September 13, 2017 www.centralfamily.org under Media Tab God Is In Control A Brief History from King David to King James I Autumn 2017 Week 2 Assyrian Empire September 13, 2017 www.centralfamily.org under Media Tab

Class description Present secular history from King David to the coming of the English Bible in order to demonstrate that God’s Providence extends outside the Biblical narrative into the entire creation. Present the class in 2 parts King David to end of the New Testament End of the New Testament to widely available English Bible Everyone attending this class has different motivations for attending. Some may think that this class is “useless” in any real practical sense. - Big class room so easy to get lost - Had to teach it (my motivation) - Interested in history or at least in apologetics - Mommy made you attend - … My goal is to inspire awe in our God. God is the God of all Creation including the institutions of Men. Part 1 will focus on presenting the concept that Jesus came “at just the right time” [Romans 5:6] . This timing supported the spread of His message throughout the world. Part 2 will focus on God protecting His scripture and getting it into everyday man’s hands. This will not focus on the English history as much as the world history that led to the widespread availability of the Word.

Class outline (Tentative) 9/6 Introduction Part 1 9/13 Assyria 9/20 Babylon 9/27 Persia 10/4 Esther: Queen of Persia (Jim Norville) 10/11 Greece 10/18 Rome 10/25 Summary of the Biblical Era Part 1 is ordered by timeline. In other words, the succession of empires to the end of the New Testament. Note that Week 5 has been determined since last week. Esther is a narrative from the middle of the Persian Empire. This book also is the most detailed Biblical account of daily life from Persia. Jim Norville has graciously volunteered to teach that week.

Class outline (Tentative) Part 2 11/1 Fall of Rome and the Rise of Tribal Europe 11/8 Overview of the Manuscripts and the Canon 11/15 Critical Technologies 11/22 The Translation into English Part 2 is ordered thematically. The broad timeline (~1500 years) and the limited class periods make a timeline approach very challenging. In my view, this approach better supports the class purpose of producing awe.

Personal statement of belief and point of view I believe that Scripture is accurate (e.g. true) at the precision (e.g. detail) that it is stated. I believe that when people increase the precision of the true statement then they run the risk of making it a false statement. Therefore, I personally tend to be very careful of “boxing” God in and stating with certainty details that are not clearly given.

Challenges: dating system revisited Last week we discussed the challenges in setting the dates for ancient events because of a lack of a common dating system Ancient event dates are estimated by using numerous sources instead of simply “adding up” various kings lists For the purposes of this class, we will accept them as reasonably accurate, noting where discrepancies between secular and Biblical occur I may have left the opinion last week that by adding up kings lists (like I & II Kings) can lead to large errors in dates. While that is true, it should be noted that ancient dates (including Biblical dates) use multiple sources in order to reduce the potential errors. All dates using any variant of the anno domini numbering system are human estimated and therefore subject to error.

Some definitions Kingdom – an area that is ruled by a king (usually with hereditary succession). Early kingdoms were established to help a city survive Nation -- an area of multiple cities ruled by a single government composed of people of the same racial and cultural makeup Empire – an area of multiple nations directly ruled by a single government Dynasty – a succession of kings of the same family or very close association None of these definitions should be considered precise (or absolute). Historians use these designations to define nations during certain periods of time. Historians classify Egyptian history using the terms Kingdom and Intermediate Period. During Kingdom periods, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt are ruled by the same Pharaoh dynasties. During Intermediate periods, the two are ruled separately by competing Pharaoh dynasties. For our purposes, Israel at its largest (during Solomon) would be classified as a Nation, not an Empire.

Background history before King David Noah’s clans [Genesis 10] The sons of Noah are in larger yellow letters. The grandsons of Noah are in the smaller, blue letters. Asshur is the source name for the Assyrian Empire, the name of its primary god, and the name of one of its capital cities on the Tigris. This map should not be considered a map of nations but a map of races. Everything was in motion. Widespread scattering and family overlap was the norm, not the exception.

Background history before King David Early civilizations Four early civilizations developed around 4 different river systems Peoples settled and built towns and citiies People began to farm the land Leaders emerged to ensure order and fairness in the distribution of food and to secure those resources from marauders Nile River in Africa/Egypt (Ham) Tigris/Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia (Shem) Indus River in India (Japheth) Yellow River in Chine (Japheth)

Background history before King David Early civilizations

Background history before King David Early empires and nations For our purposes, we will consider 6 different ones Egyptian Assyrian Babylonian Elamite Hittite Mycenaen Egypt – the longest and earliest major power. The pyramids were in existence years before Joseph arrives. Extends influence at its largest to Kadesh. Assyrian – the earliest empire of the upper Mesopotamia. Centered around the cities of Assur, Nineveh, Nimrod, and Erbil. Largest extent was all of the Tigris and Euphrates valley plus Elam and southern Turkey. Babylonian – a later city of several early lower Mesopotamian nations. Extent to the river valleys. Elamite – nation of modern Iran. Never established rule over large areas of Mesopotamia but certainly over various cities at one time or another. Hittite – located in modern north central Turkey. Established rule over upper Mesopotamia and down to Kadesh. Serious rival to Egypt. Mycenaen – Mostly seafaring traders. Developed substantial culture on the Greek peninsula.

Background history before King David Early empires and nations Minoan/ Mycenaen Babylon We are going to examine 6 different early nations or empires that preceded King David

Ancient nations and empires Timeline Middle (1365 – 1076) Neo (911 – 612) Assyria Hebrews Abraham Moses King David Exile 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 Notice that at the time of King David, all of the major powers are in some state of decline. The historians refer to this period as the Dark Ages. The empires not shown on this chart (Mycenae, Hittite, and Elamite) are also in serious decline. This absence of external imperial ambitions allows David and Solomon to unite Israel. Old (2686 - 2181) Middle (2055 - 1650) New (1550 - 1069) Late (664 - 332) Egypt First (1894 - 1595) Isin (1155 - 1026) Neo (612 - 539) Babylon

Biblical timeline A memory aid – the rule of 500 Major Old Testament events occur about every 500 years Abraham ~2000 Moses ~1500 David ~1000 Exile and 2nd Temple Construction ~500 Jesus ~0

Class Phase 1 empires Timeline

Dark ages and the rise of the kingdom of Israel Fall of Samaria (Israel) To Assyria (722) Kingdom of Israel (Northern) (980 – 722) Kingdom of Israel (1100 - 980) 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 Kingdom of Judah (Southern) (980 – 586) Solomon’s Temple Constructed Daniel Taken In Exile (608) Fall of Judah to Babylon (586)

Assyria Northern Mesopotamia along the Tigris River Primary Cities: Asshur Nineveh Nimrud Erbil Semitic Language: Akkadian, Aramaic

Israel/Judah and Assyria Israel moves the capital to Samaria since Samaria was more easily defended Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, attacks the northern portion of Israel and conquers its cities (734 B.C.) [II Kings 15:29] Judah forms a treaty with Assyria [II Kings 16] With his southern flank now secure, Shalmanesar, king of Assyria, lays seige to Samaria and destroys it (722 B.C) [II Kings 17:1-6] The people of Israel are taken into captivity and scattered across the empire of Assyria Assyria, now under the kingship of Sennecharib, continues their conquest south into Judah Sennecharib is totally annihilated at Jerusalem, whose king was Hezekiah (712 B.C.) [II Kings 18-19] Assyria would later conquer Egypt (663 B.C) and make Judah a vassal state for 58 years

Neo-Assyrian Empire

Exile of Israel

Archaeology Nineveh was lost. Its location was unknown until the 1842 Nineveh is the modern city of Mosul, Iraq Let’s see if we can see it from satellite images

Summary Assyria was the first Semitic empire and had the largest expanse until its time Assyria is used by God to exact judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel Israel never had a king classified as “good or righteous” By Assyrian policy, a people scattered away from their home lands are much less likely to rebel. The northern tribes are all but lost when the New Testament opens