THE AMAZING CONTENTS

45 Lets Explore the Bible

67 What Happened in the Beginning?
89 Paradise in a Garden
& p.36 1011 A Boat, a Flood, and a Promise
1213 How Did One Family Become a Nation?
1415 Problems and Plagues in Egypt
1617 Tablets, The Red Sea, and a Golden Calf
1819 Worship in the Wilderness
2021 When Did Judges Rule?
2223 Everyday Life in Old Testament Times
2425 Giants in the Land
2627 The Golden Years of Israel
p.42 #
2829 The Good, the Bad, and the Faithful
3031 Voices in the Desert
3233 Captives in a Foreign Land
3435 Mysterious Messengers
3637 Decrees, Danger, and Devotion
3839 Everyday Life in New Testament Times
4041 Trumpets, Feasts, and Holy Days
@ p.52
4243 Where Is the Newborn King?
4445 Fishermen, Followers, and Friends
4647 Could He Be the One?
4849 Teaching with Parables
5051 Crowded Streets and Angry Mobs
& p.63
5253 Enter the Gates of the Holy City
5455 The Dark Day
5657 Lies, Rumors, and Hope
5859 The Messiah
6061 How Did the Church Get Started?
6263 When Rome Ruled the World
6465 Those In Charge
6667 Strange Idols and Prison Cells
6869 Shipwrecks and Caesar
7071 Writing the Rest of the Bible
7273 The Bible in Its Time
7475 Whos Who in the Old Testament
* p.67 7677 Whos Who in the New Testament
7880 Photo Credits
 LETS EXPLORE THE BIBLE

T
he Bible is the most famous book in the world! More copies TREASURE HUNTERS
have been published and sold than any other book in history. Archaeologists work carefully to dig up
More people have read it, studied it, and talked about it than treasures from the past. They look for
any other book ever known to exist. But what exactly is the Bible? clues to help us understand the Bible,
And who wrote this all-time bestseller? It all started with Moses. the people who wrote the Bible, and
He was the first to write things down. But he didnt just write what life was like in Bible times.
his own words. In Exodus 24:4 we learn that Moses wrote
down the very words God said himself. From then on,
# These ancient pens
men were inspired by God to write down Gods holy
were discovered in Qumran.
word. They wrote about giants, dangerous plagues, Called a stylus, each is
and chariots of fire, mysterious angels, miraculous made from a palm leaf. A
healings, and raising people from the dead. Most scribe dipped the pointed
end of the stylus into
of all, however, they wrote about Gods plan. From
a pot of ink. Then the
Map #034 Amazing Discoveries
The Bible Jesus Read beginning to end, scribe used the stylus
the Bible talks to write.
about Gods plan
for his people
a

and for you. So

Se
n

L ILEE
get ready for
ea

A
ran

G Sea of
adventure. Lets
iter

Galilee
explore the Bible! & As a result of Jewish # A grassy reed called papyrus grew in Egypt
Med

Nazareth rebellion, Roman soldiers along the Nile River. Papyrus reeds were cut, then soaked
destroyed communities like in water. The reeds were laid one on top of another and
the one at Qumran. During pounded or rolled flat until they mashed together.
Jo r d a n R .

SAMAR these times, scribes hid their This process would make a form of paper called papyrus. This
IA scrolls in jars like this one. man is processing reeds to make papyrus.
The dry desert heat preserved
them for nearly 2,000 years.
THRILLING DISCOVERY
In 1947 a young Bedouin shepherd lost some of his goats. Looking in a cave, Did You Know?
Jerusalem Qumran
he found several clay jars containing ancient scrolls. Little did he realize he had The most famous scroll found
JU
stumbled onto one of the most important discoveries in the history of the Bible. at Qumran is the Isaiah scroll.
DE
Twenty-four feet long, it is
a

A Over the next 20 years, archaeologists and local people found 28 scrolls. They
Dead Se

0 10 km.
also discovered 100,000 fragments that pieced together to make 875 more written on 17 sheets of leather
sewn together end to end.
0 10 miles
manuscripts. They were 1,000 years older than any other book of the Bible in
existence. Many dated back This scroll contains the entire
DEVOUT COMMUNITY 2,000 years to the time of text of the book of Isaiah.
This map shows an archaeological site Comparing the words on the
Jesus. Some were even older
called Qumran. It is in the northwest Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible
than that! Known as the Dead
region of the Dead Sea. It was here we have today shows us how
that a community of Jews, the Essenes, Sea Scrolls, we have learned accurate the process has been
probably lived. They were there from many things about the history over thousands of years to
about 130 BC to AD 68. They copied of the Bible from studying them preserve Gods Word from each The different manuscripts found in Qumran were
scrolls of the Hebrew Bible as well as and exploring the region where generation to the next. written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Latin, and Greek.
other documents. they were found.
4 5
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BEGINNING?

T
he Bible says that in the beginning God created the whole world in six days. God had the power SIR ISAAC NEWTON
and wisdom to create a world exactly how he wanted and in a way he knew was best. Some Isaac Newton (16421726) is one of
people debate whether God created the world in seven actual days or if each day lasted longer the most famous scientists who ever
than 24 hours. But the truth is all that mattersthat God created the world and humans in his image. lived. He read and studied his Bible daily.
He said that the more he investigated
the amazing details of creation as a
HEBREW CALENDAR scientist, the better he knew God.
In the year 2000, the date was 5761
on the Hebrew calendar. According to
Jewish tradition, the Hebrew calendar
starts with the year the world was
created.

# This ancient Hebrew mosaic

shows the zodiac inside the
circle and the seasons of the
year in each corner.

A MARVELOUS DESIGNER
What if you saw a sandcastle? Would you think the waves created it by chance? Of
course not! You would know someone built it. Its the same with creation. The more
scientists study it, the more we understand it couldnt have happened by chance.
Someone with intelligence designed the marvels of the universe and put everything
in its place. The Bible tells us that this someone is God.

& Ibises have

long, down-curved
bills, and usually Did You Know?
feed as a group,
probing mud for
Jesus is God. And God created the world and everything in it. Colossians 1:1516 says, The
food items, usually Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were
crustaceans. created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. To learn more about
creation, read Genesis 1:12:3.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
In the book of Job, God asks Job
important questions such as, Who
gives the ibis wisdom or gives the
rooster understanding? (Job 38:36).
The answer is God. God also asks
Job, Does the hawk take flight by
your wisdom and spread its wings
toward the south? (Job 39:26). The
answer is God. In his great wisdom,
God designed animals with instincts to DAY ONE: DAY TWO: DAY THREE: DAY FOUR: DAY FIVE: DAY SIX: DAY SEVEN:
know when and where to migrate, what God made light. God made sky God made seas and God made the sun and God made fish God made land animals God rested and enjoyed
to eat, or how to build a nest. and water. land and plants. moon and stars. and birds. and man and woman. his creation.
6 7
PARADISE IN A GARDEN

W
ho were the first man and woman? How did they get here? RED EARTH % The horned viper is a poisonous snake
What part of the world did they come from? People have in Israel.
Genesis 2:7 says God formed the
wondered about these questions for thousands of years. first man from dust. The name Adam
Some archeologists have devoted their lives to searching for clues. sounds like the Hebrew word for red. Bla c k Sea
Many scholars have debated for years about how to interpret the In the mountains of Turkey, the dirt is
meaning of scientific data and material culture from ancient times. very red. This causes some scholars to
Ar a r a t
Mt .
Every person seems to have an opinion. Today, with modern speculate that the lost rivers of Eden
Ede n? Caspian
technology as well as the Bible itself, we know more than any
Sea
T U R K E Y
ran through this region.
other generation.
I R A N

% At 1,780 miles long, the Euphrates River is the longest river in this part of the world.

Ti g
Beginning in the country of Turkey, it flows through Syria and then joins the Tigris River Eu p

ris
SYRIA hra
before running into the Persian Gulf.

R.
LEBANON tes
R
Mediterranean

.
Sea
ISRAEL I R A Q

Jerusalem

JORDAN Ede n?
P
G ers
Sin a i
S A U D I ul ia
f n Did You Know?
When God placed Adam
A R A B I A

and Eve in the Garden of

0 200 km.
Red

Ni
0 200 miles
Eden, he gave them the

le
Se a

R.
freedom to eat fruit from
any tree except one. They
werent allowed to eat from
the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil. If they
did, God said they would
certainly die. Do you
know what happened
next? A serpent struck up
a conversation with Eve.
The snake was Satan in
THE GARDEN OF EDEN disguise. Satan tempted
Genesis 2:78 says God created Eve and it worked. Eve
Adam and put him in a beautiful and Adam both ate fruit
garden in Eden. But nobody knows from the forbidden tree.
for sure where Eden was. The Bible The punishment for Adam
gives us the names of four rivers and Eves sin was to be
that flowed from the garden, but banished from the garden.
two do not exist today. The other To learn more about Adam
two rivers mentioned are the Tigris ! This clay tablet is from Sumer, known
today as Iraq. The wedge-shaped writing and Eve, the serpent, and
and Euphrates. Those rivers flowed is called cuneiform. The story describes Gods eternal plan, read
through ancient Mesopotamia, the edin, a land of abundance, and is Genesis 3:124.
modern-day country of Iraq. probably the earliest mention of Eden.
8 9
A BOAT, A FLOOD, AND A PROMISE

T
here are over 200 accounts of a huge flood in the writings of & The Book of Genesis provides
ancient cultures. The story in the Bible describes how Noahs us with information about
sons and their wives spread out around the world after the Noah and his ark. It provides
a genealogy of Noahs family,
floodwaters dried up. The flood story was likely retold by various making it possible to calculate
storytellers in different cultures who added details from their own the approximate year the flood
traditions. occurredabout 2500 BC.
Genesis 6:15 also gives the
dimensions of the ark, about as
FLOOD STORIES long as one and a half football
China, Hawaii, Mexico, Ireland, and fields.
Greece are just a few of the places
that have stories about a flood. For & Some scholars calculate that Noah took 16,000 animals on board the ark.
example, the Epic of Gilgamesh comes That adds up to 12 tons of animal waste every day.
from ancient Nineveh in the kingdom
of Babylonia. It tells of a king learning
about the flood by traveling through the
underworld.

# As the waters of the flood

dried up, the ark settled on the
mountains of Ararat. Even
though many explorers have
looked for the remains of the
ark, it has never been found.
& Noah took pairs of
every kind of animal
into the ark.

A SPECIAL PROMISE
Did you know? The Bible says God
The book of Genesis sent a flood to
says pairs of every kind wash away sinful
of animal came to Noah. people from the
But he also brought in world. But the WORLDS FIRST SKYSCRAPER
seven pairs of some rainbow God Noahs descendants spread eastward.
animals that were good sends is a They found a flat region and settled
for food. After the sign of Gods there. Then they had an idea. Theyd
flood, the animals were promise build a tower so high it would reach up
released to multiply and never to send to heaven. The Bible says they were
fill up the earth again. a worldwide trying to make a name for themselves.
To learn more about flood again. Instead, God confused their language
Noah, the animals, the Whenever you so they couldnt finish the Tower of
ark, and the flood, read see a rainbow, Babel. From there, they spread out
Genesis 6:99:17. remember this all over the world, speaking in many
special promise of God. different languages.
10 11
HOW DID ONE FAMILY BECOME A NATION? Did You Know?
Abraham grew to be very

T
wealthy with vast numbers
he ancient city of Ur was a center of business, wealth,
of camels, goats, oxen, and
and culture. Abram, his wife Sarai, and the rest of
sheep. He acquired riches in
their family called Ur home. In the book of Genesis,
silver and gold. One account
God called Abram to leave his home and move. God
even says he had 318 men
promised to give this new land of Harran to Abram and
trained in warfare to protect
his descendants forever. Did Abram complain or refuse to
his family and riches.
budge? No, Abraham took his wife, all their possessions,
and a nephew named Lot, and followed Gods lead. He
stepped out in faith. He chose to believe God and the
promises God made to him.
Abraham and the Twelve Tribes of Israel
& This ancient game was discovered in a tomb in Ur.
ABRAHAMS FAMILY TREE
married The Bible gives us the historical account of Abraham
and how his family became a nation. It tells about
PITCHING THEIR TENTS Hagar Abraham Sarah Abrahams son Ishmael, Abrahams son of promise
Traveling in Abrahams day was not the (CONCUBINE)
Isaac, and his grandson Jacob (who eventually
same as today. It was dangerous. There
became known as Israel). His 12 great-
were wild animals, robbers, and warring married
grandsons became the 12 tribes of the
kings. Plus the wilderness was hot,
Ishmael Isaac Rebekah nation of Israel.
dusty, and dry. Abraham and his family
lived in tents as they traveled.
& Cloth for tents was usually woven married married
from goats hair.
#9 Mesopotamia Leah Jacob
map_01_12_abraham
Rachel ~75%
Bilhah Zilpah
(ISRAEL) (CONCUBINE) (CONCUBINE)
CENTER OF TRADE
Abram was born in the city of Ur in 2166 BC, at the height of its wealth
and strength. The power of its kings stretched westward from Ur to the
Mediterranean Sea. Ur was joined to the Euphrates River by canals,
establishing it as a center of trade within the ancient world.

Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun Joseph Benjamin Dan Naphtali Gad Asher
# Most
houses in Ur
were built THE COMMAND TO MOVE Harran

Balikh
from bricks of When Abram and his family first left Emar

R.
baked mud. Ur, they settled in Harran. Abram Tuttul

Ti
Rooms were

gris
was 75 years old when he heard Eu p hr
often designed ate

R.
Mari s
to surround God call him to leave Harran and

R.
Damascus
a central move 450 miles southwest to the
courtyard. land of the Canaanites. At the time of Shechem
the covenant, God changed Abram and Salem
Ur
Sarais names to Abraham and Sarah. pt (Tell el-Maqayyar)
! This mosaic shows a king of Ur feasting with friends. To E
gy Abrams migration route
Abrams alternative migration route

Pe u l f
0 100 km.

rs
G
12 0 100 miles 13

ia
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