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"Historical Evidence" Article Items

Recent archaeological discoveries present historical evidence supporting the Biblical narrative.  These historical events help to place Scripture in its appropriate historical context.

For example, most Christians would not care about various Egyptian, Babylonian, Syrian, and Assyrian invasions of ancient Israel.  However, Scripture is filled with descriptions concerning Israel’s battles with their enemies.  Eventually, Israel would be conquered and taken captive, only to emerge a stronger nation.

The last few decades have seen an explosion in archaeology throughout Israel, uncovering artifacts supporting the Biblical narrative.  The timing of this historical evidence through archaeology is also consistent with the Biblical narrative.

Some of this historical evidence has been uncovered through the Sifting Project.  This project meticulously sifts discarded debris from illegal excavations on the Temple Mount.  Professional archaeologists head it but often use volunteers to do the tedious sifting looking for ancient artifacts.

Literary Evidence About Jesus
The moral arguments asserts there is objective morality;; everything is not subjective.

Posted on February 19, 2023 by

Categories: Biblical History, Historical Evidence

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There is considerable literary evidence about Jesus than any other person or historical event.  There are written materials about the life of Christ, but they are supportive and antagonistic.  This literary evidence can be roughly broken down into three categories: Christians who liked Jesus Non-Christians who liked Jesus Non-Christians who disliked Jesus The modern critics of Christ and his message largely evaluate those non-Christians of the first few centuries after Christ while ignoring the evidence of those supporting his mission.  We will try to critically present the evidence in all three categories to determine their factual nature. Christians Who Liked… Read More »

Apostle Peter and First New Testament
Bible with Hands

Posted on January 28, 2023 by

Categories: Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence

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The students of the Apostle Peter confirmed the accuracy of the first New Testament, similar to those of Paul and John. Peter may be the oldest of the original disciples of Christ.  He is also known as Simon Cephas from the Aramaic version of his name.  Peter and his brother Andrew were fishermen and were about their vocation when they first met Jesus.  Peter was a fisherman and likely illiterate with little, if any, formal education and likely illiterate. Mark became very close to Peter, so much so that Peter called him “my son.” (1 Peter 12:12-16).  The early church… Read More »

Apostle Paul and First New Testament
Homeschooling achievement tests tend to be higher than those from public schools.

Posted on January 20, 2023 by

Categories: Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence

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The Apostle Paul had many students as he spread the Christian message worldwide.  Many of these students are lost to history, but some names are preserved in his writings.  These students and their spiritual descendants become important links in the chain of custody of New Testament writings. In an earlier post, we discussed how the students of the Apostle John carried the Christian message from John to the first written New Testament in 350 AD.  Each student carried the gospel message from their predecessor and then passed it to their students. A similar situation occurred with the Apostle Paul’s students… Read More »

Apostle John and First New Testament
Ancient preserve fragments from Irenaeus writings.

Posted on January 15, 2023 by

Categories: Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence

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The Apostle John is the only apostle who is thought to have escaped martyrdom and provided a link to the first New Testament.  He was the apostle that “Jesus loved,” who was likely the youngest apostle and lived the longest – probably until about 100 AD.  He was the son of Zebedee and Salome and James’s brother (who was probably killed by beheading by Herod Agrippa 1 early in church history in 44 AD).  Some traditions hold that Salome was the sister of Jesus’ mother, Mary.  That would make Salome Jesus’ aunt, and the sons of Zebedee would be Jesus’ first… Read More »

The New Testament Books
King James Version

Posted on January 2, 2023 by

Categories: Historical Evidence

There are twenty-six books in the New Testament that we consider to be an authoritative and accurate representation of events that occurred many hundreds of years ago. Many skeptics point out that the books in the New Testament were written about 325 years before being incorporated into a “canon” or official group of books recognized by the Church.  But how do we know these books were not just “made up” or altered during the intervening centuries?  And why these books, and not others that were known at the time?  This is a crucial question because it speaks to the historicity… Read More »

Historicity of King Hezekiah
King Hezekiah bulla

Posted on December 29, 2022 by

Categories: Historical Evidence

Confirmation of the existence of the ancient Biblical King Hezekiah has been found.  This discovery has been called “one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Israel of all time.” This discovery shows five monumental, new royal inscriptions describing King Hezekiah of Judah, which include dozens of lines and hundreds of letters.  These inscriptions have now been deciphered. King Hezekiah Inscriptions Gershon Galil, a former chairman of the University of Haifa, said the inscriptions mention the name of Hezekiah and document some of the major events during the first seventeen years of his reign.  These events include the water project… Read More »

Secular Eyewitnesses to Christ
Jerusalem

Posted on December 26, 2022 by

Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence

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I have discussed several ancient secular eyewitnesses to Christ in another post evaluating the historicity of Scripture from a broad perspective.  In this article, I am going to concentrate on the evidence substantiating the historicity of Christ. The historicity of Christ is, after all the most important question that must be answered regarding all of Scripture. As Paul said, if the Resurrection of Christ did not happen, then Christians are deluded and, above all, to be pitied.  If Christ did not exist, then neither did the Resurrection. I will only evaluate secular, extra-Biblical sources for the historicity of Christ to avoid… Read More »

Christ Types
Bible Image

Posted on December 12, 2022 by

Categories: Historical Evidence

Christ Types and Ancient Old Testament Figures The previous blog post showed how Christ demonstrates the characteristics of many mythical deities of multiple civilizations.  While the characteristics of mythical deities are often fanciful and not meant to be historical, those of Christ are what might be expected from a historical figure. This short post shows how many ancient historical figures were actual “types” of Christ.  That is, these historical figures illustrate many of the characteristics of Christ and are a foreshadowing. The following figures are contained within the Old Testament.  The books which contain the stories of these ancient figures… Read More »

Ancient Reference to Peter
The Jerusalem Chronicles is an ancient Babylonian text concerned the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

Posted on November 3, 2022 by

Categories: Archaeology, Historical Evidence

Archaeologists recently discovered an ancient reference to the apostle Peter in the ancient city of Bethsaida.  Byzantine tradition considered Bethsaida to be the lodation nof Peter’s house, while some scholars place Peter’s residence in Capernaum. Scripture seems to place Peter’s house in Bethsaida in John 1:44, Now Philips was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Bethsaida was important in the ministry of Christ and is located on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee.  Christ restored a blind man’s sight at a place just outside the village.  Bethsaida was also the location where Jesus miraculously fed the… Read More »

Biblical People Are Confirmed

Posted on October 2, 2021 by

Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence

One of the most exciting facets of Biblical history is that the identities of many Biblical people are confirmed by archaeology.  In addition to those confirmed through recent archaeological discoveries are many others whose identities are likely verified, but the evidence is unclear. The importance of these discoveries is challenging to overstate.  For years, many of these critical Biblical narratives were thought only to be mythological inventions.  Liberal theologians supposed that Jewish scribes returning from Babylonian captivity wanted to portray their history positively for future generations. Moreover, these scribes did not want the Jewish people to be associated with years… Read More »

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