2850 - 2360 BCE - Sumer.
ca. 2670 - 2160 Old Kingdom, Egypt.
ca. 2600 - 2450 Fourth Dynasty, Egypt -- Era of the Giza Pyramids.
2220 - 1900 Amorite invasions, Execration Texts. Phoenicians and Canannites are among these invaders.
1750 Hammurabi, First Dynasty, Babylon.
ca. 1650 - 1550 Semitic invaders called "Hyksos" ("princes of the foreign lands") rule Egypt. The Hyksos introduce the horse-drawn chariot and popularize the scarab as a symbol of good fortune (more).
ca. 1550 - 1070 New Kingdom in Egypt with its capital at Thebes (except for the reign of Akhnaton -- see immediately below). During this long period of expansion, stability, and prosperity, Egypt becomes a great power.
1352 - 1338 Reign of Amenophis IV, or Akhnaton ("the solar disk is content"). Akhnaton overthrows the Theban priesthood with its pantheon of many deities and replaces it with a monotheistic religion devoted to the sun god, Aten. Akhnaton moves the Egyptian capital from Thebes to Amarna. Some scholars have argued that Moses modeled Judaism after the worship of this single god. After Akhnaton's death, his son-in-law Tutenkhamon became Pharaoh, restored the old polytheistic system as before, and moved the capital back upriver to Thebes. Egypt's flirtation with monotheism was, therefore, brief.
ca. 1280 Traditional dating of the Exodus: Moses leads the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh Ramses II (1290-1224). I Kings 6:1 puts the date much earlier: in the fifteenth century (1437 BCE). A controversial recent argument (Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed, New York: The Free Press, 2001) considers the entire Old Testament practically up to the exile as a narrative constructed during the puritanical religious reform of King Josiah, 639-609 BCE (see below).
1250 - 1200 BCE Traditional dating of the "conquest" of Canaan under Joshua. On the walls of the Egyptian New Kingdom Temple of Karnak (at Thebes, modern Luxor) are reliefs depicting Pharaoh Merneptah's campaign on "Israel," 1211-1209 BCE. This may be the earliest visual representation of the Israelites: they are wearing Canaanite uniforms (ankle length cloaks). This has led some to conclude that the Israelites were synonymous with the Canaanites (go to Baalism: Canaanite Religion). The earliest written reference to "Israel" is found on the Merneptah Stele, 1207 BCE: "Israel is laid waste; his seed is not."
1200 - 1020 Tribal League (Judges).
1050 BCE Battle of Aphek/Ebenezer: Hebrews defeated by Philistines who capture the Ark of the Covenant (I Samuel 4). The Ark was a portable shrine believed to be the footstool of the throne upon which the invisible Israelite god sat, dwelling or "tenting" (mishkan) with his people. The Ark may have been transported about in a portable tent shrine.
1020 - 1000 The era of the Hebrew monarchy begins with the accession of King Saul.
1000 - 961 Rule of King David. The J (or Jahwist) biblical narrative may date to this period.
961 - 922 BCE Rule of King Solomon, First Temple.
922 The Hebrew kingdom splits (Israel, capital at Samaria; and Judah, capital at Jerusalem).
722 Israel falls to Assyria.
639 - 609 Reign of the Hebrew king Josiah, who in 622 initiated a puritanical reform of the Hebrew religion after the unearthing of a book of the "Law" during renovations of the temple in Jerusalem. The core of the book, preserved in the Bible's "Book of Deuteronomy," may, in the view of some, mark the real beginning of Jewish monotheism (Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed, New York: The Free Press, 2001).
587-586 Judah falls to Babylon under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar.
586 Exile in Babylon, compilation and editing of the Pentateuch (by P-School, Ezra, or both).
538 Edict of Cyrus: Jews return to Judah, rebuild temple with funds provided by Cyrus of Persia (Ezra 1: 2-4, 6: 3-5). II Isaiah proclaims Cyrus the "anointed" (Messiah/Christ - 45:1).
333 Alexander the Great defeats the Persians at Issus.
168 The Jewish temple is profaned by the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes who plunders its treasury and erects a statue of Zeus there, an event that may be what the phrase "abomination that causes desolation" in Daniel 12:11 refers to.
168 - 160 Revolt of the Maccabees. Greek rule is overthrown. The Jewish family of Hasmon assumes rule.
ca. 150-80 The monastic Jewish Essene community of Qumran is founded on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.
63 The Roman general Pompey conquers Palestine.