Old Testament and Ancient Cultures through 63 B.C.

"History is stories. It has beginnings, middles, ends, and all its stories are events in the gathering action of one story, Sacred History, whose model is the Bible....As Catholics, we are preeminently the people for whom history matters. There is a Christian imagination of history, a Christian answer to the question of history. .... “...History is not only stories, it is the Story of Stories.”
From "Light to the Nations: Reclaiming the Catholic Historical Imagination" by Prof. Rollin Lasseter. 

Connecting With History, Volume One focuses on the "cradle of civilization" while following the outline of Old Testament salvation history. Cultures studies include:  Israelites, Mesopotamian cultures (Sumeria, Hittite, Babylon, Phoenicia), Egpyt, Greece, and the Roman Republic. The integration of world history within the framework of the Old Testament the goal is to convey the truth that religious history and world history are not separate entities.  Each of the civilizations included in this volume are mentioned in the Bible.  Although the Bible is not a history text, it contains historical events and real people who lived at specific times and places within world history.  By reading history texts alongside the Old Testament students discover the many people and events that bridge the gap between secular and religious history.  For example, while studying the conquests of Alexander the Great, students will read portions of the book of Maccabees in which Alexander is mentioned.  Through encountering these historical connections your family will discover that history contains a cohesive narrative, a plan and a purpose.  

The program syllabus includes an introductory week and ten thematic units which can be covered over the course of a semester or a school year, depending on how each individual family chooses to use it.  We have designed this program to be flexible, yet with a built-in structure, in order to fit your family’s schedule and needs. Each of the ten units corresponds to The Bible Timeline program from Jeff Cavins' Great Adventure series, however use of the series is not necessary to use Connecting with History.  

Each volume of the Connecting with History program contains the material needed for all ages, for one academic year of history. 

The Connecting with History, Volume One syllabus includes:

•teacher's notes and discussion starters 
•an overview so stu