Geographist

Egypt Key Scripture: Exodus 20:2 Figures: Hagar, Potiphar, Shishak, Neco This week we turn our attention to Egypt, one of the most famous and historic neighbors of Israel, and one who has appeared consistently throughout the entire Biblical narrative.  I struggled about whether or not to describe them as an empire, as they controlled or influenced vast stretches of territory at times throughout their history, but opted to simply refer to them as a people group.  Because they are one of the earliest nations to impact Abraham and his descendants, but also have continued influencing the Jewish people all the way up to modern times, it is impossible to assign them a single geographic extent.  The one constant throughout history has been the Nile River, which serves as both the symbol and lifeline of one of the world's great enduring civilizations. Noah's son Ham gave birth to Mizraim, which is the original Hebrew name for the land of Egypt.  One of the great difficulties...

Babylonian Empire Key Scripture: Jeremiah 50:17 Figures: Merodach-baladan, Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach, Belshazzar It is doubtful that any empire in Scripture is held in more scorn by the Jewish people than Babylon.  As the chosen tool that God used to ultimately destroy Jerusalem, including Solomon's Temple, the mighty Babylonians conquered and laid waste to much of the territory surrounding the Promised Land as they expanded under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.  This week we'll look at their origins, history, and eventual downfall as the last true empire that dominated over the children of Israel during the time recorded in the Old Testament. Known to historians as the Neo-Babylonian Empire, this kingdom of Chaldeans was the second empire that had arisen from the southern Mesopotamian land of Shinar (the first being nearly a millennium earlier around the time of Hammurabi).  As well-known and historically important as it was, however, the dominion of these Babylonians l...

Assyrian Empire Key Scripture: Isaiah 10:5-12 Figures: Tiglath-pilesar, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib This week, as we continue looking into the people groups that held control of the Hebrew people at some point during their history, we come across an empire that grew from one of the earliest locations to be mentioned in Scripture.  When describing the rivers that flowed from the Garden of Eden, Genesis 2 records that the Tigris was located east of Assyria.  As the region lies immediately south of the Ararat mountains at the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent, it was one of the first to be populated by the descendants of Noah after the Flood.  The Assyrians experienced several rises and declines, like most long-standing civilizations, but the period we are most interested in for our current study is described by scholars as the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Although it was Ham's grandson Nimrod that founded many of the important cities there, the region gets its name from on...

Persian Empire Key Scripture: Daniel 5:25-28 Figures: Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes Last week we looked at the final empire to rule over the Jewish people prior to the start of the New Testament, and this week we will learn about the kingdom they conquered, the Persians.  While they factor into the Biblical account fairly late in the Old Testament, not being discussed until after the children of Israel had already been taken into captivity and removed from their homelands, they play a significant role in showing mercy to the dispersed Jews and allowing them to return to rebuilt and repopulate Jerusalem.  In fact, it can be argued that the Jewish people had fewer problems from the Persians' period of rule than they had from any other group during the Biblical narrative.  At its greatest extent, the Persian Empire was larger than any known kingdom on earth up to that point. Historians refer to the Persian kingdom as the Achaemenid Empire and target their rise as beginni...

Greek Empire Key Scripture: Daniel 8:21 Figures: Alexander the Great, Ptolemy, Antiochus This week, as we begin to turn our attention towards the empires and kingdoms that ruled over the Hebrew people, we will look at Greece.  In this study we discover one of the most influential people groups that almost entirely missed the time frame of the Biblical narrative.  It was, however, spoken of on several occasions and left an indelible mark on the psyche of the Jews during the time of the New Testament.  It is also worth noting that the Greek Empire was the first European power to hold political sway over the descendants of Israel. The people who settled in what would one day become Greece were descended from Noah's son, Japheth.  This is likely the same name that they identify with their ancestor, Iapetos.  They did not call themselves Greek - that is a name that the Romans would later give them after their empire came to an end.  Instead, they referred to the...