One of the oldest civilizations is that of the Armenians.
According to ancient tradition, Noah's Ark rested on Mount Ararat in the Armenian Mountain Range.
Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat is featured on Armenia's National Coat of Arms.
The ancient Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi, 410-490 A.D., recounted the legend that Noah's son Japheth had a descendant named Hayk.
He refused to submit to Bel or Nimrod, builder of the Tower of Babel in Babylon.
Bel or Nimrod was the first tyrant of the ancient world who centralized government power.
In this legend, Hayk reportedly led his people north to the land near Mount Ararat, but Bel or Nimrod chased them.
In a battle near Lake Van, circa 2,492 B.C. or 2107 B.C., Hayk is said to have pulled his powerful long bow and made a nearly impossible shot with an arrow and killed Bel or Nimrod.
Hayk is the origin of "Hayastan," the Armenian name for Armenia.
Ancient Armenians may have had some relation with the Hittites and Hurrians, who inhabited that area known as Anatolia in the 2nd millenium B.C.
Armenia's major city of Yerevan, founded in 782 B.C. in the shadow of Mount Ararat, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Armenia was mentioned in the Book of Isaiah when King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah around 701 B.C.
In this national emergency, King Hezekiah and the Prophet Isaiah prayed and Judah was miraculously saved.
Sennacherib returned to Assyria, where he was killed by his sons who then escaped to Armenia:
"And it came to pass, as Sennacherib was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia." Isaiah 37:38
Armenia was first mentioned by name in secular records in 520 B.C. by Darius the Great of Persia in his Behistun inscription, as being one of the countries he sent troops into to put down a revolt.
In 331 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered Persia, but never conquered Armenia.
Between 95-55 B.C., King Tigranes the Great extended Armenia's borders to their greatest extent, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, pushing back the Parthians, Seleucids and the Roman Republic.
In 67 B.C., Roman General Pompey invaded the nearby Kingdom of Pontus on the Black Sea. Its king, Mithridates the Sixth, fled to Armenia, which unfortunately implicated that country in the Mithridatic Wars with Rome.
Adding to the tension, King Tigranes' son wanted to overthrow his father, so he foolishly invited to Pompey to invade Armenia.
Pompey let King Tigranes continue to rule in exchange for tribute, but arrested the son and sent him back to Rome as a prisoner.
Then Pompey received word that there was a terrible civil war going on in Judea between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He decided it was an opportune time to invade.
Though the history of Judea is somewhat complicated, it is nevertheless important.
In 539 B.C., Cyrus of Persia let Jews return to Israel and build the Second Temple.
Ezra led the nation in returning to studying the Scriptures. This was the origin of the Pharisees.
Then 336-323 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered from Greece, to Egypt, to Persia, spreading the Greek language and culture all over the world, a process called "Hellenization."
Pharisees vigorously opposed "Hellenization" as they considered Greek culture sensuous, immoral and pagan.
They emphasized a decentralized system where in each village the scriptures were taught by rabbis every Sabbath in a synagogue.
Sadducees were Jews who, in varying degrees, were "Hellenized" in order to have favor with their new Greek rulers.
As a result, they were politically connected, wealthy elites in charge of the centralized priestly system of Temple worship in Jerusalem
The difference between the views of the more liberal Sadducees and more conservative Pharisees is somewhat reflected in the modern differences between Reformed Judaism and Orthodox Judaism.
When Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C., four of his generals divided up his empire, with Seleucus the First Nicator taking Syria to Persia, founding the Seleucid Empire in 312 B.C.
This included the land of Israel.
A successor Seleucid king was Antiochus the Fourth Epiphanes.
He was so intent on Hellenizing Judea that he tried to completely erase the Jewish religion.
Jews were rallied by Judah Maccabee to rebel in the Maccabean Revolt, 167-160 B.C. This is commemorated by the Feast of Hanukkah.
After Judah Maccabee's death, his brother, Simon Thassi, founded the Hebrew Hasmonean Dynasty, which eventually gained independence for Judea.
Simon Thassi the Hasmonean was assassinated by his son-in-law at a banquet.
Afterwards, Simon's son, John Hyrcanus, served as both the political leader and the High Priest, though he still respected the decentralized authority of "The Assembly of the Jews."
Hyrcanus was successful in establishing a relationship with the distant Roman Senate, getting it to recognize Judah's independence.
Hycranus greatly expanded Jewish territory.
When John Hyrcanus died, his son, Aristobulus the First, seized control, threw his mother in prison, concentrated political power, and reestablished the monarchy.
He was the first person in Jewish history to claim the actual titles of both King and High Priest.
Sadducees, who were Hellenized political insiders, had no problem with Aristobulus the First having both titles.
Pharisees, on the other hand, did have a problem, as they were religious students of the Law and believed that only a descendant of David could be king.
When Aristobulus the First died in 103 B.C., his widow, Alexandra-Salome, married his brother, Alexander Jannaeus, who also was King and High Priest.
Alexander Jannaeus, a Sadducee, ordered 800 Pharisees to be crucified.
When he died, his wife, Alexandra-Salome, ruled Judea, but she switched to align with the Pharisees.
She ruled as a monarch and appointed her son, Hyrcanus the Second, to be High Priest.
Judea was noticeably blessed during the reign of Alexandra-Salome.
After her death in 67 B.C., her two sons started a civil war which culminated in the end of Judea's independence.
Aristobulus the Second, was backed by the Sadducees.
Hyrcanus the Second was backed by the Pharisees.
As civil war violence escalated, word of it reached Roman General Pompey who was located north of Judea in the area of Pontus and Armenia.
Aristobulus the Second sent a large golden vine weighing over 1000 lbs. to Pompey requesting his help against his brother, Hyrcanus the Second.
Pompey decided this was the ideal time to invade Judea.
In 63 B.C., Pompey left the area of Armenia and marched south toward the city of Jerusalem, which was divided into warring sections due to the civil war.
Hyrcanus the Second and the Pharisees allowed Pompey to enter their section of the city.
The Sadducees, though, refused to let Pompey into the Temple complex.
Pompey laid siege, defeated the Sadduccees, and entered the Holy of Holies of the Temple.
After seeing Ark of the Covenant, he exited the Temple and forbade his soldiers from desecrating it.
The next day, he order the Temple area cleansed of defilement.
Historian Josephus wrote:
“Of the Jews there fell twelve thousand ... and no small enormities were committed about the temple itself, which, in former ages, had been inaccessible, and seen by none; for Pompey went into it, and not a few of those that were with him also, and saw all that which was unlawful for any other men to see, but only for the High Priests.
There were in that temple the golden table, the holy candlestick, and the pouring vessels, and a great quantity of spices; and besides these there were among the treasures two thousand talents of sacred money;
yet did Pompey touch nothing of all this, on account of his regard to religion; and in this point also he acted in a manner that was worthy of his virtue.
The next day he gave order to those that had the charge of the temple to cleanse it, and to bring what offerings the law required to God." Antiquities, XIV.IV.4
Pompey ended Judea's independence by making it a Roman province.
He recognized Hyrcanus the Second as High Priest, but arrested Aristobulus the Second and sent him back to Rome as a prisoner.
Hyrcanus the Second was a weak ruler. He had an official named Antipater the Idumaean, who was opportunistic and forceful.
Idumaea was the land of Edom, a neighboring kingdom to Judea, where lived the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother.
In 49 B.C., a civil war broke out in the Roman Empire between Pompey and Julius Caesar.
In 47 B.C., a key battle took place near Alexandria, Egypt.
At a critical moment in the battle, when it looked like Caesar would be defeated, Antipater the Idumaean came to his rescue.
In gratitude for his timely assistance, Caesar appointed Antipater as epitropos - regent - over Judea with the right to collect taxes, and left Hyrcanus the Second as High Priest.
Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., and Antipater was poisoned in 43 B.C.
Another Roman civil war began between Caesar's general, Mark Anthony, and Caesar's nephew, Octavian.
Then, in 40 B.C., war broke out between the Romans and the Parthians over who would rule Armenia.
The conflict spilled over into Judea.
The son of Aristobulus the Second, Antigonus Mattathias, sided with the Parthians and with their support, was proclaimed King and High Priest in Judea.
He seized his uncle, Hyrcanus the Second, and, according to Josephus, bit off his ear to disqualify him from being High Priest, and had him taken away captive by the Parthians into Babylonia.
In 36 B.C., Antigonus was defeated by Antipater's son, Herod the Great, with help from the Romans.
Octavian changed his name to Augustus Caesar.
In this crisis, King Tiridates the Third released Saint Gregory the Illuminator, whom he had imprisoned for 12 years for being the son of his father's killer.
St. Gregory the Illuminator is credited with turning Armenia from paganism to Christianity.
Armenia is considered the first nation to "officially" adopt Christianity as its state religion when King Tiridates the Third converted in 301 A.D.
Other countries at that time also had majority Christian populations, such as Syria, Cappadocia, and Egypt.
In 313 A.D., Constantine the Great ended the persecution of Christians throughout the Roman Empire.
A section of the Old City of Jerusalem is known as "The Armenian Quarter."
Not long after Armenia, another kingdom became Christian.
The African Kingdom of Aksum, 320-360 A.D., became Christian when King Ezana converted and adopted it as his kingdom's official religion.
The Kingdom of Askum very large, including the areas of:
- Ethiopia, also called Abyssinia;
- Yemen;
- southern Arabia;
- northern Somalia;
- Djibouti;
- Eritrea, and
- parts of Sudan.
Aksum's King Ezana originally minted coins with a pagan symbol at the top of a star and crescent moon. After he converted to Christianity, he replaced the star and crescent with a Christian cross, though pagans in the Middle East continued using the star and crescent symbol for centuries.
(continue reading Armenian Genocide History)
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