The Old testament of the Bible has mainly two parts. In part one, the origin of Earth, Humankind and the expansion of Humans are mentioned according to the opinion of its author.
In part two, the story of a man and his heirs who believed in God is explained. The second part of the Old testament is all about a particular clan. The rise and fall of Jews. In the Bible, this story ends with Prophet Malachi, when Jews were under Persian occupation. But this story continues even in 21st century. Even if there were many other clans existed on Earth during Biblical time, Bible hardly mentions the history of other people or clans.
Is the New testament of the Bible a continuation of the Old testament? Probably not. New testament leads us to a different direction.
Old testament is concentrated more on life on this world, It has an ethnocentric concept, in which, its believers are declared as "chosen people" of God. It concentrates more on incidents of current life than after life or immortality. It is the history of the Jewish race.
New testament is concentrated more on souls and life after death or eternal life. It relatively accepts all people. It is person-centric, Jesus is the center figure of New testament.
Continuation of the Old testament is not mentioned in traditional Bibles, but it is available from history books.
The second part of the Old testament starts with a person called Abram, who decided to go exile voluntarily from his homeland. Abram was basically from Mesopotamian region [Genesis 24:4-10]. The cultures of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic belief system, but Abram believed that, the entire universe was the work of a single Creator. Abram believed, ‘that single Creator’ - God - will bless him and will make him into a great nation. He also believed, his descendants will be numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore and will take possession of the cities of their enemies. According to many experts an approximate time of these incidents were around 2000 BCE.
Abram and his descendants Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob (Israel) and Joseph all were living in Canaan, the place where Abram arrived after leaving his homeland. The Canaanites (natives of Canaan) were also living there. At one point, one of his son Ishmael and his mother Hagar were sent off from Canaan by Abram. Hagar and Abram believed that, God will make a great nation of Ishmael also and will increase his descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. Hagar also believed, “her son’s hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand will be against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers" [Genesis 16:12]. This Ishmael is said to be the ancestor of several prominent old Arab tribes and the forefather of prophet Muhammad. The descendants of Ishmael, however, were not the sole tribes in the Arabia. Most of the present-day Arabs follow prophet Muhammad under the umbrella of Islam.
Later, Abram's grandson Jacob (Israel) and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacob's son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. In Egypt, they developed into a race, they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. But then Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labour. Later, Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan by crossing Red sea and travelling through desert for 40 years. The length of time Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.
In Canaan, they settled down for long time and established a kingdom called "The United Monarchy". They were led by many Judges, prophets and Kings (for example, King David, King Solomon…etc.). They built a temple in Jerusalem. At one point, "The United Monarchy" was divided into Samaria (Kingdom of Israel) and Judah (Kingdom of Judah). Jerusalem was in Kingdom of Judah. The terms "Jew" and "Judaism" probably come from the kingdom of Judah. God in Judah was strictly monotheistic. They were attacking and getting attacked by neighbours and big nations.
In 722 BCE, Assyrians conquered Samaria (Kingdom of Israel). No commonly accepted historical record accounts for the ultimate fate of the ten Israelite tribes that were in Samaria, sometimes referred to as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. But some say, these tribes moved to east and many of them ended up in India and had contacts with Essenes (a sect of Jews) in Israel.
In 586 BCE, Babylonians [Iraqis] conquered Judah (Kingdom of Judah), destroyed the Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. Kingdom of Judah was then occupied by Babylonians. It is said that, the trauma of this exile experiences led Jews to the development of a strong sense of identity as a people distinct from other peoples.
In 538 BCE, Babylonians were conquered by Persians [Iranians] lead by Cyrus the Great and then Judah was under Persian rule. Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to re-establish themselves in Jerusalem. Following their return to Jerusalem from the exile, with Persian approval and financing, construction of a Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE. The old testament of the Bible ends here with prophesies of Prophet Malachi.
After prophet Malachi ceased his writing, in about 435 BCE, the centre of world power began to shift from the East to the West.
In 332 BCE, Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great, resulted in Greek occupation of Judah. Greeks used the term Palaistinē for that area. At first, relations between Greeks and the Jews were cordial, but later Greeks attempted to impose decrees banning certain Jewish religious rites and traditions. Greeks forced Jews to worship Greek gods. Jews later made a treaty with Romans and enjoyed a twenty-five-year period independence due to Maccabean Revolt but later fallen to Roman Empire. (The Maccabee books are excluded from Jewish Bible.)
In 63 BCE, Romans conquered Judah and renamed the area to Palaestina. The birth of Jesus was during this time. Later, Jesus was crucified by Romans. Jesus was accused of sedition against Roman empire.
Early in the 4th century, Roman Empire split and Constantinople became the capital of the East Roman Empire known as the Byzantine Empire. Under the Byzantines, Christianity, dominated by the (Greek) Orthodox Church, was adopted as the official religion in Judah. Jerusalem became an Orthodox Christian city and Jews were banned from living there.
There were some Jewish revolts during Roman and Byzantine rule, but were unsuccessful and were subdued by occupiers.
In 638 CE, the Byzantine Empire lost the Levant to the Arab Islamic Empire. Arab Muslims conquered Jerusalem and then Judah was under Arab Muslims occupation. It was under Islamic rule. During that time, Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life blossomed.
In 1099 CE, European Christian Crusaders invaded Judah and thus Judah was under Crusaders occupation. The Crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Jews were fighting together with Muslims against Crusaders but according to historians, many Muslims and Jews were indiscriminately massacred or sold into slavery by Crusaders. Jews were not allowed to hold land during that time.
In 1187 CE, Muslim armies under Saladin captured or killed the vast majority of the Crusader forces. As a direct result of the battle, Muslims once again became the eminent military power in Judah, re-conquering Jerusalem and several other Crusader-held cities. Saladin issued a proclamation inviting all Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem. Saladin allowed Jews to re-establish themselves in Jerusalem like the Persian Cyrus the Great over 1600 years earlier.
In 1517 CE, Judah was conquered by Turkish Sultan and then was under Ottoman Empire. They renamed the area to Palestine. During the Ottoman period, Jews together with other communities of the empire, enjoyed a certain level of prosperity.
A movement called Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as a national revival movement, in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe. Zionism was the national movement of the Jewish people that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel. At the same time, Arab nationalism also rose in response to Zionism. Territory regarded by the Jewish people as their historical homeland was also claimed by Palestinian Arabs as their homeland. Both, Arab nationalism and Zionism had their formal beginning in Europe. The Zionist Congress was established in Basel in 1897 CE, while the "Arab Club" was established in Paris in 1906 CE.
In 1917 CE, Ottoman Empire was dissolved at the end of World War 1, its successor, modern republic of Turkey, transferred Palestine to British Empire control under the Lausanne agreement that followed World War 1. Thus, Judah became a British colony.
In 1947 CE, following increased levels of violence, the British government expressed a wish to withdraw from Judah. On 14 May 1948 CE, an independent Jewish state is established and is called State of Israel or simply Israel. The Arabs living there revolted and as a result, a de facto country called State of Palestine or simply Palestine is also formed later.
Many Jews were migrating to different parts of the world during all these occupation times. The dispersion of Jews out of their ancestral homeland and their subsequent settlement in other parts of the globe is termed as Jewish diaspora. In almost every part of the world, there were Jewish populations. They were a minority population but Jews could be found in all walks of life as some families were wealthy, many more were poor. After 1300 CE, Jews suffered more discrimination and persecution in Christian Europe. Jews were frequently massacred and exiled from various European countries. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has slowly risen again, and as of 2015 CE, was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish Databank.
After the formation of State of Israel, many Jews have returned from all around the world and started settling in Israel. Now State of Israel is a country with 8.5 million people in which 74.8% are Jewish, 17.6% are Muslim and 2% are Christian. Hebrew and Arabic are its official languages. State of Palestine is a de facto country with 4.5 million people in which 99.5% are Muslim and 0.5% are Christian. Arabic is its official language. The residents of Palestine are called "Palestinians" and of Israel are called "Israelis".
Palestinians consider themselves as the indigenous people of the land and descendants of the Canaanites. But it is also said that, little is known about descendants of the Canaanites and Palestinians are not descendants of the Canaanites. According to some experts, most of the population now known as Palestinian, descended from migrants originating from the surrounding Arab countries and from local Bedouins, in origin they are more Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, Lebanese, and mainly Bedouin. At the same time, according to a Palestinian leader, “… our people are an extension of the 3500-year-old Canaanite civilization, with urban communities thousands of years old”.
The fight between State of Israel and State of Palestine is still going on for land and for many other things. A religion established in the name of Jesus has been spread all over the world and Jesus is adored as the only begotten son of God. A religion established in the name of prophet Muhammad by Arabs has also spread all over the world and proclaims monotheism.
In older times, the Wars were like a modern sports event in which the best team wins. In modern times, it's all about technology. Those who have Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and technologies to effectively deploy/defend them are the World Powers. Among them, the one who can cause more devastation with technology is the World Number One. Currently, the United States of America provides financial, military and political support to State of Israel, by doing so, the American superpower is maintaining their other interests in that region too.
Our Earth doesn't belong to any human or to any country. None of us own this World. In this sense, we have no authority to block anyone from travelling freely. Everybody has the right to travel anywhere in this World. Freedom of movement is a right not a privilege. In the current world order, there exists economic and lifestyle inequalities between countries. Even if 'Free travel' is a right, this must be handled with prudence, otherwise it may end up in 'Benefit travel'. In order to stop Benefit travel, it's our duty to work for worldwide equality in income and lifestyle.
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