The Bronze Age Collapse and the Bible

Around the year 1200 B.C., a catastrophic series of events reshaped the Eastern Mediterranean world at the end of the Bronze Age and ushered in the emergence of new social and political orders, including the people called Israelites.
Today, we are going to dive into the enigma that is the Bronze Age Collapse. Scholars debate what exactly happened during this period and why it happened, but we are going to focus on how this sequence of events impacted the world of the Bible and how understanding it can help us understand the Bible itself.
If you are interested in learning more about this topic we suggest you start here:
Eric Cline, 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.
Robert Drews, The End of The Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
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Images Credits:
Medinet Habu on West Bank in Luxor Egypt
Credit: Tim Adams
License: CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Mycenae Lion Gate
Credit: Elgaard
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/...
View of Citadel of Mycenae
Credit: George E. Koronaios
License: CC 1.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Legal Text Tablet
Credit: Rama
License: CC BA-SY 3.0 FR creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Megaron of Tiryns
Credit: David Mauro
License CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Drawings of the Medient Haby Reliefs are in the Public Domain but can be found in - James Henry Breasted, The monuments of Sudanese Nubia, report of the work of the Egyptian Expedition, Season of 1906-1907 (1908), vol 1 and G. Maspero - ed. A.H. Sayce - trad. M.L. McClure, History of Egypt Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, VI.C, London, 1903-1904.
Many of the images used are part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and were put in the Public Domain. For more incredible images and helpful descriptions please visit metmuseum.org. Their collection in large part makes these videos possible so “Thank you!” to the Met for their commitment to make their collection available to the public free to use.
All other Images are in the Public Domain or are credit due to the Beneath the Bible team.
We believe all images are used under Fair Use
Music Credit:
Cutting it Close - DJ Freedem
Wrong - Dan Henig

[@cuebj]

Became Christian from atheism at university, 1974, UK. Attended Summer School of Biblical Studies hosted by what was then Campus Crusade for Christ UK&NI. Included a superb 2-week course on Bible Study Methods. Being into linguistics, history, philosophy, I lapped it up. Bought and devoured second hand books, eg FF Bruce, Israel and The Nations. Summarised and mapped OT era movements. It was obvious the east Med region waxed as Egypt and Mesopotamia waned. Very briefly, David and Solomon won the regional tussles to trade in heavy weapons and distort their own tribal networks and economy. Egypt stronger by late 10th century BCE after 150 years at low ebb ended Israel's boom when Solomon died. Aram-Syria waxed as Aramæan migrations took over as threat to northern group of Israelites. Mesopotamia recovered as threat from further north. All that was obvious and a very necessary corrective to some simplistic pietistic teachings in Christian Unions and churches. Years later, did Theology degree, Hebrew to go with my Greek, ANE history. Hats off to CCC UK for it's encouragement to go thorough right from the start as a new Christian. God at work in history, the Bible itself, read carefully, presents a more complex development than how it is often summarised. History and archæology often support what Bible actually says rather than what simplistic preachers assume. Jaques Ellul very useful as a way to read Kings.

[@outtheboxkenya9227]

Thank you for this insightful video guys ❤️🇰🇪🙏

[@henry-bo3np]

One record of a food shortage in the Levant around 1200 BCE is the Bible where we read about the story of Joseph, of a great famine in Canaan and Egypt, and of the birth of the Jewish people and Israel

[@cuebj]

If Bible timeline is followed, Joseph about 1800 BCE. 1150 to 1200 BCE is middle Judges era, 200 years after Joshua. There are numerous studies that support a return to early Exodus and Joseph possibly identified in a defaced statue from way back about 1800. LBAC does give a context for chaos of Judges era with Egypt withdrawn from the region and Philistines settling on the coast after failing to smash Egypt but merely wounding it.

[@henry-bo3np]

@@cuebj, the First Temple was built around 960 BC. It seems likely then that the Jewish people crossed into Canaan around the time of the Bronze Age Collapse. Also, not sure but some of the plagues of Egypt might correspond to some of the awful difficulties that caused the Bronze Age Collapse?

[@kriegjaeger]

​@henry-bo3np Consider the Hebrews in joeseph stomped flat multiple kings and razed cities of Canaan as God's judgement in them was fulfilled. This absolutely would be seen historically as a collapse Akin to the mongols flattening civilizations

[@henry-bo3np]

@@kriegjaeger, consider that the Jewish people are still around, and thriving. Given all that has happened, some argue that is a greater miracle than the Exodus.

[@kriegjaeger]

@@henry-bo3np And the nation being restored is prophecy fulfilled! But few consider or appreciate it.

[@user-px5dd7bs1d]

Great channel

[@sendawulakajubi2991]

I always felt that the book of Judges was the ancient scribes’s way of describing this period.

[@FlyingAlfredoSaucer]

Yeah, and I also thought that the Book of Samuel was recording the end of the Bronze Age Collapse or the aftermath, with the war between Israel and Philistia

[@TheMrgoodmanners]

I suggest anyone interested in this subject to go check out this channel called study of antiquities and the middle ages. They have a trove of videos on the bronze age collapse

[@cuebj]

Second chap swallows his words. Difficult to distinguish and follow sentences. I'm only slightly hard of hearing and don't usually need to get out headphones. Not good speaking technique

[@samuelchen3922]

Good job with this channel. Often understanding of ANE history Is lacking. But with regard to this video, Isn’t it an anachronistic problem to have Abraham residing in the land of the philistines, since as stated in the video, the sea people arrive at the fall of the Bronze Age which reflects a time period later than Moses. Secondly, could you follow up with a comparison of Moses to Sargon?

[@armageddonwillhappen]

It was the plagues on Egypt! That caused the collapse, right?

[@justinsankar1164]

N-no...

[@TheScamr]

Timewise it would be closer to the famine in Caanan that lead Abraham to flee to Egypt and have his troubles with Sara and Pharoah.

[@cuebj]

No. Plagues about 1450. 250 years before LBAC began. And the Collapse was most complete in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus. Egypt and Mesopotamia were hit hard but didn't disappear. Bronze is 90% copper - widely available. 10% tin - only available in a few places like Cornwall and Afghanistan. The whole extended civilisation that had lasted for millennia was vulnerable to interruption of tin supply. Also, early stages of iron as a far more common material made far more democratic weapons that undermined old ways of doing war. Many factors in LBAC

[@CD-CH-EB]

i always thought earthquake theory was the dumbest theory ive ever heard, having studied the collapse moderately enough.

[@rsmllc2]

You can check bible timelines online, but circa 1200-1170 BC corresponds to the time of Eli and Obed, and most importantly the prophet Samuel. Samuel's time transitioned Israel from rule by the prophets to rule by kings. The domination of civilization by city-states during the Bronze Age was purposed by God to facilitate Israel having its theocratic anarchy based government accepted by its neighbors for centuries. The cry of Israelites to then have a king "like all the other nations" reflected the changing post-Bronze order.

[@cuebj]

It would be about 100 years before Samuel. Philistines well settled on coast and moving inland. Tribal confederations of Hebrews settled in hills inland. Tussels for control of trade routes and rivers as the two settler groups came into contact during Eli, Samuel, Saul, David era during 11th century, not 12th

[@justinnamuco9096]

Institutional/bureaucratic collapse?

[@joepaul1644]

Soviet Union perhaps

[@magdycomics]

Or, may be the Bible was a natural response to these major collapses. In a world that have no historians, sociologists and/or writers the Bible was a great solution also to embed morals in an attempt to contain the chaos.

[@CHURCHISAWESUM]

I would hesitate to say that the religions of Judaism and Christianity are primarily about imparting a system of morals. They really do claim to be transcendental in nature and with regard to revelations from a creator God they hold to be above human morals and in some ways beyond human comprehension.

[@jimyoung9262]

Nope

[@ert-wert]

Actually record keeping and history was a huge part of ancient civilizations. Ever heard of a scribe? There job was literally to be record keepers. Most of our understanding in history is all thanks to the worldwide use of scribes,

[@jeromebarry1741]

Bronze used 9 parts copper smelted with 1 part tin to produce bronze. Tin deposits were rare and difficult to reach. The Bronze Age collapse occurred because people discovered that iron could be smelted from easily found widespread deposits of iron ore. Iron weapons were cheaper than bronze weapons, and were the first great equalizer. Climate change occurring about the same time provided an additional stress on governments which ultimately were unable to survive the combination of weaker internals plus stronger externals. That Egypt was the only Bronze Age power to survive the Bronze Age collapse testifies to the relatively less impact climate change had on the more equatorial region as well as the greater time Egypts pharaohs had to Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act to defend against the opportunistic invaders.

[@LeeFromAsia]

Basically supply chain destruction right?

[@Benjumanjo]

There is no evidence of climate change occuring at that time period, according to this video, which I assume you didn't actually bother to watch.

[@jackfrench7176]

@@Benjumanjo There is evidence, ancient spore samples that suggest a desert-like environment in Greece, for example, that imply a period of global warming. Maybe not mentioned in the video, but well documented in general.

[@Benjumanjo]

​@@jackfrench7176 Global warming makes deserts turn green from the increased humidity.

[@jackfrench7176]

@@Benjumanjo it's not that cut and dry, man. Something like the global climate is too complicated for such hard and fast rules

[@CD-CH-EB]

Just because you find arrowheads doesnt mean its a natural disaster, it could have been a freak arrow storm. lol if ugarits destruction was in the bible that is what the athiests would say. Anything to disagree with the bible.