Question

Most peoples in the ancient world gained influence over others and became significant in history through military conquest and the establishment of empires. By contrast, how did the Phoenicians and the Hebrews shape the development of world history?

Answer 1

In Egypt, Hebrews were enslaved and compelled to work for the government of the Pharaoh. This most probably happened when the indigenous Egyptians toppled the Hyksos and restored to the delta region an Egyptian ruler and dynasty. However, according to the tradition, the lawgiver, Moses, resulted them out of Egypt. The Bible's exodus refers to the events of the Hebrews coming to Canaan's Promised Land. Eventually, under renowned kings like Saul, David, and Solomon, the Hebrew tribes were united. About the first millennium BCE the ancient kingdom of Israel existed until the Assyrians demolished it in 722 BCE.

Jerusalem was the capitol and the symbol of Jewish faith and unity. The ancient Hebrews made significant and long lasting contributions to the development and maintenance of Western Civilization.

Belief in One God: The Hebrews were the first to accept and uphold the belief in one god as the fundamental and permanent feature of their culture. The civilization built by the ancient Hebrews was characterized by the faith and following of a single, ethical and all powerful God. He was the creator of heaven, earth and all things. He was also the ultimate ruler of the universe he created.

From about the ninth century BCE through the second century BCE, the Phoenicians were most involved in the historical scene when the Romans eventually demolished their most renowned town, Carthage, situated in North Africa. They shared with the Hebrews the Eastern Mediterranean region and were Semitic speaking individuals as well. They lived in what is now called Lebanon, north of Israel, along the shore of the ocean. For big towns like Sidon and particularly Tyre, the Phoenicians were renowned. They became shipbuilders, merchants, explorers, navigators, and sailors of the world class. Their ships sailed and traded from the Atlantic coasts to the Black Sea coasts all over the ancient world.

The Phoenicians ' most significant contribution to the Western cultural heritage, however, was not the quality of their products, excellent urban planning or even their incredible navigational abilities, but the development of a single alphabetic letter writing scheme. The Phoenicians effectively eliminated the unfavourable cuneiform system of having hundreds of characters and substituted it with a phonetic-based alphabet of twenty-two letters with fixed sounds and syllables. This is the alphabet in use today, the phonetic or Phoenician alphabet of twenty-six letters, with slight modifications from the Greeks and Romans.