Biblical
Archaeology
David Burges
(Wellesbourne) |
 |
Throughout human history, as empire has succeeded
empire, each civilisation has left its imprint upon the earth,
of ruined buildings, discarded pottery, fallen inscriptions
and abandoned burial grounds. The lands of the Bible, and in
particular the Holy Land, are no exception. Ancient Israel and
the succession of empires which dominated it, vividly
represented by the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s
dream (Daniel 2 v.32-45) have each left ample
evidence of their past glories, to be revealed and interpreted
by the archaeologist.
Though this is taken for granted today it must be
remembered that 200 years ago things were very different. Then
there was very little independent evidence for the historical
existence of the nations, places and people, whose names
appear in the Bible. Sceptical scholars could claim with
impunity that the stories of the Bible, especially the Old
Testament, were simply myths or legends. Sadly many people
today still believe this to be so. But in fact a large number
of archaeological discoveries since then have helped to prove
that, at every period, the Bible records are set against
authentic historical backgrounds. The Bible Exhibition
contains a selection of items showing that the people,
places and events recorded in the Bible were
real!
Reliable records
When approaching the
writings in the Bible, we are entitled to ask how old the
records are and whether they have been changed over the
centuries. It has become fashionable among scholars to claim
that the earliest books, the five books of Moses, could not
possibly have been written by him, but date from many hundreds
of years later. Yet many specific details of the times and
customs mentioned in them have been confirmed by archaeology,
and could not possibly have been known by someone writing
centuries after!
For instance, the Bible
makes 47 mentions of a nation called the Hittites. The
patriarch Abraham purchased a tomb from a man called Ephron
the Hittite (Genesis 23:10-20). Yet critical scholars doubted
such a people ever existed, until in the 1880s, inscriptions
carved on rocks in Turkey and Syria were shown to be in the
Hittite language and the ruins of an ancient city, Boghaz-Koy,
were those of the Hittite capital. Similarly the city Ur of
the Chaldees, from which Abraham migrated to Canaan, was
excavated by Leonard Woolley from1922 to1934 and shown to have
had an advanced civilisation at just the time the Bible record
indicates.
Before 1947, the oldest
known manuscript of the Old Testament, dated to no earlier
than 935 AD, and critics could claim that the text was
unreliable after centuries of copying. Then the discovery of
the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed portions of nearly all the Old
Testament books dating to around 100 BC, over 1000 years
older! No significant changes in the Bible text, over all that
time, were found. More recently, two silver amulets, small
pieces of jewellery, found in a tomb near Jerusalem and dated
to before 600 BC, were found to be inscribed with the High
Priestly blessing (Numbers 6:22-27), written exactly as it is
in modern manuscripts. This is well before the date when some
critics claim the Book of Numbers was even written!
The Rosetta Stone and ancient
languages
A key role in the Bible
story is played by the land of Egypt. But much of its ancient
history and culture remained a mystery until the decipherment
of its language, written in hieroglyphics. In 1798 one of
Napoleon’s officers discovered a black, 4 foot high
inscription at Rosetta, on the bank of the Nile. Originally
erected in 196 BC to extol the triumphs of King Ptolemy V
Epiphanes, it is inscribed in three parallel scripts: Egyptian
demotic and hieroglyphic scripts, and Greek. This allowed the
young French scholar Champollion to show that hieroglyphics
were not mysterious symbols but a readable language and
consequently the thousands of inscriptions in Egypt could be
deciphered, opening up ancient Egypt’s history. This
remarkable and historic find now resides in the British
Museum.
In a similar way the
languages of ancient Assyria, Babylon and Persia, the empires
that dominated the nation of Israel in Old Testament times,
were deciphered by an Englishman, Sir Henry Rawlinson. For
centuries travellers passing the 4,000 foot Iranian mountain,
known as the Rock of Behistun, had wondered at the strange
figures carved into the rock, 300 feet above their heads. The
great wall behind them had been chiselled flat and covered
with thousands of tiny arrowheads. It was recognised that
these were a form of writing and were given the name
cuneiform (from the Latin meaning ‘wedge-shaped).
Rawlinson showed that the inscriptions honoured the great
Persian king Darius I Hystaspes, who served as God’s
instrument for returning the Jews from exile to Jerusalem
(Ezra Chapter 6). It too allowed three languages to be
deciphered: Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite.
Discoveries in Israel
As well as shedding light
on the great empires of Bible times, archaeology has done much
to illuminate and confirm the Bible record Israel and its
land. A large number of the cities and villages mentioned in
scripture have been positively identified and very often their
locations assist our understanding, particularly of the
battles and sieges recorded there.
For instance, extensive
excavations at the site of Hazor in northern Galilee, have
confirmed its role in the Bible story. Once the most important
of the Canaanite city states, it was conquered by Joshua,
according to the Bible, as part of the Israelite Conquest
(Joshua 11:1-14). Many critics have denied that the conquest
even took place, yet archaeologists have shown that Canaanite
Hazor was destroyed with an intense fire, exactly as the
record states: “But as for the cities that stood on their
mounds, Israel burnt none of them, except Hazor only,
which Joshua burned” (v.13).
Some Bible characters have
been identified by their seals, or seal impressions, which
have survived even though the documents they were attached to
have perished. The seal of Shema, a servant of Jereboam II was
found at Megiddo, while in Jerusalem a collapsed document room
was excavated containing 51 seal impressions, among them one
of Gemariah, son of Shaphan (mentioned in Jeremiah 36:10-12).
Even more exciting have been the recent publication of seals
in private collections, belonging to two of the kings of
Judah, Ahaz and Hezekiah, and to Baruch, Jeremiah’s
scribe.
Many of the inscriptions of
the great Assyrian and Babylonian kings confirm the history of
the Israelite kingdoms. In the British Museum there is even a
picture of King Jehu of Israel, on the famous black
obelisk of the Assyrian King Shalmanezer III, offering tribute
to his overlord. How regrettable it is that large numbers of
people still believe that the Old Testament has no basis in
history at all!
Jesus and his Apostles
Archaeological support for
the New Testament period is no less rich. The birth of
Christianity is set against an authentic background of the
current Greek and Roman cultures, providing ample testimony to
the accuracy of the Bible record. The accounts of the
activities of Jesus and his apostles are certainly not “once
upon a time” stories! So the dates of the Roman emperors and
governors and the Jewish leaders, so carefully recorded by
Luke, all fit into a dependable picture of the historical
period.
For example an inscription
unearthed at Caesarea mentions both the emperor Tiberius and
the notorious Roman governor Pontius Pilate, while in
Jerusalem the funeral ossuary of the Jewish High Priest
Caiaphas was discovered in a 1st Century tomb. Thus
archaeology has confirmed the names of the two chief
characters in the crucifixion of Jesus!
‘The stones cry out’
When the Pharisees demanded that Jesus silence
the joyous acclaim of his disciples, accompanying him into
Jerusalem on ‘Palm Sunday’, he replied: “I tell you that if
these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry
out” (Luke 19:40). How wonderful it is that, in an age
when the Bible is so ignored, by the providence of God, the
evidence of the stones continues to testify to its truth and
reliability as the guide to saving faith in Jesus
Christ. |
