What archaeological proof is there of any old testament story was true?

Question

There are many stories in the old testament, are there any archaeological proof to any of the stories in the Old Testament, if so which ones?

Answer 1

They have established the existence of the Edomite kingdom at the time King David and his son Solomon ruled over Israel.
The story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho is recorded in Joshua 6 in the Old Testament: "Dr. John Garstang, director of the British School of Archeology in Jerusalem and of the Department of Antiquities of the Palestine Government, excavated the ruins of Jericho, 1929-1936. He found pottery and scarab evidence that the city had been destroyed about 1400 BC, coinciding with Joshua’s date; and in a number of details, dug up evidence confirming the Biblical account in a most remarkable way."

"‘The wall fell down flat.’ Dr. Garstang found that the wall did actually ‘fall down flat.’ The wall was double, the two walls being 15 ft apart; the outer wall, 6 ft thick; the inner wall, 12 ft thick; both being about 30 ft high. They were built, not very substantially, on faulty uneven foundations, of brick 4 inches thick and 1 to 2 ft long, laid in mud mortar. The two walls were linked together by houses built across the top, as Rahab’s ‘house on the wall.’ Dr. Garstang found that the outer wall fell outwards and down the hillside, dragging the inner wall and houses with it, the streak of bricks gradually getting thinner down the slope. The foundation walls of the palace, 4 courses of stone high, remain, in situ, tilted downward. Dr. Garstang thinks there are indications that the wall was shaken down by an earthquake (of which traces may be seen), a method which God could have used as easily as any other.
A book that you should check out is : The Case for the Christ by Lee Strobel. He did several interviews with archaeologists and it gives several more incidents that I know I'm forgetting. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

One among many examples is the fact that for many years the existence of the Hittites (a powerful people who lived during the time of Abraham) was questioned because no archaeological digs had uncovered anything about them. Critics claimed the Hittites were pure myth. But today the critics are silenced. Abundant archaeological evidence for the existence of the Hittites during the time of Abraham has been uncovered.

Answer 3

Actually there's quite a considerable amount of archeaological evidence for many stories of the Torah , Bible and Koran.

There is a historical recording of the crucifixion of Jesus for essentially inciting unrest from the Roman public records of Pontius Pilate to the Imperial throne.

The most interesting example is perhaps the story of Jericho, which after many years turns out to have been almost completely backed up by the archeological evidence.

This is not to say that EVERY biblical story is true, that is certainly not the case, there is very likely a good combination of metaphorical storytelling and morality tales some of which may have been inheirited from OLDER traditions, i.e.; the Flood - a story almost any reader would recognize as the flood story existed in the much older Babylonian and Sumerian traditions for example and there are variants in almost every other ancient human civilization.

Since archaeological evidence suggests that at some point the straights of the Bosphorus may have retained more water then they presently do as well as the increasing sea levels after the end of the last ice age would have also caused increasing sea levels, there is good basis for a parable/metaphorical story about a "Flood".

And very recently archaeologists and paleontological experts determined that speculations about regular recurring catastrophic glacial flooding events occured in the glacier "dam" which bound waters in the American Northwest, (based on the badlands excavations in Washington State) when this ice-dam broke forth, there was a large catastrophic flood, which certainly would have dwarfed any tsunami in recorded history by virtue of sudden displacement of billions of tons of water (approximately 2 lake Erie's, draining in a matter of hours or days or weeks into the Pacific). What effect such a large, active body of water would have on rainfall, I don't know.

The simple tribesmen and small sparsely populated primordial towns which experienced these great "floods/tsunamis" 1/2 a world away in some shoreline tribes along the Black sea, or perhaps the Iraqi coastline, would certainly have had a story to tell about the time the "whole" world was flooded and everyone destroyed in the flood, to a simple farmer or sheppard whom maybe lost everyone they knew and all the animals they depended on, (ask anyone who survived the Tsunami in 2005-6), the devastation is or I should say WAS beyond human comprehension. we now know it's possible.

While I have not heard of a specific theory to this effect, if a comet or smaller asteroid were to impact in the Pacific or other larger ocean away from any inhabited area, two things would happen.

1. Depending on the size of the object, a large tsunami would cause waves of water over all but the highest mountain ranges.

2. Rainfall from the impact would cause "rain" to fall for at least a short time across most of the planet's temparate zone.

So while not strictly true in one sense, the Bible (and for that matter almost every other creation text of mankind) tells the story of a great flood, which naturally would have been attributed to the wrath of an angry God.



If due to global warming, the Arctic Ice sheets were collapse catastrophically, rather than gradually melt, most of the major coastal cities of the planet will simultaneously be under up to 20 feet of water in a matter of weeks rather than years, decades or centuries.

What would our ancestors say, 2000 years from now, that we were perhaps imprudent in our stewardship of the planet, perhaps we incurred the wrath of God upon our great cities.

So how might some religious person of poor means see our reports of global warming and debates about whether it occurs or not from the hindsight of a submerged planet,

Mark of Wisconsin 1:1 - And lo it came to pass in the days of old that there were many great cities of men , and they that lived in them were proud and boastful of their achievments and would not heed those whom studied the seas and heavens among them. The countenance of the stewards of men abandoned, God struck down upon the Earth a wrath of heaven and sea and made the seas rise up and bring low the cities of man.

It has that ring of Truthiness about it - somehow.

Answer 4

It is true that there is archaeological evidence to indicate that the places talked about in the Bible are there and that some event did occur at that site. However, there is also archaeological evidence of Troy, hence does that make all of the Iliad by Homer true? Most myths are based on some small amount of fact. The burning of a city by lightning strike can be attributed to God punishing those living there in myths. We all realize that lightning does strike and causes fires, however back when the Bible stories were being created into mythical levels, they thought that lightning was punishment of God, for example. Finding evidence of support of stories, does not make the story true.

Answer 5

Your best content for the answer to this question can be found at
http://www.carm.org/questions/trustbible.htm

One poster claims above, the bible is no more accurate that Homer's Illiad. I respectfully disagree and the table shown at the link above clearly demonstrates my argument that the Bible is one of the most accurate sources for the events described in it.

Few fail to realize this and show their lack of knowledge in the historicity of the Bible by objecting when folks use the bible to support their own positions. While no one objects when a journal article or some popular book or media piece is quoted, there is always lots of flippant commentary when Christians use the bible as a reference. Hmmm...

Ask Mr. Religion
Answering your questions about religion since 1994
http://www.askmrreligion.com

Answer 6

Yes,lots.

http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/biblical-archaeology.htm

Answer 7

Some say that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah can be proved. They say where the cities once stood, it is rich in salt (Lot's wife was turned to a pillar of salt when she turned around to look) and sulfur. The towns were burned with brimstone and brimstone is basically sulfur. That's the idea anyway, I have no idea how true this is but it's quite interesting.

Answer 8

stable question. a lot of people ask the comparable element. yet i think of too plenty interest is being centred on the incorrect component of Holy Scriptures... sure, this is genuine that some are no longer subsidized via archeological findings. The Bible isn't meant to be some style of historic previous e book or an archeological source. that is referred to as Sacred Scriptures. It holds the religion teachings for all Christians, which contain Catholics. we don't use it as a historic previous e book yet as a e book that shows us and teaches us the thank you to stay a holy, virtuous existence in following Jesus Christ. no remember if or no longer all its parables and memories are constantly subsidized via archeological unearths is beside the point for genuine believers. a million.)It would not actual remember to us if there is archeological information for this - the Israelites wandered interior the wasteland for 40 years whilst being examined and tried via God so as that they may be molded right into a Holy and Righteous people in the previous the sight of the Lord. God rescued them from their slavery. Jesus fasted and prayed interior the wasteland for 40 days - He rescued us from our sins. i'm uncertain approximately different Christian faiths, yet we Catholics have fun the season of Lent (which we are in good now!!), to remember those 40 days and to prepare for Jesus' suffering, death, and Resurrection. besides the indisputable fact that, there is archeological and historic information for extremely some what happened interior the Bible ... e.g. a guy named Jesus truly became born, had many followers, executed miracles, became crucified, and rose from the lifeless. additionally, many archeologists have studied and got here across (close to the Mesopotamia components "ish") the airborne dirt and airborne dirt and dirt layers of the earth - they say there became some style of flood, etc. yet in fact, it became by no ability meant to be an "archeological/historic gold mine." That wasn't the intentions of its author (s). Sorry, i do no longer understand the solutions to something - can no longer assist you there. stable success in searching for the solutions. God Bless

Answer 9

the list is tremendous and too long to be listed here.
The Hittites are a good example. for hundreds of years, non-believers pointed to the Hittites, because they were mentioned in the Bible but no trace of them could be found, as proof the Bible was not truth. when their civilization was finally located by archeologists, the non-believers had to go find another foolish claim that God's Word was not true. to date, the Bible has NEVER been proven untrue.

Answer 10

Rigorous Transcription of Old Testament

We can have confidence in the reliability of the Old Testament because of the rigorous transcription methods employed. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, the oldest Old Testament manuscript found dated around AD 900, approximately 1300 years after the completion of the Old Testament in 400 BC. The Dead Sea Scrolls, however are dated before the time of Christ (about 150 BC). The book of Isaiah found in the Dead Sea Scrolls verifies the precision of the method used to transcribe the Old Testament. The book of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls is identical to today's standard Hebrew Bible in greater than 95% of the text. The 5% variation is due to slips of the pen and variations in spelling.

The Talmudists (AD 100 - 500) used a very strict transcription method. Synagogue rolls had to be written on specially prepared skins of clean animals and fastened with strings taken from clean animals. Each skin had to contain a certain number of columns. Each column had to have between 48 and 60 lines and be 30 letters wide. The spacing between consonants, sections and books was precise, measured by hairs or threads. The ink had to be black and prepared with a specific recipe. The transcriber could not deviate from the original in any manner. No words could be written from memory. The person making the copy had to wash his whole body before beginning and had to be in full Jewish dress. He could not begin to write the name of God with a pen freshly dipped in ink. While writing God's name, he was to focus on his task, not even looking up if a king addressed him.
Because of the care taken to make copies, Talmudists were confident that they were exact. Talmudists destroyed older copies because they feared the older copies would become damaged and misinterpreted with age. That is why there are few older manuscripts.

The Massoretes (AD 500-900) also had a complicated system of ensuring that copies were accurate. By numbering verses, words and letters and calculating and enumerating various combinations, they were able to ensure precise transcription of the text.

We also be assured of the validity of the Old Testament because Jesus accepted it and quoted extensively from it.