2nd Year History Curriculum - III

The third unit is The Apostolic Age. By this I mean the time from Christ's incarnation to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

73. Read The Holy Land by Peter Connolly (ISBN: 0199105332) (HL) pg. 4 – 19. I highly recommend this book. It details the clothing, architecture, landscape, art, food, home life, etc. of people living in Israel during the 1st century AD. It will really help your student. The last part of the book, which will be read later on, has maps and illustrations of the siege of Jerusalem, which is really helpful in visualizing what I read.

74. Read HL pg. 20 - 35.

75. Read HL pg. 36 - 51.

76. Read HL pg. 52 - 67.

77. Read HL pg. 68 - 73. Explain that we will now read the Biblical accounts of the life of Christ and the early church contained in Luke and Acts. Explain that Luke, the physician, wrote both. Further explain that the book of Luke is not strictly chronological, but rather grouped by idea, but that we will read it for consistency with the reading of Acts. Read Luke 1 – 3.

78. Read Luke 4 - 8.

79. Read Luke 9 - 13.

80. Read Luke 14 - 20.

81. Read Luke 21 - 24. Read Acts 1.

82. Read Joel: A Boy of Galilee by Annie Fellows Johnston (JBG) chapters 1 – 2. (Read chapter 3 during literature time). As a book of historical fiction, this will be read in history and literature class. This book is about a crippled boy who is healed by Jesus. It is written by a Christian woman and has much to recommend it. Only a few cautions. It makes a few statements that reflect the common error that all children are innocent. Anyone who has children should know this is not true. Even my 15 month old whines and throws herself on the floor when her will is defied and looks around furtively when she is doing something that we have told her not to do. It also states, several times, that Jesus was disregarding parts of the law of Moses. This is contrary to Christ's own statement in Matthew 5:18, "For verily I say unto you, until Heaven and Earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, until all things be accomplished." After Christ's death and resurrection, the sacrificial system became obsolete, for it was merely there to point to the coming Christ, but since this story takes place during Jesus' life, not even that part of the law was neglected by Christ. It seems to be a common error to confuse the law, as interpreted by the Pharisees, and the law, as recorded by Moses. Jesus did neglect the former when in contradicted the latter.

83. Read JBG chapters 4 – 6. (Read chapters 7 – 8 during literature time).

84. Read JBG chapters 9 – 11. (Read chapters 12 – 13 & 14 – 15 during literature time).

85. Read JBG chapters 16 – 18. (Read chapter19 during literature time). When the book is finished, in the process of discussing it, make sure to ask the student if he thinks Joel made the right choice regarding Simon’s offer. Explain that, due to the influence of Plato, many Christians think that the spiritual reality is better or more important than the physical reality. This is not true. God had given Joel a great gift of money and opportunity that he could give back in service to God, but he preferred poverty. Spreading the gospel and making money are not mutually exclusive.

86. Read Titus: Comrade of the Cross by F. M. Kingsley (TCC) chapters 1 – 4. (Read chapters 5 – 7 during literature time). This book is speculation about the 2 thieves who were crucified with Jesus. I recommend it to you with the same cautions as the preceding book and one more: she sometimes ascribes thoughts or actions to Christ that are not recorded in Scripture. While these thoughts and actions are not unbelievable, I still am uneasy about making up things about Jesus. You may ask why I include two books about the same period of time. Partly this is to make the time spent studying Christians as long as possible. Partly it is because the books have different foci and include different historical details. Finally, it is because I couldn't decide which of the two to cut. If you need to shorten your curriculum, choose the one you like least to cut.

87. Read TCC chapters 8 – 10. (Read chapters 11 – 12 during literature time).

88. Read TCC chapters 12 – 15. (Read chapters 16 – 17 & 18 – 20 during literature time).

89. Read TCC chapters 21 – 23. (Read chapters 24 – 25 during literature time).

90. Read TCC chapters 26 – 28. (Read chapters 29 – 30 during literature time).

91. Read TCC chapters 31 – 33.

92. Read Acts 2 - 9.

93. Read Stephen: A Soldier of the Cross by F. M. Kingsley (SSC) chapters 1 – 4. (Read SSC chapters 5 – 6 during literature time). This book tells of the martyrdom of Stephen, but mostly from the perspective of fictional characters. It includes historical details of the time period covered in Acts as well as an interesting story. I once again caution you to beware of Kingsley's view of the law, but still recommend this book.

94. Read SSC chapters 7 – 9. (Read SSC chapters 10 – 11 during literature time).

95. Read SSC chapters 12 – 14. (Read SSC chapters 15 – 16 during literature time).

96. Read SSC chapters 17 – 19. (Read SSC chapters 20 – 21 & 22 – 23 during literature time).

97. Read SSC chapters 24 – 26. (Read SSC chapters 27 – 28 during literature time).

98. Read SSC chapters 29 – 32. (Read SSC chapters 33 – 34 during literature time).

99. Read SSC chapters 35 – 36.

100. Read SR chapter 75. Read Acts 10:1 – 11:26. Read SR chapter 76. On pg. 145: replace "forced" with "influenced", and remove "good and" from before "lovely children". On pg. 146: remove "Among these prisoners ... killed himself too." I don't see the point of including this story about suicide. Read Acts 11:27 – 13:52. In this lesson and the ones that follow I am trying to read about things that happened in the same time period right next to each other. Perhaps the narrative will be too choppy and I will have to revise, but chronological accuracy is what I am aiming for.

101. Read Acts 14 – 18. Read SR chapters 77 – 78. Read Acts 19.

102. Read Acts 20 - 28.

103. Read Quintus: A Story of the Persecution of Christians in the Times of Emperor Nero by R. Weerstand (Q) chapters 1 – 2. (Read chapters 3 – 4 during literature time). This is my favorite book in the entire curriculum. It is a very exciting, gripping story. It has great theology (no editing needed) and good details about Nero and his persecution of Christians. By handling the violence in a restrained manner, the author manages to convey the brutality of that man while still making a book that can be read to/by children.

104. Read Q chapters 5 – 6. (Read chapters 7 – 8 & 9 during literature time).

105. Read Q chapter 10 – 11. (Read chapters 12 during literature time).

106. Read Roman Colosseum by Elizabeth Mann (ISBN: 1931414173). This is a Connolly-type picture book describing the structure and events in the Colosseum.

107. Read SR chapters 79 – 81. On pg. 154: remove "In spite of all these signs". Read HL pg. 74 – 87.

108. Read HL pg. 88 – 93. Read The Cross Triumphant by F. M. Kingsley (CT) chapters1 – 2. (Read chapters 3 – 4 & 5 – 6 during literature time). This book is about the fall of Jerusalem. I recommend it to you with the same caution as before about Kingsley's skewed view of the law. I forgot to mention another caution that applies to this book and her other books. She has the characters say, "My God!" and similar exclamations (almost all spoken during times of emotional anguish). I am unsure why she doesn't consider this taking the Lord's name in vain. Finally, she has a little section on pgs. 2- 3 where she tries to argue against spanking. Spanking is clearly prescribed in Scripture (especially in Proverbs) so I just cut this section out.

109. Read CT chapters 7 – 9. (Read chapters 10 – 11 during literature time).

110. Read CT chapters 12 – 14. (Read chapters 15 – 16 during literature time).

111. Read CT chapters 17 – 18. (Read chapters 19 – 20 during literature time).

112. Read CT chapters 21 – 22. (Read chapters 23 – 24 & 25 – 26 during literature time).

113. Read CT chapters 27 – 29. (Read chapters 30 – 31 during literature time).

114. Read CT chapters 32 – 34. (Read chapter 35 – 36 during literature time).

115. Read For the Temple by G. A. Henty (FT) chapters 1 – 2. (Read chapter 3 during literature time). This is another book about the fall of Jerusalem. I am including two historical novels about this time period because it is so pivotal. Many prophesies of Jesus and most of a whole book of the Bible is devoted to this event. Also, the two novels are not as redundant as one might expect. The first is mostly written from inside Jerusalem and concerns the Jewish priests and the few Christians who did not flee the city. The second book has more details about the battles leading up to the siege because it is from the perspective of a Jewish boy fighting in those battles. It deals more with the Jewish laity than any other people group. If you want to cut one of the two, I would cut Kingsley's.

116. Read FT chapter 4. (Read chapter 5 & 6 during literature time).

117. Read FT chapter 7 – 8. (Read chapter 9 during literature time).

118. Read FT chapters 10. (Read chapter 11 during literature time).

119. Read FT chapter 12. (Read chapters 13 during literature time).

120. Read FT chapter 14. (Read chapter 15 & 16 during literature time).

121. Read FT chapter 17. (Read chapter 18 during literature time).

122. Read FT chapter 19.

123. Test on the Apostolic Age. My curriculum came out 1 day too long, so I cut the review day for this test and justified the choice as follows: Since the preceding 15 lessons are from historical novels they will not be fact-dense, thus, if I am drilling the children 5 minutes per day they should be ready for a test without a review day.