Evidences Class

Old Testament Biblical Archaeology

The more you learn ---The more you will believe the Bible

What is the value of archaeology to the reader of the Bible? Archaeology’s major contribution is not apologetic. Certainly, some difficulties are clarified by the results of archaeological work. The great value of archaeology to the student of the Bible lies in its ability to place our biblical faith in its historical setting, and to demonstrate the cultural setting in which biblical events took place.

House of David Inscription

#1 House of David Inscription

Tel Dan near Mount Hermon

1000-800 B.C.

It’s not a good idea to argue that a lack of data is proof of anything in matters of great antiquity

And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain . Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. (2 Samuel 5:8 KJV)

A really confusing passage

#2 The Watershaft

And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, "You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off"--thinking, "David cannot come in here." Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. And David said on that day, "Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack 'the lame and the blind,' who are hated by David's soul." Therefore it is said, "The blind and the lame shall not come into the house." (2 Samuel 5:6-8 ESV)

#3 Hezekiah’s Tunnel

The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? (2 Kings 20:20 ESV)

The most important source of water in ancient Jerusalem was the spring of Gihon situated just east of the temple area in the Kidron Valley. Accordingly, it was exposed to an attacking enemy. To counteract this, Hezekiah had constructed a great conduit leading from the Gihon spring outside the city to a special reservoir inside the city called the Pool of Siloam. This conduit, 1777 feet long and hewn out of the solid rock, is one of the most amazing devices for water supply in all the biblical period. Workmen, employing hand picks, operating in zigzag fashion from opposite sides and finally meeting in the middle, excavated a conduit that averages six feet in height. The Pool of Siloam reservoir measures about thirty by twenty feet.

“… when the tunnel was driven through. And this was the way in which it was cut through: While … were still … axes, each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, there was heard the voice of a man calling to his fellow, for there was an overlap in the rock on the right and on the left. And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed the rock, each man toward his fellow, ax against ax; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoir for twelve hundred cubits, and the height of the rock above the heads of the quarrymen was one hundred cubits.”

Siloam Inscription

Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'" (Isaiah 36:18-20 ESV)

“As to Hezekiah the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke. I laid siege to forty-six of his strong cities, walled forts and to countless small villages in the vicinity and conquered them by means of well-stamped earth-ramps and battering rams brought thus near to the walls.…Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.”

#4 Sennacherib’s Prism

And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. (Isaiah 37:36-38 ESV)

# 5 Baruch Bulla

Jer 36:4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD that he had spoken to him.Jer 36:8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the LORD in the LORD's house.

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel--he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem." (Ezra 1:1-4 ESV, 458 B.C.)

Details Cyrus’ decision to reverse the policy of the Babylonians and of the Assyrians toward the Jews, allowing all the captive peoples to return to their ancestral homes. He also returned the images of the gods to their former sanctuaries and helped the various groups to rebuild the temples of their gods. Thus it is clear that Ezra’s decree permitting the Jews to return to Palestine (Ezra 1) was part of Cyrus’s general public policy.

#6 The Cyrus Cylinder

#7 The Dead Sea Scrolls

Cave 1

Cave 4

Cave 3 – Copper Scroll

The Isaiah Scroll

who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid.'" (Isaiah 44:28 ESV)

Cyrus Cylinder

Even the unity of Isa. 40 through 66, which were supposed to be the work of the “Second” or “Deutero-Isaiah,” is now given up. What prior to 1890 was supposed to be the unique product of some celebrated but anonymous seer who lived in Babylonia about 550 bc is today commonly divided and subdivided and in large part distributed among various writers from Cyrus to Simon (538-164 bc). At first it was thought sufficient to separate Isa 63 through 66 as a later addition to “Deutero-Isaiah's” prophecies; but more recently it has become the fashion to distinguish between Isa 40 through 55, which are claimed to have been written by “Deutero-Isaiah” in Babylonia about 549-538 bc, and Isa. 56 through 66, which are now alleged to have been composed by a “Trito-Isaiah” about 460-445 bc. (From old ISBE in 1929).

Importance

The early Aborigines of nearly every country of the world have preserved records of the universal flood. Anthropologist Dr. Richard Andree has collected forty-six flood legends from North and South America, twenty from Asia, five from Europe, seven from Africa, and ten from the South Sea Islands and Australia.

#7 All Those Crazy Flood Legends