Bible Archeology
The Mesha Steele. The Moabite Stone, also known as The Mesha Steele, was set up around 840 BC, and was found in 1868, in Palestine. It is a 3-foot-tall slab. The inscription pays tribute to the sovereign, celebrating his great building works and victories over the kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab, son of Omri.
The Weld-Blundell Prism, found in 1922, in Babylon, Iraq, contains a list of Sumerian Kings that ruled before and after some sort of “great flood” (sound familiar?). This is often referred to as the “Sumerian Kings List.”
The kings that pre-dated the flood are attributed enormous life spans reminiscent of, though greater than, the lifespans of pre-flood inhabitants of the Bible. It is dated to around 2170 BC, and is a baked clay prism.
SEAL OF MEGIDDO. This was a seal belonging to a royal member in the 8th century BC. It is engraved with a roaring lion (symbol for the kingdom of Judah). The inscription (pictured below) reads, “Shema” on top, and “Servant of Jeroboam” on the bottom (referring to King Jeroboam II who ruled from about 787 BC to about 747 BC).
Shishak’s Invasion Record (pictured below) is a record of Pharaoh Shishak’s raid of 140 places. This includes the kingdom of Judah. This invasion took place in the 10th century BC.
This, again, is important because there are some who would claim that these ancient cities, like Judah, never actually existed and were just made up in the Bible. Shishak’s Invasion Record and many others listed here in this document prove they are wrong. This find was discovered in Egypt, carved on a wall in the Karnak Temple of Amun, god of Thebes (Luxor today). Shishak is referenced in 1 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 12.
This one astonishes me. Rember the story of prophet Balaam, who was working with the Moabites, the enemies of the children of Israel. This is the talking donkey story.
At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites were marching toward the promised land, and were mowing down the people along the way. The Moabites were worried they would be mowed down as well, so they hired a prophet to curse the children of Israel (Balaam).
At Tel Deir ‘Alla, Jordan, on the other side of the Jordan, where the Jabat River meets the Jordan, they found a sort-of administration building roughly see in the picture on the right for the Moabites. Inside they found a stone tablet. It was covered with plaster that had fallen off, but on that plaster, they had written various stories. Written on this stone, they found the story of Balaam the prophet, written by the enemies of the children of Israel. One line from the wall says, “Warnings given by Balaam, the son of Beor. A seer of the gods.” This inscription dated from the 8th century BC. Numbers 22:5, of course, says, “So he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, at Pethor, which is near the river…” This archaeological find corroborates this biblical scripture. This material is on display in Aman, Jordan.
Next the Ketef Hinnom Amulets. An amulet is an ornament or small piece of jewelry often thought to give protection against evil, danger or disease. These particular amulets, which date from around the 7th century BC, were rolled up but had inscriptions on them from Numbers 6:24-26. This priestly blessing was what the priests would wear around their neck and inscribe on various objects. These amulets are from Jeremiah’s time. This was the oldest instance to date of Hebrew text of the Old Testament. It was found in 1979, in Jerusalem.
For a very long time historians and critics pointed to the Hittites in the Bible. These people must have never existed disproving the Bible accounts. Until The archaeological site of Hattusha, former capital of the Hittite Empire was found in 1834.
The history of the Hittite civilization is known mostly from cuneiform texts found in the area of their kingdom, and from diplomatic and commercial correspondence found in various archives in Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt and the Middle East, the decipherment of which was a key event in the history of Indo-European studies.
Another one the Bible got right but it took a while for modern man to catch up.
Historians and critics most attack the Egypt Exodus story in the Bible. They claim there is no evidence of this. No Moses. No Exodus. No evidence of Hebrew slaves. None of this during the dynasty around Ramses II which most scholar point to as the time. But no deceive archeology points to this time period which continues to be a major attack by critics of the Bible. But recent archeological findings point to a different time when there is evidence of Semitic slaves in Egypt. The most amazing of these is the brooklyn papyrus which has many recognizable Hebrew names like Asher, Issachar and Shiphrah which was the name of one of the Hebrew midwives mention in the Exodus story (Exodus 1:15-21).
So has everyone been looking at the wrong time period for the Hebrews in Egypt. If you want more information please check out Patterns of Evidence documentary. (picture on the left)
David Rohl has written many books including, “Exodus- Myth or History,” ” Legend-The Genesis of Civilisation,” “Pharaohs and Kings – A Biblical Quest.”
Another book on this subject is by Douglas Petrovich. He wrote a book called The World’s Oldest Alphabet which outlines the areological evidence of an early alphabetic language in Egypt during the Egyptian middle kingdom or sometimes called the 18th dynasty. This is the earliest phonetic, alphabetic language ever discovered and it was found as list and inventories. Like someone developed it to keep records of storage. Maybe in preparation for something like 7 year famine. Could be.
All of these are Archeological evidence of the Exodus. Now not everyone agrees but it often takes a while for scholars to admit they might be wrong on the timing of things. But there is definitely evidence of Hebrews in Egypt prospering, then sudden decline to poverty and short life. The first ever found phonetic & alphabetic written language during this time period. Names of Hebrews from the line of Jacob on records in Goshen. There is other evidence that an economic collapse happened possibly due to a sudden loss of work force. There is also a written record of Joseph and his wife, sons and grandson. Even the names of midwives and Moses. All from the Biblical story. This is an amazing coincidence if it’s not the Exodus story. And I don’t believe in coincidences.
If you want to see more on this. Look up Patterns of Evidence Exodus by Timothy Mahoney. Great graphics and good documentary style presentation of these archeological findings from Rohl, Petrovich and others.
Don’t forget if you do have questions you would like discussed email me at questions@punla.org.
Let’s close and pray.
Thank you and God’s Blessing my friends.
This is the end of How to Defend your Faith Session 10: Science & the Bible (Hidden Science)
