Outline Studies in the Old Testament for Bible Teachers

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

Having taken a general view of Bible history from the creation to the coming of Christ, we now turn again to the record for a more careful study of each epoch. The aim will be not to give a mere catalogue of facts, but as far as possible to show the relation of cause and effect, and to unfold the development of the divine purpose which is manifested through all the history in the Bible.

I. We begin with the Deluge as the starting point of history. Back of that event there may be studied biography, but not history; for history deals less with individuals than with nations, and we know of no nations before the flood. With regard to the deluge we note:

1. The fact of a deluge is stated in Scripture (Gen. 7), and attested by the traditions of nearly all nations.

2. Its cause was the wickedness of the human race (Gen. 6. 5-7). Before this event all the population of the world was massed together, forming one vast family and speaking one language. Under these conditions the good were overborne by evil surroundings, and general corruption followed.

3. Its extent was undoubtedly not the entire globe, but so much of it as was occupied by the human race (Gen. 7. 23), probably the Eu-phra´tes valley. Many Christian scholars, however, hold to the view that the book of Genesis relates the history of but one family of races, and not all the race; consequently that the flood may have been partial, as far as mankind is concerned.

4. Its purpose was: 1.) To destroy the evil in the world. 2.) To open a new epoch under better conditions for social, national, and individual life.

II. The Dispersion of the Races. 1. Very soon after the deluge a new instinct, that of migration, took possession of the human family. Hitherto all mankind had lived together; from this time they began to scatter. As a result came tribes, nations, languages, and varieties of civilization. "The confusion of tongues" was not the cause, but the result, of this spirit, and may have been not sudden, but gradual (Gen. 11. 2, 7).

2. Evidences of this migration are given: 1.) In the Bible (Gen. 9. 19; 11. 8). 2.) The records and traditions of nearly all nations point to it. 3.) Language gives a certain proof; for example, showing that the ancestors of the Eng´lish, Greeks, Ro´mans, Medes, and Hin´dus—races now widely dispersed—once slept under the same roof. At an early period streams of migration poured forth from the highlands of A´sia in every direction and to great distances.

III. The Rise of the Empires. In the Bible world four centers of national life arose, not far apart in time, each of which became a powerful kingdom, and in turn ruled all the Oriental lands. The strifes of these nations, the rise and fall, constitute the matter of ancient Oriental history, which is closely connected with that of the Bible. These four centers were: 1. E´gypt, in the Nile valley, founded not far from B. C. 5000, and in the early Bible history having its capital at Mem´phis. 2. Bab-y-lo´ni-a, called also Shi´nar and Chal-de´a, on the plain between the Ti´gris and Eu-phra´tes Rivers, near the Per´sian Gulf, where a kingdom arose about B. C. 4500; of which Ba´bel or Bab´y-lon was the greatest, though not the earliest, capital. 3. As-syr´i-a, of which the capital was Nin´e-veh (Gen. 10. 11). 4. Phœ-ni´cia, on the Med-i-ter-ra´ne-an seacoast, north of Pal´es-tine, having Si´don for its earlier and Tyre for its later capital, and holding its empire not on the land, but on the sea, as its people were sailors and merchants.

IV. The Migration of A´bra-ham, B. C. 2280?. No other journey in history has the importance of that transfer of the little clan of A´bra-ham from the plain of Bab-y-lo´ni-a to the mountains of Pal´es-tine in view of its results to the world. Compare with it the voyage of the Mayflower. Its causes were: 1. Probably the migratory instinct of the age, for it was the epoch of tribal movements. 2. The political cause may have been the desire for liberty from the rule of the Ac-ca´di-an dynasty that had become dominant in Chal-de´a. 3. But the deepest motive was religious, a purpose to escape from the idolatrous influences of Chal-de´a, and to find a home for the worship of God in what was then "the new West," where population was thin. It was by the call of God that A´bra-ham set forth on his journey (Gen. 12. 1-3).