Podcasts about Hittites

A @Christadelphians Video: Inspiring and thought-provoking! Discover how modern archaeology consistently affirms the historical reliability of the Bible in this insightful expositional study. We explore outstanding discoveries that have turned skepticism into wonder, revealing the profound accuracy of Scripture down to the smallest detail. This presentation builds a powerful, evidence-based confidence that the Bible is not myth, but a truthful record—strengthening our trust in its greater spiritual promises.**Chapters:**00:00 - Introduction: The Unfolding Evidence of Archaeology01:21 - The Purpose of Archaeology & Building Trust in Scripture02:34 - The Hittites: A "Lost" Empire Rediscovered

1. Eric Cline discusses the Late Bronze Age through the lens of the Uluburun shipwreck, which represents the era's globalized trade network. The ship's cargo, including copper from Cyprus and tin from Afghanistan, highlights the interconnectedness of civilizations like the Egyptians, Hittites, and Mycenaeans. Cline explains that the collapse around 1177 BC was not caused by a single event but a "perfect storm" of factors, including drought, famine, earthquakes, and the Sea Peoples' migrations. This catastrophic sequence occurred so rapidly that societies lacked the time to recover, leading to a systemic failure of the ancient world's trade routes. (1)

5. The conversation details the collapse of the Hittite Empire in central Anatolia. Despite once being equal to Egypt, the Hittites suffered from poor leadership and internal rot, exacerbated by plagues and famine. Their capital, Hattusa, was eventually burned, possibly by local enemies rather than the Sea Peoples. While the main empire disappeared, "rump states" survived in northern Syria, becoming the Neo-Hittites mentioned in the Bible. Additionally, Cline mentions recent computer modeling that suggests the simultaneous collapse of the Hittites and the port city of Ugarit was sufficient to bring down the entire global trade network. (5)

8. In this final segment, Cline summarizes the rankings of ancient societies based on resilience definitions from the IPCC. He distinguishes between those that "transformed" (the antifragile Phoenicians and Cypriots), those that "adapted" or "coped" (Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon), and those that failed (the Hittites). He emphasizes the importance of geography, noting that major river systems like the Nile and Euphrateshelped Egypt and Mesopotamia survive the collapse. Cline's work illustrates that resilience involves more than just survival; it requires the agility to innovate in response to extreme impact events, offering lessons for contemporary global stability. (8)

In 2026, we are celebrating Big Belonging: that we belong to God, we are beloved by Him, and that He delights in us.Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live March 8, 2026 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by Efton Park.Jesus and PassoverPassover is about liberation and this is our key to understanding Jesus.What does “holy ground” teach us about God's presence?Why might Moses have felt inadequate for this task?What “holy ground” moments have shaped your faith?What does God's promise “I will be with you” mean for you personally?Why was the blood on the doorposts necessary?Why is it important to pass faith down to the next generation?Exodus 3:1-121 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”Exodus 12:21-821 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. 24 You shall observe this as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. 25 When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this observance mean to you?' 27 you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.' ” And the people bowed down and worshiped.28 The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did.

Exodus 5:1-2 ESV 1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”   • • • 1. God's power revealed   • • • Exodus 6:1-2 ESV 1 But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” 2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord.   • • • 2. God's protection revealed   • • • Exodus 8:22-23 ESV 22 But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. 23 Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”'”   • • • 3. God's plan revealed   • • • Exodus 3:7-10 ESV 7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”   • • • Exodus 12:12-14 ESV 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.   • • • 1 Corinthians 5:7 ESV 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.   • • • 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 ESV 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.   • • • Application: We can trust God to be faithful to His promises.

Exodus 3:1-15Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!"And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, ‘What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.' ” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' “This is my name forever,      the name you shall call me      from generation to generation."

Bernie Taylor of beforeorion.com rejoins the show to discuss Gobekle Tepe and Ephesus. But, as always with Taylor, he's got a swerve. We're talking Avionoids, whether Artemis was the goddess at “the Temple of Artemis”, what is Anatolia, and more. We talk lions, palm dates, Amazons, Herculean murders, hunter gatherers to agriculturalists, and Hittites! That's just a sampling. Plenty of zodiac and astronomy too. 

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, ‘What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”' And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.' But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

Share a commentStart with a brilliant agnostic surgeon, add a wife just as skeptical, and place them in a world where science felt sufficient and Scripture seemed suspect. Then introduce a disciplined promise: they'll examine the claims of Christianity with the same rigor they bring to medicine. What follows is a step-by-step rethinking of everything they assumed about origins, meaning, and truth.We walk through the evidence that first unsettled, then persuaded them. Patterns in biology and the cosmos reframed chance as an insufficient author; Psalm 19 gave voice to the sense that creation speaks continually. Archaeology undercut classroom myths by unearthing Hittites, Edomites, and cities like Petra, aligning the biblical record with the spade. Prophecy drew a line from ancient texts to a crucified Messiah, while John's portrait of the Logos made revelation feel personal, not abstract. And at the center stood the critical hinge: the resurrection. If Jesus truly rose, his words move from inspiring to binding. The fear-to-courage arc of the disciples, sealed by suffering and death, became difficult to dismiss as fiction.But evidence alone didn't make the difference. The turning point was discovering that Christianity is not a merit system; it is grace received, not goodness achieved. Verses from Titus, Timothy, Acts, and Romans reshaped assumptions about salvation and opened a path from belief to belonging. That path led Viggo and Joan to a costly coherence: turning down prestigious offers and sailing to Bangladesh to build a hospital, plant churches, and serve patients from royal families to the poorest neighbors. Along the way, they met people asking the same questions that launched their search: Where did we come from? Can God be known? Is forgiveness real?Join us for a story that blends rigorous inquiry with lived conviction, weaving themes of intelligent design, biblical reliability, the resurrection, and grace. If you're weighing big claims or wondering whether truth is worth the risk, this conversation offers clarity and courage. If it moves you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. What's the one question you want answered next?_____Stephen's latest book, Legacies of Light, Volume 2, is our gift for your special donation to our ministry. Follow this link for information or to donate:https://www.wisdomonline.org/mp/legaciesSupport the show

Share a commentStart with a brilliant agnostic surgeon, add a wife just as skeptical, and place them in a world where science felt sufficient and Scripture seemed suspect. Then introduce a disciplined promise: they'll examine the claims of Christianity with the same rigor they bring to medicine. What follows is a step-by-step rethinking of everything they assumed about origins, meaning, and truth.We walk through the evidence that first unsettled, then persuaded them. Patterns in biology and the cosmos reframed chance as an insufficient author; Psalm 19 gave voice to the sense that creation speaks continually. Archaeology undercut classroom myths by unearthing Hittites, Edomites, and cities like Petra, aligning the biblical record with the spade. Prophecy drew a line from ancient texts to a crucified Messiah, while John's portrait of the Logos made revelation feel personal, not abstract. And at the center stood the critical hinge: the resurrection. If Jesus truly rose, his words move from inspiring to binding. The fear-to-courage arc of the disciples, sealed by suffering and death, became difficult to dismiss as fiction.But evidence alone didn't make the difference. The turning point was discovering that Christianity is not a merit system; it is grace received, not goodness achieved. Verses from Titus, Timothy, Acts, and Romans reshaped assumptions about salvation and opened a path from belief to belonging. That path led Viggo and Joan to a costly coherence: turning down prestigious offers and sailing to Bangladesh to build a hospital, plant churches, and serve patients from royal families to the poorest neighbors. Along the way, they met people asking the same questions that launched their search: Where did we come from? Can God be known? Is forgiveness real?Join us for a story that blends rigorous inquiry with lived conviction, weaving themes of intelligent design, biblical reliability, the resurrection, and grace. If you're weighing big claims or wondering whether truth is worth the risk, this conversation offers clarity and courage. If it moves you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. What's the one question you want answered next?_____Stephen's latest book, Legacies of Light, Volume 2, is our gift for your special donation to our ministry. Follow this link for information or to donate:https://www.wisdomonline.org/mp/legaciesSupport the show

Which ancient civilisation was the best at surviving the Apocalypse, and which was the worst? Who were the Hittites, and what did they actually call themselves? Does the Bronze Age collapse serve as a warning to the modern world?  William and Anita are joined by Professor Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed and After 1177 B.C.: The Survival Of Civilizations, to discuss how the end of the ancient "globalised" system serves as a chilling warning for our own interconnected world. Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com  For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Editor: Charlie Rodwell Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

'Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” 'Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 'But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”' (Numbers 13.26-31, NKJV) One thing had to happen before they could appropriate all the blessings of God, which had been so clearly promised and prophesied, this was their ‘Iron Curtain', the final barrier. One final step and all that they had longed and prayed for would be theirs. One step and the veil that covered their eyes would be lifted and they would see one of the most beautiful and dramatic things that man has ever seen (and few are allowed to actually see this), the REASON why God works great and powerful miracles! His purpose NOW revealed! After all Abraham only acted in faith, he never saw the fulfilment.  But this one final step was not taken! – It was to demand a faith beyond their ability! How often are believers today within sight of everything that they are desiring, often with earnest prayer and with the clear knowledge that God HAS promised... yet that final step is not taken, they don't go in and possess the land. It occurs in the realms of healing, finance, evangelism and missions, possibly even revival, certainly in most areas of our lives and especially our service for God.

A @Christadelphians Video: **YouTube Video Summary / Description**Is the Bible just a collection of ancient stories, or is it something more? In this thought-provoking presentation, we examine the evidence for the Bible's divine authorship. Many dismiss the Scriptures as mere mythology, but what does the historical and prophetic record actually reveal?Join us for an insightful exploration where we tackle common criticisms and present compelling evidence that vindicates the Bible's truth. We delve into outstanding archaeological discoveries, like the Hittite civilization, that confirm the Bible's historical accuracy. We also examine a specific, precise prophecy in Ezekiel 26 concerning the city of Tyre, a revealing divine fingerprint on history.When we consider the Bible's internal consistency across 1,500 years, dozens of authors, and three continents, the case for its divine inspiration becomes powerful and transformative. This isn't just an academic exercise; understanding that the Bible is God's Word changes how we live and think. Discover how this exceptional book can provide purpose and direction for your life.**Chapters / Timestamps:**00:00 - Introduction: Is the Bible the Word of God?01:13 - Addressing Common Criticisms02:09 - Archaeological Evidence: The Hittites04:51 - Archaeological Evidence: King Belshazzar06:57 - Prophetic Evidence: The Prophecy Against Tyre09:41 - The Unified Story and God's Plan11:42 - The Bible's Testimony About Itself12:11 - Conclusion: The Transformative Power of God's Word13:14 - Q&A: Tips for Consistent Bible Reading15:23 - Q&A: What is God's Unified Plan in the Bible?19:46 - Q&A: Why is the Bible Long and Seemingly Complex?**Categories & Bible Verses:**

Who were the ‘Sea Peoples'? Was the Bronze Age Collapse caused by a single catastrophic event? How did the Egyptians try to adapt to the changing climate? From the scientific evidence hidden in ancient pollen to the first historical mention of "Israel" and the rise of the Philistines, this episode uncovers how a global systemic collapse redrew the map of the ancient world. William and Anita are joined by Professor Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, and After 1177 B.C.: The Survival Of Civilizations, to explore how a series of catastrophes shattered the interconnected superpowers of the Pharaohs, Hittites, and Mycenaeans…  Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com  For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Editors: Bruno Di Castri and Jack Meek Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

3.13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, ‘What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.'” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”' 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.' 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Exodus 3:11-22But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, ‘What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”' And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.' But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.” English Standard Version (ESV)The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2.23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.3.1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Exodus 3:1-10Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” English Standard Version (ESV)The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Uma civilização que normalmente negligenciamos o seu estudo, mas que explica muito sobre a complexa história da Turquia. Separe trinta minutos do seu dia e aprenda com o professor Vítor Soares (@profvitorsoares) sobre a história do Império Hitita.-Se você quiser ter acesso a episódios exclusivos e quiser ajudar o História em Meia Hora a continuar de pé, clique no link: www.apoia.se/historiaemmeiahoraConheça o meu canal no YouTube e assista o História em Dez Minutos!https://www.youtube.com/@profvitorsoaresConheça meu outro canal: História e Cinema!https://www.youtube.com/@canalhistoriaecinemaOuça "Reinaldo Jaqueline", meu podcast de humor sobre cinema e TV:https://open.spotify.com/show/2MsTGRXkgN5k0gBBRDV4okCompre o livro "História em Meia Hora - Grandes Civilizações"!https://a.co/d/47ogz6QCompre meu primeiro livro-jogo de história do Brasil "O Porão":https://amzn.to/4a4HCO8PIX e contato: historiaemmeiahora@gmail.comApresentação: Prof. Vítor Soares.Roteiro: Prof. Vítor Soares e Prof. Victor Alexandre (@profvictoralexandre)REFERÊNCIAS USADAS:- BRYCE, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. 2. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.- BRYCE, Trevor. Life and Society in the Hittite World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.- COLLINS, Billie Jean. The Hittites and Their World. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.- CLINE, Eric H. 1177 a.C.: O ano em que a civilização entrou em colapso. São Paulo: Editora Planeta, 2017.

[Exodus 3:17] I have promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey--the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live."'Some people see __________________, while others see __________________.[Numbers 13:30-33] But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. "Let's go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!" [31] But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. "We can't go up against them! They are stronger than we are!" [32] So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: "The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. [33] We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that's what they thought, too!"Faith doesn't deny obstacles it __________________ them through God.[Numbers 14:10] But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb.It takes endurance to stand in the face of __________________.[Numbers 14:24] But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land.Waiting isn't __________________ as long as your faith stays __________________.[Joshua 14:10-12] "Now, as you can see, the LORD has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise--even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. [11] I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. [12] So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said."Mature faith doesn't ask for __________________ it asks for an __________________.[Judges 3:9-11] But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb's younger brother, Kenaz. [10] The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he became Israel's judge. He went to war against King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram, and the LORD gave Othniel victory over him. [11] So there was peace in the land for forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.__________________ is formed through obedience.[James 1:3-4] For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. [4] So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

In this episode, we break down the composition of the Neo-Assyrian Army under the Sargonid dynasty (Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, and their successors) and explain why Assyria's battlefield dominance in the 8th–7th centuries BCE was not just “more men” or “more brutality,” but a specific military system built around logistics, organization, and a flexible combined-arms force.You'll learn what the core Assyrian infantryman looked like in practice: a general-purpose soldier equipped for multiple battlefield roles (spear, sword, bow, and shield), and why that versatility mattered for campaigns, garrisons, policing, construction, and sieges. We also examine how Assyrian military service worked, including seasonal call-ups, corvée-style obligations, land-grant service (ilkum), and the expectation of plunder—structures that helped sustain long campaigns without a fully modern “paid army” model.From there, we move to the elite infantry (often associated with the royal guard) and the implications of lamellar armor in the Near Eastern heat. Armor, discipline, conditioning, and unit performance are treated as connected variables, not isolated trivia. We then reconstruct the iconic Assyrian shield-wall-and-archer system: tower shields, spear line behavior, the archer line directly behind the shields, and how this formation changes the psychology of spear-range fighting by making “safe distance” impossible.The episode also covers the auxiliary/light infantry contingents organized along ethnic lines across the Assyrian Empire—why they were valued, how unit cohesion and veterancy can create tactical flexibility, and how these forces complemented the main line. Finally, we examine mounted forces during the Sargonid period: the maturation of true cavalry, the decline of chariotry into more limited roles, early spear cavalry, horse archery, equipment constraints before saddles and widespread horse armor, and how Assyria used mobility to exploit gaps, pursue breaks, and keep operational tempo high.If you are interested in ancient warfare, the Bronze Age collapse aftermath, Neo-Assyrian history, Near Eastern military organization, imperial logistics, siege warfare, and the military reforms that shaped the ancient world, this episode is a deep, practical reconstruction grounded in how armies actually functioned on campaign and in battle.Key topics and terms for search: Neo-Assyrian Empire, Sargon II, Sargonids, Tiglath-Pileser III, Sennacherib, Assyrian army, Assyrian infantry, Assyrian royal guard, lamellar armor, scale armor, tower shields, shield wall, Assyrian archers, composite recurve bow, ancient logistics, corvée labor, ilkum land grants, plunder economy, auxiliary troops, Itu'eans, Arameans, Hittites, Elamites, Urartu, cavalry origins, chariots to cavalry transition, combined arms in antiquity, ancient battle tactics, Near East military history, 8th century BCE, 7th century BCE.Next episode preview: the campaign of 714 BCE against Urartu—one of the best documented operations of the ancient world, including intelligence, logistics, and royal correspondence.I am also doing daily history facts again, at least until I run out of time again. You can find Oldest Stories daily on Tiktok and Youtube Shorts.If you like the show, consider sharing with your friends, leaving a like, subscribing, or even supporting financially:Buy the Oldest Stories books: https://a.co/d/7Wn4jhSDonate here: https://oldeststories.net/or on patreon: https://patreon.com/JamesBleckleyor on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCG2tPxnHNNvMd0VrInekaA/joinYoutube and Patreon members get access to bonus content produced when and as I have time.

"And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap. And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.4 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying,Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:" Joshua 3-4:5

"Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Joshua 1:1-9

When Sarah died, Abraham faced a crisis: he had no land to bury his beloved wife. Despite the Hittites offering him free burial ground, Abraham insisted on paying 400 shekels of silver for the cave of Machpelah. This wasn't just about securing a burial site - it was about claiming his first piece of the Promised Land through faith. Abraham's actions teach us three ways to maintain hope in difficult times: initiate action despite grief, remain devoted to God rather than cultural pressures, and invest in God's kingdom for future generations. His purchase points forward to Jesus, who paid not with silver but with His blood to secure our eternal inheritance.

Send us a textIn the last episode we discussed the rise of the 19th Dynasty and left off with Pharaoh Seti I. His son, Ramesses II, would lead Egypt into one of its most glorious periods of Egyptian History. This biography highlights Ramesses II, his campaigns against the Hittites, and his incredible building projects.Checkout the video version at:https://www.youtube.com/@DWAncientEgyptSupport the showThis Podcast series is available on all major platforms.See more resources, maps, and information at:https://www.dwworldhistory.comOutlines, Maps, and Episode Guides for this series are available for download at:https://www.patreon.com/DWWorldHistory

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib again talks to George Washington University archaeologist Eric Cline. The author of 1177 B.C. - The Year Civilization Collapsed and After 1177 B.C. - The Survival of Civilizations, Cline has a new book out, Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed. While 1177 B.C. closed with the end of the first global civilization, that of the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age, and After 1177 B.C. tells the story of those who picked up the pieces, Love, War, and Diplomacy puts the spotlight on the Late Bronze Age at its peak. Razib and Cline discuss the two major threads in Love, War, and Diplomacy: the decipherment of cuneiform and the emergence of the field of Assyriology, and the diplomatic world of Bronze Age Great Powers. Cline addresses the reality that 19th-century archaeology was not an idealized enterprise, and scholars had to compete with treasure hunters, and negotiate difficult nationalist sensitivities. He also explains how they deciphered cuneiform decades after hieroglyphs, providing an alternative view of the earliest antiquity. The discussion then focuses on the intricate and tense relationship between Egypt, Assyria, the Hittites, and the Mitanni. Cline also highlights the reality that the Amarna Letters also shed light on the bickering between the petty states of the Levant and their relationship to their hegemon, Egypt.

Have you ever made one too many mistakes? You know, you get to a point where you think, That's it! God must be done with me? Well, Abraham was a man of faith who made plenty of mistakes along the way. Yet God seemed to overlook, even o compensate for them. Why was that?   Life Changing Moments As we travel through life we all kind of experience these moments and often they are seemingly insignificant events that in fact, turn out to change the whole course of our lives. It's amazing when you think about it! We all have a plan for our lives but there are things just around the next corner or just over the next rise that can change everything – good things and bad things, happy things and sad things. Some people think, "Well, it's all a matter of chance." Well, I don't believe in chance. I remember a brochure that changed my life. I was attending a little church – I had not long become a Christian and it was a Sunday service like every other Sunday. At the end of the service I walked to the back of the little church and I saw a brochure for a particular Bible College, Tabor College in Sydney. It wasn't a particularly attractive brochure or a well designed brochure – I picked it up and that was a defining moment – I took it home, I read about this ministry degree, I prayed and I felt this incredibly strong tug in my heart. Now in my mind I am thinking, "There's no way. You know Berni, you have been a Christian for five minutes" but in my heart I knew. So I rang them, I applied, I went to see the Principal, I felt like such a fraud. "They are never going to accept me." They did! And there I learned so much but also, by chance again, I came into contact with my predecessor in this ministry; the former CEO of Christianityworks and one thing led to another. And today I'm doing what I am doing because I picked up that little brochure at the back of the church. Now I had no idea that morning that something would happen that would change the course of my life. This week we are starting a new series on Christianityworks, it's called "Defining Moments". It's really exciting! I want to look at this from a different perspective; from God's perspective. See when we look back on our lives most of us can pick three or four, maybe half a dozen defining moments – those little things that seemed to change the whole course of our lives. Now, sure we can see them from our natural human perspective – after all, we are people; we're human, but if we do that I think we miss the point. I want to look at some defining moments in the lives of four people in the Bible – Abraham, Joseph, David and Josiah over the next four weeks and we are starting today with Abraham. I want to see if we can discover how God reaches into our lives with miracles - great and small to define the very course of our lives because God does have a plan. Psalm 139, verse 16, says: Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In Your book were written all the days that were formed for me when none of them as yet existed. And when we at least expect it, and even despite what you and I do or fail to do, His plan is worked out through His grace for His glory. God brings those defining moments. Let's start with Abraham - the man with whom God's engagement of His chosen people began. He was living comfortably in a place called Ur, east of Israel – of course Israel didn't exist back then. Ur was the land of the Chaldeans, later it was called Babylon – it's just south of modern day Baghdad. And he travelled with his father up to Haran and then God called him to leave his comfort and follow this really crazy, absolutely incredulous promise. Let's pick it up – if you have got a Bible, grab it; open it up at Genesis chapter 12. We are going to look at the story of Abraham – it's too much to look at it all in one programme but we are going to have a look at part of his story. Genesis chapter 12, beginning at verse 1: Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram when as the Lord had told him and Lot when with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he departed form Haran." Seventy five years old! "He and Sarai his wife and they were childless." You see, you have to remember, in the Old Testament, blessing; God's blessing, you knew you had it when you had lots of land and lots of children. They had neither, so they didn't have God's blessing on their lives. Now the word "Abram" means "exalted father". So even his name was a joke, but still he went, off into the never never, based on what – some intangible, crazy call from God? Remember Abram had no Bible; he had no Scriptures to reveal who God was. He had no church tradition, or Jewish tradition – nothing like that. All the other nations had their gods; idols – they worshipped them, they believed all sorts of weird and wonderful things but Abram put his faith; he put his whole life and all his possessions in this God who came up with this incredulous promise. How did God say this to Abram - through an audible voice, a dream, a vision, a whisper of the Spirit in his heart? We don't know but he just heard the call and he trusted in the promises of God and off he went, into the blue yonder. Now God's plan A, remember, is to bless Abram with land and children – impossible of course! Oozes fantasy, not faith – could never happen. And then begins Abram's comedy of errors – pretty tragic actually. We don't have time to look at them all today but we are going to look at some of them. It's a journey where Abram and Sarai his wife, made plenty of mistakes along the way. Take Lot for instance, his nephew – if you look at Genesis chapter 12 again, did God tell Abram to take Lot with him? Not at all – it was Abram's idea. No doubt, this was plan B for Abram. "Well, if God doesn't come through on this promise of a son, at least I'll have a relative to be my heir" and Lot…..Lot causes him all sorts of grief. Let's have a look – Genesis chapter 13, verse 5: Now Lot who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents so that the land couldn't support both of them living together, for their possessions were so great that they could not live together. And there was strife between the herders of Abram's stock and the herders of Lot's stock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land. Then Abram said to Lot, "Let there be no strife between you and me – between your herders and my herders for we are kindred. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I'll go to the right; of you take the right hand, then I will go to the left." Lot looked about him and saw the plain of the Jordan that was well watered everywhere like this garden of the Lord; like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar - this was before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan and Lot eastward thus he separated from Abram. Gee, plan B worked really well for Abram didn't it? Obviously God didn't know what He was promising Abram and needed a back up! And look how it turned out! Strife, separation and then Abram gave away the best half of the Promised Land. And if you read on in chapter 14, Abram risks his life and God's plan because he has to fight a battle to save Lot's life. Lot was not part of plan A and in chapter 19 of Genesis (we won't go there for now for time reasons) but he ends up sleeping with his own daughters and fathers the Moabites and the Ammonites; both nations that became enemies of Israel. Huh – well done Abram! God obviously needed your help!!   Who Can Blame Him? Well, who can blame Abram? He is in his late seventies now on a journey to nowhere and Sarai is no spring chicken either, I have to tell you. And God gives him this utterly incongruous, impossible promise and Abram is aching inside. "God, what are You doing?"  Can you relate to that? I can! Let's have a look at the defining moment in Abram's journey. It begins in Genesis chapter 15, verse 1: After these things the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: "Don't be afraid, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "Lord God, what will You give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer, son of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." But the Word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir. No one but a son coming from your very own body shall be your heir." God brought him outside and said, "Look toward the heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then the Lord said to him, "So shall your descendants be!" And Abram believed the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. I reckon this is one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. Is Abram a man of faith? Absolutely! But he is struggling – he has tried everything he can do in his own strength and he can't make this promise from God happen and time is marching on. So through his doubt, he ends up with plan C or D or whatever he is up to. How does God respond – with rebuke, with punishment, with discipline? God brought him outside and said, "Look toward the heaven and count the start, if you are able to count them." Then God said "So will your descendants be! Isn't it beautiful? You know, the Milky Way when you get away from the smog and the lights of the city is just the most awesome thing – there are so many stars out there – it almost looks like clouds. Trillions of stars – this is the love of God! And he believed the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. Abram's faith meant that God's righteousness became part of who he was. It's a theme the Apostle Paul picks up in Romans chapter 4 and in Galatians chapter 3 in the New Testament, much later. See I struggle with the rose coloured glasses that Paul and others in the New Testament use to look back on Abraham. They paint him as this paragon of virtue; this great man of faith. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 8: By faith Abraham, when he was called to go to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he didn't know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country, for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren, was enabled to become a father. That's great but what about all of Abraham blunders? What about his lack of faith? He goes to God and says to God, "What will You give me? What will You show me? I can't see it – I'm losing hope." See, Abraham was human – Abraham had human failures and he made mistakes just like you and me - but the answer is in what we just read in Genesis. How is it that despite all of Abraham's blunders and doubts, God's plan still came to fruition? Because Abraham: "believed the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness." Abraham believed – he didn't do it perfectly – but he believed and this was counted by God as righteousness. The righteousness of God when we believe, He forgives our sins – He forgets them. "As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us." You see, that's why in the New Testament it doesn't talk about Abraham's mistakes because God has forgiven them and they are not relevant. That's how God deals with Abraham's human failings. This is the defining moment in Abraham's journey: he believed the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. This night that was like any other; he was in his tent; he was struggling; he was praying; he was saying, 'God, what are you doing?' And God just touches him and brings him outside and says, "Look up at the stars; as many as are there so numerous will be your descendants." It's not about what Abraham did or didn't do. The defining moment is about God's grace! And come and look with me exactly how imperfectly Abraham believed. Come and see with me how human and frail his faith actually is. He is credited with righteousness – God speaks to him and right on the back of that, just two verses later, in Genesis chapter 15, verse 8, begins this: But he said "O Lord, God, how am I to know I shall possess it?" And God said to him, "Bring Me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove and a young pigeon." He brought God all those things and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Know this for certain that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs and they shall be slaves there and they shall be oppressed there for four hundred years but I will bring judgement on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you yourself, you shall go with your ancestors in peace and you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." When the sun had gone down and it was dark, and a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day (listen to this) On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, "To your descendants I give this land – from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates and the land of the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Raphaim and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites." See, in the face of further doubt from Abraham, God gives him this vision and he makes an unbreakable promise; a covenant; a promise from God Himself to Abraham.   The Last Laugh Just as well, this covenant from God was an unbreakable promise because what happens next, after the stars thing and the vision and the promise, would have been the final straw for me if I had been God. Have a look at the next Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave girl whose name was Hagar and Sarai said to Abram, "You see the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my slave girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." Abram listened to the voice of his wife Sarai, so after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar the Egyptian; her slave girl and gave her to her husband Abraham as a wife. He went into Hagar and she conceived and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my slave girl to you to embrace and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me." Ok, men had more than one wife in those days but people haven't changed that much. Wives, how happy would you be with this outcome? Your husband sleeping with a slave girl and then all of a sudden the slave girl is pregnant. Can you see how perverted this is? And the son that Hagar bore was Ishmail and he became the father of the Arab world! Gee, that worked out brilliantly, didn't it? And so Abram, left to his own devices would have lurched from one blunder to the next but now the bit that really gets me about this story, is the ending. Both Abram and Sarai get to the point – I mean this has been going on for years now; decades where they just end up laughing at God's promises. I mean they are so ridiculous; they are so impossible – have a look – Abram first in Genesis chapter 17, verse 15: God said to Abram, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai anymore but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she will give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah who is ninety years old bear a child?" And Abraham said to God, "O that Ishmail might live in Your sight." And God said, "No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him." And then Sarah's turn next! God appears to Abraham in the form of three men and those men said to him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" And he said, "There, in the tent." Then one of them said, "I will surely return to you in due season and your wife Sarah shall have a son." And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance, behind them. Now Abraham and Sarah, they were old and advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, "After I have grown old and my husband is old, shall I have the pleasure?" See, can you blame Abraham and Sarah for laughing at God? I mean if you don't laugh you will cry. It has been twenty five years – they headed away on this fool's errand into the blue yonder. Abraham is over a hundred – Sarah is over ninety – come on God, what do You think You are doing? But let's see how it ends! Genesis chapter 21: The Lord dealt with Sarah just as He had said and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah had borne. Do you know what the word "Isaac" means? It means "he laughs" – you see God had the last laugh! They both laughed at God's promises and God gives them a son called Isaac and God has the last laugh! It's the laughter of God's grace. And when you look back on this journey, what was the defining moment? See, what you and I want to look at is say: "What do I have to do….what do I have to do? What do I have to do to get God's favour?" Isn't that what we are always thinking? And you look at all of Abraham's blunders and you see all the mistakes he made but in his heart he believed and it was reckoned unto him by God as righteousness. His faith trumped his failures! Let me say that again ... Abraham's faith trumped his failures! People came to Jesus years later and they said, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" And Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God: that you believe in the One whom He has sent." Do you get it? The defining moment for Abraham was God's gracious, loving, powerful, impossible, unbreakable, ridiculous, only God could ever do it, take it forever….promise. And in his heart Abraham believed. That's the bit that God saw and took and used and blessed Abraham through. That's why the New Testament writers can completely ignore the failures of Abraham because God….God had forgotten them a long time ago. God had decided to overlook them a long time ago. Abraham was not a perfect man – Abraham was human just like you and me. You make blunders in your life; I make blunders in my life. What does God look at? He looks at whether we put our trust in Him through Jesus Christ. God not only forgave Abraham and Sarah but He cleaned up their mess along the way so that His plan would be fulfilled and realised for His glory. Look again at the defining moment in Abraham's life…Genesis chapter 15, verses 5 and 6: God brought Abraham outside and said, "Look up toward the heaven. Count the stars if you are able to count them." Then God said to him, "So shall your descendants be. And Abraham believed the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. What do I have to do to do the works of God? To believe in the One whom He sent; His Son, Jesus Christ!

Jesus our Deliverer (Matthew Chapter 1) - Sunday, 21st December 2025.Matthew 1:21-23 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.1. God delivered Israel from Pharaoh. Exodus 3:7-8  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 2. God delivered Israel from their enemiesJudges 3:9  And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.Judges 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left-handed: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.  3. In Isaiah, God is upset with Israel because they do not look to Him for deliverance.Isaiah 50:2  Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.4. In the New Testament, Jesus delivered from storms, death, demons, sickness blindness, deafness, bitterness and on and on!Matthew 8:26  And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.5.  How can I be delivered?Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

The Uluburun Shipwreck as a Bronze Age Microcosm: Colleague Eric Cline discusses the Uluburun shipwreck, which sank around 1300 BC and serves as a time capsule for the Late Bronze Age, describing the ship as a microcosm of a globalized network carrying cargo from at least seven different civilizations including Mycenaeans, Egyptians, and Hittites, with ten tons of copper from Cyprus and tin likely from Afghanistan—enough to outfit an army of 300 soldiers with bronze gear—highlighting the sophistication of ancient trade evidenced by standardized Canaanite storage jars and a rare gold scarab belonging to Nefertiti. 1956

The Failure of the Hittite Empire: Colleague Eric Cline examines the Hittites, classified as the major failures of the era, explaining that this superpower controlling Anatolia and rivaling Egypt collapsed due to a "perfect storm" of drought, plague, and poor leadership, with their capital Hattusa destroyed and abandoned; however, "Neo-Hittite" rump states in northern Syria such as Carchemish survived as trading hubs for centuries before eventually facing aggression from the rising Neo-Assyrian empire.

Start with a prophecy almost everyone agrees is important but few claim to understand: Daniel 9. Now imagine testing it with modern calendars, archaeological finds, and arithmetic simple enough for a pocket calculator. That's the journey we take with chemist and author James Brown, who argues that Daniel's timeline doesn't just gesture at a vague era; it targets key dates in the life of Jesus and links to milestones in recent history with day-level precision.We walk through James's personal shift from cultural apathy to evidence-driven faith, sparked by fatherhood and a Bible study that refused to leave Daniel 9 in the fog. He explains how earlier giants like Newton and Anderson got close but lacked twentieth-century data and calendrical corrections. Then the conversation broadens: Ezekiel 4's cryptic count suddenly slots into place, Jeremiah's seventy years connect to Daniel's captivity marker, and two modern events—Israel's statehood in 1948 and Jerusalem's 1967 reunification—emerge as verifiable waypoints in the same framework.Along the way, we revisit the surprises archaeology has delivered, from the Hittites to Belshazzar, and we follow the trail to the Great Isaiah Scroll, carbon-dated to about 125 BC and preserving Isaiah 52:13–53:12 with striking clarity. James contends these threads knit together three objective proofs: God exists, Jesus is the promised Messiah, and Scripture carries reliable prophecy and fulfillment. No advanced math, no shifting rules—just one consistent method, audited and reproducible.If you've wanted more than slogans—if you've wanted reasons you can check—this conversation lays out the timelines, sources, and safeguards. Listen, take notes, and test it for yourself. If it holds, share the episode with someone who loves data as much as they love big questions. And if it challenges you, leave a review with the toughest counterpoint you can raise—we'll keep the conversation going. Subscribe for more evidence-based deep dives and thoughtful interviews.Let me know what you think of this episode? Support the showSupport the Podcast. https://buymeacoffee.com/dorseyrossSocial Media Links, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dorsey.ross/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DROCKROSS/ My Book Amazon Book Overcomer https://bit.ly/4h7NGIP

Before Greek, Latin, or Sanskrit, there was PIE: Proto-Indo-European. Bernie and Garry Stevens unpack the new book PROTO, focusing on the Anatolian branch—especially the Hittites—and what their strange, early divergence tells us about migrations, language, and identity in the ancient world. Come for the ancient words; stay for the PIE.This is a podcast by Dan Hörning and Bernie Maopolski.If you like what we do you can support the Fan of History project on https://www.patreon.com/fanofhistoryContact information:E-mail: zimwaupodcast@gmail.comhttp://facebook.com/fanofhistoryhttps://twitter.com/danhorninghttps://www.instagram.com/dan_horning/Music: “Tudor Theme” by urmymuse.Used here under a commercial Creative Commons license. Find out more at http://ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/40020 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025) tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed. Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs. A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports readers to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's. Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology at George Washington University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025) tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed. Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs. A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports readers to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's. Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology at George Washington University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025) tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed. Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs. A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports readers to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's. Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology at George Washington University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025) tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed. Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs. A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports readers to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's. Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology at George Washington University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025) tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed. Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs. A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports readers to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's. Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology at George Washington University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-studies

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025) tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed. Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs. A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports readers to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's. Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology at George Washington University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/archaeology

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025) tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed. Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs. A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports readers to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's. Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology at George Washington University. Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah died at the age of 127. Abraham negotiated with the Hittites for the purchase of a burial plot, the Cave of Machpelah. The objective of the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah was to bury the dead. These three facts are featured at the beginning of our Parsha. On the surface these facts seem […]

Sarah died at the age of 127. Abraham negotiated with the Hittites for the purchase of a burial plot, the Cave of Machpelah. The objective of the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah was to bury the dead. These three facts are featured at the beginning of our Parsha. On the surface these facts seem wholly unremarkable. In year 8 of the Parsha Podcast we try to go beneath the surface, behind the veneer, into the subtext of the Parsha and to discover the secrets -- the deep secrets --  contained in the substrate. Is there a deeper meaning of Sarah's age at death? Why is the role of the Hittites in facilitating Abraham's purchase revisited so man times in the Torah? Why does the Torah repeat numerous times that the objective of Abraham's purchase to bury the dead? In this Parsha Podcast we discover some wonderful and deep insights.– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –DONATE: Please consider supporting the podcasts by making a donation to help fund our Jewish outreach and educational efforts at https://www.torchweb.org/support.php. Thank you!– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –Email me with questions, comments, and feedback: rabbiwolbe@gmail.com– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –SUBSCRIBE to my Newsletterrabbiwolbe.com/newsletter– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –SUBSCRIBE to Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe's PodcastsThe Parsha PodcastThe Jewish History PodcastThe Mitzvah Podcast This Jewish LifeThe Ethics PodcastTORAH 101 ★ Support this podcast ★

Review: Jacob's family; Israel?; Caring for "many souls"; People vs stuff; Loving Caesar; Rachel's treachery; Reading bible with guidance; Melchizedek? Abimelech?; Esau's descendants; Father's blessing; True sons; Doing the will of the father; "Judeo-Christian values"; Listening to Holy Spirit; Knowing Jesus; Pure Religion; No kings in Israel - until Saul; Society of righteousness; Cities (of blood); "leaven"; Men exercising authority; Loving your neighbor; Difference between Esau and Jacob; Honoring what you say and do; Tribal/national values; Jacob giving choice; "logos"; Following Christ's ways; Condemning Jews?; "Religious" quarrels; "Scripture"; Reading without understanding; Two trees; Gen 36:1 Esau is Edom - aleph-dalet+vav-mem; disconnected mem?; Hittites and Hivites; Daughters of Canaan; Human resources; aleph-chet = brother; Weakening the people; Idolators; "Seir"; Changing the way you think; Shin-ayin-yod-resh (70); forgiveness; Simon the leper, Nicodemus; Sanhedrin; Baptism; Real Israel; Listing Esau's offspring; Dukes and kings?; Teaching the ways of Edom; hey+chet-resh-yod Horite; Importance of Hebrew letters; Knowing Holy Spirit; v31 kings; Generation to generation; Cities of unrighteousness; Ways of Edom vs Israel; Mystery Babylon; Power; God is spirit; Pursuing our divine connection; Logos of Christ; Habitations; mem-vav-shin-biet; What deeds are you doing?; Possession?; Owning land; Legal title; Forced sacrifice; Rulers; "No kings"?; But one purse; Passports; Property tax; Golems; Are you a possession?; Jesus - king and high priest, order of Melchizedek; No oppression; Sharing in love; Gift of salvation; Free assemblies; God is the same.

Factors of Survival: Antifragility, River Systems, and IPCC Resilience Models AUTHOR NAME: Eric Cline BOOK TITLE: After 1177 BC, The Survival of Civilizations; 1177 BC, the year civilization collapsed Phoenicians demonstrated antifragility by flourishing in chaos, using trade wealth to buy off the threatening Neo-Assyrians. The Cypriots, though on an island, were later overwhelmed by the Assyrians. The survival of Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians is partially attributed to their location on major river systems (Nile, Tigris/Euphrates), which the failed Hittites lacked. Resilience is analyzed using IPCC definitions: Phoenicians and Cypriots transformed, while Egyptians merely coped.

he Uluburun Shipwreck and the Collapse of Late Bronze Age Globalization AUTHOR NAME: Eric Cline BOOK TITLE: 1177 BC, the year civilization collapsed; After 1177 BC, The Survival of Civilizations This excerpt discusses the Uluburun shipwreck (c. 1300 BC) as a microcosm of Late Bronze Age globalization, carrying copper from Cyprus and tin from Central Asia. Dating evidence includes a solid gold scarab of Nefertiti. The conversation shifts to the 1177 BC collapse, caused by a perfect storm of drought, famine, and invaders. New modeling suggests the simultaneous fall of the Hittites and Ugarit destroyed the network

2/8. Professor Eric Cline's work explains that the 1177 BC collapse resulted from a "perfect storm" of drought, famine, Sea Peoples (invaders/migrants), disease, and earthquakes. New computer modeling, detailed in his research, concluded that the simultaneous fall of the Hittites and the port city of Ugarit was critical and sufficient to bring down the entire globalized network. Ugarit, a key trading nexus, faced an earthquake, drought, famine, and an unnamed invader, making it a "poster child" for the collapse.

: 1. Professor Eric Cline's books, 1177 BC, the year civilization collapsed and After 1177 BC, The Survival of Civilizations, highlight Late Bronze Age globalization through the Uluburun shipwreck (c. 1300 BC), revealing diverse cargo like copper from Cyprus and tin from Afghanistan . The 1177 BC collapse resulted from a "perfect storm" of drought, famine, Sea Peoples, disease, and earthquakes. New computer modeling suggests the simultaneous fall of the Hittites and Ugarit was  . . . . . .

     7/8. Professor Eric Cline's books detail the Hittite Empire's collapse as a societal failure due to poor leadership, a devastating plague (killing the royal family, including Suppiluliuma I), and attacks from enemies like the Kashka. Unlike other major powers, the Hittites were the only "G8" not on a major river system, a factor in their vulnerability during periods of drought. While the main empire vanished, "Neo-Hittite" city-states in northern Syria, such as Carchemish, adapted and survived, often paying tribute to the Neo-Assyrians.