God’s Word: Romans 15:4b, The Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
2 Timothy 3:14-17, You must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you.15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
Over the years there have been many criticisms leveled against the Bible concerning its historical reliability. These criticisms are usually based on a lack of evidence from outside sources to confirm the Biblical record.
Since the Bible is a religious book, many scholars take the position that it is biased and cannot be trusted unless we have corroborating evidence from extra-Biblical sources. In other words, the Bible is guilty until proven innocent, and a lack of outside evidence places the Biblical account in doubt.
This standard is far different from that applied to other ancient documents, even though many, if not most, have a religious element. They are considered to be accurate, unless there is evidence to show that they are not.
Archaeological Evidence
Although it is not possible to verify every incident in the Bible, the discoveries of archaeology since the mid 1800s have demonstrated the reliability and plausibility of the Bible narrative. Here are some examples.
The most documented Biblical event is the world-wide flood described in Genesis 6-9. Recent geological research has substantiated a worldwide flood. A number of Babylonian documents have been discovered which describe the same flood.
Critics used to laugh about the Hittites, a people mentioned in the Bible about 40 times. There was no evidence, until the 1900’s, archeological writings discovered in Turkey list them as a powerful nation that once attacked Egypt.
Speaking of Egypt…the Bible says the Egyptians forced their slaves to make bricks mixed with straw. For years critics would deride the biblical account until archeology uncovered straw mixed in bricks.
Joseph was a Hebrew slave in the Bible who became the second most powerful ruler in Egypt. For years people laughed at the idea of a Hebrew Vice President. According to the Bible, God showed Joseph what was going to happen in Egypt. Gen 41:28-30. God said there would be seven years of abundance and seven years of famine.
Archeologists found an inscription chiseled on a rock which dates back to the time of Egyptian kings. It says “I collected corn, I was watchful in time of sowing, and when a familiar famine arose lasting many years, I distributed corn…The Nile has not overflowed for a period of 7 years. Herbage fails. The storehouses were built. And all that was in them has been consumed.”
Also, archeologists found an Egyptian tomb with grave paintings of 7 fat cows next to 7 skinny cows, 7 fat ears of corn next to 7 skinny ones. Somebody recorded it that lived through it.
Also fascinating in last verses of Genesis, the Bible says Joseph’s bones were carried back to Palestine and Joshua 24 says buried at Shechem. For centuries there was a tomb at Shechem that many believed was the tomb of Joseph. Superstition said the critics. No Egyptian leader would be buried outside of Egypt.
In the 1950’s they opened the tomb. Guess what they found. A body mummified like only in Egypt, and in the tomb, among other things, was a sword of the kind worn only by Egyptian officials.
Other examples confirming Biblical events:
Fall of Nineveh as predicted by the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah (2:13-15), was recorded on the Tablet of Nabopolasar.
Fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2 Kings 24:10-14), was recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.
Fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5:30-31), was recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder.
Freeing of captives in Babylon by Cyrus the Great (Ezra 1:1-4; 6:3-4), was recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder.
The existence of Jesus Christ was recorded by Josephus, Suetonius, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, the Talmud, and Lucian.
Controversy surrounds the recent discovery of an old ossuary. Listen to the report as described by Biblical Archeology Review.
“An inscription has been found on an ancient bone box, called an ossuary, that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus…The Aramaic words etched on the box’s side show a cursive form of writing used only from about 10 to 70 A.D., according to noted paleographer André Lemaire of Sorbonne University in Paris, who verified the inscription’s authenticity.
The ossuary has been dated to approximately 63 A.D. In the first century A.D., Jews followed the custom of transferring the bones of their deceased from burial caves to ossuaries. Also Laboratory tests performed by the Geological Survey of Israel confirm that the box’s limestone comes from the Jerusalem area.
Caiaphas was high priest for 18 years, A.D. 18-36. Caiaphas is infamous as the leader of the conspiracy to crucify Jesus. After He was arrested, Jesus was taken to Caiaphas’ house and detained overnight.
Caiaphas handed Jesus over to Pilate to be tried. Following Jesus’ crucifixion, Caiaphas continued to persecute the early church.
The Caiaphas family tomb was accidentally discovered by workers constructing a road in a park just south of the Old City of Jerusalem. This remarkable discovery has, for the first time, provided us with the physical remains of an individual named in the Bible.
Throughout the kingdom period, the kings of Judah were buried within the city of David. One exception to the normal custom was the burial of Uzziah.
2 Chronicles 26:23, When Uzziah died, he was buried with his ancestors; his grave was in a nearby burial field belonging to the kings, for the people said, “He had leprosy.” And his son Jotham became the next king.
Interestingly, an inscription was found on the Mount of Olives in 1931 dating to the first century A.D. which reads, “Here were brought the bones of Uzziah, King of Judah – do not open.” Evidently, because of his leprosy, Uzziah’s bones were removed from the field belonging to the kings and transferred to yet a more remote location.
Darius I was king of the Persian Empire from 522-486 B.C. He gave permission to renew the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 6:1-12), which had been discontinued for some 10 years. His is the first of three monumental tombs cut into a cliff near the Persian capital of Persepolis, Iran.
There are three other tombs at the site, thought to be those of the Persian kings Xerxes (485-465 B.C.), Artaxerxes I (465-424 B.C.), and Darius II (423-405 B.C.).
The base of the Tower of Babel in Babylon where language was confused has been discovered (Genesis 11:1-9). There are also historical records in many cultures retelling the tale in similar forms.
The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah have been discovered southeast of the Dead Sea. Both places were destroyed at the same time. Startling discoveries in the cemetery at Sodom revealed that buildings used to bury the dead were burned by a fire that started on the roof.
What would cause every structure in the cemetery to be destroyed in this way? The answer to the mystery is found in the Bible. (Genesis 19:24).
The only conceivable explanation for this unique discovery in the annals of archaeology is fire and brimstone…that burning debris fell on the buildings from the air. And archaeology has in recent decades found much sulfur deposited on the surface of the area, much of it in the form of pellets.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah became an example in the Bible of how God judges sin. (Ezekiel 16:49-50).
What about the walls of ancient Jericho which the Bible reports to have fallen?
Hebrews 11:30-31, It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.
31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
The Bible says that the walls fell down, and that has been authenticated. The scriptures also say that when the walls collapsed, the Israelites stormed the city and set it on fire. Archaeologists found evidence for a massive destruction by fire just as the Bible relates.
Rahab’s house was evidently located on the north side of the city. She was the Canaanite prostitute who hid the Israelite spies who came to survey the city. The Bible states that her house was built against the city wall. Before returning to the Israelite camp, the spies told Rahab to bring her family into her house and they would be saved.
According to the Bible, Rahab’s house was miraculously spared while the rest of the city wall fell. This is exactly what archaeologists found. The preserved city wall on the north side of the city had houses built against it.
Other Discoveries:
The royal palace in Babylon where King Belshazzar held the feast and Daniel interpreted the handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5).
The royal palace in Susa where Esther was queen of the Persian king Xerxes (Esther).
The house of Peter at Capernaum where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law and others (Matthew 8:14-16).
Jacob’s well where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman (John 4).
The Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where Jesus healed a crippled man (John 5:1-14).
The Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, where Jesus healed a blind man (John 9:1-4).
Herod’s palace at Caesarea where Paul was kept under guard (Acts 23:33-35).
Plus, there were many more discoveries, too numerous to mention in the time we have.
Manuscripts and Bible Translation Accuracy
People say “I can’t trust the Bible. It has been corrupted by translators and scribes.”
In summer of 1947 in the region of Qumran, overlooking the Dead Sea where there are thousands of little caves there was found old worn out jars, and broken pottery. Over 20 caves full of old scrolls with leather backing were found.
The Dead Sea scrolls are the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament ever discovered. They were written over 100 years before Jesus was born; 1000 years earlier than any of the other manuscripts available.
The discoveries included every book in whole or fragments of the Old Testament, except Esther. The entire Isaiah scroll was the best preserved. One scholar wrote about the Isaiah Scroll saying it, “proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of text. The 5% variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.
It is absolutely amazing how the scribes would copy the Bible down through the ages. These Jews who copied the Old Testament had very strict laws for copying. They would count every word of the book they were working on in the original, count the middle word, then the middle letter.
Say it’s a book with 7,000 words. Say the middle word was God. The middle letter of God would be “o”. They’d begin copying word for word. When they got done, they would go back and count the words: 7,000. If the middle letter of the middle word was G instead of “o” they’d rip up the copy and start over. God preserved the Bible very accurately for thousands of years. No work is so amazingly preserved.
The New Testament has far more manuscript evidence than any other ancient work. There are more than 24,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament, with only a 25 year time span between the original and the earliest manuscript copies.
The Iliad ranks next — it has 643 manuscript copies with a 500 year time span between the original and the copies. Only 40 lines (400 words/variations) of the New Testament are in doubt between the 24,000 manuscript copies, compared to 746 lines in doubt of the Iliad’s 643 copies.
Shakespeare, which has been in existence less than 250 years, should be far more certain and correct than that of the New Testament, now almost 2000 years old. But in every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, there are estimated to be a hundred or more readings still in dispute, a large portion of which materially affects the meaning of the passages in which they occur.
Now, what all of this leads to is this. The New Testament writings are superior to all comparable ancient writings. It has more manuscript evidence than any other book in existence.
In other words, the Bible we hold in our hands today is made from a copy that is extremely accurate – that is close to an exact duplicate of the original. God’s not messing around with confusion on the Bible. We make it confusing in our churches, but God has done his part in giving us a reliable message.
Prophecy
One subject that separates the Bible from any other book is prophecy. The prophecies are precise. Many times they’re hundreds, even thousands of years in advance. And they are fulfilled to the smallest detail. As we explore the Mysteries of the Bible over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at some of the most important prophecies to challenge your thinking.
Here are a few tidbits.
Ezekiel 26:3-5(NIV), “… the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Before King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon surrounded Tyre, the people of Tyre escaped to an island, a half-mile offshore.
After thirteen years of siege, the Babylonians “broke down her walls” and “broke down her towers”, destroying the city on the mainland. By that time, the escaped people had re-built the city of Tyre on the island. And because Nebuchadnezzar had no navy, the city on the island remained untouched. Even though Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city, he didn’t fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy.
But 250 years later, Alexander the Great took the rubble Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction left, and they “scraped her dust”, the wood, rock and stubble from the destroyed city, and they built a causeway, like “the top of a rock”. They marched on the rubble-causeway, into the island and destroyed it.
And if you travel to site of old Tyre today – you’ll see fisherman “spreading their nets” to dry on what was Tyre! Exactly, as Ezekiel prophesied around 586 B.C.! Over 2500 years before it happened!
There were over 300 prophecies fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Genesis predicted a Savior would come to earth. Revelation predicts He is coming again.
The Bible predicted Jesus thousands of years before He was born! Precise, detailed prophecies such as; where He would be born (Micah 5:2), how He would be born, (Isaiah 7:14) how He would die (Psalm 34:20), that He’d be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Ps 55:12,13; Zech 11:12,13), His side would be pierced, but He wouldn’t have broken bones (Ps 22, 34), soldiers would gamble for His coat (Ps 22:18) and He was Resurrected (Ps 16:10).
If so many of these prophecies about His first coming were fulfilled, we can trust it when it says that Jesus is coming again for those who are living for Him.
Changed Lives
Millions of people can testify to the power the Bible has played in their lives. I can tell you about my attitude and temper and swearing, and heart that was changed by reading the Bible.
ILLUS: During WWII, when the American army stormed across Okinawa, soldiers found villages of unbelievable poverty, ignorance, and filth. But Shimmabuke, a small obscure community, was different. Homes and streets were clean, the villagers poised and cultured, enjoying a high level of health, happiness, intelligence and prosperity.
Why was Shimmabuke different? Thirty years previously an American missionary on his way to Japan had stopped there. Before he moved on he made two converts and left a Bible.
From that day the people of Shimmabuke had seen no other missionary, had no other visit with any Christian person or group. But in those 30 years the inhabitants had made the Bible come alive. The two converts had taught the villagers its truth until every one became a Christian.
Then came the American army. Clarence Hall, a war correspondent wrote the following…
“I strolled through Shimmabuke one day with a tough old Army sergeant. As we walked he turned to me and whispered hoarsely. “I can’t figure it, fellow–this kind of people coming out of only a Bible and a couple of old guys who wanted to live like Jesus!” Then he added what was to me an infinitely penetrating observation: “Maybe we’ve been using the wrong kind of weapons to make the world over!”
Science
Just a couple of examples as science continues to prove the Bible.
Thousands of years before it was discovered the earth wasn’t flat, God said in…
Isaiah 40:22, God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.
The Bible taught about quarantine.
2 Kings 15:5, The Lord struck the king with leprosy, which lasted until the day he died. He lived in isolation in a separate house.
There are many other discoveries too numerous to mention.
Archeology confirms the Bible can be trusted. The Manuscripts prove the Bible is reliable. Prophecies reveal a supernatural source for the Bible and Changed Lives reveal the Power of the Bible. Science continues to substantiate the teaching of the bible. It can be trusted. It is reliable. It’s up to us to get the most out of it.
The truth is: We shouldn’t need any of this to convince us to take our Creator at His Word. But these things are here so we can share them with others who DO feel like they need more proof. Jesus said it best when He said to Thomas, “blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believe!”