Events before Christ

Throughout our past we discover our future. If indeed the Holy Spirit does reach us through the advancement of science and understanding of our physical world, then the history before Christ is the foundation laid for our understanding of our need for His coming.

25,000 to 20,001 BC
Music is produced by humans in what is now France; archaeological evidence includes cave paintings, footprints in caves that appear to be those of dancers, and carved bones that appear to be wind and percussion instruments

79,000 BC
Simple forms of stone lamps

25,000 to 20,001 BC
The sewing needle is in use

20,000 to 10,001 BC
Early Metallurgy
The earliest metallic objects known, small jewels and tools, were directly carved or cut from pieces of metal found in the native state. Gold, copper, and some silver were the first metals used in this way, since they are the only metals commonly found in their elemental form. As early as 7000 years ago, especially in the Middle East and Afghanistan, people found these metals, conspicuous by their luster, in mountains and rivers.

5000 to 4001 BC
Sailing ships are known in Mesopotamia

3000 BC
The calendar
The first quantity that people could measure with any degree of accuracy, and on which all people could agree, was time, although only fairly large amounts of time. Large amounts of time can be easily measured daily and annual motion of Earth and the moon. Even so, the measurement of time was not easy to work out. A day is one revolution of Earth; a moon is from one new moon to the next; but it is not so easy to measure a year. Even the day is not as easy to measure as it seems. It took a while to learn to measure the day from one noon to the next (noon is when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky).

The ancient Egyptians were the first to establish a good length for the year, possibly because the Nile floods around the same time each year. This flooding generally coincides with the helical rising of Sirius; that is, when Sirius rises at about the same time as the sun. Although there are 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, or about a quarter of a day longer than 365 days.

The Egyptian calendar is known to have accurately matched the seasons with dates in 139 AD. Since the year is not exactly 365 days, the Egyptian calendar gradually went into and out of alignment with the seasons with a period of about 1455 years. Knowing this, astronomers have speculated that the year of 365 days was instituted around 4228 BC or 2773 BC.

Hellenic astronomers added the missing 1/4 day to the Egyptian calendar by adding an extra (leap) day every four years, but most people ignored it. The calendar with a leap day was finally adopted by the Romans under Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Since then, the calendar has had one major modification, when Pope Gregory, in 1582, on the advice of astronomers, dropped the leap day in years that end in two zeros.

1400 to 1351 BC
The Egyptians and Mesopotamians produce glass; a glassworks from at Tel-el-Amarna is discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1894.

530 to 521 BC
Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus (Turkey), b about 570, suggests that air is the primary substance; it can be changed into other substances by thinning, forming fire, or thickening, forming wind, clouds, rain, hail, earth, and rock.

500 to 491 BC
Steel is made in India

490 BC
The elements
The concept of element, as well as that of atom, is of Greek origin, although the Greeks did not think of elements or atoms as we do today. The term "element" was coined by Plato, but the idea existed before him. Empedocles believed that all matter was made up of four primary substances, or elements: earth, air, fire, and water. All the appearances of matter could be explained by the co-mingling and separation of these elements under two influences that acted upon them: love, comparable to our force of attractions; and hate, comparable to our concept of repulsion.

Plato adopted Empedocles' theory of elements. Because Plato believed that geometry is the best method for thinking about nature, he provided the elements with exact mathematical form. The smallest part (or atom) of fire was in the shape of a tetrahedron, air of an octahedron, water of an icosahedron, and earth of a cube.

Aristotle also adopted the concept of four elements. But contrary to Empedocles' theory, in which the elements are immutable and compounds differ only in their composition, the elements of Aristotle undergo changes when they combine. Aristotle believed that besides physical extension, elements have qualities that are based on how we experience matter: hot, cold, dry, and moist. He saw each element as endowed with two of the qualities, so ear was dry and cold, water moist and cold, air moist and hot, and fire hot and dry. An element could change into another one by changing one or two of its qualities. For example, earth could change into eater by changing from dryness to moistness.

170 to 161 BC
The first paved roads are built in Rome

140 to 131 BC
The Chinese make paper; it is used as a packing material, for clothing, and for personal hygiene, but not for writing

40 to 31 BC
In 40 Marc Antony gives the 200,000 scrolls from the library to Pergamom to Cleopatra, who adds them to the library at Alexandria, making it by far the greatest library on Earth

In 31 Octavian's general Agrippa wins the decisive sea battle of Actium, effectively defeating the forces of Antony and Cleopatra and signaling the final fall of Egypt to Rome; Cleopatra, killing herself with the bite of an asp, is the last independent ruler of Egypt until the modern democracy

20 to 11 BC
In 19 Roman general Agrippa has the Aqua Virgo aqueduct built to supply public baths in Rome; also the aqueduct of Names with its 86-story-high Pont du Gard Bridge

10 to 1 BC
Herod the Great has the first large harbor constructed in the open sea build to support his new town of Caesarea Palestine (near present-day Haifa); the harbor is constructed of giant blocks of concrete poured into wooden forms

Jerusalem was newly captured from Canaan when David named it Israel's capital. He then had the ark of the covenant brought there, which made the city the nation's religious center as well. The procession escorting the ark probably came up the Kidron Valley, then through the city and out to a tent set up on a threshing floor on a hill to the north. The rock above, which today is still enshrined there, is though to have lain under an altar David erected. It was here that Solomon built his temple.

A Judean Surgical Operation
Trepanning, or removing a section of bone from the skull to relieve pressure on the brain, was practiced by Judean surgeons during the time of Isaiah. First the patient's head was shaved and the skin slit and drawn back, exposing the bone. Then a small surgical saw was used to remove the section, which as replaced when the drainage was completed. The hole remaining in the skull at left indicates that this particular operation killed the patient.

Baking Over an Open Fire
"Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt . . . and make bread of them" (Ezek. 4.9) Bread was usually made from either wheat of barley flour, but in times of need such additional ingredients as these would be added. The simplest method of baking is shown here. The small stove is made of pottery fragments and clay, and flat stones are heating among its coals. When sufficiently hot, the stones will be swept clean of ashes and flat cakes of dough will be placed on them to bake.

The Jews of Galilee
The subject of the kingdom of God was a burning issue among the Jews during Jesus' lifetime and probably overshadowed political considerations in Palestine. The Jews of Galilee, Judea and Perea were essentially a rural people. The great majority lived in hundreds of small towns and villages scattered throughout the countryside. They worked the land, tended their flocks, practiced their trades and seldom ventured more than a day's journey from home. They might see the Holy City once a year ­ traveling there as Joseph and his family did to celebrate the Passover week ­ but otherwise their world was limited to their small village and the fields around it.

Such a village might claim no more than several hundred inhabitants who lived in modest, one-story houses of mud brick clustered together on the side of a hill. Between the houses, narrow unpaved streets and alleyways wound toward a dusty square at the center of town. There women came daily to shop in the open-air market and to draw water from the communal well, while older men gathered to chat and pass the time of day.

During the day the synagogue served as the schoolhouse for the young boys of the village. Their teacher was a respected figure in the town and absolute master of his one-room school.

Most scribes were affiliated with a particular school of thinking, headed by a famous rabbi who was surrounded by a circle of disciples, or devoted followers. There were many scribal schools in Palestine in the first century A.D., most of them based in Jerusalem. It was not unusual for followers of different schools to engage in heated public discussions over a particular point of the law. The courtyard of the temple and other public places were often the scenes of such discussions.

A Housewife's Day
While Joseph worked, Mary was occupied with household chores. The young Jesus stayed by her side, sometimes helping with simple tasks. Their home was small and unpretentious, probably a square, flat-roofed building made of dried mud bricks. The exterior was whitewashed but the inside walls had been left their drab natural color,. There was only one room

Textiles
"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands" (Pr. 31.13). In Jesus' time spinning was still done in the home. First raw fiber was rolled on the thigh to form a strand of yarn, which was made into thread by the twisting motion of a weighted shaft, or spindle. Two threads were spun at once by using a yarn bowl with guides to separate the strands. A woman spins as a helper rolls yarn and her child plays with a rag doll. A simple home has a grain mill, lamp, bedroll and roof ladder.

Oh Jerusalem
Jerusalem as Jesus saw it in the days before his crucifixion was still the city created by Herod the Great, although the hated ruler had been dead for three decades. Herod had admired Greek culture and Roman power, and wanted to make his kingdom a notable cultural and political province of the Roman Empire. He had sought, too, the allegiance of his Jewish subjects, and he considered the temple (A) at Jerusalem his finest achievement. Jesus preached in the Court of the Gentiles (B) which Herod's builders had doubled in size and surrounded with an elaborate Hellenistic porch. Herod's palace-fortress, named the Antonia (C) for his benefactor, Mark Antony, was the place where Jesus may have been tried before Pontius Pilate. The sports hippodrome (D), theater (E) and viaduct (F) linking the temple with Herod's grand fortified palace (G) were similar to ones built by Herod in other cities. The Mount of Olives (H) where Jesus prayed was outside the city, opposite the eastern wall of the temple. The appearance of Jerusalem can only be speculated on, since building enterprises could go on for years. The temple complex was actually completed only a few years before the Romans destroyed it in 70 A.D.

The Holy Scriptures in Jesus' Time
In 1947, the first fragments of over 600 manuscripts were found in the Qumran region of the Wilderness of Judea. These are the Dead Sea Scrolls -- a priceless collection of ancient texts offering new insights in the Old Testament, Judaism, and the origins of Christianity.

The scrolls were transcriptions made by the Essenes in their scriptorium at Qumran. One of the sect's 12 priests reads from one scroll while a scribe, seated at a plaster table, copies his words with a reed pen. Both wear white tunics, symbolic of the spiritual purity that was central to Essene belief.

While herding sheep among these caves near the Dead Sea, south of Jericho, a young Arab threw a stone into a hole on the cliff face, and heard a jar shatter. Investigating, he found several more sealed jars containing ancient Hebrew writings on long leather scrolls: The Dead Sea Scrolls. Written mostly during the three centuries before the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, they had been hidden in these caves by the Essenes, just before the Romans destroyed their community nearby Qumran.

The contents of the scrolls include fragments of all books of the Old Testament except Esther; two relatively complete scrolls of Isaiah; apocryphal and apocalyptic works in Hebrew and Aramaic; and original material on the tenets of Essene doctrine. As shown in the sample, the careful transcriptions were done on animal skins marked with horizontal lines for writing and verticals for margins. The Biblical texts ­ the earliest known ­ predate the next oldest Hebrew manuscripts by 1000 years; yet the two versions show remarkably few discrepancies.

A Donkey-Drawn Grain Mill
The mill, operated by donkeys or by slaves, was an advance over tedious hand grinding. It consisted of a hollow, hourglass-shaped stone mounted on a metal pivot and placed over a ribbed cone-shaped stone. As the donkey rotates the upper stones, a man dumps grain into the top portion. It falls to the bottom portion where it is ground between the smooth outer stones and the ribbing on the inner stone. The height of the pivot could be adjusted to produce a coarse, medium or fine grade of flour, which was collected in the stone vat below. This mill has an elaborate wooden yoke, but on other types, draw poles project from the upper stone.

John the Baptist
Other ascetics also withdrew into the wilderness, gathering disciples around them to await the coming age. The Israelites had always thought of the desert as a fitting place for religious thinkers, and in Jesus' time many men believed the Messiah would appear there first.
"In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said
"The voice of one crying the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'
At the height of the sermon, he called upon his listeners to confess their sins and to be purified by baptism in the waters of the Jordan. Men baptized by him, John said, entered a completely new existence as members of the community of the righteous, who would form the core of the coming kingdom of God.

Most of the men who were baptized by John returned to their homes to await the Messiah, but a few stayed behind and became John's disciples. John taught theses followers to pray and to fast periodically.

An Essene Baptism Ceremony
"For John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1.5). Baptism was a daily ritual for the Essenes, a religious group and community of Jesus' time. In specially built pools they purified themselves repeatedly for the coming of a Messiah. An Essene priest reads from one scared text while a follower bathes. Some Biblical scholars now think that John the Baptist was an Essene.

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Mt. 4.19) At least six of the twelve disciples were fisherman on the Sea of Galilee (left), a lake supporting a sizable fishing industry. Men who fished its waters where husky and weathered from long hot hours of casting their nets and hauling in fish. The best time to fish was late as night, when the still waters were plentiful with fish. During the day they repaired their sturdy wooden sailboats and amended their nets and sails. At dawn they gathered their night's catch in baskets, to be sold fresh or salted and dried for export as far as Spain.