The Ancient Near Eastern time is the historically important era for the study of human existence. During this period, we can find a bunch of ancient civilizations, the oldest, and the greatest ones. According to the recordings, this region included Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Egypt, Israel, and Greece, which was closely related to these lands in cultural and historical terms. All those countries had a considerable impact on the cultural and political development of the related world, but their contribution to religious issues was, perhaps, of paramount importance as those civilizations serving as the cradle of Christianity and Judaism. Therefore, most of the historic, cultural, and social aspects were perpetuated in the Scripture thus serving the basis of most biblical themes and legends.
From the historical point of view, the Bible is the main source disclosing life in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and, therefore, this region is often called the Bible World. Hence, there are many writings devoted to the description of those lands. Certainly, the Scripture cannot be referred as to a veritable historical source; still, most scholarly authors can consider it as the history of ancient Israel or Egypt. For instance, Moses, Abraham, and the Exodus closely relate to history. In Torah, the sacred writings included in the Hebrew Bible or Tanah, we can also pursue a certain historical description of the political situation: “And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god…” (Daniel 1:1 Hebrew Bible Version). The political and social life is brightly represented in Exodus of the Hebrew Bible: “Now these [are] the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob” (Exodus 1:1 Hebrew Bible Version).
It is worth mentioning that Hebrew Bible closely relates to the archeological investigation where the sacred writings serve as the basis for the identification of the findings. It was of great importance, as archeologists are striving to discover evidence of the events described in the Bible. In that regard, the greatest archeologist in this research can be considered Albright who raised the question about the historicity of the biblical text, the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Although it is still impossible to prove that the Scripture is not a myth, there are many findings that indirectly emphasize the validity of the events.
It is also recognized that the Hebrew Bible is on the guard of cultural life taking place in the Near East. In other words, the Bible also served as the bearer of knowledge about cultural achievements in that region. Most cultural aspects are reflected in the Bible through the description of myths about the creation of the world and Moses’ travelling through Sena desert and other famous myths. Nevertheless, many a true word is spoken in myths.
The texts contained in the Hebrew Bible, are also of great value for the scholars who are focused on investigating and comparing the materials about the Ancient Near Eastern. Those studies reveal a lot of valuable information thus serving to outline some differences and similarities of Near East and Israelite literature.
Drawing a conclusion, it is worth saying that the Hebrew Bible is the veritable historical and cultural source disclosing the life on the lands of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Israel. Despite the fact that there are many issues that are still vaguely represented in the Scripture, it also serves as a main source of numerous scholarly oriented works.