Historical and Chronological Context of the Bible

Historical and Chronological Context of the Bible

by Bruce W Gore
Historical and Chronological Context of the Bible

Historical and Chronological Context of the Bible

by Bruce W Gore

Paperback

$34.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Choose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by Thursday, April 4
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Take in the full history of the Bible with a detailed account that focuses on its major empires, events and personalities. Written by a religious scholar who has taught at high school, college and adult levels, this historical exploration is organized around the major civilizations and epochs of the ancient world, beginning with Sumer and ending with Rome. Author Bruce W. Gore provides a thorough overview of major empires, such as the Assyrians or Babylonians, as well as more modest civilizations, such as the Phoenicians or Hittites. Learn how Cyrus the Persian, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and others changed the course of Christianity. In the course of historical exploration, this account also examines questions that may have puzzled readers of the Bible in the past: • Who was Sennacherib? • To which Assyrian king did Jonah preach, and did this make any difference in history? • What did the "eight night visions" of Zechariah mean in light of the rule of Darius the Persian? Study the Bible with an eye on its ancient setting and develop an understanding of its key people, places and civilizations with Historical and Chronological Context of the Bible.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781426943591
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Publication date: 10/21/2010
Pages: 640
Sales rank: 160,787
Product dimensions: 8.25(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.29(d)

Read an Excerpt

Historical and Chronological Context of the Bible


By Bruce W. Gore

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2010 Bruce Gore
All right reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4269-4359-1


Chapter One

Mesopotamia (2500 to 1500 B.C.)

The story of the Bible begins in a remarkable expanse of land called Mesopotamia, a region largely contained in modern Iraq. The word Mesopotamia ("between the rivers") was coined by the Greeks, and was originally intended to describe the swampy lowland lying between the Tigris and Euphrates as the two waterways flowed south into the Persian Gulf. The name eventually came to incorporate a much larger area extending northward and including both Babylon and Assyria, thus comprising widely varying terrain of perennially snow-capped peaks in the north and extensive swampland in the south, swampland complete with water buffaloes, wild boars, wild birds, mosquitoes, and stifling heat.

The Old Testament includes frequent references and allusions to Mesopotamian civilizations, and its importance in shaping Old Testament history could hardly be overstated. Near the beginning of Genesis, for example, we read of "Ur of the Chaldeas," the homeland of Abraham, which referred to an important capital of the ancient civilization of Sumer, the earliest of Mesopotamia. Later the Old Babylonian Empire rose to prominence under Hammurabi and gave the world its most extensive law-code to date, a code that certainly influenced to some extent the great code given 200 years later through Moses. The Assyrians, whose home was in northern Mesopotamia, dominated the Near East for some 200 years, and played a role of vast significance in Israel. Later, the so-called Neo-Babylonian Empire gave rise to the great Nebuchadnezzar, who played a highly influential role in Old Testament history. The Persians, who made their home in the Zagros range just east of Mesopotamia, swept through the Near East, and later Old Testament history reflects the significant role part it played. In short, an understanding of the context of the Old Testament would be impossible without an appreciation for the deep influence of Mesopotamia, and thus our studies will begin with a consideration of that important region.

Part of the reason for Mesopotamia's great influence on Old Testament history involves, of course, its mere proximity to Canaan, but that influence was greatly accentuated by the constant travel on well-worn roads connecting Mesopotamia with Syria, Canaan, Egypt, Anatolia (modern Turkey), and the Mediterranean. Although primary means of transportation into and out of Mesopotamia were its two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, there were also two major land routes. The first proceeded due west across the dry and forbidding Arabian desert directly to Syria and the Mediterranean. This road was less popular because it presented peril both from its harsh environment and from nomadic desert raiders. The other more commonly used route followed the Euphrates north to the region of Carchemish, from whence a person might either travel west across Anatolia, or south along the Mediterranean to Egypt. The latter route was used by Abraham in the early second millennium when he traveled from Ur to Canaan.

The connections between Mesopotamia and the rest of the world were also encouraged by the fact that Mesopotamia, even though it was the so-called "cradle of civilization," depended heavily on its neighbors for the natural resources it needed to survive. To be sure, modern Mesopotamia (Iraq) relies on petroleum for much of its wealth, but the value of the oily fluid was less appreciated by the ancients. They did make use of bitumen, a related product, by which they produced mortar, caulk, fuel, and even certain drugs, but beyond this Mesopotamia had few natural resources. Its people had a constant need for wood, metal, and other products that could only be imported from surrounding regions, and thus the ancient Mesopotamians were forced to form trade contacts, exporting what they could, importing what they needed.

As it turned out, the regions surrounding Mesopotamia did provide many opportunities for trade. To the northwest, for example, a cooler region etched with rivers allowed for the cultivation of orchards producing needed fruit. Further west, Anatolia was rich with mineral resources, and these together with the famous cedars of Lebanon were essential to the construction of cities and the development of civilization. On the northeast, the rough terrain of the Zagros Mountains made cultivation more difficult, but the natural barrier provided protection against invasion, while directly east, a region known as Elam was inhabited by warrior tribes that continually threatened the peace and security of the region while offering little prospect of trade. The Persian Gulf on the south, however, opened access to many trading opportunities.

In spite of its paucity of resources and dependence on neighbors, Mesopotamia developed an astonishingly advanced and sophisticated civilization substantially exceeding that of the rest of the world at the time. Many factors account for this, although ironically the very scarcity of its resources may have been one of the most important. The flat and marshy lowland lying between the waterways could be used for little other than farming, and even farming was difficult because of low rainfall, and high dependence on a complex irrigation system. Irrigation, however, demanded widespread cooperation, planning, and precise allocation of resources, demands that no individual person or even city could accomplish on its own. Without irrigation, survival itself was threatened, and thus arose the increasingly extensive bureaucracy and cooperative government that in turn led to the advancements of culture that spread through the region.

Studies of ancient Mesopotamia have shown that there were basically two language groups in the region. The most famous were Semitic peoples known as Amorites who migrated from the west and who spoke Akkadian. These eventually established the well-known civilizations of Babylon and Assyria. The other group, dating to a much earlier time, was a non-Semitic people who populated Mesopotamia from sometime in the third century B.C. or earlier, and who came to be called Sumerians. It is to these that we turn first.

A. The Early Dynastic Period: Sumer (to 2316 B.C.)

The earliest known Mesopotamian civilization was called Sumer, a word that probably corresponds to Biblical "Shinar." In the well-known "table of nations" of Genesis, we read, "Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, 'Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.' And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city)" (Gen 10:8-12). The suggestion by some that Nimrod may be identified with the character also known as Gilgamesh remains a matter of pure speculation.

The inhabitants of Sumer themselves usually referred to their region by the names of its individual city-states, the most important of which were Ur (Urim), Erech (Uruk), Nippur, Isin, Larsa, Kish, and Eridu. The word "Sumer" properly refers to the region under the domain of those cities during the so-called "Early Dynastic" period, although the word has also been applied more broadly. "Sumerian," on the other hand, refers primarily to one who spoke the language of Sumer, which preceded by centuries the Semitic tongue known as Akkadian introduced later by the Amorites. It should be noted that "Sumerian" does not apply to a race, but to a language. The actual ethnicity of the Sumerians remains a matter of conjecture.

The Sumerians probably invented the city-state, which if true was their single most important contribution to the development of ancient Near Eastern culture. From the city-state, a host of other advancements sprung, ranging from social and legal improvements, to mathematical and technical discoveries, innovations, and inventions. While the Sumerians must be credited with pushing out the borders of human understanding on many fronts, ironically it was the much less sophisticated conquerors of Sumer, the Amorites, that carried those advancements to the world. The Amorites overwhelmed Sumer in c. 2316, but embraced wholesale virtually all of Sumer's religion and culture, and it was the same Amorites who eventually founded a greater civilization yet, the Old Babylonian empire. Much of the celebrated Babylonian education, religion, mythology, and literature was unabashedly adopted from Sumer with little or no modification. The Babylonians in turn left an indelible imprint on their neighbors and vassals, especially the Assyrians, Hittites, Hurrians, Canaanites, and, of course, the Israelites. Thus Sumerian culture spread on the wings of Babylonian civilization throughout the Near East, and from there to the entire world.

In light of its great influence, it is rather surprising that the very existence of Sumer was not discovered until relatively recently. In fact, before the middle of the 19th century the civilization was unknown to students of ancient history, although they were well acquainted with the history and literature of the Akkadian-speaking peoples of Babylon and Assyria. When archeologists began to uncover tablets in southern Mesopotamia, however, they were mystified by a strange form of wedge-shaped figures so unusual it led many to suspect that the remains of another more ancient culture might be buried in the sands between the rivers. Others argued that the shapes were merely decorative, and did not reflect any type of language or alphabet. Through the painstaking work of a few persistent and brilliant scholars, however, it was finally proved that the figures were indeed a written language. The script was given the name cuneiform, meaning "wedge-shaped," and became positive proof of a hitherto unknown Mesopotamian civilization that had preceded the Semites by hundreds of years. The word Sumerian came to refer to this non-Semitic population, while Akkadian was used for the Semitic (Amorite) peoples who came later, and who spoke and wrote in a consonant based dialect of the same dialect-family as Hebrew.

Sumer remains the earliest known civilization for which the word "advanced" applies, and for this reason the attempt to reconstruct just how it was formed has been especially intriguing. While the details of the explanation remain speculative, the following hypothetical scenario seems plausible. The original population of Sumer was certainly rural, scattered through the Mesopotamian lowland and working small farms. Because of limited rainfall, and heavy dependence on the rivers flowing through the region, the population gradually concentrated in small villages and settlements along the banks of the waterways, where they relied more on irrigation than precipitation for their crops. As the population along the rivers gradually increased, it became necessary to develop even more elaborate irrigation systems, and this in turn led to the growth of an expanding bureaucracy to manage the system. Evidence of these developments may be found in the standardized language and accounting methods that have been discovered throughout the region, along with indications of a professional and literate class of priests, scribes, architects, artists, and overseers.

The increasing need for cooperative management of resources led people to gradually migrate to the larger cities, until eventually most of the population wound up in the city-states mentioned earlier. It was the culture of these cities in particular that produced the bulk of Sumer's great achievements. In fact, an understanding of Sumerian civilization demands a comprehension of the workings of the city-state, but this in turn requires an understanding of the single most distinctive feature of the city-state, its religion.

In Sumerian theology, each city had a tutelary (protective) deity, which was honored by a great temple prominently situated near the city's center. The structure was designed as a staged tower or ziggurat, which in the early years was of modest height, but over time became increasingly imposing. By the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100), these temples had become vast complexes dominated by the characteristic tower. The Nanna temple of Ur, for example, had a base of some 200 feet and width of 150 feet, and was about 70 feet high. The earliest ziggurats were rather dreary-looking mud-brick structures, but later they were decorated with tens of thousands of small clay cones of differing colors to form complex geometric shapes along the exterior of the temple.

The ziggurat rose in three stages, and was approached by three stairways consisting of 100 steps each. At the top, a small "holy place" represented the sanctuary where the priest would meet with the city's deity. The small shrine was often built entirely of blue enameled bricks, and would shimmer in the bright sun. The entire structure came to be regarded as a "gate of the gods," as suggested by the Old Testament account of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11). The temple cult was attended with daily, weekly, and monthly rituals, rites, sacrifices, and offerings, but the most important holiday was the New Year festival, which was celebrated over several days with feasts and observances, including the marriage of the king to one of the priestesses, a rite intended to guarantee the continued fertility of the land of people of Sumer.

Theoretically the entire city-state was owned by its tutelary deity, but as a practical matter only a fraction of the city's territory was devoted to the temple and its facilities, while the people owned the remainder of the land. Sumerian cities developed a government organized around the ensi, or governor, who in some cases became its king. Each city had a considerable number of people employed in connection with the bureaucracy of the city, both with respect to temple religion, and also in management of irrigation and other public works. In addition, a typical city would boast many other professions, including farmers, cattle breeders, fishers, merchants, doctors, architects, etc. All these operated in a relatively free and robust markets, which also contributed to the development of Sumerian civilization.

Sumerian society was divided into four distinct classes: nobles, commoners, clients, and slaves. The nobility owned large estates which were worked by free clients (operating something like tenant-farmers) and slaves. The common people owned land, but the ownership was usually vested in clans or families, rather than individuals. Clients were either connected to the temple and its operations, or to the nobility. Slavery was common, the unhappy consequence either of conquest or debt. The fundamental unit of the society at all levels was the family, and there is evidence that family life in Sumer was quite healthy and satisfying.

As Sumerian city-states developed in organization and complexity, a significant number of advancements were necessarily generated, the most important of which was undoubtedly law reduced to writing. In Sumer, possibly for the first time in history, a rudimentary notion of the "rule of law" was introduced, an idea that would lead to much greater predictability and stability in business and social transactions, and hence greater equity throughout the community. As we shall see, one of the more prominent of these was the reform law of Urukagina, in which many unfair practices were corrected and an early idea of freedom and liberty under law was developed. The most important Sumerian law code came somewhat later, with the reign of UrNammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, whose law heavily influenced the vastly more important Code of Hammurabi, a product of the 18th century B.C.

Besides the development of a legal system, the Sumerians did impressive work in mathematics, technology and art, which also followed as a direct result of their life in organized cities. The potter's wheel, the wheeled vehicle, the sailboat, and other inventions should all be credited to the Sumerians. The artists of Sumer developed new techniques for sculpture, and Sumerian architects produced significant improvements in the use of stone foundations and platforms in the construction of their temples, along with stunningly painted walls and altars, mosaic covered columns, and impressive facades. Evidence of all these architectural advancements may be found throughout the Near East, but it seems their origins always go back to Sumer. These impressive people also made great intellectual contributions, especially in matters of education, literature, and religious myth, all of which affected considerably the other nations of the Near East, including of course the nation of the Hebrews. It is to the intellectual and religious life of the Sumerians that we turn next.

(Continues...)



Excerpted from Historical and Chronological Context of the Bible by Bruce W. Gore Copyright © 2010 by Bruce Gore. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews