The last time a Western State in this particular part of the world failed it evacuated to Cyprus rather than the desert (1291).
In addition the Penteteuch came to us via the Greeks. It is a Greek work from a Greek world that was trying to reinvent itself. The attempts to raise a people who believed it seemed to be based at Qumran suitably distant from the major cities at the time, especially Alexandria & Athens. So interesting their descendants (maybe not all are) seem drawn back there as most of them would have come from all over the Greek world at the time rather than just this small sliver of land. In fact in the 7th C many of them still in that part of the world on the Southern Med, mostly Roman at the time, took on another religion, Islam. And the part of the world that has mostly been called Palestine and now Israel was in fact a hick part of the Empire (whatever Empire it was, does it matter?) and barely numbered more than a few hundred k for most of its existence. Now there's maybe 12 million there. Crazy times.
The last time a Western State in this particular part of the world failed it evacuated to Cyprus rather than the desert (1291).
In addition the Penteteuch came to us via the Greeks. It is a Greek work from a Greek world that was trying to reinvent itself. The attempts to raise a people who believed it seemed to be based at Qumran suitably distant from the major cities at the time, especially Alexandria & Athens. So interesting their descendants (maybe not all are) seem drawn back there as most of them would have come from all over the Greek world at the time rather than just this small sliver of land. In fact in the 7th C many of them still in that part of the world on the Southern Med, mostly Roman at the time, took on another religion, Islam. And the part of the world that has mostly been called Palestine and now Israel was in fact a hick part of the Empire (whatever Empire it was, does it matter?) and barely numbered more than a few hundred k for most of its existence. Now there's maybe 12 million there. Crazy times.