Archaeology & The OT

[marc p]

Bear with me, I might be a little long in getting to my point...

There's a new movie coming out soon with Hilary Swank called The Reaping, in which she plays a former Christian missionary who turned her back on God after tragedy struck her family. Now, she tries to disprove God. The premise of the movie is that the biblical plagues are affecting a town in Louisiana.

Anyway, I was reading in a discussion forum online about this film in which one of the topics was "Too Many Christian Horror Films?" In this forum, a guy said something about the Bible being made up. I posted the following response:

Is that why historical events recorded in the Bible have never been disproved?

It is pretty arrogant (and perhaps naive) to say, "The Bible (Old Testament in particular)is made up," when the Old Testament has actually never been successfully contested. If you are not too closed-minded to actually investigate this for yourself, I would suggest that you do. You may find an article entitled "Archaeology and the Old Testament," by Patrick Zukeran, an interesting read. Although written by a Christian, I think you will find his arguments sound, and the Bibliography a good reference list for other works on this subject. You can find the article here:

www.probe.org/content/view/31/77/

The article, "Archaeology and the Old Testament," that I posted a link to in that post is pretty good, and discusses the issue of archaeological evidence for the accuracy of biblical history.

Marc

PS - Thanks for the help in where to place this post, Josh. I also edited it to make it a bit more "on topic"

[Josh]

That article is a good introduction to the subject. It has some great, memorable, 'headline' examples of archaeological discoveries* but what I appreciated most was it's discussion of how archaeology can (and can't) be used to validate Christian claims.

As you pointed out, there is a lot of naivety in regard to this subject- on many levels, I might add. Your average person in our culture who isn't a Christian does have a vague but well-entrenched idea that the Bible is just "made up". It really behooves us to counter that with information. We don't all have to be experts on archaeology to do that. We can point out these and other examples of how history continually intersects with our faith. I commend you for making a stand when the issue came up instead of letting it slide because we can only change popular opinion one person at a time.

After a communication of the basic fact that the Bible and history do intersect, this can all be taken to the next level when someone is ready.

The next stop might be a book entitled "Is the Bible True?" by Jeffery Sheler or "The Stones Cry Out" by Randall Price (cited in your article, I believe) These books are a fuller treatment on the subject but still on a layperson's level.

But to really get 'down and dirty' , I would highly recommend the book "On the Reliability of the Old Testament" by K.A. Kitchen. It is extremely thorough and really gets into both sides of an argument well. ACF has a copy in our library that can be checked out, btw.

And, that leads to another point. Past the initial need for Christians to jar the average person out of their assumptions about the Bible and its history is the 'jarring' that a Christian will have when they really dig in even further. Certain assumptions will be challenged and/ or obliterated. Archaelogy is a complex field and therefore will lead the armchair investigator into all sorts of strange nooks and crannies, dead-ends, wonderful discoveries as well as new conundrums. Pursuing it in depth is a growing experience for us all, whether we are believers or not.

So, thanks so much for getting this ball rolling!

For a critical treatment of archaelogy against which to balance these resources against, I might suggest: The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein

*I kept thinking, but what about this or that... there are just so many examples one could bring up. I do, however, think that looking for the fall of Jericho in the 1400s is barking up the wrong tree, as I subscribe to the later date of the Exodus (1200s).

[michelle]

Marc, have you received any response from this guy?