Overview of the Biblical Story from Creation to the Exile

Prose narrative forms a central part of the Bible in the Torah and the Former Prophets; laws and poems are woven into it. These stories find echoes in other parts of the Bible, in poetry, prose, and prophetic discourse, where they are selectively recalled, enhanced, and interpreted by later authors. The most important stories are recited in religious ceremonies and are recalled in laws to explain the rationales behind those ceremonies and laws. The centrality of these narratives is due to the fact that most of the Bible endows historical events with religious significance, seeing them—more than natural phenomena and more, even, than personal experiences—as the main stage on which the relationship between God and Israel is enacted.

Israel told the story of its past in the books from Genesis through Kings and in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles. Although each book is a distinct literary unit, with its own thematic integrity, there is continuity from one book to the next; they are arranged according to the chronology of the events they describe and share some overarching themes. Genesis focuses on origins and ancestor tales, from the creation of the world through the story of Joseph, during the course of which Jacob’s family migrates to Egypt. Exodus opens in Egypt, some time later, with the enslavement of the Israelites. It recounts their exodus from Egypt, their wanderings in the wilderness, the revelation at Mount Sinai, and the building of the Tabernacle. Leviticus focuses on the Tabernacle and various laws relating to holiness, including sacrifices, the priesthood, and purification. Numbers returns to events in the wilderness, describing the Israelites’ encampments and travels, as well as various problems encountered along the way. The book ends as Israel is poised to enter the Promised Land, Canaan. Deuteronomy presents the final speeches of Moses, who will not himself enter Canaan, to the people on the plains of Moab, as they are about to enter the Promised Land. The speeches review the exodus from Egypt, the revelation at Sinai, and many of the laws, some rewritten, that were given in earlier books. They also present new laws intended to guide Israel when it is settled in its land. The book ends with the death of Moses on Mount Nebo. The five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—constitute the Torah, or Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses. The Torah, as a whole, tells the earliest part of Israel’s story.

The next part of the story begins in the book of Joshua, with the entrance into Canaan, the conquest of the native population, and the settlement of the Israelite tribes. Joshua replaced Moses as the leader. (He had already been designated to do so in Numbers.) The book of Judges (better translated as “Chieftains”) describes events from after the death of Joshua to the first inklings of the monarchy that would unite the people of Israel more cohesively than had the earlier loose confederation of tribes. The episodes in Judges have a distinct pattern: Israel sins, a neighboring nation attacks Israel, a tribal chieftain drives out the enemy, and a period of peace follows, lasting only until the pattern repeats again. The main events of 1 Samuel are the establishment of the monarchy under Saul and the rise to prominence of David. David’s reign and events in his family take up most of 2 Samuel. The books of Kings record the reign of Solomon, David’s son, the building of the Temple, and the division of the United Monarchy into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The history of the monarchs of both kingdoms is presented, until the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel by Assyria (722–720 BCE) and, later, the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians (586 BCE). With these events, Israel and Judah ceased to exist as independent political entities. The people of the Northern Kingdom were exiled, and their territory was absorbed into the Assyrian Empire. Many Judeans were exiled to Babylonia, and the territory of Judah became part of the Babylonian Empire. This was the end of the second stage of Israel’s story, which began with the people’s entrance into the land of Israel and ended with their exile from it.

There is a third stage in this story: the return from Babylonian exile to Judah. When the Persians conquered Babylon and became the dominant power in the Near East (539 BCE), Cyrus, the Persian king, permitted the Jews to return to their homeland, to reestablish a certain degree of local autonomy, and to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, which the Babylonians had destroyed. Nevertheless, they were not granted national independence, and Judah (known as Yehud in Aramaic) remained part of what was by then the Persian Empire. Accounts of the return are found in Ezra-Nehemiah, which is named for two leaders of the restored Jewish community in Judah.

The book of Chronicles retells Israel’s history from Adam to Cyrus’ decree. Although in Jewish editions of the Bible Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles are not contiguous with Genesis through Kings, the biblical narratives tell a single continuous story that covers—as Jewish tradition counts it—three and a half millennia, from the creation of the world through Israel’s reestablishment after the exile. This sweeping narrative was not created all at once. Over the course of several centuries many, sometimes disparate, accounts of the past were collected, combined, revised, and ultimately accepted as the authoritative account of Israel’s history. The account, like much ancient historiographical writing, is not always a record of actual events. Some of the narrated events clearly happened, but others are based on legends or folk traditions, and some are in conflict with archaeological evidence and extrabiblical sources.

The important point is that this is Israel’s story, the lens through which ancient Israel perceived itself, its origins, the formative events that shaped it, and its relationship with God and with other peoples. Israel’s story is, in fact, largely the story of its relationship with God. It begins with God’s first act, the creation of the world, and God remains a leading character throughout, as does Israel. The biblical narrative interprets the past from a religious perspective, showing that all events are under God’s guidance and that Israel’s success depends on adherence to God’s commands.