Alex Carson
The Bible is the most read and distributes book in the world. It estimates that more than 4 billion copies are in circulation. Think of it as one volume, the Bible is actually 66 books and letters written by forty or more people. The old testament considers sacred by both Jews and Christians alike and is 39 books. The new testament – which covers the era of Jesus Christ and his followers – is 27 books and epistles.
The Bible covers a pretty large period of time as well. Most scholars believe that it takes at least 1,500 years for the entire text to complete from Genesis to Revelation. It is understandable that not everyone will subscribe to the doctrines outlined within its pages. Seeing as how there are myriad other faiths out there, many people doubt the historicity of The Bible in general.
Discovery of Proofs
However, over the years, numerous archaeological discoveries provide proof of many of the events that are in the biblical scriptures. Bible students and scholars wondering whether or not the Bible is a reliable historical source. Recent finds provide proof that biblical figures such as King David, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Prophet Isaiah exist.
The biblical text describes miracles, angelic encounters, and extraordinary events. It’ll be quick to label as mythological, and also covers royal lineages, documentation of wars, sieges, and even business transactions. If you didn’t open up the Bible before, it’s surprising that it isn’t snakes and visions of a future apocalypse. A lot of the text considers mundane by those who aren’t versed in its context. Surely, these sorts of details have to be based on at least some kind of truth, right?
Join Facts Verse as we thumb through one of the most famous books of all time. Discover what portions of it prove to be true by modern archaeological discoveries. But before that, take a moment to show us a little support by giving this video a like and by subscribing to Facts Verse if you aren’t already.
King Solomon’s Wall
In the first Book of Kings, we learn that King Solomon built a wall around the perimeter of Jerusalem. In early 2010, the archaeologist Eilat Mazar announce that such a wall discovers along with several other defensive structures. When carbon dated, these fortifications appear to date to the time of Solomon in the 10th century BCE.
The wall is approximately 230 feet long and measures roughly 20 feet high. It’s in the area where Jerusalem comes to an end at that point in history. Stretching between the City of David, which is now the Palestinian borough of Silwan, and the Temple Mount.
Mazar’s team of excavators discover defensive structures in that area, including a gatehouse, a guard tower, and a royal building. It’s Mazar’s belief that only King David and his progeny King Solomon could have possibly built these edifices. Artifacts consisting of pieces of pottery and figurines are around the gatehouse. Back to the late 10th Century BCE, which happens to be right around the time of Solomon’s purported reign. One of the pottery pieces even had an inscription that read ‘to the king’.
Evidence Of A Catastrophic “Great Flood”
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we read about a great flood that God cast upon the earth. It is to purge it of the evil individuals and their false gods that tarnish his creation. As the story goes, God saves one man, Noah, and his family and builds a giant boat or ark. It is to safely shield two animals of every species from the floodwaters. Giving them a chance to repopulate after the deluge had run its course.
Time to discover evidence for an all-encompassing flood that occurs during the time of human existence. Ancient historical texts and modern scientific analysis suggest extreme and traumatic flooding in the biblical region that transpires. To people that live during this era, an event won’t doubt the impression of a global catastrophe.
Excavations in what’s now Iraq reveal hard evidence of severe flooding sometime around 2900 BCE. Mirroring ancient tales of flooding that occurs throughout Sumeria. The regions of the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia believe to undergo changes in sea levels after the last glacial period. Rapidly rising water levels would have submerged large regions of low-lying terrain.
It establishes that a massive flood some 7,000 years ago would have submerged more than 100,000 square miles of land in the region near the Black Sea.
Beyond that, many ancient cultures also tell tales of a great deluge. A couple of these include the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh and the Roman and Greek stories of Deucalion and Pyrrha.
Prophet Isaiah
During an archaeological dig in Jerusalem, excavators discovered physical evidence that the biblical Prophet Isaiah actually was a real person. In the Old Testament book that bears his name, Isaiah helped protect the ancient Kingdom of Judah from an invasion led by the Assyrians.
The proof that this team found was a small clay seal that evidently dates back to the 8th century BCE – the time period in which Isaiah lived. The seal contains the Hebrew name Yesha’yahu or Isaiah as he is famous today. There is a small split word that starts with the letters ‘NVY’, which many experts believe is part of the Hebrew word for prophet – navi.
Jesus Christ
Contrary to common misconception, Jesus’ last name was not actually Christ. The word Christ is, in fact, a title that means ‘anointed one’. Likewise, the historical Jesus would not have gone by the name Jesus either, as the letter J did not become common in Modern English until the 17th Century. More than likely, he would have gone by the Hebrew name Yeshua – which equates to the modern-day name Joshua.
Over the years, many people have claimed to have discovered physical evidence of Jesus Christ. For example, many people believe that the famous Shroud of Turin is the actual burial linen that Christ bury in. And there are numerous individuals and groups that claim to have pieces of his crucifixion cross in their possession. But the problem with these supposed relics is the burden of proof. It’s next-to-impossible to confirm conclusively that any of these items really are what believers say they are, even if they prove to date back to the 1st century CE. It’s not like we have a strand of Jesus’ hair or a drop of blood to compare DNA.
But even though we don’t have any artifacts at the moment to conclusively prove the existence of Jesus, we do have the writing of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus which makes mention of Jesus and his followers.
Josephus wrote his historical accounts only decades after the death of Jesus, and his texts state that he was a real person. Josephus confirms that Jesus condemns death on the cross by a man named Pilate. He went on to say that Jesus seemed to appear to his followers who didn’t forsake him three days after his death. Josephus also mentioned that the ‘tribe of Christians’ were ‘not extinct’ at the time of his writing.
King David
For many years, scholars and historians doubted the existence of King David. According to the old testament, King David was one of three kings that ruled over united Israel sometime around the year 1000 BCE.
When he was just a boy, he supposedly slew the giant Goliath with his trusty sling, and once he was an adult, he ruled under the direction of God as a mighty king. Up until the early 90s, however, there was no hard evidence to prove that David was a real historical figure.
in 1993, Gila Cook, a member of a team leads by Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran, discovers pieces of what uses to build an ancient stone wall that contained a Canaanite inscription that mentions the ‘house of David’. This fragment is now known as the Tel Dan Stele. While it doesn’t provide much information other than that one phrase, it does confirm that David’s dynasty ruled about 1,000 years before the birth of Christ.
The Tower Of Babel
In the book of Genesis, there’s mention of a marvel of ancient architecture called the Tower of Babel. Reportedly, this pyramidal tower – or ziggurat – was built by descendants of Noah who survived the Great Deluge. As the story goes, they all shared a common language when they settled in the Mesopotamian city of Babylonia. But as seems to be the modus operandi of God’s people in the old testament, these ancient folks eventually began to stray from God and decided to build a great tower that would ‘reach to the heavens’ as a symbol of their pride.
When God saw what they were up to, he struck the tower down and scattered the people throughout the land, confusing their languages so that they could no longer communicate with each other.
Although we have yet to find the specific ruins of the Tower of Babel, nearly 30 similar ziggurats have been discovered in Ancient Babylon, which is just 55 miles away from the modern city of Baghdad, Iraq.
King Nebuchadnezzar
Speaking of Babylon, the Hebrew book of 2nd Kings makes mention of a Babylonian king named Nebuchadnezzar who laid siege to Jerusalem, plundered it’s great temple for it’s loot and treasures, abducted the Judean King and his royal family, and exiled 10,000 skilled workers, officers, and artisans in Babylon. A decade later, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Jerusalem and completely leveled Solomon’s Temple.
Then, in the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is punished by God for his pride and goes insane. In his madness, Nebuchadnezzar wandered the wilderness for seven years, eating grass like an ox.
While it’s difficult to confirm the events of this specific story, archaeologists have discovered thousands of clay tablets and other inscribed objects from dig sites all across ancient Mesopotamia that mention Nebuchadnezzar by name. Apparently, this guy was pretty proud of his many accomplishments because he was all about slapping his name on just about everything he built. One might think of him as the Donald Trump of the ancient world.
Babylonian Chronicles
And as far as the destruction of Jerusalem goes, archaeologists have discovered an incredible set of tablets known as the Babylonian Chronicles that confirm that he and his men did indeed level the city in a series of sieges that culminated in its destruction in 587 BCE. And beyond that, these clay artifacts also specifically mention that after Jerusalem’s destruction, many people, including the royal family, were in fact taken into exile, just as the Bible says.
These few examples are really just the tip of the iceberg of all the incredible archaeological discoveries that have been made that seem to confirm many accounts found within the Bible.
Are you surprised by the fact that countless stories found in the Bible have been confirmed by modern means? Can you think of any other biblical events that archaeology has proven to be true? Let us know in the comments down below.
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