Why the Middle East?

Saw an interesting social media post — perhaps a bit snarky — asking why in a complicated world of 7.4 billion people would the Bible appear to exclusively focus only on one general area: the Middle East? The snarky bit emphasizes the apparent myopic view of this ancient text, particularly as it focuses on numerous civilizations that have apparently vanished.

The Middle East - 6,000 years of human historySo that’s a fair question. Let’s apply Occam’s Razor for the answer. Occam’s Razor, or the Law of Parsimony, states: pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, “plurality should not be posited without necessity.”

In other words, let’s keep it simple. The simplest answer is generally — perhaps often — the best.

So would it be too difficult to place the mass of relevant human history in context? That context being the age of the physical universe (13-14 billion years) compared to the germane activity of humanity (~6,000 years).

They say that the visualization of data is one of the best ways to understand someone. Fortunately, the talented people at Metrocosm have taken the most comprehensive geo dataset available on cities (ancient and modern) and made it come alive.

Note below, at 3,450 B.C. (5,466 years ago), we only have one city, Uruk. History of humanity 3450 BCAnd not a very big one at that. It, of course, is in the Middle East. Modern day Saudi Arabia, give or take a few hundred miles.

Now continuing, we advance a couple of hundred years to the Bronze Age, where we now have the first vehicles with wheels. We also have a couple more cities. They are still very small in stature.

History of Humanity 3150 BC

Now let’s jump ahead about 1,000 years to the time when the Egyptian dynasties are marking their mark. We’re now at the time of the construction of the Great Pyramid, about 2,500 B.C.

History of Humanity 2575 BCHow are we looking for urbanized cities?

Still, only a handful. And, of course, all in the Middle East.

 

So let’s jump ahead another 1,000 years or so when the first dynasty appears in China. Still not very impressive in the amount of recognized historical cities. History of humanity 1475 BCAnd still intensely focused on the Middle East area.

So lest we get boring, let’s accelerate things at bit.

History of Humanity AD 25 - time of Jesus Christ

In AD 25 (or CE, if you prefer), the time when Jesus Christ walked to the earth as a human being, things have begun to heat up on the urbanization front. But are you noticing a trend?

history of humanity AD 1925

So over the next 1,900 years, a virtual population explosion takes place. From a collective few million people, the world population dramatically bursts to top the 7.4 billion mark. I invite to watch the dramatic explosion for yourself here.

But what’s the point, the simple answer? The area of Israel (ancient and modern-day) is basically the only continental land bridge that joins three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa. Major trade routes — the heart of commerce and transportation — have always passed through there. The land  and region of Israel represents the apex of ancient — and fairly modern — civilization. It is the only land that God openly designates as one promised to a people. And that’s a promise that will be fulfilled.

It is the most high profile historical region on the planet.

Numerous biblical oracles also extend beyond ancient Israel — the phrase “all nations” and similar like “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 2:8. New International Version) are not uncommon.

So here’s a consideration. The Bible has a global focus. And when it focuses on the area of the Middle East, perhaps the authors are doing so deliberately.