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Judaism

1900-1700 BCE: Life of Abraham, the first Jewish patriarch who was called by God to abandon the polytheistic religion of his father and journey to Canaan. With his wife Sara and his household, he left the land of Ur and abandoned the polytheistic religion of his father, who worshipped the old gods. Jews consider themselves to be the descendants of his son, Isaac.

1200 BCE: Moses leads the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. God called Moses from within a burning bush and revealed that he was the one God of Abraham. God told Moses to rebel against the Egyptian pharaoh and lead the people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and back into Canaan. During their travels, God appears before Moses on Mount Sinai an d gave him the Ten Commandments.

1010-970 BCE: David becomes the second king of Judah and Israel, and is remembered as Israel’s greatest king. David was a shepherd who was blessed by the prophet Samuel and sent to sing psalms in the court of Saul, who later dies in battle. After David takes the throne, he unites the Jewish kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and makes Jerusalem the capital.

961-931 BCE: King Solomon (son of David) builds the First Temple in Jerusalem, which became a permanent home for the Ark of the Covenant (a portable alter for the Ten Commandments). This temple was also a place for high priests to make burned offerings of animals, grain, and oil to God. It became the central place for Judaism during this time period.

585 BCE: Destruction of the First Temple by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. The King of Babylonia captured Jerusalem, emptied the Temple of its sacred treasures, dismantled the holy alter that contained the Ten Commandments, and destroyed the building. Many Jews who lived there were exiled (or banished) from Jerusalem and sent to live in Babylon.

561 BCE: Construction of the Second Temple is completed. King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to their holy city and rebuild their temple. The Second Temple came to symbolize the scattered Jewish nation, since many Jews continued to live in exile (banishment) from Jerusalem. A greater emphasis was placed on rituals and sacred texts in the Second Temple; as a result, a powerful priestly class grew to perform these holy duties.

70 CE: Destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. This event occurred after anti-Roman groups (called Zealots) encouraged the Jews start a revolt. The rebellion was not successful, and the Romans punished the Jews by slaughtering those who fought against them and destroying the Second Temple. All that remained is a wall on the western side of the Temple courtyard, known today as the “Western Wall.”

90-150 CE: The Canonization of the Hebrew Bible is complete. In other words, rabbis met and finalized which books would be considered part of the official Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh). It includes the Torah (the five books of Moses), the Nevi’im (stories of the Prophets), the Kethuvium (other sacred writings, like Psalms and Proverbs).

132-135 CE: After a second revolt against the Roman Empire, Jerusalem is destroyed and region is renamed Palestine. The remaining Jews who had not been executed were forbidden to participate in their religious traditions. No Jew was allowed to enter Jerusalem (which was rebuilt and renamed Aelia Capitolina) except on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, when they could pay to lean against its ruins (now called the Western Wall).

435-600 CE: The Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud are complete. These books include essays about the sacred texts, laws, and rituals of Judaism. It also records disagreements among rabbis (Jewish religious leaders), who sometimes came to different conclusions about their religion. One way to think about these texts is to call them “the Oral Torah” because they are a collection of sayings about the written Torah.

1095 CE: Jews became victims of mobs of Christian crusaders traveling through Europe with the intention to defend the Holy Land. The crusaders heard rumors that Christians were being harmed in Jerusalem by Muslims and Jews, so they retaliated by attacking Jews who did not agree with the doctrines of the Christian Church. In fact, the crusaders massacred so many Jews that they wiped out many prosperous Jewish communities in Germany.

1165 CE: Maimonides publishes Mishneh Torah, an important compendium of Jewish law. Maimonides was a great scholar and physician who was forced to leave his ancestral home of Cordoba, Spain (he and his family eventually settled in Egypt). This book explains the religious ideas behind all of the Jewish laws and rituals, including those that only apply when the Holy Temple exists.

1492 CE: Tens of thousands of Jews were forced into exile by the Spanish Inquisition. Although these Jews had lived in Spain for over a thousand years, they were forced to flee to neighboring countries or convert to Christianity. The Inquisition had the power to torture and execute anyone who was accused of practicing Judaism, which caused many Jews who falsely converted to Christianity to live in constant fear.

1940-1945 CE: The Holocaust. Almost six million Jews are murdered throughout Europe by German Nazis during World War II because the Nazis blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s problems. At first the Nazis only stripped Jews of their positions of power or drove them out of the country, but by the end of World War II Jews were worked to death as slaves, tortured, endured inhumane medical experimentations, or died in gas chambers.

1948 CE: The state of Israel is established. Following WWII, the United Nations decides to separate Palestine into two areas: one governed by Jews and one governed by Arabs (who had been living there for hundreds of years). Because both groups have strong ties to Jerusalem, the city became an international zone. However, the partition of Israel and Palestine has caused several violent conflicts that continue in the region to this day.

Christianity

4 BCE: The Birth of Jesus Christ by his mother Mary, who was a virgin and conceived him by the Holy Spirit. Before she gave birth, Mary traveled with her husband Joseph to their hometown. When they arrived, there was no room in the inn, so the baby was born in a stable among the animals. The gospels describe various visitors, such as poor shepherds and sages (wise men) of the east, who came to pay their respects to the newborn Jesus.

30 CE: The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ marks one of the most important events in Christian history. The teachings of Jesus were very controversial at the time and many important Jewish and Roman leaders felt Jesus threatened their power. Jesus was arrested, sent to trial, and condemned to hang on a cross to die. Three days after his death, Jesus rose from his tomb and continued to teach in Jerusalem for forty days before God lifted him into Heaven.

46-48 CE: Paul’s missionary journey began after Jesus appeared to Paul in a vision (Paul never met Jesus when he was alive and persecuted those who believed in him). The experience of meeting the risen Lord was so powerful that Paul become baptized and promised to promote the Christian message. He tried to convince Jews that Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection had been predicted by the Hebrew prophets, and to persuade Gentiles (non-Jews) to abandon their old gods and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

70-125 CE: The Gospels of Jesus Christ are written down. Until now, the stories and teachings of Jesus were passed down by word of mouth. The most well known gospels (or “good message” in the Greek language) were written by four authors: Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. Scholars compare these stories to point out several similarities and difference in their accounts of Jesus’ life. Additional gospels would be discovered in an Egyptian cave hundreds of years later.

200 CE: Christianity spreads throughout the Roman Empire and receives fierce opposition. Many Christians were imprisoned, tortured, and lost their property because they refused to worship the idols and emperor of the Romans. Hundreds of Christians during this time became martyrs, or people who willingly accept the punishment of death so they can become a living sacrifice for god.

330 CE: Constantine, the ruler of the Roman Empire, converts to Christianity after God showed him a vision of a holy cross for Constantine to carry in an upcoming battle. After Constantine obeys the vision and wins the battle, he declared the Roman Empire would tolerate Christianity alongside the Roman religion and the empire would no longer persecute Christians.

1054 CE: The Great Schism between East and West. Before this, the Romans Empire was a Christian theocracy that contained two different capitals: one in the west (Rome, Italy) and the other in the east (Constantinople, or present-day Istanbul, Turkey). The religious leaders of the West claimed they controlled the entire church, while the leaders in the East disagreed with many of the West’s beliefs and rules. During the Great Schism, the leaders in both the East and West finally excommunicated each other and split the church.

1099 CE: Crusaders reclaim the Holy Land. These Christian fighters wanted to recapture Palestine and its capital Jerusalem and wipe out the Muslim Turks who controlled the region. It was a tragic and bloody time. They destroyed several holy buildings and killed hundreds of people. The Crusades extended beyond Palestine and into Constantinople, which caused greater conflict between the Eastern and Western (Roman) churches.

1100-1400 CE: The Roman Catholic Church becomes a major force of power throughout Europe. The leader of the church (known as the pope) sometimes had greater authority than the kings of France and England. Several popes sent missionaries throughout Northern Europe to convince people who still believed ancient gods to convert to Christianity.

1516 CE: Martin Luther posts 95 Theses and begins the Protestant Reformation. Luther was a Catholic monk and priest who opposed many of the church’s teachings. He listed his complaints in an essay entitled 95 Theses and nailed them to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, Germany. The pope rejected Luther’s essay and excommunicated him in 1520. As a result, Luther established a new denomination of Christianity known today as Protestantism.

1611 CE: The King James Version of the Bible is produced. Previously, the Christian Bible was written in Greek and Latin only, so the king of England hired a group of priests and monks to translate the Bible into English. He wanted his subjects to be able to read the Bible on their own without having to depend on a priest who knew Latin or Greek. King James encouraged his people to gain independence from the clergy, or leaders of the Christian church, and take control of their religious beliefs.

1830 CE: Joseph Smith produces Book of Mormon. It is the longest and most complex account of Smith’s revelations from God. It tells the story of the rise and fall of a religious civilization in the Middle East beginning around 600 BCE and ending in 421 CE. Joseph Smith wrote other sacred texts and later became the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, who are also known as Mormons.

1890s CE: The founding of Jehovah’s Witnesses began when a small group of Bible students living near Pittsburg, Pennsylvannia began to compare the church’s teachings with what the teachings of the Bible. They believed the church had misrepresented the true message of Jesus and began publishing their ideas in books, newspapers, and a journal known today as The Watchtower—Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.

1945 CE: The Nag Hammadi Library is discovered in Egypt. This “library” is a collection of scrolls that contain many forgotten gospels of Jesus Christ. Some of the gospels found at Nag Hammadi include the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of Judas, and the Gospel of Thomas. Scholars today believe that early Christians hid these texts so the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John would gain importance over them.

Islam

1900-1700 BCE: Life of Abraham, who is called Ibrahim by Muslims. Abraham was called by God to abandon the polytheistic religion of his father and journey to Canaan. With his son Ishmael, he built a square stone building that is thought to be the site of Adams’s first place of worship (present-day Mecca).

570 CE: The birth of the Prophet Muhammad. He was born into a poor clan of the most powerful tribes in Mecca. After his parents and grandfather died, Muhammad lived with his uncle and worked for him as a shepherd. While they were on a trip in Syria, the teenage Muhammad was noticed by a Christian monk who identified marks on his body that indicated he was a prophet.

610 CE: The Prophet Muhammad receives his first vision in a cave near Mecca. In his vision, the angel Gabriel appears to him and insists that he begin to recite. At first Muhammad refuses, and eventually he cries out, “What shall I recite?” Gabriel responds by repeating the first words of the Qur’an, which contains many messages that Muhammad received from God over 23 years.

621 CE: The Night Journey. Muhammad travels on a buraq (mythological bull with wings) to "the farthest mosque,” located in Jerusalem, where he leads other prophets in prayer. He is then lifted into heaven where he speaks to Allah (God), who gives Muhammad instructions to share with other faithful Muslims about the details of prayer.

622 CE: The Prophet Muhammad and his followers flee from Mecca to Medina. Muhammad’s popularity began to threaten the leaders of the city of Mecca, so he and his followers went on a journey northward to Medina. In Islam, this event is called the Hijarh (“migration”) and marks the first year of the Islamic calendar.

630 CE: Muslims non-violently capture Mecca. Once they controlled the city, they removed the idols that were placed in the Ka’ba. Instead of punishing those who had been his opponents, Muhammad forgave them and returned to Medina. As a result, the surrounding Arabian tribes pledged their allegiance to the Prophet Muhammad, and most Meccans considered him to be the true final prophet of God.

632 CE: The Prophet Muhammad dies after returning to Medina from a final pilgrimage to the Ka’ba. Realizing that he was going to die, Muhammad gave his final instructions to his followers and promised to meet them in Paradise. However, he left no clear instructions as to who should succeed him as the leader of the Muslim community.

633-642 CE: Muslim armies take over the North African coast, parts of the Persian and Byzantine Empires, and the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia). However, the Qur’an forbids coercion in religion, recommending instead that Muslims invite others to accept their beliefs through sharing their wisdom, beautiful teaching, and personal example. Islam “conquered” the regions mostly by personal contacts: economic trade, an interest in Sufi mystics and saints, unforced conversions, or appeals from those who felt oppressed by Byzantine and Persian rule.

650 CE: Caliph Uthman has the Qur’an written down. At the time, Uthman noticed that Arabs were reciting the Qur’an differently because they did not speak the same dialect of the Arabic language. Uthman gathered a committee to write down the final version of the Qur’an as it exists today. Now there is only one single version of the authentic Qur’an.

680 CE: Death of Husayn marks the beginning of the Shi’a sect of Islam. Husayn was the grandson of the prophet and claimed to be the legitimate successor of his father ‘Ali, who was the fourth caliph. Husayn rebelled against the man who was elected to be the fifth caliph (Mu’awiyya), and was executed as a result. His death created a division between Shi’a Muslims and Sunni Muslims that exists to this day.

800 CE: Written collections of hadith (reports on the Prophet’s stories and actions) are gathered. Many Islamic laws are contained in the hadith, which only the Qur’an surpasses in level of importance to Muslims. Religious leaders in the Muslim community (imans and caliphs) study and teach the hadith to other Muslims in their communities.

1099 CE: The Siege of Jerusalem. Christian Crusaders had traveled from Europe to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim and Jewish control. After several days of fighting, the Crusaders eventually conquered the city and slaughtered all of the Muslims who were hiding in the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine located on the same Temple Mount where the Jewish First and Second Temples once stood.

1187 CE: Salah al-Din recaptures Jerusalem from Crusaders. Fed up with the broken treaties with the Christian churches and unruly Crusader princes who attacked and harassed local Muslims, Salah and his army set out to reclaim Jerusalem. After several weeks of fighting, the Crusaders eventually left the city of Jerusalem and Salah’s army took control of the city.

1281-1324 CE: Osman I establishes the Ottoman Empire after he announced the independence of his own small kingdom from the Seljuk Turks in 1299. As the Byzantine Empire declined throughout the region, Osman and successors rose to take it place. The Ottoman Empire would control large portions of the Central and Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe for over six centuries.

1492 CE: Tens of thousands of Muslims were forced into exile by the Spanish Inquisition. Although these Muslims had lived in Spain for hundreds of years, they were forced to flee to neighboring countries or convert to Christianity. The Inquisition had the power to torture and execute anyone who was accused of practicing Islam, which caused many Muslims who falsely converted to Christianity to live in constant fear.

1917: The Balfour Declaration was created after Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire lost against Britain and their allies in World War I. This declaration states that Britain would gain control over Palestine and Iraq, while France would receive Lebanon and Syria. Less than one decade later, the Ottoman Empire would lose control of the region to these European nations.