Includes index.

Chronology of the ancient Near East -- [Part 1] OLD TESTAMENT -- [Section 1] In the beginning -- Hunters and gatherers: producers of food -- Villages of farmers -- Metalworkers -- "Come, let us build ourselves a city..." -- [Section 2] Emergence of Israel: patriarchal traditions -- Abraham's migration -- Wanderings of Abraham and Isaac in Canaan -- Jacob's journey to Haran -- The sale of Joseph and his entry into Egypt -- Daily life in ancient Egypt -- [Section 3] Between Genesis and Exodus: 400 years of Egyptian supremacy -- Egyptian expansion under Tuthmosis III -- Military campaigns of Pharaoh Amenophis II in the Levant -- Ugarit: a centre of trade and influence -- The Amarna tablets and Sethos I's campaigns -- Ramesses II of Egypt in contest with the Hittite empire -- The Levant as seen by an Egyptian scribe -- The campaign of Pharaoh Merneptah -- Canaan's trade with Mycenae and Cyprus -- Changes in the world of Canaan and Israel -- [Section 4] From Egyptian bondage to settlement in Canaan -- Exodus and the wanderings -- The land -- The flora and fauna of the Levant -- Conquests of Joshua in Canaan -- Occupation of the land -- The Philistines -- The heroic age of the judges -- [Section 5] The institution of the monarchy -- The emergence of Iron Age kingdoms of Syro-Palestine -- Mapping biblical narratives -- The kingdom of Saul -- Tombs and burial practices -- David's rise to power -- David's consolidation and expansion of the kingdom -- [Section 6] The imperial age of Solomon -- The economy of Solomon's kingdom -- Technology of food production -- Solomon's building projects -- Temples in Palestine -- Israel's relationships with Phoenicia -- A map of the world from Genesis 10 -- Writing and its uses -- [Section 7] The divided kingdom: Israel -- Division of the kingdom and the campaign of Pharaoh Shishaki -- The dynasty of Omir -- Israel and Moab -- Pagan cults and the practice of religion -- Israel's relations with Aram -- Links between the Bible and world history -- Israel's payments of tribute to Assyria -- Crafts and industries -- Peace and prosperity under Jeroboam II -- Assyrian sovereignty over Israel -- Warfare in the 1st millennium BC -- [Section 8] The divided kingdom: Judah -- The resurgence of Judah's power c. 750 BC -- City planning: the hierarchical order -- Assyrian attacks on Philistia and Judah -- Judah under Hezekiah and Manasseh -- [Section 9] Judah under Babylon -- The end of the Assyrian empire and the rise of Babylon -- The reign of Josiah -- Nebuchadnezzar and the destruction of Jerusalem -- The development of the Bible -- [Part 2] INTER-TESTAMENTAL PERIOD -- [Section 1] The Persian period -- Persia invades the Mediterranean, the Jews begin to look west -- In the days of the Persian empire -- [Section 2] Judah in the Hellenistic era -- The Greeks turn east, Judah in the Hellenistic world -- Institutions of the Hellenistic city -- Egyptian rule in Judah: the reign of the Ptolemies -- The Seleucid empire -- Seleucid rule and Jewish reaction: the Maccabaean fight for religion and country -- Jewish independence: the Hasmonaean monarchy -- [Part 3] NEW TESTAMENT -- [Section 1] Palestine under the Romans -- Rome in the east -- The development of the synagogue -- Roman Palestine -- Herod's kingdom -- Herod the Great's building projects -- The Nabataeans and trade -- The Dead Sea Scrolls and their writers -- [Section 2] The Christian era -- Galilee in the 1st century AD -- The ministry of Jesus -- Jesus's last days -- Roman rule after Jesus -- The Jewish diaspora in the 1st century AD -- Paul's journeys -- Cities of Paul -- The first Jewish revolt -- Non-pauline Christianity in the 1st century AD -- The second Jewish revolt -- The church in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD -- Byzantine Palestine -- Roman Asia Minor -- Historical geography and archaeology.