Defending Inspiration The Historicity of the Bible
Goals Tonight Last week we took the time to examine the claims of the Bible and to define Inspiration. Tonight we will examine the nature of the Bible and defend Inspiration.
Recall Our Definition The Spirit of God controlled the human authors of the Bible so that everything that they recored in the original documents are the inerrant words of God to mankind.
Defining Inspiration Note the modern English word inspiration, means either to inhale, or to be mentally stimulated to do or feel something. The Greek word (θεόπνευστος), and its old English counterpart, actually meant the opposite, namely, to exhale, & breath life into something else. Paul declares that the Holy Scriptures are the result of a special creative act of God where He supernaturally records His truth through human agents.
Defining Inspiration Due to the many false theories, and inadequate definitions of Inspiration, Theologians often add a couple of words that further define it. Verbal means all the words, not merely the ideas are inspired. Plenary means all parts of the Bible are true. The Bible is not merely true when it speaks of God or spiritual things, but it is also true when it speaks of science, history, or geography.
Defending Inspiration The idea that the Bible is a supernatural book sourced in God has come under immense attack in the last couple hundred years Yet this is an idea worth defending Therefore we are going to defend the idea of inspiration using two main angles 1. The Historic Nature of the Bible 2. The Supernatural Nature of the Bible
Historicity of the Bible 1. The Bible Claims to be Historically Accurate & Based upon Eyewitness Accounts (Deut. 4:32-40; Luke 1:1-4; Acts 4:20; 26:24-27; 1 Cor. 15:6; 1 John 1:1-4). 2. The Bible Can be Demonstrated to be Historically Accurate by Examining Evidence from History & Archeology.
Uniqueness of Biblical Accuracy Biblical accuracy in the recording of history stands in stark contrast to other historians. For example, though Herodotus is widely recognized as the father of history, some historians call him the father of lies It is widely recognized that Herodotus loved to exaggerate. Many known fallacies exist in his writings.
Eyewitnesses Wrote the Bible Many pieces of evidence indicate that the Bible was written by eyewitnesses. - Extreme accuracy in geography described by the book of Numbers. - Details of Persian or Babylonian courts that were unknown until recent discoveries. - The use of Ancient place names that were unknown later because of name changes.
Eyewitnesses Wrote the Bible Though the dating of the N.T. has been largely attacked by Bible critics, Dr. John A.T. Robinson a lecturer at Trinity College Cambridge, changed his mind. At one time Dr. Robinson denied that Paul and the disciples of Jesus wrote the N.T., and held to the belief that the N.T. was written some 100 years after Christ. Yet to the amazement of his colleagues, Robinson concluded that the apostles must have been the genuine writers of the N.T. in the years prior to AD 64. He challenged other scholars to complete the original research necessary to fully examine the question without introducing bias and faulty assumptions. Robinson wrote a book Redating the New Testament, and suggested that the book of Matthew may have been first written within 8 years of Christ s death & resurrection.
De-Bunking the Bible? Here is a quote from an article Aug. 3, 2017. After dozens of major media outlets published stories last week gleefully citing a scientific report claiming to disprove the Biblical account of the Canaanite people, at least one mainstream site has been forced to issue a retraction as it quickly became clear that the debunking was itself a hoax." Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com
Sir William Ramsey English scholar William Ramsey (1852-1916) was an unbeliever, who decided to travel Asia Minor with the sole purpose of disproving the Bible s history as described in Luke and Acts. Ramsay and his professors believed that Luke could not be correct in his history of Christ or in his account of the growth of the Church during the first decades following Christ. Ramsay began to dig in the ruins of sites throughout Greece and Asia Minor, searching for ancient names, boundary markers, and other archeological finds that would prove that Luke had invented his history of Christ and the Church. To his amazement, however, Ramsay discovered that the statements of the N.T. scriptures were accurate in the smallest detail. As a result, Dr. Ramsay accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. He became both a Christian and a great biblical scholar. As a result of his conversion, William Ramsay s books became classics in the study of the history of the N.T.
Snapshot of Archeology Many scholars call Biblical Archeology, the young science because it has been contributing to our understanding of the Bible for only a couple centuries. Throughout the Middle Ages the Bible was assumed true. Not until the enlightenment and the subsequent rise of Biblical Criticism was the Bible s authority called into question. Thus beginning in the 1800s Biblical Archeology has contributed much to our understanding of Biblical History.
Note the statement of Nelson Glueck, the famed Israeli archeologist, It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.
More and more the older view that the biblical data were suspect and even likely to be false, unless corroborated by extra-biblical facts, is giving way to one which holds that, by and large, the biblical accounts are more likely to be true than false, unless clear cut evidence from sources outside the Bible demonstrates the reverse. H.M. Orlinsky in his book Ancient Israel
Snapshot of Archeology While archeology has been immensely helpful for students of the Bible, it does not prove that the Bible is Inspired. It merely evidences that the Bible Historic. This is still helpful, however, because an Inspired Bible would by necessity have to also be historic.
Snapshot of Archeology Because Biblical Archeology is still young, there are still certain claims by Archeologists that are not yet authenticated. We must be sure to maintain honesty & integrity. However, Biblical Archeology has been able to contribute to our understanding of the Bible, and verify the authenticity of every major era of Biblical History.
Creation & the Flood Accounts - Ebla Tablets Tower of Babel - Sumerian & Babylonian Excavations The Patriarchal Period - Mari Tablets & Nuzi Tablets Sodom & Gomorrah - Excavations in the Area The Exodus - Ancient Histories & Egypt Excavations The Conquest of Canaan - Amarna Letters Israeli Monarchy - Moabite Stone, Black Obelisk, David Inscription, Hezekiah Inscription, & Hezekiah s Seal. Assyrian Invasion - Sennacherib Prism & Lachish Reliefs The Captivity - Babylonian Chronicles & Cyrus Cylinder
Existence of the Hittites - The Bible mentions the Hittites 48 times in the O.T., ranging from the life of Abraham to Uriah the Hittite, and these references indicate that they were a powerful people group. - Until the last hundred years or so, however, historians could not find one scrap if evidence outside of the Bible that this empire ever existed. - Then writings from Egypt and Assyria began to be uncovered about the people from the land of Hatti. Finally in 1906 the dig in Bogazkoy Turkey was discovered to be the Hittite capitol of Hattusa when the royal archive containing 10,000 tablets was uncovered there.
It is now taught that one of the earliest known battles in history is the Battle of Kadesh, where the great empires of Egypt and the Hittites faced off. This relief is from the temple of Karnak where Pharaoh Seti celebrates his victory!
Sodom & Gomorrah The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was thought to be spurious until the Ebla Tablets revealed that all five of the cities mentioned in the Bible were in fact centers of commerce in the area and were geographically situated as the Scriptures describe Evidence points to earthquake activity, and that the various layers of the earth were disrupted and hurled high into the air.
Bitumen is plentiful there, and an accurate description would be that brimstone was hurled down on those cities that had rejected God. There is evidence that the layers of sedimentary rock have been molded together by intense heat This is permanent evidence of the great conflagration that took place in the long-distant past, possibly when the oil basin beneath the Dead Sea ignited and erupted. Such an explanation in no way subtracts from the miraculous quality of the event, for God controls natural forces. The timing of the event, in the context of warnings, also adds to its miraculous nature. - The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict
Har Sedom" = Mountain of Sodom
The Biblical Joseph - An inscription discovered in southern Saudi Arabia around 1850 intrigued Bible students. The English explorer Mr. Cruttenden was shown a tomb of a wealthy Yemenite woman who died around 1800 BC, yet the tomb was exposed by a flood that uncovered the grave site. The tomb contained the body of a noble woman who was covered in jewels. Seven collars of pearls surrounded her neck; her hands and feet were covered with seven bracelets, armlets, rings, and ankle rings displaying costly jewels. The greatest treasure, however, was an inscription stone bearing the woman s final words. The engraving describes how she sent my steward to Joseph, with costly gifts, but was unable to procure food. Some scholars suspect this may be the Joseph of the Bible.
The Biblical Joseph - In 2009, archeological authorities from the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo announced their rediscovery of coins that had been in storage for decades. They discovered that these coins bore both an inscription and an image of the Biblical Joseph. One coin have an image of a cow on it, possibly referring to Pharaoh s dream with the seven cows and seven stalks of grain. Joseph s name appears twice on this coin along with an image of him. - f.y.i. These coins have not been available for review by other scholars. So some sources are still skeptical as to their authenticity.
Merneptah Stele - In 1896 Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie, an English Egyptologist, discovered the stele while excavating the funerary temple of Pharaoh Merneptah at Thebes (Robinson, Bearing of Archaeology, 49). The stele is now on display at the Cairo Museum. A fragmentary copy is at the Karnak Temple. - The text is largely an account of Merneptah's victory over the Libyans and their allies, but the last 3 of the 28 lines deal with a separate campaign in Canaan, then part of Egypt's imperial possessions. The stele is sometimes referred to as the "Israel Stela" because a majority of scholars translate a set of hieroglyphs in line 27 as Israel." The stela represents the earliest textual reference to Israel outside the Bible, and the only reference from ancient Egypt.
Since Merneptah s inscription dates to around 1209 bc, it suggests that Israel had emerged as a distinct peoplegroup in the land of Canaan before that time. Archaeological evidence from Canaan shows new settlement patterns from about 1200 bc that are often identified as distinctively Israelite (Mazar, Archaeology, 334).
Ruins of Jericho - In 1930-1936 Dr. Garstang led a team that excavated the ruins of Jericho. They discovered something so startling that he and two other members of the team signed a statement describing what they found. - As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely that the attackers would be able to clamber up and over their ruins into the city. Why so unusual? Because the walls of the cities do not fall outwards, they fall inwards. And yet in Joshua 6:20 we read, The wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. The walls were made to fall outward.
Archaeological excavations reveal that Jericho was violently destroyed sometime toward the end of the Bronze Age. The walls seem to have been thrown down by sudden force, as if by an earthquake. Charred wood shows that what was left of the city was burned. Excavators have also found food supplies buried in the destroyed city, which shows it was not captured by siege.
This is a computer generated rebuild of what Jericho may have looked like before its destruction.