D. James Kennedya
I use the term “higher criticism” to mean that attempt by unbelievers to use the Bible against itself; critics employ this attempt by carefully searching its pages, hoping to find anything to use as an ax to destroy Scripture. I find it very interesting to note that at the beginning of the 19th century, as this movement was beginning, something else of note was occurring, and that something is known as modern archaeology. These two movements grew up simultaneously and have grown to have a significant effect on both science and religion.
One was based upon theories which were spun in studies and locked in libraries around the world. The other was based on first-hand facts
Aerial photo of the ruins of a ziggurat or temple tower “reaching to heaven.”
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dug up by those who, with shovel and pick, were uncovering the past right before their eyes.
The remarkable thing about this is that on the one hand, the higher critics very quickly came to their conclusions, conclusions which they no doubt already had reached before they began their studies: that the Bible was a very unreliable, unhistorical, and mythological book. Further, that you could be sure that most anything it said on any historical subject was not to be taken seriously.
However, archaeologists, at the same time, were coming to very diverse conclusions. Also, I think it is important to remember that many of them went forth as unbelievers, skeptics who were convinced by the higher criticism, people like Professor Sayce, the greatest of the Assyriologists, Sir William Ramsey, and D. J. Wiseman. But they, when confronted with the cold facts of history which they held in their hands, finally came to conclude that the Bible was indeed a remarkable book. The more facts they uncovered from the ground, the more they became convinced that the Scriptures were indeed the very Word of God, that they were accurate in all of their details.
The field of archaeology is an enormously vast field. There are no doubt hundreds or thousands of books that have been written on this subject. But I would like to share with you just a few of what I consider interesting discoveries that have been made by archaeologists, which confirm many of the statements found in the Scripture.
Why A Decline In Longevity?
Let us consider, first of all, some facts that we see in Genesis. The Bible records that in the early days of the human race, people lived for a long time. We are well aware of the fact that Methuselah lived to the grand old age of 969 years, and that Adam, among others, lived over 900 years. Then we note that their longevity declines, beginning first slowly but then dropping most noticeably after the flood, down to 120, and finally down to 70 years. This, of course, was immediately jumped upon as being something that was not possible and, therefore, not true.
However, archaeologists have discovered some interesting facts. For example, they discovered lists of Sumerian kings from the land of Sumer. These lists indicate that there were kings of Sumer who lived before the flood for very long times. The historian Berossus, one of the most ancient of pagan historians, tells of kings who lived for thousands of years. Also tablets have been uncovered that specify the Chinese belief that ancient kings and others lived for long periods of time. The Greeks and the Romans report that in antiquity, men lived for 800 to 1000 years, which is interesting, since this span is remarkably close to what the Scriptures themselves say.
So the fact that men lived for long periods of time, which 150 years ago was thought to be something taught only by the Bible, has been rediscovered and affirmed to be fact taught by the Sumerians, by the historian
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Berossus, by the Egyptians, by the Chinese, by the Greeks and by the Romans. Thus we have considerable confirmation of this once questioned truth.
Why is it that men who before the flood lived so long had their longevity cut so markedly after the flood? There have been a number of theories, but I think the one most probable is taken from the Bible. Scripture suggests that at the time of the flood, the atmosphere, which was saturated with water, collapsed. It is a known fact that the atmosphere may be saturated with water without creating clouds. Consequently, the amounts of water which had been stored in the atmosphere later fell upon the earth. When that water was in the atmosphere, it provided a canopy over the earth that scientists tell us would protect us from a great deal of cosmic radiation. The radiation from the sun and from stars that falls constantly upon the earth is one of the principal causes of aging. If that cosmic radiation remains shielded or, in this case canopied, it would appear logical that people would live much longer periods of time. With the canopy removed, the radiation rushes forth, aging what it touches.
And so we see that both archaeology and science can agree that this is something which is not at all unlikely and is confirmed by the records of many other nations.
Speaking of nations, consider a most remarkable document, which is called the Table of Nations. Reference to it is found in Genesis 10. You may have skimmed through this chapter very quickly because you have not found it particularly interesting to read where various ancient people settled, how they lived, or where they went. But I should point out to you that it is a unique document. None of the documents of the ancient world contained anything like it. This unique document tells how all of the world’s nations were settled and by whom. A remarkable feature about it is that many names have been identified through various archaeological finds and inscriptions. We now know that it contains accurate descriptions that surprise ethnologists who study the history of nations and peoples.
The Tower Of Babel
Let us consider the Tower of Babel. This story has been said by critics to be mythological, something that never happened. Most believed that these people never built a great tower to the heavens; neither were their languages confounded.
The notion that at one time the people of the earth all spoke the same language is an astounding idea. We know that ziggurats, massive towers built for the purpose of worship, have been found in numerous places in Mesopotamia as well as at Babylon. Near them a most incredible inscription has been found:
The erection of this tower highly offended all the gods. In a night they threw down what man had built and impeded their progress. They were scattered abroad and their speech was strange.
[This quotation is attributed to a tablet found by George Smith in his Chaldean Account of Genesis. It is quoted by S.L. Caiger in Bible and
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Spade. 1936. London: Oxford: f.n. 20. Also Josephus quotes the Sibyl on a similar note in Antiquities, Book I, Chapter IV:3. Samuel Noah Kramer published a Sumerian tablet in Journal of the American Oriental Society (Jan. 1968) which clearly states that at one time everyone spoke the same language.]
The above is a pagan description of the events that took place. In various pagan lands, when we see descriptions of the same things that are described in the Bible, they are overlaid with pagan concepts of polytheism and various other pagan features. Nevertheless, the basic facts again shine through.
Sodom And Gomorrah
Let us move in the Bible a few chapters further to the famed destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Archaeologists have, of course, searched for the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Bible makes their location plain. There were five cities of the plain there, we are told in the Book of Genesis. A modern aerial map of this area shows gullies of five streams issuing from the east side of the Dead Sea into it. It is probable that the ruins, especially those at Bab ed-Dhra and Numeirah, near the outlets of these gullies are the five cities of the plain mentioned in Genesis. (See Autumn 1988 of Archaeology and Biblical Research on “Numeirah.”) Even the name “Numeirah” may reflect the ancient name of “Gomorrah!”
Geologists and archaeologists tell us that there are great deposits of salt, sulphur, bitumen, and natural gas bubbling up through the water which indicate off reserves below its surface at the southern end of the Dead Sea. At this same end, there is a mountain which is called Jebel Usdum, an Arabic name which stands for Mt. Sodom.
Here we see a picture describing the events and the situation leading to the overthrow of these cities. Deposits of salt, sulphur, bitumen, natural gas and oil are significant pieces to that picture. God, in His sovereignty, apparently caused an explosion of the natural gas and oil which lifted the salts and sulphur and bitumen high into the air, causing them to rain upon the city, destroying it. One blob of it, in the providence of God, fell upon a woman who should have been fleeing the city, but rather had stopped, had turned around, and looked longingly back at Sodom. That woman, of course, was Lot’s wife who was turned into a pillar of salt.
The Patriarchs
Next, we come to the famous stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You may not believe this, but a hundred years ago higher critics dismissed these stories as simply “campfire tales,” folklore, part of the complex mythology of the Hebrews. For them these stories took the nation of Israel and personified it into an individual hero, and credited him with great exploits.
Well, my friends, the wheel has turned completely and all has changed. The spade of the archaeologist has uncovered so many facts that there is
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Aerial photo of ruins of Babylon. Compare with restoration on front cover.
no reason any longer to say that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were “folk characters” or “mythological heroes.” In fact, such discoveries as those at Mari and Nuzi, cited in the Nuzi Tablets, make this abundantly clear. In fact, archaeologist Andre Parrot discovered 20,000 tablets from not long after Abraham’s time at Marl, an Amorite city in Mesopotamia. Mari is near the city of Haran, Abraham’s first stop on his way to Palestine from his home city of Ur.
Furthermore, these tablets, which are dated from the 18th century BC name some individuals including Abarama (Abraham in Hebrew) and Jacob-el (Jacob), which means the worshipper of the god el. These same tablets also make frequent references to Benjamites. The Benjamites constantly raided the Amorites who lived in this area. So we find frequent references by the inhabitants of Mari to the Benjamites.
I think it is interesting that in Genesis 49:27, as Jacob is giving his blessing to his sons, when he comes to Benjamin says: “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf.” Apparently that is precisely what Benjamin and his descendants did, according to the inhabitants of Mari, as recorded in some of the 20,000 tablets that have been remarkably uncovered from that time. Also, in the Marl tablets, we Fund references to Terah, the father of Abraham, and the cities of Serug and Peleg, probably named after two other individuals who are named in Genesis.
Then Sir Leonard Woolley excavated the City of Ur itself, from which Abraham had come, and discovered a fascinating culture. You may think that these people lived primitively, but they did not at all. He discovered homes with 14 rooms in them. Do you have 14 rooms in your home? This was 4000 years ago! In addition, he found magnificent works of art, gold daggers and helmets made of pure gold fashioned to cover the whole head and face. Also, there is a ziggurat or tower for
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worship whose inscriptions include descriptions of ritual offerings which were sexual abominations committed by the various devotees of that religion to the moon god, Nannar. Thus we have some indication why the Bible tells us that Abraham and his family were called out of the city of Ur. Again, the facts concerning Abraham and his descendants have been clearly confirmed in the Scripture.
The Fall Of Babylon
Consider the Book of Daniel. Here the critics had a field day[ Here indeed was something that they could sink their teeth into with great relish. They fastened particularly upon the character Belshazzar, the king who threw a great feast. As he was drinking wine and offering oblations to the Babylonian gods, the Medes and Persians, who had diverted the River Euphrates, sneaked into the city under the grates where the wall was over the river. They opened the doors to their invading army and on that very night, Belshazzar was slain; the kingdom of Babylon came to a startling and unexpected end.
That great and remarkable story of the handwriting on the wall at Babylon, and the famous words “Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin” (Daniel 5:25) is all catalogued by Daniel. Not sol “said the historians. None of that ever happened at all. Why? First of all.., they said that history had made it very clear that the last king of the Babylonian Empire was none other than King Nabonidus. Secondly, all of their records combined reveal not the slightest trace of anybody by the name of Belshazzar. Therefore, ff the secular historians say one thing and the Bible says another, which are we to believe? Because of the unbelieving predilection of the higher critics, these same critics invariably believed the secular historians. As usual, they ended up with egg on their faces, because archaeology had not finished its tale.
Slowly, one after another, there were discovered all manner of cuneiform inscriptions from this period which state the fact that Nabonidus had a son. In fact, he had a number of sons, but his eldest son was named none other than Belshazzar! In fact, Oppert and Taylor found cylinders stating that Belshazzar was the son and co-regent of Nabonidus and that he was slain in Babylon. More than that, Dr. Pinches discovered an inscription that tells that Nabonidus was on an expedition against the Amorites and that he left his son, Belshazzar, entrusted with the sovereignty of Babylon.
Furthermore, on the famous Tablet of Cyrus that was found, Cyrus relates his conquest of Babylon. (See Winter 1988, p. 15 of A&BR.) We now know that the Euphrates River was diverted and that the Medo-Persian army entered the city and in a single night’s raid Belshazzar was killed.
Is it not fascinating that when Belshazzar wanted someone to read the handwriting on the wall, he offered to make the reader the second ruler in Babylon?… or did he? Well, if you know your Bible, you know that is not true. He offered to make him third ruler in Babylon, because Belshazzar was co-regent with his father. Therefore, with Nabonidus
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away on a long expedition, this left Belshazzar as the co-regent and he was indeed the last king of Babylon. As such, he offered Daniel the opportunity to be the third ruler in that kingdom.
I think it is interesting that Professor Sayce, who was the greatest of the Assyriologists and one who was quite opposed to the historicity of Babylon, finally renounced his opposition to the Book of Daniel when he began his excavations, and said: “The higher criticism is now bankrupt.” In addition, Dr. Pinches said, “In the face of archaeology, with regard to Daniel, higher criticism is in fact buried.” “Bankrupt” and “buried!” So much for the assured conclusions of higher criticism. I have seen them like castles in the sand before the incoming tide melt away and disappear altogether before the incontrovertible facts of God’s Word. Truly God’s Word standeth sure.
Jericho
Let me conclude with just a word about one of my favorite sites in the Holy Land: Jericho. Again the critics laughed at the blowing of trumpets… laughed at the wails falling outward and at the city being burned. Yet, as one archaeologist after another began to study the site of Jericho, particularly Professor Garstang for the Palestine Exploration Fund, after a minute examination, uncovered some amazing facts. He discovered that in the Early Bronze age the walls had fallen down and more surprisingly, they had fallen outward. (It was Kathleeen Kenyon who later found evidence that the walls truly fell down at the time of Joshua in the same way they had earlier.) Furthermore, he discovered that the city had been burned and that this episode had occurred very suddenly. There were great quantities of grain stored in jars and burned, so sudden was the city’s destruction. They could have supported a long seige.
Do you remember the story of the harlot Rahab who hid the spies and whose house was on the walls of Jericho? Fascinatingly, although earlier than Rahab’s time, Professor Garstang discovered one house built on the walls of Jericho. (For the most recent archaeological discoveries at Jericho, see Bryant Wood’s “Uncovering the Truth at Jericho” in the Premiere Issue of Archaeology and Biblical Research.)
In the time of Jesus, we find an interesting and fascinating story about the healing of the blind Bartimaeus. If you read that story, which appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke, you would probably not notice that it has been seized upon as a discrepancy by the critics. For Matthew and Mark say that Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus, who was sitting by the roadside begging, as Jesus was leaving Jericho. Luke says Jesus healed him as He was going in. Jesus was, at that time, coming down from Galilee and on his way to his final visit to Jerusalem; he was not going back and forth. So which is it? Did he heal Bartimaeus when coming out of Jericho, as Matthew and Mark say, or when he was going in? Again, archaeology throws light upon the question.
We know that Jericho was destroyed several times, that it was rebuilt
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This clay cylinder found in Ur has the names of both Nabonidus and Belshazzer written on it. Belshazzer, son of Nabonidus, was king of Babylon when it was conquered.
over and over. There were two Jerichos in Jesus’ day: the Roman Jericho that was built a mile away from the original site, and which is closer to the Roman road that leads up to Jerusalem. Then there is the old Israelite Jericho, the site Joshua marched around. The Roman road goes right between the two. I have traveled that road many times. I have stood on the site of the Roman Jericho and looked out at the mound a mile away toward the Jewish Jericho.
It is fascinating, I think that Matthew and Mark, writing to a Jewish audience, made reference to the Jewish Jericho; while Luke, the Gentile, writing to a Roman audience, made reference to the Roman Jericho. But where, then, was blind Bartimaeus? Quite evidently, he was between the two. And Jesus healed him as he was coming out of old (or Jewish) Jericho going into the new (or Roman) Jericho on his way to Jerusalem.
The Word Of God Stands True
Again the spade of the archaeologist dissolves the carping criticism of the higher critic. And the Word of God is again seen to be true.
I think it is a wondrous thing that Christians are not called to blind faith, which is faith without evidence. But rather, that they are called to faith in a Word which has been examined more searchingly than any other book in the history of the world. So much so, that every word and every syllable and every letter and every accent of that book has been examined by the most hostile critics down through the centuries. And yet in the midst of all of that, still it stands and the Word of God holds true, that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. Jesus said “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).
And, my friends, rest your life, your conduct, your work, and all that you do upon the Word of God as the only solid foundation for a life in this world and the one to come.
Used by permission from Coral Ridge Ministries, Box 40, Fort Lauder-dale, FL 33302–0040.
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