The arrival of the “Peoples of the Sea,” as the Egyptians called them, on the shores of the Mediterranean, hastened the end of Egyptian rule in Palestine. This was also hastened by the breakdown of the old politico-economic city-state system. Amongst the new arrivals, the Philistines, the largest group, were installed in the south, in Egyptian territory. Their confederation of five cosmopolitan towns (Ascalan, Asdod, Gaza, Gath and Ekron) was ruled by a military and mercantile aristocracy. Their culture seems to have been a mixture of linguistic, political and religious traits which revealed Canaanite and Egyptian influences.

The Philistines integrated harmoniously into the indigenous population. Unfortunately, not a single Philistine text is extant, which could otherwise shed light on the process of their fusion into the indigenous population, or their relations with their neighbouring powers, in particular the Egyptians, Judaeans and Israelites. Whether in the interior of the land or in the mountains, power alternated between farmers settled in cultivated areas in the interior and tribes of semi-nomadic shepherds in mountainous areas or in the steppes or less fertile peripheries of the country.

Palestine was divided into four distinct political sectors: the Galilee to the north, under Phoenician influence, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the centre and societies that were hard to administer but which were loyal to Arabo-Edomite control in the south. The towns’ defenses were fragile but guaranteed them an independent status for a while. It is known today that the arrival of the Hebrews, coming in successive groups, came at the same time if not a little after that of the Philistines, and was peaceful. They were part of the waves of Aramaeans who settled all over the Near East, being accepted by the people already living there.

The first millennium BCE saw a profound evolution in politics and religion. One of the groups believing in Yahwism, or the worship of one God, Yahweh, supplanted the others: it became the official religion. It was this millennium that saw the birth and development of the Bible, created in different stages, and coming as a response to monotheism. Six hundred years earlier, Pharoah Akhenaton had had the plural of the word “God” obliterated in all Egyptian temples, an undertaking which had been only partially completed. The slow process of political and social maturity had - over time - stimulated religious and intellectual activity, of which the Old Testament offers some choice examples.

Circa 1000 BCE, King David established his authority in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. In their effort to establish a national identity, the different regions created an ideological and religious heritage which was inevitably influenced by their neighbours: dynastic genealogies and theories of the creation of the world owed something to Mesopotamian and Egyptian myth, as did the adaptation of certain rites and rituals, and so forth. The God of the Israelites (Yahweh) slowly emerged supreme over the multiple oriental divinities: “You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.” (Deuteronomy 6:14) The Prophets were responsible for defining acceptable or unacceptable behaviour.

Royal scribes of the court sang the praises of the Jerusalem dynasty: “And Solomon, the son of David, was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and magnified him exceedingly.” (2 Chronicles 1:1) The little kingdom was overshadowed for a long time by its more glorious neighbor Israel, until the final capture of the latter in 722 BCE after repeated coups by the Neo-Assyrians (Israel lasted merely a little more than 200 years after its establishment).

At the time of the Neo-Assyrian conquest (722- 586 BCE), the Syro-Palestinian kingdoms were first obliged to pay tribute to the conqueror and were then transformed into Assyrian provinces. This event marked the end of their independence. Only Judaea and, further south, the Arab kingdoms maintained some autonomy. The coastal rincipalities and the kingdom of Samaria were destroyed, and their populations suffered deportation carried out in proportion to their resistance. As to Samaria, the Old Testament suggests that 27,000 people were deported, while most of the population were allowed to stay. This policy of deporting the population, common practice throughout the empire, enabled the conqueror to reinforce the Assyrian campaign by crushing local power.

Population transfers, however, were practiced in two senses. The kingdom of Judaea, for example, gained much by offering asylum in 722 BCE to the banished Samarian aristocratic class which had been dispersed after the crushing of Israel, during the fall of Samaria. Jerusalem became a dynamic intellectual and religious centre based on the theme of an ingathering of the Diaspora by divine protection: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) In the second half of the sixth century BCE, the monotheism affirmed: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45:22) Politics unceasingly reinforced religion. Moreover, influences coming from across the sea, from the Greek world, intensified. Cultural and religious exchanges followed in the wake of commerce. The idea of one unique god became progressively forged; the different kingdoms centred their official religion on the worship of one national god. Israel associated its God with the national temple, and the other kingdoms also consecrated a sacred place to their god. Popular religious practices inherited from the old Canaanite roots had not disappeared, however, and continued to perpetuate the antique religious unity of the Orient. Ancient agricultural rituals and fertility rites were deeply ingrained in local tradition everywhere. Even in Israel, nature religions jealous of the unique God continued to be practiced for a long time alongside the worship of Yahweh. The exact moment when monotheism triumphed in the form we know it today is the object of lively discussion among historians of religion; some say that it appeared only in the Hellenistic period, with the encounter with Greek philosophy.

The neo-Babylonian conquest precipitated the fall of proud Jerusalem in 586 BCE, sending its inhabitants into the Exile to Babylon. The kings of Gaza and Jerusalem (Zedekiah), with their families, priests and other officials thus came into contact with the highest civilization of their time. Those who returned in 538 BCE brought precious political and religious knowledge back with them, which those who had stayed did not possess. They re-established Jerusalem on a strong ideological base in the midst of a changing world: the mixture of populations had given a new unity to the Orient. Aramaic had become the empire’s lingua franca. But the Greek world was preparing to descend on the Levant…This is the period when the traditions found in the Torah or Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy - also known as the Five Books of Moses), as well as the “historic”revisions of the texts (Joshua, Judges, Kings and Samuel) were compiled. Jewish culture was strengthened by its opposition to the increasingly pervasive hellenisation. The priestly hierarchy put an unprecedented emphasis on the sanctity of Jerusalem and the centrality of the (Second) Temple. Their intolerance of pagan religions took the form of the destruction of ancient places of worship which were dedicated to traditional deities in Judaea and threatened even the Samaritans who had no intention of giving up, despite all, their temple on Mt. Jarzim.