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THE WORLDS AND CIVILIZATIONS AT THE TIME OF PALESTINE, JESUS, AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE:
 

  • In the Americas, the Olmec peoples of Mexico had faded away and the Mayan culture was establishing itself.

  • Much of the vast Pacific Ocean and its many islands were being colonized by the descendants of mainly South East Asian peoples.

  • In Asia, large empires existed in China (the Han dynasty), India (the Kushan empire), and Persia (the Parthian empire).

  • Much of central and eastern Europe was occupied by Germanic tribes.

  • The Hindu and later the Jain religions had long been practiced in India,  

  • Buddhism was starting to spread to China. 

  • The teachings of Confucius and Lao-tzu (Taoism) had developed over the previous five centuries in China.

  • In Persia, Zoroastrianism was the principal religion.

Note:  These MAPS are deliberately large so you can see all the details and the names of the towns/cities/areas.

 

Here is a WORLD MAP  (what the world looked like) at the time of Jesus from 'World Beyond Palestine'.

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THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT THE TIME OF JESUS:  (in red)  michiganumc.org

What was going on at the time of Jesus:

  • The works of Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were widely circulated.

  • The people of the Roman Empire worshipped a variety of gods.

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See map for numbers.

View over Gerasene (now Kursi) toward the SEA OF GALILEE

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ISRAEL AT THE TIME OF JESUS  from'Conformingtojesus.com'.

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Gergesenes country

River Jordan which is fresh water, originates in Mt Hermon 10,000 ft high click here for more details.

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A good historical account of the Dead Sea - click here

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the caves of Qumran on the North west side of the Dead Sea.  (See Red Star) some of which were carved out by hand.

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DEAD SEA SCROLLS:  This is an excerpt from Britannica.com A great number and variety of manuscripts were discovered at Qumrān.  (See Red Star)  The best-preserved documents at that site are those found in Cave 1, including an Isaiah Scroll; the Rule of the Community (also called the Manual of Discipline); The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, or War Scroll; a scroll of thanksgiving hymns; and a commentary on Habakkuk. Cave 2 contained only fragments, but Cave 3 yielded the Copper Scroll, a list of Temple treasures and their hiding places. Cave 4 sheltered the main deposit of what some believe to have been an Essene library, which contained approximately 400 manuscripts, generally in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts are sectarian writings, and about 100 of them are biblical texts, covering the entire Hebrew Bible except Esther. Several well-preserved documents were recovered from Cave 11, including a large scroll with canonicalapocryphal, and unknown psalms. There was also a copy of Leviticus (dated to the 3rd century BCE) as well as the very important Temple Scroll. Its 66 preserved columns give details for the construction of the ideal Temple of Jerusalem.

PALESTINE AT THE TIME OF JESUSfrom'World Beyond Palestine'.

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Salt Sea Also known as the Dead Sea

Sodom and Gomorrah is located somewhere on the south east of the Jordan River according to this article- click here

The Dead Sea is salty, but has many minerals.  See history of the Dead Sea. They have discovered cracks in the floor of the sea which allows salt to come in.  It was fresh water originating in Mt Hermon 9-10,000 ft high extending 20 miles (north-south  click here for more details.

MT HERMAN 9-10,000 high and the beginning of the Jordan river.   click here 

FOR THE HISTORY OF THE NATION OF ISRAEL. WHICH IS LOCATED IN THE REGION OF PALESTINE, WHICH AT THE TIME OF MOSES WAS CALLED CANAAN, click here.

MAP OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE AND WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN:

This clever map below is from BibleStudy.org.The writing of Old Testament books actually began around the 1660s B.C. when Job penned the work named after him.

 

Sometime later Moses wrote the first five manuscripts we commonly find in the Bible during the period the children of Israel wandered the wilderness for forty years after the Exodus.

The prophetic books of Ezekiel and Daniel were written in Babylon.

 

Obadiah was penned in Edom, as was Job.

 

Esther authored the section named after her in Persia.

 

The remaining books were all recorded in the land of Israel.

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PALESTINE

  • At the time of the Roman Empire,  Judea was a small eastern province.
     

  • Approximately 1,800 years earlier, the patriarch Abraham journeyed there from Ur of the Chaldees (present-day Iraq), via Haran to Canaan.  Abraham was the father of Isaac, and grandfather of Jacob.
     

  • Jacob's children migrated to Egypt where their younger brother Joseph ("of the coat of many colors") previously sold by them into slavery, had become second in importance to the Egyptian Pharaoh. Jacob's descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel.  Jacob's 12 sons formed the 12 tribes of Israel after emigrating to Egypt.
     

  • Around 1,200 BC, following the Exodus from Egypt to Canaan, led by Moses and completed by Joshua (of the "battle of Jericho"), Canaan was the "promised land" of the twelve Tribes of Israel.
     

  • After 1,000BC, King David and his son Solomon had established a United Kingdom of Israel and Judah.
                   Both nations went their separate ways until conquered by other empires.

     

  • In 721BC, Israel was defeated by the Assyrians and these Jews went into permanent exile.
     

  • In 587BC, Judah fell into the hands of the Babylonians  (1895 BC-539BC) but their exile to Babylon was temporary.
     

  • In 539 the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians and the Jews allowed to return to Judea to rebuild Jerusalem.
     

By the time of Jesus, most Jews were spread throughout the Roman and Parthian Empires (247 BC to 224 CE).

However,  Jerusalem with a new Temple being built by Herod the Great remained central to the Jewish religion.

 

Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee was born a Jew, into nearly 2,000 years of Jewish history, religion and culture in the land of Palestine.

THE TERRITORIES and RULERS OF PALESTINE  from World Beyond Palestine:

 

Palestine is a small but varied land, often harsh in character and with a long and complicated history. Understanding something of its physical and political geography helps to explain the volatile situation into which Jesus came and preached and the terrain over which he traveled.

When Israel in the north ceased to exist in 721BC, part of the area later became a territory known as Samaria.

Most of Judah in the south, defeated in 587BC, was later referred to as Judea. 

 

By the time of Jesus, PALESTINE comprised various territories.  From north to south these were:

1. Chalcis and Abilene in the Roman province of Syria, north of ancient Iturea;

2. Iturea, including Panias and Ulatha, and Trachonitis with Batanaea, Gaulanitis (the modern Golan Heights) and Auranitis, all in southeastern Syria. Hereafter, they are referred to as Iturea and Trachonitis;

3. Galilee with the Sea of Galilee in modern northern Israel, which played an important part in the recorded life and ministry of Jesus;

4. Samaria, Judea and Idumea, that is much of modern central Israel plus the west bank of the River Jordan.

The chief city of the Roman rulers was Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast of Samaria. The Jewish capital was Jerusalem in Judea, where Jesus came a number of times, finally to be arrested, tried and crucified by the Jewish and Roman authorities.

5. The semi-independent Decapolis in modern northern Jordan was a roughly defined area that included within its boundaries, most of the federated "Ten Cities" established by Alexander the Great.

One such city was Philadelphia - modern Amman, capital of Jordan. Other cities, one of which was Damascus, capital of modern Syria, were outside the boundaries;

6. Perea included much of the present east bank of the Jordan.

During New Testament times, these territories were ruled, at various dates in a variety of ways:

- Direct from Rome through Roman province administrators or governors known as procurators;

- Through the Roman governor of Syria, such as The Decapolis; 

- By Roman-appointed Jewish kings, ethnarchs/tetrarchs  (governors), or rulers of the fourth part of a province.

GARDEN OF EDEN

THE GARDEN OF EDEN MAP AND THE 4 RIVERS (SEE BELOW THIS MAP FOR A LARGER AREA MAP)  (Most scholars conclude it is here, which is modern-day Iraq.)   Below is the theory of Juris Zarins.

 

What happened to the Garden of Eden? The Bible does not specifically say. It is likely that the Garden was completely destroyed in the Flood.

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THE GARDEN OF EDEN MAP AND THE 4 RIVERS   LARGER AREA MAP (This is a larger map of the same thing, so that you can see it within the bigger picture.)

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