Biblical Archeology, Volume 1

Archeology And The Christian

Dr. Johnson C. Philip

Dr. Saneesh Cherian

Editor: JW Thompson

5th Revised Edition

Contents

Introduction

Archeology And The Christian Apologist

Summary:  The Christian faith is a completely history-dependent one. Biblical Archeology helps Christian to defend the historical foundations of Bible. This helps them to anarchists, and strengthens Christians in their faith.

Practical Contributions of Biblical Archeology

1. Contribution In Defense of Faith:

2. Contribution In Witnessing:

3. Contribution In Strengthening Faith:

4. Better Appreciation of Biblical Narratives:

5. Better Understanding of Biblical Languages:

6. Better Understanding of Manners and Customs:

7. Accurate Knowledge of Ancient Objects:

Introduction

Bible and its message are completely dependent upon history. Events like temptation and fall in Eden, promise of a virgin-born savior, and the suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection of the savior are foundational to the Christian faith.

Almost all other faiths, isms, and religions can survive without an accurate literal history to support them, but not the Christian faith. Once the historical foundation is distorted, its theological claims and foundations automatically come to a naughty. This fact was recognized by the atheists and radicals much more than the Christians because as a group they were always looking for loopholes, whereas the average Christian does not (and should not) try to dismantle his own faith.

As a consequence, it is the anti Jew and the anti Christian thinkers and writers who initially did their best to study and attack the historical foundations of the Bible. Even at the time of Lord Jesus Christ there were the Sadducees who questioned in the Old Testament, and this tendency only increased from 200 AD onwards. Three centuries after Pentecost the opposition became strong and somewhat systematized as much as 15 valiums of books to attack the Bible. The attacks kept growing with the growth and expansion of the Christian faith, becoming most intense from around 1700s onwards.

Europe, which was the center of Christianity, was oppressed and ruled by an iron, hand the tyrannical and exploitative Roman Catholic Church. Consequently, rebellion and resentment was developing deep in the hearts of many intellectuals like over-heated lava, ready to come out and level everything within site as soon as it found as opening.

It was this milieu in which the Protestant Reformation came as a liberating force. People began enjoying religious freedom and liberty in Europe after a span of over one millennium. This liberty was a blessing for millions of common people, but it also gave liberty to the thinkers whose resentment against the church was simmering deep within for centuries. And it burst forth like a volcano, throwing out the baby with the water. Not only did they openly reject the church; they also immediately rejected the Bible and Christian faith.

The modern western rationalism and theological radicalism is thus the illegitimate offspring of the millennium-long Roman Catholic oppression of thinkers.

With the rise of modern western dissent (properly speaking, resentment against the Christian faith, an increasing number of them started hunting for ways to dismantle the Bible. And historical sciences came in handy because at that time it was relatively easy to argue against the Bible in the name of history. Better yet for them, both scholar as well as the lay skeptic could easily use history, particularly the ancient history related to the Bible lands, to argue against the Christian faith.

Historical science were not as developed before 1700s as they are, ancient manuscripts and inscriptions were nit as plentiful as they are. Worse, nobody could as read what was available (say from ancient Egypt). So the history at that time rested upon plenty of false in knowledge, and it was easy both for the scholar as well as the layman to claim that this or that event, place, or people-group mentioned in the Bible was not known from the available historical reference. This was then carried to the next claim that since nothing was known of many things mentioned in the Bible, those things were false, the imagination of many pious writers.

While it is true that at the end of 1600s and in the beginning of 1700s there were many people, places, and events recorded in the Bible that were not known from any other sources, it was an illogical conclusion that therefore the Biblical record was false. This is similar to the conclusion of the person with a dislike for mathematics that since he is unable to solve a certain mathematical problem therefore the problem is unsolvable. Untold amount of scientific progresses been hindered  retarded by this attitude, but the rationalists and theological radicals were not hindered in their anti-biblical agenda by such objective considerations.

By the beginning of 1700s, physical science progressed much, and a technological evolution was visible to everyone. And the radicals simply assured everyone (falsely, of course) that the historical sciences were also by now equally developed. They started speaking of the “assured results of modern researches” in historical sciences, and these “assured results” in “historical sciences” coming mostly from voids and gaps in historical knowledge were used confidently by them to attack the historical portion of the Bible.

The most notables among these radicals were Germans, and these developments had more to do with a historical development of ancient historical science in Biblical lands. As the Protestant movement spread, the Germans began to finance their theological seminaries (most of which were departments of secular universal) through government money. In other words, the German theological seminaries were more Government-controlled bureaucracies. This brought in an unbelievable amount of money to theological departments without any kind of spiritual responsibility since the departments were controlled by the government, personal salvation, intimacy with the lord, or spiritual commitment were not at all important for appointment in these seminaries.

The government bureaucracy that controlled these German Universities (directly or by proxy) knew only one thing: these people are appointed for thus they need to be academically “qualified” for the jobs. Things like “spiritual commitment” had no place in the vocabulary (or rulebook) of the government. The situation was ripe for a large number of men to get into this government funded “jobs” without having to bother about inconvenience like faith and commitment.

Thus eventually the German (and many other) government-funded (and there for bureaucracy-controlled) seminaries became populated with men who considered Bible and Christianity to be things to be done away with. Thus using the liberal amounts of funds available (for this was the time these countries flourished much) from the Government these men published a large number of multi-volume works and journals that had the singular aim of destroying the Christian faith. And this had worldwide repercussions, because these books went worldwide and brainwashed the Christian community that was yet to realize what the hidden aged of this theological radical was.

It is claimed by many that the frog has a peculiar way to behave that can be used to kill it. According to it, if one drops a healthy frog in a pot of boiling water, it would react so fast to the danger that it would be out and totally safe within a fraction of a second. But put the same frog in a pot of cold water and warm it gradually and it would not react. The gradual change in temperature makes this cold-blooded animal to adjust to the temperature, desensitizing and cheating its otherwise powerful defense system. By the time the helpless frog decides to jump out (that is, if it is any longer able to decide) it is already cooked to death. Scientifically true or not, this story has a true social, theological, and spiritual counterpart. Large sections of human society have repeatedly been brainwashed and manipulated in this manner to abandon things of lasting value in favor of trivial and trinkets. Others have even been led to social or spiritual death, and the case of German theologians falls into that category. German had made a mark for themselves in almost every field of knowledge in 1700s and 1800s with the likes of the 40-volume Sacred Literature of The Ancient East. So very few Christians expected German Christian scholars to misguide or cheat their readers. However this is exactly what they did in every field of Bible and theology, and by the time the Christian world realized what was happening, the damage was already done.

The damage inflicted by the German radicals was maximum in the area of the reliability of the Bible. Based upon the “assured results of historical researches” they convinced almost the whole of Christendom that neither the Old nor the New Testament is historically accurate. Their dogmatic assertions included gems of insights such as “Moses could not have written the Pentateuch because of the art of writing was non-existent in 1500BC”. It took only less than a century to discover writings produced as early as 3100 BC.

Unfortunately old slogans often become contemporary dogma, and no amount of discoveries to the country can convince people of the truth. As a consequence, today Bible seminaries around the world continue to teach the old German lies as truths to be reckoned with. Even a good number of conservative seminaries teach subjects that have long been proved to be false. However old ideas die hard, especially because of man’s spiritual rebellion. And here comes the importance of Biblical Archeology.

Archeology And The Christian Apologist

As I made clear through the proceeding historical sketch, to most people, today the Bible stands as a historically discredited book. This is not because the facts of history go against the Bible, but rather because of the false propaganda of the German radicals who were aided in this mission by liberal government funding. Only a reasonable acquaintance with Biblical archeology can help a person to counter the pervasive influence of these sophisticated lies.

There are several categories of people who have doubts about the historical accuracy of the needs to us a different approach with each one of them. And before one can do that it will be good to have a look at these groups and their distinction.

Non-Christians: A large number of non Christian take interest in maters related to Bible and history, as testified by a large number of books on this subject they by, specially from the secular marketplace, the alleged travels of Jesus to India, etc, continue to be bestsellers in the non Christian world. Consequently, the Christian desiring to use Archeological information to help other has a very large segment non-Christians among his possible clientele.

The most responsive among these are usually well read, or willing to read any useful publication on this topic. They are serious in their inquiry, and once they get answers beyond a threshold, they become highly inclined to accept Christ as their savior. This group should be given the highest priority among non-Christian inquirers, and one should be willing to go to any length to make resources available to these people. They do not argue, do not waste your time unnecessarily, and do not wander aimlessly. They know what they wish to read, and once that is given to them devour it with all devotion.

The second group is made of inquirers who are not very serious. They wish to know, but have nothing more than that in their minds. At the same time they are not at all hostile to the Christian faith, and therefore they are very useful targets. Simple booklets and articles on exciting archeological topics such as the twenty-thousand-volume Ebla Tablets, or the discoveries related Caiphas the High Priest, etc. can be quite attractive to them. Once they develop a certain level of interest, more serious archeological material can be given to them.

Then there are two difficult groups: the escapist and the serious anarchist. The escapist has some inkling of truth, and knows that anything that leads to proof for the historical veracity of the Bible would put pressure on him to believe. This he does not want to happen, and therefore he never takes anything seriously. For each solid proof he will have two or more excuses. Thus it is futile to invest too much time on him. Rather than pouring out all the available proof on him, it would be better to confront him with one solid proof at a time, answering his objection, and pressing him not to evade the issue at hand. These people can tax even the most experienced apologist because one dishonest opponent is often worse than two are honest enemies are.

The serious anarchist is a person who does not want to accept the Bible, come what may, and is therefore well prepared to reject even the best evidence. However, there is a crucial difference between him and the escapist. Both of the rejects the evidence, but the anarchist tries to refute it while the escapist simply brushes it away. This means that one can at least get the anarchist involved in direct dialogue on the issues involved. This opens the door for confronting him with evidence, and there are many cases where such people have finally come to Christ.

Christians: The Christian community is full of people who are interested in historical evidences. Unfortunately, in spite of the proliferation of resources, many of them have not seen or read the best resources in archeology. Such people will be highly helped if the Christian apologist would share his knowledge of archeology with them. This can be printing done orally, through the print media, or even through the electronic media which have now become accessible to many. Within this group the professionally trained ones would enjoy material ranging from the popular to the highly technical. The untrained Christian, in spite of his interest, can become discouraged with material that is too technical. So he must be given resources that range from popular to semi technical. Once properly equipped, these people will become good resource-persons for helping others.

Within the Christian community one will also find certain people who are not at all serious about apologetic issues. Thus they might never get excited about a book or lecture on archeology. However, they are not trying to escape the issue, and therefore they can often be won over to see the need for convinced, they can also render great help.

The third group among Christians can be called the “escape artist”. He uses all his energy and intelligence to avoid making a decision. This might be because of his inner rebellion, gradual deviation from earlier commitment, or unwillingness for any serious commitment. He wants to be labeled a Christian, but does not wish to make choices that make him one. Thus he keeps pretending to be serious and committed, but cleverly brushes aside every question and argument that demand an honest response from him. Christian apologists should avoid exhausting their collection of information on these people. Rather, they should present just one or two solid historical data and repeatedly try to bring these people back to these point, so as to elicit some define, howsoever feeble, response from them. Once they succeed in doing this, they can give out the next round of proof and repeat the same process. Instead, if they give out all the evidence to an escapist, they will be left with nothing to confront these people on the next occasion.

The most dangerous and harmful person is the Christian radical and anarchist. Since he is an insider to the Christian community, he knows how to spot the weakling, doubters, and the rebels. He knows what their vulnerabilities are, plus when and where to attack to influence these people and destroy their faith. And this they are Christians only in name and their loyalties are to anti-Christian philosophies.

Brief apologetic encounter with these people will rarely serve any purpose. Nor will longer encounters benefit if the Christian apologist is not thoroughly armed.

The best approach would be private encounter with these people by thoroughly equipped apologists. Plenty of time should be available, and only as much of the subject should be touched as can be handled with the available time. It is definitely possible to engage these people in interaction, but plenty of time and solid preparation would be needed to do that in a satisfactory manner.

Summary:  The Christian faith is a completely history-dependent one. Biblical Archeology helps Christian to defend the historical foundations of Bible. This helps them to anarchists, and strengthens Christians in their faith.

Practical Contributions of Biblical Archeology

Today there are thousands of subjects for studies, with hundreds of specializations within each. Biblical Archeology is one of these thousands, and many Christians wonder whether it is of any practical use to the average Christian.

About twenty percent of born-again and God-fearing Christian face serious doubts about the reliability of the Christian faith. Any help from any coiner is welcome to help solve their doubts. Such people consider Biblical Archeology very important because they are greatly helped by it. However the remaining eighty percent do not know this. Yet they to need it, are helped by it, and should know at least something about the way they are helped.

1. Contribution In Defense of Faith: Christian faith today face attacks from all over, such attacks were always there, starting from what the Serpent told Eve in the Garden of Eden. However the intensity of attacks have increased much in the last three decades.

The growth of the science and technology in the last three to five centuries have now made it possible for a small group of dedicated anarchists to influence a very large number of people easily, quickly, and economically. Consequently, the attacks against the Christian faith have become widespread and ever-present. This affects both the Christian as well as the non Christian. Younger Christian develop an increasing set of doubts, while non Christians find barriers to faith developing in their minds.

The people mentioned above need someone to tell them of these historical developments that have supported the Bible. Starting from the discovery of the very town of Abraham, the settlement of Joseph and his brothers, the body of Pharaoh Ramses (After whom Ramses town was named), the stables of Solomon, the inner court where the king extended the scepter to Esther, the city where Daniel and his friends lived, the places where Jesus ministered, the remains of Caiphas the High priest, and that of James the brother of Jesus, someone should tell them about the tens of thousands of discoveries of Archeology that have a bearing on the history recorded in the Bible. This is done by Biblical Archeology.

When the appropriate information from Archeology is given to these people, their questions are answered, doubts are cleared, and their faith is strengthened. Attacks shall keep coming, but since they have seen most of their objections melt away, the object of their faith is defended.

2. Contribution In Witnessing: We live in an age of increasing skepticism and opposition to spiritual matters. Thus as soon as we preach the gospel, this skepticism rises as a barrier in accepting the gospel. Even those who are touched by the gospel and those who wish to accept often find these barriers preventing them from taking the final leap of faith.

Often the problem can be summarized as “I have heard about some problems related to the reliability of the Bible. Can you help me clarify those doubts are removed and it becomes easier for them to accept Christ.

There are numerous cases where Archeology has helped thinking people to get answers related to the trustworthiness of the Bible. This has then led many of them to Christ, and that is another value of Archeology for Christians.

3. Contribution In Strengthening Faith: There are many believers who do not face much of a doubt about Bible and the Christian faith, but who nevertheless welcome any information that shows that their faith stands upon sound historical foundation. When such believers hear about Bible-related discoveries, their faith is strengthened further.

It has been noticed that whenever a lecture is held on Biblical Archeology, at least twenty percent of people come from this category. They do not have much of a doubt, but their faith is strengthened substantially when they hear these lectures. The same thing happens when they are exposed to good articles and books on Archeology.

Every book is the product of a human society, which leaves a definite imprint on the book. Through the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God, this imprint can be clearly discerned.

The more ancient works like Job and Genesis are very much different from Psalms, which are different from Malachi. All of them are different from the Gospel of Mathew, which is different from Luke.

In addition, a book can be fully understood only when the idiom, the cultural context, and the historical background are understood. This is not to say that only an expert in ancient languages and cultures can understand the Bible. On the contrary, God has inspired His Word in a manner that communicates to people of all societies, eras, cultures, and age groups. At the same time, a knowledge of the background and culture of a book definitely helps a deeper understanding of the book. Archeology plays a significant role here, some of which are mentioned below.

4. Better Appreciation of Biblical Narratives: Many Biblical narratives, such as the way God called Abraham, the way Joseph was sold, imprisoned and elevated, the way Daniel was cast into the den of lions, etc, have challenged God’s children for millennia. Yet a knowledge of their background can create a deeper impression upon anyone.

For example, when God called Abraham to leave Ur, it was a call to leave the most prosperous, literate, technologically advanced, and rich country and its privileges for living life-long in tents in places hostile to human habitation. It was more like a call to an unbelievably rich prince of a most prosperous and powerful country to abdicate that position for life-long poverty and uncertainty. Except for a rare case of career-missionaries, nobody can heed that kind of a call even if a life-long support is guaranteed to them.

Daniel and friend lived at a time and in a country where even native officers in king’s place always lived in terror about king’s displeasure. Thus the aliens like Daniel and his friends had nothing humanly speaking to assure them in any way. Kings and emperors used to be so cruel, and their executions so savage, that it was a common practice to skin people alive, mount that skin on frames, and display then at the gate of the city. The crime for which such punishment were given were often small things such as displeasing the king during routine conversation, or the king taking a disliking for the smallest thing in a person’s life.

An understanding of the above facts helps one to better appreciate the risks taken by Daniel and his friends. It also tells us that Queen Esther’s attempt to go to the Inner court to meet the king without an invitation originating from the king himself was definitely playing with her life.

Thus Archeological discoveries and the historical, cultural, social information reconstructed or gleaned from them helps us to understand numerous Biblical narratives with greater depth and appreciation.

5. Better Understanding of Biblical Languages: Except for a couple of chapters that are written in Aramaic, the rest of the Bible is written in Hebrew and Greek. While both these languages are spoken today, these are totally different from the Hebrew or Greek of the Bible. Thus Modern Hebrew or Greek cannot be used straightway to understand the precise meaning, idioms, or nuances of the Biblical languages.

The understanding of Biblical Hebrew and Greek was kept alive by transmission from generation to generation through a small group of scholars, but none of them had the benefit of interacting with any significant number of extra-biblical writings in these languages. One should not forget that by BC 300 even a significant number of Jews were no longer able to enjoy the Old Testament in Hebrew, and it had to be translated then in to Greek, (This translation is called Septuagint, and often symbolically addressed as the LXX). If that was the situation with Biblical Hebrew in 2200 years ago, one can only imagine the predicament of Modern scholars. The Greek used in the New Testament was similarly so different from the Greek of the secular literature available that many Christians used to maintain that the New Testament Greek was some kind of a special “Holy Spirit Greek”.

While the Bible translations done in the last 2200 years without ready access to an abundance of similar extra biblical Hebrew or Greek were adequate for the faith and practice of the church, the situation changed radically from 1700 onwards. Theological radicals and rationalists started to subject the text of the original languages to critical and irreverent scripting with the clear-cut agenda of discrediting the Bible, for this they used many tactics, one of which was compare Greek and Hebrew vocabulary of the Bible with languages similar to that of the Bible to arrive at conclusions damaging to the Christian faith.

Many of the Hebrew/Greek words were obscure specially those words that were used only once in the entire Bible. Critics were quick to attribute fancy and false meanings to them with the express purpose of damaging the Christian faith. They were arguing from silence, and it was quite difficult to refute them without hard linguistic evidence.

This meant that as long as a substantial amount of documents using the same language are not discovered, Christian will continue to be harassed by theological radicals and atheists. And from the beginning of 1800s such discoveries started, and by mid 1900s they had discovered so many manuscripts in the both these languages that the critics were amazed.

Grammar books, dictionaries, vocabulary lists, parallel texts in multiple languages, and everything that one can imagine in relation to Biblical and related languages how now been discovered. Scholars of all shades, including non-conservatives have analyzed them in great detail. Even language-related computer software has been developed to aid this kind of analysis. The net result is a quantum jump in the understanding of Biblical languages. Much light has also been thrown on figurative expression, which are common throughout the Bible.

6. Better Understanding of Manners and Customs: People in all societies and during all times follow certain manners and customs that are important for them but unknown to others. Often people from another culture feel strange when they hear of manners and customs of a group of people. Often this feeling extends both ways.

What is worse, when people from one group try to understand another group, these unknown manners and customs introduce vast gulfs in mutual understanding and communications. The gulf becomes wide if the two cultures are removed far from each other either in time or in geographical location.

Through the message of the Bible is a timeless one, it is often conveyed by people of a totally alien culture, removed several millennia away, in languages that are not used by the majority of people.

Sarah asking Abraham to take her servant as a wife, and Jacob’s wives giving their maids to their husband looks strange to the modern man. He finds it difficult to understand the reasoning used by those women. Only an understanding that it was a common practice to fully adopt sons of servant girls would help the modern reader to appreciate what transpired in these families. Only this information will help the modern reader to understand how all the twelve men became Patriarchs, through not all of them were the legal heirs. This is only one example from the numerous cases where archeology has bridged the gaps in our understanding of ancient customs and cultures.

7. Accurate Knowledge of Ancient Objects: Man has been untiring discoverer and inventor for almost six millennia. He has thus made hundreds of objects both for using them vessels, lamps, tools) as well as for displaying (icons, statues). However, no culture, civilization, or country (however developed or wealthy) uses them all. Nor do they have access to all things invented. This is because what is of vital impotence in one place (for example a stethoscope) is no more than a toy in another place, and simply a stranger curiosity in another.

Neither is there a person who has seen all such objects, nor is there of whom can identify them all. Nor is there any language in the world, which has a name for all the objects available. Consequently when an object common in the ancient society is mentioned in the Bible, the modern reader need not have a name for it in hid language. Nor is there any reason for him to understand what this word refers to, unless he is able to see one of these objects.

A large number of tools and implements, furniture, vessels, cloths, weights and measures, ornaments, and arms are mentioned in the Bible. Machines such as millstone, vine-press and olive-press are mentioned. Jars and kitchen utensils, ironsmith’s implements weaver’s equipment, writing materials, scrolls and ovens are mentioned. Numerous other objects are also mentioned in the Bible. Discovering a piece or two helps scholars to understand their from and function. It also helps them to find or coin a name for that object.

Hundreds of thousands of samples of many objects (vessels, lamps, tools, and ornaments) mentioned in the Bible, plus coins, weights and measures have been discovered. Large and small statues of gods and goddesses mentioned in the Bible have also been found. Thus with help of a current Bible dictionary or Bible Encyclopedia the modern Bible-student can understand statements in the Bible more accurately.

Summary: Great has been the contribution of archeology for Christians and diligent Bible students. Discoveries have refuted the critics and radicals, have made the text more understandable, and have expanded our understanding of the customs, cultures, and objects common in Bible-lands.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Archeology And The Christian Apologist

Summary: The Christian faith is a completely history-dependent one. Biblical Archeology helps Christian to defend the historical foundations of Bible. This helps them to anarchists, and strengthens Christians in their faith.

Practical Contributions of Biblical Archeology

1. Contribution In Defense of Faith:

2. Contribution In Witnessing:

3. Contribution In Strengthening Faith:

4. Better Appreciation of Biblical Narratives:

5. Better Understanding of Biblical Languages:

6. Better Understanding of Manners and Customs:

7. Accurate Knowledge of Ancient Objects: