Difference between revisions of "Extra-Biblical evidence of Biblical events"

Latest revision as of 19:59, March 17, 2024

The Bible is mistakenly regarded as a work of fiction by most modern-day historians and scholarly communities, in regards to both the divine nature it tells, as well as the actual veracity of the stories being told.

Contradictory to this, there are many extra-biblical sources that verify events happening in the Bible.

For a long time, many scholars claimed that the Old Testament (Torah) could not have been written before the 6th century due in part to a lack of liturgical possibility from the Canaanite population B.C., but archaeological discoveries in Khirbet Qeiyafa found proto-Hebrew writing dated to the 10th century, a good 400 years before the claimed human authorship of the Torah.^[1] Many sources, in fact, support the argument that the Old Testament is much older due to the historical context in which it seems to have been written in.

Genesis

• The Sumerian King List, discovered in 1922, provides Eridu (patron god, Enki) as the first city to be built in Mesopotamia. This lines up quite well with [Genesis 4:16]'s depiction of the first city as one built by Enoch or his father, and where Enoch begot Erad. In this case, Erad is the namesake of Eridu and Enki is a characterization of Enoch.^[2]
• That same list of Kings provides a list of rulers that are divided between before and after a great flood. This flood matches up with the account of the flood of Noah.^[3][Genesis 7:7] The oldest known copy of the list is dated to the late 21st century B.C.
• In addition to a Mesopotamian source, the Ancient Egyptian 'Ogdoad' shares a near-identical story to the Great Flood, sharing suspiciously similar aspects in any regard. An old Egyptian creation myth based off the Ogdoad states that humans were created by the god Nu (Noah) and 7 of his relatives. It is dated to the 2nd millenium, B.C.^[4]
• The city of Ur, referenced as the birthplace of Abraham [Genesis 11:28], was discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries by excavators and archaeologists in Southern Iraq. The mention of Ur is chronologically set nearly 4000 years before it was discovered.^[5]
• The genetic bottleneck that is the flood of Noah's Ark matches up surprisingly well with modern genetic research that shows that female lineages have more chromosomal diversity than male lines.^[6]
• The reference to the Battle of Siddim matches up with many patriarchal conditions of the era including king lists and political climate^[7][Genesis 14:10]
• The following includes such historical figures such as Amraphel, King of Elam, who (although used to be attributed to Hammurabi) is now attributed to Amar-Sin, an older historical figure from the 2nd Millenium B.C., who does posses archaeological evidence of existence.^[8][Genesis 14:1]
• In 2021, an excavation in the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam in modern-day Jordan shows what seems to be evidence of a bronze-age city being destroyed by a meteor, which aligns with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by God.^[9][Genesis 18:21]
• Until relatively recently in modern history (last 200 years), scholars failed to identify the modern-day Hittites through extra-biblical sources. In 1906, Hugo Winckler discovered Cuneiform inscriptions of Hittite origin.^[10] Hittites were mentioned thousands of years earlier through biblical sources. [Genesis 26:34]
• In 2021, Assyrian stone tablets from the city of Mari in modern-day Syria reference Nahor, the grandfather of Abraham, who is referenced in [Genesis 11:26].^[11]
• The Nuzi texts of the late 2nd millennium B.C. display remarkable similarity to customs and laws of the biblical patriarchs in mid-Genesis^[12][13] such as the cohabitation of handmaidens for the purpose of having children [Genesis 14:4], the use of oral will via deathbed Genesis 27:7, and the use of idols for inheritance [Genesis 31:19].
• The city of Harran, where Abraham moved to following his departure from Ur, is an established place in Turkey^[14] that is close in proximity to Suruç and Nahor, which are named after his great-grandfather and grandfather respectively.
• Archaeological sources state that the city of Shechem was founded around 1900 B.C.^[15] This is in line with when Abraham had built an altar to God there during the middle of his life. [Genesis 12:6]
• Abraham bought a cave from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels as a burial site for his family. [Genesis 23:9] Similar types of real estate transactions are displayed in the Ugaritic Texts, with 400 shekels having been a common denomination of money for such a purchase.^[16][17]The "shekel" was believed to originally be a weighted measurement of hacksilber, rather than a denominated currency. A later discovery of silver from around 1,600 BC (around the time of Abraham's death) confirmed the belief in early Israel having used hacksilber measurements.^[18]

Exodus

• Hyksos Scarabs in Shiqmona (now Haifa) reference "Jacob-El", possibly as a local ruler, and refer to the 12 tribes of Jacob (Israel)^[19]
• In 1986, Manfred Bietak found archeological evidence of Joseph in the Avaris archaeological site in Egypt. A tomb of a non-Egyptian, Asiatic ruler was found with evidence of multi-colored garments (much like Joseph's multicolored coat). The tomb (which has no bones, which makes sense considering that the bones of Joseph were taken back to Israel [Exodus 13:19]), dates to around 200 years before the Exodus.^[20]
• Barbara Bell of the Harvard College Observatory concluded that during the 12th Dynasty of Egypt, erratic water levels in the Nile led to crop failure. The 12th Dynasty aligns quite closely with when Joseph would have lived.^[21][22]
• In the early 20th century, at the Serabit el-Khadim archaeological site, an inscription was found on one of the proto-sinaitic tablets (Sinai 361), dating back to the 15th century B.C., that mentions the name of Moses, who appears in Exodus during the story of the exile of the Jews from Egypt.^[23]
• Laws dealing with the killing of oxen in the Eshnunnic law written in the 20th Century B.C. are strikingly similar to paralleled laws in Exodus.^[24] These laws would not have been known to the Canaanites if the Bible were written some 1400 years after the cultural context surrounding similar laws. [Exodus 21:28]
• Modern geneticists scoffed at the idea that the Bible was correct in that all of the Kohanim are descendants of Aaron, as stated in [Exodus 28:1].^[25] In more recent times, evidence has shown that Kohanim share close genetic links that do not exist in non-Kohanim Jewish or non-Jewish populations.^[26][27]
• There is a stark lack of physical evidence of the physical Exodus of the Jews from Egypt compared to other events in the Bible. This is possibly due to the environment in which they fled. Around 2013, a vehicle used 40 years ago in the Yom Kippur War was uncovered under 52 feet (or 16 meters) of sand in the Sinai desert.^[28] If that is the rate of sinking in the desert, it would be much more difficult to uncover artifacts from an Exodus from over 3,000 years ago. If the rate of sinking was constant to what it was during the sample period of the vehicle, any evidence of the Exodus would be over 3,900 feet (1,300 meters) below the surface, or around 75% of a mile.

Deuteronomy

• The format of Deuteronomy reads in a similar format to the suzerain feudal piety writings issued during the Bronze Age, which would make sense in a Biblical context for God issuing instruction to the Hebrews.^[29]

Nevi'im

• In the Book of Joshua, The Lord told Joshua that he would sound his horn and the wall of Jericho would fall [Joshua 6:5]. The site was discovered by John Garstang in the early 1930s.^[30]
• Radiocarbon dating of burnt charcoal supports the evidence in [I Kings 6:1] that the city of Jericho was burned around 480 years after the Jews had left Goshen.^[31]
• Rezon, son of Eliada, conquered the land of Syria in I Kings. [I Kings 11:23] He is historically associated with Hezion, who ascended to the throne of Aram Damascus in the 8th Century B.C.^[32]
• Multiple times, in I Kings, Hadadezer, King of Aram Damascus in the 9th Century B.C., is referenced [I Kings 20:1] (one example). His name was found in the Kurkh Monoliths, discovered in Turkey in the 19th century.^[33] The monolithic inscription dates to 300 years before I Kings was written.
• In I Kings, Jehu, son of Omri is present. [I Kings 19:16] His identity is confirmed by the discovery of the Black Obelisk, which was created sometime in the mid 820s B.C.^[34]
• Hazael, King of Aram-Damascus, attacked Israelites in the 9th century B.C. Scientists were able to take burn fragments from the era, and by recreating the intensity of the magnetic field around that time period, they were able to date them to the attack as depicted in [I Kings 19:17]^[35]
• In 1868, the Moabite Stone, also known as the Mesha Stele, was discovered in Israel, and dated to the 9th Century B.C. It references the battles of Mesha, King of Moab, which is accounted in II Kings.^[36][II Kings 3:4]
• In II Kings, Asaiah, servant to the King of Judah, is mentioned [II Kings 22:12]. A seal featuring his name was found dated to the 7th century.^[37]
• "Nethan-Melech" is described as an official of Josiah during [II King 23:11]. Nethan, who would have lived around the 7th century BC, had his existence confirmed by the discovery of an agate seal dated to the 7th century BC that says "Natan-Melech, servant of the King".^[38][39][40]
• In the Book of Isaiah, the city of Laishah Dan is mentioned in [Isaiah 10:30]. This corresponds with Avraham Biran's 1993 discoveries of the Davidic dynasty in Israel.^[41]
• For a long time, many scholars believed there was an anachronism in the Book of Ezekiel due to the fact that he mentions Daniel, who most likely would not have been well known at the time [Ezekiel 14:13], but the discovery of the Ugaritic Texts in 1930 that date to the 13th Century B.C. might explain and allow for a Daniel that Ezekiel would have been aware of.^[42][43]
• The Lachish letters discovered in 1935 mention a man named Konyahu who travelled down to Egypt regarding a prophet that sent a message to the sender during the years immediately proceeding the destruction of the Judean government in the 6th century, BC. The Book of Jeremiah, which takes place during that timeframe, mentions an Elnatan ben Achbor, who goes to down Egypt to retrieve the prophet Uriah for execution.^[44] [Jeremiah 26:20]
• In 2021, archaeological researchers found evidence of an earthquake in Jerusalem during the 8th Century B.C., as predicted in the Book of Amos. [Amos 1:1]^[45]
• A 2005 excavation of a Persian-era tower in Jerusalem was shown to be near-identical in detail to the structure described around [Nehemiah 6:15] ^[46]

Ketuvim

• The "black and beautiful" as described in Song of Songs at [Song of Songs 1:5] was ambiguous to Western and Middle Eastern thinkers for a long time, but following restablishment of contact with the Ethiopian Beta Israel, it has been theorized that the "black and beautiful" is a reference to the Queen of Sheba, who visited King Solomon according to Ethiopian historical accounts.^[47] In the second book of Chronicles, it is stated that she shared royal gifts with Solomon. The 14th century Ethiopic work Kebra Nagast, it is stated that her son, the offspring of Solomon, visited him as an adult and Solomon acknowledged him as his rightful son.
• In the Book of Esther, many details, such as the borders of the empire of Xerxes (or Ahasuerus in Hebrew) and the court life of the King match up with the writings of Herodotus and contemporary Persian sources.^[48]
• A specific part of the Book of Esther discusses how Esther sentenced men to death who attempted to kill the Jews of the Persian Empire. [Esther 9:13] This lines up remarkably closely with Herodotus's account of Amestris (pronounced am-ESTR-IS), wife of Xerxes, who had been recorded to have the power to give the death penalty to enemies of her family.^[49] Admittedly, there is no written historical records of Persian history about the set period until after Herodotus's time, which may explain the lack of a more concrete outside evidence of the events that took place in the Book.^[50]
• In the Book of Ruth, the first verse describes a famine in the land. [Ruth 1:1] In 2013, scientists found pollen grain evidence that points to a Levantic famine around the end of the 2nd millennium, B.C., which is when Judges takes place.^[51]

See also

Patterns of Evidence

Archaeology and the Old Testament

7 Archaeological Proofs for Genesis

Bible and Science - Biblical Archaeology

Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament - Robert William Rogers

Extra-Biblical Sources for Hebrew and Jewish History - Samuel Alfred Browne Mercer

Inductive Bible Study - Archaeology Deuteronomy

References