Salvation history is “the story of human

beings and their world seen as a drama of

redemption running from creation to the Parousia
and finding its center in Christ”

God revealed His saving plan to the Chosen

people. This plan was definitely fulfilled with the
coming of Christ in the fullness of time. In Christ,
all of God’s promises and plans were fulfilled.
In the beginning, men’s relationship with God
was harmonious. But men sinned and
continued to sin. This resulted to their
estrangement from God, from one another
and from their own selves.

To save men from this destructive

estrangement, God initiated a long-range
plan of salvation by promising a Savior for
mankind.
Abraham, a native of Ur, was called by God in
order to create a people.

Abraham moved to Haran and there God spoke

to him for the first time, he was called to
become the Father not only for Israel but the
whole People of God .
With his wife Sarah, he was blessed with a son
named Isaac.
 Abraham

Hagar Sarah

Ishmael Isaac
Isaac - The promises that God had
given to Abraham were renewed
and repeated to him and to Jacob,
his son from his wife, Rebecca.
Isaac and Rebecca

Twins
Esau -- became a
skillful hunter, a man of the
open country.
Jacob -- Jacob was
content to stay at home
among the tents.
Jacob’s Marriage
Jacob - He became the Father of the Twelve
Patriarchs of Israel which was made up of his
12 sons from his four wives.

Leah: Reuben, Issachar, Simeon, Zebulun,

Levi, Judah
Zilpah: (maidservant of Leah) Gad, Asher

Bilhah: (maidservant of Rachel) Dan, Napthali

Rachel: Benjamin, Joseph
 Jacob = Israel

Israel – means “The one

who wrestled with God”
Israel – meaning “The one who
wrestled with God”.
Joseph the Dreamer
Movie
 Joseph - He was sold to the Ishmaelites as a
slave and was brought to Egypt where he
eventually became a governor after he wisely
interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream.

When there was famine, Joseph brought his

family to the northeastern part of Egypt. As the
members of his family grew in number, they
became evermore feared by the Egyptians and
were forced to do hard labor. This started their
oppression and slavery which continued and even
became worse for many years.

It was then that they felt the need of the

Savior. God, seeing their need, sent them a
liberator in the person of Moses.

 Abraham’s Family Tree
Hagar Abraham Sarah

Ishmael Isaac Rebecca

Rach
Esau Zilpah Leah Jacob Bilhah
el

Asher Gad Reuben

The 12 Tribes of Israel
Simeon Judah
Issach
-ar
Zebulun Levi Joseph
Benja
min
Naphtali Dan
Moses, a prophet and leader, was chosen and sent by
God to free the Israelites from the slavery of the
Egyptians. This event revealed to them that their God,
Yahweh, was an unlimited lover. His love freed them
from the shackles of slavery and gave them a new
lease on life.
At Mount Sinai, God renewed the covenant between
Himself and his people. He promised to protect them;
his people, for their part, promised to obey HIS will by
living a life that would show all mankind that they
were different and that they would consciously witness
to the worship of the One True God.
This agreement was manifested in the people’s
obedience to God’s 10 Commandments.
 Traditional
Route of Great Sea Jericho
the Exodus (Mediterranean)
Canaan
Nile
Delta 12 Spies
Sinai
Peninsula
Quail/Manna
Egypt Mt. Sinai
Mt. Sinai
© Red Sea
EBibleTeacher.com
 For forty years, God’s chosen people continued
their journey, through the wilderness, to the
Promised Land. Within those years, God
gradually revealed Himself to His people and
His plans for them.

 In due time, the chosen people were able to

know their God and believed in his power over
them. They struggled to serve Him in faithful
obedience, but there were moments when they
were unfaithful to Him and lost his continuous
love and care.

 Thus, they were allowed to wander in the

desert for long years until they finally entered
the Promised Land.
 Joshua led the Israelites into the land of the
Canaanites. Through his leadership, they
gradually captured Canaanite villages and
towns and absorbed those who were already
living there (cf. Book of Judges and 1 Samuel).

 Joshua divided the land among the Twelve

Tribes of Israel and established a Jewish
nation, in fulfillment of the second ancient
promise made by God to Abraham.
 12 Tribes
of Israel Twelve Tribes of
ne an
Israel
r

al i
As he

ht
ap
i te rra

Zebulu nN
Manasseh Asher
Galilee
r
Is sacha
Naphtali Zebulun
M ed

River

Manasseh
Issachar Gad
Jordan

Gad
Ephraim Ephraim Dan
Dan Benjamin
Jericho Mt.Nebo
Benjamin Reuben
en

Jerusalem
a

a h
Dead Se

ub

Ju d
Simeon Judah
Re
n
Simeo

©
INDEX
 Shamgar 3:31, Levi
 Tola 10:1-2, , Napthali

 Jair 10:3-5, Gad

 Ibzan 12:8-10, Isachar

 Elon 12:11-12, Zebulun

 Abdon 12:13-15. Ephraim

The other judges are viewed in greater detail in the Book of Judges:
 Othniel 3:7-11 a nephew of Caleb, delivered Israel from the Mesopotamians. Judah,

Reuben
 Ehud 3:12-30 was left-handed and killed Eglon, king of Moab. Naphtahli

 Jephthah 11:1--12:7 was a harlot's son who defeated the Amorites. Asher

 Gideon 6:11-8:35 led 300 Israelites to defeat the entire army of the Midianites.

Dan and Manasseh

 Samson 13:1--16:31 delivered Israel from the Philistines. Known for his great

strength. Benjamin
 Deborah 4:1--5:31 urged Barak to attack the mighty army of the Canaanites. Judah
 Judges were chosen by God to protect his own
people in times of danger.

 Samuel, the prophet, was one of the most important

judges. During his time, the Ark of the Covenant was
captured by their enemies, the Philistines. The
Israelites likewise lost their faith in the abiding
providence of God.

 They believed that the loss of the Ark and their failure
happened because they had no human king like their
neighboring countries.
 So, they demanded a king from Samuel who saw their
demand as a rejection of God’s kingship. But the Lord
commanded Samuel to “hearken to their voice and
make them a king” (1 Sam 8:19-22).
Other Nations

ci a
nea
Hittite
• Canaanites

eni
Empire

t er ra

Pho
• Hittites

Galilee
Med i
• Philistines

River
• Phoenicians
Canaan

Jordan
• Moabites Ammon
• Ammonites
Jerusalem

a
• Edomites

Dead Se
Moab
ti a
• Midianites Edom
i li s
Ph

Midian
© INDEX
Saul was the first king chosen by
God for his chosen nation. He led
them in their conquest of the
Canaanite and other neighboring
strongholds.
Although he was unfaithful as a
king, Saul succeeded to make the
Jewish nation a kingdom.
David, the representation of the future Messianic-
king, was the most famous of all kings because he
was chosen by God to found a kingdom which
would, one day, become both eternal and universal.
Through his lineage, the Messiah will come.
It was during his reign that the Ark of the Covenant
was brought back to God’s chosen people. As a
warrior, David conquered neighboring lands and
increased the landholdings of Israel. He captured the
important city of Jerusalem, built his palace there
and gained the admiring respect of neighboring
nations. He was the symbol of Jewish military might
and glory.
Thus he was considered as the ruler of the
“Golden Age” of Jewish might and power. A man of
dark-side, he murdered URIAH, the husband of
BATHSHEEBA and committed adultery. He repented
and God forgave him but took his first born son.
 Solomon, David’s son, who succeeded him, was the
builder of the magnificent temple of Jerusalem
where the Ark of Covenant was placed. Through
his writings (Psalms and Proverbs) which are full of
wisdom and knowledge, the faith of God’s chosen
people was nourished.
 As a renowned trader, Solomon made Israel
wealthy but he also taxed his people heavily
because he had so much expenditure. He took
many wives who eventually led him to idolatry.
 As a result, Israel’s power started to weaken; this
led to the split of the Kingdom in 922 BC. To
punish them, God permitted his enemies to cut
into their land and great discontentment started
within.
After Solomon’s death the kingdom broke
into two:
Northern Kingdom: (Israel)
Samaria was its capital. Israel
comprised ten out of the twelve tribes.
Jeroboam was its first king who set up a
system of false worship with substitute
sacrifice and an unauthorized priesthood to
keep his people from going to Jerusalem for
worship. He and the subsequent kings were
also marked by gross sins.
Prophets of the Northern Kingdom:
God raised up prophets to warn them.
Elijah, Elisha and Amos warned the people
against the great social injustice going on;
Hosea preached against the rampant idolatry
and portrayed God as a betrayed husband
rescuing Israel from her adulterous
involvement in idolatry. The people, however,
continued to sin.
Finally, the Assyrians under King Sargon II ( 722
B.C.) were allowed by God to capture and deport the
people as a way of punishing them.
 Southern Kingdom: (Judah)
Jerusalem was its capital; it included two of
the twelve tribes.

Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was its king

who did not alleviate the conditions of the
people but worsened it. God sent prophets to
Judah to warn the people against the same
sins, but they ignored the warnings. They
instead openly broke God’s law and
committed all kinds of idolatry, immorality
and injustice.
Prophets of the Southern Kingdom:
Micah, (His name means “who is like Yahweh?”) a
prophet and contemporary of Isaiah, denounced the
exploiters, those who always used the same means to
despoil the people; he also denounced the civil and
religious authorities. He strongly emphasized that what
God required was “to do justice, to love mercy and to
walk, humbly with your God” (Mi 6:8).
Zephaniah, who spoke more against superstition than
against other sins, offered a description of the day of
Yahweh that influenced the popular image of “Judgment
Day”; this description jibed with the popular belief that
the Lord would liberate His people.
Isaiah, (Yahweh is Salvation), prophesied against the
luxurious life of the rich while the poor became poorer.
He predicted the impending exile after seeing how the
chosen people of God disobeyed His laws by their pride,
self-indulgence and callous injustice towards the poor.
 Jeremiah was at first reluctant and frightened to
announce to Jerusalem, his own city, that its Isaiah,
(Yahweh is Salvation), prophesied against the
luxurious life of the rich while the poor became
poorer. He predicted the impending exile after
seeing how the chosen people of God disobeyed His
laws by their pride, self-indulgence and callous
injustice towards the poor. people were wicked,
hypocritical and doomed. He finally denounced the
people’s “lip service” to God and their empty
liturgies that imaged a people whose hearts were far
from God and who hypocritically pretended to
worship Him.
 Nahum and Habakkuk prophesied around 600 BC
that the Assyrians who cruelly treated Judah were
about to be overthrown by the Babylonians.
 The Fall Of Israel

Assyrian Empire

Assyrian Empire
Judah

824 BC Egypt

640 BC
©
EBibleTeacher.com
The Babylonians headed by Nebuchadnezzar,
captured Jerusalem in 587 BC and the people were
deported to Babylon. This period was known as the
Babylonian Captivity which marked a low point in
the Jewish national history.

Prophets during Exile:

During this period, God chose the prophet Ezekiel,
who, among other prophets, consoled the people in
their captivity by helping them understand the
meaning of the NEW COVENANT.
 Likewise, the prophet Isaiah (Second Isaiah)
helped them maintain a vision of their
eventual release.

 Through him, Yahweh assured His people:

“Fear not, for I am with you; from the east I
will bring back your descendants, from the
west I will gather you. I will say to the north:
Give them up! And to the south: Hold not
back!” (Is 43:3-5).
 Babylonian Empire
Median
Empire
Mediterranean (Medes)
Judah
Egypt Babylonian
Empire

©
EBibleTeacher.com
VII. POST – EXILIC STAGE

Persian Empire

Mediterranean
Persian
Judah Empire
Egypt
© EBibleTeacher.com
The Persians, under Cyrus the Great,
captured Babylon in 538 B.C.. This benevolent king
of Persia allowed the deportees (Israelites) to
return to their homeland and to rebuild the
Temple in Jerusalem with all its furnishings.
Some returned to Judah while others went to
Israel. Since those who returned to Israel were
nearly all those whose parents and grandparents
came from Judah, the group became known as
the Jews.
 Upon their return, the chosen people were faced with
the barrenness of their land and confronted by the
oppositions from their neighbors.

Prophets after Exile:

God sent prophets to console and encourage them
in their distress.

 Zerubbabel was their new leader;

 Haggai and Zechariah were their God-sent prophets.

The temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem (c. 520-516 B.C).
Nehemiah, the governor of Jerusalem in 444 BC, led the
group of exiles back home to Jerusalem and supervised
the rebuilding of the city and its walls.
 Ezra (c. 397 B.C), a priest and scribe, skilled
in the Law of Moses, restored and renewed
the ancient religion by explaining to God’s
people the Law and how to strictly observe
it.

 Malachi intervened to correct the evil

customs within the community and spoke
openly against mixed marriages and
divorce.
For the next 200 years, there was relative peace in
Palestine under the Persian rule. The Jews
remained strong in their conviction that a
Messiah-King would soon reestablish their
political glory.

They held on firmly to the words of the prophet

Jeremiah that Yahweh would establish a new
covenant.

Through Jeremiah, God spoke to His chosen people:

“This is the covenant which I will make with the
house of Israel after those days. I will place my law
within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will
be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer
31:33).
 In 333 B.C, Alexander the Great conquered
Palestine and undertook the process of
hellenization or the imposition of the Greek culture
and taught upon the conquered people, the Jews.

 His sudden death at the age of 33 resulted to the

eventual division of his kingdom (the Greek empire)
among his four generals.
 The dynasties headed by Ptolemy and Seleucus are
of great importance/interest to our present study of
our Salvation History.
 Alexander The Great

The Empire of Alexander

Mediterranean
Judah

Egypt
India
© EBibleTeacher.com
 The PTOLEMIES, who ruled in Egypt, exiled a
large number of Jews to Egypt.

 These rulers spread the Greek civilization in a

non-violent way. The freedom of religion
continued to be enjoyed by the Jews and
Judaism deepened in many places outside
Palestine. The term “diaspora” was applied to
the dispersed Jews among the Gentiles
(outside Jerusalem).
 Babylon remained the center of Judaism
because many opted to remain there. The
Alexandrian Jews, at that time, felt the need
for a Greek Bible.

 Thus, the SEPTUAGINT (LXX), the Greek

translation of the Hebrew Bible (the
Masoretic), appeared and became the Bible of
the Jews of the Diaspora. According to
legends, the Septuagint was independently
translated by 70 scribes, all of whom arrived
at exactly the same translation.
 Despite all the political oppressions which the
Jews experienced, they had always enjoyed
religious freedom. The first real sustained
attack on their religion came from Antiochus.

 This attack resulted to a revolt led by the

Maccabean family headed by Mattathias, a
priest in the city of Modein.
 Judas, Mattathias’ son, succeeded his father
and earned for himself the second name of
“hammer’, thus Judas Maccabeus. After three
years, he restored the religious freedom and
the daily sacrifice; likewise, he purified the
temple. After his death his brother, Jonathan,
took over his leadership over the people.

 Jonathan achieved political independence and

assumed the office of high priest. He was
treacherously arrested and killed. Simon, his
brother succeeded him.
 Simon obtained a rescript in 142 B.C. and
that year became Year I of the new
independent state. Like his brother, he was
treacherously murdered. His son John
Hyrcanus I succeeded him.

 From John Hyrcanus I onwards, the

Maccabean princes were known as the
Hasmoneans, after Hashmon, an ancestor of
the family.
 It was during his reign that group from the
Hasidim (the members of a Jewish sect
founded near the time of Judas Maccabeus in
200 BC) began to oppose him. This group
formed the Pharisees. Those who
compromised their religious principles and
collaborated with Hyrcanus I politically became
the so-called Sadducees.
 Pompey besieged and took Jerusalem in 63
B.C.; in this way, he put an end to the last
period of Jewish Independence under the
Hasmonean dynasty in Israel.

 By 49 B.C., Pompey and Caesar had a civil

war. When Caesar won, Hyrcanus II switched
loyalty from Pompey.
 Pompey besieged and took Jerusalem in 63
B.C.; in this way, he put an end to the last
period of Jewish Independence under the
Hasmonean dynasty in Israel. By 49 B.C.,

 Pompey and Caesar had a civil war. When

Caesar won, Hyrcanus II switched loyalty from
Pompey. Caesar rewarded him with the
nominal title of etnarch (ruler of a racial
group with a province) and the confirmation
of his high priesthood.
 By 44 B.C., Caesar was assassinated.
One of his assassins (Cassius) fled to
Syria.

 Antipater and his son Herod came to

the assassin’s help but Antipater was
poisoned by Hyrcanus’ cupbearer.
Herod succeeded his father Antipater
in 43 B.C.
 Britain

Rome

Roman
Empire
Judah

©
EBibleTeacher.com
Meanwhile,
Mark Antony, Octavian and Lepidus – the

Triumvirate – defeated Caesar’s assassins, Brutus

and Cassius.

Thesethree divided the Roman empire among

them. But not long after that,

Octaviantook Lepidus’ army and territory. So, the

empire was divided into two: Octavian had the
West and Antony the East.

Herod and his brother Phasael supported Antony

since Palestine belonged to the East.
 Antigonus, the last Hasmonean prince imprisoned in
Rome, had escaped.

 He attacked Hyrcanus, Phasael and Herod.

 Herod was able to escape to Rome where he was

proclaimed “King of the Jews” by Octavian and Antony
and was given the task of winning his kingdom.

 For three years, Herod waged war with Antigonus

during which he married Mariamme, the
granddaughter of Hyrcanus. Antigonus’ capture and
death in 37 B.C. ended the Harmonean dynasty.

It was during the reign of Octavian
who called himself
AUGUSTUS CAESAR and the reign of
HEROD the GREAT that the KING OF
Jesus
KINGS, the PROMISED MESSIAH,
the Christ of Nazareth,was
born. (cf. Lk 2:1-7).
Jesus is the fulfillment of Gods
promise to His chosen people..