Ancient history and the Old Testament | World History | Khan Academy

- [Instructor] In the next
few videos, we're gonna do

a very high-level overview
of ancient history.

We're literally going to try
to cover 3,000 years of history

in a handful of videos.

And we're going to focus on

not all of the history in the world,

and it's worth noting that
there's going to be history

in North and South America
that we're not gonna talk about

in this video, history in
Africa or parts of Africa

that we're not going to
talk about in this video,

parts of Europe, parts of the Far East,

but we're gonna focus
mainly on the Middle East.

So, this yellow line, this is going to be

the historical timeline for ancient Egypt.

So, that is Egypt.

We're talking about that
area right over there.

This green timeline right over here,

you could view this as Judea.

We could also include,
we could include Judea,

which is where modern-day
Israel, Palestine.

If we're talking about Lebanon,

then we could include
Phoenicia right over there.

So, I'll just write Judea.

Judea.

That's a little hard to read.

Judea.

This blue and red and
white line right over here,

this will be Mesopotamia.

So, this will be Mesopotamia.

We talk a little bit about
that in another video,

the area between or around the
Tigris and Euphrates River,

mainly in modern-day Iraq,
that region right over there.

So, if we say this is
Judea, this is Mesopotamia.

And we will also touch a
little bit later on Persia,

which is that area there.

The ancient Greece.

We're gonna talk a little bit
about Rome, about Carthage,

and a little bit about the Indus Valley,

the Indus Valley civilizations,

which is in now modern-day Pakistan.

So, with that geographic bearing,

and this is a line for, I'll
call this the Indus Valley.

Or Indus Valley, or I could say India.

And, obviously, India's much more

than just the Indus Valley.

And even this line over
here, that's China,

although I'm not gonna go much
into that into this video.

So, let's start about 5,000 years ago.

And there were already people

in all of the regions that I talk about,

but where I'm really highlighting

is where you start to have
significant empires develop.

And I'll start in Egypt,
where you have the Pharaoh,

you have King Menes.

He's able to unify Upper and Lower Egypt.

And it's a little counter-intuitive;

Upper Egypt is actually
south of Lower Egypt,

and that's because the Nile
River forms further South

and then it flows northward.

And so, he's able to unify
Upper and Lower Egypt,

Upper's off the map here,
into the Egyptian civilization

that we often associate
with ancient Egypt.

And it is a very, very, very
long-lived civilization.

And this is right at around the same time

you have folks living in
Mesopotamia, you have the Acadians.

We're going into deep history now,

so we don't know exactly what was going on

in the Indus Valley,

but we believe that there
were people there as well,

and there were people
many, many other places.

But now, let's fast-forward.

We're gonna go about 500 years.

And we associate ancient
Egypt with the pyramids,

and, relatively speaking,
the pyramids were built

fairly early in the
history of ancient Egypt.

They were built about 2500 BCE,

or so we're talking about
4,500-4,600 years ago

was the time that,
especially the most famous,

the Great Pyramid of Giza was built.

But now, let's fast-forward even more.

And in this narrative
that I'm gonna talk about

in this video, I'm going to
introduce some characters

from the Old Testament.

And a lotta the stories
from the Old Testament,

they have bases in
history, but some of them,

the historical evidence isn't as clear.

But I'm gonna include it

because it's so much a
part of Judeo-Christian,

Islamic, Western, and
not just Western culture

that I think it gives us
an interesting bearing

and, frankly, a lotta the
stories from the Old Testament

are just really fascinating stories.

So now, let's fast-forward to 1700 BCE.

And even though that seems like
a very, very long time ago,

and it was, it's nice to get our bearings.

Because in 1700 BCE, and we're
gonna talk about Hammurabi,

who lived in, who ruled over
Babylon, the Babylonian Empire.

So, Hammurabi right over here in Babylon,

famous for the Code of Hammurabi.

He codified a series of laws.

We believe Abraham grew up at
around the same time in Ur.

And Abraham, we believe
that he was coincident

or maybe came a little bit after Hammurabi

because a lotta the Old Testament

seems to at least be inspired

by some of what we see
in Hammurabi's Code.

And it's worth noting that

even though this seems
like a long time ago,

around 1700 BCE, the time of Hammurabi,

and it turns a little white here

'cause this is where the Babylonians

become one of the dominant
empires in Mesopotamia,

even though it seems like a long time ago,

it's worth noting that
in the time of Hammurabi

and in the time of Abraham,

the pyramids were already close
to, what, 700-800 years old.

So, they already would've
viewed the pyramids

as a very, very old thing.

But if we go with roughly the year 1700

for about the time of Abraham,

he goes to what becomes Judea

and his tribe becomes established there

and then ends up, that's
where I have this line

going from Mesopotamia to Judea,

and we kinda see the
established Judea here.

And once again, they're
not the first people there.

You had the Canaanites,
you had the Phoenicians,

you had many other folks in this region,

but this is interesting because it relates

to the Old Testament that
many folks are familiar with.

And then you have the Old,
so this is around 1700.

Let me write this.

This is 1700 BCE.

And once again, I'll put approximately.

And then you go a few hundred years

and there isn't a lot of
historical basis here,

but based on the Old
Testament, the story of Joseph,

Joseph going to Egypt
and becoming the vizier

for the Pharaoh and
then his family coming,

Joseph, who is Abraham's grandson,

according to the Old Testament,
that story happens around,

and once again, this is not
established well historically

and I encourage you to look up

and see if you can find evidence yourself

of when folks think this
is, but the best evidence,

if this happened, the
best evidence I've seen

is it's around 1500
BCE, the story of Joseph

and the migration of the Jewish people,

or a significant chunk
of the Jewish people,

to Egypt, where they get enslaved.

And that enslavement is from 1500,

they get enslaved by the Pharaoh, 1500,

to approximately 1200 BCE.

And so, that story, you go all the way

from Abraham through Joseph,
this is in the Old Testament,

this happens in Genesis,

and then we get to the story of Moses,

where he sets his people
free, the story of Exodus

and the Jews are able
to go back to Jerusalem.

Moses leads them, parts the Red Sea,

according to the Old Testament,

and there established
the kingdom of Jerusalem

where you have the famous kings,

King Saul, then King
David, then King Solomon;

Solomon, who famous for
building the first temple.

And now, since I'm already
close to the 10-minute mark,

I'll leave you there,
because we've already covered

about 2,000 years of history (laughs)

in about eight minutes.

In the next video, we're
gonna go from about 1,000 BCE

to the Roman Empire
and the birth of Jesus.