CHRONOLOGY
This is not a complete chronology, by any means, just a reference guide to dates and eras relevant to historical episodes mentioned in the main text. All dates except those set in bold are approximations, in the case of dates associated with Avraham and Moshe quite debatable approximations.
3200 B.C. Writing is invented in Sumer.
1850 Epic of Gilgamesh is set down. Avram/Avraham journeys to Canaan.
1750 The Code of Hammurabi is proclaimed.
1720–1552 The Semitic Hyksos rule Egypt.
1700 The Children of Israel arrive in Egypt.
1377–1358 Akhnaton rules Egypt and enforces exclusive worship of Aton, the sun god.
1347–1338 Tutankhamon rules Egypt.
1304–1290 Seti I, the likely pharaoh who “knew not Joseph” and enslaved the Children of Israel, rules Egypt.
1290–1224 Rameses II, the likely pharaoh of the Exodus, rules Egypt.
1250 The escape of the Israelites under Moshe and the encounter at Sinai.
1220–1200 Joshua and the Israelites invade Canaan.
1200–1025 The period of the Judges and the confederation of the tribes of Israel in Canaan.
1030–1010 Saul rules the Israelite confederation.
1010–970 David rules the United Kingdom of Israel.
1000 David takes Jerusalem and makes it his capital.
970–931 Solomon rules Israel. The stories of what will become the Torah begin to be collected.
966 Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem.
931 The United Kingdom of Israel is divided into Israel and Judah.
874–853 Ahab rules Israel with Jezebel. Elijah prophesies.
750 Amos begins to prophesy, followed, a little later, by Hosea.
740 Isaiah receives his vocation in the Temple. He begins to prophesy, followed, a little later, by Micah.
722 or 721 Israel is overrun by the forces of the Assyrian king Sargon II and its inhabitants are deported: the ten northern tribes are lost.
716–687 Hezekiah, one of Judah’s last good kings, rules.
687–642 Manasseh rules Judah, establishes pagan cults in the Temple, and (according to later tradition) executes Isaiah.
640–609 Josiah, Judah’s last good king, rules, attempts religious reform, and sponsors new editions of principal historical documents, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
605 Jeremiah prophesies Judah’s seventy years of exile.
16 March 597 Nebuchadnezzar captures Jerusalem and begins deporting Jews to Babylon.
July-August 587 or 586 Nebuchadnezzar levels the Temple and the city of Jerusalem; fresh deportations continue for five years more.
539 Cyrus, king of the Persians, enters Babylon and gives back to the original cities sacred objects carried off to Babylon.
538 The Edict of Cyrus is proclaimed, allowing the exiles to return to the Promised Land.
Spring 537 The foundation of the Second Temple is laid.
520–515 The Second Temple is completed.
450 This is possibly the period in which Job, the Song of Songs, Ruth, and many Psalms are written.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Several friends were gracious enough to read the first draft of the manuscript, including my wife, Susan Cahill, John E. Becker, Michael D. Coogan (whose polymath precision and uncommon generosity were indispensable), Neil Gillman, Herman Gollob, Jack Miles, Gary B. Ostrower, Ora Horn Prouser, Burton Visotzky, Robert J. White, and Yair Zakovitch. To them all I am most grateful, for they saved me from not a few errors and misjudgments. But I hasten to add that what errors and imbalances remain are mine alone.
Never was an editor more essential to a book than was my editor and publisher, Nan A. Talese, who sent me back to my desk to write what I only thought I had written. The people of Doubleday could not have been more supportive, and I thank especially Arlene Friedman, Jacqueline Everly, and the inventive, death-defying publicity and marketing team of Marly Rusoff and Sandee Yuen. For the beauty of this book, as of the previous one in the series, I am much in the debt of Marysarah Quinn, who designed the pages, and Kathy Kikkert, who designed the jacket. Alicia Brooks has been of incalculable assistance in many matters, especially in helping me to improve the accuracy of the text. Within Bantam, Doubleday, Dell, Jack Hoeft, William G. Barry, Katherine Trager, and Paula Breen all deserve special praise. No author could hope for a better sales force than BDD’s. To them all, as to my dexterous agent, Lynn Nesbit, I am most grateful.
As I look back over the route that brought me to this study, I find I owe debts of gratitude to friends both old and new in two cities, Jerusalem and New York. In Jerusalem, I was welcomed by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz and his assistant, Rabbi Thomas Eli Nisell, of the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications. Their conversationserved as high inspiration, as did the warm and welcoming household of Avigdor Shinan and his wife, Rachel. Dr. Shinan’s gracious willingness to introduce me to his colleagues at the Hebrew University was also most helpful. Nor can I forget the generous friendship of Sami Taha. Just beyond the borders of Israel lies Sinai, where it was my good fortune to have as my guide Ahmed Yehia, who showed me many things I would otherwise have missed and enabled me to sojourn among the noble Bedouin. In New York, I was able to study the Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in an atmosphere of such beauty, friendship, and peace that its nooks and crannies will always seem like home to me. By everyone, from then provost Dr. Menahem Schmelzer through the dedicated faculty and staff to the rawest first-year rabbinical student, I was made to feel completely welcome and sumptuously comfortable. There will never be any way I can repay the intuitive help I received throughout my studies from Dr. Burton Visotzky—Burt, a man with a genius for friendship and a razor-sharp mind worthy of all his forebears. I close these acknowledgments by paying special tribute to my Hebrew class, both to my fellow students, as lively and engaged as any I have ever studied among, and to our relentless but always nurturing teacher, Dr. Zahava Flatto. To me, she is , the valiant woman whom Proverbs extols. To them all,
The author has endeavored to credit all known persons holding copyright or reproduction rights for passages quoted and for illustrations reproduced in this book, especially.
Special Rider Music for the excerpt from “Ring Them Bells” by Bob Dylan. Copyright © 1989 by Special Rider Music. Used by permission All rights reserved.
Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., and Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd., for the extracts from The New Jerusalem Bible. Copyright © 1985 by Doubleday and Darton, Longman & Todd.
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, for the images from the tomb of Beni-hasan.
Oxford University Press for the extracts from The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Stephanie Dalley in her Myths from Mesopotamia. Copyright © 1989 by Stephanie Dalley.
Random House, Inc., for the extracts from The Song of Songs, translated by Ariel Bloch and Chana Bloch. Copyright © 1995 by Ariel Bloch and Chana Bloch
Schocken Books, distributed by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., for the extracts from The Five Books of Moses, translated by Everett Fox. Copyright © 1983, 1986, 1990, 1995 by Schocken Books, Inc.
University of Chicago for the extract from The Sumerians by Samuel Noah Kramer Copyright © 1963 by Samuel Noah Kramer
INDEX OF BIBLICAL CITATIONS
This list, which is offered as an aid to those who would explore the Bible more fully, is confined to those biblical passages quoted in the main text that contain a full sentence or more. Shorter quoted phrases can usually be located in close proximity to their longer neighbors within the biblical book under discussion. For those unfamiliar with the conventions of biblical citation: each citation begins with the title of one of the books to be found in the Bible, followed by the chapter number, followed (after the colon) by the verse number(s). An “a” indicates that only the first part of the verse has been quoted, a “b” that only the latter part of the v
erse has been quoted. The following citations use the chapter and verse numbering of the King James Version (which numbering is sometimes at slight variance with translations based on the Catholic Vulgate).
CHAPTER TWO
Genesis
11:27–32
12:1b–3
12:11b–14
12:18b–19
14:13–14
14:23b–24
15:4b–5
17:12–13
18:2–5a
19:8
21:2–6a
21:6–7
22:1–18
CHAPTER THREE
Exodus
1:16
1:17
1:19
2:2–4
2:14a
3:4b–6
3:7–8a; 3:10
3:11–12
4:10–11a; 4:12
5:2
4:11
14:11–12
14:13
14:29–31
15:21
CHAPTER FOUR
Exodus
18:17b–18; 22a
19:4–5
20:2–20
32:4b
32:7b
32:11b–14
23:9
Deuteronomy
6:4
Exodus
32:19b
32:22–28
34:6–7
CHAPTER FIVE
Exodus
34:4–12
1 Samuel
8:7–8
8:11–18
8:19–20; 9:2
16:1;16:7b
16:13
16:23b
17:5–7; 17:11; 17:9
17:26b; 17:33; 17:37a; 17:39
17:45–47
18:7b; 18:8b–9; 18:18
18:19
18:25a; 18:26–27; 18:28–30
21:16
24:9b–13; 24:18; 24:21
2 Samuel
1:19–27
Psalms
47:1–9
2 Samuel
6:16b–19a
6:20b–22
18:33b
11:4b–5; 11:27b; 12: 1b–4
12:7–9a
Psalms
51:1–11; 51:15–17
8:3; 17:8; 34:8; 39:3; 22:1; 39:12; 42:1–2; 46:10
23:1–6
CHAPTER SIX
1 Kings
10:21–25
2 Chronicles
10:4
10:10b–11
1 Kings
19:9–12
Amos
4:1–3
5:10–12; 5:14–15a
5:21–24
Hosea
2:14; 2:15b
Isaiah
6:3
5: 1b–7
1:3; 1:17; 1:18; 2:4; 3:15; 30:20
9:2; 9:6; 11:1–2
10:20b–22a; 11:6; 11:9
Micah
6:6–8
Jeremiah
7:3–7
31:8–9a; 31:21–22
Psalms
137:1
Ezekiel
11:19
Jeremiah
31:27–30
Job
1:21b
Song of Songs
5:2–5; 5:14–16; 7:2–4
5:1b
Ruth
1:8–9a
1:11b; 1:12b–13a
1:16b–17
Joel
2:28–29
GENERAL INDEX
Aaron. See Aharon (Moshe’s brother)
Abigail (wife of David)
Abraham. See Avraham (formerly Avram); Avram (later Avraham)
Absalom (son of David), 5.1, 5.2
Achilles
Adam and Eve, 1.1, 5.1
“Adonai” (“the Lord”), 3.1
Adriel of Meholah
Afterlife. See Immortality
Agriculture, Sumerian development of, 1.1, 1.2
Ahab (king of Israel)
Aharon (Moshe’s brother), 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
Ahaz (king of Judah)
Ahinoam of Jezreel (wife of David)
Akhnaton (Egyptian pharaoh)
Akkadian (Old Babylonian) language, itr.1, 1.1, 1.2
Alphabet
invention of, 4.1, 6.1
See also Writing
Amontes, as nomads
Amos (Judean shepherd/prophet), 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Angels
Anti-Semitism, itr.1, 4.1
Apocryphal books, of Bible, itr.1, 7.1, 7.2
Aquinas, Saint Thomas. See Thomas Aquinas
Architecture
of sacred temples
Sumerian innovations in
Ark of the Covenant, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1
Art
portrayal of Avraham and angels
reflecting cyclical worldview, 2.1, 2.2
Aruru (Sumerian goddess)
Asherah (Canaanite goddess), 5.1, 6.1
Assyria, conquest of Israel
Astarte (Canaanite goddess), 5.1, 6.1
Aton the Solar Disc
Augustine of Hippo, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1
The Confessions, 5.1
Avraham (formerly Avram)
character of, vs. Moshe
death and burial of wife
offers son as sacrifice
pregnancy of wife Sara, 2.1, 2.2
relationship with God, 2.1, 2.2
renamed by God
See also Avram (later Avraham)
Avram (later Avraham)
in Egypt, 2.1, 3.1
migration to Canaan, 2.1, 2.2
migration to Harran
relationship with god, 2.1, 2.2
settlement in Mamre
See also Avraham (formerly Avram)
Baal (Canaanite god), 5.1, 6.1
Babel, Tower of
Babylon
conquest of Kingdom of Judah, itr.1, 6.1
Hanging Gardens
Bathsheba (wife of David), 5.1, 6.1
B.C E. (before the common era), defined, itr.1
Bethel (Kingdom of Israel), 6.1, 6.2
Bible
apocryphal/deuterocanonical books, itr.1, 7.1, 7.2
central question of
entirety of, inspired by God
as historical document, 2.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 7.1
impacts of
Ketuvim, 7.1, 7.2
as literature
Neviim, 7.1, 7.2
oral tradition in, itr.1, 2.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
origin of term
primordial flood theme, 1.1, 1.2, 4.1
reflecting evolution of Jewish consciousness
Septuagint translation of, 3.1, 7.1, 7.2
Sumerian antecedents to, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2
See also Commandments; Torah; specific books
Blake, William
Boaz
Buber, Martin, 3.1, 7.1
Bulls, as symbol of deity, 2.1, 4.1, 4.2
Camels, domestication of
Campbell, Joseph
Canaan
Avram’s migration to, 2.1, 2.2
Avram’s settlement in Mamre (modern Hebron)
conquest of, by Israelites
gods of, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2
as Promised Land, 5.1, 5.2
Sara’s burial in
See also Israel, Kingdom of (northern area); Israel, United Kingdom of; Judah, Kingdom of (southern area)
Capitalism, as processive godless faith
C.E. (common era), defined, itr.1