Image of an Egyptian pharaoh, who worships the god Apis in the form of a bull calf.
Biblical archaeology, part 1
1. Introduction
Why Biblical Archaeology? At first archeology often sheds an illuminating light on the Bible. This is also evident from the above picture of a found statue. Even more images have been found of bulls that were worshiped by the Egyptians. However, given the fact that the bull above is quite small compared to this person, it could be a bull calf. This let us think of the golden calf of the Israelites at Mount Sinai! (See Exodus 32). They had just come out of Egypt and had seen the worship of animals there, and taken it into their hearts. That is why they started imitating this when they had to wait a long time for Moses!
And even after the Israelites were punished by God for their idolatry, their inclination to worship calves was not gone. We read in 1 Kings 12: 28 - 30 about king Jeroboam:
28. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them: It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, o Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
29. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
30. And this case became to sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
If we would be unknow to the archaeological finds, such stories could seem strange and unbelievable. We might think, "What strange stories! Who is going to worship a calf? It probably didn't really happen." But such practices did indeed occur! And that is still the case in some countries. So the cow is also among the Hindus a sacred animal, which is worshiped!
In this way many things from the Bible become much clearer, thanks to the finds and excavations of all kinds of objects from the antiquity!
Secondly the archaeological finds confirm time after time that the Bible is a reliable book. It can strengthen our faith in God and His Word. Some Christians say, when they hear such things: "That cannot be! God and the Bible cannot be proved! It is a matter of faith! Just think of what the Lord Jesus said to Thomas: 'Blessed are those who will have not seen, and yet will have believed.' (John 20:29)" But the people who speak like this miss 3 important things:
In the first place they do not realize, that the Lord Jesus did not have said: "He that comes to belief by seeing has not a true faith." No, Thomas was allowed to see first. And then he came to a real faith. He needed the sight to get over a threshold, namely the threshold of his unbelief and doubt. In other words, Christ used the sight to get Thomas over that threshold and to bring him to faith
In the second place there have been in later times also many other people who came to faith because they saw something. By the way: That happened centuries before already. In the time of Elijah almost all Israelites joined the serving of Baal. But when God, at Elijah's prayer, sent fire from heaven upon the altar, that Elijah had made, the people cried out en masse: "The Lord is God, the Lord is God!" (I Ki. 18: 39). Some skeptics will say to this: "That must not have been real faith, but a short-lived faith." But may we thus judge about the hearts of the people? It is quite possible that some people have come to repentance and true faith as a result of this divine miracle.
Impression of the fire from heaven at Elijah's prayer
Also in later history people came to faith, because they saw things that, according to them, confirmed the truth of the Bible. So there was an American general (Lewis Wallace, who lived from 1827 to 1905) who wanted to write an entire book, to show everyone that the Bible was wrong. For this he conducted an extensive study of 7 years, and meanwhile he started writing. This is how his book 'Ben Hur' was born. But with all this work he just came more and more to the insight, that the Bible is reliable.
Wallace eventually developed such a strong belief in God and the truth of the Bible, that he became a defender of the Christian faith. Therefore he stated to use his book to confirm the Bible. Millions of copies of his book were sold. The book was also filmed and the film was viewed by tens of millions. Many people wrote to him that they had become Christians through his book.
Picture from the film Ben Hur
In the third place we must read the history of Thomas and the Lord Jesus carefully. What was the Lord Jesus referring to? He meant that He would go back to heaven. After that people would no longer see Him walking on earth as an ordinary man. Only in exceptional cases He would still appear to someone. Thus he appeared to the apostle John on the island of Patmos, but in divine glory. (Rev. 1). He also appeared to Saul (later Paul) on his way to Damascus. (Acts 9). And Stephen saw Christ standing on the right side of God. (Acts 7: 55 and 56). In later church history something similar happened to a martyr, who was about to be killed.
But the vast majority of people would not see Christ again after His ascension to heaven (until He will appear again at His Second Coming). All these people (if they wanted to be saved) had to believe in Christ without actually seeing Him. And that is what the Lord Jesus means in his words to Thomas. But if there are still things in this present time that can help us to come to faith, or to strengthen our faith (such as Biblical archaeology), then we can safely use them.
However it is important to realize, that it is ultimately the Holy Spirit, who brings a person to faith and conversion. Sometimes the Holy Spirit uses archeology to help someone with that. But God's Spirit is not bound by archaeology. He can also bring someone to faith in another way. He can at all times give a person a strong inner conviction, that God's Word is true, and that he is in himself a lost sinner, and that he needs God's forgiveness, on the basis of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
All in all we can be very happy with Biblical archaeology. Once there was a Christian, who completely disapproved of a book on this science, because faith alone would be decisive. And that, he said, could not be proven. But many years later he left Christianity and took up another religion. Where was his faith then? God can give us all kinds of support in this life, to help us keep believing. Biblical archeology can also be such a fulcrum. How dare we then despise the footholds that God gives us?
2. King David
Many scholars have had and still have a tendency to deny the historical reliability of the Bible. They deny, among other things, the historicity of the patriarchs (such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), of Joseph and Moses, of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and of the conquest of the land of Canaan led by Joshua, even of the kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon. They contemptuously argue that Jerusalem, at the time attributed to David, was little more than an insignificant mountain village. But archeology brought more and more into the light, that confirmed the Biblical stories!
For example, in the year 2005, the foundation of King David's palace was found by the Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar. Some walls were up to 5 meters thick! All kinds of objects that were found there provided additional confirmation, that it was indeed a government center. And 3 years later a part of a water tunnel was discovered under the building. This may be the "water gutter" mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:8. There we read:
"And David said on that day, Whosoever gets up to the gutter, and smites 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." In 1 Chronicles 11:6 this story is also told. There we read that Joab succeeded in this. He probably entered the city through that water tunnel, to open the city gate for the entire army!
The remains of King David's palace
Moreover a huge double wall of that time was also excavated, with a path between them, which led from the city of Jerusalem to the spring of Gihon outside the city. These walls are 8 meters high and consist of huge boulders of up to 4000 or 5000 kilos! It must have been an enormous work to build those walls without modern tools, such as cranes! Thus it becomes increasingly clear that the claim, that Jerusalem was only an insignificant mountain village at that time, is not true!
West of Jerusalem, near the Philistine cities of Gad and Ekron, the remains of a huge fortress within a boulder wall were found. This boulder wall is 700 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 2 to 3 meters high. Research indicated that this fortress had been there around the year 1000 BC, which is the time of King David. The wall had 2 gates. It became clear that it was the Biblical Saaraïm, which means '2 gates'. So at that time there was already a strong military organization!
A potsherd with an inscription of 5 lines was also found at that fortress. They were written in the oldest Hebrew ever found, and they contain exhortations to justice and help the poor and weak in society. This was indeed after King David's heart. All these things indicate, that the art of writing was already well developed at that time. So there is no reason at all to suppose, as some scholars do, that the earliest books of the Bible were not written until many centuries later!
Also interesting is the so-called Tel Dan Stele. This is an inscription (found in 1993 by the Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biram at Dan in northern Israel) on which the phrase "House of David" is mentioned. In this inscription Hazael, king of Syria (also called Aram) tells of his victory over Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah. (This story is told in the Bible in 2 Kings 8:28). At Ahaziah it is then stated: "of the House of David". In those days that often meant: of the royal family founded by David. The discovery of this inscription became front-page news in the world press, because before that time the archaeologists had not found an inscription with David's name in it.
The inscription with the name of king David in it.
Thus the biblical stories became more and more alive, and more and more confirmed, as archeology revealed more and more about them!
The expression "house of David" also appears on the so-called "Stone of Mesha". On this stone King Mesha of Moab tells that his people were oppressed by Omri and his son (Ahab), kings of Israel. But then he defeated Israel (according to Mesha). In the Bible, in 2 Kings 3: 4 through 3: 27, is also spoken about Mesha. The Israelites (together with armies of Judah and Edom) had besieged him in his city of Kir-hareseth. To move his God Chemosh to save him, he then sacrificed his eldest son on the city wall. The Israelites were so horrified at this, that they departed from the city. But Mesa does not tell this on his memorial stone. For at that time it was the custom of the pagan kings to boast of themselves and their god on memorial stones. Things that were not to their own honor were gladly omitted.
The name of the God of Israel (Yahweh) also appears on the Stone of Mesha. It says that he took the city of Nebo from Israel and captured 7000 men, women, and slave girls. He also stole the vessels of Yahweh and brought them before Chemosh his god. It is possible that this happened at a later time.
This memorial stone was already found in 1868 in Jordan by the German missionary Klein. But not everything on it was legible. It wasn't until 1995 that the French linguist André Lemaire discovered an almost illegible character that had to represent the letter D. Then they saw that 'house of David' was written on the stone.
We can wonder why the name of David was not more often found in ancient inscriptions and such. After all David was an important king. There are 4 possible reasons for this:
1. The enemies of Israel wrote their inscriptions to praise themselves and their god. The names of famous kings from other countries were therefore often not mentioned.
2. But God-fearing kings of Israel made few or no inscriptions. Often they did not want to honor themselves too much.
3. And moreover a lot was recorded by them on documents, that have perished by the ravages of time. In the Bible, for example, the name of David appears 994 times. Unfortunately nothing did remain of the original Bible manuscripts.
4. At that time pagan kings had also often the habit of destroying the inscriptions of their predecessors. For they wanted to receive as much honor as possible for themselves, and to share the honor as little as possible with their predecessors.
3. Names from the Bible
The Hittite people are mentioned dozens of times in the Bible. They were among the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan. The Israelites would take possession of their land after their exodus from Egypt and their wilderness journey to the Promised Land. Initially the archaeologists of the last few centuries did not find any extra-biblical sources, that confirmed the ancient existence of this people. Therefore many of them regarded the biblical stories about the Hittites as legends. But from 1906 the German archaeologist Winckler started excavating at Bogazköy in Asia Minor (the present-day Turkey). And he found the remains of the capital of the Hittites, Hattusa! Many thousands of clay tablets with the cuneiform script were found there, as well as many palaces and temples, walls with the length of miles, and gates with lion-heads of stone.
Furthermore they considered also the Assyrian king Sargon, who is mentioned in the Bible in Isaiah 20: 1, as a product of imagination, because this name was missing on a memorial stone with the names of Assyrian kings. But in Khorsabad in Iraq his palace was found. And in that the inscription: "Sargon king of Assyria, who conquered Samaria and all Israel, and who took captive the inhabitants of Ashdod." An inscription at Ashdod also mentions the conquest. In that palace they also found a relief of Sargon (= Sargon II) with his tartan, his army commander. The Hebrew word 'tartan' has that meaning. The King James Version has taken the word tartan in Isaiah 20: 1 and in 2 Kings 18: 17 as a personal name and has therefore written it with a capital letter.
Relief of king Sargon II, found in his palace at Khorsabad. On the right is his army commander.
The same applies to the Babylonian king Belshazzar, see Daniel 5. According to excavated king lists Nabonidus should have been the last Babylonian king, and because of that they claimed again, that the biblical story was incorrect. However a later found clay tablet, now preserved in the British Museum, records that Nabonidus, because of his anticipated absence, made his eldest son Belshazzar co-king, to defend Babylon against the Persians. Admittedly, in Daniel 5:18 Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned as the father of Belshazzar. Biblical critics also like to fall over this. But those, who are familiar with the language of that time, will immediately understand, that the Aramaic word, which is translated here with father, can also mean ancestor. The same applies to Hebrew, in which almost the entire Old Testament is written.
By this it becomes also clear why the (probably drunk) king says in verse 16 of this chapter, that Daniel will be the third ruler of this kingdom. His father and he were already number 1 and 2. It is also striking that, during excavations of the royal palace in Babel, also remnants of the enormous throne room were found (measuring 19 by 58 meters), which are entirely in accordance with the description in Daniel 5! A whitewashed wall was opposite to the throne of Belshazzar. So that is the wall on which the writing fingers appeared, which frightened the king so much! (verse 5).
The Biblical story of King Belshazzar, being killed during a night of feasting, is also confirmed by the historians Herodotus and Xenophon. They tell how Cyrus proceeded in the conquest of the city of Babylon. He made his men build a wall against the city as a distraction. But at the same time they dug a canal, so that the river of Euphrates no longer flowed through the city, but drained into a swamp. The army was thus able to enter the city via the dry river bed, while the city was feasting. Then King Belshazzar was killed.
When Babylon was conquered, many prophecies of the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled. (Jeremiah prophesied from 616 BC to 586 BC and Cyrus conquered Babylon in 538 BC). We can mention here from his prophecies:
1. An attack is coming from the north. (Jer. 50:3). (Indeed Babel was in the southern half of Mesopotamia).
2. The attackers besiege the city and take it. (Jer. 50:9). (Quite in agreement with the testimony of Herodotus and Xenophon).
3. The city has food supplies. (Jer. 50:26). (According to Herodotus and Xenophon the city had a food supply for up to 20 years).
4. The city has high and broad walls. (Jer. 51:53 and 58). (This is also confirmed by these 2 historians. They also add that there were double walls, separated by a moat).
5. The attacker is a king of Media. (Jer. 51:11). (Cyrus originally belonged to the Persians, who were dominated by the Medes. But he overcame the mighty Medes and thus became king of the Medes and Persians).
6. The city falls through a trick or trap. (Jer. 50:24). (It has already been mentioned above how this was done, according to the 2 historians).
7. The bottom of the Euphrates River has been made dry. (Jer. 51:36). (As the 2 historians mention).
8. It happens during a drunken party (Jer. 51: 39 and 57). (The 2 historians also mention this. This is also mentioned extensively in Daniel 5).
Other prophecies in Jeremiah 50 and 51, such as the eventual destruction of Babylon, were not fulfilled until later. It's like walking in a mountain landscape. One sometimes sees many mountain peaks next to each other. They seem to be next to each other. But in reality one top can be 3 times as far away as the other. Similarly the fulfillment of one prophecy may be much further away than the fulfillment of the other prophecy, although they are spoken almost simultaneously. Cyrus did not destroy the city when he entered it. According to the so-called 'Babylonian Chronicle' he was even joyfully received by the population when he entered. Apparently people saw him as a liberator. To the Jews he was certainly a liberator. They were allowed to return again to their promised land, without paying a price for it, as was foretold about 160 years earlier in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:4 and 13. Yes, they even received the temple treasures, as well as gold and silver from the people who remained in Babylon. (Ezra 1).
The Nabonidus Cylinder, on which Nabonidus names his eldest son Belshazzar as co-ruler
The biblical story of Balaam (Numbers 22) was completely considered as a fairy tale by the critical scholars, for whom the Bible is beforehand unreliable. Of course this man with his prophetic gifts had never existed (according to them!). But in 1967 the fragments of a special inscription were found by an expedition from Leiden University, which investigated a ruin hill of Deir Alla in Jordan. This is not far from the place where Balaam performed according to the Bible book of Numbers. These pieces were put together as best as possible, and then it turned out, that they had found an inscription that contained the name 'Balaam the son of Beor'! Also he has been called 'a seer of the gods' on the inscription.
The inscription has not been written in any of the languages, in which the Bible was originally written. The researchers had different meanings concerning the question which language group the inscription belonged to. The Canaanite language group (to which Hebrew belongs)? Or the Aramaic language group? In every case this different language (compared to the Bible) indicates, that we are not dealing here with a Jewish inscription. The text is written from a pagan religion with an associated language. After all the Moabite king Balak, who asked Balaam's help, had also his own religion. Nevertheless God used Balaam's mouth to pronounce a blessing on Israel, although Balak just wanted Balaam to curse this people.
4. The city of Jericho
The archaeologist Bryant Wood with remains of the collapsed wall
After Jerusalem Jericho is the most excavated city. The excavation is often a tedious job. Already in 1868 the archaeologist Charles Warren was looking for special remains of Jericho. But he found nothing. In every case nothing special according to him. However it later turned out that during his excavations he had been only a meter away from the so-called Neolithic tower! But the opinions of the scholars differed widely about the dating of this tower.
Later other archaeologists also searched for remains of Jericho. Particularly worth mentioning here are: John Garstang, Kathleen Kenyon, and Bryant Wood. With the excavations one must of course take into account, that Jericho was rebuilt after the capture at the time of Joshua. So in the soil there may be different layers from different times, which must be dated separately. Between 1930 and 1936 Garstang found in layer IV traces of walls collapsed by an earthquake. There were also signs of a heavy fire. Moreover he found pottery there, which was dated about 1400 BC. And that is exactly the time when Joshua (after the walls collapsed) captured the city and burned it (Joshua 6:24)!
But other archaeologists, who didn't care much for the Bible, offerd much resistance. The mentioned Kenyon claimed that the city was already destroyed and burned around 1550 BC by an Egyptian army. She paid little attention to the found pottery. Others followed her assumptions, and even stated that she had decisively shown, that the first 10 books of the Bible had a mythical character.
However the archaeologist Bryant Wood continued the investigation. He specializes in ancient Canaanite pottery. He dated again the found pottery to around 1400 BC. And this was confirmed by the fact that Egyptian king seals from the same period were found in the associated cemetery! So Jericho really fell around 1400 BC!
And how do we know with help from the Bible, that Joshua indeed captured the city of Jericho around 1400 BC.? The year in which the temple building began can be accurately determined: 966 BC. And in 1 Kings 6:1 it says that Solomon built the house of the Lord in the four hundred and eightieth year after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. So that exodus took place in the year 1446 BC. But Joshua did not begin his conquests of the land of Canaan until 40 years later. So we arrive at the year 1406 BC!
The remains of Jericho that were found were impressive! Jericho had walls of 7 meters high! When those walls collapsed, a ruin slope was created. And along that ruin slope the Israelites could climb into the city!
The Bible also states (Joshua 6:17 and 22) that the house of Rahab the harlot was spared. Indeed it turned out during the excavations, that in the northern lower part of the city a piece of wall, against which houses were built, had not collapsed!
Some people think that the destruction of Jericho is a cruel thing. How can a God, Who is the Love Himself, be responsible for this? But the wickedness was abundant in this city: Perverted sexual practices were practiced and even human sacrifices. God was horrified at that. When the measure was full for Him, He made an end with it!
He probably also made the religion that was practiced there ridiculous. The priest-king of the city was worshiped as a son of the gods. According to an old story he celebrated his marriage in a so-called holy procession. This resembled the procession of the Israelites around the city! God also views the relationship with His people as a marriage. In the Bible book of Hosea, but also elsewhere in the Holy Scriptures, we see this clearly. Israel (and with Israel all true believers) is His legal wife, as long as she loves, adheres to and obeys Him!
The Israelites had to fight a battle in conquering the land of Canaan. And also the people who believe in God have to fight a battle. Their faith is challenged. Are the stories described in the Bible correct? Is the Bible a reliable book? Can we entrust ourselves to the God of that book? The Biblical archeology wants to help and encourage us. From under the dust again and again things appeared, that show us that our faith has not been built on sand, but on God's truth and on His Son Jesus Christ, the Rock of the Ages!
5. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
The ruin of Bab edh-Drah, which is seen as the biblical Sodom
Anyone who is familiar with the Bible knows the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The inhabitants of these cities were wicked and godless. Even when God had sent 2 angels to take Lot, Abraham's nephew, out of Sodom before it would be too late for him, the men of Sodom wanted to have forced sexual intercourse with those angels. They mistook those angels for ordinary men. So there was also plenty of homosexuality in this city.
But God smote those men of Sodom with blindness, so that they could no longer find the house of Lot, in which the angels were. After that Lot was led out of Sodom with his wife and 2 daughters. When they were far enough from Sodom, God rained brimstone and fire from heaven onto Sodom and Gomorrah, by which these cities were thoroughly burned and destroyed.
Of course the disbelieving scholars of this time did not believe these stories either. According to them these cities were just legendary (imaginated) cities from the folklore of Israel. But also here finds and excavations confirmed the truth of the biblical story. A clay tablet was found, which tells about a rain of fire from heaven, that burned city, country and people.
Around 1975 many clay tablets were found at Ebla in Syria. The number rose up until around 20,000 pieces. They date from about 2400 BC. On them cities along a trade route from Syria to the Dead Sea (which was not yet a Dead Sea at that time) were mentioned. Also the names of Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned here!
Subsequently we can ask ourselves where Sodom and Gomorrah were exactly located. The opinions are divided about this. But most likely they were in and/or near the south of what we now call the Dead Sea. Many things point in that direction:
In the first place several sulfur deposits have been found there. So layers of sulfur in the soil.
In the second place archaeological research has shown that there has been a strong earthquake around the year 2000 BC. Probably large amounts of sulphurous gas were then released and gone into the air. And sulfur is highly flammable, even with some friction. It is not for nothing that our matches have a sulfur head. And in an earthquake there is of course plenty of friction. After the inflammation, there started to be a rain of fire and brimstone, which descended on Sodom and Gomorrah.
In the third place the excavations showed that there were great fires in that area during the same period.
In the fourth place the remains of a large building were found, inside which a fire had raged. But a careful investigation showed, that the fire had started on the roof. After the roof collapsed, the fire entered the house.
In the fifth place the slime pits (or earth pitch springs) have also been found in that region, which are mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 14: 10.
The slime pits (or earth pitch springs) of Genesis 14: 10
The expeditions from 1973 onwards of the archaeologists Rast and Schaub also uncovered the remains of 5 cities, located south-east of the Dead Sea. Their Arabic names are: Bab edh-Drah, Numeira, Safi, Feifa, and Khanazir. Both archaeologists believe that these are the 5 cities, which are mentioned in Genesis 14:8. According to them Bab edh-Drah is the biblical Sodom, Numeira the biblical Gomorrah, and Safi the biblical Zoar, to which Lot fled when he had been led from Sodom.
In the cities, which they identified as Sodom and Gomorrah, traces of an abundance of kinds of fruits were found. Both cities were also located on a stream, which supplied the land and the city with water. How nicely this agrees with Genesis 13:10:
"And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere; before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as you comes unto Zoar."
Only later that region had become a barren and dry land, as a result of God's severe judgment. And today it is said that the Dead Sea continues to dry up. If this continues the Dead Sea will no longer exist after a certain time. Then it is one large salt plain. For even now the salt content of this sea is so high, that one floats there, and that one can even read a book there while floating!
The biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah has been written for our warning. God is an avenger of evil. And that is really not a fairy tale or legend! But God also says of Himself in Exodus 20:6:
"And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." Unfortunately we are all sinners. We cannot live completely according to God's holy will. And that can cause confusion and struggle. But we may also know that there is always again forgiveness with Him, when we come to Him with repentance!
6. A bit of calculation work
Above, in the piece entitled "4. The city of Jericho" it was already calculated that the Israelites (after their desert journey) in the year 1406 BC. entered the land of Canaan. This was calculated using the fact that it is known exactly, when King Solomon began building the Temple. But there are many archaeologists and other scientists who believe little of the biblical stories of David and Solomon, although more and more archaeological finds confirm the biblical histories of these kings.
Therefore (almost superfluous!) it will now also be calculated in another way in which year the entry into Canaan began: From the general history it is known that the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar reigned from 605 BC. to 562 BC. In the Bible, in 2 Kings 25:8, is written that Jerusalem was destroyed in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. But Jerusalem has been conquered two times: also 11 years earlier. Only no violence has been used then, because King Jehoiachin surrendered voluntarily. This is described in 2 Kings 24:12:
"And Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon captured him in the eighth year of his reign."
Relief of the deportation of the Jews in the Babylonian captivity. In ancient times people loved it to carve the victory over enemies in stone.
This eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar must therefore have been in the year (605 - 8 =) 597 BC. And this year we must regard as the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, for in 2 Kings 24:14 is written that Nebuchadnezzar then deported all Jerusalem.
Now we look at Ezekiel 40:1. There is written:
"In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was smitten; this same day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me to there."
Speaking generally for a moment: The first year of something is from year 0 to year 1. The second year is from year 1 to year 2, etc. So the 25th year is from year 24 to year 25. Since here in this text is specifically mentioned "in the beginning of the year", we can best accept that we are 24 years later (instead of 25). So we get then the year (597 - 24 =) 573 BC.
Now the Jewish Talmud (a scripture of great importance to the Jews) states, that the 17th jubilee of the Israelites coincided with this time (so from Ezekiel 40:1). The first jubilee was after 49 years. The second after 98 years. So the 17th jubilee was after 17 x 49 = 833 years. Thus the Israelites started in the year (573 + 833 =) 1406 BC. with their counting for the jubilees. And when was that? For this Leviticus 25: 2, 8, 9 and 10 gives an answer:
2. "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD."
8. "And you shall number seven sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto you forty and nine years.
9. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement you shall make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10. And you shall hallow that fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family."
From these texts it is clear: The entry of the Israelites into the land of Canaan was in the year 1406 BC. This is exactly the same year, which was already calculated by another way! See the piece above entitled '4. The City of Jericho’.
For people who have little knowledge of archeology and ancient history, it will make little difference in which year exactly the entry into the land of Canaan took place. But many archaeologists and other scientists, who don't take the Bible seriously, like to say that the people of Israel came into existence only much later. In fact they do not believe at all in an entry, as described in the Bible. Instead of that they argue, that the people of Israel only came into being from about 1200 BC., when Semitic nomad groups gradually entered the land of Canaan.
Or (they think, because they don't know, but they only guess) maybe the Jewish people came into being, when indigenous farmers united and revolted against oppressive landlords. And these scientists believe that their ideas are confirmed, since around the year 1220 BC. many cities in the land of Canaan have been destroyed. And that is from a later time.
But these scholars do not take into account the time of the Judges, decades and hundreds of years later! At that time the Israelites were repeatedly attacked by other nations, such as the Philistines and the Midianites. And they caused destructions, or their own possessions were destroyed in the battle. The Israelites under the leadership of Joshua had not expressively the purpose to destroy as much as possible, but merely to take possession of the land. Only Jericho, Ai and Hazor they set on fire. (Joshua 6:24; 8:28; and 11:11).
Ruins of the city of Hazor
They left the cities intact as much as possible, so that they themselves could later live in them. This also agrees with Deuteronomy 6:10, 11 and 12:
10. And it shall be, when the LORD your God shall have brought you into the land which He swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and good cities, which you did not build,
11. And houses, full of all good things, which you did not fill, and digged wells, which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant, when you will have eaten and be full,
12. Then beware lest you forget the LORD, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
In short: The unbelieving archaeologists have no reason to say reproachfully, that they have found few ruins of all the cities, that were taken under Joshua's command. For The Israelites left the cities as they were, if possible! But of the cities that were in fact destroyed, many fragments and remnants have been recovered!
And moreover: In the Amarna letters, found in Egypt, and dating from about 1360 BC, Canaanite vassal lords beg for the help of Pharaoh against the 'Habiru', who attack their cities. They are probably the Hebrews, as the Israelites were also called. Of course the land of Canaan has not been conquered in one year. The conquests continued for decades, sometimes after a pause of years. So the year 1360 BC. fits well with that. It is understandabe that the Pharaoh was not much in the mood to help. The ten plagues upon Egypt were not forgotten yet, nor the fact that the army of Egypt had perished in the Red Sea! (Exodus 14).
Furthermore Egyptian inscriptions have also been found, which testify to the attacks (in the land of Canaan) of the 'nomads', who worship the God Yahweh. Yahweh is indeed the God of the Bible. The other nations had other gods. Thus the Bible has been confirmed again and again by the archaeological finds and excavations!
7. Difficulties in the archaeological work
As noted already above, unbelieving scientists have often uttered the reproach, that so few finds have been made, that are consistent with the biblical history. At first this is not true at all. This article already proves that. And what is described here is only a very small fraction of what has actually been found of material that confirms the Bible. Books can be filled with it. And luckily that has also been done by different people. Therefore the attacks of unbelieving scientists are without any base! Sometimes however links seemed to be missing in the results of the Biblical archaeology. But what does that matter? We must realize very well, that the archaeological work is often very difficult!
In the first place: When a city or village has been destroyed by enemies or by a natural disaster, houses were often built in later times on the ruins. And when they had fallen into disrepair, new houses were often built on their remains. Archaeologists, when digging, often come across different layers from different times. And what is from what time? Of course these layers are often quite intertwined. Sometimes archaeologists used digging machines to reach a certain layer. But then precious treasures from higher layers can be accidentally destroyed and thrown away. Those higher layers can also contain things with just a very high age, because - as said - those layers are often situated through each other.
Mistakes have therefore been made in the archaeological work. They had learned from this. By this people became even more careful! But that made that the work took extremely much time!
Rooting in the ground, in the hope to learn more about the past.
In the second place: As already noted above: Often new kings destroyed the inscriptions of their predecessors, because they alone wanted to receive all the glory.
In the third place: Very many documents perished. Paper, parchment, wood, and other materials on which one wrote, eventually decayed. Only inscriptions in stone could withstand the test of time. But some communities did not have the habit of fixing their history in stone. Ancient Israel had an important writing culture. But people wrote relatively little in stone and much more on perishable materials.
In the fourth place: Often the archaeologists could not dig where they liked to do that (and where they hoped to obtain important finds), because there stood present-day buildings, or because they were simply not allowed to dig in the land of farmers or landowners.
In the fifth place: Sometimes the local population showed hostility towards the archaeologists. This was, for example, the case with the Stone of Mesha (about which has already been spoken above in the piece entitled '2. King David'). The archaeologists did not want to take it with them for nothing, but to buy it honestly. But in advance they tried to make an impression of the stone in wet soft paper. But the employee, who was doing this, had to flee from the angry population. The paper was torn into seven pieces. The people, who did not understand anything of the historical significance of the stone, supposed that gold was hidden in the stone. They heated the stone and poured cold water on it. Only fragments remained. These were distributed among the local residents. But the French archaeologist Clermont-Ganneau persisted, because he knew the great value of the stone. He eventually managed to acquire 57 fragments. That was about two-thirds of the whole. Even the paper fragments were collected. And especially because of these paper fragments, the text could be almost completely reconstructed. But what a battle the matter required to save what could still be saved! Maybe more pieces have been found or bought later. For photos of the Stone of Mesha show a fairly complete whole.
The Mesha Stone, of the Moabite king Mesha, with the names of David and the God of Israel on it
In the sixth place: Even if no battle had to be fought to bring in a find, the find was often badly damaged. If there was text on it, it was often only partially legible.
In the seventh place: Often, after almost endless patience, things are found that are of little use. For example if one finds a drinking cup from the time of David, then that is nice, but what conclusions can be drawn from this? Eating and drinking have been done by people in all ages. It therefore does not directly say anything about the reliability of the Bible.
In the eighth place: If something was found with text on it, one often also had to struggle with the different dialects and languages, that were spoken and written in the Middle East in past times. There were rather many variants within Semitic and Arabic. The study of certain texts could therefore be extremely difficult.
In the ninth place: Many important finds ended up in the possession of collectors. Or tourists took them home. In this way they were withdrawn from science. They were then out of reach of the archaeologists and other scientists, who would like to examine them.
In the tenth place: In times of war and natural disasters entire libraries and museums were sometimes destroyed. And those were precisely the places where the valuable things, which had been acquired with great difficulty, were collected. An example of this is the library of Alexandria in Egypt. In its glorious days, in the first century BC, it contained 400,000 to 700,000 documents, mostly scrolls. In fact this collection was spread over several buildings, with space for up to 5,000 students to study. This made this library the largest in the Mediterranean, yes even the center of Hellenistic science and civilization. But in the year 392 the library was destroyed by fire. Some say the fire was deliberately kindled by a religious group. Others suggest that it was devastated by a war. Be in every case the cultural disaster was great.
In the eleventh place: Archaeologists can also be hindered by rain, storm, frost, hail, snow, or desert heat and vermin. Sometimes a shelter was built, so that one could at least work dry or protected from the sun. But often they had no roof above them. Then they sometimes needed a strong health to keep up the work. Or they could do much less work than they would like.
In the twelfth place: Archaeological research costs a lot of money: For the salary and living expenses of the workers, for the purchase of all kinds of resources such as excavation tools, for the purchase of permits, for the purchase of found treasures in the bottom, etc., etc. If there was not enough money, the work had to be abandoned, or - if it had already started - it had to be stopped or postponed.
But should we say now because of all this: "Let that archaeology go. It's too hard."? Of course not! It must be worth everything to us to be able to see the Bible as a reliable book, if that is really the case. And it is! This website proves this abundantly, not only from archaeology, but also from many other subjects!
Moreover: We would do the Christian archaeologists, who have gone to their utmost possibilities to find traces of the Bible in the ground, a great injustice, if we would despise their work! Nor do we do them justice, if we accuse them, that certain links are missing in their work. Often it happened later that those links were found! It is a continuous and fascinating journey of discovery. And we, as spectators, are allowed to follow this journey of discovery from our comfortable living rooms or museums, just by taking knowledge of it. What a privilege is that! Others have done the dirty work for us, and still do that! As a result, we can (to give an example) let ourselves be taken in peace along to the fascinating world of King Cyrus, who brought so much blessing to the Jews!
Picture 1 of these 2: Many archaeological treasures have been collected in museums. Here the Cyrus cylinder in the British Museum in London. Picture 2 of these 2: The Cyrus cylinder seen from nearby. On this cylinder King Cyrus tells among other things, that he allowed people (these must have been the Jews!) to go back to their country with their temple treasures to restore their home towns. Also that is again a beautiful confirmation of the Bible, namely of 2 Chronicles 36 and Ezra 1.
