Episode 53 - Just the Facts, History vs Christianity

Is the Bible made up of myths and fairy-tales? What about the dragons, demons, and talking snakes; that can't be real.... can it? What proof is there to convince me that the Bible is a reliable source of history? 

Between the skeptics and the believers the truth of Scripture has a lot to answer for. In this episode we will look at just a few things the Bible claims, and how those claims have been proven.

Transcript

Just the facts - History

Introduction

One of my favorite Canadian TV shows was called the Naked Archeologist, which explored Jewish understanding of Biblical history in both the Torah and Christian Scriptures. What was most fascinating was how often the Biblical texts were proven right against decades or millennia of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. It explored how theft, political ambition, and religious fanaticism has worked to skew history. Of course, even a show like this one has its detractors and a great deal of discernment needs to be exercised when watching it. 

Criticism

Since we talked about science last month I thought I would start this podcast by looking at one of the most prolific skeptics of Christianity to get things rolling. When trying to support his claims that Jesus was a myth, Richard Dawkins admits he lied about Jesus. This shouldn’t be surprising as we see this happen many times when people level accusations against Christianity and its claims. In his book, ‘The God Delusion’, Dawkins claims that it is under scholarly dispute among historians that Jesus actually existed; but John Lennox confronted Dawkins about his writing and said to him, “I checked with the ancient historians. That is not so, and it disturbs me. Why would you write something like that?” Dawkins responds by saying, “I don’t think that is a very important question, whether Jesus existed. Most historians think He did, some do not. Maybe I alluded to the possibility that some historians think Jesus never existed, I take that back. Jesus existed.”
 [https://youtube.com/shorts/WGwu_O7Nt1c?si=AaTj5gP1KfQzbqmi]

When we start talking about History and Christianity we are really talking about intellectual integrity. What we see in the statement made by Richard Dawkins in his book, and its historical fallacy is not a unique case. History shows that Scripture has been twisted as often as its historical counterpoint has been ignored. 

From the self-refuting claims of Islam which says that the Bible is corrupt while its own preservation is not as rigorous as the Bible; to the Jehovah Witness’ New World Translation of Scripture which is so egregiously errant in its translation from the original languages that it is almost unreadable; and modern translations like the Passion Translation, the Inclusive Bible, or the Queen James Bible which pervert the word of God. The desire to change what God has said is as clear today as it was when Satan was tempting Jesus in the Desert or Eve in the garden.  

There are two obvious challenges to historical reliability in Christianity. Like any ancient people group there are forgeries which distort what is known and relics tied to religiosity which stretches the believer into fanaticism.

Forgeries are the most common obstacle to historical accuracy and they have been created with great success throughout time. Some famous examples are Piltdown man, the Donation of Constantine, and the entire Iron Age civilization known as Llhuros. In my lifetime the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and the James Ossuary were both presented as historical evidences which changed, or warped, the historical narrative.

Relics tied to the church, or even directly to Christ, have been a part of Christianity since the 4th century. Some, such as the Shroud of Turin, and enough pieces of the cross to make as many as four complete crosses, are proudly displayed in churches around Europe and even held at the Vatican.

The problem with forgeries and relics is that they detract from historical accuracy, they cater to the emotional deficient, and offer a type of idolatry to those who couldn’t be bothered to read Scripture for themselves. 

The Indiana Jones series, the movies based on the works of Dan Brown, and other pseudo-religious art is entertaining yet serves only as a means to elicit money from those who derive truth woven into the lie. When it comes to relics in particular there is a shamanistic witchcraft and bizarre ungodly power associated with them; something which the church of God should reject and protect others against.

In the “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, the character known as the Pardoner says, ““And in Latin I speak a few words, With which to add spice to my preaching, And to stir them to devotion. Then I show forth my long crystal stones, Crammed full of rags and of bones -- Relics they are, as they each one suppose.”
[The Pardoner’s Prologue, lines 344-349]

The words of Chaucer give us insight into why Dawkins looks at Jesus as being a myth. He can see the church's fascination with relics and forgeries and has decided that if, as Christians, we are so easily duped, the whole worldview is only for the intellectually inept; and if that is true then what stops the Bible from being a collection of folklore and myth?

What does Scripture say to this point? I know that the Catholic Church defends the veneration of relics even though their existence is part of a historical profiteering scam. We need to look to the story of the bronze serpent and what became of it for guidance in this matter. In Numbers 21:8 we read, “And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 

If ever there was a relic commissioned by God, this would be it. However, once the plague was over, the serpent relic became an object of worship, and the Israelites began to honor it by burning incense to it – an act which signified prayer. This angered God, and through Hezekiah we read in 2 Kings 18:4 that, “he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it.”

Our response to historical forgeries and nonsensical relics should be similar. When my wife and I visited Cambridge we saw many old churches of antiquity. One of these churches had been stripped of all its stained glass and statues during the time of the Reformation because the reformers saw these things as playing the part of the serpent; venerated, worshiped, and idolized. 

Archeological Proofs

Is the Bible guilty of made up history? Is what we believe based on a fairy tale? After all, the Bible seemingly talks about dragons, demons, and talking snakes; that’s crazy, right? On top of that there are people groups in the Bible that don’t seem to fit anywhere else in history. Why is that? When studying the Bible it is important to note that its literary style does not follow the mythical style of other contemporary ancient literature. That is to say, the reader is encouraged to seek out the facts in Scripture and find that they are true and trustworthy.

So how do we go about looking for these facts? Surprisingly, we go to the same place that we find our skeptics; we look into parallel accounts such as the stories of the Creation and the Flood.

R. C. Sproul wrote this in his essay ““Can We Trust the Bible?”: The Bible is Full of Myths and Contradictions” “Because there are parallel accounts of ancient events found in the Bible as well as in ancient mythological literature, this is no justification for impugning the writers of Scripture on the basis of the fallacy of guilt by association. If we assume, for example, that there was a natural catastrophe such as the flood in the ancient world, it should not surprise us that the event is reflected on the writings of other ancient people. The Christian welcomes a close study of comparison between the biblical account of the flood and that found, for example, in the Gilgamesh Epic (The Babylonian account of the Flood that covered the earth). That the biblical account is already demythologized appears self-evident.”
[https://www.monergism.com/%E2%80%9Ccan-we-trust-bible%E2%80%9D-bible-full-myths-and-contradictions-it%E2%80%99s-just-fairy-tale]

One place in Scripture that is seemingly problematic is in the Exodus account. Archeologists and Biblical scholars say that if the Israelites left Egypt it could have occurred in only one of two time periods: the 15th century BC, or the 13th century BC. Currently we have more archeological evidence to support the later date during the 19th Dynasty period, such as the 1219 BC Memeptah Stele which mentions the Israelite people by name. However there is an accusation that in the account of Exodus names and places have been changed. When we look at historical documentation the names mentioned in the Bible correspond perfectly with the Egyptian place names we find in their own writings. Place names like Pi-Ramesse, Pi-Atum, and Pa-Tjuf were used until the 10th century BC and then went out of use; a fact which only serves to strengthen the historical accuracy of Scripture.[https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/exodus/exodus-fact-or-fiction/]

Another problematic question to answer is, ‘Who were the Hittites?’ Who are all these people we find mentioned in the time of Abraham? Up until the early 19th century, the Hittite civilization was considered a Biblical myth. The English scholar Francis William Newman even stated in 1853, "no Hittite king could have compared in power to the King of Judah..."
[Francis William Newman (1853). A history of the Hebrew monarchy: from the administration of Samuel to the Babylonish Captivity (2nd ed.). London: John Chapman. p. 179 note 2.]

But earlier discoveries in Turkey and subsequent discoveries in Egypt soon after prompted this statement from British Assyriologist, Archibald Henry Sayce in 1888, the Hittite civilization "[was] worthy of comparison to the divided Kingdom of Egypt", and was "infinitely more powerful than that of Judah." In other words, not only did the Hittites exist but their civilization was massive in size and strength.
[The Hittites: the story of a forgotten empire By Archibald Henry Sayce Queen's College, Oxford. October 1888. Introduction]

Let’s look at two discoveries made in the last century which help to confirm two significant Biblical accounts.

First, let’s talk about the Walls of Jericho. Which way did the walls fall? The reason this question is important is because the Bible says in Joshua 6:20, “the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, everyone straight ahead, and they took the city.“ The understanding here is that they fell outward. So why is this important? If the city of Jericho had been under siege, the walls would have been forced into the city from the outside and the Israelite troops would have had to navigate an outward ditch. However, since the walls fell outward, navigating the ditch was no longer a problem and resulted in a much quicker attack. The collapse of the walls is important in another way; mysteriously, there is a small section of the northern wall which was found to be residential by archeologists Earnest Sellin and Carl Watzinger, and it remains intact. This corresponds to Rahab and her family surviving the fall of the walls as stated in Joshua 2:15, her home was in the wall. 

Let's look at another city, the infamous Sodom in Genesis 19. Said to be fictional and mythical cities dreamed up by ancient writers, the Bible records the descriptive and fascinating destruction of Sodom. To support the Biblical narrative there are accounts in Akkadian poetry, the writings of Greek Historian Strabo, and the Jewish historian Josephus which all mention Sodom and its destruction. Until recently the location of Sodom was under dispute with sites south, east, and north of the Dead Sea, as well as northern Syria all in the running. However in 2001, the archeologist Stephen Collins discovered Sodom at Tel el-Hammam to the north east of the Dead Sea, in Jordan. Coupled with the surprising find, the archaeology also confirmed the method of Sodom’s destruction. Based on melted brick and plaster, as well as a rare type of Trinitite glazing on pottery found in the Tel, the destruction came from a massive airburst larger that of the 1908 meteor explosion over Tunguska, Russia, and 1000x more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

In 2 Peter 1:16, the apostle writes, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” It is eyewitness testimony which carries with it the greatest reliability. The thing about telling the truth is that it is easier than constructing a lie, or in this case a myth. 

In a five part experiment regarding “The Irrepressible Truth” published in 2003, the researchers came to this conclusion, “First, lying involves suppressing truthful information and suppressing or rejecting a default response will increase response time. Second, there can be costs associated with choosing to tell the truth, just as there can be with choosing to lie. We therefore maintain that the decision to depart from the normal type of communication can be costly, and while this will often be a cost associated with a decision to lie, it is not an obligatory component of lying. Lastly, lying often requires more choice in generating a response than telling the truth. There is typically only one truth but there are many possible lie options. Making a choice about which lie to use is a difficult job and contributes to the longer time needed to tell a lie.”
[Williams EJ, Bott LA, Patrick J, Lewis MB. Telling lies: the irrepressible truth? PLoS One. 2013;8(4):e60713. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060713. Epub 2013 Apr 3. PMID: 23573277; PMCID: PMC3616109.]

Hermeneutics

When seeking a modern understanding of the Bible, we will invariably come up against historical challenges. That is why historical context is so important. In Bible School we are taught to use the theory of hermeneutics in our interpretation of Biblical texts. What do I mean by that? In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul tells Timothy,“ Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” 

In the Bible you need to study not only what you are reading but also why it is important. How does it fit in the context of the book, the audience, the political climate, and the religious climate? What is going on around the readers or people in the story; what do I need to know about the place where this is happening, what are the geo-political connotations to this event? And as we study history we find that the truth contained in Scripture is strengthened.

In our last podcast I asked, “Is the bible a textbook?” The Bible was written as a religious history and not a secular one even though secular events are recorded in it. And yet, it continues to be the most dependable and accurate account of history in ancient times. 

Consider this: before it was confirmed as true, the Bible told us about the existence of King David, archeology only confirmed his existence in 1994; the Bible told us about the Babylonian King Belshazzar, archeology discovered him in 1854; Luke was dismissed as making up the details of 32 countries, 54 cities, and 95 people in the book of Acts, and yet after 30 years of research, the archeologist William Ramsey declared that Luke got every single one of them right and was the greatest known historian; the Old Testament is very often dismissed as unreliable, yet, in 1947, the Dead Sea scrolls confirmed its accuracy to the letter over a period of nearly 4000 years. There is no other document ever discovered that can compare to the Bible for its historical accuracy.

As we hear challenges to the historical claims of Scripture the support of its accuracy keeps coming in. Discoveries in the Twentieth-century such as those at Ugarit, Qumran and Ebla continue to enhance our understanding of antiquity. A host of Old Testament problems have been resolved by The Nuzi tablets and the Armana tablets. The Jewish archeologist Nelson Glueck said, “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.”
[Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert, (New York: Farrar, Strous and Cudahy, 1959), 31]

In a 2011 interview entitled “Using the Bible as Her Guide” the Israeli archeologist told the reporter, “What is amazing about the Bible is that very often we see that it is very accurate and sometimes amazingly accurate.” In response to critics of her work she says, “You can have all theories and working hypotheses as you go to the field, but the minute you start to excavate, all these theories need to be put on the side. From that minute onward, you have to document and give every little item a precise height and photograph what you find. I think that the people who get to know the details of how archaeology works nowadays understand that you cannot force agenda on the facts.”
[https://www.thetrumpet.com/8023-using-the-bible-as-her-guide]

When the validity of Christs existence is questioned, we find historical proof for him in the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus, a letter written by Pontius Pilate, the “Antiquities of the Jews” by Jewish historian Josephus, and the Rabbinical writings of the Tannaitic Period. These people either hated Him or couldn't care less if He did exist, and yet their writings are proof that He did. [https://amazingbibletimeline.com/blog/q9_historical_proof_bible/]

The Smithsonian Department of Anthropology said this, “Much of the Bible, in particular the historical books of the Old Testament are as accurate historical documents as any that we have from antiquity and are in fact more accurate than many of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or Greek histories. These Biblical records can be and are used as are other ancient documents in archeological work. For the most part, historical events described took place and the peoples cited really existed.” - [http://www.csnradio.com/tema/links/SmithsonianLetter.pdf]

Closing Remarks

I would like to close by revisiting intellectual integrity and how it factors into the reliability debate between Christianity and History. If we can dismiss questions of mythology and historical inaccuracy, every time people reject the Bible it is because they find its contents offensive. We hear ad nauseum criticism regarding Biblical expressions of the wrath of God as being merciless and arbitrary in His judgment. Even among those who call themselves Christians you hear detractors say, “I have no problems with the loving God of the New Testament, it is the angry God of the Old Testament I reject.”

Against the backdrop of what is insurmountable proof the Bible is reliable; those who would contradict and dismiss those claims don’t do it because they lack evidence they do it because if the Bible is true, the ramifications it has on their lives are unfathomable. Perhaps in talking about Christianity and its relationship to science and history I should also talk about the inerrancy of Scripture. But we are out of time and that is for another day, let us pray.

Father God, You have not hidden Yourself from us, the truth surrounds us in Your Word. I pray our eyes would be open and our hearts softened to receive the truth which is undeniable. Be with us as we interact with others; guide our hearts with mercy and love. Amen