What light, if any, can biblical archaeology throw on the most important event in Christianity, namely the resurrection of Jesus?
Skeptics say it’s pure legend with no material evidence to even render it worth considering.
But a marble slab uncovered by archaeologists in Nazareth says otherwise.
It’s known as the Nazareth Inscription.
Dated to the first century A.D., most likely during the reign of Tiberius or Claudius, the slab has a 14 line inscription.
The first line is “Edict of Caesar.”
But the most interesting part comes next.
The edict pronounces the death penalty for anyone stealing bodies from graves or moving the stones that seal tombs.
Now why would Rome have found it necessary to issue an imperial edict on this subject at that time?
There is only one answer. The Jews and the Romans had found Jesus’ tomb to be empty. There was no body in there.
The dispute was over how this came to be. The official Roman position was the disciples stole the body.
Evidently the edict was a response to the rapidly spreading moment of Jews who believed the reports of a resurrected Messiah.
This is not an attempt to prove the resurrection, but to reveal an important archaeological artifact that seems to verify the empty tomb and also register Rome’s reaction to that fact.
More here: https://a.co/d/07CoVJCP
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.
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 ...
In the mid-9th century BC, the Assyrians under Shalmaneser III waged war against the northern kingdom of Israel.
This was the Battle of Qarqar, dated to 853 B.C.
Shalmaneser’s campaign reflected the rising power of Assyria, a ruthless conquering force from Mesopotamia.
And not surprisingly, Shalmaneser was victorious and forced the king of Israel to pay tribute to him.
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser is a remarkable stone monument discovered in 1846 by Austen Henry Layard in his excavations at the Assyrian capital of Nimrud, now in northern Iraq.
One panel depicts a man paying homage and presenting gifts to the Assyrian king.
The accompanying inscription identifies the man as “Jehu, son of Omri.”
Jehu and Omri are two kings in the Bible. Jehu followed Omri as a ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel.
Previously their existence had to be taken on faith. Now they have solid historical attestation.
Moreover, on the Black Obelisk we don’t merely read about Jehu; we see him.
Never ...
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