The Jews considered from the biblical accounts exclusively, are the
descendants and representatives of the oldest branch of the human
family, but they existed as a nation contemporaneously with the
Ethiopians, in whose descendants we find the Colored men of the United
States.
It may be said that the unification of the Semitic or Jewish race began
with Moses, although Noah was in fact the father of the race. Their
history is one of the wildest, most varied and romantic of that of any
other race or nation.
After centuries of miserable bondage under the Babylonian kings, and in
Egypt, they emerged under the leadership of Moses who married an
Ethiopian, and began anew the struggle for national autonomy.
Prior to Moses the government was essentially patriarchal, but after
Moses and in the course of time it became monarchical, with various
petty kings and offshoots, always quarreling with one another, and
meeting with defeats and slavery from other nations, until the Romans
had acquired power to conquer the world, and included in their conquered
territory the various sovereignties established by the Jews.
Although the political power was taken from them, the Jews were allowed
to retain their religious authority, but in process of time, and at the
coming of Christ, their chief priests and spiritual rulers generally,
were sunk in corruption. In the 70th year of the Christian era,
Jerusalem and the great temple of Solomon were utterly destroyed, and
from that time until quite recent times, the Jews have been wanderers,
obtaining a foothold here and there against fearful opposition and
amazing suffering.