Old Testament Introduction
Lecture 7 – “Archaeology: The Friend of the Bible”
Bro. Bryan Samms
Introduction:
George Ernest Wright is one of the outstanding Biblical archaeologists of our time. He is a professor
at Harvard University and has been active in a number of Palestinian excavations over the years. He
has written a number of books on Biblical archaeology and Biblical theology. In his book Biblical
Archaeology, Prof. Wright made the following significant comments on the role of archaeology.
“.. . the biblical scholar no longer _______________ to ask whether archaeology proves the Bible. In
the sense that the biblical languages, the life and customs of its peoples, its history, and its
conceptions are _________________ in innumerable ways by the archaeological discoveries, he
knows that such a question is certainly to be answered in the
____________________________________.”1
“The Discipline of Archaeology fits nicely with the world of the Bible. At its root the word
archaeology consists of two Greek words: ἀρχαῖος and -λογία Archaeos means,
“__________________” and “_________________” is “the study of.” The word Archaeology
lexically refers to the study of the _________________________. Since the Bible is an ancient book it
makes sense for Archaeology to have something to say regarding its claims.”2
Modern Archaeology developed in _________________ in the 19th century. Since then the land of
the Bible has been given a growing amount of attention. Why so much attention? The Bible is not
only an ancient book, but a detailed _________________________ document. The sixty-six books of
the Bible consist of nearly _____________ locations along with many people, events and cultural
details…all of which can be analyzed through Archaeology.
1
W. F. Albright, “Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands”, Supplement to Young’s Analytical Concordance (20th ed., New
York, 1936), p. 1
2
Kimberley, Tim. “Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology”.
http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/06/top-ten-biblical-discoveries-in-archaeology-an-introduction/
Significant ______________________Fall into Three Main Categories
1. The ___________________ of the Bible – Archaeology can either support or refute the
words of the Bible. Has the Word of God been corrupted over time?
2. The ____________________ of the Bible - Are the cities, rivers, mountains, geographic
features mentioned in the Bible accurate? The Bible paints a detailed picture, is the picture
accurate?
3. The ____________________ of the Bible - Are the political, economic, agricultural and
social details mentioned in the Bible accurate? Was a certain king from a certain land really
the king at the date suggested from the biblical book?
What makes an Archaeological Discovery __________________________?
1. The ______________________ of the Discovery
2. _____________________ - Provenance is the trump card in archaeology. Provenance, from
the French provenir, “to come from”, means the origin, or the source of something, or the
history of the ownership or location of an object.
We want to take a few moments here and look at some of the most important archaeological
discoveries of history. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are a sampling of some of
the most significant.
I.
The ____________________ Sea Scrolls
A. The _______________________ of the Dead Sea Scrolls
1. Discovered in the Winter of ____________________
2. Two young shepherds were herding near the dead sea scrolls and saw some openings
in ______________________________.
3. The scrolls were then taken to the family camp.
4. These scrolls were sold over time to the _____________________ Orthodox Church
5. Then, after careful examination, it was determined (By University of California,
Davis) that these documents were an _____________________ collection of the
nearly the entire Old Testament and many Jewish writings.
6. After more archaeological research, ________ manuscripts from ____ different caves
were discovered.
7. They were eventually sold in 1954 for $250,000. They were placed in Jerusalem in
the Shrine of the Book unless they are traveling to museums.
B. The _____________________ of this Discovery
1. It shows the accuracy of scribal _____________________.
2. Every single copy of the Old Testament was hand copied up until the printing press
came along in the 15th century AD. That is roughly 3000 years of hand written
copies of the Old Testament.
3. Up until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest extant Old Testament
manuscript was dated at 900 AD.
4. The Dead Sea Scrolls are dated at around 200 BC.
5. This shows that the Scriptures were kept with amazing precision for over 1000 years.
C. The _______________________ Discovered.
1. A scroll containing the entire prophecy of _________________.
2.
The __________________ Commentary
3.
Fragments of every Biblical book except for ________________.
4. Numerous other ancient __________________ writings, many of which reflect
accurately the Scriptures that we hold today.