Includes bibliographical references (pages 322-323) and index.

Sumer and Akkad : land of Abraham -- Egypt : Pharaoh's land -- Canaan : the Promised Land -- The united monarchy : Kingdom of David and Solomon -- Israel and Judah : the divided kingdom -- Persia, Greece, and Rome : imperial overlords -- Galilee and Judea : where Jesus walked -- Jerusalem : a land besieged -- Timeline of the ancient Near East.

For 2,000 years and more, the Bible and its precepts have shaped world culture and civilization, whether Judeo-Christian or not. The Bible is a touchstone of religious belief, literary accomplishment, morality, and history unlike any other. Biblical interpretations have changed over the millennia, but the past 100 years have witnessed some of the most important transformations in our perspective, and no recent influence has been greater than archaeology. In the mid-20th century, the unearthing of the Dead Sea Scrolls--to cite just one of many modern finds--deepened our understanding of the Biblical world, its peoples, and their beliefs. Since then, new evidence has appeared--the Tel Dan inscription, the Merneptah Stele, and the Gabriel Revelation--with each revelation providing richer insights into the scriptural narrative and the way these stories were written and handed down, confirming the details of historical events and personages, or clarifying the meaning and chronology of biblical ideas. Meticulous, scholarly, yet always accessible, this is required reading for anyone interested in both Old and New Testaments and the creeds, cultures, and civilizations of ancient Hebrews and early Christians alike.--From publisher description.