Biblical Proof There have always been those who believe many of the stories in both the old and new testament of the bible are just lessons and never happened. The same is thought about some of the people and places. It is amazing what we have found out about the bible, which is we seem to keep finding proof much, and all, of it could be spot on. What I mean is we have found proof which has reinforced the facts things written about happened in at least what we have investigated and the same is true for places existing. Even after all of this time we have found evidence many of the individuals spoken about actually lived. Just how does one find evidence of the existence of a person from thousands of years ago? We can thank people like the ancient Greek and Roman historians for this when it comes to the bible’s new testament. Two Roman historians who wrote about Jesus were Josephus and Tacitus, of course there were others who also wrote about him. There is certainly enough proof he existed even though some others would deny this. One famous character which some thought was made up was Pontius Pilate. Not only was the story of him doubted, but also his existence. This was reconciled when an ancient inscription on a stone bore his name. It was found at the archaeological site of Caesarea Maritima in 1961. It was dated to the first century A.D. and had his name as Pontius Pilatus. Some of his deeds as governor of Judea were recorded by Josephus, Philo and Tacitus. A team of archaeologists has made an exciting biblical find. They claimed to have found the home of St. Peter. How could it still be standing? There is an ancient church on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The church is said to be from the fifth or six century. In the church something very interesting was found. It was a mosaic which indicated the church was built over the home of St. Peter. The site had several layers of historical value, then about 20 inches of silt from flooding which served to keep it hidden. This became known as the Roman level. The home was located in the town of Capernaum, where Peter was said to have lived. One very important place in the bible was said by many to never exist and that was Nazareth. The British-Israeli archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre stated he had found proof that not only had Nazareth existed, it existed in the time of Jesus. This made some non-believers very unhappy because they based their argument that Jesus never existed on the fact Nazareth didn’t. I think it should be noted archaeologists are scientists and they dig to find proof of ancient civilizations and people, and usually do not have as they say, any skin in the game. They find what they find and if it happens to prove some religious tenant, so be it. Let’s get to the crucifixion. While it is cited in the bible and in many other places, there was no physical evidence of the crucifixion, and how could there be after all these years? Then suddenly, in 1968 proof was found in physical form. A heel bone from the time of Christ was found by an archaeologist which had a Roman nail through it showing where he had been nailed to a cross. The chances of finding something like this were incredibly small, but there it was and the question was answered, people were actually crucified by the Romans and they did use nails to nail them to crosses, at least sometimes. They may have used ropes at others, but we don’t know for sure. The bible refers to Jacob’s well. This is another object in the bible which was thought to not exist. The well became famous when Jesus asked a Samaritan woman to give him a drink from the well, which was unheard of at the time. All three religions, Jewish, Christian and Muslim have traditions relating to the well. The earliest source of information on the discovery of the well puts it back to being found in the 3rd century A.D. It is located inside A new church, which had been built after the well was restored. There have been a lot more discoveries made which indicate many of the places we had no proof for, have actually existed. I think we are living in a very exciting time. It certainly doesn’t hurt that archaeologists have developed new tools to made their searches easier. Lidar has made it a lot easier to look for buried structures and ancient cities, especially those covered by a jungle. It is a technology which allows us to see what is beneath those coverings. Lidar is now being used in some areas of Israel. One of the things archaeologists have discovered using it was a fortress from about the 9th century B.C. during the reign of Omri, the 6th king of Israel and used by other later kings. Discoveries in Israel are very important to biblical scholars since the land has a long biblical history both in the old and new testament. While seemingly not to be of biblical importance, a find in Jordan had excited archaeologists. Stone pillars were found with carvings which are believed to be religious to people of that time which was over 9,000 years ago. One of the things which I find fascinating is the fact people who lived long ago were a lot like us. Ancient board games have been found in Egypt, Oman and China among other places. It amazes me these people had the leisure time to play them. It was thought in some cases maybe only the wealthy had these games. More study is probably warranted. Will there ever be a time when everything in the bible is proven to be correct? I really don’t think so, even though we are making tremendous progress in that area. As time goes by, we may have eliminated so many sites there will be no way left to physically prove everything. The bible however, is a faith tool. It was meant to tell us what happened and why we should believe and used in conjunction with other ancient writings, should be enough for most of us. I never thought we would get this far ahead in proving it and yet it has been a remarkable task with many successes. It is getting harder everyday for people to ignore what the bible tells us as we find more evidence the people and places existed.
|
