AS AN AID TO APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Time-Line has been constructed from many sources with the underlying assumption that historical and chronological references in the Bible, in their original form, were true and accurate.

The earliest period (covered by Genesis 1 to 11) gives us a stylized genealogy (10:10) astride the great Flood, leading to Abraham and his covenant family (Gen. 5 & 10). This stylization of Abraham's genealogy is to be understood as a pre-Mosaic memorization scheme (similar to Matt.1:17) rather than as a chronology, for the reasons self-evident (see Table 1).

Time-Line also covers the so-called inter-Testamental period, particularly relevant in the application of Daniel's prophecy (Daniel 8, 10 & 11) and as a prelude to the New Testament period.

The Time-Line also extends, beyond Bible history, through the Christian era to the present day, as a prelude toward the final fulfillment of the Bible's prophecies of Israel. In addition, this summary history includes aspects that only bear very indirectly on the people of Israel in order to give as well-rounded an understanding of historical developments involving them as is possible.

is here appropriate to see this through the eyes of the apostle Paul in his perspective on Israel's history, as expressed in Romans 9 to 11. He breaks out into awe-filled praise for God's wisdom in the management of all these things, both good and evil, to fulfil His glorious purposes in history.

This peon of praise contains not one word about salvation, grace, mercy, love, or any moral quality at all, for that is not its focus. It is God's wisdom demonstrated in His superintendence of human history alone that provokes the words –

'OH, THE DEPTH OF THE RICHES,
BOTH OF THE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD!
HOW UNSEARCHABLE ARE HIS JUDGMENTS
AND UNFATHOMABLE HIS WAYS!
FOR FROM HIM AND THROUGH HIM AND TO HIM ARE ALL THINGS.
TO HIM BE THE GLORY FOREVER. AMEN.'
Romans 11:33, 36

the Bible's scheme then, we begin with a background outside of known chronology, namely Abraham's ancestry. This genealogy of Abraham (Genesis 5 & 11), in addition to it's 10:10 stylized structure, is shown in Table 1 with any significant known textual variations.

This genealogical table compares the data in –

is included because he claims to have received the sacred scrolls from Emperor Titus at the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple in 70 AD/CE, which implies his access to the Temple's 'master copy/copies' of Genesis and therefore his references to Patriarchal data must also be taken into account.

reliability of the Massoretic text is sometimes accorded almost divine status. This ought not to be so, as the next page will indicate. Even the prophet Jeremiah accused the Scripture copyists of his own time of serious corruption of the text –

taking into account the Pilgrimage of Israel, the degree of accuracy in their transmission of the sacred text is unparalleled in human history. In spite of Israel's amply illustrated unbelief and rebellion, Paul was right when, in the light of the just impartiality of God, the apostle wrote:

although Jeremiah justly accused the Scribes of his time of manipulating the sacred text, unfortunately many biblical scholars of Church history have gone even further than this.

It became fashionable in theological circles from about the early 19th century of Christian history to analyze the postulated motives of the anonymous writers and editors of Holy Scripture so as to treat the Old Testament as simply a collection of religious myths in the development of Israel's national consciousness, and this while being called 'Christian' and in complete disregard of the New Testament's statement in 2 Peter, that even the direct personal experience of the Apostles of Christ themselves is less reliable than the objective truth of the written Word of God –

cursed be the rabbis who feed a nationalistic religion and use the Holy Scriptures to justify sin against the Palestinians.