History of Jews in the Middle East

Ancient Egyptian document of the period lists 70 names of Semitic slaves: The Brooklyn papyrus lists the names of approximately 100 domestic servants, 70% of whom had Semitic names, a number of which are familiar from the Bible, including the names of two of the tribes of Israel, Isaachar and Ashar, and there is Shiphra (the same name as one of the leaders of the Hebrew midwives), and the many others. These Hebrew slaves are named in a papyrus not from the 19th Dynasty and the time of Ramses II and the New Kingdom but from the 13th Dynasty and the Middle Kingdom! Learn more from Does the Brooklyn Papyrus help confirm the Exodus story?

This chronology is a work in progress. Please submit your suggestions via the comment block below.

Circa 2100 B.C — Abram was born the son of Terah.
Circa 2085 B.C. — God promised Abram he would have many descendants.
Circa 2080 B.C. — Ismael was born by Abram’s servant Hagar.
Circa 2081 B.C. — God made a covenant with Abram; God clearly declared Ishmael would not be Abram’s heir, but a child “that is from your own body will be your heir,” an inference to a child yet to be born of a union of Abraham and his wife, Sarah.
Circa 2067 B.C. — God foretells the birth of Isaac.
Circa 2067 B.C. — Abraham settles in Gerar, with the full permission of Abimelek.
Circa 2066 B.C. — Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah. Sarah orders her servant Hagar and the child Ishmael banished from her family. Abraham was upset over the banishment of his son Ishmael, and God revealed to Abraham, saying, “Do not be upset concerning the boy and your slave wife. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to what she says, for in Isaac your descendants will be called. Yet I will also make a nation of the son [Ishmael] of the slave woman, because he is your offspring.” God recognized both Ishmael and Isaac as the offspring of Abraham but only Isaac as his heir.
Circa 2026 B.C. — Isaac marries Rebekah.
Circa 2006 B.C., Isaac’s fraternal twin sons Jacob (2nd born) and Esau (1st born) were born. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, who then became Isaac’s heir.
Circa 1929 B.C. — Isaac blessed Jacob, who disguised himself as his brother Esau.
Circa 1875 B.C. — Jacob and his family move to the area of Goshen in Egypt at the invitation of Pharoah Khakaure (1878-1860 B.C.), the most powerful and influential pharaoh of the 12th dynasty.
Circa 1446 B.C. — Moses leads the Hebrew people out of Egypt en route to their promised land. To learn about all the pharaohs of Egypt from the time of Joseph to the Exodus, read The Date and Pharaoh of the Exodus: 1446 B.C.
Circa 1406 B.C. — The Hebrew people cross the Jordan River from the east to the west. Conquest of the promised land began.
Circa 1405 B.C. — The land that would be called Israel was conquered.
Circa 1399 B.C. — The land of Israel was allotted to the Hebrew tribes.
Circa 1205 B.C. — The Merneptah (Merenptah) Stele records the earliest textual reference to Israel outside the Bible and the only reference from ancient Egypt. Pharoah Merenptah is not mentioned in the Bible. Neither is the name of the pharaoh of the Exodus mentioned. The first pharaoh named in the Bible was Shishak (Shoshenq 943-922 B.C.) in 1 Kings 11:40 at the time of Solomon’s death circa 931 B.C. Note: Over the centuries, pharaohs and kings either exaggerated their conquests or did not mention their defeats. Learn more from the Biblical Archaeology Society: Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem?
Circa 1003 B.C. — King David ruled over all of Israel.
Circa 966 B.C. — King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem.
Circa 931 B.C. — The Jewish kingdom divides, Israel in the North, Judah in the South
Circa 598 B.C. — Israelites exiled to Babylon
Circa 537 B.C. — Israelites return from exile.
Circa 535 B.C. — Rebuilding of the Temple on Temple Mount began
Circa 380-360 B.C. — The El Arish Stone
Circa 323 B.C. — Ancient Gold Ring From the City of David
145 A.D. — Yonaton the Hasmonean, brother of Yehuda the Hasmonean, conquered Gaza, and his brother Shimon settled Jews there.
351-354 A.D. — Jewish revolt against the Romans. 2024: Coins Uncovered in Lod Reveal Evidence of Last Jewish Revolt
407 A.D. — The Roman government outlawed Jewish proselytizing
1917 A.D. — The Balfour Declaration for a Zionist state
1917 – 1929 A.D. — The British Mandate: Palestine-Israel timeline
1929 A.D. — Jews were present in Gaza until 1929, when they were forced to leave the area due to violent riots against them by the Arabs.
1930 – 1939 — Palestine-Israel Timeline
1930 A.D. — Two labor groups merge to form the Mapai Party, which dominates the political life of the Yishuv and the state of Israel until 1977. The party represents the socialist egalitarian ideal, believing that the interests of labor and Zionism are identical. David Ben-Gurion becomes the party’s leader.
1934 A.D. — Adolph Hitler was democratically elected president of Germany
1947 A.D. — The United Nations (UN) adopted UN Resolution 181 and resolved to subsequently divide Great Britain’s former Mandate into Palestinian and Jewish states on November 29, 1947. Although the international community and the Jewish People eagerly embraced UN Resolution 181, all of the Arab nations that surrounded the nascent state of Israel immediately vowed to exterminate the newborn Jewish state on May 14, 1948.
1948 A.D. — The Nation of Israel was officially recognized as a country.
1948 A.D. — The Nakba: The creation of the Gaza Strip and forced relocation of Palestinians to the Gaza Strip WAPO Article-Israeli operations uprooted Palestinians in 1948. Many fear a repeat. YouTube video: How an Israeli war criminal turned Gaza into “the biggest refugee camp in the world”
1948 A.D. — The Arab-Israeli War: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi established close ties with Israel. At the time, Iran was home to the biggest Jewish community in the Middle East.
1957 A.D. — Iran’s feared Savak secret police was created in 1957 with the help of the CIA and eventually Israel’s Mossad.
1967 A.D. — The Six-Day War | Prior to the start of the war, attacks against Israel by fledgling Palestinian guerrilla groups based in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan had increased, leading to costly Israeli reprisals. Israel’s stunning victory in the Six-Day War of 1967 left the Jewish nation in control of territory four times its previous size. Egypt lost the 23,500-square-mile Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Syria lost the strategic Golan Heights.
1973 A.D. — The Yom Kippur War: The Yom Kippur War was a disaster for Syria. The unexpected Egyptian-Israeli cease-fire exposed Syria to military defeat, and Israel seized even more territory in the Golan Heights.
1979 A.D. — Syria voted with other Arab states to expel Egypt from the Arab League. The special relationship between Israel and Iran ended with the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah, and Israel did not recognize the new Islamic Republic of Iran.
1982 A.D. — Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt
1996 A.D. — Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister at the age of 47 years.
2005 A.D. — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon orders the forced removal of Jewish settlers from Gaza.
2014 A.D. — Iran’s supreme leader touts 9-point plan to destroy Israel
2018 A.D. — U.S. President Donald Trump moves the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
2020 A.D. — The Abraham Accords, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, were signed on September 15, 2020
2023 A.D. — Italy moves to reunite ancient temple treasures with Israel
2023 A.D. — Iran attempts to annihilate all Jews and take control of Israel through Iranian-trained and equipped proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi rebels. Hamas starts by attacking, beheading, massacring, and kidnapping Israeli citizens. Link: CNN video from a Hamas terrorist’s bodycam
More to come…

Historical References to Ancient Israel

**Allotments of the Land of Israel Joshua 13-19**

**PATTERNS OF EVIDENCE – NEW EVIDENCE FOR EARLIEST COINS IN ISRAEL**

Miscellaneous Facts

The Jerusalem Post, April 13, 2022 — The Jewish past and future in the Middle East

History, January 5, 2018 — Judaism (updated August 11, 2023)

Who are the Palestinian People?

From My Jewish Learning: Who Are The Palestinians? | The Palestinian people are an Arab ethno-nationalist group residing primarily in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel, Jordan and parts of southern Lebanon and Syria. Significant Palestinian communities are located in other countries as well, including Saudi Arabia and the United States, which is home to about 85,000 people of Palestinian descent, according to a 2013 U.S. Census figure. Read more…

One Arab’s opinion of the Palestinian people

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Other Sources of Information

License & Copyright

The Merneptah Stele

Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. Original image by Webscribe. Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 26 October 2018. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

Map of the territories allotted to the twelve tribes of Israel

Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. Original image by Janz. Uploaded by Ibolya Horvath, published on 03 September 2021. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web, a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

John White
Rockwall, Texas

History of Jews in the Middle East