When most people think of archaeology, they probably
picture harrowing scenes from Raiders of
the Lost Ark replete with large creeping spiders and a well of snakes that
lead to hidden, valuable relics. (Did you know that in the spider scene with
Indy and his friend Satipo, the tarantulas covering Satipo’s back were dormant?
Director Steven Spielberg asked the animal wranglers why the spiders were not
moving, and they informed him that the males will not be aggressive unless they
are around a female spider. A female tarantula was added to Satipo’s back, and
the flurry of activity captured in the shot was the male tarantula’s response
to the introduction of the female!)
Archaeologist William Dever writes about the misnomer of
this science created by Hollywood productions. “Archaeology isn’t really like
that…the chase rarely leads to anything spectacular, just bits and pieces of
other people’s garbage...and the daily routine is long, hard, hot, dirty, and
mostly dull—hardly ‘glamorous!’ Modern, real-life archaeology is not
treasure-hunting; it is simply another kind of historical research. …an
archaeologist is an anthropologist who deals with ‘the ethnography of the dead’….
Archaeology may thus best be thought of simply as a way of making inferences about ‘how
it was in the past’ by examining material cultural remains.”[1]
What does it look like when the Bible and archaeology
intersect? Are they complimentary or contradictory?
There are over 20,000 archaeological digs directly related to the names, dates, places, and events in the Bible, and many more that indirectly connect. Out of these 20,000 digs, none of them have been able to refute the Bible. On the contrary, most of them have only confirmed ideas previously thought to be errant, false, or legendary in Scripture. So let’s dig (pun intended) into the archaeological evidence for the Bible.
There are over 20,000 archaeological digs directly related to the names, dates, places, and events in the Bible, and many more that indirectly connect. Out of these 20,000 digs, none of them have been able to refute the Bible. On the contrary, most of them have only confirmed ideas previously thought to be errant, false, or legendary in Scripture. So let’s dig (pun intended) into the archaeological evidence for the Bible.
There is a very long list of Biblical cities that have
been excavated and confirmed by archaeologists—cities that were once thought not
to have existed.
§
Arad – Numbers 21:1, 33:40 – a Canaanite city
For years, Arad was believed to
be a mythical, imaginary city invented by the writers of the Bible, because in
all of the Canaanites excavations, archaeologists had never found any historical
record, mention, or evidence that such a city existed. But in 1962, archaeologists
discovered both the city itself and fragments of Canaanite history that referred
to it as a previous capitol.
§
Chorazin – Matthew 11:21
Jesus mentions this city in one
of the woes He gives to various cities. In the very early part of the 20th
century, people thought Jesus had made up this city because there was no
evidence of its existence. But in 1927, Chorazin was discovered along with
historical fragments verifying its existence.
§
Dan (the city) – Judges 18:29 – discovered in
1966. It was formerly known as the city of “Laish”.
§
Hazor – Joshua 11:1; Jeremiah 49:28 – discovered
in 1955
§
Jericho – Numbers 22:1
It was not disputed that Jericho
existed (the modern city of Jericho exists to this day), but it was believed
that the fall of the walls of Jericho was nonsense. At one point, there was no
archaeological evidence that walls that large ever existed or that they fell in
that manner. But in 1884, at a deeper excavation, they found that the city
walls were much larger than any archaeologist had ever thought, and there was
evidence found in the rubble that the cities walls collapsed inward.
Another way to establish the historical reliability of
the Bible is to examine lists of names in the Bible that were previously unknown
(or were believed not to exist), but that have since been confirmed.
§
Belshazzar – Daniel 5
In Daniel 5, Belshazzar is
called “king of Babylon”, but when you look at the Babylonian historical records,
the third king was named Nabonidus, not Belshazzar. This led some people to
believe that the Bible is not historically accurate. In the early 1970s, however,
an archaeologist discovered ancient cylinders that had historical inscriptions
on them that served as royal records. On the cylinder, it was inscribed that
Nabonidus appointed his stepson, Belshazzar, as co-regent.
§
King Sargon – Isaiah 20:1
No one believed that King Sargon
existed until 1843 when the remains of his palace were discovered in modern day
Iraq. The ancient inscriptions found in the dig reveal that King Sargon enjoyed
talking about this military conquests. He even mentions the city of Ashod,
written about in Isaiah 20:1!
§
Caiaphas – mentioned in the Gospels
His ossuary was discovered in
1990 with his (and his son’s) inscription. This was the first evidence that Caiaphas
was a real person.
§
Hittites – the Hittites were once thought to be
a legend until the capitol and historical records were discovered in modern day
Turkey and Iraq.
Finally, the discovery of many tablets and scrolls
containing fragments or portions of Scripture attest to its reliability. The
greatest discovery was the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran near Masada. In 1947, a
Bedouin shepherd boy with a herd of sheep was taking refuge in the mouth of a
cave from an impending storm. To pass time, he began throwing rocks to the back
of the cave. He hears the noise of something breaking, and goes back to
investigate. He had inadvertently thrown the rock into an ancient clay jar and
broke it, and heard that sound echoing. He then discovers that there were
several of these jars, and inside these jars were ancient scrolls, which today
we believe were preserved by the Essene community—a group of separatists.
Archaeologists discovered that the Dead Sea Scrolls contained
972 fragments/portions of 99% of the Old Testament. Every book of the Old
Testament was represented (either in full or part) except Esther. And these
scrolls went back 1,000 years earlier than any other copies of Scripture
previously discovered!
Both Christian and secular scholars poured over these
documents and found an infinitesimal number of errors, and ALL of them were punctuation
and grammatical changes. NONE of them were doctrinal, theological, or content
of meaning errors. Remember that this is in a day before the Internet,
computers, and “cut and paste” in documents. This is the careful preservation
of the Word of God for 1,000 years! When you hold a Bible in your hands today,
you’re holding a reliable collection of historical documents written by
eyewitnesses alive during other eyewitnesses. These eyewitnesses claimed to
bear witness to supernatural events, and they claim that their origin is divine
and not human.
Another discovery was the Ebla tablets in 1970 in
Northern Syria. These were discovered dating from 2,000 B.C. These are not
copies of biblical documents, but ancient tablets of ancient peoples that
confirm parts of the Old Testament. The first five cities mentioned in the book
of Genesis during the Patriarchal period are confirmed in the Ebla tablets to
the T. These secondary sources confirm cities, dates, and events that take
place during the patriarchs.
We have now given a look (albeit cursory) to the
manuscript and archaeological evidence for the reliability of the Bible.
Tomorrow, we will look at the prophetic evidence for the Bible—it’s predictive
ability. We hope you will join us tomorrow as we continue to tackle the
question, “Can I trust the Bible?”
Pastor Jeff Frazier
[1]
Dever, William G. What Did the Biblical
Writers Know & When Did They Know It?: What Archeology Can Tell Us about
the Reality of Ancient Israel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001, pgs. 53-54.
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