The Empires of the Bible from the Confusion of Tongues to the Babylonian Captivity

DISTINCTLY A STUDY OF THE BIBLE

As the Bible transcends all other means of knowing both the order and the true meaning of the course of events on the earth, the Bible has supplied the thread upon which has been strung the whole story in the Empire Series. Whoever will study this history can not fail to see how exactly the story of the events fits upon the thought of the Bible, and how easily the history is then understood and how satisfactorily everything is explained. It will be seen that from beginning to end the record in the Bible and that outside of the Bible are but the complement of each other: and this not merely in general outline, but in close detail. For instance, the Bible says that “Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.” But the Bible does not tell what it was in which Hezekiah had offended and that caused him thus to surrender without any defense whatever of his capital. Yet Sennacherib’s history does tell what Hezekiah’s offense was (see “Empires of the Bible,” chapter 23, paragraph 15-23). On the other hand, the Assyrian records tell that “Sennacherib’s reign was ended by an insurrection in which he was murdered by his own son;” but does not give the name nor tell what became of his sons who raised the insurrection, but who did not succeed to the kingdom (see “Empires of the Bible,” chapter 23, paragraph 85, and chapter 24, paragraphs 1-3); yet the Bible gives the names of these sons of Sennacherib, and tells that they “escaped into Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.” ⁴¹ Like instances might be multiplied indefinitely; indeed, the history itself when fully written from both sides presents almost an infinite series of such instances, and is but a perpetual demonstration of the absolute unity of the Bible and the history; and that true history is obtained only when the two are joined in the one story which they essentially are. EB xxviii.1

The study of this history, therefore, in the Empire Series is from beginning to end distinctly a study of the Bible. The first volume, “The Empires of the Bible,” is a study of the Bible as it relates to the history of the world from the confusion of tongues or peopling of the earth and the beginning of monarchy and empire, to the captivity of Israel to Babylon. The second volume, “The Great Empires of Prophecy,” is a study of the Bible as it relates to the history of the world under the great empires of Babylon, MedoPersia, Grecia, and Rome, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the fall of Rome. The third volume, “Ecclesiastical Empire,” is a study of the Bible as it relates to the history of the world in Western Europe through the Middle Ages, and the reign of the papacy in the Dark Ages. The fourth volume—“The Reformation, and the Great Nations of To-day”—is a study of the Bible as it relates to the Reformation, to Protestantism, to the career of Mohammedanism, and to the history of the East, culminating in the great nations of to-day and the all-absorbing Eastern Question. And throughout, the whole story is “to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men.” The author’s aim has been not so much to write a history of the world’s empires, as to construct a history from the best that has already been written, as far as possible in the very language of the best authorities; and with the history as it is in the Bible, and as it is outside the Bible, woven together into the one history which they really are. Thus the reader has before him the complete story from both sources, and largely in the exact words of the best history of each empire of period. Every consideration certainly justifies this as the best way to present the history of the world’s empires. For no one person could possible know or tell the story of all, so well as the story of each must be known and told by the person or persons who have especially studied and written it. This plan of presenting the history of each empire or period in the very language of the best authorities was entirely original with the author. But since the first edition of the Empire Series was published, this plans has received strong and most satisfactory endorsement in the publication in England and the United States of a large and full twenty-five volume History of the World that is constructed wholly upon this plan. And because of this feature alone, it is expected to, and undoubtedly will, supersede all others as the truest History of the World. With such endorsement of the plan of the work, it is with the more satisfaction that this new edition of the Empire Series is issued. EB xxix.1