Four books of the Bible – Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – cover this period of time lasting about 40 years. Thus begins the third period of Old Testament history, Egypt and the Exodus. The book of Exodus takes up Israel’s history near the end of this 400 year period. The offspring of Israel (Jacob) spent more than 400 years in Egypt, and became slaves to the Egyptians probably toward the end of this period of time. (By the way, the book of Job is about another man who probably lived during Abraham’s time.) The book of Genesis (which covers a longer period of time than the rest of the Bible combined) ends up with Jacob and his twelve sons and one daughter, their wives, and their kids all moving down to Egypt to avoid starving in a famine. Jacob, who later changed his name to Israel, had twelve sons – the twelve tribes of Israel are descendents of these twelve sons.
Abraham had two sons, Ishmael, from whom the Arabs trace their lineage, and Isaac, from whom Israel and the Jews trace their lineage. Abraham left his country, Ur in Babylon (modern day Iraq), and followed God to a new country, Canaan, where modern day Israel and Palestine are located. Both Jews and Arabs genetically come from Abraham. Abraham is a man that three great religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – all trace their origin back to. The next period of history shown on the chart begins around 2167 BC with the birth of Abraham. At the current time, I am just giving a satellite overview of the Old Testament and what it is about so we can understand where and how the book of Daniel fits into the Old Testament.) (It is not my goal at the present time to go into detail on any of these events or to give my views on them. It finally outlines where the nations and the diversity of races and languages that we have on the earth came from. It describes a time when God destroyed the earth by a great flood. It explains where sin and death come from. In the Pre-Abrahamic period, the book of Genesis describes where man, woman, and marriage come from. The book of Genesis reveals that God created the universe “In the beginning…” This is also the beginning of the period I have labeled the Pre-Abrahamic period of Old Testament History. The way we currently understand the laws of Physics including the Theory of General Relativity, we are certain that the universe (time, space, and matter) had a beginning and has not always existed. We do not know exactly when creation took place, as there may be a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. The first verse in the Bible reveals that: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Please follow the chart as I outline some of the major events in the Old Testament. The chart also shows where the books of the Bible fit into the periods of history. For example the first period is the Pre-Abrahamic period, the second period is the Patriachal period, the third period is the Egypt and the Exodus period, and so forth. The top of the chart is read from left to right and top to bottom.
Above these 10 periods, the chart also shows the Old Testament books which pertain to that period of history. The top of the chart outlines 10 periods of Old Testament history. Following is an explanation of the chart.Īt the bottom of the chart is a time line extending from Creation until about 100 AD. To understand the book of Daniel, it is helpful to understand how it fits into the Bible.
The above chart provides a quick overview of what the Old Testament of the Bible is about. How does the book of Daniel fit into the Bible and into history?