Bib Arch

In Biblical Archaeology we were given a handout on ancient Egyptian history and there were some neat facts I have found so far that I wanted to share! Hopefully you will find them as cool as I do!!
As you are reading it might be helpful to remember that Egypt is also known as "Misraim" in the Bible.
Today Egypt is about the size of Texas and New Mexico but the population lives on about the 4% arable land, the rest is desert. However, archaeological evidence suggests that somewhere around 10,000BC some of the surrounding Sahara Desert was a green grassland and some places were even covered with forests. As a result Egypt was then inhabited by hunters and gatherers. Sometime around 9,000BC there was a huge climate change and Egypt became a desert except for along the Nile where there is water.
The first king of Egypt during Dynasty 0 may have been the Scorpion King. His name is not on any of the king lists so he could be a mythical God King, but his name has been found on a stele from Abydos. This is meager evidence but many scholars believe he was the first king of Upper Egypt, probably the king whose dynasty was conquered by Menes (of Dynasty 1) in the unification of Egypt.
In Dynasty 1 (the Archaic period) the basic forms of Egyptian art were formalized and they continued on for centuries. There were only two times when art changed and became more realistic, one was during the reigns of the three Sensuserts of Dynasty 12 and the other was during Akenatons (the heretic king) reign in Dynasty 18. Both of these dates line up very closely to the times when Joseph and Moses were in Egypt. The priest were the ones who oversaw the art so for art to change the priest would have to be influenced. Joseph married a priests daughter, and Moses was part of pharoahs household. Both positions are pretty close to the priests, and both of these Godly men were in positions of great influence.
The last treasure I will leave you with today is that the term Pharaoh originally refered to the palace of the king (meaning Big House or place of justice hall) It was not used to refer to the king until the 18th Dynasty (1552-1069BC).
Hope you enjoyed!!

Haggai: Messages 1&2

In Minor Prophets we have been going over the book of Haggai. Haggai is made up of four messages to the people of Israel who have returned after the exile. The first message was given on the first day of the month in about August or September, which was the time of the grape and fig harvest. The first day of the month was a time of celebration when they were to bring their offering out of their abundance from the harvest. However, the people are not seeing an abundance but rather are experiencing poverty. Along with being reminded that they had a poor harvest, they have probably gathered at the temple for the celebration, but the temple is still just a pile of ruble. In the first message God tells them He is displeased with them because they have spent time finishing and making their own homes nice while His house is still desolate. That is why they have been in poverty. God says He has withheld the rain and the dew from the land. Assyria to the north, Babylon to the east, and Egypt to the south are all river cultures but the Jordan River is to low to irrigate with so Israel is a rain culture. The people respond to this message and they begin rebuilding.
The second message is a not a negative message but a positive and hopeful one. It comes after the people have been working on the temple about three weeks to a month. In the first message God got on the people for their lack of concern about His house, this time though the people are discouraged. The temple is not looking good at all. There were some in the crowd who could remember the temple before it had been destroyed (even before it was destroyed the temple had not been very glorious because it had been raided several times, and striped of its gold to use to pay tribute to other nations)and they wept at what they saw now. They would have had to be old because it has been around 70yrs. since the destruction and they would have had to be old enough to remember it. God knows the people think it sucks, but He reminds them that all the silver and all the gold are His and He will provide it when they are ready. He also gives them the promise in 1:9 that the "latter glory of this house will be greater than the former" (This is fulfilled later when Herod the Great has work done on the temple)