At the time of King David the Mycenaean Greeks had landed on the coast of Israel. They formed a people who were not Habiru or Canaan. They were known by the Israelites as Philistines and were the opposite of the Israelis although the Israelis took many of their better architectural features from them. It was the metaphor of David and the Philistine giant that the intifada took for their image stealing it from the Israelis. The child who stops a giant with a stone.
The one who tried to tie the Athens and Jerusalem together was the Jewish philosopher Leo Strauss who used the Greeks as reason and Jerusalem as the revelation saying that one needed both in order to evolve. Of course, the Jewish settlers called the Arabs that they met in Palestine "Philistines" and that was not a good place to begin. Today, everyone has to give up something. The orthodox have to grow up and discover the Israel within that evades them while the Palestinians have to acknowledge that Israel is antecedent to Islam and that Islam wouldn't exist without the Jewish prophets in their own book. It comes down to families being able to get along. The Jews will have to share and pay reparations (at least the settlements) and the Palestinians will have to accept the fact that a relative has come home and that the ancient stories are no longer applicable. That they must built a future together. If they can't do that then they will be known as just a couple of warring tribes that don't deserve all of the accolades that the world gives them as major spiritual centers and the world will wipe the dust from its feet. I hope they do decide to get along. I like the Jews. I will always be a relative and the Arabs although foreign to me, seem to have a very interesting culture and history. Sacrifice is what makes sacred. That land will never be holy unless the two decide to make it so together. IMHO. REH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 7:55 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Athens and Jerusalem > Brad, take a look at http://members.eisa.com/~ec086636/christians&jews.htm > on my website. It may answer your question to at least some extent. Here > are some references to Judaic-Greek interactions from the site: > > "Arguably, Christianity owes its origin less to Judaism than to the Greeks. > The Christian sense of mystery and duality, of good and evil, of Heaven and > Hell, of generalized sin as opposed to disobedience of divine law, of a > pantheon consisting of a great god and lesser and more specialized spiritual > beings, is essentially Greek. But it would seem that what Christians also > inherited from the Greeks was a prejudice against the Jews. To some > considerable degree, this prejudice was economically based. The Jews formed > a large part of the population of the Graeco-Roman world. Many of them were > neither poor nor downtrodden, but wealthy and powerful, a matter which > played no small role in their eventual persecution. > > The wealthiest Jews were to be found in the major commercial centers of the > ancient Mediterranean world. Among the most prominent of these centers was > Alexandria, which was founded by Alexander himself in 332 BCE, and which, in > a generation or two, had displaced Athens as the Mediterranean's most > important commercial and cultural center. > > By the standards of the day, Alexandria was a large city. At the time of > Christ, it had nearly half a million people, with Jews comprising some 30 to > 40 percent of its population. From Alexandria, the Ptolemies, a dynasty > founded by Alexander, maintained close control over the economy of Egypt, > Rome's wealthiest province and granary. However, following the death of > Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemies, in 30 B.C., the city fell under > direct Roman rule, and a path was opened to greater individual initiative. > It would appear that the Jews took full advantage of this, accumulating > wealth and economic influence, and incurring the envy and wrath of the Greek > Gentile population. Much the same process occurred throughout the Roman > world, engendering strong anti-Jewish feeling. Gentiles both envied and > dreaded the Jews, feeling that they would be overwhelmed by growing Jewish > influence while their own income and wealth remained stagnant. The several > references in Greek and Latin literature to the wealth of the Jews and > Jewish rulers suggest that such envy was not misplaced. It became a major > source of anti-Jewish hostility throughout the classical period. (Feldman, > Louis H., Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World, Princeton, 1993, > pp.108-109)" > > Ed Weick > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 6:57 PM > Subject: [Futurework] Athens and Jerusalem > > > > It is obvious (and I read it again recently, > > but I didn't write down the reference...) that > > "The West" as we know it has a "multiple inheritance" > > from the Greeks and the Jews. > > > > Does anyone know anything about whether there was > > any contact between the two in "classical" (not > > late-Hellenistic!) times? > > What would Pericles, Aristotle, Socrates, Sophocles, > > Pindar, Homer, Hesiod, Pythagoras, Protagoras et al. > > have made of Abraham, Moses, Jeramiah, Amos, Solomon > > et al., and vice versa? > > > > Did they engage with each other? (That's probably > > historically irrelevant, since, if they did engage > > with each other, the engagement didn't result in > > a marriage, let alone any offspring -- like if the > > Chinese discovered The New World before Columbus, etc.). > > But, as psychoanalysts say: "everything is grist for the > > mill". > > > > And, yes, what if Alexander the Great had not died in Iraq, > > but had been able to complete a journey to The East, > > and return? Might Persepolis have become Cosmopolis (ref. > > Stephen Toulmin's book by that name) and ethnicities have > > now for almost 2,500 years, have been -- for us > > citizens of the universal city -- of concern only > > to our ethnographers? Would we today live in a world where > > nachines move themselves so that we no longer > > need slaves, but we would still spend our days > > in leisured pursuit of "shining words and deeds" in the > > public space of the [cosmo-s creating] polis? > > > > \brad mccormick > > > > -- > > Let your light so shine before men, > > that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) > > > > Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) > > > > <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Futurework mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
