"Archaeology" Article Items

Archaeology has affirmed much of the ancient history of Israel.  This includes

the existence of Sodom,
the historicity of the ancient Jewish kings,
the existence of ancient Jews in Israel,
the likely place of Mt. Sinai and the place of the Red Sea Crossing,
the wars of the Canaan Conquest,
the likely Pharaoh who chased Moses to the Red Sea,
and much more.

The last few decades have seen an explosion in the number of archaeological findings throughout Israel.   These findings confirm the Biblical narrative and have rewritten history.  For example, many archaeologists doubted the very existence of the Hittites, claiming it was all fictional.  Then, the Hittite civilization was uncovered through modern archaeology, supporting the Biblical narrative.

Many confirmatory archaeological findings have been made through the Sifting Project.  This project uses help from civilians to sift through a vast amount of rubble that was illegally removed and discarded from the Temple Mount.

Historicity of Biblical People – Judah Kings Part Two

King Josiah was a righteous kind of Judah, who removed Baal worship.

Posted on July 24, 2023 by

Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Biblical Names

Our prior post noted the historicity of Biblical people, such as Hezekiah.  One of the most famous kings of Juday from the Old Testament is King Josiah. History of King Josiah There are no archaeological records that directly mention King Josiah.  However, a seal bearing the name of Nathan-Melech has been found at an archaeological site in Jerusalem.  He is known from Scripture (2 Kings 23:11) to be an administrative official to Josiah. Most scholars believe in the historicity of King Josiah.  They attribute the absence of documents or artifacts mentioning him to a few documents surviving from this period. … Read More »

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 »