WHO’S WINNING?
The debate between Bible believers and skeptics—or in archaeological terms between biblical “maximalists” and “minimalists”—has been raging for a long time. Who’s winning?
Answer: The believers. The maximalists.
Here’s why.
Biblical history begins with the patriarchs around 2,000 B.C and goes through the early Christian movement around 50 A.D. it covers more than two millennia.
It also covers a wide geographical space: the land of Canaan/Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy, Anatolia or modern-day Turkey.
The Bible is dense with thousands of historical facts: People, places, events large and small.
This puts the Bible squarely in the province of history and archaeology. It is in Karl Popper’s term “falsifiable.”
That means it can be proven wrong. Just provide a list of significant archaeological discoveries that contradict the Bible.
The skeptic and the “minimalist” can’t do this, because there aren’t any.
This is not to deny legitimate ongoing debates about dates and precise details and locations.
Did this particular thing happen in the early 9th century or the late 9th century? Was Jesus crucified with nails through his wrists or ropes binding them?
This is the normal business of archaeology and of history.
Nor is it to claim that the full biblical narrative has been historically proved. Lots of things haven’t been found: The Tower of Babel, the Ark of the Covenant, and so on.
But then again, there are more than a hundred artifacts that confirm and illuminate the Bible. No other sacred text can come close to this kind of archaeological verification.
My new book “The Stones Cry Out” provides this evidence in a chronological thread stretching across the full timescale and geographical spread of the Bible.
These facts, many of them jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring, support the theory that the Bible is historically reliable, not just in big things but also in small, down to its minute details.
As with any theory, the real test is what can be offered in 150 years of archaeological work to decisively refute the Bible.
And the sober conclusion is: Nothing.
That tells you pretty much everything you need to know.
My new book is out next week! Preorder here: https://a.co/d/0iwV3zEo
A gang of goons, acting on the authority of King Zedekiah of Judah, threw the prophet Jeremiah into a pit.
Two of them were Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashur.
Both men have been historically corroborated through the archaeological discovery of clay seal impressions dated to the sixth century B.C. bearing their names.
And that’s me, below, in the actual pit into which Jeremiah was tossed. Debbie my wife took his short video of me in Jerusalem earlier this year.
But how did Jeremiah survive?
“Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs of the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon…” (Jeremiah 38:7)
So the king’s own men put Jeremiah in there, but a low-ranking Ethiopian decided to take matters into his own hands.
Ebed-melech approached the king—a daunting task that involved great personal risk—and remarkably got permission to get Jeremiah out.
It took 30 men to pull Jeremiah out since he was trapped in the caked mud at the ...
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What’s the significance of a huge 25 ton ritual bath dated to the time of Jesus and lifted virtually intact out of the ground in Israel? I discuss this topic with Fox News.
https://www.foxnews.com/travel/massive-2000-year-old-discovery-time-jesus-emerges-remarkably-intact
SHAME AND SCHOLARSHIP
Even as archaeology confirms and illuminates the Bible in so many ways, archaeologists downplay the connection.
Most of them inhabit secular university departments and they want to maintain their secular bona fides.
They don’t want to be seen as validating the historicity of a sacred text, even though their work does exactly this.
My new book “The Stones Cry Out” bridges the chasm between academic archaeology and the general public.
It’s important for us—believers and skeptics alike—to know what the stones are saying.
But the archaeologist is nowhere to be found to tell the story. Biblical archaeology is a discipline that is somewhat ashamed of itself.
I’m convinced that if the remains of Noah’s Ark are finally and irrefutably discovered, the headline in the academic journals will be:
“Ancient Boat Found in the Mountains of Turkey: Researchers Wonder How It Got There.”
My new book, out next week, summarizes the discoveries of 150 years of biblical...
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