Sermons and Biblical Studies

Robert Houston Smith [Robert Houston Smith received a Ph.D. in New Testament from Yale University in 1960. At present he is Fox Professor of Religion at the College of Wooster and director of The Wooster Expedition to Pella.] The following article first appeared in Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 4, October 1973, and is reprinted here, … Continue reading “NEW
LIGHT ON EARLIEST CHRISTIANITY”

At the outset we should pause to get our bearings, and recall the exceedingly important role which the Canaanites have played in the history of civilization, quite apart from their influence on Isræl. Just as the roots of our Western culture lie in the civilization of the Greeks and the Romans, so the roots of … Continue reading “WHAT
CIVILIZATION OWES THE CANAANITES”

G. Ernest Wright With the accumulated mass of evidence at our disposal today what can we say about early Israel’s debt to the Canaanites on the one hand, and about the distinctiveness of her contribution to history on the other? How, did the religion of Isræl in the time of David and Solomon, Elijah BSP … Continue reading “HOW
DID EARLY ISRAEL DIFFER FROM HER NEIGHBORS?”

Many times in Bible and Spade we have referred to the writings of G. Ernest Wright, Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, and President of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Dr. Wright passed away on August 29, 1974. In memory of his significant contribution to biblical studies, we are reprinting the following article, somewhat … Continue reading “IN
MEMORIAM”

In our next issue we plan to have an exclusive report on the much publicized claim that the Ark has been seen in a satellite photo of Mt. Ararat. A systems engineer who is one of the designers of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) system will provide an in-depth analysis of the ERTS photos … Continue reading “MORE
COMING ON THE SEARCH FOR NOAH’S ARK”

John D. Morris [John Morris, Field Research Scientist for the Institute for Creation Research, received his B.S. degree in civil engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1968. He is author of Adventure on Ararat and lectures extensively throughout the country on the progress and implications of the search for Noah’s Ark.] Much … Continue reading “THE
SEARCH FOR NOAH’S ARK”

Bryant G. Wood The names “Sodom and Gomorrah” are bywords in today’s society. Their reputation as centers of wickedness has lasted down through the centuries and even the word “sodomy” has taken its place in the English language as a legal term for unnatural sex acts. To many people, Sodom and Gomorrah are places from … Continue reading “HAVE
SODOM AND GOMORRAH BEEN FOUND?”

One of the puzzles of biblical archaeology is the date of the conquest of Canaan. An excavation which hopes to shed some light on this question is that of Heshbon, being sponsored by Andrews University and under the directorship of Siegfried H. Horn. After the Israelites had spent 40 years in the wilderness, they came … Continue reading “SEARCHING
FOR CLUES TO THE CONQUEST AT HESHBON”

In our Spring 1972 issue, we published an article entitled “O’Callaghan’s Bombshell,” reporting on the electrifying claim made by Jesuit scholar José O’Callaghan that fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls were portions of the New Testament dating to A.D. 50. Dr. William White, a linguistics expert, immediately came out in support of O’Callaghan’s identification (see … Continue reading “WAS
O’CALLAGHAN’S BOMBSHELL A DUD?”

Some of the best-known stories in the Bible are those of Samson in the book of Judges. Young and old alike delight in the accounts of his superhuman feats and his run-in with the wily Delilah. It was through Delilah’s deception that the mighty Samson was finally captured by the Philistines as described in Judges … Continue reading “SAMSON
AND THE HOUSE OF DAGON”