| | '''Fast-forward to the 20th century''': The Nazis, as ignorant as they were, used the term "Aryans" to refer to Nordic people, and as a result of the incorrect Nazi usage the term "Aryan" today is misleadingly used to describe blond and blue-eyed people descended from Northern Europe rather than from the Persian region (the region between India and Europe, or Indo-European). After Darwin's theory of evolution became popular in England and Germany around 1900, racists claimed that the Aryans (Nordics) were superior to everyone else. One of the worst of these Darwinian racists was the Englishman Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who insisted that Aryans were responsible for all of human progress, and that Jewish people were inferior because they did not descend from the Aryans (note, by the way, that Hebrew did not descend from the Aryan language). | | '''Fast-forward to the 20th century''': The Nazis, as ignorant as they were, used the term "Aryans" to refer to Nordic people, and as a result of the incorrect Nazi usage the term "Aryan" today is misleadingly used to describe blond and blue-eyed people descended from Northern Europe rather than from the Persian region (the region between India and Europe, or Indo-European). After Darwin's theory of evolution became popular in England and Germany around 1900, racists claimed that the Aryans (Nordics) were superior to everyone else. One of the worst of these Darwinian racists was the Englishman Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who insisted that Aryans were responsible for all of human progress, and that Jewish people were inferior because they did not descend from the Aryans (note, by the way, that Hebrew did not descend from the Aryan language). |
| | Let's return back to the ancient world. The glory days of the Persian empire were from 550 to 331 B.C. It was during this time period that Persia is seen often in the Old Testament. When the Persians took over Babylon, Daniel served under Cyrus and Darius (who threw him into the lion's den). The Persians are also seen in the Bible in the story of Esther, when King Xerxes I held what might be called a "Miss Persia" beauty contest. Esther, a beautiful Jewish girl, won the contest and would go on to save her people because of her remarkable courage. It is the Book of Esther that first refers to the Hebrew people as "Jewish", and it was written around 300 B.C. | | Let's return back to the ancient world. The glory days of the Persian empire were from 550 to 331 B.C. It was during this time period that Persia is seen often in the Old Testament. When the Persians took over Babylon, Daniel served under Cyrus and Darius (who threw him into the lion's den). The Persians are also seen in the Bible in the story of Esther, when King Xerxes I held what might be called a "Miss Persia" beauty contest. Esther, a beautiful Jewish girl, won the contest and would go on to save her people because of her remarkable courage. It is the Book of Esther that first refers to the Hebrew people as "Jewish", and it was written around 300 B.C. |