Lecture 3 Geographical Settings of the Old Testament

Lecture 3

The Geographical & Historical Settings for the OT Prior to 1200 b.c.e.

The Fertile Crescent was the location of the world's oldest urban civilizations. Jericho is the world's oldest known walled town.  It lies six miles west of the Jordan River, north of the Dead Sea.  Archaeologists have discovered evidence of human habitation dating back to 9000 B.C.E.

Mesopotamia literally means the "land between the rivers".  This is the name the Greeks assigned to a region at the head of the Persian Gulf in what is now southern Iraq.  In this flat, swampy area near the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the world's first urban civilization was born.

Sometime around 3150 B.C.E., a people called the Sumerians founded the earliest cities, such as Ur, Abraham's birthplace, and Uruk, home to King Gilgamesh, the first hero of Western literature.  The Sumerians invented cuneiform, the earliest known form of writing, and introduced counting by sixties, the method we use to count seconds and minutes.

From 1720 to 1570 B.C.E., Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos.  This name literally means "foreigners."  The Hyksos were a people who were among the first to use chariots and cavalry units for warfare.  They also built cities with a distinctive kind of protective wall.  These walls had a steep slope, or glacis, extending from the base of the wall.  This slope made it difficult for aggressors to attack the wall.  Their kingdom included both Egypt and Palestine.

Genesis 12:10 thru 20 tells the story of Abram or Abraham taking his family to Egypt.  This kind of emigration was common at that time.  The fact that the Hyksos or foreigners ruled Egypt at the time explains how and why the ancient Hebrews went to Egypt.  The Hyksos were overthrown by the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty.  In the centuries that followed, the Egyptians dominated Palestine.  Egypt was able to control Palestine proper until late in the 1200's B.C.E.  Egypt's last great rulers were Seti I (1308-1290 B.C.E.) and Seti II (1290-1224 B.C.E.).  These pharoahs are often associated with the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt.

The center of the Fertile Crescent was Palestine.  Palestine is called the "Holy Land" by three great religions.  These 3 religions are Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.  Abraham is called the father or progenitor of these 3 world religions.  The strategic location of Palestine made it the object of a continual tug-of-war among the ancient empires.  Each one coveted its territory, not because it possessed a lot of land or rich resources, but because anyone going anywhere north or south in the ancient Near East had to cross Palestine to get there.  On the West, the barrier was the Mediterranean Sea.  To the east lay the vast reaches of the Arabian Desert.  Thus, all land traffic between Africa, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia was funneled through Palestine.  This area is also referred to as the Levant.

Geographical Features

 As one moves eastward from the Mediterranean coastal area, four major divisions of the land are evident. 

 Please consult your textbook for complete details on these 4 areas.

 The Jordan River is also called the "down-rusher."  By the time the Jordan reaches the Sea of Galilee, it is already more than six hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean.  From the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea is 65 miles, but, by the time the waters of the Jordan reach the Dead Sea, they have traveled 135 miles.  This is because of the meandering nature of the stream.

 The Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers give life to the land through which they pass.  However, until modern times, the Jordan's waters have contributed little to sustaining life along its path.  There were two reasons for this.  First, the Jordan's valley was formed by earthquake, not carved out by the river itself.  Because of this, instead of deep, rich loam that is characteristic of valleys carved by rivers, the Jordan Valley soil is of such a nature that it is not suitable for agriculture.  Second, the Jordan floods at the wrong time of the year, which causes it to wash away any crops planted along its banks.

These and other reasons also prevent the Jordan or its valley from being used for travel.

 At the deepest point of the Jordan rift valley through which the Jordan River flows lies the Dead Sea.  The surface of the Dead Sea is more than 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.  It has such a high concentration of natural pollution that very little life can exist in its waters.  This is why it's called the Dead Sea.

 There is a lot of evidence that the larger Mesopotamian culture had a major impact on the Old Testament, particularly the first eleven chapters of Genesis.  The Gilgamesh version of the deluge contains remarkably close parallels to the account in Genesis 6 thru 8, in which Yahweh drowns the population of the world except for a single family.