DEC. 31, 2015 Meeting

We hope that you had a Merry Christmas!

We invite you to come and help us obligate FOUR new knights for Gen. H.B. Stoddard Council K.M. No. 87.

Our final 2015 meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 31, 2015.

We will begin with a dutch treat fellowship dinner at 6:00 PM at Shiraz Shish Ka Bob followed by our meeting afterwards at Brazos Union Lodge.  

Plan to come for dinner at (or a little before) 6:00 pm, or we will see you at Brazos Union at (or a after) 7:00 pm for the meeting.

Map to Shiraz Shish ka Bob

On the Agenda:

We have elected four new knights and all four have accepted invitation.  We plan to obligate all four knights on this new year's eve.

We will also elect officers for 2016.

We will finalize logistics and possibilities for our St. Patrick's Festive Board in March.  

Please come and help us complete the 2015 year, prepare for the 2016 new year, and obligate four new knights.  

Come dressed in your "business attire" or in yer kilts if you've a mind to.

                                                               
An Approximate Primer of Ancient Civilizations

Compiled by Chris G. Dalrymple D.C., F.I.C.C.

5500 BC – Sumer (Sumerians): was one of the ancient civilizations and historical regions in southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq.  Modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a non-Semitic people called  “Ubaidians.”  The Ubaidians are assumed by scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer, draining the marshes for agriculture, developing trade, and establishing industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.  It has been suggested that the Sumerian language was originally that of the hunter and fisher peoples, who lived in the marshland and Eastern Arabia along the Persian Gulf known as the Bahrain region.

2400 BC – Amurru (Amorites):  The ethnic terms Amurru and Amar were used for them.  Beginning about 2400 BC, the land of the Amorites is associated with the lands to the west of the Euphrates, including Canaan and what was to become Syria.  They appear as an uncivilized and nomadic people especially connected with the mountainous region in northern Syria called the "mountain of the Amorites".  From the 21st century BC, possibly triggered by a long major drought starting about 2200 BC, a large-scale migration of Amorite tribes infiltrated southern Mesopotamia. They were one of the instruments of the downfall of the Sumerian dynasty of Ur and also established new city-states, the most famous of which was to become Babylon.

1900 BC – Babylonia (Babylonians): was an ancient Semitic state and cultural region based in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained at this time the minor city of Babylon. Babylon greatly expanded during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC, becoming a major capital city.  Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after Hammurabi (fl. c. 1792 – 1752 BC) created a short-lived empire, however, the Babylonian empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Hammurabi.

1000 BC – Media (Medes):  an ancient Iranian people. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of migrating Iranic Aryan tribes into Ancient Iran from the late 2nd millennium BCE (circa 1000 BC) through the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE (circa 900 BC).  From the 10th to late 7th centuries BCE, the western parts of Media fell under the domination of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire based in northern Mesopotamia, but which stretched from Cyprus to Ancient Iran, and from the Caucasus to Egypt and Arabia.

550 BC – Persia (Persian) a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia (now southern Iran). The first established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, with the Persian conquest of Media and Babylonia.

500 to 323 BC – Macedonian Empire of Phillip and the Greek Empire of his son Alexander the Great.

---

The nation of Judah was conquered circa 600 BC, by Nebuchadnezzar (Iraq) a distance of about 500 straight-line miles, but 760 miles overland.  This is roughly equivalent of the distance from Brenham to Albuquerque, or just a little less than the distance between San Antonio and Mexico City for those of us who are Texas History fans.  Both journeys are about 2 week journey by foot or horseback.

50 years later about 550 B.C., the Persians (Iran) conquered Babylon and began their rule.  In 538 BC Cyrus the Great issued his edict that the Jews could return to rebuild Jerusalem.

The book of Ezra records these events.  Cyrus the Great, fully supported the Restoration of the Jews.  He gave the golden vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Solomon’s temple to Sheshbazzar who carried them back to Jerusalem leading the first returning group of the Jews.  This important figure then disappears from the story entirely with no explanation.

The realism of hard times soon hit this first group of returning pioneers and this slowed the rebuilding of the Temple.  Serious economic setbacks coupled with opposition of the local populations who had taken up residence in the land while the jews were in Babylon.  At one point the work came to a halt.

About 18 years later God Called Haggai and Zechariah to preach the same message:  Rebuild the temple as testimony that God is the center of your lives.  Zerubbabel, the grandson of the last King of Judah, serves as King for the returning second wave of Jewish captives.

Joshua, the High Priest, is the first person to be chosen High Priest for the reconstruction of the Temple. Haggai, as prophet, supported Joshua, and Zerubbabel in their work.  Thus is the need for prophet, priest, and king as a combined leadership group firmly established.

In 516 BC the “Second Temple” is finished.  This is some 22 years after Cyrus issued permission to rebuild the Temple and some 84 years or so after the Jews were exiled to Babylon.

Ezra the scribe is sent by King Artaxerxes with another group of Jews who return to Judah in about 458 BC who places the law of Moses at the center of the life of the restored Jewish “colony.”

In 445 BC – some 71 years after the completion of the Second Temple, some 93 years after Cyrus’ original edict, and some 155 years after the initiation of the captivity.  Nehemiah went to Judah to serve as governor for about a dozen years.  He returns to Persia to consult with the king, and then is returned for a second term.

BC  600 (Judah Captive)—550 (Persians conquer)—538 (Cyrus)—516 (Second Temple)—486-465 (Esther)—458 (Ezra, law returns)—445 (Nehemiah)

Here’s the historical background of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah’s brother Hanani returns from the “Jewish frontier” and reports that the “frontier colony” is not going well.  There is opposition from those living there, there is persecution from those “in charge”, there are economic stresses that ultimately bring the reconstruction project to a halt.  Thus for nearly 100 years after Cyrus first “set the Jews free” to return, some 70 years after the completion of the “second Temple”, the Jewish Temple is still little more than a “frontier outpost” rather than the “kings palace” it used to be, and construction on its safety and improvements have stalled.

Nehemiah was greatly affected by this news.  He grieved so greatly that he prayed and fasted for some four months.  When Artaxerxes came to power he followed the example set by his predecessors by appointing individuals from the empire’s various people groups to high-ranking government positions (and we thought affirmative action was a NEW thing).  Since many Jewish families had become wealthy and influential it is not surprising to hear that Nehemiah was King Artaxerxes’ cup bearer.

Nehemiah returns to the regional headquarters, the “governors of the province beyond the river” who don’t like the idea that the someone would actually come to seek the welfare of the Jews. The objections started to arise again.  So Nehemiah went to Jerusalem for three days and went on a personal and unannounced inspection program after dark.

The Jews then started their rebuilding program and then the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that there were building the wall, they jeered and all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem.  

"So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. None of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand."

600 B.C.	575  B.C.	550 B.C.	525 B.C.	500 B.C.	475 B.C.	450 B.C.
BABYLON TAKES JUDAH CAPTIVE c. 600  B.C. <-City of Rome founded c.  750 BC	“IRAN” CONQUERS “IRAQ” – Persia Conquers Babylon c. 550 B.C.	CYRUS DECREES JEWS MAY RETURN HOME 538 B.C.	SECOND TEMPLE IS "COMPLETED" 516 B.C.	STORY OF ESTHER, MORDECAI, AND HAMON c 486 to 465 B.C.	EZRA RETURNS WITH THE LAW c. 458 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae Spartans v. Persia.	NEHEMIAH RETURNS TO REBUILD THE WALLS AND IMPROVE THE CITY c. 445 B.C.