Summary of the period
Thousands of years of interactions between God and men saw the
foundations laid for the Hebrew Bible, with its unique record of divine
judgements and prophetic expectations.
A selection of events
Stone Age through Bronze Age
To judge from durations mentioned in the text, references to
stone
implements and the gradual appearance in the text of bronze as a
commonplace metal, this period gave rise to the earliest Genesis
traditions, some of which
are alluded to in the Sermon.
About 2000-1800 B.C.E.
Period in which the Biblical chronology places Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, the founding patriarchs of Israel
(Kaiser 1998, 54-55).
The gradually inflating price of slaves and the evolving format of
covenants, both of which are attested by extra-biblical archaeological
finds, help confirm the dating of both the lives of these patriarchs
and the later Sinai narrative
(Kaiser 1998, 63-64).
About 1447 B.C.E.
This is the traditional dating for the receipt of the Ten
Commandments (Kaiser
1998, 113). Israel, having made a dramatic exit
from Egypt, travelled to Mount
Sinai, where it entered
into a covenant with ‘God Most High’, after which Moses received the
Ten
Commandments as the primary legislation governing that
covenant.
Around the tenth century B.C.E.
The
era in which Saul, followed by
David
and his son Solomon, established
sovereignty in Israel, bringing to an end the period when God raised up
judges to oversee Israel. Solomon’s reign was seen as one of the
spiritual high points of Israel’s history, with his proverbial finery
finding a place in the Sermon. Once thought to be fictitious,
Archaeological evidence, dating from the ninth century B.C.E. and
suggesting the significance of a house of David, has now begun to
emerge
(Kaiser
1998, 225-6).
Seventh to sixth centuries B.C.E.
Heyday
of the great biblical prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Between them such prophets did much to clarify the concept of the way
of righteousness, which features prominently in the Sermon.
About 19-23 B.C.E.
Construction
of Herod the Great’s temple began, providing a date which, when
combined with the 46 years since that date mentioned in John 2:20, is
useful for pinning down the likely period when Jesus began his ministry
(Donfried 1996,1014). Josephus
mentions differing start dates in different places, the fifteenth year
of Herod’s reign in Ant 15.11.1 and the eighteenth year of Herod’s
reign in JW 1.21.1, with the latter generally considered to be nearer
the truth
(Donfried 1996, 1014).
Allowing for the Jewish practice of counting part years as whole ones,
this points to a date in the period 23-26 C.E. (though
Donfried
(1996, 1014) suggests 28 C.E.).
About 6 B.C.E.
Likely period for the birth of Jesus, but various estimates range between 7 and 4 B.C.E. (Stein 1996, 52-6).
4 B.C.E.
The death of Herod the Great can be acurately fixed, thanks to an eclipse of the moon mentioned by Josephus (Donfried 1996, 1012). His death left his son Archelaus (23 B.C.E – ca. 18 C.E.) with oversight of Jerusalem.
. . . the timeline continues with the first to third centuries
References
Donfried, Karl P. 1996. “Chronology.” Pages 1002-1022 in Vol. 1 of
ABD.
Kaiser,
Walter C., jr. 1998. A History of
Israel: From the Bronze Age Through the Jewish Wars.
Nashville:Broadman & Holman.
Stein,
Robert H. 1996. Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of
the Life of Christ.
Dowers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.