Transcript
The OT in Context:
History, Cultures, Geography
Story of the Old Testament
Dr. Grant Testut
The Dawning of Civilization
The Stone Age (ca. 100,000 – ca. 4,000 B.C.)
Broken up into Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic
By the end, humans begin to develop agriculture and animal domestication; settlements
The Copper-Stone Age (a.k.a. “Chalcolithic”; ca. 4,000 – ca. 3,200 B.C.)
Metal tools gradually displace stone
The Bronze Age (ca. 3,200 – ca. 1,200 B.C.)
Invention of writing and developed societies
The Iron Age (ca. 1,200 – 332 B.C.)
Marked by advent of iron tools
Major empires rise and fall:
Assyria (ca. 850 – 612 B.C.)
Babylon (612 – 539 B.C.)
Persia (539 – 332 B.C.)
By 332 Alexander the Great issues in the “Hellenistic Era”
By this point the majority of OT books are finished.
The World of the Old Testament
Major regions for reference (in descending size):
The Ancient Near East (ANE)
The Fertile Crescent
Centers of Civilization
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Syria-Palestine
Ancient Near East
Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Syria-
Palestine
The Ancient Near East
The Fertile Crescent
Centers of Civilization
Mesopotamia
Syria-Palestine
Egypt
Mesopotamia
“Between the Rivers” (Gk. mesopotami,a): Tigris and Euphrates
All of modern Iraq; parts of Iran, Syria, Lebanon
Sumerians invented writing (ca. 3,200 B.C.)
Cuneiform (Lat. cuneus “wedge” forma “shape”; adopted by other groups)
Major Semitic peoples: Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians, Babylonians
Nations vied for control
Tigris River
Euphrates River
Babylon
Asshur
Persian
Gulf
Egypt
“The Gift of the Nile” (Herodotus)
Hieroglyphs (Gk. i`eroglufiko,j “holy engraving”; invented ca. 3100 B.C.; inspired by cuneiform?)
Two kingdoms: Upper and Lower Egypt
United after 3,000 B.C.
Pharaoh – deified king
Three major periods (divided into dynasties):
Old Kingdom (ca. 2,700 – 2,200 B.C.)
Middle Kingdom (ca. 2,000 – 1,700 B.C.)
New Kingdom (ca. 1,550 – 1,100 B.C.)
