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The small nations of Ammon, Moab, and Edom lay east of the Jordan River, and the people of these nations were distantly related to the Israelites. The Ammonites and Moabites were descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot, and the Edomites were descended from Jacob’s twin brother Esau. The Israelites had passed by these nations on the […]

Though southern Greece was located over 700 miles from Israel, its history often overlapped with the events of the Bible. During the time of the Judges, Sea Peoples from the Greek mainland began attacking many lands of the Bible. Hundreds of years later during the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, the Greeks fought many […]

The famed city of Jericho was one of the oldest cities in the world. By the time the Israelites watched its walls fall down under Joshua’s command, Jericho was already thousands of years old. Located on a plain where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea, the heavily fortified city stood guard over the entrance […]

One of the most well-known stories of the Bible is David’s defeat of Goliath, a Philistine giant from the town of Gath. The Philistines may have originated from the island of Crete and settled along the eastern Mediterranean coast around the time of the Judges. As the Philistines pushed further into the interior of Canaan, […]

Perhaps as much as two years after Jesus’ birth astrologers called Magi came from the East to worship the newborn king of the Jews, for they had seen a star in the heavens that indicated he had been born, and it directed them to Jerusalem. They asked King Herod where the child was, and he […]

The story of Jesus’ birth actually begins in the little town of Nazareth, where Joseph and Mary lived. The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary there and announced to her that she would give birth to the Messiah and that she was to name him Jesus. Soon after this Mary traveled to visit her relative Elizabeth […]

When the apostle Paul described his native city of Tarsus in Cilicia as “no ordinary city” (Acts 21:39), he wasn’t just spouting empty hometown pride. The whole region of Cilicia, along with the city of Tarsus, already formed a key part of the Hittite Empire even before Moses’ time, and the land had been fought […]

Throughout Bible times, the history of Israel was often intertwined with the history of Egypt, an ancient and enduring civilization that sometimes loomed as a threat and other times offered a place of refuge and shelter for God’s people. The Great Pyramids of Egypt were already hundreds of years old by the time Abraham visited […]

The ancient city of Shechem in the hill country of Samaria was a literal crossroads of activity during Bible times. Pivotally positioned between two mountains along a key road running through central Israel, Shechem was often regarded as part of the “heartland” of Israel. Here Abraham first offered sacrifices in the Promised Land and Joseph’s […]

In 539 B.C. Cyrus the Great of Persia overthrew the Babylonians, and a year later he decreed that the Judeans who had been sent into exile were allowed to return home and rebuild the temple. A small contingent of Judeans made the long journey and reestablished Judea as a very small district (shown in red) […]