We have several timelines at our home. One is a long accordion-style chart in a book; some are little posters on just a few years or topics of history; one is a super-detailed, very thick book; many are part of various history books; and four of them are being made in binders by the oldest three children and myself.
The Amazing Bible Timeline is a welcome addition to our collection. It features a unique circular format that is relatively easy to see at a glance, and it covers Bible and world history from 4000 BC to 2000 AD. An index of people mentioned on the timeline fills the bottom corners. I love that each century takes up an equal amount of space; it makes it so obvious that our lifetimes are just a tiny blip in the entire history of the world—something we tend to forget.
The purpose of this timeline is:
- to see the order of Biblical events
- to visualize the length of time between Biblical or world events
- to coordinate Biblical history with secular history.
Unique features of this timeline are:
- its compact, circular shape
- color coding of nations according to their descent from the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth
- dates from Creation (listed at 4004 BC) as well as the usual BC/AD dating system
- having both detailed Bible history as well as world history on the same timeline
- an associated blog and site that deal with various chronology questions
- detailed history of ancient North and South America
- detailed history of the Roman Catholic Church
This timeline comes with some free bonuses,
- an interactive map of the Holy Land with overlays of the political boundaries at different times
- two digital timelines, one identical to the wall chart as well as a linear version
- two artist’s versions of the genealogy of Jesus Christ
- an opportunity to sign up for future free bonuses
About Timelines in General and This One in Particular
Ancient history timelines can be quite controversial because no one is certain of the dates. This timeline follows the King James Bible and Ussher’s Chronology, instead of the two other major chronology options available. (Research on ancient history chronology is ongoing, especially with regards to Egyptian dates, which are often considered a benchmark for ancient history dating. There is some lively and fascinating work done by David Rohl. But I digress.)
There’s another reason all timelines are controversial: It’s because decisions have to be made about what to include and what to leave out. For that reason, no timeline that we’ve seen is balanced. In this one, Canada is largely ignored, but we’re used to that. Roman Catholic history is included in quite a bit of detail. A lot of space is given to the Americans long ago, with reading suggestions about fascinating early-American legends and the speculations arising from them. I couldn’t find much about Africa or Australia. On the other hand, the pre-flood part of the Amazing Bible Timeline is a real eye-opener. It’s also neat to see what was happening in the world during different times in the Bible. For example, King Solomon lived around the time Homer was writing, and Buddha and King Josiah were contemporaries. As with all our timelines, we have some issues with what is left out of this one, and some issues with what is included. I suppose that’s why we’re each making our own individual timelines in binders—we get to pick our own fascinations and biases! (Grin.)
When we took the sturdy timeline out of its careful packaging, we spread it out on the living room floor and weighed the corners down with encyclopedia volumes. We crawled around it, reading and exclaiming, and Littlest Miss was even on top of it. That was not a good idea, so we decided to hang it in our upstairs foyer, right beside the bathroom door. We’ve got it low enough that the little ones can read the top entries, but taller people will need to pull up a footstool (stored in the bathroom) to read the lower part of it. Even though this timeline is huge [37” by 45”], it’s the only one of our timelines that can be seen without either moving along it or flipping pages, and it’s the only one that we’re willing to put up on the wall. (An extra bonus is that Littlest Miss is using the pre-flood names to practice her phonics.)
For other reviews see the Homeschool Crew blog. Note that some of the Homeschool Crew reviewers were distressed that there is a Mormon reference on this chart; that Mormon beliefs may have influenced the inclusion of detailed information about the ancient Americans; and that one of the sources referred to in the ancient America section is a Mormon document.
However, in our family we have timelines by atheists, we read history books by humanists, we deal with the pervasive US bias in much homeschooling curriculum, we read novels by Arminians, and we study the literature of pagans. Materials that would completely meet our worldview are rare and we’re continually looking for them. In the meantime, we use what is available. In each case, as long as we know what the bias of a resource is (and that’s a major teaching point in our house), we are able to glean quantities of helpful knowledge even though we may disagree with many basic assumptions and worldviews.
To Purchase
The Amazing Bible Timeline is available for $29.97 US plus $6.00 shipping and handling. Current downloadable bonuses include an interactive map of the Holy Land, two digital versions of the timeline itself, and two artist’s presentations of the genealogy of Christ.
Disclosure Policy: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a copy of the Amazing Bible Timeline as well as the free bonuses to review.
Great review! I liked how you addressed the biases that any curriculum materials may have and how you use them as a teaching tool.
I agree with Debbie. Excellent job.