Professor W. F. Albright is the distinguished chairman of the Oriental Seminary at Johns Hopkins University, and one of the world's foremost students of the ancient Near East, particularly of the civilization of the Bible. In this book, Dr. Albright has recreated the turbulent history of man in the Fertile Crescent, from his first appearance in the Old Stone Age until the Christian era, centering attention upon monotheistic religion as the uniquely significant feature of human civilization and the historical process. He traces the beginnings of monotheism to the cosmic mythology and high gods of Babylonia and Egypt, and its emergence in history to the solar theism of Akhenaten. He finds its classic expression in the ministry of Moses and the utterances of the great prophets of the Old Testament, its culmination in the career of Jesus Christ.