Sumer: Origins of the Israelite Nation

Last month we began a series on Israel’s ancient world with an overview of the geographical region called “the Levant.” This place name refers to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, including the modern-day countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel. We will return to this part of the world in upcoming articles, but it wasn’t where the covenant history of God’s people began. To find those roots, we need to journey far to the other side of the Fertile Crescent where the patriarch...