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"Biblical History" Article Items

Ancient Rabbinical References to Jesus
The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament representing the Law.

Posted on July 15, 2021 by

Categories: Historical Evidence

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Ancient rabbinical references to Jesus provide another confirmation of the historicity of Christ in addition to secular sources.  Another blog referenced some of the secular references to Christ, while this blog evaluates extra-Biblical rabbinical references. Rabbis often provide critical comments on passages of Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments.  These comments provide a historical evaluation of Jewish thought on various issues for the past several millennia.  This is not a particularly easy field to study, To search in Rabbinic literature for data on any historical subject is a daunting task.  The sheer bulk of the literature, its baffling… Read More »

Ancient Secular References to Jesus
The historicity of Christ is supported by secular writers.

Posted on July 9, 2021 by

Categories: Historical Evidence

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I have discussed several ancient secular references to Jesus 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 for 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 am only going to evaluate secular, extra-Biblical sources for the historicity… Read More »

Hardening Your Heart
Hardening of the heart is an expression going back to the ancient Egyptians. A heavy heart when weighed against a feather could mean a dismal future in the afterlife.

Posted on July 4, 2021 by

Categories: Historical Evidence, Philosophical

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One of the most common colloquialisms is about hardening your heart.  According to Merriam-Webster, it means to stop having kind or friendly feelings for someone or caring about something. It would probably surprise most people that the expression derived from ancient Egypt and is important in the Biblical narrative. Hardening Your Heart Ancient Egypt was a place of customs that seem very strange to us today.  Many of these ancient customs are related to religious rituals the Egyptians followed concerning the afterlife. The Weight of the Heart ceremony was a procedure that the Egyptians believed occurred after death when you… Read More »

The Three Doomed Cities
The gospel is told in the stars in the constellations of the zodiac. These constellations are ancient in origin but many of the original names are Hebrew..

Posted on June 26, 2021 by

Categories: Archaeology, Historical Evidence

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There are three doomed cities pronounced by Christ in the New Testament.  These particular cities had seen more miraculous events and the personal teaching of Christ for years, and yet they failed to understand.  They could not see the meaning of what was right before their eyes. Many readers are familiar with Christ’s pronouncement against Jerusalem, For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before your, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave… Read More »

Historical Reliability of the Gospels
Bible with Hands

Posted on June 20, 2021 by

Categories: Historical Evidence, Textual

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The historical reliability of the gospels offers another means for determining their historicity.   There are two means for determining the authenticity of any  historical account. The first is the most obvious; does the historical account have events that can be corroborated by multiple accounts.  This becomes progressively more difficult as the historical account becomes more remote.  Sometimes corroborating accounts become lost to history due to their loss or destruction.  Think for example of all the historical accounts that were lost during the destruction of the ancient Alexandria papyrus library. The second means for determining the reliability of an ancient historical… Read More »

Textual Reliability of the Gospels
Bible Image

Posted on June 12, 2021 by

Categories: Historical Evidence, Textual

Tags: ,

The reliability of the gospels is extraordinarily important to establish.  If they are not a reliable record of what actually happened during Christ’s life, then they would hold little value.  This is why the reliability of the gospels has been such an area of intense interest to theologians throughout church history. Skeptical authors have always held that the four gospels are folklore – just tales of epic stories that in reality represent a gross exaggeration and manipulation of actual events.  This is thought to have been done by ancient scribes interested in magnifying their country’s history.  These skeptics believe that… Read More »

Messianic Prophecies
The crucifixion date was derived from an Old Testament prophecy from Daniel that Christ expected the Jews to know.

Posted on June 6, 2021 by

Categories: Textual

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Messianic Prophecies The fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies represents one of the most remarkable facets of Christianity.  There is no doubt these prophecies were written down before Christ.  They can be found in the Septuagint, a Greek translation from the original Hebrew texts.  During the several centuries before Christ, Greek was used as the common language throughout most of the Roman Empire. Greek Scriptures such as the Septuagint were in wide use throughout the Roman Empire by the time of Christ and Paul.  This is because most Christian converts spoke Greek, but could not read Hebrew.  The Greek translation was… Read More »

Age of the Old Testament
Shrine of the Book houses the ancient Isaiah Scroll written about 200 BC including Isaiah 53 which gives a description in great detail about Jesus Christ - the coming Messiah.

Posted on April 16, 2021 by

Categories: Historical Evidence, Philosophical, Textual

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Dating the Age of the Old Testament The age of the Old Testament has been debated for the past two hundred years – it is a very controversial and very important topic.  Traditionalists say the Old Testament was written many hundreds of years before Christ by the authors attributed to each book.  For example, the Torah (first five books in the Bible) was written by Moses, the Psalms mostly written by David, Proverbs written by Solomon, and the major and minor prophetic books written by their respective prophet. Recent handwriting analysis published in peer-reviewed journals lends credence to the traditional… Read More »

Restoration of Israel
Jerusalem has been conquered many times through history; in this blog it was conquered in 586 BC by the Babylonians who destroyed the city and Temple.

Posted on February 18, 2021 by

Categories: Historical Evidence

Tags: ,

The restoration of Israel is one of the most important Biblical prophecies to be fulfilled.  Israel had been destroyed centuries earlier by the Romans and its people dispersed throughout the world.  Jerusalem – the capital city – was destroyed. The Romans wished to destroy all memory of the ancient city of Jerusalem that was renamed Aelia Capitolina and then rebuilt in the style of a typical Roman town.  The new Roman city would be inhabited by Romans, and the city dedicated to Jupiter – one of the Roman gods. The Roman emperor had become so enraged with the Jewish revolts… Read More »

The Jubilee

Posted on September 15, 2020 by

Categories: Historical Evidence

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Scripture is like no other book; it tells the story of mankind from the beginning of time to the end of time. It does so with an authority not seen in other books because its inspiration comes from someone who knows everything. it was written by many people over hundreds of years, but its inspiration comes from the Creator of the universe.  The Creator provides the history of the universe in broad terms so that we might understand our place in the universe and the reason why we walk the earth. Modern science tells us the universe consists of multiple… Read More »

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