaries of a newly unified nation, Tamar became much more than a desert oasis. It was now an outpost, fortified for defensive purposes, and strategically positioned, not only to monitor caravans traveling to and from distant cities, but to protect copper mines at Faynan, near Eilat or Elath.
Archeological remains confirm that “Solomon…built Tamar (Tadmor) in the wilderness, within the land…of his dominion” (I Kings 9:19) and that three hundred years later King Josiah destroyed the pagan altar being used there at the time. “Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out” (I Kings 13:3).

The Roman/Christian Period
With the demise of Solomon came the division of a united kingdom into two separate halves, neither of which had the strength to continue as an independent conquering nation. Both were consumed by animus toward one another, and therefore victims of external conquest.
The Egyptians were first to arrive, followed by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks, each of which made an indelible mark on the landscape and the people.
In Tamar, the fortress of Solomon may have been destroyed, at least partially, when Pharoah Sheshonq I (Shishak in the Bible) plundered several southern cities, stripping the First Temple of its sacred vessels and its gold. Otherwise, the Arava was hardly affected by these foreign occupations until Pompey and his legions marched in. Palestine then became part of the Greco-Roman world, subject to the enforced Hellenization already taking root in the Jewish Homeland because of the arrival of Alexander.
Unlike Greece, Rome was always concerned with the procurement of taxes and trade to support an expanding empire. With that in mind Roman soldiers secured the spice routes through southern Israel and reestablished Tamar as a fortified city complex of longstanding duration. They protected the caravans and kept a tight hold on merchandise and money. Yet they could not control religion or the fanaticism of true believers.
Over time, as the empire weakened, and as its warriors were no longer Romans by blood, pagan polytheism was traded in for the monotheism of a new faith that grew out of the older Abrahamic roots of Judaism. It happened slowly, of course, even as Roman converts guarded Tamar and the nearby copper mines where Christian slaves labored for the emperor.

The Islamic Period
Rome’s control of Syria Palaestina was interrupted in 221 CE during what has been called “The Imperial Crisis,” a fifty-year period when everyone suffered from the impact of foreign invasions, civil strife, plagues and economic depression. Not only did the empire survive, but so did Tamar. The site was chosen as one of the main military establishments to be rebuilt by the Romans, bigger and better than ever, alongside the much traveled highway leading into and out of “occupied territory.”
But in 363 CE the Roman presence ended abruptly as the town and its impressive structures were destroyed in a massive earthquake. Tamar, or Ein Hazeva, however, was still an oasis where people could refresh themselves beside the cool waters, and sometimes discuss or even convert to new religions. After primeval polytheism came monotheism, then Judaism and Christianity, followed by Islam.
Muhammad arrived on the scene in the sixth century and seems to have considered himself a “restorer” of the monotheistic faith started by Adam, handed down to Noah, through Abraham, to Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets. His followers believed him to be “the Last Prophet of God,” much like Christians thought of Jesus as “the Son of God.” He got his inspiration from the angel Gabriel and taught that “the people of the Book” (Christians and Jews) were to be respected, but not necessarily treated as equals. Pagans, on the other hand, would be forced to convert or die.
Subsequent years of Muslim control did not prove to be good ones for most Jews, Christians, pagans, or the newly conquered territories. There was little interest on the part of Islamic invaders to protect the land or the historic places, except for the Temple Mount and the burial place of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
Tamar thus became a lonely outpost serving Arab soldiers, Ottoman Turks, and Bedouin tribesmen as they traversed ancient pathways between Mecca and Jerusalem.

The British Period
The game changer in Palestine was “the war to end all wars,” but the foundation for world conflict had been well established beforehand by the British and Ottoman empires. In part this was due to the discovery of oil throughout the Middle East.
Britain was a Christian nation, Turkey a Muslim one, and the Jews had no country, as of yet, to call their own. The British people, however, were sympathetic to the Jewish longings for a homeland and supported their Zionist goals.
The Turks entered World War I when they signed a secret pact called The Ottoman-German Alliance in 1914. And because the British feared that the Ottomans might attack and capture Mid East oil fields, they launched the Sinai-Palestine Campaigns which ultimately proved successful when the Armistice was signed four years later. That left Britain and France in charge of carving up the boundaries of new nation-states like Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
British occupation of Palestine may have been the shortest in history, but in many ways it was the most significant. There were no oil fields to be had, just growing numbers of Jewish refugees and displaced Arabs competing for control of cities, towns and large tracts of acreage. Then, too, the Brits had an all important Mandate with defined borders from the League of Nations for what would become the State of Israel.
When all was said and done, despite good and less benevolent intentions, neither Britain nor Turkey contributed much to the immediate restoration of the Promised Land. It was always Jewish immigrants who made the greatest strides toward independence during this last period of foreign dominance, except perhaps for the fact that English expeditionary forces built a jail and an office building at the peak of Biblical Tamar. From that vantage point they could see in all directions and take advantage of the oasis as a respite for British soldiers marching to and from Eilat. It is said Lawrence of Arabia led the way by mapping the area years earlier when it was a forgotten Arab outpost.

The Israeli Period
The events of the late 1940s were quick, decisive, and historic. Britain withdrew from Palestine as Arabs declared war on the Jews, the end result being victory for the people and the State of Israel.
Tamar became the first military garrison on the southern border of Jordan using Israeli soldiers to protect desert settlers. The newly formed national guard built housing for themselves and others who were willing to defend the boundaries of their new nation. Later, they would be reassigned to another larger base to the south as a local family of patriotic Israelis were encouraged to take up residence in the vacated buildings. During the conflict, because of its strategic location, a kitchen and a bomb shelter were hastily constructed and the place was given a new name, Kibbutz Ir Ovot, meaning “the Community of Oboth.”
Like many messianic Jews, the new settlers were deeply religious and soon started a commune dedicated to rediscovering Biblical Tamar as it once was. Through their efforts, and with the help of countless volunteers, the dream is beginning to flower. As the Bible says, and as archeology is persistently proving, “The wilderness and this solitary place shall make them glad; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

Thanks for visiting this special place.
Remember us to your family and friends.
And if at all possible,
come again!

I am Ashkenazi and Sephardic in my Jewish ancestry and when confirming this ancestry with DNA testing of my mother’s genetic history I found that I had Ashkenazim ancestors and relatives from all over Europe, from Netherlands to Germany to Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Slovakia, Austria-Hungary but it stopped in the direct of Palestine at Uzbekistan which was centered in the old Khazar Kingdom said to have converted to Judaism in the 8th century to avoid wars with Christian and Muslim armies at their borders. I have now become aware that there is a Zionist push to promote ridiculous genetic ancestry of us Ashkenazim by trying to say we have Palestinian Jewish genes in us making us “Jews” in order to claim the Zionist “Right of Return” to Palestine. Well, I now warn people who are being taken in by Jewish geneticists fudging Mendelian genetic rules in order to promote a historical lie. I challenge fellow Ashkenazim to have their DNA analyzed in non-Jewish genetic research labs to see for themselves that the Khazar Jewish convert theory is not just theory but true.

People not knowing Mendelian genetic rules are being made fools of as one can find out for yourself by doing the math of genetic transmission. Let’s give Ashkenazim in Central Asia/Europe “Four Jewish mothers from Palestine” or even 70 rabbis from Palestine and they mate with Khazar Kingdom pagans who have been ordered to convert. What happens when these Palestinian genes from four Palestinian Jewish mothers or 70 Palestinian rabbis meet with the Central Asia/European populations? The first generations are 50/50 Palestinian/European. The second generations are 25%/75% Palestinian/European. The third generation are 12.5% Palestinian/87.5% European. The fourth generation is 6.25% Palestinian/93.75% European, and so by the fifth or six generation, or in 120 years given 20 years to a generation, the Palestinian genetic contribution is practically nil. It’s been over 1200 years since the Khazar Kingdom converted and thus all that Zionist “We are Semites” claim is pure Zionist propaganda being used as a weapon by Israeli Zionists to remove Palestinians from Palestine. You can no longer trust Jewish genetics and that Cohen business needs Gentile genetic peer review as it seems highly suspicious to this Ashkenazim/Sephardic Jew.