The Word
In the first half of the 20th century, until 1948, the oldest copy of the Bible was dated after the ninth century AD. Of course this provided much fuel for the fire of criticism. However, in 1948, a little Arab boy was throwing rocks (just like a boy) in the area of Qumran, where there are thousands of caves. One rock went into the opening of a cave and the sound that came out had a sound as though the stone had hit something hollow, like a clay pot. The boy investigated and found a number of clay pots. Inside these pots were parchments containing Hebrew writing. They were later identified to have been placed there by the Essenes in the first century AD. The Essenes were a Jewish sect that lived in that area.
Within this find was a complete copy of the scroll of Isaiah. This particular document is on display in a special place in Israel. The amazing thing about this 2000 year old document was that it was identical to the book of Isaiah found in our modern Bibles. There were no errors in copying found. Some the criticism that the Bible was inaccurate began to be disproved. Since that time other documents have verified the authenticity of the Bible.
Before we launch into the actual study of the Bible, it is important to attempt to answer this question. If the Bible is not what it claims to be, it should be discounted and considered as any other literature. However, if it is accurate, its claims and advice should not be taken lightly.
Many books have been written which pretend to be what they are not. However, the Bible has withstood hundreds of attempts to discredit it as historically inaccurate. Time after time the spade of the archaeologist has uncovered the ruins of a city that only the Bible had mentioned.
There are over 24,000 B'rit Hadashah manuscripts in existence. There are more B'rit Hadashah documents than any other manuscript. The works of Shakespeare are more difficult to validate than the B'rit Hadashah. It is through the study of these manuscripts that we have the reliable B'rit Hadashah translations in circulation today
Critics claim that the Bible is full of errors, that many of the errors were a result of copy errors, and some were committed on purpose to put forward certain doctrines.
In the first half of the 20th century, until 1948, the oldest copy of the Bible was dated after the ninth century AD. Of course this provided much fuel for the fire of criticism. However, in 1948, a little Arab boy was throwing rocks (just like a boy) in the area of Qumran, where there are thousands of caves. One rock went into the opening of a cave and the sound that came out had a sound as though the stone had hit something hollow, like a clay pot. The boy investigated and found a number of clay pots. Inside these pots were parchments containing Hebrew writing. They were later identified to have been placed there by the Essenes in the first century AD. The Essenes were a Jewish sect that lived in that area.
Within this find was a complete copy of the scroll of Isaiah. This particular document is on display in a special place in Israel. The amazing thing about this 2000 year old document was that it was identical to the book of Isaiah found in our modern Bibles. There were no errors in copying found. Some the criticism that the Bible was inaccurate began to be disproved. Since that time other documents have verified the authenticity of the Bible.
The current 66 books of the Bible are known as the "Canon" of Scripture. The Tanakh Canon was determined by Jewish Priests and Scribes prior to the birth of the L-rd Yeshua HaMashiach. The Septuagent was a translation of the original Hebrew text into Greek by 70 Jewish scholars. The work was performed in about 150 BC to permit the average Jew the possibility of actually reading the Sacred Scriptures for himself. By this period the trade language of the known world was Greek, and most Jews could only speak and read Greek. So, the task of translating the Scriptures was undertaken. It took 72 days to complete the translation.
While there are many important benefits of having this translation, the most important for our question here is that it provides a reference check of the books of the Bible, as known in 150 BC. The books that were translated the present 39 books of the Tanakh plus 14 books known as the apochrypha. However, the 14 books of the apochrypha were never a part of the Hebrew Scriptures. Jews and Believers agree on the 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The present B'rit Hadashah with it's 27 books came about as a result of applying a number of tests. First of all, was the author an apostle, or did he have a close relationship to one of the apostles? Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, was a close associate of the Apostle Paul and his travelling companion. The Gospel of Mark was written by Mark, who was under Peter's guidance. In addition to this test, were the writings in use by the early church? Recent research has dated a fragment of the 26th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew to 75-100 AD. This proves that the Gospel of Matthew was written prior to that date and was in use by the early church. Other tests look at the content and divine inspiration of the work. In spite of liberal critics who try to put a later date on the works of the B'rit Hadashah, research continues to bear out the dates indicating that the first century church used these documents.
The archaeological discoveries listed below have all taken their place in the long list of events that either directly proved the Bible text or validated assertions made by the Bible. Customs that are as foreign to us today as life on the Moon, are commonplace in the Bible. Many times the discoveries have shed new light on these customs and lifestyles.
Much of what the Bible has to say has been discounted by the claim that the Bible is just a collection of hand me down stories and legends. Critics claim that the events recorded in the Bible didn't really happen. However, as we will see from archeological discoveries, the Bible was on track.
In the Tanakh book of Jonah, written about 750 BC, G-d commands Jonah:
Jonah 1:2 (NIV) ""Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.""
Today we know that Nineveh was a very large city in the Assyrian Empire. But Nineveh was destroyed by an army of Babylonians and Medes between 607 and 605 BC. The destruction was so complete that when Alexander the Great fought a battle in the vicinity in 331 BC, he didn't know that there had ever been a city there. So for centuries, until 1845 AD, the city lay under the dust.
Scholars, through the centuries, assumed that the stories about Nineveh were fanciful tales and legends. They did not believe there ever was a real city named Nineveh. Only the Bible and a few other ancient books mentioned Nineveh.
In the Bible, Nineveh is mentioned for the first time in the book of Genesis. It is claimed to have been built by Nimrod:
Genesis 10:9-12 (NIV) "He was a mighty hunter before the L-rd; that is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the L-rd." The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city."
In the Book of 2 Kings Nineveh is mentioned:
2 Kings 19:36 (NIV) "So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there."
And again in the book of Isaiah:
Isaiah 37:37 (NKJV) "So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh."
In the book of Nahum:
Nahum 1:1 (NIV) "An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite."
In 1845, the archaeologist, Layard, uncovered the site of Nineveh. The Bible had been right all along. It also proved that the Biblical accounts must have been written prior to the destruction of Nineveh. If even Alexander the Great, in 331 BC did not know the ruins of the city were nearby, the Bible references must have been older than that date. From a prophetic point of view, the Bible also predicted the destruction of Nineveh (look up the verses in the book of Nahum and Zephaniah).
"Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there." -- Genesis 11:31 (NIV)
The Bible identified the location in only two places; Genesis 11:31 (above) as "Ur of the Chaldeans" and in the B'rit Hadashah as being in Mesopotamia by the words of the first Believer martyr Stephen.
"To this he replied: "...The G-d of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran." -- Acts 7:2 (NIV)
Many times it is possible to gather additional information on items mentioned in the Tanakh through references in the B'rit Hadashah. In this case it is through the mouth of Stephen that we get the information regarding Mesopotamia. Nowhere in the Tanakh is the location other the "Ur of the Chaldees" mentioned.
Between 1922 and 1934 the University Museum of Pennsylvania and the British Museum undertook a joint effort in an archeological expedition to uncover the remains of Ur. For several months each Winter the team excavated the remains of the city. The city is located near the Persian Gulf. It was part of Sumer, in the southern section of Mesopotamia. As the ruins of Ur were uncovered, the researchers discovered that there were a number of cities, one on top of the other. The city that Abraham would have lived in was near the bottom.
The religion of Ur centered around the worship of two major G-ds: Nanner the Moon-G-d and Ningal the Moon-G-ddess. There were a large number of shrines attended by priests and priestesses. The tower at Ur originally stood about seventy feet tall. This tower was dedicated to Nanner who was considered to be the true ruler of the city. The tower was built as a ziggurat, or tiered tower, much like the tower of Babel was built.
The Sumerians had a written language. It is from the writings at Ur that much of the information about their culture comes. There were extensive libraries at Ur on the subjects of Astronomy, Mathematics, Dictionaries, Grammar, Encyclopedias, Geography, Religion and Politics. These libraries existed in every major city.
Abraham lived sometime between 1800 and 2000 BC..
Nuzi was a city to the north of Ur. It was inhabited by people who took over the majority of northern Mesopotamia around the sixteenth century BC. They continued many of the old customs of the area and recorded them on clay tablets. From these tablets we have been able to understand that it was common, and quite acceptable, for a barren wife to have children through her maidservant, as Sarah did with Abraham. Deathbed blessings, were also made to be irrevocable, the kind made by Jacob (Israel) at his death.
This find validates the historical accuracy of the Bible as it describes the customs of Abraham and others. Only a book written at the time would have known about these customs. Moses, writing the first five books of the Bible did not think it was necessary to explain these customs any further since they were well known at the time.
Gen 16:1-2 (NIV) Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, "The L-rd has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
For centuries the ancient Egyptian writing, hieroglyphics, could not be read. The use of the ancient hieroglyphic writing gave way to the more modern style known as Demotic about 800 BC. Demotic was closer to alphabetic and easier to use. As a result the older hieroglyphics could no longer be read in modern times. Unfortunately, that left the better part of the history of Egypt a mystery. That is until an officer and scholar in Napoleon's army, M. Boussard discovered the Rosetta stone.
The stone was discovered near the Nile River in 1799. It contains three sets of inscriptions, one in Greek, one in Demotic, and the third in Hieroglyphics. The three inscriptions were of a decree by Ptolemy V, Epiphanies in about 200 BC. These stones would have been set up around the empire for all the inhabitants to see and read. The three inscriptions were copies of the decree in the three languages and provided a cross reference between Greek, Demotic, and most importantly, Hieroglyphics. This was the first link to the old language and opened up the whole subject of Egyptology.
It took four years (1818 1822) of difficult effort to match the known characters in Greek and Demotic to the unknown Hieroglyphics. In the end, there was an open door to reading and understanding the ancient Egyptian writings.
For the Bible this was an important find since it provides a written record of the times recorded in the Bible. This non-Biblical history has validated the customs and events mentioned in the Bible time and time again.
Behistun was a city next to the ancient highway that ran between Babylon and Ecbatana. Ecbatana is the modern city of Hamadan in western Iran. About 500 feet up on one of the imposing cliffs at Behistun are the inscriptions carved into the stone. The monument shows the king, Darius I (522-486 BC) in relief along with other figures illustrating his victory over his enemies. The inscriptions are in three languages: old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian. The project of transferring the entire text to paper in 1835 was done by Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson.
The entire inscription is written in cuneiform characters. The old Persian language was the only one known. Rawlinson interpreted the old Persian text that later allowed others to make the cross match to the Elamite and Akkadian languages. This opened up the possibility of reading the Babylonian cuneiform writings. This facilitated the reading of the extensive clay tablet libraries of Babylon and elsewhere.
2 Kings 3:4-6 (NIV) Now Mesha king of Moab raised sheep, and he had to supply the king of Israel with a hundred thousand lambs and with the wool of a hundred thousand rams. But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So at that time King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel.
This passage from the book of 2 Kings refers to a period when the King of Moab rebelled against King Joram (Jehoram). Joram was King of Israel (northern kingdom) between 854 and 843 BC. The Moabite, or Mesha Stone, bears the inscription written from Mesha, the King of Moab's, point of view. The inscription reads:
"I Mesha, King of Moab, made this monument to Chemosh (G-d of Moab), to commemorate deliverance from Israel. My father reigned over Moab 30 years, and I reigned after my father. Omri, King of Israel oppresses Moab many days, and his son (Ahab) after him. But I warred against the King of Israel, and drove him out, and took his cities, Medeba, Atorith, Nebo, and Jahaz which he built while he waged war against me. I destroyed his cities, and devoured the spoil to Chemosh, and the woman and girls to Ashtar. I built Qorah with prisoners from Israel.
This stone monument is about four feet high and two feet wide. It was discovered in Moab in 1868 and is now in the Louvre Museum.
Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001 by James E. Ball