ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE BIBLE

 by Elliott Nesch

Sodom and Gomorrah

The Bible says, 

"Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground" (Genesis 19:24,25).

Recent evidence has revealed that all of the five cities mentioned in the Bible were in fact centers of commerce in the area and were geographically situated as the Bible describes. The biblical description of their destruction seems to be just as accurate. Evidence points to earthquake activity and layers of earth being disrupted and hurled threw the air. Brimestone, or bituminous pitch seems to have been cast down on those cities because bitumen is plentiful there. There is also evidence that layers of sedimentary rock which have been molded together by intense heat, such as on the top of Jebel Usdum (Mount Sodom).

Jericho

During the 1930 to 1936 excavations of Jericho, Garstang says,

"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 walls of 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." 

Joseph's Tomb

John Elder, in Prophets, Idols, and Diggers, reveals,

"In the last verses of Genesis it is told how Joseph adjured his relatives to take his bones back to Canaan whenever GOd should restore them to their original home, and in Joshua 24:32 it is told how his body was indeed brought to Palestine and buried at Shechem. For centuries there was a tomb at Shechem reverenced as the tomb of Joseph. A few years ago the tomb was opened. It was found to contain a body mummified according to the Egyptian custom, and in the tomb, among other things, was a sword of the kind worn by Egyptian officials." 

Earliest Record of Christianity

In 1945, two ossuaries were found in a tomb that was in use in AD 50 near Jerusalem which displayed graffiti which said "Iesous iou" (which is likely a prayer to Jesus for help) and "Iesous aloth" (a prayer for a resurrection of the person whose bones were contained in the ossuary. Also present were four crosses. Eleazer L. Sukenik, their discoverer, claimed these to be the earliest records of Christianity. 

The Pavement

William F Albright, in The Archaeology of Palestine, shows that Gabbatha (also known as the Pavement or court where Jesus was tried before Pilate), was the court of the Tower of Atonia, the Roman military headquarters in Jerusalem. It was left buried when the city was rebuilt in the time of Hadrian and was not discovered until recently. 

The Pool of Bethesda

The Pool of Bethesda, another site with no record except in the New Testament, can now be identified "with fair measure of certainty in the northeast quarter of the old city (the area called Bezetha, or 'New Lawn') in the first century AD, where traces of it were discovered in the course of excavations near the Church of St. Anne in 1888."

The Pilate Inscription

In 1961, an Italian archaeologist, Antonio Frova, discovered an inscription at Caesarea Maritima on a stone of slab which at the time of the discovery was being used as a section of steps leading into the Caesarea theater. The inscription in Latin has four lines, three of which roughly translated as: 

"Tiberium

Pontius Pilate

Prefect of Judea"

The inscribed stone was most likely used originally in the foundation for a Tiberium (a temple for the worship of emperor Tiberius). The inscription clarifies the title of Pontius Pilate as "prefect." Tacitus and Josephus later referred to him as "procurator." The New Testament calls him "governor" (Matthew 27:2), which includes both titles.

The Erastus Inscription

In his epistle to the Romans, Paul makes mention of Erastus, the city treasurer: "Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and Quartus a brother" (Romans 16:23). In 1929, during the excavation of Corinth, where the epistle was written, a pavement was found inscribed: ERASTVS PRO:AED:S:P:STRAVIT. When translated, "Erastus, curator of public buildings, laid this pavement at his own expense." The pavement quite likely existed in the first century AD and the donor is probably the same Erastus mentioned by Paul in the epistle to the Romans.

Conclusions

Archaeologist Nelson Gleuck asserts, 

"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."