Spying in the Bible 1 - Before 2166 BC

Historical Background

Espionage is commonly referred to as the second oldest profession in the world. Civilizations have likely been spying on each other since their prehistoric formation and spying itself has probably been around since one of Adam’s children inconspicuously sneaked a peak to see what another was doing. Also, deception and other espionage tactics have been around since the very beginning of time. The Bible even starts, in Genesis 3 with the Devil’s deception of Adam and Eve, when he tricked them into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Shortly thereafter, Cain deceives his brother Abel to lure him into a trap to kill him.

While the first instance of espionage in the world will never be known, the earliest recorded instance in history is in the Bible and involves Joseph and his brothers in Egypt. From that point on, cases of intrigue, deception, and espionage are quite prevalent throughout the Bible. Many major events that changed the course of God’s people in both the Old and New Testaments are tied to cases of espionage, from entering and leaving Egypt, to entering the Promised Land, to Jesus’ birth, ministry, and death, along with the formation and growth of the early Christian church.

This series of posts will take an in-depth look at all of the cloak and dagger stories in the Bible throughout the history of God’s people, from and intelligence analysis perspective. All dates that are given are approximate and some are even hotly disputed by reputable historians. Dates are given for historical context only as this work is not intended to be a biblical timeline or archeological text, but rather to explore and analyze cases of espionage throughout the Bible. The early history of the world from Creation and Adam and Eve up through Noah (a descendent of Adam and Eve’s third son Seth) and the flood likely takes place mostly in the Stone Age, before written history began. Genealogies from early Genesis appear to be incomplete, so it is very difficult, if not impossible, to date biblical figures or events before Abraham.

After the flood came God’s command to Noah’s three children Shem, Ham, and Japheth to spread throughout the world and settle it. However, people did not disperse as commanded until God confused their language during the construction of the Tower of Babel. Sometime after the tower of Babel incident is probably when the story of Job takes place. According to tradition, and more recently some genetic studies, the Semites (descendants of Shem) moved mostly into the modern day Middle East and include the Israelites and Arabs, the Hamites (descendant so Ham) moved mostly south into Africa, and the Japhites (descendants of Japheth) moved north into Indo-Europe and Russia. The language barrier, no doubt, helped to lead to the formation of nations/ethnic groups, which has been where most of the espionage in the history of the world has been focused.

The Early Bronze Age occurred between 3500 and 2200 BC and saw the rise of the first large civilizations. The first such known civilization of city dwelling people was the non-Semetic, black haired (most likely Hamitic), Sumerians from the southern Mesopotamian region (modern Iraq). Archeologist have found some commerce records written in the ancient Sumerian language that may date to very early in their culture and are generally considered to be the earliest examples of writing that we have today. It is interesting to note that other, later writings of the Sumerians include stories of a worldwide flood as well as references to a common language spoken by all people. Some also mention fire signals between villages, showing that the idea of communicating intelligence information rapidly, such as warning of an approaching army, has been around since the dawn of civilizations.

However, recorded history is generally accepted to have begun when Egyptians used hieroglyphs to describe the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes in c. 3100 BC. This event started the Early Dynastic Periods of Egypt, which was the second known of the ancient great civilizations, and also likely Hamitic. A few hundred years later, the next period in ancient Egypt began, which is referred to as the Old Kingdom. After about a thousand years of a unified Egypt, many foreign invaders began moving into Egypt, greatly disrupting the fledgling nation, and starting the First Intermediate Period (c. 2160 BC – c. 2040 BC), which corresponds to the Intermediate Bronze Age.