Reliability of the Bible

The question:

How reliable is the Bible? Isn't it just a bunch of poems, myths, legends, folk stories and dreams all hopelessly mixed up? . . . L.G.

The reply:

Let's examine the Bible's reliability through the findings of archaeologists.

Archaeologists' view of the Bible has come almost full circle. For more than 1,500 years after Jesus Christ lived on earth, virtually all academics and scientists accepted the Bible as the literal truth, and often used it to confirm what they observed and found in the natural world.

But from the time of the "Enlightenment" in the 1600's, 1700's and 1800's, the Bible fell out of favour with academics and scientists, including archeaologists. They discounted its reliability, and relied instead on their own conclusions and theories based on what they observed in the natural world. This was the time of many famous humanist (or people-centred, not God-centred) scientific theories, including Uniformitarianism (very slow, steady geologic change) and Evolution (gradual change of biological species from one to another).

In the past century, however, advances in science have led to a new preference to include the Bible's explanations in scientists' overall theories. Many humanist theories have been largely disproven (although most are still taught in schools as "fact".)

The findings of archeaologists have gone a long way to showing just how reliable the Bible is. There is only room here for some representative examples.

Everything that from the New Testament that can be, has been confirmed by archaeology. These include well known items such as the household of the emperors and the oppression of Jews in Rome (causing Priscilla and Aquila to flee to Greece), to more obscure facts such as the existence and layout of synagogues in Galilee and Herod's temple in Jerusalem, even to the silting of the harbour in Ephesus (that required Paul to meet the Ephesian elders in Miletus).

The earliest papyrus fragments that contain sections of the Gospels have been dated to A.D. 125-150, showing they were written shortly after the life of Jesus Christ. And we've all heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have many examples of Old Testament books proving how carefully scribes copied each one over the many centuries, long before printing presses or fax machines!

Indeed, to the time of the Persian Empire, virtually every archeaologist agrees that the Bible is completely reliable. This includes the exile of the Jews to Babylon, their release and assistance by Cyrus and Darius to rebuild the temple and walls of Jerusalem.

Some archaeologists, known variously as "deconstructionists" or "minimalists" question the reliability of the Bible before the time of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon (600 B.C.) Many findings of archaeology, however, are changing this view:

From the era of the Assyrian Empire, there are many inscriptions that recount the final years of Israel, and the miraculous deliverance of Judah during the reign of Hezekiah (700 B.C.) The king's name and the story of the siege of Jerusalem are recorded by Assyria, while Hezekiah's secret tunnel bring fresh water from Gihon has been extensively excavated and restored.

There are four separate incscriptions, including the Black Obelisk, that refer to "Jehu, son of [of the royal house of] Omri" as King of Israel, paying tribute to Shalmaneser III (800 B.C.). This confirms the existence of both Omri and Jehu, whom the Bible tells us killed all the descendants of Ahab and Jezebel.

At least two other inscriptions - an Aramaic Stele from Tel Dan and the Moabite Stone - refer explicitly to the "House of David". The Aramaic Stele speaks of a strong Aram [Syria] defeating Judah and Israel. The Moabite Stone brags about Mesha, king of Moab, winning back territory that Omri had invaded years before. It also refers to the House of David, and the line of David. These references clearly indicate that the royal family of united Israel and later Judah was the House of David, and its founder was the historical king David (1000 B.C.).

Further back in time, four of the five cities of the Philistines have been extensively excavated, and Egyptian inscriptions confirm the Biblical account of the major immigration of the Philistines around 1200 B.C.. The Bible also tells us that the Philistines are descended from the people of Caphtor, the islands of Crete and the southern Aegean. There was no scientific reason for thinking the Philistines came from there, until archeaologists began finding Philistine pottery - identical to Aegean pottery!

The famous Israel Stele of Egyptian pharaoh Merenptah not only proves that Israel existed (and was briefly invaded by Egypt) as early as 1200 B.C., it shows that the Hebrews must have settled there many years before, putting the Exodus at an early date (this confirms the Bible, where it is clear the Exodus occurred around 1450 B.C., even though historians prefer to date it to 1200 B.C.).

The at times violent immigration of the Hebrews into Canaan after the Exodus is also supported by many archeological finds. These include the destruction levels of many Canaanite cities and walls, including Hazor and Jericho, in the Late Bronze Age (1600-1400 B.C.) rather than the Early Iron Age (1200-1000 B.C.)

From ancient Egypt, even though no direct mention of Joseph (1900 B.C.) or Moses (1450 B.C.) has yet been found, the strong central government, Nile economy and civic society closely reflect the details given in Genesis and Exodus. Egyptian religious beliefs and practices mentioned in the Bible have been confirmed by archaeology, as of course has the royal name "Rameses".

Egyptian and Assyrian records confirm the existence of the Hittites, so often mentioned in the Bible, a civilization rediscovered in Turkey and northern Syria by archaeologists this century. The same records tell of the "Habiru", nomadic bands of people who are likely the Hebrews, from whom Abraham and his family recorded their descent. Babylonian records and geological findings from around the world support the Biblical record of an ancient flood that covered the whole world.

Perhaps the most significant find from centuries of archaeological digs around the Bible lands is this one - not a single piece of evidence has ever been found to disprove anything written in the Bible. And many people have tried!

Dr. Science

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