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
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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 ARCHAEOLOGY OF PHILISTIA
The biblical story of Samson pulling down temple of the Philistines seems to be the stuff of legend.
See below the famous painting by Antonio Joli that immortalizes the Samson story.
For many decades, skeptics pointed to the story of Samson and Delilah, along with other stories such as David and Goliath, to demonstrate the obvious unreliability of Scripture.
But archaeological investigation in the territory of Israel once ruled by the Philistines—this land was called Philistia— casts new light on these biblical episodes.
In the mid-1990s, archaeologist Aren Maeir in the Philistine area of ancient Gath found an ostracon—a piece of pottery with writing on it.
Dated to the 10th century B.C., it contained two names ALWT and WLT which are etymologically related to the name Goliath.
No one is saying it’s the same Goliath. Maeier’s point is that Goliath seems to be a Philistine name that can be connected with the biblical Goliath’s own city of Gath.
Moreover we have examples ...
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 ...
Archaeology and the Bible
My conversation with Marissa Streit https://www.prageru.com/videos/dinesh-dsouza-on-the-biggest-archaeological-evidence-for-the-bible
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