BI-131 The Bible as History

The Bible's faith rests on what God did in history. Learn what kind of history the Bible gives, and what history and archaeology can and cannot tell us.

Following the WWES textbook The Bible as History, this course places Israel and the first church in time and in their world. It moves from the land of the Bible and the work of archaeology, through Israel's story from Abraham to the return from exile, to Jesus, the first church and the writing of the New Testament. You follow God's promise from Genesis 3:15 to Jesus, and you learn to weigh claims about the Bible and the evidence with humility.

What you will study

• What it means to read the Bible as history
• The land of the Bible, and why it lay between great empires
• Archaeology: how it works, what it finds and where it stops
• Israel's story in order, from the patriarchs to the years between the Testaments
• The world of Jesus, and what a historian can know about him
• The first church, Paul's journeys, and how the New Testament was written and collected
• What archaeology has confirmed, and where debates remain
• The promise from Genesis 3:15 to Jesus, one line through history

Course materials

• The Bible as History, a WWES textbook
• The Bible