History

• The Story of the Past

• Not merely memorization of facts
– But causation is important
– Geography, etc
• Requires sources
• History is complex
• It is essential for our cultural memory
• History is diverse
• History has unity
 Primary and Secondary Sources
• What are primary sources?
– Examples of primary sources?
• What are secondary sources?
– Examples of secondary sources?
 Evaluating Primary Sources
• Who is the author?
• When was it written?
• Why was it written
• Who is the audience?
• What genre is it? What is the purpose of the genre
• What are the authors’ presuppositions?
• What is the idea or point that the author is trying to convey?
Other Considerations
• The problems of excerpts
• The problem of translations
 Secondary Sources
• Who are the authors? What are their research
interests?
• What kind of work is it?
• What is their argument?
• What are the authors’ assumptions?
• How does this shape how they present history?
• Historiography
 Paleolithic Society
• 2 million years ago to 11,000 BC.
• Stone tools to the agricultural
revolution
• Homo sapiens sapiens
• Simple cultures
• Hunters and gatherers
• Patriarchy
 Neolithic Society
• 11,000 B.C.: End of Last Ice Age
• Agricultural Revolution and
domestication of animals
• Seasonal settlements and
permanent ones
• Catalhöyük and Jericho
• Need for organization to maintain
settlements
Mesopotamia: Land between the Two Rivers
 Cradle of Civilization

• Sumer, 4300 B.C.

• Harsh Environment
• Irrigation System and
Levies
• Importance of
organization
 Sumer
• City-states, Lugals
• Pessimistic Religion
• Pantheon of Gods; each city
was the property of its god
• Ziggurats
• Writing; cuneiform
• Bronze Age 3,000 B.C.
• The Wheel
• Lunar Calendar
• Sargon and the Akkadians
Empire, 2350-2160
• Hammurabi’s Code, Babylon,
and Marduk 1800 B.C.
 Age of Empires
• Late Bronze Age (2nd Millennium):
International Networks
• Invasion of Sea Peoples, 1100 B.C.
destroyed system
• Assyrian Empire (1372-605)
– Holy War and Exaction
• Chaldean Empire, 627-559
• Persian Empire
– Cyrus I (55-521) and Darius (521-
486)
– Policy of toleration in exchange
for submission
– Light Tribute
– Infrastructure
– Semi-Autonomy for Satrapies
– Tried to conquer Greek city-
states: this attempt shows how
brutal they could be
– Zoroastrianism: Ahura-Mazda vs.
Ahrimas
 Egypt
• Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom,
New Kingdom (2700-1075 B.C)
How the Pyramids were
• Nile Delta and down the Nile built
600 Miles
• Unified by 3200 B.C.
• Cyclical Flooding
• Religion
– Pharaoh
– Nile
– Death Cult: Osiris and Isis
– Cyclical
– Life from death
– Pyramids (2613-2494 B.C.)
• Hieroglyphics and hieractic
The Ancient Hebrews
 Significance of the Ancient Hebrews
• A seemingly The Three Abrahamic
insignificant group Religions
• Monotheistic Religion
– Developed out of
henotheism/monolatry
• First non-nature God
• Christianity and Islam
• Covenant Relationship
– Ritual
– Behavior
 Origins of the Hebrews
• Semitic language group from the
Mesopotamia
• Abraham in the Ur of the Chaldeans
• Monolatry/Henotheism
• Egypt between 1700 and 1550 BC
– Hyksos
• Protected
– New
– Kingdom
• Enslaved
• Moses, 1200 B.C.
– I AM WHO I AM Prince of Egypt
– Plagues
– Exodus
– Mosaic Law
• Ritual
• Behavior
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of
Mid'ian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to
Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in
a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush
was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside
and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." When the LORD saw
that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses,
Moses!" And he said, "Here am I." Then he said, "Do not come near; put off
your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy
ground." And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was
afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, "I have seen the affliction of my
people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their
taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a
good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per'izzites, the Hivites, and the
Jeb'usites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me,
and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the
sons of Israel, out of Egypt."
But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring
the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" He said, "But I will be with you; and this
shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth
the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain." Then
Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, `The
God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, `What is his
name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."
And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.'"
God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, `The LORD, the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be
remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together, and say to them, `The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have
observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt; and I promise that I
will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites,
the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per'izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb'usites, a
land flowing with milk and honey."
 Exodus 20
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to
them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who
hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my
commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the
LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh
day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your
son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the
sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD
blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that
your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you. You shall not
kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false
witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall
not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his
ass, or anything that is your neighbor's."
 Exodus 23
You shall not utter a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked
man, to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do
evil; nor shall you bear witness in a suit, turning aside after a multitude,
so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his suit.
If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray, you shall bring it
back to him. If you see the ass of one who hates you lying under its
burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it, you shall help him to
lift it up. You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his suit.
Keep far from a false charge, and do not slay the innocent and
righteous, for I will not acquit the wickedAnd you shall take no bribe, for
a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in
the right. You shall not oppress a stranger; you know the heart of a
stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
 Canaan
• Phoenicians
– City-states
– Byblos
• Philistines
– Peleset
– Sea People
•
Israel
Time of Judges
– Religious Problems
– Shiloh
– The Philistines
– Tribal Division
• House of Saul, 1025 BC-1010
– Religious conflict
– Inefficient
• House of David
– David (r. 1010-970)
• Served in Saul’s court
• Hebron; civil war
• Jerusalem
• The Ark of the Covenant
• Established borders
– Solomon (971-931)
• Temple
• International Marriage Diplomacy
• Justice
• High taxes and forced labor
caused resentment
• Religious tension
And it was told King David, "The LORD has blessed the household of O'bed-
e'dom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God." So David
went and brought up the ark of God from the house of O'bed-e'dom to the
city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the LORD
had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. And David danced
before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen
ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD
with shouting, and with the sound of the horn. As the ark of the LORD came
into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window,
and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised
him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in its
place, inside the tent which David had pitched for it; and David offered
burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And when David had
finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the
people in the name of the LORD of hosts, and distributed among all the
people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake
of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people
departed, each to his house.
1 Kings 3
Then two harlots came to the king, and stood before him. The one woman said, "Oh, my
lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was
in the house. Then on the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth; and
we were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, only we two were in the
house. And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on it.And she arose at
midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your maidservant slept, and laid it in
her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. When I rose in the morning to nurse my
child, behold, it was dead; but when I looked at it closely in the morning, behold, it was
not the child that I had borne." But the other woman said, "No, the living child is mine,
and the dead child is yours." The first said, "No, the dead child is yours, and the living
child is mine." Thus they spoke before the king. Then the king said, "The one says, `This is
my son that is alive, and your son is dead'; and the other says, `No; but your son is dead,
and my son is the living one.'" And the king said, "Bring me a sword." So a sword was
brought before the king. And the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to
the one, and half to the other." Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king,
because her heart yearned for her son, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no
means slay it." But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it." Then the
king answered and said, "Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means slay it;
she is its mother." And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and
they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him,
to render justice.
 The Divided Kingdom
• Rehoboah succeeded his father:
"Whereas my father laid upon you a heavy
yoke, so shall I add tenfold thereto. Whereas
my father chastised (tortured) you with
whips, so shall I chastise you with scorpions.
For my littlest finger is thicker than my
father's loins; and your backs, which bent like
reeds at my father's touch, shall break like
straws at my own touch."
• Israel
– Breaks away from Temple
– Polytheism
– Series of Dynasties
– Conquered by Assyrians in 722
• Judah
– House of David
– Syncretism
– Prophetic tradition
• King Josiah
– Conquered by Babylon in 586
1 Kings 12:
[26] And Jerobo'am said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will turn back
to the house of David; [27] if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the
house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn
again to their lord, to Rehobo'am king of Judah, and they will kill me
and return to Rehobo'am king of Judah." [28] So the king took counsel,
and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, "You have
gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who
brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
[29] And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. [30] And this
thing became a sin, for the people went to the one at Bethel and to the
other as far as Dan. [31] He also made houses on high places, and
appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the
Levites. [32] And Jerobo'am appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of
the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered
sacrifices upon the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves
that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places
that he had made.
And the king commanded Hilki'ah, the high priest, and the
priests of the second order, and the keepers of the
threshold, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the
vessels made for Ba'al, for Ashe'rah, and for all the host of
heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of
the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.And he
deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah
had ordained to burn incense in the high places at the cities
of Judah and round about Jerusalem; those also who
burned incense to Ba'al, to the sun, and the moon, and the
constellations, and all the host of the heavens. And he
brought out the Ashe'rah from the house of the LORD,
outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the
brook Kidron, and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it
upon the graves of the common people.
 Post-Exilic Judaism
• Persians ended the exile of the Judeans
• Rebuilt temple, and became a semi-
autonomous state
• Nature
– Monotheistic
– Religion of the Covenant
– Law
– Purity and separation
from the Gentiles
– Prophetic tradition:
internal consent
– Not quite a universal religion yet
– Idea of resurrection of the dead very
nascent
Ezekeil 38
"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not
for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake
of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which
you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which
has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned
among them; and the nations will know that I am the LORD, says the
Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the
countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from
all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new
spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my
ordinances. You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
 India
• Indus River Valley Civilization (ca.
2500-1500 BC)
– Technologically advanced
– Sophisticated cities
– Language not deciphered
– 300 sites near rivers
– Environemntal factors led to its
downfall
• Early Vedic Age (1500-1000 B.C)
– Aryans entered around 1500
– Spoke Sanskrit
– Dominated Northern India
 Early Vedic Society

• Originally: warriors, priests, and

commoners
• Evetually four main classes or varnas:
– priests (brahmans),
– warriors (kshatriyas),
– merchants/cultivators (vaishyas)
– the conquered peoples were the
shudras were in serfdom.
• Also the Jatis or caste system
• The jati sytem and varna system combined
• Later Vedic Age religion (ca. 1000-300 BC)
– Rig Vedas
– Upanishads
– Atman and Brahman
– Karma
– Krishna and Shiva
• Jainism (ca. 500 B.C)
 Buddhism

• Gautama Sakyamuni (The Buddha) (563-483

B.C.)
• Four Noble Truths 1. Life is suffering. 2. The
cause of suffering is craving or desire. 3. To
stop the suffering, the desire must be
stropped, 4. This accomplished through the
rightfold path:
• 1. Right views, 2. Right intention, 3. right
speech, 4. right action, 5. right livelihood, 6.
right effort, 7. right mindfulness, 8. right
concentration
• Nirvana
• Theravada Buddhism
• Mahayana Buddhism
– bodhisattvas