OUTLINE STUDIES
IN
THE OLD TESTAMENT
FOR
BIBLE TEACHERS

PREFATORY

This book has been prepared at the request of the New York State Sunday School Association, through its Normal Committee. The desire was expressed for a teacher-training course to include two years in the Bible: one year upon subjects contained in the Old Testament, taking the historical point of view, and presenting with the history the lands and the Israelite people, their institutions of worship; and a second year upon the New Testament, following the same plan.

Those who have studied "Revised Normal Lessons" and "Studies in Old Testament History" will find most of these "Outline Studies" familiar; for it has not been my purpose, as it was not the desire of the committee, to furnish a series of new lessons, but to have the subjects of Old Testament study brought together in one volume. Each subject, however, has been studied anew, and the results of recent knowledge, especially in the chronology, have been incorporated in this revision. At the request of the committee new lessons on "The Old Testament as Literature" and "How We Got Our Bible" have been added.

It is my earnest desire that through these studies the Bible may be better understood and more thoroughly taught by the Sunday school teachers of our land.

South Orange, New Jersey,
September, 1905.

CONTENTS

Outline Studies in the Old Testament

FIRST STUDY

The Bible is primarily a book of history, and without some knowledge of its historical contents no one can rightly understand its revelation of divine truth. But in order to know the history contained in the Old Testament we must obtain a view of the lands in which that history was wrought. We therefore study first of all the Old Testament World.

I. Location and Extent. The history of the Old Testament was enacted upon a field less than half the area of the United States. It extended from the river Nile to the lands east of the Per´sian Gulf and from the northern part of the Red Sea to the southern part of the Cas´pi-an. The world of Old Testament history was thus 1,400 miles long from east to west and 900 miles wide from north to south, and it aggregated 1,110,000 square miles, exclusive of large bodies of water.

II. Let us begin the construction of the map by drawing upon its borders Six Seas, four of which are named in the Old Testament.

1. The Cas´pi-an Sea, of which only the southern portion appears in the northeastern corner of our map.

2. The Per´sian Gulf, south of the Cas´pi-an, on the southeast.

3. The Red Sea, on the southwest (Exod. 15. 4; Num. 33. 10; 1 Kings 9. 26).

4. The Med-i-ter-ra´ne-an Sea, on the central west. Note its names in Josh. 1. 4 and Deut. 34. 2.

5. The Dead Sea, north of the eastern arm of the Red Sea (Gen. 14. 3; Deut. 4. 49; Joel 2. 20; Ezek. 47. 18).

6. Lake Chin´ne-reth (ch pronounced as k), the name in the Old Testament for the Sea of Gal´i-lee (Num. 34. 11; Josh. 13. 27).

III. Next we indicate the Mountain Ranges, most of which, though important as boundaries, are not named in the Bible.

1. We find the nucleus of the mountain system in Mount Ar´a-rat, a range in the central north (Gen. 8. 4). From this great range three great rivers rise and four mountain chains branch forth.

2. The Cas´pi-an Range extends from Ar´a-rat eastward around the southern shore of the Cas´pi-an Sea.

3. The Za´gros Range extends from Ar´a-rat southeasterly to the Per´sian Gulf, which it follows on the eastern border.

4. The Leb´a-non Range extends from Ar´a-rat in a southwesterly direction toward the Red Sea. Mount Her´mon, the mountain region of Pal´es-tine, Mount Se´ir, on the south of the Dead Sea, and even Mount Si´nai, all belong to this chain (Deut. 3. 25; Josh. 13. 5; 1 Kings 5. 6).

5. The Tau´rus Range, from Ar´a-rat westward, following the northern shore of the Med-i-ter-ra´ne-an.

IV. The Rivers, for the most part, follow the lines of the mountain ranges.

1. The A-rax´es, from Ar´a-rat eastward into the Cas´pi-an Sea, may be taken as the northern boundary of the Old Testament world.

2. The Ti´gris, called in the Bible Hid´de-kel, flows from Ar´a-rat, on the southwestern slope of the Za´gros mountains, in a southeasterly direction into the Per´sian Gulf (Gen. 2. 14; Dan. 10. 4).

3. The Eu-phra´tes, the great river of the Bible world, rises on the northern slope of Ar´a-rat, flows westward to the Tau´rus, then southward, following Leb´a-non, then southeasterly through the great plain, and finally unites with the Ti´gris (Gen. 2. 14; 15. 18; Josh. 1. 4; 24. 2).

4. The Jor´dan flows between two parallel chains of the Leb´a-non range southward into the Dead Sea (Gen. 13. 10; Num. 22. 1; Judg. 8. 4).

5. The Nile, in Af´ri-ca, flows northward into the Med-i-ter-ra´ne-an Sea (Gen. 41. 1; Exod. 2. 2).

V. The Old Testament world has three Natural Divisions, somewhat analogous to those of the United States.

1. The Eastern Slope, from the Za´gros mountains eastward to the great desert.

2. The Central Plain, between the Za´gros and Leb´a-non mountains, the larger portion a desert.

3. The Western Slope, between Leb´a-non and the Med-i-ter-ra´ne-an Sea.

VI. We arrange the Lands according to the natural divisions, giving locations, and not boundaries, as these changed in every age.

1. On the eastern slope lie:

2. In the central plain we find:

3. On the western slope we find:

VII. In these lands out of many Places we name and locate only the most important.

Other names of places might be given indefinitely, but it is desirable not to require the student to burden his memory with lists of names, and therefore the most important only are given.

SECOND STUDY

The divine revelation which the Bible contains is given in the form of a history. God revealed his plan of saving men not in a system of doctrine, but in the record of his dealings with the world at large, and especially with one people. To understand this revelation it is necessary for us to view the great stream of history contained in the Bible. Our study on this subject will include the principal events from the creation of man, at a date unknown, to the birth of Christ.[1]

We begin by dividing the entire field of time to the opening of the New Testament into five periods. Each of these we write at the head of a column. (See the Blackboard Outline.)

I. We find in the opening of the Bible that the Human Race is the subject of the history. This theme extends through the first eleven chapters of Genesis, which narrate the history of much more than half of the time included in the Bible. During this long period no one tribe or nation or family is selected; but the story of all mankind is related by the historian.

1. This period begins with the Creation of Man (not the creation of the world), at some unknown time which scholars have not been able to fix; and it ends with the Call of A´bra-ham, also at a date uncertain, though given with some doubt at about B. C. 2280. With this event Bible history properly begins.

2. Through this period it would appear that God dealt with each person directly, without mediation or organized institutions. We read of neither priest nor ruler, but we find God speaking individually with men. (See Gen. 3. 9; 4. 6; 5. 22; 6. 13; and let the class find other instances.) We call this, therefore, the period of Direct Administration.

3. All the events of this period may be connected with three epochs:

4. In this period we call attention to three of its most important Persons:

II. A new chapter in Bible history opens at Gen. 12. 1. Here we find one family of the race is selected and made the subject of the divine revelation. This was not because God loved one family more than others, but because the world's salvation was to be wrought through that family (Gen. 12. 2, 3). Hence we call this the Period of the Chosen Family.

1. This period extends from the Call of A´bra-ham (Gen. 12. 1), B. C. 2280?, to the Exodus from E´gypt, B. C. 1270?.

2. In this period we notice the recognition of the family. God deals with each family or clan through its head, who is at once the priest and the ruler (Gen. 17. 7; 18. 19; 35. 2). We call this period, therefore, that of the Patriarchal Administration.

3. We subdivide this period into three epochs:

4. From the names of men in this period we select the following:

III. When the Is´ra-el-ites went out of E´gypt a nation was born, and the family became a state, with all the institutions of government. Therefore we call this the Period of the Is´ra-el-ite People.

1. It opens with the Exodus from E´gypt, B. C. 1270? (Exod. 12. 40-42), and closes with the Coronation of Saul, B. C. 1050?.

2. During this period the government of the Is´ra-el-ites was peculiar. The Lord was their only King (Judg. 8. 23), but there was a priestly order for religious service (Exod. 28. 1), and from time to time men were raised up by a divine appointment to rule, who were called judges (Judg. 2. 16). This constituted the Theocratic Administration, or a government by God.

3. We subdivide this period as follows:

4. This period has been justly called "the Age of the Heroes"; and from many great men we choose the following:

IV. With the reign of the first king a new period opens. We now study the history of the Is´ra-el-ite Kingdom. The kingdom was divided after the reign of three kings, but even after the division it was regarded as one kingdom, though in two parts.

1. This period extends from the Coronation of Saul, B. C. 1050? (1 Sam. 11. 15), to the Captivity of Bab´y-lon, B. C. 587.

2. During this period the chosen people were ruled by kings; hence this is named the Regal Administration. The king of Is´ra-el was not a despot, however, for his power was limited, and he was regarded as the executive of a theocratic government (1 Sam. 10. 25).

3. This period is divided into three epochs, as follows:

4. The following may be regarded as the representative Persons of his period, one from each epoch:

V. In the closing period of Old Testament history we find the tribe of Ju´dah alone remaining, and during most of the time under foreign rule; so we name this the Period of the Jew´ish Province.

1. It extends from the beginning of the Captivity at Bab´y-lon, B. C. 587, to the Birth of Christ, B. C. 4.[2]

2. During this period Ju-de´a was a subject land, except for a brief epoch. This may be called, therefore, the Foreign Administration, as the rule was through the great empires in succession.

3. This period may be subdivided into five epochs. For the first and a part of the second we have the Old Testament as our source of history; all the rest fall in the four centuries of silence between the Old and the New Testament.

4. In each epoch of this period we select one important Person.

THIRD STUDY

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).

V. The Journeys of the Patriarchs. For two centuries the little clan of A´bra-ham's family lived in Pal´es-tine as strangers, pitching their tents in various localities, wherever pasturage was abundant, for at this time they were shepherds and herdsmen (Gen. 13. 2; 46. 34). Their home was most of the time in the southern part of the country, west of the Dead Sea; and their relations with the Am´o-rites, Ca´naan-ites, and Phi-lis´tines on the soil were generally friendly.