The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance between Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC

Author: Henry T. Aubin Doubleday Canada: Toronto ISBN: 0-385-659-12-1 Price: $27.55 After a hiatus of nearly a millennium, Jerusalem has once again become a major focal point in the ongoing history of humanity. With the end of the Crusades, Europe and the Middle East, Christianity and Islam, turned their attention to other issues and other locales. As their respective empires and caliphates rose and fell through the centuries, Jerusalem was relegated to provincial insignificance, though it continued to serve as a beacon for the monotheistic religions whose roots, whether direct or indirect, were planted there. Mr. Aubin, as he develops his thesis in The Rescue of Jerusalem, challenges us to picture in our minds the potential scenario wherein all this emphasis on Jerusalem and the spiritual legacy engendered there would never have made any imprint beyond perhaps an archaeological footnote. It would be a piece of trivia in the annals of a civilized world totally unrecognizable and essentially inconceivable to modern man. Such was the possibility in 701 BCE, when the Assyrians under Sennacherib once again invaded the Near East to put down another local attempt at rebellion. This unstoppable Assyria, the most extensive empire to come out of Asia, came to put down insurrection and disloyalty with cruel devastation and inexorable exile. Only a few decades earlier, the rebellious Northern Kingdom of Israel had met such a fate, giving rise to the concept of the Ten Lost Tribes which lingers to this day. When King Hezekiah of Judah attempted to shake off the suzerainty of Assyria, he brought his kingdom to the brink of a similar fate. As Mr. Aubin points out, in 1998, The Quarterly Journal of Military History asked 37 historians to identify the military engagement of greatest historical import. Among the suggestions, was the Greek victory over the Persians and the English victory over the Spanish Armada. Just imagine the course of human history had the outcome of these events been different. What would history have been like had Sennacherib not withdrawn from the gates of Jerusalem? Going along with the argument of Professor William H. McNiell, author of The Rise of the West, the journal agreed with his view: Surely, there is no greater might have-been-in all recorded history. What had saved Judah? Mr. Aubin spends the bulk of the book investigating this intriguing question. As indicated by his citations from many scholarly sources and more than 100 pages of footnotes, he deals in depth, both historically and textually, with the Biblical, Assyrian, and Greek sources. The Assyrian sources, whether documentary or bas-relief sculpture, speak of a great victory in an obviously self-serving manner. As the author points out, the failure to indicate the capture of Jerusalem, an obviously key target as the capital of the rebellious province, speaks for itself. The Biblical accounts of an avenging angel slaughtering the invading army, in a literal understanding of the passages, or a plague decimating the forces in a metaphorical approach, both seem too overtly a theological interpretation seeking to discern Divine intervention in the events which were unfolding. The need for the Assyrians to withdraw and address unrest in Babylonia does not appear to fit in with the historical context of the events around Jerusalem campaign. The Greek historian, Herodotus, writing several centuries later, brings an Egyptian folk account of mice attacking and destroying the Assyrian equipment and triggering a hasty retreat with Egyptian forces in pursuit. None of the explanations are satisfactory as can be seen by the ongoing discussions. Several scholars have even given up any hope of clarifying the issue unless some new as yet undiscovered documentation would be forthcoming. Scouring the Middle East of the period for another explanation of the rescue of Jerusalem, the author suggests considering the only other force capable of challenging Assyria with any super-power credentials. …

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