Commentary on recent archaeological discoveries, current issues bearing on the historical reliability of Scripture and other relevant news concerning the Bible.
We presently live in a culture of great skepticism and confusion. Many scholars, scientists, historians and forces within culture believe the Bible is an outdated, irrelevant book, filled with fables, stories, and mythological constructs that are not based on reality. Members of the ABR staff gathered together in a roundtable discussion to talk about some of the criticisms presently being leveled against the Bible. In this 11 part series (on a 2 DVD set), find out why you can trust the Bible.
The important and powerful topics include: Disc One: 64 Minutes
The Battle Over the City of Ai: Joshua 7-8 Bart Ehrman and the Reliability of the New Testament The Preservation and Reliability of the Biblical Text King David And Solomon: Men or Myths? Part One King David And Solomon: Men or Myths? Part Two The Walls of Jericho: The Skeptics Come Tumblin' Down: Part 1
Disc Two: 54 Minutes
The Walls of Jericho: The Skeptics Come Tumblin' Down: Part 2 The Walls of Jericho: The Skeptics Come Tumblin' Down: Part 3 Don't We Just Need 'Faith'? Noah and the Flood The Exodus From Egypt
Despite the claims of modern science, scholarship and culture, the Bible stands, unshaken by the vain imaginations foisted upon it by the minds of fallible, sinful men.
Watch the episode, The Reliability of Old Testament Texts and Predictive Prophecy, for FREE!
Recently, archaeological remains were discovered in Jerusalem that affirmed the presence of Hasmoneans in Jerusalem during the second century BC. This was in accord with historical texts, such as the book of 1 Maccabees. In this brief article, Dr. Scott Stripling illustrates how the principle of the "benefit of the doubt" is often applied to some written texts, but with a double standard when it comes to King David and the Bible.
Although I come from a Protestant faith tradition, I have always been interested in the Apocrypha, especially 1 Maccabees. However, I read the Bible for years before I realized that the Festival of Dedication in which Jesus participated (John 10:22–39) was what we today call Hanukkah. As my interest in archaeology and the Bible grew into obsession, I looked hard for evidence of the enigmatic period of the Hasmoneans, hoping that it would help me bridge the gap between Malachi and Matthew. I soon learned that the trowel had revealed very little to confirm the existence of this pre-Herodian dynasty of Jewish rulers, especially in the capital city of Jerusalem.
It was only within the last five years that the site of Umm el-Umdan, apparently Modiin of the Second Temple period, was excavated. In May 2010, the Associates for Biblical Research began systematic excavation of the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman village that was founded during the Hasmonean era at Khirbet el-Maqatir. Hundreds of Hasmonean coins bear this out. This fortified village sits on top of about 25% of the LBI fortress (Ai of Joshua 7–8).
But, who cares? After all, we have the historical sources like Josephus and Maccabees that tell us that they existed, and there could be any number of reasons why there is scant archaeological evidence from this era. For starters, Herod rebuilt and enlarged most of the things that the Hasmoneans had constructed, thus making differentiations very difficult at times.
On 12/4/13 ICEJ News announced that archaeologists were finally able to confirm a Hasmonean presence in Jerusalem.
Just in time for Hanukah, archeologists excavating Jerusalem's City of David announced this week that they have uncovered remains, including a small building containing dozens of ancient silver and bronze coins, from the period of the Hasmoneans, the dynasty of Jewish kings which came to power in the wake of the Second Century BC revolt Hanukah commemorates. 'We are filling a gap in the sequence of periods in Jerusalem's history,' said Dr. Doron Ben-Ami, one of the excavation's directors. 'We know it is well documented in different texts that it flourished in the 2nd century BCE, but there has been almost nothing found there until now.'
This confirmation caught no one by surprise. Why would we doubt the Apocrypha or Josephus? If only the archaeologists excavating in Jerusalem were more consistent in their evaluation of the evidence.
Remains of a building, dated to the Hasmonean era in Jerusalem. Credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority.
For many decades there has been a raging debate about the existence of an earlier dynasty of kings referred to in the Bible and Josephus as the Davidic Dynasty. The secularists, often referred to as "Minimalists" in archaeology circles, argued that there was little or no evidence in Jerusalem or elsewhere to prove that David was more than an aeteliological legend. It seems that David and Solomon don't get the same benefit of the doubt that Mattathias and Judas get.
And then everything changed. In 2005, Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist from Hebrew University, followed the clues in the Bible (2 Samuel 5:7–9, 2 Samuel 6:16, 2 Samuel 11, 2 Samuel 16:22, and Nehemiah 12:37) and began excavation just above the famous millo or stepped stone structure in the City of David. In Season One, she was relatively certain that she was uncovering a monumental building from the time of David (c. 1000 B.C.) since the architecture (proto-Aeolic capital, etc.) and pottery were unique to that era. Subsequent seasons brought substantial additional confirmations that she had found David's palace. This discovery, along with the House of David inscription found at Tel Dan in 1993, established to any fair-minded person that the biblical and extra-biblical accounts of David were accurate.
One of the more interesting synchronisms between the archaeological data and the biblical text is the Assyrian siege of Judea, and ultimately Jerusalem, in the days of Hezekiah, 8th century B.C. or Iron Age II. Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh was decorated with reliefs depicting scenes of the destruction of Lachish, the gateway city to Jerusalem (new excavations begin at Lachish in the summer of 2014). These reliefs can be seen today in the British Museum. According to 2 Chronicles 32, Jerusalem was spared by divine intervention. A cuneiform prism inscription confirms that Sennacherib did not conquer Jerusalem. The royal propaganda reads, "I left Hezekiah like a bird in a cage." What if the Assyrian monarch had claimed that he had destroyed Jerusalem? Would the Bible and the inscription be taken with equal weight? Sadly, the majority of scholars would give primacy to the extra-biblical text.
Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef and Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures have used radiocarbon dating in an attempt to pinpoint the time when domesticated camels arrived in the southern Levant, pushing the standard estimate from the 12th down to the 10th century BC. The findings, published recently in the journal Tel Aviv, are being used to argue that camels were first used in the mining operations near the end of the 10th century BC. They state that this is the first evidence of domesticated camels in ancient Israel. Such proclamations erroneously extrapolate the findings of the research far beyond what the actual data proves. In reality, there is abundant evidence that the Bible's mention of camels as early as the time of Abraham is contextually and historically accurate. In this article, TM Kennedy demonstrates the accuracy of the biblical texts in their historical setting as it pertains to camels.
The Meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research, or ASOR, took place in the city of Baltimore, MD this past November. For those unfamiliar with this organization, it is comprised of archaeologists and scholars who make the 'lands of the Bible' the focus of their research and investigations.
Proponents of the 'Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia' thesis continue to appeal to Galatians 4:25 as a supporting argument for their theory. Gordon Franz shows how the first century reader would have understood Paul's geographic reference.
