When Was the Bible?

* These dates represent my best estimation according to the available information

** This list will keep getting updated as the podcast advances along the biblical narrative

The Song of Deborah (Judges 5:2–31)  celebrates an Israelite victory over neighboring Canaanites.

The Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1–18) celebrates an exodus from Egypt through the sea as the pharaoh's chariots drown.

The first editions of the books are produced by the first prophet-scribe collaborations: Hoshea, Amos, and Elisha.  

Assyria destroys the Kingdom of Israel the kingdom of Israel, and tens of thousands were exiled into Assyrian territory, while thousands of others immigrate with their stories into Judean cities, taking over politically, religiously, and economically from the local Jerusalemite elite. 

The famous prophet Isaiah moves to Judah and expresses his fears for the fate of this little kingdom.

The Assyrians accept tribute from the Judean king Hezekiah, including stripping down the templr of Yahweh. In return for this tribue, the Assyrians refrain from destroying Jerusalem. The event is recorded in the Bbile in two ways: a historical account (2 Kings) and a divine Yahwistic intervention (Chronicles)

The last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, turns his personal library into a literary-military-industrial complex that ignites a writing arms race throughout the region. Nobles in the kingdom of Judea.

King Josiah's scribes plant "an ancient holy book" in the newly renovated Jerusalem temple of Yahweh. The ancient book includes supposed long-lost texts written by Mose. This would be the first of many editions of the book of Deuteronomy. 

Moses turns from a southern desert ancestor of the Levite clan into a proto-national hero to all the cobbled peoples living in the last days of Judea.

 Moses turns from a southern desert ancestor of the Levite clan into a proto-national hero to all the cobbled peoples living in the last days of Judea.

Around 595 BCE, the prophet Shema'aya and his very talented Nehelamite scribe collaborate on prophecies found today in the book of Isaiah, chapters 40-43, and the E source texts for the book of Exodus: the Midwives, Baby Moses, the Burning Bush, and more.

At the same time and place, in Babylonia, the prophet Ezekiel starts prophecizing magical predictions, and he authors much of what is today Exodus, including the Ten Plagues.

After the first Hebrews were exiled and before Jerusalem was destroyed, Jeremiah has his scribe Baruch Ben Neriah put his prophecies to text as the Babylonians grow into an empire. 

Nebuchadnezzar's forces lay siege on Jerusalem in 587 BCE and destroy it all in 586 BCE, burning the temple of Yahweh to the ground and leaving the city wholly abandoned. This event is chronicled in the book of Jeremiah and Kings.

After the destruction of Jerusalem, the writing resumes in two locations: those exiled produce the stories of Exodus in Babylonian cities, and those who immigrated to Egypt conclude their work on Genesis. 

Baruch authors the following stories: the Binding of Isaac, Abraham's slave, Theft of the Blessing, Jacob in the East, and the grandest biblical epic of them all: Joseph.

The stories of Joshua the Ephraimite are compiled and written, as are the former local folk heroes of the immigrants in Egypt (the book of Judes).

Baruch finishes his work with Jeremiah, who hires a new scribe to re-edit his old scrolls and write new prophecies that lambast his fellow Hebrew immigrants living in Egypt.

Ezekiel changes his tone to comfort the distraught Hebrew exiles, and writes the Wilderness stories. The exiled Hebrews also produce their Lamentations about their lost city and temple.

 Cyrus the Great, king of kings of Persia, topples the Babylonians and finds the greatest empire the world has ever seen. He allows the exiled Hebrews to return to their homeland, now called the province of Yehud. 

The priestly scribe Ezra compiles the old texts written under Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, detailing bondage in Egypt in a rudimentary version of Exodus that includes cyclical stories set as slaves or as wanderers in a metaphorical desert wilderness. Ezra then attaches to the religious rules and regulations books of Leviticus and Numbers, the wilderness stories he could not find room for in Exodus.

His crowning achievement combines these three books with the great book of the rival Hebrew community living comfortably in Egypt, Genesis. Together with Deuteronomy, they form the Pentateuch.

Ezra brings these books and the rest of the Torah to the Holy Land, only to find out that no one living there knows anything about them.

Hebrew Hellenists living in Alexandria produce their own version of a Greek comedic play. They create their own version of Hercules, Samson. Generations later, its fantastic humor is lost on the world.

They also produce the first edition of the books of Samuel.

 The Maccabean Revolt erupts in Judea against the Selleucides and king Antiochus IV. Though it mostly is a civil war targeting pragmatic pro-Hellenistic Hebrews.

 The book of 1 Maccabees is issued by the Maccabean King-High Priest John Horkynus of the Maccabees. The narrative is that the hawkish and reactionary Maccabees saved the Hebrews in Judea from the evil Antiochus and his extrememly exagerated decrees.
Horkynus iniates a huge project: re-editing the existing Bible to fit the Maccabean political perspective. Maccabean editors re-issue the books of Exodus, Joshua and 1 and 2 Samuel.