Outline Studies in the Old Testament for Bible Teachers.
by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut.
PREFATORY
THIS book has been prepared at the request of the New York State Sunday School a.s.sociation, 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 inst.i.tutions 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.
JESSE L. HURLBUT.
South Orange, New Jersey, September, 1905.
Outline Studies in the Old Testament
FIRST STUDY
The Old Testament World
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 p.r.o.nounced 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 sh.o.r.e of the Cas"pi-an Sea.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WORLD.]
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 sh.o.r.e 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 a.n.a.logous 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:
1.) =Ar-me"ni-a= (Rev. Ver., "Ar"a-rat"), between Mount Ar"a-rat and the Cas"pi-an Sea (2 Kings 19. 37).
2.) =Me"di-a=, south of the Cas"pi-an Sea (2 Kings 17.
6; Isa. 21. 2).
3.) =Per"sia=, south of Me"di-a and north of the Per"sian Gulf (Ezra 1. 1; Dan. 5. 28).
2. In the central plain we find: