According to the Bible, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
But for centuries no Bethlehem was known in the whole region of Israel.
Skeptics pounced on that to say the story of Jesus’ birth was made up. Fictional location, fictional story!
Then in 2012, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that researchers in Jerusalem discovered a clay seal with a small marking or inscription on it.
This seal impression, known as a bulla, was about half an inch across, hardly bigger than a thumbnail.
Clay seals were used in ancient times to secure correspondence or to tag certain items, like silver or wine or grain, as they were transported from one town to another.
This bulla contained a Hebrew inscription from 2,700 years ago, documenting that it came from the town of Bethlehem (Bat Lehem) in Judah, the birthplace of Jesus.
Archaeologist Eli Shukron says the bulla proves Bethlehem was an actual town in Judah, not an invented literary name.
The so-called Bethlehem seal is the oldest extrabiblical archaeological evidence of the town of Bethlehem.
“O little town of Bethlehem!”
It was from this town that the prophet Micah predicted the Messiah would come, approximately seven centuries before Jesus was born (Micah 5:2).
And the bulla dates to right around the time of Micah, between 800-700 B.C.
More here: https://a.co/d/03CXlRKO
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Before debating free will, you have to start with the Calvinist view of God.
In Calvinism, God doesn’t merely permit or allow events to happen—He decrees them.
That distinction changes the entire debate over predestination.
This video illustrates how biblical archaeology works by examining a clay seal dated to the 8th century BC and attributed to the prophet Isaiah. It was produced by the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology (http://www.armstronginstitute.org) and narrated by Stephen Flurry.
THE BEHISTUN INSCRIPTION
Ancient cultures were once largely inaccessible to scholars because they didn’t know how to read their writing.
This affected biblical archaeology because the Bible describes empires hostile to the Israelites such as the Babylonian and the Assyrian.
The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in Egypt led to scholars being able to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
But another key discovery in this area is the lesser-known Behistun Inscription.
It’s a monumental rock inscription carved high on a limestone cliff in western Iran.
The carved panel is huge: 45 feet high and 75 feet wide.
Dated to around 520 B.C., the panel depicts the Persian king Darius and proclaims his divine right to rule, sanctioned by the god Ahura Mazda.
The same account is given in 3 languages: Persian, Elamite and Babylonian Akkadian.
Since scholars knew how to read Persian, they were able to use the Behistun Inscription to crack the code of Mesopotamian writing.
The inscription helped archaeologists ...
One of the great treasures of biblical archeology is the Madaba Map.
It is a mosaic floor map that was found in a Greek Orthodox Church in Madagascar, Jordan.
Dated to the 6th century A.D., the Madaba Map has a beautiful and detailed depiction of Palestine—the Roman name for Israel.
Jerusalem occupied the map’s central section, showing various sites like the Damascus Gate and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
But it also marks other ancient sites such as Jericho, Shiloh and Bethlehem.
The Madaba map has enabled archaeologists to find several ancient biblical locations that had been lost to history.
More here: https://a.co/d/01EgJy1y
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