Original subtitles

Hi, this is Scott Lancer, the Director of Associates for Biblical Research.

We're here today with another exciting episode of Digging for Truth.

We're so pleased that you've joined us today.

We are going to be interviewing Brian Wendell.

Brian is the pastor of Island Bible Chapel.

He is also the newest member of the AVR staff.

So Brian, we welcome you.

It's good to have you on the show today.

Well, thanks, Scott.

It's good to be back.

Very good.

Well, Brian, we have a lot of ground to cover today, don't we?

Because we're going to be focusing.

I love doing these shows.

This is going to be the top 10 discoveries in biblical archaeology related to the Old Testament.

And so shows like this give our audience a chance to really get kind of the lay of the land,

so to speak, but it's the high points.

It's the amazing discoveries that are made.

But it gives us a sense of how biblical archaeology really relates to our understanding of the

Bible, our defense of the Bible is the Word of God.

It's historically defendable.

And it is an important thing for us to look at the evidence that affirms our faith.

So Brian, we're going to jump right in today.

And so we're counting down the top 10 discoveries in biblical archaeology relating to the Old

Testament.

Brian, just by way of introduction, why did you decide to compile this list and what's

the criteria for those items you've chosen?

Sure.

Well, this list grew out of the top 10 list I do each year on the top 10 discoveries each

year in biblical archaeology.

And then I thought, wouldn't it be great to do a top 10 list of all time?

The problem was, as I started into it, there just were too many to choose.

And particularly when I had to decide between Old and New Testament.

So I said, you know what, we'll just do two lists.

And so this is my top 10 list for the Old Testament.

And I did another list for the New Testament.

And so in order to make this list, here's the criteria I used.

First of all, has to be directly related to a person, place or event in Scripture, or

to the composition of Scripture itself.

And second of all, it has to be related to the composition of the Bible.

So what I mean by that is this.

So if you got the new ASV archaeology study Bible, you would have seen that they have

the Rosetta Stone as their number one discovery of all time in biblical archaeology.

Hugely important artifact.

It was the key to helping us crack Egyptian hieroglyphics, but indirectly related.

And so to narrow my list, I've chosen to keep it directly related to person, people,

places or events or to the composition of the Bible.

Very good.

Very good.

Well, we're going to look at your top 10 list.

And let's start with number 10 and number 9.

And let's just roll right into that.

Number 10 has to do with Syrian inscription.

So why don't you tell us about that?

Sounds good.

And I'm going to cheat a little bit here because I'm going to group a Syrian inscriptions

together.

And the reason for that is this, they affirm historical details in the biblical text, particularly

with regards to the Hebrew kings.

But also they help us establish a biblical chronology.

In the Bible, we don't have absolute dates given.

We have relative dates given.

So a prophecy in a certain year of a king.

And so because of a Syrian inscriptions, we can now know absolute dates for the Old

Testament.

And so it's not just a word that works.

The Assyrians had a practice of naming each year after a person and they called that person

the Lemu.

And so these are called the Assyrian Lemu lists.

And so when they excavated at Nineveh, they discovered a number of these tablets that

were Assyrian Lemu lists.

And put together, they showed us 250 years of Assyrian named years.

And then one of them actually named a solar eclipse, which has been dated exactly to

June 15th, 763 BC.

So instantly, we now have over 250 years of Assyrian chronology absolutely dated.

Then when you compare the annals of the Assyrian kings in which they mention Hebrew kings,

we start to be able to see some interactions between the kings of Assyria and the Hebrew

kings.

So the Kirk monolith of Shalmanazr III, for example, names King Ahab as one of the kings

of a Western coalition who fought against him at the Battle of K'kar.

That's dated to 853.

We have the Black Ublisque of Shalmanazr III in which King J who is seen bringing tribute

to Shalmanazr.

That's 841.

And so these inscriptions now allow us to date the Hebrew kings.

In fact, in his book, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, scholar Edwin Tile

successfully reconstructed the entire chronology of the Hebrew kings from the book of kings

and chronicles.

And it's all because of these Assyrian inscriptions.

And that's pretty spectacular.

It is.

It is.

And it just goes to show again, these inscriptions are so essential for connecting all these

dots.

Well, let's talk about the Cyrus cylinder.

A tremendous fine.

Absolutely.

It's probably one of the most famous artifacts in all of biblical archaeology.

It was discovered in 1879 in the ruins of Babylon.

And it contains a general declaration by Cyrus the Great in Kuneiform script, declaring

that he was freeing the exiles to return to their, quote, settlements and allowing them

to take their gods and rebuild their, quote, sanctuaries.

And so what we need to understand is that there were more exiles in Babylon than just

the Jewish people.

There were all sorts of captured people who were in Babylon and Cyrus let them all go

free.

Now in the Bible, what we see is this.

We know that the Jews did not have idols.

And so the specific announcement for the Jewish people is recorded in Ezra chapter one, where

Cyrus lets the people go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

In fact, verse seven records that the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar

had carried away from Jerusalem were given back to take back to Jerusalem.

Now here's why this is important.

In the 19th century, skeptics used to scoff at the biblical claim that an ancient king

would let captured people go free like the Bible declared.

And what we now know is that this was exactly the public policy of Cyrus the Great.

So it affirms that detail for us.

Very good.

And that was number nine.

And number eight is the Marnaptistila.

Now Brian, we only have about 30 seconds here.

Let's introduce the Marnaptistila and why it's important.

Sounds good.

So the Marnaptistila is a victory stealer from the Egyptian Pharaoh Marnapta who lived from

1213 to 1203.

And the bottom of it, the last three lines, we see a phrase that says Israel is wasted,

it's seed is not.

And so some amazing, an amazing confirmation here.

We have Egyptians mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

Now we have Israel mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions.

Yes.

Well, that's awesome.

All right, Brian.

Well, maybe we can pick up and add a few more details about the Marnaptistila when we come

back.

And we're so glad you've tuned in today to Digging for Truth and we'll be all back.

In a culture of intense Bible denying skepticism, associates for biblical research exists to

strengthen followers of Jesus by affirming the authority of the Bible.

Our archaeological field work and original research form a strong foundation in upholding

the reliability of the scriptures for students or anyone asking if they can really trust the

Bible.

Please visit our website and partner with us by joining our prayer team or financially

supporting this ministry.

And thank you for standing with us.

Welcome back to Digging for Truth.

Today we're talking about the top 10 discoveries and Old Testament discoveries in biblical

archaeology and of all time.

And so Brian Wendell is here with us and Brian, we know this is going to be the definitive

list for everyone else to follow, right?

But this is important.

And we ended the last segment by talking about the Marnaptistila.

And we want to say a little bit more about that because it's such an extraordinary find.

Yeah, it's a really important find.

The bottom of it, it says Israel is wasted, its seed is no more.

Of course, Marnapta, the Egyptian Pharaoh is claiming to have annihilated Israel.

We know that didn't happen both from the Bible and from history.

They prospered in the land of Canaan for another 600 years.

But here's why that's really important in this discovery.

First of all, it's the oldest definitive reference to Israel as a nation.

That's not the only one, but it's the oldest definitive one that we have.

And secondly, it's the clearest reference to Israel as a nation that we have.

But the point that I think is really important here is that it is really helpful in helping

us understand the dating of the Exodus.

See, the Bible would place the Exodus at around 1446 BC based on a number of passages.

And I know you've done a previous episode on that.

So, but there are some who would suggest that the Exodus was a late Exodus.

It didn't take place till 1250 or 1270 BC.

Well, this steal a date to 1210 BC.

And there just simply isn't enough time for an Exodus, 40 years wandering in the desert,

the conquest of Canaan, which took years and the establishment of themselves as a nation

really in the land of Canaan.

So, there just isn't enough time for that to have all happened by the time Reneeptah

claims to have attacked them.

And so, really important artifact.

Absolutely.

The artifact and the biblical material have to come together.

And the Reneeptah steal is so critical for that understanding.

Well, let's keep counting down.

We're down to number seven.

And the Moabite Stone.

Everyone's heard of the Moabite Stone.

Well, some people have anyway.

Moabite Stone is a really interesting monument discovered in Jordan in 1868.

It's an inscription recording the acts of Misha, the king of Moab.

It dates to around 840 BC.

What's interesting is that it describes the same events that we read about in 2 Kings

3, although it's from the Moabite perspective.

And so, 2 Kings 3, of course, tells us that Misha rebelled.

Moab had been subjected to Israel.

And when a new king came in, Misha rebelled and was able to throw off the yokes of Israel.

And when we read the Moabite Stone, we see the same thing described.

And so, it's important for three reasons.

First of all, it corroborates the events that are described in 2 Kings 3.

Even specific details.

It records that Misha was a sheep herder, a sheep breeder, in addition to being a king.

It confirms that the primary God of the Moabites was Kaimash, or Chimash mentioned

in the Moabite inscription.

And the second thing is, it contains, again, an early reference to Yahweh, the God of the

Israelites.

Because one of the things that Misha claims to have captured were the altar hearths of

Yahweh.

We're not really sure what those are, but we're sure that it clearly is referring to

the Israelite God.

And the third thing, just really briefly, is that in 1994, Andrew Lemair looked at it

again and reanalyzed it and found a previously indistinguishable letter, which means that

that monument may actually say the house of David as well.

And so, really important, because we're going to talk about that shortly as it relates to

David.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We really appreciate, in biblical archaeology, the fact that some of these leaders love

to brag about what they did.

They carved it in stone.

Sometimes I like to believe they did that just for us, us geeks in archaeology.

That's for sure.

That's right.

Well, let's move on to number six, the Jerusalem Chronicle.

Absolutely.

The Babylonian chronicles are a series of clay tablets.

They're held at the British Museum and they recount the history of the kings of Babylon.

And so, the Babylonian Chronicle for the year 605 to 594 BC records the fall of Jerusalem

under King Nebuchadnezzar.

Hence its name, the Jerusalem Chronicle.

It's dated precisely to five, the event is dated precisely to 597 BC.

And this is the second deportation that the Bible records.

The first one in 605, of course, was when Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon.

And then in 597, Nebuchadnezzar came back.

He destroyed the city, the Bible records that he deposed King Jehoiukkim, that he appointed

a new king, Zedekiah, who he named Zedekiah, that he took heavy tribute back to Babylon.

The Bible says he took the treasures from the temple and the house, the treasures of

the kings.

And here's the thing, the Jerusalem Chronicle records all of that.

All of those details are confirmed on that clay tablet.

So just a really important artifact.

And it even gives the exact date of the fall of Jerusalem for us as March 16th, 597 BC.

Amen.

Very good.

Well, Brian, we have about a minute each for number five and number four.

And we're into that final five, which are usually the ones that are most amazing.

So let's talk about number five, Hezekiah's tunnel.

Hezekiah's tunnel.

If you've traveled to Jerusalem, you may have gone walking through Hezekiah's tunnel.

The Bible records that when Sinekra was coming to make war on Jerusalem, Hezekiah blocked

off the Gihon spring outlet at the top and channeled the water into the city.

Second Kings 2020 describes this tunnel that he had built.

And they've found the tunnel, including this inscription, this is called the Salomon

scripture, which describes how the two groups of people digging from both ends came and

met exactly in the middle and describes the moment they met.

It dates precisely to the time of Hezekiah in the eighth century BC.

And so we have some amazing affirmation of exactly what the Bible describes having been

dug.

We can go to Jerusalem and we can actually see that tunnel today.

Good.

All right.

And let's talk about the number four.

I'll let you introduce that.

All righty.

This is probably one of my favorites, just because it's so spectacular.

It's the Lahesh reliefs.

These are stunning carvings taken from the walls of the Palace of Sinekra.

And they describe his siege at the city of Lahesh.

That's described in the Bible in second Chronicles 32, nine, when he was besieging Lahesh

and he sent word to Hezekiah in Jerusalem saying, you're next.

But what we know from the Bible is that God stepped in and rescued Hezekiah.

And so when Sinekra got back to his palace, all he could brag about really was in his

annals that he shut Hezekiah up like a bird in his cage in Jerusalem.

And so the big beautiful relief carvings of that battle are of the siege of Lahesh and

incredible detail, siege ramps, Hebrew soldiers throwing rocks down in arrows and just amazing.

And here's the interesting thing.

Had Sinekra taken Jerusalem, that would have probably been what he had put on his walls.

But he didn't.

That's right.

All he could do was brag about taking the city of Lahesh and that's what we see.

Very good.

Well, thank you, Brian.

All right, we'll be back for our last segment in just a moment.

Thank you for joining us today on Digging for Truth.

Bible and Spade is a non-technical quarterly publication published by the Associates for

Biblical Research written from a scholarly and conservative viewpoint.

Bible and Spade supports the inerrancy of the Biblical record and is a must read for both

the serious Bible student and anyone asking if they can really trust the Bible.

Archaeological evidence, properly interpreted, upholding the history of the Bible.

Subscribe today at BibleArchaeology.org.

Well, we're back again on Digging for Truth and we're talking today about the top 10

discoveries for the Old Testament related to Scripture.

Brian Wendell is here with me today and we're down to the final three, the top three discoveries

in related to the Old Testament in Biblical Archaeology.

The Cateth, the silver scrolls, Cateth Hinnom scrolls.

Brian, these have a lot of meaning to those of us at ABR because Gordon Franz, who was

a former staff member, was the one who actually had his hands on these and discovered them.

And so let's talk about this extraordinary find.

Yeah, amazing.

Can you imagine having found these and held them in your hands?

They were found in excavations in 1979-80 in some burial caves at Cateth Hinnom.

And there were two amulets that were little silver scrolls rolled up and when they unrolled

them, they found that they had this text on them and it turned out to be the priestly

benediction of Numbers chapter 6.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you.

They translated the scrolls and they say, may Yahweh bless you and keep you, may Yahweh

cause his face to shine upon you and grant you his peace.

Now these dates to the seventh century BC.

So these are the earliest portion of Scripture that we have.

They predate the Dead Sea scroll by hundreds of years.

And what's also really interesting and an important part of this find is this.

There are those who would suggest that Moses never wrote the first five books of the Bible.

That they were written by some priests or some other people or a group of people much

later the exile even the post-exilic period.

And what we have now are portions of the Scripture that Moses has said depend hundreds of years

before people said they.

The critics said that they were really written.

And so it actually helps us to understand that the Bible was written by the people who

it says wrote it and also helps us to see the accuracy with which it was transmitted.

Amen.

That's right.

Tremendous discovery.

Okay.

Well let's talk about number two.

Number two would be the Tel Dan Stella.

Bible Minimalists have asserted King David's empire as it was described in the Bible was

nothing more than a myth or a legend.

One professor said I'm not the only scholar who suspects the figure of King David is about

his historical as King Arthur.

Well that was all before 1993.

Because in 1993 at the ancient site of Dan in northern Israel they discovered this broken

stone that on it was an inscription.

Was a victory still.

From the king of era most likely has a although he's not named in which he brags about defeating

Amory the king of Israel and his ally who is not named but is called the king of the

house of David.

And so it's sometimes called the house of David inscription and that was an incredible

find because now we have historical confirmation of David as a historical figure.

But more than that the phrase house of David means dynasty of David and so the Bible just

as it describes the dynasty that he had we now have some attestation from an inscription

about that.

Yeah.

Well the Tel Dan Stella had made such a huge impact and it ended up closing a lot of mouths.

I mean there were so many people they were ragging on the Bible.

Israel wasn't really what the Bible describes was in the dynasty.

This really really kind of just kind of moved a lot of that debate and discussion off to

the side because this evidence was so strong and it continues to speak.

Alright well we're down to our number one discovery in the Old Testament discovery.

Why don't you tell us about that.

Sounds good.

The number one discovery was a no brainer.

It was the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin sheep herder.

He sold them to an antiquities dealer in Bethlehem where it got out and they ended up doing

excavations.

They found over 975 manuscripts 980 all together dating from the third century BC to the first

century AD and 230 of those manuscripts turned out to be biblical manuscripts.

Now before that the earliest complete Hebrew manuscript we had was from about 1000 AD at

the Leningrad Codex and so what this allowed us to do was to see how much the Bible had

changed in over a thousand years of transmission and the answer is not very much.

We have large portions like the Great Isaiah scroll and the Great Psalm scroll and these

show us that the Bible was transmitted very reliably, copied very accurately.

Holden and Geesler in their book on the Handbook of Biblical Archaeology sum it up this way.

They said the scrolls proved to be an important link in the unbroken chain of texts that contributes

to establishing the textual reliability of the Old Testament scriptures.

I couldn't say it better than that so I want to just quote them.

Now I may find.

Amen.

Well in our last minute here Brian tell us why you know we've looked at all these really

cool discoveries.

Why do you believe biblical archaeology matters?

Why are these discoveries important?

Well Scott we live in a world where people have I think largely in North America and

the West here have written off the Bible as a book of myths and legends.

Some dismiss it as unreliable simply because it's a religious book and I believe these

10 discoveries just 10 of the hundreds of discoveries that have been made really show

that the Bible is a historically accurate document that's been reliably transmitted over the

millennia and I believe if we can trust what the Bible says historically we can trust what

it says spiritually because the historical and the spiritual go hand in hand because

the Bible really is the story of a God who loves us so much he sent his son Jesus of Nazareth

a real person to come and die in our place so that we can have our sins forgiven if we

put our faith in him that is good news and it's news we can trust.

Amen.

Well Brian I want to thank you for joining us today.

It's a fascinating excursion into these incredible discoveries connected with the Old Testament

and so thanks again for joining us and I want to thank all of our viewers today for joining

us on this exciting episode of Digging for Truth.