Doctrine of the Bible:

The Testimony of Archaeology

December 13, 2009

THROUGHOUT THE DECADES

1910’s

1920’s

1930’s

1940’s

1950’s

1960’s

1970’s

1980’s

1990’s

2000’s

World War I, Titanic, Panama Canal

Jazz age, Ernest Hemingway, Black Tuesday

Great Depression, Scotch Tape, Volkswagon Beetle

World War II, Computers, Billy Graham

Cold War, Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball

Space Race, Martin Luther King, Jr., Woodstock

Elton John, Star Wars, The Price is Right

Michael Jackson, Macintosh, Mt. Saint Helens

Internet, Hubble Telescope, Michael Jordan

Wii, Google, September 11 attacks

ARCHAEOLOGY

• Study of beginnings

• The scientific field of study which attempts to reconstruct cultures and civilizations from the past by digging up and studying what they left behind in the earth.

BIBLICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. Scores of archeological finds have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible.” - Nelson Glueck

BIBLICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“In every period of Old Testament history, we find that there is good evidence from archaeology that the Scriptures speak the truth…In fact, while thousands of finds from the ancient world support in broad outline and often in detail the biblical picture, not one incontrovertible find has ever contradicted the Bible.”

- Norman Geisler

BIBLICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“The events described in the NT intersect nonbiblical sources at many points…This does not mean that the faith claims of the NT are proven. What it does mean is that those faith claims are set within a historical context that can be repeatedly verified. Given that fact, it seems reasonable to assume that the NT writers would be equally trustworthy in other parts of their story.”

- James Edwards

BIBLICAL SIGNIFICANCE

• Archaeology is apologetics, not evangelism

• Archaeology cannot form faith, but it can help inform faith.

PRESUPPOSITIONS

• Archaeological finds are always a matter of interpretation

• The accuracy of interpretation is based on the completeness of the facts

FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE

• Produced

FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE

• Produced• Survived• Surveyed• Excavated• Examined• Published

“With few exceptions, western museums have still not caught up with the flow antiquities and their basements and storerooms are full of undiscovered treasures.” - Erle Leichty

STRATIGRAPHY

STRATIGRAPHY

POTTERY TYPOLOGY

DATING MANUSCRIPTS

Internal Evidence

DATING MANUSCRIPTS

Paleography

DATING MANUSCRIPTS

Archaeology

DATING MANUSCRIPTS

Modern Science

FLOOD

BABEL

SODOM & GOMORRAH

HITTITES

EBLA

JERICHO

“It is a sad fact that of the town walls of the Late Bronze Age, within which period the attack by the Israelites must fall by any dating, not a trace remains....The excavation of Jericho, therefore, has thrown no light on the walls of Jericho of which the destruction is so vividly described in the Book of Joshua.”

- Kathleen Kenyon

JERICHO

• Josh 6:20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.

• Josh 2:15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall.

JERICHO

• Josh 6:17 (cf. vv. 22-23) Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

• Josh 2:22 They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing.

JERICHO

Josh 3:15b (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest)

KING SAUL

• 1 Sam 31:10 They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.

• 1 Chron 10:10 And they put his armor in the temple of their gods and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.

TEL DAN STELA

GEZER

1 Kgs 9:16-17 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife; so Solomon rebuilt Gezer)

SENNACHERIB

SHALMANESER

BELSHAZZAR

Dan 5:16 Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

LUKE

• Luke 1:1-4 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

• “In all, Luke names thirty-two countries, fifty-four cities and nine islands without an error.” - Norman Geisler

SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY

• “The Acts of the Apostles is now generally agreed in scholarly circles to be the work of Luke, to belong to the first century and to involve the labors of a careful historian who was substantially accurate in his use of sources.”

• “Luke’s history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness.”

BIRTH OF CHRIST

• Luke 2:1-3 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

• “Because of the approaching census it is necessary that all those residing for any cause away from their homes should at once prepare to return to their own governments in order that they may complete the family registration of the enrollment and that the tilled lands may retain those belonging to them.”

GOSPEL PURPOSE

“Luke was a historian because he was first and foremost an Evangelist: he knew that the faith which he wished to proclaim stands or falls with the history of Jesus and the early church.”

- I. Howard Marshall

LESSONS LEARNED

• Greater confidence?

• Greater love?

SCHEDULE

09/27 Introduction

10/04 How did we get our Bible?

10/11 How do we know we have the true Bible? (Part 1)

10/18 How do we know we have the true Bible? (Part 2)

10/25 Why are there so many different translations?

11/01 How do we know the Bible is true? (Part 1)

11/08 How do we know the Bible is true? (Part 2)

11/15 The testimony of Scripture to itself (Part 1)

11/22 The testimony of Scripture to itself (Part 2)

11/29 Thanksgiving

12/06 The testimony of church history

12/13 The testimony of archaeology

12/20 The testimony of changed lives

12/27 Christmas