Proclaiming The Truth. Are you ready?

"Come, follow me...." Mk. 1:17

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QUOTE: William F. Albright (a renowned archaeologist) says, "The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the 18th and 19th centuries, certain phases 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."

9. Archeological discovery -   {Antonio Frova, director of excavations,} found a dedicatory stone that bore a three-line inscription: Tiberieum/[Pon]tius Pilatus[praef] ectus  luda [eae], "Tiberius [The Roman Emperor of the period] Pontius Pilate Prefect of Judea."  Coincides with the Biblical time line. Unearthed in 1961.  Biblical Importance: Matthew 27:11-14 NIV            

 Original dedicatory stone found            Archaeologists enhanced text 

 

 

 

Jesus Before Pilate - (one of His illegal trials)

 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" 
 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, "Don't you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?" But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.

QUOTE: " God is ever before my eyes.  I realize His omnipotence and I fear His anger; but I also recognize His love, His compassion, and His tenderness toward His creatures."   - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart                                                                                                                                >>>FACT-  Did you know??  All of the proper names in the Bible correspond exactly with every archaeological finding we have for the period between 2,000 & 4,000 years ago!                                                                                                                            ~Now that's exciting! ~                                                                                                                                               10. New Testament Book of John: This manuscript from A.D. 30 currently resides in John Ryland Library in Manchester, England.  When quoting John it is comforting to know that the text we have today is nearly identical, almost word for word, as the A.D. 130 text. This sets the Bible apart from any other ancient document/holy book in history!  It has remarkably withstood the test of time, as a reliable historical resource, in written form, and is proven by archaeological findings, as well as in divine prophecy.  (Oh have no fear...we will have a chat about prophecy. Yep, we will, but that's for later.)

 We have examined some archaeological evidence, which is concrete, [ phyical ] stuff.....can you take a leap of faith??

11. A report in Biblical Archaeology Review, March-April 1994, stated: Avraham Biran and his team of archaeologists found a remarkable inscription from the 9th century B.C. that refers to the "House of David" and to him as the "King of Israel." This is the first time that the name of David has been found in anywhere outside of the Bible.  That the inscription refers not simply to David but to the " House of David," the dynasty of the great Israelite King, is even more remarkable.   [Most well known reference to David is found in the book of Samuel 17]

>>>FACT: The listing of the order of Kings who reigned in the Old Testement is historically PERFECT! The odds of getting that order  right are one in 750,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.                                                   

 Archaeological evidence verifying Biblical Cities

 Jericho- What caused the strong walls of Jericho to collapse? The most likely explanation is an earthquake. But the nature of the earthquake was unusual. It struck in such a way as to allow a portion of the city wall on the north side of the site to remain standing, while everywhere else the wall fell.

It wasn’t until 1930 that archeologist Jonathan Garstang began his excavations that the evidence from the Tell es-Sultan site would be truly corroborated with the Biblical narrative. Garstang’s investigation lasted six years and resulted in overwhelming results. After the excavations Garstang wrote: “As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely that the attackers would be able to clamber up and over their ruins into the city. Why so unusual? Because the walls of cities do not fall outwards, they fall inwards. And yet in Joshua 6:20 we read, “The wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him and they took the city.” The walls were made to fall outward.”
In addition, Garstang discovered that out of all the scarabs [images of a beetle] found in the graves of the cemetery, not even one dates later than the reign of Amenhotep III of Egypt (1412-1376). So, as scholar and historian Gleason Archer Jr. puts it, “It is impossible to explain why no scarabs bearing the cartouche of any later Pharaoh was ever found at that level if indeed the destruction of City IV took place in the mid-thirteenth century (as modern scholarship generally maintains today). How could there have been no scarabs from the reign of any of the numerous Pharaohs between Amenhotep III and Ramses II?”
Archer continues, “Furthermore, of the 150,000 fragments of pottery discovered in this cemetery, only a single shard has been found that is of the Mycenean type. Since Mycenean ware began to be imported into Palestine from 1400 and onward, it is difficult to explain why virtually none of it was found in the City IV cemetery unless that cemetery was abandoned around 1400 B.C.”
And another researcher,  Dr. Wood a lead archaeologist states
that the archaeological evidence indicates more than just the date of the destruction. For example, unusually large stores of grain were found in the ruins. The portions of the city which were excavated were fairly poor, and grain was quite valuable in those days, so there are several conclusions which may be drawn from the fact that the stores of grain were intact: 1. Since grain was stored after harvest, the people ate from the stored grain until the next harvest. Therefore, Jericho must have been destroyed fairly soon after harvest, which would be in the spring. According to scripture, the Israelites crossed over the Jordan during the harvest (Joshua 3:15), then observed the Passover (5:10), and then took Jericho according to the Lord's command. 2. The city was not taken by means of a long siege, which would have been typical in that time. If it had, the food would have been depleted. Joshua only needed to surround Jericho for seven days (6:3-5, 8-20). 3. Because grain was so valuable to the point of being used as currency, most conquerors would take any grain stored in a vanquished city. The large intact stores of grain in Jericho are therefore an anomaly. But this again is consistent with scripture, which states that the Israelites took only silver, gold, bronze, and iron for the treasury of the Lord (6:24). They took no other plunder.In addition to the grain, the archaeologists also determined that the walls of the city collapsed. They were not broken by some kind of battering ram, they fell down. Here, of course, is a part of the scriptural account with which many are familiar:

    "And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat." (Joshua 6:20)

 Kathleen Kenyan, dated Jericho much too early for the Biblical narrative to be accurate. According to Kenyan, Joshua wasn’t even there.But was Kenyan’s research conclusive? It appears not. The main reason Kenyan dated the walls so early is due to the fact that she found inside the earth filled portions of the wall large number of potsherds [broken pottery fragments] dating centuries before 1400 B.C. However, this is little reason to conclude that it must have been destroyed centuries beforehand. It only tells us when the wall was constructed.  Kenyan’s reasons for not accepting the biblical narrative do not end there though. She wrote, “The site was abandoned during most of the second half of the sixteenth century and probably most of the fifteenth century [i.e., 1550 -1400]. The conclusion formed during the 1930-1936 excavations – that there was continuous occupation in this period – was due to a lack of knowledge of the pottery from the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The significance of its complete absence was not appreciated.” Sheconcluded thatif the city was destroyed at the Biblical date, then it must contain a substantial amount of Cypriote style pottery (pottery from Cyprus). Her conclusions were based on her excavation of Megiddo, which yielded an ample supply of ceramics.But, as Dr. Bryant Wood, a lead archeologist in the Jericho project and a specialist in Syrio-Palestinian pottery notes: “Ironically, Garstang found a considerable amount of pottery decorated with red and black paint which appears to be imported Cypriote bi-chrome ware, the type of pottery Kenyon was looking for and did not find!” In addition, Kenyon shouldn’t have based her conclusions on ample amounts of pottery due to the fact that Jericho wasn’t nearly as big a trade city as Megiddo. Jericho was, as Kenyan herself wrote, “…something of a backwater town, away from the contact with richer areas provided by the coastal route.”

So it is rather apparent that we have overwhelming evidence in support of the Biblical story of Jericho’s destruction. We know from archeological evidence several things:     1) The date 1400 B.C. date, proposed from the archeological evidence, is in total agreement with the 1446 B.C. date of the exodus that we derive from the biblical time line.
2) The archeological evidence suggests the same type of culture as Joshua describes.
3) The walls fell outward and the city was ransacked from invaders.
All in all, it appears that the Joshua 6 account seems to line up with the archeological evidence. It certainly doesn’t contradict it.

 

 

SOURCE: Jim Robinson: http://www.watchmanmag.com/ and http://randiss.blogspot.com/2007/03/jericho-excavations.html

1. Arad:

Num. 21:1, "When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive."

Num. 33:40, "Now the Canaanite, the king of Arad who lived in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the sons of Israel."

>"Arad 30 km NE of Beersheba, excavated from 1962 to 1974 by Y. Aharoni and R. B. K. Amiran." (The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; 1962.)  

The remains of a Hebrew temple were uncovered at Arad, (Horn, Siegfried H., Biblical Archaeology: a Generation of Discovery; Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan; 1985. p.45-46.)

2.Capernaum :Matt. 17:24, "And when they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter, and said, "Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?"

>"Identified since 1856 with Tell Hum, Capernaum has been sporadically excavated for the past 130 years."  (Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.; 1985.

3 Chorazin : Matt. 11:21, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."

>"Excavations of the now deserted town indicate that it once covered an area of twelve acres and was built on a series of terraces with the basalt stone local to this mountainous region." (Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.; 1985.)

5. Dan : Judges 18:29, "And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born in Israel; however, the name of the city formerly was Laish."

>"The excavation of Dan began in 1966 under the direction fo Avraham Biran." (Horn, Siegfried H., Biblical Archaeology: a Generation of Discovery; Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan; 1985. p. 42)

  1. "Formerly called Laish, it is mentioned in the execration texts, the eighteenth-century b.c. Mari tablets, and the records of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III. It is identified with Tel Dan (modern Tell el-Qadi) covering about 50 acres in the center of a fertile valley near one of the principal springs feeding the Jordan River...Tel Dan has been excavated by A. Biran since 1966. The earliest occupation, probably the full extent of the tell, goes back to about the middle of the third millennium b.c." (Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary; San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.; 1985.)

6 Gaza : Acts 8:26, "But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza."

>Gaza was was excavated by W. J. Phythian-Adams in 1922.  (Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.; 1985.)

The list goes on and on there are literally hundreds of such Archaeological finds. Far too many to list each one: Ephesus,Bethel, Gezer,Hazor, Hesbon, Jericho, Joppa, Ninevah, Shechem, Susa, Soddom & Gommorah, Bethlehem, Bethesda, Cesarea,Jerusalem, the sea of Galilee,the City of Tyre, & Cana - inscription dated A.D. 75 was found referencing "Cana, near Nazareth," and the, "miracle of the wine."                                                                                                                                                                                                      Additional  finds:                                                                                                                                                                    A court historian for Emperor Vespasian, Flavius Josephus, wrote about "a wise man...called Jesus."  Josephus lived from A.D. 37-97 below you will find his account:                                                                                                                                                       In Rome, in the year 93, Josephus published his lengthy history of the Jews. While discussing the period in which the Jews of Judaea were governed by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, Josephus included the following account:  
  ~About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.  For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had  first come to love him did not cease.  He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him.  And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.~ Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3   

 

 ---Tomb of Joseph (Gen.50)

-----King Jehoiachin sites--( 2 Kings 25 )Found in the area of Hebron, noted to only have reighned a brief 3 months... 3 seperate inscriptions were found referencing this King.                                                                                                                   We have examined {some} evidence thouroughly & shifted through [some] of the archaeological confirmations of Biblical: events, names, dates, and, positions in society. ALL found to be in line with what Holy Scripture has been telling us for over 2,000 years.

 

 Regarding Faith: He said: "I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?"   John 3:12                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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