trinitylutheranchurch

This is not a book so much as it is a fold-out timeline. It is rather impressive in many respects, both its size and the production quality, which is very high (fold-out books need to have stronger material to stand up to the wear-and-tear of time). This can be a useful guide for children who need to have a sense of history at the broad strokes.

Of course, the further back in time one goes, the more controversial the particular dating becomes. This timeline follows a more traditional pattern of the creation being approximately 4000 years before Christ/Common Era - a dating system that can be seen in many King James Version bibles and others that was codified by Bishop Usher (1581-1656), who set the creation in 4004 B.C. by essentially counting backward.

The times of the Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, and others is a matter of constant revision with increasing archaeological and historical research, but in broad terms, the eras are fairly well known, and they correspond to these panels in most cases. The closer to the New Testament times, the more settled historical research tends to be, and hence these panels tend to be more accurate from a dating standpoint.

The text underneath the timelines also draws in Biblical and extra-Biblical material to highlight events. There are also pictures and graphics of key figures and events.

The timelines themselves take different courses, for different persons and peoples. This is a very good way to introduce visual learners to the way historical events overlap.

Overall, this timeline should not be taken as 'gospel', but rather a good-faith attempt to correlate the biblical text in a traditional interpretation with the major strokes of history known today.