I invite everyone to comment and suggest any corrections or need for additions to this KISSed History that you see, because this is a work in progress.
The Mesopotamians were polytheistic, but out of this culture Abram was called to worship the one true God (monotheism) in Canaan (according to GN 12:1-2). Genesis says that after a sojourn in Egypt because of a famine, Abram returned to Hebron, where he gave a tithe to a priest named Melchizedek of Salem (later Jerusalem), who served him bread and wine (GN 14:18-20). Thirteen years later God changed his name to Abraham and commanded that every male would be circumcised. After having a son, Ishmael, by his slave, Hagar, Sarah bore Isaac, beginning a rivalry that has lasted through the ages. On one occasion God tested Abraham’s faith by determining whether he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, which some see as foreshadowing God’s provision of Messiah (GN 22:9-12).
Abraham sent his chief servant back to his relatives in Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac. The servant found Rebekah, who bore twins named Esau and Jacob. After obtaining legal right to Esau’s inheritance by means of a ruse, Jacob fled to Mesopotamia, where he in turn was tricked into marrying Leah before being allowed to marry Rachel (GN 29:18-27). Jacob eventually had twelve sons by Leah, Rachel, and each of their servants, who became twelve tribes, before moving back to Canaan. On the way he wrestled with an angel in a dream, who changed his name to Israel and reiterated the Abrahamic covenant (GN 32:24-29). Israel showed favoritism to Joseph, so the jealous brothers sold him to a slave trader bound for Egypt, where Joseph impressed the pharaoh and became his right-hand man, enabling him to provide for his family when they were forced to seek food in Egypt during another famine.
We cannot be certain when the Hebrews moved to Egypt, but it is possible that Joseph would have become a powerful person during the reign of the Hyksos, the foreign “shepherd” kings, whose dynasty began about 1720. About this time in Mesopotamia, the Amorites conquered Sumeria and established the first or Old Babylonian dynasty. The sixth king, Hammurapi, claimed to represent the supreme God, Marduk. He established a caste system and a legal code with the main principle of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
After Marduk's death Babylon was captured briefly by the Hittites about 1600 and then was ruled by the Kassites. In India the Aryans had also instituted a caste system to prevent their race from intermarrying with the native Indians. They developed a written language called Sanskrit. In the Aegean area there was brisk trade between the Minoans and Mycenaeans in Greece, the city of Troy, the Egyptians, and the Phoenician city-states along the coast of Canaan.
About 1400 the Mycenaeans conquered the Minoans. In Russia the nomadic herdsmen known as Cimmerians lived in the southern plains, and in China the Shang dynasty began about 1700, but still little is known about civilizations in the Orient, Americas, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa.
To be continued (TBC)...
In Egypt, Ah-mose I led a successful rebellion against the Hyksos rulers and founded the New Kingdom and 18th dynasty. His son, Amenhotep I (1546-1525) further suppressed all foreign influences. The next pharaoh, Thutmose I (1525-1508) had no mentally competent sons, so his daughter, Hatshepsut, ruled by impersonating a man for over twenty years. She was followed by Thutmose III (1479-1447), who extended Egypt’s dominion to the Euphrates River and exacted tribute from the Hurrian Mittani rulers in Mesopotamia.
The ninth pharaoh of the New Kingdom,
Amenhotep IV or Akhenaton (1369-1353), is noteworthy for attempting to change the Egyptian religion to monotheism, which is called the “Amarna Revolution”. (At this time records speak of Hittites gaining control of Syria and Habiru penetrating the area around Jerusalem.) His son-in-law was Tutankhamen or “King Tut” (1352-1344). Meanwhile
in Mesopotamia, the Assyrians gained ascendance, annexing the Hurrians, Hittites and Kassites.
Reactionary forces ousted the heretic pharaoh and began
the 19th dynasty with the one-year reign of Ramses I, then Seti I (1302-1290), whose son, Ramses II (1290-1224) is thought by many scholars to be pharaoh during
the Exodus led by Moses. Certainly the Exodus would have occurred no later, because there is a stele erected during the reign of his son about 1220 that refers to a defeat of Israel in association with other Canaanites.
According to the book of Exodus, pharaoh let the Israelites go only after a series of ten plagues culminating with the death of the firstborn male child in each house the angel of the Lord did not pass over.
Moses led over a million people to Mt. Sinai, where he gave them the Ten Commandments, and then they journeyed toward Canaan. Along the way God provided them with manna, water and safety from poisonous snakes (EX 16:4, 17:5-6 & NM 21:6-9). At Kadesh occurred the great apostasy, which prevented that generation from receiving the promised land (NM 14).
During their sojourn in the wilderness, Moses instituted the
Jewish religion centered on the tabernacle (EX 25-27), which included the ark of atonement, an incense altar, a bread table, menorah, laver, veil and brazen altar. The Levite priests administered various offerings (LV 1-7), including burnt, meal, peace, sin, trespass. There were a myriad of rules (LV 10-27) on uncleanness, blood, sex, priests, feasts, jubilee, vows and tithes.
About forty years later,
Moses preached a series of sermons known as Deuteronomy, which included topics such as the Decalogue, Shema and Covenant. Then he installed Joshua as his successor, who led the conquest of Canaan. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites experienced several
periods of subjugation interspersed with episodes of liberation by eleven judges including Deborah, Gideon and Samson.
The capture of the ark by the Philistines prompted the Israelites to petition the prophet
Samuel to anoint a king, and
Saul was chosen (1SM 4-10) in about 1045. Saul was succeeded by
David, who conquered Jerusalem and extended the kingdom from Aqaba to Damascus (2SM 8 & 10). He is credited with writing most of
Psalms, many of which have messianic implications and show humility as a confessed sinner.
David was succeeded by his son,
Solomon, whose reign (965-931) is the first rather firm date in the history of Israel. Solomon built a guilded temple for the ark, but when he died the kingdom was divided between Jeroboam in Israel and Rehoboam in Judah (1KG 12). Meanwhile
in the Aegean, the Mycenaeans were conquered by Dorian invaders who founded Sparta, and Philistines from Crete armed with iron weapons and chariots invaded the area of Gaza.
In America the Olmec civilization was in Mexico and the Chavin in Peru.
Elsewhere, the Cimmerians still dominated Russia, and the Shang dynasty ruled China.
1
