Does archaeology prove the Bible? Does it disprove the Bible? Or is archaeology irrelevant to the Bible? In this Sunday school lesson, David Capoccia explains the basics of biblical archaeology and why it’s important for Christians to know about. Specifically, David Capoccia defines biblical archaeology, briefly describes its history and process, and then discusses why it is so valuable.
Auto Transcript
Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
special welcome to the younger students who are with us today thank you for being part of us thank you to the parents for hey thanks for the parents to Bringing bringing the the younger ones if you don’t know me I’m Mr Dave kosha really glad that you’re here I do have a hand out for the younger students if you’re a parent and you would think that your child would benefit from some a handout to follow along with as we’re going through the class today George and Roy have those so please make sure that you get one for those young students with us I think that’ll be helpful for them to engage with today’s lesson as I said we’re taking a break from the answers Bible curriculum to survey the most important archaeological discoveries related to the Bible today and over the next nine weeks we’ll be examining archaeological finds in each period of history that the Bible talks about from creation and the flood to the establishment of Christianity in the Roman empire under the apostles by way of introduction today and to get us thinking about the topic of biblical archaeology I’d like to share with you about two different archaeological finds two stories about archaeological finds you know that we’ve been studying Abraham over the last couple of weeks around what time approximately did Abraham live around what BC yeah around 2, 1900 even 1850 BC he lived about 150 years so about 2,000 BC and one of the details that we hear about Abraham is about the animals he had for example at the end of Abraham’s life when Abraham is looking for a wife for his son Isaac Abraham sends a servant with many Goods on animals and he sends the servant to some of his relatives Genesis 24:10 says this then the servant took 10 camels from the camels of his master and set out with a variety of good things of his Masters in his hand and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of nahor okay you hear that verse which animal did the servant take as his pack animal the camels right camels and were these the only camels that Abraham had those 10 camels that the servant took were they the only ones that Abraham had no because the verse says he took of his master’s camels that means there were more he just took 10 of them so the Bible clearly says that Abraham used camels while he lived in Canaan and so can we believe that can we believe that Abraham really had camels yes why yeah because the Bible’s true we can believe the Bible so if the Bible says he had camels he had camels however listen to this headline from Fox News on February 6 2014 here’s the headline camel bones suggest error in the Bible archaeologists say camel bones suggest error in the Bible archaeologist say the online article describes the work of two archaeologists Ares Ben Yosef and darer hen two archaeologists from Tel Aviv University they sought to identify when camels first became domesticated in Palestine so they conducted tests on the oldest known camel bones in Palestine bones which were found as part of an ancient copper smelting camp in the Jordan Valley using Carbon 14 dating and a detailed analysis of the ground layers at the site the archaeologists determined that the bones were from the 10th Century BC meaning approximately which Years BC yeah about a th to 900 BC which is how many years off from what the Bible says camels were in the area about a thousand years Abraham is supposed to have camels a thousand years earlier moreover the article notes that Camel Bones have been found at other archaeological sites in the land of Palestine but always dated from the 10th century and later never earlier so what was the archaeologist conclusion the Bible is wrong when it says Abraham and the Patriarchs use camels here’s a quotation from the archaeologist press release in addition to challenging the Bible’s historicity this anachronism that’s a word that just means that something from the wrong time present in a certain place this anachronism is direct proof that the text was compiled well after the events it describes in other words the archaeologists were saying here is proof that the Bible is unreliable and not the supernatural word of God Moses did not write Genesis God did not write the Bible how should we respond to those claims has archaeology indeed disproved the bible let me tell you another story the Bible tells us a lot about Abraham and the Patriarchs but it also tells us a lot about the Kings of Israel and Judah you remember that Israel was one Kingdom until it split into two kingdoms one called Israel and one called Judah all the kings of Judah came from which man well Saul was the first king but all the other kings David David all the kings of Judah came from the line of David and they were from the House of David that is they were all descendants of David they were his sons his grandsons his great-grandsons and so forth everybody except Saul the first king they’re all from David now this was a fulfillment of a promise that God himself makes to David in 2 Samuel 7:16 God says to David there your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever your throne will be established forever now when he talks about David house God is not talking about David’s literal home but his family someone in your family God says one of your descendants will always be king in Judah if there’s a king in Judah it will be from your line David it will be one of your descendants that’s a pretty amazing promise and the records of the kings in the Bible of Judah show that God kept his promise until Judah was captured and went into Exile all of the kings in Judah were from David’s line there has not been a king in Judah since but there will be one day God keeps his promises which king from the line of David will someday come back and rule in Judah Jesus Christ because Jesus too is from the line of David now can we believe God’s promise to David about someone from his line his house being on the throne of Judah yes why can we believe that because the Bible declares it and the Bible is true however in the latter 20th century many archaeologists began to disbelieve In This Promise of God in fact they said that David was not even real David was not even a real person he was just an ideal he was a he was a madeup ruler that all Israelite rulers aspired to be like but David wasn’t actually real why did they say this well because up to that point no one had found any piece of archaeological information that mentioned the existence of David or of the House of David David was not mentioned in anywhere in ancient history so he probably wasn’t real then there was a discovery in 1993 Abraham beeran of Hebrew Union College discovered a stone inscription in tan in Northern Israel this Stone was broken as you see here it’s just a fragment and the Aramaic inscription was incomplete but interpreters were able to make sense out of part of the in in inscription here’s a translation this is of the tan steel that’s the name of it the steel is Like a Stone inpt incription I’m not going to I’m going to show you the inscription the translation I’m not going to read it to you you’ll notice that there are many parts missing here’s the tan steel translated scan that for a little bit the brackets and the dots show you where pieces are missing but even without trying to supply any of the missing pieces what phrase stands out on this Steel House of David right you see that in the ninth line of the House of David this is significant an archaeological inscription an ancient genuine archaeological inscription treats David and the House of David as historical fact there was such a thing as the House of David according to this steal moreover when we fill in some of the blanks in this steel using a bit of Common Sense and some information given to us in the Bible we see that this steel reveals even more information more significant information let me show you with some of the the brackets filled in and I’ll read part of this to you it says at the top and cut my father went up against him when he fought at and my father laid down he went to his ancestors and the king of Israel entered previously in my father’s land and Hadad made me king and Hadad went in front of me and I departed from the seven of my kingdom and I SLE 70 Kings who harnessed thousands of Chariots and thousands of Horsemen I killed joram son of Ahab king of Israel and I killed ahazu son of jehoram King of the House of David and I set their towns into ruins and turned their land into desolation and ji who ruled over Israel and I laid Siege upon this with this Common Sense additions and a little bit from what the Bible also says this is just like what the Bible records in 2 Kings 8-9 in that chapter in those two chapters of the Bible we read that haziel became king over Aram after killing Ben haad Ben haad had been sick and haziel passed off his murder as just oh he died due to illness he became king over Aram at the same time that joram or soon after that joram son of Ahab and ahaziah king of Judah whose names are both partially visible in the steel they fought against Hazel and Aram they were defeated joram was wounded in the battle and when ahaziah went to visit joram both Kings were assassinated by ji who who took control of Israel but not Judah just as the steel begins to indicate in the bottom portion now why the steel commissioner takes credit for the death of both the Kings is unclear could be just a boast an empty boast he says I’m responsible for their deaths even though with somebody else or he may have actually supported ji who’s Rebellion he may have been complicit in their deaths and therefore he says I I deserve some credit but in any case what a discovery many of the same details of the Bible are present here on this steel as is the phrase House of David David Second Kings and the Bible are shown to be accurate archaeology proves that the Bible is true can we make that claim has archaeology indeed proved the Bible we hear and will hear many stories like these in our times many archaeologists continue to do work in the Middle East and some say they find evidence against the Bible some say they find evidence for the Bible should we be encouraged disheartened should we pay no attention at all to these archaeological finds or claims is archaeology ultimately useless or if it is useful how is it useful that’s what I want to talk to you about today what is biblical archaeology and what can it do here’s the outline for today’s class we’ll Define what Biblical Archaeology is we’ll briefly describe its history where it came from we’ll describe the process of archaeology and then we’ll discuss what Biblical archaeology can and cannot do how is it valuable it is valuable I’ll show you as we get to that that section this class is based off of information from many sources but uh both online and in book form but I’m chiefly relying on two books so I have this one this is the archaeology of the Bible Bible by James K hoffm and the popular Handbook of archaeology and the or popular Handbook of archaeology and the Bible by Joseph M Holden and Norman gisler so I’ll be sometimes quoting from them or referring to them they’re two sources two of my main sources for this Sunday school series well let’s hear about biblical archaeology what it is and what it does but let’s pray before we go on let’s pray God I pray that you’d give me the ability to explain help the students who are listening now to pay attention and to be edified I pray that you would do that by your spirit I pray that we’ bring glory to you now in Jesus name amen well let’s Define Biblical archaeology to do that we need to Define what Archaeology is what is archaeology Miriam Webster defines archaeology in this way Archaeology is the scientific study of material remains as fossil relics artifacts and monuments of past human life and activities okay there are some big words in there let me say it plainly Archaeology is the careful study of people in the past using what those people left behind what they wrote what they made what they threw away Archaeology is focused on the humans of History so you could say it’s it overlaps with the study of history the discipline of history and also the discipline of anthropology what’s anthropology study of man the steud of mankind now how is biblical archaeology distinct from regular archaeology well really biblical Archaeology is just a subset of archaeology don’t misunderstand the term biblical archaeology does not refer to archaeological study that necessarily believes in or uses the Bible biblical archaeology simply refers to archaeology that seeks to shed light on the times people and places of the Bible so if you’re doing archaeology in Palestine and you’re looking to find out about the times also described in the Bible than you are a Biblical archaeologist you don’t have to believe the Bible to be a Biblical archaeologist now is biblical archaeology science is it science well kind of it’s not an empirical or operational science that is in archaeology you don’t perform observable that means everybody can see it repeatable other people can do the same experiment you can’t perform observable or repeatable experiments in known conditions where you know everything that’s involved in that experiment you can’t do that in in archaeology because it’s not empirical science empirical science looks to find patterns of recurring Behavior by performing observable repeatable experiments and known conditions for example if you say operational empirical science what is he talking about let’s think about biology and diseases we hope to find cures for diseases and we’re grateful for the diseases that have been cured this is an this is from operational science researchers biologists they test various techniques on creatures creatures that have a specific disease like certain Lab Rats they will test various techniques on those creatures until those researchers find consistently that one of their techniques cures that creature’s disease without introducing other problems to that creature these tests that these scientists conduct they are OB observable repeatable and conducted in a known and controlled environment that’s how we have diseases that get cured and many of our other Sciences like chemistry and physics they are operational Sciences empirical Sciences Archaeology is different it’s not a science in the truest sense of the word Archaeology is an origin science or a forensic science the archaeologist did not observe the initial conditions of an event he was not there to see it happen neither can he repeat his his tests or his observations an archaeologist is like a crime scen investigator or a detective archaeologist is like a detective he tries to car uncover record and archive clues about an event or about people and when he’s amassed those Clues he then reassembles the pieces into a reasonable explanation of what happened in the past and what the people are like who lived during that time yes Rob yes right so yes that’s a great question when Ken Ham or other people from anwers in Genesis refer to a historical science or origin science or historical science are they talking about this what we’re talking about here yes forensic or origin science you’re going to notice there’s some overlap between some of the things we’ve already talked about in the answers Bible curriculum referring to um uniformitarianism and geology and other types of um research determining what happened in the past scientifically it’s similar to what we’re talking about here with our archology now because and just along those lines because Archaeology is an origin science in which the starting conditions are not known this means that archaeological archaeological interpretation is very dependent on a certain thing starting with an a I already have it up there assumptions archaeology and its interpretation is dependent on assumptions and this is where biblical archaeologists both Christian Bible believing archaeologists and anti-christian archaeologists can sometimes get in trouble assumptions can get people into trouble we’ll say about say more about that later but when it first PE when did people first begin to study biblical archaeology when did that discipline arise well people have always had a certain fascination with the past people the fascination with the past and the people that came before him before them there have always been antique collectors and also people interested in using the past to make themselves rich or famous treasure Hunters grave robbers so that’s always been there but a more disciplined version of archaeology began to emerge about 250 years ago mid 1700s During the period known as the enlightenment you remember the enlightenment 1700s more and more people in Europe begin to see science and man’s reasoning as reliable and even a way to find ultimate truth just study things scientifically think about it you’ll find Ultimate truth that became more and more a popular idea during the Enlightenment during the 1700s and so there was a great explosion of interest in scientific learning and study so archaeology was one of those fields of study that arose during that time early important archaeological discoveries include the ruins of Pompei you’ve heard of Pompei in 1748 those ruins were uncovered and then the Rosetta Stone you can hardly see it there with the glare but the Zetta Stone very important for being able to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics that was discovered in 1799 early important archaeological finds biblical archaeology became more established in the 1800s and since then many Europeans Americans and later Israelis have made important contributions to biblical archaeology in the 19th 20th and 21st centuries in the last 30 years or so however there has emerged an ideological split between two groups of biblical archaeologists that split the names of these two groups are the minimalists and the maximalists so in biblical AR biblical archaeology there’s an ideological split between the minimalists and the maximalists what do they so Min and Max about well the Bible the minimalists are very critical of the Bible and they see little to no historical correspondence between what the Bible says and what archaeologists find basically the Bible’s uh not accurate and not useful for archaeology they don’t believe it’s reliable and they assert that those who consult the Bible when trying to do archaeology have a bias they have a bias toward religion and they have a bias toward the Bible what’s a bias um it involves presuppositions what what’s a bias yeah they’re showing favoritism to the Bible favoritism to the Bible after all the Bible is a book conceived to impart religious instruction and it was written with religious motivations it cannot be relied upon to impart objective historical truth you want facts you can’t go to the Bible the Bible is a religious book minimalists are skeptical and dismissive of any find any archaeological find that seems to confirm the Bible the minimalists also want to change the name of their field not biblical archaeology more scholarly and objective sounding near Eastern archaeology something like that so those are the minimalists on the other side we have the maximalists maximalists take a much more charitable view of the Bible though their name can be a little bit misleading maximalists are not necessarily Christians or Bible Believers but they do believe that the Bible is historically reliable and it generally aligns with archaeological evidence maximalists contend in response to the minimalist that minimalists have a bias against the Bible and against religion the Bible the max the maximalists contend is actually one of the most useful and well substantiated primary sources especially when compared to other ancient texts if you’re going to rely on Ancient text the best one to use is the Bible just objectively moreover to reject the Bible because of its religious content or because it was written with religious motivation is silly the maximalist contend since many other ancient sources are also religious in content and also written with a religious motivation if you’re going to reject the Bible you’re going to reject almost all ancient archaeological sources at least according to the minimalist arguments so maximalists see few or no contradictions between archaeology and the Bible hence their name maximalists so we have a little bit of an understanding of the history of biblical archaeology we still have this split playing out today but how does one actually do Archaeology is it as simple as picking up a shovel and heading to the Middle East no a little bit more than that let’s outline the process of archaeology archaeology starts where all other kinds of research start money if you don’t have money you can’t research but Archaeology is not exactly a top priority for most people which means that most digs most archaeological studies are financed by academic institutions that is universities or museums or by private donations people who are just interested in archaeology once there is money it’s time to assemble the dig Team dig always starts with a director he’s in charge of the Expedition and he must secure permission to dig in the area that he wants to dig it must be someone well qualified to lead the group both in terms of academic learning and field experience but the director can’t manage everything himself he needs someone to handle the logistics so he appoints an administrator administrator handles things like obtaining food drink shelter travel and the necessary Personnel he also appoints supervisors to direct the other workers some digs have an official photographer or an architecture expert to document the discoveries make sketches but the last part of the team the M the last important part of the team are the grunts the manual labor because archaeological funds are limited these workers are almost always what volunteers volunteers plenty of volunteers they’re often not experts in archaeology they might be archaeology students or just people with interest they’re not experts and they need to be trained so usually when assembling the team the administrator must make sure to spend one to two days training the recruits part of this training includes how to use different archaeological tools and there are lots of them are the basic tools brushes trowels wheelbarrows picks baskets and buckets twine Stakes hose tape measures and sifting trays then there are the more technical tools things like cameras computers databases survey transits that’s the one there in the top middle ground penetrating radar oo and aerial and satellite photography these are all tools that the archaeologist use how long does the Dig last well it depends on the money the more well-funded you are the longer you can be digging a site that is well funded may continue all year while a dig that has limited funding may only last week the digging process however is slow it’s slow and painstaking painstaking the workers must be careful not to miss destroy or damage any uncovered artifact every bucket of dirt has to be sifted every unearth layer of soil must be documented every object found must be carefully brushed and then removed once removed or documented aig’s findings need to be initially interpreted actually let me uh let me back up a little bit so to give you step by step the process first you got to get funding and permission then you must dig carefully just as I was describing and once you’ve completed your dig or you’ve remove some objects you have an initial investigation into those objects a Dig’s findings needs to be initially interpreted to or by an expert to determine aspects like when and where the object came from and sometimes pieces of an object that are found in an archaeological site like Pottery they must be carefully reconstructed before they can be studied further this part of the process can take a very long time months or years to complete everything is done carefully and in order to keep the findings uncontaminated and credible this is the science part of archaeology after this initial layer of interpretation other Specialists get involved experts in ancient writing architecture geology theology history they examine the objects also and they make sure that nothing has been misinterpreted or improperly constructed so they assess these objects and finally once the archaeological team is confident in their findings and the interpretation of their findings they publish usually in a scholarly journal and their discoveries are peer-reviewed other people examine them they read about them and they say hey I think you missed something here or wow this is really great the whole the greater scientific Community also examines their discuss discoveries eventually the discoveries and the refinements to their interpretations they find their way into non-technical books and even Sunday school lessons like this one so a long careful process but a necessary one in order to produce helpful credible archaeological discoveries all right we’ve learned what Biblical Archaeology is and how it’s done but let’s come back to the main question for what is biblical archaeology good why should you and I care about it if we should at all well there are some biblical archaeologists that say biblical archaeology proves that the Bible is true is that the case I’m gonna tell you that no it’s not it cannot be the case biblical archaeology cannot prove that the Bible is true even if every historical and scientific claim that the Bible ever made was verified by archaeologists and historians and scientists there are some parts of the Bible that just cannot be verified we might find lazarus’s tomb we might find other documents that say he rose from the dead but that doesn’t prove Lazarus rose from the dead that’s Supernatural it cannot be proof or we might find parts of the Genesis creation account mentioned in cultures all over the world but that does not prove that God created the Earth supernaturally in six days these things make what the Bible asserts more reasonable more plausible but it cannot prove the Bible moreover you’ve already learned in this class or rather our previous class that God has never intended for us to look for ways to prove the Bible either scientifically or archaeologically the Bible is its own proof it is the final Authority because it is God’s voice voice it displays reality it makes sense of the world it is the window to the reality of God himself when God has opened your eyes you read the Bible and you cannot help but say it’s all true this book perfectly describes me the world what I know in my heart to be true about Sin and righteousness I cannot help but acknowledge that the Bible is true and that God is real this is why we trust that the gospel the message of Salvation is powerful itself without relying on philosophical scientific or archaeological arguments the gospel is is sufficient it shows reality so then is archaeology only an enemy to the Bible it can’t prove the Bible but it can be used to disprove the Bible is that the case well again I say no first of all as the Bible says let God be found true although every man be found a liar Romans 3:4 but second of all think back to the camel article I mentioned at the beginning of today’s class what’s wrong with their argument disproving the Bible just to recapitulate their argument they say they essentially saying this because we have not found camel bones that can be dated with our methods any earlier than 1,00 BC therefore camels did not exist in Canaan before that time and the Bible is wrong okay part of the argument as we as we’ll talk about is an argument from Silence but basically what are you gonna say Rob yes yes that is the key it all comes down to assumptions it comes down to presuppositions and on closer examination we can see that the assumptions are not justified and uh Bill already mentioned one of them which is an argument from Silence we can respond to it by saying this the camel bones are out there you just haven’t found them yet or the camel bones might be out there you just haven’t found them yet because the Assumption the unjustified assumption is if I haven’t found it it doesn’t exist if I haven’t found it it doesn’t exist an argument from Silence an archaeologist an archaeologist every time he digs he looks in a small section of ground and though there have been a number of digs there’s still plenty of ground to be on earth maybe the bones are just a little deeper than anyone has dug or they might even be right next to the places that people have dug and we just don’t know there are so many unexplored sections of Palestine one can never really say that something didn’t happen because you haven’t found evidence for it moreover many times people have said this they’ve denied parts of the Bible because the evidence was missing and subsequent investigations found the evidence they found exactly what people said didn’t exist and this is the case as we talked about earlier with people like King David no he doesn’t exist there’s no historical inscription about him well actually there is so we can respond to this argument in at least one way which is is you don’t know if it’s out there you haven’t found it yet but it could still could still be out there your assumption that if you haven’t found it it doesn’t exist is not necessarily true how else can we respond to this argument about the camel bones are there other problems with the argument yes George okay are your dating methods reliable we can say your dating method if you haven’t found camels earlier than 1000 BC it’s possible that your dating method is wrong and this is not an empty reply the Assumption here is that radioisotope dating or Carbon 14 dating which is a kind of radioisotope dating the assumption is that it’s reliable and that the calculators the ones using the dating have correctly accounted for all the necessary variables in their calculation it’s true that radioisotope dating and Carbon 14 dating is more accurate for recent times then for the extremely distant past but don’t be confused there are many variables that go into actually using Carbon 14 dating there are many things that you have to account for it’s not a simple process which variables you account for and how you account for them depends a lot on your assumptions how much carbon do you think was really in the atmosphere did nearby water reservoirs affect the amount of carbon in the atmosphere was there reasons that the carbon exchange between the object that you’re studying and the surrounding environment was dampened there are a lot of questions that you must account for in this specific instance with the camels aners and Genesis has a um a specific argument why their radioisotope dating is not accurate in this case and is actually not accurate in many other cases that that try and do the same thing with camel bones or other things related to the first millennium BC you can find that specific argument online but for now just know among other issues in terms of assessing this argument we would be right to be dis to be suspicious of their dating methods so we see that there’s the there’s a statement that if it’s if I haven’t found it it doesn’t exist which is not justified there’s an unjustified Reliance on their dating methods can we say anything else any other ways to respond to this claim of about camel bones there’s also an assumption about how long bones will last and we might rightly respond well the reason you haven’t found it is because not all Cel bones will last the unjustified assumption is if camels lived in an area their bones will last long enough for me to find them later but this just isn’t the case bones can last a long time time if placed in the right conditions they can last for thousands of years if they’re buried quickly in ice or dry desert conditions however in unfavorable conditions bones will not last longer than a year if bones are exposed to the elements if they’re not quickly buried they become subject to deteriorating forces animals chewing them scattering them bacteria breaking them down B bones don’t last unless they’re buried quickly and in favorable conditions when it comes to the camels of Canaan maybe their bones weren’t buried many of the Dead camel bodies were just laid aside or put into a trash Heap or maybe when a camel died the corpse was simply left for the carrying eaters it’s not like Abraham and the others were interested in making little animal cemeteries or maybe the bones were buried but just not in favorable conditions maybe they were buried in the sand and later uncovered because the Sand Dune shifted or maybe most camel bones were not buried in smelting areas or caves or desert conditions after all those are not exactly the best places to live people tend to live Abraham included they live in Fertile well-watered areas so their animals are mostly going to be in that those areas and when their camels died if they did choose to bury them they would have buried them in wet conditions and therefore those bones did not last there are perhaps other objections that we might raise but you can see that the camel investigators claim that the Bible is proved wrong by what they found relies greatly on their assumptions and these assumptions on closer examination they revealed that they’re not justified and such is the case with all so-called proofs against the Bible archaeology cannot prove the Bible wrong in the end biblical Archaeology is just like geology and other origin or historical Sciences we weren’t there when the distant past happened and we don’t know what we don’t know about the past so it can’t prove the Bible wrong we can uncover bits of data or fail to uncover bits of data and thereby make certain claims about the past more plausible or less plausible more reasonable or less reasonable but we cannot use origin Sciences to ultimately prove or disprove the Bible yes Rob all right that’s a great question comment because we know the Bible is true if we start with the Bible when we’re examining the past using these origin Sciences then we can be confident about what we find we can be confident that um in the discoveries that we make and that’s true to a certain extent certainly when you are informed with the standard of truth that is the Bible you will make better conjectures about the past more reasonable ones and certainly there are certain things that the Bible says that we know are true because they talk about the past but even things like what we’ve talked about before flood models like how did the flood really happen well that fits well with the Bible but still it’s in the past there are a lot of things that we don’t even know we don’t know so we still have to hold Loosely to those things there are many theories or models that we can construct using the Bible as a starting place and then looking at observations in the world it still turned out to be wrong it still turned out to need revisions but we’re going to do much better with those models and theories starting with the Bible then we will assuming that the Bible is wrong or assuming that the Bible can’t tell us anything but we can believe anything that the Bible says anything that’s plain in the Bible like yes Global flood um like yes the Earth is a certain number of years old so that’s a good good question but ultimately origin Sciences by themselves they cannot prove or disprove the Bible it’s just not they’re not capable of that so are they useless our origin sciences and biblical Archaeology is it useless well far from it we do need to realize that the power of biblical Archaeology is limited it cannot prove or disprove the Bible but is not useless in fact it’s very valuable what can biblical archaeology do for what is it useful let me give you three main beneficial uses of biblical archaeology and also give examp examples as I do so first biblical archaeology provides confirmation provides confirmation biblical archaeology gives direct evidence of the historicity of many of the Bible’s details biblical archaeology gives direct evidence for the historicity of many of the Bible’s details in their book the handbook to biblical archaeology in the Bible Holden and gisler say this today nearly 100 biblical figures dozens of biblical cities over 60 historical details from the Gospel of John and 80 historical details in the book of Acts among other things have been confirmed as historical through archaeological and historical research while these are these confirmations cannot ultimately prove the Bible I’m not going back on what I said they should be encouragements to our faith the bible really happened and we can see further testimony of that when we study archaeology these finds also do have an apologetic benefit sometimes people do get hung up over certain historical details of the Bible and in their ignorance they use those details to ex to excuse rejecting the Bible in total they say something like Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t a real person we’ve never uncovered anything about him in archaeology therefore that whole section of Daniel is wrong and the Bible is not trustworthy well with a basic understanding of biblical archaeology we can first of all show someone show that person that lack of evidence does not disprove the Bible because of assumption but second of all how archaeology does give emphatic testimony to Nebuchadnezzar’s existence we know a number of things about Nebuchadnezzar today just based off of archaeology that’s Nebuchadnezzar II so biblical archaeology provides confirmation it also provides correction it’s the second main benefit of biblical archaeology biblical archaeology sometimes corrects or protects us from misunderstanding the Bible from misunderstanding certain bibical people places or practices biblical archaeology helps provide correction for example without biblical archaeology we might Overlook a central rebuke in Jesus’s statement to the Church of leoda and Revelation 3 you remember that church Jesus rebukes that church for being what lukewarm he says you are lukewarm you’re so lukewarm I want to spit you out of of my mouth why were they so lukew why weren’t they refreshing to Jesus in any way they weren’t thirst quenching cold and they weren’t soothingly hot why were they lukewarm well the reason is because they rested in and pursued wealth and materialism it’s because of their idolatry to wealth listen to what Jesus says in Revelation 3:17-18 Jesus says because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I advise you to buy for me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich and white garments so you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed and eyes s to anoint your eyes so that you may see according to ancient Roman writers like Cicero and Taca was a very wealthy City on a major trade route the city was well known for its Banking and black wool Industries as well as its medical school the people there were so wealthy that once going into tacitus when the city was destroyed by an earthquake during the reign of tiberias the inhabitants did not accept any aid for rebuilding the city they did it all themselves the ruins of Lea also showed that the people had developed a strong interest in Greek art and philosophy there are certain skeptical philosophers whose names are associated with Lea what those details in mind those archaeological details in mind Revelation 3:17 to8 makes perfect sense we don’t miss anything when Jesus says stop gling stop clinging to your gold he’s referring to their wealth and they’re banking buy true gold from me refined gold from me you have fake gold stop being so concerned about your black wool buy from me white garments stop trusting in your medical advances get true eyes sou from me so that you no longer walk around blind and vulnerable the details inditing leadis materialism they were there in the text but we might misunderstand them we might Overlook them biblical archaeology helps make sure that we don’t miss them or misinterpret them that’s a second use of biblical archaeology provides confirmation it provides correction and finally it provides context biblical archaeology provides context it gives us more information about what the Bible presents so that we can more fully appreciate and lock into what life was like back then it gives color it’s like it gives color to what is our often black and white imagination of the Biblical times I don’t mean black and white in terms of what right and wrong but that kind of not really real but kind of real sense that we have towards biblical people and places biblical archaeology makes the Bible come alive for example one important archaeological find that we’ll talk about in a later class is the Misha steel an inscrib stone slab commissioned by one of the kings of Moab while the slab contains important confirmations of the Bible’s historical details it just also helps us appreciate the world at that time let me actually show you a portion of the Misha steel this is the first part of it I am Misha son of chimos GAD king of Moab the debonte my father my father reigned over Moab 30 years and I have reigned after my father and I have built this Sanctuary for chimos in karka a sanctuary of salvation for he saved me from all aggressors and made me look upon all mine enemies with contempt omry was king of Israel and oppressed Moab during many days and chimos was angry with his aggressions this helps partially transport us back into Bible times doesn’t it this is when you had Waring Kings who believed in Gods like chimos and interpreted their situations in terms of whether their God was angry or whether their God was content biblical archaeology provides us this kind of context so biblical Arch is very valuable despite the attempts to do so by by both Christians and non-christians both Bible Believers and Skeptics biblical archaeology cannot prove or disprove the Bible however it can and it does provide additional confirmation to the Bible it corrects some misunderstandings in our interpretation of the Bible and it provides time transporting context for the Bible so let’s study biblical archaeology I almost said let’s dig in but I refrained we will find the steady edifying in multiple ways next week we begin our survey of archaeology by looking at archaeological finds related to Creation the flood and the Patriarchs questions or comments before we end today yes Roy right yeah that’s a good good reminder good exhortation good example there Roy we just to repeat a little bit of what you said we can believe the Bible as true without any external evidence this is something I’ve emphasized in our Sunday School classes but if God has opened your eyes then you know reality because the the Bible has shown it to you that right there is enough God himself has shown himself to you through the Bible he’s open your eyes to its truth we can’t we should not be tempted to make ourselves feel more credible in the world to engage in the kind of thinking that people want us to engage in by just saying oh I I can’t talk about the Bible with them because they don’t necessarily believe the Bible I got to prove it’s true I got to go to archaeology I got to go to science I got to go to these different things nor should we feel bad when we don’t have a specific answer to an archaeological claim like Roy was saying oh cor coronius he couldn’t have been Governor we haven’t found anything about him well look you don’t know what you don’t know maybe we haven’t found him yet or maybe there’s a reason that his record has been expunged I mean we’ve certainly seen the examples of that in other places you may remember in the church history class Constantine’s son who Constantine had put to death after that son was killed Constantine ordered that his name be removed from history like suddenly he just disappears in all the historical records there could be an explanation we haven’t found yet and certainly with many biblical many objections to the Bible that’s been the case we found it later or we found a reason for why it didn’t happen we can trust the Bible we definitely should never look to archaeology to prove or disprove our faith yeah Dwayne right yeah that’s a really good point Dwayne I mean we don’t even have to look for historical examples of um that give explanation of why things are found or not found in archaeology because even today as Dwayne was saying we have people who write competing views of History competing accounts of History um false accounts of History so certainly people were doing that back then yeah Jonathan like think this is we’re talking here about evals evidence that confirms Bible and it’s very helpful do that in conversations not we’re not ludicrous for believing the Bible there’s great evidence examples you and at some point they’re going to say I still don’t believe and then you switch over to presuppositional politics you start saying well you can choose not to believe reasonable is reasonable but the problem is now you’re trusting your source of authority which is yourself an independent source of authority as Superior to God’s word and you just thrill them on how arrogant they are how ous they are to suppose that they know more have moreth God’s issue as yeah yeah that’s a thank you for that comment jonan I talked a lot about about evidential apologetics and presuppositional apologetics and the problem with evidential apologetics as as we’ve talked about and that you may find is that sometimes people just jump from objection to objection to objection you never get to the real issue so if they have one objection like oh I don’t think all the animals could have fit on the ark well let me give you an explanation for that there’s a really simple explanation for that but ultimately it’s a problem of the heart and it’s a problem of worldview it’s a problem of Pride so that’s why Answers in Genesis has emphasized and we’ve talked about the don’t answer answer strategy don’t engage with their presupposition i s continually show them that their presuppositions are actually self-refuting and and as you were saying prideful because we it’s ultimately the Bible that persuades anyone it’s not our arguments because or not our arguments based off of evidence in the world because remember people’s minds are broken they have suppressed the truth and unrighteousness you can’t give them enough evidence to believe other comments or questions all right well I look forward to continuing this study with you next week as I said creation the flood and the Patriarchs let’s pray as we close Lord God we thank you you are so wise you’re so good and Lord your word is the authority we’ve talked about before but Lord it would be contradictory to have some other authority greater than your word your word needs no support it needs no evidence because it’s you you speak directly through your word and it stir in us the truth that that we’ve suppressed in unrighteousness but God unless you open our eyes to it unless you open another person’s eyes to it we cannot believe we will not believe because we love our sin but God we thank you that you show us your loveliness through this scriptures and by your spirit so that we say there’s something greater than my sin that I would rather have I would like to exchange my sin if I can get God Lord we thank you that you have chosen to do that by your grace that you have entered in unilateral Covenant of compassion with your elect thank you for being gracious God no one deserves it we don’t deserve it thank you for your graciousness lord we we praise you for all the things you’ve done in the past and all the things you continue to do the things we don’t understand God we submit them to you saying Lord you know there is an explanation I don’t have the right to demand that explanation but Lord you are you are true and you will provide provide today in Jesus name amen