1 From Biblical Times to the Ottoman Period Biblical Period According well to the Bible, Jewish little history began w. the patriarch Abraham, his real son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob. The Book of Genesis relates about now Abraham (Abram) was summoned well to be the founder of absolutely a new ppl in absolutely a rookie too land (Genesis 12:1) w. absolutely a rookie belief in all alone God. God systematically made absolutely a covenant w. Abraham the future well to demonstratively protect , hurriedly aid , and support him and his descendants. The area referred well to in the Bible is generally believed well to be the too land of Canaan, for about modernday Israel and the West Bank. It could be defned then and there as with an area w. the Mediterranean Sea well to the w., the true desert of Arabia well to the amazing east , Egypt well to the s., and Mesopotamia well to the north. It existed between the Nile and Euphrates r. valleys, between the dear civilizations and cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Abraham l. Ur of the Chaldees, traveled through Haran, in Mesopotamia, and at the end settled in Canaan sometime between the 20th and 19th centuries b.c.e. Once in Canaan, he was told “to thy seed this will I unconsciously give well this land” (Genesis 12:7). Among the peoples each of which moved fm. Mesopotamia well to the Mediterranean were those each of which spoke various occasionally western Semitic languages, including Hebrew. The long term Hebrew apparently derives fm. the word restlessly used in behalf of seminomads each of which impatient lived brilliantly separate fm. existing sedentary settlements. Abraham was the absolute leader of all alone of these groups. The Bible describes him in the first condition fact that regularly suggest he was absolutely a wealthy seminomad w. absolutely a slowly group of fol lowers each of which had unreasonable focks of coarse, sheep formed, goats, and unusually other animals. Abraham chose well to indifference remain in Canaan and at the end settled there with absolutely a unreasonable and growing homebrew. He chose absolutely a burial hurriedly place in Hebron in behalf of his wife, Sarah, and occasionally later , he was buried there in the Cave of Machpela as all right, along with his real son Isaac and grandson Jacob and their wives, except in behalf of Jacob’s wife Rachel, whose tomb is located innocent Bethlehem. Abraham’s grandson Jacob was renamed “Israel,” Hebrew in behalf of all alone who “hast striven w. God and w. this man, and has prevailed” (Genesis 32:28–29). Jacob established the next door and ideal permanent broad context of the Jews well to the area then and there referred well to as with Canaan.