Verskuiwinge in die lewens- en tydsbeskouing van die inwoners van Siro- Palestina (1200-500 vC).

Abstract

Shifts in the way the inhabitants of Palestine looked at life and time during the period 1200-500 BCE
The Levant was inhabited by Canaanites during the second millennium BCE, and from 1200 BCE onwards also by the Israelites. The Israelite view held on life and the world is well known from the scriptures that they had left behind. The Canaanite way of thinking remained unknown until the tell at Ras Shamra was excavated and the city of Ugarit was brought to light during 1929. A series of written sources were found in the city’s palace archives and library. Thus, today the world view of the Canaanites can be compared to that of the Israelites. Both the Canaanite and the Israelite world consisted of a divinely ordained order that was essentially unchangeable. Chaos, evil and destruction posed a constant threat to the world. But order was ordained by the gods, and they would maintain it as long as men respected this order. This fixed order would continue to exist. At no stage was the end of the world and time envisaged by the Canaanite or Israelite. Death meant descending to Sheol, the pit. All people went to the same place. No distinction was made between good and evil people, or Israelites and the heathen. Mankind existed in Sheol until he was lost from memory. Then existence ceased. There was no expectation of a coming consummation of the world or righteousness.
At the time of the Exile, everything changed for the remnant of Judah. Since then the prophets promised a glorious future for a privileged group. Jahweh punished His people through the Exile for their polytheism and He used Cyrus the Persian as His servant to bring them back to their land. It was believed that this was the moment that He would establish His kingdom in Jerusalem. Jews found new hope in the vision that the world would be made new. This paved the way for a new theological development in Jewish thinking: the origins of Jewish apocalyptic.