Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [46]
BIBLICAL VOICES
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, “When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here.” And Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. (Gen. 50:24-26)
MILESTONES IN BIBLICAL TIMES I
All dates BCE (“before the Common Era”). Many of these dates are speculative and approximate.
4.5 billion years ago Earth is created, according to geological evidence.
3 million years ago An upright-walking australopithecine ape-man appears on earth.
1 million years ago Homo erectus develops; the toolmaker and fire-building ancestor of modern humans.
150,000 to 75,000 years ago Neanderthal man hunts, speaks, cares for sick, practices cannibalism, buries the dead.
125,000 years ago Earliest evidence of anatomically modern humans found in Africa.
100,000 years ago The Ancient Near East is inhabited by small bands of hunter-gatherers.
11,000 Vast fields of wild grain appear in parts of the Near East as the glaciers begin to retreat following the last Ice Age.
10,000-8000 “Natufian” culture in modern-day Israel, some of the first known human settlements.
8000 Agriculture begins in the Near East; digging sticks are used to plant seeds of wild grasses.
6500 The wheel is invented sometime in the next two centuries by Sumerians in the Tigris-Euphrates basin.
5508 The Year of the Creation, as adopted in seventh-century CE Constantinople and used by the Eastern Orthodox church until the eighteenth century CE.
5490 The Year of the Creation as reckoned by early Syrian Christians. 5000 The earliest cities are born as people begin to cluster in villages in the Fertile Crescent.
• Lands bordering Nile River begin to dry out; the first dikes and canals for irrigation are built, marking the beginning of civilization in North Africa.
4004 (October 23); Date of Creation of Heavens and Earth as calculated by Irish theologian James Ussher in 1650 CE.
3760 The Year of the Creation as calculated by Hebrew calendar that is used from the fifteenth century CE.
3641 (February 10) The Date of the Creation as calculated by the Mayans.
3500 Sumerian society develops in the Tigris-Euphrates valleys, where annual floods deposit fresh layers of fertile silt. The Sumerians gradually harness domestic animals to plows, drain marshlands, irrigate desert lands, and extend areas of permanent cultivation. The increase in agricultural efficiency creates the first “leisure class,” permitting classes of priests, artisans, scholars, and merchants and a priestly administrative system evolves. Among the Sumerians’ other accomplishments: animal-drawn wheeled vehicles and oar-powered ships; the making with bronze of objects that couldn’t be made with softer copper; a written cuneiform alphabet.
3100 Egypt’s 1st Dynasty unites northern and southern kingdoms under Menes, who founds a city called Memphis.
2680 Egypt’s 3d Dynasty founded by Zoser, who rules for thirty years with aid of counselor Imhotep. Imhotep makes the first known efforts to find medical as well as religious methods for treating disease. Imhotep erects the pyramid of Zoser (Step Pyramid at Sakkara), the first large stone structure in the world.
2613 Egypt’s 4th Dynasty founded by Snefru. His son Cheops (Khufu), who reigns for twenty-three years, constructs the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza.
2560 Egypt’s Khafra (or Khafre) rules as the third king of the 4th Dynasty. The Great Sphinx at Giza, a 189-foot-long monument, is carved from rock