Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [72]
• Amenhotep IV introduces a form of monotheism to Egypt; the Pharaoh establishes a new cult worshiping the sun god; he opposes the priests of Amen, due to the influence of his first and most famous wife, Nefertiti.
1334 Amenhotep IV dies after sixteen-year reign; succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Tutankhamen.
1321 Egyptian soldier Harmahab (Horemheb) seizes throne; Tutankhamen is buried at Thebes with a vast treasure.
1300 Alphabetic script developed in Mesopotamia is a refinement of the simplified cuneiform alphabet of 2500 BCE.
1293 Harmahab dies and is replaced by Ramses I, who dies two years later and is succeeded by son Seti (Sethos) I.
1278 Seti (Sethos) I dies after defeating Libyans west of the Nile and making peace with Hittites in Syria. Seti’s son will reign as Ramses II.
c. 1275 Battle of Qadesh, a decisive Egyptian victory over the Hittites.
c. 1260? A forty-year Israelite migration begins after three centuries of Egyptian captivity and oppression.
1246 Egypt’s Ramses II marries a Hittite princess, sealing a permanent peace treaty between these two powers. He devotes his reign to massive construction projects: completion of Seti’s temple at Abydos; additions to the temples at Karnak and Luxor; construction of temples at Thebes with a colossal statue of himself; and construction of rock-cut temples at Abu-Simbel in Nubia.
1238/5? Merneptah’s battle with “Israel.”
1212 Ramses II dies after a sixty-seven-year reign in which he has used forced labor, presumed to include the Israelites, to build the treasure cities of Pithom and Ramses. His son Merneptah succeeds him.
1207 Egypt invaded by Libyans but they are defeated by Merneptah.
1202 Merneptah dies after a ten-year-reign and is succeeded by a series of lesser Pharaohs, ending the 19th Dynasty.
1200 Lower Egypt’s remaining Jews are expelled in the confusion following the end of the 19th Dynasty.
• The Gilgamesh epic, the first known written legend, is recorded in Sumerian cuneiform. It tells of a great flood in which man was saved by building an ark. Foods mentioned in the Gilgamesh epic include caper buds, wild cucumbers, ripe figs, grapes, several edible leaves and stems, honey, meat seasoned with herbs, and bread—a kind of pancake made of barley flour mixed with sesame-seed flour and onions.
1193 Destruction of Troy, by Greek forces under King Agamemnon after a ten-year siege.
1182 Egypt’s 20th Dynasty begins under Ramses III. He will rally the Egyptians against a confederation of “Sea Peoples”—Mediterranean invaders including the Philistines, Sardinians, and Greeks.
1150 The Philistines establish five cities on the Mediterranean coast of Canaan. Israel begins to emerge as a network of settlements in the Galilean and central hill country.
1146 Nebuchadnezzar I begins a twenty-three-year reign as king of Babylon.
1141 Israelite armies lose more than thirty-four thousand men in battles against the Philistines.
• The Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines and taken to their city Ashdod.
1116 Tiglath-pileser I begins a thirty-eight-year reign that will take the Middle Assyrian Empire to its zenith.
1100 Assyrian forces under Tiglath-pileser I reach the Mediterranean after having conquered the Hittites.
1020 The prophet Samuel anoints Saul, who will reign as king of Hebron until 1012.
1005 Saul and his son Jonathan die in battle of Mount Gilboa against the Philistines. Jonathan’s friend David succeeds to the throne.
WHY, WHY, WHY, DELILAH?
JUDGES, RUTH
Then Jael…took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it to the ground; for he was fast asleep, and weary: so he died. (Judges 4:21)
With the jawbone of an ass…have I slain a thousand men. (Judges 15:16)
* Who was Deborah?
* If a father kills his daughter, does God mind?
* Were the Philistines really all that bad?
* Did Delilah snip more than just hair?
You say you hate sex and violence? Stomach not strong enough for Pulp Fiction? Then you might