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07-13-2008, 07:35 AM
I would like some elaboration, and preferably sources please.
Originally Posted by Constitutionally Speaking
The bible passes the tests that are set down for reliable history books.
Allright. Someone elaborate on how the bible passes as a historical archive, without quoting the bible because thats circular, please.
I'm genuinely interested.
07-13-2008, 07:58 AM
Certainly the Old Testament fits that classification, as it remains as the primary source for the history of the Jewish peoples pre-Christ. When taken in context with other texts and archeological evidence from the area, it is quite accurate, excluding the mystical component, of course. At university, I took a three quarter course in the history of ancient civilizations (Hebrew, Greek, Roman) and it was the text we read.
07-13-2008, 08:15 AM
I always thought that Judges, Kings and beyond was the truth of man's history in that era. I was just wondering when the "Bible" became a historical text, and who studies from it. Because I would like to study from the same. After all, the bible was written across thousands of years from many different viewpoints. If they all can be verified as proved verifiable, it would be nearly the complete history of man. That's something worth studying in my book.
07-13-2008, 08:59 AM
Not just the old testament - both are exceptionally reliable historical documents - especially when compared to the other sources of the time period.
Most of my research in in book format, so I did a quick Google search and without examining it in minute detail, it does show SOME of what I have found in my offline studies.
http://www.carm.org/questions/trustbible.htm
07-13-2008, 11:56 AM
Starting with the Great Flood, the Old Testament isn't very realistic.
07-13-2008, 02:56 PM
Are you being sarcastic because I believe you to be smarter than your reply indicates? Factually, the Bible is very accurate as a history book.Starting with the Great Flood, the Old Testament isn't very realistic.
07-13-2008, 03:43 PM
Agreed. Maybe some things didn't happen exactly as written, such as Joshua and Jericho, but they all happened. So far as I'm aware, in spite of their trying, nobody has been able to prove anything in the Bible wrong.
I can remember when the 'experts' doubted that Pontius Pilate existed. Then, a road marker was found with his name. Maybe trumpets didn't bring down Jericho, but something did. Details, but the bottom line is, it all seems to have happened.
07-13-2008, 03:52 PM
When we lived in the Middle East we got to go to many of the Holy sites. I loved Jericho.
Is the Bible accurate concerning the destruction of the walls of Jericho?
The sinful city of Jericho was judged by God through the Israelites. The seemingly impenetrable walls were collapsed by a miracle.
In the Old Testament, in Joshua chapter 6, we have an account of the Israelites defeating the city of Jericho when they came into the Promised Land after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. According to the biblical account, after the Israelites marched around the city once a day for six days, on the seventh day they encircled the city seven times. On the seventh time around, the priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted and the walls fell flat.
The first major excavation of the site of Jericho, located in the southern Jordan valley in Israel, was carried out by a German team between 1907 and 1909. They found piles of mud bricks at the base of the mound the city was built on.
It was not until a British archaeologist named Kathleen Kenyon reexcavated the site with modern methods in the 1950s that it was understood what these piles of bricks were. She determined that they were from the city wall which had collapsed when the city was destroyed!
Walls of Jericho
Cross-section of the fallen bricks from the wall of Jericho. [Enlarge]
The story in the Bible goes on to say that when the walls collapsed, the Israelites stormed the city and set it on fire. Archaeologists found evidence for a massive destruction by fire just as the Bible relates. Kenyon wrote in her excavation report,
“The destruction was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened by fire, and every room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers, and household utensils; in most rooms the fallen debris was heavily burnt.”
What caused the strong walls of Jericho to collapse? The most likely explanation is an earthquake. But the nature of the earthquake was unusual. It struck in such a way as to allow a portion of the city wall on the north side of the site to remain standing, while everywhere else the wall fell.
The spies leave Rahab's house on very wide Jericho wall. Supplied by Eden Communications.
The spies leave Rahab's Jericho wall house.
Rahab's house was evidently located on the north side of the city. She was the Canaanite prostitute who hid the Israelite spies who came to reconnoiter the city. The Bible states that her house was built against the city wall. Before returning to the Israelite camp, the spies told Rahab to bring her family into her house and they would be saved. According to the Bible, Rahab's house was miraculously spared while the rest of the city wall fell.
This is exactly what archaeologists found. The preserved city wall on the north side of the city had houses built against it.
07-13-2008, 03:54 PM
Picture here
Pilate is recorded by several contemporary historians; his name is inscribed on Roman coins and on a stone dug up in Caesarea in the 1960s with the words, PONTIUS PILATUS PRAEFECTUS PROVINCIAE JUDAEAE.
07-13-2008, 04:26 PM
Flavious Josephus was a Jewish historian who wrote about life in the last part of the first century. As a Jew, he had no reason to verify any historical accounts of the life of Jesus or the early part of the church but he backs up alot that was written about in the Bible.
Josephus
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