Bible History
Bible History
Choose a Category

Ancient Israel

Archaeology of Ancient Israel

Archaeology is the study of people and things from the past. Archaeologists try to discover how a group of people lived, what was important to them, what sort of religious beliefs they had, and how they interacted with their environment and with other groups of people. [University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology]...

Read More

Economy of Ancient Israel and Canaan

Includes Labor+Crafts | Trade | Phoenicians | Glossary | Bibliography | Activities. Field labor and craft production was of central importance in the lives of ancient Canaanites and Israelites. The economy of both the Bronze and Iron Age populations was dependent on the harvest and the production of valuable trade goods such as metals worked into j...

Read More

Writing in Ancient Canaan

The maintenance of armies and the defense of cities were of the highest concern for the Canaanites and Israelites. Over the course of time, styles of warfare and weaponry evolved in the southern Levant. The alphabet is the singlemost important and enduring contribution the Canaanite culture has given to later civilization. The simple phonetic alpha...

Read More

The Tax Collectors

The Jewish people were under the yoke of foreign oppressors ever since the Babylonian captivity. During the New Testament times the land of Israel was within the province of Syria and the tax collectors were collectors of Roman taxes, they were extortioners, and very despised. The Jews detested these tax collectors not only on account of their ab...

Read More

Excavations of Ancient Israel

Artifacts appearing in the Museum's Canaan and Ancient Israel Gallery were drawn from the Museum's Syro-Palestinian collection of over 15,000 artifacts which came from these archaeological excavations. [University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology]...

Read More

Religion of Ancient Israel and Canaan

Includes BronzeAge | IronAge | Death | Bible | Glossary | Bibliography | Activities. Religion in the ancient Near East was closely tied to place and politics. Deities were associated with particular places, such as cities and eventually nations. Temples functioned quite literally as the god's house, where the god resided in the form of a cult statu...

Read More

Archaeological Excavations

Tel Beth Shemesh (1928-1933) Tel Beth Shean (1921-1933) Gibeon (1956-1962) Tell es-Sa'idiyeh (1964-1967) Sarepta (1969-1974) the Baq'ah Valley (1977-1981) Artifacts appearing in the Museum's Canaan and Ancient Israel Gallery were drawn from the Museum's Syro-Palestinian collection of over 15,000 artifacts which came from these archaeological ...

Read More

Jewish Literature in the First Century A.D.

Rabbinical Writings, Midrash, Tosefta, Palestinian Talmud, Babylonian Talmud, Mishnah and the Gemara and lots more. [Bible History Online]...

Read More

Glossary of Ancient Israel

Brief glossary of terms relating to ancient Israel and Land & Time, Daily Life and Religion. [University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology]...

Read More

Bible as Artifact

The Tanak / Old Testament, as we know it today, took shape over a long period of time. In part, scholars have traced this development by studying early manuscripts, which themselves often are archaeological artifacts. [Manners and Customs] [University of Pennsylvania Museum]...

Read More

61 Bible Translations

Popular Articles

Explore the Bible Like Never Before!

Bible History Online

Bible Study Tools

Top Tags