Ashurnasirpal II, Assyrian Empire Builder
Ashurnasirpal II was a very powerful Assyrian king in the early to mid 800s BC (reigned 883BC – 859BC). He is not directly connected to the Bible but he and his son Shalmaneser III (reigned 859BC – 824BC) ruled Assyria for almost 60 years, building it into the war machine that would dominate the area […]
Ashurbanipal, Assyrian Lion Hunter
Assyrian King Ashurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria
Marduk-apla-iddina II, Babylonian King Who Possibly Allied with King Hezekiah
Marduk-apla-iddina II, a minor Babylonian king, appears briefly in the Bible. He was a sufficiently strong enough leader to rule the independent city-state of Babylon in opposition to Assyria, the superpower of the day. He seized control of Babylon in 722 or 721 BC when Sargon II, the third of three Assyrian kings who wiped […]
Sennacherib, Assyrian King Who Attacked King Hezekiah in Jerusalem
Sennacherib was an Assyrian king who is best known in the Bible for losing 185,000 soldiers in his failed attempt to conquer Jerusalem. He was a contemporary of King Hezekiah of the Kingdom of Judah, the prophet Isaiah and the Egyptian Pharaoh Tirhaqa, also mentioned in the Bible. He ruled for some 24 years, 705 […]
Sargon II, Last of 3 Assyrian Kings to Wipe Out Kingdom of Israel
Sargon II was the last of three Assyrian kings to attack the Northern Tribes (Kingdom of Israel) 732 – 722 BC. He succeeded his older brother, Shalmaneser V, and was himself succeeded by his son Sennacherib, the most prominently mentioned Assyrian king in the Bible. He was king for some 17 years, 722 – 705 […]
Shalmaneser V, Assyrian King who Helped Destroy Kingdom of Israel
Shalmaneser V was the second of three Assyrian kings to attack the Northern Tribes (Kingdom of Israel) 732 – 722 BC. He succeeded his father, Tiglath-Pileser III (sometimes called “Pul” in the Bible). He reigned only five years, 727 – 722 BC, before he died under mysterious circumstances. A younger brother, Sargon II, succeeded him. […]
King Jehu, Kingdom of Israel
In 841BC, the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser III (not mentioned in the Bible) wanted to show off the immense size of his kingdom. He did so by documenting a series of tribute payment visits on a black obelisk. These tribute payments include expensive objects, money and exotic animals. The penalty for not bringing the annual tribute was […]
Babylonian and Jewish Kings, Fellow Prisoners
Amel-Marduk, King Nebuchadnezzar’s son, succeeded his father to the throne of Babylonia to become the third ruler. Nebuchadnezzar II, featured prominently in the Bible, particularly in the book of Daniel, reigned 43 years, 605 – 562 BC, the longest of this Neo-Babylonian empire. His son, on the other hand, would serve the second shortest reign, […]
The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Babylonian Flood Account
Noah and the Flood – Genesis 6-9 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+6-9&version=NIV History is deluged by flood stories from civilizations throughout time and across the world. While the Bible’s Noah is one of the most well-known, China, South America and Africa also have similar accounts. One of the ancient Mesopotamian flood accounts tells how the hero Atrahasis built a […]
Oldest Flood Account For Which There Is Archaeological Evidence
The oldest archaeologically-supported account of a flood story.