Session 3 – Archeology and the Bible
Because the New Testament is well
attested from extra Biblical sources of the
time, we will focus primarily on claims
made in the Old Testament, and how
archeology supports them.
AMULET SCROLL
In 1979 Israeli archaeologist Gabriel
Barkay, working with a group of
students from the Institute of Holy
Land Studies (now Jerusalem
University College), excavated several
tombs in Jerusalem on the
"Shoulder of Hinnom,"
In one burial cave a repository for grave goods was found,
containing approximately 700 items, including burial gifts of
pottery vessels, over 100 pieces of silver jewelry, arrowheads,
bone and ivory artifacts, alabaster vessels, 150 beads and a
rare, early coin.
Among the silver items was a rolled-up amulet
bearing the tetragrammaton, the name of God (the
consonantal letters yod, he, waw, he), YHWH.
The tomb dates to the end of the Davidic dynasty,
approximately the seventh century BC. The silver
amulet thus dates to the end of the seventh or early
sixth century. The prayer-like inscription containing
the divine name provides the oldest extra-biblical
evidence for the name of God thus far
archaeologically recovered in Jerusalem.
THE HOUSE OF DAVID INSCRIPTION
On July 21, 1993, Dr. Avraham Biran, distinguished Israeli
archaeologist discovered this stone
It reads:
1. [ ... ...] and cut [ ... ]
2. [ ... ] my father went up [against him
when] he fought at
3. And my father lay down, he went to
his [ancestors]. And the king of I [s-]
4. rael entered previously in my father's
land. [And] Hadad made me king.
5. And Hadad went in front of me, [and]
I departed from [the] seven [ ...-]
2 Kings 9
6. s of my kingdom, and I slew [seve]nty kin[gs], who
harnessed thou[sands of cha-]
7. Riots and thousands of horsemen (or: horses). [I killed
Jeho]ram son of [Ahab]
8. king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]
9. g of the House of David. And I set [their towns into ruins
and turned]
10. their land into [desolation ... ]
11. other [ ... and Jehu ru-]
12. led over Is[rael ... and I laid ]
13. siege upon [ ... ] [6]
Hezekiah’s Siloam Tunnel Inscription. King Hezekiah of Judah
ruled from 721 to 686 BC. Fearing a siege by the Assyrian
king, Sennacherib, Hezekiah preserved Jerusalem’s water
supply by cutting a tunnel through 1,750 feet of solid rock
from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam inside the city
walls (2 Kings 20; 2 Chron. 32).
At the Siloam end of the tunnel,
an inscription, presently in the
archaeological museum at
Istanbul, Turkey, celebrates this
remarkable accomplishment.
The tunnel is probably the only
biblical site that has not changed
its appearance in 2,700 years.
The Moabite
Stone. Second Kings 3
reports that Mesha, the
king of Moab, rebelled
against the king of Israel
following the death of
Ahab. A three-foot stone
slab, also called the Mesha
Stele, confirms the revolt
by claiming triumph over
Ahab’s family, c. 850 BC
Shishak’s Invasion of Judah. First Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles
12 tell of Pharaoh Shishak’s conquest of Judah in the fifth year
of the reign of King Rehoboam, the brainless son of Solomon,
and how Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem was robbed of its
treasures on that occasion. This victory is also
commemorated in hieroglyphic wall carvings on the Temple of
Amon at Thebes.
The Merneptah Stele. A
seven-foot slab engraved with
hieroglyphics, also called the
Israel Stele, boasts of the
Egyptian pharaoh’s conquest
of Libyans and peoples in
Palestine, including the
Israelites: “Israel — his seed is
not.” This is the earliest
reference to Israel in
nonbiblical sources and
demonstrates that, as of c.
1230 BC, the Hebrews were
already living in the
Promised Land.
According to the Bible there was a worldwide flood about
4400 years ago that completely destroyed the world
There are over 250 ancient cultures who have flood
legends from all around the world!
Is there a favored family? 88%
Were they forewarned? 66%
Is flood due to wickedness of man? 66%
Is catastrophe only a flood? 95%
Was flood global? 95%
Is survival due to a boat? 70%
Were animals also saved? 67%
Were birds sent out? 35%
Archeological evidence for the Exodus
What does the Bible say?
Exodus 14:5
“And it was told the king of Egypt that the people
fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants
was turned against the people, and they said, Why
have we done this, that we have let Israel
go from serving us?”
Exodus 14:3
“For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They
are entangled in the land, the wilderness
hath shut them in.”
by Quin
Exodus 15:23
“And when they came to Marah, they
could not drink of the waters of Marah,
for they were bitter: therefore the
name of it was called Marah.”
Exodus 15:27
“And they came to Elim, where were
twelve wells of water, and threescore
and ten palm trees: and they
encamped there by the waters.”
Mount Sinai
A golden calf alter
Exodus 32:1-5
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the
mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said
unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this
Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not
what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden
earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your
daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the
golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving
tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Two pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel
Numbers 20:11
“And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the
rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the
congregation drank, and their beasts also.”
Exodus 20:25
“And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt
not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool
upon it, thou hast polluted it.”
Exodus 19:23
“And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come
up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set
bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.”
1 Kings 19:8
“And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went
in the strength of that meat forty days and
forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.”
1 Kings 19:13
“And it was so, when
Elijah heard it, that he
wrapped his face in his
mantle, and went out,
and stood in the entering
in of the cave. And,
behold, there came a
voice unto him, and said,
What doest thou here,
Elijah?”
Exodus 19:18
“And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke,
because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and
the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a
furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.”
The Existence of Hittites. Genesis 23 reports that
Abraham buried Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah,
which he purchased from Ephron the Hittite.
Second Samuel 11 tells of David’s adultery with
Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. A century
ago the Hittites were unknown outside of the Old
Testament, and critics claimed that they were a
figment of biblical imagination. In 1906, however,
archaeologists digging east of Ankara, Turkey,
discovered the ruins of Hattusas, the ancient
Hittite capital at what is today called Boghazkoy,…
as well as its vast
collection of Hittite
historical records, which
showed an empire
flourishing in the midsecond millennium BC.
This critical challenge,
among many others, was
immediately proved
worthless — a pattern
that would often be
repeated in the decades
to come.
The some 20,000 cuneiform clay tablets discovered at the
ruins of Nuzi, east of the Tigris River and datable to c.
1500 BC, reveal institutions, practices, and customs
remarkably congruent to those found in Genesis.
These tablets
include treaties,
marriage
arrangements,
rules regarding
inheritance,
adoption, and the
like.
Obelisk of Shalmaneser III. In 2 Kings
9–10, Jehu is mentioned as King of
Israel (841–814 BC). That the growing
power of Assyria was already
encroaching on the northern kings
prior to their ultimate conquest in 722
BC is demonstrated by a six-and-a-halffoot black obelisk discovered in the
ruins of the palace at Nimrud in 1846.
On it, Jehu is shown kneeling before
Shalmaneser III and offering tribute to
the Assyrian king.
Burial Plaque of King Uzziah. Down in Judah, King Uzziah
ruled from 792 to 740 BC, a contemporary of Amos,
Hosea, and Isaiah. Like Solomon, he began well and
ended badly. In 2 Chronicles 26 his sin is recorded, which
resulted in his being struck with leprosy later in life. When
Uzziah died, he was interred in a “field of burial that
belonged to the kings.”
His stone burial plaque has
been discovered on the Mount
of Olives, and it reads: “Here,
the bones of Uzziah, King of
Judah, were brought.
Do not open.”
It seems whatever we find from the time period of
the Old Testament, seems to support what it says!
There are many other finds (hundreds if not
thousands) we could have discussed, but time only
permits a limited few
Memory verse:
2 Samuel 7:28: “And now, O Lord GOD,
You are God, and Your words are true,
and You have promised this goodness
to Your servant.