From the birth of Abram to his burial by Isaac and Ishmael (ending at Genesis 25:19). The Middle Bronze II A-B-C – 2000 – 1550 B.C.
Tag: Bible Verses
The generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son
From the birth of Abram to his burial by Isaac and Ishmael (ending at Genesis 25:12). The Middle Bronze II A-B-C – 2000 – 1550 B.C.
The generations of Shem
The tower of Babel and the people scattered (ending at Genesis 11:10). Early Bronze IV and The Middle Bronze I – 2350 – 1950 B.C.
The generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth
The idea that the statements made in Exodus 20:11, 31:17b and Deuteronomy 5:15 may be parenthetical does not mean that the verses are to be disregarded, but it allows us to put them in their proper context – Exodus 20:11, 31:17b do not reflect claims, made by the Lord God, that He created all things in six days.
The German theologian, John Peter Lange, effectively demonstrates why the six days mentioned in Exodus 20:11 should be thought of as God’s divine-days or epochs:
“…the Fourth Commandment: ‘…six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, …for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth.’ …a careful study shows that there is something more than first strikes us. It might be replied that there is no difference of radical idea… but a vast difference in the scale. God’s days of working, it is said, must be the same with man’s days of working, because they are mentioned in such close connection. Then God’s work and man’s work must also be the same, or on the same grade for a similar reason.
The Hebrew word is the same for both: ‘In six days shalt thou labor and do (asah) all thy work; for in six days the Lord made (asah, made, wrought) heaven and earth.’ Is there no transition here to a higher idea? And so of the resting: ‘The seventh shall be to thee a Sabbath (shabath, a rest), for the Lord thy God rested (shabath) on the seventh day,’ – words of the same general import, but the less solemn or more human term here applied to Deity.”
“What a difference there must have been between God’s work and man’s work, – above all, between God’s ineffable repose and the rest demanded for human weariness. Must we not carry the same difference into the times, and make a similar ineffable distinction between the divine working-days and the human working-days of our lower chronology? …The lower, or earthly, day is made a memorial of the higher. We are called to remember by it. In six (human) days do all thy work; for in six (divine) days the Lord made heaven and earth. …It is the manner of the Scriptures thus to make times and things on earth representatives, or under-types, of things in the heavens, – Heb. 9:23. Viewed from such a standpoint these parallelisms in the language of the Fourth Commandment suggest of themselves a vast difference between the divine and the human days, even if it were the only argument the Bible furnished for that purpose. As the work to the work, as the rest to the rest, so are the times to the times” (John Peter Lange, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures – Genesis, 1868, pp.135-136).
Unique Sites of Israel Blog: Biblical Gezer
“Pharaoh, King of Egypt, had come up and conquered Gezer and burnt it in fire, and killed the Canaanite who lived in the city. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, Solomon’s wife, and Solomon then build up Gezer (1 King 9:16)”
The annual pattern of six-and-one is also found in Leviticus 25:3-5:
Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which growth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Daniel 9:2 both speak of the seventy-year Babylonian captivity but when this same seventy-year period is mentioned in connection with the Sabbath, the familiar pattern of six (in this case sixty) and one (in this case ten) appears once again:
To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years (II Chronicles 36:21).
Throughout Scripture, the pattern of six-and-one parallels decades, years, or days interchangeably with the different stages of God’s creative activity and rest. The duration of time within those patterns is irrelevant; the pattern itself being the focus. Therefore, the word “days” as used by Moses in his explanatory (parenthetical) statements recorded in Exodus 20:11 and 31:17, could have been used simply to illustrate the pattern of six-and-one as an aid in teaching the children of Israel.
The generations of Noah
The wickedness of man (ending at Genesis 6:9). The Chalcolithic Period – 4th millennium and The Early Bronze I and II – 3100 -2650 B.C.
The pattern of six-and-one being used as a remembrance of the Sabbath is common throughout Scripture but the pattern is not always constructed of days:
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing (Exodus 21:2). The emphasis being on the pattern (not the duration) is clearly seen in Exodus 23:10-12, where the pattern begins with reference to “years” and ends with reference to “days”: And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
Monopoly-like board games were part of life in Goliath’s birthplace – study Tell es-Safi – also known as Gath – is prominently featured in the Bible in events taking place several centuries later, including as the city of origin of David’s giant foe, Goliath.
Ever play a game of ancient Monopoly? Well, people who lived in Israel thousands of years ago might not have been playing the famous Hasbro game, but recent studies show that Canaanites were playing board games and that they were a part of life at the time.
In an article in Palestine Exploration Quarterly, scholars Shira Albaz, from the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, and Haskel Greenfield, director of the Near Eastern and Biblical Archaeology Lab at the University of Manitoba, found evidence for gaming in the form of game boards and game pieces that were recovered in the excavations of the Early Bronze Age at Tell es-Safi in central Israel.
Located around 35 km. (22 miles) northwest of Hebron, between the Judean Foothills and the southern Coastal Plain, Tell es-Safi – also known as Gath – is prominently featured in the Bible in events taking place several centuries later, including as the city of origin of David’s giant foe, Goliath.
A previous study at the site found that 4,500 years ago, Canaanite residents of Gath ate figs, olives, wheat, barley, grapes and many other species that have been symbols of the Land of Israel from the time of the Bible to today.
Persecution Live 