Biblical Archaeology

[Gman]

Folks,

This semester I decided to take the "Biblical Archaeology" course at Reason's to Believe. It's very exciting. I'll try to share some of the things I've learned form the course in this post (and for my own records).

http://www.reasons.org/learning/reasons ... rchaeology

Enjoy..

[Maytan]

I've been curious about RTB's courses. Looking forward to an insight into your experiences.

[Gman]

I've been curious about RTB's courses. Looking forward to an insight into your experiences.

Thanks.. I promise not to explain away any clay models of the Red Sea departing.. Not that kind of archaeology anyway.

[Gman]

Before we jump into this, I think it is good to explore what archaeology can and cannot provide as "proof" for the Bible. Here is a good excerpt (I believe) about this topic taken from the course (by permission).

Can archeology, or all of Christian apologetics, provide overwhelming evidence for Christian theism?

Response:

Archeology can provide support for the historical accuracy of the Bible, but, by itself, does not prove that the Bible is the infallible, error-free, word of God, as some well meaning Christians assert.

Before responding to this question with a parsing of the words “proof” and “evidence” and the kind of thing that you, the grader, are looking for, I would like to digress a bit and look at the bigger philosophical question involved. If we start from the premise that without faith it is impossible to please God ( Hebrews 11:6 ), and if we recognize that faith is something short of absolute certainty (Hebrews 11:1 ), we Christians should not expect to discover a sure-fire, slam-dunk, incontrovertible proof supporting Christian theism (which would include biblical inerrancy in general, and, in particular, the historicity of biblical claims buttressed via archeological findings).

Why?

Because that would eliminate the need for faith, as defined by the Bible, and therefore the source of what is pleasing to God and an essential element in our salvation.[1]

If Christian faith is at best a reasoned expectation based on trust and hope, is God pleased that we confidently expect to see the Sun appear above the horizon at a designated time each morning? Was our trust and hope stretched by our expectations of this occurrence? Is there a heartfelt submission and child like trust involved in observing the sun rise right on time just as the newspaper said it would?

When I survey the blogs, debates, and arguments on both sides of the ideological and theological (believers v. nonbelievers) divide, I come to the conclusion that one can argue either way somewhat convincingly and but ultimately inconclusively. Some would despair and buy into post modernism (there is no absolute truth, only opinions that are conditioned by our culture). But post modernism is neither a necessary nor a reasonable response (another topic).

I see this state of affairs-- the cosmic evidentiary Mexican standoff--as what we would expect to find if the Bible is indeed inerrant and God breathed. Just as we see that there is an incredible amount of fine tuning involved in the laws of physics and the conditions that make our existence possible, I believe that God has fine tuned this standoff to a point that we must provide the tie breaker through an exercise of faith. The heart ultimately trumps the mind, but the later must inform the heart.

So in the end it boils down to a heart matter, as the Bible said would all along.

Does my conclusion negate the practice of Christian apologetics? Absolutely not.

Christian apologetics--especially of the evidential kind and science apologetics in particular--provides the critical element of a reasonableness to our faith. We cannot expect a place at the public square of ideas if all we can offer is hope without this being real and reasonable. (Almost any religion can offer hope and be a crutch to walk through this world of suffering and death.) It’s one thing to believe and trust in the Rain God, Mother Earth, or even the Tooth Fairy, but is it reasonable? (I would argue that Christian theism stands the tests of reasonableness and accordance with the facts of nature, in a way that Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, etc does not, and that’s where Christian apologetics come in.

When the evidence and arguments seem to balance out, it boils down to trust and hope, or faith, if you will. The doubting must eventually be replaced by either rejection or acceptance of the theistic package with all that this entails—salvation through grace, but also our daily decision to seek the face of God and reject the ways of the world—an impossible feat to put to practice, but possible as we walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16 ).

[Gman]

Some good links..

How archaeology is done..

http://sourceflix.com/archaeology-102/

Tools of archaeology..

http://sourceflix.com/archaeology-101/

Sifting through a dig...

http://sourceflix.com/archaeology-103/

They say that archaeology is the science of rubbish.. I believe it folks...

[Gman]

I'm going to jump ahead to the Egyptian records because that is what I find to be the most interesting..

It has just come to my attention that there is some new evidence coming from the Egyptian records that actually may shed some more light on the Hebrew Exodus. Interesting that this stuff is being found right now with all the mess going on there.

What do these Egyptian images reveal? The drowning of the Egyptian armies and their Kings in water. On top of that there is also a fiery serpent with a hieroglyphic caption that reads "The Living God’ who goes and comes, who changes shape and who opens the rectangular (walled) corridor in the ‘Knife" (sea).”

We also know from scripture that the staff of Moses also changed shape by the living God in Exodus 4:3 and who also parted the Red Sea like a knife Exodus 15:4.

Unfortunately I'm unable to post the pictures of this remarkable find due to copyright laws. The work should be coming soon by Dr. John Bloom from Biola University!

[Swimmy]

Alright Gman keep us posted.

[CeT-To]

Epic!!! Keep us informed Gman!! loving this!

[Gman]

Many say there there isn't any proof of the Hebrews being salves in the land of Egypt. Well that isn't necessarily true, in fact in Egypt there are paintings of Egyptian slave drivers (in the yellow circles) clearly watching other workers with sticks, in fact if you look to the right, you can actually see one of these Egyptian taskmasters beating a slave.

Exodus 1:11-14 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

[cubeus19]

Great stuff gman!

[cubeus19]

Something else I was wanting to ask you Gman, since this is a topic that interests me I was wondering who are some good and reputable Bible archeologists who are also Christian? Because sadly, many that are out there especially the more well known ones like Ron Wyatt and Bob Cornuke (just google them or check their wikipedia pages to see what I mean) they are pretty much to biblical archeology what Kent Hovind and Carl Baugh are to creation science. Both tend to make radical sounding claims and their evidence doesn't check out. I may check out that program you are taking from reasons.org since they at least are known for being less reckless and dubious with their arguments and evidence.

This stuff really troubles me since I don't know what the deal is with people like Hovind, Baugh, Wyatt and Cornuke. Do they blantly lie about things or are they just very ignorant and sloppy in their work? I hope it's the latter because if it's the former this could cause a lot of credibility issues within the Christian apologetics community. But I thought I would mention that.

[Gman]

Something else I was wanting to ask you Gman, since this is a topic that interests me I was wondering who are some good and reputable Bible archeologists who are also Christian? Because sadly, many that are out there especially the more well known ones like Ron Wyatt and Bob Cornuke (just google them or check their wikipedia pages to see what I mean) they are pretty much to biblical archeology what Kent Hovind and Carl Baugh are to creation science. Both tend to make radical sounding claims and their evidence doesn't check out. I may check out that program you are taking from reasons.org since they at least are known for being less reckless and dubious with their arguments and evidence.

This stuff really troubles me since I don't know what the deal is with people like Hovind, Baugh, Wyatt and Cornuke. Do they blantly lie about things or are they just very ignorant and sloppy in their work? I hope it's the latter because if it's the former this could cause a lot of credibility issues within the Christian apologetics community. But I thought I would mention that.

There are people that twist the evidence around for sure... The people that teach this archaeology class are the following. Both these teachers have very reputable reputations and teach what can be considered to be the better arguments for Biblical archaeology.

Dr. John Bloom
http://www.drjbloom.com/

Dr James Hoffmeier
http://www.tiu.edu/divinity/academics/faculty/hoffmeier

Dr. John Currid
http://www.rts.edu/Seminary/Faculty/bio.aspx?id=448

Some great books on the subject:

The Archaeology of the Bible


Doing Archaeology in the Land of the Bible: A Basic Guide

[cubeus19]

Thank you very much Gman, I"ll be looking through these. Thanks again.

[Gman]

Perhaps one of the best evidences for the existence of Israel is found in the "Merneptah Stele" in Egypt. This is indisputable evidence that cannot be denied..

"The Merneptah Stele — also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah — is an inscription by the Ancient Egyptian king Merneptah (reign:1213 to 1203 BC), which appears on the reverse side of a granite stele erected by the king Amenhotep III. It was discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896 at Thebes.

The stele has gained much fame and notoriety for being the only Ancient Egyptian document generally accepted as mentioning "Isrir" or "Israel". It is also, by far, the earliest known attestation of the demonym Israel. For this reason, many scholars refer to it as the "Israel stele".

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele