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Foundations of Faith
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Lesson 7: The Historical Accuracy of the Bible

To be divinely inspired a book must also be historically accurate. If its credibility cannot be established on the basis of known events, it certainly cannot be relied upon in matters beyond our ability to check. Accuracy alone does not prove inspiration, but if we can demonstrate that a book is historically correct to a degree unknown among human writings, we have strong presumptive evidence that the authors were inspired by God. In this lesson we will learn how this is true of the Bible.

Through the centuries enemies of the Bible have attacked its historical accuracy. But time and again the scriptures have been exonerated by archaeology. Archaeology is a study of relics, monuments, etc., of ancient civilizations. By this science peoples and events known heretofore only in biblical accounts have been illuminated by the excavations of ancient cites. Over and over again the Bible has been absolved of charges of inaccuracy. Consider a few examples.

GRAPES IN EGYPT. In Genesis 40 we are told how Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh's butler. In this dream grapes are mentioned. The ancient historian Herodotus stated that the Egyptions grew no grapes and drank no wine. Some, therefore, questioned the accuracy of the biblical account. However, frescoes (paintings) discovered on ancient Egyptian tombs show the dressing, pruning, and cultivating of vines, and also the process of extracting the juice of grapes, as well as depicting scenes of drunkenness. There can be little doubt that the "Father of History" was wrong and the Bible is right.

THE BRICKS OF PITHOM. In Exodus 1:11 we are told that the Israelites built for Pharaoh the treasure cities of Pithom and Raamses. In Exodus 5 we are informed that in their building they made bricks first out of straw, then out of stubble, and finally, when no straw was given to them, with no straw at all. In 1883 Edouard Naville began the excavation of Tell el-Maskuta which he identified as the city of Pithom. In the construction he explored he discovered that the lowest level was made of bricks with chopped straw, higher up reeds were substituted, and at the highest level bricks were made from the Nile mud with no binding substance added. We cannot be sure that Naville's identification of Pithom was accurate, but there is an amazing correspondence between the bricks he discovered and the account of the biblical record.

THE HITTITES. Forty-eight times in the scriptures a people called the Hittites are mentioned. We find them blocking Israel's path as it sought entrance to the promised land. We read of Uriah, the Hittite, whom David sent to his untimely death. However, in all the records of antiquity not a reference to these people was to be found, and skeptics attributed them to imagination and fiction. In 1876 George Smith began a study of monuments at Djerabis in Asia Minor. This city proved to be Carchemish, a capital of the ancient Hatti. Archaeological investigations have revealed that the Hatti were the Hittites of the Bible, who, according to Professor A. H. Sayce, "contended on equal terms with both Egypt and Assyria." The Hittites were not only a real people, but their empire was one of the great forces of the ancient world over a thousand years before Jesus.

SARGON. In Isaiah 20:1 we read, "In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,)..." This is the only mention of King Sargon in the Bible, and the only one in all classical literature. His historicity was severely questioned on this account. In 1843 P. E. Botta began digging in the mound of Khorsabad in the hope that he might discover ancient Nineveh. Instead he discovered the royal palace of Sargon and a fantastic treasure of artifacts. Among the records discovered was an account of the siege of Ashdod mentioned by Isaiah. Once more the Bible was right, the critics wrong.

THE FLOOD. Genesis 6-8 relates the destruction of most of mankind by a great flood. To many the biblical account of the deluge is an ancient myth of an event which never occurred. However, the Genesis account of a devastating flood of vast dimensions is supported by numerous traditions from peoples all over the world. One writer has listed 88 different flood traditions. Although they differ widely from one another, and from the Bible, there are common elements found in most of these traditions -- a universal destruction of the human race and other living creatures, and an ark or boat as a means of escape for the remnant of mankind. Some add that human wickedness was the cause of the flood, that birds were sent out before the hero emerged from the boat, and that a sacrifice was offered to the gods by those who were saved.

The most striking similarities to the biblical account of the flood are found in the Gilgamesh Epic written on clay tablets in the ancient library of Assurbanipal in Nineveh. The narrative is vastly different from the biblical story, but the similarities are amazing. In the epic Utnapishtim, the hero, is told by the gods to build a ship and take into it seed of all living creatures. It is suggested that the cause of the impending fiood was the sinfulness of man. He built the ship to specified dimensions and sealed it with pitch. At the proper time his family entered with him into the boat and there was a terrible rainstorm which lasted into the seventh day. When the water subsided they landed on Mt. Nisir. Utnapishtim sent out a dove. It returned. He sent out a swallow. It also came back. He sent out a raven which did not return. When the people emerged from the boat they sacrificed to the gods. To the Bible student the similarities to the scriptural account are immediately apparent. How shall this correspondence be accounted for? There are too many points in common to be explained by coincidence. The differences between the Gilgamesh Epic and the story of Noah are too many to make it at all likely that either narrative was based on the other. The facts point to an historic event of which each is a different account. The non-biblical flood stories of ancient peoples have been grossly distorted, but the measure of agreement is so great as to establish that the biblical flood is a fact of history, not a figment of someone's imagination as the skeptics would propose.

HEZEKIAH'S RESISTANCE. Possibly the greatest of the kings of Judah was Hezekiah who resisted the yoke of Assyria. In 701 B.C. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, launched a campaign to punish Hezekiah and others for rebellion. He laid siege to Jerusalem as recorded in 2 Kings 18 and 19. Despite his overwhelming numerical superiority he was forced to return to Nineveh unsuccessful in his effort.

Sennacherib's failure is confirmed by that king himself on a clay prism in which he related details of his eight campaigns. Of course, he tried to make it appear that he had won a victory! He declared of Hezekiah, "He himself I shut up like a caged bird within Jerusalem, his royal city." His failure to claim that he had defeated Hezekiah confirms the biblical affirmation that the city did not fall.

SERGIUS PAULUS, THE PROCONSUL. In Acts 13:7 mention is made of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul (deputy - King James Version) of Cyprus. It was once charged that Luke blundered in using this term instead of propraetor since Cyprus was an imperial province and the latter title was used in such cases. However, coins discovered on Cyprus now establish that the island became a senatorial province with the governors being termed proconsuls. A description discovered at Soli on Cyprus contains the phrase, "under Paulus the proconsul." The dating places it in the thirteenth year of the Emperor Claudius, making it virtually certain that this was the same Sergius Paulus to whom Paul introduced Christianity.

CONFIRMATION BY NON-BIBLICAL HISTORIANS. Some biblical accounts have been substantiated by non-biblical writers. The Jewish historian Josephus, who lived in the first century, has enlarged on many Bible incidents. For example, we are told in Matthew 14:3, 4 that Herod put John the Baptist to death for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had told Herod that it wasn't lawful for him to have Herodias as his wife. Josephus tells us why. Herodias had originally been married to Herod's brother, Philip, but she divorced Philip and married Herod. The unlawful marriage was the basis of John's denunciation. The accounts of Josephus and Matthew supplement and confirm one another.

APPARENT INCONSISTENCIES. Nothing establishes the authenticity of a writing better than apparent inconsistencies which evaporate upon close examination. This demonstrates that the authors did not resort to collusion in an attempt to deceive.

An example is the ruling family of Palestine. In Matthew 2:1 we read of "Herod the King" who governed when Jesus was born. Matthew 2:19 records his death. Yet in Acts 12:12 we read once more of "Herod the King" who killed James, the brother of John. How could he do this if he were dead? Josephus, an unbeliever in Christ, explains the difficulty by showing that the Herod of Acts 12 was actually the grandson of the Herod mentioned in Matthew 2.

Again, Luke 2:1 mentions "Caesar Augustus" as the ruling monarch of the Roman Empire. In Luke 3:1 we are informed that John the Baptist began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. This shows that Augustus was no longer on the throne. Still later in Acts 25:21 we find Paul appealing his arrest to Augustus. A superficial reading might lead us to suppose that the Bible contradicts itself. But on close examination with other known facts we discover that the emperor at the time of Paul's appeal was Nero whose full name was Caesar Augustus Nero. Luke, the author of both books, does not explain because first century readers were familiar with the fact that two different men were named Augustus.

It should not be supposed that every historical problem relating to the Bible has been resolved. Sometimes we must declare that we just don't know the answer. Not all of the data is in. As archaeologists continue to dig in the remains of ancient civilizations they continue to discover information bearing on the biblical story. The Bible has often been charged with historical inaccuracy. But as the spade has proved these charges groundless, the conviction of Bible believers that the Bible is truly God's word has been reinforced.

SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES

True or false:
T F 1. Any historically accurate book is divinely inspired.
T F 2. Archaeology is the study of the stars.
T F 3. Herodotus said the Egyptians drank no wine.
T F 4. The Hittites once had a great empire.
T F 5. Sargon is mentioned once in the Bible.
T F 6. Sennacherib conquered Jerusalem.
T F 7. In the book of Acts Sergius Paulus is called "Propraetor."
T F 8. Josephus gives details about Herod's unlawful marriage.
T F 9. Two emperors named Augustus are mentioned in the Bible.
T F 10. All of the historical problems in the Bible have been resolved.

Read the account of the flood in Genesis 6:11 to 8:22. Write "yes" before the following things from the Babylonian flood tablets which agree in substance with the biblical account. Write "no" before those in which there is no agreement:

________	1. The man who built a boat was Utnapishtim.
________	2. Pitch was to be used on the boat or ark.
________	3. Seed of all kinds of creatures was to be taken into it.
________	4. There was a great rainstorm.
________	5. A dove was sent out, but it returned.
________	6. A swallow was sent out, and it returned.
________	7. A raven which was sent out did not return.
________	8. After disembarking from the boat a sacrifice was offered.

Read Exodus 1:7-14 and 5:1-19 which tell of the oppression of Israel by the Egyptians and the building which Israel did for Pharaoh. Fill in the blanks:

A new king came to the throne who did not know ________________. He feared that the children of Israel would join with the enemies of Egypt and he therefore set ________________ over them to afflict them with burdens. They built for Pharaoh the ________________ cities of ________________ and Raamses. The Egyptians made their lives bitter with mortar, brick, and service in the________________. Moses and ________________ went to Pharaoh to ask if Israel might be released to go into the wilderness for a ________________. Pharaoh refused, telling them to get back to their ________________. The same day he told the taskmasters not to give the people any more ________________ for bricks, but that they should gather it for themselves. The taskmasters were not to ________________ the burden of the people. The people scattered to gather ________________ instead of straw. They were required to do as much work as when there was ________________.

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