CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY

History is of different kinds and deals with  different subjects; as a history of government or political history; the history of war and conquests, or military history; the history of law; the history of commerce; the history of the Christian church, or ecclesiastical history; the history of the crusades, etc.

One of the Bible’s dynamic aspects is its watertight historicity. The truthfulness of events mentioned in the Bible has been constantly borne out by archeological findings and ancient written records that come to light every day. St. Peter wrote, “We have not depended on made-up stories in making known to you the mighty coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Pet 1:16). Writing in the same vein St. Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth….” It is remarkable to what great extant Biblical authors went to date their narratives with human events in history. Please see Haggai 1:1, 1:15 and Luke 3:1 for examples.

One of the key assumptions of the Christian life is that the Bible tells it like it really is. The Bible does not deal with a reality other than the one we actually live in. Its stories are not fictional and its wisdom cuts directly to the quick. It would be useful and comforting for Christians to know at what point in history the events mentioned in the Holy Bible took place. In the following table, I have tried to place Christianity in its historical perspective by dating a few important Biblical events. In the final analysis, it is God who is in control of human history.

Prehistoric
Creation	Undated
Noah builds the ark	undated
Before Christ
Abraham born	2166 BC
Abraham enters Canaan	2091
Isaac born	2066
Jacob and Esau born	2006
Jacob flees to Haran	1929
Joseph born	1915
Joseph sold into slavery	1898
Joseph rules Egypt	1885
Joseph dies	1805
Moses born	1526
The Exodus from Egypt	1446
Ten commands given to Moses.	1445
Hebrews enter Canaan	1406
Judges begin to rule over the Israelite nation	1375
Deborah becomes judge	1209
Gideon becomes judge	1162
Samuel born	1105
Samson becomes judge	1075
Saul becomes the first king of Israel	1050
David becomes king	1010
Solomon becomes king	970
Jerusalem Temple  completed	959
Israel divided into northern and southern kingdoms	930
Elijah prophecies in Israel	875
Ahab becomes Israel’s king	874
Elisha prophecies in Israel	848
Joash becomes Judah’s king	835
Jonah becomes a prophet	793
Hosea becomes a prophet	753
Israel invaded by       Tiglath-Pileser iii of Assyria	743
Isaiah becomes a prophet	740
Israel (northern kingdom) falls	722
Hezekiah becomes Judah’s king	715
Jerusalem besieged by Sennacherib of Assyria	701
Josiah becomes Judah’s king	640
Jeremiah becomes a prophet	627
Assyrian capital of Nineveh destroyed	612
Daniel taken captive to Babylon	605
Judah (southern kingdom) falls to Babylon	586
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon dies	562
Babylon overthrown by Cyrus of Persia	539
First Jewish exiles return to Jerusalem	538
New temple completed in Jerusalem	515
Esther becomes queen of Persia	479
Ezra returns to Jerusalem	458
Nehemiah builds the wall of Jerusalem	445
Malachi becomes a prophet	430?
Intertestamental Period
Aramaic begins to replace Hebrew as Jewish language		390
Temple of Jerusalem plundered by Antiochus - iv		169
Judas Maccabeus begins revolt against Antiochus - iv		165
Herod, the great made king of Judea by Romans		37
Mary, mother of Jesus born		25?
Herod begins remodeling the temple		20
Jesus Christ is born.		6/5 BC
The holy family flees to Egypt		5/4
Herod the great dies		4
The holy family returns to Nazareth		4/3

CHRISTIAN ERA

Judea becomes a roman province	6      AD
Jesus visits the temple as a boy	6/7
Tiberius Caesar becomes emperor	14
Pontius pilate appointed governor	26
John, the Baptist begins His ministry	26
Jesus begins His ministry	26/27
Jesus chooses twelve disciples	28
Jesus feeds 5000	29
Jesus crucified, rises again and ascends to heaven	30
Pentecost: Church begins	30
Stephen martyred, Paul’s conversion	35
James martyred, Peter in prison	44
Paul’s first missionary journey	46-48
Jerusalem council established	50
Paul’s second missionary journey	50-52
Paul’s third missionary journey	53-57
Nero becomes emperor	54
Paul imprisoned in caeseria; writes book of Romans	57
Paul’s journey to Rome	59
Paul writes the “prison letters”	60
Paul released from prison	62
Paul tried again; martyred	67?
Rome destroys Jerusalem	70
960 Jews commit mass suicide under roman attack	73
Apostle John writes revelation	95