BIBLICAL HISTORY
Biblical history records the events that form the basis of God’s revelation to man (cf. Mark 10:2-9; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11).
It can be divided into four periods:
(a) The creation story, showing the relationship between God and the world and recounting the origin of humanity.
(b) A section outlining the beginning of the story, indicating the relationship between God and the human race, and establishing the need for the chosen people.
(c) The history of the chosen people, God’s attitude towards this chosen people, and the preparation of the coming of the Christ.
(d) The story of the founding of the Christian church, called to bring the good news to all nations.
I. The story of creation, the relationship between God and the world, the origin of humanity (Gen. 1:1-2:3). (See CREATION, SATURDAY.).
Fundamental doctrine: God is the Creator and Lord of everything. By teaching monotheism, this story refutes materialism and polytheism. By affirming the personality and omnipotence of God, it shows the logic of his supernatural manifestation and intervention in the history of humanity.
II. Outline of the beginning of history, showing the relationship between God and the human race, establishing the need for the chosen people (Gen. 2:4-11:26). The events of this period, divided into two parts by the cataclysm of the Flood, are only given in a very schematic way, with the exception of the account of the Flood, so that the events that took about a year occupy two entire chapters, indicating the capital importance given to this event in the Bible.
This section has a symmetrical construction. There are 10 generations before the Flood from Adam to Noah, 10 generations after the Flood from Shem to Abraham (Gen. 5:1-11:26). The period after the Flood is also divided into two beginning with Peleg (= “division” Gen. 10:25), at the time of which the earth was divided. From Shem to Peleg there are 5 generations and another 5 from Reu to Abram.
The events of the antediluvian period are: the commandment given to Adam to remain dependent on God, in his state of innocence, his fall due to his disobedience, and the entry into the reign of death due to sin, the judgment of the Flood, and the salvation of Noah and his family.
The period after the Flood includes the unconditional covenant with Noah; the new command given to man, the increase in population, the increasing independence of men from God, the punishment that came upon them through the confusion of languages and the dispersion of nations.
The genealogy of Seth is given to Abraham through Shem; Likewise, the common origin of this genealogical line with the other families of the earth is evident. These events took place in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates basin.
In any case all the precise geographical data are located in this region (Gen. 8:4; 10:10; 11:2, 28). (See especially GENESIS, EDEN, ADAM, SATAN, SNAKE, ABEL, CAIN, ENOCH, FLOOD, NOAH, BABEL)
III. History of the chosen people, God’s attitude towards them and the preparations for the coming of Christ. This period differs from the preceding one in that its historical center moves from the Euphrates Valley to Palestine, to the country of Canaan.
God frequently manifests himself to the patriarchs through theophanies. Of the four great eras marked by miracles, three are found within this era: The departure from Egypt and conquest of Canaan, under Moses and Joshua; the fight to the death between the cult of Jehovah and the cult of Baal, in the time of Elijah and Elisha; the captivity in Babylon.
With the exception of rare occasions, centuries without miracles separate the eras in which they manifested themselves in abundance. The history of the chosen people can be divided into stages marked by its external developments:
(A) An independent tribe, under the leadership of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in Canaan. The patriarch was both priest and head, responsible for the tribe. The elements of this story are found under the headings ABRAHAM, MELCHIZEDEC, ISAAC, JACOB, VISIONS, THEOPHANY.
(B) A people of 12 tribes, slaves for a long time in Egypt. (See EGYPT, JOSEPH, MIRACLE, EXODUS, MARAH, MANNA, QUAIL, REPHIDIM.)
(C) An independent nation, established in Sinai. When he accepted the covenant that God offered him, the people became a nation. This covenant included the Ten Commandments, and constituted the fundamental law of the nation, of which God was the sovereign king.
Present since then in the tabernacle among his people, God reveals his will to the prophet and the priest. By the laws He promulgates, by the judgments He pronounces, by the instruments He raises, Jehovah exercises legislative, executive, and judicial authority. The nation was, from this point on:
(a) A community of twelve tribes, governed by a theocratic constitution, and possessing a single central sanctuary (Ex. 19 to 1 Sam. 7). The high priest was the living image of the nation; The prophets were there to assist him, and sometimes to direct him, as in the case of Moses. (See SINAI, THEOCRACY, TABERNACLE, LEVITE, LEVITICUS, CAMP.).
Leaving Sinai, the Israelites headed to Kadesh. Their lack of faith caused the Lord to return them to the desert, where they wandered for 38 years. (See NUMBERS, PILGRIMAGE THROUGH THE DESERT, KORAH.). Finally, they surrounded the country of Edom and found a passage up the Arnon.
This was followed by the conquest of the country located east of the Jordan. (See SEHON, OG.) Then the camp was broken up in the Jordan Valley. (See SITIM, BALAAM, PEOR, PAGAN DIVINITIES, MIDIAN, DEUTERONOMY.). After the death of Moses, the Israelites crossed the Jordan, conquering the country of Canaan. (See JOSHUA, CANAAN, CONQUEST, SHILHUM.)
Joshua died after the Israelites settled in the country of Canaan. God raised up capable and influential men, fifteen in total, who followed each other at certain intermediate intervals. These judges led expeditions against the enemies of the people, and governed them.
It was then that tendencies towards unity were manifested; The national feeling was manifested on one and another occasion; Yet too often natural obstacles, petty jealousies, local interests were allowed to be factors of division. The history of Israel offers shining examples of piety, but it also exhibits the fact that the people fell easily into unbelief. (See JUDGES, SAMUEL.).
The beneficiaries of the covenant, the people of God, revealed during this period all their weaknesses and vices. From the very beginning, the lack of faith in God was revealed, already in Kadesh. The jealousy between the tribes was already manifested at the beginning in the revolt of Korah and his supporters against the priesthood of Aaron and the authority of Moses.
The affair of the golden calf, the fall into the scheme of Baal-peor, all this showed how inclined the Israelites were towards idolatry. The alliance with the Gibeonites and the failure to seize Jebus (Jerusalem) constituted the great political errors committed in this period. All these negative elements had a heavy influence on the later history of Israel.
(b) A united monarchy of the twelve tribes. The people had not come to manifest the unity stipulated by their religion and, in the time of the Judges, “each one did what seemed right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). The threatening attitude of neighboring nations made Israel desire the presence of a strong government and a respected military leader.
At this time, Samuel was already old. The Israelites departed from the ideal of theocracy, and asked for another king besides Jehovah (1 Sam. 8:5-7). From then on, besides the high priest and the prophet, there was an earthly monarch, invested with supreme authority, reigning permanently in the place of the Judges whom God had raised up. Saul was the first king.
Presumptuous and unable to admit the superiority of the high priest and the prophet, he lost the privilege of founding a dynasty. He had the kingdom taken from him. God withdrew from him, and the prophet Samuel also forsook him, because he had willfully disobeyed God’s formal orders.
David was then the chosen one. (See SAMUEL [BOOKS OF], SAUL, DAVID.). Under David’s reign, the twelve tribes were united after seven years of civil war; Jerusalem, captured from the Jebusites, became the capital of the religious center of the kingdom, whose boundaries were extended by further conquests to the northeast of Damascus.
The acquired territories were made tributary. Israel imposed garrisons in the country of Edom. Solomon, David’s successor, built the temple, and adorned Jerusalem, developing its fortifications and giving great splendor to Israel.
But his tax exactions gave rise to discontent among the people, and his fall into idolatry, under the influence of his foreign wives, caused him to incur the displeasure of God. His son and successor, Rehoboam, did not know how to discern the seriousness of the situation, and in the face of his arrogant attitude ten tribes rebelled against the house of David. Therefore, Judah and Benjamin came to form the southern kingdom (see SOLOMON, RHOBOAM), and the rest of the tribes formed the northern kingdom.
(c) Two rival kingdoms: A monarchy consisting mainly of the tribe of Judah, and a schismatic and apostate kingdom created by the ten rebellious tribes. The causes that led to this split were ancient and varied (see ISRAEL).
The stronger kingdom of Judah had material power. Furthermore, its geographical location provided it with better natural defenses; It had the capital, a stable government, and the cultural center to which the people were accustomed. He also had moral force: history indicates that the conviction of joining a dynasty considered legitimate is always a factor of power.
Above all, the kingdom of Judah benefited from the exalting influence of true religion and the sense of fidelity due to Jehovah. It had more pious kings than those of the kingdom of Israel. To maintain within humanity the knowledge and worship of the one true God, Jehovah protected the kingdom of Judah, and prepared the coming of the Messiah.
In any case, the religious history of this period shows a decline in the time of Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:22); Abijam (1 Kings 15:3) and again under Joram and Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:27).
Solomon’s women, by introducing their idolatrous cults into Israel, were the root of this religious degeneration. Rehoboam’s mother was an Ammonite; Solomon built for her a high place dedicated to Milcom (Moloch), and this woman offered sacrifices to this abominable idol of her nation.
Joram was the son-in-law of Ahab and Jezebel. Each of these periods of religious decline was followed by a revival: the first took place under the reign of Asa, the second under that of Joash; Later, Joash himself turned away from Jehovah, and another religious revival had to come, followed later by a new wave of idolatry due to the harmful influence of King Ahaz.
Assyrian raids against Israelite territory began around this time. The divided nation, and very degenerate in the religious aspect, was not in a state to resist them. Slowly, but surely, from the time of Ahab the Assyrians expanded their conquests, until the northern kingdom collapsed. (See ISRAEL, SAMARIA, SARGON.)
(d) The monarchy of Judah subsists alone. The southern kingdom was from then on exposed to the attacks of the Assyrians, followed by those of the Chaldeans (Babylonians). (See HEZEKIAH, ASSYRIA, MANASSESH, NEBUCHADENDEZZOR.)
The spiritual state of the people was very bad, even though great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Micah, had given courageous testimony to the truth. With the exception of Hezekiah and Josiah, the kings of Judah were not upright or faithful to Jehovah. The people followed their kings in their dissolution.
The supporters of idolatry triumphed under Ahaz. The false cults took deep root in the people, and the reforms from the throne had no more than a superficial effect. There were also foreigners in Israel openly devoted to idolatry.
The nation was adrift. In the space of 20 years, Nebuchadnezzar’s army made frequent appearances before Jerusalem. There were several deportations of Jews to Babylon. Finally, Jerusalem was taken and burned in 586 BC. The Israelites had not maintained the foundations of their nation’s power. They succumbed, not having wanted to remain “under the shadow of the omnipotent.” (See JUDAH.)
(D) An enslaved people.
(1) Judah during the Babylonian captivity. (See CAPTIVITY.)
(2) Judah in Palestine. In the first year of his rule in Babylon (539-538 BC), Cyrus issued an edict allowing the Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild the temple. Forty-three thousand Jews took advantage of the opportunity to return, under the direction of Zerubbabel. This Israelite colony was, however:
(a) A part of the Persian empire, subordinate to the province located on the other side of the river (Euphrates). It was a Persian colony for two hundred years. Twice it had local governors of Jewish race, appointed by the emperor of Persia. (See ZEROBABEL and NEHEMIAH.)
However, more often than not, power was exercised by the satrap on the “other side of the river.” He delegated to a governor in Judah, with the right to levy men and collect taxes, but leaving the local administration to the high priest, who little by little acquired the position of political and religious head of the nation.
Upon their return from exile, the Jews laid the foundations of the temple. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah urged their compatriots to continue this reconstruction, which was completed in 515 BC, despite interruptions and opposition. By order of Artaxerxes, issued in 445 BC, Nehemiah directed the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem. (See JERUSALEM.).
At this same time, the scribe Ezra, full of zeal for God’s Law, was in Jerusalem, working effectively at religious reform. (See EZRA, CANON.) Around the year 365 B.C., two brothers competed for the position of high priest. One of them killed the other in the temple precincts. Because of this death, Bagoses, general of Artaxerxes Mnemon’s army, entered the temple (Ant. 11:7, 1).
In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander of Macedonia crossed the Hellespont and defeated the Persian satraps. The following year, he defeated the king of Persia, Darius Codomanus, at Issus, a pass near the northeastern end of the Mediterranean, subdued Syria, and entered Jerusalem. After an almost uninterrupted series of victories and conquests, he reached the very east of India and the Punjab. He died in Babylon in 323 BC. (See ALEXANDER.)
(b) Judea submitted to Egypt. In the year 320 BC, Ptolemy Soter took Palestine from Syria, in whose hands he had remained upon the death of Alexander. With the exception of a few brief periods, the Ptolemies held Judea until 198 BC, the year in which Antiochus the Great defeated the Egyptian general Scopas, near Paneas (Vãñiãs).
During these 122 years, the Jews were ruled by their high priest, subject to the king of Egypt. At this time, the Greek translation of the Holy Scriptures, called the Septuagint (LXX), was carried out in Alexandria, Egypt. (See BIBLE VERSIONS.)
(c) Judea subjected to Syria. Thanks to his victory over the army of Ptolemy V at Paneas, Antiochus the Great took possession of Palestine in 198 BC. The Syrians were not content to support the Jews who aspired to Hellenize Judea, but instead strove directly to impose idolatry on Israel.
The sacrilegious tyranny of the Syrians became unbearable for the pious Israelites, who took up arms under the leadership of the Maccabees in the year 166 BC. (See JASON, ANTIOCHUS.)
(d) Period of independence under the Maccabees. These were both the high priests and kings. (See MACCABEES.) This era of freedom lasted from 166 to 63 BC, when Jerusalem was taken by Pompey; However, the Maccabees were allowed to remain on the throne until 40 BC.
This year, the Roman Senate granted the throne to Herod the Great, who began his reign by taking Jerusalem in 37 BC. The Pharisees and Sadducees, officially recognized parties, then exercised great political and religious influence. (See Pharisees, Sadducees, Sanhedrin.)
(e) Judea under Roman rule. The Roman authorities delegated administrative power to Herod the Great and, upon his death, to Archelaus, and later to procurators, except during the reign of King Herod Agrippa I, from 41 to 44 AD. (See JUDEA, HEROD, PROCURATOR.)
The mismanagement of these leaders exasperated the people and a revolt broke out. There was a bitter war between 66 and 70 AD, the year of the fall of Jerusalem. Those Jews who survived and remained in Palestine were denied permission to enter their capital, and were no longer considered a nation.
Jesus Christ was born while the Jewish nation was still under Roman rule, in the time of King Herod. This marks the beginning of a new period of biblical history.
IV. History of the founding of the Christian church, called to evangelize all nations.
(1) Christ prepared the creation of his church by his example, his teaching, and his redemptive work. (See JESUS CHRIST, GOSPEL, APOSTLE.).
(2) The church among the Jews. The risen Christ founds the Church. The Spirit He had promised descended on the day of Pentecost. Peter’s preaching, the growth of the number of believers, and their baptism, mark the beginning of the Church’s action. (See PENTECOST, HOLY SPIRIT, TONGUES (GIFT OF), BAPTISM, CHURCH.)
Subsequently, for perhaps 6 years, the church went through difficulties caused by errors of believers and persecutions, but it became more aware of its new identity, and the number of its followers increased. (See ANANÍAS, SAPFIRA, DEACON, ESTEBAN.).
The persecution that occurred after Stephen’s death dispersed the brothers, who dedicated themselves to proclaiming the gospel to the Jews of Palestine and Syria. The gospel was preached in Samaria and in the coastal cities, from Gaza to Caesarea. (See FELIPE.)
Saul went to Damascus in order to persecute the Christians of the Jewish colony. He was converted and called to the apostleship among the Gentiles. Peter’s vision in Joppa, followed by the conversion of Cornelius and his experience of the baptism of the Spirit, served to open the eyes of the Church to this truth that they knew only theoretically: that the Holy Spirit was for all those who believed. in Jesus, Jews and Gentiles. (See CORNELIUS.)
Christian disciples among the Jews from the West were also dispersed by the persecution that followed Stephen’s death. These also announced the gospel to the Greeks (Acts 11:20).
From then on, starting in Antioch, the name “Christians” began to be given to the disciples of Jesus, thus ending their identification with the Jews. The church was thus ready to undertake the evangelization of the Gentiles; He knew that no difference should be maintained between Christians who emerged from Judaism and those who emerged from among the Gentiles. God had raised up in Paul an apostle to the Gentiles; he had begun to work among them.
(3) The church between the Jews and the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas, called by the Holy Spirit, set out to evangelize the Gentiles of Asia Minor, which raised questions about the duties incumbent on converts of Gentile origin.
The Council of Jerusalem spoke out clearly in favor of Christian freedom, refusing to impose circumcision and observance of the law of Moses on converts. It insists only on certain moral duties and the universal government of God already ordained to Noah for him and his descendants, which had nothing to do with Jewish ceremonial, but were obligatory for all, both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 15:28 , 29, [necessary things], cf. Gen. 9:3, 4).
Although there are commentators who insist that the prohibition of Gentiles from eating blood and drowned animals was only to avoid friction, this clashes with the fact that they were allowed to eat all types of meat prohibited by the law of Moses, such as pork, rabbit , etc., as well as the fact that they were freed from an entire ceremonial obligation vital to the Jewish mentality.
It is evident that this reason is false, and that the prohibition is not based “on Jewish prejudices, and to avoid discomfort,” as some authors claim, but on the immutable will of God expressed to Noah for the entire human race, by allowing to man the consumption of animal flesh, without their blood, after the Flood (Gen. 9:3, 4).
Once Christian freedom was assured, it was communicated through letters to the congregations (Acts 15:23-29). In the course of his second missionary journey, Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, arrived at Troas. Called by a vision to go to Macedonia, he obeyed and, from Philippi to Rome, where he arrived as a prisoner, he evangelized Europe.