Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide
FOREWORD The ancient Near East is as fascinating as it is vast The more archaeologists dig up the more questions we seem to have The more ques tions we have the more fun it becomes trying to answer them This is especially true of the peoples who lived in the land once called Canaan namely the Philistines Phoenicians and Israelites Though the region is very small roughly the size of Lake Michigan it has fascinated people for hundreds of years This fascination is due in part to the huge impact that the Bible has had on world history and on the three great religious traditions of Judaism Christianity and Islam In fact you could even say that if we didn't have the Bible the world we live in today would be very different Certainly three of the religions that are most familiar to us today would be different Yet it isn't just the religions of these ancient peoples that interest us but also their cul tures their languages the way they built their homes the way they traveled the food they ate the clothes they wore the music they listened to and of course their many interesting stories Yet speaking as a scholar of the ancient Near
East I can honestly say that getting to know the ancient Israelites Philistines and Phoenicians can be a difficult task since there are so many things we don't know about them The Bible of course and few other ancient texts do give us insights into their world but even these records don't answer all of our questions The discoveries of archaeologists also shed light on the world of these peoples but archaeolo gists can provide only part of the picture So getting to know these ancient peoples is sort of like trying to put together a big jigsaw puzzle that is missing a lot of its pieces What makes this book so great is that it gives us the largest and most important pieces to the puzzle and shows us how to have fun putting them together Marian Broida introduces us firsthand to the Israelites Philistines and Phoenicians by showing us how to make food they might have eaten yummy and how to construct models of their ancient homes ships musical instruments and pottery She even shows us how to write in the ancient Israelite alpha bet a script that hasn't been taught to kids for over 2 000 years What's more and this your parents might like to know is that this book informs us about these ancient cultures and their religions with historical accuracy and sensitivity to the complex issues sur rounding the study of ancient Israel and its neigh bors This book then is interesting informative accurate and most of all it is fun So grab some
Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide
Children can try their hand at re-creating ancient Israelite culture in a way that will provide perspective on current events.
