Israel – Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

3000 B.C.	Sumerian civilization flourishing in what is now Iraq. Invention of writing (cuneiform writing, not alphabetic writing which is not invented until 1300 B.C. Note: Sumerian civilization contemporaneous with Minoan civilization on the island of Crete.
1800	Abraham comes out of the land of Ur and wanders through the lands of contemporary Syria and Israel. Stories of the age of Abraham and the other patriarchs are preserved orally just as are the stories of Troy in the Greek tradition until Homer writes them down.
1750	Code of Hammurabi.King of Babylonia.
1700	Israelites arrive in Egypt. We should recognize that the Egyptian part of the story of the Jews is the most controversial among scholars and lacks documentary evidence such as that which we have for the post-Exodus period.
1400-1300	Invention of alphabetic writing in Phoenicia (present day Lebanon and Israel along the Mediterranean coast.) The invention of alphabetic writing is extremely important to both the story of the creation of the Bible and to the story of the creation of the Iliad. The alphabet was a tool that the common man could master whereas previous cuneiform writing was complex and difficult and limited to a priestly elite.. Thus the arrival of the alphabet means a social as well as a literary revolution.
1377-1358	Rule of Akhnaton in Egypt.Enforce a monotheistic religion on Egypt.(Aton)
1304-1290	Seti I. Egyptian pharaoh most likely responsible for enslaving the Israelites.
1290-1224	Ramses II. Pharaoh of the Exodus period.
1250	Moses leads the Exodus. Notice this is contemporary with Agamemnon, Oedipus, and Theseus in Greek civilization.
1220-1200	Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.Israelites come out of the desert. Invade the land of Canaan and occupy the hillsides around Jerusalem.
1200	Begin the period of the Judges (to 1025). Contemporary with the flourishing of Troy.
1030-1010	King Saul. Rules a confederation of the Israelites.
1000	King David.David conquers Jerusalem and makes it his capital. David’s reign is extremely important for all of later Jewish history. During his reign the first attempts are made to bring together and write down the tales of the patriarchs that have been preserved through an oral tradition exactly like the oral tradition that has preserved the tales of the Trojan war in Greece. The writer of this first compilation is usually referred to as “J.”
970-931	King Solomon. Rules Israel.
966	King Solomon builds the Temple of Jerusalem. The “wall” that is venerated today in Jerusalem derives from this building.
931	Israel collapses into schism and two new political states emerge: Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south including Jerusalem). This division of the political entities means that there now develops two Biblical traditions too that will have to be joined together later.(“E” in the north, “J” in the south.)
850	Elijah. Beginning of the prophetic tradition. Bible: writing Kings I and II (150 years after the events).
750	The prophet Amos. ( The Book of Amos) The first of the “literary” prophets. Warns of the dangers from Assyria. Amos exactly contemporaneous with Homer.
740	The prophet Isaiah.(The Book of Isaiah) Born in Jerusalem about 765. Often called the greatest of the prophets and author of some of the greatest of Biblical writing. His whole life and work is bound up with the fate of his native city of Jerusalem.
722	Israel conquered by the Assyrian Sargon II. Israelites carried off.
700	Begin to join the two Biblical traditions of “J” and “E.”This process going on as the Iliad becomes known in the Greek world as the work of the writer Homer.
640-609	King Josiah, last good king of the southern kingdom of Judah.
605	The prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah often viewed as one of the three great voices of the early Jewish tradition with Isaiah and Moses. Jeremiah warns that idolatry and corruption will bring down the wrath of God on his people. Our record of the words of Jeremiah unusually accurate: he dictated his own words to a scribe. In 587 all his prophecies come true.
587	Conquest and destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonian troops of Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem is razed and the people are all take off into exile. (The Babylonian Captivity)
550	The Exile and the Book. The period of the Babylonian exile is extremely important for the creation of the final text of the Jewish Bible. During the exile, the need for authoritative texts to preserve the tradition compels the Jewish community to produce the beginning of the present first five books of the Jewish Bible.
539	Persian emperor Cyrus conquers Babylonia. Soon allows Jews to return to their homeland.
537	Jerusalem: lay the foundations of the Second Temple.
500	The exiles recently returned from Babylon now turn with renewed energy to the compilation of an authoritative Bible. Produce the first Pentateuch: the first five books of the Jewish Bible: Gen., Ex., Lev., Num., Deut. (This contemporaneous with the great age of Greek dramatic literature beginning with Aeschylus, b. 525).
450	Job. The Song of Songs. In Greece the Age of Pericles. (Acropolis, 447 B.C.)
333	Battle of Issus. Alexander the Great defeats Darius, Emperor of the Persia. This signals a shift to Greece and the capture of the whole of the Middle east by Greek civilization. This has important consequences for both Jewish and Christian religious traditions since from this time forward they will move out of the limited arena of the Middle east and be carried by the Greek language all over the Mediterranean.
332	Alexander conquers the east coast of the Mediterranean including Israel.
331	Foundation of the city of Alexandria. This city quickly becomes the most advanced center of learning in the whole of the Mediterranean and thus important for Jewish studies too.
323	Death of Alexander the Great. Body taken to Alexandria thus instantly elevating this city to preeminence within the vast confines of the Alexandrian empire. The Ptolemaic dynasty of which Cleopatra is the last of the rulers, strives to raise Alexandria to a position of unrivaled importance in the cultural world of the times. Most important is the fabulous library that they endow in Alexandria.
250	The Ptolemies in their active support of the arts and literature encourage the creation of a Greek Bible. This is the “Septuagint” Bible, meaning “The Seventy” named for the 70 Jewish scholars are are reputed to have collaborated on the creation of an authoritative text of the Jewish Bible in Greek. This Bible has enormous influence because it is in Greek and thus can carry the fame and power of the Jewish Bible all over the Mediterranean world.
147	Rome conquers Greece and now the expanding Roman world will soon swoop down on the remaining Greek empire in the Middle east.
63	Pompey completes the conquest of the former Greek empire in the region of Palestine and Syria. (In 70. A.D., the final destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Emperor Titus)