Archaeology and the Bible

 

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE   (Eclectic Notes)                   

D. B. Wilkinson, N. D. D.

 

Walking down the steps by the theatre in Korinthos.

INTRODUCTION

The relationship between Archaeology and the Bible is an important issue for the Christian: on numerous points it should prove, or disprove, the truth of the historical aspects of the Bible - not the doctrinal content, of course; although, there can be no escaping from some degree of correlation between the two.  

 

Biblical Archaeology must always be seen as part of the wider secular subject, indeed even of Middle Eastern Archaeology; and yet it will always have uniqueness.   One cannot avoid the reality of the Bible and its influence - often much greater than political and cultural factors, and the intense interest in its subjects among Christians, Jews and, to some extent, Muslims.   There are two extremes to be noted and avoided: bigoted minimalists (biblical nihilists), or revisionists - who allow no contribution to be made by the Scriptures, and reject all evidence of discoveries giving support to biblical statements; and cavalier maximalists - who pay little attention to scientific detail.  

 

Varied attitudes are found amongst Jewish archaeologists, who obviously have an enthusiastic domination in Israel: ranging from the co-operative, to the dismissive.   Muslim influence is strong over large areas, and their record, in preservation and allowing study of sites and objects of importance, is far from exemplary.

With the huge amounts of finance paid for ancient artifacts by avid collectors, and the development of skills in forgery, recent exhibits without true academic provenance must be treated with due care.

 

“Post-Modern” philosophy has impacted various aspects of our subject.  Even the proponents are annoyed when their words are misinterpreted!  Post-Modernism flies in the face of the objective scientific research of Archaeology; and also the standard textbooks of English Usage.

 

 

 The interest in things Classical saw Italian investigations beginning in Herculaneum in 1738.  In the nineteenth century, French and British scholars started work.  As if the subject needs more mystery, Agatha Christie worked with her husband under Sir Leonard Woolley, and wrote her novel “Murder in Mesopotamia”.  Scholars from many countries began to make their valuable contributions.

 

Egyptology in the eighteenth century saw the work of a one-time circus giant, and the scholars sent out by the Emperor Napoleon!

 

 Sir Flinders Petrie - called the father of Palestinian stratigraphical archaeology, pioneered Palestinian Archaeology with the start of his work at Tel Hesi in 1890.   Many techniques have been added to the “tool kit” since the first use of Carbon 14 Dating by Dr Willard F. Libby in 1946, at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, the University of Chicago.   Subsurface Interface Radar was introduced by Richard Batey at the Sepphoris site; magnetometers and resistivity-measuring instruments are used to locate underground discontinuities in a similar way; as is Geophysical Diffraction Tomography (GDT) linked with computer graphics; and ground penetrating radar (GPR) – using drones, to find buried features.   Aerial Photogrammetry helps in the production of accurate three- dimensional maps of sites.   Infrared photography reveals patterns of soil and stones in the ground, and can produce enhanced images of faded artwork.   Laser-guided and computerized transits quickly provide accurate survey models.   Global Positioning Systems (GPS) uses a network of satellites to produce accurate surveys.   Shuttle Imaging Radar, Orbital Imaging Radar, and related techniques can offer critical geological information, Electrical Resistivity Tomography, and Multispectral Camera use with varying light wavelengths to reveal hitherto hidden details.  "Virtual unwrapping" of damaged documents (scrolls), based on medical CT Scans, Lidar - Light Detection And Ranging - using lazer as apposed to radio waves as in Radar, Osteoarchaeology.

 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS): computer programs allowing the use of a large variety of mapping systems for sites.

 

Computers mean that data can be stored, or accessed on the field through modem links with large university databases, and using the Internet; microfiche provides another system.   Computer graphics has made work much easier: from publishing, to “restoring” artefacts.   The origin of clay used in pottery can be identified using Neutron-Activation Analysis.  Petrographic techniques; “Thin-section and the petrographic analysis of the temper and content of the clay enable us to pinpoint the geographic distribution of the wares more effectively,” writes John McRay.    Thin-layer chromatography analyses dyes.   There is also Thermoluminescent Dating,  Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) - used in core samples dating radiation in heated quartz, Archeoastronomy, Zircon tracing of rock samples, Obsidian Hydration Dating, X-ray Florescent Analysis and other X-ray techniques, the use of the Proton Magnetometer, Fission-track Dating, Layer Counting in Glass, Magnetic Dating of ceramics (Archaeomagnetism), Fluxgate Gradiometer (which uses the Earth’s magnetic field), Trace-metal Analysis, and the matching of isotope ratios in artefacts with their possible origin sites; and similarly, strontium isotope ratios in tooth enamel can indicate the geography of childhood years.   Fluorine Analysis, Radiometric Essay and Collagen Content are three bone and tooth assessments.   Ancient inorganic material can be assessed using Potassium-Argon Dating.   Tree Ring Dating (Dendrochronology) is no longer judged to provide accurate information.   Professor Scott Woodward has developed DNA matching of parchment fragments, and there is correlation of sheep skin pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls.   The elemental composition of inks, the terra cotta, tiny soil fragments, or residues such as oxidization, and of ostraca can be determined by a scanning electron microscope, fitted with an energy dispersive X-ray microanalyser (SEM-EDS) - McCrone Research Institute of Chicago, and Mikrofokus Oy (Helsinki).   This can often determine the authenticity of objects.  Artificial Intelligence is used in Palaeographics - confirming research on the Dead Sea Scrolls - several documents by the same scribe, the letter lamedh being the key.

Residual Magnetism helps both archaeologists and geophysicists.  Sites such as Lachish, in 701 BC, and Jerusalem (596 BC), were destroyed by conflagration, thus resetting the record of the Earth’s magnetic field in minerals there. The alignment and strength of the fields could be estimated for sites, covering the range of: 830 BC to 580 BC.  Material needed to be undisturbed since the burning of the cities.  This is particularly useful, as the Hallstatt Plateau – an unexplained flat stretch in the calibration curve of radiocarbon dating for the period 800 BC to 400 BC. The strength was usually 50% stronger than today’s field – even double at times.

Presented at the American Geophysical Union, 2021, by Yoav Vaknin, of Tel Aviv University.

The Economist, December 18^th 2021, page 64

These Geomagnetic Fields were investigated by two Israeli universities, in destruction layers on 21archaeological sites.  Dates of biblical conquests were confirmed in destructive burnings: 586 BC for the First Temple, ended by Nebuchadnezzar; and Beit She’an dealt with by Pharaoh Shoshenq, for instance.  (Jerusalem Post viewed online, 25 October 2022)

In early 2024, I realize that the field of Anthropology has experienced a major re-arrangement through the discovery of the possible access to Ancient DNA – aDNA. Dr Robert Carter, a geneticist working with CMI gives an incisive introduction ( see their website, Creation.com). The Petrous bones, which hold the inner ear bones of the human scull, retains over one hundred times the amount of DNA found elsewhere in old human remains. At this time there is full support for the biblical picture of human origins, versus secular models.  

 

The oldest of methods include the stratification of the site - the lower down the level, the further back in time it represents (all things being equal), and the typology of pottery.   Near Eastern sites often have a prefix to their modern name: “Tell”, meaning ruin.   A few writers dwell on the uncertainties in identifying a limited number of sites rather than the vast amount of positive correlation.

 

Specialist areas dealt with on a site might include: Physical and Cultural Anthropology, Archaeozoology, Palaeomagnetism - the measurement of orientation and strength of field, in past ages, as stored in magnetic rocks (particularly helpful, where a Hallstatt Plateau, in Carbon-14 calibration curves, renders work useless), Palaeoethnobotany, Palaeopathology,  Palynology (pollen-grains and spores in ancient soil deposits), Palaeoanthropology, Post Excavation Analysis, Numismatology (interested in coins and precise chronology related to them), Palaeography and Epigraphy. 

 

In this impressive list there are probably several which overlap, or indeed are synonyms.

A few hundred of the five thousand archaeological locations in the Holy Land have been studied.   There are fifteen thousand unexplored related sites - Mesopotamia has ten thousand listed sites!   New information comes to light by the week, and one year alone saw 300 locations being excavated in Israel.

 

 

 

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE OLD TESTAMENT

Attacks on the Scriptures used to suggest that writing was invented relatively late: ancient Ebla is just one source of evidence to disprove this, with the use of an early North Western Semitic dialect, employing the Sumerian cuneiform script.   A library containing 18,000 texts is dated c 2,300 BC (c, stands for the Latin word “circa” - meaning “about the time”).  Here is evidence of writing before the time of Moses. and of the five cities of the plain (Genesis 14).

 

“ ... in the forms actually preserved to us in the extant Old Testament - Hebrew literature shows close external stylistic similarities to other Ancient Oriental literatures among which (and as part of which) it grew up.” (Professor K. A. Kitchen.)  

There is nothing in the Ancient Orient to give support to the old “documentary theories” associated with Wellhausen.

 

Studies of the Ein Gedi Scroll (containing part of Leviticus), based on historical handwriting, placed it at either the first or second century CE. When the researchers read the digitally enhanced text, they discovered that all of the words and paragraph breaks were absolutely identical to the Torah text still used today.

 

Genesis 1-11.   The Beginnings

When scientific archaeologists find a written language – containing and communicating data, they sense a contact with a person and a mind.   Why then, when geneticists consider a hugely more complex storage, and communication, of data in the human genome, do they not sense the mind and presence of God?  There is absolutely no escape from this confrontation!

Here is a quotation from the rightly admired atheistic scientist, Professor Stephen Hawking, and his imaginative, and fallacious, arguments to escape the evidence of his own research:

“Our universe and its laws appear to have a design that both is tailor-made to support us and, if we are to exist, leaves little room for alteration. That to not easily explained and raises the natural question of why it is that way ... The discovery relatively recently of the extreme fine-tuning of so many of the laws of nature could lead at least some of us back to the old idea that this grand design is the work of some grand designer ... That is not the answer of modern science ... our universe seems to be one of many, each with different laws.”

(God and Stephen Hawking”, by Professor John Lennox, Oxford University, page 47 , Lion Hudson, 2010)

Professor Richard Dawkins announced he was against fairy stories; because they are unscientific!  Evolution should take the prize for being the biggest fairytale.  As the famous song puts it:

“Nothing came from nothing.

Nothing ever could”

 

 

Genesis 1 and 2   The Creation Stories are far more plausible than the contemporary mythologies, such as the Babylonian versions, with their Sumerian originals: for example the “Enuma elish”, in which strange gods battle it out - creating mankind as their slaves, in whichever city you happen to reside.   I used to observe as a teacher, that I would believe the Bible to be true, if I had only read the opening of Genesis, because it was so remarkably “scientific” for its time - when compared with the products of these early civilizations.   British Museum, 93017.

 

Dr Robert W. Carter (CMI), observes:

“It comes as a surprise to most people to hear that there is abundant evidence that the entire human race came from two people just a few thousand years ago (Adam and Eve), that there was a serious population crash (bottleneck) in the recent past (at the time of the Flood), and that there was a single dispersal of people across the world after that (the Tower of Babel).  It surprises them even more to learn that much of this evidence comes from evolutionary scientists. In fact, an abundant testimony to biblical history has been uncovered by modern geneticists.”

 

Most will have by now heard of the ‘mitochondrial Eve’ hypothesis, the finding that all modern humans can be traced back to one woman; there is even the possibility of evidence that Eve was a clone of Adam.

 

Today’s Middle East appears a strangely arid place for the Garden of Eden, but evidence of a much different climate is found from bore hole samples, and site paleosol (ancient soil).   Arboreal (tree) pollen is obtained from the Lake Hula and Israel’s Mediterranean Coast: showing dense forest cover in the Chalcolithic Period (c 4500-3500 BC).   As early as a currently estimated 7500 BC, the area of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, and Israel, saw: high levels of humidity and inland water, grasslands, and tree cover.   Evidence of a long-lost river: the Pishon - associated with the Garden of Eden, has come to light from several areas of research.   The so-called Kuwait River must have brought pebbles of granite and basalt, into Kuwait from the Hijaz Mountains -650 miles distant.   The Wadi Al-Batin used to have a much longer course - crossing the Arabian Peninsula, as is indicated by satellite surveys.  The rich Mahd edh-Dhahab (Cradle of Gold) mine, 125 miles south of Medina, the only one in the area, produces 5 tons of gold annually; and to the southwest is a major source of fragrant resins (bdellium).   These factors have strengthened the case for this being the region of the Pishon River (Genesis 2:11-12).  These formations long pre-date Moses, who wrote about them.  The Flood must have caused catastrophic plate tectonics, so the Post Flood Earth would be vastly changed.

 

 

Relating to the Snake in the Garden of Eden, both palaeontologists, and scientist interested in the present, agree that vestigial legs existed and do exist in a number of snake species: Boidae (boas and pythons), for example.   Some branches of prehistoric ophidians did have hind legs.

Genesis 5.   There are Sumerian King Lists, c.2000 BC, some providing parallels to the Bible, written in the same staccato style, and containing ten kings who lived before the Flood.   The colossal longevity of 72,000 and 10,800 years, pale the Genesis record into reasonableness.   Prism, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, WB444

 

 

Genesis 6-9.   The Flood would appear to be the cause of  the Ice Age - about 10,000 BC.   The European “land-bridge” (before the English Channel existed) would enable life forms to move to these islands shortly after.  A team from the University of Miami found evidence of the Flood in two deep-sea core samples taken in the Mexican Gulf.   Discussion also surrounds the geological evidence that the shore of the Black Sea raised 500 feet, when salt water cascaded in through the Bosporus strait in about 5,500 BC.   This is the field of the Christian geologist such as Tas Walker of CMI: “The Three Sisters (rock formations) are an Australian tourist icon. They are also evidence of Noah’s Flood. These sandstone monuments display evidence of large-scale catastrophic deposition and immense watery erosion. That is exactly what we would expect from Noah’s Flood. Not only are the Three Sisters an icon of Australia, they are also an icon of the reliability of the Bible.”

Ariel A. Roth, of CMI, wrote:

“‘Flat gaps’, generally known as paraconformities, are contacts within sedimentary sequences where layers of sediment representing many millions of years are said to be missing. Flat gaps are remarkably flat and the sedimentary layers either side of the gap are parallel and relatively thin compared with their enormous geographical extent. Over the alleged long periods of time indicated by the gap, erosion is expected to remove vast depths of sediment and produce a highly irregular land surface. Such evidence of erosion, however, is not found. Flat gaps are common throughout the geologic column and around the world. They are extremely difficult to explain within the long-age Uniformitarian paradigm and severely challenge the concept of millions of years.  On the other hand, flat gaps provide strong evidence for a young earth and are easily explained within the paradigm of the global biblical Flood, authenticating the truthfulness of the Bible.”

 

The doctorates at Creation Ministries International have a case for a catastrophic worldwide flood – as watertight as Noah’s Ark.  The atheistic argument of Uniformitarianism (that the past in Geology can only be explained by what is observed today – this has seriously limited scientific progress) does not work in what can be observed today in Geomorphology.  Numerous topographical features of the Earth’s crust are best explained by the catastrophic tectonics associated with the Genesis Flood.

Further to this, Gavin Cox, of CMI, is convinced that there are numerous traces of Noah and his family in ancient Egyptian literature and inscriptions.  Mizraim is the name often given to Egypt in Scripture – 588/5 times; it is Semitic and also appears in the Amarna Letters.  "Tebah", the word for Ark in the Hebrew of Genesis, is an Egyptian loan word, and not Akkadian.  Close parallels with the early Genesis accounts are found in Egypt: a deified Adam and Eve, a serpent and a tree connected with wisdom, perfection before death; apropos Noah: a family of eight  (four couples), a City of Eight, there is a significance given to eights, eight primeval gods, a Flood as punishment for rebellion, correlation of the three sons of Noah with Egyptian names, and other possible links with the Deluge in hieroglyphs and inscriptions of all the main Pharaohs.  The Pyramid is probably a reference to the first mountain visible after the Flood.  (www.creation.com/Gavin Cox) Compare with the note on Chinese symbols below.

 

A spectacular publication: “Noah’s Ark: I Touched it”, by Fernand Navarra, a French industrialist and explorer, tells how he studied the considerable amount of data on the subject (including the long history of remains of the Ark on the Mountains of Ararat), and made four main expeditions, locating a stagnant glacier where the ark is occasionally seen.   Here, in 1955, he discovered convincing remains of a construction with stalls - as might be used for animals - and returned with samples of the structure.   His book contains photographic evidence of his finds, and results of the scientific testing of the wood: suggesting a possible age of 5,000 years.  CMI scientists are not convinced.

 

The plan dimensions of the Ark were roughly those of half a Soccer field, it had three decks, and its proportions were perfect - in terms of marine architecture.   There are arguments that it was indeed large enough to contain all the kinds of animals - especially, if “kinds” was a larger grouping than “species”.   Sadly, there appears to have been much spare room.

Instinct may well have brought only young creatures to the Ark, and kept them asleep, once installed.   American articles have been rather taken up with: “Were there dinosaurs in the Ark?”   The average size of these creatures was about that of a sheep – some were as small as chickens, and the massive proportions were achieved only in some species in old age.   Cave paintings indicate that they existed alongside humans, and may be related to “dragon” stories.

 

Many ancient cultures told “Flood Stories”; one researcher has collected 88 – another over 500 Flood Legends (creation.com), some of them are quite improbable, but have main elements in common with the Bible.   The monotheistic simplicity of the biblical account cannot be a truncation of the written polytheistic Mesopotamian epic, on methodological grounds.   The rule in the Ancient Near East is the accretion to, and embellishment of, the simpler story, for a variety of reasons - never the turning of elaborate legend into historical narrative.  The Babylonian and the biblical stories may well trace their history back to a common source.   The Assyrian “Epic of  Gilgamesh” contains the Babylonian version of the Flood, where the main character is called Uta-napishtim; the Akkadian version calls him Atrahasis, but uses crude and impractical elements, typical of the many cuneiform accounts.   Eleventh Tablet, British Museum, K3375   The Atrahasis Epic was discovered in the British Museum by Professor Alan Millard.

 

Animal remains, sometimes fossilized, on the tops of mountains and in caves, representing remarkably varied collections of incompatible animals, give supportive evidence, especially when related to rubble drift and ossiferous fissures.   The indication is that “animals of every kind died in great numbers and were buried apparently almost instantly” (Dr A. L. Rehwinkel).   One scientist points out the correlation between the animal populations of today, and the larger number of “clean” beasts taken on board by Noah.

 

A slight diversion brings us to the question of Catastrophic Plate Tectonics.  

 

Scientists at Creation Ministries International offer this discussion: “Continental Drift and the Bible - Creation Magazine live! (2-07)”, see the website of www.Creation.com   (Search facility); and also in “The Creation Answers Book”, pages 159 ff.  In 1859, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini proposed the idea, that in the beginning of Earth’s history, there was only a single continent, and that today’s continents are really the jigsaw pieces of an ancient whole.  Not only does this look visually interesting, but along several lines of research there are good reasons to believe it.  “Dr John Buamgardner, working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), used supercomputers to model processes in Earth’s mantle to show  that tectonic plate movement could have occurred very rapidly and ‘spontaneously’.”  Both men are respected names in this field of science.  Currently, Baumgardner dovetails the stages of this catastrophic event with the detailed biblical account of the Deluge.

 

 

Genesis 11:1-9.   The Tower of Babel is probably the ziggurat on the ancient site, and now in ruins.   Its name, Etemenanki, is Sumerian for “the Building of the Foundation-platform of heaven and earth” whose “top reaches to heaven”.   The use of distinctive building material in the area is confirmed by research: burnt clay bricks with bitumen for mortar.   These early periods of biblical history are amazingly paralleled in the symbols of Chinese pictographic writing – the oldest, continuously written language – first written over 4,500 years ago.  Here are some composite characters and their elements:

ALIVE+DUST+MAN = FIRST, 

GOD+ONE+MAN+GARDEN=HAPPINESS/BLESSING,

TWO TREES+COMMAND = FORBIDDEN,

TWO TREES+WOMAN = TO DESIRE/COVET,

COVER+TWO TREES+SATAN/DEVIL = TEMPTER,

ME+SHEEP=RIGHTEOUSNESS,

PERSON+EIGHT+BOAT = LARGE SHIP.

 

 

The first eleven chapters of Genesis are an area which deserves far more attention than can be given here.  I would like to recommend the website of Creation Ministries International, where thousands of papers can easily be accessed.  Many countries have an office, where books and DVDs can be purchased.

 

Dr Mike Viccary gives his succinct summary:

 

The Chinese language

 

Before we examine the myths of ancient China, I want to draw the reader's attention to the work of C. H. Kang and E. R. Nelson on the amazing discoveries made within the Chinese language. Unlike English, the Chinese language uses pictographic, and ideographic word-characters, rather than an alphabetic script.  Consequently, instead of having a limited number of letters that can be combined in a multitude of ways to form thousands of words, the Chinese language makes use of a large number of pictographic and ideographic characters that are actually words in themselves. The pictographic characters are built up from a number of 'radicals' or, elements, whilst combinations of characters, which are termed, “ideographs”, can be formed yielding characters for the more complex words and ideas. Now it is in the examination of the radicals of these ideographic and pictographic characters, which have apparently remained essentially unchanged in their thousands of years of use, that Kang and Nelson discovered that the ancient Chinese had a remarkable knowledge of the events found in the early pages of the book of Genesis.  Taking words like, “create”, “tempter”, “thorns”, “boat”, and “tower”, these authors unravelled the various elements of the characters to reveal some startling finds:

 

“In summary, we find that the written language of China was conceived during the primeval, monotheistic period, when the religious concepts were still pristine and the history of earlier ages unmuddied by later innovations. This ancient pictographic and ideographic language has survived unscathed, and we believe bears witness to the original beliefs of the Chinese, handed down by oral tradition. The record contained by many specific characters carries such a close similarity to the Hebrew Genesis that it would seem only logical to believe that both civilisations must have access to the same common historical knowledge.” (Kang and Nelson, p 20-21)

 

Some scholars see close similarities between early Egyptian and Hebrew/Aramaic alphabets.  There is a suggestion that Joseph may have helped in their development (www.creation.com/oldest-alphabet).

 

Genesis 12-50.   The Patriarchs.

 “The fact that archaeological evidence has so richly enhanced the Patriarchal narratives certainly does lend authenticity to the biblical narratives, and makes it more difficult to dismiss the accounts as literary fiction.” (Hoffmeier)

 

Abraham’s type of sporadic seasonal occupation of the Negev is supported by evidence.   The Negev is the Southern Desert of Palestine.   Professor Kitchen writes: “... there is one - and ONLY one - period that fits the conditions reflected in Genesis 14 - the early second millennium BC.   Only in that period did the situation in Mesopotamia allow for shifting alliances; and only then did Elam participate actively in the affairs of the Levant, sending envoys not only to Mari but as far west as Qatna on the Orontes in Syria”

 

As mentioned already, the climate of the Middle East experienced long wet periods, according to the study of pollens and spores in ancient soil deposits.   There must have been a global wet phase around 7500 BC.

 

Professor C. C. Ryrie comments on Genesis 14: “Though some have dismissed this chapter as being an historical impossibility, archaeological discoveries have demonstrated the existence of a flourishing civilization in Palestine between the 21^st and 19th centuries B. C. and of the savage destruction of the cities at the end of that period.

 

The domestication of the camel, as indicated in Genesis, is upheld by careful research of the great Mesopotamian lexical lists, c.  2000-1700, and a Sumerian text from Nippur, of a similar date: in conflict with the superficial assumption of an anachronism.

Site of Sodom (click on)

Near Eastern finds do much to amplify background knowledge of life in patriarchal times.   The burial of a princess at Ebla illustrates the nose ring and bracelets given to Rebecca by Abraham’s servant; Hittite documents from Boghazkoi reveal the tax laws behind Abraham’s purchase of a burial cave along with the complete property, at Machpelah.   There are close parallels between the Patriarchal customs of inheritance, and those discovered in the Nuzi archives in Mesopotamia:

“Transactions involving property took place at the city gates,

Customs of inheritance - regarding the eldest and adoptive sons,

Exchange of birthright,

Blessings, and the authority of oral wills,

Shepherds replacing any sheep they lost,

Possession of household gods meant the right to the family inheritance, and

Marriage contracts forbidding other wives.”

 

It is perhaps best to read through the text of Genesis to see how these notes fit into the scheme of the narrative.

 

 

If the history of Joseph were published as an illustrated book, then drawings and photographs of interesting documents, statues, carvings, inscriptions, models, artefacts and colourful tomb paintings, would amply supply the graphics.   “... our knowledge of Egyptian residences in the eastern Nile delta is chronologically consistent with what we find in the Biblical narratives, regarding both the patriarchs in the early second millennium BC and the Exodus in the late second millennium – facts that would hardly be known to someone writing in the sixth or fifth centuries BC.” (Kitchen)

 

Remarkably: the buying price of Joseph by slave-traders - twenty shekels, was average for the seventeenth century BC; earlier the figure had been as low as ten or fifteen, later, rampant inflation took it to one hundred and twenty, in Persian times.  Slave lists of the time include over 40 Semitic names, with some rising to “hry-pr” – ‘over the house’.   Brooklyn Museum, Papyrus Number 35 1446

 

 

The habit of carrying food in a basket on the head is seen in a tomb model c.2000 BC.   British Museum, 30716.

 

At Thebes there is a painting of scribes making records of the grain stock.   Typically, the side view of the face contains a front view of the eye - just as plans and side elevations are confused in landscapes.   British Museum, artist’s copy, from Menna Tomb, Number 69

Wall paintings in the tomb-chapel of a provincial governor called Khnum-hotep III, at Beni-Hasan in middle Upper Egypt, give clear indications of the red and blue woollen clothes of bearded Semitic people, like Joseph’s brothers, visiting this country.  

 

Semitic envoys are similarly depicted on a fresco from the tomb of Sebek-hetep (Number 63), at Thebes.   They wear white garments edged in red and blue.   British Museum, 37991

Asiatics can also be seen as prisoners taken in battle, in engravings cut to celebrate the victories: at Thebes, Karnak, Memphis, Beni-Hasan, El Amarna, and elsewhere.

We are left in no doubt as to the appearances of the people of this time - from the Pharaohs downwards.

Professor D. J. Wiseman wrote:

“The connection between the Hyksos and the Hebrew settlement in Egypt is now considered almost certain, for numerous details in the Genesis narrative fit in well with comparative Egyptian textual and archaeological evidence.   The titles given to Joseph (‘overseer over the house’, ... and ‘he who is over the house’) may be translations of Egyptian terms in current use.   Other inscriptions confirm the titles ‘chief of butlers’ and ‘chief of bakers’ ...   The inscriptions show the importance of the magician and the interpreter of royal dreams, and record amnesties for prisoners which were sometimes granted on the king’s birthday.

“The rise of a Semite to high position in the Hyksos period both was possible and is not without parallel then and in later Egyptian history, when slaves rose to great power in the New Empire (c. 1570-1050 BC), and the advent of Semites at the Egyptian court was no unusual occurrence.   In times of famine, some of which are said to have lasted seven years, frontier officials, according to documents dated c. 1350 and 1230 BC, were instructed to allow Bedouin from South Palestine to graze their flocks in the Wadi Tumilat (Goshen) area.” (“Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology”)

 

The seven year famine in Joseph’s time is reflected in King Djoser’s “Famine Stela”: from a much later date - Third Dynasty, second century BC, and discovered by Charles Edwin Wilbour on the island of Sehel at the First Cataract.   The king is assigning a stretch of land to the Elephant Island ram-god, Khnum, as an appeasement.   The climatic patterns support the likelihood of the famine in Joseph’s time, and perhaps suggest a third millennium date for the Patriarchs.

 

For his high appointment, Joseph had to be clean-shaven and regaled in court robes, a gold collar, and Pharaonic signet ring - as scenes in tomb-chapels and museum displays illustrate.   An Amarna relief shows Pharaoh Amenophis IV installing Mery-Re with a gold chain of office: because he “had filled the storehouses with spelt and barley”.   The judgement scene from the Papyrus of Ani, from Thebes, portrays this ‘royal scribe and governor of the granaries’.   British Museum, 10470

Joseph imposed a tax of twenty-percent, which was evidently normal for the time.   A wooden model of large granaries has been discovered (British Museum, 21804).    The breaking up of large private estates was a feature of the Hyksos period.

 

The mummified remains of a woman named Katebet illustrate the embalming of the bodies of Jacob and Joseph, in Egypt.  British Museum, 6665

 

 

THE ROSETTA STONE

"Well-worth looking at in detail.  The same text is inscribed in hieroglyphs (upper), in a cursive form of hieroglyphs (centre) and in Greek (lower)."  This enabled Egyptologists to start deciphering the sacred texts. The names of Pharaohs were surrounded by a line - roughly in the shape of a rectangle with rounded corners: a cartouche.  Black basalt, 3ft 9 in high - British Museum 24

(ibid) 

 

 

Moses and Following: Exodus to Judges

 

Manchester Museum owns the type of basket, which might have been used to float Moses on the River Nile.

Brick making using straw, the uses of taskmasters, and the annoyance of numerous holy days claimed by workers, were common features of Egyptian working life.

 

The details and materials of the Tabernacle - the portable Temple used on the Wilderness Journey - were typical of the design vocabulary of contemporary Egypt.   The concept of Cherubim was also common in the Ancient Near-East, and many reproductions are found in bronze cult stands and decorative ivory plaques.    Bible Lands Museum

 

A stela is a formal inscription on a specially prepared stone.   The Stela of Pharaoh Merenptah, from Thebes, contains, on its penultimate line, the only direct inscriptional reference to Israel in this period.  In his fifth year, c. 1220 BC, he claims victories over the Libyans and various people in Syria-Palestine.   A parallel inscription at the temple of Amada, in Nubia, calls Pharaoh Merenptah: “Binder of Gezer” and “Seizer of Libya”.   This inscription also contributes a “not later than 1220” date, in the complex question of dating the Exodus, and naming the Pharaoh, or Pharaohs, of the Oppression and the Exodus.   Cairo Museum, 34025

Mendenhall has published detailed research on the key subject of Ancient Oriental treaty styles, and the development, which took place between the late second millennium and the first millennium BC.   The distinctively differing formats of these two periods authenticates the “covenant form” of the Covenant struck between God and Israel, at the Mountain of Sinai, and its renewals, placing it before the end of the second millennium.

 

The absence of Late Bronze Age II remains at Tell Dhiban and Hebron, has led some scholars to reject the whole biblical record of the Exodus and Conquest!   Four inscribed topographical lists, taken together, are primary evidence of a recognized route from Egypt into Palestine: including Dibon, Hebron and other cities mentioned in Numbers 13:22 and 33:45-50.

1. Thutmosis III’s list in the temple of Amon, Karnak,

2. Amenophis III’s list in his mortuary temple at Soleb,

3. Ramesses II’s list, west side of the entrance to the great hall, temple of Amon, Karnak,

4. Ramesses III’s copy of an earlier list – mortuary temple at Medinet Habu.

The reigns of these Pharaohs stretch from c 1504-1151 BC - in the archaeological periods:

Late Bronze Age I c1550-1400 BC,

Late Bronze Age IIA c1400-1300 BC, and

Late Bronze Age IIB c1300-1200 BC.

[Related periods are:

Neolithic c8300-4500 BC,

Middle Bronze Age c2200-1550 BC,

Iron Age I c1200-1000 BC,

Iron Age II c1000-586 BC - the time of Israelite settlement and the Judges],

Exilic Period 586-539 BC,

Persian Period 539-332 BC,

Hellenistic Period 332-112 BC,

Hasmonean Rule 112-37 BC,

Roman Period 37 BC-AD 312

 

History of the Exodus?

Kenneth A. Kitchen is Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. He points out that it is unreasonable to expect much by way of archaeological confirmation of the Exodus story: The hovels of brickfield slaves and humble cultivators have long since gone back to their mud origins, never to be seen again... And, as pharaohs never monumentalise defeats on temple walls, no record of the successful exit of a large bunch of slaves (with loss of a full chariot squadron) would ever have been memorialised by any king, in temples in the Delta or anywhere else.

It is not certain whether Ramses really was the Pharaoh referred to in the biblical story, as Egyptian chronology is a matter of ongoing scholarly debate. Though most of the scholars who believe the exodus to be a historical event date it between 1225 and 1208 BC, under Ramses II, some scholars date the exodus as early as 1446 BC - in which case, the pharaoh may have been Amenhotep II or Thutmose ill.

 

James K. Hoffmeier - Professor of Old Testament and Near Eastern Archaeology at Trinity International University, in Deerfield, comments: 'Until some firm archaeological or textual evidence emerges to support one of these theories, or an alternative, scholars will continue to disagree about the dating.'

[Guide to the film, "Exodus - Gods and Kings"; Demaris, 2014]

 

Creation Ministries International has an excellent discussion in their material (Creation.com)

 

 

The art of covering wood with gold foil was mastered in Egypt and contemporary techniques were evidenced in the construction and design of the Tabernacle.

 

Balaam (Numbers 22-24, etc) A discovery in 1967, is dated much later than the lifetime of the false prophet/seer. His advice led Israel to consort with foreign women and thereby align themselves with the false god, Baal of Peor (Numbers 25, and see the explanation in Numbers 31:16). Balaam’s death is also recorded in Numbers 31:8, and he is briefly mentioned in the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Micah, Nehemiah, 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation.

“There are a number of interesting connections between the Deir ‘Alla inscription and the biblical account, which do help to reinforce the Bible’s accuracy. First, the inscription refers to Balaam as the “son of Beor”, so there is no question it is referring to the same person. It also calls him a seer, in keeping with Balaam’s description of himself in Numbers 24. The Bible also tells us that the term “seer” (i.e., one who sees) was the former term for a prophet (1 Samuel 9:9). Of course, the biblical record includes some irony here, since Balaam’s own donkey was able to see better than he could, apart from God’s help.

“The Deir ‘Alla inscription is not Jewish in composition. It conveys a polytheistic worldview but uses terminology of the gods that is also used of the true God in biblical texts from this time period—names like El, Elohim, and Shaddai. Also, the inscription says that “the gods came to him at night”, similar to the biblical text: “And God came to Balaam at night” (Numbers 22:20). “  It is significant that the inscription itself and its archaeological context suggest that Deir ‘Alla was not controlled by Israel at this time. As mentioned, the inscription has been dated to around 800 BC. If the dating is correct, this is consistent with the following passage which indicates that Israel had lost much of its territory east of the Jordan not long before this text was produced.

“In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel: from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the Valley of the Arnon, that is, Gilead and Bashan.”  (2 Kings 10:32–33) [ Shaun Doyle,  CMI web site, viewed March 2022]

 

 

 

The strong kingdoms of Moab, Se’ir, and Edom, were indeed concentrations of population in Transjordan, according to Nelson Glueck’s surveys of the region, and Egyptian sources of the Nineteenth Dynasty.

 

It is interesting to compare the Law Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon (c 1792-1750 BC) with the huge body of Law in the Pentateuch.

 

 

After the death of Moses, Joshua led the Israelite nation into Canaan.   The cities to fall in the Conquest, and the later Settlement, suffered complex and differing fates; archaeology upholds the biblical record.   Hazor, for instance, ten miles north of Lake Galilee, is described in the Bible as the chief of the kingdoms and the only one destroyed by fire, following its capture.   It certainly was the largest city, by far: 180 acres, compared with 12 acres for Jerusalem, and 15 acres at Megiddo; and the site indicates that it suffered destruction by conflagration: “the mother of all destructions” observes Ben-Tor (1,300 degrees compared with the expected 650 of a usual fire).   The defacing and mutilation of Egyptian and Canaanite statues - deities and royalty, and the absence of even the smallest Philistine potsherd, could only point to an Israelite invasion (Ben-Tor).

 

In the summer of 2017 numerous news outlets claimed that the Bible was wrong because DNA from circa 1,750 BC, Canaanite skeletons found at Sidon, formed 93% of modern Lebanese DNA.  The Scriptures make plain that the Early Israelites failed to exterminate the Canaanites: Numbers 33:51-55; Joshua 16:10; Judges 1:27-33, 2:1-3, 3:3-5, 4:2, 5:19; Matthew 15:22.  Today we find evil hearts and lazy minds regarding the Bible. (www.creation.com [Search: Canaanite DNA])

 

Within the huge Mari archive it is mentioned as one of the Fertile Crescent’s main commercial centres where King Hammurabi had his Babylonian ambassadors.   Egyptian execration texts (c. 19^th-18^th centuries BC) duly curse the city as an enemy.   The great Pharaohs from the sixteenth century onwards: Thutmose III, Amenophis II, and Seti I, all claim to have conquered it.   The El-Amarna letters, which contain 14^th century BC cuneiform correspondence between the Egyptian court and local Canaanite rulers, feature Hazor (also Jerusalem, a similar capital city over a sizeable territory under Egyptian hegemony).   The Papyrus Anastasi I, of the thirteenth century, includes Hazor in a geographical quiz for testing royal scribes.   (Biblical references: Joshua 11:1-15; Judges 4:2,23,24; 1 Kings 9:5; 2 Kings 15:29)

 

Yigael Yadin - in his day, Professor at the Department of Archaeology in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - did much of the important work on this site, following Professor Garstang of Liverpool University.  

 

The Mycenaean pottery here was produced in the Aegean Islands, and mainland Greece, to be exported throughout the Near East.   “Mycenaean IIIB potsherds, together with local pottery, indicate clearly that the city was destroyed before the close of the thirteenth century BC, when occupation of the lower city came to an end.” (Yigael Yadin)   There is sequential evidence of the simpler Israelite occupation so typical of these conquistadorial sites.

 

Two-storey ‘Pillared Houses’ built in Iron Age I are unique to Israel, and significantly, there is an absence of pig bones – whereas these are plentiful in sites to the west, occupied by the Philistines after 1150 BC.  James K. Hoffmeier also noted in 2008, “There is a growing consensus among archaeologists that these new Iron Age villages are evidence of the early Israelites’ presence in Canaan.  If this assessment is correct, it was within these small villages and nearby cities that the judges of Israel guided the tribes ... until kingship came ... at the end of the eleventh century BC.”

 

Solomon rebuilt Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer - 1 Kings 9:15.   Apparently, the same architect’s plan was used for all three, as Yadin demonstrated dramatically by predicting where certain features would be unearthed.   Gezer is the best-preserved Solomonic gateway in all Israel.

The mention of kings bearing the same name: Jabin King of Hazor, and Jabin King of Canaan (the earlier is 18^th-17^th century BC), is all too common in history; it is not a doublet, as the enemies of authenticity falsely claim - to the detriment of their own case.   Joshua’s initial campaigns meant a temporary disablement of the Canaanite city-states; true occupation came later.

Excavations have revealed massive earthquake damage, in the form of broken jars, fallen walls, and collapsed roofs.   This was most likely the earthquake of Amos 1:1.

 

 

Joshua, 1:4 refers to the territory between Lebanon and the upper Euphrates River as ‘all the Hittite country’.   Such terminology is supported by Assyrian records, which relate to Neo-Hittite kingdoms. The blocking of the Jordan River by fallen banks during earthquake activity has been reported near Jericho during half a dozen more recent occurrences - the last in 1927. (Joshua 3:16-17)

 

 

The following summary from the CMI Archive is based on the work of Dr B. G. Wood, which was reported in BAR (1990), re-assessing the research of Kathleen Kenyon.

 

• Jericho was strongly fortified (Joshua 6:1, 5).
• It was small enough (about 9 acres) for the Israelite army to march around seven times in one day (Joshua 6:15).
• The city’s free-standing inner and outer mudbrick walls collapsed outward, fell down the slope and piled up at the base of the tell (mound), falling “beneath themselves” as the Hebrew of Joshua 6:5 indicates. This allowed the invading Israelites to go straight ahead, up and into the city in the manner described in Joshua 6:20.
• After the walls fell, the city was set on fire (Joshua 6:24). A one-meter-thick layer of ash and debris, including jars of burnt wheat, has been found in many sections of the city.
• The jars full of charred grain support the Bible’s claims that the attack took place just after the harvest (Joshua 3:15), that the siege was short (seven days), and that the Israelites did not plunder the city, except for the precious metals that were “put into the treasury of the house of the Lord” (Joshua 6:24) and the individual sin of Achan (Joshua 7:21).
• Some houses in the lower city were built into the lower city wall, which is exactly how Rahab’s house is described (Joshua 2:15). In at least one area, the mudbrick wall had not collapsed, consistent with Rahab’s house being spared even though it was attached to the city wall.

 

 

Mizpah was identified by W. F. Bade (USA) as Tell en-Nasbeh, seven miles northwest of Jerusalem.   Five extensive seasons (1926-1935) excavated two thirds of the site down to bedrock.   Mizpah features in Joshua and Judges, was included in Samuel’s circuit, and saw the crowning of King Saul.   The offset-inset wall and inner-outer gate complex are probably the work of King Asa of Judah.   Tell en-Nasbeh is valuable in Babylonian Period remains - 586-539 BC; it was here that Gedaliah briefly ruled under Nebuchadnezzar.   The development and design of Israelitic houses is well illustrated.   An army officer called Jaazaniah supported Gedaliah; an onyx seal with the inscription: (belonging) “to Ya’azaniah servant of the king”, was found in a tomb here.  (Joshua 11:3; Judges 10:17, 20:1-3;  1 Samuel 7:5 f, 10:17 ff, 16;   2 Kings 25:22-26;    Jeremiah 40-41;   Hosea 5:1, etc)

Maresha was alloted to the tribe of Judah by Joshua. (Joshua 15:44)   It is identified as Tell Sandahanna and not as Kirbet Mar’ash (ruin of Mar’ash) - less than a mile to the south.   They stand between Jerusalem and the coast, among the Shephelah’s rolling hills.   There are only minor references in the Bible, but, like many sites, its remains portray well the sequence of historical events from the Conquest onwards.   Hellenistic defences are clearly in evidence, with Judaic remains underneath.   An “underground city”, with origins in the Late Iron Age, is truly remarkable.   Researchers have found 170 cave complexes - and still counting.   Twenty-two of the complexes are olive oil production plants: for the output of the Shephelah groves, and supplying Egypt.   Here also were found remains of: the Judaic monarchy (2 Chronicles 11:8, 14:9-10, 20:37;   Micah 1:15), Edomite incursive occupation (Maresha was a chief town); and the interchange of Ptolemaic (Egyptian) rule, and Syrian Seleucid occupation foretold in Daniel 11.   The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, also left his mark.

When Jephthah subdued the Ammonites he attacked them as far as Abel Keramim - now identified as Tall al-‘Umaryra, 7 miles south of Amman.   It is also linked with Baalis King of the Ammonites.  (Judges 11:33;   Jeremiah 40:14)

 

 

Orientalists, in common with students of the Old Testament, find chronological problems an occupational hazard; even so, the 350 years from the enthronement of King Rehoboam of Judah to Jerusalem’s fall in 587 or 586 BC, have largely been resolved.  

Chronology for the period after 586 BC is even more certain.

 

 

 

The Remainder of the Old Testament   Kingdoms and Prophets

Tel Miqne, 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem, has been identified as Ekron; with confirmation coming through a royal dedicatory temple inscription containing its name.   An Ekronite king was named Achish, several centuries after David had links with a ruler of the same name in nearby Gath. (1 Samuel 5:10, 21:10;   Joshua 13:3)

Two adjacent 11^th century temple sites at Beth Shan are thought to be the sanctuaries where the Philistines, following the battle on Mount Gilboa, placed King Saul’s armour and head. (1 Samuel 31:10;  1 Chronicles 10:6-10)

 

Sling stones were about the size of a golf ball to the dimensions of a tennis ball: in the hands of a professional could reach over a hundred miles per hour.  Although normally worked to a rounded smoothness, David’s, picked from a stream, would already be perfect.

 

An Aramaic stela discovered at Dan, and the Mesha Stela, both mention the House of David.  The latter includes the words “the altar hearth of YHWH” (the Yahweh of Israel).

 

Navad Na’aman, of Tel Aviv University, notes that “in every one of the places mentioned in David’s wanderings before he became king, Iron Age I pottery (c1200-1000 BC) has been found”.

The large pool of Gibeon is obviously the site of the contest and battle between the forces of Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth, under Abner, and King David’s victorious soldiers, led by Joab. (2 Samuel 2:8-17.)

 

Evidence for written records in the United Monarchy are found in the presence of Egyptian hieratic numerals and signs, which could only have entered in the 10^th century - to be found in later 8^th and 7^th century ostraca in Old Hebrew - of the Divided Kingdom. 

 

When Dr Clifford Wilson was asked about his most exciting find, he highlighted Gezer.  Here, working with Professor Nelson Glueck, they found an uninteresting layer of black ash.  The Professor advised sieving it with care – and they found innumerable Egyptian and Canaanite artefacts – statuettes of divinities, for instance.  Nearby was a Solomonic wall; the story being that after the Pharaoh had burned the city, he gave it to Solomon on his wedding to a royal daughter.  ^{1 Kings 9:16} Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

The findings suggested a date of 1440 BCE for the Exodus. 

Professor G. Ernest Wright had changes his views, saying that his studies supported the Scriptures. (CMI, creation.com/clifford-wilson)

 

 

 

Architectural parallels with the design of Solomon’s Temple for the LORD, have been found in the side and rear chambers in the temple at Ain Dara.  The Tell Arad site (30 km NE of Beersheba) includes a miniature Solomonic type temple structure (10 century BC), associated with potsherd inscriptions: Hebrew and Priestly names, and “house of YHWH”.

There are still discussions apropos the precise location of the Sanctuary on today’s Temple Mount.  Eschatological passages in the Bible imply that a new temple will be built on the site, before Jesus comes.  Jewish communities believe that the Messiah will build the Temple again, which leaves them open to an Antichrist.

 

King David and King Solomon ruled, in turn, over the united kingdom of the Twelve Tribes.   With the next king, ten tribes split off from Judah and Benjamin, retaining the name Israel.   The invasion of the divided kingdoms by Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonq I) is recorded in 1 Kings 14:25,26;   2 Chronicles 12:2-4, on a fragment of his hieroglyphic stela found at Megiddo, and in wall inscriptions at the Amun (Karnak temple in Thebes - which also names many Palestinian towns (in cartouches - rectangular enclosing lines, rounded at the corners).   Here an incomplete relief carving illustrates his treatment of Hebrew captives.   Pharaoh Shishak’s dynasty survived on the wealth and trade captured on this enterprise, for decades.   His successor, Osorkon 1, spent 400 tons of silver and gold on temples in four years, an amount unequalled in extant inscriptions; most likely this was King Solomon’s treasure.  Destruction levels in several Israelite sites correspond to this invasion.

 

 

From The Jerusalem Post, viewed 19 September, 2019

 “Using technological evolution as a proxy for social processes, we are able to identify and characterize the emergence of the biblical Kingdom of Edom.” Professor Ezra Ben-Yosef (Tel Aviv University) study leader with Professor Tom Levy (University of California, San Diego). “Our results prove it happened earlier than previously thought and in accordance with the biblical description.”  This was using the methodology called ‘the punctuated equilibrium model’.  From ancient copper mines in Israel and Jordan – evolution and improvement of copper production at Arava gives a timeline of 1300-800 BCE.  Pharaoh Shishak/Shoshenq I (10^th century BCE) attacked Israel and is thought to have initiated this technological improvement.  Six metres of copper production waste was found at Khirbat en-Nahas Jordan. (T. Levy)

 

 

 

 

Elon Beth-Hanan is found in the second district list of King Solomon.   Hanan is the name carved on a double-sided game board, written in paleo-Hebrew script of the late 10^th century BC.   The family name also occurs on a 12^th century ostracon found at Beth-Shemesh, and a 10^th century bowl from Timnah (Tel Batash).   All this identifies the clan of Hanan as being influential in the region of Beth-Shemesh through several generations. (1 Kings 4:9)

 

Extensive excavations at Beth-Shemesh confirm the cuneiform records of King Sennacherib, and the texts of 1 Kings 4:9 and 2 Kings 18:13: “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.”   The enemy boasts that he destroyed 46 of Hezekiah’s “strong cities”, driving out 200,000 inhabitants (701 BC).   Late eighth century remains include numerous jug handles bearing the inscription “[belonging] to the king” - LMLK (l’meleck), and the foundations of the impressive walls.   Here is a huge underground reservoir: one of the finest examples of water engineering and management in ancient Judah, and one of the most impressive architectural remains of the United Monarchy.   Evidence suggests that, after the sacking of the city, nearby Philistines rendered the system inoperable by filling it with debris - including their seventh century pottery.

 

The Queen of Sheba visited Solomon (1 Kings 10): her capital city has been identified with certainty by researchers. 

 

Extensive fortifications of the Divided Monarchy period at Shechem (1 Kings 12:25), Gibeah, Bethel and Mizpah, underline the vicious strife between the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

 

“The Moabite Stone” represents a Moabite revolt against a son of the House of “Omri, King of Israel” (lines 4,5,7,10 and 18), where “ the men of Dan had dwelt in the land ... from of old”.   2 Kings 3 describes one such revolt against King Joram.   Mesha King of Moab, near the end of his reign, and to commemorate his success, raised this black basalt inscription in Dibon.   It has a most dramatic archaeological history… is the longest monumental inscription found in Palestine, and is of considerable importance in religious, historical and linguistic terms - being a Semitic script close to the Hebrew of the Bible; both “Yahweh” the God of Israel (the earliest extant example), and Chemosh (Kamosh) the god of Moab, are mentioned.   Along with the similar discovery at Tel Dan, on a broken re-used obelisk, it is thought to contain one of the oldest dynastic mentions of “the House of David” (line 31).   Moabite Stone: Louvre

 

 

An ostracon, which surfaced on the antiquities market, contains the oldest written mention of the Temple of Yahweh (built by King Solomon), and probably the name of King Joash, Jehoash or Josiah.

The Kurkh Monolith - one of several inscriptions of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (ruled 858-824 BC), and discovered at Kurkh on the Upper Tigris - contains the first mention of Israel in Shalmaneser’s texts.   This seven foot high stela covers the first six years of the king, and lists the troops provided by King Ahab of Israel for the coastal coalition of Assyria’s enemies: 2,000 chariots and 10,000 infantry.   The names and places match well with the biblical material of this time.

 

 

 

The Black Obelisk of King Shalmaneser contains what might be the only known portrait of a biblical king.   Originally ensconced in Nimrud, this black limestone stela shows King Jehu of Israel (841-814 BC), “son of Omri”, offering tribute and kneeling before King Shalmaneser, in the second register from the top, of its bas relief panels.   This incident, in 841 BC, is not mentioned in the Bible - which would not detail every event in Jehu’s life, but is in keeping with the course of history.   Jehu is not known as a descendent of Omri: he in fact ended the Omride dynasty by a coup d’etat.  (2 Kings 9:2 ff)   British Museum, 118885

Three other Shalmaneser inscriptions refer to “Jehu son of Omri” and the events of 841 BC: the Aleppo Fragment, the Kurba’il Statue, and the Safar Annals.

 

 

The discoveries of personal seals include those of: Shema (the servant of Jeroboam II), two officials of King Uzziah (Abiyau and Shebanyau), a servant of King Hezekiah, and Abdi (Obadiah, Abadyahu in Hebrew, and meaning “Servant of Yahweh”) a high minister of Israel’s last monarch, King Hoshea (2 Kings 17:1-6, c. 732-722 BC).   This last seal reads: “Belonging to Abdi servant of Hoshea”; it appeared at Sotheby’s in New York and was purchased by an Israeli collector for $80,000.   The Egyptian style of the engraving reflects cogently the alliances that Hebrew kings unsuccessfully attempted with their southern neighbour.   A beautifully ornate gold mounting - fit to impress any visiting royalty - which may have held this seal, has been found.   The site of Tel Tamar, which marked the southern boundary of King Solomon’s Israel, has produced the official seal of the southern Kingdom of Judah.

 

A small bulla appeared on the antiquities market, and although without provenance, scholars are agreed that it has all the indications of a genuine article.   Slightly over a centimetre long, and oval in shape - the seal itself may have been on a ring or pendant.   It reads: “Belonging to Ahaz (son of) Yehotam (Jotham) King of Judah” (and co-regent for a time) - two kings on one seal impression.   The clay is reddish-brown; on the reverse are the marks of the papyrus document and the string that tied it.   The impression is quite simple - perhaps the seal had a more ornate design on the other side.   On the left hand side of the bulla is a fingerprint; which could be that of King Ahaz himself!   A fine bezel and a triple engraved line, border the seal, but the clean-cut lettering has no other embellishment.   Assyrian inscriptions call the king “Yeho-ahaz”(in cuneiform) - the theophoric, or divine element, is not used in either the seal or the Old Testament.   He is the King Ahaz who is mentioned as a bad ruler in 2 Kings 16:2, and 2 Chronicles 28:1 (732-716 BC).  

 

The seal of “Asayahu, servant of the king” has several indicators suggesting that it belonged to Asaia, one of the men required to investigate the scroll of Deuteronomy, by King Josiah, at the commencement of his reforms.   The design includes, surprisingly, a horse - but the motif was common at the time; indeed statues of horses dedicated to the worship of the sun, had to be removed from the Temple of Yahweh.   The corrupting aspects of Canaanite religion are to be expected among the remains, as the prophets of true religion in Israel and Judah said so much against these influences. (2 Kings 22;   2 Chronicles 34;   2 Kings 23:11)

 

One of the most remarkable seal impressions, owned by the same Israeli collector who lives in London, is that of Baruch son of Neriah - scribe to Jeremiah the prophet.   “Belonging to Berekhyahu, son of Neriyahu, the scribe”, reads the inscription.   One of the extant bullae (seal impressions) carries a fingerprint: presumably Baruch’s!   (Jeremiah 32:12, 43:1-7,36 and 45)

 

 

Tiglath-pileser III also mentions details of King Uzziah and King Ahaz in his annals, along with the rulers of the Northern Kingdom: the kings Menahem, Pekah and Hoshea.   (2 Kings 15:5-7,19-20, 29-30, 16:5-18;  2 Chronicles 28:16-21)   Nimrud c. 740 BC,

British Museum 118908  

Tel Dan’s eighth century Assyrian destruction level is associated with Tiglath-pileser III; and the Exile is well reflected in the absence of occupation in Galilee sites, following a peak in the period of the United Monarchy.

 

 

Work on the site of ancient Tirzah, the former capital of the northern kingdom (Israel), indicates that it was indeed vacated in favour of Samaria.   Remains of the Omri to Ahab period include: the palace, decorative ivory embellishments - probably for furniture, and the pool where Ahab’s bloodstained chariot was washed down.   Written in Old Hebrew, sixty-five ostraca belonging to wine-jars tell their vintage, capacity and owners’ names.  

 

Pieces of broken pottery (potsherds, ostraca), and there were plenty about, made excellent material for writing notes and letters on.   Numerous passages in the Prophets are of ostraca length.   (1 Kings 16:23,24; 22:37-40;   Amos 3:15; 6:4)

 

Although Tirzah is relatively unimportant in biblical terms, R. De Vaux wrote a brilliant vignette on the site reflecting his involvement there - 1946-1960.   The early history: the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages, can be traced ... leading on to the Bronze Ages, with clear evidence of the royal city implied in Joshua 12:24.   “ ... the historical records of the Old Testament and archaeological evidence (Shechem, Dothan) suggest that the settlement of the Israelites in that area was achieved peacefully by some kind of understanding with the Canaanites,”  comments De Vaux.   Tirzah was within the tribal settlement of Manasseh, belonged to the clan of Hepher, and was owned by the family of a man called Zelophehad, who left inheritances to his three daughters, Tirzah being named after one of them.   Two villages: Yasit and Geba, modern Yasid and Jeba, four and eight miles away, belonged to another of the three women.

 

The Israelitic archaeological strata show formal streets with houses built to a similar scale and plan: a courtyard entered from the street, with rooms on two sides.   The uniformity suggests an almost egalitarian society, lasting through a long period of peace, during the late tenth and early ninth centuries - the time of the Kings David and Solomon.

 

However, Israelite religion was not all that pure: several evidences, including a basin on a raised platform, with a sacred pillar (massebah), indicate the pagan worship inveighed against by the Hebrew prophets. I have notice Israeli scholars being quite unaware of this – through lack of Biblical Knowledge?    A wide spectrum of uses of the High Place (bamot) is a happy hunting ground for research and debate: demonstrating the crucial part played by the biblical text.

 

 

The dig at Tell el Kadir, the ancient Dan has revealed a detailed history of the pagan altar and worship, which in its course was associated with King Jeroboam I (1 Kings 12:28 ff).  Later, it was probably destroyed, when Josiah brought an end to paganism, for the time (2 Kings 23:4-14).

 

Pharaoh Shishak (Shoshank) attacked Israel and the biblical account is somewhat confirmed by a relief carved on the walls of Karnak Temple in Thebes.  Destruction levels in several Israelite sites correspond to this invasion.

 

“The usurper Zimri perished in the flames of the palace (1 Kings 16:17f).   The most probable date is 885 BC.   This date fits in with the archaeological evidence for the destruction of Stratum III at Tell el-Far’ah” - the modern name of Tirzah.

 

The poverty of the Intermediate Stratum equates with the moving of the capital to Samaria: when virtually all the population would leave to develop the totally new and barren hill site purchased by King Omri.   The unfinished buildings of a large city indicate the short life of Tirzah as the temporary capital (1 Kings 16:23 f). 

 

Eighth century rebuilding gives a clear picture of the notably rich, and the oppressed poor, living side by side - again a situation criticised by the contemporary prophets (Amos 5:11;   Hosea 8:14).   Menahem would have known the rich private dwellings and large public property here, when he left to take the throne in Samaria (2 Kings 15:14).

 

Scores of elegantly carved pieces of ivory, some with Hebrew writing, confirm the biblical description of Ahab's capital of Samaria.

 

 

Possible Menahem’s tax receipts

 Archaeologists working at the site of Samaria have discovered 63 pottery shards, dating from about the time of King Menahem, on which payments are noted. These may be a record of the additional tax payments imposed on Israel to make payment to the Assyrian King. (2 Kings 15:20-21) p. 502, ESV, Student Study Bible

 

 

The fire promised by the prophets did indeed come, and the ash layer followed by pottery remains - of the type associated with Nimrud, city of the Assyrian king, Sargon II, successor to Shalmaneser V - indicate who delivered God’s judgement - in the form of total defeat and exile.   The year would be 723 BC: the same time as the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 17:5).   Remains of both cities run closely parallel, and give a remarkable substantiation of the Scriptures.

 

Megiddo has a layer of debris, three feet thick, in the domestic area - collapsed walls and roofs, and a rich cache of over a hundred pottery vessels, signify the last Israelite occupation falling to the Assyrians (733-732 BC).   More than 20 city levels have been identified in this productive site - the Mount of Megiddo (Armageddon) has a future in eschatology. (Revelation 16:16)

 

 

The six-sided clay prism discovered in Nineveh - dated 686 BC, and called the Taylor Prism (there is a second one, known as the Oriental Institute Prism) - mentions King Hezekiah, his tribute money, and the Assyrian version of Sennacherib’s campaigns against the him.   It recounts how the Assyrians captured forty-six towns and villages, but only covertly admits that Jerusalem was not broken into (2 Kings 18:13-16, 19:32 ff).   British Museum 91032

 

 

The Gihon Spring, the singular source of fresh water, was the reason for the settlements on the Jerusalem site.   The system includes irrigation into the Kidron Valley, a shaft into the old city, and the Tunnel.   The shaft was appropriately discovered by Captain (later Sir) Charles Warren, a military engineer, and Sergeant Birtles his assistant, in 1867.   This is probably the secret route into the Jebusite Citadel, used by King David’s military commander Joab and his men (2 Samuel 5:6-10).

 

King Hezekiah ordered the cutting of the Tunnel, in order to withstand the siege of 701 BC.   Measuring 1,748 feet, it reversed the slope of the natural karstic cleft, and brought water from the Spring, to the Pool inside the defences.   The water systems must have been developed from the natural karst process: a region of sinks, caverns and channels created by water running among varying rock formations below ground, thus explaining the unusual direction and twists of its route.  Simple above-ground surveying and the sounds of workmen conducted through the rock, gives insight into the success of excavations from the two ends.  The unsafe tower of Siloam, mentioned by Jesus in Luke 13:4, may well have been the survey element used to assist in the cutting of the tunnel.  There was a similar tower used in the cutting of Bramhope railway tunnel, between Leeds and Harrogate, UK.

 

Within the Siloam Tunnel, an inscription was discovered - the second longest in archaic Hebrew - telling the engineer’s story of the excavation.   Post-Modern Minimalists (of Copenhagen and Sheffield Universities) have challenged the dating of this inscription, in their failure to understand the finer points of palaeography (the study of ancient calligraphies), the history of orthography (spelling), and the typologies of historical grammar.   Experts in these disciplines have descended heavily on their spurious arguments, made with blind bigotry behind a mask of sophistication, which manipulates the evidence in a subjective ideological manner.

 

The blocked off springs were located by the Parker Mission of 1909-1911.   (2 Kings 18:17, 20:20;   2 Chronicles 32:4, 30; Isaiah 22:9)   The inscription is kept in the Istanbul Museum.

Newly examined inscriptions discuss King Hezekiah’s: military activities, religious reforms, and building programmes; parallel closely with Scripture. New Gihon Spring – Siloam Tunnel inscriptions mention the King linked with: 1) making the pool and its supply route, 2) defeating the Philistines, 3) destruction of cultic areas and the Nehushtan (Mosaic bronze serpent cf Numbers 21:4 ff), and collected valuables. (2 Kings 20:20; 18:8; 18:4; 20:13) There is also evidence of a controlling sluice gate: remnants of the frame of the gate, an 8 cm long iron bolt, wool rope remains, and waterproof plaster of the ingenious system which was controlled from above.

CMI website, Keaton Halley, accessed 26 June 2023

 

Evidence of the King’s reforms: an intentionally damaged altar in the ruins of a temple at Beersheba, similarly damaged figurines and incense burner found under ash at Tel Motza.

 

Further remains at Lachish of the Assyrian attack: a siege ramp of fieldstones covered with mortar (to facilitate the assault against the city wall using wooden tanks; aggressive ramps are mentioned four times in the Old Testament, including the Book of Job), over a thousand arrowheads, rounded prepared sling stones, and enemy amour scales (as mentioned).  Excavations reveal that the city was indeed conflagrated.

 

 

Shebna, a scribe and “royal steward” over the house of Hezekiah, was criticised by Isaiah the prophet; in particular for his egotistical plan for a cliff tomb.   The third largest monumental inscription in pre-exilic archaic Hebrew is a tomb lintel prepared for such a titled person.   It suggests his full name may have been Shebnayahu; perhaps the prophet chose to drop the final component’s reference to God.   The chamber occupied a conspicuous place in a cliff face necropolis reserved for high-ranking officials, in what is called today, the Tombs of Silwan, on the eastern slope of the Kidron Valley.   (2 Kings 18:18,26,36, 19:2;  Isaiah 22:15-19, 36:3)   Siloam, Jerusalem   British Museum 125205

 

Tirhakah, who was Hezekiah’s unsuccessful ally, is the Raharqa of Egyptian sources.   The common Ancient Oriental practice of prolepsis - using a person’s later title, or a place’s subsequent name, is illustrated here.   (2 Kings 19v9; Isaiah 37v9)

 

 

Creation Ministries International, have produced three illustrated presentations on research into the time of King Hezekiah. (www.creation.com)  I give some of their points which struck me.

 

The Istanbul Stela of Nabonidus mentions Nabonassar and the fact that Sennacherib was murdered by a son.  There is also a clay tablet letter warning him of his son Arda-Mulissi (Adrammelech) preparing a coup.

 

The Esarhaddon Prism states how the king of this name was appointed to rule after Sennacherib, but was required to put down a revolt of his older brothers.

 

The defence towers – 8 m of the ‘Israelite Tower), have been located, which could be of Hezekiah or Manasseh.   Archaeologist Nahman Avigad uncovered 200m of Hezekiah’s  ‘Broad Wall’ (2 Chronicles 32:5, Nehemiah 3:8, 12:38) confirming the extending of the city westwards, possibly as Israelites took sanctuary in Jerusalem.  Construction was hastily done, and relatively new homes had been demolished to clear the way (Isaiah 22:10).  In 1999 Avigad found evidence of the king’s defence work on the eastern side.

 

The three Assyrian Officials of 2 Kings 18:17 are confirmed on the ‘Assyrian Eponym List’ (British Museum 1882 0522.526): Tartan – a senior military commander, next to the King; Rabshakeh – holding a slightly lower rank; and Rab-saris who is noted in a small contract document.

 

Ms Eilat Mazar found a likely seal of the Prophet Isaiah, in 2017.

 

Accurate reading of the Kawa Stela IV fits the biblical passages of 2 Kings 18:21, and 19:9 into Assyrian and Egyptian histories.

 

 

 

’En Hatzeva (perhaps the biblical Tamar), twenty miles southwest of the Dead Sea, besides having a huge fortress, possibly of King Solomon’s time, may contain evidence of King Josiah’s reform: a pit containing destroyed cult objects.

 

 

The city of Lachish provides four areas of information.   Investigation of the site - Tell ed-Duweir, was first financed by Sir Henry Wellcome and Sir Charles Marston, between 1932 and 1938.  J.L.Starkey was tragically murdered at the excavation.   Such famous names as Petrie, Albright, Lankester Harding, Garstang, and Yadin, are linked with the interpretation of the data.

 

Its origin was troglodytic (of cave dwellers), linked with a good water supply.   A series of cultic shrines illustrate well a close parallel to the Hebrew worship and sacrificial system.   The destruction in 701 BC by Sennacherib is confirmed by “many signs of damage and destruction among the houses and around the walls” (O. Tufnell).   Arrowheads, scale armour, sling-stones, and an Assyrian helmet crest, came to light near the city gate.   Further evidence of the battle and subsequent capture, is seen in the complete layer of ash which covered the city at this level.

 

Most remarkable of all are the artist’s impressions made as huge bas-reliefs for the Palace walls in Nineveh.   These are now in the British Museum, and it is quite simple to transpose them into modern artistic representations.   The suggested detailed design of the walls, the methods of attack and defence, and even the small battering ram tanks, with water buckets on poles, to douche the burning torches raining down from the ramparts, are depicted.

 

Within the burnt ruins of the guardhouse, close to the city gate, twenty-one letters were discovered in 1936: communications from a subordinate to the commanding officer of the city.   Written on pieces of broken pottery, they give an independent witness to the language and script in use at the time of Jeremiah the prophet: “in all essentials identical with the Hebrew of the Old Testament” (ibid).   Beacon signals from Azekah cannot be seen, says one letter, and an escaping prophet, perhaps Uriah (Jeremiah 26:20ff) who fled to Egypt, is written about in another - showing the part played in state affairs by the “nabi” (prophets, the word is perpetuated in Muslim first names today).

 

Fourthly, the seal (with traces of papyrus attached) of a man named “Gedaliah - he who is over the house”, would indicate that it was the property of the governor left in control by the Babylonian invaders, and later murdered.   (2 Kings 18:17, 19:8, 25:22-26;   Isaiah 36:2, 37:8;   Jeremiah 34:7, 26:20-23, 40:11-41:3)   Two impressive bullae  have been unearth near each other in Jerusalem: another of Gedaliah, and one signifying Jucal son of Shelemiah – both Ministers of King Zedekiah.   (The International Jerusalem Post, August 8-14, 2008)   Bas-reliefs: Nineveh c. 690 BC, Gypsum, 2 metres high, British Museum 124911 etc.   The ostraca are in the Palestinian Archaeological Museum, the seal is held by the Rockefeller Museum.

 

 

A “Jewish Temple” on Elephantine Island, north of the First Cataract of the Nile, is described in draft copies of official letters from the Jewish community to the Temple hierarchy in Jerusalem, and in the personal archive of a near-by property owner.   It is thought that devout Jews had fled the persecutions of King Manasseh (2 Kings 21:2-7, c 687-642 BC), and, encouraged by the prophecy in Isaiah 19:19, had established Yahweh worship there.   Egyptian priests of the ram-god Khnum, and their allies, against the wishes of the Persian policy-makers, destroyed the temple in 410 BC.   In the rebuilding, by 402 BC, only meal-offerings and incense were to be allowed - a reflection of thoughts also expressed in Malachi 1:11.   The site has produced many Aramaic documents on papyrus, potsherds, wood and stone.  

 

Some of the material was handed over to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, on the advice of Howard Carter; Eduard Sachau published other documents in Germany; others had to await the death of C. E. Wilbour’s daughter, and the opening of a trunk in a New York warehouse.   (Various collections)

 

The Babylonian Chronicle for 605-594 BC, an inscribed clay tablet measuring only 8 centimetres in height, gives a remarkable description of the events of this period:

The fall of Nineveh to the Babylonians and Medes in August, 612 BC

 

Relations between Necho II of Egypt and Nabopolassar of Babylon, culminating in the Battle of Carchemish, 604 BC

Nebuchadrezzar, the crown prince, claims the capture of Syro-Palestine, paralleled in 2 Kings 24:7

He acceded to the throne in September 605 BC

He received tribute from all the kings of this area, 604 BC

Revenge for a defeat by the Egyptian army came in 601 BC, as promised in Jeremiah 49:28-33

The Chronicle states: “ In the seventh year (of Nebuchadrezzar II) in the month Kislev, the Babylonian king mustered his troops and, having marched to the land of Hatti, besieged the city of Judah.   On the second day of the month Adar he captured the city and seized the king.   He set up in it, a king after his own heart and having received its heavy tribute sent (them) off to Babylon.”   This parallels 2 Kings 24:10-17, in which passage, King Jehoiachin and his court surrendered to the Babylonians, who sent them into exile - March 16^th, 597 BC.   Zedekiah, was the king left in charge of Jerusalem.   British Museum, 21946

 

Could you imagine walking down your high street and seeing a link with the Jewish Exile by King Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC?  Follow me.

In the early 1800’s “The Sassoons were leaders of a Jewish community in Bagdad that dated back to the Babylonian captivity; for centuries the head of the family acted as the pashas’ chief treasurer. Yet one dark night in 1829 here was David Sassoon, the city’s richest man, fleeing for his life towards the river with a money belt around his waist and pearls sewn into his cloak.

In 1832 the 40-year-old set up anew in cosmopolitan Bombay.”  He became a businessman in a huge way, as you would expect. 

A few years later, the arrival in Hong Kong of David’s eighth son, Elias, marked the beginning of a global enterprise.  It was here that the Sassoons helped set up the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.  It was to become one of Asia’s most powerful banks, and shows up in our main streets as HSBC.

Pages 74-75, "The Economist", July 4th, 2020

  

Crystal Bennett of Britain, who worked in the area south of the Dead Sea, during 1960-1980, has identified the Edomite (Idumean) capital Bozrah (Buseirah). (Isaiah 63:1, Jeremiah 49:13, 22)

 

Koldewey discovered that the administrative building at the Ishtar Gate of Babylon contained office records, which included the details of rations issued to the Judean king - Jehoiachin, and his five sons.   The cuneiform text reads: “10 (sila of oil) for Jaukin (Jehoiachin), king of Judah, 2.5 sila for the sons of the king of Judah ... 4 sila for eight men from Judah.”   Jeremiah confirms this: “Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.”   (Jeremiah 52:34)          Berlin Museum, VAT 16378

 

Jeremiah also warned King Jehoiakim against building his fine palace: with spacious upper floor, red coloured decorations, and spectacular windows.   This great palace at Beth-haccherem (modern Ramat Rahel) has been found - confirming the details of the prophet’s description (Jeremiah 22:13-19).

 

“In the 7^th century BC, Jeremiah spoke of (and against) Egypt, including the ‘Temple of the Sun’: that its sacred pillars would be demolished (Jeremiah 43:13) - a reference to Heliopolis, city of the sun-god par excellence ... and its once numerous obelisks.   Now, just one such monolith marks the devastated dust-bowl of a site; the others (long overturned) found new homes in Rome, Paris, London (‘Cleopatra’s Needle’), New York and elsewhere.”   Professor K. A. Kitchen, of Liverpool University

 

Fellow countrymen took Jeremiah to Egypt; some of these Hebrews formed a garrison at Aswan, in the southern part of the country - the mud-brick rubble can still be seen today, on the Elephantine Island.   Aramaic documents were found here, from the Persian Period; they mention Sanballat, governor of Samaria in Nehemiah’s time.   Another partner in crime, Geshem, is mentioned, with his son, in a dedication on a silver bowl found in the East Delta.   (Jeremiah 43;   Nehemiah 2:10, 4:1-2, 6:1-6)

 

Dr Michael Jursa has identified Nebo-Sarsekim, of Jeremiah 39:3, in a cuneiform tablet belonging to the British Museum.    (The Times newspaper, with photographs, p 18, July 11 2007)

 

 

Babylonian literature shows the surprising use of the Aramaic language in documents, which also confirm the historical pattern seen biblically: in particular, Belshazzar as the second ruler, or co-regent son of Nabonidus.  

 

The identity of Darius the Mede is still a teasing question: is this really the throne name of Cyrus?   “The Cyrus Cylinder” - which looks rather like a Cumberland sausage made in clay - is covered in the cuneiform lines of official records: claiming the capture of Babylon without a battle (by diverting the river which ran through the centre of the city), and the desire to remedy the cruelty of his predecessors, by returning captives to their homelands and rebuilding their temples for them.   This policy would include the Jews of course.   Traces of this resettlement have been found at Gezer, Lachish, Bethel, Gibeah and Beth-zur.   (Daniel 5; Ezra 1; Jeremiah 50:35-38)       Babylon, 23 cms. British Museum 90920

 

The seal impression of King Darius measures 9 by 8 centimetres.   The seal itself is a small agate cylinder: like the butt of a cigar, which, when rolled over a clay document gives the imprimatur of King Darius.   It produces a picture of the King standing in his horse-drawn chariot, firing arrows into the head and paw of a rearing lion; a dead lion lies between the horse’s hoofs; his god, Ahuramazda, hovers in the sky.   Two palm trees frame the scene, and the rolling print is completed with a cuneiform inscription in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian.   The monarch’s interest in keeping lions - probably for private hunting - links with the episode of Daniel in King Darius’s den of lions.  

(Daniel 6:1-28)   Thebes, 521-486 BC, British Museum 89132

 

 

The rebuilding of Jerusalem, in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, is seen in only limited remains – fills, and building fragments, sandwiched between the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period

 

 

Jerusalem, today

 

The story of Archaeology is not without its curious and adventurous.  In 1969 an American student was walking along the outside base of the Eastern Wall of Jerusalem – which can be clearly seen in hundreds of photographs.  As he passed the significant, blocked-up, Golden Gate, the ground gave way and he landed in a crypt full of ancient bones.  “In the dim light he could see what appeared to be stone blocks of an arched gate directly beneath the Golden Gate above.”  Before academic investigations could be made, the local Arab authorities sealed the hole with cement.  This lower gate could well be of the first century BC, but to the north of the place are lower courses of stones dated to the sixth century BC – the Second Temple period.  (p 122, Hoffmeier)

 

The Book of Jonah is often attacked as one of the most unlikely stories in the Good Book.   Nineveh is called Mosul today and is in northern Iraq.   The Sperm Whale is found in the Mediterranean Sea, but some consider its mouth too small to swallow a human body.   Evidence exists, however, of them taking in a donkey, and a cartwheel.   Records from the days of extensive whaling in Antarctica are claimed to tell of James Bartlett, who served on “The Eastern Star”, and was swallowed by a whale, which his colleagues eventually captured after a struggle.   He was presumed missing, but was later found alive in the stomach pouch.   He remembered the frightening experience of sliding down into the steamy fishy stomach, and the feeling of all the strength being drained from his body.   He spent many days in the sickbay; and had nightmares of being chased by whales.

 

Open oil lamps, with places for seven wicks, are not uncommon, and illustrate, to some degree, Zechariah’s vision (4v2).   British Museum

 

 

To complete this view of the Old Testament, here are the words of Dr William Foxwell Albright (c 1950), described as the greatest living orientalist of his time: “Thanks to modern research we can now recognise the Bible’s substantial historicity.   The narratives of the Patriarchs, of Moses and the Exodus, of the Conquest of Canaan, of the Judges, the Monarchy, Exile and Restoration, have all been confirmed and illustrated to an extent that I should have thought impossible forty years ago ... To sum up, we can now again treat the Bible as an authentic document of religious history.”

 

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

 

 

A BRIEF LOOK AT THE HISTORICITY OF THE GOSPELS: DID JESUS REALLY LIVE?

 

“Christianity is meaningless, if Jesus was not a real person in history.”

1.  Are the translations of the Christian documents accurate?

The New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven books and letters, written by nine different people.

Perhaps the oldest fragment of the NT is dated c AD 125, and found in Egypt, to which the text had travelled some distance; it belongs to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester (in Deansgate) and carries the verses of John’s Gospel: 18:31-33 and 18:37-38 (the writing is on both sides).  Sadly, semi-academic publications reproduce this piece of papyrus, without indicating its significance for the defence of Christianity. It was exciting for me to hold this invaluable find in its protective case.

There are three, first century, fragments of the Gospel According to Matthew, found at Luxor, now at Magdalen College (pronounced möd-lin), Oxford University, UK.

We have a piece of Mark, from the first century, discovered in Turkey.

Two fragments of Luke, from the second century, are extant.

 

 

Three comparisons with well-accepted contemporary books:

1.  “Gallic War” by Julius Caesar = 10 MSS (manuscripts), from AD

850 onwards

2.  Livy’s history of Rome = 20 MSS, AD 350 onwards

 

3.  Tacitus’s “The Annals of Imperial Rome” = 2 MSS, AD 850

 

4.  Plato (427- 347 BC): 10 MSS, 1400 years after writing; reckoned to be quite acceptable

 

 

The New Testament = 4,000 MSS, AD 350 onwards.

 

Quotations from the NT documents are found in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, AD 90-160.

More study and translation work, at a high academic level, has been devoted to the New Testament than to virtually any other book.

Conclusion: As a translation of a genuine piece of first century literature, the NT is accurate to the highest degree.

 

2. Were the writers honest in describing the events?

Most, if not all, their fellow contributors mention the NT writers, and we are assured of their integrity.

The mention of “miracles” makes it reasonable to question their reliability.

Considerations a) Other history writers of the time were known to have inserted fictional passages, or to have written to stir the emotions, or to have moralised.

b) Historians, such as Tacitus, were not always eyewitnesses of the events they describe.

c) A “History” may be written too soon after the events; for example, Heskell’s record of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War was started after only two weeks: whilst “his emotions were still at white heat”.

 

The Four Gospels, by contrast:

(i) The small differences of stress, all go to show the genuineness of the Four Gospels.

(ii) All the Gospels are factual and lacking in emotion.

(iii) They are selected from a larger body of writing, produced by a group which included eyewitnesses, and which related directly to wide public proclamation.

(iv) The influence of the NT in making people more honest is surely related to its own truthfulness.

(v) Much of the NT consists of letters: one of the most valuable sources of historical data.

(vi) The nine writers agree about all the main statements.

(vii) Research has shown that the Gospel writers (with Acts) are genuine witnesses, giving details such as: use of the most popular personal names for the time and region, portrayal of: burial practices, geographical place names - even villages, architecture, agriculture, botany, culture, laws, and traditions.

(viii)  The most popular personal names were qualified with additional identifications: Simon, James, John, Matthew, and Judas.

For example Simon: Peter - Cephas, Brother of Andrew, Partner of James and John, apostle and slave of Jesus, son of John, son of Jonah; The Zealot; the Carpenter’s son, Mary’s son, Jesus’s stepbrother; from Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus; father of Judas Iscariot; the Sorcerer; the Tanner.

 

Dates of writing:  

John’s Gospel = 60 years after the events

Mark’s Gospel = 35 years after the ministry of Jesus; and a crystallization of Peter’s preaching

Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian Christians = 20 years after the Resurrection

 

Conclusion: The description of Jesus in the NT is accurate.   In addition to human considerations, the Church believes that the Holy Spirit of God inspired the writers and reminded them of the incidents.

 

3. Did the miracles really happen?

It would be strange, if we had been asked to believe that God could NOT work miracles.   There is even much conclusive evidence that miracles still happen in the Church today.

 

The first Believers were so grounded in the laws of life and conditions of nature, that the miracles struck them forcefully as astounding.

 

The most outstanding miracle is the Resurrection of Christ Himself.   The four narratives recounting the event have withstood countless attacks by skeptics; sometimes convincing them against their original intention.   The importance of the coming to life again of Jesus is obvious from the following Bible passages:

1 Corinthians 15:4-6 “ ... that he was buried, that he was raised to life on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he then appeared to Peter, followed by the Twelve.   Later he appeared to over five hundred Brothers at one time.” 

Romans 10:9 “ ... that if you confess verbally, ‘Lord Jesus’, and believe in your very heart that God Himself raised Him from death - you will be saved.”

 

Two comments about the Resurrection:

Dr Billy Graham, “ ... a tremendous amount of convincing evidence exists today, that would be acceptable in any court of law, as to the validity of Christ’s resurrection.”

Dr Arnold, one time Professor of History at Oxford, “I have been used for many years to study the history of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no fact in the history of mankind, which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of the enquiring mind than ... that Christ died and rose again from the dead.”

 

4. Finally

If we accept Jesus of Nazareth as an historical reality, we are then faced with the challenge of His teaching: to receive Him as “Lord of our life, and God of our salvation”.   This type of commitment to Jesus: as both Lord and Saviour, is the only valid kind of Christianity; the history of the Church bears testimony to the blessing that abounds through it.

 

SOME OF THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS.

 

Jewish scholars in the Alexandrian Synagogue community translated the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament of the Christians, into Greek, in the period between 250 and 100 BC.   Today, it is called “The Septuagint”, and abbreviated as LXX.   This was the version used, alongside the original Hebrew, by the Lord Jesus, and the New Testament apostles and evangelists.   The great advantage being: the development, and thorough use, of a Jewish-Greek religious vocabulary, ready for the speakers and writers of the Early Church, with an established equivalent Greek for the original Hebrew.   Luke, for instance, used a style totally Septuagintal in character, when he adapted Mark’s Gospel - polishing its language.   A Medical training in Alexandria may also have influenced his style of Koine Greek.

 

 

Since the discovery of the first of the “Dead Sea Scrolls”, over 200 similar hiding places have been examined, and they have produced over 800 different texts - dating from the mid-third century BC to the first century AD, of which one hundred are of the Jewish Bible.   With the exception of Esther, and some Minor Prophets, the Old Testament books are represented.   Fragments are on papyrus and leather.   The full scroll of Isaiah is perhaps the best known.   The most popular biblical books at Qumran reflect the balance of New Testament references to the Jewish Bible:

Isaiah (12 MSS), Deuteronomy (10 MSS), and Psalms (10 MSS).  

Shunting parts of Isaiah and Ecclesiastes to late Hellenistic dates is now considered totally impossible.   There are several textual strands: Post Masoretic, the Hebrew base of the Septuagint, previously unknown Greek, Pre-Samaritan Pentateuch, their own Qumranic, and non-aligned.   Commentaries from this truly amazing cache cover only the canonical books, which is most significant.   Cave 4 may have been a library - it was artificially constructed, and contained wooden shelving supported by beams.

The non-biblical documents portray a strict male Jewish sectarian monastic community of the first centuries BC and AD; which had many of the contemporary interests and thought forms of the early Christians.   This Essene Jewish sect features in the writings of Pliny the Elder, and Josephus, but not in the New Testament.   The first-century philosopher Philo, a Jew, wrote about the Therapeutae, or Egyptian Essenes.   Numerous theories are postulated apropos the purpose of Khirbet Qumran: a scriptorium and library, with ritual purification and a large cemetery (over a thousand corpses, including those of women and children, and some brought here for burial, well after death) for the entire sect, well away from Jerusalem - as required by the rules.   In other words, a purifying annex for the Jerusalem Essenes, who lived in the south-western corner of the city (later settled by Jewish Christians c AD 140 onwards).   Ideas of a perfumary, a winter villa, or a merchants’ meeting point on the trade route, carry less weight; but a fortified farmhouse later adapted by the sect could be a possibility.   Inkwells are peculiar to this site.

There are parallels between John the Baptist and the Qumran Community: a justification of ministry based on,

“A voice of one calling,

In the desert prepare the way of the LORD”

An interest in baptism, the same geographical location, and the use of locusts as food Document MMT, for instance, contains styles of teaching also found in the New Testament.  

The Sect had Messianic Proof Texts, including: a Divine Son, Messianic Atonement, a Suffering Messiah linked with Melchizedek and the Holy Spirit, two Messiahs - kingly and priestly, and a well developed eschatology.    They taught the inner circumcision of the heart, had a sense of election and predestination, and held such ideas as: the Way, works of the Law (as in document MMT: ergon nomou in Greek, ma’ase ha-torah in Hebrew - miqsat ma’ase ha-torah gives the initials MMT), the New Covenant, the righteousness of God, the congregation of God, themselves as God’s temple, and not pandering to the wealthy.   In spite of these similarities with the New Testament, there is no direct mention of any New Testament figure.

 

However, many differences of doctrine exist between the Qumran Community and Christianity.   There is little evidence of Resurrection being discussed.   Christ taught that help should be given to the outsider, and that disciples should not opt out of the world, but take His message to all: quite the opposite of the Community, which had commenced its teaching a hundred years before Jesus, in any case.   The Essenes were: secretive, in favour of virulent ethnic cleansing, legalistic - particularly regarding the Sabbath (no going to the toilet on the Sabbath!), ascetic, and uncaring for lepers.   They were against: anointing, Temple sacrifice, the Temple lunar calendar, assisting animals on the Sabbath, and helping enemies.  

Their concept of Dualism - Forces of Light and Darkness, spirit and flesh, angels and fallen angels, and the sinful nature as opposed to the Spirit of God - shows that the New Testament did not have to wait for the Gnostic heresy to develop, and encourages an early date for the writings of the NT.

 

 

“The Life of Flavius Josephus” (AD 38-c.100), along with his other prolific works: “Antiquities of the Jews”, “History of the Jewish War”, and “Against Apion”, constitute a rich source of background information to many aspects of the New Testament Period.   The documentary evidence of an Arabic version suggests, that, apart from the testimony to Jesus’s divinity, the historical references to the Saviour are genuine.  

References to Jesus, as well as useful general information, are also found in the following works:

Thallus, “A History of Greece” (Cf Julius Africanus), AD 52,

Suetonius, “The Lives of the Caesars”, 1^st century AD,

Tacitus, “Annals” (15.44), 1^st century AD,

Pliny the Younger, “Epistles written to Emperor Trajan” (Number 96), c AD 100,

Lucian, “Death of Peregrine” (11-13), a 2^nd century satirist,

The Jewish Talmud (“Sanhedrin”, 43a)

Other non-biblical literary sources frequently quoted by “New Testament” archaeologists are:

Herodotus, “History”, 5^th century BC,

Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, 5^th century BC,

Aristotle, “Poetics”, 4^th century BC,

Polybius, “Histories”, 2^nd century BC,

Vitruvius, “On Architecture”, 1^st century BC,

Cicero, “Letters to Atticum”, and “On the Agrarian Law”, 1^st century BC,

Strabo, “Geography”, died c. AD 25, Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, and “Questiones Conviviales”, 1^st century AD,

Pliny the Elder, “Natural History”, 1^st century AD,

Tacitus, “Histories” 1^st century AD,

Seneca, “ Moral Epistles”, 1^st century AD,

Philo, “Delegation to Gaius”, and “On the contemplative life”, 1^st

century AD,

Appian, “ A Roman History”, 2^nd century AD,

Philostratus, “Lives of the Sophists”, and “Life of Appolonius”,

Pausanius, “Description of Greece”, 2^nd century AD,

Irenaeus, “Against Heresies”, 2^nd century AD,

“Didache”, in “The Apostolic Fathers”, 2^nd century AD,

Dio Chrysostom, c AD 200,

“The Mishnah”, the first part of the Talmud, AD 220,

Dio Cassius, “History of Rome”, 3^rd century AD,

Eusebius, “Life of Constantine”, and  “Ecclesiastical History”,

“Chronikon”, and “Onomastikon” (a list of proper names

referring to people and places), 4^th century AD

 

SOME GENERAL ASPECTS

Although the main characters in the New Testament narratives were not people of high social status, they did tangle with Kings, High Priests, and the regional ruling classes.   Such people are well recorded in contemporary literature, inscriptions, statuary and coinage.   Virtually every place mentioned in the Gospels, Acts, Letters and Revelation, can be visited today, and first century ruins and artefacts seen in excavations and museums.   There is much more awareness of how people lived in the first century Mediterranean Basin, than we saw relative to the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East.   Secular, Jewish, and Christian foundations have carried out research.   There is no reasonable doubt that the Church broke in on the Greco-Roman world of the First Century.   Intricate points - such as criticism of authenticity, and understanding of vocabulary - are the main concerns.   Many details of everyday life have been made available by careful site analysis.   A few are listed to illustrate the point. 

The denarius, the most frequently mentioned coin in the New Testament (sixteen times), was also “the most common silver coin in the Roman Empire”, representing a working man’s wage for a day.

The various elements of town planning and architecture can be observed - Ostia, near Rome, providing a remarkable picture of city dwellings.   Synagogues of the Roman and Byzantine Periods have been investigated in Israel: of the hundred or more examples, fifty are in the Golan Heights and Galilee areas.   No two are alike, a majority were adapted from a previous use; congregations in remote villages probably hired rooms or used homes.   Entrances, orientation, benches, main prayer hall and bema, all show variety.  Research into Christian synagogues (James 2v2) still awaits development.   There may be remains of one such synagogue church in Nazareth.

 

Around the Agora of the Greeks (Forum of the Romans) were arranged the expected Basilica, Bema, Bouleterion, Temples, shops, markets, bathhouses, and public fountains.   Theatres were built into hillsides, until the development of the arch and barrel vaulting permitted freestanding versions in city centres - Corinth had a hillside in such use near the Forum.   Suitably coloured linen awnings, on masts and beams, covered the cavea.   There is even a suspicion that the Greek tragedy might have influenced the structure of the Gospels and Revelation.   The odeion, a small version of the theatre, would provide facilities for more intimate productions of literature and music, or civic events.   Not too far away might be a Gymnasium, and the Asklepieion.

 

[Glossary: Agora or Forum = open space for public functions;Basilica = covered market, also used for civic meetings; Bema = judgement platform with associated buildings; Bouleterion = senate chamber; cavea =  theatre seating area; Gymnasium = running track and sports facilities, linked with schools; Asklepieion = medical establishment. ]

City blocks (insula) had crowded apartments, and more spacious quarters: so that several social classes lived in close proximity.   They were several stories high, as Eutychus appreciated in Acts 20:8-12; Ephesus boasted at least two such blocks.  

There were palaces, mansions, large houses and the poorer quality houses.   The latter would have small windows, and the much used, ubiquitous, flat roofs.   If possible, there would be underground cisterns.   Wall frescos and mosaic floors of expensive dwellings can still be observed.

 

At the Masada Fortress, to the west of the Dead Sea, the remains of the Roman earth siege ramp and the camp enclosures still remain.   Herodian painted wall decorations, and mosaic floor patterns in the toilet facilities, are preserved.   There is even a plait of woman’s hair, from the first century.

 

 

Shimeon bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba) was the leader of a significant revolt in Israel, against the Romans, which ended when he was besieged in AD 135.   The caves, which were his final hideout, have provided a vast amount of sociological information of the period prior to AD 135.   These caves are in wadis - inland from En-gedi, and north of Masada.   The articles are mainly from wealthy Jewish families.   Fashionable garments have selvedge patterns and weavers’ signs, and show the colours and designs of both men and women’s clothing of the time.   Dyed wool and spinning materials represent 34 coloured dyes.   The limitation to one kind of fibre indicates the orthodox Jewish practice.   The list continues: sandals of a lame lady, jewellery, coloured rugs, a rigid willow basket and pliable wicker ‘shopping bags’, kitchen knives (one obviously the well-used ‘sharp one’ of the set), a frying pan with hinged handles, turned wooden bowls, Roman libation dish and jugs (decorated with human figures, but defaced), and incense shovels, baby and child’s clothing, water skins, a Scripture fragment, phylacteries (the small black boxes containing four key passages of the Law, which Jewish men tie on their foreheads and arms), mirrors and cosmetic containers, keys, a folding pen-knife, coins, a fowler’s net (for trapping birds), finely cut glass plate (identical to a fragment found in Britain), various bags and purses, and documents!

 

The first set of documents is cursively written, dictated, personal letters of Shimeon bar Kosiba (Did he keep a file of the letters he sent?), and correspondence to him.   They are of varying scribal abilities, and use Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.   Two are requesting the four kinds of natural decoration required for keeping the Festival of Succoth (Booths): palm branches, citrons, myrtles and willow.

 

The second set is the well-arranged archive of a lady called Babata.   The thirty-five documents cover, in traditional legal jargon: litigations about land and property, water rights, covert tax-evasion, a Roman centurion’s loan to a Jew, marriage contracts, and guardianship of an orphan; in the process they introduce the names and dates of numerous national and local rulers.   “Babata, daughter of Simeon, son of Menahem”, is a genealogical reference of some length, as always, indicating a family of status.  The occurrence, in Babata’s papyri, of the names:

Yeshua (which is Joshua, Iesous to the Greeks, Jesus in English),

Yehoseph (Joseph),

Miriam (Mary), and

Yehudah (Judas), show them to be common for the period.

 

 

 

ITEMS MORE SPECIFIC TO THE NEW TESTAMENT: THE EMPERORS AND A KING.

 

A fine Greek marble bust of Augustus Caesar, the Emperor at the time of Jesus’s Birth and Boyhood, gives some idea of his appearance.   British Museum, Sculpture, 1877

Tiberius Caesar is portrayed in Parian marble.   Discovered at Capri   British Museum, Sculpture, 1881

Claudius Caesar, twice mentioned in Acts, is also represented in marble.   British Museum, Sculpture, 1951-3-30, 1

There are numerous depictions of Nero

Titus was Emperor from 69-79 AD, following his sacking of Jerusalem.   British Museum, Italian marble, Sculpture, 1841   A special coin was struck to commemorate the Roman victory: it shows a captive Jewish warrior and a weeping woman under a palm tree.  

 

Herod the Great is famed for his building projects: two hundred or more sites in Israel, thirteen across the north east of the Mediterranean basin, as far as western Achaia - There are commemorative inscriptions to him in Athens.   Among the most impressive, are the palaces at Jericho, Masada, and Herodium, where, according to Josephus, he was buried with excessive pomp.

 

Of major importance was Herod’s renovation and splendid development, of the Second Temple, originally built by Zerubbabel - on the site of Solomon’s First Temple.   The central area, which contained the actual Temple and its precinct, is devoid of remains today, apart from a few cuts in the bedrock, but the outline of the colossal raised terrain has been well researched.   Some idea of the appearance of the Holy Place may be given by the tetradrachma coins minted by the Jewish rebels during the Second Revolt.   Today’s Temple Platform is not Herodian.   One of these beautifully dressed ashlar stones - with margins and bosses - 60 feet north of Wilson’s Arch, measures 42x14x11 feet and weighs 600 tons - as compared with the largest at Stonehenge, which weighs 40 tons; this gives some idea of the scale of the Herodian building and in particular the huge retaining wall.   At the Western (or Wailing) Wall, today: the Male Area contains two arches which lead into a whole system of rooms and corridors, including the excavated tunnel - twenty feet above the Herodian street at the foot of the Herodian wall, and Wilson’s Arch - which crossed the Tyropoeon Valley; the Women’s Area has the remains of Barclay’s Gate.   All four gates on the western side have been located; two entered by, or near, bridges over the main street, which runs along this side of the Temple (the larger,  Wilson’s Aqueduct Arch - crossed the Tyropoeon Valley as well).

On the South Wall, the pavement and steps leading to the Double Gate are still visible.   In the first century, the massive Royal Porch topped the length of this Southern Wall.    The eastern end of the Porch was probably the “pinnacle” of Jesus’s temptation.   Some of the gold painted decoration has been found.   About the time of Jesus, the headquarters of the Sanhedrin moved into the Porch.

 

Solomon’s Colonnade was on the eastern side.   It was here that scribes held their schools and debates, and moneychangers and stallholders sold animals for sacrifice.   The early Church met here.

 

The blocked-in Golden Gate - in the Eastern Wall, is of Byzantine or Muslim design.   A line drawn from these gates across the Temple site, passes a hundred metres north of the Dome of the Rock: in fact through the small Dome of the Tablets.   Here the traces of foundation cuts in the bedrock were found; the measurements suggest the cubits of the times of Solomon and Zerubbabel - 42.8 and 43.7 centimetres respectively.   These may locate the site of the Second Temple, which would have stood here within its various courts.   On the other hand, Leen Ritmeyer makes a good case around the es-Sakhra - the bedrock found within the Dome of the Rock.   A flight of steps in the north west corner of the Temple Area suggest an orientation for Solomon’s Temple of 3.5 degrees east of north.   Cuts in the es-Sakhra rock agree with this axis, and led him to identify the possible foundation outline of the Holy of Holies.   Even more significant is a shallow rectangle, in the centre of this plan, which could have been the housing of the Ark of the Covenant.

 

From the inner court: warning notices to the Gentiles have been found.   The main eastern entrance to this court had bronze gates from Korinthos.

 

The only extant building of Herod the Great is that which protects the Patriarchal burial site in Hebron.   Philo noted that his fine Palace in Jerusalem became the residence of Pilate: its raised pavement and podium would be the Bema on which the Procurator sentenced Jesus.

Inscriptional evidence, at Herod’s Masada, suggests: “In the first century C.E. many Jews were trilingual, speaking Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, although Aramaic was the dominant tongue.   Most of the Latin inscriptions are attributable to the Roman garrison.…” (Joseph Naveh)   Masada also provides examples of the brilliant painted decorations of Herod’s palaces.

 

MAIN ITEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER: THE GOSPELS.

 

The significance of the “Star of Bethlehem” has been clearly explained by C. J.  Humphreys (one time Professor of Material Sciences at Cambridge University, cf “Bible Scene Digest”, Issue 1).   The Magi, who came paying homage to Jesus at his birth, are known as a priestly group of astronomer-astrologers living in Persia (Iran), other Near Eastern countries, and particularly in the city of Babylon.   The Messianic beliefs of the Jewish community there may have been influential.   Ancient literature tells of similar visits paid by Magi to the ruling class - including one to the Emperor Nero in AD 66.

These men would be impressed by their observations in the final decade BC, as there were three notable celestial events:

1.  The triple conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, against Pisces, in 7 BC,

2.  The massing of three planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in 6 BC also against the constellation of Pisces,

3.  A well observed comet against Capricornus in 5 BC.

To astrologers the significance would be spectacular:

Pisces = Israel,

Saturn = the divine Father,

Jupiter = the divine son,

Mars = the celestial warrior, and

Capricornus = the home of the divine Father.

 

The comet would set them on their way; Chinese astronomical records coincide perfectly with the text of Matthew’s Gospel (2:1-12).   There would be a seventy-day period of the comet’s visibility, during its way out from perihelion - the point in orbit closest to the sun.   A comet in the East would indicate a rapidly approaching event.   Matthew’s words about its coming to “stand over” Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, is a technical term of contemporary astronomers for the tail and general appearance of a comet.   The two years latched on to by King Herod the Great would be from the date of the first conjunction.   

A revised date of the Lord’s birth would be the spring in 5 BC; according to our chronology, Herod died a year later - in 4 BC.   Shepherds and sheep living out, also suggests a warm time of the year (Luke 2:8).   The Magi are not stated to be kings, and the number three merely refers to their gifts, not the number in the party.   Joseph no longer resided in a cattle shed, but in a house (Matthew 2:11).   There is no statement to the effect that Mary rode on a donkey.

 

 

Tertullian recorded a census of Sentius Saturninus, Governor of Syria, taking some time to complete (9-6 BC).   The Roman censuses followed a fourteen-year cycle.   The wording in Luke is evocative of two extant census documents of the time: British Museum papyrus 904 and Oxyrhynchus papyrus 255.   Micrographic letters on a coin, place a Quirinius as proconsul of Syria and Cilicia, from 11 BC until after the death of Herod.   Some eminent names have suggested a possible variant translation: “This census took place ‘before’ the one when Quirinius was governor of Syria.”   Lysanias, Tetrarch in Abila, near Damascus, is recorded in an inscription found during excavations there.

Jesus is called “the son of the carpenter” (Matthew 13v55).   The Greek word for carpenter - “tektone”, includes craftsman, artisan, producer, or workman.   Some suggest that Jesus and Joseph may have worked together in the building boom at Sepphoris in Galilee, only three miles from Nazareth.

Shorelines, even of lakes, are by no means stable, and so the important township of Bethsaida has been identified as et-Tell (the Ruin).   The mound lies north of Lake Galilee and east of the Jordan River, more than a mile from the present shore.   Here are the remains of the biblical village and Roman city, with settlements dating from the Early Bronze Age and Iron Age - a well-fortified city, massive temple and palace.   Muddy soil southwest of the tell, vestiges of a dock, and fishing equipment - including lead weights and long crooked mending needle in a Hellenistic-early Roman period house, give added support. (Mark 6:45, 8:22;  Luke 9:10, 10:13;   John 1:44, 12:21 - Philip, Andrew and Peter came from this trans-Jordanian town)

 

Capernaum is identified as Tell Hum.   Under the later limestone synagogue walls are the black basalt remains of the building of Jesus’s time.   Luke observed that a Roman Centurion built it for the Jews by (7:1-5).   A basalt cobblestone floor covered the entire area of the large nave and two narrow aisles, which were on the east and west sides.   Total dimensions were 20 x 26 yards, and the walls were 4 feet thick.   Some pottery under the floor established the date.

 

Famous for the swine plunging into the Lake, Gergesa has precipitated textual, but not archaeological difficulties: the site of Tell el-Kursi - nine miles southeast across the lake from Capernaum - has excellent accreditation in terms of historical remains and topography.

 

In 1986, a workboat dating from the first centuries was found in the mud of the lake.    It measures, in metres, 9 x 2.5 x 1.5 high, could have carried up to fifteen average-sized men of the day, and was designed with a mast and four oars.   At Magdala, there is a first century mosaic depiction of a similar boat.

Samaria is recognised as the modern Nablus, where, in the eastern quarter, there is the firmly attested Jacob’s Well.   ‘Askar, identified as Sychar, is half a mile from the well and easily visible on the southern slopes of Mount Ebal - conveying clearly the scene set in John 4.

 

In Jerusalem, two large pools (5,000 square yards of water surface) have been excavated 100 yards west of St Stephen’s Gate, near to the ancient Sheep Gate.   Here also are the remains of the colonnade mentioned in John’s Gospel: the bases, capitals, and drums of columns.   The Hebrew name, found in the Copper Scroll from Qumran (AD 28-68), is Beth Eshdathayin, which could mean, House of the Twin Pools.   An Herodian road may have crossed the dyke that separated the pools.

 

The Pool of Siloam (representing the Hebrew, Shiloah) is still fed by the Gihon Spring via the 1,748-foot tunnel constructed in the reign of King Hezekiah (Cf earlier note).   Jesus healed a blind man at this Pool by sending him to wash mud from his eyes here (John 9).  There is an interesting discussion apropos a second contender for the Pool: Birket el-Hamra.  Tourists in 2010 were shown this site, 300 metres away, but excavation had been limited.  The Internet title: “www.BiblePlaces.com” (viewed June, 2013), has a wide range of information on this, and many other archaeological investigations

 

 

Tradition attests to the Tomb of Lazarus, as does the “Onomastikon” written by Eusebius in AD 330, and translated with comments by Jerome in AD 390.   The entrance on the north has been made to replace the original east facing one, which was closed by the building of a mosque.   As with many New Testament sites, excavation reveals church remains, beginning with the Byzantine period.

 

Again, early Christian tradition indicates the Holy Zion Church as the site of John Mark’s home: which saw the Last Supper, resurrection appearances, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the locality of Peter’s first sermon, early prayer meetings, and Peter’s return from prison in Acts 12 – however, there is no textual proof that one house is featured in all events.   A Jewish Christian synagogue-church, from the period after the Jewish Revolt and built by Believers returning from Petra may be the basis for later buildings.   Herodian stones from the Temple area appear to have been used, and there is a niche, which is orientated towards the Holy Sepulchre rather than the Temple.

 

Joan E. Taylor (BAR) has made a good case for the cave at Gethsemane being the site of the olive press, as well as the place used by Jesus and His apostles for shelter, on that eventful night – with the possibility of heavy dew.  

 

A bronze coin of Pontius Pilate, who held the Procurator’s office at the time of the Crucifixion, has an emblem of three ears of corn - one upright and two drooping.   He is known from non-biblical literature as the Prefect from AD 26-36.   An inscription originating from the Tiberium in Caesarea Maritima mentions his name.

 

Games carved in a pavement of the Roman Period, inside the Antonia Fortress, may explain why Jesus was dressed as a king by the soldiers: so that he could be a life-sized piece to be moved round a “Game of the King”.

 

Although the Romans crucified many thousands of lower census classes, only one example appears to have been found.   The skeleton is of a Jewish male of the mid-first century, who was about twenty-five years of age, had a cleft right palate, and was average height for the time and place (5 feet 6 inches).   The arms may have been tied, as well as having the lower forearm nailed; the feet had received a single nail through both heels, but the knees could have been apart, or bent to one side.   The cause of death varied with each case, and was multifactorial; but usually hypovolemic shock - from low blood volume - and exhaustion asphyxia were the most prominent.

 

Jewish archaeologists have investigated tombs in Jerusalem belonging to the period from 100 BC to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.   Several are of the type implied in the Resurrection narratives of the Gospels: having a large cartwheel stone as a door.   Many common names on ossuaries (containers for bones) are those familiar to the readers of the Gospels and Acts; two which are not common, could therefore be the actual “Apphia” and “Barsabas” of the Christian documents.   One epitaph mentions a “didaskalos” - a rabbi or teacher: proving that the term used of Jesus is not anachronistic.

 

Although the Garden Tomb (Gordon’s Tomb) is evocative of the narrative, its typology belongs to Iron Age II (8^th or 7^th century BC).   There are over 700 tombs of Jesus’s time within three miles of the city boundary.   Surprisingly, the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has good credentials.   Although inside the modern city wall, it was earlier outside - until shortly after the Lord’s time.   From the third to the first century BC the place was a quarry; it was then in filled for use as a garden, and four early Roman Period tombs were made there.  Literary evidence from Eusebius, the Emperor Constantine - writing to the Bishop of Jerusalem, and Jerome, is supportive of this second location.

 

The Akeldama of the Bible does not fit the site of that name today, which is half a mile south of Old Jerusalem, near the confluence of the Hinnon and Kidron Valleys.   “Akeldama” contains a unique collection of 80 fine and well-preserved tombs mainly belonging to higher census classes of the Herodian period (37 BC-AD 70), and possibly including that of the High Priest Annas, who held office during the years AD 6-15 - this would agree with Josephus’s description of the Roman siege of the city in AD 70.   An ossuary bears the name Ariston of Apamea, who is also mentioned in the Mishnah.  A more likely location is further out of the city: near the southern approach road and a significantly large clay deposit – perhaps used by potters.

A white marble stone carries an ordinance requiring the death penalty for anyone breaking the seal of a tomb, or stealing the cadaver.   If installed before the Crucifixion, there are implications regarding the suggestion that the disciples had stolen the body; if dated after, say during the reign of Claudius, it could spring from the Jewish-Christian confrontations in Rome.   Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

 

 

MAIN EVENTS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER: POST RESURRECTION

 

Peter’s Sermon on the Day of Pentecost is recorded in Acts chapter 2.  Three thousand men were converted, plus women and children, and they were instructed to “repent and be baptised”.  This was not a total logistical problem.  On the south side of the Temple, a large flight of steps joined to a lower plaza area, and along to the west are still the remains of a ritual bath complex with “pools, and plastered cisterns, (which) was large enough to accommodate the individual purification needs of large crowds of pilgrims who gathered on the plaza before going to worship in the temple.” (McRay)  In addition such baths were abundant in homes and public buildings throughout Israel.  Sometimes spelled Mikveh, Miqweh, Miqwaot (plural).

 

The dating of events in Acts, and their correlation with the Letters, is not an easy task.   When Paul came to Corinth for the first time, as part of his second missionary journey, he lodged and worked with two business people: Priscilla and Aquila.   The Emperor Claudius had recently expelled them from Rome, with other Jewish families.   Suetonius and others mention the occasion, which can be fixed in AD 49.

 

In Acts 18:12-17 we are informed that during the apostle’s eighteen months’ stay in the city he was brought before the Proconsul.   An inscription, probably once incorporated in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, mentions Lucius Junius Gallio, Proconsul of Achaia, and friend of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; it is dated AD 52, giving his accession as early summer AD 51, and Paul’s arrival perhaps as in the winter of 50.   Gallio was there for only those two years, thus giving a clear date for Paul's stay in Corinth.  Gallio was the brother of Seneca, who was an eminent Philosopher, and tutor of Nero.

Micrographics on a coin suggest an accession date for Festus, Procurator of Judea, in about April AD 56; this would give Paul’s two years as a prisoner in Rome as starting from February AD 57.   It is placed three years or more later, in some chronologies.

 

 

The pattern of city blocks forming the Hellenistic grid of streets at Damascus can still be seen.   The Street Called Straight, where Ananias visited Paul, would be the 50-foot wide colonnaded cardo maximus (main street), which still bisects the city on an east-west axis (Acts 9).

Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, was an eminent city of learning at the time, with a variety of schools of Rhetoric, pride in its notable philosophers, and world fame as a centre of Stoic teaching.   In 41 BC, Cleopatra had sailed to the city in her gilded barge to meet Mark Anthony.   Paul’s tutor, Gamaliel, is mentioned in the “Sanhedrin” section of The Talmud.

 

Caesarea Maritima, the scene of numerous events in Acts, has been well investigated.

Luke’s use of the term “God-fearers” received indirect support in 1976, with the discovery of an inscription at Aphrodisias, in southwestern Turkey.

 

The site of Derbe is in some dispute: two inscriptions, one on a particularly large stone, have been found, without solving the problem.

 

A road built by Gnaios Egnatios, the Roman Proconsul of Macedonia, was named the Via Egnatia after him - all prior to 120 BC.   It covered 535 Roman miles (493 English miles): stretching from Apollonia on the west coast of Macedonia, to a point on the east coast, north of Samothrace: with Thessalonica as the mid-point; the apostles would know it well and make full use of it.   This road would take Paul and Silas at least part of the distance from Neapolis to Philippi, where it formed the main street: with the Neapolis Gate at the eastern end and the Krenides Gate at the western.   The Tribunal (Bema) on the north side of the Forum would be familiar to Paul, following his appearance before the city magistrates (Acts 16).   Three locations for the conversion of Lydia come under consideration, with the balance being in favour of the site just outside the eastern gate.

 

Significantly, Paul passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, just as earlier he had only lodged overnight in Samothrace; even though important cities, they appear to have had little in the way of synagogue congregations, in contrast with Thessalonica (Acts 17v1).

 

Thessalonica was the capital of the second district of Macedonia.   It had been founded by one of Alexander’s four generals, who named it after his wife - a half sister of Alexander.   Both Jews and Christians here would find a special significance in Daniel’s vision of the leopard with four heads, which represented these four generals.   The Gospel of Christ attracted women of the upper census classes; and only three weeks of preaching, shortly after the Day of Atonement AD 49, produced an  influential and encouraging congregation, which was to send its evangelists throughout Macedonia and Achaia.   Inscriptive evidence has justified Luke’s use of the term “politarchs” for the city’s officials: well over thirty examples, dating back to King Perseus (179 BC).   British Museum, Inscription 171, etc

 

Paul had travelled westwards along the Via Egnatia before turning off for Beroea, with its synagogue.   A gymnasiarch rules inscription gives useful word definitions: Males: 15 years and under - are paides, 15-17 years - are called epheboi, 17-22 years - are termed neaniskoi.

 

Since classical times, Athens has been served by the harbour of Piraeus.   The Athens of New Testament time is well portrayed by its ancient sites and literary evidence.   Over 7,500 inscriptions have come to light from the Agora alone, and stratigraphical excavations have been possible for many buildings.   Altar inscriptions in the genitive and dative cases imply the worship of the Emperor Augustus.   Altars to unknown gods were common at the time, as Pausanias, and others also, noted.

 

 

A PERSONAL DIARY

 

 

The second missionary journey of Paul brought him to Thessalonica, where the power of the Gospel was seen in the formation of the Church within approximately three weeks.   Just look at the two letters he wrote to them, and see the maturity he expected - still only months after its inception!   After rioting started by the Jews, Paul left the city by night.   He travelled southwards: two hundred and fifty miles to Athens.   The pilot of our aircraft drew our attention to the Thessalonian coastal city lights below and to our right, as we lost height to land at one of the two Athenian airports.

 

We visited the eastern Roman Forum where Paul preached: in the shadow of the famous Acropolis, and near to the decorative Tower of the Winds - the Horologion or time piece for the Market.

 

One warm evening, we walked to Mars Hill - the Areopagus - simply a wooded rocky outcrop across the small valley from the Acropolis and its Parthenon.   The Areopagus Council, before which Paul was called to appear, was the Athenian “House of Lords”, a senate of senior politicians, which even had power over the judiciary.   How appropriately, he warned that God has set a time when He will judge the whole World with justice, by the man He has appointed, and whose authority is demonstrated by the Resurrection.   The meeting would obviously have taken place in the official Bouleterion, somewhere in this part of Athens.   No visitor should miss the view of the city from the Lycabettus Hill.

 

Paul may well have been disappointed by his visit to Athens; but since that time the Church has flourished in the city.  Professor Bruce points out that: “The text of his address to the Areopagus is engraved on a bronze tablet at the foot of the ascent to the hill.  A street to the west of the hill is called ‘Street of the Apostle Paul’, and running off it towards the east, on the south side of the Acropolis, is the ‘Street of Dionysius the Areopagite’ (Paul’s principle Athenian convert).  Paul would be surprised, but no doubt gratified, could he know that his visit and preaching have been so well remembered”

 

As we hoped to spend most of our holiday in Korinthos, on the Friday morning, we booked our places on a bus: for the fifty-mile journey westwards.   The fumes and the heat were overwhelming as we travelled out of Athens, passing by the Port of Piraeus.   The road used by Paul could be seen lower down the seaward slope - apart from its detour inland to Megara.   The Saronic Gulf was on our left, until we crossed the one hundred year old canal, cut through the rock of the Isthmus.   Greece is rather like the palm of a left hand glove which has been squeezed at the knuckles - the land narrows to a mere three and a half miles, before broadening out into the huge land mass of The Peloponnes - southern Greece.

 

The bus stopped near a garden square in the kitsch modern city of Korinthos.   From here we took a taxi.   Still travelling westwards: but now with the Gulf of Korinthos on our right, until we reached our lodging: an excellent chalet, in a compound run by an Austrian lady, who had married Mr Dimogerontas, a Greek smallholder, whilst living in Australia.   We were between Modern and Ancient Korinthos.   An afternoon walk took us across the railway track and the road, to follow the rural coast, near to the remains of Lechaeum - once the major of the two ports and opening into the western facing Gulf, and within the outer bounds of the ancient city wall.   Today, there are just a few remaining stones of the old quays, and the curious duck-shaped outline of the lagoon, which formed this pivotal trading centre.   Here also are the spectacular low ruins of a 179 metres-long church sanctuary of a later century.

 

Two miles inland: against the backdrop of the Akrokorinthos mountain, we could see the seven ochre columns of the Archaic Temple marking the site of the ancient city.

Northern workshops, where Paul may have worked

The following day, a short ride, on a bus crowded with backpacking students, took us to Akien (Ancient) Korinthos.   In 1896 the American School of Classical Studies purchased most of the village.   We took cool drinks under an awning - two thousand years ago we might have seen Paul’s trademark in the selvedge.   Greece is a land of awnings: to shade windows, rest and work areas, to extend houses and tavernas, to shield crops, and to protect drying grapes from the sun above and the dust beneath.   Currants took their name their name from Korinthos, in mediaeval times.   When Paul was there, the Panhellenic Isthmian Games were being held every two years: under the auspices and strict ruling of the city of Korinthos.   Suddenly, there would be a huge temporary population under canvas.   Certain temples would also see times of popularity, and the need for tented accommodation - but of a questionable kind.   The term for Paul’s occupation could cover work in leather; this might have included pieces of military armour, and sporting equipment - used at the Games, and in the smaller city Gymnasium: protective hand-straps and punch bags for boxing, and throwing thongs for javelins.   Paul and the Corinthian Church found it easy to discuss doctrine in sporting terminology.

 

Outside the Museum, were the ruins of the Odeion, and the quarry-like Theatre.   From above the ruined seating of the Theatre, one could look northwards towards the blue waters of the gulf; in the middle distance, there was the significantly level ground of the Gymnasium site, and the remnants of the Asklepieion - the religious medical centre.  

 

We walked down the side of the Theatre to see the inscription that mentions Erastus, the city’s clerk of works and, almost certainly, Paul’s friend referred to at the end of his letter to the Roman Christians (Romans 16v22; also mentioned in Acts 19v22 and 2 Timothy 4v20).

The Erastus inscription 

 

The Museum contains much to illustrate First Century life.   There is a rich array of oil lamps, bronze mirrors (for which Korinthos was famous, and which twice gave Paul illustrations in his extant letters to the Church there), various statues and models: one of children dancing to a flute accompaniment, and another of a youth wearing a celery crown from the Games.   One room contained the models of separate human parts: some of the votive offerings from the Asklepieion; these may have been in Paul’s mind when he wanted people to see the Church as being like a healthy human body - not like the separated limbs and organs hanging in the Hospital Temple, but as the healthy whole bodies next-door in the Gymnasium.   Rural and military life also provided local illustrations for the apostle. 

 

We left the Museum to walk through the ruins of the city centre - excavated since its purchase.   The car park behind the shopping street is the huge tip of rubble that had protected the ruins for almost two millennia.   Today, we can see the remains of the once sophisticated city, a Paris of its day: temples, public buildings, markets, shops and workshops (perhaps including where the apostle had worked for Priscilla and Aquila), the Agora (where he joined the public orators),

 

 

and the once-imposing marble-faced Bema (where he stood before Gallio, Proconsul of Achaia, to receive the official judgement on Christian preaching throughout Achaia, for the time being, in opposition to Jewish persecution).   In the Second Epistle, the Bema of Christ was no doubt compared with this.

 

The remains of the Bema

 

 

Eight miles away is Kenchreae, Korinthos’s east facing harbour.   Seismic disturbance has caused the Mediterranean coast here, to settle about a metre since ancient times.  This beautiful anchorage is most evocative of the character of Phoebe, a godly deaconess in its Church, and presumably an international businesswoman, who was to deliver Paul’s letter to Rome.

My watercolour - looking inland

Some ruins of the harbour

 

 Paul wrote the Thessalonian Letters from Korinthos, First Corinthians came from Ephesus, Second Corinthians from Macedonia, Romans from Korinthos, Ephesians from Rome.

 

The southern part of Greece - the Pelopponese - resemble a glove gripped at the wrist.  This was a particularly hazardous sea journey round the coast, and so there was a desire to cut through the narrow three and a half mile isthmus (this geographical feature is named, worldwide,  after the nearby township of Isthmia).  In Paul's time, as Professor Bruce notes, "a railroad of wooden logs ... was laid from west to east ... so that ships might be dragged on it from one bay to another.  This railroad was called the 'diolkos'." 

In Paul’s time it was probably nearing the end of its six hundred years of usefulness, for transporting merchant ships and warships over the isthmus.  Its course followed the easier contours, and did not trace a straight line.

 

 Remains of the Diolkos

 

 

 

 

Strabo, Plutarch and Pausanias, provide literary data about the ancient city, which is corroborated by extensive archaeological research.   Some claim it to be the most excavated site in the World.   Jewish inscriptions from the period and locality, are mainly of a funerary nature.   There is evidence of there being a synagogue site.   One of the three bronze foundries examined, has revealed an oven for heating, a workbench, and the channels, which brought water from the Spring of Peirene.   The fine coloured bronze of Korinthos contained 14% tin; and besides the exported Temple gateway for Jerusalem, there were the splendid mirrors.   The first centuries were a time of extensive building - again a source of illustrations.   (End of Diary)

 

 

Ephesus: the ruins of the theatre are still there; it could hold 24,000 people - a tenth of the population.   Acts chapter 19 describes Paul’s eventful stay in this business centre of Asia Minor - it flourished during the first century.   The streets and buildings have been extensively excavated.   The Prytaneion (Town Hall) contained the office of the State Clerk - who quelled the riotous event in the theatre that stood to its north.   Among Paul’s wealthy and caring friends were some of the Asiarchs - 106, both men and women, have been identified in the city’s 3,500 extant inscriptions.  

The Temple of Artemis (Diana) had been rebuilt several times over the centuries; its style then - in AD 54, but commenced six hundred years earlier - was Ionic.   It was the first monumental edifice to be built in marble, and the largest single piece of architecture in the Greek world.   Little is left of it today, but there is ample evidence of the worship of the goddess - in the form of statues and coins.   “Temple-warden”, the definition of the city used by the State Clerk in Acts, is confirmed in inscriptions; there is even mention of a man named Demetrius, who held such an office.   References to silversmiths also abound, and their shops have been located in the Agora.   A Roman official is recorded in a theatre inscription, as having promised a silver image of Artemis for display at civic meetings there.   Another inscription identifies the workplace of a coppersmith (2 Timothy 4:14, 15).   An area within the city stadium was allocated for animal baiting and gladiatorial killing (cf a metaphorical reference in 1 Corinthians 15:32, written from Ephesus).  

Remains of a first century lecture hall, or auditorium, have been recognised (cf Acts 19:9).

 

Watercolour of the Agora of Athens, where Paul preached

 

 

A Latin inscription in Beirut Museum mentions “Queen Bernice, daughter of King Agrippa (The First), and King Agrippa (The Second) her brother”: as restoring building work carried out in Caesarea, by Herod I.   The buildings, in which Paul’s trial and imprisonment most likely took place, have been excavated - between the amphitheatre and the hippodrome.   The 161,000 square foot complex contained the centre of Roman government in Judea, from the first to the middle of the third century.   A fine mosaic floor was part of the room associated with security operations.

 

“No stranger may enter within this balustrade round the Jerusalem Temple enclosure.   Whoever is caught is alone responsible for his death which will follow.”   Two large examples of this inscription have come to light, and illustrate Paul’s trouble in Acts 21:28.   They would be a familiar sight to the people of the Gospels.   This prohibition no longer threatens Gentiles, coming in the Spirit, to the God of the Jews (Ephesians 2:13-19).

 

Significantly, just as Sir William Ramsay established the accuracy of Luke’s technical terms for journeys on land, James Smith has done the same for his descriptions of the voyages.   Luke’s account of the voyage to Rome and the shipwreck on Malta, rest well within the context of the first century world, both scientifically and in terms of contemporary literature.   Luke and Aristarchus, who travelled with Paul to care for him, would appear as his servants, and ensure him respect.   The centurion on the voyage, like all the others of this rank in the New Testament, is seen as levelheaded and responsible; and as the ship would be on state grain service, he would be the commanding officer.   A late date is suggested for the Day of Atonement (The Fast); hence October AD 59 is the favourite.   Fair Havens is protected by small islands, but is otherwise open to half the compass.   Phoenix is identified as the modern Phineka - after some argument among commentators, it is settled by Professor F.F.Bruce.   The rich detail of the narrative is full of nautical terminology - of the kind expected of a seasoned traveller who is not a qualified sailor.   Sea of Adria, was the contemporary name for the Central Mediterranean.   Time for the journey, characteristics of seasonal winds, the soundings off Malta and coastal geography: all satisfy the scrutiny of Smith - whose scholarship, familiarity with the area, experience as a yachtsman, friendship with sailing merchant ship captains in the region (in the 19^th century), qualify him well.   James Smith was there when sails were still furled in the Grand Harbour of Valetta.   The islands of the shipwreck can still be seen, a church building on the front - in the township of St Paul’s Bay - suggests the place of the bonfire built by Paul, and the Cathedral in the walled city of Mdina commemorates the house of Publius.   The Maltese Church celebrates the Shipwreck, in February of each year.

 

[A Church on the possible site of Paul's escape at the Bonfire]

 

[I had briefed myself from James Smith’s book, and on a flight out to Malta, I expounded the details to the fellow in the next seat.   Eventually I asked him about his job: he was a Junior Officer on the Irish Sea ferries!   He asked: “You obviously think a lot about the Bible; how do you see it?”   “It’s like the instruments and compass in the cockpit of this aircraft!”]

 

Paul journeyed along the Appian Way: one of the great Roman roads of southern Italy - designed in 312 BC, during the censorship of Appius Claudius.   Horace wrote of Appii Forum in “Satire”.   There are Roman inscriptions of at least seven synagogues in the city: Campenses, Augustenses, Agrippenses, Suburenses, Volumnenses, Hebrews, and Olive Tree.   The seven hills hold a great significance for readers of The Book of Revelation.   In a late tradition, Peter is linked with the Marmerite Prison, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill; it is also possible that Paul’s final imprisonment (2 Timothy 4) was there.   Two houses are associated with men referred to in the letters of Paul from Rome: Clement ( Philippians 4v3), and Prudens (2 Timothy 4:21).   The Church of Saint Paul Outside the Walls may cover the site of an earlier Constantinian church, which in turn replaced an oratory marking the place where Lucina, a Roman matron, laid Paul’s body to rest in her vineyard.

 

 

Josephus tells us that the Emperor Vespasian’s Temple of Peace (built in AD 75) housed his international art collection: which included, above all, the prized vessels of gold from the Jerusalem Temple.   However: “their Law and the purple hangings from the sanctuary he ordered to be deposited and kept in the palace”.  

In AD 81, the Arch of Titus was built as the south gateway to the Roman Forum; this contains the depiction of prisoners carrying the Jerusalem Temple Menorah, Table of Showbread, sacred trumpets, a chalice, and tablets fastened to poles - all of which appear to be passing through this same arch.

 

 

The Romans made Patmos the place of banishment for prisoners of conscience.   Eusebius identifies the reign of Emperor Domitian, as the time of John’s exile there.   The letters to The Seven Churches, in The Book of Revelation, are arranged in an order, which probably reflects the ancient postal route.   Smyrna is best known through literary material: the writings of Strabo.   Pergamum was noted for its statuary - until Emperor Nero transported much of it to his own city.   It was here that the first provincial temple was dedicated to a Roman Emperor: Augustus, according to Tacitus, and where the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian were later worshipped.   The second century BC had seen the founding of the great library - of perhaps 200,000 volumes.   The word “parchment”, for animal skin used as a writing surface, comes from the name of this city.   The great Altar to Zeus (perhaps Satan’s throne, Revelation 2v13) has been reconstructed in the Berlin Museum, and there is significance that Albert Speer, Hitler’s chief Architect, based the design for the great stadium for Hitler on its design; both ruins are still in situ.   The ancient site today reflects the magnificence of the ancient city; which was also one of the great medical centres of the time, with its influential Asklepieion (Hospital).

 

Sardis, in the Lydia region, had a first century population estimated at twenty-two thousand; it was famous for its gold, fishing nets and textiles.   An earthquake, in AD 17, so devastated the city that even the topography was changed.   Today, it is a notable archaeological site.

The wording of the letter to the Church in Laodicea, may recall the putrid warm springs there, linked with the spectacular white mineral deposits.

 

 

The discoveries of ancient New Testament manuscripts have been spiced with their own special blend of adventure, and international diplomacy.   In the nineteenth century, Oxyrhynchus, with its richly endowed “rubbish mountains”, produced the 3,875 documents published as “The Oxyrhynchus Papyri”.   The Rylands Fragment is thought to be the oldest extant piece of New Testament manuscript; it is dated c AD 100 or 125, and was found by B. P. Grenfell, at either Fayum or Oxyrhynchus, in 1920.  

Codex Sinaiticus, the Chester Beatty Papyri, and the Bodmer Papyri, are other important manuscript finds.   The book form, as opposed to the scroll, was probably brought about by the needs of the Christian congregations.

 

 

Professor F.F.Bruce observed: [Even] “ ... if the author [Luke] wrote a decade or two later than the last events which he records, he was acquainted with the situation that he describes.  

“Having examined Luke’s presentation of such matters as Roman citizenship, the appeal to Caesar, judicial procedure and tenure of magistrates, A. N. Sherwin White insists that his work is true to its dramatic date (a technical term for the time of the events described): it does not reflect the conditions which obtained as little as a generation later.   ‘For Acts the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming ... any attempt to reject its basic historicity even in matters of detail must now appear absurd.’”

 

In the New Testament first names are sometimes qualified with a second appellation, because the first was remarkably common at the time.  Academic research has shown that the selective practice in the Bible is confirmed by secular and non-biblical documents.

 

 

 

ENDNOTES.

 

^1. “Bible Scene Digest”, various articles, occasional publication, 1992 ff

^2. “Biblical Archaeology Review”, various writers, during 1994 ff

^3.  Bruce, F. F., “Chronological Questions in the Acts of the Apostles”, p. 273, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Volume 68

^4. Bruce, F. F.,  “In the Steps of the Apostle Paul”, Illustrated, Kregel, Grand Rapids, 1995, 1999 etc.,

^5.  Bruce, F. F., “Commentary on the Book of Acts”, Marshall Morgan and Scott, London, 1954/1970

6. Christie, Agatha, “Death Comes as the End”, Collins/Fontana, 1945, 1981.  For those who find History and Egyptology difficult to access, this crime and mystery novel, set in 2,000 B. C. in the Nile Valley, could help.  I found that making a list of the characters and brief characteristics, helped.  Also, “Murder in Mesopotamia”: which depicts the halcyon days of archaeology in the 1930’s.

^7.  Douglas, J. D., Edit. “The Illustrated Bible Dictionary”, 3 vol, IVP etc., 1980

^8.  Fruchtenbaum, Arnold, “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament”, 3 cassettes, Anchor Recordings, UK

^9.  Hoffmeier, James K, “The Archaeology of the Bible, Lion Hudson plc, 2008

^10.  Keller, Werner, “The Bible as History in Pictures”, Hodder and Stoughton, 1964 

^11.  Kitchen, K.A., “Ancient Orient and Old Testament”, The Tyndale Press, 1966

^12.  Marston, Sir Charles, “The Bible Comes Alive”, The Covenant Publishing Company Ltd., 1944

^13.  McRay, John, “Archaeology and the New Testament”, Baker, 1991

^14. Millard, Alan, Discoveries from Bible Times, 1985-1997, Illustrated Edition, 1997, Lion Publishing

^15.  Navarra, Fernand, Edited with Dave Balsinger, “Noah’s Ark: I touched it”, Logos International, 1974

^{16. Papahatzis, Nicos. “Ancient Corinth”, Ekdotike Athenon S.A., 1989}  

^17.  Rehwinkel, Alfred M., “The Flood in the light of the Bible, Geology, and Archaeology”, Concordia Publishing House, 1951

18. Orr Ewing, Amy, “The reliability of the Bible”, Focus 2014, Holy Trinity Brompton, Media downloaded lecture from their Website

^19.  Smith, James, “The Voyage and shipwreck of St Paul ...”, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, London, 1856

^20.  Thomas, D. Winton, Edit. “Archaeology and Old Testament Study”, OUP, 1967

^21.  Viccary, Dr Mike, on-line book looking at "The Book of Genesis"

 

^22.  Wiseman, D. J., “Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology”, The Tyndale Press, 1968

 

 

^23.  Yadin, Yigael, “Bar-Kokhba”, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971

 

Holy Bible Uncovered, New International Version, Bible Society

 

Internet links to subjects and sources via Google and Browsers – in particular: Creation Ministries International >creation.com<

 

In such detailed notes, there will be some errors; but I hope these notes will help someone.  

 

Hardly the point that science has disproved the Bible; here are innumerable instances of scientific work actually supporting the accuracy of the Scriptures.

 

 

Best Wishes,

Douglas