1. What You Need to Know to Understand the Tanakh
History and Geography
What You Need to Know to Understand the Tanakh

2. Genesis 12:1-7
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go into the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oal of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”

3. Abram’s Journey

5. What to call this land Canaan Israel
Israel for the Northern Kingdom ( /21 BCE) and Judah for the Southern Kingdom ( /86 BCE)
Yehud when it was a Persian outpost (538 BCE to the Greek period). Also Judea
Palestine (Palaistino) in the Greek period (late 4th to 2nd centuries BCE)

6. The Land – Some Facts Approximately 150 miles long and 70 miles wide
10,000 square miles or the size of Vermont
Roughly the same latitude as the state of Georgia, southern Spain, or the Shanghai-Nanking area of China

7. Six Major Regions of the Land
Coastal Plain
Shephelah
Central Hill Country
Rift Valley
Transjordan Plateau
desert

8. Coastal Plain

9. Shephelah

10. Central Hill Country “

11. Valley of Jezreel

12. Arabah (“Plain”) or The Rift Valley

13. Some Fun Photos

14. Transjordan Plateau

15. Desert
Uninhabitable region that extends eventually into what is now Saudi Arabia

16. Seasons Agricultural season starts with the rain Two Seasons
Wet ground is softer and so can be plowed
Spring rain ripens crops
Rain comes from the west or the sea and so the west-facing slopes get most of the rain
Two Seasons
Wet or horef (November to February)
Dry (mid-June to mid-September)
Two Transitional periods
April to mid-June
Mid-September through October
Sub-tropical climate
Generally temperate
Can get quite cold at elevation

17. Rainfall Rainfall Averages
Acco and Jerusalem to 26” (comparable to London, but all in one season)
Upper Galilee hills – 47” (NYC 41” average)
Megiddo – 16”
Hebron 12”

18. Climate
Temperatures
Overall temperate, but with hot summers along the coast and around the Dead Sea toward the desert
Winters can be chilly at elevation and some snow is typical in the upper Galilee and even in places like Jerusalem (elevation approximate 2500 ft)
   

19. Genesis – The Family Abraham and Hagar Abraham and Sarah
Ishmael
Abraham and Sarah
Isaac
Isaac and Rebekkah
Esau
Jacob
Jacob
Leah
Reuben (1)
Simeon (2)
Levi (3)
Judah (4)
Issachar (9)
Zebulun (10)
Dinah
Rachel
Joseph (11)
Benjamin (12)
Bilhah
Dan (5)
Naphtali (6)
Zilpah
Gad (7)
Asher (8)

20. Exodus Israel enslaved in Egypt Moses lifted up to deliver the people
Brings them to Mt. Sinai where God makes a covenant with them
Wander in the Wilderness 40 years

21. Conquest and/or Settlement
Joshua
Story told in Joshua 1-12
Three points of attack: North, Central, and South
Archaeological record does not fully support this picture
Judges
More of a gradual settlement of the land
Some battles
Perhaps a combination of external force coming in, a settling of non-disputed areas and internal revolt

22. Monarchy Saul the first king David takes over c. 1000 BCE
Solomon succeeds his father
Monarchy splits after Solomon’s death in 922 BCE (Divided Monarchy)
Northern Kingdom or Israel lasts until 722/21 BCE
Assyrian Empire takes over
10 lost tribes of Israel
Southern Kingdom or Judah lasts until 587/86 BCE
Babylonian Empire takes over
Jerusalem and the Temple built by Solomon are destroyed

23. Persian Period The people go into exile in 587/86 BCE
Persian leader Cyrus defeats Babylonians; allows people to return to their land
Not many Israelites want to go; Darius takes over and sponsors a new return
Zerubbabel and Joshua lead it
Second Temple built and dedicated
Yehud is a Persian satrapy

24. Greek Period Alexander the Great conquers the land c. 333 BCE
Hellenization spreads through region
Division of the kingdom by the diadochi
Seleucid rule c. 198 BCE
Antiochus IV 175 – starts movement that prohibits Judaism
Maccabean Revolt 164 BCE

25. Final Notes
Brief Period of Independence from BCE. Hasmonean Dynasty
Pompey – Roman general – starts his campaign around 64 BCE
Herod the Great 37-4 BCE