Category: Archaeology

One interesting area of Bible Evidences is Archaeology. Archaeology helps to provide a background for the characters and events described in the Bible. It serves to corroborate the Bible as a dependable and inspired text. One caveat: The fact that archaeology has not corroborated a specific event, place or person is not evidence that it doesn’t exist. I came across this recently:

“The Hittites were unknown outside the Bible until late in the 19th century. Some critics had denied the existence of such a people. A.H. Sayce proposed that certain inscriptions in Syria were Hittite, then the Hittite capital at Boghazkoy was excavated by Hugo Winckler in 1906. About 10,000 Hittite and Akkadian texts were found. It is now possible to get a graduate degree in Hittite civilization at the University of Pennsylvania.” (Ferrell Jenkins, Introduction to Christian Evidences, pg. 60).

Many are aware of the sensationalistic claims of filmmaker James Cameron, who lent his name and resources to a “documentary” claiming that the ossuaries “bone boxes” that contained the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene have been found in Jerusalem. The show aired on the Discovery channel in February, 2007.

Mature Christians were dismissive of the claims, as they deny the Biblical account of Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Cameron, and director/producer Simcha Jacobovici claim that the evidence suggests Jesus and Mary Magdalene married, fathered a child, and later died and were buried in the city of Jerusalem. This directly contradicts Paul’s claim in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, 8, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve… 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” In his testimony, Paul claims Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. This directly contradicts the contentions of Cameron and his television documentary.

Continue reading “In The News: Jesus’ Bones” →

Podcast Number 53

Archeology continually corroborates the Bible, giving evidence as to its inspiration.

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On Sunday, March 4th, the Discovery Channel aired what was claimed to be a “documentary” entitled The Lost Tomb of Jesus. The filmmakers included producer John Cameron (Director and Producer of the film Titanic), and director Simcha Jacobovici.

The program makes some very disturbing claims. It asserts that the 10 ossuaries (bone boxes) found in an ancient tomb in a suburb of Jerusalem at one time contained the remains of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and an individual known as “Judah, son of Jesus.” The program claims that the odds overwhelmingly point to this being the tomb of Jesus Christ, and that DNA tests done on some remains found in the ossuaries indicate that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.

The tomb and ossuaries were discovered about 25 years ago, and are well known to archaeologists. It is striking that those who initially examined the find never entertained the view that the tomb was the significant find now being claimed by the filmmakers.

Continue reading “A Titanic and Unsubstantiated Claim” →

Podcast Number # 17

Evidences are supplied in answer to questions… Does God Exist? Is the Bible Inspired? Is Jesus Christ the Son of God?

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Artifacts from Iron Age fortress confirmOld Testament dates of Edomite kingdom

“Canadian archeologist Russell Adams’s interest is in Bronze Age and Iron Age copper production. He never intended to walk into archeology’s vicious debate over the historical accuracy of the Old Testament — a conflict likened by one historian to a pack of feral canines at each other’s throats.

“Yet by coincidence, Prof. Adams of Hamilton’s McMaster University says, he and an international team of colleagues fit into place a significant piece of the puzzle of human history in the Middle East — unearthing information that points to the existence of the Bible’s vilified Kingdom of Edom at precisely the time the Bible says it existed, and contradicting widespread academic belief that it did not come into being until 200 years later.

“Their findings mean that those scholars convinced that the Hebrew Old Testament is at best a compendium of revisionist, fragmented history, mixed with folklore and theology, and at worst a piece of outright propaganda, likely will have to apply the brakes to their thinking.

“Because, if the little bit of the Old Testament’s narrative that Prof. Adams and his colleagues have looked at is true, other bits could be true as well…”

By MICHAEL VALPY
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 – Page A3

globeandmail.com

Analysis:

It is not uncommon to hear of modernists who deny the inspiration of scripture. What is interesting is the basis of most claims that the Bible is inaccurate, and thus uninspired.

Continue reading “Archeologist Unearths Biblical Controversy” →

An archaeological discovery in 1979 revealed that the Priestly Benediction, as the verse from Numbers 6:24-26 is called, appeared to be the earliest biblical passage ever found in ancient artifacts. Two tiny strips of silver, each wound tightly like a miniature scroll and bearing the inscribed words, were uncovered in a tomb outside Jerusalem and initially dated from the late seventh or early sixth century B.C. — some 400 years before the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.

But doubts persisted. The silver was cracked and corroded, and many words and not a few whole lines in the faintly scratched inscriptions were unreadable. Some critics contended that the artifacts were from the third or second century B.C., and thus of less importance in establishing the antiquity of religious concepts and language that became part of the Hebrew Bible.

So researchers at the University of Southern California have now re-examined the inscriptions using Space Age photographic and computer imaging techniques. The words still do not exactly leap off the silver. But the researchers said they could finally be “read fully and analyzed with far greater precision” and that they were indeed the earliest.

In a scholarly report published last month, the research team concluded that the improved reading of the inscriptions confirmed their greater antiquity. The script, the team wrote, is from the period just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent exile of Israelites in Babylonia.

Ft. Worth Star Telegram, October 2, 2004

Analysis:

Some modernists believe that the Old Testament is fiction, written in the 4th century B.C. by the inhabitants of Canaan who rose to power at that time. The claim is that the intent of those individuals was to give the new rulers a place in the history of that land, and thus give credence to their claims for power.

This inscription serves to illustrate the bias of these claims. The text is written in the ancient form of the Hebrew language, and as one expert noted, “‘The new research on the inscriptions suggests that that’s not true,’ (the claims of these modernists), Pitard said. In fact, the research team noted in its journal report that the improved images showed the seventh-century lines of the benediction to be ‘actually closer to the biblical parallels than previously recognized.'”

Aug. 17, 2004 – A quarter of a million pottery shards from small jugs, an underground pool, a foot-washing stone and wall carvings unearthed in a large cave west of Jerusalem could be the first archaeological evidence for the existence of St. John the Baptist, according to a forthcoming book.

“The Cave of John the Baptist,” by British archaeologist Shimon Gibson, “presents the first evidence that can be directly linked to the Gospels and to a major figure in the birth of Christianity,” reads the book’s synopsis.

News Brief by Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News

Note: Picture is of the entrance to what some believe is the cave of Jon the Baptist

Analysis:

As always, such discoveries by archaeologists cause great sensation, and excite our imaginations. You may remember the ossuary recently discovered, which contains a reference to Jesus on its side. Though excitement was initially great, and some still claim it is direct archeological proof of Jesus’ existence, most now believe that the inscription was added later, and is not genuine.

Continue reading “John the Baptist’s Cave Claimed Found” →