Resident on this Web Site is a review of Paul Johnson's book, 'A History of the Jews,' in two parts. The first, Part I, is a review of this book from the age of antiquity to 1948, when the state of Israel was formed. The second, Part II, continues a review of Johnson's book from 1948 to the present. These detailed reviews are available as reference materials at the links at the bottom of this page. They are summarized here as an introduction to the subject of this Web Log -- Civilizations as Dynamical Systems.

       The pre-history of the Jews before the formation of Israel in 1948 can be summarized by three important conclusions, one of which has an impact on the subject of this Web Log. That conclusion: Each time the Jewish people embarked on a course of conquest of land and peoples by establishing 'kingdoms' and 'commonwealths,' in order to secure their survival, it has ended in disaster. During the time of their kings -- Saul, David, and Solomon -- they achieved their first secular 'Commonwealth.' It ended in devastation, death and exile for their people. Again, in the 200-year period before Christ, the Hasmoneans created the 'Second Commonwealth' as a secure haven from the hated Greeks. It too ended in disaster for the Jewish people. The Romans forced them into an exile that lasted until the mid-twentieth century.

       According to Johnson, "This raises a central dilemma about Israelite, later Judaic, religion and its relationship with temporal power. The dilemma can be stated quite simply: could the two institutions coexist, without one fatally weakening the other? If the demands of religion were enforced, the state would have too little power to function. On the other hand, if the state were allowed to evolve normally, according to its nature, it would absorb part of the essence of the religion to itself, and sterilize it. Each had an inherent tendency to be parasitical upon the other. If the Israelites tried to survive simply as a religious community, without a state, they would sooner or later be attacked, scattered and absorbed into the local paganism. Thus the worship of Yahweh would succumb to external assault. That, of course, was what nearly happened during the Philistine invasion, and would have happened had the Israelites not turned to the secular salvation of kingship and a united state. On the other hand, if kingship and state became permanent, their inevitable characteristics and needs would encroach upon the religion, and the worship of Yahweh would succumb to internal corruption. The dilemma was unresolved throughout the First and Second Commonwealths; it remains unresolved in Israel today." Modern Jews claim the state of Israel as their 'Third Commonwealth."

       "The Jews were not just innovators. They were also exemplars and epitomizers of the human condition. They seemed to present all the inescapable dilemmas of man in a heightened and clarified form. They were the quintessential 'strangers and sojourners.' But are we not all such on this planet, of which we each posess a mere leasehold of threescore and ten? The Jews were the emblem of homeless and vulnerable humanity. But is not the whole earth no more than a temporary transit-camp? The Jews were fierce idealists striving for perfection, and at the same time fragile men and women yearning for flesh-pots and safety. They wanted to obey God's impossible law, and they wanted to stay alive too. Therein lay the dilemma of the Jewish commonwealths in antiquity, trying to combine the moral excellence of a theocracy with the practical demands of a state capable of defending itself. The dilemma has been recreated in our own time in the shape of Israel, founded to realize a humanitarian ideal, discovering in practice that it must be ruthless simply to survive in a hostile world. But is not this a recurrent problem which affects all human societies? We all want to build Jerusalem. We all drift back towards the Cities of the Plain. It seems to be the role of the Jews to focus and dramatize these common experiences of mankind, and to turn their particular fate into a universal moral. But if the Jews have this role, who wrote it for them?"

       "Historians should beware of seeking providential patterns in events. They are all too easily found, for we are credulous creatures, born to believe, and equipped with powerful imaginations which readily produce and rearrange data to suit any transcendental scheme. Yet excessive skepticism can produce as serious a distortion as credulity. The historian should take into account all forms of evidence, including those which are or appear to be metaphysical. If the earliest Jews were able to survey, with us, the history of their progeny, they would find nothing surprising in it. They always knew that Jewish society was appointed to be a pilot-project for the entire human race. That Jewish dilemmas, dramas and catastrophes should be exemplary, larger than life, would seem only natural to them. That Jews should over the millennia attract such unparalleled, indeed, inexplicable, hatred would be regrettable but only to be expected. Above all, that the Jews should still survive, when all those other ancient people were transmuted or vanished into the oubliettes of history [e.g, where are the descendents of the Greeks today? And where are the descendents of the Romans today?], was wholly predictable How could it be otherwise? Providence decreed it and the Jews obeyed. The historian may say: there is no such thing as providence. Possibly not. But human confidence in such an historical dynamic, if it is strong and tenacious enough, is a force in itself, which pushes on the hinge of events and moves them. The Jews believed they were a special people with such unanimity and passion, and over so long a span, that they became one. They did indeed have this role because they wrote it for themselves. Therein, perhaps, lies the key to their story."

       There is an explanation of the above summary. It is self-referential. Human confidence (a belief) impacts events (via its force) and moves them to an historical dynamic (affects the events), which in turn fortifies the human confidence. This self-referential system is a 'complex, non-linear, iterative feedback system which can be expected to exhibit chaotic behavior. The resulting 'dynamical system' oscillates between order and chaos, between religious purity and physical security (survival) - between an impossible human ideal of moral perfection and innate cruelty of human behavior. If the Israeli/Judaic history explains one thing, it is that human nature is basically, irredeemably, and forever completely corruptible. It is not perfectible and can never be made so -- at least on earth. The struggle for the heart of mankind, between good and evil, will never end.

       You are invited to review the essay at the link: 'American Civilization as a Dynamical System' and begin to recognize the organizational and behavioral similarity between what is expressed here in 'A History of the Jews' and that which has contributed to periodic stability (dynamic stable equilibrium) of American civilization over its 400-year evolution. It is a topic that is well worth spending some time pondering.

                              Home                     Beak's Web Log             A History of the Jews (Part I) From Antiquity to 1948

                                                               A History of the Jews (Part II) From 1948 to the Present