Peter S. Williams examines the historical reliability of the New Testament in the light of the findings of archaeology.

“On the whole … archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the Scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine. Archaeology has in many cases refuted the views of modern critics.” – Millar Burrows, Professor of Archaeology, Yale University[1]

Charlotte Allen observes that “Archaeology, which was then a young science, was by and large ignored by the academic biblical scholars of the [nineteenth] century. For the great German exegetes of the era … a voyage to Palestine was beside the point, as the life of the historical Jesus was for them solely a matter of interpreting texts.”[2] Today, scholars know that archaeological data can be a valuable aid to interpreting texts, as well as providing independent adjudication of a text’s historical veracity.

Allen affirms that archaeological excavations in the Holy Land have “tended to support the historical value of the Gospels, at least as sources of information about the conditions of their times.”[3] As Nelson Glueck states, on the one hand “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever contraverted a biblical reference”, whereas on the other “Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible.”[4]

Archaeologist William F. Albright observes:

The excessive scepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth-and-nineteenth centuries, certain phases of which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history.[5]

Likewise, Joseph Free confirms: “Archaeology has confirmed countless passages which had been rejected by critics as unhistorical or contrary to known facts.”

[6] Theologian Craig L. Blomberg notes how:

archaeology can demonstrate that the places mentioned in the Gospels really existed and that customs, living conditions, topography, household and workplace furniture and tools, roads, coins, buildings and numerous other ‘stage props’ correspond to how the Gospels describe them. It can show that the names of certain characters in the Gospels are accurate, when we find inscriptional references to them elsewhere. Events and teachings ascribed to Jesus become intelligible and therefore plausible when read against everything we know about life in Palestine in the first third of the first century.[7]

Archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed observes that “The many archaeological discoveries relating to people, places, or titles mentioned in Acts do lend credence to its historicity at one level; many of the specific details in Acts are factual.”

[8] And as Lee Strobel observes:

In trying to determine if a witness is being truthful, journalists and lawyers will test all the elements of his or her testimony that can be tested. If this investigation reveals that the person was wrong in those details, this casts considerable doubt on the veracity of his or her entire story. However, if the minutiae check out, this is some indication – not conclusive proof but some evidence – that maybe the witness is being reliable in his or her overall account.[9]

Culture

Here is a selection of finds relating to cultural practices mentioned in the New Testament.

Crucifixion Victim

In 1968 an ancient burial site was uncovered containing about 35 bodies. One named Yohanan Ben Ha’galgol had a 7 inch nail driven through both feet. Yohanan’s legs were crushed by a blow consistent with the common use of Roman ‘crucifragium’ (John 19:31-32). This find proves that a victim of crucifixion (like Jesus) could receive a proper Jewish burial.

The Nazareth Decree

The ‘Nazareth decree’ is a marble slab found in Nazareth in 1878 and inscribed with a decree issued c. AD 41 by Emperor Claudius (AD 41-54) to the effect that no graves should be disturbed or bodies extracted, with offenders sentenced to death. A plausible explanation of both the decree and its location is that Claudius heard of Jesus’ empty tomb whilst investigating the Roman riots of AD 49 and decided not to let such reports surface again. This makes sense in light of the Jewish argument that Jesus’ body had been stolen
(Matthew 28:11-15). But “even if there is no conscious connection with Jesus of Nazareth, this decree still reveals that the imperial authorities in this period saw grave robbery as an extremely serious crime – indeed as a capital offence. This only makes it yet more unlikely that the (already fearful) disciples would have risked such an act.”[10]

Leprosy in the First Century

Some have suggested that there was no ‘leprosy’ (i.e. Mycobacterium Leprae or Hansen’s Disease) in the Middle East in Jesus day:

However, thanks to archaeology there is now dramatic evidence of its existence in the early first century. Scientific testing of the burial shroud in the so-called ‘Shroud Tomb’ has confirmed the presence of leprosy… Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radio carbon dating confirmed the first-century date of both shroud and skeletal remains. DNA testing confirmed that the man wrapped in the shroud was related to other members whose skeletal remains were recovered in the tomb. This DNA testing also revealed that the man has suffered from leprosy.…[11]

First-Century Fishing Boat

In the 1980s, drought exposed a well-preserved first-century fishing boat (measuring 26.5 feet long, 7.5 feet wide and 4.5 feet high) in the mud of the Sea of Galilee:

Under the direction of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, archaeologists began a race against time to carefully extract the boat from the mud before the waters returned… Eventually it was placed in a climate-controlled environment to protect it from aging… Pots and lamps found inside the boat dated it to the first century. Carbon-14 testing further confirmed the dating. The design of the boat was typical of fishing boats used during that period on the Sea of Galilee. In the back of the boat was a raised section like the one where Jesus could have been sleeping, as indicated in the Gospel accounts. The boat could accommodate 15 people including crew. This archaeological discovery confirms the description given in the Bible.[12]

The Politarch Inscription

Luke recounts:

When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica… Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,’ he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.’ When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. (Acts 17:1-10)

The Greek term translated here as ‘city officials’ is politarchs. Since the term doesn’t appear in classical literature, “Critics of the New Testament asserted for many years that Luke was mistaken in his use of the term ‘politarchs’ … for the officials of Thessalonica…”[13] However, an inscription using this term was found on a first-century AD arch torn down in 1867. As T.C. Mitchell describes it:

The inscription lists the officials of the town in the second century AD, beginning with six Politarchs and naming the city Treasurer and the Gymnasiarch (Director of Higher Education). The inscription begins politarchounton, ‘While [the following] were acting as Politarchs’… It is worth noting that two of the names that appear in this inscription, Sosipatros … and Lucius … were borne by two men at Beroea whom Paul describes as … ‘kinsmen’, but in this context perhaps Jewish Christians (Romans 16:21). Equally, the names Secundus … and Gaius … were borne by a man from Thessalonica (Acts 20:4), and a Macedonian (Acts 19:29), who were travelling companions of Paul. These were not, of course, the same men, but simply demonstrate the currency of the personal names in the area in the century following the time of Paul.[14]

Pompeii Palindromes

Excavated at Pompeii, the Roman city engulfed in liquid mud when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, were two palindromic inscriptions of:

the famous SATOR or ROTAS square, one scratched on the wall of a private house, the other on a pillar in a public exercise yard. This palindrome appears at sites across the Roman Empire in later centuries… All sorts of ingenious explanations have been offered for this remarkable square. On the principle that the simplest explanation is the best, unravelling it as a Christian text gains first place. With the N at the centre, the other letters can be re-arranged in a cross shape to read PATERNOSTER [‘Our Father’] horizontally and vertically, with A [alpha] and O (omega) at each end. If this is correct, there were people in Pompeii who knew at least the first words of the Lord’s prayer in Latin before 79.[15]

The Alexamenos Graffito

This piece of graffiti, from near the Palatine Hill in Rome and rather roughly dated to late in the second-century AD[16], was apparently drawn by one Roman soldier to mock the faith of a fellow soldier who was a Christian. It shows a man standing by a crucifixion victim with the head of a donkey. The Greek caption reads: “Alexamenos worships [his] God”.

Places

Here is a selection of finds relating to places mentioned in the New Testament.

Bethlehem

In May 2012 the Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of a bulla (a small clay seal) that mentions Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus (cf. links to a photo[18] and video[19] of the bulla):

The first ancient artifact constituting tangible evidence of the existence of the city of Bethlehem, which is mentioned in the Bible, was recently discovered in Jerusalem. A bulla measuring c. 1.5 cm was found during the sifting of soil removed from archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out in the City of David… A bulla is a piece of clay that was used for sealing a document or object. The bulla was impressed with the seal of the person who sent the document or object, and its integrity was evidence the document or object was not opened by anyone unauthorized to do so. Three lines of ancient Hebrew script appear on the bulla:
Bishv’at
BatLechem
[Lemel]ekh
According to Eli Shukron, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, ‘it seems that in the seventh year of the reign of a king (it is unclear if the king referred to here is Hezekiah, Manasseh or Josiah), a shipment was dispatched from Bethlehem to the king in Jerusalem. The bulla we found belongs to the group of ‘fiscal’ bullae – administrative bullae used to seal tax shipments remitted to the taxation system of the Kingdom of Judah in the late eighth and seventh centuries BCE. The tax could have been paid in the form of silver or agricultural produce such as wine or wheat.’ Shukron emphasizes, ‘this is the first time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible, in an inscription from the First Temple period, which proves that Bethlehem was indeed a city in the Kingdom of Judah, and possibly also in earlier periods.’[20]

Shukron told Ecumenical News International: “Here we can read [the word Bethlehem] in a clear Hebrew inscription from the First Temple period on a bulla found in Israel that arrived from Bethlehem to Jerusalem maybe to pay some tax. This is the Bethlehem next to Jerusalem referred to in the Bible.”[21]

Nazareth

Theologian R.T. France describes Nazareth as:

so insignificant that its name occurs nowhere in Jewish literature until long after the time of Jesus. It was a small village, largely devoted to agriculture, bypassed by the main roads which ran to the near-by Hellenistic city of Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee… Its population has been estimated at between 500 and 2,000, and the remains of its buildings show no sign of wealth in the relevant period.[22]

Lee Strobel notes that “Skeptics have been asserting for a long time that Nazareth never existed during the time when the New Testament says Jesus spent his childhood there.”[23] For example, “atheist Frank Zindler noted that Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, by the apostle Paul, by the Talmud (although sixty-three other Galilean towns are cited), or by Josephus (who listed forty-five other villages and cities of Galilee, including Japha, which was located just over a mile from present-day Nazareth. No ancient historians or geographers mention Nazareth before the beginning of the fourth century.”[24] However, Paul Barnett reports that “in 1961 a mosaic dated from the third century in which Nazareth appears was unearthed in Caesarea Maritima. Nazareth … is not mentioned in the Old Testament, nor in Josephus’s work. Questions as to its genuineness were resolved by this discovery.”[25] Dr James Strange notes that “when Jerusalem fell in AD 70, priests were no longer needed in the temple because it had been destroyed, so they were sent to various other locations, even up into Galilee. Archaeologists have found a list in Aramaic describing the twenty-four ‘courses’, or families, of priests who were relocated, and one of them was registered as having been moved to Nazareth.”[26]

Moreover: “archaeological digs … have uncovered first-century tombs in the vicinity of Nazareth, which would establish the village’s limits because by Jewish law burials had to take place outside the town proper. Two tombs contained objects such as pottery lamps, glass vessels, and vases from the first, third, or fourth centuries.”[27] Archaeologist Jack Finegan states that “From the tombs … it can be concluded that Nazareth was a strongly Jewish settlement in the Roman period.”[28] As John McRay reports:

Archaeological excavations in Nazareth … by Bellarmino Bagatti in 1955 … revealed that Nazareth of Jesus’ day was an agricultural settlement with numerous winepresses, olive presses, caves for storing grain, and cisterns for water and wine. Situated below the Annunciation Church and the Church of Saint Joseph to the north, some of these structures are connected by ancient tradition with the habitations of Joseph and Mary. Pottery found in the village dates from Iron Age II (900-600 BC) to the Byzantine period (AD 330-640), including Roman pieces from the time of Christ.[29]

In December 2009 archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, excavating in the grounds of a former convent, unearthed a house from first century Nazareth. (cf. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34511072/ns/technology_and_science-science/#34523421). According to excavation director Yardenna Alexandre:

The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth and thereby sheds light on the way of life at the time of Jesus. The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period.[30]

Capernaum

There are sixteen references to Capernaum (Caper = ‘village’ of Nahum), by the Sea of Galilee, in the gospels: “From the period of the New Testament there has been uncovered the evidence of the fishing industry (anchors, fishhooks), which employed [the] disciples, as well as a street and houses certainly used by them on occasion.”[31] R.T. France notes that:

The houses excavated at Capernaum were one-story buildings, with an outside staircase giving access to the flat roof. The roof was not of stone, but of wooden beams or branches thatched with rush and daubed with mud. This explains Mark’s description of how four men carried a potential patient onto the roof and, literally, ‘uncovered the roof and dug it out’ so as to let the man down in front of Jesus (Mark 2:1-4), and the size of the rooms in such houses (never more than five meters across, and often much smaller) shows how quite a modest crowd could make this the only means of access.[32]

The Synagogue in Capernaum

Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum according to Mark 1:21-22 and Luke 4:31-36. Luke 7:1-10 records how Jesus healed the slave of a Roman centurion posted locally. The people encouraged Jesus to heal the slave because the Roman officer had built their synagogue. The black basalt foundations of this 1^st century synagogue (a dating confirmed by pottery finds beneath the floor) can be seen today under the remains of the 4th century lime-stone synagogue in Capernaum.

The Roman Presence in Capernaum

Randall Price notes that “Recently the Roman presence was confirmed through the excavation at Capernaum of a number of Roman-style buildings, including a Roman bathhouse.”[33] As Ian Wilson reports: “In this regard, archaeologists have found evidence of Roman military presence in Capernaum in the form of a long bathhouse, of positively non-Jewish design, that almost certainly belonged to the garrison commanded by Jesus’s centurion.”[34]

Peter’s House in Capernaum

Capernaum contains the remains of an octagonal 5^th century church. In 1968, archaeologists discovered the remains of an earlier church underneath it. This had been built around what was originally a private house, which was apparently used by Christians as a meeting-place during the second half of the first century. The walls had been plastered, and bore scratched writing interpreted by some scholars as prayers in ancient Aramaic (as well as Syriac and Hebrew) saying such things as “Lord Jesus Christ help” and “Christ have mercy”.[35] As often seems to be the case with ancient scratched markings, these readings are disputed. Some scholars think they “are better read as Greek than as Aramaic … and do not necessarily have religious significance.”[36] In the fourth century this ‘house church’ was enlarged and enclosed within the walls of its own compound. It was pointed out to early pilgrims such as Egeria, the mother of emperor Constantine, who recorded c. AD 380 that: “In Capernaum the house of the prince of the apostles has been made into a church with its original walls still standing. It is where the Lord cured the paralytic.” Peter Walker affirms: “graffiti that referred to Jesus as Lord and Messiah … provides strong evidence that the room was used as a place of Christian worship – almost certainly because it was believed to be the room used by Jesus, perhaps the home of Simon Peter (Luke 4:38)… Given that the early tradition goes back to the first century, this is almost certainly the very place where Jesus stayed – the home of his chief apostle, Peter.”[37]

Jerusalem and The Pool of Bethesda

John 5:1-15 describes a pool in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, called Bethesda, surrounded by five covered colonnades. Until the 19^th century, there was no evidence outside of John for the existence of this pool and John’s unusual description “caused bible scholars to doubt the reliability of John’s account, but the pool was duly uncovered in the 1930s – with four colonnades around its edges and one across its middle.”[38] Ian Wilson reports: “Exhaustive excavations by Israeli archaeologist Professor Joachim Jeremias have brought to light precisely such a building, still including two huge, deep-cut cisterns, in the environs of Jerusalem’s Crusader Church of St Anne.”[39]

Jerusalem and The Pool of Siloam

In the 400s AD, a church was built above a pool attached to Hezekiah’s water tunnel to commemorate the healing of a blind man reported in John 9:1-7. Until recently, this was considered to be the Pool of Siloam from the time of Christ. However, during sewerage works in June 2004 engineers stumbled upon a 1^st century ritual pool when they uncovered some ancient steps during pipe maintenance near the mouth of Hezekiah’s tunnel. By the summer of 2005, archaeologists had revealed what was “without doubt the missing pool of Siloam.”[40] Mark D. Roberts reports that: “In the plaster of this pool were found coins that establish the date of the pool to the years before and after Jesus. There is little question that this is in fact the pool of Siloam, to which Jesus sent the blind man in John 9.”[41]

The Tomb of the Gadarene Demoniac

Angela Tilby reports that: “Umm Keiss contains the remains of the ancient town of Gadera … noted for its hot, natural pools that were thought to have healing qualities. The town is on the south side of the Sea of Galilee in an area known as the Decapolis. This is the region to the south and east of the Jordan in which there were ten independent cities founded originally by Alexander the Great. At the time of Jesus these remained cosmopolitan communities where temples and synagogues would be found alongside each other. Jew and pagan would trade and mix … under the wider cultural umbrella of whatever colonial power was in the ascendancy. Recent excavations have uncovered the remains of a fourth-century church, which is so large that it must have been connected to a site of major importance. The church has no less than five aisles, which suggests that it was visited by large numbers of pilgrims. Digging down beneath the foundations, archaeologists have discovered a Roman tomb that has been dated to the year AD 25… The strange thing is that the church has a hole in the floor that looks right down on to the tomb. The tomb itself is in an easily identified spot; it is just under an archway that marks the western city boundary. The Christians who built the church have done nothing to ‘christianize’ the tomb. They have neither destroyed it, replaced it, nor attempted to mark it with crosses or symbols of resurrection. For some reason, they wanted to preserve it as it was. It is a serious possibility that this was one of the tombs that provided a home for the Gadarene demoniac. It has been preserved under the church to mark the place of his exorcism.”[42]

Bethany and The Tomb of Lazarus

Peter Walker writes: “There is no doubting the general location of Bethany. The Arabic village of El-Azarieh preserves in its name the way the Byzantines referred to it – as the ‘Lazarium’, that is, ‘the place of Lazarus’. Until recently this was a tiny village… There is a strong likelihood that Lazarus’ tomb has been correctly identified and preserved. Certainly the traditional tomb that is now known as his tomb was in a cemetery in the first century (other first-century tombs have been found just to the north). And there are references to the tomb going back to the third century AD (in Eusebius’ Onomastikon).”[43]

People

Here is a selection of finds relating to people mentioned in the New Testament.

Herod the Great

We have a bronze coin minted by Herod the Great. On the obverse side (i.e. the bottom) is a tripod and ceremonial bowl with the inscription ‘Herod king’ and the year the coin was struck, ‘year 3’ (of Herod’s reign), or 37 BC.

In 1996 Israeli Professor of Archaeology Ehud Netzer discovered in Masada a piece of broken pottery with an inscription, called an ostracon. This piece had Herod’s name on it and was part of an amphora used for transportation (probably wine), dated to c. 19 BC. The inscription is in Latin and reads, “Herod the Great King of the Jews (or Judea)”, the first such that mentions the full title of King Herod.

Herodium is a man-made mountain in the Judean wilderness rising over 2,475 feet above sea level. In 23 BC Herod the Great built a palace fortress here on top of a natural hill. Seven stories of living rooms, storage areas, cisterns, a bathhouse, and a courtyard filled with bushes and flowering plants were constructed. The whole complex was surrounded and partly buried by a sloping fill of earth and gravel. Herod’s tomb and sarcophagus were discovered at the base of Herodium by archaeologist Ehud Netzer in 2007.

Erastus, Treasurer of Corinth

John McRay reports that:

Before AD 50, an area 62 feet square was paved with stone at the northeast corner of the theatre in Corinth, Greece. Excavations there revealed part of a Latin inscription carved into the pavement which reads, ‘Erastus in return for his aedilship laid [the pavement] at his own expense.’ The Erastus of this inscription is identified in the excavation publication as the Erastus mentioned by Paul in Romans, a letter written from Corinth, in which Erastus is referred to as ‘the city treasurer’ [Romans 16:23]… the particular Greek word used by Paul for ‘treasurer’ (oikonomos) is an appropriate term to describe the work of a Corinthian aedile or magistrate supervising public works.[44]

Ian Wilson comments that “there is a general recognition that this may well have been an earlier stage in Erastus the treasurer’s career in local government. At the very least, there is a reasonable case for Paul’s Erastus and the Erastus of the Corinth inscription being one and the same.”[45]

Gallio, Proconsul of Achaea

“This designation in Acts 18:12-17 was thought to be impossible. But an inscription at Delphi notes this exact title for the man, and it dates him to the time Paul was in Corinth (AD 51).”[46] In the inscription the emperor Claudius refers to “Gallio, my friend and Proconsul”.[47]

Multiple Historical Figures Named in Luke 3:1-2

In Luke 3:1-2 we see references to eight historical figures:

In the fifteenth year of the reign of [1] Tiberius Caesar – when [2] Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, [3] Herod tetrarch [a governor of a quarter of a province] of Galilee, his brother [4] Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis [cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.106-108], and [5] Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene – during the high priesthood of [6] Annas and [7] Caiaphas, the word of God came to [8] John son of Zechariah in the desert. (Luke 3:1-2) [cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18:5.2]

The historicity of all eight figures is assured, and archaeological evidence plays its role here, as the following examples demonstrate:

[1] Tiberius Caesar

The Denarius coin, 14-37 AD, is commonly referred to as the ‘Tribute Penny’ from the Bible. The coin shows a portrait of Tiberius Caesar. Craig L. Blomberg comments: “Jesus’ famous saying about giving to Caesar what was his and to God what his (Mark 12:17 and parallels) makes even more sense when one discovers that most of the Roman coins in use at the time had images of Caesar on them.”[48]

[2] Pontius Pilate

“In 1961, in Caesarea Maritima, where Pontius Pilate lived, an inscription was found which, among other things, confirms not only the rule of Pilate in Judea but also his preference for the title ‘Prefect’. The inscription isn’t complete anymore, but there’s little question about what it once said.”[49] In Latin the inscription reads:

TIBERIEUM
IUS PILATUS
ECTUS IUDA

The original wording was thus:

TIBERIEUM
[PONT]IUS PILATUS
[PRAEF]ECTUS IDUA[EA]

Translated, this reads: “To Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea.”

[3] Herod Antipas, Tetrach of Galilee

According to a report in the Haaretz Daily Newspaper (8th April 2005):

A marble floor dating from the first century CE was unearthed during this season’s excavations of ancient Tiberias. According to archaeologist Professor Yizhar Hirschfeld, director of the three-week dig that ended yesterday, the floor is apparently a remnant of a pavement in the palace of Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who ruled the Galilee from 4 BCE to 38 CE. ‘Marble from the first century CE was very rare in this area and is found only in royal palaces. Who knows, perhaps Salome danced for the king on this very floor,’ Hirschfeld said, referring to the New Testament story of the daughter of Herodias, Antipas’ wife, who demanded the head of John the Baptist on a platter in exchange for the dance. The dig was cosponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority, and was funded by the Tiberias municipality and Brown University, Rhode Island. It revealed that in the fourth century a basilica was constructed on top of the palace.[50]

[5] Lysanias, Tetrach of Abilene

Scholars used to say that Luke didn’t know what he was talking about, because everybody knew that Lysanias was the ruler of Chalcis, who was killed in 36 BC. But then an inscription was found at Albia near Damascus from the time of Tiberius (AD 14-37) which names Lysanias as Tetrarch – just as Luke had written. It turned out there had been two government officials named Lysanias!

[7] Caiaphas the High Priest

In a tomb located to the south of Jerusalem were discovered several ossuaries, one of which contains what many scholars believe to be the bones of the former high priest Caiaphas and his family. On the side and back of the ossuary is the inscription: “Yosef bar [son of] Caifa”. Other scholars dispute the interpretation of this find. Be that as it may, Caiaphas’s brother-in-law Theophilus son of Annas (or Ananus) is mentioned on the ossuary of Yehohanah, granddaughter of the high priest. Moreover, in June 2011 the Israel Antiquities Authority announced the recovery of a looted ossuary bearing the inscription “Miriam, daughter of Yeshua, son of Qayapha, priest of Ma’aziah, from Beth ‘Imri.”[51] As Craig A. Evans observes, if the name of this priest is vocalized “Qayapha (instead of Qopha or Qupha), then we could have a match with Caiaphas. Indeed, we may have the ossuary of the granddaughter of the high priest who condemned Jesus.”.[52]

Ossuaries are particularly fascinating examples of archaeological evidence because they are witness not only to a cultural practice, but they can document the existence of named individuals, their familial relationships and even their religious beliefs.

Second, Dr Hannes Schroeder and Professor Eske Willerslev from the University of Copenhagen

Alexander of Cyrene

When Jesus was on the way to be crucified, the Roman soldiers forced a man called Simon from Cyrene to carry his cross-beam (cf. Matthew 27:32; Luke 23:26). Simon had sons called Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21; Romans 16:13). In 1941, Israeli archaeologist Eleazar Sukenik discovered a tomb in the Kidron valley in eastern Jerusalem. Pottery dated it to the 1st century AD. The tomb contained eleven ossuaries bearing twelve names in fifteen inscriptions. Some were particularly common in Cyrenaica. The inscriptions on one of these ossuaries says: “Alexandros (son of) Simon”. On the lid of the ossuary, there’s an inscription bearing the name Alexandros in Greek, and then the Hebrew QRNYT. The meaning of this isn’t clear, but one possibility is that the person making the inscription meant to write QRNYH – the Hebrew for ‘Cyrenian’. Tom Powers comments:

When we consider how uncommon the name Alexander was, and note that the ossuary inscription lists him in the same relationship to Simon as the New Testament does and recall that the burial cave contains the remains of people from Cyrenaica, the chance that the Simon on the ossuary refers to the Simon of Cyrene mentioned in the Gospels seems very likely.[64]

The Barsabbas Family

Early in the book of Acts, Luke describes how Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples went about replacing Judas after his suicide: “Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” (Acts 1:21-22) Two men were proposed for the position – Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. The disciples prayed: “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” (Acts 1:24-25) Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias. On a later occasion: “the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers.’” (Acts 15:22) Modern archaeological findings cast light upon these references to Joseph and Judas Barsabbas. As reported by Jerusalem Christian Review (December 2000 online edition), Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a 1st century tomb in the mountainside off the Kidron Valley, containing ossuaries bearing signs of the cross. The inscriptions identify the cave as the tomb of the Barsabbas family. Historian Ory N. Mazar states that “at least some members of this family were among the very first disciples of Christ.” The ossuaries included:

• Simon Bar-Saba, the Hebrew version of ‘Simon Barsabbas’
• Mary, daughter of Simon maybe one of the several Marys in the NT (eg. Matthew 28:1)
• Joseph Barsabbas
• The other candidate from Acts, Matthias, may have belonged to the same family, as one of the other coffins in the same cave carries the name M’T’I’, Hebrew for ‘Matthias’
• Another Son of Saba was Judah (the Hebrew form of the Greek Judas) Barsabbas

Professor Mazar comments:

the impact of these fascinating discoveries is multiplied when we consider the additional evidence found in the tomb such as coins and artifacts, that clearly show the tomb was hermetically sealed less than a decade after the crucifixion of Christ. This is years before any part of the New Testament was written, proving that the Scriptures are consistent with the archaeological evidence.

The Tomb of St. Phillip the Apostle

A July 29th 2011 Biblical Archaeological Society Press Release announced that: “During the course of excavating a Byzantine-era church in the ancient Greek city of Hierapolis (in modern southwest Turkey), Professor Francesco D’Andria and his archaeological team have discovered the tomb of St. Philip, one of the twelve apostles.”[65] “We have been looking for Saint Philip’s tomb for years”, d’Andria told Fox News, “We finally found it in the ruins of a church which we excavated a month ago.”[66] An examiner.com article explained that:

Excavations at Hierapolis revealed a Martyrium believed to belong to Saint Philip. It was believed when the Martyrium was fully excavated the archaeologist would find the tomb of Philip. Unfortunately, there was no tomb. Francesco D’Andria, director of the excavations, was surprised and disappointed, but continued the work in surrounding areas. Approximately 40 yards from the Martyrium, D’Andria discovered a small church. Inside the church they found a first century Roman tomb. Evidence indicates the tomb was built in the first century and the church was built around the tomb sometime around the beginning of the fifth century. D’Andria believes the evidence indicates Saint Philip’s remains were originally placed in this tomb in the first century and remained there for over 400 years before being moved to Constantinople.[67]

The ‘James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus’ Ossuary

James, the brother of Jesus, was martyred in AD 62. A mid-1st century AD chalk ossuary discovered in 2002 bears the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” ( ‘Ya’akov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua’). Historian Paul L. Maier states that “there is strong (though not absolutely conclusive) evidence that, yes, the ossuary and its inscription are not only authentic, but that the inscribed names are the New Testament personalities.“[68] New Testament scholar Ben Witherington states that: “If, as seems probable, the ossuary found in the vicinity of Jerusalem and dated to about AD 63 is indeed the burial box of James, the brother of Jesus, this inscription is the most important extra-biblical evidence of its kind.”[69] According to Hershel Shanks, editor in chief of the Biblical Archaeological Review: “this box is [more] likely the ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth, than not. In my opinion … it is likely that this inscription does mention the James and Joseph and Jesus of the New Testament.”

The Empty Tomb of Jesus

According to John McRay: “Although absolute proof of the location of Jesus’ tomb remains beyond our reach, the archaeological and early literary evidence argues strongly for those who associate it with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”[70] Dan Bahat, former City Archaeologist of Jerusalem, likewise states that: “We may not be absolutely certain that the site of the Holy Sepulchre Church is the site of Jesus’ burial, but we certainly have no other site that can lay a claim nearly as weighty, and we really have no reason to reject the authenticity of the site.”[71] Martin Biddle adds that: “What is clear is that the kind of tomb suggested by the Gospel accounts is consistent with what is now known of contemporary practice in the Jerusalem area: i.e. a rock-cut tomb, a low entrance closed by a moveable stone, and a raised burial couch within.”[72]

The Empty Shroud

The intensively studied ‘Shroud of Turin’ – which bears a superficial, photographically negative image of a flogged and crucified man (an image that also contains three dimensional information) – was formerly dismissed by many on the basis of 1988 carbon dating tests giving the Shroud a medieval date. However, recent peer-reviewed scientific findings show that this carbon dating is unreliable because the dated samples were taken from a medieval patch.[73] On the other hand, a mass of historical and forensic evidence points towards an earlier and even first-century date for the Shroud. For example, forensic evidence ties the Shroud to a bloody headcloth known as the ‘Sudarium of Oviedo’, an artifact with a provenance that can be traced back as far as the seventh century.[74] Moreover, the evidence is against the hypothesis that the image on the Shroud is an artistic fake.[75]

A statistical comparison between data from the Shroud and the New Testament’s description of various irregular details of Jesus’ punishment establishes that if the Shroud is a genuine 1^st century artifact then it probably was Jesus’ actual burial cloth. Hence the Shroud provides archaeological evidence for the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ flogging and crucifixion and for the claim that after Jesus died as a result of his crucifixion he was given an honorable burial. The Shroud thus provides evidence against the once popular ‘swoon’ theory (according to which Jesus didn’t really die on the cross). Moreover, that the Shroud a) no longer contains a body and b) bears undisturbed blood clots, constitutes additional evidence in the cumulative case for the reality of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

Conclusion

Archaeology adds to the cumulative case for the historical reliability of the New Testament by empirically verifying references to specific cultural practices, beliefs, places and people. As Paul Barnett concludes:

archaeology neither proves nor disproves the New Testament. It does, however, endorse the narratives at many points, especially in the case of inscriptions, which by their nature are specific. Here we meet characters secondary to the main story – the Herods, the high priest and several Roman governors. Moreover, through archaeology we are able to fill in background details that enhance the narratives in both the Gospels and in the book of Acts. Archaeological findings have confirmed that the texts of the New Testament are from first to last historical and geographical in character.[76]

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This next article clearly demonstrates how archeology is important for gaining insight into the true biblical history and the account of it.  It is obvious that the more we uncover, the more we appreciate the awesome nature of the WORD OF GOD and GOD himself.   Don’t miss this one. hang in a little longer we are nearly at the end.  

Chapter 25

Does Archaeology Support the Bible?

by Clifford Wilson on January 24, 2008; last featured August 27, 2014

In every area, the evidence has been forthcoming: God has vindicated His Word, and His Book is a genuine writing, with prophecies and revelation that must be taken seriously.

It is a biblical principle that matters of testimony should be established by the mouths of two or three witnesses. According to Hebrew law, no person could be found guilty of an offense without properly attested evidence from witnesses, even though this law was put aside at the trial of Jesus.

When it comes to the Word of God, a similar principle is demonstrated from the modern science of archaeology. We are told in Psalm 85:11, “Truth shall spring out of the earth,” and in Psalm 119:89, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” God’s Word is sure. It outlasts human generations, and in His own time God vindicates its truth. This puts God’s Word in a unique category: it is the “other side” of the two-way communication pattern between God and man. Man’s speech distinguishes him uniquely from all the animals, and God’s written Word distinguishes His special communication to man as immeasurably superior to all other supposed revelations.

According to that biblical principle of “two or three witnesses,” we shall now select evidences that support the truth and accuracy of God’s Word. In every area, the evidence has been forthcoming: God has vindicated His Word, and His Book is a genuine writing, with prophecies and revelation that must be taken seriously. His Book is unique because it is His Book.

Those inspired men of old wrote down God’s message, applicable to themselves in their own times, and also applicable to men and women across the centuries, right down to the present century. The Bible is the “other side” of the Christian’s study of the miracle of language. It is God’s chosen way of revealing His thoughts—the deep things which are unsearchable except by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

In the following outline we suggest certain divisions of the Word of God. Then we list three significant evidences from archaeology to confirm that the witness is sufficient to cause the case to be accepted for each section—God’s Word is indeed Truth.

Major Evidences Regarding Genesis 1–11

One of the Babylonian Creation Tablets, Enuma Elish	Part of the Gilgamesh Epic

Genesis 1–11 is the “seed-plot of the Bible,” an introduction to Abraham and great doctrines, such as God the Creator, Friend, Revealer, Judge, Redeemer, Restorer, and Sustainer. It is actual history, and it is a summary of beginnings.

1. Enuma Elish—This is the Babylonian Creation Record. We also have the Ebla Creation Tablet. The Bible record is clearly superior to this as the Enuma Elish has creation from pre-existing matter, which really isn’t creation at all. The Bible is the true account of this historical event.
2. The Epic of Gilgamesh includes the Babylonian Flood Story. Again, the biblical record is greatly superior. As Nozomi Osanai wrote in her master’s thesis on a comparison between Noah’s Flood and the Gilgamish Epic, “According to the specifics, scientific reliability, internal consistency, the correspondence to the secular records, and the existence of common elements among the flood traditions around the world, the Genesis account seems to be more acceptable as an accurate historical record.”1
3. Long-living Kings at Kish (Sumer)—These kings supposedly lived from 10,000 to 64,000 years ago. The Bible’s record is conservative and is the true account, while the Babylonian and other traditions have been embellished over time. It was later realized that the Babylonians had two bases for arithmetic calculations, based on either tens or sixties. When the records were retranslated using the system of tens rather than sixties, they came to a total within 200 years of the biblical record.

Major Evidences Regarding Genesis 11–36

This section contains Patriarchal records, with special reference to Abraham, the father of the Hebrews.

1. Abraham’s home city of Ur was excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley, with surprising evidence of near-luxury.2
2. The customs of Patriarchal times, as described in the Bible, are endorsed by archaeological finds at such places as Ur, Mari, Boghazkoi, and Nineveh. These were written records from that day—not just put down in writing many centuries later. They bear the marks of eyewitness reporting.

   

   Ur Nammu, the king of Ur who claimed to build a famous tower

   Thus, Abraham’s relationship with Hagar is seen in a different light by understanding that the woman who could not personally bear a child for her husband should provide him with one of her maidservants. In the Bible record we are told that it was Sarah who made the approach to Abraham, and her maid Hagar was a willing accomplice in having Abraham’s child. Thus, she gained economic security and personal prestige. We stress it was not Abraham who made the first approach to Hagar, but Abraham’s wife Sarah did in keeping with the customs of the day.

   The records of the five kings who fought against four kings (Genesis 14) are interesting, in that the names of the people concerned fit the known words and names of the times.

3. Abraham’s negotiations with the Hittites (Genesis 23) are accurate and follow the known forms of such Hittite transactions. Neo-Hittites came later, but there were distinct language relationships. The Bible was right in calling the earlier people “sons of Hatti” or “Hittites.”

Interestingly, the Hittite word for retainers, which means “servants trained in a man’s own household” is hanakim (Genesis 14:14). This term is used only here in the Bible. Execration texts of the Egyptians (found on fragments of ceramic pots, which seem to have been used in ritual magic cursing of surrounding peoples) gives us the meaning of this term, and it is correctly used in the Bible record in Genesis 14.

Major Evidences Regarding Genesis 37–50

This section tells us the history of Joseph, the son of Jacob and great-grandson of Abraham. His brothers sell him to the Ishmaelites who sell him to an Egyptian eunuch. Joseph becomes successful in Egypt and helps to settle all of Israel there.

1. Known Egyptian titles such as “captain of the guard” (Genesis 39:1), “overseer” (Genesis 39:4), “chief of the butlers” and “chief of the bakers” (Genesis 40:2), “father to the Pharaoh” (actually “father to the gods,” which to Joseph was blasphemous because he could not accept Pharaoh as a manifestation of Ra the sun god; Joseph Hebraized the title, so that he did not dishonor the Lord), “Lord of Pharaoh’s House” (the palace), and “Ruler of all Egypt” (Genesis 45:8) attest to the historicity of this account.
2. Joseph’s installation as vizier (chief minister) is very similar to other recorded ceremonies. His new name was Zaphnath-Paaneah, meaning “head of the sacred college” (Genesis 41:41–45). Other Egyptian phrases and other local color are also plentiful throughout the record (e.g., embalming and burial practices [Genesis 50]).
3. The Dead Sea Scrolls make the number of the people of Jacob 75, not 70, in Genesis 46:27, thus correcting a scribal error and showing that Stephen’s figure was right (Acts 7:14).3

Major Evidences Regarding Exodus to Deuteronomy

The Eshnunna Law Code dating to c.1900 BC

These are the other four books of the Pentateuch, written by Moses, and probably at times in consultation with Aaron, the chief priest, and Joshua, the military leader.

1. The Law of Moses was written by a man raised in the courts of pharaoh, and it was greatly superior to other law codes, such as those of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, and the Eshnunna code that was found near modern Baghdad.
2. The covenant forms of the writings of Moses follow the same format as those of the Hittites, as endorsed by Professor George Mendenhall. The law code is a unity, dating to about 1500 BC (the time of Moses). These writings come from one source only, and there is no one to fit this requirement at this time except Moses. Ethical concepts of the Law were not too early for Moses, despite earlier hypercriticism. (Ebla tablets from Syria pre-date Moses and, for example, include penalties against rape.) At this point it is relevant to comment on two world-famous archaeologists with whom I had the privilege of working as an area supervisor with the American Schools of Oriental Research at the excavation of Gezer in Israel many years ago. Each of them (at two separate excavations) gave wonderful lectures to 140 American college students.At the time of his lecture, Professor Nelson Glueck stated, “I have excavated for thirty years with a Bible in one hand and a trowel in the other, and in matters of historical perspective I have never found the Bible to be in error.” Being a world-class Jewish scholar, Professor Glueck would have meant the Old Testament when he referred to the Bible, but it is also true that at least on one occasion, to my knowledge, he defended the accuracy of the New Testament writings as well.The other lecture was given by Professor George Ernest Wright of Harvard University. He spoke on the validity of the writings of Moses, especially the covenant documents in the Pentateuch. He stated that the research of Professor George Mendenhall had led to the conclusion—with which he agreed—that the covenant documents of Moses were a unity and must be dated to approximately 1500 BC.In further conversation after the lecture, Professor Wright told me that he had lectured for 30 years to graduate students—especially at Harvard—and he had told them that they could forget Moses in the Pentateuch. He now acknowledged that for thirty years he had been wrong, and that Moses really had been personally involved in the actual writing of the Pentateuch.
3. The ten plagues or judgments against the leading gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12) are seen as real judgments, with a leading god of Egypt selected for judgment with each of the plagues.

Canaanite deities, Baal and Asherah

Major Evidences Regarding Joshua to Saul

This section includes the conquest, the judges, and the early kingdom.

1. Deities such as Baal, Asherah, and Dagan are properly identified in association with the right people.
2. City-states are also identified (e.g., Hazor as “the head of those kingdoms” [Joshua 11:10]. The excavation of Hazor corroborated its great size).
3. Saul’s head and armor were put into two temples at Beth-Shan. Both Philistine and Canaanite temples were found. The Bible record was endorsed when such an endorsement seemed unlikely (1 Samuel 31:9–10 and 1 Chronicles 10:10).

Major Evidences Regarding David to Solomon

At this time the Kingdom of Israel is established.

1. David’s elegy at Saul’s death is an accurate reflection of the literary style of his times. Excavations at Ras Shamra (the ancient Ugarit in Syria) clarified various expressions, such as “upsurgings of the deep” instead of “fields of offerings” as in 2 Samuel 1:21.
2. Following the discovery of the Ugaritic library, it has become clear that the Psalms of David should be dated to his times and not to the Maccabean period, 800 years later, as critics claimed. The renowned scholar William Foxwell Albright wrote, “To suggest that the Psalms of David should be dated to the Maccabean period is absurd.”4
3. Solomonic cities such as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15) have been excavated. Solomon even used similar blueprints for some duplicated buildings.

The entrance to the Solomonic City of Gezer

Major Evidences Regarding the Assyrian Period

King Sargon of Assyria, mentioned at Isaiah 20:1	Part of a pathway excavated by Dr. Clifford Wilson between Sennacherib’s palace and the temple where his sons killed him

This was the time of “The Reign of Terror,” not long after Solomon’s death.

1. Isaiah 20:1 was challenged by critics because they knew of no king named Sargon in lists of Assyrian kings. Now Sargon’s palace has been recovered at Khorsabad, including a wall inscription and a library record endorsing the battle against the Philistine city of Ashdod (mentioned in Isaiah 20:1).
2. Assyrian titles such as tartan (commander-in-chief ), and several others, are used casually yet confidently by Bible writers.Other Assyrian titles such as rabmag, rabshakeh, and tipsarru were also used by Bible writers. As the Assyrians disappeared from history after the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, this retention of “obsolete” words is a strong pointer to the eyewitness nature of the records. Thus it points also to the genuineness of the prophecies because the same men who wrote the historical facts also wrote prophecies.
3. The death of Sennacherib is recorded at Isaiah 37:38 and 2 Kings 19:37 and is confirmed in the records of Sennacherib’s son, Esarhaddon. It was later added to by Esarhaddon’s son Ashur-bani-pal.

Various details about Nineveh and the account of Jonah point to the Bible’s historicity. The symbol of Nineveh was a pregnant woman with a fish in her womb.

Adad-Nirari III, who might have been the king of Jonah’s time, introduced remarkable reforms—possibly after the message of the prophet Jonah. Adad-Nirari’s palace was virtually alongside the later construction of what is known as “Nebi Yunis” (“the prophet Jonah”). That structure is the supposed site of the tomb of Jonah, and although that is unlikely, the honoring of Jonah is very interesting.

Major Evidences Regarding the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and took Judah into captivity.

1. Daniel knew that Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for the splendor of Babylon (Daniel 4:30). This was unknown to modern historians until it was confirmed by the German professor Koldewey, who excavated Babylon approximately 100 years ago.
2. We now know from the Babylonian Chronicle that the date of Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Jerusalem was the night of March 15/16, 597 BC. We also know that Belshazzar really was the king of Babylon at this time because his father Nabonidus, who was undertaking archaeological research, was away from Babylon for about 10 years. He appointed his son Belshazzar as co-regent during that time.
3. Prophecies against Babylon (e.g., Jeremiah 51, 52) have been literally fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar wrote that the walls of Babylon would be a perpetual memorial to his name, but Jeremiah said, “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken” (Jeremiah 51:58). Jeremiah, inspired by God, has been confirmed.

Critics said ‘There was no such king’, but his palace and library were uncovered

Major Evidences Regarding Cyrus and the Medes and Persians

The Medes and the Persians took over after the Babylonians.

1. Cyrus became king over the Medes and Persians. We read of Cyrus when his name was recorded prophetically in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1. He issued the famous Cyrus Decree that allowed captive peoples to return to their own lands (2 Chronicles 36:22–23 and Ezra 1:1–4). The tomb of Cyrus has been found.
2. God was in control of His people’s history—even using a Gentile king to bring His purposes to pass. The Cyrus Cylinder (a clay cylinder found in 1879 inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform with an account of Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon in 539 BC) confirms that Cyrus had a conquest of Babylon.
3. Some Jews remained in Babylon, as shown in the book of Esther. The type of “unchanging” laws of the Medes and Persians shown therein (Esther 1:19) is endorsed from Aramaic documents recovered from Egypt.

The Cyrus Cylinder—Isaiah referred to him prophetically

Major Evidences Regarding Ezra and Nehemiah

Part of the restored wall of Nehemiah

This was the time of the resettlement in the land after the exile in Babylon.

1. Elephantine papyri, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Targums of Job, etc., show that Aramaic was then in use, as Ezra indicates.
2. Sanballat was, as the Bible says, the Governor of Samaria (Nehemiah 4 and 6), though it was claimed by many writers that Sanballat was much later than Nehemiah. Several Sanballats are now known, and recovered letters even refer to Johanan (Nehemiah 12:13). Geshem the Arab (Nehemiah 6) is also known. Despite longstanding criticisms, Ezra and Nehemiah are accurate records of an actual historical situation.
3. The letters about Sanballat (above) clear up a dating point regarding Nehemiah. Nehemiah’s time was with Artaxerxes I who ruled from 465 to 423 BC, not Artaxerxes II. This illustrates the preciseness with which Old Testament dating is very often established by modern research.

Major Evidences Regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls

1. After approximately 2,000 years of being buried in caves near the Dead Sea, these scrolls came to light again in AD 1947. The Jews were searching for a Messiah or Messiahs—the king-like David, the great High Priest of the people of Israel, the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, the prophet like Moses, and possibly the pierced Messiah. I say “possibly the pierced Messiah” because this refers only to a very small fragment. Also, the future and the imperfect tenses in the Hebrew language are very often the same and can only be determined by the context.
   

   Part of the main Scroll of Isaiah recovered alongside the Dead Sea

   In this case the prophecy could be saying that the expected Messiah will be “pierced” or that “he was pierced.” Isaiah 11:4 states, “And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked [emphasis added].” And in the NASB, Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was pierced through for our transgressions [emphasis added].” Both statements are relevant, for in fact the Messiah was pierced, and in a coming judgment those who have rejected the Messiah will be pierced.

2. The Scrolls have provided copies of most of the Old Testament, for fragments of every Old Testament book except Esther have been found in Hebrew, about 1,000 years earlier than previous extant Hebrew copies. (A writing from the book of Esther is found in another scroll.)
3. Considerable light was thrown on New Testament backgrounds and on the Jewish nature of John’s Gospel. For example, contrasts such as “light and darkness” are common to John and the “War Scroll,” a text that describes the eschatological last battle; and Hebrew was still a living language, not just a priestly language.

The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah also shows an old form of the Hebrew letter “tau,” which looks like an “X” in the margin of the scroll. It occurs 11 times, at Isaiah 32:1, 42:1, 42:5, 42:19, 44:28, 49:5–7, 55:3–4, 56:1–2, 56:3, 58:13, and Isaiah 66:5. As already stated, both the records of the Assyrians and the Dead Sea Scrolls (with a near-complete copy of Isaiah) were totally hidden from human eyes for about 2,000 years. Most of the content of these two sources overlapped and thus confirmed the evidence for the genuineness of the prophecies of Isaiah.

An important point about the finding of these scrolls is that they relate to the uncovering of the Assyrian palaces from the 1840s onwards. Isaiah gives a number of historical facts relating to the Assyrians that remarkably confirm the accuracy of Isaiah.

Possibly, the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the most wonderful facts regarding the relevance of biblical archaeology and the Bible.5

Major Evidences Regarding the Person of Our Lord Jesus

Part of an inscription about enrolling for the poll tax

Events surrounding the words and actions of Jesus have been authenticated by archaeological discoveries.

1. Problems about the census at the time of our Lord’s birth have been resolved by the findings of important papyrus documents. These documents were found in Egypt inside sacred, embalmed crocodiles. The documents were the Jewish priestly writings that were written immediately before, during, and just after New Testament times.The excavators Granfell and Hunt reported that their evidence showed that this was the first census (poll tax—enrollment) that took place in the time of Quirinius. (Another inscription has shown that Quirinius was in Syria twice—first as a military leader at a time of civil unrest, and later as Governor of Syria.) The census was probably delayed in Palestine because of that civil unrest.
2. Those papyrus findings have thrown much light on the words our Lord used. It is indeed true that He spoke the language of His time on earth (Mark 12:37).
3. Pilate is now better known because of a recovered inscription at Caesarea. The John Rylands papyrus (AD 125) records part of the trial before Pilate, fragments of which are recorded in John 18:31–33, 37–38.

Both sides of the Rylands Papyrus

Major Evidences Regarding the New Testament, the Early Church, and the Early Years of Christianity

The documents of the New Testament have been validated as accurate historical documents.

1. The papyrii from those Egyptian “talking crocodiles” have demonstrated that the New Testament documents are remarkable records of the times claimed for them in the language of “everyday” people. Those everyday expressions from Paul’s time have also thrown much light on Paul’s writings themselves.
2. The findings of Sir William Ramsay and his successors in Asia Minor reestablished the veracity of Luke the historian and other New Testament writers. The three Bible writings most attacked by critics were the Moses’ Pentateuch, Ezra/Nehemiah, and Luke. Every one of these has been remarkably confirmed as being accurate and reliable by the research of credible scholars.
3. A flood of evidence shows the continuity between the New Testament documents (e.g., the Rylands Papyrus with parts of John 18:31–33 on one side and John 18:37–38 on the other) and the abundant evidence from the secular Roman writers and the early church fathers.

Does Archaeology Prove the Bible?

Even when excavators are digging to uncover a past time period dealt with in the Bible, it is by no means sure that direct biblical history will be unearthed. Such findings are hoped for, not only by Bible students, but by disinterested archaeologists as well, because they know that they must take Bible records seriously. A link with Bible history is an excellent dating point, always desirable but not possible or achieved. These findings are excellent confirmations of God’s Word, as opposed to “proving the Bible.”

Archaeologists are scholars, usually academics with interest in the Bible as an occasional source book. A substantial number of scholarly archaeologists are committed Christians, but they are a minority. Many people believe that all archaeologists set out to verify biblical history, but that is not the case. Many excavators have virtually no interest in the Bible, but there are notable exceptions.

Superiority Despite Attacks by Critics

We have already said that we do not use the statement: “Archaeology proves the Bible.” In fact, such a claim would be putting archaeology above the Bible. What happens when seemingly assured results of archaeology are shown to be wrong after all? Very often archaeology does endorse particular Bible events. And some would say that in this way it “proves the Bible.” But such a statement should be taken with reservation because archaeology is the support, not the main foundation.

Thousands of facts in the Bible are not capable of verification because the evidence has long since been lost. However, it is remarkable that where confirmation is possible and has come to light, the Bible survives careful investigation in ways that are unique in all literature. Its superiority to attack, its capacity to withstand criticism, and its amazing facility to be proved right are all staggering by any standards of scholarship. Seemingly assured results “disproving” the Bible have a habit of backfiring.

Over and over again the Bible has been vindicated from Genesis to Revelation. The superiority of Genesis 1–11 has been established, and the patriarchal backgrounds have been endorsed. The writings of Moses do date to his time, and the record of the conquest of Canaan under Joshua has many indications of eyewitness recording.

David’s Psalms were clearly products of his time, and records about Solomon should no longer be written off as “legendary.” Solomon was a literary giant, a commercial magnate, and a powerful ruler—under God. God alone gave Israel their “golden age.”

The Assyrian period has given dramatic confirmation to biblical records, with excavations of palace after palace over the last 150 years. Such excavations constantly add to our understanding of the background to Old Testament kings, prophets, peoples, and incidents.

The exile in Babylon is endorsed at various points, and the Cyrus Decree makes it clear that captured people could return to their own lands and worship according to their own beliefs. Ezra and Nehemiah are accurate reflections of that post-exilic period.

Likewise, the New Testament documents have been consistently demonstrated as factual, eyewitness records. Kings, rulers, and officials are named unerringly; titles are used casually but with remarkable accuracy; geographic boundaries are highlighted; and customs are correctly touched on.

It is indeed true that “truth shall spring out of the earth” (Psalm 85:11).

Archaeology as It Relates to the Biblical Record

Our understanding of essential biblical doctrine has never changed because of archaeological findings. It should be acknowledged, however, that at times it has been necessary to look again to see just what the Bible is actually saying. There have been times when new light has been thrown on words used in Scripture in both Old and New Testaments.

We have seen that the titles of officials of Israel’s neighbors are now better understood and that many words are better understood because of the records in clay, on papyrus, and on stone.

The Old Testament is an ancient book, not a modern record, and its style is that of the East and not the West. At times it must be interpreted, based on its context, in the symbolic and figurative style of the Jews of ancient times, and not according to the “scientific precision” of our modern materialistic age.

Sometimes the Bible uses “the language of phenomena”—as when it refers to the sun rising. Scientifically speaking, the earth is what “rises.” However, though the Bible is not a science textbook, it is yet wonderfully true that where the Bible touches on science it is astonishingly accurate.

The more this new science of archaeology touches the records of the Bible, the more we are convinced that it is a unique record. At many points it is greatly superior to other writings left by neighboring people.

We have not said, “Archaeology proves the Bible,” and we do not suggest it. To do so would be quite wrong, even though such a statement is often made by those introducing a lecturer on biblical archaeology. The Bible itself is the absolute; archaeology is not. If archaeology could prove the Bible, archaeology would be greater than the Bible, but it is not. The Bible comes with the authority of almighty God. It is His Word, and He is greater than all else.

Nevertheless, archaeology has done a great deal to restore confidence in the Bible as the revealed Word of God. It has thrown a great deal of light on previously obscure passages and has helped us to understand customs, culture, and background in many ways that seemed most unlikely to our fathers in a previous generation. Archaeology is highly relevant for understanding the Bible today.

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From the tiltle of this next article you can already see that we will be looking at more archeological finds related to the bible.  Imagine what it would take to tell you about all the finds over the last even 10 years, let alone the last 75 or 100 years.  Though prior to that, there was really not near as much.  Very little in fact.  This article is just the TOP 10 discoveries of 2019.   You can watch the videos if you prefer.  I thought I would include the photos and the text for those who don’t want to sit through the videos.  They are 26 minutes each.

DECEMBER 27, 2019  /   BRYAN WINDLE

Top Ten Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology in 2019

NOTE: Here is the video version of this blog, from episodes 81 and 82 of the TV show, Digging for Truth by the Associates for Biblical Research.

Top Ten Discoveries of 2019 in Biblical Archeology (Part One)

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Top Ten Discoveries of 2019 in Biblical Archaeology (Part Two)

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#10 – Rehoboam’s Wall Discovered at Lachish (April 2019)

Prof. Yoseph Garfinkel, head of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem has announced the discovery of a fortification wall at Lachish dating to the 10^th century BC.  The excavators claim to have found evidence that layer 5 of Lachish was indeed a fortified city, after having lain waste for over two centuries.  The wall was carbon-dated using olive pits found beneath a floor that stretched to the wall which indicated it had been built ca. 920 BC.  This is precisely the time that Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, ruled and affirms the biblical record which states: “Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities for defense in Judah. He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, fortified cities that are in Judah and in Benjamin.” (2 Chron. 11:5-10) This discovery is further archaeological evidence of the establishment of the Kingdom of Judah as the Bible describes.

Read more about this discovery here:  https://www.timesofisrael.com/archaeologist-thick-wall-found-at-lachish-indicates-king-solomons-son-built-it/

#9 – Archaeologists Say Evidence Points to Identification of Emmaus (September 2019)

A group of archaeologists excavating at Kiriath Yearim have uncovered clues that they say may identify the site as biblical Emmaus. The excavators unearthed a set of fortifications that are 2200 years old, which they believe were built by the Seleucid general Bacchides, who defeated Judah Maccabee at the Battle of Elasa. The recently discovered walls are up to three meters thick and still stand up to two meters tall in some places. They were dated to the Hellenistic era by means of pottery and Optically Stimulated Luminescence, which reveals when a certain material was last exposed to sunlight. According to 1 Maccabees 9 and Josephus’ Antiquities, Bacchides built a group of protective fortresses around Jerusalem. The excavators point out that, while most of the places listed can be identified with sites north, south and east of Jerusalem, Kiriath Yearim, located 7 miles west of Jerusalem, is not on the list by that name. However, the lists do include a site to the west called Emmaus. Israel Finkelstein and Thomas Romer have suggested that, since there are no other major Hellenistic fortresses west of Jerusalem, Kiriath Yearim and the adjacent village of Abu Ghosh ought to be identified as Emmaus. They point out that it matches the biblical description of being 60 stadia (7 miles) from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13-35). Other scholars have pointed out that there is not yet enough concrete evidence to identify Kiriath Yearim as Emmaus, and that there are other sites nearby that have been identified as the New Testament town were the Lord Jesus met Cleopas and a friend after his resurrection in Luke 24.

Read more about this discovery here: https://www.haaretz.com/amp/archaeology/.premium.highlight.MAGAZINE-israeli-archaeologists-may-have-found-emmaus-where-jesus-appeared-after-crucifixion-1.7774167

#8 – New DNA Study Suggests Philistines Came from Crete (July 2019)

A new study analyzing DNA from skeletons at the cemetery at Ashkelon suggests that the Philistines moved to the area from the regions of Crete, Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula. Researchers were able to extract DNA from the teeth and ear bones of 10 skeletons across a variety of ages. Four of the Iron Age samples taken from infants who had been buried beneath the floors of homes in Ashkelon revealed that 25-70% of their DNA matched people from the Aegean and surrounding areas. One part of the report states, “Of the 51 tested models, we find four plausible ones… The best supported one (X2P = 0.675) infers that [the group of early Iron Age individuals tested] derives around 43% of ancestry from the Greek Bronze Age Crete.” Samples taken from those who lived later had DNA that was similar to the local Levantine people, suggesting intermarriage. This would seem to affirm the biblical account, which identifies the Philistines as the “remnant of the coastland of Caphtor (Jer. 47:4), which many Bible scholars believe is the Greek Island of Crete. The Bible further records the intermarriage of Hebrew people, like Samson, and the Philistines.

Read more about this study here:  https://patternsofevidence.com/2019/07/20/philistine-dna-study-supports-bible/

#7 – Inscribed Altar May Reference Biblical Battle (August 2019)

A recently translated inscription on a stone altar discovered in the ancient city of Ataroth in Jordan may reference the rebellion of Mesha king of Moab, described in 2 Kings 3. The 2800-year-old round, stone altar was discovered in 2010 in a Moabite sanctuary. A translation of the inscription on the altar was recently published in the journal Levant. The altar bears two inscriptions: one that records quantities of bronze, likely looted from the conquered city, that were presented as an offering, and the other describes Ataroth as “the desolate city,” and “4,000 foreign men” who were scattered and abandoned in great number. Both the inscription and the archaeological context in which the altar was found date to the late ninth or early eighth century BC. The importance of the inscribed altar, and its connection to the battle described in 2 Kings 3, lies in the fact that the Moabite Stone/Mesha Stele records how the King of Moab conquered the Israelite city of Ataroth during the rebellion. It states: “Now the people of Gad had dwelt in the region of Atarot for a long time, and the king of Israel built Atarot for them. But I fought against the city and I took it, and I killed all the people, and the city was a satiation for Kemosh and for Moab.” The researchers conclude that the altar was placed in a Moabite sanctuary at Ataroth to commemorate this event. If this interpretation is correct, it would confirm that the Moabites succeeded in conquering Ataroth during Mesha’s rebellion. The inscription also demonstrates that 2800 years ago, the Moabites had skilled scribes and used their own script.

Read more about this discovery here: https://www.livescience.com/alter-tells-story-of-biblical-war.html

#6 – Monumental Staircase Unearthed at Hazor (August 2019)

A monumental staircase, first excavated at Hazor in 2018, has been conserved and is now open to the public. The seven basalt steps are 4.5 meters wide, and exhibit remarkable craftsmanship. They hint at the grandeur of the ancient city of Hazor, which is described in the Bible as the “head” of the Canaanite kingdoms (Josh. 11:10). The excavators believe that there are more stairs to be uncovered and that they may lead from the paved courtyard into the palace complex. Reports of the dating of these steps have been somewhat ambiguous and seem to be reported from the perspective of the late-exodus theory (ca. 13^th century BC). It appears that the staircase was constructed in the Late Bronze Age, and then were part of the city that was destroyed around 1200 BC. While those holding to a late-exodus theory believe that this destruction happened under Joshua’s leadership, a straightforward reading of Scripture places the Conquest in the 15^th century BC (ca. 1406 BC). The Bible also describes the Israelites defeating Jabin, King of Hazor, under the leadership of Deborah and Barak, and it is likely this destruction of the city that is being referred to in media reports (Judges 4:24).

Read more about this discovery here: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Staircase-of-3500-years-old-biblical-palace-revealed-in-Tel-Hazor-596644

#5 – Seal Impression of Royal Steward Discovered in Jerusalem (September 2019)

A bulla (clay seal impression) dating to the seventh century BC was recently discovered by the City of David sifting project.  The earth that was sifted came from an excavation in 2013 beneath Robinson’s Arch at the foundations of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.  The bulla itself is one centimeter in size and bears the Hebrew inscription “Adoniyahu asher al habayit,” which literally translates as “Adoniyahu, who is over the house.”  The name, Adoniyahu, occurs three times in Scripture, with the most famous person being a son of King David and Haggith, known by his shortened name, Adonijah (1 Kings 1:5).  The title in the inscription, Asher al Habayit, means “Royal Steward” which is a biblical title mentioned in Isaiah 22:15.  Some have suggested there may be a link between this seal impression and a grave discovered 150-years ago, which also dates to the seventh century BC and is inscribed with the phrase Asher al Habayit. Interestingly, the name of the grave’s owner is only partial, and ends with the same three letters as on then recently discovered bulla.  Others believe the grave to be that of the famous steward, Shebna, also known as Shevaniyahu, who was deposed from office for carving a grave for himself (Is. 22:15-19).

Read more about this discovery here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/tiny-first-temple-seal-impression-inscribed-with-biblical-royal-stewards-name/

#4 – Evidence of Babylonian Destruction Unearthed in Jerusalem (August 2019)

Excavators from the Mount Zion Archaeological Project have announced the discovery of evidence of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 587/586 BC.  While digging in an Iron-Age structure within the old city walls, they unearthed layers of ash that contained arrowheads, lamps, potsherds, and a piece of gold and silver jewelry.  The arrowheads, known as “Scythian arrowheads,” were commonly used by Babylonian soldiers, having been found at other sites.  The jewelry may have been a tassel or an earring and appears to depict a silver bunch of grapes attached to a gold clasp.  It testifies to the biblical description of the wealth of Jerusalem prior to Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the city.  The pottery that was discovered in the ash layer helped date the finds.  While the discovery of an ash layer does not automatically point to the Babylonian destruction, the excavators of the Mount Zion Archaeological Project believe the layer can be dated to this event because of the unique collection of artifacts and the context in which they were found.  Archaeologist, Shimon Gibson, states: “It’s the kind of jumble that you would expect to find in a ruined household following a raid or battle: Household objects, lamps, broken bits from pottery which had been overturned and shattered… and arrowheads and a piece of jewelry which might have been lost and buried in the destruction.”  This discovery affirms again the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar described in 2 Kings 25.

Read more about this discovery here: https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2019-08-12/evidence-587586-bce-babylonian-conquest-jerusalem-found-mount-zion

#3 – El Araj Excavations Unearth First-Century Artifacts and a Byzantine Church (July 2019)

The excavations at El Araj – one of the leading candidates as the site of Bethsaida – have unearthed more evidence of first-century Jewish occupation, items related to the fishing industry and a Byzantine church.  Numerous artifacts, including the handle of a Galilean cooking pot and two spouts from Herodian oil lamps, testify to occupation at the site during the first-century BC.   In addition, hundreds of lead fishing weights have been discovered, as well as a chalk mold for making lead fishing weights.  Finally, the stunning mosaic floors of a Byzantine church were uncovered for the first time in almost 1500 years.  A limestone frieze that once decorated a window or door and several gold-gilded glass tesserae were also found.  They excavators believe they may be uncovering the remains of the Byzantine Church of the Apostles that was supposedly built over the house of Peter and Andrew in Bethsaida, which was described by Willabald, bishop of Bavaria, in 725 AD.

Read more about this discovery here: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-archaeologists-claim-to-have-found-the-church-of-the-apostles-by-sea-of-galilee-1.7538758

#2 – Horns of an Ancient Altar Discovered at Shiloh, Israel (August 2019)

Three altar horns were discovered during this year’s excavations at Shiloh, Israel, led by the Associates for Biblical Research (BibleArchaeology.org). Horn one: 38 cm long and 23.5 cm wide (15” x 9.25”) comprised part of an Early Roman wall. Horn two: 18 cm long and 12.5 cm wide (7” x 5”) lay about three meters (10’) to the southwest. Horn three: 38 cm long and 20 cm wide (15” x 7.8”) emerged from a destruction matrix in an adjacent square. The elevation of horns one and two was virtually identical, but the elevation of horn three measured one meter (3.2’) lower. All three horns came from the general area of a monumental Iron Age building (1177-980 BC) which orients east-west. The same area yielded a ceramic pomegranate and a Thutmose III scarab in 2018. The original altar likely included four horns, like the four-horned Beersheva altar that was dismantled and placed in secondary usage in King Hezekiah’s 8th century reforms (2 Chronicles 29-32, 2 Kings 18:4).  Other artifacts recently discovered by the ABR team at Shiloh include a ceramic pomegranate, a kobaat (ritual chalice), and numerous pithoi, collar-rimmed jars that were found in storage rooms and likely held grains and fruits brought as tithes by the Israelites. These objects are evidence that the Israelites worshiped the Lord at Shiloh – the location of the Israelite tabernacle for over 300 years – as described in Scripture.
A peer-reviewed article by Tim Lopez, Kevin Larsen, Mark Hassler, and Scott Stripling is forthcoming.

Read more about this discovery here: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Was-the-corner-of-Gods-altar-found-in-Shiloh-West-Bank-606477?fbclid=IwAR27qgSo0dMYvlKOQQDPom3KtXjqddKwHEpxa8TV1-AFwxVJr3aIGHC3qGg

#1 – Biblical Names Discovered on a Seal and Bulla in Jerusalem (April 2019)

Archaeologists digging in Jerusalem unearthed a 2600-year old bulla, a clay seal impression of an ancient seal which bear biblical names. The paleo-Hebrew inscription on the bulla reads, “[belonging] to Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King.” Both the title “Servant of the King” and the name are found in the Bible, with Nathan-Melech being an official in the court of King Josiah in 2 Kings 23:11.  The bulla was discovered in situ in the remains of a building that was destroyed in the sixth century BC, likely during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Given the size of the building, the finely cut ashlar stones used in its construction and the remnants of a polished plaster floor, archaeologists have identified it as an administrative center.  While scholars cannot be certain that this bulla belongs to the Nathan-Melech of the Bible, four things point towards this identification: the rarity of the name, the fact it was found in a large, First Temple-era administrative building, the reign of King Josiah in the mid-seventh century BC is relatively close to the time of the destruction, and the title refers to a person who was a royal official.  Epigrapher Christopher Rollston, who is known for his cautious approach to inscriptions, has concluded that the “data converges to make it probable that the figure of the Bible and the figure of this bulla are one and the same…as for me, I am entirely comfortable considering it most likely, or virtually certain, that 2 Kings 23:11 and this bulla refer to the same person.”

Read more about this discovery here: http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?p=870

Each year, discovery-after-discovery adds to our knowledge of the biblical world and helps us understand Scripture in greater detail.  None of these discoveries prove the Bible is true.  They do, however,  add to the mounting evidence that demonstrates that the Bible is historically reliable.  2019 was a year in which significant discoveries were unearthed; I look forward to the discoveries in the coming year.

Stay up-to-date on the latest BREAKING NEWS in biblical archaeology each week here: https://biblearchaeology.org/current-events-list

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This next link will take you to a page full of photographs of current biblical discoveries.  Definitely worth a quick visit.  

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Biblical Archaeology

500+ Best Biblical Archaeology images in 2020 | archaeology …

Jan 12, 2020 – Explore Adrian Hoover’s board “Biblical Archaeology“, … Nineveh (Near present day Mosul, Iraq) l Recent discoveries (spring have resulted.

Collection by Adrian Hoover

This next artlice will tell about what is happening with Biblical Archeology during this Plandemic Year.  

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