14 – Biblical history
THE historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, once said, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past”.
It all depends …
Those who think the only thing you learn from history is that you learn nothing from history ignore the past at their peril. They might make the same mistakes their predecessors made, and, if they do, have only themselves to blame. But to learn from the past we need to understand it, and when we have a working knowledge of what happened to God’s people, in their land and elsewhere, we can get further enlightenment by examining what was happening in the nations around.
Sunday School is an excellent place to get a good understanding. But what if you didn’t listen very carefully, or never went to Sunday School? How can you pick all that up easily? And, if you want to dig deeper and look at some of the finer points, where can you get more information?
Catch up
God-Spell by Brother W. H. Boulton was written to provide just such an overview of Bible History, starting “In the Beginning” and ending with the Revelation. Still in print and downloadable (details on the website), this is a retelling of the Bible story in simple and clear terms. Bible Beginnings (1978) by Brethren Richard Purkis and Ian Doveton was a similar attempt, with more illustration. Although out of print, it can still be found occasionally, new or second-hand.
For more in-depth considerations, there are many sound works available, and some controversial ones which have become popular among us over the years, rightly or wrongly.
Alfred Edersheim’s Old Testament Bible History has stood the test of time. Written between 1876 and 1887, it was first published in seven volumes (which are still available second-hand) and has more recently been published as one volume (1442 pages long!). Edersheim accepts the Bible text without question and offers some really useful insights, but this is hardly an overview – it’s too long and too detailed for that. F. F. Bruce wrote two shorter books, Israel and the Nations and New Testament History, which can provide that, and there are plenty of similar works.
Other nations
We know only too well, in the twenty-first century, that world events affect us too. It was the same with Israel, given their strategic location. If Assyria wanted to invade Egypt, or vice versa, Israel was bound to know about it! Thanks to our understanding of Daniel chapter 2, we know all about the four world empires that dominated Israel: even our Sunday School scholars can recite them. Whilst there are many helpful books that look in depth at the individual happenings in Ancient Iraq or Ancient Egypt, a useful starting off point is Peoples of the Old Testament World (1994), edited by Hoerth, Mattingley and Yamauchi. In thirty pages or less the history of these nations is summarised, right up to Persian times.
If you want to complete the process, with an overview of the Greek and Roman Empires, H. L. Ellison wrote From Babylon to Bethlehem (1976, Paternoster) and T. R. Glover The Ancient World (1961, Penguin Books). Getting to grips with this era of history is helpful for understanding the four hundred years between the Testaments and necessary if you want to see how Bible prophecy was fulfilled.