In any case, I'm sure you can understand my confusion about your intentions: this is a religious site setup to discuss the Bible from a Christian perspective. For example, as I write this, there is a link to an article entitled “Jesus Christ is the Fulfillment of Prophecy” in which you use a common trick of circular logic: you use the Bible to try and prove the Bible is true. (BTW, the fundamental flaw in that argument comes from here “Additionally, He would be connected to the lineage of King David, who was from the tribe of Judah.” JOSEPH was from the line of David, but JOSEPH wasn't Jesus' father, was he?) Why would I think this article is any different?

But, I see where my confusion crept in. Your article starts from a false premise: “the Old and New Testament writings of the Bible have long been considered fables and myths—thereby, deemed untrustworthy. For some critics, if you cannot prove something with empirical evidence, it is not to be taken seriously.”

That's absolutely not true (the “considered myths” bit, not the “empirical evidence” bit). Even the devoutest atheist understands that the Bible is a collection of stories passed down through generations. We get that there is a lot in the Bible that his historically accurate, but also find the fantastical bits are hard to swallow. We believe that there was a man named Joshua who conquered the Canaanites, and started that campaign by destroying the city of Jericho. We do NOT believe, however, that there was a supernatural component to it. The STORY was made into a myth by the addition of the supernatural, but the act and historical event were not myths.

If you want to see how people can believe the veracity of the Bible in a historical context and not a supernatural one, I HIGHLY recommend Battles BC on the History Channel. The season's over, but you might be able to catch a rerun, or you can buy the DVDs. The stories of Joshua, Moses and David are all covered in detail from a historical and archeological perspective.

Thanks for stopping by

Victoria Forigo
Sudbury, ON.
Canada

This is the true living word of god that is in the holy bible,god always proves to us that which he cannot lie about. I have given my word on my name. I swear on my name and i wil not take back my word.

He is risen! Jesus christ. All that is in me crys for you alone alone be glorified immanuel ,god with us.

excellent site.

I do know of the epic of Gilgamesh and understand that writing did exist. You should know that it has been argued that Moses did not write the first five book of the Hebrew Bible. Well one of the argument for that is, in Moses’ time they did not have the level of writing. My point about the Ebla is that advance writing existed even before Moses’ time and therefore it was not impossible for Moses to be the one who wrote the Torah. Also from my studies there is much more to the tablets that identifies David and Abraham to being the David and Abraham of the Hebrews, not just their names being on the tablets. When writing an article you have limited space and therefore you have to condense your article. There is so much more to expand on but unfortunately I was not able to for this issue.

Thank you for your suggestion of John Bright’s A History of Israel, I will definitely check it out.

Waine-Ann McLaughlin

Also, the idea that writing didn’t exist prior to Moses is not the point. Of course writing existed. I just taught a class on Gilgamesh, a text that is up to 2000 years older than the Bible. The Ebla tablets do not prove that writing existed *in Israel* prior to 1000 (the time of the earliest written text in Hebrew in Israel).

My suggestion would be to read John Bright’s A History of Israel, which takes a fairly conservative view of biblical history and discusses this evidence in a much more balanced and rational fashion.

Why are the Ebla tablets not good source to inform people about? The Ebla tablets are a significant find for archaeologists and it is very significant for biblical scholars who debate the authenticity of many biblical characters — one such character is David who is a main character of the Old Testament that many scholars relegate to a mythical character. The finds of the Ebla moved David from myth to historical. I say yes! These tablets are important and can be used as evidence because they exist. Using the Ebla tables to substantiate the Bible does not disprove other scriptures outside the Christian Bible. There are other religions that use portions of the same scriptures the Bible does and they too, I am sure, also use the Ebla tablets to prove whatever they want to prove. The main point I was trying to get across was that there were sophisticated writings in ancient times long before Moses and the findings of the Ebla proves that. Therefore it is not far fetched that Moses wrote the Torah.

The Hittites – Same as above.

What the Egyptians and Romans recorded is not what my paper is about. That also could be another article as to why the Egyptians and Romans did not record major events as recorded in the Bible. Therefore I will not comment any further on that.

Noah’s Ark

There is enough information on the site in Turkey. The site exists and though it being Noah’s Ark may be questionable, the article did not say it is for sure Noah’s Ark it said it was declared to be Noah’s Ark. The information is out there and it is for the reader to go do the research and decide for themselves.

Herod, the Great and Jesus the Christ — I will support the claim of their existence simply by saying that it is a known fact that the “Pauline letters” are attributed to a real person and many scholars do believe that the Apostle Paul was real. He claimed to have known Peter and John — two of the closest disciples of Jesus according to the scriptures, so I believe Herod and Jesus are real people. In one of Peter’s letters he validates Paul, therefore Paul received primary information from Peter and John. I am convinced that John, Peter and Paul are not lying about what they knew and experienced and I conclude that the Gospels’ narratives are true; Herod and Jesus are historical characters.

There is a late first century or early second century document out there called “The Infancy Gospel of James” that mentions Herod of the time when Jesus was an infant. This document is not part of the New Testament, although it is considered Christian writing. Of course any scripture found mentioning anything to validate Jesus’ existence would be considered Christian and therefore would be counted as evidence of his existence. But I thought I would mentioned it anyway.

My paper is to give information and it is for people to go and research for themselves and come to their own conclusion. It is up to each individual to decide for themselves as you did. Thanks for your feedback.

Sincerely,
Waine-Ann McLaughlin

Ebla Tablets…not really a good thing for you to be introducing people to. I’m quite familiar with the contents of the tablets, and frankly, they do nothing to support your claims, in fact they disprove most of them. The best you could hope for based on what’s in the Ebla Tablets is that your religion is just derived from one of the many in Sumeria and not even close to what you preach today. If you think the tablets “prove” any religion, then you’re in the wrong one.

The Hittites. Okay, one that supports some historical accuracy of the bible. But, it also supports the historical accuracy of a number of other religions from that time period, too. Why, then, is yours the “real” one? There’s more than sufficient accounts of unicorns, too. Does that make them true? I often contemplate archaeologists 5000 years from now coming across the ruins of that fabled city of “New York”. How many then will proclaim this is PROOF positive of the existence of Spiderman? “We have many books from that time period that show his nature and stories. They were set in the New York City, so this PROVES he existed!!” Not many thinking people discount the bible’s historical relevancy. There’s plenty of truth available within its pages concerning places and people, but not one bit proves its divinity. And, really, isn’t that the part you care about? It merely proves the authors had written down stories and news they heard.

While we’re on the subject of historical proof of the existence of civilizations, how do you explain that despite the wealth of knowledge uncovered about ancient Egypt we’ve yet to find more than just the ONE mention of the Israelites anywhere? There’s a passing mention of them in an inscription that reads “Rameses II fought the Israelites”. You’d think a people who’d kept another as slaves for as long as the bible claims would perhaps mention them more than once! We know how much laundry service cost in ancient Egypt, but not one shred of evidence exists that the Hebrews were the ones doing it.

Simon of Cyrene. See Hittites.

Herod, the Great. And yet, not a single shred of evidence of his massacre of all of the children around the time of the birth of Jesus. Odd that the Romans, who were meticulous record keepers, failed to mention this supremely heinous act anywhere.

“have many references about Paul of the New Testament” Many buildings, churches, books, stories, scrolls, pyramids, etc in Egypt had many references to Ra, the sun god. I suppose, then, that the conclusion is Ra existed, too? There is sufficient history of the christian religion to know that any references found to personages during that time period merely help to flesh out the mythology, but do nothing to prove the divinity of the book. People were christians, they had churches where they put references to people in the book down. I fail to see how this is relevant? Are you suggesting the veracity of your religion because your own church mentions Jesus in few places around the building? Proof requires corroboration from third parties, and there’s none of that.

Jesus Christ. Saved the biggie for last. Not a mention of him outside of your book and some of the writings of Josephus. The Roman record doesn’t mention him once. You’d think someone who’d begun the march that eventually lead the demise of the Roman Empire would have his name mentioned SOMEWHERE in the official record. The real problem is the writings of Josephus as those mentions of Jesus did not exist in editions of Josephus’ work until AFTER the 4th century when the catholic church was essentially founded. Those editions that do contain reference are so obviously forgeries. They took the four versions of the Jesus story that were close enough for government work and declared them the official canon. The hundreds of other variations (most of which show Jesus to have been a mythical figure, more a “way to be” than an actual person. Sort of a first through third century version of “what would Jesus do?”) were burned as blasphemy in hopes of never being seen again. But, many survived, didn’t they? And, they cast your religion in some serious doubt. But, in those instances, the rigorous investigation of the archaeologists isn’t good enough for you is it? In those cases, you dismiss them as forgeries or fakes despite all the evidence pointing to their veracity.

I’m sorry, but using circular logic, half-truths and failed attempts and interpreting the archaeological record does nothing to help your case. It does, however, further mine. Thanks!

There’s the actual truth behind the site you refer to on Mount Ararat. Good job on the worthwhile research and reporting.