Bible is one of the most historically accurate documents?

Question

I was talking to one of my friends that I havent seen in a while and somehow we got into a discussion about the Bible. And he said that it is one of the most historically accurate documents ever written. This kid is far from stupid and I would actually say he is extremely intellegent. I am not an atheist. I try to beleive that there is a God but this just doesn't make any sense in reality. So is there any truth in saying the Bible is historically accurate in any way?

Answer 1

Yes there is!

"Both the Old and New Testaments are strongly supported by manuscript evidence (the evidence of early hand written copies). The famous Dead Sea Scrolls are one example of the Old Testament evidence. These documents came from the “library” of a settlement founded at Qumran before 150 B.C. and abandoned about 68 A.D. Some of the manuscript copies were made during that period, and some were written earlier (third century BC) and brought to the settlement. Ignoring spelling-oriented (orthographic) changes and similar small differences, the Dead Sea Scrolls match the Hebrew text behind today’s Old Testament, in spite of the passage of over 2,000 years (where one would expect errors to creep in)."

"Over 20,000 known manuscripts document the New Testament text. This makes the New Testament the most reliable document of antiquity (a document written before the printing press). These manuscripts vary in size from a part of a page to an entire Bible (Old and New Testaments). The earliest New Testament manuscripts date from the second century (100-199) AD These manuscript copies were written in different languages by people of different nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds. In spite of all those differences between them, the New Testament texts all agree. (That is, those differences that we do observe between these hand written documents are occasional changes in the spelling of names or isolated cases of missing or changed words. Still, since we have so many copies, it is obvious to anyone but the hardened skeptic can that they all represent the same text.)"

"Further, the New Testament writings (before they were assembled into the “book” we call the New Testament) circulated during the lifetimes of thousands of people who had actually seen Jesus’ miracles and other historic events. No one ever refuted the New Testament writings as “fairy tales.”

Answer 2

It's extremely historically accurate.

The Bible has come under attack over the last couple of centuries, but the more archaeologists explore and dig, the more it's proven to be accurate.

For example, places, people, and various events HAVE been shown to have happened, or (in the cases of people and places) to have existed. Here are a few:
1. The valley of Ur, where Abraham was from.
2. The Hittites.
3. Abraham himself.
4. The battle of Jericho. According to the biblical account, the walls fell OUT not in, and the city was burned. Also, the Israelites were instructed to not even take grain from the city. Archaeologists discovered that the walls of Jericho indeed fell out instead of in, the city was burned, and jars of grain still remained.
5. King David.
6. King Solomon.
7. Solomon's temple.
8. Many other various Old Testament kings (Nebuchadnezzar, Manasseh, Uzziah, et cetera)
9. The pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, which had five columns. This is described by John in the New Testament.

Here's an interesting article:
http://www.biblehistory.net/newsletter/jehu.htm

So, while the Bible may not be a science book, it does seem to deal with history accurately.

Answer 3

Yes the Bible is THE most historically accurate set of documents. The books that were chosen for the New Testament were carefully chosen for that reason and the Old Testament comes from the Jews. The places described, the references to people...as far as possible have all been proven true over and over! You can go to Jerusalem and see the pool of Siloam where the blind man got his sight, we have the tomb of Caiaphas the high priest that had Jesus killed, Jericho is highly excavated and shows the signs of the walls collapsing and it being burned etc.... over and over all the details that we can archaeologically confirm many items... can we prove that there was a blind man that washed his eyes there... no but that is where the faith comes in. I included 2 links to RZIM and the end... listen to them and they may answer more of your questions. Some of the content is not really fit for you ears though!

Todd


Reliable rIght from page 1!
"If I had no other data than the early chapters of Genesis, some of the Psalms and other passages of Scripture, I would have arrived at essentially the same picture of the origin of the universe, as is indicated by the scientific data." Nobel Prize-winning physicist Arno Penzias (Big Bang Theorist)

Answer 4

Yes, there is a lot of truth in that statement. Archaeologists are finding places, artifacts, and the names of kings found in current digs, that many thought were falsified.

"The World War I anecdote involves the English forces who were battling the Turks in the area of Michmash. Orders were given to take the Turkish outpost there. It is said that an English staff officer remembered dimly a biblical story happening in the area. He went to his Bible and found the incident of 1 Samuel 14. The officer then went to his general and read him the account of how Jonathan defeated the Philistine garrison by climbing the crag and killing about twenty Philistines in an area no larger than a half an acre."
The English forces found that the Bible had correctly described the landscape and the English forces repelled the Turks and within a couple of months took over Jerusalem and in effect, ended the Ottoman Turk Empire, and the Turks involvement in World War I.

Answer 5

Yes, it is historically accurate. There has yet to be any archaeological finds that dispute the Scriptures.

Israeli Says Elusive Biblical Wall Found

JERUSALEM (AP) - A biblical wall that has eluded archaeologists for years has finally been found, according to an Israeli scholar. A team of archaeologists in Jerusalem has uncovered what they believe to be part of a wall mentioned in the Bible's Book of Nehemiah.

The discovery, made in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, came as a result of a rescue attempt on a tower which was in danger of collapse, said Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research and educational institute, and leader of the dig.

Artifacts including pottery shards and arrowheads found under the tower suggested that both the tower and the nearby wall are from the 5th century B.C., the time of Nehemiah, according to Mazar. Scholars previously thought the wall dated to the Hasmonean period (142-37 B.C.).

Tiny tablet provides proof for Old Testament

The sound of unbridled joy seldom breaks the quiet of the British Museum's great Arched Room, which holds its collection of 130,000 Assyrian cuneiform tablets, dating back 5,000 years.

But Michael Jursa, a visiting professor from Vienna, let out such a cry last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact.

Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered - Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.

Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name - Nebo-Sarsekim.

Answer 6

Well, there's no record of a census at the time of Jesus' birth. But apparently Joseph and Mary had to trot back to Bethlehem to be counted. Odd, though, that we have pretty complete historical records for things like this during this era. Like we know Pontius Pilate's address. No census, though.

As it turns out, it was prophesied in the old testament that this would take place in bethlehem, so it's likely that someone invented a reason for J+M to head home. To fulfill the prophesy. To prove the bible is true.

Also, rabbits don't chew their cud.

Answer 7

acctuly many places communicate approximately in bible have been concept to be fantasy like babylon human beings went out to instruct bibles fantasy and located there is place called babylon. it is unusual as many stuff stated sutch as kings and that wrere genuine so how can a egyptian moses are waiting for all this unknown stuff 1000's of hundreds of years early. seem it up its exciting and additionally seem up the giglamesh flood epic. additionally unusual element is that the way we come across dinosaurs potential that there replaced into flood as this all comes at the same time make up very own suggestions

Answer 8

... mythology is not historically accurate. That's why they call it mythology.

Oh, and for the people who say archaeologists find things mentioned in the Bible... yes okay I'm not going to deny this, but how exactly does it prove anything else? Would finding out that Jesus definitely for sure existed prove that he was the son of God, or that he performed miracles?

Answer 9

What people did is take what history they knew and wrote the bible to co-inside with history. Everybody agrees that much of the NT was written years after the fact and, gee, guess what it is historically accurate.

Answer 10

All kinds of sense.
You will hear all manner of things regarding this, but you will know only when you dig into it for yourself, and put it into practice. The deeper you go, the more perfect you do find it to be. It's hard to describe...truth is inter-woven through every part of it, it's impossible to be wrong. I do mean inter-woven, like a seamless garment. Themes run the entire length and breadth unbroken, undergirding everything else.