Evidence found confirming the Old Testament

Proctol

Banned
Although archaeological finds to date seem to show parts of the Old Testament to be historically accurate, nothing really conclusive has been found.

WI something hefty was discovered eg evidence for a creation less than 10,000 years ago, the Serpent's skeleton, Noah's Ark, the remains of Sodom & Gomorrah under the Dead Sea, Tower of Babel remains, Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Pharoah's chariots in the Red Sea, the Copper Snake, Og's Bed, the Ark of the Covenant, Moses' burial place, Goliath's armour, clear references in extra-Biblical sources to Esau,the Exodus, Balaam, David and the Queen of Sheba, First Temple artifacts etc?

Napoleon said "men will believe anything rather than believe the Bible". But what effects, if any, on mankind would even one of these discoveries have made 200 years ago, 100 years ago, 50 years ago and today?
 
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Michael

So the jews, christians (and off shoots) and the muslims all have evidence of belonging to the one true faith? People would probably still be inclined to ignore the evidence in favour of science.
 
Anthony Appleyard

Anthony Appleyard

the Serpent's skeleton
How to distinguish it from any other fossil or sub-fossil snake?
the remains of Sodom & Gomorrah under the Dead Sea
That has been found, but not underwater. The cause was an earthquake that caused ground slippage and a big eruption of inflammable natural gas.
Tower of Babel remains,
That is the Ziggurat at Babylon
Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron
That exists. It has been a cause of trouble between Israelis and Arabs.
First Temple artifacts etc
If a bad earthquake flattens the Aqsa Mosque, we may see.
 

Ilta

Well, a whole bunch of those actually *have* been found, although as with anything of import experts differ -- we take them for granted now, but it wasn't always so. For instance, most scientists once thought that the Battle of Jericho was more or less a legend, but then archeologists digging around in the West Bank near modern Jericho found evidence of a city-leveling destruction at about the right time (c. 1200 BCE). Sodom and Gomorrah are where they've always been, too -- in fact, they're within spitting distance of Jericho. "Lot's Wife" has of course been several different local salt pillars throughout history, but the current one is several hundred years old.

Also, there are extra-biblical sources for Solomon's provincial capitals (Gezer, Megiddo, and Hazor, I think) and Egypt's dealings with them -- diplomatic records and such have survived the ages. And starting a bit before the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, the Biblical record and the historical record match up more or less completely, with both physical and documentary evidence providing very close parallels to the stories.

Only a few of the things you mentioned could even be discovered, if they ever existed at all -- the Ark of the Covenant would be fairly easy to recognize, as it's described in great detail in the Torah; but you already have that, excellently done I might add, as an Indiana Jones movie. Goliath's armor, the Tower of Babel, Pharoah's chariots, the tomb of the patriarchs, and other such mundane items and locations would be impossible to distinguish from the historical detrius of millennia of civilization anyway. Noah's Ark, the Serpent's skeleton, and Moses' remains would have long since decomposed. And unless you've got a really serious POD, the Earth isn't anywhere near as young as ~6,000 years old.

I guess my point is that we've already been finding historicity for many parts of the Bible for some time now, and it hasn't really made anyone more or less faithful or changed anything of great importance. Would the world really be that different if we hadn't found the sites of Solomon's provincial capitals? Now, if you had the Ark of the Covenant never dissapearing, or the Holy Grail being saved by the apostles after Jesus' death, then you might have some fun. But unless you're doing a very localized and specific AH, I just don't see all the much difference.


Proctol said:
Although archaeological finds to date seem to show parts of the Old Testament to be historically accurate, nothing really conclusive has been found.

WI something hefty was discovered eg evidence for a creation less than 10,000 years ago, the Serpent's skeleton, Noah's Ark, the remains of Sodom & Gomorrah under the Dead Sea, Tower of Babel remains, Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Pharoah's chariots in the Red Sea, the Copper Snake, Og's Bed, the Ark of the Covenant, Moses' burial place, Goliath's armour, clear references in extra-Biblical sources to Esau,the Exodus, Balaam, David and the Queen of Sheba, First Temple artifacts etc?

Napoleon said "men will believe anything rather than believe the Bible". But what effects, if any, on mankind would even one of these discoveries have made 200 years ago, 100 years ago, 50 years ago and today?
Click to expand...
 
Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf

Donor
Proctol said:
Although archaeological finds to date seem to show parts of the Old Testament to be historically accurate, nothing really conclusive has been found.

WI something hefty was discovered eg evidence for a creation less than 10,000 years ago, the Serpent's skeleton, Noah's Ark, the remains of Sodom & Gomorrah under the Dead Sea, Tower of Babel remains, Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Pharoah's chariots in the Red Sea, the Copper Snake, Og's Bed, the Ark of the Covenant, Moses' burial place, Goliath's armour, clear references in extra-Biblical sources to Esau,the Exodus, Balaam, David and the Queen of Sheba, First Temple artifacts etc?

Napoleon said "men will believe anything rather than believe the Bible". But what effects, if any, on mankind would even one of these discoveries have made 200 years ago, 100 years ago, 50 years ago and today?
Click to expand...

The problem with a lot of these is that how would you know you have or have not found it ?

A lot of it comes down to Faith anyway, both in believing that this article is (instead of may be) the X or Y or Z, and in believing that its existence proves anything more than the historical part of the Bible

Grey Wolf
 

aktarian

I remember reading article that proved some things from OT.

Mana falling from skies were birds flying over land and dying in the air.

Similar incident when mana was poisoned was similar birds dying after eating poisonous plants.

Moses separating Red Sea was underwater earthquake which caused tsunami-like effects.

Also burning bush can happen due to material igniting bu not burning it down completly/at once.

Jews wandering 40 years in desert were men and hence refused to ask for directions. :D

Even if you found this stuff people will say "OK, this could be it but you can't be sure, now can you?"
 

MerryPrankster

I've seen lots of photos of a great wooden rectangle-thingy up on Mt. Ararat (or on a mountain right next to it, I cannot remember). Some people are going up there now to take a look.

I guess we'll find out what exactly it is sooner or later.
 

David S Poepoe

Banned
Which translation of the bible are we suppose to be counting also? I've heard references that Moses had actually crossed the Reed Sea, not the Red Sea. Also that it would be pretty hard to wander in the Wilderness for 40 years with that number of people and given the region. Archaeology is finding that the Jew exaggerated alot in setting down their history (but doesn't everybody).
 

Tyr

This would belong in ASB but our ASB forum isn't a real ASB AH forum any more. Its just dumb things happening in the modern day and ISOTs...
 
Anthony Appleyard

Anthony Appleyard

There is a theory that what the Israelites migrating crossed was not the Red Sea as on modern maps but the mouth of the Sabhat al Bardawi_l lagoon on the north coast of Sinai.
 

Fiji

Ilta said:
or the Holy Grail being saved by the apostles after Jesus' death,
Click to expand...

hey, maybe they did ... do we KNOW what those monks escaping Montsegur on the very last night of the siege actually carried?
 

MerryPrankster

I've heard the "Reed Sea" bit too. It's an arm of the Red Sea, I believe, but I don't know how deep it is. Someone mentioned that it was

I once saw some photos of chariot wheels on the bottom of the Red Sea (THE Red Sea), but the point was brought up that those could be from another source besides an Egyptian chariot corps being drowned while pursuing. Hmm...someone's going to have to go down and carbon-date the bloody things.

From the Biblical account, I was under the impression that the "mana from heaven" and the birds were two separate instances...the story tells of God supplying meat for the Israelites in the form of a big flock of quail.

On the matter of Lot's wife, are there any circumstances where a human being could be conceivably petrified very quickly? I've heard of fossils that were made of salt rock (salt leaching into the bones and replacing the native bone matter), but that took a very long time.
 

aktarian

Matt Quinn said:
From the Biblical account, I was under the impression that the "mana from heaven" and the birds were two separate instances...the story tells of God supplying meat for the Israelites in the form of a big flock of quail.
Click to expand...

I'd need to brush my knowledge of Bible but from what I remeber there were two incidents of food falling from the sky. First time it was OK, second time it was poisoned. Article I read argued that both could be birds only that second time they ate poisonous food and hence were bad for people eating them.
 

JLCook

Evidence

So far as I know, no evidence at all exists for much of anything prior to Moses, and you really need to start with King David if you want separate, independant references!

More than that, how would you come up with verifiable, independant evidence of say ABRAHAM or ISAAC? Neither left written records! Both were nomadic herdsmen living in tents, unlikely to come to the attention of anyone living in a larger city who might feel motivated to write about them! The kinds of artifacts which such persons might leave behind would be extremely difficult to connect to any particular person---you don't put your name on your pottery when you can't even read, do you?

The real absurdity occurs when someone attempts to verify creation as told in Genisis! In the face of enormous geological evidence suggesting no such thing, tiny bits of fact which CAN be shoehorned into the "instant creation" theory certainly recieve far more attention than the litterally MOUNTAINS of facts to the contrary do!

People should just accept those Biblical stories as being likely PARABLES, used by the ancient writers of the Bible, to illustrate a religious point! They are designed to tell us something about the nature of GOD, not about the nature of the UNIVERSE!

GOD did in fact creat the universe, science is the method which we use to discover the facts concerning how GOD's creation works, and the Bible is a referencebook on the Nature of GOD Himself! If one could confirm and prove all of the Miracles which are mentioned in the Old Testament, you would be going a far distance towards proving the existance of GOD himself---something unprovable! Absolute proof of GOD'S existance would destroy FAITH. Faith is the FREELY GIVEN,unproven acceptance of belief in something. Faith cannot occur if there is no possibility of non-existance. If GOD'S existance is a known, proven, scientific fact, who would risk disobedience to GOD? It is my understanding that GOD desires that people believe in him WILLINGLY, not under coercion! Hence---proof is going to be impossible to acquire!
 

MerryPrankster

Proctol,

That makes sense. I heard that Sodom and Gomorrah were on salt flats that suddenly liquefied, spewing lots of natural gas (hence the explosion--all it needed was a candle).

Lot's wife looks back, thus slowing down, and gets Pompeii-ized. Ta ta.
 

Dave Howery

to spin this off on another tangent, the mention of the Holy Grail on here reminds me of "The DaVinci Code"... I don't want to mention too much of it on here for those of you who haven't read it, but supposed some of the rather wild ideas of that book became proven as fact? That'd certainly have a massive impact on Christianity...... Technically though, anything to do with the Holy Grail isn't Old Testament, so it's OT....
 
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